SUMMARY

In the context of UIFSA's intrastate armed conflict with the Government of Afghanistan the group made use of one-sided violence.

The main target of UIFSA's one-sided violence were supporters of the Taleban movement, which were systematically killed when UIFSA captured territory from the Taleban-controlled government. Supporters of the Taleban were, in these incidents, rounded up by UIFSA forces and oftentimes executed or forced into containers. Hundreds of prisoners reportedly died after either being shot or suffocating to death in the crowded containers.

In addition to the motive of cleansing captured territory from Taleban supporters there also appears to be a certain vengeance motive involved in these killings, based on reports of similar atrocities committed by Taleban fighters when they, in turn, captured northern and central provinces from the UIFSA between 1997 and 2001.

Geographically violence by UIFSA mainly took place in the northern and central provinces of Afghanistan where the major battles with the government stood. Such areas were, for instance, the Balkh and Jowzjan provinces.

UIFSA first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 2001, when the one-sided violence resulted in at least 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached during November and December of that year when between 200 and 1000 supporters of the Taleban were reportedly killed by UIFSA's advancing forces. UIFSA probably perpetrated acts of one-sided violence before this year, but sources are so unreliable and the circumstances of deaths so unclear that no clear-cut conclusion can be drawn in this regard.