User:Jalapenos do exist/Sandbox/Violence targeting civilians

Violence targeting civilians is a type of political violence often committed in armed conflicts. It is distinct from indiscriminate violence, which fails to distinguish between civilan and military targets but does not deliberately target civilians.

Middle East and Central Asia
According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, attacks targeting civilians by Iraqi insurgents typically numbered from 25 to 100 per week in the period of 2004-2006.

According to a 2007 Human Rights Watch report, insurgents in Afghanistan have carried out attacks targeting civilians.

According to a Human Rights Watch report covering the first two years of the Palestinian al-Aqsa Intifada, Palestinian militants repeatedly and systematically attacked Israeli civilians, particularly with suicide bombings. The four primary groups involved in the attacks were the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (aligned with Fatah), Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the PFLP. The report found that the Palestinian Authority carried a high degree of responsibility for the attacks, but did not find evidence that it directly ordered them. The report also stated that the attacking groups received financial and logistical support from the governments of Syria and Iraq, and that the Saudi Arabian Interior Ministry made indirect payments to families of individual attackers.

During the 2006 Lebanon War, Lebanese Islamist militant group Hezbollah "fired thousands of rockets indiscriminately and at times deliberately at civilian areas in northern Israel, killing at least 39 civilians", according to Human Rights Watch.

Africa
In the Central African Republic, violence targeting civilians in 2006 drove an estimated 40,000 of the area's 200,000 residents from their homes, according to a UN assessment team.

Rome Statute
The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Article 8(2)(b), defines as a war crime "Intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population as such or against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities".

United Nations Security Council
On 17 September 1999, The United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1265 on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, which "strongly condemn[ed] the deliberate targeting of civilians in situations of armed conflict as well as attacks on objects protected under international law, and call[ed] on all parties to put an end to such practices".

On 19 April 2000, the Security Council adopted Resolution 1296 on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, "reaffirm[ing] its strong condemnation of the deliberate targeting of civilians or other protected persons in situations of armed conflict, and call[ed] upon all parties to put an end to such practices".

The Security Council has since reaffirmed its condemnation of deliberate targeting of civilians in various Presidential Statements.

Iraq
Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein payed families of Palestinian suicide bombers $25,000 each, through the Palestinian Arab Liberation Front (PALF). (He also payed families of other Palestinians killed in fighting with Israel $10,000 each.) According to the PALF, Iraq had paid out an estimated $35m to Palestinian families between September 2000 and March 2003. Israel condemned the Iraqi handouts as funding for terrorism.

Muslim attitudes
The Pew Global Attitudes Project has surveyed Muslims in various countries since 2002, asking whether they think "suicide bombing and other forms of violence against civilian targets are justified in order to defend Islam from its enemies". Among the countries surveyed, Muslims in the Palestinian Territories showed the highest level of support for such violence (68%-70% by year), followed by Lebanon (32%-74%) and Nigeria (32%-47%). The lowest multi-year level of support was seen in Turkey (3%-13%). The survey noted a remarkable decrease over time in support by Muslims in Pakistan, from 41% in 2002 to 5% in 2008 and 2009.