"We see whole families killed together in their home -- mothers, babies, everyone," said Abdul Matim, a parliament member from Helmand province, who has personally investigated many of the civilian deaths in his home district. "It's a terrible sight."
Another common insurgent tactic is suicide car bombings aimed at military convoys. In response, jittery troops sometimes fire on civilians who are merely driving erratically or who accidentally come between military vehicles. Often there are more such shootings when a contingent of troops has recently arrived in Afghanistan.
"It takes time to figure out that not everyone in a turban is a suicide bomber," said Karzai, the analyst, who directs the independent Center for Conflict and Peace Studies in Kabul.
After a suicide bombing last week on the outskirts of Kabul that targeted a U.S. military convoy and killed two Western security officers, Afghan police anxiously waved journalists away.
"Don't go close," they warned. "The Americans might shoot you."
Criticism over civilian casualties frustrates NATO and U.S. officials, who say atrocities by the Taliban expose civilians to far greater dangers.
In one widely cited recent case, insurgents allegedly tried to trick a 6-year-old boy into blowing himself up at an Afghan police checkpoint, fitting him with a suicide vest they told him would eject flowers at the push of a button. Police managed to free the child.
At the same time, Western officials acknowledge that whatever the provocation, they must adhere to international norms of combat.
"We are rightly held to a higher standard of behavior," said Nicholas Lunt, the chief NATO civilian spokesman in Afghanistan.
At the compound of Azizullah's family, his four children, all younger than 5, tussled together on the floor and gazed with bright curiosity at visitors. Their uncle Mohammed Reza explained that they were too young to comprehend that their father was dead.
"I asked them where they think he is, and they say they don't know," he said. "They don't understand yet that he is never coming back."
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laura.king@latimes.com
