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Almost Two Years After They Were Defeated, Thousands Join The Talibans New Jihad
The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 9-7-2003 | Massoud Ansari

Posted on 09/06/2003 5:57:12 PM PDT by blam

Almost two years after they were defeated, thousands join the Taliban's new jihad

(Filed: 07/09/2003)

Massoud Ansari travels with militia fighters around the Kandahar region of Afghanistan

They are known as the Sarbaz - those who care nothing for their own lives - and they represent one of the greatest threats to the government of Mohammed Karzai and the international forces seeking to bring stability to the shattered country of Afghanistan.

The Taliban, supposedly vanquished in December 2001 when American and Northern Alliance forces drove them from power, are reviving and fighting back across southern Afghanistan.

Siddiqullah is one of many hundreds - possibly thousands - of young men who have been recruited to the Taliban to join their guerrilla war against government and allied forces. At 24 and recently engaged, he has put his life on hold to wage a holy war on "infidel" forces occupying his country.

"My parents insisted that I wait for a while and get married, but I told them that my first and last commitment is jihad and I don't want to make any other commitment at this stage," he said.

Siddiqullah is involved in the increasing number of hit-and-run attacks against government and American troops, moving from village to village through the bleak mountains of this rugged region, sometimes spending days travelling on foot through the desert.

"Jihad is now ordained for all of us," said Siddiqullah, and it seems that many young men agree with him. Students from religious seminaries across the border in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan have joined the war within Afghanistan, and are ready to take part in suicide missions.

Members of the Taliban say that their renewed campaign follows a reorganisation carried out by three regional commanders earlier this year, on the orders of the movement's one-eyed spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar - who, along with Osama bin Laden, remains at large.

Responding to the call, Mullah Dadullah Kakar, a one-legged veteran of the war against the Russians, and Maulvi Sadiq Hameed travelled to the Madrassas, or religious schools, in Baluchistan, to recruit students.

The third Taliban commander, Hafiz Majeed, garnered support from the tribal chieftains and elders in southern Afghanistan.

Dadullah has fought the allies ever since the Taliban regime was driven from Kabul, Kandahar and Afghanistan's other main cities. As one of Mullah Omar's most trusted lieutenants, he escaped to Pakistan, where he was sheltered by Kakar tribesmen in Baluchistan.

"The tribesman not only gave him shelter but also bought him a Land Cruiser and gave him huge amounts of money," said a Taliban fighter. Later, when they realised that he might be arrested in Baluchistan, the tribesmen moved Dadullah to a house in part of Karachi - Pakistan's biggest city - which is dominated by affluent Pathan businessmen.

Subsequently Dadullah, accompanied by religious scholars from Afghanistan, visited dozens of religious schools in Pakistan's tribal areas to lecture students and deliver instructions on jihad from Mullah Omar.

While hundreds have already joined the fight, Taliban leaders claim that many more religious students from Pakistan are ready to go.

In the past 15 days alone, about 150 people - including Afghan troops, policemen and civilians - have been killed in southern Afghanistan. The most significant attack came when 400 Taliban militia reportedly captured one of the districts of Zabul province for a few hours, killing 29 government soldiers and even hoisting a Taliban flag. They used the loudspeakers of mosques to warn residents not to co-operate with United States forces or the government.

The Taliban are drawing on support from Pathans, who complain that they are under-represented in the government compared with the ethnic Tajiks, Hazaras and Uzbeks who have taken many of the senior jobs in the police force, army and administration.

Meanwhile, many traders, already compelled to pay extortion money to Northern Alliance warlords, subsequently lost their businesses to the looters who roam Afghanistan's highways. Those who resisted were killed.

The scarcity of reconstruction work in Afghanistan's southern regions, where people lack healthcare, education or even wells for drinking water, has boosted the Taliban's recruitment drive. Mohammed Hasan, a villager in a remote valley near the Pakistan border, said: "We supported the coalition because we thought that they would change our life, but so far nothing has changed."

Many areas of the south still look as they did under Taliban rule: men wear black turbans, women cover themselves from head to toe, and there are no cinemas or television sets. With only 15,000 American troops in the whole of Afghanistan, it is impossible for them to keep an eye on every single movement.

Mohammed Amin, a 30-year-old leading a group of Taliban in the Pashmol district of Kandahar province, said hundreds of tribesmen were acting as the eyes and ears for the movement, supplying information on the movement of government forces. Some of the volunteers children were as young as 12.

Meanwhile, he boasted, Taliban fighters had managed to join the Afghan government army, where they acted as spies and saboteurs. "They either confide to us information about the plans movement of Afghan US troops, or they attack these troops and kill them."

Taliban fighters go to great lengths to avoid detection, moving in small groups of 20 or fewer, emerging from hideouts after dark to lie in wait for government patrols, or to launch ambushes on army outposts while troops sleep.

Most of the communication is through hand-written notes, although local commanders also use satellite telephones and radios.

Amin showed me a handwritten letter bearing the signature of Mullah Omar, urging his men to fight and free the people from the "slavery of the infidel US".

However, the Taliban fighters say they do not intend trying to regain control of the whole of Afghanistan in the near future. "We've the strength, guts and force to take even Kabul any time, but we know our limitations and we wouldn't be able to sustain that control," said 28-year-old Habibullah, a recent recruit to the militia from the refugee camps in Pakistan.

"We don't have the technology to withstand B-52 air strikes. What we are trying to do is inflict maximum damage to the US troops and their allies so that they get fed up and leave our country.

"We know that won't be soon but we also know that they will get fed up eventually. Look at what our long resistance did to the Russians."


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; defeated; jihad; southasia; southasialist; taliban; talibanlist; talibans; thousands
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To: TBP
Ah, you're back with your bilge.

Your antiIndianism is tired and stale.

Paki Whore!
61 posted on 09/07/2003 11:00:19 AM PDT by swarthyguy
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To: blam
Almost Two Years After They Were Defeated, Thousands Join The Talibans New Jihad

(sarcasm) I wonder how many of these new members of the Taliban are part of anti-american, pro-socialist media that is inside the U.S.

62 posted on 09/07/2003 11:00:53 AM PDT by Paul C. Jesup
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To: risk
There's more going on quietly. Ponder the ramifications of this rather unpublicised exercise, and note its location; right on top of Pak Kashmir, Near the Afghani Pamir panhandle, and not too far from the Chinese border.

Googling a map of this area drives it home.

Just a guess, IMO, this may be more than an exercise.

Indian, US special forces hold exercises in Ladakh
Hindustan Times ^



http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/977277/posts
63 posted on 09/07/2003 11:20:20 AM PDT by swarthyguy
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To: NutCrackerBoy
However, if several countries are commited long term

Well, we ought to get the Indians in and they wouldn't have any objections to helping out hte Afghnis and neither would the Afghnis, since the Inds were their supporters even when the rest of the world more or less accepted the Talibs in the late 90s.

Plus, I doubt the indians would raise any objections, unlike the fudging over raq.
64 posted on 09/08/2003 12:44:37 AM PDT by Cronos ('slam and sanity don't mix, ask your Imam.....)
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To: blam
Not many people know that.

You must be kidding right? How can people NOT know that?? The slamic bomb is ready and wasn't made by irQ, irN, Syria, Libya or even Saud (though thy financed it) but by our ALLY who we very kinly handed over $3 billion to buy more weapons whhich would be aimed at us?

WE're committing the same mistake we did in the 80s when we build up saddy and what we did in the 70s when we created a hollow Shah in Persia.
65 posted on 09/08/2003 12:47:28 AM PDT by Cronos ('slam and sanity don't mix, ask your Imam.....)
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To: TBP
TBP? The Bad Prophet?? That's all Cold war links which are to be put aside or else we lose the current war. The natural allies of the moment are India, Israel and yes, even Russia, as we all face the same source of terror.
66 posted on 09/08/2003 12:50:10 AM PDT by Cronos ('slam and sanity don't mix, ask your Imam.....)
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To: risk
are ready to fire unless Israel agrees to pack up and leave, America departs from the entire region, and India leaves Kashmir.

Risk, you're believing the cult of Peace's lies. Do you really think that if Israel disappears, India gives up K and the US gets out, they'll be happy? No, they'll say that Spain and Portugal and GReece and hte Balkans are to be 'returned'. Then they'll say that since the rest of the world, the US included are the nations of haram, they must cnvert ordie. You can't reason with madness, you can't dance with the devil, you must destroy him and you must destroy the cult.
67 posted on 09/08/2003 12:55:34 AM PDT by Cronos ('slam and sanity don't mix, ask your Imam.....)
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To: Jim Noble
The road map for peace failed because we assumed we were dealing with honourable people. It reminds me of the Godfather where Don Corleone says 'I can only deal with reasonable people', the unreasonable ones, the mad ones are to be destroyed if you want order in your world, peace and prosperity. Otherwise we'll have more 9/111s
68 posted on 09/08/2003 12:59:39 AM PDT by Cronos ('slam and sanity don't mix, ask your Imam.....)
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To: Cronos
You can't reason with madness, you can't dance with the devil, you must destroy him and you must destroy the cult.

I think you must have misunderstood my point, because I'm arguing just that. I want to know that we are doing everything we can to fight this war, and my sense is that to some extent, Bush Junior is reacting in a Clintonian fashion. I was prepared to defend his descision to attack Iraq first (and not Pakistan) because I felt we should eliminate the weaker force first, the one closest to Israel. But then we stopped at Syria and Iran. Northwestern Pakistan is offlimits, we've appeared to pressure India not to escalate tensions over the Kashmir, and we sit idly by while Iran hurtles toward nuclear strategic power. We've pushed the roadmap to hell in Israel all during this time. And finally, our firm treatment of North Korea must also be in question until inspectors have been allowed back in, and disarmament has been certified.

I realize that cooler heads are in charge, but the roadmap is clear evidence that our current administration has some serious misconceptions about using strength to obtain peace. The near daily complaints from our state department about Israel's attacks on Hamas should be an affront to all who have vowed to fight the scourge of Islamic terror. I'm through being astounded, and I'm ready to call a spade a spade. If we don't disarm Pakistan, destroy Iran's nuclear weapons program, and stop coddling North Korea, the current sense of insecurity we have at the hands of the Axis of Evil will seem like the silly bad dreams of children.

It's time for America to take the kid gloves off.

69 posted on 09/08/2003 1:37:46 AM PDT by risk
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To: blam
The Saudi's also have Chinese ballistic missiles deployed now for decades.

But who knows if they actually work. For the Saudi princelings, procuring functioning high-tech military equipment, or seeing to proper maintenance and training, cuts into and conflicts with the main purpose of the procurements, which is of course the kickbacks.

70 posted on 09/08/2003 3:12:43 AM PDT by Stultis
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To: risk
re: It's time to take the kid gloves off.

Mea culpa, sorry, then we're in complete agreement. The point is that NOW we are the sole superpower, that state WILL change by 2010, so we must act now to secure our interests while we still can.
71 posted on 09/08/2003 3:24:13 AM PDT by Cronos ('slam and sanity don't mix, ask your Imam.....)
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To: Cronos; swarthyguy; TBP; rmlew
The point is that NOW we are the sole superpower, that state WILL change by 2010, so we must act now to secure our interests while we still can.

Yes, it's a grave error of the left, the center, and the elites in our society to believe that America (and by extension the democracies of the world) are safe because they are powerful.

In any case, India and we have a common enemy in Pakistan. India and America have had some differences, but maybe helping each other there instead of pointing fingers will be the common experience we need to build stronger trust between our two democracies.

72 posted on 09/08/2003 3:48:32 AM PDT by risk
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To: blam
The Vietnam War was unwinable as long as the Vietcong were able to get more men and equiptment from inviolable sanctuaries

The "War on Terror" is unwinnable as long as the Saudis remain inviolable sources of money and activists for Jihad

73 posted on 09/08/2003 3:53:28 AM PDT by SauronOfMordor (Java/C++/Unix/Web Developer === needs a job at the moment)
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To: TBP
India was a longtime ally of the Soviet Union, with which it had a 100-year friendship treaty, and supported the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, yet opposed our actions there. In 1999, according to The Indian Express, the Indian Defense Minister organized and led a meeting with the Ambassadors from Cuba, Red China, Iraq, Russia, Libya, and Serbia aimed at setting up a security alliance "to stop the U.S." He described America as "vulgarly arrogant." India is not a country to be trusted.

And we have Indian and Chinese nationals working in practically every IT dept in the US, having access to US trade secrets, medical info, and credit info.

Sounds rational to me

74 posted on 09/08/2003 3:56:18 AM PDT by SauronOfMordor (Java/C++/Unix/Web Developer === needs a job at the moment)
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To: risk
Yes, I agree, for whatever speculations and old news TBP brought up (the 1999 meeting sounds like something out of a cheesy Bgrade spy flick), we (the US, Rus, Ind, Isr) have a common foe right now and we should help each other because this is in our own interests.
75 posted on 09/08/2003 7:35:12 AM PDT by Cronos ('slam and sanity don't mix, ask your Imam.....)
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To: risk; swarthyguy
We have been incredibly naive to trust a Beijing bootlicker like Musharraf at all. We should have taken up India's initial post 9/11 offer of alliance without fail, and, stood shoulder to shoulder as we invaded and conquered Pakistan. Unfortunately, in spite of many incorrectly labelling the USA as "an empire" we are the "anti Empire" and incapable of thinking in such stark terms. Such bold and decisive action is not inside our comfort zone; the USA has become the world's super mom, seeking to please all. This shall become our undoing if we do not change. I boldly afront the old Kissingerian philosophy with this adage: "There are true allies and everyone else is an enemy until proven otherwise." Naturally this adage is irreconcilable with multilateralism and globalism. But I suspect I shall be proven correct.
76 posted on 09/08/2003 8:07:42 AM PDT by GOP_1900AD (Un-PC even to "Conservatives!" - Right makes right)
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To: belmont_mark; risk; Cronos
The recent exercises publicised in Ladakh make me optimistic.

Despite public rhetoric and the spinelessness of our treatment of saudi and pak, i'll go out on a limb and say exercises in the Himalayas, combined with the extensive cooperation between the US Sixth Fleet and the Indian Navy in patrolling the Molucca Straits, give me a feeling that the US is lining up its ducks in the eventuality of a major world war.

So, at least the Pentagon is thinking with clarity and vision into the future.

Now, the politicians and Foggy Bottom need to do the same.

77 posted on 09/08/2003 9:58:52 AM PDT by swarthyguy
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To: risk
India and we have a common enemy in Pakistan.

Pakistan has been our ally, bothin the Cold War and in our efforts to track down terrorists. India has given us nothing but lip service and, as I showed previously, it has helped our enemies, including Iran and Iraq, and engaged in many other anti-American activities. India's record of anti-Americanism is longstanding and current.

Who is our ally and who is our enemy? I think you have it backwards.

78 posted on 09/08/2003 10:38:20 AM PDT by TBP
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The preceding message brought to you by the Embassy of the Sharia Republic of Pakistan. Inshallah!
79 posted on 09/08/2003 10:49:35 AM PDT by swarthyguy
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To: swarthyguy
I think TBP's concerns are valid, but now I see that Indian patriots are suffering from the same treatment as we've given Israel roadmap. If it's difficult for us to wipe the slate clean with India, it is because we have not shown it a gesture that can undo the mistreatment by our State department.

Mushrraf, who might be shot next week or next year, knew about the Pearl murder and lied to Bush about it. Hindus tell me he can't be trusted, but I think he is the least of our worries. The main problem is that most of Pakistan hates us. Most of India loves us. We have to start counting noses instead of just looking at 20 year-old history (which led to bin Laden by the way) and official Pakistani policy. There is an undercurrent of hate there, and we can't ignore it anymore.

India and America must come to terms in order to win the war on terror. There may be a way to continue calling Musharraf our ally, but he will have to allow American anti-terrorist military actions within his borders in the northwest. Guess what? That'll never happen because he'd be killed the next day. So we need to face it: the Islamic bomb is ticking in Pakistan and India wants to help us with the problem.
80 posted on 09/08/2003 11:56:05 AM PDT by risk
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