The US military acknowledged on Saturday that civilians were killed in a battle which prompted Afghan President Hamid Karzai to call for a halt to airstrikes within the country's borders. Villagers from Western Farah province gave name lists of 147 dead to provincial officials and told Reuters of bombs hitting houses packed with terrified people, including women and children. In a joint statement with the Afghan government, US forces confirmed that non-combatants were among the dead but said it was not possible to give a firm number because the bodies had already been buried. The incident has inflamed public anger about civilian deaths from airstrikes, an issue which was already poisoning ties between Kabul and Washington. It overshadowed a meeting between Karzai and US President Barack Obama in Washington this week. Karzai on Friday went on US television to call for an end to the strikes. “The airstrikes are not acceptable,” he told CNN, adding that Obama had expressed “sorrows and apologies” over the deaths in their White House summit. “Terrorism is not in Afghan villages, not in Afghan homes. And you cannot defeat terrorists by airstrikes,” Karzai said. Analysts say Western troops are spread relatively thinly on the ground, making them overly reliant on air support. And the risk of faulty intelligence, the use of civilians as human shields by some insurgents and the size of bombs dropped in airstrikes make for higher civilian death tolls than in ground operations. According to the United Nations, US, NATO and Afghan government troops killed 828 civilians last year, nearly a third more than the year before. Air strikes accounted for 552. Karzai called for greater support for Afghan institutions, and the Afghan security forces, to replace the bombing raids. “You deal with that by using Afghan forces in the villages, using the villagers, using the Afghan government institutions, using daytime operations, using daytime search operations conducted by the Afghan forces,” he said. But experts said military commanders were unlikely to agree to set aside one of their major strategic advantages. “The US and NATO command are unlikely to rule out the use of one of the most important and effective weapons systems,” said Tim Ripley, an analyst for Janes Defense publications. “Given that they are still thin on the ground, they are going to have to rely on air power to get their troops out of trouble.” If the civilian toll is confirmed it would be the deadliest single incident for non-combatants since US-led forces started battling the Taliban in 2001. “It is utterly horrific in its consequences for victims and their families,” said Rachel Reid, Afghanistan researcher for Human Rights Watch.“The procedures for protecting civilians and verifying intelligence before launching attacks are clearly not working and must be thoroughly reviewed again,” she added.
