US casts doubt on Afghan civilian casualty counts
Source: Reuters
By Andrew Gray WASHINGTON, July 3 (Reuters) - A U.S. general expressed doubt on Tuesday about reports U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan had killed more than 230 civilians this year, saying it was hard to get a good count as combat took place in remote areas. "It's difficult for me to believe that you can actually capture an accurate number," U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Perry Wiggins told a Pentagon news briefing. An umbrella group of Western and Afghan aid agencies said last month Afghanistan's NATO-led security force, Afghan troops and a U.S.-led coalition with a counterterrorism mandate had killed more than 230 civilians this year alone. NATO and the United States say they take every precaution to avoid civilian casualties but some counts suggest foreign and Afghan forces have killed about the same number of innocent people this year as have been killed by Taliban insurgents. The fighting between foreign troops and the Taliban takes place mainly in the south and east of Afghanistan, much of it far from big population centers. Wiggins said civilian death tolls were not only unreliable because it was hard to get an independent count in a remote area. He said some counts had actually been proven to be wrong. "In a number of cases ... we've gone out and investigated, where they have claimed there were civilians killed and in fact those were unfounded," said Wiggins, a member of the U.S. military's Joint Staff. Wiggins did not refer to any specific cases and did not offer any estimate of how many civilians may have been killed in attacks by foreign forces or their Afghan allies. U.S. and NATO officials have insisted there should be no comparison between their operations, which seek to avoid innocent casualties, and those of the Islamist Taliban, who they say target civilians and use their homes as cover. The issue of civilian casualties has become increasingly sensitive in Afghanistan. President Hamid Karzai last month accused NATO and the coalition of carelessness and called for greater coordination with Afghan forces.
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