WORLD / Asia-Pacific
Taliban takes Al Qaeda tactics
(The Christian Science Monitor)
Updated: 2007-08-02 07:16
Kabul, Afghanistan - By killing two South Korean hostages and refusing to
release the remaining 21, including 18 women, the Taliban is taking a new
path that suggests it is becoming an Afghan branch of Al Qaeda.
In the past 18 months, the Taliban has adopted more aggressive tactics �C
such as kidnappings and suicide bombings �C imported directly from the Al
Qaeda-led global jihad.
It marks a departure from the Taliban of the recent past. Indeed, experts
say that the Taliban's original reason for being �C an intensely tribal
brand of religious fundamentalism �C has all but evaporated, as Muslims
of all sects participate in a movement based less and less on traditional
tribal values and increasingly on anti-Americanism and terrorism.
As a result, Pashtun tribal elders, long the best hope to negotiate the
release of foreign hostages, including the Koreans, are increasingly
being marginalized as the Taliban moves beyond its Afghan roots.
"This is a new strategy," says Ahmed Rashid, author of "Taliban." "There
has been a progressive Al Qaeda-ization of tactics."
On July 31, Afghan police recovered the body of a second Korean aid
worker killed since the group was taken hostage on a dangerous road in
the insurgency-plagued south two weeks ago. The Taliban set a new
deadline of 3:30 a.m. Eastern Time Aug. 1, saying it would kill more
hostages if eight Taliban prisoners were not freed.
The Afghan government has insisted that it will not meet the Taliban's
demands, despite pressure from the South Korean government to do so.
During the crisis, Afghan leaders have repeatedly taken issue with the
Taliban's shift in tactics. On Sunday, President Hamid Karzai denounced
the kidnapping of women and "foreign guests" as unIslamic, and added:
"This will have a shameful effect on the dignity of the Afghan people."
For Hajji Spandagul, a tribal elder from eastern Afghanistan, it is
abhorrent. "This is not the culture of Afghanistan �C to take women
hostage, especially in the tribal culture," he says, waving his large,
weathered hands forcefully.
Here in a guesthouse for tribal elders visiting Kabul, he sits with
several of his colleagues from around the country. In the past, elders
like Mr. Spandagul have been able to intervene in hostage situations.
They often live in areas beyond the government's control, meaning they
must remain neutral, carving out whatever level of peace they can between
the Taliban and the Kabul.
"We are threatened on both sides," says Jamaluddin Alizai, an elder from
Kandahar Province, where the Taliban resistance is centered. "During the
night, the Taliban come to my area, and I have to give them food or they
will kill us, then the government comes in the morning and says, 'Why did
you give them food?' "
Negotiating for the release of hostages has always been a natural means
of maintaining calm in elders' districts. "We are being killed by both
sides: How long should it last?" says Khair Mohammed, an elder from
Nangahar Province who speaks in measured tones as he leans forward on one
of the guesthouse's brown couches. "But the way forward is that we should
get these people [hostages] out peacefully or else it will cause more
problems."
This is becoming increasingly difficult, however. In Ghazni, talks with
tribal elders to free the Koreans have reportedly broken down. Whatever
progress was made at first, with elders securing several deadline
extensions, has dissolved. The hard-line Taliban leadership is far more
aligned with Al Qaeda than the local foot soldiers, and they have taken
control of the situation.
"First, these [kidnappings] happen with the local Taliban who are easy to
talk to," says an Afghan government security official who requested
anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. "But the
longer these incidents last, the worse it becomes."
For example, when a German journalist was kidnapped in Kunar Province
last week, tribal elders were able to secure his release within hours.
But now, the Korean hostage situation is being coordinated by Taliban
with connections to Pakistan's intelligence service, the Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI), say the government security official and the governor
of Ghazni, Mirajuddin Patan.
Pakistan officials deny any involvement in the kidnapping, and say that
the ISI is a favorite Afghan scapegoat.
"Intentionally, Al Qaeda exploits these things to make it difficult for
the international community," says the Afghan official.
The goal is to spread fear among Afghanistan's international coalition,
and the Taliban �C like Al Qaeda in Iraq �C has recognized the
effectiveness of hostage-taking. "NATO has said there has been no spring
offensive," says Pakistani author Mr. Ahmed. "This is the offensive."
As with Al Qaeda's Madrid bombings, "the goal is to create opposition at
home for some of these very fragile foreign governments that are facing
opposition to their presence in Afghanistan," says Ahmed.
Elder Spandagul calls this the work of Chechens and Pakistanis who have
come here to wage global jihad �C and Afghan elders are powerless to stop
them. In times past, tribes had their own militia, but these were
disbanded with the establishment of the Western-backed government, and
nothing has risen in their place. Many police patrols are unable to
venture a mile from their posts.
Mr. Alizai of Kandahar recalls the day that a group of French soldiers
came and asked why the Taliban were attacking from his district. "Because
I have empty hands," he says. "If we don't have weapons how can we defend
ourselves? They come and cut our necks."
It is the waning of a tribal culture that has governed the remotest
corners of Afghanistan for generations, say elders. In areas so
unconnected to the broader world, tribes still have a role to play in
keeping order. But they are increasingly ground between a government
seeking the trappings of a modern, centralized power structure and an
insurgency seeking to further its own global ends.
"Both the Taliban and the government give us respect because they need
us," says Spandagul. "If they didn't need us they would kick us out."
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