Afghan Civilian Deaths

The number of civilians killed in the conflict in Afghanistan rose 39% last year, the United Nations says.

Militants were to blame for 55% of the 2,118 civilian deaths, while US, Nato and Afghan forces were responsible for 39%, the UN report said.
"The 2008 civilian death toll is the highest of any year" since the Taleban were ousted in 2001, it said.

The big increase in civilian casualties comes despite repeated pledges by US-led forces to reduce civilian deaths.
The UN said insurgents had inflicted the overwhelming majority of deaths in bombings, often carried out "with apparent disregard for the extensive damage they cause to civilians".

The researchers estimate that two-thirds of the 828 Afghans killed by the pro-government forces died in air strikes targeting militants, sometimes at night.
Nato rejected the UN figures, saying its forces had caused 237 civilian deaths.

The human rights team of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, which collected the figures for the report, said about 130 people had died in incidents such as crossfire. It was not able to say who had killed them.

The UN report came as a US Congress-funded think tank, the Institute of Peace, said it was unlikely the US and Nato would defeat insurgents in Afghanistan.

It called for any new forces deployed in the country to be used to train Afghan security forces.