Desk Report
Publish: 12 Aug 2021, 12:37 pm
The Talibans (Photo: Collected)
The Taliban on Wednesday
denied targeting and killing civilians during an offensive against Afghan
government troops, calling for an independent investigation and seeking to
assure Afghans that "no home or family shall face any threat from our
side".
The Islamist militants
issued a statement after the United Nations said more than 1,000 civilians had
been killed in the past month and the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) said that since Aug. 1 some 4,042 wounded people had been treated at 15
health facilities, reports Reuters.
Taliban fighters have
stepped up their campaign to defeat the US-backed government since April as
foreign forces started to withdraw after 20 years of war. The group has seized
eight provincial capitals in the past week, raising fears of a return to power
of the hardline group.
Taliban spokesperson,
Suhail Shaheen, said in a statement that the group "has not targeted any
civilians or their homes in any locality, rather the operations have been
undertaken with great precision and caution." He instead blamed Afghan
government troops and foreign forces for any civilian deaths.
The United States refuted
the Taliban's denial of responsibility.
"There is, everywhere
you look, compelling data points, evidence, imagery of the violence, the
bloodshed, the potential atrocities that the Taliban are committing," US
State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters. "We have see it with
our own eyes, from some of the footage that's emerging."
The Taliban proposed that a
team made up of the United Nations, ICRC and other aid groups accompany their
representatives "to conduct an impartial and independent investigation
into the latest events."
A spokesman for UN
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Afghanistan's mission to the United
Nations in New York did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Since the start of the year
nearly 390,000 people have been newly displaced by the Afghan conflict with a
"huge spike" since May, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters
on Wednesday.
"Between July 1 and
August 5, 2021, the humanitarian community verified that 5,800 internally
displaced persons and arrived in Kabul," Dujarric said.
Foreign forces aim to be
completely out of Afghanistan by September 11. US-backed Afghan forces ousted
the Taliban from power in 2001 for refusing to hand over al Qaeda's Osama bin
Laden after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
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Topic : The Taliban Afghanistan
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