U.N.: Afghan Violence Rises by 30%
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KABUL, Afghanistan — Violence in Afghanistan has surged nearly 30% this year, and suicide bombings are inflicting a high toll on civilians, a new U.N. report says.
The report said Afghanistan is averaging 550 violent incidents a month, up from an average of 425 last year. It said three-fourths of suicide bombings are targeting international and Afghan security forces, but suicide bombers also killed 143 civilians through August.
“Suicide attacks have been accompanied by attacks against students and schools, assassinations of officials, elders, and mullahs, and the targeting of police in a deliberate and calculated effort to impede the establishment of legitimate government institutions,” according to the report, which was released in New York last week. A suicide attack yesterday on a police bus in western Kabul killed 13 officers and civilians, including a woman and her two children who boarded the vehicle seconds before the explosion, the Afghan government reported. It was the second bombing of a bus in the capital in four days.
