Afghanistan attacks rising, U.N. reports

KABUL, Afghanistan — The United Nations reported Saturday that insurgent violence has risen sharply in Afghanistan over the past three months, with roadside bombings, complex suicide attacks and assassinations soaring over last year’s levels.

The three-month report by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the U.N. Security Council appeared at odds with Pentagon assertions of slow but steady progress in Afghanistan, an assessment challenged by U.S. lawmakers during recent hearings on Capitol Hill.

The report also confirms statistics from the NATO coalition, which claimed a continuing decrease in civilian deaths caused by the U.S. military and its allies. At the same time, it blames stepped-up military operations for an overall increase in violence.

In the report, Ban wrote that the overall security situation in Afghanistan has not improved since his last report in March.

Especially startling, he wrote, were increases in suicide bombings and assassinations of government officials in a three-month period that ended Wednesday, and a near-doubling of roadside bombings for the first four months of 2010 compared with the same period in 2009.

“The number of security incidents increased significantly, compared to previous years and contrary to seasonal trends,” the report said, adding that most of this was a consequence of military operations in the southern part of the country, particularly Helmand and Kandahar provinces, where increased NATO military operations have been under way since February.

The most “alarming trend” was the sharp rise in the number of roadside bombings, which soared 94 percent in the first four months of this year compared with the same period in 2009, Ban said.

Moreover, assassinations of Afghan government officials jumped 45 percent, to an average of one assassination a day, mostly in the ethnic Pashtun south, the report said. NATO has launched a major operation to secure the biggest southern city, Kandahar, the Taliban’s spiritual birthplace.

At the same time, suicide attacks have tripled this year compared with 2009 and are occurring at the rate of about three per week, Ban said. In addition, two of three of those suicide attacks are considered “complex,” in which attackers use a suicide bomb as well as other weapons. Half the suicide attacks, the United Nations said, take place in southern Afghanistan.

“The shift to more complex suicide attacks demonstrates a growing capability of the local terrorist networks linked to al-Qaida,” the report said.

He attributed the rise in violence to increased NATO and Afghan military activity in the south during the first quarter of the year, including the U.S.-led attack on the Taliban stronghold of Marjah. He also cited “significant antigovernment element activities” in the east and southeast of the country.

“The majority of incidents continue to involve armed clashes and improvised explosive devices, each accounting for one-third of the reported incidents,” Ban said, referring to the military term for roadside bombs.

The report depicted a concerted effort by insurgents to deliberately single out civilians. “Insurgents followed up their threats against the civilian population with, on average, seven assassinations every week, the majority of which were conducted in the south and southeast regions,” it said.

During testimony Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee, senior Pentagon official Michele Flournoy said the percentage of complex attacks had fallen steadily since a peak in February and were averaging below last year’s levels. She gave no figures.

INCENTIVES, VACCINATIONS

The U.N. report found some encouraging signs, including the government’s plan to reach out to insurgents and offer economic incentives to leave the battlefield. It also said the U.N. was working with Afghan officials to prepare for parliamentary elections in September.

Polio vaccinations began in February to reach 7.7 million children this year, 200,000 more than last year, the report said.

Nevertheless, the overall U.N. assessment contrasted with the tone set Wednesday by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who told a Senate panel that the U.S.-led force was making progress in Afghanistan. Gates complained about negative perceptions about the war taking root in Washington.

“I think that we are regaining the initiative,” Gates told the panel. “I think that we are making headway.”

Key congressional Democrats responded skeptically to Gates’ remarks, raising questions about rising U.S. casualties and the slow pace of progress in the war.

At least 53 international troops, including 34 Americans, have died so far this month, a rate that could make June among the deadliest for U.S. and other international forces in the nearly nine-year war. The deadliest month for U.S. troops was October 2009, when 59 Americans died. The deadliest for the entire international force was July 2009 when 75 troops, including 44 Americans, were killed.

The U.N. also reported 395 war-related civilian casualties between April and June, a decrease of 1 percent from the same period last year. The report blamed “anti-government elements,” rather than the government or its NATO allies, for about 70 percent of the civilian casualties, up 3 percent from the last U.N. study in March.

Insurgent attacks on schools have increased steadily across the country, the report said, with militants using threats, intimidation and violence to frighten parents and staff. The report also said the U.N. was having trouble recruiting international staff because of threats of violence and a lack of secure living facilities.

‘TOUGH FIGHTING’ AHEAD

Despite the negative assessment, a spokesman for NATO, Brig. Gen. Josef Blotz, said Saturday that the international force was making steady strides, even though “tough fighting is expected to continue.”

Insurgent commanders were being apprehended by coalition forces, which over time will disrupt the ability to organize suicide and roadside bomb attacks, he said.

“It has to be tougher perhaps before it goes easier,” Blotz said.

Using figures different from the U.N., Blotz said the number of civilians killed or wounded in operations involving the international force dropped by 44.4 percent in the past 12 weeks compared with the same period in 2009.

“In the same period of time, the number of civilian casualties caused by the insurgency increased by 36 percent,” Blotz said.

Perhaps more significant, the number of episodes involving civilian casualties caused by the coalition dropped 7.8 percent, Blotz said. This suggested that fewer civilians were being killed in each encounter as well.

The U.N. report also noted that 332 children were killed or maimed from mid-March to mid-June as the result of the conflict, mainly in areas where military activity had increased, including Helmand province as well as eastern and northeastern provinces. Sixty percent of the children were killed by insurgent attacks, it said; 24 children died in crossfire between the two sides.

CIVILIAN DEATHS

Afghan authorities reported civilian casualties in what NATO said was an attack late Friday against the Haqqani network, an al-Qaida-linked wing of the Taliban, along the border between Khost and Paktia provinces in southern Afghanistan. NATO said the attack included precision missile strikes against “a large number of armed insurgents” although the alliance was aware of reports of civilian deaths.

Shafiq Mujahid, head of the Khost provincial council, said at least six civilians, including five children and one woman, were killed in the airstrike and 13 other civilians were wounded.

The provincial police chief said 10 civilians, including at least five women and children, were killed.

“We are aware of conflicting reports of civilian casualties from local officials and are therefore reviewing the operational details of the engagement,” NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said in a statement. NATO also said it would accept full responsibility if civilians were “unintentionally harmed.”

Also Saturday, police said gunmen assassinated a relative of a power broker in Kandahar the night before. The victim, Hamayun Khan, was a relative of Gul Alai, one of the Pashtun warlords who drove the Taliban from Kandahar in 2001, police said.

Two Afghan civilians were killed Friday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in the Marjah district of Helmand province, the Afghan Interior Ministry reported Saturday.

Three Afghan soldiers were killed and two others wounded by a roadside bomb Friday in Paktia province in southeastern Afghanistan, according to the deputy provincial police chief, Ghulam Dastagir.

Information for this article was contributed by Robert H. Reid, Deb Reichmann, Rahim Faiez and Mirwais Khan of The Associated Press and by Rod Nordlund, Mujib Mashal and Taimoor Shah of The New York Times.