2012 was the year of drone assassination operations in Afghanistan. The report by U.S Air Force shows that Washington has launched about 450 unmanned drone strikes over the past 12 months.
It is much higher than the strikes in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. The US military says drones are the major part of their mission in Afghanistan.
They could hunt down a large number of militants through these strikes. But experts disagree.
It was mostly civilians who were targeted, they say.
And these deaths became a big source of friction between Kabul and Washington.
Local Afghans are also angry.On the streets of Kabul, some demanded an immediate end to these drone attacks. To them, more drone attacks mean more civilian loss.
Others were calling for a quick U.S military withdrawal. “We cannot tolerate foreigners anymore. Their presence has brought further unrest in our country”, this man told us.
It has also been echoed even by the Afghan President. Hamid Karzai believes the U.S and its allies have brought part of insecurity in Afghanistan by their night time raids, civilian deaths and arbitrary detentions. He also blamed the Taliban for growing unrest.
Since January this year, two thousand civilians are said to have been killed here in Afghanistan-most of them were children and women. Now the US military says they will launch more and more drone operations. Therefore many here do not predict a decrease in civilian deaths.
