Civilian casualties of the war in Afghanistan rose to record levels for the seventh year in row in 2015, as violence spread across the country in the wake of the withdrawal of most international troops, the UN reported on Sunday.
At least 3,545 noncombatants died and another 7,457 were injured by fighting last year in a 4% increase over 2014, the UN’s annual report on civilian casualties.
Increasingly desperate fighting between Western-backed government forces and insurgent groups meant more noncombatants are being caught in the crossfire, investigators wrote, pointing to two developments in particular which pushed casualties up.
Heavy fighting in the northern city of Kunduz, which briefly fell to the Taliban in late September, and a wave of suicide bombs which killed and wounded hundreds of people in the capital Kabul last year were the main factors behind the rise.
Ground engagements were the leading cause of civilian casualties at 37%, followed by roadside bombs at 21% and suicide attacks at 17%.
Women and children were especially hard hit, as casualties among women spiked 37% while deaths and injuries increased 14% among children.
Casualties attributed to pro-government security forces jumped 28% compared to 2014.
A 9% rise in civilian casualties caused by international military forces was attributed largely to a US air strike in October on a Doctors Without Borders hospital that killed 42 staff, patients, family members and injured another 43.
Overall 103 civilians were killed and 67 wounded by foreign forces last year, the report found.
As in past years, insurgent groups like the Taliban were blamed for the majority of civilian deaths and injuries, at 62%. Investigators accused insurgents of increasingly using tactics that “deliberately or indiscriminately” caused harm to civilians.
Since the United Nations began systematically recording civilian casualties in Afghanistan in 2009, it has documented nearly 59,000 deaths and injuries.
