Editorial: Civilian casualties are intolerable

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The rising death of civilians by either Afghan or foreign air forces has turned to a very serious matter of concern among the people and their representatives in the two rooms of parliament.

This is a big question that the people still do not know from which direction are they targeted and who is their foe and who is their friend? The armed opposition groups that are usually referred as terrorists by government officials and people, are the enemies and this is their goal to kill the people of Afghanistan to please their masters in the hostile countries.

But this is shocking and disappointing when people hear that they are killed and wounded by their own security forces or the foreign troops from the countries that Afghans consider them helpers to get saved from terrorist groups.

In recent days, innocent civilians are targeted by frequent attacks of the Afghan or foreign warplanes. It was heart breaking to hear that dozens of people were killed and injured in their houses, on their farmlands or their orchards in the past week in the provinces of Kapisa, Nangarhar and Wardak. Also in the latest incident, three women were killed and more than 10 other civilians including the bride were wounded when a helicopter opened fire at a wedding procession in the Maroof district of Kandahar province in the south.

People were happy about the revival of the army’s air force with a hope that the air force would further weaken Taliban and other terrorist groups. But these newly granted planes are targeting themselves instead of protecting them against the enemy’s attacks.

The government and its security bodies just confine the incidents with promising statements they would investigate.

Killing, injuring and displacing Afghans as well as destroying their houses and other properties are crime and intolerable under any pretext by any side of the war.

The air force pilots need to get more knowledge about the areas they are ordered to launch operations, and inexperienced ones and those with ethnic discrimination feelings should not be allowed to fly for operations.

The government needs to warn the foreign troops against the importance of civilian lives. If they ignore after warnings, then the government should ban foreign aerial operations because this is more important to protect civilians than to kill or injure a few militants.