The report, released Saturday, documents 289 deaths and 559 civilian injuries that occurred in Kunduz city and the surrounding districts between September 28 and October 13.
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“The vast majority of these casualties resulted from ground fighting that could not be attributed exclusively to one party”.
An investigation by Doctors Without Borders revealed that the death toll was much higher than originally counted from the USA airstrike on a medical charity hospital in Afghanistan on October 3, NBC News reported.
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Doctors Without Borders said the revised death toll in the Kunduz bombing was the result of an exhaustive investigation by the organization, combing through the rubble of the hospital to find further human remains, as well as interviewing family members of missing victims and cross-checking with other hospitals.
Chaos in the city “enabled an environment in which civilians were subjected to arbitrary killings, assault, other forms of violence, including gender-based violence, threats and widespread criminality”, the report stated.
Among those killed were 14 MSF staff members, 24 patients, and four caretakers, the group said in a statement.
This report, UNAMA said will address key human rights concerns that arose during what was the first prolonged urban combat situation in Afghanistan since 2001, and outlines key recommendations to mitigate civilian casualties and protect civilians from harm, promote respect for worldwide human rights and humanitarian law, and promote accountability.
Although Taliban leaders publicly ordered their fighters to respect human rights, the United Nations recorded instances in which militants beheaded security forces, summarily executed some civilians with ties to the government or worldwide organizations, threatened journalists and women’s rights workers, and abducted men and boys.
UNAMA also cited reports of the desecration of bodies by both the Taliban and Afghan forces during the offensive, saying that mutilation of the dead “may amount to a war crime”.
The U.S. Air Force claimed that an AC-130 gunship attacked the hospital because it mistakenly identified the building for a nearby compound being held by the Taliban.
MSF said ascertaining the true death toll was “extremely difficult” because part of the medical archives, patient files and admission sheets were destroyed as the building burned.
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The strike was “caused primarily by human error”, General John Campbell, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said last month, prompting a strong rebuke from the charity who slammed American forces for “gross negligence”. “With the delivery of this petition to the gates of White House, we continue to fight back for the respect of the Geneva Conventions”, Jason Cone, executive director of MSF-USA, declared during a rally in Washington, D.C.’s Lafeyette Park on Wednesday.
