In a report on Tuesday, UNAMA said more civilians were killed by Afghan and foreign forces than by Taliban and other militants over the last six months.
At least 403 civilians were killed by Afghan forces and another 314 by international troops — compared to 531 killed by the Taliban, and other fighters.
According to the report, 300 of those killed by the insurgents were directly targeted. Of every three casualties, one resulted from ground combat and a fifth from roadside bombs.
The report says Taliban were responsible for 38 percent of casualties, Daesh for 11 percent and other rebels for three percent. Afghan forces are responsible for 18 percent, foreign forces 12 percent and other pro-government forces six percent, the report says.
In reaction, the Taliban issued a statement, rejecting some parts of the UNAMA report.
The Taliban statement said UNAMA mentioned that most casualties were caused in US airstrikes and night raids, but the report still lacked details.
Civilian casualties attributed to Taliban had ‘shortcomings’ and they rejected it, the statement said.
The Taliban said they had an active commission for monitoring and preventing civilian casualties and the fighters never carried out attack intentionally on civilians.
The insurgent group also rejected it was responsible for 38 percent of civilian casualties as mentioned in the UN report.
The Taliban said the UNAMA report had linked some attacks and casualties with them but they had already denied involvement in those attacks.
They said UNAMA report had counted figures who worked in military and intelligence agencies as civilians.
The report attributed only 18 percent of civilian casualties to foreign forces while they were actually involved in 80 percent of fatalities, the rebels said.
The Taliban asked human rights organizations to launch an accurate investigation into civilian casualties and find the real perpetrators.
They suggested keeping civilian losses away from politics as it would help reduce the losses of innocent lives in the war.
mds/ma
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