A/HRC/7/27 page 8 III. ARMED CONFLICT AND VIOLENCE 24. Armed conflict in Afghanistan has intensified significantly throughout 2007. The Southern, South-Eastern and Eastern regions of the country have seen regular fighting, but violence has also increased notably in other areas, including in the North-Eastern, Western and Central regions. The impact of the conflict on civilians, including non-combatant casualties, destruction of civilian property, loss of livelihoods, displacement, and severe limitations or complete denial of access to essential services, has become a pre-eminent concern. When UNAMA’s mandate was renewed in March 2007, an explicit mandate was given to it to monitor the situation of civilians affected by the conflict. Continued cooperation has been sought and maintained with International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Afghan national forces to ensure they are cognizant of their responsibilities under international humanitarian and human rights law and that they also understand and respect the United Nations role to investigate impartially and independently cases involving civilian casualties. Similar efforts must also be made with anti-Government elements (AGEs) that are party to the armed conflict. 25. Operations by international and national security forces and AGEs have killed and injured large numbers of non-combatants. In 2007, almost 1,500 Afghan civilians were killed as a result of such operations. The death of non-combatants amounts to a violation of international humanitarian law unless rules of proportionality, necessity and targeting are fully respected. Thus, while not all civilian deaths during the reporting period are in violation of international humanitarian law, serious violations can be substantiated in several incidents. 26. Protection of civilians was a key focus of my Afghanistan mission. In meetings with both national and international authorities and in press statements, I stressed the need for all sides of the conflict to strictly respect human rights and international humanitarian law principles. I also emphasized that certain international and Afghan military operations resulting in civilian casualties, even if they are not, strictly speaking, in breach of international law, are nonetheless liable to erode support amongst Afghans for the Government and the international military presence, as well as public support abroad in contributing States, for continued international military engagement in Afghanistan. To help bridge the distance between individual and victims and those who bear responsibility, forces involved in such incidents need to be more responsive and accessible to victims and their families and communities, and ensure appropriate and comprehensive redress. Achieving this requires a systematized and consistent approach to investigation of incidents and to compensation, with the latter ideally administered by a competent, impartial third-party backed by a trust fund. 27. Another concern is that the Afghan National Police (ANP), instead of being able to focus on their civilian law-enforcement duties, frequently are compelled to engage in combat and, when attacked, may be left without military support for a prolonged period of time. ANP also are being targeted by anti-governmental elements through suicide attacks, improvised explosive devises (IEDs) and abductions. The Ministry of Interior registered around 900 insurgency-related deaths of police officers in the last nine months of 2007, which is significantly higher than the number of Afghan army casualties in the same period. ANP are not mandated, trained or