Following a series of civilian deaths by foreign troops, the Afghan government on May 16 ordered a review of regulations governing the conduct of US-led forces in the central Asian Muslim country. “An interim administration in 2002 signed agreements with foreign troops regulating their activities in Afghanistan but times have changed,” Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta was reported as saying. “Today we have an elected government, an elected parliament, free media. This requires the agreements we had signed as a country then, with no government, seven years ago, to be reviewed.” The review came at the request of Afghan parliament after 140 civilians were killed in US airstrikes in western Afghanistan earlier this month. An Afghan investigation team appointed by President Hamid Karzai had travelled to the Bala Buluk district of Farah province in western Afghanistan. “The delegation visited the site of the incident, the graves, assessed intelligence authorities’ reports, met with the ulema (religious leaders), elders and locals to complete their investigations,” a defence ministry statement said.
“Based on local accounts, reports of intelligence authorities, professional assessments and observations, (it) put the number of the martyred in this awful incident at 140 and the number of wounded at 25.” Spanta said civilian casualties are fuelling unrest in the country. “The issue of civilian casualties is a main source of concern for the people of Afghanistan as well as for the government,” he said. “Unfortunately we see that this still continues.” Analysts have repeatedly warned that the indiscriminate killing of civilians is turning ordinary Afghans against foreign troops and eroding fragile public support for the West-backed government of Hamid Karzai.