Civil War in Afghanistan 1978-present
This war has ravaged the country for over 30 years now, with several foreign actors playing important roles during different periods. Since 2001 US and NATO troops have been fighting in Afghanistan in the "War on Terrorism" that is also treated in the corresponding section below.
| Armed conflict | Perpetrator | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Civil war in Afghanistan | Taliban | ||
| Incident | Type of crime | Persons responsible | Notes |
| Executions and torture after fall of Mazar-i-Sharif on August 8, 1998 | War crimes (Murder, cruel or degrading treatment and torture; Summary execution) | Taliban | Mass killing of the locals; 4,000 to 5,000 civilians were executed, and many more reported tortured. |
| Assassination of Iranian diplomats | Crimes against humanity (murder of civilians), offenses against the customary law of nations (outrages upon diplomatic plenipotentiaries and agents) | Taliban | 8 Iranian diplomats were assassinated and an Iranian press correspondent was murdered by the Taliban. |
| Murder of Ahmed Shah Massoud, on September 9, 2001 | War crimes (Perfidious use of suicide bombers disguised as journalists (who are protected persons) in murder.) | Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Al Qaeda | Perfidiously used suicide bombers disguised as television journalists to murder Ahmed Shah Massoud, leader of the Northern Alliance, the leader of the only remaining military opponent of the Taliban, two days before the September 11th Attacks, constituting a failure to bear arms openly, and misuse of the status of protected persons, to wit, journalists in war zones. |
| Civil war in Afghanistan | Northern Alliance | ||
| Incident | Type of crime | Persons responsible | Notes |
| Atrocities against Taliban prisoners of war | War crimes (Maltreatment leading to death of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan POWs (Taliban)) | Northern Alliance partisans | Allegedly did place captured Taliban POWs in cargo containers, and did seal them, leading to deaths of those within due to suffocation and excessive heat, thereby constituting war crimes. |
Read more about this topic: List Of War Crimes
Famous quotes containing the words civil war, civil and/or war:
“The principle of majority rule is the mildest form in which the force of numbers can be exercised. It is a pacific substitute for civil war in which the opposing armies are counted and the victory is awarded to the larger before any blood is shed. Except in the sacred tests of democracy and in the incantations of the orators, we hardly take the trouble to pretend that the rule of the majority is not at bottom a rule of force.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“[Rutherford B. Hayes] was a patriotic citizen, a lover of the flag and of our free institutions, an industrious and conscientious civil officer, a soldier of dauntless courage, a loyal comrade and friend, a sympathetic and helpful neighbor, and the honored head of a happy Christian home. He has steadily grown in the public esteem, and the impartial historian will not fail to recognize the conscientiousness, the manliness, and the courage that so strongly characterized his whole public career.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
“There is the guilt all soldiers feel for having broken the taboo against killing, a guilt as old as war itself. Add to this the soldier’s sense of shame for having fought in actions that resulted, indirectly or directly, in the deaths of civilians. Then pile on top of that an attitude of social opprobrium, an attitude that made the fighting man feel personally morally responsible for the war, and you get your proverbial walking time bomb.”
—Philip Caputo (b. 1941)