Civilian death toll rises in the bloody battle of Helmand

The number of civilian deaths in Afghanistan's Helmand province has fast become the conflict's most controversial element, and now threatens to undermine Britain's entire war effort. Attempts to stop the resurgence of the Taliban are uniting the population against UK troops. Amid the mounting death toll of innocent Afghans, fissures are appearing between British and American commanders over who is most to blame. Crisis talks between military officers and the country's government over 'collateral damage' continue.

Last week I saw the damage being done in the battle for hearts and minds. In the British headquarters a girl was brought in by her family. She lay on the table, blood leaking from her tiny frame. Occasionally her body would convulse, her screams reverberating around the base. On either side, three of her siblings whimpered. They, too, had been lacerated by masonry after a US bomber strafed their home last Sunday morning while the Taliban were firing from the same compound.

An hour earlier, soldiers at the base in Sangin had recognised the thud of a nearby explosive. By the time its disbelieving victims appeared at the British outpost, they had already buried two children. Others lay entombed beneath the rubble. Bombed by their would-be liberators, their parents had passed the bloodied bundles of their remaining children to the British army to save them.

New unpublished figures confirm that the rate of civilian casualties is accelerating. They also reveal that, for the first time since current operations began in Helmand last year, the number of innocent people killed by international troops has eclipsed those killed by the Taliban. No one knows how many have died, only that the numbers are high. Forty minutes before the four children arrived at Sangin compound, I saw two wounded women arrive at its gates and beg for treatment.

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