Word: talibanism
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...raisin-drying barns and deep irrigation canals provide excellent cover for fighters. Kandahar residents worry that the militants could use the Arghandab district as a base for an attack on the city itself, in an attempt to regain their former power base. "Arghandab is a strategic district, which the Taliban can use to threaten Kandahar," says former police chief Khan Mohammad. The Taliban have taken every village in the area except for the main town of Arghandab, Mohammad says, and there are now 40 to 50 Taliban fighters in each village. He worries that the jailbreak was a precursor...
Pakistan, which once supported the Taliban government in Afghanistan, is now suffering an insurgency of its own. Militants aligned with al-Qaeda have not only attacked security forces in the ungoverned tribal areas; they have also sent suicide bombers to major urban areas such as Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. The Pakistani army has been unable to contain the militants, and has already lost around 1,000 soldiers trying. In an attempt to gain stability, the military embarked last December on peace negotiations with militant groups. The newly elected government in Islamabad is backing the talks, and militants have agreed...
Mark Laity, spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), NATO's military arm in Afghanistan, concurs. "In the wake of the jailbreak we obviously have a different and more difficult security situation in Kandahar," he says. While ISAF officials are skeptical about reports of high numbers of Taliban forces fighting together, on June 18 Afghan National Army (ANA) and ISAF troops launched an offensive, assisted by helicopter gunships, to drive the Taliban from the villages. Later that day, the Afghan Ministry of Defense said that dozens of Taliban fighters - including foreign militants - had died in the confrontation...
...massing of Taliban fighters in Arghandab is a departure from the militant tactics that have evolved over the past two years. In 2006 NATO forces soundly defeated a Taliban force in nearby Panjwayi, and declared the movement all but dead. Since then there has been an increase in suicide bombings and the use of Improvised Explosive Devices. That approach was interpreted as one of weakness and desperation, but now it is starting to look like a recuperation strategy. The jailbreak and ensuing raid indicates the growing strength of the Taliban, whose fundamentalist Islamic regime was pushed from power when...
Useful Friends A new study released by the rand corporation and funded by the U.S. Defense Department claims that Pakistani intelligence agents and paramilitary forces have helped train Taliban insurgents, and have given them information about American troop movements in Afghanistan. "Every successful insurgency in Afghanistan since 1979 enjoyed safe haven in neighboring countries, and the current insurgency is no different," said the report's author, Seth Jones. "Right now, the Taliban and other groups are getting help from individuals within Pakistan's government, and until that ends, the region's long-term security is in jeopardy." The Pakistani military...