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HRW counts human cost of Afghan war
The Taliban is increasingly hitting civilians, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) says in a new report, against a backdrop of worsening violence in Afghanistan.
The rights group accuses the Taliban and other armed groups of war crimes in its report, The Human Cost, published on Monday.
The report focuses on civilian deaths caused by anti-government fighters, primarily Taliban and Hezb-e Islami forces.
A previous report by the group was critical of foreign troops on the question of civilian casualties.
The report is based on dozens of interviews with civilian victims of attacks and their families and a lengthy review of available documents and records.
Taliban role
Joanne Mariner, HRW's terrorism and counter-terrorism director, said in a statement: "Suicide bombings and other insurgent attacks have risen dramatically since 2005, with almost 700 civilians dying last year at the hands of the Taliban and other insurgent groups.
More
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/97455061-B4E8-482F-A26E-BE3E12B8F699.htm
The report focuses on civilian deaths caused by anti-government fighters, primarily Taliban and Hezb-e Islami forces.
A previous report by the group was critical of foreign troops on the question of civilian casualties.
The report is based on dozens of interviews with civilian victims of attacks and their families and a lengthy review of available documents and records.
Taliban role
Joanne Mariner, HRW's terrorism and counter-terrorism director, said in a statement: "Suicide bombings and other insurgent attacks have risen dramatically since 2005, with almost 700 civilians dying last year at the hands of the Taliban and other insurgent groups.
More
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/97455061-B4E8-482F-A26E-BE3E12B8F699.htm
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Even though most attacks have been on military and government targets, most victims have nothing to do with either, the Human Rights Watch study said.
Since 2005, Afghanistan has witnessed a sharp increase in the number of attacks and bombings carried out by the Taleban and other anti-government forces.
The report says these led to a sharp rise in Afghan civilian casualties.
More bombings threatened
Human Rights Watch says there were 136 suicide attacks last year compared to 25 the year before.
Most of these were on military targets, either on US-led multinational forces or the Afghan army and police.
However, because the attacks took place in build-up areas, the majority of the victims were civilian.
The attacks killed 272 people and 531 injured.
The Taleban have threatened hundreds more bombings this year. In the past three days alone, there have been three deadly attacks.
At least 10 policemen were killed on Monday morning in Kunduz in the usually peaceful north .
On Sunday, four private security guards were blown up in the southern city of Kandahar and on Saturday seven policemen died near the border with Pakistan in Khost province.
Analysts say the bombings are the Taleban's response to being squeezed by the build-up of foreign troops in the south and east and they are very difficult to prevent.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6558769.stm