 The brutal harsh Afghan winter has limited Taliban attacks against government and foreign troops and the militants are regrouping to resume their raids after the end of cold spell, a Taliban spokesman said on Saturday.
| "Yeah! Youse guys're gonna get it!" |
Abdul Latif Hakimi also dismissed reports of Taliban defections to President Hamid Karzai's government, more than three years after U.S.-led forces ended their rule in late 2001.
Hakimi telephoned Reuters
| "Hello? Is this Reuters?... This is Mullah Hakimi... H-A-K-I-M-I... Yeah. I'm from the Taliban... T-A-L-I-B-A-N... Okay. I'll wait..." |
to say that elusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar had ordered that attacks be stepped up once the snow thawed in the mountains, which usually happens in April. "I spoke to Amir Ul Mominin (Commander of the Faithful) Omar on the phone today and he said the attacks will restart, and will have to, after the completion of winter," Hakimi said.
| "That's 'cuz we gotta stop those elections..." |
"The Taliban have enough forces now and we are regrouping to increase the number of fighters and attacks following the winter throughout Afghanistan." Hakimi said he was speaking from a snow-covered mountaintop in the restive southern province of Zabul. Zabul was one of the main Taliban bastions during their rule until late 2001 and has been a key base for their guerrilla activities since then. Like many other Afghan provinces, Zabul been badly hit by an especially harsh winter that has killed hundreds nationwide. The militants are still seen as a threat to more complex parliamentary polls due later this year.
| I tend to doubt it, since Afghans have now taken to hunting down and killing Bad Guys who screw with them... |
Hakimi said the winter had hampered operations. "Villages have been cut by snow. There is lack of wheat and firewood. Under such circumstances, it is difficult for us to operate properly."
| Y'don't think that might have something to do with Taliban control of those backwoods areas, do you? First you bump off the aid workers in the summertime, and you make sure all the farmers spend their time praying or growing opium for the Talitreasury, and then you wonder why there aren't any groceries in the wintertime? Brilliant. |
On Monday, U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said some "senior" Taliban members had taken up a government amnesty offer but he and the government refused to give details. Wednesday's Washington Post quoted a Western official as saying they included the Taliban's former U.N. envoy, Abdul Hakim Mujahid, two former deputy ministers, Arsullah Rahmani and Rahmatullah Wahidyar, and a former charge d'affaires at the Afghan embassy in Saudi Arabia named Fawzi. It said 22 low-level Taliban members had agreed to lay down their arms. None are known as senior figures in the Taliban guerrilla campaign and Hakimi dismissed talk of defections. "Karzai and Americans have been speaking about these so-called negotiations for the past 16 months," he said. "Has any Taliban changed sides? No. If the Taliban are in contact with the government, why then are their names not revealed? This is not true; it is psychological warfare aimed at creating rift among the Taliban." |