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Kabul:
The UN mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) February 04 said that more
than 3,000 civilians were killed in Afghanistan during 2011, the
deadliest year on record for residents of the war-torn country.
"A total of 3,021 civilians died last year, up eight per cent from
2,790, the UN mission in Afghanistan said in its annual report
released today. The toll marked the fifth year in a row that the
number of civilian deaths had increased.
Roadside bombs and increasingly deadly suicide attacks targeting
civilians killed more people than any other type of attack, it
said.
"Afghan children, women and men continue to be killed in this war
in ever-increasing numbers," Al Jazeera quoted Jan Kubis, the UN
special representative to Afghanistan, as saying.
"For much too long Afghan civilians have paid the highest price of
war. Parties to the conflict must greatly increase their efforts
to protect civilians to prevent yet another increase in civilian
deaths and injuries in 2012."
In a statement accompanying the report, UNAMA said, "The tactics of
choice of anti-government elements subjected Afghan civilians to
death and injury with increasingly lethal results in 2011".
"Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were the single largest
killer of Afghan children, women and men in 2011," it added.
Bombs, including roadside mines detonated by people stepping on
them or vehicles driving over them, accounted for 967 deaths,
UNAMA said, the biggest single killer of civilians.
Al Jazeera's Jennifer Glasse, reporting from Kabul, the Afghan
capital, said the UN attributes 77 per cent of the civilian
casualties to what it calls "anti-government forces".
"It says the big problems there are improvised explosive devices
that are set off by vehicles or people stepping on pressure
plates," she said.
"Also suicide bombings in very crowded places - [those] are the
main attributes for the jump in the number of civilian deaths."
The report said forces fighting the government of Afghan President
Hamid Karzai and its allies in the NATO-led International Security
Assistance Force (ISAF) killed 2,332 civilians in 2011, 14 per
cent more than in 2010.
Security forces battling anti-government fighters killed 410
civilians, down four per cent from the previous year, it said.
Most deaths attributed to NATO forces were a result of attacks
from the air.
The UN mission urged the 130,000-strong NATO force to review its
tactics aimed at preventing civilian loss of life in all military
operations - "in particular aerial attacks".
It also called for stronger efforts to prevent civilian casualties
in the night raids, which have been widely condemned, including by
Karzai.
A total of 11,864 civilians have died in the conflict in
Afghanistan since 2007, the report said.
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