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CANBERRA - Australia has confirmed that its troops were involved in a Dutch-led attack on Taleban militants that killed civilians amid anger at the loss of innocent lives in Afghanistan.
The Defence Department in Canberra said yesterday that it was reviewing the operation in Chora Valley in southern Afghanistan and would support a Dutch investigation, being prepared as Afghan President Hamid Karzai launched a blistering attack on "careless" Nato troops.
"Afghan life is not cheap and should not be treated as such," he said.
Karzai's attack on Nato followed a rising civilian death toll that has outstripped the number of non-combatants killed by the Taleban.
The unknown number of civilian deaths in the Australian and Dutch engagement are among a toll that has risen this year to 211, according to an Associated Press tally of figures provided by Afghan and foreign officials, news correspondents and witnesses.
This was more than the 172 civilians killed by militants.
Karzai said that in the past 10 days alone more than 90 civilians had been killed by air strikes and artillery fire directed against Taleban positions.
On Saturday Pakistan said nine of its civilians were killed by a mortar round that struck a house in Paktika Province, on the eastern border with Afghanistan, during a battle in which United States and Nato forces claimed to have killed 60 Taleban militants.
The tragedy of civilian casualties has now touched Australia, which has almost 1000 SAS, commando and other troops operating under Dutch command in Oruzgan Province as part of Nato's International Security Assistance Force.
The Defence Department statement said that its troops had joined a Dutch-led Nato operation launched in support of the Afghan National Security Force in response to a "dramatically deteriorating security situation" in the Chora Valley.
The statement said insurgents had been terrorising the local population and had attacked Dutch troops before withdrawing into a local compound.
"Reports about the Taleban attack note that there were heinous events leading up to the battle," the statement said. "Initial reports have indicated that civilian casualties may have occurred during this period. The Australian Defence Force is concerned about the loss of any innocent lives. Australian forces operate under rules of engagement that aim to avoid and minimise civilian casualties."
Canberra supported the Nato view that the Taleban's tactics included attacks on aid workers, schools and police stations, and fighting and concealment among the civilian population. "The ADF shares the concerns of Nato that the Taleban are choosing to attack from inside areas heavily populated by civilians, putting the lives of civilians at risk," its statement said.
Earlier, Nato spokesman Nick Lunt told reporters that their forces needed to do better than they had so far, and that Karzai had a right to be disappointed and angry over the scale of civilian casualties. "But unlike the Taleban, we do not set out to cause civilian casualties, and that is a critical difference," he said.
Karzai, who also attacked the Taleban for killing civilians, was critical of Nato's use of heavy artillery and air strikes.
"The extreme use of force, the disproportionate use of force to a situation, and the lack of coordination with the Afghan Government is causing these casualties," he said.
"You don't fight a terrorist by firing a field gun from 37km away into a target. That is definitely bound to cause civilian casualties."
The Australian statement said its troops had provided the Dutch with "routine military support" and had not been involved in combat.
But it would join an investigation of the Chora Valley battle, and Defence Force Chief Air Marshall had spoken to Dutch counterpart General Dick Berlijn in a discussion that had included the issue of civilian casualties - "something that we would always wish to see minimised".
