876 Afghan civilians killed in 3 months: Report

A new report on Tuesday revealed that 876 Afghan civilians were killed and 1,685 others injured from July to September this year, a 43 percent increase compared to the last quarter from April to June.

The report by the US Special Inspector for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) attributed 83 percent of this quarter's civilian casualties to anti-government forces -- 40 percent to unknown insurgents, 38 percent to the Taliban, 3 percent to Islamic State, and 2 percent to the Haqqani Network.

Another 8 percent were attributed to pro-government forces and about 8 percent to other or unknown forces.

Therefore, most of the increase in civilian casualties compared to last quarter was attributed to unknown insurgents (55 percent) and the Taliban (42 percent).

According to US Forces-Afghanistan (USFOR-A), the average daily enemy-initiated attacks this quarter were 50 per cent higher compared to last quarter. Overall enemy-initiated attacks were also "above seasonal norms", TOLO News reported.

Meanwhile, the Defence Ministry said that 27 provinces witnessed security incidents in the last 24 hours.

Violence has remained high in various parts of the country amidst ongoing efforts to move the peace process forward.

The Ministry on Sunday said that clashes were ongoing in the provinces of Helmand, Kandahar and Uruzgan for the last few weeks.