Attack on Afghan Government employees soared to 700 percent : UN

Kabul: Attacks on Afghan government employees increased by 700 percent last year even as the overall civilian death toll from the war fell for the first time in six years, the UN said on Tuesday.

Targeted killings of women in government service by Taliban-led insurgents were “particularly disturbing”, the UN mission in Afghanistan said in its annual report on civilian casualties.

“Particularly disturbing were targeted killings of women by anti-government elements demonstrated by the killings of the head and deputy head of the Laghman Department of Women’s Affairs in July and December 2012.”

Overall, insurgents were responsible for 81 percent of civilian casualties, while eight percent were caused by Afghan and NATO forces. The other 11 percent could not be attributed to either party.

Efforts to reduce civilian casualties caused by pro-government forces, including NATO air strikes, led to a drop of more than 40 percent over the previous year, the report said.

This statistic will be welcomed by the NATO military leadership in Afghanistan, which is regularly under fire from President Hamid Karzai over civilians killed by air strikes.

Karzai ordered an end to Afghan security forces calling in NATO air strikes after the deaths of 10 civilians in an attack last week. Civilian casualty figures for the first half of 2012, published in August, showed a 15 percent fall on the same period in 2011.