“In total, at least 1,074 Afghan civilians were killed and over 1,500 were wounded in armed conflicts in the first half of this year”. The watchdog report said.

Taliban militants are responsible for the majority of civilians casualties mostly caused by the Taliban home made bombs known as IED and suicide attacks, the watchdog alleged.

“Over 60% of the recorded civilian deaths -661 individuals are attributed to insurgent groups who showed little or no respect to the safety and protection of non-combatants.” The Afghan watchdog briefly known as “ARM” said.

Taliban use home made bombs to target the ISAF service members and Afghan security forces, but in most cases Afghan civilians are the target of Taliban home made bombs.

In the recent series of violence, at least 40 Afghan civilians were killed and wounded in Taliban home made bombs in southern Afghanistan.

According to ARM report, 282 civilians were killed in Taliban home made bombs while militants’ suicide attacks took the lives of 127 civilians in the past six months.

NATO led troops are responsible for the killing of 210 Afghan civilians in the past six months, but the ARM report says limitation on NATO air strikes decreased the number of civilian casualties in comparison to the past.

The Taliban militants have increased their insurgency efforts and assassination campaign against the NATO and Afghan security forces as The United States plans to deploy extra 30,000 troops to disrupt the insurgency, before the U.S starts to pull out troops from Afghanistan in July of 2011.

“1.3% increase in the reported number of civilian casualties of war compared to the same period last year.”  The Afghan watchdog added.

Since the beginning of 2010, more than 200 ISAF service members were killed in Afghanistan. Majority of these service members were killed in Taliban home made bombs.

In the last wave of Taliban insurgency, four ISAF service members were killed in home made bomb in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday.

ISAF did not announce the nationality of these service members, but majority of the deployed troops in southern Afghanistan are British and American.

Photo: ISAF