Afghanistan

Since the NATO-led ouster of the Taliban regime in 2001, instability in Afghanistan has grown, matched by an increase in civilian casualties. As pro-government Afghan forces, including the Afghan National Army and the NATO-led ISAF coalition seek to bring peace to a country at war for much of the last 30 years.

These pro-government forces are conducting a counter-insurgency campaign against a league of armed opposition groups, including the Taliban, Hezb-i-Islami Gulbuddin, the Haqqani Network and Al Qaeda.

Over the past two years, violence has escalated in the south and east of the country, along the Pakistani border. Deadly violence against civilians increased 40% between 2007 and 2008, with further increases expected between 2008 and 2009. Even through ISAF commanding General Stanley McChrystal has called for civilian protection to be a central point of the U.S. and NATO mission in Afghanistan. This appears to have reduced Afghan civilian casualties by Western forces by 28 percent in 2009. Despite this decrease, Afghan remain the targets of insurgent violence and the vast majority of civilian casualties (1,630 or 67%) are caused by insurgent attacks.