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UN mission in Afghanistan finds children bear brunt of war
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The brother of Mehri, a Moby Group employee who was killed in a Taliban suicide attack on a minibus, watches during an interview by The Associated Press with family members, at their house in Kabul, Afghanistan, Jan. 28. (AP/Massoud Hossaini)
T
he United Nations mission in Afghanistan says the number of children killed or wounded in the country's conflict has surged in the first half of 2016, compared to the same period last year.
UNAMA says in its midyear report, which was released on Monday, that one-third of casualties between January and June were children, with 388 killed and 1,121 wounded. That's 18 percent more than during the first half of 2015.
The report also says that the total number of civilian casualties in the first half of 2016 rose by 4 percent, to 5,166 — 1,601 killed and 3,565 wounded.
That's similar to the figures from the previous year, which was particularly bad as Afghan forces took the lead in fighting following the 2014 withdrawal of most international combat troops.
