More than 80 Afghan civilians killed since peace deal, report says

April 15 (UPI) -- More than 80 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan since the signing of a peace deal between the United States and Taliban militants in February, human rights activists say in a new report.

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission said in the analysis that 83 were killed and more than 100 have been injured since the deal was signed Feb. 29.

The dead civilians have included civil servants, government officials, ethnic leaders and religious scholars. Among the dead were eight women and eight children in series of attacks ranging from assassinations to hostage takings, all defined as war crimes under international law, the AIHRC report said.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for half of the attacks, while the rest were carried out by Islamic State extremists or unknown perpetrators.

The human rights group condemned the killing and strongly called for "all parties to the conflict, especially the Taliban, to stop taking civilians hostage and killing government officials."

Under the peace deal, the United States and NATO allies will reduce their forces in Afghanistan to 8,600 within 135 days and the U.S. military will ultimately withdraw all troops. It calls for prisoner swaps and peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government.

The intra-Afghan peace talks were due to begin last month but have been delayed by stalled prisoner exchanges and disagreements within the Afghan government.

The Taliban has carried out hundreds of attacks since the signing of the deal, which some analysts interpret as an attempt to gain a better negotiating position.

An Afghan government spokesman blamed the Taliban for the civilian death toll, saying Kabul has "made extensive efforts for peace." A Taliban spokesman said there's no agreement yet to reduce violence and that it's waiting for the talks to begin to discuss the issue.