Taliban continue to use human shields

Sunday Times:

FIERCE fighting engulfed the once serene mountain resort of Swat yesterday, with thousands of civilians trapped as the Pakistani army launched an all-out offensive against the Taliban.

In Swat’s main town of Mingora, now controlled by the Taliban, residents described a scene of terror. Taliban positions were heavily shelled, food and water were running low and electricity and most telephone lines had been cut.

Some described how they were left cowering inside their homes, praying for survival as fighter jets screeched overhead. An army curfew and Taliban threats prevented them fleeing.

The army said it had killed 55 more Taliban fighters in Swat yesterday, bringing the total to more than 200 since the operation began. Hundreds of civilians were feared dead. The provincial government, claiming that hundreds of thousands more were flooding down from the mountains in search of safety, said it could not cope.

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The Taliban placed land mines on the main roads out of Mingora and seemed intent on preventing people from leaving. An army spokesman said the extremists were deploying “innovative” explosive devices, such as pressure cookers packed with nails, to attack patrols.

Heavy artillery fire could be heard yesterday in Saidu Sharif, just over a mile from Mingora. One resident said there had been heavy casualties but people were unable to move out of their houses to tend the injured or to bury or count the dead.

A medical student who stayed in Mingora to help treat the wounded told The Sunday Times: “The electricity has been suspended for a week. The health situation is very bad; there are only three doctors in the main district hospital. Please keep praying for us.”

He said many inhabitants had remained in their homes because they feared their possessions would be looted. “People who left their homes, all their stuff was taken, even the plates and spoons were not spared by both army and Taliban so people are afraid of leaving.”

The student added that the army seemed determined to flush out the militants. “For the first time, they are killing Taliban,” he said. “Till now it was just a show-off to the world in which only civilians were killed.”

Afrasiab Khattak, a Pakistani senator who acted for the North West Frontier’s provincial government in a controversial peace agreement in which the Taliban won effective control of the valley and imposed sharia, or religious law, last month, highlighted concerns for a “densely populated area”.

“The Taliban came down from the mountains when the military operations started and are using the people as human shields,” he said.

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General David Petraeus, head of US Central Command, told The Wall Street Journal yesterday that Pakistan had displaced Afghanistan as Al-Qaeda’s stronghold. “It is the headquarters of the Al-Qaeda senior leadership,” he said.

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According to reports from Mingora last night, the Taliban were shaving off their beards and trying to hide among locals to escape from the valley.

A US drone attack in the area of Waziristan yesterday killed five militants, despite fresh pleas from Pakistan for an end to such operations.

It would be nice if the media would call the use of human shields a war crime. I have not heard a rational explanation for why they do not do so. Are they afraid the Taliban will take offense?

I think Petraeus is right about al Qaeda and its status in Pakistan.

If the Taliban are shaving their beards, it demonstrates a lack of confidence in their military situation and also attempt to further camouflage themselves as civilians.

With Pakistan using heavy artillery and air strikes, both of which lack the precision of the US drone Hellfire attacks, their opposition to these strikes makes even less sense. The people being attacked are Pakistan's enemy. Doesn't make sense to destroy as many as possible, particularly its leaders?