Quote of the Week - NATO: Knowledge Driven Revolution

"The single thing that we have done wrong and we are striving extremely hard to improve on (in 2007) is killing innocent civilians"
Brig. Richard E. Nugee - Chief Spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force

Too many civilians killed by NATO in Afghanistan in 2006, official says

Related - "One would suggest that the fight is the last vestiges of the hold that the Taliban continue to exert over parts of Afghanistan." - Peter MacKay

NATO said on Wednesday that it killed too many Afghan civilians during fighting last year against resurgent Taliban militants, but that the Western alliance was working to change that in 2007.

The acknowledgment came one day after President Hamid Karzai's latest plea for foreign forces to use maximum caution in their operations following the deaths of two civilians, reportedly involving NATO troops.

"The single thing that we have done wrong and we are striving extremely hard to improve on (in 2007) is killing innocent civilians," Brig. Richard E. Nugee, the chief spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, told a news conference.

Nugee said the alliance has been reviewing for several weeks measures to bring down the number of civilian casualties.

NATO forces were accused of killing dozens of civilians last year in airstrikes, during battles and due to gunfire from military convoys that felt threatened, prompting Karzai to issue several pleas for international forces to take care.

Still, Nugee said NATO forces had killed far fewer civilians than the Taliban, which launched a record number of roadside and suicide bombs last year.

"There is absolutely no comparison to be made," he said. "The Taliban are killing significant numbers of their own people and showing no remorse at all."

Militants launched a record 117 suicide attacks in 2006, about a six-fold increase over 2005, killing 206 Afghan civilians, 54 Afghan security personnel and 18 soldiers from NATO's ISAF, according to NATO numbers.

Karzai, in a statement Tuesday, expressed "deep regret" over the deaths of two civilians in Nangarhar province a few days earlier. The Interior Ministry had said foreign troops were involved, although NATO spokesman Maj. Dominic Whyte said no NATO or U.S.-led coalition soldiers were involved.

"Once again, I urge the Afghan and international forces to ensure greater coordination between themselves and to practice maximum caution during their anti-terrorist operations so that civilians are not harmed," Karzai said.

Karzai last month broke down in tears during a public speech in which he recounted stories of children maimed by bombings.

"We can't prevent the terrorists from coming from Pakistan, and we can't prevent the coalition from bombing the terrorists, and our children are dying because of this," he said.

Airstrikes in the Panjwayi district of southern Kandahar province in October reportedly killed dozens of civilians, including 20 members of one family, according to Afghan authorities.

A joint Afghan-NATO investigation into that incident has never been released. The New York Times has reported previously that the investigation found that 31 civilians were killed.

Nugee said that commanders have looked at the report "in very fine detail."

"While it has not come out publicly, it has made quite an impact on this headquarters," he said.

In the southern province of Helmand, meanwhile, NATO and Afghan troops killed 10 suspected Taliban fighters during a battle on Tuesday, said Ghalum Nabi Mullahkhail, the provincial police chief. NATO and Afghan forces suffered no casualties, he said.

In Uruzgan province on Tuesday, Afghan and U.S.-led coalition special operations forces killed three militants who had been observed planting a roadside bomb, ISAF said.

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Quote of the Week: NATO

Too many civilians killed by NATO in Afghanistan in 2006, official says