[R-G] Taliban raise a storm in Kandahar

Sat Jun 21 09:53:00 MDT 2008

Jun 20, 2008

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JF20Df01.html

Taliban raise a storm in Kandahar
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - The battle for Kandahar, the city in the southern province  
of the same name where the Taliban rose to power in the 1990s before  
taking control of the rest of Afghanistan, has begun.

And while Afghan and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces  
are massed in the area around Arghandab, 20 kilometers north of  
Kandahar, the Taliban have their sights firmly set on the provincial  
capital.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmedi told Asia Times Online that a  
faction of the Taliban known as the Khalid bin Waleed group had  
entered Kandahar to carry out suicide attacks on strategic positions  
in the city. The Taliban are banking that, once

the Taliban march into Kandahar, large sections of the Afghan National  
Army will defect and join hands with them.

However, a former Taliban foreign minister, Ahmad Wakil Muttawakil,  
told Asia Times Online he believed the present aim of the Taliban was  
only to create terror, and not the fall of Kandahar city.

"Taliban militants are now fighting with much resolve. They may not  
have the ability to hold the area, but they are using terror. Using  
terror on the local people. Now you can see that the Taliban militants  
are trying to force their will on the people and government in these  
parts of Kandahar," said Muttawakil.

After the Northern Alliance accompanied by US and British forces  
ousted the Taliban regime in 2001, Muttawakil surrendered in Kandahar  
to government troops and was detained. He was released some years  
later and remains in Kandahar.

Whatever the ultimate goal, the fact is that within a week of Afghan  
President Hamid Karzai's threat to send Afghan troops inside Pakistan  
to eliminate the Pakistani Taliban leadership, the Taliban have  
launched a serious challenge to the writ of the Afghan government and  
NATO troops in the heart of the country's second-largest city and home  
town of Karzai.

Around the town of Arghandab, meanwhile, NATO forces backed by  
helicopter gunships for the second day running on Thursday attacked  
suspected positions of Taliban fighters, who are believed the have  
gathered in large numbers in area.

Afghan officials described it as a "clean-up" operation sparked by a  
mass jailbreak in Kandahar after a Taliban attack on the facility at  
the weekend. NATO said 35 Taliban and two Afghan troops had been  
killed in the offensive to date. US ambassador to Kabul William Wood  
commented that "the Taliban can raise a lot of dust at any given  
moment and a given point, but they can't stay".

Three days ago, like in last year's spring offensive, the Taliban  
occupied the Arghandab district. However, this year the plan had  
changed.

First they rattled the Afghan administration's nerve by carrying out  
the sophisticated raid on the jail in Kandahar, setting free hundreds  
of Taliban captives who were then taken to the Arghandab district.

Significantly, Taliban loyalists within the Afghan security forces  
either assisted in or turned a blind eye to this operation, which came  
as a shock to coalition forces as they are increasingly relying on  
Afghan forces.

A state of emergency was declared in Kandahar city and a night-time  
curfew imposed. Ahmed Wali Karzai, a brother of the president and a  
top official in Kandahar, claimed that his home and the offices of the  
Afghan security forces and administration were under threat.

All high-profile pro-government officials immediately went  
underground, and once this phase of "shock and awe" in the city was  
completed, the Taliban captured the Arghandab district, destroying  
bridges and roads and also reportedly laying mines.

The action forced the Canadian contingent in the International  
Security Assistance Force, which has largely been confined to patrol  
duties in the area, to engage in hard combat.

Earlier this year, the NATO command claimed that the Taliban would be  
unable to carry out any offensives and their attacks would be  
restricted to random sorties.

Asia Times Online has reported, however, after discussions with  
Taliban commanders, that this year the Taliban would carry out  
specific planned operations all across Afghanistan. This is in  
contrast to previous years when cadre flocked to southern Afghanistan  
in their thousands and were killed in the hundreds. That is, the  
Taliban have reverted to a calculated guerrilla war rather than trying  
and take on NATO's numbers.

The Arghandab operation can be seen in this context. Even if the  
Taliban do succeed in overrunning Kandahar, they are certain, at this  
stage, not to attempt to retain it for too long, even a few hours  
would send a very powerful message to NATO and the Karzai  
administration.

The activity around Arghandab has also had the effect of turning  
NATO's focus away from the eastern provinces of Kunar and Nooristan,  
where land and air operations are in full swing, apparently in search  
of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. These extend across the border  
into Pakistan's Mohmand and Bajaur tribal agencies.

Taliban contacts tell Asia Times Online that once the Taliban take the  
Kandahar operation to a climax, whatever form it might take, they will  
open up another surprise front in eastern Afghanistan in an attempt to  
spread NATO as thin as possible.

The Taliban initiative this year began with moves to choke NATO's  
supply lines in Khyber Agency in Pakistan, and to force the Pakistani  
government to sign peace agreements with militants in the tribal areas  
to allow the free flow of men and supplies into Afghanistan to fuel  
the insurgency there. The latter objective was achieved in full, the  
former to a lesser extent.

The US military did say on Wednesday though that four of its  
helicopter engines worth US$13.2 million had gone missing in either  
Afghanistan or Pakistan. The engines were being shipped by a Pakistani  
haulage company from the main US base at Bagram near the capital  
Kabul. (In Peshawar's Karkhano market in Pakistan, this correspondent  
has seen NATO tactical maps and military equipment on sale - obviously  
looted from supply trucks.)

Meanwhile, beyond the Taliban's battlefield, they have started  
discussions with the strongman of northern Afghanistan, former  
president Burhanuddin Rabbani. He leads warlord factions loyal to  
Ahmad Shah Massoud, the slain leader of the Northern Alliance which  
bitterly opposed Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001.

The military and political impact of these talks, if any, will only  
emerge in the next few months, but the possibility of some form of  
Taliban and Northern Alliance cooperation will have NATO and Karzai  
sweating.

Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He  
can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002 at yahoo.com