Afghanistan Times
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KABUL: The human rights and justice entities call on the war parties to pay serious attention to the civilian lives, saying that increasing in civilian casualties is a matter of great concern.
But the ministry of defense says that the army is very cautious about civilian lives in the airstrikes.
Mohammad Rahim, a resident of Wardak province said Wednesday that his wife and kid were injured in an army shootout.
“There was no fighting. The army soldiers abruptly opened fire. A bullet struck my kid’s leg and my wife was injured by another bullet in her chest,” he said.
He added that civilian casualties by the Afghan and foreign soldiers is a matter of great concern. Several civilians were killed and injured in multiple airstrikes by Afghan and foreign forces in Wardak province in the recent weeks.
A latest incident killed 14 civilians at a wedding reception in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province this week. Ministry of defense claims that terrorist groups were targeted in the air raids.
An organization focusing on justice and civilian protection in Afghanistan, said 3,000 civilians were killed in the past three months mostly by the airstrikes.
Aziz Ahmad Tassal, head of the organization said: “The only dangerous incident in the past three months was air raids and night raids.”
He called on the war parties to change their war tactics to save civilian lives.
Zobair Aref, a spokesman for the defense ministry, said that the air force launches 50 to 60 operations in 24 hours. He called the airstrikes very useful for suppressing the opposition.
“We do our best to avoid civilian casualties during the operations,” Aref said.
Earlier the United Nations had said that 403 civilians were killed and 314 injured in the first half of this year.
