Forbes, 12 June 2007
GENEVA (Thomson Financial) - The International Committee of the Red Cross warned today that Afghan civilians were paying the price as increasingly bitter fighting between international forces and Taliban insurgents spreads across Afghanistan.
'The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan is worse now than it was a year ago,' said Pierre Kraehenbuehl, director of operations for the International Committee of the Red Cross.
'Civilians suffer horribly from mounting threats to their security, such as increasing numbers of roadside bombs and suicide attacks, and regular aerial bombing raids,' he added.
The ICRC said in a statement that the conflict pitting the Afghan government and US and NATO forces against the armed opposition had 'significantly intensified' in the south and east of the country since 2006.
It has also spread to the north and west, resulting in 'a growing number of civilian casualties,' the agency added.
'If you have one primary concern among Afghans today, it's security and how to avoid being caught up in the violence,' Kraehenbuehl told journalists.
Late yesterday, rockets fired from Pakistan at a US and Afghan military base in southeastern Afghanistan landed on civilian houses and wounded a family of five, the local governor said.
Scores of civilians are caught up in suicide and roadside bombings by insurgents, but the rising number of civilian casualties from the US and NATO military effort is also causing alarm.
Kraehenbuehl warned that some of the air attacks were carried out without 'necessary precautions' to protect civilians, and that armed opposition also illicitly mingled with civilians for cover.
The senior ICRC official criticised aerial bombings in Shindand district in western Afghanistan in mid-May, which killed dozens of civilians, damaged 170 houses and left some 2,000 people homeless.
'In such instances we clearly believe that much more should be done to preserve and protect civilians during military operations,' he insisted, even taking into account the difficulty posed by Taliban stationed in villages.
The increasingly polarised situation is hampering humanitarian and development work outside major cities, leaving many civilians 'in dire need of emergency assistance,' said the ICRC.
'They also lack access to basic services. It is incredibly difficult for ordinary Afghans to lead a normal life,' while access to medical care has worsened, Kraehenbuehl added.
Nearly 13 bln usd of international aid has been spent in Afghanistan in a US-led reconstruction and security effort following the 2001 toppling of the Taliban regime.
But the development effort has been sharply criticised for failing to produce much progress in war-shattered Afghanistan.
The humanitarian agency, which has been in the country for 20 continuous years, is also visiting a growing number of detainees in Afghan government or US-run prisons to check on their conditions -- some 6,900 detainees so far this year.
'We've not visited anyone held by the armed opposition. We've had sustained dialogue with them on the conduct of hostilities,' Kraehenbuehl said.
Southern Afghanistan is the birthplace of the extremist Taliban movement and the area has seen most of the attacks from the movement's insurgency.
More than 50,000 foreign soldiers, most of them Americans, are in Afghanistan to help Afghan security forces fight the Taliban.
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Citation: "Afghanistan faces growing civilian death toll in US/NATO war vs Taliban - ICRC," Forbes, 12 June 2007.
Original URL: http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2007/06/12/afx3812745.html
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