Secretary general says Taliban guilty of using civilians as human shields

NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, has apologised for civilian casualties caused by foreign forces in Afghanistan.

"Every casualty is one too many. We will do everything we can to avoid civilian casualties," he said during a joint press conference with President Karzai at Kabul’s presidential palace on Wednesday.

"No NATO soldier sets out to kill civilians. Most civilians killed are killed by the Taliban who use them as human shields," he added.

Scheffer, in Kabul for a brief visit, emphasised the long term commitment of NATO to Afghanistan and was visibly angered by the suggestion that NATO forces were behaving like the Soviet troops who occupied Afghanistan in the 1980s.

"There is no comparison. This is a UN mandated enabling mission but we can do better," he said.

NATO-led and US-led troops in Afghanistan have been blamed for killing civilians during air-strikes. In August, US warplanes bombed a village in the western province of Herat, killing as many as 90 civilians, according to a UN investigation.

Attacks on wedding parties have also killed large numbers of civilians, angering MPs and members of the public.

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