NATO losing Afghan civilian support in War on Terror

Coalition troops deployed in Afghanistan to take the six-year-old War on Terror forward are reportedly worried over losing the support of the Afghan civilian population in the wake of a series of land and aerial offensives that have claimed a number of civilian lives.

Kabul, May 14 : Coalition troops deployed in Afghanistan to take the six-year-old War on Terror forward are reportedly worried over losing the support of the Afghan civilian population in the wake of a series of land and aerial offensives that have claimed a number of civilian lives.

According to the New York Times, Afghan, American and other foreign officials say that the Afghans are not just angry about the bombings, but also the raids on their homes, the shootings of civilians in the streets and at checkpoints, and the failure to address those issues over the course of the war.

The civilian deaths have also exposed the underlying tensions between American and NATO commanders, who have never fully agreed on the strategy to fight the war in Afghanistan.

At NATO headquarters in Brussels, military commanders and diplomats alike fear that divisions within the coalition and the loss of support among Afghans could undermine what until now was considered a successful spring, one in which NATO launched a broad offensive, but the Taliban did not.

"There is absolutely no question that the will and support of the Afghan people is vitally important to what we do here," Gen. Dan K. McNeill, the American commander of the International Security Assistance Force, said in an interview.

"We are their guests, they are the hosts. We have to be mindful of their culture, we have to operate in the context of their culture, and we have to take every possible precaution to not cause undue risk to those around us, and to their property," he added.

Take for example the western Afghan province of Herat. American air strikes have left 57 villagers dead, nearly half of them women and children, on April 27 and 29 alone.

The U.S. military claims that it was countering the Taleban in the area, but the villagers have denied the presence of Taleban in the area.

In Kandahar, the public mood has hardened against foreign forces after British troops fired on civilians while driving through the streets after a suicide bombing last year, and Canadian soldiers have repeatedly killed and wounded civilians while on patrol in civilian areas.

While NATO is now in overall command of the military operations in the country, many of the most serious episodes of civilian deaths have involved United States counter-terrorism and Special Operations forces that operate separately from the NATO command.

NATO, which now has 35,000 soldiers in the country, has emphasized its concern about keeping civilian casualties to a minimum.

Since the beginning of March 2007, at least 132 civilians have been killed in at least six bombings or shootings, according to officials. The actual number of civilians killed is probably higher, since the areas of heaviest fighting, like the southern province of Helmand, are too unsafe for travel and many deaths go unreported and cannot be verified.

As one American official said: "You have a bag of capital - that is the good will of the people - and you want to spend that as slow as you could. We are spending it at a fearsome rate."

Now, in Afghanistan, the call for more political control over military operations is becoming more strident. The Upper House of the Afghan Parliament has recommended that the government start peace talks with the Taliban, and that foreign forces cease all offensive operations. The proposal is a clear indicator of the rising popular anger.

ANI