U.N. Official Says Afghan Civilian Deaths Up by 60%

KABUL, Afghanistan — The number of civilians killed in fighting between insurgents and security forces in Afghanistan has soared by two-thirds in the first half of this year, to almost 700 people, a senior U.N. official said yesterday. The figures are a grim reminder of how the nearly seven-year war has failed to stabilize the country and suggest that ordinary civilians are bearing a heavy toll, particularly from stepped-up militant attacks.The world body’s humanitarian affairs chief, John Holmes, said the insecurity was making it increasingly difficult to deliver emergency aid to poor Afghans hit by the global food crisis.“The humanitarian situation is clearly affected and made worse by the ongoing conflict in different parts of the country,” Mr. Holmes told reporters in Kabul during a multi-day visit.“Most of those casualties are caused by the insurgents, who seem to have no regard for civilian life, but there are also still significant numbers caused by the international military forces,” he said. Mr. Holmes said United Nations figures show that 698 civilians have died as a result of the fighting in the first half of this year. That compares to 430 in the first six months of 2007, a rise of 62%.Militants caused 422 of the recorded civilian casualties, while government or foreign troops killed 255 people, according to the U.N. numbers. The cause of 21 other deaths was unclear.Mr. Holmes said the proportion of civilian casualties caused by security forces had dropped from nearly half last year and that clashes had become less dangerous to ordinary Afghans.“It is clear that the international military forces are making every effort to minimize civilian casualties and recognize the damage this does and want to deal with that,” he said.“Nevertheless these problems are still there and we need to deal with them and make sure that the safety of civilians comes first and international humanitarian law is respected by everybody.”NATO’s reaction to the U.N. figures was cool.“The U.N. Human Rights rapporteur made an accusation [in May] that we had killed 200, and I said then that those numbers were far, far higher than we would recognize, and that is still the case,” a spokesman for the alliance, Mark Laity, said.Mr. Holmes said he came to Afghanistan because the humanitarian situation was “serious and is getting worse.” He said U.N. agencies and aid groups were finding it hard to reach vulnerable communities because of the risk that its staff would be attacked.U.N. food convoys have suffered 11 armed attacks this year, including one yesterday in which several trucks were burned, and lost a total of 340 tons of food, he said.

U.N. Official Says Afghan Civilian Deaths Up by 60%

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