US op runs into 'human shields'

MARJAH (AFP/Reuters) - Thousands of US-led troops battling to capture a militant bastion in southern Afghanistan ran into fresh resistance Wednesday from Taliban using human shields and hidden bombs.
US, Afghan and NATO generals spent months planning the assault on the drugs and Taliban nexus of Marjah, home to around 80,000 people in southern Afghanistan, which gave insurgents time to mine roads, buildings and trees.
On day five of Operation Mushtarak officers said progress has slowed because of multitudes of hidden bombs in the farming district of Helmand province that drug lords and the Taliban have controlled for years.
The top Afghan general commanding Operation Mushtarak also accused the Taliban of hiding behind human shields.
They have taken people hostage. Our troops have seen them putting women and children on the roofs of houses and firing from behind them, said General Moheedin Ghori, commander of the 4,400 Afghan troops taking part.
We have strict orders not to fire at civilian areas, said Ghori. A Taliban spokesman denied their fighters were exploiting civilians.
We have never used civilians as human shields, we do not use our own people as human shields, Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location. We are there, standing against the invaders in direct fighting.
Ground commander US General Stanley McChrystal has ordered that civilians be protected in a strategy seeking to harness military might and development in order to crush the Taliban and establish Western-backed government control.
Amnesty International says 10,000 civilians have fled the Marjah conflict zone, but that thousands more are caught up in the fighting. About 300 families from Marjah and Nad Ali are taking refuge in southern Nimroz province, Governor Ghulam Dastagir Azad said.
- adding to more than 1,200 families in provincial capital Lashkar Gah. The families were sheltering in empty buildings in Khash Rod district in the provinces northeast which borders Helmand, Azad said.
Although death tolls are impossible to confirm, 30 Taliban, four NATO soldiers and at least 12 civilians have been reported killed in the battle. NATO said Wednesday a foreign soldier was killed in southern Afghanistan while taking part in Operation Mushtarak.
The soldier, whose nationality was not given, was killed Tuesday by small arms fire, NATOs International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.
Meanwhile, a NATO commander said on Tuesday the Afghan and NATO offensive against a Taliban in Marjah has significantly dislocated the insurgents leadership in the area.
Major General Nick Carter, the British commander of NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, said Afghan and international troops had had to deal with home-made bombs, minefields and some determined opposition during the assault on Marjah.
We have had some significant resistance from isolated groups of fighters - foreign fighters have been identified there - and of course the area was well prepared for defence and its taken a while to winkle some of the insurgents out, he told reporters in London by video link from Afghanistan.
The foreign fighters were Pakistani-based, he said.
But he said: In terms of the leadership on the ground our sense is that they have been significantly dislocated.