Afghanistan Times
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AT-KABUL: The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has condemned Sunday’s suicide attack on the Attorney General Office’s (AGO) staffers in Kabul.
The Secretary-General’s Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan, Tadamichi Yamamoto, said in a statement on Monday that an emerging pattern of deliberate targeted attacks by the Taliban against civilian staff in the Attorney General’s Office and legal professionals is reprehensible and must stop.
He said attacks deliberately targeting civilians are strictly prohibited under international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes.
The statement said the Taliban claimed responsibility on their website for 11 separate attacks against legal professionals and court houses which caused 28 killed and 86 injured an increase of more than 600 per cent from the same period last year.
“These attacks call into question the Taliban’s public statements to protect civilians,” said Georgette Gagnon, UNAMA’s Human Rights Director, adding that all of those killed and injured in the 10 May attack in Kabul were civilians going about their daily business.
UNAMA said that international humanitarian law, which binds all parties to the conflict in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, prohibits attacks against civilians at any time and in any place. This includes civilian government workers and judicial authorities, the statement added.
