casualties and targeting in Afghanistan Sample Clauses

casualties and targeting in Afghanistan. Reports appear to indicate that thousands of civilians were killed (and many civilian objects destroyed) during the early stages of the military campaign515 by the United States and its allies, originally referred to ‘Operation Infinite Justice’ and later as ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’.516 The heavy reliance on airstrikes has been criticized as responsible for large numbers of civilian casualties and a consistent matter of concern by observers.517 Numbers of civilian deaths do not themselves add up to violations of IHL. The key question to be addressed in relation to any particular incident is whether the underlying conduct of hostility rules were fully respected. In relation to the majority of controversial aerial bombardment incidents, where persons or property attacked were clearly not per se legitimate targets, the question is not target selection as such, but whether there is an IHL justification for hitting what is, on its face, an unlawful target. Such justification may be based, for example, on mistaken identity or proportionality.518 Among the reported incidents of aerial bombardment that raise such questions are several attacks on wedding parties, where reportedly traditional celebrations with gunfire have been misinterpreted and led to multiple deaths.519 The pur- ported justification in such cases may be mistaken identity as to the nature of targets. Like the proportionality of any anticipated civilian losses, the assessment of targets must be made in light of information available at the time, taking into account the conditions of the conflict, though particularly 515 Professor M. Herold’s independent study on civilian casualties in Afghanistan, for example, which was widely cited by the media, states that at least 3,767 civilians were killed by US bombs between 7 October and 10 December, a figure which has recently been revised to nearing 4,000. See ‘A Dossier on Civilian Victims of United States’ Aerial Bombing of Afghanistan: A Comprehensive Accounting’, most recent edition of study available at: http:/ /pubpages.unh.edu/%7Emwherold last visited 12 December 2012. A more conservative report places the number of civilian deaths due to aerial bombardment between 1,000 and 1,300. See C. Conetta, ‘Strange Victory: A critical appraisal of Operation Enduring Freedom and the Afghanistan war’, Project on Defense Alternatives, 30 January 2002, available at: http://www.comw.org/pda/0201strangevic.pdf. 516 Following protests, principally by the Muslim...