Afghan Civilian Deaths Are Rising, Government Says

Source: Common Dreams

Published on Sunday, May 2, 2010 by the Associated Press

Afghan Civilian Deaths Are Rising, Government Says

by Rahim Faiez

KABUL - Civilian casualties are rising in Afghanistan as U.S. and NATO reinforcements stream into the country as part of a military buildup to combat the resurgent Taliban, the Interior Ministry said Sunday.

There have been 173 civilian deaths in violence in Afghanistan from March 21 to April 21, marking a 33 percent increase over the same time period last year, the ministry said. A recent quarterly report by the U.S. office overseeing Afghanistan's rebuilding confirmed an increase in civilian deaths.

The ministry did not provide a breakdown of who was responsible for the fatalities.

Civilian deaths at the hands of U.S. and other international forces are highly sensitive in Afghanistan, although the U.N. says the Taliban are responsible for most civilian casualties. Still, the backlash could undermine U.S. strategy ahead of a summer military operation in Kandahar, a key southern city that is the spiritual home of the Taliban.

Read more: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/05/02

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Any jokes about drones, or exuberant claims about our impending victory? :eyes:

Well, well.

But somehow people seem more pissed off when they see people killed by the occupiers.

some bullshit "high ranking leader" was killed early in the escalation.

All chest thumping and telling those who do not support this escalation to go to hell as this was proof the surge was successful and we had mission accomplished.

So much innocent blood has been spilled, dead and dying everywhere, homes and families destroyed, entire swaths of country-side polluted with unexploded ordinance and depleted uranium.

All for spreading "free markets" to a narco state whose corrupt drug lord dictator gets billions from USA to keep his people impoverished and impotent. Most people don't give a fuck about USA other than as a massive consumer of opium products.

In return, we get a colony where we can build forward military bases.

Neo-dem democrats embody the worst of the free-trade/free-market neo-libs and the war mongering neo-cons.

This will continue to be heart-wrenching.
There is no way out...
I've lost faith...

peace~