Civilian deaths dropped in Afghanistan in 2012 However, U.N. officials noted increasing threats to non-combatants last year because of the re-emergence of armed groups, including pro-government militias, especially in the country's north and northeast. Those regions generally have been regarded as secure compared with the south and east, where the Taliban-led militants are most active. The United Nations recorded 2,754 civilian deaths in 2012, compared with 3,131 in 2011. Since 2007, when the world body began keeping these statistics, a total of 14,728 civilians have been killed in the conflict. For years, civilian deaths caused by foreign troops have been a thorny issue between President Hamid Karzai and his Western backers, especially the United States, even though, according to the U.N. report, militants are responsible for far more such casualties - 81 percent in 2012 - than NATO forces. Eight percent of civilian casualties were attributed to coalition forces, the report said. Eleven percent of the deaths were not linked to a specific cause. Civilian casualties resulting from air operations by Western forces dropped by 42 percent in 2012 compared with 2011, the report said - data that supports NATO's oft-stated position that its air strikes against militants have become more precise. "The decrease in civilian casualties...is very much welcome," Jan Kubis, the United Nations" special envoy for Afghanistan, said in the report. Yet, the human cost of the conflict remains unacceptable. The use of roadside bombs by insurgents was the "single biggest killer of civilians," Kubis said. After 10 civilians died last week in a NATO air strike that was requested by Afghan security forces in eastern Kunar province, Karzai issued a decree that bars the national forces from seeking such air support in the future. On Sunday, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, expressed support for Karzai's order and said he believes the international coalition can operate effectively despite the ban.