KANDAHAR, May 25: Up to 3,000 villagers caught in the crossfire of heavy battles between Taliban and security forces in southern Afghanistan have fled their homes, the International Organisation of Migration said on Thursday.
Most have taken refuge in the main southern city of Kandahar, some arriving destitute and barefoot with their families and a few belongings on trucks, cars and tractors and telling of Taliban death threats on one side and security force shelling and gunfire on the other.
“They are scared, they are terrified,” IOM Kandahar programme officer Nasim Karim said.
“If they don’t support the Taliban, they are threatened. If they do, then from the other side they are being bombed and shot at,” he said. “They have no choice.”
The recent fighting has been focused on a collection of villages in Panjwayi district, about 35 kilometres west of Kandahar city, which has been the focus of three major anti-Taliban operations in the past week.
About four to five villages had been evacuated in the area, Karim said, estimating this would cover between 2,000 and 3,000 people.
The villagers were moving in with relatives and friends in Kandahar, he said. About 25 to 30 families at a camp for internally displaced people in the region had also packed up and moved into the city.
One man from Panjwayi said he fled after a major coalition strike that started on Sunday and lasted till Monday.
“I escaped. I brought my children and women to the city,” he said, identifying himself as Abdullah Khan. “There are still Taliban in the village so there might be more bombardments.”
Officials admit that the strike left at least 16 civilians dead but residents say it killed many more, including children. Villagers said they were bombed while the coalition insists it only used “precision fire” from fighter planes.
The coalition, which said up to 80 Taliban were killed, says militants took cover in locals’ homes, effectively using them as human shields.
“We’re poor people,” another displaced man, Haji Baqi said. “We can’t stop the Taliban taking cover in our home. If we try to stop them, they’ll kill us. If we don’t, the Americans will kill us,” he said.
Baqi also said that Taliban were still in his village.
“I saw them. They were back after the bombardment and were threatening people that if any one reported them to the government, they would be killed,” he said.
The militants also warned they would kill anyone who took guns or other belongings from slain rebels, he said, adding he saw the bodies of several dead Taliban with their guns laying next to them.
Another villager said he even tried to help a wounded Taliban but the man refused to climb on board his tractor, which he was using to carry wounded people to hospital in Kandahar.
“He was screaming in pain,” said the man, asking that his name not be used. “I told him, I could help him to the hospital. He said, ‘Stay away’.”—AFP
