Taliban's Iraq-style spring is
sprung By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - As another spring approaches in
Afghanistan, another Taliban-led offensive is
planned. But this year, the Taliban believe,
unlike in the previous offensives in the five
years since they were booted out of power in
Kabul, they are better organized than ever before.
A key to the Taliban's revival has been
the links it has forged with the resistance in
Iraq, which has provided hundreds of Taliban with
hands-on training in that
country, as well as logistical and tactical
support.
One such support device is a
compact disc released by the Jaishul Islam al-Iraq
(Islamic Army of Iraq) that shows how urban
guerrilla warfare is being conducted in Iraq and
how this can be adapted to the resistance in
Afghanistan. The CD, a copy of
which has been
obtained by Asia Times Online, is widely
circulated among the rank and file of the Taliban.
The Jaishul Islam al-Iraq is
an indigenous group commanded by many former top
Iraqi generals and independent Islamists, and the
CD therefore shows the very refined quality of
their attacks. The group fully coordinates its
activities with other groups, such as Ansarul
Sunna, and it also
has good ties with al-Qaeda.
The CD
contains 10 separate clips, each one showing a
significant aspect of Jaishul's strategy. These
include:
The structure of the group's intelligence;
Infiltration of the rank and file of enemy
forces;
Exhaustive knowledge of the target;
Precise identification of the "material" to be
used against specified targets;
The importance of dedicated foot soldiers.
One
of the clips shows two vehicles seconds before one
of them, laden with explosives, rams into a US
armored vehicle. The other truck, which has been
monitoring the progress of the target, can
be seen frantically reversing from the
scene.
Another clip shows guerrillas
taking up positions near a spot used by a US
helicopter carrying soldiers. As the chopper takes
off, it is hit by a missile and crashes. Several
soldiers can be seen burned in the wreckage, while
one who survives can be seen pleading, in English,
for his life. The response is a hail of bullets
that kill him.
Other footage shows an attack
on the US base of Tal Afar. The resistance, with
the help of collaborators within the Iraqi forces,
has planted explosives in the camp, which
can be seen going off. In one picture, US soldiers
watch the first explosion. In the next second,
their building is blown up.
As a
background to the images, Koranic verses are
recited, as well as resistance songs in Arabic,
such as "We will defend our land with full vigor."
The spring is sprung Asia Times
Online has learned that as many as 500 fighters
who trained in Iraq are now in Afghanistan or
Pakistan, while many others are expected to return
soon.
The Taliban's connection with Iraq
began before the US-led attack there in 2003 when
Taliban leader Mullah Omar sent some of his men to
stay with the Ansarul Islam, a Kurdish Islamic
group in northern Iraq, to train and fight
alongside Kurdish guerrillas against Saddam
Hussein's forces. After the US invasion, many of
these men went to other parts of the country to
fight alongside various groups opposed to the US
forces.
In 2003, one of the Taliban
commanders who had been sent to Iraq, Mullah
Mehmood Allah Haq Yar, returned to Afghanistan,
where he rejected the traditional style of
guerrilla warfare in operation since the
anti-Soviet resistance of the 1980s - heavy
reliance on AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades.
The first thing he taught the Taliban was
the formation of groups that could fight
independently and which would be task-orientated
to specific missions. Many of these small groups
were sent regularly to Iraq between 2004 and 2005,
where they spent months with the Jaishul Islam
al-Iraq, the Ansarul Sunna and other Islamic
groups.
In return, these men passed on
their new-found expertise to comrades in
Pakistan's tribal areas on the border with
Afghanistan, notably North and South Waziristan,
the former being a veritable Taliban stronghold,
the latter heading that way. And significantly,
a la Iraq, they have organized scores of
suicide squads, a relatively new phenomenon in
Afghanistan.
Taking on Pakistan
In the first phase of their spring
offensive, the Taliban aim to contain the
Pakistani army by engaging it throughout the
tribal belt. This will allow the Taliban freely to
cross the leaky border with Afghanistan, or
better, strike a deal with the army to leave the
Taliban alone. According to contacts who spoke to
Asia Times Online, a blueprint for such attacks in
the tribal areas has already been approved by the
Taliban's command council.
Within
Afghanistan, heavyweights Kashmir Khan of the
Hizb-i-Islami Afghanistan, Mullah Dadullah, Mullah
Akhtar Usmani and Sirajul Haq Haqqani, son of
former Taliban minister and commander Jalaluddin
Haqqani, are already in the field to influence
local tribes to support the Taliban movement.
Shabname , or "night messages",
contained in pamphlets are being distributed
asking people to revolt against foreign forces,
which, the pamphlets say, are made up of people
from countries where caricatures of the Prophet
Mohammed have been published and his personality
ridiculed.
Independent analysts believe
that the Taliban, even with training, will be
unlikely to achieve anything like the level of
warfare being waged by the Iraqi resistance, which
has a strong element of hardened professional
soldiers.
Nevertheless, the Afghan
resistance will be sufficiently competent and
equipped and big enough to remain a serious threat
to US and allied troops, and even force a rethink
on their part.
Syed Saleem
Shahzad is Bureau Chief, Pakistan Asia Times
Online. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com.
(Copyright
2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
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which has been
obtained by Asia Times Online, is widely
circulated among the rank and file of the Taliban.
Sunna, and it also
has good ties with al-Qaeda. 
be seen frantically reversing from the
scene. 
has planted explosives in the camp, which
can be seen going off. In one picture, US soldiers
watch the first explosion. In the next second,
their building is blown up. 
