NATO Chief Urges Action on Afghan Civilian Deaths

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer urged alliance countries to take action to lower civilian casualties.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer urged alliance countries to take action to lower civilian casualties from fighting in Afghanistan on Friday, saying such incidents could undermine the mission.

De Hoop Scheffer called on defence ministers meeting in Brussels next week to tackle the issue, insisted any future accidents be promptly investigated and urged a greater effort to provide humanitarian aid to Afghans.

"Any loss of innocent civilian life and damage to civilian property risks eroding the support we continue to receive from the vast majority of people in Afghanistan, as well as from their government and parliament," he told a defence conference.

"It also raises real and justified concern in our own countries ... We can, must and will do better," he said.

De Hoop Scheffer said better coordination was needed between the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, the Afghan army and the separate U.S.-led coalition.

He cited a case of casualties in southern Afghanistan last year when Western forces were unaware of the presence of nomads in a battle zone only to discover later that the Afghan army had known that they were there.

Scores of Afghans have died in air strikes by NATO and U.S.-led coalition forces, stirring angry protests by Afghans and calls for President Hamid Karzai's resignation.

Aerial bombardments killed at least 50 villagers in the remote Shindand district in western Herat province last month. The International Committee of the Red Cross said 173 houses were rendered uninhabitable, leaving nearly 2,000 homeless.

The growing hostility toward the foreign troops battling the Taliban insurgency has prompted NATO commanders to review a strategy which uses aerial bombing to aid ground forces in battles with hardened Afghan insurgents.

De Hoop Scheffer insisted that NATO was doing everything it could to avoid casualties and that no comparison could be drawn with insurgents who put civilians in harms way by using them as human shields.