Nato Tightens Rules of Engagement to Limit Further Civilian Casualties in Aghanistan

Nato has issued new military rules of engagement in Afghanistan in an attempt to limit civilian deaths, after the air strike last month which reportedly killed 90 people, including 60 children, it emerged yesterday.

The orders were issued by General David McKiernan, the Nato commander in Afghanistan, who also asked the US central command to reopen an inquiry into the air strike in the western district of Shindand, as video footage surfaced showing the bodies of child victims.

US drone air strikes on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border are meanwhile reported to have hit a house and madrasa linked to a Taliban commander, Jalaluddin Haqqani. Taliban officials claimed Haqqani was not there at the time of the attack and that 20 people had been killed in the attacks.

The rules of engagement for Nato troops will focus on house searches, saying they should be led by Afghan forces, and that permission from homeowners should first be sought. A limit on the size and weight of bombs used in air strikes was imposed last year, but there is continuing anxiety in Nato about the counterproductive impact of civilian casualties on the majority Pashtun population.

The new directives seek to "sharpen tactical directives, to give more clarity to commanders on the ground", one official said. It was an attempt "to re-educate commanders, to re-emphasize how careful everyone should be" in carrying out air strikes and air support for ground troops.

"Killing civilians is not the best way to attract hearts and minds," one European official noted sarcastically yesterday. But western officials also say that troops on the ground have to rely on air support because they often find themselves outnumbered.

A report by the independent New York-based group Human Rights Watch said yesterday that civilian deaths in Afghanistan from US and Nato air strikes nearly tripled in the past year and recent bombings have led to more killings, fueling a public backlash.

It said that despite earlier changes in the rules of engagement which had reduced the rate of civilian casualties since they peaked in July last year, continuing air strikes had greatly undermined local support for the efforts of international forces in the country.

There is general alarm in Washington and London about the worsening security situation, particularly along the principal roads across the country. Route 1 from Kabul to Kandahar has become far more dangerous over the past few months, particularly for Afghan government employees.

There is also trepidation over the expected withdrawal from combat of Dutch and Canadian forces in the next 18 months.

Western officials say that the counter-insurgency effort against the Taliban should be strengthened by the unification of the Nato and US missions in Afghanistan under the single command of McKiernan, which is due to be confirmed by Congress later this month.

Officials and diplomats in Kabul will also be carefully watching the presidential election in the US. John McCain, the Republican candidate, has said he would send three extra US brigades to Afghanistan, while the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, has said he would send two.

US forces have already reinforced their headquarters in southern Afghanistan, and are expected to send an expert on counterinsurgency, Brigadier General John Nicholson, in the next few weeks.

British officials are also upbeat about the role of the governor of the southern province of Helmand, Gulab Mangal, a former communist commissar in the Afghan army, whom British officers praise for being businesslike and efficient.

However, there is deepening concern in western capitals about the weakening position of the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, who has been unable to project his authority much beyond Kabul, and has been criticized for failing to deal with ministers accused of corruption and incompetence. He faces elections next August, and he is being urged by London and Washington to take his campaign outside the capital and into the countryside, to persuade ordinary Afghans he is working for their benefit.

British officials believe they have stabilized the opium cultivation in Helmand province, questioning UN figures suggesting it has increased over the past year. They have clashed in the past with American officials who have called for aerial spraying. British officers in Afghanistan believe the opium problem will only be solved by long term economic development, which in turn requires greater security.