Civilian casualties have constantly fuelled tension between Afghan government and foreign allies. And the main reason behind NATO-caused tolls is recognized to be aerial operations across the country. Last week, NATO air strikes left reportedly seven children dead in the remote Kapisa province, which angered President Karzai who is critical to aerial strikes.

Reportedly, those children were looking after their herd and used fire to fight freezing cold when mistakenly targeted by NATO aircrafts. But NATO officials kept silent over the incident and never claimed the responsibility nor rejected. But on Monday, NATO-led forces said that they have found the bodies of dead children and their deaths may have been linked to an anti-insurgency operation in the area, which is indeed an explicit acceptance of the responsibility.

No doubt, air strikes are recognized very effective in hunting Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders in the remote and mountainous areas, but sometimes, due to false information, they prove costly for innocent villagers. But generally operations proved highly effective in dealing severe blow to insurgency through hunting key figures in AfPak border region.

But President Karzai opposes the strikes because they are the main reason behind NATO-caused civilian casualties. Several times, he asked for complete stoppage of aerial attacks, in general, and night raids, in particular. But foreign allies have not yield to his demands because such operations are efficient as well as inexpensive due to lesser amount of men and money involved.

But there is one thing to be noticed. Even if NATO-led forces continue air strikes with the current motion and do not take other necessary steps for scaling down civilian casualty, still it makes least percentage of total civilian casualties.

Taliban and al-Qaeda are the main guilty as they are devising explosive devices in public areas, targeting people indiscriminately and committing suicidal attacks. However, the statement does not mean that deaths of innocent people by NATO forces be ignored or justified. Foreign forces must take due steps to bring down tolls among innocent villagers to least possible level. They should understand that the live of each innocent Afghan citizen is as valuable as the lives of their combatant forces.

But what is important is the outcome. If there is a close relation between air-strike and Taliban weakening, then it can be justified legally and morally. The weakening of insurgency definitely leads to lesser civilian casualty. On other hand, if foreign forces stop air operations, then the insurgency will get stronger and increase the graph of civilian casualties. Definitely, that is the thing which no one may favor.