Almost 1,600 children were killed or wounded in airstrikes in Afghanistan over the past five years, according to a report from Action on Armed Violence (AOAV).
The report analyses data released earlier this year by the UN and found that between 2016 and 2020, there were 3,977 civilian casualties from airstrikes in Afghanistan, 1,598 of which were children. Out of that number, 785 were killed, and 813 were wounded.
About 50 percent of the civilian casualties were caused by the US and its NATO coalition partners. The rest were at the hands of the Afghan Air Force, which is entirely propped up by the US.
From 2018 to 2019, the US dropped bombs on Afghanistan at a higher rate than it did during the height of the surge in 2011. In 2019, the US Air Force was responsible for more than two-thirds of child casualties from all airstrikes.
The Trump administration loosened the rules of engagement in Afghanistan, which led to the uptick in airstrikes. Last year, a report from Brown University’s Costs of War Project found that civilian casualties in airstrikes rose 330 percent from 2016 to 2019 due to the relaxed rules of engagement.
Since the US-Taliban peace deal was signed in February 2020, the US has reduced its airstrikes in the country, although the US has occasionally bombed the Taliban since. In March 2020, US Central Command stopped publishing reports on Afghanistan airstrikes, so there’s no way to know for sure at what rate the US bombed the country that year.
While US bombings decreased in 2020, the Afghan Air Force significantly escalated its airstrikes. The UN found that civilian casualties resulting from airstrikes by the Afghan Air Force during the first six months of 2020 had tripled, compared to the same time period in 2019.
The US is currently withdrawing combat troops from Afghanistan with the goal of getting them out by September 2020. But US financial support for the Afghan military will remain. US military leaders are mulling options on how they will provide maintenance and logistical support after the pullout.
Well, at least it wasn’t a “new war”….:?[
Judging by Trump’s supporters you would have thought the principled man of peace and liberty was pushing for withdrawal his entire presidency instead of in between bombing the sh*t out of them, lifting the rules of engagement to make killing easier and testing out new toys(MOAB).
Moab is a nice place in Utah…………………….
Once our military industrial complex inserts its tentacles into some poor country, that country is bled of money, resources and citizens young and old. In the name of “the war on terror”, “promoting democracy”. Oh yeah………….
Even if the numbers were correct and even if lower, they are still not acceptable unless to a psychopath. The propaganda that US waged wars are safe for civilians because we use “smart bombs” should be quickly dismissed by the US public. “Claims by the military that “smart” weapons are precision instruments that allow the waging of war with little risk to civilians are ‘totally absurd,’ …” and ““collateral damage” depends entirely on the quality of intelligence and communication that underpins the decision to use them…”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1352090/