In a sobering reminder of the cost of war, a report released by the U.N. on Feb. 14 shows 3,545 Afghan civilians killed in 2015 while 7,457 were wounded. According to the U.N.'s Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, 2015 had the "highest number of total civilian casualties recorded by UNAMA since 2009," reports the Associated Press.
Prolonged fighting between Western-backed government forces and insurgent groups, heavy fighting in Kunduz and a wave of suicide bombs, especially in the capital Kabul, contributed to the grim statistics.
"The harm done to civilians is totally unacceptable," read a statement by Nicholas Haysom, head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, according to Reuters.
President Ashraf Ghani blamed the Taliban for the deaths and injuries and said that the Taliban "deliberately or indiscriminately" caused harm to civilians.
Rejecting the U.N. report and the allegations, the Taliban called the report "propaganda compiled at the behest of occupying forces" and blamed the U.S. and its allies for the rise in casualties.
The total number of casualties was 11,002, 4 percent above the 2014 level. Civilian injuries rose by 9 percent, though there were 4 percent fewer deaths. Speaking to journalists, Haysom said that the statistics do not "reflect the real horror of the phenomenon we are talking about. The real cost we are talking about in these figures, is measured in the maimed bodies of children, the communities who have to live with loss, the grief of colleagues and relatives, the families who make do without a breadwinner, the parents who grieve for lost children, the children who grieve for lost parents," reports The New York Times.
