Taliban behead two civilians in Afghanistan

Taliban militants killed two civilians for allegedly spying to government and foreign forces in Afghanistan's Nimroz province, some 790 km southwest of capital city of Kabul, police said Thursday.

"Taliban rebels beheaded two innocent civilians in Khash Rod district on Wednesday," deputy provincial police chief, Mohammad Musa Rasouli told Xinhua.

The insurgents abducted the ill-fated men few days ago and their beheaded bodies were found in Khash Rod district Wednesday evening, the official said.

Taliban outfit fighting Afghan and NATO-led troops has yet to make comment.

Civilian casualties in Afghanistan continued to rise as a total of 2,777 civilians had been killed in 2010 which indicates a 15 percent increase in compare with 2009, a joint report of Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission(AIHR)and UN mission in the country said on Wednesday.

Source: Xinhua

German soldiers accused of killing Afghan woman

Police in northern Afghanistan have accused German Bundeswehr soldiers of killing a civilian woman and injuring another in an incident in Kunduz province on Wednesday 9th March.

"German soldiers patrolling in Durman area of Chardarah district started firing in the surrounding area," Gulam Mahidin, police chief of Chardarah district, told the German news agency dpa. "As a result of the firing, an Afghan woman was shot and killed and another injured." 

Mahidin said the woman was inside her house when she was shot in the head and killed, and that the German military had reported being under heavy fire.

"But according to our reports, there were no firefights and German soldiers made a mistake," he said.

The German Bundeswehr is investigating the incident.

NATO forces kill 9 Afghan children

Nine Afghan boys were killed while collecting firewood on Tuesday in what has been described as one of the worst cases of mistaken identity by the International Security Assistance Force.

NATO issued a statement Wednesday apologizing for the killings in Darah-Ye Pech district in Afghanistan's Kunar province. The victims were aged nine to 15 and included two sets of brothers. A tenth boy was injured but survived the aerial attack by helicopter gunners.

The boys had apparently been collecting wood to heat their mountain homes, the New York Times reported.

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Afghan probe accuses NATO of killing 65 civilians

KABUL (27th February): Afghanistan's government said Sunday that its investigations have found NATO killed 65 civilians, many of them children, during recent operations in a remote northeastern militant stronghold.

The death toll from several days of operations in Kunar province comprised 21 boys, 19 girls, 10 women and 15 adult males, President Hamid Karzai's office said in a statement quoting an official delegation.

Karzai has now ordered his security chiefs to "discuss the issue" with international forces, his office said, without providing further details.

In response, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), Lieutenant Colonel John Dorrian, said it was "deeply sorry... for any civilian casualties that have occurred as part of this operation."

But he disputed the death toll, saying ISAF's assessment only found five to seven civilians "may have been injured." Investigations were continuing, he added.

Our comment: Perhaps NATO should "discuss the issue" of 2,000+ foreign military killings and 10,000+ foreign military injuries in Afghanistan with President Hamid Karzai

Afghan civilian casualties spiral upward

KABUL - More than 200 Afghans were killed in attacks and military operations during the past two weeks, Afghan officials said Saturday, calling it the deadliest period for civilians since the war began.

Two attacks on Saturday added to that toll and fueled fears that violence will climb as winter, typically a slow fighting season in Afghanistan, gives way to spring.

The latest violence comes as U.S. commanders are under heavy pressure to show signs of progress in the nine-year-old war. Insurgent groups, meanwhile, have shown resilience this winter and appear determined to keep the fight raging until foreign troops withdraw. 

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THE CIVILIAN HUMAN COST OF THE WAR IN 2010

Kabul, 1 February 2011: Armed violence in Afghanistan exceeded record levels in 2010 leaving catastrophic impacts on civilian Afghan communities, read an Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM) annual report on civilian casualties of war in 2010 released today.

From 1 January to 31 December 2010, at least 2,421 civilian Afghans were killed and over 3,270 were injured in conflict-related security incidents across Afghanistan. This means everyday 6-7 noncombatants were killed and 8-9 were wounded in the war.