Taleban Arrests

A series of Taleban top brass were apprehended in Afghanistan last week, amid fears that the ousted radicals are on the brink of a comeback.

The Kabul authorities confirmed on May 26 that Mullah Janan, a powerful local commander believed to have close ties to the Taleban’s fugitive leaders, Osama bin Laden and Mullah Mohammed Omar, was among ten senior members of the militia arrested in Kandahar, in the south of the country.

A stash of guns, firearms and hand-grenades was found in the vehicle carrying the men, heightening speculation that an attack on Kandahar was imminent.

Two Taleban commanders were also picked up at a checkpoint in Spin Boldak, a dusty border town between Kandahar and Pakistan, on May 28.

Despite these fresh arrests and the ongoing, hit-and-run rocket attacks on coalition bases in the country, President Hamed Karzai made a conciliatory gesture towards rank-and-file Taleban remnants last week, ordering the release of 66 prisoners-of-war from the notorious Shebergan prison in the north of the country.

The amnesty follows reports that Karzai held secret talks with key figures from the Islamist militia this month. Although the meeting - alleged to have been with former health minister, Mullah Abbas - could not have taken place without America’s blessing, it is unlikely to please Karzai’s partner in power, Marshall Mohammad Fahim, the Tajik commander who has advocated a tough line on the largely Pashtun Taleban.

On a visit to Ghazni, a former Taleban stronghold southwest of Kabul, the president told a crowd of thousands that the time had come for them to stop looking to foreigners for aid. “We must try to stand on our own feet,” said Karzai.

Helicoptered in by US forces on May 29, Karzai thrilled onlookers by jumping on a horse and galloping it at high speed around the outskirts of town.

Karzai’s chief-of-staff, Said Tayeb Jawad, said more presidential jaunts were in the offing, “We’ll be doing this in all of the provinces.”

Rockets were fired at a US base in the town of Gardez, near Khost in southeast Afghanistan, on May 28. No one was injured, though disgruntled Taleban were believed to be responsible.

A team of US special forces was also fired on in southwest Afghanistan, but no casualties were reported.

There were violent scenes outside the American embassy in Kabul on May 24, as protesters threw stones and called for the killing of four Afghan government by US soldiers to be avenged. Washington maintains the men were killed accidentally while unloading munitions in front of the embassy.

The coalition forces’ death toll continued to mount after a peacekeepers’ vehicle ran over a landmine while on patrol in Kabul on May 29. One German soldier was killed. It is not known if the mine had been planted recently.

A Karzai bodyguard died last week of a heart attack. Brett Thorpe, a former special forces sergeant, was an employee of Dyncorps, a private security firm contracted by the State Department to guard the president.

His wife told a US newspaper that Thorpe “always complained that he never got to go to war. After 9/11, he really wanted to do this contract work with the government”.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation warned on May 29 that it was fast running out of the funds it needs to work in Afghanistan’s rural hinterlands. “Without the additional amount of 25 million US dollars, we will have to stop more than 79 per cent of our activities by the end of this year,” said Manfred Staab, the FAO programme manager.

The same day, The UN announced that it will suspend mine clearance along some stretches of the highway from Kabul to Kandahar. According to a UN spokesman, the de-miners will be kept off the road until the security situation is re-assessed; plans are already afoot to send teams out with armed escorts.

De-mining teams working unarmed in remote areas are increasingly regarded as a soft target by gunmen with a grudge against the western presence.

However, the new commander for coalition forces in Afghanistan, US Major General John R Vines, told reporters that the reason aid workers were coming under attack was because they were “getting out more”.

Vines, speaking as he took command on May 27, promised that the world would not look askance again when confronted with suffering in Afghanistan, yet appeared to rule out an increase in the international military force in the country. Security, he said, is “ultimately an Afghan problem and it can only be solved by Afghans”.

Neil Arun is an IWPR contributor.