In a unanimously adopted resolution extending the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) until 19 March 2014, the Council called on the world body, with the support of the international community, to back the Government’s so-called National Priority Programmes as it goes through the process of taking full control of security, governance and development.

The withdrawal of the bulk of United States and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) troops from Afghanistan is set to be completed by the end of 2014, while a transition of responsibility for security in the country from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to Afghan forces is already underway.

In its resolution, the Council said it “stresses the critical importance of a continued presence of UNAMA and other United Nations agencies, funds and programmes in the provinces, consistent with the transition process, in support of and in cooperation with the Afghan Government.”

Opening yesterday’s meeting, Mr. Ban said the UN must continue strong support to the Afghan Government up to and beyond the 2014 deadline for the Government’s assumption of responsibility.

“Let us work as hard as possible to ensure that this transition leads to the stable, prosperous and safe future that the country’s people deserve,” he told the 15-member body.

“We should continue providing good offices, including support for elections. We should maintain our work for reconciliation and regional cooperation. We must stand firm for human rights. And we must advance development,” he said.

He added that humanitarian action was also crucial to the UN’s future role, considering both Afghanistan’s “chronic vulnerability” and the impact of the transition as the numbers of international security personnel and others decrease dramatically.

Updating the Council on the situation in the country, the Secretary-General said that Afghanistan’s political climate is dominated by the 2014 elections. Broad participation and a credible process are essential to reaching the goal of a widely accepted leadership transition.

He also expressed his concern about the 20 per cent increase in civilian casualties among women and girls in 2012, as tallied in a UN report last month. He noted two statements from the Taliban perhaps indicating a willingness to engage and encouraged a meaningful dialogue to reduce the intolerable, continuing death toll.

Speaking to reporters, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of UNAMA, Jan Kubiš, affirmed that the transition to full Afghan responsibility was progressing. “Almost everything is in motion and changing,” he said.

In that atmosphere, he said he was looking very closely, in today’s mandate extension, for “any confirmation of the key tasks of the UN and UNAMA” in the country. “There are a lot of questions and uncertainties practically concerning all areas of life and work in Afghanistan.”

“I hope to see some signals and messages in the resolution of the Security Council [concerning] what could be the role of the United Nations in the post-2014 period,” he said. “We need to prepare ourselves.”

He said he recognized that UN’s mandate is not “a transition mandate,” which would only be discussed and delivered next year. However, general planning, budgeting for the next biennium and agreements between the Government and the UN system need to be put in place.

“We cannot wait until March 2014 to prepare for 2015, 2016,” he stressed.

Affirming also that upcoming elections were indeed the dominant topic around the country, he said that UNAMA continued to provide technical assistance at the request of the Government. “This is what we are doing and we intend to do it in the future,” he said.

“They [Council members] expressed their deep sympathy and sincere condolences to the families of the victims of these heinous acts and to the people of Syria,” added Ambassador Gert Rosenthal of Guatemala, which holds the Presidency of the Security Council for the month of October, in a statement he read out to the media at UN Headquarters in New York.

In the press statement, the Council noted that Jebhat al-Nusra – an Islamist militant group affiliated with the Al-Qaida terrorist group – had claimed responsibility for the attack.

According to media reports, at least two car bombs exploded on Wednesday in Aleppo’s main Saadallah al-Jabiri Square and another bomb exploded a few hundred metres away, killing at least 48 people.

“The members of the Security Council reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security, and that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed,” Ambassador Rosenthal said in the press statement.

In addition, the Council members reiterated their determination to combat all forms of terrorism, in accordance with its responsibilities under the UN Charter.

They also reminded States that they must ensure that measures taken to combat terrorism comply with all their obligations under international law, in particular international human rights, refugee and humanitarian law.

Ján Kubiš, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, told a meeting of the Security Council that, as reported by the UN-mandated international military force and the Afghan authorities, both the military campaign and the security transition are “on time and on track.”

Afghan authorities are working with the international community so that by 2014 they can assume full responsibility for security in all of the country’s 34 provinces. They are also working towards taking greater ownership of development in a country where more than one-third of the population lives below the poverty line, and one in every two children under five is chronically malnourished.

In his remarks, the UN envoy noted that on security, as stated in Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s latest report, there has been a decrease in security incidents between May and July as compared to 2011.

“Yet many ordinary citizens and Government officials throughout Afghanistan continue to point out to the continuous fragility of the security situation in Afghanistan, to the fear and insecurity that impedes everyday life,” said Kubiš, who also heads the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

In his report, Ban noted that improvements in the security situation have been registered against the record high incident levels of 2011.

“These gains have not, however, generated public perceptions of greater security and do not reflect improvements to the institutional structures required for longer-term stability,” wrote the UN chief. “Little has changed in the underlying dynamics to mitigate a deep-seated cycle of conflict.”

Kubiš said that even where there are no armed clashes, an “insidious campaign” of intimidation and targeted killings is claiming lives of government officials, women’s rights activists, tribal elders and community leaders, including those actively working for peace.

“The impact is visible in the curtailed delivery of development programmes and humanitarian aid,” the Special Representative said. “Outreach by Government services and personnel are limited in many part of the country. Internal displacement increases, people move to the relative safety of provincial and regional centres.”

Civilian casualties have also decreased overall through the first eight months of the year compared year on year, he pointed out. “However this trend began reversing during this summer with a greater number of civilian deaths and injuries occurring in July and August than in the same period last year,” Kubiš said.

In fact, he noted, August was the second deadliest month for civilians since UNAMA began recording civilian causalities with 374 civilians killed and 581 injured. Anti-government elements continue to cause the vast majority of civilian casualties, bearing responsibility for over 85 per cent of all civilian deaths and injuries during the summer period.

The envoy also noted that while security transition is important, the ultimate key to future stable Afghanistan is “successful Afghan-led and Afghan-owned political transition.”

The 2014 presidential elections are in the centre of attention, he said, adding that the conduct of credible polls with a mandate for the new country’s leadership is essential to national unity and legitimacy as well as a critical component of ongoing international support.

“The United Nations welcomes the reduction in civilian casualties, but we must remember that Afghan children, women and men continue to be killed and injured at alarmingly high levels,” the Secretary-General’s Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan, Nicholas Haysom, said in a news release.

The 2012 Midyear Report on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict states that during the first half of the year, conflict-related violence led to 1,145 civilian deaths and 1,954 injuries. While these figures represent a 15 per cent decrease compared to last year, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) stressed that more needs to be done protect civilians.

“The 3,099 civilian casualties documented in this report were ordinary Afghans struggling to go about their daily lives in the midst of an armed conflict,” said Haysom, adding that out of the 3,099 casualties, 925 were women and children. “I call on all parties to the conflict to increase their efforts to protect civilians from harm and to respect the sanctity of human life.”

The report notes that anti-Government elements were responsible for 80 per cent of civilian casualties, down 15 per cent from the same time period in 2011. UNAMA documented that Pro-Government forces were responsible for 10 per cent of the civilian casualties, down 25 per cent on the previous year, while the remaining 10 per cent of the casualty total could not be attributed to any party in the conflict.

The report also notes that while overall casualties have decreased, attacks against schools have increased and the Taliban’s interference in the running of schools has impact children’s access to education, especially girls.

During the first six months of the year, UNAMA verified 34 attacks, including cases of burnings of school buildings, targeted killings and intimidation of teachers and school officials, armed attacks against and occupation of schools, and closures, particularly of girls’ schools.

“It is extremely worrying that attacks against schools have increased so dramatically,” said acting head of UNAMA’s Human Rights Unit, James Rodehaver. “These attacks not only put children at risk of harm, but also seriously impede their access to education, which is a fundamental human right.”

The report also states that improvised explosive devices (IEDs) continue be one of the biggest threats to civilians. They account for 33 per cent of all casualties, higher than any other cause. This figure goes up to 53 per cent when taking into account suicide and complex attacks which used IEDs.

“Victim-activated improvised explosive devices are illegal, as they fail to distinguish between civilians and combatants,” said Haysom “This heinous weapon has killed or maimed the greatest number of Afghan civilians during the conflict and I call on the Taliban to cease their use.”

The report also documents human rights abuses against civilians in seven provinces across the country, many of which were not investigated or prosecuted by the Afghan local police. Local residents also raised with UNAMA their concerns over human rights abusers being recruited into the police force.

“Impunity for human rights abuses only emboldens the perpetrators,” said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay. “Violations must be duly investigated, perpetrators brought to justice and the victims granted remedies. Holding violators accountable is a crucial step towards improving security for Afghan women, men and children.”

The bombing came just two days after a rebel attack on the state TV building in the northwestern city of Aleppo and a month after an explosion caused severe damage to the headquarters of the pro-government TV station Al-Ekhbarya.

“We condemn these targeted attacks on state TV buildings in Damascus and Aleppo as well as murders and abductions of journalists,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Neither news media, professional journalists nor citizen journalists should be targeted by any of the parties to this conflict.

“We urge the main components of the opposition, both civilian and military, to condemn these atrocities. We also strongly condemn the publication and broadcasting of messages inciting hatred and violence against the civilian population. The media must not relay propaganda of any kind.”

According to the London-based Syrian Human Rights Monitoring Centre, Mohammad Sayeed, the state TV presenter who was kidnapped from his Damascus home on 19 July, has been killed.

His abduction and murder were clamed by Al-Nosra, an Islamist group, which described Sayeed as a pro-government militia member (shabbih) and said he was interrogated and then executed. The Al-Nosra communiqué, accompanied by a photo of Sayeed with his abductors, was posted on a website that displays an Al-Qaeda flag.

State TV chief Maan Saleh has not confirmed Sayeed’s death. “We have no hard evidence that he is dead,” Saleh told Agence France-Presse. The rebel Free Syrian Army has meanwhile denied having anything to do with his abduction and murder.

Talal Janbakeli, a state TV cameraman, was meanwhile kidnapped by the Harun Al-Rasheed militia yesterday in Damascus. In a video released by his abductors, he could be seen in an abnormal state repeating phrases dictated by a person out of camera view about the Syrian army’s atrocities.

State TV reporter Kareem Shibani was shot and wounded in the back while covering clashes in the Damascus neighbourhood of Tadamun on 4 August.

The Syria-News website has reported that the journalist Ahmed Thabet Mohssen has been missing since 1 August. Family sources said they thought he was arrested with a friend at an army checkpoint at Qorra al-Assad, near Damascus.

Finally, France 24 reporter Chady Chlela had to leave Syria on 29 July, just 48 hours after arrived because messages threatening him were circulating on social media. They described him as a Shiite agent in the Syrian government’s pay and said he should be prevented from working with the rebels. On this return to Paris, he filed a complaint about “death threats” with the prosecutor’s office.

Staff from the UN Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) observed over 50 houses that were burned and/or destroyed, according to a statement issued today that also noted that “pools of blood and brain matter were observed in a number of homes.”

The “consistent account” relayed by 27 local villagers who were interviewed by the UN team indicated that the attack began in the early hours of 12 July with the shelling of the village followed by ground operations.

“According to those interviewed, the army was conducting house to house searches asking for men and their ID cards. They alleged that after checking their identification, numerous were killed. Other men were taken out of the village.

“On the basis of some of the destruction observed in the town and the witness accounts, the attack appears targeted at army defectors and activists,” said the statement. UN observers also confirmed the use of direct and indirect weapons, including artillery, mortars and small arms.

The Mission added that the number of casualties is still unclear and that it is trying to seek further verification.

Thursday’s attack, which reportedly resulted in over 200 deaths, was condemned by UN officials as well as the Joint Special Envoy for the UN and the League of Arab States for Syria, Kofi Annan, who said the attack violated the Government’s commitment to the six-point peace plan.

That plan calls for an end to violence, access for humanitarian agencies to provide relief to those in need, the release of detainees, the start of inclusive political dialogue, and unrestricted access to the country for the international media.

Annan will visit Moscow on Monday for two days of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the crisis in Syria.

Meanwhile, Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson met today with the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, Nabil Elaraby, on the sidelines of the African Union summit in Addis Ababa. They shared their strong concerns about the situation in Syria and expressed support for the work of Mr. Annan and the six-point plan.

The UN estimates that more than 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Syria and tens of thousands displaced since the uprising against President Bashar Al-Assad began last year.