Agence France Presse, 05 September 2007
KABUL (AFP) - Nearly 230 Afghan civilians have been killed and 650 wounded in Taliban-style suicide and other bomb explosions this year, security officials said here Wednesday.
About 12 percent of the casualties had occurred in the past two weeks, Major Charles Anthony, a spokesman with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, told reporters.
Insurgents often direct their bombings against the security services but the blasts generally kill more civilians.
"These bombs -- roadside and suicide bombings -- have killed 227 civilians and injured 647 since the start of January this year," interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said.
He did not have figures for last year for a comparison. Insurgency-linked attacks have, however, spiked this year as the militants' insurgency has deepened.
The latest Taliban bombing was in the northern town of Kunduz on Tuesday and killed two Afghan policemen.
Officials at the media briefing did not give figures for the number of security forces personnel killed in such blasts this year.
Bashary said earlier this week that about 500 Afghan policemen had been killed in Taliban-related violence since March.
About 300 civilians have also been killed in operations by Afghan and international troops targeted at militants, according to figures cited by the United Nations.
The violence this year has killed about 4,000 people, most of them fighters for the Taliban, who are trying to topple the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.
Citation: " Nearly 230 civilians killed in Taliban bombs this year," Agence France Presse, 05 September 2007.
Original URL: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070905/wl_sthasia_afp/afghanistanunrestciviliantoll