'Hundreds of Afghan civilians killed as US seeks to protect its troops'
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Your support makes all the difference.American military forces have killed hundreds of civilians in Afghanistan in recent months because they have preferred to rely on the flawed intelligence of warlords than risk casualties among their forces on the ground, according to a survey in yesterday's New York Times.
The survey, based on research by the non-profit organisation Global Exchange, counted more than 800 civilians killed. The number is likely to rise as the ongoing survey extends into more remote villages from the 11 centres inspected so far.
What differentiates the Afghan campaign from previous US military engagements is that the civilians, increasingly, have not been caught up in strikes on legitimate targets or killed as a result of bombs going astray – what in military parlance is known as "collateral damage". Rather they have been deliberately targeted by precision bombers acting on flawed instructions from their superiors.
The sense of unease at the continuing campaign to uproot Taliban and al-Qa'ida fighters reached a head earlier this month when airstrikes on the village of Kakrak, in Oruzgan province, targeted two engagement parties. Local officials counted 54 dead, most of them women and children, and at least 120 wounded.
Afghanistan's foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah, said his government needed more say in how targets are selected. "If things do not improve," he said, "I will certainly pray for the Americans and wish them success, but I will no longer be able to take part in this."
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