U.N. Says Afghan Civilian Deaths Drop 21 Percent
The number of civilians killed in the Afghan war in the first four months of this year has dropped by 21 percent over the same period in 2011, the United Nations said Wednesday.
A total of 579 civilians died and 1,219 were wounded, with insurgents responsible for the vast majority of the deaths, Jan Kubis, the U.N. special representative for Afghanistan, told a news conference.
Kubis said 79 percent of the casualties were caused by anti-government forces, nine percent by pro-government forces -- including NATO's International Security Assistance Force -- while the rest were unattributed.
"The prevention of civilian casualties... is among the top priorities of UNAMA," Kubis said, referring to the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.
"We give proposals addressed to all the parties, we urge them to take measures, and we sometimes see results and I'm very happy to see results."
The number of civilians killed in Afghanistan's war has risen steadily each year for the past five years, reaching a record of 3,021 in 2011.
Taliban-led insurgents caused 77 percent of those deaths while pro-government forces were responsible for killing 410 civilians -- 14 percent of the total, the United Nations said in its annual report.
The record loss of life was blamed mainly on changes in the insurgents' tactics, which saw an increased use of improvised bombs and deadlier suicide attacks.
But civilian deaths in NATO air strikes have drawn fierce criticism from President Hamid Karzai, who argues that they turn ordinary Afghans against his Western-backed government.
NATO has some 130,000 troops serving in Afghanistan, but they are due to withdraw by the end of 2014 and hand responsibility for security to Afghan forces.
Source: Agence France Presse
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