Kabul, June 30: A UN report says violence in Afghanistan increased by 51 percent in the past three months despite the presence of about 150,000 US-led forces in the country.
“The majority of incidents involved armed clashes and improvised explosive devices,” United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a report released on Thursday.
The report also said bomb attacks as well as abductions and assassinations of Afghan citizens have risen significantly since March.
The report, submitted to the Security Council by the UN chief, has documented nearly 3,000 civilian casualties during this period. The figure was the highest since the start of the US-led invasion in 2001.
Attacks by US-led and Afghan forces accounted for 10 percent of the civilian casualties.
The UN chief has urged all sides in the war-torn country to protect civilian lives and comply with international humanitarian law.
The invasion of Afghanistan took place with the official objective of curbing militancy and bringing peace and stability to the country.
Nine years on, however, Afghanistan remains unstable and civilians continue to pay the price.
—-Agencies