Afghanistan - Taliban

The enemy is also French, says Taliban commander

Wednesday 03 September 2008

In the wake of a deadly attack on French soldiers in Afghanistan, a senior Taliban commander warns that French forces are as much a target as Americans, and that his men will soon take their battle to the cities.

The white flag fluttering in the wind on the car speeding through the dust belongs to the Taliban. Their convoy, all-terrain vehicles, motorcycles driven by masked, armed men, travels through the mountains of the Wardak province near Kabul.

The group of fighters our correspondents met in Afghanistan last year agreed to see them again.

The Taliban wants to show that they have diminished neither in strength nor in motivation. "Our men are prepared to die in combat; they can put on an explosive belt and set it off," explains a Taliban commander who chose to remain anonymous. He stands before twenty combatants holding rocket launchers and Kalashnikovs. "They are ready," he says. "Ready for any kind of combat."

The Taliban have increased their attacks in Afghanistan. They have grown by half since the beginning of the year compared to 2007. They wish to show their strength: in the middle of the mountains, in a zone entirely under control, a clap of thunder can be heard. They have just launched a rocket, which explodes precisely where the commander has aimed.

The men attack Afghan and foreign forces almost daily. Nearly a thousand soldiers from international forces have been killed in combat since the fall of the Taliban. And French soldiers in the combat zone are considered their enemy as well.

On August 18, ten French soldiers died in an attack in the Sarobi district, in the province of Kabul, 50 km east from the capital.

Commander Abu Tayeb, in charge of several central provinces, said, "I would like to say something to the French soldiers. If they listen to their government, if they continue to be the puppets of the US, they will continue to be attacked. Like those in Sarobi, and even more violent ones. They must change their policy.  This year and next, we will do our utmost to enter Kabul and aim at Americans and the bases of their allies. And starting now, we are taking the fight from away from rural areas toward the cities."

The first step, they say, is to destabilise the provinces neighbouring Kabul, such as Wardak, where we interviewed the Taliban. The August 18 attack shows that the battle has just begun.