More than 10,000 Afghan civilians were killed or wounded in violence last year, the United Nations said on Thursday, with militant bombings the main cause while air strikes by U.S. and government forces inflicted a rising toll. Militants in Afghanistan have ramped up their assaults on urban centers in response to US President Donald Trump introducing a more aggressive US strategy in Afghanistan in August including a surge in air strikes on militant strongholds. The number of civilians killed or wounded across the country dipped by a welcome nine percent overall in 2017, the report by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) showed, with 10,453 total civilian casualties including 3,438 deaths and 7,015 wounded. New report finds that while overall number of civilians killed or wounded decreased, casualties from suicide bombings, attacks soared

More and more Afghan civilians are being deliberately targeted by militant attacks and suicide blasts, new U.N. figures published on Thursday show, as the Taliban and the Islamic State group ramp up their assaults on urban areas. “With half the Afghan population living in Taliban-controlled or influenced areas, the prerogative for humanitarian agencies to provide assistance in contested areas is all the greater – and the IRC reaffirms its commitment to stay and deliver to those most in need, especially children.”

The deadliest attack since the UN began documenting civilian casualties in 2009 was in Kabul on 31 May last year, when a massive truck bomb killed 92 and injured 491. Pro-government forces caused a fifth of civilian casualties with 16 percent attributed to Afghan forces, 2 per cent to international forces and 1 percent each to pro-government armed groups and undetermined pro-government forces, the United Nations said. The U.N. report says the number of casualties dropped by 9 percent compared with 2016, but it could increase again this year as the government and international forces step up aerial attacks against insurgents. Related: Trump takes it to the Taliban; the Taliban takes it out on civilians

Women and children were heavily affected by the violence with 359 women killed last year, an increase of 5 percent over the previous year - and 865 injured. This amounted to three times as many attacks as in 2016, double the number of deaths and 30 percent more total civilian casualties. “Afghan civilians have been killed going about their daily lives—traveling on a bus, praying in a mosque, simply walking past a building that was targeted,” Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, U.N. high commissioner for human rights, was quoted as saying in the report.
The United Nations report that in 2017, more than 10,000 Afghan civilians were killed or wounded in the war.