The latest quarterly report on Afghanistan civilian casualties from the United Nations once again is bad news, unsurprising since all other reports on the Afghan War for months have been worse and worse.
The UN report says civilian casualties from US and Afghan airstrikes in Afghanistan are up over 50 percent from last year, with increasing casualties not just from the US, but from the increasingly aggressive Afghan Air Force.
This should be unsurprising too, as the US has been massively escalating the number of bombs dropped on Afghanistan, reaching the highest level in nearly a decade. UN officials say most of the dead are women and children.
The Afghan Defense Ministry issued a statement immediately condemning the UN report as false, insisting that “it is quite obvious” the Taliban kill more civilians, even though the specific report being addressed was on air strikes, and the Taliban has no Air Force.
Top photo | Hellfire missiles being loaded onto a US military Reaper drone in Afghanistan. (Photo: Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson/U.S. Air Force)