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Afghanistan/South Asia
Taliban in control of 70% of Zabul
2004-03-06
Last year around this time they claimed to control all of it. What happened?
The Taliban’s intimidation tactics are simple. A convoy of about 20 Honda motorcycles surrounds a house, looking for people who support America or President Hamid Karzai. If they find one, they kill him. If not, the householders are beaten to serve as a warning to others.
How is it that in a land where everyone has a rifle, these jokers can just drive up to a house and club people? Didn't anyone over there ever see Fort Apache? Stay inside the mud walls and start shooting!
People in the village of Shah Joy, 180 miles south-west of Kabul, are torn between supporting a moderate government struggling to reconstruct the country and supporting the Taliban simply to survive. It is a common dilemma in about a third of Afghanistan’s southern regions, where the Taliban are regrouping and waiting for the spring to launch attacks against the central government and its American allies. They are concentrating in the province of Zabul, where the coalition never managed to root out the extremist movement. About 70 per cent of Zabul is now either controlled by supporters of the Taliban or completely lawless. "They come day and night. They are lying near the mountains and sometimes even in the mosques," said Haji Mohammad, 28, a soldier whose two brothers were severely beaten because he works for the local government. "They were beaten in the mosque in open daylight. Their hands and feet were tied and the men wanted to take them away. But with the help of the village elders they were released. Since one year I cannot go home. They would not let me live."

On the main road linking the province to Kabul, the Taliban set up roadblocks in broad daylight and scrutinise vehicles for potential targets to kill or kidnap. Four engineers working on the main road have been kidnapped and 15 Afghans working for the central government have been killed in the last three months. No foreigners venture to the province. Aid workers fled long ago. It is estimated that about 700 armed Afghan Taliban who are ethnic Pathans have crossed the border from the Pakistani cities of Peshawar and Quetta where they are trained and funded. The commanders are offering a motorcycle, an AK47 and a satellite telephone to anyone willing to rob or bomb a government target. A successful hit is worth £110. Killing an enemy has an added incentive of a £495 bonus. The strategy appears to be to make Zabul too difficult to work in, angering the local population and turning support away from central government to the Taliban. "They are taking advantage of our poverty," said Gen Ayoub Khan, the security commander for Zabul. "The administration is weak and incapable of controlling an area, therefore the local people are not relying on them. In the Dai Chopan district there are reports of Punjabi commanders. We arrested two Talibs a month ago and they told us that Pakistani colonels told them to destabilise Afghanistan."
Just another Pak proxy war. Maybe that's why they're cooling down Kashmir...
Mohammad Azghar, a former Taliban member now a soldier working for the local government, said in villages where there are virtually no jobs, and the grape and almond farms have been turned to dust by a seven-year drought, the money is tempting. "I killed two Taliban commanders and they had 200,000 Afghanis [£2,500] in their pockets and a pistol," he said. "A soldier here does not make that much money. The commanders distribute the money to fighters and say, ’Go burn a school, we will give you money. Go rob a house, we will give you money’."

The Americans are trying to win the hearts of the Afghans with the promise of reconstruction. Next month, the military will form in Qalat, the capital, a provincial reconstruction team, quasi-military units of up to 100 people who provide security and help to rebuild roads, schools and clinics. It is hoped their presence will also establish a secure environment, especially in remote villages, for other charities to return. But the deputy governor, Malawi Mohammed Omar, said the Americans had a difficult task because they were not talking to village elders willing to co-operate and identify the enemy. "The US would not recognise Mullah Omar if he stood in front of them," said Mr Omar. "Until the Americans are on the ground and negotiating with the local community leaders and disarming them they will not win."
Posted by:Dan Darling

#10  Got that right,Ship.
Posted by: Raptor   2004-3-7 8:34:21 AM  

#9  Piano wire, and caltrops.
Posted by: mojo   2004-3-6 5:47:29 PM  

#8   ... Apaches -- the helicopter or the Indians?

Too bad that the gentlemen from the White Mountains are such homebodies. They'd make the Gourkas look like Swedes.
Posted by: Shipman   2004-3-6 5:42:32 PM  

#7  Add a couple of Apaches on stand-by at a local garrison, ...

Apaches -- the helicopter or the Indians? Oh heck, either would instill blood-curdling fear into the heart of a Taliban.
Posted by: Steve White   2004-3-6 2:01:00 PM  

#6  Very simple. Equip every villager with a small transponder with an on/off switch. Teach them to turn it "on" when there are bad guys in the area, and turn it off when they leave. Have a Spectre standing by overhead. It gets a signal, the night-scope comes out, and ZZZZZZZZZZZZAAAAAAAPPPPPPP!!!!! - 5000 rounds of 7.62 does a number on the bad guys. Get a few false reports, and you take away the guy's toy. Add a couple of Apaches on stand-by at a local garrison, and you've got a headhunter team that will start doing some good.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2004-3-6 12:35:29 PM  

#5  Firstly: i think we are hearing the uncritically accepted musings of Omar Quadratullah Jamar respun by the western media (as with most of the news coming out of Afghanistan)

Secondly: if this is true a stryker-brigade with experience in Iraq and helicopter backup ( and offcourse investment in intelligence) should be able to get on top of this situation pretty quickly.
Posted by: Evert Visser   2004-3-6 7:48:43 AM  

#4  They are lying near the mountains and sometimes even in the mosques, .... They were beaten in the mosque in open daylight.
The mosques are the terror epicenters.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester   2004-3-6 5:12:51 AM  

#3  This is the same Telegraph that put up an erroneous report of a botched SF raid, and numerous other factual errors in articles they have compiled. The one thing about British papers is that on accuracy, they tend to lead with their chins. On the military, they're about as accurate as everyone else, which is to say not very accurate.

Afghans have hidden agendas for everything they say. From what I've read, everyone has his hand out. Afghans say the Taliban are well-funded, because they know American forces have wads of cash with which to counteroffer the Taliban. Afghan forces say they are killing Taliban in order to provide a semblance of effectuality so that US troops can justify continuing to pay them. But raising these issues would, of course, either be too un-PC or (more likely) involve too much thinking on the part of the journalists, whose alcohol-deprived brain cells cannot function for lack of lubrication in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2004-3-6 2:39:57 AM  

#2  
Actually, Dan, I wanted to post this, but you beat me to it.

Still, the thought struck me...how to appropriately respond in a Military sense to such attacks? It would seem that over-land, even in quick all terrain vehicles would be far too slow.

And then the image from of Buch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid leaped out at me...just like the train full of horses...bingo!

Could a Chanook carry a squad of Special Forces on slightly amorized Dirt Bikes, ferry them into such an area, deploy them and off to the races they go?

Could the response time be quick enought? It is my nature to think in terms of small unit tatics and what would be effective...in killing the people that need to be killed. Just an idea from your thinking liberal here at Rantburg (smile)
Posted by: Traveller   2004-3-6 2:08:36 AM  

#1  Bad news.
Posted by: Paul Moloney   2004-3-6 1:32:57 AM  

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