The saving of Afghan lives by NATO teams clearing improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and Taliban disregard of civilian collateral casualties has been highlighted in an independent analysis of the leaked Afghan war logs by former RSS vice president Professor Sheila Bird and honorary fellow Clive Fairweather.

Straight Statistics has published their analysis Civilian deaths in Afghanistan: a different perspective, which shows that for every NATO soldier killed by an IED, three civilians died and another six were injured. This casualty ratio “would appal a normal military force,” say the authors.

Although the rate of civilian casualties per IED attack almost halved from 44 per 100 IED attacks in 2004 to 23 per 100 in 2009, the huge increase in the number of attacks recorded – from 191 to 3,420 – over the same period resulted inevitably in greater numbers killed and injured.

From the war logs data they estimate that NATO forces’ clearance of IEDs saved 900 Afghan civilian deaths, 1,800 civilian injuries and 300 NATO fatalities in 2009 alone.

The media have widely covered the logs’ revelation that “NATO forces have killed more civilians than previously acknowledged,” note Bird and Fairweather. “Understandably, the British press has focused on these innocent victims of the war”. But with some shocking statistics about the real costs of the Afghan war now in the public domain, they call for better monitoring of the achievements that military fatalities in Afghanistan have “helped make possible".

“Not the least of those achievements are the substantial numbers of averted civilian and military deaths and injuries,” they conclude.