Resurgent Taliban

THE SARKOZA PRISON in Kandahar after the suicide bomber attack on June 13. - ISMAIL SAMEEM / REUTERS

The Talibans growing strength is evident from the suicide attacks against the U.S.-NATO forces in Afghanistan.

THE Talibans audacious attack on a highly fortified jail in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on June 13 is yet another graphic illustration of its rising military clout. According to eyewitnesses, one suicide bomber drove in an explosive-laden water tanker through the main gate of the Sarkoza prison while another struck the rear of the jail compound wall, breaching it. This was immediately followed by an attack on the prison, killing 15 security guards, by 30 motorcycle-borne guerillas. Then they proceeded to open the prison cells and free their imprisoned comrades and also all other prisoners. More than a thousand prisoners, including hard-core Taliban fighters, escaped. Only a few of the escapees were recaptured until 10 days later. Many of the prisoners who escaped were originally captured by the Americans and were handed over to the Afghanistan government after an agreement was signed last year. Other prisoners were randomly picked up during security sweeps by United States and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) forces.

According to Afghan human rights groups, the conditions in the Sarkoza prison were appalling. Torture was routinely practised. Many prisoners had gone on hunger strikes because they were being held without any charges filed against them. Those labelled Taliban supporters were given the same treatment that the Bush administration reserves for its prisoners in Guantanamo Bay.

Meanwhile, the Taliban fighters, buoyed by their latest successes, occupied villages around Kandahar. U.S. and Afghan forces claim to have cleared the Taliban from these areas in the last week of June. The U.S. forces suffered their heaviest casualty in a single day a few days after the Kandahar jailbreak when a Humvee jeep was blown apart by a roadside bomb. Afghanistan could soon surpass Iraq as far as the levels of violence are concerned.

The Kandahar jailbreak came just after international donors gathered in Paris agreed to disburse $20 billion to rebuild war-ravaged Afghanistan. Afghans have heard of similar pledges made before, with much of the promised money never materialising. International agencies estimate a $5 billion shortfall. Cronyism and corruption have also impacted adversely the disbursement of international aid and the setting up of infrastructural projects. The Paris Donor Conference called upon the Hamid Karzai government to do more to fight corruption and strengthen the rule of law. Two-thirds of the aid has been channelled through non-governmental institutions. The Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR) has concluded that 40 per cent of the aid given to Afghanistan finds its way back to the donor countries. In April this year, President Karzai narrowly escaped yet another assassination attempt, after Taliban gunmen who had infiltrated his inner security cordon opened fire. The Afghan security agency has arrested officials from the Interior and Defence Ministries for complicity in the assassination attempt. Karzais reaction to the Kandahar attacks was stronger than usual. For the first time, he threatened to use force against Pakistan, blaming Islamabad for facilitating the Taliban attacks. He told the media in the third week of June that Afghanistan reserved the right to send its troops across the border into Pakistan. He stressed that it would be an act of self defence because the Taliban forces cross the territory from Pakistan to come and kill Afghans and to kill coalition troops.

The abject failure of the Pakistani forces to curb the activities of Taliban leaders such as Jalaluddin Haqqani, who has his base in the tribal areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, has angered both Kabul and Washington. Western military officials have told the American media that the Pakistan Army was not capable of taking him on. Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, while refuting the charges made by the Afghan President, said that his government would not allow anyone to interfere in the internal affairs of his country. The Pakistan Foreign Ministry summoned the Afghan Ambassador in Islamabad and lodged its strongest protest. Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that Afghanistan should refrain from making irresponsible, threatening statements.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military bombed a Pakistani military unit in Mohand along the border, killing 11 Pakistani soldiers. The U.S. military claims that it was retaliating against the Talibans attacks from across the border. Pakistan has denounced the attack as a deliberate act of aggression. The U.S. political and military leadership has been airing its displeasure with Islamabad for its alleged half-hearted attitude in fighting the Taliban. The outgoing Commander of the NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Dan K. McNeil, stated in the third week of June that stabilising Afghanistan will be impossible without a more robust military campaign against insurgent havens in Pakistan.

The Taliban success has come in the wake of the Western military alliance strengthening its presence in Afghanistan. The British and Australian troop presence has been increased. French President Nicholas Sarkozy announced recently that France also was increasing its military presence in Afghanistan. But public opinion in most NATO countries has turned against the war in Afghanistan. The Netherlands has announced that it would withdraw all its troops by 2010. Germany and France have refused to deploy their soldiers in the conflict zones in southern Afghanistan.

At the beginning of the invasion in 2001, there were only 20,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan. At present there are nearly 70,000 U.S. and NATO troops in the country. Three thousand more U.S. marines have been deployed in southern Afghanistan.

The year 2007 witnessed a record level of violence. Thousands of Afghan civilians lost their lives in the fighting. The U.S. lost 110 soldiers, Britain 41 and Canada 30. Other NATO nations lost another 40 soldiers. In 2007, there were 140 suicide attacks. This year, the Taliban and its allies have increased the number of suicide attacks. Attacks on foreign troops have risen to 500 a month.

Very few people in the West predict a victory at least in the short term against the Taliban or the establishment of a stable democracy in Afghanistan in the foreseeable future. The Afghanistan Study Group, in its report, warned that the U.S./NATO mission to stabilise Afghanistan is faltering amid renewed violence, rising opium production and falling confidence of Afghans in their government and its international partners. Seven years after Operation Enduring Freedom and the occupation of Afghanistan started, the alienation of the Karzai government from the general populace seems to have only increased. The reasons are obvious. Poverty has not diminished. Warlordism and lawlessness have increased dramatically.

According to most Afghanistan watchers, only 30 per cent of the country is under the control of the central government in Kabul. Many European commentators have concluded that the attempt to impose a Western-style democracy has failed in Afghanistan. Market economy and gender equality have little appeal for the Afghan masses, who are steeped in feudal customs and traditions. Most Afghans view Islamic fundamentalism as a form of nationalism, as the British colonialists and Soviets discovered to their misfortune. The Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, recently reiterated that his organisation was not a threat to the world and was only fighting to free our country.

The U.S.-NATO, preferring to resort to air power to combat the insurgency, has been routinely targeting civilian targets. Thousands of innocent civilians have died as a result of this. Louise Arbour, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that civilian casualties caused by military activity had reached alarming heights in 2007. She said that the targeting of civilian areas was a breach of international law and was eroding support among the Afghan community for the government and the international presence. Muhammad Akhunzada, the head of the Afghan parliamentary committee, recently told journalists that the harsh treatment of civilians by the U.S. troops was causing further alienation of the population and had already led more areas to fall into the hands of the Taliban. The U.S has so far spent a staggering $127 billion on the war in Afghanistan since 2001.

The Taliban forces have now started challenging the U.S. and NATO forces in new sectors. Attacks by the Taliban in the eastern region, occupied mainly by American troops, have increased dramatically in recent months. Badghis, a north-western province situated between Herat and Faryab, witnessed heavy fighting in May. As a result, American casualties were higher in Afghanistan than in Iraq in the month. This is the first time that Afghanistan has accounted for more fatalities than Iraq in a given month. There are reports that the Taliban has now become active in the north, hitherto under the influence of the Northern Alliance.

The attacks on foreign workers have also increased. Indian, Chinese and Turkish workers and engineers are among those killed or kidnapped in the past six months. The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), which provides security for Indian personnel working on development projects, has been targeted in recent months. India and Iran are among the major aid donors of Afghanistan. Both countries were open backers of the Northern Alliance which fought the Taliban during the protracted civil war. Reports suggest that there are more than a thousand ITBP personnel in Afghanistan. Indias Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is building a road through the Nimruz province which, when completed, will provide passage for Indian goods from Iranian ports to Central Asia.