UN report indicates surge in Afghan violence

Insurgent and terrorist violence in Afghanistan increased sharply in 2007, with over 8,000 conflict-related deaths and an average of 566 incidents per month, United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon said.

In a report to the UN Security Council, Mr Ban said the number of violent incidents rose from an average of 425 per month in 2006.

The number of suicide attacks jumped to 160 attacks in 2007 from 123 in 2006 - with 68 attempts thwarted in 2007 compared with 17 in 2006.

While the insurgency draws strength from some Afghans, the secretary general said, “the support of foreign-based networks in providing leadership, planning, training, funding and equipment clearly remains crucial to its viability”.

Insurgent violence in Afghanistan is at its highest level since US forces invaded the country in 2001 to oust the hard-line Islamic Taliban rulers, who harboured al Qaida leaders blamed for planning the attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001.

“Afghanistan remains roughly divided between the generally more stable west and north, where security problems are linked to factionalism and criminality, and the south and east characterised by an increasingly coordinated insurgency,” Mr Ban said.

“In fact, even within the south, conflict has been concentrated in a fairly small area: 70% of security incidents occurred in 10% (40) of Afghanistan’s districts, home to 6% of the country’s population.”

The opposition groups were forced “to adopt small-scale, asymmetric tactics aimed largely at the Afghan National Security Forces and, in some cases, civilians: improvised explosive devices, suicide attacks, assassinations and abductions,” Mr Ban said.

“Of the over 8,000 conflict-related fatalities in 2007 over 1,500 were civilians.”

Mr Ban recommended that the mandate for the UN mission in Afghanistan, which expires on March 23, be extended for a year.