The message is clear: The Taliban are back


	March 5, 2002	atimes.com

Central Asia/Russia

The message is clear: The Taliban are back
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - Just two weeks before the snow is normally due to start melting in Afghanistan, Taliban and al-Qaeda forces have regrouped in preparation for widespread guerrilla strikes across the country.

And in another development, the hard-line Pashtun warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has arrived in the western Afghan city of Herat from exile in Iran, and along with the Tajik governor there, Ismail Khan, is likely to try and manipulate the delicate situation in Kabul.

Asia Times Online reported in October of last year, when the US first attacked Afghanistan in reprisal for the September 11 attacks and in search of Osama bin Laden, that the Taliban would store their weapons in the eastern provinces of Paktia, Khost and Logar after retreating (as per their strategy) from Kabul. At these selected places in the east, they would lay low in the winter before activating a guerrilla campaign in late March.

This is exactly what is happening now, and why the United States and its allies are once again involved in heavy military action in the country. A 1,500-strong ground force backed by fighter bombers began an assault on Taliban positions on Saturday, when three deaths, including one American and two Afghans, were reported. Heavy carpet-bombing continued on Monday.

According to fresh information received from Gardez, the capital of Paktia province, after the US ground attack first began, Mullah Saifur Rehman Mansoor of the Taliban, along with local Hizb-i-Islami members and smaller groups, hit back at the positions of the US and the Afghan militia. According to reports, the Taliban fighters are fully equipped with heavy weapons. A US military spokesman, Major Ralph Mills, said that several hundred militants were concentrated in the Shah-e-Kot mountains, 30 kilometers south of Gardez.

The latest assault is believed to be the largest joint US-Afghan military operation of the five-month-old war in Afghanistan. US heavy bombers and AC-130 gunships have been targeting the militants' vehicles, mortar positions and caves, Mills said. US military officials said that there had been "intense" clashes when the US-led force from the army's 101st Airborne Assault Force encountered artillery, mortar and heavy machine-gun fire.

Saturday's ground attack - in snow-covered mountains rising to 3,480 meters (11,600 feet) above sea level - failed to dislodge the militants. US Chinook helicopters ferried in supplies to the US troops and French Mirage 2000-D jets were reported to be flying in support of the US aircraft.

Bombing was also reported on the Kharwar mountain range in neighboring Logar province, where pro-US Afghan forces were said to be battling Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters. In Khost, 70 kilometers east of Gardez, US troops stationed at an airport were attacked by rockets and small arms fire early on Monday. A spokesman for the Khost shura (council) said that the US forces had returned fire and air strikes had been called in, but there were no immediate details of casualties.

The mountains around Gardez have been a hiding place for Afghan warriors since guerrillas used them as a base for their fight against invading Soviet troops in the 1980s.

According to Taliban sources, attacks were also launched on Sunday at Kandahar airport in the south in which three US soldiers were killed. This was the third attack on the airport since US forces started moving to Bagram airport near Kabul, which they are making the hub of their activities.

And according to reports, secret night messages (sab namey) are again being distributed in the streets of southern Afghan towns and villages. These pamphlets bear the photograph of bin Laden and warn tribal chiefs to realign their loyalties with the Taliban as the former rulers have restarted their activities in Afghanistan. Such night messages were used by the mujahideen during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Sources said that with the Taliban starting activities in Afghanistan, their strategic map can be easily defined.

In the south, the Taliban, along with Hizb-i-Islami commanders, are stationed in Hilmand province. This is the center of their activities besides Orguzan province, the birth place of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, who is said to be holed up there.

In Khost, former Taliban minister and a former guerrilla commander during the Soviet invasion, Maulana Jalaluddin Haqqani, has regrouped his forces and is set to launch attacks. Haqqani's strategic points are likely to feed Taliban rebels in Nagarhar province.

Sources say that the presence of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar in Herat represents a great threat to the stability of the interim government of Hamid Karzai. Hekmatyar was responsible for destroying much of Kabul in post-Soviet occupation civil war, but he still commands a strong following and has a good understanding with Uzbek warlord Abdul Rasheed Dostum - in control of Kandahar - and Ismail Khan in Herat.

Sources say that he also is in agreement with interim Afghan Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim - former military leader of the Northern Alliance - in opposing the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan.

So with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar throwing his weight about, and the Taliban re-emerging, the pro-US Hamid Karzai and US interests in Afghanistan face a renewed and deadly challenge.

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