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Thread ID: 9113 | Posts: 1 | Started: 2003-08-17
2003-08-17 12:13 | User Profile
Afghan resistance takes shape By Syed Saleem Shahzad
[url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/EH16Ag01.html]http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/...a/EH16Ag01.html[/url]
KARACHI - Notwithstanding the changing of the guard in Kabul, which sees the North Atlantic Treaty Organization taking over command of the International Security Assistance Force, the resistance network that covers large swathes of the country is firmly in place.
This consists of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hizb-e-Islami Afghanistan, the Taliban and fighters of Osama bin Laden's International Islamic Front grouped under the banner of the Saiful Muslemeen (the Sword of Muslims). Previously restricted to the countryside and attacks on foreign soldiers, the resistance has now targeted cities.
This week has been the bloodiest in Afghanistan for more than a year, with more than 50 people killed in bombings and fighting across the country in incidents orchestrated by the Saiful Muslemeen, which in turn, according to security sources, is run by senior Taliban leaders holed up in the southern Pakistani city of Quetta and its outskirts. Currently, their main targets are the southern regions of Afghanistan, including Zabul, Hilmand, Kandahar and Urugzan.
The resistance does not necessarily want to take control of towns, rather it wants to send a message to the embattled interim administration in Kabul headed by Hamid Karzai that local governments are at their mercy. This happened in Zabul, as reported in Asia Times Online on May 1 (Afghanistan, once more the melting pot ) when the town was overrun, then abandoned.
Subsequently, Taliban guerrillas again captured Zabul and hoisted their white flags on government buildings. And once again they melted into surrounding mountains after a short time, where this time they held their positions. The mountains are such that for people with local knowledge, they provide excellent coverage, even from aerial bombing. The apparent aim is to be in position to cut the supply lines of southern Afghanistan from Kabul. Already, some districts, including Hilmand and parts of Kandahar and Urugzan, have to rely on tortuous routs for supplies, or wait for air drops.
Another, and very new, part of the strategy adopted by the resistance involves the use of remote-controlled devices. These include the remote manipulation of missiles and bombs, which will significantly increase the effectiveness of the guerrillas. The arrival of this new technology also indicates that the resistance has established supply lines to the outer world, which will make the job of the coalition forces even more difficult.
The evolving situation in Afghanistan - and Iraq for that matter - represents the designs of the International Islamic Front, which aims to draw the enemy (US) to battlefields, where it will be engaged in protracted warfare that will reap a heavy human and economic toll - much as happened to the former Soviet Union in its misadventure in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
To this end, the Front is recruiting fighters from around the world - and especially from Pakistan and the Central Asian republics - to become its new martyrs on the killing fields of Afghanistan.