Troop-caused civilian deaths angering Afghans: watchdog

Anti-insurgent air strikes, which caused a quarter of more than 1,800 civilians deaths in Afghanistan this year, were a focus of public anger against troops in 2008, a rights groups said Wednesday. There were 1,798 civilians killed in insurgency-linked action in the first 10 months of this year, Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission said in a report citing UN figures. This was up 41 percent on 2007, it said. Most were caused by insurgents but NATO, US and Afghan security forces -- jointly known as the Pro-Government Forces (PGF) -- were responsible for nearly 700 deaths, it said. "Airstrikes were responsible for 25 percent of all civilian casualties in 2008 and 63 percent of PGF-caused civilian casualties," said the report entitled "From Hope to Fear". Such casualties were a key reason for people turning against Afghan and international forces, said the commission, Afghanistan's top rights watchdog. "Large airstrikes resulting in tens of civilian casualties were a national focal point of anger toward PGF," it said in the report, based on interviews with people across the country. It said "aggressively" conducted night searches of civilian houses by security forces also angered Afghans. "While night-time house searches resulted in fewer deaths, night raids frequently involved abusive behavior and violent breaking and entry at night, which stoke almost as much anger toward PGF as the more lethal airstrikes," it said. A failure to acknowledge victims and apologise and provide compensation had also "caused much anger and resentment in the community towards PGF". In some cases security forces may have undermined international human rights laws, the commission said. The insurgents had, however, "clearly violated" Islamic and international humanitarian law by failing to differentiate between civilians and military targets, and by creating intimidation and chaos for political goals, it said. "They have committed widespread and systematic violations against the civilians with an aim to weaken the government," it said. There are about 70,000 international troops stationed in Afghanistan fighting a Taliban-led insurgency alongside tens of thousands of Afghan security forces. The number of armed insurgents is not known but their attacks, mainly bombings including by suicide attackers, have increased this year.