Afghan civilian deaths at record high

Wed Mar 9, 2011 9:28AM

Scores of Afghan civilians have lost their lives in both NATO and Taliban attacks in the past weeks. (File photo)

The United Nation says the number of civilian deaths in war-ravaged Afghanistan jumped to a record high of 2,777 in 2010, a 15 percent rise in civilian fatalities compared to 2009.

A spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) confirmed that the overall figure was the highest annual death toll since the Taliban were ousted by a US-led invasion in late 2001.

The security situation has recently been at its worst since the US-led invasion.

The US-led foreign forces have launched dozens of operations across the war-wrecked country over the past years.

Thousands of Afghan people have so far lost their lives as a result of militants' bomb attacks and military operations by the foreign troops.

Civilian deaths caused by coalition forces is a highly sensitive issue in Afghanistan, and one that came under the spotlight again last week when US-led forces killed nine children in an air strike in eastern Afghanistan.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it was probing the civilian casualties after its troops carried out the aerial attack on the children while the nine were collecting firewood.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the killings and US President Barack Obama apologized for the incident.

Afghan officials, including Hamid Karzai, have repeatedly condemned and called for an end to foreign troops' attacks on Afghan civilians.

The surge in violence comes despite the presence of 150,000 foreign troops, which are engaged in the so-called war on terrorism.

The war in Afghanistan, with civilian and military casualties at record highs, has become the longest war in US history.