22 die in Taliban attack on police station
Rory McCarthy in Islamabad
Monday August 18, 2003
The Guardian
At least 22 people died when hundreds of suspected Taliban fighters seized control of a police station in southern Afghanistan at the weekend, one of the most serious attacks against the government for a year.
At least 400 heavily armed gunmen poured into Barmal, 125 miles south-east of Kabul, late on Saturday in a convoy of trucks. Mohammed Ali Jalali, the governor of Paktika province, said they had come across the Pakistani border, five miles away.
The fighters attacked the police station with rockets, heavy machine guns and grenades. Seven policemen, including the district chief of police, were killed, and at least 15 of the gunmen.
"These police died defending themselves," the governor said yesterday. "The attackers, they were a very big group."
The mob held the building throughout the night and then destroyed it yesterday morning before apparently driving back across the border into Pakistan's lawless tribal areas.
There has been increasing violence in the southern, Pashtun, provinces of Afghanistan, once the Taliban heartland, in recent weeks.
In the space of 24 hours last week 64 people were killed by a series of shootings and bomb blasts across the south.
In an effort to confront the violence the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, replaced the governor of Kandahar with one of his closest colleagues on Saturday.
Though popular with western governments, Mr Karzai has struggled to enforce his control in his own country, and it is unclear how much change the new governor, Yusuf Pashtun will manage to bring about.
The killings underline the setbacks suffered in the postwar reconstruction of Afghanistan. The promise of national elections next June will be difficult to keep.
Yesterday's attack was significantly bigger, and showed that the Taliban fighters are no longer focusing just on western soldiers, but are going for Afghan officials as well.
Other recent targets in the south have included Afghans working for western aid agencies, soldiers of the new nat ional army, and clerics who have defended the government.
If, as appears likely, the attackers did start from Pakistan, the government in Islamabad is likely to come under severe pressure to explain why there has been no curbing of Taliban ambitions.
"This was an operation by the terrorist groups and it happened in a district just by the border with Pakistan," said Javid Loodin, a spokesman for Mr Karzai.
"The security concerns that we have in those areas arise from the cross-border problem. They come across the border, perform their terrorist operations and when the Afghan government forces try to respond they cross back."
Military analysts in Pakistan say that the Islamabad government is turning a blind eye to the actions of Taliban insurgents. Until the September 11 attacks, Pakistan gave direct financial support and covert military advice to the Taliban.
Pakistan's foreign minister, Khursheed Kasuri, is due to make an official visit to Kabul on Thursday and will face a difficult reception.
Before yesterday's attack there had been a spate of clashes on the border between Afghan and Pakistani forces.
Two Pakistani soldiers were killed on the border last week in a hail of fire from US forces who took them for Taliban fighters.
Colin Powell, the US secretary of state, was forced to call the Pakistani president, General Pervez Musharraf, at the weekend to apologise.
The western peacekeeping forces, now commanded by Nato in its first mission outside Europe, are confined to the capital, Kabul, and their number is limited to 5,000.
There are another 12,000 US soldiers engaged in combat operations in the country, but their focus remains on Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network.
Western governments are reluctant to commit soldiers and the money to expand the peacekeeping operations.
A sweeping disarmament programme was meant to begin in March or April to curb the influence of at least 100,000 militia fighters loyal to dozens of warlords but is still at least a month away from starting.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,1020828,00.html
Rory McCarthy in Islamabad
Monday August 18, 2003
The Guardian
At least 22 people died when hundreds of suspected Taliban fighters seized control of a police station in southern Afghanistan at the weekend, one of the most serious attacks against the government for a year.
At least 400 heavily armed gunmen poured into Barmal, 125 miles south-east of Kabul, late on Saturday in a convoy of trucks. Mohammed Ali Jalali, the governor of Paktika province, said they had come across the Pakistani border, five miles away.
The fighters attacked the police station with rockets, heavy machine guns and grenades. Seven policemen, including the district chief of police, were killed, and at least 15 of the gunmen.
"These police died defending themselves," the governor said yesterday. "The attackers, they were a very big group."
The mob held the building throughout the night and then destroyed it yesterday morning before apparently driving back across the border into Pakistan's lawless tribal areas.
There has been increasing violence in the southern, Pashtun, provinces of Afghanistan, once the Taliban heartland, in recent weeks.
In the space of 24 hours last week 64 people were killed by a series of shootings and bomb blasts across the south.
In an effort to confront the violence the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, replaced the governor of Kandahar with one of his closest colleagues on Saturday.
Though popular with western governments, Mr Karzai has struggled to enforce his control in his own country, and it is unclear how much change the new governor, Yusuf Pashtun will manage to bring about.
The killings underline the setbacks suffered in the postwar reconstruction of Afghanistan. The promise of national elections next June will be difficult to keep.
Yesterday's attack was significantly bigger, and showed that the Taliban fighters are no longer focusing just on western soldiers, but are going for Afghan officials as well.
Other recent targets in the south have included Afghans working for western aid agencies, soldiers of the new nat ional army, and clerics who have defended the government.
If, as appears likely, the attackers did start from Pakistan, the government in Islamabad is likely to come under severe pressure to explain why there has been no curbing of Taliban ambitions.
"This was an operation by the terrorist groups and it happened in a district just by the border with Pakistan," said Javid Loodin, a spokesman for Mr Karzai.
"The security concerns that we have in those areas arise from the cross-border problem. They come across the border, perform their terrorist operations and when the Afghan government forces try to respond they cross back."
Military analysts in Pakistan say that the Islamabad government is turning a blind eye to the actions of Taliban insurgents. Until the September 11 attacks, Pakistan gave direct financial support and covert military advice to the Taliban.
Pakistan's foreign minister, Khursheed Kasuri, is due to make an official visit to Kabul on Thursday and will face a difficult reception.
Before yesterday's attack there had been a spate of clashes on the border between Afghan and Pakistani forces.
Two Pakistani soldiers were killed on the border last week in a hail of fire from US forces who took them for Taliban fighters.
Colin Powell, the US secretary of state, was forced to call the Pakistani president, General Pervez Musharraf, at the weekend to apologise.
The western peacekeeping forces, now commanded by Nato in its first mission outside Europe, are confined to the capital, Kabul, and their number is limited to 5,000.
There are another 12,000 US soldiers engaged in combat operations in the country, but their focus remains on Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network.
Western governments are reluctant to commit soldiers and the money to expand the peacekeeping operations.
A sweeping disarmament programme was meant to begin in March or April to curb the influence of at least 100,000 militia fighters loyal to dozens of warlords but is still at least a month away from starting.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,1020828,00.html