Afghan civilian deaths from air raids rose by more than 300pc

Deaths of Afghan civilians in air strikes jumped from 2017 after the United States loosened its criteria and escalated attacks on the Taliban, according to a report Monday. The number of civilians killed annually in US and coalition air strikes soared by 330 percent to some 700 civilians in 2019, said Neta C Crawford, co-director of the Costs of War Project at Brown University. She said that in the first six months of 2020, 86 Afghan civilians were killed and 103 injured in Afghan Armed Forces air strikes. In the three subsequent months, as Afghan-Taliban talks continued in Doha, the toll intensified, with 70 civilians killed and 90 injured.