Afghan women mourn during the funeral of victims who died from a suicide attack, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, July 24, 2016.
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Underscoring the risk to civilians, the report was released days after at least 80 people were killed in a bloody attack in Kabul.
But assessing the threat from Daesh, as Islamic State is known in Afghanistan, is hard.
The report says that one-third of the casualties during those six months were children, with 388 killed and 1,121 wounded.
And for the first time, it also found the Afghan air force killed or wounded more civilians in its operations than did air strikes carried out by global forces.
On the ground, the NATO-led coalition advising government forces estimates the number of Daesh fighters at between 1,000-3,000, many of them former members of militant groups like the Taliban Movement of Pakistan (TTP), the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan or the Afghan Taliban itself.
The total civilian casualty figure recorded by the United Nations since 1 January 2009 through 30 June 2016 has risen to 63,934, including 22,941 deaths and 40,993 injured.
UNAMA chief Tadamichi Yamamoto in his report said every civilian casualty represents a failure of commitment and all parties to the conflict should take meaningful steps to reduce civilians’ suffering. “History and the long memory of the Afghan people will judge leaders of all parties to this conflict not by their well-meaning words, but by their conduct”.
ISIS, which attacked both government and Taliban forces, was responsible for 122 civilian casualties – 25 deaths and 97 injuries – according to the report.
The figures represent a 47 percent increase in the casualties caused by government forces in comparison with the same time period a year ago.
The UN report said insurgent groups including the Taliban were responsible for the majority – 60% – of civilian casualties.
A United Nations report on Afghanistan published on Monday showed a record number of civilian casualties since counting began in 2009, a United Nations spokesman told reporters here.
The report said that growing air strikes by Afghan forces also contributed to the rise in civilian casualties as new aircraft were deployed. While Afghan troops have suffered heavy casualties over the past two years, the country’s military is hoping to regain the initiative in the war as they put together a brand new offensive in their fight against loyalists of ISIS.
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The report revealed that 85 percent of the casualties caused by such devices were children, including some killed or maimed while playing with them. This brings the estimated total number of conflict-induced internally displaced Afghans to 1.2 million.
