Taliban, ISIL-KP's IED-use main cause of record civilian casualties

KABUL: Unprecedented number of Afghan civilians will perish and be maimed this year if the increasing violence is not stemmed, said Deborah Lyons, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan.

"Intensify your efforts at the negotiating table, stop the Afghan against Afghan fighting. Protect the Afghan people and give them hope for a better future," said the UN envoy, who is also the head of UNAMA, as he called on the Taliban and Afghan leaders. Civilian casualties in Afghanistan in the first half of 2021 reached record levels, including a particularly sharp increase in killings and injuries since May when international military forces began their withdrawal and the fighting intensified following the Taliban's offensive.

In a new report issued on Monday, the UN warned that without a significant de-escalation in violence, Afghanistan in 2021 will be set on a course to witness the highest ever number of documented civilian casualties in a single year since UNAMA records began.

UNAMA's Afghanistan Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict Midyear Update 2021, documents, 5,183 civilian casualties (1,659 killed and 3,524 injured), a 47 per cent increase compared with the same period in 2020.

Of serious concern is the acute rise in the number of civilians killed and injured in the period from May 1, with almost as many civilian casualties in the May-June period as recorded in the entire preceding four months. The number of civilian casualties during May and June — 2,392 in total (783 killed and 1,609 injured) — was the highest for those months since UNAMA began its systematic documentation in 2009. The period January-April 2021 saw 2,791 civilian casualties (876 killed and 1,915 injured).

Much of the battlefield action during the most deadly months of May and June took place outside cities, in areas with comparatively low population levels. The UN is gravely concerned that if intensive military action is undertaken in urban areas with high population densities, the consequences for Afghan civilians could be catastrophic.

Anti-Government Elements (AGEs) were responsible for 64 per cent of the total civilian casualties: 39 per cent by Taliban, nearly nine per cent by Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISIL-KP), and 16 per cent by undetermined AGEs.

Pro-Government Forces (PGFs) were responsible for 25 per cent of civilian casualties: 23 per cent by Afghan national security forces, and two per cent by pro-Government armed groups or undetermined PGFs.

It is noteworthy that this is the first report since UNAMA began its systematic civilian casualty documentation in 2009 that does not attribute a single civilian casualty to international military forces. The conflict has taken on a distinctly Afghan fighting Afghan character.

The leading causes of civilian casualties in the first half of 2021 were the extensive use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) by AGEs, ground engagements between parties, targeted killings by AGEs, and air strikes by the Afghan Air Force.

The main cause of civilian casualties — the Taliban and ISIL-KP use of non-suicide IEDs — amounted to 38 per cent of all civilian casualties, nearly triple that recorded for the same period in 2020.

The use of pressure-plate IEDs, nearly all by the Taliban, resulted in 42 per cent more civilian casualties than during the same period in 2020. Pressure-plate IEDs, which can be triggered even by a child stepping on them, may violate international humanitarian law and UNAMA reiterates its call on the Taliban to permanently ban the use of these indiscriminate devices.

Targeted killings by AGEs were the third leading cause, responsible for 14 per cent of all civilian casualties. Airstrikes, attributable to the Afghan Air Force, accounted for eight per cent of civilian casualties. Compared with the first half of 2020, the total number of civilians killed and injured in airstrikes increased by 33 per cent.

UNAMA remains deeply concerned about the continuation of AGE attacks deliberately targeting civilians, particularly through the use of IEDs and shootings, including targeting of civilian government workers, human rights defenders, media workers, religious elders, and humanitarian workers, and sectarian-motivated attacks. Children were on at least one occasion deliberately targeted. The most shocking incident being the May 8 attack outside the Sayed ul-Shuhuda school in Kabul, which resulted in more than 300 civilian casualties, mostly school girls, including 85 killed, for which no AGE claimed responsibility.

UNAMA recorded a resurgence of deliberate sectarian-motivated attacks against the Shia Muslim religious minority, most of whom also belong to the Hazara ethnic minority, nearly all claimed by ISIL-KP. These included a string of non-suicide IED attacks and shootings, including at least eight IEDs in May-June alone that targeted buses or similar vehicles carrying members of the Hazara community. In total, between January 1 and June 30, 2021, UNAMA documented 20 incidents targeting Shia/Hazara, resulting in 500 civilian casualties (143 killed and 357 injured). (IANS)

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