Afghan civilian deaths rose 14% in 2009, says UN report
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The number of Afghan civilians killed in violence in 2009 was higher than in any year since the Taliban were ousted in 2001, a United Nations report says.
Civilian casualties rose by 14% in 2009 compared with 2008, the UN Mission in Afghanistan (Unama) reported.
It said the "vast majority" of the more than 2,400 civilian deaths had been caused by Taliban attacks.
Earlier this week, a report in Pakistan said that more than 3,000 civilians there had died in violence in 2009.
A third of those deaths were the result of suicide attacks in a year which saw a 45% increase in incidents related to terrorism, the report by the think-tank Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies said.
Overall violence-related deaths in Pakistan last year, including military operations against insurgents, increased to more than 12,500, the report said.
The Unama report said 2,412 civilians had been killed in Afghanistan in 2009 compared with 2,118 in 2008.
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