Guerrillas, terrorists - call them what you like - operate with the advantage that they do not leave a return address. They can hit their enemies, then retreat into civilian surroundings using the uninvolved as human shields. Civilian casualties in the ensuing searching and fighting are then useful PR. This is standard doctrine from the Spanish in the Napoleonic War down to the Islamists in our own day.

Natural enough, but it raises an ethical, possibly a legal issue:
* Does the use of civilians as cover constitute a war crime or crime against humanity?
* The same question where non-combatants are deliberately targeted for kidnapping or with bombs etc
* Similarly, what is the status of an indiscriminate attack (eg a bomb in a marketplace)?

Clearly we cannot easily arrest the perpetrators during hostilities. Afterwards is another story. What, if any, steps are being taken by the UN, the War Crimes Tribunal or other bodies to collect evidence and ultimately bring charges?

Michael Bruce, Selby, Yorkshire

Sir,
What about journalists' deaths all over the world e.g. In the "Global War on Terror," or are they less important?

SC, London, United Kingdom