Kabul, Afghanistan (AP) - Even amid an effort by NATO forces to reduce civilian casualties in Afghanistan, the U.N. says the number of civilians killed or injured in the war there is going up.

But it says that's the fault of anti-government fighters, who were responsible for 72 percent of the civilian deaths in the first six months of the year.

Overall, the U.N. report says the number of civilians killed in the Afghan conflict rose by 21 percent during that time.

The top U.N. envoy in Afghanistan calls the report a “wake-up call.” He says the “human cost” of the war “is being paid too heavily by civilians.”

And those deaths continued even as the U.N. released the report. Officials say three civilians were killed today when their car struck a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan. And NATO says a bomb planted by insurgents killed an Afghan civilian near Kandahar.
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