Afghanistan: The Taliban's Deadly Hypocrisy - Patricia Gossman

The recent attack on a Kabul hotel that killed at least 12 civilians is a grim reminder of the Taliban's contempt for the most fundamental principles of international humanitarian law (IHL) -- the laws of war -- which ban targeting noncombatants.

Among the five Afghans and nine foreign citizens killed in the May 13 attack on the Park Palace Hotel were people who had spent much of their lives working to improve the lives of the country's poorest and most vulnerable. Over the years, the Taliban have developed a code of conduct (layha) that supposedly includes rules on sparing civilians, but they exclude from that category government employees, humanitarian workers and many others who under IHL do qualify as noncombatants. On May 14, the Taliban released a statement purporting to justify the hotel massacre, saying that "Every foreigner from invading country [sic] especially NATO is considered an invader." That same statement categorized Afghans who work with foreigners, including aid workers, as "hirelings."

Those statements are essentially a Taliban admission of culpability for a war crime. One survivor of the attack describes how the attacker hunted down and executed hotel guests, repeatedly shooting some of the wounded to make sure they were dead.

In the rush to report horrific events like these, numbers can obscure the real, human identities of the victims and the tragedy of their brutal deaths. - Read More at Huffingtonpost

Afghanistan: The Taliban's Deadly Hypocrisy

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