This represents an increase of 4 percent in the total number of casualties compared to the same period past year, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said.
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Casualties caused by pro-government forces increased 47% over the same period previous year, the United Nations said. It is the first instance that Afghan air strikes have caused more casualties than strikes by global parties.
The current report released by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) does not count the 80 dead and 231 wounded in the twin suicide blasts on Hazara protesters in Kabul on 23 July since the report counts figures from January till June this year.
Scores of militants fighting for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group have been killed amid ongoing operations in eastern Nangarhar province. Islamic State, which includes disaffected Taliban fighters from Pakistan and Afghanistan, now ranks behind the Taliban and al-Qaida in the country, with as many as 3,000 fighters, according to a Congressional Research Service report.
The director of the Uruzgan provincial council, Abdul Kareem Khadimzai said the militants launched their attack on checkpoints on the strategic Kandahar-to-Uruzgan highway, killing three policemen and taking five others hostage.
The UN said anti-government forces were responsible for nearly two-thirds of civilian casualties in Afghanistan.
The report found that, between January and June, the United Nations documented 1,601 civilian deaths and 3,565 injured civilians.
At least 1,601 civilians were killed and 3,565 wounded in the first six months of 2016 as militants and insurgents try to topple the government that was installed in Kabul after the 2001 USA -led military intervention.
Ground engagements accounted for 38% of casualties, followed by complex and suicide attacks at 20%, United Nations investigators found. Parties to the conflict must cease the deliberate targeting of civilians and the use of heavy weaponry in civilian-populated areas.
“Platitudes not matched by meaningful action ring hollow over time”, he said.
Since the withdrawal of global troops from Afghanistan began after 2011 and the official end of Nato’s combat mission in December 2014, the number of civilian casualties has risen year-on-year. Thirteen percent of casualties were jointly attributed to AGE and PGF and the remaining 4 percent were caused by “unattributed explosive remnants of war”, according to the report.
UNAMA highlighted that during the first half of this year, it recorded 157,987 “newly displaced” people, a 10 percent increase on the same period last year, bringing the total estimate of people displaced by conflict to 1.2 million.
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Shamdasani added that human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists and judges are particularly vulnerable.
