GENEVA, Feb 3: More than 2,100 civilians in Afghanistan were killed last year, a 40 per cent rise from the previous year, because of escalating fighting that spread to new areas, the United Nations top aid official said on Tuesday.

John Holmes, UN emergency relief coordinator, gave the toll to representatives of donor countries while launching a UN funding appeal of $604 million for Afghanistan for 2009.

“According to UN figures, over 2,100 civilians were killed as a result of armed conflict in 2008, which represents an increase of about 40 per cent from 2007,” Holmes said in a speech, the text of which was issued to reporters in Geneva.

He did not say whether the majority of civilian casualties were due to Taliban militants or US-led air strikes in the country, where violence is at the highest levels since the 2001 overthrow of the Islamist militants.

The Taliban have regrouped and, despite the presence of nearly 70,000 international troops, in the last year increased both the scope and scale of their attacks. Air strikes which have killed civilians have provoked anger among Afghans and resentment against the presence of foreign troops.

“The armed conflict is increasingly characterised by the use of suicide bombings, improvised explosive devices, kidnappings and air strikes, all of which tend to increase civilian casualties,” said the UN funding appeal document. —Reuters