[R-G] Struggle to rein in Taliban in Afghanistan's south

[Anthony Fenton]

Struggle to rein in Taliban in Afghanistan's south
After a week of battle, Afghan and international forces pushed the  
resurgent Taliban out of a key district north of Kandahar.
By Jon Boone | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

from the November 5, 2007 edition
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1105/p07s02-wosc.html

Reporter Jon Boone talks about recent Taliban activity in southern  
Afghanistan.

Kabul, Afghanistan - Afghans affected by an outbreak of Taliban  
fighting in a strategic district bordering the southern city of  
Kandahar have returned to their villages after a week of crisis  
sparked by the death of a tribal strongman.

Local authorities said Sunday that life was returning to normal  
following successful operations by Afghan security forces and  
Canadian troops to dislodge Taliban fighters from the lush  
agricultural lands of Afghandab district.

The insurgents were apparently intent on capitalizing on the death of  
Mullah Naqib, the former mujahideen warrior who led the Alokozai  
tribe of the district, north of Kandahar city.

For years, Mullah Naqib had kept the Taliban out of a district that  
offers a perfect route for attacking Kandahar city, the spiritual  
home of the hardline Sunni movement from its emergence in 1996  
through its removal from power by US-led forces in 2001.

But up to 300 Taliban fighters entered the district last week, less  
than three weeks after Mullah Naqib's death created a political  
vacuum in one of southern Afghanistan's most important tribes.

The fighters, who local sources say were all in their mid-20s,  
remained for two days and came within 15 miles of the provincial  
capital. They occupied and trashed Naqib's ancestral home before  
being expelled by more than 600 Afghan and international forces.

The swift collapse of political authority in the province highlights  
the reliance of overstretched international forces on friendly power  
brokers remaining loyal to the government of President Hamid Karzai.

Rising insecurity, official corruption, and the widespread belief  
that the government has failed to deliver basic public services have  
all undermined popular support, according to a European diplomat who  
spoke anonymously.

"It is very worrying that an area that had previously been secure  
should become vulnerable to the Taliban," he says. "But the big  
problem is, who is sitting on the fence? Are they going to remain  
against the insurgents or join them?"

In the case of Arghandab, the local tribe remained loyal. Lt.  
Commander Pierre Babinsky, spokesman for international troops in  
Kandahar Province, says the Afghan Army and police force had played a  
vital role in expelling the Taliban.

"This was one of the first truly joint operations between Canadian  
and Afghan forces operating together as equal partners," he says.

The police and Army have been the focus of intense training efforts  
to leave them capable of operating without direct foreign support and  
holding Taliban-free territory.

Much of the local police success against the Taliban fighters  
appeared to be because it is not yet a fully reconstituted force  
purged of tribal identity. With most of the fighters drawn from the  
Alokozai, analysts said, they were fighting out of tribal loyalty  
rather than as professional police officers.

Last week's political and military drama may have demonstrated the  
Taliban's weakness as a conventional military force. According to  
Haji Padshah, a tribal elder, "The Taliban are so weak that even our  
women could have beaten them."

The NATO-led forces refused to give estimates of Taliban deaths, but  
Sayed Agha Saqib, the regional police chief, says 50 were killed, 40  
injured, and eight captured.

The apparent attempt to seize Afghandab also represented a surprising  
tactical step backward for the Taliban, which has been forced to  
abandon conventional military tactics in favor of kidnappings and  
suicide bombs.

Rates of insurgent attacks and terrorist violence are at least 20  
percent higher this year, with an average of 548 incidents per month  
compared with 425 in 2006, according to a UN report published in  
September, with most of the victims being ordinary Afghans.

Adoption of these so-called "asymmetric" tactics have caused acute  
concern because they are much harder to prevent and have proved  
effective in undermining public confidence.

A Kabul-based Western analyst said that the Taliban were prone to  
forgetting their limitations as a military force. But according to  
Sarah Chayes, a former journalist who has lived for years in Kandahar  
city, the Taliban never had any ambition to seize control of  
Afghandab. "Far from being annihilated by the security forces, they  
actually executed a fighting retreat," she says. "It's clear that  
they wanted to send a very strong message ... saying that 'our  
advance is inevitable and we can dance on the roof of Mullah Naqib's  
house within three weeks of his death.' In Kandahar, it just knocked  
people sideways."

Protecting the exposed flanks of the city will be tough for  
overstretched Canadian forces. The Taliban's assault forced  
commanders to move men and equipment out of the other districts that  
border the northern edge.

"We would like to have more resources," Commander Babinsky says, "but  
the work we have done training the Afghan Army units mean we did not  
have to leave any districts unsecured."