US airstrike in Afghanistan killed at least 23 civilians: UN
conducted by pro-government forces against Taliban in the area,” the UN’s statement read.
The Afghan government and officials from the military said that the airstrike was launched after the US-led joint forces came under attack during an anti-Taliban operation in the Gamrsir district on Tuesday night. However, they have yet to confirm who carried out the attack.
An increase in aerial attacks by Afghan and US-led troops since last summer — when Washington announced its new strategy of using more air strikes against militants — has seen an increase, too, in the number of civilians wounded or killed.
“UNAMA has this year recorded a sharp increase in civilian casualties from aerial attacks in the first nine months of 2018 compared to the same period in 2017,” the statement read, adding that the “649 civilian casualties recorded between January 1 and September 30, 2018, is more than the number of civilian casualties from aerial operations recorded” in any entire year since the UNAMA began its systematic civilian casualty documentation in 2009.
The UN reminded all parties involved in the conflict to uphold their obligations and protect civilians from harm.
Meanwhile, the family of an Afghan man detained and allegedly tortured to death by the Central Intelligence Agency in the wake of the 9/11 attacks sued on Friday to find out what happened to his body.
The lawsuit says that Gul Rahman and his family were living in a refugee camp in Peshawar when he was kidnapped by the US spy agency on suspicion of being a militant on Nov. 5, 2002 and transferred to a CIA prison for interrogation.
“Over the next two weeks, CIA personnel subjected Mr. Rahman to extensive and systematic torture and abuse,” the lawsuit said, until he died of hypothermia on Nov. 20, the lawsuit said.
His death was not reported until 2010 and not officially confirmed until 2014.
“To date, the CIA has not officially informed Mr Rahman’s family of his death, nor returned his body to his family,” the lawsuit said, according to AFP.