Human rights

Human rights violations
According to Human Rights Watch, bombings and other attacks which have led to civilian casualties are reported to have "sharply escalated in 2006" with "at least 669 Afghan civilians were killed in at least 350 armed attacks, most of which appear to have been intentionally launched at non-combatants."[137][138] By 2008 the Taliban had increased its attacks using suicide bombers and the targeted killing of unarmed civilian aid workers such as Gayle Williams.[139] The United Nations reports that the number of civilians killed by both the Taliban and the pro-government forces in the war rose nearly 50% since 2007. In the first six months of 2009 595 civilians died at the hand of the Taliban, and 309 at the hands of NATO and Afghan government forces. In the first half of 2008, the Taliban had killed 495 civilians and the allies 276.[140] [141] The high number of civilians killed by Taliban is blamed in part on their increasing use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), "for instance, 16 IEDs have been planted in girls' schools" by the Taliban.[140