KANDAHAR, 18 February 2007 — Villagers who fled a small Afghan town captured by Taleban two weeks ago say fear of NATO strikes and being mistaken for militants are keeping them from their homes, even though supplies are running low.

Around 1,500 families from Musa Qala, in the southern province of Helmand, have collected in surrounding areas since the remote town was overrun by Taleban fighters, the provincial refugee head Abdul Satar Mazhari told AFP.

The United Nations said this week it had confirmed there were 600 displaced families and its partner agencies have started ferrying in food and other aid. An average family is said to number six people.

Most of the refugees were with friends and relatives, although some were in camps for people already displaced by the Taleban-linked unrest gripping southern Afghanistan and by drought, officials said.

“We are afraid of bombings and war,” Musa Qala resident Akhtar Jan told AFP by telephone from Gereshk, where he and his family were staying with relatives. He took his family to Gereshk, about 65 kilometers south of Musa Qala, soon after Taleban fighters overran the area on Feb. 2.

“Taleban are there. If they (the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF) attack the Taleban, we will suffer,” he said.

The government, wary of more civilian deaths in an area in which ordinary people have already become victims of fighting between militants and the security forces, wants to use negotiations to persuade the rebels to leave. A tribal elder told AFP last week, however, that the rebels had rejected talks.

ISAF has used precision air strikes to take out two leaders of the uprising but this seems to have failed to dislodge the rebels. Shopkeeper Haji Nasim said he brought his family to Gereshk the day after the fighters arrived — according to some reports in their hundreds.

“I came out the second day Taleban took over. I closed my shop and we’ve nothing to eat,” he said, also by telephone from the remote area. Another Musa Qala resident, Tor Jan, took his family to the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, 90 kilometers south of Musa Qala, and said money was beginning to run low two weeks after their departure.

“We haven’t got anything,” Tor Jan said by phone from a refugee camp. “Our cash savings are running out. If the situation continues this way, we will have to (get) back home as soon as it’s OK,” he said. Tor Jan said he was concerned about being mistaken for a Taleban fighter because of his appearance and customs.