UN Mission speaks against abduction, killings in western Afghanistan

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) strongly condemned the recent abduction and killing of six civilians in Herat province in western Afghanistan, said Farhan Haq, the UN associate spokesman.

The six killed included employees of the International Rescue Committee, Haq said at a daily news briefing here Tuesday.

"The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the killings," said Haq. "The UN Mission says that attacks against civilians are prohibited at all times and may amount to war crimes."

The western province of Herat has been mostly stable, but Taliban fighters stormed a court where militants were standing trial in April, killing seven and wounding 75.

A total of 1,319 civilians were killed and 2,533 injured in conflict-related violence in the first half of this year, according to a UN report released in the Afghan capital Kabul in July.

The report blamed the attacks of Taliban insurgents and other armed groups for 74 percent of the civilian deaths.