The United Nations (UN) says the recent offensive on the northern Afghan city of Kunduz by Taliban militants killed at least 289 civilians and wounded 559 others. A report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), which was released on Saturday, documented the abuses in Kunduz committed by Taliban during the offensive, which took place in the city and the districts surrounding it between September 28 and October 13.
The injured included at least 30 killed and 37 injured in a US air strike on a hospital run by Medecins Sans Frontieres, a French charity, UNAMA said in a report.
It said the figures were likely to rise as further information became available, noting that unstable security meant its officials had been unable to conduct detailed investigations in Kunduz.
Medecins Sans Frontieres said on Saturday that its own count of the death toll from the Kunduz hospital attack had risen to 42, a figure UNAMA said it was verifying.
Apart from the losses in the air strike on October 3, it said most casualties had been caused from small arms fire or explosives during heavy fighting in residential areas.
"In most of these cases, UNAMA could not attribute the casualties to a specific party to the conflict," it said, although it also detailed reports of deliberate killings by the Taliban of civilians including people associated with the government.
It also joined calls for an independent investigation into the attack on the hospital, which it said may amount to a war crime if it were proved to be deliberate. An estimated 150,000 people were trapped in the city by the most prolonged period of urban fighting in Afghanistan since the US-led campaign against the Taliban in 2001.
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