UN: More Civilians Killed as Afghan Troops Battle Taliban

Local Editor

Overall at least 1,601 civilians were killed and 3,565 wounded in the war in the first six months of 2016, the United Nations reported, as extremist groups like the Taliban try to topple the government installed in Kabul after the 2001 US-led military intervention.

Anti-government groups, the largest of which is the Taliban, accounted for at least 60 percent of non-combatants killed and wounded.

Twin blasts Saturday were claimed by Daesh [the Arabic acronym for the terrorist "ISIS" group] militants and killed at least 80 people and injured more than 230, most of them civilians.

Those numbers are not included in the UN report, but the attack highlighted its finding that suicide bombings and complex attacks are now harming more civilians than are roadside bombs.

Casualties caused by pro-government forces increased 47 percent over the same period last year, the United Nations said.

Afghan forces were responsible for 22 percent of casualties overall, and the international troops remaining in the country caused 2 percent, while 17 percent could not be attributed to one side or the other.

For the first time, the Afghan air force killed or wounded more civilians in its operations than did air strikes carried out by international forces, the UN reported.

UN officials said they heard more commitments by both sides, but few effective actions to improve protection of civilians.

"Every civilian casualty represents a failure of commitment and should be a call to action for parties to the conflict to take meaningful, concrete steps to reduce civilians' suffering and increase protection," Tadamichi Yamamoto, the top UN official in Afghanistan, said in the report.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team