It may also be used to describe the use of civilians to literally shield soldiers during attacks, by forcing the civilians to march in front of the soldiers during human wave attacks. Of course the civilian casualty rate is extremely high and use of this technique is highly illegal. There were some instances of this in the Soviet Union during WWII.
The tactic was used by the Bosnian Serbs in 1994 and by Iraq in 1990. Some anti-war activists have voluntarily gone to target areas for this purpose, as in 2003 to Iraq, in advance of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq.
In the Palestinian territories, members of the International Solidarity Movement engage in various human shield activities, such as trying to physically block the destruction of Palestinian homes by Israeli bulldozers, or accompanying Palestinian children on their way to school. In these cases the protected targets are generally considered to be civilian. Westerners, Rachel Corrie and Thomas Hurndall, were killed in March 2003 and April 2003 in such activities.
"Human shield" can also be used collectively where the shield is not the individual but the whole population. In this case, usually an illegal militant group (seldom it is also terrorist organizations) set its base of operation and HQs among civilian population, mostly at dense urban environment. They act so in order to prevent the other military to attack them, considering it will fear to kill accidentally innocent bypassing civilians in the combat. Another reason for this practice is the world media and that a photo or a video of dead civilian(s) is an excellent propaganda weapon.
Illegal armed groups using this tactic of "human shield" include Hamas, The Chechnian Resistence, the National Somalian Front and even the remains of Saddam Hussain's Baat party. They are all defined by the US State Department as terrorist organizations.
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