1 May 2021 01:01 am
Kabul (dpa) 30 April 2021 -
Despite ongoing peace talks, violence in Afghanistan has increased in the first three months of the year, according to a US government watchdog report published on Friday.
According to the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) report, the number of so-called enemy-initiated attacks - attacks conducted by insurgents such as the Taliban - has increased nearly 37 per cent from January to March compared to the same quarter last year.
Additionally, casualties among Afghan security forces were “substantially higher” compared to the same period last year, and the number of insider attacks on security forces also increased by 82 per cent compared to the same period last year. This resulted in more than double the casualties from insider attacks, the report states.
The UN mission in Afghanistan had already reported a 29-per-cent increase in civilian casualties for the first three months of the year compared to the same period last year.