Afghanistan Conflict Monitor

One Year After the Kunduz Air Strike, No Sign of a Full Investigation

One Year After the Kunduz Air Strike, No Sign of a Full Investigation, Spiegel Online, 30 August 2010

EXCERPT: "After the deadly German-ordered air strike in Kunduz on Sept. 4, 2009, German Chancellor Angela Merkel promised a full investigation. One year on, questions about the bombing in Afghanistan are still unanswered and many of the details remain classified. The chancellor had made a personal commitment to resolving the case. On Sept. 8, 2009, after waffling for four days following the horrific bombing of two tanker trucks stuck on a sandbar in the Kunduz River, Angela Merkel finally made a clear statement. 'For me and the entire government, it is a matter of course that the incident will be fully resolved,' the chancellor promised the nation. The German military, she added, would 'do everything within its power to contribute to the investigation.' Merkel's personal pledge was completely warranted. On Sept. 4, 2009, German Colonel Georg Klein ordered the bombing of two tanker trucks in Afghanistan's Kunduz Province. The attack killed up to 142 people, including many civilians. It was an incident that brought home the reality of the war to Germany. But the government did everything it could to ensure that this reality would reach Germany in highly filtered form. The Kunduz air strike was covered up, kept quiet and downplayed as much as possible. Even today, little has changed."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Kunduz bombing victim: "The Germans lied to all of us", Spiegel Online, 30 August 2010
German defence minister visits Afghan combat zone, M&C, 29 August 2010

Related posts:
Germany drops Kunduz raid probe, 20 August 2010
German offensive aims to repair security, reputation, 11 August 2010
German troops battle growing northern insurgency, 4 May 2010
Kunduz airstrike inquiry begins in Berlin, 22 January 2010
Merkel apologises for Afghan airstrike, 1 December 2009

Afghan Election Campaign Workers "Killed in Air Strike"

Afghan Election Campaign Workers "Killed in Air Strike", BBC News, 2 September 2010

EXCERPT: "Ten election campaign workers have been killed in an air strike by Nato-led forces in Afghanistan, officials say. The governor of the northern province of Takhar, Abduljabar Taqwa, told the BBC that two people were also wounded in the attack in the Rostaq district. President Hamid Karzai condemned the incident, saying that 'pro-democracy people should be distinguished from those who fight against democracy'. A Nato spokesman said a 'precision air strike' had hit a militant's vehicle. The target was a senior member of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, who regularly co-ordinated and conducted attacks with known IMU and Taliban insurgents, Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said. The Isaf statement said 'initial reflections' indicated that eight to 12 insurgents were killed or wounded, including a Taliban commander."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Karzai condemns air strike as Gates arrives, Reuters, 2 September 2010
Military now bragging about Afghan air strikes, Wired, 1 September 2010
Pratap Chaterjee: Killing the wrong people in Afghanistan, CBS News, 20 August 2010

Related posts:
NATO strike cited in Afghan civilian deaths, 14 August 2010
Afghan villagers protest over NATO "civilian killings", 12 August 2010
NATO to blame for rocket attack that killed dozens: Karzai, 26 July 2010
US drone crew blamed for Afghan civilian deaths, 31 May 2010
"Unjustifiable" NATO air strike kills 27 civilians, 22 February 2010

Commandos to Be Charged over Children's Deaths

Commandos to Be Charged over Children's Deaths, ABC News, 27 August 2010

EXCERPT: "Charges will be laid against some Australian soldiers involved in a deadly night raid in which five children were killed in Afghanistan last year. Early last year six Afghans were killed during an Australian Special Operations Task Group raid targeting an insurgent leader in Uruzgan province. Four of the dead were small children. Two more children and two adults were also wounded. An operational investigation into the incident was referred to the director of military prosecutions, who has now recommended charges against some of the special forces soldiers involved in the raid. Australia Defence Association head Neil James says the director of military prosecutions operates outside the Australian Defence Force chain of command."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Charges will make defence "accountable", The Sydney Morning Herald, 27 August 2010
Kilcullen on rising Australian casualty rate, ABC News (Australia), 26 August 2010
Diggers treading a trigger wire, The Australian, 26 August 2010
Australian soldier killed in Afghan firefight with Taliban; Australia's toll at 21 soldiers, The Canadian Press, 24 August 2010

Related posts:
Australian troops will stay in Afghanistan beyond 2014, 26 August 2010
Diggers cleared over Afghanistan deaths, 18 December 2009
Australian DM rules out Afghan troop increase, 5 November 2009
Australian troops kill five Afghan children, 13 February 2009
Australian forces detained Taliban insurgents in "dog pens", 2 September 2008

New Case of Civilian Deaths Investigated in Afghanistan

New Case of Civilian Deaths Investigated in Afghanistan, The New York Times, 24 August 2010

EXCERPT: "A team of investigators from the American-led forces here headed to a volatile corner of northeast Afghanistan on Tuesday after local officials reported that a nighttime raid by NATO commandos there had left 8 civilians dead and 12 wounded. Details were sketchy, but the governor of Tala Wa Barfak, a district in Baghlan Province, said the Afghans had been killed in the village of Naik early Sunday by what appeared to have been a raid carried out by special forces. The governor, Mohammed Ismail, said a group of tribal elders he had sent to the village had returned with details. Among the dead were two women and a child, he said. Six of the dead were found in Naik, and two more villagers were found later in a field farther away, he said. Witnesses said the raid began Sunday at 2 a.m., when a number of helicopters descended on Naik. Groups of commandos entered a pair of houses, where the gunfire began, the witnesses said."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Deadly U.S. raid sparks furor among Afghan civilians, NPR, 25 August 2010
5 soldiers charged with Afghan killings, UPI, 25 August 2010
Factbox: Security developments in Afghanistan, Aug 25, AlertNet, 25 August 2010
Two NATO soldiers, eight civilians killed in Afghan violence, AFP, 24 August 2010

Related posts:
Afghan villagers protest night raid, 18 August 2010
UN report says Afghan civilian toll up 31 percent, 10 August 2010
NATO "covered up" botched night raid, 12 March 2010
Strangers at the door: NATO night raids alienate Afghans, 23 February 2010

Afghan Villagers Protest Night Raid

Afghan Villagers Protest Night Raid, Al Jazeera, 18 August 2010

EXCERPT: "Hundreds of villagers have blocked a highway in eastern Afghanistan to protest a night raid by Nato and Afghan soldiers that left two people dead. A statement from the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said two 'Taliban insurgents' were killed in the raid in a district near Jalalabad. But villagers said the men were civilians; their protest temporarily closed the highway connecting Jalalabad to Pakistan on Wednesday. 'The Americans who killed these people should come and see whether it is civilians or insurgents they killed,' Mohammad Gul, one of the protesters, said. 'We need an explanation from them.' Many of the protesters chanted anti-American slogans, like 'down with Obama' and 'down with foreign forces,' during the hours-long protest. Isaf said the men had been involved in roadside bomb attacks, and that Nato and Afghan soldiers were fired upon from 'multiple directions' as they entered the compound."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Protest erupts after NATO kills father and son during night raid, Examiner, 18 August 2010
NATO air strike kills Taliban commander in Kandahar, China View, 18 August 2010
Coalition forces seize anti-aircraft rounds in raid, CTV, 18 August 2010
"Caught in the middle, we don't have any power", Irish Times, 18 August 2010
Afghan civilians killed in nighttime U.S. raid, Los Angeles Times, 5 August 2010

Related posts:
Taliban, civilians reported killed during NATO raid, 6 August 2010
NATO "kills Afghan MP relative" in raid, 29 April 2010
NATO "covered up" botched night raid, 12 March 2010
Troops face new rules for "night raids": NATO, 5 March 2010
Strangers at the door: NATO night raids alienate Afghans, 23 February 2010

Taliban Call for Joint Probe Into Afghan Civilian Deaths

Taliban Call for Joint Probe Into Afghan Civilian Deaths, AFP, 16 August 2010

EXCERPT: "The Taliban waging a vicious insurgency in Afghanistan have signalled a willingness to cooperate with international forces, the United Nations and rights groups to investigate civilian deaths. A committee 'should be formed to assess the very issue and conduct investigations into the civilian casualties across the country', the Taliban said in a statement late Sunday. The probe should include representatives from the Taliban -- calling itself the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan -- NATO forces, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, and UN human rights organisations, the statement said. The sincerity of the move was questioned by Western military commanders and foreign aid workers in Kabul. The overwhelming majority of civilian deaths and injuries in the nine-year Afghan war have been blamed on the Taliban, which relies largely on roadside bombs and suicide attackers, which kill and maim indiscriminately."

Source: Afghanistan Mid Year Report 2010 Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict [pdf], United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), August 2010

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Bomb kills five civilians in southern Afghanistan, M&C, 16 August 2010
Is it possible to win the war whose victims are primarily civilians?, Pravda, 16 August 2010
Afghans blame civilian deaths on US despite spike from insurgent violence, The Washington Post, 14 August 2010
"Women bearing the brunt of the conflict", The National Post, 14 August 2010

Related resources:
ARM Statement on Taliban's proposal on civilian casualties, Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM) / ReliefWeb, 16 August 2010
Photo Gallery: Taliban expands influence into northern Afghanistan, The Washington Post, 4 August 2010

Related posts:
Afghan commission: Civilian deaths up in 2010, 9 August 2010
Taliban code of conduct seeks to win hearts, minds, 3 August 2010
Conflict kills, injures 14 civilians everyday: ARM, 12 July 2010
Mines, bombs injure more Afghan civilians, 15 April 2010
Terrorism kills more civilians than military action, 14 July 2009

NATO Strike Cited in Afghan Civilian Deaths

NATO Strike Cited in Afghan Civilian Deaths, The New York Times, 14 August 2010

EXCERPT: "There is a 'fair chance' that a NATO jet inadvertently killed five Afghan civilians during a shootout with Taliban fighters in a village in southern Afghanistan earlier this week, an American official said Saturday. Some details were still unclear, but a local Afghan official and two witnesses said that the civilians were killed Thursday afternoon when a NATO aircraft fired on a house after a firefight with Taliban militants who had attacked a NATO convoy. The Taliban were operating in Luchak, a farming village in central Helmand Province, the epicenter of the insurgency. When the convoy arrived in Luchak, about a half-dozen Taliban fighters opened fire from behind a wall next to a house. After a 10-minute exchange of fire, the insurgents ran away, the witnesses said. Then, about 10 minutes later, a pair of helicopters appeared in the sky, the villagers said. Maj. Michael Johnson, a NATO spokesman, said the aircraft was a plane that had come in support of the troops on the ground. The witnesses said the aircraft fired on the house, killing five men inside. Two Afghans were wounded."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Analysis: Probing war crimes in Afghanistan, IRIN News, 15 August 2010
Afghan attack kills three children, The Sydney Morning Herald, 14 August 2010
Afghans say they're caught in a crossfire, UPI, 14 August 2010

Related posts:
Afghan villagers protest over NATO "civilian killings", 12 August 2010
UN report says Afghan civilian toll up 31 percent, 10 August 2010
Afghanistan says 39 civilians died in disputed NATO attack, 5 August 2010
NATO to blame for rocket attack that killed dozens: Karzai, 26 July 2010
"Unjustifiable" NATO air strike kills 27 civilians, 22 February 2010

Afghan Villagers Protest over NATO "Civilian Killings"

Afghan Villagers Protest over NATO "Civilian Killings", BBC News, 12 August 2010

EXCERPT: "Villagers have held a protest over the deaths of three brothers allegedly killed in a raid by Nato-led forces in the eastern Afghan province of Wardak. They said those killed overnight in Sayed Abad district were innocent. Nato rejected the allegation, saying it had killed several suspected insurgents and detained a local Taliban commander. Separately, the charity International Assistance Mission has blamed militants for killing 10 of its workers, including eight foreigners, last week. A crowd of about 300 villagers yelled 'Death to the United States!' and blocked a main road in Wardak during Thursday's protest. A relative of the dead brothers, Mahmoud Khan, said US troops had entered their home in the village of Zarin Khil during the night and shot them. The soldiers then took their father into custody, he added. 'They were sleeping in one room, and suddenly the soldiers broke the glass window and they fired on them and killed them,' he told the Associated Press. However, Nato spokesman Ryan Donald said the men were 'suspected insurgents', who had pointed weapons at the troops."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Firefight kills civilian woman in southern Afghanistan, CNN, 12 August 2010
Taliban rejects U.N. report on Afghan casualties, Press TV, 12 August 2010
Coalition forces kill 20 Taliban in Afghanistan, Sify, 12 August 2010
The killing fields of Afghanistan - Editorial, The Guardian, 11 August 2010

Related resource:
Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan: Beyond the Body Count, TruthOut, 11 August 2010

Related posts:
UN report says Afghan civilian toll up 31 percent, 10 August 2010
Afghan commission: Civilian deaths up in 2010, 9 August 2010
Taliban, civilians reported killed during NATO raid, 6 August 2010
UN criticises covert troops who committed killings, 16 March 2010
NATO "covered up" botched night raid, 12 March 2010

UN Report Says Afghan Civilian Toll Up 31 Percent

UN Report Says Afghan Civilian Toll Up 31 Percent, Reuters, 10 August 2010

EXCERPT: "Civilian casualties have risen by 31 percent in the first half of 2010, the United Nations mission in Afghanistan said on Tuesday, a much sharper rise than that estimated by an independent Afghan human rights body. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in its mid-year report that 1,271 civilians had been killed in conflict-related incidents in the first six months of 2010 and that insurgents were behind most of the casualties. 'We are very concerned about the future because the human cost of this conflict is being paid too heavily by civilian Afghans and that's why this report is a wake-up call,' Staffan de Mistura, the special representative of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, told a news conference. There were a total of 3,268 civilian casualties over the period, including 1,997 wounded, he said."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Suicide attackers kill at least two at Kabul guest house, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, 10 August 2010
Killing civilians intolerable: Afghan government, Bernama, 10 August 2010
Afghanistan: In search of the true civilian toll, Global Post, 9 August 2010

Related resource:
Afghanistan Mid Year Report 2010 Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict [pdf], United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), 10 August 2010

Related posts:
Afghan commission: Civilian deaths up in 2010, 9 August 2010
Taliban, civilians reported killed during NATO raid, 6 August 2010
Conflict kills, injures 14 civilians everyday: ARM, 12 July 2010
Civilian deaths increase by 33%: Govt, 3 May 2010
Mines, bombs injure more Afghan civilians, 15 April 2010

Afghan Commission: Civilian Deaths Up in 2010

Afghan Commission: Civilian Deaths Up in 2010, The Associated Press, 8 August 2010

EXCERPT: "Civilian war deaths in the first seven months of 2010 rose by 6 percent over the same period last year, Afghanistan's human rights commission said Sunday. The modest increase suggested that U.S. and NATO efforts to hold down civilian casualties was showing some success. Also Sunday, the bodies of 10 members of a medical team — six Americans, two Afghans, one German and a Briton — were flown to Kabul from the northern province of Badakhshan, where they were gunned down three days ago at the end of a humanitarian mission. The Taliban claimed responsibility and accused the group of spying and seeking to convert Muslims to Christianity. The Taliban and their allies were responsible for 68 percent of the at least 1,325 civilian deaths recorded by the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, the organization said at a press conference. 23 percent were ascribed to NATO or Afghan government forces. Responsibility for the remaining 9 percent could not be determined because they occurred in areas that were too dangerous for a thorough investigation, the commission said."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Afghan war "kills 1,325 civilians this year", AFP, 8 August 2010
Dispatches: Afghanistan -- Civilians caught in the crossfire, PBS NewsHour, 3 August 2010
270 Afghan civilians killed in July, China View, 1 August 2010

Related resource:
AIHRC's Report on Civilian Casualities, January 1-July 31, 2010 [pdf], Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), 9 August 2010

Related posts:
Afghanistan says 39 civilians died in disputed NATO attack, 5 August 2010
IEDs kill more civilian Afghans in 2010, 5 August 2010
Taliban code of conduct seeks to win hearts, minds, 3 August 2010
Conflict kills, injures 14 civilians everyday: ARM, 12 July 2010
Over 2,400 civilian deaths in 2009: UNAMA, 13 January 2010