Brains, not brawn, in
Afghanistan By Syed Saleem
Shahzad
KARACHI - Sunday's brazen attack
on a military parade in the Afghan capital Kabul
at which President Hamid Karzai was officiating
marks the beginning of a new phase in the Afghan
insurgency in which attrition will be the focus.
Taliban fighters armed with machine guns
and grenade launchers sent salvos into the back of
the stage on which Karzai was seated with a host
of Afghan and foreign dignitaries gathered to mark
the 16th anniversary of the fall of the last
communist government.
Three Afghans and
three Taliban were killed. Sunday's event was also
aimed at showcasing the Afghan army's new training
and equipment, mainly from the United States. It
had been planned for
weeks
and security was at maximum levels, yet the
Taliban came within 500 meters of the stage.
Sunday's attackers penetrated no fewer
than 18 security rings around the parade's venue
and they used their latest weaponry - small
mortars that are only manufactured by a few
Western countries, including Israel. In Al-Qaeda adds muscle to the
Taliban's fight (Asia Times Online, April
19, 2008) it was reported
how the Taliban will use specialized
weapons to launch precision attacks on
high-profile targets.
Asia Times Online
contacts say the armed men belonged to legendary
Afghan mujahid Jalaluddin Haqqani's network and
were facilitated by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's
Hezb-e-Islami network in Kabul. Hekmatyar is an
Afghan warlord and politician par excellence.
Ironically, Sunday's parade celebrated the
victory of the mujahideen over the communists,
which in turn led to several years of the
country's worst-ever factional fighting until the
student militia - the Taliban movement - seized
power in 1996 and kicked out all the mujahideen
leaders from governance.
The parade was
attended by senior North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) and United Nations officials,
tribal leaders, diplomats and parliamentarians and
was the most high-profile assault by anti-Western
coalition militants since the suicide attack on
the Serena Hotel in Kabul on January 14.
The incident serves as a sharp reminder to
people in the capital that the Taliban are not a
spent force, as senior US commanders in
Afghanistan like to relate.
Last week,
Karzai criticized US-led coalition forces for
their conduct in the "war on terror" in Afghan
villages, alleging the real terrorist threat lay
in the sanctuaries of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in
Pakistan, not in Afghanistan.
These
differences highlight the complex nature of the
struggle in Afghanistan, and the constant changes
both sides make as they try to exploit and bleed
each other's weak spots.
The Taliban, for
instance, have forgone their traditional
direct-confrontation offensives against NATO's
powerful war machine, while NATO is becoming less
reliant on indiscriminate large-scale aerial
bombing.
The Taliban tried to chop off
NATO's supply lines through Khyber Agency in
Pakistan, and this time NATO responded with
intelligence rather than bullets, managing to get
the Taliban's key patron in the agency to change
sides. (See Taliban bitten by a snake in the
grass Asia Times
Online, April 26, 2008.)
Lessons of the battle of
Nuristan This month, US-led troops and
Afghan security forces, backed by air power,
reported they had killed a "significant" number of
militants in a fight in the northeast province of
Nuristan.
Initial reports said the attack
involved Hekmatyar's fighters. However, the
operation was conducted by a special Taliban
guerilla group commanded by Shaheen Abid, whom
Asia Times Online interviewed last November at
Nawa Pass on the Pakistan border with Afghanistan.
(See Death by the light of a silvery
moon.)
In a
change from previous years, NATO has made it a
priority to understand the workings of the
Taliban. So it was able to identify Abid as the
leader of the attack, and tracked him back to Nawa
Pass, where he was placed under surveillance.
On April 22, Abid's group launched another
attack, on the Afghan National Army in eastern
Afghanistan. But this time his movements were
followed, and while returning to Nawa Pass he and
nine of his group were killed.
By being
smart, rather than relying on "smart bombs", NATO
has eliminated a highly skilled Taliban combat
group.
Similarly, commanders such as
Haqqani have refined their methods, in Haqqani's
case by orchestrating suicide attacks and missions
such as Sunday's in Kabul.
Indeed, the
Taliban have lined up a stream of attackers to
target Kabul to rattle the Afghan government and
NATO forces in coming days and weeks.
Syed
Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's
Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can be reached at
saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com
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2008 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
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