The UN is due to release its latest six-monthly report on civilian¹ casualties in Afghanistan.

联合国将要发布最近六个月巴基斯坦平民伤亡情况的报告。

The US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, Gen David Petraeus said earlier this month: "Every Afghan civilian death diminishes（减少，变小） our cause."

Shortly afterwards, a Nato airstrike killed up to 25 Afghans travelling to a funeral in Nangarhar province.

The Taliban have also issued their own "code of conduct", telling fighters to avoid killing² civilians³.

A recent Afghan report said more than 1,000 civilians had been killed in the first six months of 2010.

Afghanistan Rights Monitor said the figures were a slight（轻微的） increase compared with the same period in 2009.

But their report said the number of people killed in Nato air strikes in the same period had halved⁴.

Strict rules

In 2009, former Nato commander Gen Stanley McChrystal issued instructions severely⁵ limiting the circumstances in which troops could call in an airstrike or fire into buildings.

His successor, Gen Petraeus, has vowed⁶ to carry on with the policy.

In their own attempt to avoid alienating⁷（疏远，离间） the civilian population, the Taliban issued their "code of conduct" which also forbids their fighters from seizing weapons and money.

In July, the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks leaked a swathe（带子，绷带） of documents relating to the Afghan war, which suggested that many civilian casualties were going unreported.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly warned Western powers that civilian deaths caused by Nato attacks help to fuel the insurgency⁸（叛乱，暴动） .

A UN report in January showed that civilian casualties in the Afghan conflict had risen by 14% in 2009 compared with 2008.

It said the "vast majority" of the more than 2,400 deaths had been caused by Taliban attacks.