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AI fears war rule violations
15/11/2004 18:55 - (SA)
London - Human rights watchdog Amnesty International said on Monday it was deeply concerned the rules of war designed to protect civilians and combatants have been violated in the Iraqi town of Fallujah.
"Amnesty International fears that civilians have been killed, in contravention of international humanitarian law, as a result of failure by parties to the fighting to take necessary precautions to protect non-combatants," the London-based group said in a report on its website.
"We are not getting the full picture of what is going on in Fallujah," Amnesty spokesperson Nicole Choueiry told AFP on Monday.
"Some clarification needs to be made, not only to Amnesty but to the whole world because no one has a clear picture of what is going on.
"It's really unclear whether they have been abiding by (international law) or not, but there are increasingly worrying reports in the media," Choueiry said.
"There are increasing reports that civilians have died and we have been asking for clarifications as to the rules of engagement and of the total civilian casualties," she said.
"There are also worrying reports about the insurgents using civilian areas or civilian targets to lure in combatants."
In one incident, some Iraqis are reported to have come out of a building waving a white flag, Amnesty said. When a US marine approached this group, insurgents opened fire from different directions.
Twenty Iraqi medical staff and dozens of other civilians were killed when a missile hit a clinic on November 9, according to reports from a doctor who survived the strike, the group said.
On November 11 a British television programme, Channel Four News, broadcast footage in which a US soldier appeared to have fired one shot in the direction of a wounded insurgent who was off screen.
The soldier then walked away and said "he's gone", Amnesty said.
- AFP
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