Civilian casualties down in Afghanistan in 2019; 2,800 killed

Feb. 5 (UPI) — Nearly 30,000 civilians were killed in Afghanistan last year as part of the ongoing conflict that’s now almost 20 years old, new government statistics said Wednesday.

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission said in its annual report more than 13,500 civilians — men, women and children — were injured of killed by the fighting in 2019. More than 10,700 were injured and 2,800 were killed.

The commission said the militant Taliban group was responsible for 71 percent of last year’s casualties in Afghanistan, amid on-again, off-again peace talks with the United States to end the fighting. U.S. forces have been in Afghanistan since late 2001.

The 24-page report said there was a 7 percent reduction in casualties from 2018, when there were 11,600 civilian casualties and 3,200 dead.

The report said the Taliban was the chief source of violence. About 14 percent were caused by the Afghan government and 5 percent by the Islamic State terror group.

“The Afghan defense and security forces have targeted most of the perpetrators of such attacks and have eliminated them,” Afghan interior ministry spokesman Nusrat Rahimi said.

The report called on all sides to abide by the 1949 Geneva Convention and violators should be put on trial.

“Peace is the urgent need of the Afghan people,” the report said. “The conflicting parties are called to begin an intra-Afghan dialogue as soon as possible and to establish a cease-fire, taking into consideration the maintenance of justice and human rights protection of the citizens.

“The warring parties are urged not to harm the civilians under any circumstances. According to International Humanitarian Law, intentional killing or harming of civilians are examples of a war crime.”

U.S. President Donald Trump said in his State of the Union address Tuesday night the U.S. military will soon leave Afghanistan.

“I am not looking to kill hundreds of thousands of people in Afghanistan, many of them innocent,” Trump said. “It is also not our function to serve other nations as a law enforcement agency.

“These are warfighters, the best in the world, and they either want to fight to win or not fight at all. We are working to finally end America’s longest war and bring our troops back home.”