Word: uruzgan
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...guest list did not extend, however, to Majeed Khan, a tribal leader in the rugged Uruzgan region of southern Afghanistan. That's a shame. Khan would have told his hosts some home truths. He would prefer to see more of NATO, if he could, because in recent months his region has been invaded by Taliban insurgents. "We cannot stop them from coming into our areas [because] there are no soldiers to stop them," said Khan earlier this month. "The soldiers [from NATO] come into the area, but then they leave and the Taliban come back. We don't encourage...
...progress. NATO forces are involved in peacekeeping in the Balkans, and its political leaders are concerned with extending its membership (in the teeth of Russian opposition) to post-Soviet states such as Georgia and Ukraine. But at a time of increasing Taliban activity in southern Afghan provinces such as Uruzgan, and a growing fatigue on the part of those nations that have troops in the area (and which are suffering a higher proportion of casualties as a result), it is the war in Afghanistan that puts NATO's challenges most sharply into perspective...
...small countries to leverage their capabilities to form part of a coherent whole - provided they are willing to ante up their share of battle-ready troops. "NATO has its problems, of course," says Britain's General Jackson. "But believe you me, there is nothing to match it." Back in Uruzgan, tribal leader Khan would certainly agree. The question is whether Europeans looking on from half a world away...
...ISAF and the U.N. Assistance Mission agree that the Taliban have little natural support among the people. But they do have money from the opium trade - worth around $600 million a year in Uruzgan alone. And they have growing help from foreigners - Muslims from Pakistan, Chechnya, and Uzbekistan. "In the beginning it was just a lot of local fighters who were forced or paid to fight," says Groen. "They would fire the odd round to show they were participating." But these days the ISAF faces "a different Taliban that is obviously better trained, better coordinated and more proficient with their...
...major source of fighters and funds, and name a former colonel of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency as a key figure behind the Taliban resurgence. Known as "Colonel Imam," he helped develop the Taliban in the 1990s, and the officials say he has been regularly sighted in Uruzgan. General Sabir says the Colonel made a lightning visit in October, urging the Taliban to keep up attacks through the winter and giving them "money for weapons, motorcycles, trucks - whatever they need." Contacted by phone in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Colonel Imam laughs at such suggestions. "I have no contact with the [Taliban] people...