AFP07/16/2006By [Printer Friendly Version]
KANDAHAR - Afghanistan's main rights watchdog said more than 100 civilians had been killed or wounded during anti-Taliban operations in southern Afghanistan in the past three months.
Many families had also been been forced to flee with attacks and air strikes destroying homes, gardens and land, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) said, expressing concern for the safety of civilians.
"The security is worsening in southern Afghanistan," the statement said on Sunday.
"Since the past three months more than 100 defenceless and innocent civilians have either died or been wounded in fighting between the Taliban and Afghan and coalition troops," it said.
The figure covered the southern provinces of Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul and Uruzgan which have seen an upsurge in Taliban attacks and also strikes linked to a major coalition and Afghan military operation launched mid-May.
Hundreds of families "have been forced to flee their villages as a result of attacks and air strikes by US-led coalition troops," the statement said.
Thirty-seven civilians were killed in a US strike against Taliban fighters in Panjwayi district of southern Kandahar in May, AIHRC Kandahar representative Abdul Quadar Noorzai said.
The Afghan defence ministry is meanwhile investigating reports that scores of civilians were killed in a coalition bombardment in Uruzgan last week.
The coalition says it makes every effort to avoid civilian casualties, which it says are sometimes merely Taliban propaganda.
