[The district’s brief fall and recapture offer a window into how this long war is being fought now: The ungoverned space across the county continues to grow as each side — the government and the militants — rallies resources and wrests control of an individual area for a short time. Neither side, though, seems capable of holding on to territory it gains. The fight seesaws back and forth, with civilians caught in between.]
By
Mujib Mashal
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Afghan government
officials assessing the situation in the Taiwara District after it
was recaptured from the
Taliban. The government is losing a growing number
of fighters in contested
areas. Credit Mujib Mashal/The New York Times
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TAIWARA,
Afghanistan — Before the
Taliban briefly overran the Taiwara District in late July, the last semblance
of resistance came not from the government, but rather from local residents who
rallied around their representative in Parliament in what turned out to be a
fatal effort for many.
The small Afghan commando unit in Taiwara, in
the western part of isolated Ghor Province, had already been routed. Ibrahim
Malikzada, the district’s parliamentarian and a hardened anti-Taliban fighter
since the 1990s, arrived from Kabul to try to muster a final defense. Mr.
Malikzada often travels the 180 miles of mountainous stretch from the
provincial capital to the district on a motorcycle, in the dark of the night.
His men were also defeated, on July 23.
“When they were going to their outposts in
the evening, from their faces one could tell they would not return,” Mr.
Malikzada said. “It was one of the deadliest nights — at every corner, I saw
pieces of my men.”
Only days later, Afghan commandos, supported
by Afghan and United States airpower, retook Taiwara.
The district’s brief fall and recapture offer
a window into how this long war is being fought now: The ungoverned space
across the county continues to grow as each side — the government and the
militants — rallies resources and wrests control of an individual area for a
short time. Neither side, though, seems capable of holding on to territory it
gains. The fight seesaws back and forth, with civilians caught in between.
Adding to the challenge is the increasing
blurring of the line between criminal gangs and the militants, with each helping
the other and often acting as one. This growing overlap has many officials and
diplomats worried about the potential for a political resolution’s
on-the-ground success if a peace deal is ever reached with the Taliban
leadership.
It is obvious that the commandos cannot stay
in Taiwara for long, and officials openly admit that what remains of Mr.
Malikzada’s informal militia, more than 100 men, is their best hope of holding
the district.
There is only one problem: Ghor’s provincial
security chief and Mr. Malikzada disagree over how to register his men formally
with the government. The police chief wants the men to make the 180-mile trek
to the provincial capital, Feroz Koh, so their fingerprints and other physical
characteristics can be registered for identification and access control.
“We don’t have time for that,” Mr. Malikzada
said. “The enemy will retake the areas.”
United States military data shows that the
Afghan government controls about 24 percent of the country’s districts and
influences an additional 36 percent. The Taliban, on the other hand, control
and influence about 11 percent. Both sides contest the remainder, about 29 percent.
The government is losing a growing number of
fighters in contested areas. During the first four months of 2017, about 20
Afghan fighters died each day in largely defensive efforts, a number that seems
to have risen in recent weeks.
Before the recent Taliban onslaught, Ghor
Province had long suffered from a lack of government attention. In large parts
of the province, rule of law was almost nonexistent and serious human rights
abuses were carried out with impunity. But at least the roughly 2,700 police
and Army officers were able to move about the vast territory, 90 percent of it
mountainous or semi-mountainous, to secure it from Taliban inroads.
The Taliban’s method of attack on Taiwara
showed how confident the insurgents have become in waging violence this year.
Security officials in Ghor say about 700
heavily armed fighters from neighboring provinces made a run for the district
in Humvees and trucks stolen from Afghan forces in Helmand Province. The
insurgents sought to connect areas they had already seized, carving a corridor
from south to north.
First to suffer heavy casualties was an
Afghan commando unit of about 45 men who had set up a makeshift base on a
hilltop in the center of the district. One commando officer said that 12 of his
fellow fighters had been killed and their bodies disfigured with chemicals,
that about 20 had been injured and that several had disappeared. One commando
hid in the trees for three days, until the district was retaken, the officer
said.
With the commando unit defeated, the
resistance was left to fighters loyal to Mr. Malikzada, the parliamentarian.
His men resisted in the hope that air power and reinforcements would arrive
from the provincial capital. Neither did, and the fighters suffered heavy
casualties before retreating.
“The shops collapsed, then the hospital was
destroyed,” said Mohammed Sediq, a resident who was forced to flee with his
family from the center of Taiwara after the district government’s compound,
too, was torched.
In response to criticism that military
support was not sent in time, Abdullah Abdullah, the chief executive of the
Afghan government, who visited Taiwara recently after its recapture, said
several provinces had come under attack around the same time.
“At one point, in eight or nine provinces we
had districts facing first-degree threats,” Mr. Abdullah said. “In such
situations, with the capabilities that we have, it comes down to where we can
reach and where we cannot.”
Officials in Ghor say the presence of both
the Taliban and a faction that claims allegiance to the Islamic State is
facilitated by two men with long criminal histories in the province.
Qari Rahmatullah, a leader of the group that
operates under the Islamic State flag, is also a longtime local commander who
fought against the Soviets in the 1980s and has been affiliated with one of
Afghanistan’s main political parties, Jamiat e Islami. Mr. Rahmatullah’s men
rounded up and killed about 30 civilians last year, and haveyet to face justice
despite operating not far from the provincial capital.
“Because of lack of enough security forces,
the murderers of our people are walking freely in the mountains just north of
Feroz Koh,” said Ghor’s governor, Ghulam Nasir Khaze.
The second man, Mullah Mustafa, who serves as
a local facilitator of the Taliban and played a major role in the recent
offensive, is known for setting up checkpoints on the main highway to extort
travelers, security officials say.
Local officials are especially frustrated
that, despite his clear siding with the Taliban, Mullah Mustafa is protected by
senior figures in Kabul, the capital, including those in Afghanistan’s peace
council assigned to negotiate with the Taliban.
The officials say Mullah Mustafa also has
contacts in Iran, which is looking to strengthen its ties to the Taliban in
Afghanistan and is said to have a lot of influence over them in the western
part of the country. Iran has used Mullah Mustafa to disrupt the building of a
major dam in Herat Province that would affect the water flow into Iran, two
senior officials in Ghor said.
Gen. Mohammad Nasir Hedayat, the commander of
the Afghan Army corps in the west, said his men were certain that Mullah
Mustafa had aided the Taliban attack on Taiwara by hosting hundreds of their
fighters from neighboring provinces “as guests” before the assault.
He said that in a telephone call he had
warned Mullah Mustafa of the potential consequences.
“You raised the Taliban flag,’’ General
Hedayat said he had told him. “You know that this situation won’t remain for
the government and we will come after you.”
“When the Taliban left, he lowered the
flags,” the general said. “And we were pressured” to leave him alone.
In searching for solutions to the province’s
security problems, the government seems to be turning to militias again and
perpetuating what has become a familiar Catch-22: sacrificing justice and the
rule of law for the sake of relative control.
The commandos cannot hold the district
indefinitely; they will be called to help elsewhere. Mr. Abdullah, the chief
executive, asked provincial officials to submit a proposal requesting
additional Afghan local police, essentially militia fighters with varying
degrees of vetting who are paid by the government.
Much to the dismay of human rights activists,
the government has often relied on such local militias in Ghor and other
provinces. Most recently, to counter Qari Rahmatullah’s brutal Islamic State
fighters, the government secretly enlisted the help of Mullah Saadyar, another
problematic militia member with ties to the Taliban. Mullah Saadyar has also
been accused of having a role in the stoning of a local woman, Rukhshana.
Mr. Abdullah warned that the new recruits
must be vetted thoroughly so that, “God forbid, the people are not forced to
flee from them into the mountains again.”
Jawad Sukhanyar contributed reporting from
Kabul, Afghanistan.