The spring offensive in Afghanistan announced a few days ago by Mullah Omar has started. The connection with the raid that led to the killing of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan may be just a coincidence, but the feeling that the guerrillas have refused to send a message to Western governments and the government of Hamid Karzai is very strong.
The attack that paralyzed in a big way on Saturday and Sunday the city of Kandahar, the main center of the south, was followed on Monday morning by a new assault, this time in the province of Ghazni, in the district of Deh Yak. At least six Afghan policemen were killed and four seriously wounded when a column of vehicles was blocked by an explosion on the road and the concomitant small arms fire.
The attack occurred a few kilometers from the provincial capital, the city of Ghazni, about halfway between Kabul and Kandahar, in an area considered relatively safe. How to Kandahar in two days earlier, according to Afghan police, including the attack on Monday was conducted by well-trained guerrillas, without improvisation and with maximum effectiveness.
In what was once the stronghold of the Taliban, meanwhile, government officials and army officers and police are trying to cope with the humiliation suffered at the weekend, when a guerrilla commando composed of at least twenty people managed to organize a series of coordinated attacks that have paralyzed the city center.
According to the latest available budget, at least 23 people died in the clashes, which lasted several hours. Among the confirmed dead, at least 11 guerrillas and 7 suicide bombers, along with three Afghan civilians and a policeman. The wounded, however, are at least fifty, including 25 soldiers from the Afghan army and police.
The budget so it could get worse. Local authorities also claim to have found a dozen cars packed with explosives and ready to detonate, while NATO has been estimated that at least sixty guerrillas involved in the attack. The Taliban spokesman, however, update the figure to one hundred armed men.
In any case, a demonstration of high ability to puncture the city's defenses and controls, as well as to coordinate a number of fighters in a difficult environment such as a city. In Kandahar itself, just a few days ago, however, a commando unit had stormed the local jail, causing the escape of 500 prisoners, including many former guerrillas.
This situation has prompted some members of the Senate to demand the resignation of the Afghan authorities in Kandahar, from Toorialay Wesa governor, whose residence was one of the main targets of a recent raid on an unprecedented scale. Wesa in person, at a press conference convened an emergency when the fighting had not yet finished, however, has appealed to the guerrillas, inviting them to use the occasion of the death of Bin Laden to "lay down their weapons, stop killing, to kill civilians innocent people and destroy our country.
" "Your life will be protected, that your families will be protected, your property will be protected - said Wesa - If their arms and let you join the process of reconciliation and peace." In the face of recent attacks, easily play the prophetic words of U.S. General David Petraeus in an interview yesterday that the Associated Press said that "the death of Osama Bin Laden will weaken the ties between the Taliban and al Qaida, but the war in Afghanistan is not over.
" According to Petraeus, strike military objectives clearly defined, however, will fail to substantially improve the situation "without programs to build local governments and local security forces." Where "local" is not just Afghanistan, but also at provincial level, the level which is certainly more fragile, just like the attack in Kandahar shows.
The worst news is that, beyond the last two high-profile attacks, "the al-Qaida and Taliban commanders have come out of their state of shock and mourning one week after the death of Osama Bin Laden and prepare to make life even more difficult to occupiers of Afghanistan. " So he said from his refuge in the Afghan province of Kunar, Qari Ziaur Rehman, a local Taliban commander, the Pakistani daily The News International.
Rehman said that only now begins to avenge the death of the leader of al Qaeda and would soon begin a new phase of the battle against troops of NATO and the Afghan government. It is the possibility that the NATO command are preparing, like every spring for ten years now. The risk, however, is that in addition to soldiers and civilians the main victims of the upsurge in fighting both the transition strategy that would officially start in two months, to July, in seven provinces and cities of Afghanistan.
Friday, in a statement, the Taliban have written that "the martyrdom of Sheikh Osama bin Laden will give new impetus to the current jihad against the invaders." The operation in Kandahar, certainly in planning for weeks because of its complexity, however, is the first taste of what might happen in the coming months.
In the equation, however, is still missing an item. That is the impact that the death of Bin Laden and the organization will have on the morale of U.S. troops. For ten years, in fact, resources and personnel of the highest level have been dedicated to hunting the leader of al Qaida. Now, this is achieved, can be concentrated on hunting and other leaders, from the number two Ayman al Zawahiri and Mullah Omar (perhaps too in Pakistan) and on the fight against the Afghan guerrillas.
The U.S. intelligence, in particular, hoped that useful information to dismantle networks of support and logistics infrastructure of the Taliban could emerge from the study of computers and hundreds of CDs, DVDs and memory sticks found the last refuge of bin Laden. Enzo Mangini - Letter 22 
The attack that paralyzed in a big way on Saturday and Sunday the city of Kandahar, the main center of the south, was followed on Monday morning by a new assault, this time in the province of Ghazni, in the district of Deh Yak. At least six Afghan policemen were killed and four seriously wounded when a column of vehicles was blocked by an explosion on the road and the concomitant small arms fire.
The attack occurred a few kilometers from the provincial capital, the city of Ghazni, about halfway between Kabul and Kandahar, in an area considered relatively safe. How to Kandahar in two days earlier, according to Afghan police, including the attack on Monday was conducted by well-trained guerrillas, without improvisation and with maximum effectiveness.
In what was once the stronghold of the Taliban, meanwhile, government officials and army officers and police are trying to cope with the humiliation suffered at the weekend, when a guerrilla commando composed of at least twenty people managed to organize a series of coordinated attacks that have paralyzed the city center.
According to the latest available budget, at least 23 people died in the clashes, which lasted several hours. Among the confirmed dead, at least 11 guerrillas and 7 suicide bombers, along with three Afghan civilians and a policeman. The wounded, however, are at least fifty, including 25 soldiers from the Afghan army and police.
The budget so it could get worse. Local authorities also claim to have found a dozen cars packed with explosives and ready to detonate, while NATO has been estimated that at least sixty guerrillas involved in the attack. The Taliban spokesman, however, update the figure to one hundred armed men.
In any case, a demonstration of high ability to puncture the city's defenses and controls, as well as to coordinate a number of fighters in a difficult environment such as a city. In Kandahar itself, just a few days ago, however, a commando unit had stormed the local jail, causing the escape of 500 prisoners, including many former guerrillas.
This situation has prompted some members of the Senate to demand the resignation of the Afghan authorities in Kandahar, from Toorialay Wesa governor, whose residence was one of the main targets of a recent raid on an unprecedented scale. Wesa in person, at a press conference convened an emergency when the fighting had not yet finished, however, has appealed to the guerrillas, inviting them to use the occasion of the death of Bin Laden to "lay down their weapons, stop killing, to kill civilians innocent people and destroy our country.
" "Your life will be protected, that your families will be protected, your property will be protected - said Wesa - If their arms and let you join the process of reconciliation and peace." In the face of recent attacks, easily play the prophetic words of U.S. General David Petraeus in an interview yesterday that the Associated Press said that "the death of Osama Bin Laden will weaken the ties between the Taliban and al Qaida, but the war in Afghanistan is not over.
" According to Petraeus, strike military objectives clearly defined, however, will fail to substantially improve the situation "without programs to build local governments and local security forces." Where "local" is not just Afghanistan, but also at provincial level, the level which is certainly more fragile, just like the attack in Kandahar shows.
The worst news is that, beyond the last two high-profile attacks, "the al-Qaida and Taliban commanders have come out of their state of shock and mourning one week after the death of Osama Bin Laden and prepare to make life even more difficult to occupiers of Afghanistan. " So he said from his refuge in the Afghan province of Kunar, Qari Ziaur Rehman, a local Taliban commander, the Pakistani daily The News International.
Rehman said that only now begins to avenge the death of the leader of al Qaeda and would soon begin a new phase of the battle against troops of NATO and the Afghan government. It is the possibility that the NATO command are preparing, like every spring for ten years now. The risk, however, is that in addition to soldiers and civilians the main victims of the upsurge in fighting both the transition strategy that would officially start in two months, to July, in seven provinces and cities of Afghanistan.
Friday, in a statement, the Taliban have written that "the martyrdom of Sheikh Osama bin Laden will give new impetus to the current jihad against the invaders." The operation in Kandahar, certainly in planning for weeks because of its complexity, however, is the first taste of what might happen in the coming months.
In the equation, however, is still missing an item. That is the impact that the death of Bin Laden and the organization will have on the morale of U.S. troops. For ten years, in fact, resources and personnel of the highest level have been dedicated to hunting the leader of al Qaida. Now, this is achieved, can be concentrated on hunting and other leaders, from the number two Ayman al Zawahiri and Mullah Omar (perhaps too in Pakistan) and on the fight against the Afghan guerrillas.
The U.S. intelligence, in particular, hoped that useful information to dismantle networks of support and logistics infrastructure of the Taliban could emerge from the study of computers and hundreds of CDs, DVDs and memory sticks found the last refuge of bin Laden. Enzo Mangini - Letter 22
- NATO says all Kandahar attackers captured or killed (09/05/2011)
- NATO says Kandahar attackers captured or killed (09/05/2011)
- NATO says insurgency weakened (09/05/2011)
- US issues warning, violence grows across Afghanistan - Reuters (09/05/2011)
- Taliban standoff ends in Afghan city (09/05/2011)
Kandahar (lonelyplanet) Kandahar (geolocation) Kandahar (wikipedia) Afghanistan (lonelyplanet) Afghanistan (geolocation) Afghanistan (homepage) Afghanistan (wikipedia) Massoud's Last Stand - Afghanistan (youtube) Starving to Death - Afghanistan (youtube) 01.06 Shah Massoud in European Parliament 05 March 2001 (youtube) Inside the Taliban 06 - N.G. (youtube) BRIGADE 055 (youtube)
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