Taliban targeting Afghan women and government workers, UN report finds Air strikes in Afghanistan killed 51 Afghan children in 2012, the UN report says. Photograph: Reuters/Ahmad Masood Civilian casualties decreased in Afghanistan for the first time in six years in 2012, the United Nations has announced. But targeted killings by insurgents - particularly of women, girls and government employees - climbed compared with the previous year. In its annual report on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict, which it first published in 2007, the UN said 7,559 Afghan civilians were killed or injured in the conflict in 2012, a decline of 12% on the 2011 figure. Insurgent-laid bombs, or improvised explosive devices (IEDs), were still responsible for 81% of civilian casualties, reflecting a 9% rise in the number of civilians killed or injured by insurgents compared with 2011. The decrease in civilian casualties [the UN] documented in 2012 is very much welcome. Yet the human cost of the conflict remains unacceptable," said Jan Kubis, the UN envoy to Afghanistan. The overall decline was attributed in part to the fact that fighting was heavily impeded by one of the worst winters on record. Fewer suicide bomb attacks and a fall in the number of airstrikes carried out also helped ease 2012's death toll. The report showed an alarming 20% increase in the number of women and girls killed or injured in the conflict in 2012. Deliberate targeting by the Taliban and other insurgents also tripled in 2012, the UN said. Most were hit while they tended their homes or worked in fields. Targeted killings by insurgents of government employees also spiked, resulting in a dramatic 700% increase in the number of civilian casualties attributed to this type of violence in 2012. The report cited two particular attacks in northern Afghanistan that targeted government officials but resulted in additional the loss of scores of civilian bystanders. Northern Afghanistan itself saw an increase in threats to civilians as insurgent groups re-emerged in the region. By contrast the number of Afghan civilians killed by Nato-led and Afghan security forces dropped by nearly 40%. This figure may salve morale at the alliance after it was slammed by President Hamid Karzai for carrying out an air strike in south-eastern Kunar province last week that killed 10 civilians. The incident led Karzai to introduce a new decree, enforced on Monday, banning the Afghan military from requesting aerial support from Nato-led forces. Unsurprisingly air strikes were the main cause of civilian casualties by foreign forces in 2012, but they killed 42% fewer civilians compared with 2011. Overall, air strikes in 2012 killed 126 civilians, including 51 children. The UN said it had identified a shift in the Taliban's public relations efforts. The group's promotion of insider attacks on foreign troops and the pin-pointing of military targets was interpreted by the UN as showing "a heightened awareness" by Taliban leadership of a need to publicly show that it wants to protect Afghan civilians, support the peace process and win "hearts and minds."