, The Washington Post, 16 February 2010

EXCERPT: "To the Marines of Bravo Company, the black-and-white video footage from a surveillance drone seemed to present the perfect shot: more than a dozed armed insurgents exiting a building and heading to positions to attack U.S. and Afghan forces seeking to wrest control of this Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan. Facing stiff resistance from Taliban fighters, the Marines radioed for permission to call in an airstrike on the insurgents at midday Monday. It appeared to be the sort of clear opportunity that would have prompted a rapidly executed bombing run during the Iraq war, or even in the first seven years of this conflict. But not anymore. Officers at the Marine headquarters deemed the insurgents to be too close to a set of houses. In the new way the United States and its NATO allies are waging the Afghan war, dropping a bomb on or near a house is forbidden unless troops are in imminent danger of being overrun, or they can prove no civilians are inside."

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Related articles:
Afghanistan missile that killed civilians "hit target", BBC News, 16 February 2010
Missile that killed Afghan civilians not faulty: NATO, Reuters, 16 February 2010
Winning hearts and minds, The Baltimore Sun, 16 February 2010
Afghanistan: NATO's new era of counter-insurgency, Channel 4 News, 15 February 2010

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