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Taliban Strikes Again And Again

By Mudassir Fatah

01 January, 2016
Countercurrents.org

With the new challenges ahead, we are now in the year 2016, as an optimistic, I believe, as many as there are challenges, there are opportunities too, the need of the hour is to understand and explore these opportunities as opportunities do not always knock the door as is the case with challenges which repeatedly knock us to halt our progress. For some 2015 has been a great year, but at the same time for most of the people throughout the world it has been as usual, a challenge. Same is the case with the unfortunate people of Afghanistan. Though major withdrawal took place, yet the major challenges persist. In December 2014 NATO formally put an end to their operation in Afghanistan and formally handed over the security to the Afghan government. US ended its major intervention in Afghanistan and retained some of its forces in Afghanistan to train and assist the Afghan security forces. US tried to wind up the war but they were misled as to them the backbone of the Taliban was broken, but the reality is something different, Taliban still poses a great challenge to the Afghan government. The year 2015 witnessed an unprecedented resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan. It either managed to expand its control to several areas from the control of the government forces or contested them in the dramatic manner, except the major jolt of the death of Mullah Mohammad Omar, most of the things remained in their favour. Although they found the succession very difficult, but they still managed the continuity of their revival and resurgence, they managed to challenge the establishment many times and irked the world wide debate about their resurgence and strengths. They managed to control the minds of the people that they are there, they are of course out of power but not out of the scene.

The abrupt resurgence of the Taliban is seen as an outcome of many factors, mention may be made of the major withdrawal of the NATO from Afghanistan, and the transformational character of ISIS with its capability to wreak havoc across the continents which is now a key concern of the world community. The focus of the world community shifted abruptly towards the ISIS which allowed the Taliban to gradually intensify its operations and attacks on the Afghan security forces and installations, with relatively greater impunity the attacks didn’t invite any harsh condemnation from the international community.

Major strikes of the Taliban in 2015…

· Taliban took control of the Musa Qala (Helmand) in August as they were involved in fighting with the security forces from June. Afghan security forces fought very well and recaptured the same on 30 August 2015. Citing the afghan defence ministry The Guardian reported that about 220 Taliban fighters were killed during the fight. The Guardian also reported the statement of the defence ministry spokesman, Dawlat Waziri, that, “The Taliban’s aim is not to keep the districts. They are just attacking for propaganda purposes”.

· Kabul parliament attack, on 22nd June, Parliament of Afghanistan was attacked by the Taliban, as they managed to explode a car bomb within the premises. A fierce fighting took place between Afghan security forces and the Taliban, in which seven Taliban fighters and two civilians died. Although Afghan forces didn’t suffer any casualty during the operation but this attack posed a major challenge to the Afghan forces, as parliament is considered one of the democratic pillars of the nation, and which is always in the high security zone.

· Kunduz offensive, from April to October, since 2001, Kunduz for the first time fell to the hands of the Taliban. On 28, September, Taliban overran the Afghan forces and got control of Kunduz. This offensive lasted from April to October, till finally Afghan government forces claimed the major recapture in mid-October. Although Afghan forces with the help of NATO forces recaptured Kunduz, but it was deemed as the major victory for the Taliban in fifteen years.

· Sangin district of Helmand province fell in the hands of the Taliban in December. As per the Al Jazeera reports more than ninety soldiers were killed in two days of fierce fighting between Afghan Taliban and the soldiers. This shows the growing strength of the Taliban.

· Most recently in December, Taliban killed six US soldiers, and also exploded a bomb near the Kabul airport killing one civilian and wounded thirteen.

Conclusion…

According to Mr. Riggio, who is the editor of Long War Journal, one fifth of the Afghanistan is controlled or contested by the Taliban. According to him Taliban either control or heavily influence about half of the Afghanistan.

Although NATO managed to lower its casualties by withdrawing from Afghanistan, civilian deaths were highest during the first half of 2015 as compared to the last thirteen years of war. Twenty seven coalition military forces died during the last year. United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) reported on 5th August 2015, that civilian casualties remain at record high levels during the first half of 2015. It reported 4,921 civilian casualties (1,592 deaths and 3,329 injured)

It is largely believed that in winters Taliban’s offensive decreases, but during the current winter Taliban’s offensive increased. Abdullah Shahood, who reports for Al Jazeera from Kabul said on the increasing winter offensive of the Taliban, “We have witnesses an increase in Taliban attacks this year, although it is winter here and normally Taliban attacks decrease during the winter."

All these things bear the witness to the resurgence of the Taliban. The need of the hour is not to fight them only but to engage them in the peace talks, so that the conflict will come to an end with the passage of time. As Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani is making is making renewed efforts for peace talks, because the previous effort was scuttled when the news about the death of Mullah Mohammad Omar was reported. It is widely believed that the peace talks will be back on track in early 2016, backed by Pakistan. Only time will tell what is going to happen, and we can only wait, watch and hope for the better 2016.

Mudassir Fatah is the Research Scholar in the Department of Political Science, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Author can be mailed at [email protected],



 



 

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