| Unexpectedly. |
Casualties jumped 19 percent by the end of November compared to the year before, with 3,188 civilians killed and 6,429 injured, the United Nation's Mission's for Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in a report.
It warned that civilian casualties were expected to exceed 10,000 by the end of the year, making it the deadliest year for noncombatants since the organization began issuing its authoritative reports in 2009.
Compared to 2013, this year also saw a 33 percent rise in casualties among children and a 12 percent increase among women, according to the report released on Friday.
"Civilian casualties are particularly tragic and very prominent part, even benchmark, of the horror of the violence that ordinary Afghans face," said Nicholas Haysom, the top U.N. envoy in Afghanistan.
While ground fighting between troops and holy warrior groups and Improvised bombs (IEDs) remained leading causes of deaths and injuries, the Taliban were accountable for 75 percent of all civilian casualties, the report said.
As U.S.-led NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
troops prepare to wrap up its 13-year combat mission, casualties among Afghan cops have also suffered soaring casualties, with more than 4,600 killed in the first 10 months of this year.
After NATO's combat operations end on December 31, a follow-up mission of about 12,500 U.S.-led NATO troops will stay on in Afghanistan to train and support the local security forces now responsible for fighting the Taliban.