UN reports increase in Afghanistan violence 29.09.11

A UN report says Afghanistan has become more insecure in 2011, with a sharp rise in security incidents and higher numbers of civilian casualties.

The number of security incidents recorded during the first eight months of the year was nearly 40 percent higher than in the same period of 2010.
Two-thirds of the violence was concentrated in the south and southeast.

The number of complex suicide attacks has jumped by half in the year to date from a year earlier, and made up a greater proportion of all suicide attacks.

Civilian casualties, already at record levels for the first half of the year, rose five percent in the June-August period compared with last year, with insurgents linked to three quarters of those deaths and injuries.

The International Security Assistance Force disputes the findings. In a statement it said: "Following an initial evaluation, ISAF found it (the report) inconsistent with the data that we have collected."

The report to the UN Security Council by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon highlights the challenges facing Afghanistan's troubled government and the NATO-led coalition, which started its gradual handover of security responsibility to Afghan police and the army in July.

It says transition areas, which included Bamiyan and Panjshir provinces and southern Lashkar Gah city "continue to face a resilient insurgency that is attempting to challenge the capacity of the Afghan forces."

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