Insurgency 501

One of the reasons given to justify the invasion of Iraq was that it was a training ground for insurgents and terrorists. Of course we now know that at the time of the invasion that was simply not true. Two years after the invasion Iraq has become a graduate school for insurgents. I reported here yesterday that Saudi jihadis are in Iraq learning how to sabotage oil production facilities in Iraq and are now returning to Saudi Arabia to put their knowledge to use. The Asia times reports that Afghanistan's Taliban are also in Iraq learning how to fight an insurgency against occupying US forces.

The vast majority of Taliban commanders retreated to Pakistan or adopted a low-profile private life in Afghan villages pending Mullah Omar finalizing a new guerrilla strategy similar to that adopted by the Iraqi resistance. The results of this are expected to manifest themselves within a few months.

Asia Times Online was the first publication to write about the Taliban's new strategy (see Osama adds weight to Afghan resistance, September 11, 2004), which was the brainchild of a few Taliban who were sent to northern Iraq before the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

Oriented with the Ansarul Islam in northern Iraq by al-Qaeda-linked Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, they were taught the guerrilla tactics then being successfully applied in various Iraqi cities - and which still are. The group returned to Afghanistan some time ago. One of the members was Mehmood Haq Yar, an expert in guerrilla and urban warfare.

Asia Times Online has learned that this Iraq-style resistance is to be activated in Afghanistan. The central command of the Iraqi resistance has been eliminated and various groups, mostly Islamists, are engaged in guerrilla activity on an independent basis. This decentralization is the guarantee of their security and successful clandestine operations.

An identical tactic has been adopted in Afghanistan. On the advice of Haq Yar, all prominent commanders have withdrawn from the battlefield. The most prominent ones, such as Maulana Jalaluddin Haqqani, Saifullah Mansoor and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, took refuge in tribal areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan, while the rest were asked to stay with the local population.

This reorganization and training has resulted in a lull of insurgent activity in Afghanistan but that is about to change. Thank you George W. Bush for making the world a safer place by invading Iraq.