; and (D) deliberately causing the injury or death of such persons. (2) Violating these prohibitions regarding civilians and other specially protected persons is known as the use of human shields and is a serious violation of international law subjecting those responsible to individual criminal liability. (3) The international law of armed conflict also prohibits exposing property subject to special protection under international law to unnecessary risks resulting from the conduct of hostilities, including a prohibition against using such property to impede attack on or otherwise shield lawful targets from attack or to deliberately cause destruction of such property. Such use of specially protected property is a serious violation of international law, subjecting those responsible to individual criminal responsibility. (4) Every party to an armed conflict is prohibited under international law from using human shields in an attempt to cause law-abiding armed forces to forgo attacks on otherwise lawful targets. (5) When law-abiding armed forces do attack in such situations, the party using human shields frequently hopes to discredit the law-abiding opponent by blaming the opponent for civilian casualties, which are in fact attributable to the unlawful use of human shields. (6) Terrorist groups routinely use human shields to force law-abiding opponents to conduct attacks in circumstances where civilian casualties become unavoidable. While this unlawful tactic in no way absolves an attacking force from its obligations to do everything feasible to mitigate the risk of such casualties, such illegal tactics inevitably influence the efficacy of feasible precautions. (7) In accordance with the proportionality rule, an assessment of the legality of attack indicates that these terrorist groups bear responsibility for such casualties when such attack is otherwise legally permissible. (8) Hizballah, designated by the Secretary of State as a foreign terrorist organization, has repeatedly used human shields. Throughout its 2006