As more Afghan civilians die, so does trust of U.S. forces

Ghazi Gul keeps the pictures of the dead in a pocket near his heart" his father, two brothers, a cousin, a nephew. Gul works for the Afghan intelligence service, fighting militants on behalf of the U.S.-backed government. But now he blames the U.S. for the deaths of eight of his relatives, including his mother and two nieces"and he wants revenge. "I will continue to serve my government," said Gul, 25, who moved to a refugee camp near the provincial capital of Mehtarlam after an American raid on his village at the end of January. "But if we talk about the Americans, they are my enemies. And if I can, I will hurt them." No issue threatens to undermine the growing U.S. military mission in Afghanistan more than civilian casualties, which have turned more and more Afghans against international troops, created a rift between the U.S. and President Hamid Karzai and delivered Taliban insurgents an easy issue to exploit. The number of Afghan civilians killed in armed conflict jumped to a record 2,118 people last year, the UN said in a new report Tuesday. Insurgents killed 55 percent of the victims, but U.S., NATO and Afghan forces killed 39 percent, the report said. Of those, 552 were attributed to airstrikes. At a time when President Barack Obama plans to double the number of U.S. troops on the ground"he announced the deployment 17,000 soldiers and Marines on Tuesday"officials warn that a failure to resolve the casualties issue could make the coming mission even more problematic. Gul and others from his village of Galoch blame the U.S. for killing 16 civilians, including two women and three children, and injuring dozens more in a raid in the early morning of Jan. 24. They say that the assault targeted a Taliban commander who had left the area months before and that only civilians were killed. Afghan officials also say the dead were all civilians. The U.S. military maintains that the dead were mostly militants and that the only woman killed was firing a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. But still, the U.S. paid each victim's family almost $2,000, a move that the U.S. says is designed to show condolence but that Afghans say proves the dead were innocent. The incident in eastern Laghman province underscores how complex the issue of civilian casualties has become. Taliban-led insurgents are responsible for killing more innocents than international forces and probably use civilians as human shields, U.S. and Afghan officials say. But Afghans increasingly blame the international troops"particularly the U.S."for making mistakes and not coordinating with the Afghan government on raids and strikes. "The main cause of this is the Taliban," said Lutfullah Mashal, the Laghman governor. "But what is the aftermath? The population doesn't realize this. They think the Americans deliberately want to kill civilians." Of particular concern are raids by U.S. Special Operations Forces, which operate under a command separate from that of most of the international troops and who are blamed for most controversial raids, including the one in Galoch. Now, U.S. soldiers in Laghman province, including a number from the Illinois National Guard, are left trying to repair the damage with Afghans increasingly angry over what they view as indiscriminate killings. At one meeting at the governor's office after the Galoch attack, Afghans threw rocks toward the Guard vehicles and soldiers. "That's really unusual for this area," said Lt. Col. Dan Fuhr, the top U.S. commander in Laghman and back home a Motorola marketing employee from Park Ridge. "The public sentiment, at least for the time being, has definitely been affected negatively." Officials say that the Taliban has manipulated the issue of civilian casualties to the point that the truth matters less than perception. Even when militants are killed, Afghans often choose to believe Taliban propaganda that the international forces are killing only civilians. Also complicating the issue here are Pashtun tribal codes, which dictate that tribes must take revenge for such killings to maintain their honor. Last week, the Afghan Defense Ministry and the U.S. forces commander in Afghanistan announced an agreement designed to minimize the number of civilian casualties and to include more Afghans in the planning and execution of counter-terrorism missions. For years, the Afghan government and NATO-led forces have said more Afghan personnel will be included in raids and house searches. It is not clear whether this new agreement will have any real influence over the activities of the U.S. Special Operations Forces, but in a media briefing Sunday, Karzai said he hoped the agreement would end night-time raids. There were no Afghan security forces on the raid in Galoch, one of three raids in January blamed for civilian casualties. Villagers said they were surprised by the raid, about 1 a.m., and that many grabbed their weapons. "When they came, we didn't know they were Americans," said Sayed Hazratullah Khalilyar, the tribal chief in Galoch. "We thought they were thieves. Someone fired a warning shot. And then they killed us." A Taliban commander named Qadir has been very active in the region"his father-in-law lived in Galoch. Khalilyar and other villagers said Qadir was driven out when tribal elders decided to ban him after a previous U.S. raid in Galoch last fall. The U.S. is investigating the attack. Col. Greg Julian, the spokesman for U.S. forces, said it's still not clear what happened. "I would say there was some potential that some of those killed were civilians," he said. "Because some of those men shooting at our troops may have been civilians."