Adding to a growing list of UN reports released recently all showing a surge in Afghan civilian casualties in different manners, a Wednesday report was released showing that civilian deaths are surging from US and Afghan government airstrikes.
This has been ongoing through the year, with a decrease in US airstrikes in Iraq and Syria leading to more warplanes committed to bombings in Afghanistan. More US strikes means more civilians getting hit, meaning the casualty figures are at multi-year highs.
The UN figures show 649 civilian casualties in the US and Afghan airstrikes in 2018’s first nine months. This is 39% more than the same period in 2017, as well as more than the whole of last year. 60% of the casualties are women and children.
All these reports on all these different sorts of civilian casualties caused by the war show a general increase in violence against civilians on all fronts, with no signs of the violence slowing down ant time soon.
It has been US foreign policy for decades that to win the hearts and minds in the Middle East, launch smart bombs into their neighborhoods.
Big election coming up.
Parliamentary elections were scheduled to be held in Afghanistan on 15 October 2016, to elect members of the House of the People, but were postponed to 7 July 2018 and then again to 20 October 2018.
The United Nations on Thursday said NATO-trained, local security forces are creating conditions for most eligible Afghans to vote, as Afghanistan braces for a spike in violence ahead of parliamentary elections next week.
Progress has been made despite significant security challenges, the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, said in a statement. Nearly 130 civilians have already been killed in the run-up to the vote, according to U.N. data, and the Taliban have vowed to disrupt the process further.
Afghan soldiers and police will be stationed at roughly 5,100 poling centers across the country on election day. The number of polling centers was reduced from over 7,350 due to security concerns.