Posted on 06/30/2003 12:00:22 PM PDT by yonif
MULLAH Malang is waiting impatiently at his home in Pakistan, praying for his sick wife to die. The senior Taliban fighter says his presence is needed in southern Afghanistan, where a new model army of Islamic extremists is gathering following a renewed call to arms by their ousted leader Mullah Omar.
Malang’s Taliban superiors have assigned him to help set up mobile training camps in the increasingly lawless border provinces. With their ranks routed and camps destroyed by American forces, the resurgent Taliban have taken to the road to train the next generation in a new style of warfare.
Instructions in suicide attacks - once the preserve of the Taliban’s Arab fighters - are being adopted by native Afghanis.
New recruits are also being taught how to use dogs and donkeys fitted with explosives to attack coalition checkpoints. Turned loose nearby, the bombers wait until the animal wanders close enough to a checkpoint and the explosives are then detonated by remote control.
In an interview at an undisclosed location near Miranshah, Pakistan, Malang said he would instruct between five and eight recruits at a time as larger numbers might attract US attention. They stay no more than three days in one place.
All this spells trouble for the US, say observers, although they doubt the Taliban could engage in mass warfare to win territory.
"The Taliban are adopting new and deadly strategies," said Peshawar-based analyst Mohammad Riaz.
Shahnawaz Tanai, a former communist Afghan general now living in exile in Pakistan, added: "It is a dangerous situation. But the Taliban’s guerrilla warfare lacks co-ordination and it seems unlikely they can take Kabul again."
Taliban sources say their presence in southern Afghanistan now includes more than 1,000 fighters under the command of former intelligence chief Mullah Dadullah. According to Malang, mobile training camps are operating in Kandahar, Uruzgan, Helmand and other former strongholds of the Islamic militia, where there has been a recent upsurge in violence.
Observers say the Taliban are trying to undermine the central government’s authority by creating obstacles to major reconstruction projects in the south, an area many Western aid workers have fled.
Local border-town residents say leaflets announcing the formation of suicide squads to attack US forces were distributed in Afghanistan. In the first attack, a car bomb was detonated in Kabul on June 7, killing four German peacekeepers. Malang attributes the attack to Arabs and Uzbeks. Reports at the time suggested it was a co-ordinated effort by the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and Hizb-i Islami. Until now, suicide missions in Afghanistan have been the province of foreigners.
"We received orders from Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden to prepare ourselves for suicide attacks against Americans," said Malang. He quotes the orders as saying: "Don’t hesitate to sacrifice life in the name of Allah. Carry out suicide attacks whenever there is a crowd of foreigners or their puppets."
The Taliban began planning its comeback last year in Kandahar. Then 70 or so trusted Taliban men attended a secret meeting, according to sources in the militia, where the one-legged Mullah Dadullah administered an oath and duties. This week, Mullah Omar reportedly convened a 10-man war council to lead the jihad against the infidels.
Malang, meanwhile, counts the days until he can return to guerrilla warfare in Afghanistan. "Pray for my wife’s death so I get liberated from worldly affairs and have no burden on my mind in the battlefield," he said. "I have pledged to sacrifice my life and go to heaven as a jihadi."
A version of this story first appeared in the Christian Science Monitor
Nice people, those Muslims.
After all, he can always get another wife, cheap.....
Tia
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