Saturday, August 01, 2009

‘More than 1,000 Afghan civilians killed this year’

Yahoo! News, July 31, 2009

AFP

AFP/File – Afghan villagers stand near the graves of air-strike victims in western Farah province in May 2009. Afghanistan’s …

by Bronwen Roberts

KABUL (AFP) – Afghanistan’s intensifying conflict killed more than 1,000 civilians in the first six months of 2009, an increase of nearly a quarter over the same period last year, the United Nations said Friday.

This year has been the bloodiest in a Taliban-led insurgency that has drawn thousands of international military reinforcements, most of them deploying into areas where a strong militant presence could prevent August 20 elections.

The boost in troop numbers — now roughly 90,000 — was one reason for the higher toll of 1,013 dead civilians, according to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) Human Rights Unit.

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