Taliban Attacks Increasingly Kill Afghan Civilians

Kabul, Afghanistan - Taliban insurgents carried out more attacks this year than any time since early in the war, the murder of a growing number of citizens, as a US-led forces push into the militants' southern strongholds, the Afghan rights group said Monday.
International troops were responsible for about one-fifth of civilian deaths - down in the previous year, due to restrictive rules of engagement that some soldiers feel their life is at risk.
That so many noncombatants are dying shows that the international force has yet to succeed in its goal protection of Afghan people for the trust and support are key components of NATO's new counterinsurgency strategy nearly 9 years of war.
At least 1,074 citizens died in the first half, triple the number of international forces killed over the same period, the rights in Afghanistan, said the Monitor report, called 2010 the worst year since security shortly after the death of the Taliban regime.
Violence soared as the coalition forces, bolstered by 30,000 American reinforcements, was taken to the Taliban strongholds in the south and east to try to distort the fields from the militants, Afghan government to strengthen control and win the confidence of Afghans. That the insurgents responded with a wave of ambushes, suicide attacks, roadside bombs and assassinations.
The number of civilian deaths up in 2010, though only slightly, than the previous year's first half, but the number of insurgent attacks - and their share of civilian deaths has spiked.
Afghanistan Rights Monitor director Ajmal Samadi said the group recorded violent events of June 1200 alone, high in a month since early 2002. The number of coalition operations, such as airstrikes against the insurgents, but Samadi said the vast majority of them were attacks by the Taliban and their militant allies.
"Insurgents are, of course carry out more attacks throughout the country than at any time before», Samadi said.
Fierce resistance was expected in the south, but, as reported explosions and murders fell all over the country, some ordinary Afghans feel more and more restless.
"Unfortunately, I am hopeless with the current situation, and I do not see a bright future," said Ahmad Fahim, 28, who works at the Ministry of Education Kabul.
Fahim has no trouble believing the most violent year since the early months of war. He said he and his friends to see and hear the evidence, daily news reports on the victims - not only in the south, but the previously calm north and west. After all, he bears Taliban, responsible, but says that the U.S. and its coalition partners not to kill too many innocent citizens, even if by accident.
However, the rebels were responsible for 661 civilian war related deaths so far this year, or 61 percent. These, 282 were killed by roadside bombs, Afghanistan Rights Monitor said.
That the U.S. 's frequent use of home-made, hidden explosives on roads is just as likely to kill ordinary Afghans as the security forces. That the rebels also targeted civilian officials in a campaign of state terror.
International forces responsible for the deaths and 20 percent of Afghan security forces, 10 percent. Report that the other deaths or incomprehensible, or attributed to criminal groups or private security forces. Afghan group of its statistics interviews witnesses, families of victims, local officials and media reports.
Share accidental deaths coalition and Afghan government forces, which may in turn the people against government and foreign forces - declining, the statistics showed.
Accidental deaths from NATO airstrikes have fallen by half, to 94, and the whole international forces responsible for 210 civilian deaths from January 1 to June 30 this year - down from 276 the same period last year. Deaths attributed to Afghan security forces had come down from 386 to 108.
Samadi credited the policy of restraint issued by the former commander of international forces, General Stanley McChrystal last year that limited the circumstances in which troops can call in the airstrike or fire in buildings.
He called General David Petraeus, who replaced McChrystal this month and which many credit with turned around the war in Iraq, not to change the rules of engagement. If American and other international troops be allowed to use firepower more often, he said, then they will. "Then you can back to a situation where more citizens could die."
Strict rules of engagement in public many, including some forces who believe in the value of American lives and force them to give up the overwhelming firepower advantage of a foe who shoots and melts back into the civilian population.
NATO spokesman brig. General Joseph Blotz, however, stressed that Petraeus is committed to the current guidelines for use of force.
"Our strategic imperative is to reduce civilian casualties can not and will not change», Blotz reporters Sunday.
Trend continued on Monday the death of innocent people, NATO reported that six Afghan citizen were killed and four wounded when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Helmand province Lashkar Gar district. Coalition helicopter evacuated the injured and medical treatment has come under fire fighters.
Different organizations track civilian casualties in Afghanistan with different numbers. Afghanistan Rights Monitor statistics were higher than the NATO tally is 592 noncombatants killed in the first half of this year, 82 percent of their insurgent attacks and the rest accidental deaths by international forces.
United Nations statistics also tend to be higher than NATO. The world body has not yet released its report for the victims of the first half year, but in 2009 his account was similar to Afghanistan Rights Monitor the tally.