The United Nations says more than 11,000 civilians were killed or wounded in violence in Afghanistan in 2015, making it the worst year for civilians since the organization began compiling the statistics in 2009.
In a report released on February 14, the UN said the number of civilian casualties rose 4 percent over 2014 and that 3,545 civilians were killed.
Moreover, 25 percent of all civilian casualties were children, while 10 percent were women.
The report says that fighting and terrorist attacks in urban areas were the "main causes" of the increased civilian casualties.
"The harm done to civilians is totally unacceptable," wrote Nicholas Haysom, the UN's special representative on Afghanistan, in the report.
UN Reports 2015 Uptick In Afghanistan Civilian Casualties
Afghan onlookers stand at the site of a suicide car bomb near the international airport in Kabul on December 28, 2015.