Afghanistan is convulsed in violence again. A suicide attack on a bus carrying policemen has left at least 35 people dead. The attack is the deadliest since the US invasion of Afghanistan in November 2001 and is the fifth suicide attack in Afghanistan in three days. Meanwhile, seven children were killed in a NATO air strike on a madrassa in Paktika province.  Over a hundred people, including civilians, soldiers and militants have been killed in a three-day battle between NATO and Taliban insurgents.
The Taliban is said to have taken control of  a district in southern Afghanistan and are poised to overrun another. Barely a month ago, NATO officials were upbeat about the security situation in Afghanistan. They said the situation in the Kandahar province had improved over the past year and the only task before them was to quell the insurgency in the restive Helmand province.  Indeed the killing of Taliban field commander Mullah Dadullah was a major setback  for the Taliban. However, the sharp spurt in violence over the past month, especially the surge in fighting over the past week, indicates that NATO’s problems in Afghanistan are far from over. NATO has clarified that the killing of children in the madrassa was an accident. But this explanation will not convince the Afghan people. Winning civilian support is equally, if not more, important in fighting insurgents and NATO has failed in this regard. Its continuing resort to aerial strikes to fight the insurgency is resulting in a high civilian toll.
The Taliban too has killed civilians. It has gunned down thousands of  Afghans it deems traitors. However, it has shrewdly avoided targeting civilians in its high-profile attacks. Studies show that it has kept civilian casualties to a minimum even in its suicide attacks. Of the roughly 180 suicide bombings in Afghanistan since 2006, only 6-7 attacks saw a  significant number of civilian casualties. Even in these, civilian deaths were more in the nature of collateral damage than the result of deliberate targeting.  Nearly $13 billion of international aid has been spent on reconstruction of Afghanistan but even this has failed to win NATO popular support.  It will have to halt its aerial strikes on villages if it wants to win the battle for the hearts and minds of the Afghan people.