September 21, 2014: In mid-August NATO announced that civilian casualties caused by foreign troops in Afghanistan were down 77 percent in the last year. At this point only about one percent of civilian casualties in Afghanistan are caused by foreign troops and 0ver 90 percent are caused by Islamic terrorists (mainly the Taliban). Last year, for the first time in six years, civilian casualties declined in Afghanistan. That was a 12 percent drop from the 3,131 civilians killed in 2011. But the Taliban still account for over 80 percent of civilian deaths and that went up nine percent last year (over 2011). The Taliban believe they are on a holy quest and that any civilians they kill are either government collaborators or “involuntary martyrs” for the cause of global Islamic domination. In contrast to increased Taliban caused civilian deaths last year, those caused by American operations declined by half. These were usually people caught in the crossfire, which is common as the Taliban are regular users of civilians as human shields. In 2012 Taliban attacks on government employees (especially police and intelligence officials) increased seven fold. Last year 491 police and soldiers were killed, as well as 382 foreign troops, and 2,716 of the enemy (drug gang members and Taliban).