The Afghan president's spokesman on Saturday supported claims from a United Nations' committee that negligence in US military tactics had resulted in the deaths of "hundreds" of Afghan children over a four year period.
The Geneva-based UN Committee for the Rights of the Child Geneva – which operates independently of the UN Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (Unama) – stated its concern last week over insufficient measures taken by US military to protect children in Afghanistan's conflict and that "members of the armed forces responsible for the killings of children have not always been held accountable".
The Committee said it was alarmed by reports that hundreds of children had died in US attacks and airstrikes due to a "reported lack of precautionary measures and indiscriminate use of force."
A day after the US military rejected the claims, President Hamid Karzai's spokesman Aimal Faizi supported the UN statement in a press release on the president's website.
"One of the controversial issues, which has always stoked tension in relations between Kabul and Washington is the issue of civilian casualties arising from Isaf military ops in the country," Faizi was quoted saying in the release.
The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) on Saturday said it could not refute or support the UN claims, but it did confirm that its own statistics show an increase in child deaths in the first six months of this Persian year compared to the same period last year.
"We cannot dismiss or confirm this United Nations report. Our inspections show that children casualties in conflicts are increased, and we are worried about this situation," said Abdullah Abed, head of the AIHRC's Children Rights Support division.
AIHRC statistics show that in the first six months of this Persian year (March to August 2012) around 136 children were killed in war-induce violence while another 685 were injured.
This is a 14.5 percent increase compared to the same period last Persian year (Mar to Aug 2011). However, it is important to note that the statistics only reflect the total number of children killed regardless of whether the deaths are perpertrated by insurgent violence or by security forces.
The US military on Friday rejected the UN committee's claims as "categorically unfounded".
In a statement released by the International Security Assistance Force, which the US military leads, it said the reports were unsubstantiated and cited figures from Unama showing that most civilian deaths and injuries in Afghanistan were caused by insurgents.
Furthermore, it said Isaf reduced civilian casualties by 49 percent in 2012 from 2011, and the number of children killed or wounded in Isaf air operations had dropped by nearly 40 percent.
It said that to minimise the risk of civilian casualties both Isaf and US forces "employ detailed systems of technical, tactical and procedural checks and balances before employing all weapons in Afghanistan... [and] take precautions to employ force only when necessary, and in a proportional manner."
However, it acknowledged that civilian casualties do occur. "In each case Isaf and US military officials make every effort to meet with the families of those we have harmed and to express our condolences personally," the statement said.
In April, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that 110 children were killed and 68 were injured in 2011 during Afghan airstrikes conducted by pro-government forces, led by the US - double the child casualties from a year earlier.