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Taliban Operatives Reluctant to Resume Fight
[Tolo News] Suffering huge casualties in the fight has made the Taliban field commanders unwilling to resume war in Afghanistan, the New York Times reported.Taliban midlevel commanders are at loggers head with top leadership of the Taliban based in Pakistain to carry out operations in some areas in Afghanistan, Taliban members told the New York Times in interviews. Last year the Taliban withdrew to border areas in Pakistain after an increase in their fatalities after the arrival of US additional troops in southern parts of the country. Now they are under pressure from their leaders to return back to Afghanistan to resume the fight, but they are hesitant to do so. I have talked to some commanders, and they are reluctant to fight," the Times quoted a 45-year-old commander as saying in southern Afghanistan. "Definitely there is disagreement between the field commanders and the leaders over their demands to go and fight," the commander further told on condition of anonymity. Because of a tight protection of Pakistain's military and intelligence agencies, the Taliban leadership remains inflexible, it said. Taliban members have argued that they increase Pakistain's influence over the southern parts in return for receiving protection from Pakistain. In a meeting this month Taliban leaders instructed each commander to send four to five men back to their home areas to plant bombs and start war again, the commander said. The hard boyz had lost 500 fighters there last year, including some known commanders, a close supporter of the Taliban has told the Times. Posted by: Fred 2011-02-23 |
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