Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah on Sunday once again called on Afghan forces to take more measures to ensure the protection of civilians' lives during their operations. 
 
“Security institutions should consider the prevention of civilian casualties under any circumstances,” he said. 
 
Negligence in this respect is not justifiable, Abdullah said, adding that all are responsible towards reducing civilian casualties and that legal action is needed where a violation regarding the issue is noted. 

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) said the policy to reduce civilian casualties has been finalized and that it is being implemented during offensive and clearance operations by the Afghan forces. 
 
Meanwhile, United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan Toby Lanzer said security forces should coordinate operations with full accuracy to stop civilian toll. 
 
This comes after the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in October issued its quarterly report on the civilian casualties in Afghanistan in which it said that in the first nine months of 2018, UNAMA continued to document extreme levels of harm to civilians from the armed conflict, including recording the most civilian deaths during the same nine-month period since 2014. 
 
UNAMA called on parties to the armed conflict to better protect the civilian population and urges all parties to take concrete steps toward a peaceful settlement to the conflict in the interest of protecting the population.
 
According to the report, from 1 January to 30 September 2018, UNAMA documented 8,050 civilian casualties (2,798 deaths and 5,252 injured), 1 reflecting the same extreme levels of harm to civilians as during the same period in 2017. Civilian deaths increased by five per cent while the number of civilians injured decreased by three percent.” 
 
The mission attributed 52 percent of all civilian casualties from aerial attacks to the Afghan Air Force, 45 per cent to international military forces, and the remaining three per cent to unidentified Pro-Government Forces. The report urges forces to uphold their commitments to take continuous steps to improve civilian protection in their aerial operations.