British military asks U.S. forces to leave Afghan province

[tocqueville]

By Carlotta Gall Published: August 8, 2007

SANGIN, Afghanistan: A senior British commander in Afghanistan's Helmand Province said he had asked the U.S. military to withdraw its special forces from his area of operations because the high level of civilian casualties they have caused was making it difficult to win over local people.

A U.S. military spokesman denied the request was ever made, either formally or otherwise, but the dispute underlined differences of opinion among NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan on tactics for fighting Taliban insurgents and concerns among soldiers on the ground about the consequences of civilian casualties.

A precise tally of civilian casualties is difficult to pin down, but one reliable count puts the number killed in Helmand this year at close to 300 - the vast majority of them caused by foreign and Afghan forces, rather than the Taliban.

"Everyone is concerned about civilian casualties," the senior British commander said. "Of course it is counterproductive if civilians get injured, but we've got to pick up the pack of cards that we have got. Other people have been operating in our area before us."

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/08/news/casualties.php

sorry if this has been already posted, I cannoy search the forums.

[demnan]

1. Remarkable . . .

K&R

[The Vinyl Ripper]

2. The vast majority

A precise tally of civilian casualties is difficult to pin down, but one reliable count puts the number killed in Helmand this year at close to 300 - the vast majority of them caused by foreign and Afghan forces, rather than the Taliban.

Hmm.. So who is the bad guy now?

[UKProPeace]

3. This could be a response to the article yesterday...

Talking about "Britain defeated in Basra"....There seems to be a lot of tactical subtle strategical moves going on just below the radar, perhaps spurred on after Brown's visit over there.

Please note, i'm not saying that the information in the articles is untrue, it may well be true, but the level of subtle (well, maybe not so subtle - and if they're true then it's certainly worrying) statements like this seem to have increased over the past few weeks.

[Javaman]

4. "How can we save the hearts and minds when there are none left?" nt