By the early summer, 3,300 troops will be based in Helmand
Posted on 02/18/2006 4:57:26 PM PST by Cannoneer No. 4
Stroking his long beard and flashing a smile, Mohammed Khwaja, a Taliban organiser in the lawless borderlands of Pakistan's tribal areas, contemplated the imminent arrival of British troops in Helmand province.
"We thought that it would be between us and the US, but it looks like souls of the British buried in the Helmand after they were killed by the Afghan warriors in the 19th century may be feeling bored.
By the early summer, 3,300 troops will be based in Helmand "Now they are calling their grandchildren to be reunited with them in hell," he said.
By the early summer, 3,300 troops will be based in Helmand, in southern Afghanistan, close to where 962 British troops were slaughtered at the Battle of Maiwand in 1880.
If Khwaja has his way, it will be Afghan suicide bombers, rather than their forebears who used gunfire and artillery against the occupying foe, who will inflict casualties against the 21st century British force.
A committed jihadist who fought against American forces after they invaded following the September 11 attacks, he now dispatches young Afghan refugees (mohajir) from Pakistan's tribal areas to carry out attacks inside their homeland.
Khwaja, 32, also a mohajir, boasted that he had already "supplied" several dozen "suicide-ready Talibs" to camps inside Afghanistan in preparation for a spring offensive designed to hit the first British troops to begin patrolling in Helmand.
"Everyone here is convinced about jihad and to sacrifice his life," he said. "Once they sign in, they do not need any special kind of indoctrination. They simply are to be clad with a jacket laden with dynamite sticks and to blow themselves up next to the target.
"The Americans had either confined themselves to their bunkers or they were uselessly patrolling in the air. Once they are joined by several thousand British, you will be witnessing Talibs blowing themselves up left, right, and centre."
In recent months, Khwaja's job description has undergone a subtle change. He used to spirit fighters across the border and then facilitate the return of their bodies if they were shot.
Now, he arranges one way trips because a switch of tactics from hit-and-run operations to suicide missions means there are no bodies to return.
Born in an Afghan village close to Kila Saifullah, beside the Pakistan border, Khwaja was raised in a devout Muslim household.
In 2001, he fought against the Americans in Kunduz, in south-western Afghanistan, before moving north to the capital Kabul. After Kabul fell, he was part of the retreat to Kandahar, where he was a member of a crowd addressed by Mullah Mohammed Omar, the one-eyed Taliban leader.
According to Khwaja, Mulla Omar addressed the gathering through a loudspeaker from inside his bunker and uttered only few sentences, in which he told his followers to return to their respective places and to wait for the next call.
After two years of lying low in Pakistan and with Mullah Omar still at large, Khwaja was one of the Taliban who decided to regroup and mount renewed attacks against American forces and their Afghan allies.
Now, he said, he and other senior Taliban operatives had concluded that suicide bombings are the way to weaken the resolve of the British.
"We realised that we were losing too many men in traditional guerrilla warfare. But when it comes to a suicide mission, we can be one against many."
Khwaja said the adoption of the suicide tactic had come after close study of events in Iraq. Far from being borne "out of desperation", as President Hamid Karzai has said, it was a calculated move to give the Taliban campaign fresh impetus.
A Pakistani official said the Taliban's al-Qaeda allies, who also have a presence in the borderlands and Helmand, had schooled the Afghans in suicide attacks.
The resurgence of the Taliban has been felt most strongly in the southern provinces of Helmand, Zabul, Kandahar and Uruzgan, where 1,600 were killed last year. Since November, there have been 15 suicide attacks in southern Afghanistan, killing 70, including a Canadian diplomat and American and Afghan soldiers.
Syed Abdul Sattar Shah, of Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam, a Pakistani pro-Taliban movement, in Quetta, said that the Taliban now had the public support needed to defeat the British.
After the Taliban regime fell at the end of 2001, poor Afghans had expected a "sea of dollars" from American incomers but had instead got "peanuts" from the occupation.
Sardar Haji Lashkari, a tribal chief in Baluchistan, said Afghans now saw the Taliban as becoming the dominant force in the south. "Many of them have started joining the Taliban bandwagon as an investment for the future."
In Kila Saifullah, there was no doubting the popularity of the Taliban. "They never had a dearth of volunteers, but they needed funds as well as logistics," said Mullah Abdul Wahid, a local cleric. "Now, within a few months they have proved that they are still a force to be reckoned with."
Khwaja said he was relishing the arrival of British soldiers. "We intend to trap them and kill them all. There will be no opportunity for escape."
By the early summer, 3,300 troops will be based in Helmand
ping
'Suicide-ready' Taliban lie in wait for troops
Oblige them.
If the Taliban wishes to commit suicide, I'm all for it. But not if it winds up killing American troops.
Hopefully, the troops willbeat them to the shot.
And having gotten his butt handed to him on both occasions he now hides over the Pakistan border and brags at how tough he is. These guys never change.
Quote from Gen. Patton "Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country. "
L
'If the British do bad in Helmand, they will return home in coffins'
When you take a haji captive they invariably cry like little girls.
Every single member (almost) of the media should be thrown in prison for treason and aiding and abetting the enemy after doing things like this.
Could you imagine the BBC or New York Times sending out wire reports from inside Hitler's bunker in April 1945? The arrogance and elitism is sickening.
LETS GET IT ON!
The Dreaded Taliwackers...make fun of them at your own risk. They may be small but they are very angry...
and squat on their haunches and gossip like women all day if you let them
I still don't understand why low-level nukes aren't being used. Seems other local populations would get the picture more quickly and be more likely to disassociate themselves from the bad guys.
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