Kabul, Feb 4 Last year was the deadliest on record
for civilians in the Afghan war, with 3,021 killed as
insurgents ratcheted up violence with suicide attacks and
roadside bombs, the United Nations said today.
Taliban-affiliated militants were responsible for more
than three-quarters of the civilian deaths in 2011, the fifth
year in a row in which the death toll went up, the UN said.
The figures were a grim testament to the violence the
Taliban and allied Islamist militants can still unleash in
Afghanistan, even as NATO begins to map out plans for
international troops to draw down and give Afghan security
forces the main responsibility for fighting insurgents by the
end of 2014.
"A decade after the war began, the human cost of it is
still rising," said Georgette Gagnon, director for human
rights for the UN mission in Afghanistan.
The number of civilian deaths was up 8 per cent over the
previous year.
Deaths in suicide bombings jumped dramatically to 450, an
80 per cent increase over the previous year.
While the number of suicide attacks remained about the
same, they killed more civilians. On December 6, a bomber
detonated his explosives-filled vest at the entrance of a
mosque in Kabul, the capital, killing 56 worshippers during
the Shiite Muslim rituals of Ashoura.
It was the single deadliest suicide attack since 2008.
The single biggest killer of civilians remained the
ever-more-powerful roadside bombs planted by insurgents.
The homemade explosives, which can be triggered by a
footstep or a vehicle and are often rigged with enough
explosives to destroy a tank, killed 967 people - nearly a
third of the total.
The 130,000-strong coalition force led by the US says it
has been hitting the Taliban hard, seizing their one-time
strongholds while expanding and training the Afghan army and
police to take over primary responsibility for waging the
decade-old war.
Still, insurgent attacks are killing more and more
civilians, according to a detailed annual UN report.
The increased presence of security forces managed to
reduce civilian casualties in the troubled southern provinces
of Helmand and Kandahar, but the UN said insurgents simply
pulled back and focused instead on areas along the country's
border with Pakistan, relying more on roadside bombs and
suicide attacks in places like bazaars, schoolyards,
footpaths, and bus stations.
"The tactics have changed," said Jan Kubis, the UN
Secretary-General's special representative to Afghanistan.
"The anti-government forces being squeezed in certain
areas ... move to some other areas and again use these
inhuman, undiscriminating weapons like human-activated
explosive devices and suicide attacks."