Violence and killings have intensified in the country, with the US-Taliban peace talks reaching a crucial moment, paving the way for intra-Afghan talks. While American negotiators led by Zalmay Khalilzad wrapped up their ninth round of talks with the Taliban in Doha, and are just a step away from a peace deal as the US special envoy puts it, civilian casualties have sharply surged in addition to heavy death toll reported on both sides of the war. Only in the past two days, tens of civilians who had no links to the warring sides have been killed in crossfire, airstrikes, explosions and roadside bombs in Kunduz, Baghlan, Faryab, Balkh, Farah and Laghman provinces.
The behavior of the belligerent sides over recent months shows as if they are competing with each other in targeting innocent Afghans. Innocent people are killed every day by both sides; one day by the militants in cities and another day by pro-government forces in their homes and agricultural fields in rural areas in operations and airstrikes. Afghans are safe neither in cities nor in villages due to the irresponsible behavior and lack of accountability of the warring sides. Thus, Afghan civilians are paying a price for a war that has nothing to do with them, but has been imposed on them.
Both parties to the war are claiming that they are committed to rules of war and paying attention to the protection of civilian lives, but they have not proved this in practice. The protection of civilians remains a slogan. The impunity the culprits of incidents of civilian casualties are enjoying has allowed those with a gun to feel no responsibility for the lives of civilians, and therefore act irresponsibly and perpetrate whatever they want. The government has not yet investigated incidents involving civilian casualties transparently, and punished those found guilty so that others do not commit such acts, whereas there is nothing such as accountability among the Taliban.
All sides of the conflict may try to justify civilian casualties, yet the continuation of the situation is on no account tolerable. Neither party should jeopardize the lives of the non-combatants to safeguard their political interests.