Abstract
This chapter examines the targeted killings of civilians by pro-government armed groups in Afghanistan. The first two sections explore the too-broad criteria used by pro-government militias for determining legitimate military targets. The targets included civilians perceived to be linked to the insurgency (e.g., family members and relatives of alleged insurgents, civilians suspected of providing assistance to alleged insurgents) and civilians who, despite not being linked to the insurgency, refused to submit themselves to the authority of the militias (e.g., political and religious figures objecting the militias’ activities, civilians refusing to pay illegal taxation imposed by the militias). The third section explores how the criteria for determining targets of killings ignored the standard definitions of legitimate military targets in non-international armed conflicts.
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Notes
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The entire description of the operation in Alizai village is based on the report by Aikins (2014).
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Badalič, V. (2019). In Militias We Trust: Civilian Victims of Targeted Killings by Pro-government Armed Groups in Afghanistan. In: The War Against Civilians. Palgrave Studies in Victims and Victimology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12406-9_6
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