A special U.N. human rights investigator and NATO forces in Afghanistan are embroiled in a nasty feud that hasn't received a lot of attention in the United States, but that an Afghan official says is causing a major stir in Kabul.

     The dispute involves the investigator's charges that international military operations have claimed some 200 civilian lives this year and that NATO commanders have failed to take responsibility for raids by mysterious foreign units in which innocent civilians have been killed. There are other points of contention as well.

    The acrimony began earlier this month when Prof. Philip Alston, special United Nations rapporteur on human rights, issued a preliminary report on unlawful killings and summary and arbitrary executions in Afghanistan at the end of a 12-day visit.

    The Australian native, who teaches at New York University Law School, found that "those responsible" for the deaths of civilians "include the police, militia groups, the Taliban, other anti-government elements, and the international forces."

    While Alston said he found "no evidence" that international forces have committed "widespread intentional killings in violation of human rights or humanitarian law," he contended that international military operations, often including Afghan security forces, killed some 200 civilians in the first four months of the year.

    It's that bit that has commanders of NATO's International Security Assistance Force seething.

    "We find much of the substance and the overall tone of his (Alston's) statement inaccurate and unsubstantiated," asserted a statement issued on Sunday by ISAF spokesman Mark Laity. "We are . . . surprised, and reject the suggestion that international military forces have killed 200 civilians during 2008."

    Most of those killed were victims of air strikes or close air support missions that "in many cases . . . appear to have been lawful, though tragic," Alston said in his May 15 statement. But others died in surprise night time raids or when NATO-led troops fired on vehicles or passengers they wrongly suspected of being Islamic militants.

    Alston said he was particularly troubled by those night-time raids "for which no state or military command appears ready to acknowledge responsibility."

     "Based on my discussions, there is no reason to doubt that at least some of these units are led by personnel belonging to international intelligence services," Alston said. "It is absolutely unacceptable for heavily armed internationals accompanied by heavily armed Afghan forces to be wandering around conducting dangerous raids that too often result in killings without anyone taking responsibility for them."

    In his reposte, Laity took Alston to task for asserting that ISAF had shown a high level of complacency in responding to civilian deaths.

    The charge "shows no respect to the soldiers and airmen and women who day after day act within the Laws of Armed Conflict, often at risk of their own lives, in order to reduce  the risk to civilians to the minimum possible," said Laity, who contended that all "mistakes or accidents" are the subject of "intense investigations."

    "Such slipshod language is also evident in comments that there is no evidence of 'widespread' intentional killings of civilians by international forces, and that in 'many cases' air strikes appear to be lawful. This implies there are occasions when ISAF forces do act unlawfully, and this is not only rejected by ISAF, but we consider it irresponsible given the absence of evidence and the seriousness of the allegation," Laity continued.

    Laity criticized Alston for giving just "very brief attention" to the "overwhelming source of extra-judicial killings in Afghanistan - the insurgents," and for language in his report that implied that some Taliban suicide bombings are lawful.

    "This disgusting tactic is inherently indiscriminate and involves combatants disguising themselves as civilians in order to close on ISAF and other forces," Laity added.

    For all the heat, there do appear to be some areas of agreement between the sides.

    The ISAF statement was silent on Alston's scathing criticism of the internationally trained Afghan police, who in many cases he charged don't function "as enforcers of law and order, but as promoters of the interests of a specific tribe or commander," and who have killed large numbers of civilians.

    More interestingly, there was no response by ISAF to Alston's charge that the government of President Hamid Karzai and his international supporters "have consistently missed opportunities to remove corrupt and abusive individuals from the state's security forces and power structures."