American Forces Press Service

KABUL, Afghanistan, Sep. 3, 2006 – Civilians make up more than 84 percent of the people killed by suicide bombers throughout Afghanistan this year, military officials here reported today.

As of Aug. 12, officials at Combined Forces Command Afghanistan said, 105 out of the 124 people killed by suicide bombers were civilians.

During that period, five coalition servicemembers were killed, while 14 Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police were killed. The other 105 suicide-bombing fatalities were innocent civilians, officials said.

"This is what the Taliban extremists offer the people of Afghanistan - death and destruction," said Army Col. Thomas Collins, coalition forces spokesman. "These suicide bombers place no value on human life and continue to threaten the safety of the Afghan people. They hide behind the mask of being devout, but nowhere in the Koran does it say the killing of innocent civilians is justified."

Collins said that Taliban extremists purposely inflict death and destruction on their own people and show no remorse for their actions. "Their blatant disregard for human life cannot be justified under any circumstance," he said.

(From a Combined Forces Command Afghanistan news release.)

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