The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has issued a new report on civilian casualties in the country, and once again the civilian death toll has broken a record, with 3,545 civilians killed over the year, a 4% increase over the record 2014 levels.
Worryingly, the toll inflicted by NATO occupation forces, as well as Afghan security forces, both grew much faster than the norm, with a 9% increase in NATO-killed people, which officials say was mostly attributable to the US attack on a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital.
Even that 9% increase looks pretty modest compared to the Afghan military, which saw a 28% increase in civilian casualties inflicted over the previous year, likely in part caused by the number of times they lost towns to the Taliban and send reinforcements to try to retake them.
As usual, everybody followed up the report with statements rejecting their own responsibility, and both Taliban and Afghan officials insisting the other side killed way more than were reported. The UN report said the overall civilian toll is “totally unacceptable.”