One of the mysteries of the English language finally explained.
A person or group of people held near a potential target to deter attack.
- ‘Instead, there are hundreds of soldiers dug in and on patrol forming a lethal human shield around the base.’
- ‘They knew that it would take more than a few hundred Western human shields to stop a war.’
- ‘There are also reports that civilians are being conscripted to fight or be human shields.’
- ‘Stories of using civilians as human shields, and executing prisoners of war, leaves one speechless.’
- ‘I also have read that human shields might be deploying at water facilities.’
- ‘However, when the human shields faced live ammunition their priorities changed.’
- ‘Iraq largely used voluntary human shields to immunize targets that were part of its infrastructure.’
- ‘I actually don't think that voluntary human shields raise any war crimes by any side.’
- ‘Chechen rebels used ethnic Russian civilians as human shields during the brutal war in Chechnya.’
- ‘Rebels in Nigeria have kidnapped nine foreign oil workers, including a Briton, and threatened to use them as human shields for attacks on the oil industry.’
- ‘The army systematically used Palestinian civilians as human shields.’
- ‘Some Canadians already have left for Iraq to serve as human shields against bomb attacks on Baghdad.’
- ‘This was so the British could use the people living in them as human shields from mortar attack.’
- ‘They fight out of uniform, use human shields and routinely launch attacks against civilians.’
- ‘The Germans often advanced against the insurgents with civilians strapped to the front of their armoured vehicles as human shields.’
- ‘She also denied that human shields were fleeing the country as the likelihood of war increased.’
- ‘He sat up a wee bit straighter and allowed more of his body to cover her as a human shield if someone did indeed attack.’
- ‘The British stories that civilians were forced to take up arms by the militia and were used by the militia as human shields were also lies.’
- ‘They were treated as a human shield in case of an attack.’
- ‘However, if such are killed in crossfire or if used as human shields, they become collateral damage.’
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