Unfortunately 'there is no single official figure for the overall number of civilians killed by the war in Afghanistan since 2001, but estimates for specific years or periods have been published by a number of independent organizations'


The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) was established on 28 March, 2002 by UN Security Council resolution 1401, its original mandate was to support the Bonn Agreement.

It attributed 596 Afghan civilian deaths as having been caused by international-led military forces in 2009, representing about a quarter of the 2,412 Afghan civilian deaths it recorded as having been caused by the war in 2009 and representing a jump of 14% over the number killed in 2008.

In 186 (8%) of the deaths, UNAMA was unable to clearly attribute the cause to any one side

UNAMA - Afghanistan, Annual report on protection of civilians in armed conflict, 2009

These figures do not cover any indirect deaths of Afghan civilians as a consequence of displacement, starvation, disease, exposure, lack of medical treatment, etc resulting from the war.