KABUL - Afghanistan’s Office of the National Security Council on Monday afternoon voiced its concerns over the high number of civilian casualties recorded in the first six months of this year and said the Taliban were responsible “for the vast majority”.
In its statement, the NSC said: “We note the midyear report by UNAMA and underscore the government’s findings from the field demonstrate that the Taliban are responsible for the vast majority of the civilian casualties in Afghanistan, either directly or by creating an enabling environment for other terrorist groups to attack civilians.”
The NSC stated that “given the concerns regarding the nature of this report, we remain committed to working with UNAMA in refining its findings to better reflect the battlefield statistics.”
According to the NSC, the recent upsurge in Taliban attacks and violence against civilians comes after their commitment to decreasing violence as per the US-Taliban agreement signed earlier this year in Doha.  (ATN)