Afghanistan: Civilian war deaths up, says rights group

Civilian war deaths in the first seven months of 2010 rose by six per cent over the same period last year, a new report by Afghanistan's human rights commission has found.

The Taliban 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 nine 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 Taliban'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.

A full copy of the AIHRC's Report on Civilian Causalities: 1 January – 31 July 2010 is available at: http://www.aihrc.org.af/2010_eng/

Date: 8 August 2010