© Noorullah Shirzada / AFP
A wounded Afghan boy receives treatment at a hospital following multiple explosions in Jalalabad on September 11.
A wounded Afghan boy receives treatment at a hospital following multiple explosions in Jalalabad on September 11.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said the conflict in Afghanistan killed 3,804 civilians and wounded another 7,189, an 11 percent increase from 2017, in its annual report released on February 24.
The civilian death toll is the highest number since UNAMA began tallying figures in 2009.
The UNAMA report said 2018 "witnessed the highest number of civilian casualties ever recorded from suicide attacks and aerial operations."
According to the report, 63 percent of all civilian casualties were caused by militants -- with the Taliban being blamed for 37 percent of the dead and wounded, the Islamic State (IS) militant group for 20 percent, and other antigovernment groups for 6 percent.
The Afghan government and its U.S. and NATO allies were blamed for 24 percent of the dead and wounded civilians, many of them killed in increased air strikes carried out mostly by international forces.
"For the first time since 2009, UNAMA recorded more than 1,000 civilian casualties from aerial operations," the report said.
The U.S. military said it carried out 6,823 sorties last year in which munitions were fired, the highest number in the last six years.
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