BBC: Afghanistan Taliban ‘using human shields’ – general UPDATE: AlJazeera – Human sheilds in Afghanistan

Submitted by Amir “MR”

Updated: Added article below which offers another perspective on “human shields”. JazakAllah khair for the comments sharing it.

Very sad situation for the people of Afghanistan. I pray to God that the innocent people are spared from this war.

Taliban militants are increasingly using civilians as “human shields” as they battle against a joint Afghan-Nato offensive, an Afghan general has said.

Gen Mohiudin Ghori said his soldiers had seen Taliban fighters placing women and children on the roofs of buildings and firing from behind them.

The joint offensive in southern Helmand province has entered its fifth day.

US Marines fighting to take the Taliban haven of Marjah have had to call in air support as they come under heavy fire.

They have faced sustained machine-gun fire from fighters hiding in bunkers and in buildings including homes and mosques.

Gen Ghori, the senior commander for Afghan troops in the area, accused the Taliban of taking civilians hostage in Marjah and putting them in the line of fire.

“Especially in the south of Marjah, the enemy is fighting from compounds where soldiers can very clearly see women or children on the roof or in a second-floor or third-floor window,” he is quoted by Associated Press as saying.

“They are trying to get us to fire on them and kill the civilians.”

As a result, his forces were having to make the choice either not to return fire, he said, or to advance much more slowly in order to distinguish militants from civilians.

Nato has stressed that the safety of civilians in the areas targeted in the joint Nato and Afghan Operation Moshtarak is its highest priority.

Journalist Jawad Dawari, based in Lashkar Gah, told BBC Pashto that Taliban fighters remained in many residential areas of Marjah and were defending their positions with heavy weapons.

“It is difficult for the Afghan army and Nato to storm Taliban-held areas because to do so may inflict heavy civilian casualties and there are still a lot of civilians in Marjah.

“Whenever they launch an attack, the Taliban take refuge in civilians' homes.”

He had spoken to many local people in Marjah, he said, and they had all said the Nato offensive had made little progress since the first day.

An Afghan military official had told reporters that the backbone of the resistance came from foreign fighters – Pakistani and Arab – and that it was feared they might resort to suicide attacks, he added.

The most senior US general in the south, Brig Gen Ben Hodges, gave the BBC a more upbeat assessment of Marjah, saying locals were coming out to give information on insurgents now that they were confident the forces involved in Operation Moshtarak were not leaving.

He said Afghan units would be staying for at least 30 days and the Marine battalions “for several months”.

Speaking to the BBC after visiting Marjah, the commander of British forces in southern Afghanistan, Maj Gen Nick Carter, said the situation was dangerous, but that progress was being made.

He told the BBC's Frank Gardner it could take up to 30 days to clear the insurgents out, depending on when they lost the will to fight.

Troops taking part in the offensive have been having to deal with large numbers of improvised bombs.

American forces have found a so-called “daisy chain” – a long bomb rigged up from mortar bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and a motorbike, our correspondent says.

And British engineers have deployed a device called a “python” – a length of explosives designed to set off mines and clear a safe path through them, he says.

Afghan army chief of staff Besmillah Khan told the AFP news agency the threat from improvised bombs meant gains were coming “slowly”.

Meanwhile, to the north, British forces have discovered an insurgent cache of stolen Afghan army and police uniforms.

The find suggests the Taliban could have been planning attacks disguised as Afghan security personnel, our correspondent says.

Nato says discussions with the local population on how to bring lasting security to the area are continuing, our correspondent adds.

Gen Hodges said several hundred police had been trained and would go into central Helmand once the situation was deemed appropriate.

British and Afghan troops are reported to be advancing more swiftly in the nearby district of Nad Ali than are their US and Afghan counterparts in Marjah.

Missiles 'on target'

Gen Carter confirmed on Tuesday a missile that struck a house outside Marjah on Sunday killing 12 people, including six children, had hit its intended target.

Gen Carter said the rocket had not malfunctioned and the US system responsible for firing it was back in use. Officials say three Taliban, as well as civilians, were in the house but the Nato soldiers did not know the civilians were there.

Initial Nato reports said the missile had landed about 300m (984ft) off its intended target. Gen Carter blamed these “conflicting” reports on “the fog of war”.

Speaking on Tuesday, Dawud Ahmadi – a spokesman for Helmand Governor Gulab Mangal – said that 1,240 families had been displaced and evacuated from Marjah – and all had received aid in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.

Operation Moshtarak, meaning “together” in the Dari language, is the biggest coalition attack since the Taliban fell in 2001.

Allied officials have reported only two coalition deaths so far – one American and one Briton killed on Saturday.

Source: BBC News

Human sheilds in Afghanistan

According to Nato commanders, the Taliban are now using human shields in the ongoing battles around the town of Marja.

I do not doubt the details of the incidents that have been reported. The military on the ground report being fired upon from nearby buildings, and then before they can respond, women and children start to appear in the same area.

These details have also been witnessed by journalists embedded with some of the military units in the area.

The Associated Press quoted Brigadier General Mohiudin Ghori, the brigade commander of Afghan troops in Marjah, as saying: “They are trying to get us to fire on them and kill the civilians.”

There is no doubt that the Taliban are fully aware of the Nato rules of engagement. When General Stanley McChrystal published his tactical directive in July last year, it was covered by most major news organisations.

It called on commanders, “to scrutinize and limit the use of force like close-air support against residential compounds and other locations likely to produce civilian casualties.”

Just before the start of the Marjah offensive, a British commander Brigadier James Cowan told his men to avoid shooting at civilians.

“Defeat the enemy by avoiding civilian casualties. Hold your fire if there is a risk to the innocent, even if this puts you in greater danger. That kind of restraint requires courage – courageous restraint. This you have shown throughout our time in Afghanistan,” he said. These comments were widely reported.

The Taliban know very well that civilian casualties over the last eight and half years have damaged support among the ordinary Afghans both for the Karzai government, and for continued international military involvement.

I do, however, think some care needs to be taken before using the term “human shields”.

The first time I recall the phrase being used was in 1990. I was reporting at the time from Baghdad, and the “human shields” then were those westerners captured, held (and eventually released) by Saddam Hussein after he invaded Kuwait.

This time, though, we are probably not talking about hostages, held against their will, sometimes handcuffed and blindfolded.

Most, but not all, of those fighting for the Taliban in Helmand are locals.

Afghans here tell me that in many cases the women and children in the homes with a Talib fighter are likely to be his own women and children.

What are viewed as “human shields” in the west may be seen very differently by Afghan eyes. Some perhaps would even talk of brave men taking a last stand to protect their women and children from foreign invaders.

Source: AlJazeera