| GEO World | | UN: Afghan security has 'deteriorated markedly' | Updated at: 2228 PST, Wednesday, October 01, 2008
 KABUL: The security situation in Afghanistan has “deteriorated markedly'' over the last six months, the United Nations' secretary-general said in a new report.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also expressed dismay that attacks against aid workers have increased in 2008, said the report released by his office in New York on Tuesday.
At least 30 aid workers have been killed and 92 abducted so far this year. At least 22 World Food Program convoys have been attacked, as have 59 schools.
“Regardless of the progress made in certain areas, my overall impression is that the situation in the country has deteriorated over the past six months,'' Ban said in the report. “Nevertheless, I strongly believe that the negative trend can be reversed.''
Saying that security has “deteriorated markedly,'' the report noted that the number of U.N.-recorded security-related incidents rose to 983 in August the highest monthly total since the Taliban's ouster in late 2001. The report did not define a security incident, but typically it refers to bombings, shootings and other violent acts.
More than 4,600 people many of them militants have died in insurgency related violence in 2008, according to a news agency count of figures from Afghan and Western officials. That figure includes more than 750 Afghan police, who are a favorite target of militant attacks. |  |
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