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Politics : The Truth About Islam -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (412)	9/4/2006 7:05:24 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 20106

Brutal one-legged fanatic who loves the limelight telegraph.co.uk ^ \| Filed: 02/07/2006) telegraph.co.uk By Michael Hirst The camera pans in on a black-turbaned mullah, who solemnly signs a slip of paper and hands it to the young fighter sitting beside him. It turns out to be the recipient's own death warrant: the slip identifies him as "Suicide bomber 116". Off goes yet another volunteer to die in the Taliban's increasingly savage campaign against coalition troops in Afghanistan, but the cleric who sends him on his way remains alive and very dangerous. Mullah Dadullah Akhund, the ruthless fanatic in charge of the Taliban's new campaign, is fast becoming to Afghanistan what Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was to Iraq. Mullah Dadullah Akhund Just like Zarqawi, his starring role in propaganda DVDs has successfully drawn in scores of suicide bombers and thousands of fighters to the cause. And just like Zarqawi, his fondness for beheadings means his followers fear him almost as much as his enemies. Dadullah has developed almost mythological status among his compatriots, which is partly why he was dispatched by the Taliban leadership to front the current recruitment campaign for jihad in the seminaries of northern Pakistan's Baluchistan province. Recruitment DVDs on sale across Afghanistan and Pakistan show the one-legged guerrilla commander in various poses - blasting a target with a heavy machine gun, dishing out blessings and ordaining a succession of would-be "martyrs". The success of his recruitment campaign can be seen in the surge in suicide bombings, school burnings and guerrilla ambushes that have killed more than 100 Afghan civilians and at least 40 coalition soldiers this year. Dadullah boasts that he has 200 suicide bombers awaiting his orders as well as 12,000 fighters on the ground. So effective is his campaign that Taliban guerrillas have for the first time captured government installations in Afghanistan's remote south, if only for brief periods. Afghan villagers testify that increasing numbers of Taliban fighters are roaming the countryside with impunity, warning locals not to cooperate with coalition troops, on pain of death. To emphasise the point, one of Dadullah's videos shows his fighters slitting the throats of six men accused of spying for the Americans. Dadullah is aged about 40 and is said to come from the Kakar tribe, from the Kandahar region, which is renowned for its fighting prowess. He lost one of his legs after stepping on a landmine shortly after joining the Taliban in 1994. Despite the disability he became renowned as a fearless fighter, leading major battles against the rival Northern Alliance forces throughout the 1990s. So vicious was he that during one particularly brutal assignment in 1998 to "pacify" ethnic minority Hazaras, a Shia group in Bamian province, he massacred hundreds of civilians. It was too much even for Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban's one-eyed spiritual leader, who relieved him of his command. Soon he was back in battle though, his reputation so fearsome that Taliban radio would often report his presence on the front lines even when he was days away from the fighting, to unnerve opposition fighters. He also has a propensity for killing subordinates who disobey his orders. Having escaped to Pakistan after the fall of the Taliban in November 2001, he helped rebuild the movement from there and was recently promoted to overall commander of the Taliban's military wing, enjoying complete operational freedom. Unlike other Taliban leaders who never allow themselves to be photographed for religious and security reasons, Dadullah seems to crave the attention, giving television interviews and calling foreign journalists on his satellite phone. He now operates mostly out of Afghanistan's Helmand province, where Britain has about 3,300 troops. He never spends the whole night in one place, fearing coalition air strikes. He is a shrewd strategist whose current plan is not to regain control of Afghanistan, but to turn it into a graveyard for foreign troops, forcing their retreat. "We have the strength to take over Kabul in a single day, but what we lack is the strength to sustain this control," he said. The new face of the Taliban Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright