Civilian Casualties Up 14 Per Cent in 2013

The United Nations has released a new report that states civilian casualties in the Afghan War rose by 14 per cent in the last year (2013). The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) report states that it was the worst year since 2009 in terms of the number of women and children killed or injured as a result of conflict-related violence. The 2013 Annual Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict produced by UNAMA reflects a 7 per cent increase in deaths and a 17 per cent increase in injuries as compared to 2012. Read more about the UN report here in "Civilian casualties in Afghanistan up 14 per cent last year, says new UN report", UN News Centre, February 8, 2014. One of the tenets of the ISAF information operations campaign is that the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) is fully capable of protecting the Afghan population now that the ANSF is in the lead for security. Perhaps that should be re-worded a bit to say that the ASNF was 14% less capable in 2013 than they were in 2012 to protect the Afghan population. ISAF, in their never-ending attempt to inject a little sunshine into a cloudy day has released their news release about the discouraging news by UNAMA of the 14% increase in civilian casualties. See "UNAMA report released", DVIDS, February 8, 2014.