Azerbaijan, Baku, 24 February / Trend , E.Ostapenko/
Frequent misses in recent air strikes of NATO forces in Afghanistan can become a good opportunity for the Taliban to cause resentment amongst the population, thereby gaining the support of the people, experts say.
"Undoubtedly, the Taliban will use this for what it is worth, and it will further stir resentment over the international forces and their conduct of the war," Kristian Berg Harpviken, Director of the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo (PRIO), told Trend .
Recently, NATO airstrikes often can not get on target. Last Sunday, NATO bombers attacked a convoy of civilians in the southern province of Uruzgan, which according to various sources, killed about 21 to 33 people, including women and children. This tragic incident was the largest in recent months.
NATO representatives earlier stated that the aircrafts attacked minibuses, in which, as expected, there were the Taliban intending to attack on the units of the coalition and the Afghan army.
The government strongly condemned the bombing, describing it "unjustified." The Cabinet called on the coalition forces "to the tight coordination and maximum caution before any military operations."
Talibs might gain people's support, not least as it has been argued that the new NATO strategy with more forces on the ground was to reduce such incidents, said Arne Strand, Research Director, Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI). NATO has moreover emphasized that they are trying to avoid civilian losses in their ongoing operation in Helmand.
Christian Tuschhoff, Political Science Fellow and expert on Afghanistan at German Otto-Suhr-Institute, thinks that Some Afghans actually support an even tougher stance by NATO, because it will increase their long term security.
Afghans can only choose between several bad options, Tuschhoff told Trend .
According to him, Afghan people can accept the Taliban dictatorship by asking NATO to leave their country, or they can ask NATO to permanently clear Afghanistan from Taliban and other insurgencies and to reestablish their own national government over the long term. The second option however involves the sacrifice of civilian victims, too, Tuschhoff said.
Over the last week, the representatives of NATO has to apologize second time for the deaths of civilians in Afghanistan. Feb. 14, two missiles launched by the Americans destroyed a house near the town of Marja (Helmand Province), where large-scale operation is conducted against the Taliban, which involves about 15,000 military people of U.S., British and Afghan army. This error killed 12 people, including six children.
In early September, in the northern Kunduz province, the NATO aircraft bombed two fuel trucks, supposed to be abducted by the Taliban. That bombing claimed the lives of several dozen people, with most of them civilians, ITAR-TASS news agency reported.
Civilians are killed either as a result of errors of NATO forces, or when Taliban themselves kill civilians, shifting the blame to NATO, said the Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman, General Zaher Azimi.
"In any case, this creates serious obstacles to the actions of the Afghan government, National Army and NATO forces to combat terrorism, Azimi told Trend by telephone. We are doing everything possible so that the NATO forces conduct their operations only after consultation with us in order to avoid civilian deaths.
Deepening cooperation with local government officials and civilians is part of the strategy, declared by NATO under command of General Stanley McChrystal.
According to Tuschhoff, the strategy also entails the build up and training of national forces operating locally and in close cooperation with alliance forces. Clearly, this policy entails the risk of spying by Afghan troops benefiting the Taliban.
Strand considers that information leakage will always be a challenge in any warfare, but in a massive military operation as now underway in Helmand this as less of a challenge than IEDs and civilian losses.
General Azimi, however, believes that leakage of secret information is unlikely.
"Exchange of information on strategic decisions occur at a high level, and only high-ranking generals of the national army are informed of this, he said. That information can not get into the hands of ordinary troops and the Taliban."
D.Khatinoglu contributed to the article.
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