Fighting in Afghanistan is spreading into populated areas and taking a record toll on civilians, the UN warned today, as presidential candidates urged supporters not to raise tensions after the disputed election result.
Political deadlock and soaring civilian casualties have caused deep disquiet among Afghanistan's international backers, who sent tens of thousands of NATO-led soldiers and billions of dollars in aid to the country after 2001.
Claims that a functioning state has replaced the harsh Taliban regime look to be in jeopardy after presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah rejected the result of the June 14 run-off election, saying he was the victim of systematic fraud.
Security gains also appear fragile as the final 50,000 NATO troops end their combat mission by December, after 13 years of fighting that have failed decisively to defeat the Taliban insurgents.
Underlining the extent of the violence plaguing Afghanistan, a UN report revealed that civilian casualties of the conflict soared by 24 percent in the first half of 2014.
Ground combat is now causing more deaths and injuries than improvised explosive devices in a worrying sign of spreading conflict.
"The nature of the conflict in Afghanistan is changing in 2014 with an escalation of ground engagements in civilian-populated areas," warned Jan Kubis, chief of the UN mission chief in Afghanistan known as UNAMA.
"The impact on civilians, including the most vulnerable Afghans, is proving to be devastating."
In the first six months of this year, UNAMA documented 4,853 civilian casualties - up 24 per cent on the same period in 2013.
The toll included 1,564 deaths and 3,289 injuries, with ground engagements causing two out of every five civilian casualties in 2014.
Fears that Afghanistan could see a return to the ethnic bloodshed of the 1992-1996 civil war have grown during the deepening election crisis.
Abdullah Abdullah, a former anti-Taliban resistance fighter, came second in preliminary results to Ashraf Ghani, but Abdullah said the election was fraudulent and he expected to become the next president.
Abdullah's vote base is among the Tajiks and other northern Afghan groups, while Ghani attracts much of his support from the Pashtun tribes of the south and east - an ominous echo of the ethnic divisions of the civil war.
Afghan government forces face a demanding test in the coming years with declining assistance from the US-led military coalition that has trained and equipped them.
