(Adds Pentagon spokesman, paragraph 8) By David Brunnstrom BRUSSELS, Aug 9 (Reuters) - NATO said on Thursday it was not aware of any request by a British NATO commander for the United States to withdraw special forces from his area of operations in southern Afghanistan due to high civilian casualties. The International Herald Tribune on Thursday quoted an unidentified senior British commander in Afghanistan's Helmand province as saying he made the request because the casualties had made it difficult to win over local people. "NATO headquarters is unaware of such a request," NATO spokeswoman Carmen Romero said in Brussels. "Coordination on the ground is excellent between Operation Enduring Freedom and ISAF forces, also in the way operations are allocated." Romero said ISAF, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, had taken steps to minimise civilian casualties and understood that the separate U.S.-led force code-named Operation Enduring Freedom had done the same. British Defence Minister Des Browne told reporters in Kabul that the commander quoted was expressing a personal view. "It is the reporting of an observation of a British officer on a particular part of the American military," he said. "It is not the view of the Helmand Task Force commander, it is not the view of our government, it is not the view of the Americans, it is not the view of the alliance," he said. "These things can be said in the heat of battle. These are very difficult circumstances." Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said there had been no request by the British. "And there is no evidence to support the claim by an unnamed anonymous officer," he said. MOUNTING CASUALTIES However, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer acknowledged last month mounting civilian casualties had hurt support for NATO and said commanders had ordered troops to hold off on attacks in some situations where civilians were at risk. Romero said the commander of ISAF had ordered use of precision weapons systems and munitions to minimise civilian casualties. The International Herald Tribune report put the number of civilian casualties this year in Helmand at close to 300, most caused by foreign and Afghan forces, not the Taliban. It quoted the British commander as saying that in the district of Sangin, which had been calm for a month, there was no longer a need for special forces. "There aren't large bodies of Taliban to fight any more," he said. "We are dealing with small groups and we are trying to kick-start reconstruction and development." The paper said small teams of special forces relied heavily on air strikes for cover as they were unable to defend themselves if they encountered a large group of insurgents. It said the teams had often called in air strikes and civilians had suffered casualties. It quoted unnamed British officers as saying the Americans had caused the lion's share of casualties in their area. President Hamid Karzai has said civilian deaths would have dire consequences for his government and foreign troops. (Additional reporting by Jon Hemming in Kabul)
