Afghan civilian casualties due to US attacks fall
Friday, 15 January 2010
From Fazle Rashid
NEW YORK, Jan 14: Contrary to widely prevalent view the civilian casualties in Afghanistan and Pakistan have been due to attacks launched by the Islamic Jihaddists and not by American or NATO forces, a study revealed. The year 2009 has been the worst since the war began in 2001.
The non-combatant death toll in 2009 in Afghanistan surged to 2412 a jump of 14 percent, a United Nations study revealed. More than 3566 persons received injuries during the same period. There have been a surge in the casualties in American and Nato forces. More than 520 foreign troops lost their lives up from 295 in 2008. The UN study says Talebans are more active now than any time in the past 8 years.
More than 1630 civilians died due to Taleban attacks. By contrast the number of civilian deaths due to American and Nato forces fell 28 percent to 596., the New York Times reported today. Fall in casualties of civilians due to strikes by the American was because the US military commanders adopted five safety measures to bring down the death toll of civilians. Airstrikes have been reduced to a minimum. Talebans have also been careful in minimizing civilian death toll.
The number of Pakistani civilians killed in Islamic Jihaddists attack is 3021 in 2009 exceeding the Afghanistan toll. The Pakistan death toll was 33 percent higher than the figure of 2008. The higher death toll in Pakistan was driven by a surge of suicide bombings by jihaddists against non-combatant civilian targets including mosques, university and public markets, the NYT in a separate report said.
The report on Pakistan has been prepared by Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies. Pakistan's home ministry has countered the casualty figure released by PIPS and said there have been 1674 deaths. The jihaddists carried out 87 suicide attacks in 2009 up from 63 the previous year. The overwhelming majority of suicide attacks were launched in North West Frontier Province ( NWFP).
Punjab suffered 15 attacks. Indian Armed Forces in the meantime has warned of an impending terrorist attack against the country and said terrorists could hijack a civilian aircraft to launch an aerial strike on its territory.
Jordan one of the United States closest allies came under pressure from the Islamic jihaddist to stop collaborating with American forces. The warning came after a Jordanian bomber feigning to be an ally of the US blew himself up killing seven CIA officials in Afghanistan. "It is not our war," the Jihaddist said and called upon Jordan to stop collaborating with American and Zionist forces.
In the world of finance the racial discriminations are at play in advancing loans. Justice Department is beginning a major campaign against banks and mortgage brokers suspected of discriminating against minority applicants in lending.
NEW YORK, Jan 14: Contrary to widely prevalent view the civilian casualties in Afghanistan and Pakistan have been due to attacks launched by the Islamic Jihaddists and not by American or NATO forces, a study revealed. The year 2009 has been the worst since the war began in 2001.
The non-combatant death toll in 2009 in Afghanistan surged to 2412 a jump of 14 percent, a United Nations study revealed. More than 3566 persons received injuries during the same period. There have been a surge in the casualties in American and Nato forces. More than 520 foreign troops lost their lives up from 295 in 2008. The UN study says Talebans are more active now than any time in the past 8 years.
More than 1630 civilians died due to Taleban attacks. By contrast the number of civilian deaths due to American and Nato forces fell 28 percent to 596., the New York Times reported today. Fall in casualties of civilians due to strikes by the American was because the US military commanders adopted five safety measures to bring down the death toll of civilians. Airstrikes have been reduced to a minimum. Talebans have also been careful in minimizing civilian death toll.
The number of Pakistani civilians killed in Islamic Jihaddists attack is 3021 in 2009 exceeding the Afghanistan toll. The Pakistan death toll was 33 percent higher than the figure of 2008. The higher death toll in Pakistan was driven by a surge of suicide bombings by jihaddists against non-combatant civilian targets including mosques, university and public markets, the NYT in a separate report said.
The report on Pakistan has been prepared by Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies. Pakistan's home ministry has countered the casualty figure released by PIPS and said there have been 1674 deaths. The jihaddists carried out 87 suicide attacks in 2009 up from 63 the previous year. The overwhelming majority of suicide attacks were launched in North West Frontier Province ( NWFP).
Punjab suffered 15 attacks. Indian Armed Forces in the meantime has warned of an impending terrorist attack against the country and said terrorists could hijack a civilian aircraft to launch an aerial strike on its territory.
Jordan one of the United States closest allies came under pressure from the Islamic jihaddist to stop collaborating with American forces. The warning came after a Jordanian bomber feigning to be an ally of the US blew himself up killing seven CIA officials in Afghanistan. "It is not our war," the Jihaddist said and called upon Jordan to stop collaborating with American and Zionist forces.
In the world of finance the racial discriminations are at play in advancing loans. Justice Department is beginning a major campaign against banks and mortgage brokers suspected of discriminating against minority applicants in lending.