NATO to review Afghan mission after civilian deaths

By Mark John

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO defense ministers will review procedures in Afghanistan on Thursday as part of efforts to halt a wave of civilian casualties threatening to undermine public support for foreign peacekeepers there.

NATO peace efforts in Afghanistan, vital to the credibility of the 49-year-old Western alliance, will be the centerpiece of talks in Brussels where U.S. defense Secretary Robert Gates will also sound out his Russian counterpart on a surprise Kremlin offer of help for a U.S. missile shield plan.

U.S. forces on Tuesday mistakenly killed seven policemen in an air strike in the east of Afghanistan and the International Committee of the Red Cross warned that Western forces must do more to prevent civilian casualties when bombing insurgents.

NATO commanders say some of the incidents are the result of poor coordination with Afghan forces and a separate, U.S.-led coalition. But they recognize procedures must be tightened, accidents investigated more quickly and humanitarian help offered to victims.

"Broadly speaking we think the necessary arrangements are in place now. It is a question of making sure they are working," said one senior alliance diplomat before ministers discuss the issue on Thursday.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said on Monday that dozens of recent casualties risked hitting Afghan and European public support for the presence of some 50,000 NATO and U.S.-led troops at a critical time in the battle against Taliban and other insurgents.

Allies with soldiers on the ground say they are doing all they can to avoid such casualties but insist that some are inevitable given insurgent tactics, citing for example the use of civilians as human shields.

"We are not in the same moral universe as them. They are trying to draw civilian casualties to break our will and weaken the support of the Afghan people," a senior U.S. official said.