Children the victims in Afghan strife — Meacher

THE war in Afghanistan is not a war on terror but is becoming a war on children as the death toll continues to rise, an MP claimed last night.

Michael Meacher said to call the war in Afghanistan a war on terror was “highly misleading” as he called for a “negotiated withdrawal” from the country.

The Oldham West and Royton MP attacked the reliance on close support aerial bombing by the coalition forces which had seen the death toll rise from 175 in 2005 to almost 3,000 in 2007.

He said: “They kill four to 10 times the number of civilians compared with ground attacks and air strikes now account for something like 80 per cent of those killed by occupation forces.

“It has certainly been claimed, and I have no basis for proving or disproving this, that the coalition has killed more children in Afghanistan by its reckless use of tactical airpower than have died at the hands of the Taliban.”

Mr Meacher made the comments in a debate on Afghanistan where former defence secretary John Reid said it was the “obligation of Government” to provide all the resources requested by the military in Afghanistan.

Earlier the Prime Minister came under fire from influential MPs who said a lack of helicopters is undermining UK forces’ operations and troop protection in Afghanistan. But Mr Brown has said a shortage of the craft has not cost lives, despite rising casualties.

Chairman of the cross-party committee, James Arbuthnot, said: “Operational commanders in the field today are unable to undertake potentially valuable operations because of the lack of helicopters for transportation around the theatre of operations.”