Kabul:
The Afghan Taliban on Tuesday dismissed NATO figures showing a decrease in insurgent attacks, saying the statistics reflect troop withdrawals and a "cowardly" avoidance of contact.
NATO's latest official figures show attacks on its forces dropped by five per cent in the first eight months of this year, but are still running at about 100 a day.
In August alone, attacks decreased by nine per cent compared with the same month last year, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.
They contrast with United Nations numbers showing that August was the second deadliest month in five years for civilians, with a total of 374 more than 10 a day killed and 581 injured.
The fact that local troops are taking an increasingly active role in the war as NATO prepares to pull out in 2014 could also account for the drop in the number of recorded attacks against ISAF forces.
The NATO figures do not cover the rising toll from so called "green-on-blue" attacks, in which Afghan forces turn their weapons on their ISAF allies. Such attacks have killed 51 ISAF troops this year.
They also do not take into account the mounting toll among Afghan forces, who are dying at five times the rate of NATO soldiers.
ISAF spokesman Brigadier General Guenter Katz said the NATO numbers pointed to successes on the battlefield.
"The main reason is that we are able to reverse the momentum of their campaign, pushing them out of the urban areas, fighting them in remote areas," Mr Katz said.
Another reason was that Afghan forces were becoming increasingly capable and "fighting the insurgency very successfully".
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid had a different take, "strongly and categorically" denying NATO's interpretation.
"The enemy has chosen to withdraw from large parts of the country and have abandoned major bases, which naturally amount to a decrease in attacks," he said in a statement posted on the militants' website.