US strikes in Afghanistan killed 76 civilians in 2018

Monitoring Desk

KABUL: The US military operations killed 120 civilians in 2018, including 76 civilians in operations against the Taliban and other militants in Afghanistan, the US Department of Defense said in an annual report to the US congress. Quoted by Washington Post, the department said that 42 civilians were confirmed to have been killed last year in the US-led operation against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and two civilians died in operations against al-Shabab in Somalia. The department found no credible reports of civilian deaths caused by US operations in Libya or Yemen last year, the report said. A UN report from last month shows that 799 civilians were killed in the first quarter of this year while 303 of them were killed in pro-government forces operations which shows a 39 percent increase from the same period last year.

The UN attributed 17 percent of civilian casualties to the Afghan national security forces, 13 percent to international military forces, two percent to pro-government armed groups, and two percent to multiple pro-government forces.

The report says that ground engagements were the leading cause of civilian casualties, causing approximately one-third of the total. Contrary to 2017 and 2018 trends, the majority of IED civilian casualties were caused by non-suicide IEDs rather than suicide IEDs, the report says. The US Forces- Afghanistan Spokesman, Col. Dave Butler, told TOLOnews on April 24 that the US and Resolute Support Forces in Afghanistan strive for precision in all their operations.(TOLOnews)