Does Al-Qaeda or Taliban take POWs?

[Applesmack]

Do they take POWs and hold them for ransom, or do they simply execute any foreign soldier they see?

[Stevcho the Serb]

Yes.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Farnan]

They execute all soldiers, and civilians depend on how desperate they are for money.

[MathiasOfAthens]

They usually hold POWs until they execute them live on Camera.
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[Exarch]

talking with captain jin who serves in the armed forces, the taliban do indeed take prisoners, although he states it 'rarely happens'
what happens to them afterwards is anyone's guess..and not something a lot of americna families want to find out.

if i were a taliban, i'd drag soliders out of foxholes to get info; that's mean waterboarding them and torture yes.
hey, the creator of seal team 6 and the author of the rogue warrior series, dick marcinko acknowledges that these things happen.

[Helm]

Yes though they tend to do things like cut off their captives head and put the video on the Internet.

[Ishoss]

Do they exchange prisoners?

[Azog 150]

If I remember correctly, some Al-Queda in Iraq captured some British civilians (Or maybe it was a private contractor?) and said they would do a prisoner swap.

[Gumpfendorfer]

Combatants die a horrible death most of the times, civilians depends. Foreign females have a far better survival rate, that's one cultural boundary too far.

[green tea]

To me, the taliban do not fight with honour and do not respect any civilized law. I have never heard that any prisoners were taken by the taliban, other than those that were executed for propaganda videos. For them, the concept of mercy, justice or human dignity is unknown land. They act, after all we hear, entirely like barbarians, and even their supporters do not wish to be at their mercy after being accused by them. But that does not mean that any country that defines itself as civilized has the right to sink down to an equal level. Of course I will be glad to be corrected if I am wrong about the taliban and just mislead by western propaganda.

[Каие]

@Azog.

That was the Shia Militia I think, who captured some Brit soldiers and wanted to talk. British Army simply said ''no'' and burst through the wall of the prison with a tank, setting themselves alight in the process and saving their guys.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/mid...st/4262336.stm



@the OP.


I believe the Taliban do take prisoners. I recall a story where a British soldier was captured during a British assault, and he was in turn rescued by marines who strapped themselves to the outside of apache helicopters.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle2414747.ece
http://jasonjeffrey.wordpress.com/20...e-helicopters/

[Farnan]

@the OP.


I believe the Taliban do take prisoners. I recall a story where a British soldier was captured during a British assault, and he was in turn rescued by marines who strapped themselves to the outside of apache helicopters.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle2414747.ece
http://jasonjeffrey.wordpress.com/20...e-helicopters/

He was injured and died of his injuries...

They take a person prisoner just long enough to execute them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_C._Roberts

[Gumpfendorfer]

Then again, its common practise in Afghanistan from all sides. There is this hilarious scene in Charlie Wilson's War in which the CIA head of the Afghan desk is trying to convince Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle to stop pushing for a campaign to persuade Russian soldiers to defect to the Mujahedin, which he deemed as endlessly stupidity and a waste of money.

He finally convinced them with a video of how the Mujahedin gang raped Russian pow's, killing them afterwards. Hilarious in a sense that back then the two were already regarded as horrendously stupid with their extreme idealogical views on reality - in other words living in a fantasy world by the CIA and Pentagon. Would be interesting to figure out why those idiots managed to dominate the Republican Party and various administrations for so long.

Gang raped, skinned alive, beheaded, castrated, your bowels taken out while alive, its all in the game in Afghanistan.

[Pickle_mole]

That picture is kind of ed.

[touchmaster]

No they don't.

Kind of Ironic how we capture them and we treat them like our own allies....

What a double ing standard.

[justicar5]

No they don't.

Kind of Ironic how we capture them and we treat them like our own allies....

What a double ing standard.

We treat them as laid out in the geneva convention, do not do so is a warcrime. Should we have mistreated German POWs in WW2 because of how they treated russian POWs?

[touchmaster]

We treat them as laid out in the geneva convention, do not do so is a warcrime. Should we have mistreated German POWs in WW2 because of how they treated russian POWs?

You can't compare WW2 to The War on Terrorism. It just doesn't work.

[justicar5]

You can't compare WW2 to The War on Terrorism. It just doesn't work.

A POW is a POW. Even if the enemy is evil incarnate, if you want any moral superiority you have to act by those rules

[Farnan]

We treat them as laid out in the geneva convention, do not do so is a warcrime.

Actually the Geneva Convention doesn't apply for two reasons:

1. They are not wearing a uniform.

2. The Taliban are not a signatory to the convention.

However this doesn't mean we shouldn't treat their POWs like POWs just it isn't the convention that prevents them from being executed.

[justicar5]

Actually the Geneva Convention doesn't apply for two reasons:

1. They are not wearing a uniform.

2. The Taliban are not a signatory to the convention.

However this doesn't mean we shouldn't treat their POWs like POWs just it isn't the convention that prevents them from being executed.

Afghanistan is a signatory nation:
http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/WebSign?...rm&id=375&ps=P

The fact that the Taliban then break it doesn't change that.