Taliban leadership 'falling apart'

Herald Sun ^ | 14th August 2004

[naturalman1975]

THE leadership of Afghanistan's ousted Taliban movement appears to be "falling apart" as more and more Afghans turn against the rebels, the US military claimed today.

Two factions have emerged within the hardline militia, each backing different views of how their insurgency should proceed, American spokesman Major Scott Nelson said.

"There's a fissure developing," Major Nelson said. "That's a significant development which sort of demonstrates that the Taliban are sort of falling apart a little bit on the leadership side."

Major Nelson declined to give details, saying the military was still trying to work out what impact any lasting split could have on the militants' operations.

Thousands of Taliban fighters were killed when US and allied Afghan forces drove them from power in late 2001 for harbouring al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

The militia quickly regrouped and has maintained a stubborn insurgency that has killed hundreds of Afghan and foreign soldiers, government officials, aid workers and civilians.

Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar reportedly formed a new shura, or leadership council, last September to further invigorate the campaign.

But American commanders claim to have placed militants on the defensive with aggressive operations across the south and east of Afghanistan this year.

Officials also point to the registration of 9.5 million Afghans out of 9.8 million eligible to vote in October elections as evidence of the Taliban's thin support.

Major Nelson said the military, which has begun building wells and clinics in areas deemed too dangerous for relief organisations, was receiving more and more information from ordinary Afghans about Taliban operations, including tip-offs about roadside bombs.

There are "some very good strong indications the population is turning away from remaining neutral toward the Taliban", he said.

[ABG(anybody but Gore)]

Waiting for ABCNBCCBSCNN to pick up on this story.......

[anniegetyourgun]

Great news.

[Dahoser]

"There's a fissure developing," Major Nelson said. "That's a significant development which sort of demonstrates that the Taliban are sort of falling apart a little bit on the leadership side."

Sort of demonstrates...sort of falling apart, a little bit.

In other words, not much.

[DoctorZIn]

This article has been posted to DoctorZin’s New News Blog!

[NELSON111]

I like to randomly go back and look at old threads by plugging in a random thread number.

What a difference 8 years makes: Taliban falling apart: NOT.

[Future Snake Eater]

They very much were in ruins at that point. Taliban-loyal warlords were surrendering to us, the will to fight broken.

Then we screwed the pooch. We had no plan for accepting surrender other than to say, “Cool, go home and don’t be a dick.” Then the Taliban came by and realigned their thinking by murdering the warlord and his entire family. How many surrenders do you think we got after that?