Killings of civilians up in Afghanistan

The number of civilians killed in fighting between insurgents and security forces in Afghanistan has risen by nearly two-thirds in the first half of this year, to almost 700 people, a senior U.N. official said Sunday.

The figures are a grim reminder of how the nearly seven-year war has failed to stabilize the country and suggest that civilians are bearing a heavy toll, particularly from stepped-up militant attacks.

John Holmes, the United Nation’s humanitarian affairs chief, 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,” Holmes told reporters in Kabul during a 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.

Holmes said U.N. figures show that 698 civilians have died as a result of the fighting in the first half of this year. That compares with 430 in the first six months of 2007, an increase of 62%.

Anti-government militants caused 422 of the recorded civilian deaths, while government or foreign troops killed 255 people, according to the U.N. numbers. The cause of 21 deaths was unclear.

Holmes said the proportion of civilian casualties caused by security forces had dropped from nearly half last year and clashes had become less dangerous to ordinary Afghans.

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,” said Mark Laity, a spokesman for the alliance in Kabul.

He provided no alternative figures.

Afghan leaders, including President Hamid Karzai, have accused the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the U.S.-led coalition of recklessly endangering civilians by using excessive force, including airstrikes, in residential areas.

Foreign commanders insist they take all reasonable precautions to avoid killing innocents and say militants routinely fire on them from houses and flee into villages.