The United Nations said on Wednesday that civilian casualties in Afghanistan had dramatically increased by 23 percent in the first six months of the year and blamed the insurgency for the vast majority of the dead and wounded.
The United Nations said on Wednesday that civilian casualties in Afghanistan had dramatically increased by 23 percent in the first six months of the year and blamed the insurgency for the vast majority of the dead and wounded.
In its mid-year report on civilian casualties, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan found that homemade bombs and mines usually placed on or near roads, were the leading cause of deaths and wounds.
But it also noted a worrying new increase in those casualties caused by ground engagements between Afghan security forces and insurgents seeking to regain lost territory — especially in their former heartlands in the east and south of the country.
Georgette Gagnon, the head of human rights for UNAMA, said the organization documented 1,319 civilian deaths and 2,533 wounded from January to June.
She also said there was a sharp rise in the number of attacks against civilians working for the government and judiciary, and against civilian administration buildings such as courts.
UNAMA attributed 74 percent of the civilian casualties to the insurgency, nine percent to the Afghan security forces and U.S.-led international military coalition, and 12 percent to ground engagements between pro-government forces and insurgents. It said the remainder was either unattributed or caused by old explosives.
The Taliban immediately rejected the report as a fabrication. They also vowed to keep targeting government employees and other Afghan civilians they consider linked to the U.S.-led coalition or the administration of President Hamid Karzai, despite a warning from the United Nations that such killings violate international law.
UNAMA said casualties from targeted attacks against civilians working for the government rose by 76 percent. They included 114 civilians killed and 324 wounded from 103 such attacks — including four against court houses around the country that accounted for the majority of the victims.
In the last such attack in Kabul on June 17, a Taliban suicide bomber killed 17 people outside the Supreme Court building. Most were office workers.
The report also found that the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was increasingly using drones in its airstrikes. It said that drones were responsible for at least one third of the 49 people killed and 41 wounded in airstrikes, but noted that such actions were now responsible for only two percent of all casualties.
Insurgents have stepped up the tempo of their attacks in areas where occupation troops have withdrawn, or are in the process of drawing down after handing over the lead for security to Afghan security forces in mid-June.
The majority of foreign forces are to leave this year and completely pull out at the end of 2014. Plans by the United States and its allies to retain some troops after that date have not yet been set, pending the signature of a delayed security agreement between Afghanistan and the United States.
