nsnbc : At least 28 women and children have been killed and another 16 injured in air strikes this week in Afghanistan, concluded the United Nations’ mission in the country after an initial probe into the deaths. Tadamichi Yamamoto, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and head of UNAMA said “I am deeply saddened to hear that women and children have once again suffered so terribly from the conflict. … This is unacceptable. All parties must live up to their obligations to take all feasible measures to protect civilians.”
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) urged authorities to ensure independent, impartial and prompt investigations of both incidents, and to compensate the victims. The incidents took place in Herat, a western province bordering Iran and Turkmenistan, and in Logar, which is south of Kabul on the eastern side of the country.
The UNAMA cited a news release issued by United States Forces in Afghanistan that it is aware of an incident in the Logar area and that they have opened an investigation into it. The air strikes reportedly targeted Anti-Government Elements who had used a civilian compound to attack aircraft. The UN mission said that it will continue its independent work to establish the facts as to what happened, including allegations that civilians were used as shields.
There have been confirmed reports on the presence of Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard units in the Herat region and reports on the support of the Taliban by Iran there. However, with or without the presence of such units there, the air strikes resulting in the death of non-combatant civilians there are as unacceptable as certain armed elements hiding among displaced Afghans there said a
More civilians have been killed or injured in aerial operations in the first half of this year than in 2016, according to UNAMA.
Initial figures show at least 232 civilians were injured or killed, a 43 per cent increase over 2016, and the majority of the victims have been women and children.
Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/09/02/unama-deeply-saddened-that-women-and-children-once-again-suffered-from-afghanistan-conflict-tadamichi-yamamoto/
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