NATO Reviews Afghan Tactics

"Every time that happens someone walks away .. with a bad feeling either to NATO or the United States or its coalition members. That's what we don't want to happen," Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted Saturday, May 20, General Bantz Craddock, NATO's supreme allied commander, as saying in Washington.

Craddock said the policy shift was propelled by the outcome of a preliminary review of Afghan civilian deaths incidents, carried out by General Dan McNeil, the commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

McNeil has found that the excessive use of air force was behind the increasing number of civilians deaths.

"Then it becomes a decision that we have to go out and look at as to gains and loss," Craddock said. "

"Loss of popular support versus gains of taking out one, two, three of the bad guys."

He admitted that the human factor played a big role in the increasing number of civilian deaths.

"The technology only gets you closer to the intended point of view, that you see what it is you're shooting at and hit what you see. The decision to do that is a human decision. That is what we're up against," said Craddock.

The International Committee of the Red Cross slammed Saturday the indiscriminate killings of civilians in the war-torn country.

Investigations into a US-led offensive on the western province of Herat late April found that no less than 50 of the declared 136 fatalities were Afghan civilians.

The ICRC further said the indiscriminate US air strikes in Herat left up to 2,000 Afghan civilians homeless.

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