U.S. airstrikes under scrutiny in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — U.S. and NATO military officials in Afghanistan have launched investigations into three separate U.S.-led airstrikes that Afghan officials say killed at least 78 civilians this month.

The investigations come during what U.N. and Afghan officials say is one of the deadliest years for civilians since the war began. In the first six months of this year, the number of civilians killed in fighting has increased by nearly 40 percent over the same period last year, according to U.N. data.

"We have seen a number of occurrences lately where a large number of civilians have been killed. It would be fair to say that this year so far there has been an increase in the number of civilians killed by all sides," said Dan McNorton, a spokesman for the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

More than half of those killed in the three recent U.S.-led airstrikes, which occurred within three weeks of each other in separate provinces, were women and children, according to Afghan and Western officials. In one case, an estimated 47 women and children in a wedding party were killed.

The death toll from Western airstrikes has renewed political furor over foreign military operations in Afghanistan at a time when the Taliban insurgency is intensifying.

NATO protocols require high-level approval for airstrikes when civilians are known to be at or near Taliban targets. Military officials say insurgent fighters commonly take up positions in civilians' homes, mosques or even schools — increasing the chances of civilian casualties. Those casualties, in turn, help the Taliban win the sympathies of locals and draw new recruits.

The first airstrike under investigation took place July 4 in Zoomia Bala village in the province of Nuristan. Two U.S. helicopters unleashed missiles and gunfire on a pair of vehicles fleeing an area near a NATO and Afghan military base shortly before an attack, according to a confidential cable about the incident sent by the European Union delegation in Kabul to its member states. At least 16 civilians were killed, according to Afghan media reports and interviews conducted with the EU delegation. Nuristan's governor, Tamim Nuristani, said at the time that 22 civilians were killed. He was fired by Karzai days later.

The second airstrike, which took place the morning of July 6 in the eastern province of Nangahar, claimed the lives of members of the wedding party, according to Afghan and Western officials. A Western official in Afghanistan familiar with details of the aerial assault, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said U.S. forces dropped bombs on the party as it traveled through an open area, where presumably it would have been easier for the air-attack coordinator or the pilot to determine whether those in the party were civilians, not Taliban fighters.

The third incident occurred Sunday in the province of Farah. At least eight Afghan police officers were killed when a convoy of U.S. and Afghan soldiers mistakenly called in an airstrike on the officers' location, according to statement by U.S. military officials.

An estimated 698 civilians were killed in the first six months of this year, compared with 430 during the same period last year, the United Nations says. Of those, 255 were killed by NATO forces.

According to a count in a forthcoming report from Human Rights Watch, airstrikes alone have been responsible for 119 civilian deaths this year.

Civilian casualties from airstrikes are a persistent issue in a war where low NATO troop numbers combine with difficult or even impassable terrain to create heavy dependency on air power.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Pakistan needs to do more to prevent Taliban militants from launching attacks into Afghanistan from its territory.

Speaking today in Australia, Rice suggested that a surge in Taliban-related violence in Afghanistan had its source in the restive semiautonomous border tribal areas.

"We understand that it's difficult, we understand that the northwest frontier area is difficult, but militants cannot be allowed to organize there and to plan there and to engage across the border," Rice said.