Over 110 insurgents killed; NATO soldier killed in Taliban attack; Civilian deaths rise; Hazaras stage demonstration in Kabul
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    • Over 110 Taliban militants were killed during the week in separate clashes with the security officials. 40 insurgents were killed in Ghazni province in air strikes launched in Ajristan district, which was taken over by the Islamist rebels on July 211. Around 70 militants were killed in clashes between security troops and Taliban in Spera town in the south-eastern province of Khost on July 26. NATO officials stated that the operation successfully prevented the taking over of Spera town by the militants2.

    A NATO soldier was killed after being ambushed in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, on July 22. NATO sources revealed that the militants fired on its patrol in Kajaki district of the province3.

    Meanwhile, NATO acknowledged that rising civilian causalities were undermining support for the international stability mission and noted that the insurgents were using this to their advantage. NATO spokesman Mark Laity told AP on July 26 that NATO took great care to avoid civilian deaths but admitted that they had become unavoidable as insurgents were hiding among non-combatants and using them as shields. A UN report released in the week revealed that 698 civilians were killed in the first six months of 2008, compared with 430 in the same period last year4.

    In other developments, thousands of ethnic Hazaras staged a demonstration in the Afghan capital Kabul on July 22 demanding that the government do more to protect their land. They wanted the government to stop nomadic tribesman from grazing livestock on land that they claimed as their own. The nomadic tribes like the Kuchis however asserted that they had historic grazing rights over the land in Wardak province, south-west of Kabul. Reports noted that several people had been killed in rising ethnic tensions between the two communities5.

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