Soldiers Told Not to Shoot Taliban Bomb Layers
Soldiers Told Not to Shoot Taliban Bomb Layers
Entry Excerpt:
Soldiers Told Not to Shoot Taliban Bomb Layers
by Andy Bloxham
The Telegraph
BLUF. British soldiers who spot Taliban fighters planting roadside bombs are told not to shoot them because they do not pose an immediate threat, the Ministry of Defence has admitted. They are instead being ordered to just observe insurgents and record their position to reduce the risk of civilian casualties.
A key part of the MoD’s counter-insurgency theory holds that it is more important to win over civilians by not killing innocent people than it is to eliminate every potential insurgent.
Much more at The Telegraph
This matter appears on The UK in Afg thread, posts 760-763: http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...t=7644&page=39
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British 'Taliban fighters' in Afghanistan
A slim BBC News report:
Quote:
Two Britons suspected of fighting for the Taliban have been arrested by British armed forces in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said. The MoD said the pair, who it said "claim to be British nationals", have been detained.
Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14230458
The Daily Telegraph has some more detail, although unclear whether detained in Herat or Helmand:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...rror-raid.html
In June 2009 there was a short-lived flurry of articles about a dead Taliban fighter being found with an Aston Villa tattoo:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...la-tattoo.html
After the flurry it all went quiet.
There have been other stories about British accents being overheard and allegations that bodies were blown up in extremis situations (where removal was not possible) to hinder identification, a grenade in the mouth IIRC.
After 2001-2002 although not on my front-line radar Jihadi propaganda has not been overflowing with footage of British-born fighters or other signs. We have of course had the 'Tipton Taliban' and others who ended up in Guantanamo Bay.
I shall watch and wait for any more information.
British 'Taliban fighters' arrested - detention
The NYT article has a potentially important two sentences:
Quote:
Under NATO guidelines, most individuals detained by allied forces are released or transferred to the Afghan Authorities within 96 hours.
Britain has a national policy of detaining people longer than 96 hours in exceptional circumstances, particularly when authorities think they can get information to protect their forces or the Afghan population.
Link:http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2011/..._r=1&ref=world
I will reply to Bob's post another time.
Update: Two Britons arrested released
After a small flurry the BBC reports both released from UK custody, on 29th July:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14367282
Taliban falls out with influential Noorzai tribe
Hat tip (again) to Circling the Lion's Den for a pointer to an article on tribal dynamics, money and the Taliban:
Quote:
...the incident has embarrassed the Quetta Shura’s leadership and humiliated its military council’s chief." It has also led to serious tensions between the Noorzai and the Taliban leadership which will not easily be swept under the carpet. Somewhere in the background of all this is the growing realisation amongst many Afghans that the insurgency is deteriorating into a warlord-led free-for-all, prompting memories of the terrible period in the early 90s. Then, Afghan turned on Afghan and much of Kabul was destroyed.
The Afghan tribes have always proved to be the undoing of wannabe rulers of the country. Once again it looks like the same old same old.
Link to original article:http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...s-taliban.html
Link to pointer:http://circlingthelionsden.blogspot....fluential.html
Hello, I'm the 'new' Mullah Omar
My title. Hat tip to FP Blog on Mullah Omar's latest epistle, which starts with:
Quote:
In a lengthy message on the occasion of the Eid al-Fitr holiday released last week under Mullah Mohammad Omar's name, the fugitive Taliban leader used a mix of "jihad-light" bravado and toned-down political rhetoric to express his group's position on key issues, as part of a push to influence public opinion that has garnered a variety of reactions from different Western and South Asian quarters.
Yet despite the hype among AfPak watchers, the message is more a reflection of an emerging dual-track strategy that promotes Omar as a credible interlocutor while masking his flaws, and is directly tied to the NATO decision to end its military engagement in Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
The new narrative, most certainly inspired by the various covert layers of mentoring (including non-Afghan) enjoyed by Mullah Omar's Quetta Shura, not only provides insight into Mullah Omar's public-relations strategy, but also aims to deflect attention from Taliban weaknesses, all while trying to bolster the group's possible future negotiating position.
Ends with;
Quote:
Given the Afghan experiences of the last three decades, it will take a lot more than just an adjustment in tone and rhetoric on the part of Mullah Omar to move the so-called reconciliation process forward, and end the current round of conflict in Afghanistan.
Ah yes, the author is a former Afghan diplomat.
The British trail to the Afghan jihad
Quote:
The successful conviction in Manchester, Northern England, of Munir Farooqi, Matthew Newton and Israr Malik, highlighted once again (as if more proof was needed) the existence of the dark connection between Britain and the war in Afghanistan. A former Taliban fighter who had returned to Manchester after being picked up on the battlefield not long after the U.S. invasion by Northern Alliance forces, Farooqi ran a recruitment network in Northern England that fed an unknown number of fighters to the fight alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan. What was most striking about the case, however, was the way it exposed the method by which recruitment cells operate in the United Kingdom, following a model that is likely emulated elsewhere in the west.
How effective was / is this method?
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It remains unclear exactly how many people Farooqi was able to persuade to go and fight in Afghanistan. One estimate published in the local press said some 20 people had been sent over, A figure that seems quite low for an operation that could have been going on for as long as eight years. However, this small number likely reflects the reality of how large the actual number of British citizens being persuaded to go and fight really is.
Link:http://raffaellopantucci.com/2011/09...-afghan-jihad/
You Can’t Play Chess When the Taliban is Playing Poker
You Can’t Play Chess When the Taliban is Playing Poker
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Is the U.S. coming to terms with the Taliban?
Is the U.S. coming to terms with the Taliban?
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The Fog of Peace: The Delusion of Taliban Talks
The Fog of Peace: The Delusion of Taliban Talks
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Is the Taliban strong or weak today?
A broad review of the situation in Afghanistan by the BBC, Why Taliban are so strong in Afghanistan, with a focus on the Taliban, prompted by the "leaked" NATO / ISAF report, which is on this link:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=15080
I read this assessment:
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The harsh reality is that an increasing number of Afghans are turning to the Taliban, having grown mistrustful of Nato and Afghan forces.
By contrast Circling The Lion's Den cites a July 2010 opinion poll:
Quote:
The issue of whether or not the Taliban is growing in popularity is open to question. A report published by the Asia Foundation in November, Afghanistan in 2011: A survey of the Afghan People, found that support for the Taliban among Afghans has steadily declined in recent years. It found that 82 per cent of those surveyed back reconciliation and reintegration efforts with insurgent groups. The number of people who said they sympathized with the aims of the Taliban had dropped to 29 per cent compared to 40 per cent in 2010 and 56 per cent in 2009.
However, a lack of security was identified as the biggest problem in the country by 38 per cent of those polled, followed by unemployment and corruption. Seventy-one per cent of respondents said they feared travelling from one part of the country to another. Most of these problems can easily be placed at the door of the Karzai government and the Taliban can play upon its promises to restore order in the country. The survey was conducted among 6,348 adults in July 2010 in all of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, excluding some dangerous areas.
Link:http://circlingthelionsden.blogspot....t-be-true.html
Taliban defence minister "died in Karachi gaol"
Hat tip to Circling the Lion's Den for this report, note the source is the Taliban's website and maybe not a place to visit:http://circlingthelionsden.blogspot....r-died-in.html
An alternative website is:http://jihadology.net/2012/02/13/new...-allah-akhond/
Opening paragraph:
Quote:
The Taliban yesterday confirmed that its former defence minister....Shaheed Mullah Obaidullah Akhond ... during the Islamic Emirate had died nearly two years ago in a Pakistani prison. Their website says that he was detained on 3 January 2007 by the Pakistani government in Balochistan, but that little was heard from him after that. Only in the last few days did his family receive news from Pakistan that he died in prison in Karachi due to "heart complications" on 5 March 2010.
Closing paragraph:
Quote:
Was he seen by the Pakistanis as one of the old guard around Mullah Omar, whose outlook did not suit Pakistani interests any longer? Although he was one of those who began to reorganise the Taliban once it had fled into exile in Pakistan, it is possible that he favoured negotiations to end the conflict. He was close to Mullah Barodar, who was also arrested by the Pakistanis, some say because Barodar was also in favour of negotiations with the Karzai regime. If his death was natural why was it covered up by the Pakistanis for so long? Any more information would be appreciated.
This is all very odd IMO. Whose jail? I understand ISI has it's own custody facilities. Why no leaked news? The questions are plenty. Answers few.
Makes one wonder if recent negotiations, which included his release along with others, led to the family being notified. Hardly likely to endear ISI to the Taliban or was he just a casualty of war?
Reconciliation with the Taliban: Fracturing the Insurgency
Reconciliation with the Taliban: Fracturing the Insurgency
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