Fact Sheet on Al Qaeda and Taliban Atrocities
(As released 11/22/01 by CIC/Islamabad)(1770) The Coalition Information Center (CIC) in Islamabad, Pakistan, November 22 issued the following catalogue of atrocities committed by Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Following is the text: (begin text) Coalition Information Center Islamabad November 22, 2001 THE AL QAEDA & TALIBAN CATALOGUE OF ATROCITIES Al Qaeda & the Taliban told us at their press conference yesterday that it is time to "forget" their murder of thousands of innocent people from more than 80 countries on September 11. As President George W. Bush has said, "We will never forget all the innocent people killed by the hatred of a few." Presumably Al Qaeda and the Taliban would also like the world to "forget" about their other atrocities against the innocent. Below are a few examples from their growing catalogue of terrorist atrocities. EXAMPLES OF RECENT AL QAEDA & TALIBAN ATROCITIES ATROCITY "Among the accounts of mutilations, beatings and arbitrary executions there was evidence of a new abomination: the torture of children. An unknown number of infants were savagely beaten during the Islamic militia's 14-month occupation of Taloqan, the former headquarters of the Alliance, usually for the supposed crimes of their parents." (Source: The Times [U.K.], 11/13/01) ATROCITY "The barbarity of the Taliban plumbed new depths when troops shot dead eight boys for daring to laugh, sickened refugees revealed yesterday. The teenage lads had been chuckling at the soldiers who suddenly raised their Kalashnikov rifles and gunned them down. It was one of a string of atrocities in the besieged Afghanistan city of Kunduz, which was last night poised to fall to the Northern Alliance. At least 300 frightened Taliban were killed by men from their own side because they wanted to surrender." (Source: The Sun [U.K.], 11/19/01) ATROCITY "The Taliban is jailing children as young as 10 in Kabul to root out dissent, it is claimed today. According to French journalist Michel Peyrard, who was held by the Taliban for 25 days, the biggest threat to the extremist regime is its own paranoia. He said his fellow detainees included several children. On one occasion the nephews of an escaped political prisoner - aged 10, 13 and 19 - were rounded up. The eldest was tortured and subjected to a mock execution. The Taliban also jails leaders and military commanders for being traitors on only the flimsiest evidence." (Source: The Evening Standard (London), 11/9/01) ATROCITY "One day they came, and ordered everyone to go into the bazaar and protest against the bombings, and chant: 'Death to America'," said Salahuddin. "I was in my house and I had to go outside. When we refused to protest against America, they got angry." Another man who fled the village said he saw the Taliban drag a man called Lash Boi from his house to the mosque and beat him to death when he refused to protest. Lash Boi's three sons are on the front line now, fighting to avenge their father's death, he said." (Source: The Independent (U.K.), 11/9/01) ATROCITY "When the family returned six hours later they found that Abdul's right femur had been shattered by repeated blows from a Kalashnikov, the stock of the rifle leaving a clear imprint on the floor of the family's home. Doctors gave Nurala a couple of packets of paracetamol and bluntly told him that his son would never walk again. 'He was in so much pain for a long time, and it changed his mind as well,' Nurala said. 'I don't understand how anyone can do such a thing to a small child. I have spoken to many people about this and nobody understands it.' There are many others in Taloqan who have similar stories of children being beaten in front of their parents because their fathers were unable to hand over a weapon to the Taleban, of men who had a hand amputated when they were accused of stealing the bread that they carried home to their families, and of women who were raped after their husbands were taken away and imprisoned in Kandahar or Mazar-i Sharif." (Source: The Times [U.K.], 11/13/01) ATROCITY "'They burnt some of us alive.' It was almost the first thing he said to us. In the dust and squalor of a refugee camp, Salahuddin told yesterday how the Taliban burnt an entire family to death in their own home in revenge for the American bombing. He says he saw them bringing out the blackened bodies of the children. Then the Taliban took Salahuddin and the other villagers to the front line, where they ordered them to gather up scattered bits of bodies, all that was left of Taliban soldiers killed by the American bombs." (Source: The Independent U.K. 11/9/01) ATROCITY "'The Taliban commanders killed 100 of our friends,' said this defector, adding, 'They hung their bodies from lamp posts as a warning to the rest of us.'" (Source: CBS Evening News, 11/19/01) ATROCITY "One said a doctor was shot dead for not treating a wounded Taliban soldier quickly enough, while others said a group of eight teenage boys were killed for laughing at Taliban soldiers." (Source: The Herald (Scotland), 11/19/01) ATROCITY "Foreign Taliban soldiers, who have gathered in Kunduz for what appears to be a last stand, have gunned down more than 400 Afghan Taliban soldiers trying to defect to the Northern Alliance, the refugees and the alliance soldiers said. The 400 were killed in mass shootings late last week, refugees said, and were prompted in part by the defection of a local Taliban commander to the Northern Alliance. According to the reports, Arab and Pakistani soldiers with the Taliban have also begun shooting young civilian men of the Uzbek and Tajik ethnic groups suspected of trying to escape to territory controlled by the Northern Alliance. 'The foreigners came into the village and shot all the men,' said Muhammadullah, a 21-year-old man who crossed into Northern Alliance territory today. 'I saw this with my own eyes.'" (Source: The New York Times, 11/19/01) ATROCITY "Foreign Taliban soldiers also killed dozens of Afghan Taliban soldiers on Friday at the village of Musazai near the Kunduz airport, refugees and Northern Alliance soldiers said. Refugees fleeing Kunduz said foreign Taliban soldiers had gunned down 125 Afghan Taliban soldiers who had been stopped on their way to the front lines. The foreign Taliban soldiers seem to have decided that the local Taliban were trying to defect. When they tried to stop them, a fight began and the foreign Taliban opened fire, the refugees said." (Source: The New York Times, 11/19/01) ATROCITY "The BBC has confirmed that the central Afghan town of Bamiyan was totally destroyed by the Taleban before they fled over the weekend. Evidence has also emerged of Bosnian-style ethnic cleansing in the region involving the execution of hundreds of local ethnic Hazara men." (Source: BBC News, 11/13/01) ATROCITY "Our correspondent said every building, shop and house had been destroyed before the town fell on Sunday after a two-hour gun battle." (Source: BBC News, 11/13/01) ATROCITY September 1996 -- Upon capturing Kabul the Taliban castrated President Najibullah, dragged his body behind a jeep for several rounds of the Palace and then shot him dead. His brother was similarly tortured and then throttled to death. (Source: Department of Defense) ATROCITY January 1998 -- In the Western province of Faryab, the Taliban massacred approximately 600 Uzbek villageres. Western aid workers who later investigated the incident said civilians were dragged from their homes, lined up and gunned down. (Source: Department of Defense) ATROCITY August 1998 -- The Taliban entered Mazar-I-Sharif and went on a frenzy killing shop owners, cart pullers, women and children shoppers. (Source: Department of Defense) ATROCITY August 2000 -- Taliban execute POWs in the streets of Heart as a lesson to the local population. (Source: Department of Defense) ATROCITY June 2001 -- Taliban bombed the administrative center of Yakaolang, including the district hospital and an aid agency office. (Source: Department of Defense) ATROCITY Massacre at Yakaolang -- Taliban forces committed a massacre in Yakaolang in January 2001. The victims were primarily Hazaras. The massacre began on January 8, 2001, and continued for four days. The Taliban detained about 300 civilian adult males, including staff members of local humanitarian organizations. The men were herded to assembly points, and then shot by firing squad in public view. According to Human Rights Watch, about 170 men are confirmed to have been killed. According to Amnesty International, eyewitnesses reported the deliberate killing of dozens of civilians hiding in a mosque: Taliban soldiers fired rockets into a mosque where some 73 women, children and elderly men had taken shelter. (Source: State Department) ATROCITY Massacre at Robatak Pass -- The May 2000 massacre took place near the Robatak pass. 31 bodies were found one site, of these, 26 were positively identified as civilians. The victims were Hazara Shi'as. (Source: State Department) ATROCITY Massacre in Bamiyan -- When the Taliban recaptured Bamiyan in 1999, there were reports that Taliban forces carried out summary executions upon entering the city. According to Amnesty International, hundreds of men, and some instances women and children, were separated from their families, taken away, and killed. Human Rights Watch reports that besides executing civilians, the Taliban burned homes and used detainees for forced labor. (Source: State Department) ATROCITY Massacre in the Shomaili Plains -- July 1999 Human Rights Watch reports that a Taliban offensive here was marked by summary executions, the abduction and disappearance of women, the burning of homes, destruction of property, and the cutting down of fruit trees. According to a report by the U.N. Secretary General on November 16, 1999, "The Taliban forces, who allegedly carried out these acts, essentially treated the civilian population with hostility and made no distinction between combatants and non-combatants." (Source: U.S. State Department) ATROCITY Massacre in Mazar-I-Sharif -- In August 1998, the Taliban captured Mazar-I-Sharif. There were reports that between 2,000 and 5,000 men, women and children -- mostly ethnic Hazara civilians -- were massacred by the Taliban after the takeover of Mazar-I-Sharif. During the massacre, the Taliban forces carried out a systematic search for male members for the ethnic Hazara, Tajik, and Uzbek communities in the city. Human Rights Watch estimates that scores, perhaps hundreds, of Hazara men and boys were summarily executed. There were also reports that women and girls were raped and abducted during the Taliban takeover of the city. (Source: State Department) (end text) (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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