Word: guerrillas
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...mistaken killing of up to 40 Afghan civilians by a U.S. warplane Monday is a lesson in the difficulties in rounding up the scattered remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaeda: The enemy has dispersed and taken shelter within the civilian population, in order to wage a guerrilla war against the U.S. and the government in Kabul. If that results in accidents in which U.S. forces kill civilians, the Taliban and al-Qaeda hope to use those incidents to build support for their cause in the local population. Thats the reason Monday's incident makes life difficult...
...rout of the Taliban, most enemy fighters were neither killed nor captured; they simply dispersed. Many went back to their villages and signed up with local warlords engaged in longstanding turf battles. Others may have seen the onset of the U.S. offensive as the cue to revert to the guerrilla tactics their fathers had used so effectively against the Soviet invaders...
...guerrilla fights the war of the flea," wrote Robert Taber in his 1965 textbook on (and for) guerilla warfare. "And his military enemy suffers the dog's disadvantages: too much to defend; too small, ubiquitous, and agile an enemy to come to grips with." Not only that, the guerrillas take shelter in the civilian population, knowing that any "collateral damage" incidents will potentially alienate that civilian population from the guerrillas' enemies...
...Since the Taliban fell, their forces along with al-Qaeda members have engaged in guerrilla actions aimed at harassing U.S. troops and local warlords aligned with the Kabul government. U.S. bases and patrols regularly come under fire; just last weekend 19 people were killed in the town of Spin Boldak after an ammunition depot used by a pro-Kabul warlord exploded under suspicious circumstances...
...Rather than base their new guerrilla campaign on resurrecting their own mediaeval Islamist ideology, the Taliban survivors have attempted to rally new support along ethnic lines. Their propaganda appeals to Pashtun nationalism, accusing Karzai of being beholden to the Americans and the Tajiks of the Northern Alliance. On that basis, they've sought to make common cause with former adversaries such as the notorious Pashtun warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and local commanders once opposed to the Taliban...