A Taliban victim offensive in Afghanistan

AP/Washington Times:

Afghan elders yesterday claimed that 108 civilians were killed in a bombing campaign in western Afghanistan, while villagers in the northeast said 25 Afghans died in air strikes, including some killed while burying dead relatives.

U.S. and NATO leaders, however, said they had no information to substantiate the claims, and a U.S. official said Taliban fighters are forcing villagers to say civilians died in fighting — whether or not it is true.

Even the government officials who reported the deaths yesterday could not confirm the claims, which came from dangerous and remote regions inaccessible to journalists and other independent observers.

In the west, in Farah province, Abdul Qadir Daqeq, chief of the provincial council, said elders from the Bala Baluk district delivered a letter to his office saying that 108 civilians, including women and children, were killed in air strikes Thursday and Friday. Thirty-three militants were also reported killed. Eleven police were also found beheaded on the battlefield.

In the northeast, in Kunar province, Gov. Shelzai Dedar said villagers told him that 25 civilians had been killed during fighting that also left two NATO soldiers and two Afghan soldiers dead over the last several days. Mr. Dedar said 20 militants were killed; the Ministry of Defense said the number was 37.

Other government officials have said that some of the civilians in Wata Pur district were killed by an air strike while burying dead relatives. Dedar called that claim a rumor.

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This is a Taliban information operation similar to those used by Hezballah and the Palestinians against Israel. The Taliban has been so badly beaten in actual battles that this is all it has going for it right now. It is creating some of these victims by using civilians as human shields. Now it appears it is manufacturing new victims for the media and making work for NATO and US forces to discredit the reports.

It has an advantage in these information ops because the news cycle moves on before the good guys can get their story out. We need to get inside the media OODA loop on these information ops to be more effective. One way to do that is to actively discredit the Taliban propaganda operation itself so that there is less need to respond to every operation.

You do that by stressing Taliban war crimes of not wearing identifying uniforms which puts all civilians at risk. You also do it by stressing the Taliban's use of human shields leading to civilian deaths, and you raise questions about whether the Taliban is listing its deaths as civilian deaths since its guys do not wear uniforms or carry IDs.

Finally, you label these information ops by the Taliban as a bogus victim offensive.