QUETTA, Dec 4: The Taliban are resorting to the use of civilians as human shields in contravention of international law, according to human rights groups.

Members of the Islamic militia have moved planes to civilian areas and have taken shelter in mosques in heavily-populated areas, Sam Zarifi, a Human Rights Watch senior researcher, told AFP.

“We have fairly strong testimony that the Taliban have resorted to human shielding in the last month. That is moving men and equipment to civilian areas, in clear violation of international law.”

An entire village of around 300 Afghans had been forced to flee from their homes close to the Kandahar city when the Taliban had towed their planes to the edge of their village, Zarifi said, adding that they had left just in time as US jets had promptly moved in to destroy the jets.

“I heard this independently from several recent refugees from Kandahar. Their testimony was very convincing.”

Zarifi said he had also heard reports from the south and east of Afghanistan that Taliban troops had taken refuge in mosques. “They (the Taliban) are being forced into a smaller and smaller area. It may be impossible to separate combatants from civilians.”

The Taliban have been forced out of most of the country over the last three weeks and is now restricted to its traditional southern heartland, centred around Kandahar.

Margaret Lander of the Amnesty International said her organization had received reports earlier in the conflict that the Taliban had been placing equipment next to refugee camps in the western province of Herat, from where the Taliban had since been ousted.

“Military weaponry was placed near IDP (internally-displaced people) encampments,” Lander of the group’s South Asia division told AFP.

“You could see it as a lure to attract US bombing there or as a way of protecting their weaponry.

“As far as Amnesty is concerned, the use of human shields is a violation of international and humanitarian law.”

The rights groups said that even if the Taliban were resorting to the use of human shields, it was still incumbent on the US-led forces to exercise maximum caution in their targeting.

“It does not matter to civilians who is killing them. Combatants have an international obligation not to use shielding and the attacking force has a responsibility to use utmost caution”, said Zarifi.—AFP