Taliban ordered to kill civilians helping forces

The Taliban has intensified the war strategies for its forces as evident from the latest directive issued by its leader Mullah Omar.

In a directive issued in June, Omar has ordered the terrorists to kill or capture any civilian, including women, who cooperates with the forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, reported The Long War Journal.

This is contrary to what Omar had ordered a year ago, when he had asked the men not to harm any civilian.

NATO forces recovered a copy of the directive this month, a translation of which is with The Long War Journal.

Omar has issued five directives, translated below:

1. The Taliban forces have been asked to fight the NATO forces till their last breath and to try and capture troopers.
2. The forces must capture or kill any Afghan civilian who assists the foreign forces or the Afghanistan government.
3. The Taliban can capture and kill any Afghan woman who helps or provides information to the forces.
4. Anybody who has access to the NATO forces or has vital information regarding them can be recruited in the Taliban, it says.

The Taliban have also been asked to procure or buy heavy weapons like rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns and anti-aircraft machine guns for the war.

The Taliban men have begun putting the orders into practice, the journal reported.

Six Afghan civilians were killed in a Taliban attack and an Afghan government official was kidnapped in Siahgird district in Parwan on July 18, a press release said.

"These insurgents have chosen to follow Mullah Omar's recent guidance of attempting to capture or kill innocent civilians who are working for the coalition or government," Col Rafael Torres, Internation Security Assistance Force Joint Command's combined joint operations centre director, said in the release.

"Meanwhile, Omar is directing these attacks from the relative safety of his hiding place in Pakistan."

According to the ISAF, the Taliban leaders have changed their code of conduct according to the circumstances.

"This (order) proves the Taliban are willing to ignore their own Code of Conduct when they sense they are losing influence and control, as today's attack [July 18] against several Afghan civilians (who) were killed and injured by a suicide attack in a residential area in Kabul today demonstrates," said ISAF spokesperson Brig. Gen. Josef Blotz.