Western and Afghan officials say the drop appears to be an early indication of success for restrictions on air power imposed in July by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the new commander of coalition forces, in an attempt to limit civilian casualties. The U.S. and NATO saw Afghan anger over the deaths as a major impediment to a new counterinsurgency strategy that makes winning over the population a higher priority than killing insurgents.
Six civilians died in airstrikes last month compared to 89 in July 2008, according to an Associated Press count of reports on civilian deaths by witnesses and Afghan officials. None of the reports was the subject of significant dispute by the U.S. and NATO.
A single mishap could send civilian deaths up again this month, dashing Western hopes of any real downward trend. But Afghan civilians and officials say the lower death toll for July mirrors a broader reduction in the accidental bombing of nonmilitary targets.
"When the Taliban are moving in our village, we are scared, but the good thing is there has been no bombing of civilian homes," said Baz Mohammad, a grape farmer from the village of Nilgham in the southern province of Kandahar. "A few months ago there was bombing every day in our district."
More targeted strikes
Western military officials attribute the drop in large part to less powerful and more carefully targeted airstrikes.
The U.S.-led Western coalition launched more than 40 percent more airstrikes last month than in July 2008, according to U.S. Air Force statistics. But at the same time, many of the strikes appeared to be far less powerful: a tally of the total number of rockets, bombs and cannon shells used in airstrikes dropped 50 percent.
"You're starting to see a lot more emphasis now on using the least amount of force necessary to get the result we want," said Capt. Frank Harnett, a spokesman for U.S. Air Force Central Command. "There's an added emphasis about noncombatant casualties. That will drive decisions made out in the field."
Air Force Staff Sgt. Dan Waugh just started a one-year tour in Afghanistan as an air controller, who moves with ground troops and communicates with aircraft called in to attack insurgent positions.
Waugh, who's stationed at a forward operating base in the Spin Boldak district of southern Kandahar, near the border with Pakistan, said he's been told to avoid strikes on buildings. McChrystal has told his commanders to ask themselves how they can be sure there are no civilians inside compounds where militants are also seeking shelter."They're wanting us to get away from structures," Waugh said. "If a commander orders an attack on a ridge-line, and it's a clear view and there's no civilians, that's fine."
The Taliban government was overthrown in late 2001 by relatively small numbers of Western troops working with local forces and backed by aircraft armed with precision-guided bombs and missiles, a tactic promoted by some officials in the Bush administration as a revolution in modern warfare.
But the approach proved ill-suited to stabilizing the country once the Taliban became insurgents who hid in rural villages and launched fierce attacks on small Western units who were far from reinforcements. Hundreds of civilians were killed by airstrikes, many called in by Western troops under fire from Taliban fighters they believed to be taking cover in buildings.