KABUL - A sharp jump in assassinations and a rise in suicide and roadside bombings in Afghanistan last year led to an increase in civilian casualties, the United Nations said Wednesday.
The United Nations documented 2,777 civilian deaths in 2010, which it said marked a 15 percent rise compared with the number killed in fighting the previous year. The grim numbers in the U.N. annual report on civilian casualties come as the traditionally less-violent winter season gives way to spring, the start of the fighting season in Afghanistan.
Seventy-five percent of the deaths, or 2,080, were attributed by the United Nations to the Taliban and other groups seeking to destabilize the U.S.-backed Afghan government. That represented a 28 percent increase from 2009.
Military operations by NATO and Afghan forces resulted in the deaths of 440 civilians, or 16 percent of the total, a 26 percent decrease from those killed in 2009, the United Nations said.
People are also reading…
Nine percent of the civilian casualties could not be attributed, the United Nations said.
Suicide attacks and makeshift bombs accounted for the brunt of the deaths, killing 1,141 people. The report said the most "alarming trend" was a surge in assassinations carried out by insurgents. At least 462 civilians were assassinated by groups opposing the government last year, a 105 percent increase over 2009.
Nearly half of those killings occurred in southern provinces where NATO has fought pitched battles to clear insurgent strongholds in recent months. Taliban fighters have responded by killing local government officials, part of an effort to prevent formal governance from taking root in districts where the Taliban has been the main authority for years.
Airstrikes were the leading cause of civilian deaths at the hands of NATO forces, resulting in the killing of 171 civilians last year, the U.N. report said. The United Nations urged NATO to conduct "thorough, impartial and transparent" investigations into all civilian casualties.
The U.N. tallies on civilian casualties are widely regarded as the most comprehensive and independent.
The U.N. report was issued a week after nine children were mistakenly killed in an airstrike while collecting firewood in eastern Afghanistan. The incident angered Afghan President Hamid Karzai and prompted a personal apology from Gen. David Petraeus, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan.
US Toll in Afghanistan
1,387
Deaths
10,543
Wounded
SOURCE: Department of Defense
