Afghan civilians caught in escalating violence

Civilians are increasingly falling victim to an upsurge in fighting between Taliban insurgents and government and US-led coalition forces. "The Taliban came to our village at night and threatened us if we helped the government. Then they started shelling security forces after which US aircraft bombarded our village [in early May]–killing some 12 women and children in one of my relative's house, with many others killed in other houses," said Shah Mohammad, 35, a resident of Panjwai district, who fled the fighting. Panjwai district has seen a recent increase in counterinsurgency operations in which many civilians have reportedly lost their lives. According to the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission in Kabul, following a joint military operation on May 21and May 22 by the government and US-led coalition forces in Panjwai, a district of Kandahar province, 16 civilians, including women, children and the elderly, lost their lives in Azizi village, while a number of families have become displaced. Violence in southern Afghanistan is now at its worst level since the ouster of the hard-line Taliban regime by US-led coalition forces in late 2001, with more than 1,100 people, including nearly 50 foreign troops, losing their lives during this year alone. According to officials of the Afghan Defense Ministry, more than 200 militants have been killed since the largest anti-Taliban operation, Operation Mountain Thrust–involving some 10,000 soldiers from Afghan, British, Canadian and US forces–was launched in mid-May to flush out insurgents, thereby paving the way for the deployment of some 6,000 soldiers in the south from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. But for residents of the southern provinces caught up in the fighting, the violence is already taking its toll. "What is happening here?" Hamid Samander, 45, a shopkeeper in Helmand province's Garreishk district, asked. "I saw a beheaded body yesterday lying in a crater behind my house, which has frightened my sons and daughters," he said. "We never saw such horrible things last year–it has frightened people in our village into returning to Pakistan," Samander added. And while officials in the southern province of Kandahar admit that there may have been civilian casualties during some of the military operations, they place the blame on the Taliban militia. "Civilians may have suffered losses, but the basic reason is that the Taliban are taking up positions in their houses," Davoud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Kandahar governor, said. Meanwhile, civilians say that preventing the Taliban from entering their homes is all but impossible. "I oppose any kind of air strikes because the real victims are the innocent civilians who are unable to protect themselves," Abdullah Tokhi, 35, resident of Shahri Safa district of southern Zabul province, told IRIN. Juma Khan, 35, lives in Lashkargah city, provincial capital of Helmand, which is a hotbed of the Taliban insurgency and has seen some of the deadliest fighting over the past few months. "Around one month ago, unidentified gunmen attacked a police convoy near our house at night and in the morning the police came to our village and arrested my brother and some other innocent villagers," Juma Khan claimed. "I did not see my brother for a few days, but finally police returned his dead body which showed signs of torture," he said. Responding to complaints of civilians caught up in the fighting, Haji Mahaiuodin, a spokesman for the Helmand governor remarked: "We are taking the issue of civilian losses very seriously." What they intend to do remains to be seen, but clearly there is a lack of accurate information from the field. "Certainly the UN is always concerned about the protection of civilians. It is our humanitarian mandate to protect civilians. Unfortunately, we don't really have proper and accurate information about the number of civilian casualties in the recent upsurge in the south," Ameerah Haq, the UN's Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan, told IRIN in Kabul. "The BBC estimate is about 900–that is the number I have seen but I don't know the real number," she said.