A UN special report reveals increasing harm to afghan civilians from the deliberate and indiscriminate use of improvised explosive devices. Exactly 17 years ago, on 7 October, 2001, the United States and Britain launched a barrage of cruise missiles and long-range bombers against Afghanistan..
A UN special report reveals increasing danger to Afghan civilians from the deliberate and indiscriminate use of improvised explosive devices.
Background
Exactly 17 years ago, on 7 October 2001, the United States and Britain launched a barrage of cruise missiles and long-range bombers against Afghanistan to try to destroy the terrorist training camps of Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network and the Taliban government. The Taliban was the ultraconservative political and religious faction that controlled most of Afghanistan since 1996. They provided sanctuary for the al-Qaeda, the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks in the US, that destroyed the World Trade Center, damaged the Pentagon and killed more than 5,000 people. This marked the beginning of the War in Afghanistan. By the time the U.S. and NATO combat mission formally ended in December 2014, the 13-year Afghanistan War had become the longest war ever fought by the United States. The war has only raged deadlier with time. On average, the conflict has taken the lives of 40 Afghan forces and at least 13 civilians a day.
On 7 October 2018, at least 54 people were killed across Afghanistan in 24 hours: 35 were members of Afghan security forces and 19 were civilians. Most of the fatalities of the security forces came from Taliban attacks, but residents and local officials said a majority of the civilian casualties had resulted from two episodes of firing by government forces in central Afghanistan, and an airstrike in the country’s east that they said was carried out by the United States. American forces denied they had carried out a strike in the area.
This came soon after the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan reported that the killing and maiming of Afghan civilians by IEDs has reached extreme levels. IEDs cause almost half of the civilian casualties from conflict-related violence and are being increasingly used in attacks targeting civilians.
An Improvised Explosive Device (IED) is a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action. There are several broad categories of IED: command-operated IEDs that can enable operators to detonate a device at the precise time a target moves into the target area. They can be fitted onto animals, objects, and vehicles. A victim-operated IED detonates when a person or vehicle triggers the initiator or switch. Suicide IEDs are generally either Body-Borne or Suicide Vehicle-Borne.
Analysis
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) documented an increase in deliberate and indiscriminate attacks by Anti-Government Elements against the civilian population. These attacks primarily involve the use of IEDs: bombs designed, planned and placed to detonate amongst crowds of civilians to kill, maim and create terror amongst survivors.
Between 1 January and 30 September 2018, UNAMA documented 3,634 civilian casualties from IED attacks, including 247 women casualties and 608 child casualties. IED attacks killed and injured increasing numbers of women and children, owing to a rise in the deliberate targeting of civilian areas where women and children were present.
In 2018, the victims of IED attacks have included midwifery students and those preparing for exams; players and spectators at cricket and wrestling matches; worshippers at mosques; humanitarian aid workers; educators; civilian government staff providing essential services to Afghans; civilians seeking access to government services; election workers, and men and women attempting to participate in the electoral process.
Medical personnel and journalists responding to suicide and other IED attacks were also targeted. The UNAMA received credible reports of Anti-Government Elements using children to carry out suicide attacks as well as to transport and plant IEDs.
Many of the attacks targeting the civilian population appear to have been directed specifically at the Shi’a Muslim religious minority, most of whom are also ethnic Hazara. The unpredictable nature of these types of attacks, which are often away from the fighting and in civilian populated areas, has caused ordinary Afghans to live in fear of the next explosion, severely curtailing their ability to carry out normal lives.
Assessment
Our assessment is that there is an urgent need to re-double efforts to gain actionable intelligence to improve counter IED procedures and methods and to decrease the resources of insurgents and to support prosecutions. We believe that the significant risk posed to the minority Shi’a Muslim population by sectarian-motivated attacks should be mitigated by government efforts to protect this population.
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