UN: IED Casualties Reach 'Extreme Levels' in Afghanistan by Phillip Walter Wellman - Stars & Stripes
The United Nations on Sunday called on militants in Afghanistan to stop using improvised explosive devices in civilian areas, after it documented a sharp rise in civilian casualties caused by the explosives this year.
“The killing and maiming of Afghan civilians by improvised explosive devises, particularly suicide devices, has reached extreme levels in Afghanistan,” the U.N. mission in the country, UNAMA, said in a report.
IEDs caused nearly half of all conflict-related civilian casualties from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, UNAMA said. It documented 1,065 civilian deaths and 2,569 civilians injured by all IED attacks during that time — a 21 percent increase compared to the same period last year.
The number of civilian casualties caused specifically by suicide IED attacks increased by 46 percent during that time, according to the report…