A/HRC/13/62 6. OHCHR/UNAMA was engaged in the protection cluster established by the humanitarian community in 2008, both as the deputy co-chair and as the primary entity responsible for protection work focused on the immediate and direct impact of the war on civilians. As a key member of the protection cluster, OHCHR/UNAMA has sought to mainstream protection within other sectors, and has been actively involved in the prioritization of protection-related projects for the Humanitarian Action Plan (HAP). 7. Anti-Government elements (AGEs) and pro-Government forces (PGF) have increasingly conducted operations that put the lives of civilians at risk. The 2009 civilian death toll is the highest since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001; August proved to be the deadliest month in the year as a result of election-related violence, with 333 civilian conflict-related deaths recorded. This reflects a trend of increasing insecurity as well as election-related violence. Under international humanitarian law, parties to a conflict have an obligation to spare civilians from the effects of armed conflict. Both parties to the conflict must respect the rules of war so that civilians do not bear the brunt of the fighting. 8. Of the 2,186 casualties recorded from January to November 2009, 69 per cent were attributed to AGEs and 23 per cent to PGF. The remaining 8 per cent could not be attributed to any of the conflicting parties as some civilians died as a result of undetermined causes. This figure represents an increase of 8 per cent over the deaths recorded in the same period in 2008. A. Anti-Government elements 9. Anti-Government elements accounted for 69 per cent of civilian deaths from January to November 2009. Sixty-six per cent of all civilian deaths attributed to AGEs were brought about by indiscriminate suicide and improvised explosive device (IED) attacks, continuing the use of asymmetric attacks that accounted for the highest death toll among Afghan civilians. Also of great concern was the rate at which AGEs continued to systematically intimidate, abduct and conduct targeted assassinations against civilians associated with the Government and/or the international military forces (IM Forces). Health-care workers, teachers, journalists and construction workers were amongst other groups who were consistently targeted by AGEs. 10. Although the IM Forces and Afghanistan National Security Forces (ANSF) continued to be the primary target of AGE activities, many of these attacks were carried out in crowded civilian areas, for example in bazaars and on busy roads, with apparent disregard for civilian life and damage to civilian property. On 29 September 2009, at least 30 individuals were reportedly killed and 19 injured when their bus struck an IED on a commercial road in Maywand District of Kandahar Province. Kabul City witnessed a number of suicide-bomb attacks against IM Forces in which civilians were killed, including a deadly September 17 attack on an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) convoy on the road to Kabul International Airport, reportedly killing 20 civilians and injuring 45. The Taliban acknowledged responsibility for the incident. AGE military operations carried out in villages and other locations where civilians reside, also put civilians at serious risk. 11. There were conditions of heightened insecurity around the presidential and provincial council elections in August 2009, as AGEs stepped up attacks, threats and intimidation against candidates and election workers, aimed at derailing the election process and discouraging voter participation, even in areas that were previously less affected by the conflict. Some 300 security incidents alone were registered on election day. On 15 August, 7 civilians were reportedly killed and at least 90 injured in a suicide-bomb blast outside ISAF headquarters in Kabul, while 7 were reportedly killed and at least 50 injured in a vehicle-borne IED (VBIED) attack near Camp Phoenix in Kabul on 18 August. In the latter attack, two United Nations staff members were killed and one injured. In late GE.10-10230 5