1800-1859 | Afghanistan | Burning towns and cities | Civilians slaughtered | Demolishing urban areas | Looting and plunder | Massacres | Punitive operations

Kabul sacked in an orgy of fire, looting and ‘wholesale butchery’

ByAlisdare Hickson

[ 10 October 1842 ] On 10 October 1842, British troops used explosives and fire to destroy much of the Afghan capital of Kabul, including the Great Bazar and an adjacent mosque. They also burned down an unknown number of domestic dwellings, slaughtering their owners. Only two neighbourhoods, deemed ‘friendly’, were left untouched and the…

1920-1939 | Demolishing urban areas

British Army’s murderous rampage through three Irish towns

ByAlisdare Hickson

23 September 1920 In the early hours of 23 September 1920, heavily armed British auxiliary police, known as the ‘Black and Tans,’ descended on three small coastal towns in County Clare in Ireland,  A report in the British press noted that ‘large parties of uniformed men attacked… Miltown, Lahinch and Ennistymon, and by burning and…

1920-1939 | Demolishing urban areas | Media propaganda | Palestine

Six thousand given a few hours warning of compulsory demolition

ByAlisdare Hickson

16 June 1936 On 16 June 1936, six thousand Arab Palestinian residents of Jaffa’s Old City awoke to leaflets, dropped by British aircraft, informing them that their homes would be blown up and that they had until 9 pm to vacate them. The astonishing pretext was the need to improve ‘health and sanitation,’ although the…

1920-1939 | Burning crops | Collective punishments | Demolishing urban areas | Iraq | Punitive operations

The ancient Iraqi town of Tel Afar destroyed in a punitive operation.

ByAlisdare Hickson

9 June 1920 Following an attack by insurgents in the Iraqi town of Tel Afar on 3 and 4 June 1920, in which the local British political officer, twenty six year old Major J. E. Barlow, along with fifteen other officers and soldiers were overpowered and killed,  a punitive column had been dispatched from Mosul…

1920-1939 | 1940-1949 | Demolishing urban areas | Malaysia | Massacres | Palestine | Prisoners murdered | Punitive operations

7 NOVEMBER

ByAlisdare Hickson

ELEVEN MALAYAN DETAINEES SHOT DEAD ‘WHILE TRYING TO ESCAPE’ [ 7 November 1948 ] On 7 November 1948, during a counter insurgency ‘sweep’ of the ‘communist infested’ Muar Lenga district of Johor in southern Malaya, British troops shot dead eleven insurgents. They claimed they had been trying to escape.  Another nine men were shot dead,…

1800-1859 | Afghanistan | Demolishing urban areas | Famine | Ireland | Looting and plunder

10 OCTOBER

ByAlisdare Hickson

KABUL SACKED IN AN ORGY OF FIRE, LOOTING AND ‘WHOLESALE BUTCHERY’ [ 10 October 1842 ] On this day in 1842, British troops used explosives and fire to destroy much of the Afghan capital of Kabul, including the Great Bazar and an adjacent mosque. They also burned down an unknown number of domestic dwellings, slaughtering…

1800-1859 | Afghanistan | Burning villages | Civilians slaughtered | Demolishing urban areas | Massacres | Palestine

28 AUGUST

ByAlisdare Hickson

BRITISH CHAPLAIN SHOCKED BY THE BARBARITY OF HIS OWN ARMY [ 28 August 1842 ] On 28 August 1842, during the advance of a British punitive expedition led by Major General Sir William Nott, the Reverend Isaac Allen recalled the indiscriminate slaughter of Afghan men in a village, deemed to have been responsible for staging…