World War: Afghanistan: Taliban resurgence in Afghan 'theatre' of Islamofascism terror war

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It's good to hear even conditional good news out of Afghanistan these days. In the lastest we read that "Afghan troops fight to retake southern towns," which means the Taliban's recovery of territories they target are at least being contested, and in this case, not be "outsiders" but by the new Afghan army itself. The other side of the same dispatch by Tom Regan Christian Science Monitor (Jul 18,2k6) runs a subtitle on the darker side, "Meanwhile, ongoing drought may drive Afghans to join the Taliban."


Afghan troops were preparing Tuesday to retake a town in the country's dangerous Helmand province that one official said had been "technically and temporarily" left to Taliban insurgents and Pakistani militants.

The Associated Press reports that between 300 and 400 Afghan soldiers were heading to the southern town of Garmser. "Our soldiers are going to Garmser with the support of the coalition to take it back from the Taliban," said Amir Mohammed Akhunzada, the deputy governor of Helmand province.

In Kabul, Associated Press reports that [Afghan] government officials accused the outlawed Pakistan-based militant Islamic group Lashkar-e-Tayyaba [which apparently figured largely in the train-terrorism in Mumbai - P] and the pro-Taliban political party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam of taking over Garmser[, Helmand province, Afghanistan]. Afghan police battled with the insurgents for 16 days before the police were forced to withdraw.

[Deputy Interior Minister Abdul Malik Sidiqi] said a second Helmand town - Naway-i-Barakzayi - that had been overrun by militants was reclaimed by government forces late Monday. "[The ousted insurgents had] burned the Afghan flag and raised the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam flag in the district."

The specter of unified terrorists with a political wing operating in Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan - at the very same time that the terrorists continue viciously in Iraq - and have been killing civilians and capturing a few soldiers in Israel from their strongholds in southern Lebanon (where Hizbullah had paralyzed the Lebanese govt) and Palestine's West Bank and Gaza (where Hamas had won the recent parliamentary elections), while recalling all the other places like-minded terrorists had struck in this worldwide endeavour - London UK, Bali Indonesia, Egypt, Kenya - we have to conclude that we are in the midst of a worldwide war. Returning to the specifically Afghan situation:

Meanwhile, the BBC reports that the country is now facing another problem - massive drought. And the drought is worse in the areas where the Taliban have the most "influence," reports show.

Much of the country's wheat crop has failed this year because of lower than expected snowfall during the winter and poor spring rains. Families are already reported to be going hungry in provinces as far Badakshan in the north-east and Josjan in the west.

Thousands of people in Zabul province have left their villages to search for food, but the World Food Programme says it does not have the resources to help them.

Reuters reports that poverty has been one of the main reasons for the resurgence of the Taliban in the south.

"There are many villages where, because development agencies can't operate normally in conditions of insurgency, people don't have enough to eat," a diplomat said.

"If the Taliban arrive with a little cash, that can be enough to induce people to join."

The situation in Afghanistan is, simply, dire. An analysis byv Hekmat Karzai and Seth G. Jones (CSM, "How to curb rising suicide terrorism in Afghanistan," (Jul 19,2k6) parses its subject matter into five distinct elements:

First, Al Qaeda and the Taliban have successfully tapped into the expertise and training of the broader jihadi community. Militants have imparted knowledge on suicide tactics to Afghan groups through the Internet and in face-to-face visits, and these militants - with Al Qaeda's assistance - have supplied a steady stream of suicide bombers.

Second, Al Qaeda and the Taliban have concluded that suicide bombing is more effective than other tactics in killing Afghan and coalition forces. This is a direct result of the success of such groups as Hamas in the Palestinian territories, Hizbullah in Lebanon, the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, and Iraqi groups. Suicide attacks allow insurgents to achieve maximum impact with minimal resources. Data show that when the insurgents fight US and coalition forces directly in Afghanistan, there is only a 5 percent probability of inflicting casualties. With suicide attacks, the chance of killing people and instilling fear increases several fold.

Third, Al Qaeda and the Taliban believe that suicide attacks have increased the level of insecurity among the Afghan population. This has caused some Afghans to question the government's ability to protect them and has further destabilized the authority of local government institutions. Consequently, the distance between the Afghan government and the population in specific areas is widening.

Fourth, suicide attacks have provided renewed visibility for the Taliban and Al Qaeda, which previous guerrilla attacks did not generate. Because of their lethality and high profile nature, every suicide attack is reported in the national and international media.

While the majority of suicide attackers are foreigners, some Afghans have been influenced by the increased proliferation of extremist propaganda and have carried out suicide attacks.

The two reports differ in more or less "blaming" the problems on Lakshar-e-Taiba (LeT) in the first article sited in this blog-entry, and instead "blaming" them on Al-Quaeda as the master of the resurgent Taliban in the secod article cited. The accounts may be reconcilable, one or both may be seriously mistaken (tho I doubt it). In any case, dire.

-- Politicarp