AFGHANISTAN – More than 10,000 Afghan civilians have been killed or wounded by violence last year and militant bombings are the main cause, while air strikes by US and government forces have dropped an increasing number of casualties, the United Nations said on Thursday.
In August, US President Donald Trump launched a new strategy in Afghanistan, including increased air strikes. Militants have responded with attacks in Kabul in recent weeks that have killed nearly 150 people.
The United Nations said the total number of dead at 3,438 and the 7015 wounded was 9 percent less than a year earlier. But the figures highlighted the high number of victims because of the militant bombings.
“The attacks in which anti-government elements targeted civilians accounted for 27 percent of the total number of civilian casualties … specifically suicide and compound attacks,” the organization said in a statement.
The bloodiest attack since the United Nations began recording civilian casualties in 2009 occurred on May 31 when a suicide bomber detonated a truck bomb, killing 92 civilians and wounding 491.
Anti-government forces were responsible for two-thirds of the casualties last year, with the Taliban responsible for 42 percent of them, while the Islamic state was responsible for 10 percent, and 13 percent of the victims were unidentified anti-government elements.
Pro-government forces have claimed a fifth of the casualties, with Afghan forces responsible for 16 percent and international forces for 2 percent and 1 percent for both pro-government armed groups and other pro-government groups that have not been identified.
The air campaign carried out by international and government forces killed six percent of civilian casualties in 2017, with 295 deaths and 336 injuries, up seven percent from a year earlier.
