Posted on 08/17/2006 8:01:05 PM PDT by Marius3188
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - High-stakes talks involving Canadian and other NATO officials were underway Thursday that could see insurgents put down their weapons in a key Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan.
The clandestine negotiations, led by Afghan authorities but involving NATO intermediaries, were being held as hundreds of Taliban fighters amassed within two kilometres of a Canadian outpost west of Kandahar, preparing for battle.
The unprecedented talks are so sensitive that, officially, NATO insisted it was not in direct contact with Taliban leaders.
"ISAF hasn't been approached by any faction of the Taliban," said Canadian Forces Maj. Scott Lundy, a NATO spokesman. "At this point, no official involvement."
However, intermediaries quietly got involved after Taliban leaders insisted on talks with NATO's International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, or other international facilitators, rather than with the Afghan government, The Canadian Press has learned.
"In fact, they are scared of the government," an Afghan official said of the Taliban leadership, on condition of anonymity.
"Their requirements are to talk with (ISAF) or with the (UN). ... They trust these two organizations more than anyone else."
Lundy acknowledged NATO was at least aware that talks were going on. "There is a dialogue underway already with some Taliban in Kandahar province," he said.
Sources said as many as 1,500 Taliban fighters had converged by Thursday in three villages in Panjwaii, where Canadian soldiers have faced their biggest battles since taking a lead role in southern Kandahar province in February.
NATO officials said they believed the numbers to be much smaller, although they would not provide an estimate.
While many of the Taliban had been recruited locally, they were being supported by insurgents mainly from Pakistan and also Saudi Arabia, sources said.
Four Canadian soldiers were killed and 10 others injured in Panjwaii on Aug. 3 during heavy fighting with Taliban forces.
"The (Panjwaii) area is on high security alert," said an Afghan Interior Ministry official who didn't want to be identified.
Most civilians had already been evacuated from the villages of Pashmul and Zangawat, while local residents in Sheperwaan were told to leave their village immediately, said the official.
Since the death last week of Panjwaii's last Taliban leader, Mulla Ibrahim, the insurgents have broken into three factions, the sources said.
Each of the groups - Usama, Taliban and Hikmat Yaar - has publicly proclaimed they will never reconcile with the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Privately, however, Taliban sources said they are open to overtures from the government through ISAF. ISAF requested their identities be withheld for fear that they could be killed by hardliners for even suggesting reconciliation was possible.
Asked about the talks Thursday, an Afghan government official expressed pessimism about their outcome.
"Things are not going well," he said through a translator. "They are not ready to talk. They say they will never reconcile."
Southern Afghanistan has seen a surge in violence over the past few months, when nearly 900 people have been killed - most of them insurgents.
Canada has lost seven soldiers in the past three weeks alone, through fighting, bombing attacks and accidents. In all, 26 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have been killed in Afghanistan since Canada deployed troops to the country in early 2002.
There are about 2,200 Canadian troops involved in military operations in Afghanistan under the NATO umbrella.
In separate, unrelated incidents Thursday, two attacks were carried out in southern Afghanistan.
The first saw an American soldier injured when a suicide bomber attacked a U.S. military convoy about 15 kilometres south of Kandahar.
Another suicide bomber struck a NATO patrol in Uruzgan province, north of Kandahar, killing one civilian and wounding six others. No NATO troops were hurt.
Fire mission!
really. If we know where they are why aren't bombs falling?
When will they learn?? ..never negotiate with terrorists!
Arc Light
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