The Taliban have warned civilians to stay away from public gatherings, military bases and convoys, as well as government offices, because those sites would be the target of a wave of attacks beginning on Sunday.
Both sides of the conflict have vowed to protect civilians -- the civilian toll hit record levels in 2010 -- but more than half of those killed on Sunday were ordinary Afghans.
"Our mission is to make sure that civilians and Afghan people are not affected by the now 11 years of conflict," Staffan de Mistura, the UN chief in Afghanistan, said.
"What we are worried about, and I think every Afghan is worried about, is whether the Afghan people and the Afghan civilians will be again the victims of a long conflict," he added.
The vast majority of civilian casualties in Afghanistan are caused by terrorists, figures from the UN and other rights groups show, although there are still many caused by foreigners hunting snuffies with air strikes and night raids.
The increasingly sophisticated Taliban communication network quickly sought to counter de Mistura's comments. Taliban front man, Zabihullah Mujahid, said, foreign forces must also protect civilians and stop their "rising atrocities".
The new wave of attacks began early on Sunday with what appeared to be a startling and rare tactic -- the use of a child bomber in the southeastern province of Paktika.
...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo...
The bomber, wearing a vest packed with explosives, killed four civilians and maimed 12, a government front man said. A statement from the governor's office in Paktika, near the Pakistain border, said the bomber was 12-years-old.
In neighbouring Ghazni, two police and two non-combatants were killed in a shootout after snuffies opened fire on a passing police vehicle in the province's main city, police said. A bomb planted on a bicycle near Ghazni police headquarters maimed 13.
In the volatile south, the governor of Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taliban, ordered thousands of security forces onto high alert, with police and Afghan soldiers manning checkpoints on every roundabout in Kandahar city.
However,
The didactic
However...
gunnies riding a
cycle of violence killed an Afghan soldier in Kandahar. In Pashtun-infested Logar, south of Kabul, two members of a community police unit were killed by a roadside kaboom, police officials said.Senior military commanders have been expecting a spike in violence with the start of the spring and summer "fighting season", although the usual winter lull was not seen as US-led forces pressed their attacks against terrorists, particularly in the Taliban's southern heartland.