Word: talibanize
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Details of the attack are still vague. On Monday, free-ranging Taliban militants reportedly came upon an Afghan police checkpoint and killed three officers. When Afghan Army units arrived to back them up, they encountered stiff resistance and called in U.S. air support. The International Committee of the Red Cross has confirmed that "dozens" died in the ensuing bombardment, including women and children. Afghan officials alternately say between 100 and 150 people died in their homes, where miltants were using them as human shields. A team of U.S. and Afghan investigators is now examining the scene. See pictures from recent...
...victims have already been buried in accord with Islamic custom, Belquis Roshan, a woman on Farah's provincial council, told TIME by telephone. But if the higher total is confirmed, it would amount to the deadliest single attack on civilians since the American-led invasion that ousted the Taliban in 2001. Worse, it's part of a growing pattern. According to U.N. figures, 2,118 civilians were killed in conflict-related violence last year, a jump of nearly 40% compared to the year before. Of that figure, pro-government forces were responsible for 828 deaths. (See how Afghanistan's travails...
...risk of civilian deaths. Nader Nadery, head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, says it's "too soon to judge" whether changes in coalition policy are making a difference since the fighting season in Afghanistan has just begun. However, says Nadery, what's certain is that the Taliban continue to use civilians as human shields "as an effective PR strategy" to turn public opinion against the government. (Read a story on why the Afghan war has lasted so long...
...security forces who dare not leave their walled compounds. "They are so free to move around that some actually think the U.S. is helping them," he said by phone. Roshan, the councilwoman, insists the U.S. forces have done just that by killing people they were sent to protect. "The Taliban are murderers, but when the U.S. is guilty, it's a massacre," she says. "If the situation goes on like this, the whole country will one day become Taliban...
...officials have acknowledged that anti-Taliban bombardments were carried out while declining to comment on the extent of civilian casualties. In expressing regret over the incident, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that the joint investigation would take time to come up with answers. Meanwhile, Gen. David McKiernan, commander of US forces and NATO forces in Afghanistan, moved to cast doubt on the emerging narrative. "We have some other information that leads us to distinctly different conclusions about the cause of the civilian casualties," he said, without providing further details...