Word: dadullah
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...fact that he had to be buried in a secret location underscored the importance of Mullah Dadullah to the Afghan insurgency. Afghan authorities announced Monday that the Taliban's top military commander, slain in a weekend operation led by U.S. forces in southern Afghanistan, had been laid to rest in secret lest his burial site become a rallying point for resistance. They, together with NATO officials, hailed his death as a critical blow to a spiraling Taliban insurgency, and it will certainly be a welcome victory for a coalition that has been losing support as a result of the mounting...
...Replacing Dadullah won't be easy for the Taliban, in part because his own brutality may have eliminated a number of potential successors. "He killed the guys above him, so quite a lot of capable or respected leaders have disappeared in his move up the ranks of the Taliban," says a Western Intelligence official in southern Afghanistan. A possible successor, Ahktar Mohammed Osmani, was killed in December in an air strike. Another, Obaidullah Akhund, was captured in February. But it remains to be seen whether Dadullah's death will herald a breakdown of the Taliban's command-and-control structure...
...Over the past five years, Dadullah has emerged as the top operational commander of the Taliban resistance, uniting his fighters with a combination of charismatic media spin and a penchant for barbarism. He is thought to have organized the growing wave of suicide bombings in Afghanistan, and to have commanded over a dozen beheadings, videos of which showing terrified Afghan prisoners circulated in bazaars and were sent to the country's television stations...
...sentiment. "The only way you are going to solve the problem of militancy in the tribal areas is through a massive influx of development," he says. "And even then, we are talking 10 to 15 years." That's a grim analysis, given the claim of senior Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah that he will soon be able to field some 10,000 soldiers, including 2,000 suicide bombers. While few believe the Taliban has that kind of strength, it's still a worrying indication that the fighting will get worse this spring...
...anti-government sentiment. "The only way you are going to solve the problem of militancy in the tribal areas is through a massive influx of development," he says. "And even then we are talking 10 to 15 years." That's a grim prescription given that senior Taliban Commander Mullah Dadullah promised in a phone call to Reuters last week that "this year will prove to be the bloodiest for the foreign troops. It is not just a threat, we will prove it." He says he will soon be able to field some 10,000 soldiers, of which...