More than 1,300 civilians died in Afghanistan
The UN mission notes that, compared to the same period last year, the number of civilian casualties decreased by almost 30%. However, the efforts of the parties to the conflict to reduce the number of civilian casualties are still “insufficient”, the mission stressed.
The UN mission draws attention to the fact that almost a third of civilian victims are children. In particular, in the first six months of 2019, 327 minors were killed and 880 were injured.
According to the UN, government military units, together with allies, primarily the United States, killed more civilians than the Islamists, 717 people. This is a 31 percent increase compared to the number of civilian deaths from the actions of the Afghan and allied armies during the same period in 2018. Most of them became victims of airstrikes by the US and Afghan forces.
However, the US military does not agree with these data. A spokesman for the US military contingent expressed doubts about the “methods and conclusions” of the UN mission. According to him, the US Army always tries to avoid civilian casualties and investigates every report of civilian deaths as a result of its actions.
At the moment, about 14,000 US soldiers are stationed in Afghanistan. Since the beginning of the year, twelve American servicemen have been killed there. The day before, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that US President Donald Trump wants to begin the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan before the next presidential election, which is scheduled for November 3, 2020.
