Watchdog

The United Nations says that civilian deaths in Afghanistan remain at "extreme levels," with the highest number recorded in the first nine months of 2018 since the same period in 2014.

A new report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) issued on October 10 has found that 2,798 civilians were killed and 5,252 were wounded between January 1 and September 30.

It's a 21 percent spike compared to the same period last year, with a 46 percent increase in casualties from suicide attacks alone.

Improvised explosive devices caused nearly half of all deaths and injuries, the report says, while fighting between insurgents and Afghan security forces comes next with 605 civilian deaths.

Air strikes by Afghan and U.S. forces caused 313 deaths and 336 injuries.

Women and children made up more than 60 percent of casualties from air strikes.

During all of 2017, the UN said 3,438 people were killed and 7,015 wounded.

The UN count is considered a conservative estimate as it needs at least three independent sources to officially register a case.

"As there can be no military solution to the fighting in Afghanistan, the United Nations renews its call for an immediate and peaceful settlement to the conflict," said Tadamichi Yamamoto, the UNAMA chief in Kabul.

With reporting by AP and dpa

PRISTINA -- Activists and supporters of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community in Kosovo have gathered in the center of Pristina to participate in what organizers described as their second-ever pride parade.

Kosovar Minister of European Integration Dhurata Hoxha and Pristina Mayor Shpend Ahmeti joined several hundred other people at the October 10 event, dubbed In the Name of Freedom.

The head of the European Union office in Kosovo, Natalia Apostolova, was also among the participants, many of whom were waiving rainbow flags.

The parade kicked off at Pristina's Skanderbeg Square amid increased police presence and ended some 500 meters away, at Zahir Pajaziti Square.

Ahead of the event capping Pristina 2018 Pride Week, organizers called on politicians and civil society activists to take part in support of the LGBT community's rights to freedom of expression, to have different sexual orientations, and to feel safe.

Kosovo passed an antidiscrimination law in 2004 that guarantees the rights of sexual minorities. But observers say members of the LGBT community continue to face widespread discrimination in the predominantly Muslim country of 1.9 million, where much of society is socially conservative.

Blert Morina, a transgender man from Kosovo, told RFE/RL that the threats his community was facing have forced many of its members to flee to other countries.

He added that Kosovo police do not answer properly to the reported cases of physical violence against transgender people.

"We don't have specific figures but as a small community we can see the ones who are missing", Morina said.

The first such LGBT parade announced in advance, unlike small previous marches held over the previous years, was held in October last year without major incident.

President Hashim Thaci addressed the participants at the start of the gathering, and U.S. Ambassador Greg Delawie joined the crowd at the end of the march.