The Taliban's battle over the
ballot By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - Rich with money
they make from Afghanistan's opium trade, the
Taliban-led resistance has the funds to finance its
struggle against foreign troops in the country, in
many cases using the same smuggling routes the
drugs take to procure arms on the black market.
These routes traverse Iraqi Kurdistan,
Turkey, the Central Asian states and Iran.
The Taliban are buying more sophisticated
arms, and Russian and Chinese-made surface-to-air
missiles in particular are flowing into
Afghanistan in increasing numbers, according to
people familiar with the resistance who spoke to
Asia Times Online.
Obviously this gives an
added dimension to the Taliban's fighting
capabilities, and in recent months they have
succeeded in bringing down several helicopters -
the most recent being an attack last month that
claimed the lives of 17 Spanish soldiers.
In June, 16 US service members aboard a
MH-47 helicopter died
when
their aircraft crashed near the Afghan-Pakistan
border. The US military believes the chopper was
downed by the resistance.
The
Taliban have been less successful in attacks on
foreign aircraft using the main bases at Sheendand
and Bagram. As one contact told Asia Times Online,
the Taliban now have an abundant
stock of
surface-to-ground missiles, but they are still
learning to use them properly.
"A general
conduit of the weapons smuggling for Afghanistan
is from Iraqi Kurdistan, from where the weapons
are transported through Iran to Afghanistan. The
SAM missiles of Russian and Chinese origin are
available at a cost of US$2,500 each. The main
market of these missiles is Afghanistan," a
confidante told Asia Times Online on a condition
of anonymity.
The Taliban already have
close links with elements of the Iraqi resistance
in terms of tactics and training, so it is logical
that they also cooperate over arms.
Asia
Times Online has reported in detail on Mullah
Mehmood Haq Yar, an expert in guerrilla and urban
warfare, (see Revival of the Taliban,
April 9) and how Taliban leader Mullah Omar sent
him to Iraq before the war. There, he interacted
with Islamic groups in northern Iraq before
returning to Afghanistan to introduce similar
tactics to those of the Iraqi
resistance.
According to a report from
Reuters news agency, last month al-Arabiya
television aired a video purportedly depicting
foreign militants in Afghanistan, including
Europeans, Arabs and others, preparing to attack
US troops and Afghan officials.
"These
foreign guys are pretty well-armed," the Reuters
report quoted a US paratrooper on patrol in
Orgun-E, an area in southeastern Paktika province,
as saying. "They have expensive weapons you can't
get in this country."
Back to the
source Earlier this year, the Iraqi
resistance leaked some documents to the media,
including Asia Times Online, which showed
correspondence between the Iraqi Ministry of
Defense and a US contracting firm by the name of
Wye Oak Technology. The documents detailed
correspondence in August of last year relating to
the sale of weapons from Saddam Hussein's army for
scrap. The list of weapons includes missiles,
artillery and light- and medium-size weapons, all
of Russian, Chinese or French origin.
Though there is no way to confirm the
authenticity of the documents, it is widely
believed that arms of a similar nature made their
way onto the black market, and in particular to
Iraqi Kurdistan, from where the Taliban is now
sourcing Russian and Chinese-made weapons.
No letup in the resistance With
nationwide parliamentary elections due in
Afghanistan on September 18, the Taliban have
raised the tempo of their attacks in an attempt to
disrupt the voting process. In the latest attack,
Afghan officials say that six Afghan policemen and
two suspected Taliban insurgents had been killed
this week after militants attacked a police post
in Muqur, a district of southern Ghazni province.
More than 1,100 people have been killed in
bomb blasts and shootings so far this year,
compared with 850 for the whole of 2004. This
includes more than 70 US troops.
An
estimated 12 million voters are expected to vote
for the lower house of the national legislature
and for provincial councils across the country.
Voters will choose 249 people to fill the People's
Council, which is the lower house of the new
National Assembly, marking the country's first
national legislative body under its new
constitution. Voters will also choose between nine
and 29 members (depending on the size of the
population in their province) to fill provincial
councils.
However, the election commission
has yet to release a full list of the candidates,
partly because the Taliban have unequivocally
stated that they will specifically target
candidates, and they are believed to have drawn up
plans for where they will strike. These targets
could include 17 Taliban who have joined the
administration of President Hamid Karzai.
Maulvi Pir Mohammed is one of them. This
correspondent met him in the North Waziristan
tribal area in Pakistan last year. Pir Mohammed
was vice chancellor of Kabul University during the
Taliban's rule - 1996-2001. When the Taliban
retreated in the face of the US-led invasion of
late 2001, Pir Mohammed took sanctuary in
Dand-i-Darpa Khail, North Waziristan, where he
lived in severely reduced circumstances. A few
months ago, he suddenly surfaced to condemn the
Taliban movement and announce his support for
Karzai. Now he is chief justice of the Supreme
Court in Kabul.
However, this elevation
has not come free. Recently, two of his nephews
were kidnapped in Miranshah, North Waziristan by
men loyal to Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani.
According to Asia Times Online sources in the
area, they were released once Pir Mohammed paid a
ransom of two trucks loaded with weapons and
$7,500 in cash.
Syed Saleem
Shahzad, Bureau Chief, Pakistan Asia Times
Online. He can be reached at
saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com
(Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
rights reserved. Please contact us for information
on sales, syndication and republishing
.)
stock of
surface-to-ground missiles, but they are still
learning to use them properly. 
