Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
London Daily Telegraph
March 24, 2008
The Taliban leadership in southern Afghanistan is passing into the hands of younger, more extreme insurgents as the relentless targeting of traditional commanders by British forces takes its toll.
In a week spent in Helmand province, The Daily Telegraph has found widespread evidence that special forces operations are degrading the Taliban's leadership and its ability to co-ordinate operations.
But there are also indications of increasing radicalisation within the Taliban as more extreme fighters, many of them al-Qa'eda-linked foreign militants, fill the gaps left when experienced Taliban leaders are killed.
Western military officials say privately that approximately 200 medium and high-level Taliban commanders were killed countrywide in targeted bombings or assassinations by American and British special forces last year, and a further 100 captured.
Using local intermediaries, the Telegraph was able to meet two mid-level Taliban commanders in the provincial capital Lashkargar. Both claimed that the Taliban was increasingly recruited from outside Helmand and that its hierarchies were becoming far less clear cut.
"There are a lot of small commanders now," said one, a veteran of several years of fighting but still in his 20s. He said that changes had come since the death of Mullah Dadullah, the high-profile overall commander in southern Afghanistan who was killed by the Special Boat Service last May.
"Now, after Dadullah's death, we have a motto that everyone has become a Dadullah," he added, speaking softly with the Arabic-accented speech characteristic of Taliban fighters trained in Pakistani madrassahs (religious seminaries).
He predicted victory in Afghanistan before the Taliban focused on imposing sharia in Pakistan. "There can be no negotiation with the West. This is a global jihad," he warned.
The other Taliban commander, who we met separately, was older. He said Taliban commanders were wary of becoming "a big name" as it made them a target.
Western military sources report that Taliban attacks have become steadily less co-ordinated in recent months.
"The Taliban have lost so many commanders, but it is not like losing a British general with 30 years' experience," said Hajji Mohammad Anwar, of the provincial council of Helmand. "Anyone who just comes from the madrassahs, tomorrow they are a big commander."
British and Afghan forces only have significant influence in six of Helmand's 13 districts. Many local people believe security is better in the Taliban-held districts, thanks to the imposition of strict sharia punishments, such as cutting off the hands of robbers.
But there are signs that the hard-line views of the Taliban put them at odds with local people.
"If we are too harsh to the community then we find it is really hard for us to survive," admitted the older commander. He said that more pragmatic Taliban figures were pushing for schools to be opened and for reconstruction work.
But he said such efforts met resistance from the increasingly extreme fighters moving into Helmand.
As seen with al-Qa'eda in Iraq, Islamist terror groups have a history of progressively alienating local support through radicalisation. "The new Taliban are really emotional. They are very impulsive. They are war-addicted," said the older commander.
March 24, 2008
The Taliban leadership in southern Afghanistan is passing into the hands of younger, more extreme insurgents as the relentless targeting of traditional commanders by British forces takes its toll.
In a week spent in Helmand province, The Daily Telegraph has found widespread evidence that special forces operations are degrading the Taliban's leadership and its ability to co-ordinate operations.
But there are also indications of increasing radicalisation within the Taliban as more extreme fighters, many of them al-Qa'eda-linked foreign militants, fill the gaps left when experienced Taliban leaders are killed.
Western military officials say privately that approximately 200 medium and high-level Taliban commanders were killed countrywide in targeted bombings or assassinations by American and British special forces last year, and a further 100 captured.
Using local intermediaries, the Telegraph was able to meet two mid-level Taliban commanders in the provincial capital Lashkargar. Both claimed that the Taliban was increasingly recruited from outside Helmand and that its hierarchies were becoming far less clear cut.
"There are a lot of small commanders now," said one, a veteran of several years of fighting but still in his 20s. He said that changes had come since the death of Mullah Dadullah, the high-profile overall commander in southern Afghanistan who was killed by the Special Boat Service last May.
"Now, after Dadullah's death, we have a motto that everyone has become a Dadullah," he added, speaking softly with the Arabic-accented speech characteristic of Taliban fighters trained in Pakistani madrassahs (religious seminaries).
He predicted victory in Afghanistan before the Taliban focused on imposing sharia in Pakistan. "There can be no negotiation with the West. This is a global jihad," he warned.
The other Taliban commander, who we met separately, was older. He said Taliban commanders were wary of becoming "a big name" as it made them a target.
Western military sources report that Taliban attacks have become steadily less co-ordinated in recent months.
"The Taliban have lost so many commanders, but it is not like losing a British general with 30 years' experience," said Hajji Mohammad Anwar, of the provincial council of Helmand. "Anyone who just comes from the madrassahs, tomorrow they are a big commander."
British and Afghan forces only have significant influence in six of Helmand's 13 districts. Many local people believe security is better in the Taliban-held districts, thanks to the imposition of strict sharia punishments, such as cutting off the hands of robbers.
But there are signs that the hard-line views of the Taliban put them at odds with local people.
"If we are too harsh to the community then we find it is really hard for us to survive," admitted the older commander. He said that more pragmatic Taliban figures were pushing for schools to be opened and for reconstruction work.
But he said such efforts met resistance from the increasingly extreme fighters moving into Helmand.
As seen with al-Qa'eda in Iraq, Islamist terror groups have a history of progressively alienating local support through radicalisation. "The new Taliban are really emotional. They are very impulsive. They are war-addicted," said the older commander.