KABUL — A sharp jump in assassinations and a rise in suicide and roadside bombings in Afghanistan last year led to an increase in civilian casualties, the United Nations said Wednesday.
The United Nations documented 2,777 civilian deaths in 2010, which it said marked a 15 percent rise compared with the number killed in fighting the previous year. The grim numbers in the U.N. annual report on civilian casualties come as the traditionally less-violent winter season gives way to spring, the start of the fighting season in Afghanistan.
Seventy-five percent of the deaths, or 2,080, were attributed by the United Nations to the Taliban and other groups seeking to destabilize the U.S.-backed Afghan government. That represented a 28 percent increase from 2009.
Military operations by NATO and Afghan forces resulted in the deaths of 440 civilians, or 16 percent of the total, a 26 percent decrease from those killed in 2009, the United Nations said.
Nine percent of the civilian casualties could not be attributed, the United Nations said.
Suicide attacks and makeshift bombs accounted for the brunt of the deaths, killing 1,141 people. The report said the most “alarming trend” was a surge in assassinations carried out by insurgents. At least 462 civilians were assassinated by groups opposing the government last year, a 105 percent increase over 2009.
Airstrikes were the leading cause of civilian deaths at the hands of NATO forces, resulting in the killing of 171 civilians last year, the U.N. report said.
