Taliban Counter-Plans

This is from the Middle East Media Research Institute--if it is half correct, then what we are starting to do is going to cost us very dearly. I wonder if anyone in Wahington or in Afghanistan is aware of this sort of stuff?

Commander Of Taliban’s Haqqani Network Claims They Control 80 Percent Of Afghanistan, Warns: We Have Drawn Up Counter-Plans and are Waiting for Arrival of Fresh 30,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan to Give Them a Tough Time

A prominent commander of the Haqqani Network, a key organization that forms part of the Taliban militant movement in Afghanistan, has claimed that the Taliban control over 80 percent of Afghanistan and do not need to flee to Pakistan to take refuge, according to a Pakistani daily.

Rejecting as baseless the U.S. allegations that the Afghan Taliban have a presence in Pakistan’s tribal areas, Mullah Sangeen said that there is no truth in the U.S. charges as the Taliban are holding 80 percent of territory in Afghanistan.

In a video message which the Taliban commander claimed was recorded in one of his camps in the Paktika province of Afghanistan, he said that the Haqqani Network is active and based in Afghanistan. Mullah Sangeen is associated with the Haqqani Network, which operates in the Khost, Paktia, Paktika, Logar, and Maidan-Wardak provinces of Afghanistan as well as in the capital city of Kabul.

The Haqqani Network led by Commander Sirajuddin Haqqani, the elder son of veteran Afghan Mujahideen leader Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani, has nominated Mullah Sangeen as the shadow governor of the Paktika province, according to a report in the Pakistani daily The News.

By pressing the government of Pakistan to launch a military operation in North Waziristan, the U.S. is trying to weaken Pakistan, Mullah Sangeen said, adding that the U.S. is making all-out efforts to pit Pakistan’s armed forces and people against each other.

Mullah Sangeen claimed that the Taliban have become a strong force and are now ruling most of Afghanistan with support from the Afghan people.

“The U.S. knows that we are here in Afghanistan and are fighting against them. The U.S. always levels such allegations whenever it suffers losses at our hands,” he said, adding that the U.S. and its allies invaded their country with a claim to make it prosperous and developed.

“Instead, they turned Afghanistan into ruins. Thousands of Afghans were killed and their houses bombarded in the name of the war on terrorism. The U.S. still does not understand the complexity of the situation. It wrongly considers that the Taliban are furthering somebody else’s [Pakistan’s] agenda. Now is the time for the U.S. to understand that we are Afghans and are fighting for the freedom of our homeland,’’ he added.

The Taliban commander termed reports of secret U.S.-Taliban talks as baseless, saying that the Taliban does not want talks with the occupying forces because they have ruined their country, filled jails with innocent Afghans and made thousands of Afghan children orphans and women widows.

The Taliban have drawn up counter-plans and are waiting for the arrival of 30,000 fresh U.S. troops in Afghanistan to give them a tough time, he noted, warning: “With an increase in the number of their troops, they will suffer more casualties.”

Mullah Sangeen said that the Haqqani Network has inflicted heavy losses on the U.S. and its allies in Afghanistan. “This is the reason the U.S. is putting pressure on Pakistan to launch a military operation in North Waziristan [a tribal district of Pakistan]. At a time when Pakistan is supporting the U.S. in its war against terror and U.S. drones are flying over North Waziristan round the clock, no sane person would like to live in Waziristan,” he added.

Source: The News, Pakistan, December 22, 2009



Posted at: 2009-12-22