3,300 civilians killed in Afghan conflict in 12 months: Public Health Ministry report

Conflict related violence in Afghanistan in the past 12 months has claimed the lives of over 3,300 civilians and wounded 14,600 others, Afghan Ministry of Public Health said on Monday.

The Ministry has measured the time period from September 16, 2018 to September 10, 2019 to obtain the new figures.

"Our system is active in all 34 provinces and we collect data...and when the numbers are verified we enter them into the system," said Mir Lais Mustafa, head of the Incident Response Department of the Command and Control Center, reported TOLO News.

As per the latest report, Baghlan, Kunduz, Nangarhar, Helmand, and Kunar are the provinces with highest civilian casualties and Bamyan, Daikondi, Paktia and Balkh have the lowest.

Although the report doesn't make claims about which military or group is to blame, it stated that as many as 460 were killed and 1,200 wounded in suicide attacks.

Raising concerns over civilian casualties due to the operations and airstrikes carried out by Afghan and other foreign forces in the country, Abdul Shakur Mashkur, a commissioner at the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission said: "Unfortunately, we have witnessed civilian casualties from the security forces operations in the Sayed Abad district of central Wardak province and Khogyani district of Nangarhar province."

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Interior asserted that they have made efforts to prevent civilian casualties during military operations in the country.

"Security forces are trying hard to take care of civilian lives and not harm them," a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, Rohullah Ahmadzai said.

Nusrat Rahimi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior said that the Ministry will investigate the incidents and those who have been negligent will face serious punishment whenever civilians are harmed by a mistake of the security forces.

In a latest report, the United Nations also expressed its concern over civilian casualties in the Afghan war and called on the parties involved in the war to take measures to reduce civilian casualties in the country.