Record Afghan bombings in May

This is from the impeccable non-left publication Navy Times.

As the article mentions this record comes despite the constant complaints about the bombings and the civilian casualties caused. I have included after this article a recent article in which Gates claims that more care is being taken even as more civilians are killed. There seems a lot more concern about public relations than civilian deaths. Of course the policy probably reduces troop deaths.
Given that there was a peak in May no doubt if the June figures both for bombings and casualties go down this will be taken as proof that there is more concern being shown for civilian deaths even though both figures remain at high levels.

Afghanistan bombings top charts in May
By Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writerPosted : Friday Jun 12, 2009 16:30:41 EDT

Air Force, Navy and other coalition warplanes dropped a record number of bombs in Afghanistan for May, Air Forces Central figures show.
During May, warplanes released 478 bombs, the highest May count since numbers started being tracked in 2004.
The increase came despite Afghan complaints that on May 4, an Air Force B-1B and three Navy F/A-18s killed dozens of civilians in western Afghanistan when Afghan troops and their Marine advisers were attacked by insurgents hiding in a village. The bombing is under investigation by Central Command.
May also marked the fifth consecutive month of an increasing use of bombs, after a decline that started last July.
The munitions release came during 2,196 close air support sorties.
The actual number of air strikes was higher because the AFCent numbers don’t include attacks by helicopters and special operations gunships. The numbers also don’t include strafing runs or launches of small missiles.
Over Iraq, two bombs were released during 725 strike sorties.
Transport crews airdropped 1.5 million pounds of supplies, mostly in Afghanistan, and tankers flew 4,441 sorties supporting Iraq and Afghanistan operations
Reconnaissance aircraft flew 1,566 missions over Iraq and Afghanistan, a 10 percent increase over April’s flights.

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As Gates Promises to Reduce Afghan Civilian Toll, NATO Kills More
Posted By Jason Ditz On June 12, 2009 @ 5:22 pm
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates today promised that in the effort to win the hearts and minds of the civilian populace of Afghanistan, NATO would put an increased emphasis on reducing the number of civilians being killed by international forces.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates
Meanwhile, during fighting in Afghanistan’s Kunar Province NATO forces fired artillery at civilians, killing two and wounding five others. NATO declined to provide further details about the killings, but said it was investigating the matter.
Not long after, a NATO military vehicle crashed into a civilian truck in Khas Kunar, killing four other civilians. The growing number of civilian deaths seem not to be slowing down the repeated promises of Obama Administration officials that they have changed their tactics.
Just days ago a US air strike was reported to have killed 10 civilians in Ghor Province. Earlier in the week it was also reported that a US soldier had thrown a hand grenade into a crowd of civilians in the Kunar Province, though the US is denying this claim.
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