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| Afghanistan | |
| Taliban bitten by a snake in the grass | |
| 2008-04-26 | |
KARACHI - The Taliban and their al-Qaeda associates, in what they considered a master stroke, this year started to target the Western alliance's supply lines that run through Pakistan into Afghanistan. Their focal point was Khyber Agency, in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, a key transit point for as much as 70% of the alliance's supplies needed to maintain its battle against the Afghan insurgency. The spectacular blowing up on March 20 of 40 gas tankers at Torkham - the border crossing in Khyber Agency into Afghanistan's Nangarhar province - sent shock waves through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led (NATO) coalition. So much so that it made a deal for some supplies to transit through Russia, a much more arduous route. The Torkham success was followed by a number of smaller attacks, and the Taliban's plan appeared to be going better than they could have expected. Then came this week's incident in which the Taliban seized two members of the World Food Program (WFP) in Khyber Agency, and it became obvious the Taliban had been betrayed, and all for the princely sum of about US$150,000. Their Khyber dreams are now in tatters. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #3 NATO chose not to promote Secularism in Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, in a climate where doubt in religious positions is enabled, militant groups are subject to defectors and infiltrators. I have always opposed Karzai's cultivation of Taliban-lite as a final solution to division in Afghanistan. |
| Posted by: McZoid 2008-04-26 19:14 |
| #2 Nothing like good old red-on-red. It does the heart good. |
| Posted by: anymouse 2008-04-26 17:03 |
| #1 "the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) - which Pakistan's intelligence community says maintains its biggest South Asian presence in Pakistan - sprung into action and staged a coup of its own" You mean the CIA actually had someone who, instead of spending all his time undermining the Administration's policies, went out and did what a spy agency is supposed to do? Color me very surprised. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2008-04-26 15:54 |