Number of wounded has reached 'record high' in Afghan: ICRC

Geneva, Oct 12 (PTI) Escalating war in Afghanistan has
led to record casualties as bolstered US and NATO forces take
on resurgent Taliban for a decisive battle, the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Tuesday.
The number of wounded have soared in Kandahar region
considered to be the spiritual home of the Taliban, where US
forces are about to launch a major offensive to clear the
periphery of the main town of militants.
The Mirwais Regional Hospital which is funded by ICRC
registered almost twice as many patients (1,000 people) with
weapon-related injuries in August and September 2010 as
compared to the same period last year (500 patients), the ICRC
said in a statement.
The seven ICRC centres for rehabilitation have
registered over 920 new patients, including 151 amputees, and
assisted some 11,130 patients during August-September this
year.
"This is just the tip of the iceberg, as those who
suffer other sorts of injuries or contract diseases as an
indirect result of the conflict far outnumber weapon-wounded
patients," said Reto Stocker, ICRC's head in Kabul.
Transporting sick people across Afghanistan has become
a nightmare due to multiplication of armed groups in all parts
of the country.
"Our greatest challenge consists in maintaining access
to the areas hardest hit by the fighting, but the increase in
the number of armed groups is making this much harder for us,"
the ICRC official said.
As the ICRC is engaged in dialogue with all parties to
the conflict, "it is able to maintain its presence among the
displaced, the detained, the injured or otherwise war-affected
people of Afghanistan," he said.
The rising casualties are located in Kandahar, where
General Petraeus is adopting a new strategy to build "local
militia to keep Taliban out, in exchange for American promises
of development - and sometimes plain cash," according to The
Economist.
"We're paying them off," said Captain David Ahern of
Alpha company, 1st battalion, 66th armoured regiment.
The US is trying this audacious strategy in "the
Arghandab valley, a staging-post for insurgents attacking the
city of Kandahar to the south, is a test of the West's newish
strategy in Afghanistan," the newspaper said. PTI DR

MHM


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