Kabul, July 25: The US military in Afghanistan has stopped releasing figures showing the number of militants killed in combat with US-led forces.
From now on the military will only give out general estimates, instead of providing specifics on how many insurgents are killed in fighting.
The US says that the move is part of an overall switch in its war strategy in Afghanistan that puts the emphasis on the safety of civilians in the war-wracked country.
“We have to show that we are here to protect the people,” Navy Rear Adm. Gregory J. Smith said on Friday.
Smith, who arrived in Afghanistan six weeks ago to overhaul communication efforts for the US military and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), also stressed that military operations in Afghanistan were not aimed solely at killing insurgents.
The objective was to “clear areas of insurgency and give the people a chance to reconnect with official forms of governance and to rebuild their lives, socially and economically,” Smith told AFP.
He also stressed that the militants’ death toll does not by any chance demonstrate the coalition forces’ “progress” in the country.
About eight years after the US-led coalition invaded the country no main Taliban or Al-Qaeda leader has been killed or arrested. US military death reports normally refer to unidentified ‘militant members’.
Earlier on Sunday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates had said the US military and its allies must show progress in Afghanistan by mid-2010 in order not to lose US public support over the long-fought war.
Gates however added that victory was a “long-term prospect” under any scenario and that Washington would not win the war within a year.
The development comes just as US President Barack Obama dispatched 21,000 fresh troop reinforcements to Afghanistan, as international forces battle a mounting Taliban insurgency in the troubled country.
Some 90,000 US-led troops have already been deployed to Afghanistan and by the year’s end around 68,000 US forces are set to join them.
The US-led coalition invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to allegedly destroy militancy in the country, arrest its leaders and bring an end to opium trade.
Opium cultivation has dramatically increased after the invasion, according to the UN figures.
—-Agencies