The United Nations Tuesday strongly condemned a deadly suicide attack in the northern Afghan province of Faryab, killing 15 civilians and injuring nearly 50 others. "The continuing rise in civilian deaths from IEDs is tragic. Their use in a distinctly civilian location such as a market is atrocious and cannot be justified," the U.N. secretary-general's deputy special representative for Afghanistan, Nicholas Haysom, said in a statement. Haysom reiterated the many calls made by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) for an immediate stop to the indiscriminate use of IEDs, especially in areas known to be populated by civilians. UNAMA stressed that the indiscriminate use of IEDs may amount to a war crime. International humanitarian law - which binds all parties to the armed conflict in Afghanistan - strictly prohibits the use of weapons and attacks that do not distinguish between civilians and military objectives.
