Dead Taleban Chieftain Had Heart of Stone

Just two months ago, he appeared on Afghan television screens, boasting that he would fight anyone, anywhere.



“Come and get me,” he snarled in remarks addressed at President Hamed Karzai.



On May 13, Afghan National Army forces and their US Special Forces mentors did just that.



Mullah Dadullah, the much-feared commander of Taleban forces in the south of the country, appeared once again on Afghan television screens, this time laid out on a pink sheet.



Dadullah was dead, killed in a firefight in the Garmseer district in Helmand province.



While widely feared and reviled for his ruthless tactics, he commanded respect and loyalty from his followers, and grudging admiration from his foes.



But it is far from clear what impact Dadullah’s death will have on the growing Taleban movement in Afghanistan’s troubled south.



"The US-led coalition operation against Mullah Dadullah was enabled by the Afghan national security forces and the Afghan people. Mullah Dadullah will most certainly be replaced in time, but the insurgency has received a serious blow," read a statement released by NATO’s International Security Assistance Force.



Dadullah’s body was sent to the nearby city of Kandahar to be displayed to journalists.



Security in Helmand is so poor that even Kandahar - birthplace of the Taleban movement and until last year considered one of the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan - seems a safe haven by comparison.



“This attack will break the Taleban’s back,” Kandahar governor Assadullah Khaled told the assembled press. “Here is the body of a wild man who used to behead and hang innocent people.”



Since the insurgents began to make serious inroads in Helmand this spring, individual acts of violence attributed to them have been on the rise. A series of public hangings in Musa Qala and Sangin in February terrorised the local population. Residents told of bodies left hanging for days, as a lesson to others not to work with the government or foreign forces.



It was Dadullah, say Taleban sources, who ordered the beheading of Ajmal Naqshbandi, the Afghan translator captured along with Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo in Helmand province in March. Ajmal spent five long weeks in captivity before his body was dumped in Helmand, the severed head reattached to his corpse.



Earlier this year, Dadullah had promised a fierce spring offensive, boasting that he had 600 suicide bombers and 10,000 Taleban fighters ready to sweep into the south.



As the poppy harvest, which traditionally brings a lull in the fighting, came to an end, Dadullah seemed about to make good on his promises.



In response, NATO unleashed a major offensive, Operation Achilles, and fighting flared in some of Helmand’s most important locations: Kajaki, site of the all-important hydroelectric dam; Sangin district centre, which controls the switching station that directs electricity to Kandahar and Lashkar Gah; amd Gereshk, a major opium trading centre.



A prominent member of the Taleban’s ten-man military council, Dadullah had the reputation of being a fierce, often cruel fighter. He was famed for his bravery, but also for his brutality. Some of his own men say they feared him.



Of the many Taleban associates interviewed by IWPR for this story, most refused to give their names. Dadullah casts a long shadow, even in death.



One close friend expressed sorrow and defiance.



“I have been with Mullah Dadullah from the beginning,” he said, his voice breaking. “I am very sad, as are the other fighters. He was a good man, and sympathetic; he took care of his friends and he was loved by the people.”



His apparent cruelty was a necessary tactic, insisted the fighter.



“Dadullah hanged or beheaded people who were identified as criminals, who were confirmed to be spies for NATO or the government. That does not necessarily mean he was unkind. It is the policy of the jihad; it is done as a lesson to others.”



But another local Taleban commander, Mullah Izatullah, saw things differently.



“Dadullah had a heart of stone,” he told IWPR. “Not even his friends would dare contradict him.”



According to Izatullah, Dadullah was about 43 years old, and a native of the Charchino district of Uruzgan province. His family had been living in Balochistan, the border area of Pakistan.



With Dadullah’s death confirmed, the important question is what happens next.



Political analyst Fazel Rahman Oria sees this as the best opportunity yet to end the insurgency and bring the Taleban back into the fold.



“There are Taleban commanders who were afraid to contact the government because they feared Dadullah,” he told IWPR. “Now the Afghan government has a good opportunity to begin peace talks with the Taleban.”



At the very least, the Taleban will be temporarily disoriented, he said. “Dadullah was the organiser of all military offensives and suicide attacks in Afghanistan,” he said. “We will see a temporary breakdown in their attacks.”



But Dadullah’s friend is defiant and angry, and denies that the commander’s death will cripple the Taleban.



“There are thousands of Taleb fighters who can take his place,” he said.



While Dadullah may be a “shahid” or martyr to his supporters, he is a mere criminal as far as the Afghan authorities are concerned. However, even they concede that he will be a hard act to follow.



“Dadullah was a terrorist, a murderer of innocent people,” said Assadullah Wafa, the governor of Helmand province. “This is an irreparable loss for the Taleban. They will never find anyone as bold as Dadullah.”



With the Taleban decapitated in Helmand, added Wafa, the Afghan army and its foreign allies will soon be launching attacks on Taleban camps in the province.



Public opinion in Helmand was divided among those who saw Dadullah as a martyr, and those who saw him as unqualified evil.



“When I heard about Mullah Dadullah I was so upset,” said Hekmatullah, 25, from Nawa district. “The Taleban control our district, and we are very happy with them. We have security here. There are no thieves, no warlords, no problems.”



A resident of Sangin district, which has been the scene of recent heavy fighting, agreed.



“Mullah Dadullah was a mujahid - he always defended our people,” he said. “He was not afraid, and he fought the British face to face.”



But a resident of the local capital Lashkar Gah, who would not give his name, said Dadullah was a vindictive commander who was at the root of all of Helmand’s security problems.



“I am very happy Dadullah is dead,” he told IWPR. “He was a cruel person. I hope that things will now improve, because no other Taleb commander can do the things Dadullah could. Maybe now things will finally get better.”



Wahidullah Amani is an IWPR staff reporter in Kabul. Trainees from IWPR’s journalism skills project in Helmand contributed reporting for this article.