KUNDUZ CITY (SW): Local officials in northern Kunduz province have said that latest spate of violence has claimed the lives of some 150 civilians, and more than 500 are left wounded.
Kunduz was briefly overrun by the Taliban exactly a year after the Taliban captured it for the first time in the year 2015. For at least ten days, the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) were busy pushing the militants out of the city and its outskirts.
Mir Aqa Etebar, head of the provincial disasters management authority, and head of the commission probing alleged war crimes, has said that though the exact figures of the destruction caused by the fighting have not been compiled yet but the initial observation suggest the province has witnessed a colossal damage.
It is estimated that more than 150 civilians have lost their lives here recently. Last year, the figure of civilian casualties during and immediately after the fall of the city was estimated around 289 while more than 500 were reported wounded.
Meanwhile, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has initiated investigations into the allegations that at least 32 civilians were killed and a further 19 injured in air strikes in Kunduz city last Thursday. In the early hours of 3 November, a series of air strikes were carried out in Buz-e-Kandahari area of Kunduz city, following ground operations conducted by international and Afghan security forces there, in which pro-Government forces came under attack by Anti-Government Elements.
Preliminary findings indicate that the aerial operation killed at least 32 civilians and injured an additional 19 civilians, the vast majority of whom were women and children.
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