KABUL, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Foreign troops in Afghanistan have paid out ${esc.dollar}1.4 million to Afghans in the past two months for damages in the country's south, where they have been waging a stepped up military campaign, NATO-led forces said on Friday.
General James Terry, commander for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in southern Afghanistan, said that since Nov. 2 more than 800 claims for compensation had been made and that more than half of those had been settled.
It gave no details on the nature of the claims made.
A report by a government delegation, presented to Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday, said Afghan and foreign forces have caused more than ${esc.dollar}100 million damage to fruit crops and homes in southern Kandahar province. [ID:nSGE70A0A1]
ISAF, which has declined repeated requests for direct comment on the report, on Friday issued a statement quoting Kandahar officials condemning the report as "extremely exaggerated".
But ${esc.dollar}1.4 million in payouts has been made across the southern regional command area -- which covers six provinces including Kandahar -- over the last two months, the statement said.
"Claims by the residents are taken very seriously," Terry said in a statement released by ISAF, which contained the ${esc.dollar}1.4 million figure. "If we damage something, it is our obligation and responsibility to compensate for it."
Tens of thousands of foreign and Afghan troops are deployed in Kandahar, a traditional stronghold of the Afghan Taliban, where they have been conducting military offensives in a bid to regain the upper hand.
Violence across Afghanistan is currently at its worst since U.S.-backed Afghan forces overthrew the Islamist government in 2001, with both civilian and military casualties at record highs.
In Friday's ISAF statement, Kandahar Governor Toryalai Weesa and district leaders described as "exaggerated" the government report's finding about the cost of the damage in the districts of Arghandab, Zhari, and Panjwai.
"It has been extremely exaggerated. From one house, five people asked for the same compensation," said Zhari district leader Niaz Mohammad Sarhadi.
In November, the Afghan Rights Monitor (ARM), an independent human rights group, reported widespread damage to hundreds of houses in the same three districts, home to about 300,000 of the province's more than one million inhabitants. [ID:nSGE6A30DA]
It said foreign forces had used aerial bombing to strike Taliban strongholds and to set off mines and homemade bombs, sometimes hidden as booby-traps in private homes.
Terry said ISAF only destroyed vacant buildings used to store explosives or manufacture bombs. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Emma Graham-Harrison) (If you have a query or comment about this story, send an e-mail to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
