KABUL (PAN (http://www.pajhwok.com/en/glossary/term/19729)): The Taliban on Friday rejected a UN report that said the
insurgents accounted for 80 percent of Afghan civilian deaths this year.

The annual mid-year report said that NATO troops were responsible for 14
percent of killings, with half of all casualties caused by bomb attacks.

Nearly 1,462 Afghan civilians were killed in violence related incidents across
Afghanistan in the first half of 2011, showing a 15 percent surge in civilian
casualties, the UN said on Thursday.

Putting the year on track to be the deadliest in a decade, the United
Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said the disturbing rise
in deaths came after the United States sent thousands of extra troops into
Afghanistan.

But the Taliban called the report as partial, one-sided and far from reality.
Rebel spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, in an email said that the UN had filed
the report in line with information provide by the US army and the Afghan
government.

"The Taliban have always called for a thorough, fair and transparent
investigation into civilian casualties. But the UN has never acted to be
impartial in this regard," Mujahid said. He said they condemned the report
for being partial and biased.




I agree with the Taliban on this.
I highly doubt that the figures provided by NATO & the Afghan govt. can be relied upon to be impartial and reliable. Especially given their track record of denying their troops killed civilians then only when proof is provided by locals they admit they lied (happened numerous times)...


Just a reminder for everyone to take any 'official' figures with a pinch of salt.

Does it make sense that the Taliban account for 80% of the civilian deaths?

NO, the fact is that the US airstrikes and night raids have increased exponentially, and if you do all the math, find each and every article detailing every airstrike and night raid, then the US is in fact responsible for probably 90% of the deaths.


However, the common perception is that the US presence is responsible for all the violence

The common perception on the ground in Afghanistan is that the US is to blame for all the violence. Just read the NYT article below. Note that this report is from Kabul. The US presence is the cause for all this.

"Fruit vendors in the city’s relatively safe downtown and students at universities struck a similar tone and added a frequently heard argument: If the Americans leave, then the Taliban will no longer have an excuse to wage war.
“During the Taliban regime there were no suicide attacks, but since these people have shown up in our country, we have faced lots of adversity,” said Nasrullah, a shopkeeper in Kabul’s dilapidated downtown, who like many Afghans uses only one name. “When they leave Afghanistan, the Taliban will stop fighting; it is only because of these foreigners they are fighting.”

[/URL][URL]http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/24/wo...ghanistan.html (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/24/world/asia/24afghanistan.html)

All that matters is that the perception on the ground in Afghanistan is very real and predictable.

It would be comparable to if a Chinese Army occupied Alabama... the conservative baptists would rally around religion and fight with any means possible to remove this foreign presence. The locals, were they to be killed in shops and banks by their native Alabaman insurgents would not lay the blame at the feet of their brethren... but rather at the feet of the Chinese who had no place being there in the initial. The same phenomena happened in Vietnam.