Civilian deaths prompt Nato rethink

Nato has promised to review its military tactics in Afghanistan, amid warnings from senior Afghan politicians that the growing number of civilian deaths in operations against the Taliban risks provoking a major backlash.

General John Craddock, Nato's supreme commander, said in Washington that the alliance understands that civilian casualties cost it credibility among local people. "Every time that happens, someone walks away, an Afghan citizen, with a bad feeling towards either Nato or the United States," he said.

Last week Nato officials were celebrating the death in a firefight of Mullah Dadullah, the Taliban's most feared and reviled military commander, whose body was shown off to journalists in Kandahar. But members of Afghanistan's parliament said many civilians were being killed during clashes with insurgents, particularly in air strikes. They are calling for a ceasefire and negotiations with insurgent groups, including the Taliban.

Khalid Farooqi, an MP once closely allied with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a notorious Afghan warlord who has thrown in his lot with the Taliban, said: "If they bomb a whole village just to get one insurgent, they will create more enemies for themselves. And once the people stand against them, it will be very hard to control the situation." As bloodshed has increased this spring - yesterday three German soldiers and four Afghans died in a suicide bombing in the northern province of Kunduz - scores of civilians have been killed by Nato and American forces.

The governor of Helmand province, where the majority of British troops in Afghanistan are based, said at least 21 civilians, including women and children, died earlier this month in an air strike called in by US special forces during a battle with militants in the province.

Haji Mahbub Khan, a senator representing Helmand in the upper house of parliament, told The Independent on Sunday that support for the Taliban was increasing among his constituents, because so many innocent people were being killed by foreign troops.

Major John Thomas, a spokesman for the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force, said Isaf did not "engage in body counts", either of insurgents or civilians killed during operations, because Afghans quickly took away dead and injured from the scene. Frequently, however, news organisations are told by Western military sources that a group of insurgents has been killed in an attack, only for local officials or villagers to report later that civilians are among the victims.

Mr Khan said his cousin's house and a mosque were hit about six weeks ago in an air strike that killed five people. "They will never defeat the Taliban this way," he complained. "They will lose, and the manner of their defeat is just killing Afghanistan. As an Afghan, as a Muslim, I ask the British in Helmand, the Dutch in Uruzgan and the Canadians in Kandahar, please do construction work and bring us security, instead of doing all this bombing."

Most civilian deaths have been in the south, but in March US marines responded to a suicide bombing near the eastern city of Jallalabad by firing indiscriminately into a crowd, killing 19 people and injuring 50. An American commander later said he was "deeply, deeply ashamed" of what had happened, and compensation of around £1,000 was paid to each victim's family. Last month 51 civilians, including women and children, were reported to have died in a US-led air strike in the western province of Herat.

Mohammed Nasir Attaey, a senator from Herat, said Nato and American forces could not bring peace and stability when they remain so reliant on military power. He was among members of the upper house who passed a motion this month calling for a ceasefire, negotiations with the insurgents and a date for the withdrawal of foreign troops. But he feared it was already too late for a peaceful solution. "There is a gap between the people and the government, and I believe the coalition forces will lose soon."

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