DM Monitoring
LASHKARGAH: At least 583 civilians, including 213 children and 73 women, suffered casualties during the past three months in southern Helmand province as a result of the conflict, an official said. Abdul MuqimAlizai, acting head of the provincial committee of the Independent Human Rights Commission, told Pajhwok in an interview that 59 civilians were killed and 524 others injured in Helmand province.
He said the dead included 13 children, six women and 40 men and the injured included 200 children, 33 women and 291 men. “The intensity of the conflict in Helmand has been very high in the last three months. We collected these figures only from clinics and hospitals in LashkarGah and Nahr-e-Saraj districts”, he added.
He said they had also received information about civilian casualties in Sangin, Marja and Garamsir districts but the victims were transferred to hospitals in Herat and Kandahar and therefore they had no exact information. He said most of the civilian casualties in Helmand during the past three months resulted from roadside bombings. He urged the warring parties in Afghanistan to respect the laws of war in order to minimize civilian casualties.
But Helmand Governor Abdul NabiElham disputed the civilian casualties’ figures, saying some civilians had been killed and wounded but not that much in the past three months. However, he did not give any figures. The governor said most of civilian casualties in the province were caused by landmines planted by the Taliban on highways.
Moreover, At least six Afghan army soldiers and eight militants were killed after clashes broke out in the country’s northern province of Kunduz overnight, an army source said Thursday.
The clashes flared up after militants armed with guns and Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs) attacked a security checkpoint along a main road on eastern outskirts of provincial capital Kunduz city which connects the city with neighboring Takhar province at mid-night, Abdul Raziq, an army officer from Pamir 217 Corps, told.
There were also four security forces members and five militants wounded in the fighting, he said.
At least seven soldiers were captured by the militants as the assailants overran the checkpoint, according to local villagers.
Kunduz province has been the scene of heavy clashes in recent years.
Taliban militants have been trying to overrun small towns or districts across Afghanistan and consolidate their position during winter, launching hit-and-run ambushes against security forces.
Earlier, Two policemen have been confirmed dead as the Taliban insurgents stormed a checkpoint in Sarkano district of Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province on Tuesday, provincial police spokesman Farid Dehqan said.
Two other policemen sustained injury in the attack which happened late Tuesday night, the official said.
Taliban militants also suffered casualties in the firefight that lasted for a while, Dehqan said, but didn’t give exact figure.
Taliban militants who have intensified activities in Kunar and the neighboring Nangarhar province haven’t commented.
