Civilian war deaths in the first seven months of 2010 rose by 6 per cent over the same period last year, Afghanistan’s human rights commission said yesterday.
The Taleban and their allies were responsible for 68 per cent of the 1325 civilian deaths recorded by the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, while 23 per cent were ascribed to Nato or Afghan government forces, the organisation said in a report. Responsibility for the remaining 9 per cent could not be determined because they occurred in areas that were too dangerous for a thorough investigation, the commission said.
Most of this year’s civilian deaths occurred in the Taleban’s southern heartland with bombs the biggest single killer, the commission said. Insurgent bombs were responsible for 425 civilian deaths, with more than 200 of them in June and July. Another 122 people were killed in suicide attacks and 197 either directly assassinated or caught in the crossfire of assassination attempts. In the first seven months of 2009, 1252 civilians were killed, 67 per cent by insurgents and 23 per cent by government-allied forces, the group said.
The United Nations is expected to release its own figures on civilian casualties for the first six months of the year in coming days. In all of 2009, at least 2412 Afghan civilians were killed in fighting, according to the UN. That was up 14 per cent from 2008.
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