[R-G] New breed of Taliban replaces old guard

[Anthony Fenton]

New breed of Taliban replaces old guard
By Alex Thomson
Last Updated: 1:24AM BST 17/09/2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/2971811/New-breed-of-Taliban-replaces-old-guard.html?mobile=true

Money and a hatred of foreigners are motivating a new generation of  
Afghan fighters.
A Taliban fighter: New breed of Taliban replaces old guard
CHANNEL 4
The new Taliban fighters talk more like old-time Mujahideen discussing  
the Russian invaders than the unsmiling students of Mullah Omar

Mehran Bozorgnia, a cameraman working for Channel 4 News, spent time  
with the Taliban in Kandahar in southern Afghanistan to discover this  
new breed.

After months of planning, phone calls, endless cups of tea at meetings  
in Kabul to arrange the visit, it began with two knocks at the steel  
door of a mud compound near the southern city.

Eyes glinted as a face and a white turban appeared - as did a  
Kalashnikov. The door slammed shut. Nerve-wracking minutes passed  
before the door opened again.

Inside, it turned out to be the former home of Mullah Dadullah, the  
Mujahideen-turned-Taliban commander, killed by Nato forces (including  
Britain's Special Boat Service) last year. The house is still a  
command centre for "the Taliban". But that word is starting to lose  
meaning.

Beware: these men may lay down their lives for you if you are their  
guest. But they may hack your head off if you're an intruder.

They soon demonstrated gruesome beheading videos on their state-of-the- 
art mobiles to establish their credentials.

Hamidullah Khan, a veteran fighter in his mid-forties, underlined why  
the wild body-counts of the Afghan government are meaningless. These  
Talibs fight, he claimed, like shark's teeth. "This is the late Mullah  
Dadullah's home. He gave his life for God's will. When he was killed  
20,000 more came forward in the name of Dadullah. They're now behind  
him. This is the Taliban way. When one is killed another comes in.  
Then another. We don't leave the ground empty."

And there was no evidence here of hordes crossing the frontier from  
Pakistan. To a man they were Afghan. The sole foreigner, Aftab  
Panjabi, a former Pakistan Army officer, took a dozen Talibs through  
the art of firing an AK47 accurately.

They were candid about their motives. There was no chat of Mullah Omar  
- the old Taliban leader - nor Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. Their  
fight is both modern - and yet traditional.

In modern terms they feel nothing has changed. They see a country  
mired in corruption. They know there is a government of sorts in  
distant Kabul but it has no writ here. Haji Hyatullah, in his  
twenties, may have his face covered in black turban - but talks openly  
about getting far more money fighting with the Taliban than any other  
job around. Assuming for a second that there were any jobs. "People  
are getting fed up with the lies the government has told them.

There is no work for people. They do this because they need a piece of  
bread to eat," he said.

But surely someone has got to negotiate eventually with the  
government? President Hamid Karzai himself wants that, even if the  
Americans are lukewarm.

"No, no, no," he laughed, genuinely amused by the concept of  
negotiation with Kabul.

"We don't see any need for talks with this government. Actually there  
is no such thing as the government. The issue here is foreign  
countries and we deal with them by fighting like this. Jihad is the  
only way for us. Our Jihad."

And that is the second, timeless motive. Talk to them about fighting  
the British and they don't do "war on terror". Instead, they left the  
compound to visit a nearby graveyard, a resting place for Afghans who  
fought against the British over a century ago. Haji said: "People want  
to defend their independence, Islam and Afghan national pride. That's  
why they come and support the Taliban."

They were nonplussed that President Karzai says it is "un-Afghan" to  
attack Nato troops. And they have no lack of support.

Hamidullah Khan explained how arms and ammunition come in from both  
Pakistan and Iran. Asked where the general finance comes for all this,  
war being nothing if not expensive, he said: "The money's coming in  
from all Islamic countries. All over the world.

"But in particular we are getting plenty of money from Islamic  
countries such as Pakistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia."

During the visit, the fighters talked more like old-time Mujahideen,  
discussing the Russian invaders, than the unsmiling students of Mullah  
Omar.

By night they liked nothing more than a drop (or three) of whisky -  
though did not drink in front of a camera.

By day they encouraged locals to bet on the local sport of ram- 
fighting, laying money on which horned headbutter stuns its opponent  
the quickest. The Taliban who overtook this country more than a decade  
ago would have blanched.

They appeared equally happy to be filmed at a local wedding where -  
heaven forefend - a local band whacked out traditional Pashtun party  
tunes. The drum and keyboard combo need not have worried about the  
Mullah sending in goons to silence them. There is more, much more to  
the modern Taliban than brain-washed kids coming in from Pakistani  
madrassa schools, strapped up with explosives.

Of course they exist. But so do these new-style Afghan Talibs. Changed  
lifestyles and changed military tactics too. They happily showed off  
their stash of Afghan police and army uniforms. They discussed how  
they infiltrate local security forces. So they know when, where and  
how they will move. It's all about intelligence, ambush technology -  
not the costly frontal assaults of old.

As if to prove that, they supplied a video of them using the main  
Kabul-Kandahar highway as cover for rocketing a nearby compound.  
Daylight, brazen, confident - they moved almost leisurely, firing from  
the road. The traffic barely slowed. And what can Nato do - strafe  
Afghanistan's equivalent of the M1 motorway?

I remember when officials in Kabul pointed to that road as a shining  
symbol of "New Afghanistan". Nowadays any Afghan will advise you to do  
anything you want on that road - except drive along it.

In all of this, an urgent lesson for Nato: these local, Afghan  
fighters enjoy real support. It is simply wrong to say it is just  
coercion and terror. Just like the Mujahideen did. Indeed, on this  
evidence the so-called Taliban might be changing into something far  
more like the Mujahideen than the madrassa-produced Pakistani Taliban.

Have Nato allowed themselves to become the new Russians? Many an  
Afghan would say yes.

• Alex Thomson is presenter and chief correspondent for ITN's Channel  
4 News. His report will be shown on Wednesday Sept 17 at 7pm.