The Afghan Rebels and Their al-Qaeda Allies Slide from Insurrection to War of Terror
    By Fran oise Chipaux
    Le Monde

    Friday 27 January 2005

    On a day during the Festival of Aid, January 9th, in the Eastern province of Khost, the video gave the word of Saudi Mahmoud Al-Khatani, one of the four al-Qaeda militants who escaped from the American Bagram prison in July. Al-Khatani, young, with a wide black turban around his head and an abundant but short black beard, speaking from a sitting position near a computer in the video, asserts: "We, the Mudjahadeen of al-Qaeda, announce our union with the Taliban to fight American and Karzai government troops. Muslims, don't forget us in your prayers and, please, send us money to buy weapons."

    Produced by As Sahab Media, al-Qaeda's news department, the video is one of a series filmed in the provinces of Afghanistan essentially to show the battles between militants and Afghan or American forces.

    Suicide Attacks

    Four years after American forces' entry into Afghanistan, the Pentagon has spent 50 billion dollars (40.9 billion Euros) for their upkeep and maintenance. But the Taliban and their allies - al Qaeda faithful and Hezb-e-Islami militants of former Afghan Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar - remain a force that must be reckoned with, since their activities impede all development and any government presence in almost half the country. "In virtually the entire South, not a single school is operational. No state services function in 80% of the zone, and nobody works any more," asserts a UN official.

    The year 2005 was the deadliest since the Taliban's fall in winter 2001, and 2006 has begun in the same violence, with four suicide attacks already. These latter actions - until recently foreign to Afghan traditions - have developed during the last few months, which seems to indicate greater control by "Arab" foreigners of Taliban operations.

    "Money is available for those who bring results in fighting the infidels, with al-Qaeda-type operations making the headlines," explains Christian Willach, operations coordinator for the Afghanistan Non-governmental Security Organization (ANSO). "There were 480 explosions in 2005, and only 14 suicide attacks, but those were noticed," he says. "We've gone from an insurrection to a war of terror, with a level of atrocities not seen in the last four years."

    A few months away from the transfer of the baton between the American Army and NATO troops in the South - Great Britain announced on Thursday January 26 that it was sending 4,000 men - the Taliban are obviously trying to create fear.

    Drug Mafias

    Still, the deterioration of the security situation is not only linked to the activities of the Taliban and their allies. More worrying, it is no longer limited to the Pashtun population belt. "Attacks with explosives have taken place against ISAF (International Security and Assistance Force) troops in Mazar-e-Charif, Herat, and Baghlan," the UN's number one in Afghanistan, Jean Arnault, emphasized in his last report to the Security Council.

    "In the North, political conflicts have begun to become violent again, and we see many more Taliban than before," notes another UN official.

    "Security has massively deteriorated in the North and the West, where we have seven or eight incidents of armed robbery daily," asserts Mr. Willach. In spite of the completion of the official disarmament of militias, "120,000 to 180,000 men, united in roughly 1,800 groups, remain to be disarmed" in a new disarmament program.

    The latter prosper in the shadow of the drug mafias and traffickers of every sort, thanks to the complicity of official actors. "No governance, no security. And how can anyone talk about governance, with an administration corrupted and gangrenous with drug money?" asks the representative of an international organization.