Civilian casualties in Afghanistan spiked last year, and the rising death toll caused serious friction between the U.S. and Afghan governments. Now comes the news that the commander of Joint Special Operations Command may have ordered a halt to some top-secret commando raids to reduce the risk of civilian harm.
Mark Mazzetti and Eric Schmitt of the New York Times report today that Vice Adm. William McRaven, the head of the military’s Joint Special Operations Command, ordered special operations units to curtail missions over concerns about mounting civilian casualties. The temporary stand-down -- which began in mid-February and lasted about two weeks -- was also supposed to counter what military sources have described as exaggerated casualty reports by Afghan officials.
The Azizabad airstrike of last August was a classic case in point. Conflicting accounts by coalition forces about the death toll -- and subsequent revision upward of the casualty count -- stoked civilian anger. (The presence of Oliver North and a FOX News team also added a strange twist to the story.)
Suicide bombings and Taliban attacks may be the main cause of civilian casualties, but commanders are clearly worried about losing local support; this is not the first time commanders have ordered a review of kinetic operations. Lt. Gen. David Barno, the former top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, made a similar move in 2004 to curtail the use of airstrikes.
"I felt that civilian casualties were strategically decoupling us from our objective," Barno said. "It caused blowback that undermined our cause."
[PHOTO: U.S. Department of Defense]
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