Report says Taliban guilty of war crimes

KABUL, Afghanistan - The Taliban and other insurgent groups are committing war crimes by targeting Afghan civilians, killing nearly 700 last year, according to a report issued by Human Rights Watch.

The report also pointed to dramatically escalating violence since 2005.

The death toll caused by the Islamic groups is more than three times the civilian deaths attributed to U.S. and NATO forces, which have been criticized for excessive use of force in civilian areas.

In the latest suicide attack against the Western-backed government, a bomber in the relatively stable north struck a group of police yesterday, killing 10 and wounding 32.

The New York-based rights group said yesterday that the number of suicide attacks spiked to 136 last year from 21 the previous year as the Taliban turned to increasingly indiscriminate, Iraq-style tactics. The surge in violence made 2006 "the deadliest year for civilians in Afghanistan since 2001," the report said.

"The insurgents are increasingly committing war crimes, often by directly targeting civilians," said Joanne Mariner, the group's director on terrorism and counterterrorism.

In all, more than 4,000 people died in Afghan violence last year, according to figures compiled by the Associated Press from Afghan and Western officials. Most were extremists killed by U.S.-led coalition and NATO forces.

The rise in violence has shaken the elected government of President Hamid Karzai.

NATO and U.S. use of air strikes and heavy weapons to fight the resurgent Islamic militia also exacted a heavy toll on civilians in 2006, killing at least 230 civilians, the report said.

But researchers discovered in their interviews with witnesses, victims and relatives that most anger over civilian deaths was focused on the insurgents rather than on Western forces.

"I lost my son, brother and nephew because of the Taliban. They say that they are fighting for God and Islam, but they are not; they are killing good and innocent Muslims and Afghans who have done nothing wrong," a man identified by the pseudonym Abdullah was quoted as saying in the report. His shop in southern Afghanistan was destroyed in August by a suicide car bomb.

Michael Shaikh, who conducted research for the report, said today's Taliban was increasingly brutal, even compared with the regime that hosted Osama bin Laden and was known for its strict Islamic law and punishments.

"The Taliban are starting to look like some of the insurgent groups in Iraq," Shaikh said. "It's a much more dangerous Taliban - a much more vicious Taliban."

The insurgents increasingly target aid workers, journalists and government employees, condemning them as spies or collaborators. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for more than two-thirds of recorded bomb attacks.

Maj. Chris Belcher, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, said the findings of Human Rights Watch were consistent with what the military was seeing.

While the report also was critical of the coalition, Belcher said the coalition in contrast strives "to avoid civilian casualties, and hold to account those within our forces who violate the laws of armed conflict."

Read the Human

Rights Watch report via http://go.philly.com/afghan

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