Thousands flee as US military operation gets under way

Thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes and seek refuge in different parts of Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, as a US military operation in and around Garmsir District against Taliban insurgents gets under way, provincial officials said.

“Our preliminary reports indicate that more than 1,000 families [5,000-7,000 people] have left the area and more people are moving out,” Assadullah Mayar, president of the provincial department of the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS), told IRIN from the provincial capital, Lashkargah, on 1 May.

Capt Kelly Frushour, a US military spokeswoman in Kabul, said “groups of women and children” were moving out of the conflict area.

“We’ve not seen an exodus or a large migration, but we’ve seen groups of women and children moving to the south,” Frushour said, adding that civilians had not been displaced in areas where US forces had established a presence.

“It’s also unclear whether these people are moving because of our military operation,” she said.

“Civilians might have left the conflict area because Taliban insurgents always use them as human shields,” said Carlos Branco, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul. More