led insurgents killed at least 11 people across Afghanistan in a renewed springtime offensive Sunday despite a huge security clampdown, hours after the United Nations pleaded for all sides to avoid civilian casualties. The hardline Islamists 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 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 Sunday were ordinary Afghans. “Our mission is to make sure that civilians and Afghan people are not affected by now 11 years of conflict,” Staffan de Mistura, the UN chief in Afghanistan, told Reuters television in his heavily guarded compound in the capital, Kabul. “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,” de Mistura said. The vast majority of civilian casualties in Afghanistan are caused by insurgents, figures from the United Nations and other rights groups show, although there are still many caused by foreign hunting militants with air strikes and night raids. The increasingly sophisticated Taliban communication network quickly sought to counter de Mistura's comments. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said foreign forces must also protect civilians and stop their “rising atrocities”. The new wave of attacks began early Sunday with what appeared to be a startling and rare tactic — the use of a child bomber in the dangerous southeastern province of Paktika. The bomber, wearing a vest packed with explosives, killed four civilians and wounded 12, a government spokesman said. A statement from the governor's office in Paktika, near the Pakistan border, said the bomber was 12 years old. In neighboring Ghazni, two police and two civilians were killed in a gunfight after insurgents 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 wounded 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. Gunmen on a motorbike killed an Afghan soldier in Kandahar. In Logar, south of Kabul, two members of a community police unit were killed by a roadside bomb, 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 insurgents, particularly in the Taliban's southern heartland. Quelling violence has taken on even greater importance this year, with a gradual withdrawal of foreign combat troops set to begin in July as part of a handover to Afghan security forces. That withdrawal is set to be completed by the end of 2014.
