Daughters and relatives of a woman Afghan journalist shot dead overnight, weep as they snit beside her body, in Jabbul Saraj north of Kabul, June 2007.

The number of civilians killed in fighting between insurgents and security forces in Afghanistan has soared by nearly two-thirds in the first half of this year, to almost 700 people, a senior UN official said.
According to AP, the figures are a grim reminder of how the nearly seven-year war has failed to stabilize the country and suggest that ordinary civilians are bearing a heavy toll, particularly from stepped-up militant attacks.
John Holmes, the world body’s humanitarian affairs chief, said the insecurity was making it increasingly difficult to deliver emergency aid to dirt-poor Afghans hit by the global food crisis.
“The humanitarian situation is clearly affected and made worse by the ongoing conflict in different parts of the country,“ Holmes told reporters on Sunday in Kabul during a visit.

62% Rise
Holmes said UN figures show that 698 civilians have died as a result of the fighting in the first half of this year.
That compares to 430 in the first six months of 2007, a rise of 62 percent.
Anti-government militants caused 422 of the recorded civilian casualties while government or foreign troops killed 255 people, according to the UN numbers. The cause of 21 other deaths was unclear.
Holmes said the proportion of civilian casualties caused by security forces had dropped from nearly half last year.

NATO Accused
Afghan leaders including President Hamid Karzai have accused NATO and the US-led coalition of recklessly endangering civilians by using excessive force, including air strikes, in residential areas.
Foreign commanders insist they take all reasonable precautions to avoid killing innocents and say militants routinely fire on them from houses and flee into villages.
While NATO has been blamed for the rising civilian death toll, a NATO spokesman said on Sunday Afghanistan will not be secure as long as insurgents are allowed to operate freely in sanctuaries on the Pakistan side of the border,.
With international forces in Afghanistan struggling against what the Pentagon describes as a “resilient insurgency“, Pakistan is coming under increasing pressure to stop militants operating out of remote enclaves in ethnic Pashtun border lands.
“We know that as long as the insurgents operate safely on the Pakistan side of the border, then there can not be security in Afghanistan,“ NATO Spokesman Mark Laity told a regular news conference in Kabul.

The invasion of Afghanistan was undertaken in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks by the United States, Britain , Australia and some other countries against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Since then, a 70,000-strong international force has been stationed in the country fighting the rebels. The invasion still continues as an occupation of an unstable land. About 342 US troops have been killed and 1026 seriously injured.
Opponents of the war often say that the attack on Afghanistan was illegal under international law, constituted unjustified aggression and would lead to the deaths of many civilians through the bombing campaign and by preventing humanitarian aid workers from bringing food into the country.
One of the best-known organizations of Afghan women, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), opposed the US-led attack on Afghanistan, stating that “America, by forming an international coalition against Osama and his Taliban-collaborators and in retaliation for the 11th September terrorist attacks, has launched a vast aggression on our country“. The group accuse the “US and its allies“ of not “paying the least attention to the fate of democracy in Afghanistan“. The RAWA says the US-led invasion has “plunged our people into a horrific concern and anxiety in fear of re-experiencing the dreadful happenings of the years of the Taliban regime.“

Hezbollah hailed the Israeli cabinet approval for a prisoner exchange as a victory and said Israel’s green light reflected the Shiite group’s strength.
“What happened in the prisoners issue is a proof that the word of the resistance is the most faithful, strongest and supreme,“ the group’s “Al-Manar TV“ quoted Hezbollah’s Executive Council Chief Hashem Safieddin as saying.
“The world could not achieve the Israeli goal of recovering its soldiers without the resistance dictating its terms: the release of prisoners,“ he said during a ceremony in southern Lebanon.
Twenty-two of the 25 Israeli cabinet members voted in favor of the deal under which two soldiers captured in July 2006--or their remains--are to be handed over in exchange for Samir Qantar, who is the dean of Lebanese prisoners, four Lebanese fighters and an undetermined number of Palestinian prisoners.
In the southern Lebanese city of Sidon meanwhile members of the Popular Democratic Party were decorating the central Martyrs Square with pictures of Qantar and hanging banners such as “Freedom to the hero, prisoner Samir Kantar“ and “freedom comes with blood not tears.“
Israeli officials said the deal could take place as early as next week in Germany.

Hamas-dominated Palestinian Parliament on Sunday said it will not recognize Mahmud Abbas as a Palestinian president as soon as his term ends in January 2009.
“In Jan. 9, 2009, Abbas’ term ends and the presidency moves to the speaker of the Legislative Council for 60 days before holding new elections to select a new president,“ said Deputy Speaker Ahmed Barah.
“If Abu Mazen (Abbas) stayed as a president after January, he will be a power rapist,“ Bahar added.
Bahar remarks were made after a Palestinian advisory body ruled that Abbas’ term can extends until the end of the parliament’s term. Hamas won the four-year parliament term after defeating the long-parliament-dominant Abbas’ Fatah in the 2006 elections.
Meanwhile, a Hamas official on Sunday ruled out an imminent resumption of inter-Palestinian dialogue comprising his Islamic movement and rival Fatah.
“What happened was only calls and mutual declarations of readiness,“ said Nasser Al-Sha’er, a Hamas official who once held the deputy premier post in the tenth government which Hamas led.
“The problem of the dialogue is that it is still in its general phase and so far there is no any breakthrough. ...No committees are working on finding the mechanisms,“ he added.
Earlier this month, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he is ready to talk with Hamas which routed his forces and ousted his Fatah movement from Gaza in fierce fighting in June 2007. Hamas welcomed Abbas’ call for dialogue but Al-Sha’er explained that none of the Arab parties, like the Arab League, had taken moves to host or sponsor the dialogue.