Afghanistan should prosecute Taliban for war crimes: Amnesty

London, Jun 30: Afghan authorities must work with the International Criminal Court to investigate those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan, says Amnesty International.

Its call to prosecute Taliban attacks as war crimes comes after a series of serious attacks by insurgents deliberately targeted civilians, including a car bomb attack on a hospital in Afghanistan's eastern Logar province on 25 June, which killed at least 27 people.

The UN reported that May was the deadliest month for civilians in Afghanistan since 2007, with 82 per cent of civilian casualties attributed to anti-government groups.

The London-based human rights group said there has been a surge of attacks amounting to violations of international humanitarian law on the part of the Taliban and other insurgent groups.

"They are becoming far bolder in their deliberate killing of civilians, which is a war crime, plain and simple," said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International''s Asia-Pacific director.

"These attacks underline the urgent need for the Afghan government to cooperate fully with the International Criminal Court to investigate allegations of war crimes by all sides to the conflict in Afghanistan." Zarifi said.

Amnesty said Afghanistan is already a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and the ICC prosecutor is currently conducting a preliminary examination in Afghanistan and has requested information from the Government of Afghanistan but not yet received an answer.

PTI (IRNA)