The United Nations mission in Afghanistan has issued a report documenting the human rights situation in the city of Kunduz, in the north of the country.
The report released on December 12 says 289 people died and 559 civilians were injured during fighting in the city in September and October between Taliban militants and Afghan security forces.
The casualties include the 30 killed and 37 injured by a U.S. air strike against a hospital run by the Doctors Without Borders NGO on October 3.
Meanwhile, Doctors Without Borders said on December 12 that the death toll in that attack now stands at 42, including 14 staffers, 24 patients, and four relatives of patients who were working as volunteers. There were 105 patients and at least 80 staffers at the hospital at the time of the air strike.
The report also says that 13,000 families were displaced by the violence and it documents food shortages, electricity cutoffs, looting, and human rights violations.
"The insecurity, absence of governance, and the breakdown of rule of law during this period resulted in a loss of protection of the most basic human rights," the report says.
The Kunduz fighting was the worst case of prolonged urban violence since the beginning of the U.S.-led campaign to oust the Taliban from Afghanistan in 2001.
With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and AP