NEW YORK, July 21: Relying on mistaken and unverified information American commanders in Afghanistan could have killed as many as 400 innocent civilians as it proceeds with its war against terrorism in the country.
In a lead article, the New York Times said that US air campaign based on a high-tech, out-of-harm’s-way strategy, has produced a pattern of mistakes which suggests that American commanders have sometimes relied on mistaken information from local Afghans.
Also, the Americans’ preference for air strikes instead of riskier ground operations has cut off a way of checking the accuracy of the intelligence
The paper said that the reviews, over a six-month period, found that the Pentagon’s use of overwhelming force meant that even when truly military targets were located, civilians were sometimes killed. The 11 sites visited accounted for many of the principal places where Afghans and human rights groups claim that civilians have been killed.
Field workers with Global Exchange, an American organization that has sent survey teams into Afghan villages, told the Times they have compiled a list of 812 Afghan civilians who were killed by American air strikes. They say they expect that number to grow as their survey teams reach more remote villages.
Marla Ruzicka, a Global Exchange field worker in Afghanistan, said the most common factor in the civilian deaths had been an American reliance on incomplete information to decide on targets.
“Smart bombs are only as smart as people on the ground,” Ms Ruzicka told the paper.
Pentagon officials told the paper that their strategy has evolved in recent months away from air strikes to the use of ground forces to hunt down the remaining fighters for the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Since then, air power has been deployed in mostly a supporting role; still, the effects have often been disastrous.
The American attack this month on villages in Oruzgan province, where air raids killed at least 54 civilians, has undermined the goodwill the United States gained by helping to dislodge the Taliban.
For the first time, Afghan leaders are demanding a say in how air raids are conducted. They are even hinting that if the mistakes continue, they may limit America’s future military activities.
“We have to be given a larger role,” Dr Abdullah, the Afghan foreign minister, told the paper in an interview. “If things do not improve, well, I will certainly pray for the Americans and wish them success, but I will no longer be able to take part in this.”
The Pentagon, the paper said, often relies on information from warlords and other Afghans whose loyalties are unclear in a country riven by decades of war and tribal rivalries. That information may be incomplete or inaccurate, and sometimes even deliberately misleading. As a result, the Pentagon’s critics say, the military has too often struck without a full understanding of what it was attacking.
