[QUOTE=USA Today]WASHINGTON — Bombs planted by insurgents have killed 75% more Afghan civilians this year than in 2009 as the Taliban increasingly targets villagers in a campaign of intimidation, according to military reports provided to USA TODAY.
There have been 1,859 civilian deaths from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) this year across Afghanistan. That compares with 1,057 in the same period last year.
In the Taliban stronghold of southern Afghanistan, where thousands of U.S. forces have been brought in to protect Afghans, civilian deaths from roadside bombs have soared 132% since last year, the reports show.
Makeshift bombs are the top killer of the U.S.-led coalition and Afghan civilians. Insurgents most often rely on cheap materials — fertilizer and fuel oil — to fashion explosives.
"It is used principally to coerce the population from cooperating with the Afghan government and ... the coalition force," said Lt. Gen. Michael Oates, who heads the Joint Improvised Explosive Device (IED) Defeat Organization, the Pentagon's lead agency for combating makeshift bombs.
Oates pointed to the increasing use of bombs by insurgents to target civilians specifically. These bombs can be detonated from a distance by a wire or radio signal or by a suicide bomber.
Khalid Pashtoon, a member of the Afghan parliament from Kandahar province, said the toll from IEDs is likely higher than military figures show. "We always believe there are so many civilian casualties that are not reported," he said.
Recently, top military commanders and President Hamid Karzai have made an effort to pin blame for IED attacks that kill civilians on the Taliban.
An IED tore through a bus in Nimroz province, killing 25 Afghans. Karzai and Gen. David Petraeus, the top officer in Afghanistan, issued a statement July 29 condemning the attack. Karzai blamed the attack on "criminals."
"We certainly want the enemy to get full credit for the ones they're killing," Oates said.
The civilian death toll in Afghanistan in 2009 was 2,412, according to the United Nations. The U.S.-led coalition was responsible for 596, or 25%, of those deaths, and insurgents killed 1,630 people. The remaining 186 deaths could not be attributed to either side. That's a drop from 2007, when coalition forces were responsible for 41% of civilian deaths, the U.N. said.
Insurgents may have other motivations for the IED attacks on civilians, said Andrew Krepinevich, of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. These include restricting travel to certain roads to coercing young men to join the insurgency, he said.[/QUOTE]
It's going to be a tough battle, even tougher now that civilians are afraid of cooperating with NATO so they can find these things.
Taliban are a bunch of faggoty bitches
IED's... Every time I hear about another British/American soldier dead on the news it always pisses me off :I. Besides. They're normaly use liked mines right? And mines are banned aren't they? so why the hell are they using them... I guess it's because they're just a bunch of criminals.
Real warriors fight using only other warriors and not civilians.
In other words, the Taliban are cowardly assholes.
[QUOTE=o_O Androo;23847760]IED's... Every time I hear about another British/American soldier dead on the news it always pisses me off :I. Besides. They're normaly use liked mines right? And mines are banned aren't they? so why the hell are they using them... I guess it's because they're just a bunch of criminals.[/QUOTE]
Not all mines are banned, only anti-personnel mines, and dude these guys wont abide by the Geneva Convention, they don't give a shit, they're just fighting for their country.
[QUOTE=o_O Androo;23847760]IED's... Every time I hear about another British/American soldier dead on the news it always pisses me off :I. Besides. They're normaly use liked mines right? And mines are banned aren't they? so why the hell are they using them... I guess it's because they're just a bunch of criminals.[/QUOTE]
Are you serious? This is the Taliban, they're not going to abide by the Geneva convention nor the U.N.
Give every civilian there an MRAP. Problem solved.
[QUOTE=Murkat;23847768]Real warriors fight using only other warriors and not civilians.
In other words, the [B]Taliban are [B]cowardly assholes[/B][/B].[/QUOTE]
I hope it didn't take you this long to figure that out.
[QUOTE=Ignhelper;23848939]Give every civilian there a MRAP. Problem solved.[/QUOTE]
Good lord, it's hard to fathom how much worse things would be if that happened.
[QUOTE=Morphus;23848651]Not all mines are banned, only anti-personnel mines, and dude these guys wont abide by the Geneva Convention, they don't give a shit, they're just fighting for their country.[/QUOTE]
Correction They're fighting for their extremist ideology, They could care less what happens to the country or the people for that matter just so long as at the end of the day they are in control of it.
I mean What kind of freedom fighter targets his own People on a daily basis?.
[QUOTE=Morphus;23848651]Not all mines are banned, only anti-personnel mines, and dude these guys wont abide by the Geneva Convention, they don't give a shit, they're just fighting for their country.[/QUOTE]
They are NOT fighting for there country. They are fighting for a system of beliefs. If they were fighting for there country they would be targeting Coalition forces only, and doing everything in there power to aid fellow citizens rather than pointed an Ak-47 at them to give them a place to hide or to make a bomb. The citizens are scared to death at the military because many of the people saw what the Russians did to them back in the mid 80's. They fear the Taliban because they ran the country before we showed up. They instilled harsh laws, and threatened violence on anyone. This is why progress is so slow.
There are whole villages still under Taliban control. My section Sergeant made a deployment to Afghanistan in 07-08, when they rolled into a village, there village elder thought they were the Russians again.
[QUOTE=Testabar;23849862]They fear the Taliban because they ran the country before we showed up..[/QUOTE]
Thanks, you just proved my point. They're fighting for their land.
[QUOTE=Murkat;23847768]Real warriors fight using only other warriors and not civilians.
In other words, the Taliban are cowardly assholes.[/QUOTE]
"Real warriors" shouldn't exist in the first place, and these people aren't warriors they are terrorists, very good ones at that.
[QUOTE=Morphus;23850001]Thanks, you just proved my point. They're fighting for their land.[/QUOTE]
The Afghans are going to get independent at any case. I can't see how you can say they are fighting for "their" land.
[QUOTE=Ignhelper;23848939]Give every civilian there an MRAP. Problem solved.[/QUOTE]
their militia already gives them weapons, we aren't allowed to shoot them though because they are still civilians :ohdear:
Fuck the taliban. Civilian-targeting assholes.
However, the mujahadeen and the other misc insurgents who truly are fighting for their country and way of life, I don't have so much of a problem with as long as they don't intentionally kill civies.
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