At least 64 children killed in Afghanistan by UK military forces

Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) reported this week that the UK government has paid out for the deaths of at least four times as many Afghan children than it has previously admitted to.

The UK government has in the past publicly admitted to paying compensation for 16 children, but an AOAV study, following Freedom of Information requests, found that Britain had in fact paid for 64 children.

All were killed in fighting involving UK forces between 2006 and 2014 and an amount of on average just £1,656 ($1,880) was paid out in compensation.

Airstrikes and being caught in crossfire were among the most common causes of death that were listed.

AOAV believes the number of recorded civilian deaths caused by British forces is likely to be an underestimate.

Of those deaths that have been recorded, the actual number of children killed could actually be as high as 135, because some of the fatalities are described in Ministry of Defence (MoD) documents merely as sons and daughters – with ages and circumstances of deaths not always included, the report stated.

AOAV says it is possible some of those 135 were adults, but the likelihood of them having been under 18 is high because of the very young average age in Afghanistan.

But Iain Overton, director of charity AOAV, criticized the lack of transparency over the deaths – with it having taken researchers years to obtain the information from the MoD.

Human rights groups and charities have repeatedly criticized both the US and UK over the way they investigate and report civilian casualties in military operations.