[wvns] The Taliban's northern front
Taliban insurgents are building their network in the province of
Badghis, in an attempt to open a gateway to Afghanistan's north.
The Taliban's northern front
By Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi
Friday, November 23, 2007
http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=12391
While the attention of the Afghan government and the media is focused
on major battles in the south of the country, the Taliban are making
major headway in a northern region.
Badghis, a north-western province wedged between Herat and Faryab, has
been the scene of heavy fighting for the past two months, and the
insurgents have occupied three of the province's seven districts. They
have also established intelligence and operational networks in most
district centers.
This was the first of the north-western provinces to fall to the
Taliban in 1997. Now the insurgents are looking to repeat their
earlier success, using Badghis as a launch pad for operations in the
provinces further east, which include Jowzjan, Balkh, Takhar and
Badakhshan.
In Faryab, directly to the north of Badghis, the Taliban have
established a foothold in mountainous areas, and are trying to expand
their networks there as well. The Taliban have launched several
sorties in both provinces in the past two months and claim that the
Bala Murghab, Ghormach and Qades districts of Badghis are largely in
their hands.
"We are trying to open up this route just as we did in the past," said
Mullah Dastagir, a self-proclaimed Taliban commander in Badghis. "Our
policy is different up here. We have openly engaged the government and
foreign forces in the south, but in the north we are quietly expanding
our area. The government is weaker here than in the south and the
mountains have provided good terrain for our operations."
Dastagir claimed that the Taliban were in control of many mountainous
parts of Badghis.
"We would like to occupy the province right away, since the capital
[Qala-ye Nau] and some of the districts are still under government
control. We could do it in one single attack, but we are waiting for a
larger operation. Our strategy is to go for many provinces at once,"
he said.
The Taliban are increasing their military presence in the area and
will soon be ready for action, said Dastagir, adding, "We are trying
to work under cover now, and we see that people are welcoming us
warmly. Soon we will occupy the whole entrance to the north."
The Taliban attacked Badghis' Bala Murghab district on 20 September,
in a three-hour battle that left four policemen and 20 insurgents
dead. Two days later, the Taliban attacked Qaisar, a district in
Faryab, resulting in the capture of an insurgent commander known as
Rassulak.
On 25 September, a police vehicle hit a roadside mine in the Ghormach
district of Badghis, killing three and injuring four. Officials blamed
the insurgents. When a helicopter belonging to NATO's International
Security Assistance Force (ISAF) crashed in Ghormach the same day, the
Taliban claimed responsibility. Also that day, a Chinese road
construction company worker was kidnapped by the insurgents in the
Qaisar district.
Afghan government forces launched a counter-offensive in the Ghormach
and Bala Murghab districts, and official reports put the death toll
among the Taliban at more than 20. The rebels denied this.
The governor of Badghis, Ashraf Naseri, denies that the Taliban are
gaining ground in his province.
"The Taliban's claims that they have captured mountainous areas show
that they are weak," he told IWPR. "They cannot fight on flat terrain;
they hide out in the mountains where normal people don't live."
But officials in Faryab confirm that the Taliban are making headway.
"Yes, they are coming to us through Badghis," said General Khalilullah
Ziayee, Faryab's security commander. "They are trying to attract
people to their side."
The general insisted that the north would not go the way of the south,
where the insurgents control large swathes of territory.
"The Taliban do not have military operations in this province they way
they do in the south," he continued. "They are acting covertly,
gathering intelligence. Sometimes they carry out attacks on
motorbikes, just to show that they are active here.
"Our mountainous areas like Qaisar, Almar and Kohistan are becoming
vulnerable. We have expanded our operational and intelligence
activities. We have increased our forces in some particularly exposed
areas and have even sent forces to Ghormach district to help the
Badghis police. The Taliban cannot operate freely."
But residents of Badghis and other northern provinces say that the
Taliban now exert an influence that is felt in their daily lives.
"The Taliban have reached the area," said Fazel Rahman, a resident of
Bala Murghab district. "It is not important how many buildings are
under the government's control. The Taliban are present in the
villages and many people have joined them. Unemployment and the
government's failure to help people have resulted in this situation -
the Taliban are getting stronger by the day."
According to Fazel, clashes between the Taliban and government forces
most often result in victory for the insurgents.
"The police just return to their bases after the fighting, but the
Taliban remain to spread their message among the people," he said.
"The government knows exactly where the Taliban are concentrated, but
they cannot do anything; they just watch as the Taliban gain ground."
The Afghan government, backed by NATO, has recently deployed more
forces in Badghis to combat the Taliban's growing influence. Brigadier
General Dieter Warnecke, the NATO commander for the northern region,
confirmed that the Taliban have established small centers in the
north-western part of Afghanistan from which to launch their operations.
Speaking at a press conference in September, he said the Taliban have
set up camps in Faryab where they plan attacks on other parts of the
north.
"According to our information, Pakistan and Iran play a significant
role in establishing and developing these centers in north-western
parts of Afghanistan," he said. "For this reason, Faryab has become a
trouble-spot for us."
Satar Barez, the deputy governor of Faryab province, agreed with the
NATO commander's assessment.
"Currently the army, police and NATO forces have been deployed in
Faryab, particularly in Qaisar district," he said. "This is the only
thing that can prevent the further expansion of the Taliban."
He insisted the Taliban forces here consisted largely of mercenaries
and foreign fighters, and not local recruits.
"People in this region will not cooperate with these Taliban," he said.
But many people are not optimistic about the government's attempts to
stop the insurgents' forward advance here.
Maulawi Sheikh Ahmad, a member of parliament from Faryab province,
blames the international troops for the Taliban expansion.
"It is the presence of foreign forces that has caused an increase in
the number of Taliban," he said, speaking at the funeral of a former
militia commander in late October. "In the past, there were no
foreigners and no Taliban. Now that foreigners have come into the
region, the Taliban have followed. The foreigners have provoked them,
and this will result in people joining hands with the Taliban. Our
people do not have good memories of foreign operations in the south
and the east."
Political observers believe the high concentration of NATO and Afghan
forces in Badghis and Faryab is evidence that the government is taking
the threat seriously.
"The government's statements that they have increased their deployment
of NATO and Afghan troops in Badghis and Faryab show that the Taliban
have a lot of influence in these provinces," said Qayum Babak, an
editor and analyst in Mazar-e-Sharif. "Up until now, the government
has been underestimating the threat."
Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi is an IWPR staff reporter in Mazar-e-Sharif. This
article originally appeared in Afghan Recovery Report, produced by the
Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR).
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