[Provincial leaders said they are frustrated with the poor
results of a recent military offensive that failed to push back Islamic State
militants. With NATO air power no longer
available to provide
cover to Afghan troops, they said, the government is being forced to rely on
poorly trained local police and even on Taliban fighters — widely viewed here
as a lesser, homegrown evil — to take on the better armed and financed Islamic
State forces.]
 |
| A market in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, where women wear all-covering burqas outside their homes. Residents are terrified that fighters from the Islamic State are coming close to the city. (Pam Constable /The Washington Post |
JALALABAD, Afghanistan — At exactly 6
p.m.
across this nervous city and surrounding districts, a clandestine radio
broadcast comes to life each night with sounds of clashing swords, drumming
hoofbeats and bursts of machine-gun fire.
“Caliphate Radio, where hell
welcomes the conspirators of infidels,” intones the announcer in the Pashto
language. For the next 90 minutes, speakers deliver sermons about Islam, recite
Koranic verses in Arabic, threaten death for anyone connected with the
“infidel” government and call on young Afghans to join their holy war.
No one is sure where the
week-old broadcasts are coming from. Officials say they are attempting to track
the radio broadcast facility and silence it, but they suspect it is mounted on
a truck, moving among the tribal regions that straddle the nearby border with Pakistan
Already, the broadcasts have struck new fear into residents of this
besieged eastern region, a rich agricultural area and strategic
trade corridor. Fighters loyal to the Islamic State, known here by its Arabic
acronym Daesh, are reportedly reaching as close as 12 miles from this
provincial capital as they wrest control of areas where Afghan security forces
largely remain confined to outposts.
Islamic State forces in Afghanistan Pakistan Middle
East
have joined them and are attempting to establish a stronghold in Nangahar. Many
Afghans suspect that the militants and the new radio station are being
sponsored by Pakistan
Provincial leaders said they
are frustrated with the poor results of a recent military offensive that failed
to push back Islamic State militants. With NATO air power no longer
available to provide
cover to Afghan troops, they said, the government is being forced to rely on
poorly trained local police and even on Taliban fighters — widely viewed here
as a lesser, homegrown evil — to take on the better armed and financed Islamic
State forces.
“The Afghan soldiers fight
well. But they are badly managed, and the government is weak. How else can 20
Daesh fighters capture districts where they have sent in 2,000 army troops?”
demanded Ahmed Ali Hazrat, the provincial council head. He said that local
armed tribes are ready to take on the Islamic State in coordination with the
army but that their offer has been rebuffed. “Without international air
support, there is no way the Afghan forces can defeat them,” he said.
Last week, Gen. John Campbell,
the top U.S. Afghanistan U.S. U.S.
Leaders from four districts,
including two close to Jalalabad, said their areas are now partly or fully
under Islamic State domination. An elder from Chaparhar, a short drive from
Jalalabad, said the extremists are “beheading four to five people a day” there and
control 90 percent of the district. He said that one family was murdered in
recent days and that Islamic State fighters returned two of their severed heads
to local authorities. The elder, who fled with his family to Jalalabad, spoke
on the condition that he not be identified.
“They just kill people; they
don’t say why,” he said. “They have already warned me. If they see my name,
they will kill me, too.”
‘Everyone is afraid’
The launching of Caliphate
Radio has magnified the intimidating power of the Islamic State and has made
the group seem more ubiquitous. Officials said the broadcast can be heard
throughout most of the province. In Jalalabad on Saturday evening, every word
came through clearly.
“This is an infidel government,
with an infidel system,” one speaker said. “Those who are in the same trench
with infidels are not Muslim” and are therefore worthy of death. He included in
that group anyone who delivers goods to government agencies, shares offices
with foreigners, or befriends Jews or Christians. “It is negative propaganda
that we kill everyone,” he asserted, “but we are fighting to finish an evil
system.”
The chilling effect is palpable
in this bustling city of 350,000, which is full of hotels and restaurants that
cater to tradesmen and travelers. On a recent day, the streets emptied quickly
after dark, and police and army vehicles circulated. Business owners said trade
was down; officials said the city was flooded with jobless men who had fled
conflict zones.
“Everyone is afraid,” said one council member, from nearby Achin, where Islamic
State fighters remain in control four months after they executed villagers by
forcing them to sit on explosives.
“These people are not human.
They have much money and many big weapons. They can put Dashikas on every
hilltop,” he said, referring to Russian-made DShK heavy machine guns. He spoke
on the condition of anonymity, fearing for his security.
“They easily slip in and out
across the border, and they bring everything in on horses. We wonder who is
really behind them,” he said.
The radio is worrisome for a
second reason: its potential to appeal to young Afghans who are alienated, idle
or already influenced by radical Islamist teachings. Local officials say the
area’s high
unemployment rate makes
young men susceptible to the Islamic State’s promises of high pay.
Another group of potential
recruits are students at Nangahar University
One economics instructor, who
spoke on the condition of anonymity because of security concerns, said the
campus — once known as a center for medical and technical studies — is now so full
of radicalized students that
it is too dangerous for a foreigner to visit. In some dormitories, he said,
students are watching extreme Islamist videos and becoming swept up in the idea
of violent jihad.
A Sunni cleric here, Maulvi
Zahir Haqqani, who is working with the government to counter the Islamic
State’s message, said he and his fellow scholars issued a fatwa, or religious
edict, this week denouncing the militia’s predations as un-Islamic and
encouraging residents to defend themselves against the “invaders.”
Haqqani said the Taliban,
though cruel, is more palatable here because it consists of fellow Afghans,
ethnic Pashtuns and Hanafi Muslims, a mainstream Sunni sect. The Islamic State
is largely made up of Salafist Muslims, who follow an ultraconservative strain
of the faith that originated in Saudi Arabia Egypt
The Islamic State radio broadcasts told listeners in recent days
that Taliban fighters should be higher-priority targets than the government.
Relations between the two Islamist militias are complex, with some Taliban
members joining the Islamic State while others are fighting it. Afghans worry
that their growing armed rivalry will sow chaos in the region.
Already, elders and officials
from across Nangahar said, the conflict has emptied Achin, close
to the Pakistani border, and has sent residents fleeing from six
more of the province’s 23 districts — Khogyani, Chaparhar, Deh Bala, Shinwar,
Behsud and Pachiragam. In the past week, they said, Islamic State fighters have
reached an area of Chaparhar that is 12 miles from Jalalabad.
“The women are all locking
themselves in their houses because they have heard about the flags Daesh is
demanding,” said Habiba Kakar Qazizada, a teacher from Behsud. Islamic State
fighters have ordered that flags be raised over houses with widows or unmarried
daughters, whom they claim the right to take as spoils of war. “The Taliban
treat women like goods, too, but they are more lenient,” she said.
The broadcasts of Caliphate
Radio have made it clear that the insurgents do not plan to stop until they
control Afghanistan
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