A/HRC/22/37 B. Pro-Government forces 22. A decline was recorded in the number of civilian casualties attributed to PGF between 1 January and 30 November 2012. Seven per cent of civilian casualties resulted from PGF operations in 2012, compared with 15 per cent in the same period in 2011. Yet, civilian deaths resulting from air strikes continued to raise concern. In one such incident on 6 June, 18 civilians, including 9 children, died in Logar province when an international military helicopter fired on a civilian residence where AGEs had taken cover. On 16 September, a series of ISAF air strikes in Alingar district, Laghman province, killed four women, three girls and one boy and seriously wounded five women and three girls, while no insurgents were harmed or captured. On 23 March, a United States service member was charged with 17 counts of murder by a United States court over a mass shooting of civilians, mostly women and children, in two hamlets in Kandahar earlier in the month. 23. The lack of professionalism and misconduct by members of the Afghan Local Police (ALP) continue to raise concerns in different parts of the country. Members of ALP have been accused of repeatedly intimidating and harassing residents, including with threats of sexual abuse of women in Chemtal district in Balkh province. UNAMA/OHCHR has expressed concerns over increasing incidents of violence against women and human rights abuses perpetrated by members of the Afghan National Police (ANP) and ALP, particularly in remote areas and where known human rights abusers have been appointed as ALP/ANP commanders. 24. More positively, however, some Government officials were prosecuted for violence against women, including a prison director in Logar Province, who was convicted of raping a 15-year-old girl in 2010 and sentenced to 16 years’ imprisonment. UNAMA/OHCHR also welcomed reports of the conviction, on 7 July, of two members of ANP accused of the gang rape of a 13-year-old girl in Badghis province. In November, a primary court in Kabul convicted and sentenced four members of ALP for their involvement in the abduction and gang rape of a teenage girl from Kunduz province and sentenced the four men to 16 years’ imprisonment. Separately, two members of ALP who had been arrested for severely beating a man in October of last year, were convicted and sentenced to seven months’ imprisonment by the City Court in Asadabad district, Kunar province. C. Children and armed conflict 25. On 26 March, Afghanistan submitted its annual progress report to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict on the implementation of the action plan on the prevention of underage recruitment and sexual violence against children. The report highlighted a decrease in reported incidents of abduction, sexual violence and denial of humanitarian access and noted that, while the Government has made progress in preventing child recruitment and other grave violations, AGEs continue to recruit and use children for purposes related to the ongoing conflict. 26. Children continue to suffer disproportionately as a result of the ongoing armed conflict. On average, more than 20 children were killed and injured per week across the country during 2012. Reports received and verified by the Country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting on children affected by armed conflict show that at least 1,103 children were killed and injured during the first eleven months of the year. This figure, however, represents a near 22 per cent decrease compared to the same period in 2011. 27. In 2012, incidents involving IED detonations, suicide and rocket attacks, unexploded ordnances and explosive remnants of war resulted in a high number of children casualties. AGEs bore responsibility for most of the child casualties (69 per cent). Another 16 per cent 8