AFGHANISTAN/MILITARY/UN: “The long war in Afghanistan continues to set records for civilian casualties, the United Nations mission in the country said on Monday [7-17-17], even as the violence is expected to intensify in the coming months with no hope of peace talks anytime soon.
In the first six months of 2017, 1,662 civilians were killed, a 2 percent increase from what had been a record in the same period last year, the mission reported. An additional 3,581 civilians were wounded.
While Kabul, the capital, had the most casualties because of a few enormous bombings, civilians in the countryside have also suffered in large numbers, with casualties increasing in 15 of the country’s 34 provinces. The report documented a 23 percent rise in the number of women killed.
‘The human cost of this ugly war in Afghanistan — loss of life, destruction and immense suffering — is far too high,’ said Tadamichi Yamamoto, the United Nations secretary general’s special representative for Afghanistan. ‘The continued use of indiscriminate, disproportionate and illegal I.E.D. devices by antigovernment elements is particularly appalling and must immediately stop,’ he said, using an abbreviation for homemade bombs.”
-Mujib Mashal and Taimoor Shah, “Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan Reach New High, U.N. Says,” The New York Times online, July 17, 2017