Afgahn Guerilla War Escalating Rapidly:
Syed Saleem Shahzad for Asia Times
16 January 2003
A new round of carpet bombing and reinforcements of United States troops is likely for
Afghanistan as the writ of the administration of President Hamid Karzai is under threat from a
fierce guerrilla war that is intensifying in the mountainous terrain of the cities and towns located
in the east of the country near the Pakistani border.
Given the pace of guerrilla activities, as the snow starts to melt towards the end of March, the
capital Kabul can expect to come under rocket and missile attacks.
As the last remnants of the Taliban retreated from Afghanistan in early 2002 in the face of the
advancing US-led forces and the Northern Alliance, there was a widespread belief that they would
quickly regroup and fight back. However, except for a few isolated attacks on US and allies
forces, the victorious troops met with limited resistance.
This led US authorities to conclude that they had broken the back of the Taliban and al-Qaeda
network in Afghanistan. However, a strong showdown in the middle of last year between US forces
and the joint forces of the Taliban and al-Qaeda under the command of Saifullah Mansoor made
it clear to the US command that the enemy, while down, was certainly not out.
And with the return of former Afghan premier and famed mujahid leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
from exile in Iran into the fray in the second half of the year, the situation changed dramatically.
Many predicted that Hekmatyar would meet a quick death, but as Asia Times Online has
frequently written (see sidebar), Gulbuddin's arrival in Afghanistan was to prove the turning point
for the Afghan guerrilla movement.
By November of last year, a number of significant missile and rocket attacks all over Afghanistan
bore testimony to this, and sent a resounding message that the country was in for continued
strife. And as the new year begins, the indications are that the sporadic attacks will in time turn
into a full-fledged war.
Now, a new group calling itself the "Secret Army of Muslim Mujahideen" has claimed responsibility
for 50 raids on US forces and their allies in Afghanistan. The claim appeared in Pashtu language
pamphlets circulated in the Pakistani border city of Peshawar at the weekend. The leaflets did not
disclose either the nationalities of its members or its operational base.
Sources in Waziristan Agency in Pakistan, however, maintain that several strong commanders
who resisted the Red Army in Afghanistan, including Mansoor and Jalaluddin Haqqani, have made
alliances with small warlords in their areas and they could be the people behind the "secret
force".
The pamphlets claimed responsibility for a number of attacks, including a bomb explosion near
the US embassy in Kabul, rocket attacks on the headquarters of the International Security
Assistance Force in Kabul, and the ambush of US soldiers in Jalalabad.
The pamphlets, called shabnamay (night messages) among Afghans, are being distributed in a
very organized manner aimed at provoking a common Afghan uprising against the presence of
more than 8,000 US troops in the country.
To date, most of the guerrilla activity has taken place in the southern and southeastern parts of
Afghanistan, including Paktia, Paktika, Argon, Ghazni, Kandahar, Zabal and Hilmand. There are
clear signs that along with the Taliban and the Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan of Hekmatyar,
al-Qaeda Arab fighters are also active.
On Sunday, three rockets were fired at a military base of the US-led coalition forces in Khost
province, about 50 kilometers from Kabul, but no casualties were reported. The rockets were
launched from across the border in Pakistan. The night before, another rocket had been fired at
the same base from east of Khost city, the capital of the province.
According to local radio reports, the coalition forces recently seized six rockets from the border
area near the place from where the rockets were launched. The names of Abu Zubeda and Abu
Abdullah, high-ranking members of al-Qaeda, were written on the shells of those rockets, a local
security officer said.
Talking to Asia Times Online on condition of anonymity, a prominent tribal elder of South
Waziristan Agency told of his experience involving a US camp near the Pakistan-Afghanistan
border at Mashadat Kot, about three kilometers inside Afghanistan. The elder said that he
personally had met US officers in the camp and chatted to them for about an hour. But on
December 22 the camp came under heavy rocket, mortar and missile attack. "I cannot swear that
many US men were killed, but I visited the place after I heard of the event. The camp was totally
destroyed, there was no sign of life there."
There have now been confirmed reports that anti-US forces have also established a mobile radio
station that regularly broadcasts calls for jihad against the US forces. The transmissions are
mostly heard in Khost and Paktia.
A Wazir tribesman who is in close contact with the Taliban militia commented, "Arms and
ammunition are not a problem in this kind of war. The basic thing is public support, which the
present movement has through the distribution of pamphlets, audio cassettes and radio
broadcasts. The Taliban and other anti-US elements have retained this support.
"As far as heavy ammunition is concerned, the mujahideen fought a guerrilla war against the
Russian army in the 1980s. Most of the heavy weapons they acquired were the ones that they
grabbed in fights from the Russian army. The same weapons were then used against the Russian
soldiers. The same strategy has been devised in the present guerrilla warfare against the US -
the mujahideen will grab US weapons and use them against the US forces," the tribesman said. |
