Mounting concern over civilian casualties

Pressure to bring about a halt to bombings in Afghanistan continued on Friday as the interim government led by Hamid Karzai reiterated its concern over the number of innocent lives lost to coalition air attacks. "Innocent victims are the real casualty of this war," an Afghan presidential spokesman, Shaida Mohammad, told IRIN from the capital, Kabul. "As long as there are terrorists, they should be bombed; however, innocent civilians must be spared." Mohammad's comments follow Thursday's announcement by the UN of an unconfirmed but reliable report that 52 civilians in the eastern province of Paktia had been killed in one such strike alone. A UN spokeswoman, Stephanie Bunker, told IRIN on Friday from Kabul that the village of Niazi Kala, seven kilometres north of the provincial capital of Gardez was struck in a series of air raids by coalition forces beginning in the early hours of 29 December. During the bombing, five large qalehs (fort-like traditional compounds) containing living quarters were destroyed, leaving many of the inhabitants buried under the rubble. Following the first raid, some 10 to 20 of the villagers, including women and children, sought cover north of the village, but were also killed in a subsequent attack. There were no survivors, she said. According to Thursday's announcement, during the second and third attacks on the village, more houses were hit and people killed. The dead included six people who had come from a neighbouring village to assist the wounded. The 52 bodies found comprised 17 men, 10 women and 25 children. All those killed or wounded had been civilians, Bunker said. Commenting, Bunker said the UN had repeatedly heard such reports, but they were difficult to verify. "We are very concerned about the civilian deaths that have ensued," she said, adding that the UN had been unable to independently confirm most of these reports on the ground. The UN has repeatedly called on the coalition forces to make every effort to protect civilians in their military campaign. UN Special Envoy for Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi is intending to discuss this matter with Karzai, as well as with US diplomats. "He [Brahimi] is very concerned with these allegations that civilians have been killed in not very clear circumstances. Mr Brahimi understands that the interim administration, and in particular Mr Karzai, are also concerned," Thursday's UN statement said. While Mohammad was unable to give any official figures on the number of casualties, continuing reports of civilian deaths are raising serious questions about US military tactics as Washington continues its efforts to capture Osama bin Laden and destroy his Al-Qaeda network throughout much of Afghanistan. Citing an American academic, a BBC report on Thursday said the number of Afghan civilians killed by US bombs had surpassed the death toll of the 11 September attacks. Nearly 3,800 Afghans had died between 7 October and 7 December, Prof Marc Herold of the University of New Hampshire said in a research report. Basing his findings on data collected from news agencies, major newspapers and first-hand accounts since the attacks began, Herold placed the civilian death toll conservatively at 3,767. "I think that a much more realistic figure would be around 5,000," he reportedly said. This figure was well in excess of the estimated 2,998 people killed in the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington, the BBC report added. Meanwhile, the US has denied accusations of indiscriminate or unaccountable bombings, as well as reports that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of innocent civilians have been killed since US retaliatory strikes were first launched on 7 October.