Afghanistan Times
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AT-Kabul: At least seven civilians were killed and one other wounded in a roadside bomb blast in Ghazni province.
Spokesman to the provincial governor, Shafiq Nang Safai, said that a civilian van was on the way to Jaghoori district when struck an improvised explosive device (IED). “As a result seven civilian including two women and two children were killed and one another was injured in the accident,” he said.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack.
Improvised explosive devices claim lives of civilians on daily basis. Though, the international human rights groups urged the Afghan insurgents to stop planting the IEDs as hundreds of civilians, particularly children are killed but the militant groups still to take the request calls seriously. Number of the mines is such high that Afghan security forces daily defuse 50 to 58 IEDs.
According to a report of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, the improvised explosive devices killed 773 Afghan civilians in 2009. The IEDs were pointed out as the leading cause of civilians’ casualties in the first six months of 2014.
The UNAMA documented 4,853 civilian casualties from January 1, to June 30, 2014, showing 24 percent increase over the same period in 2013.
“Included in the toll were 1,564 civilian deaths (up 17 per cent) and 3,289 injuries (up 28 per cent). Ground engagements caused two of every five civilian casualties in 2014 accounting for 39 per cent of all civilian casualties: 1,901 in total, up 89 per cent from 2013, with 474 civilians killed and 1,427 injured. Total child civilian casualties increased 34 per cent in the first six months of 2014 to 1,071, including 295 killed and 776 injured, while total women civilian casualties increased 24 per cent to 440, including 148 killed and 292 injured. Ground engagements took the lives of 112 children and injured 408, with the total 520 child casualties, an increase of 111 per cent over 2013. Ground engagements killed 64 Afghan women and injured 192, with the total 256 women casualties, up 61 per cent over 2013. Improvised explosive devices used by anti-Government elements, the second leading cause of civilian casualties in 2014, were behind 1,463 civilian casualties – up seven per cent from 2013 and the highest number of civilian casualties from this tactic recorded in a six month period since 2009,” the report, published in July 2014, said.
