Today, the United Nations released a report detailing the civilian death toll in Afghanistan in 2008. According to the report, 2,118 civilians were killed in 2008 - 828 by the American-led coalition forces. Most of those were, unsurprisingly, killed in the various air...
NATO ‘Concerned’ Over Pakistan Truce
The truce agreement that aims to bring peace to the restive Swat Valley in return for the implementation of Islamic law has been popular among those who it directly effects. The militant factions in the area have been pushing for this for a long time, and the civilian...
Poll Shows Afghan Populace Losing Faith in Govt, NATO
Though the trend could hardly be called a surprise given the number of massive protests held in the wake of the assorted civilian killings in the past several months, a poll conducted by the Afghan Center for Socio-Economic and Opinion Research has revealed the extent...
Gen. Craddock: Afghan Drug War to Escalate in ‘Next Several Days’
NATO Supreme Commander General John Craddock made headlines recently when a leaked classified "guidance" document showed he urged NATO commanders operating in Afghanistan to kill anyone involved in the drug trade in Afghanistan, whether or not they were involved in...
Official: NATO Kills Seven Civilians in Afghanistan
The civilian death toll in Afghanistan continued to rise today as US forces launched an overnight operation killing six men in Zabul. The military insists that those killed were militants, but a member of Zabul's provincial council insisted that the six killed were...
Karzai Admits Rift With US, NATO Over Civilian Killings
It's no secret that the Afghan government and the international forces have not seen eye to eye on the large civilian death toll in the ongoing war: President Hamid Karzai regularly complains about such killings, while NATO tries to minimize them (to the point of...
NATO Surge in Afghanistan Unlikely
As President Obama continues in earnest with his promised military "surge" in Afghanistan, which will double the number of American forces on the ground, it was expected that NATO would enhance its commitment to the seven year long military commitment as well. That...
NATO Chief Slams ‘Unacceptable’ Leak of Craddock’s Position
Yesterday we reported on the "guidance" of NATO's Supreme Allied Commander for Europe General John Craddock, which ordered NATO soldiers in Afghanistan to kill anyone involved in the drug industry, even if there was no evidence they were insurgents. The story has...
Top NATO Commander Orders Troops to Kill All Opium Dealers
The German magazine Der Spiegel has obtained classified documents in which NATO top commander and US General John Craddock, a long time advocate of steering the international forces in Afghanistan toward fighting the drug export industry, issues a "guidance" advising...
NATO Dramatically Underreports How Many Civilians It Has Killed
NATO spokesman James Appathurai told reporters today that the international forces were responsible for killing 97 Afghan civilians in 2008 based on what he referred to as their "new tracking system." The number is just the latest in an ongoing trend of dramatic...


