Field-Trip to Kandahar City: Location of Significant Civilian Casualties

July 18, 2008
I am leaving tomorrow for Kandahar city with a team from the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC). Kandahar city is in the south-east of Afghanistan. The NGOs based in this city tend to cover all of the southern provinces, including Helmand, Kandahar, Zabul and Nimroz. This is a part of Afghanistan that is ravaged by fierce battles between the insurgents and coalition forces. Civilians are frequently caught in the middle and even deliberately targeted. A June 2008 BBC report described the vulnerable situation in Kandahar and the large numbers of villagers who are fleeing to the city to avoid the fighting. The Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR) noted in an August 2008 publication that: “In the south, south-east and east of the country insurgents are mounting an increasingly vigorous, systematic terror campaign of threats, abductions and executions aimed against members of the civilian population.”