[Friday’s uprising appears unconnected to another anti-Taliban force that emerged this week in the north: The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, led by Ahmad Massoud, the son of the late Afghan mujahideen leader, Ahmad Shah Massoud.]
By Ezzatullah
Mehrdad and Sudarsan
Raghavan
KABUL — Groups of armed Afghans attacked the Taliban on Friday, driving Afghanistan's new rulers out of three northern districts, the first assault against the Islamist militants since they swept into Kabul last week and seized control of the government.
Local anti-Taliban commanders
claimed in interviews they had killed as many as 30 of the group’s fighters and
captured 20 in the takeover of the districts in Baghlan province, just over 100
miles north of the capital. Former Afghan service members were joined in the
fight, they said, by local civilians. Images shared online showed celebrations
as the red, green and black Afghan national flag — rather than the white flag
of the Taliban — was raised over government buildings.
“We have ignited something that is
historic in Afghanistan,” said Sediqullah Shuja, 28, a former Afghan soldier
who took part in Friday’s uprising. “Taliban fighters had armored vehicles, but
people threw stones at Taliban fighters and drove them out.”
“As long as we are alive,” he said,
“we do not accept the Taliban’s rule.”
Friday’s attack is the latest sign
of defiance toward the Taliban, ranging from Afghans refusing to fly the white Taliban flag to women
protesting to preserve their rights. Together, they illuminate some of the
obstacles the Taliban faces as it seeks to form a government deemed acceptable
by a broad spectrum of Afghans and by the international community, especially
donors.
But whether Friday’s attack is a
sign of an emerging new military front against the Taliban remains to be seen.
The Taliban is militarily far
superior than its earlier incarnation, which ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and
2001 and was toppled following the U.S.-led invasion.
In just 10 days, the Taliban took
control of every provincial capital across the nation, despite the Afghan
government wielding a 300,000 strong, U.S.-funded and equipped military, an air
force and special commando units. The Taliban seized the arsenals of Afghan army and police units, including
American-made weaponry and armored vehicles. Having been humiliated by the
Taliban’s triumph, there is no appetite in the West to fund an insurgency
against their rule.
Taliban officials were not
immediately available for comment Friday about events in Baghlan. But a tweet
from a pro-Taliban account claimed the clashes killed 15 Taliban and wounded
15, and that the Taliban was betrayed after offering amnesty to locals.
“All those who committed this crime
must be killed. The doors of conversation are closed,” the tweet read.
Friday’s assault to retake the
three districts of Puli Hisar, Dih Salah and Bano — which was confirmed by a
former defense minister — came after Taliban fighters conducted house-to-house
searches in the Andarab valley of the province, local commanders said.
As in most parts of Afghanistan,
the Taliban had taken over the districts with little resistance in recent
weeks. Shuja said that the local residents had told the Taliban fighters they
can govern as long as they don’t enter their villages and homes.
So when the Taliban came to conduct
searches, former Afghan military servicemen, along with civilians, decided to
rise up. They drove out the Taliban in less than a day.
“Taliban fighters did not listen to
us,” said Shuja, who had left his post in Helmand province when he heard that
military units were surrendering en masse to the Taliban. “They came to our
houses and harassed people. In our villages, people are very traditional and
Muslim. There is no reason for Taliban to come and teach us about Islam.”
Abdul Rahman, 53, a former
commander at Baghlan prison, said he mobilized hundreds of local forces and pushed
the Taliban out. He said that the uprising left 30 Taliban fighters dead and 20
in custody — claims that could not be independently verified.
“All people of the valley have
risen up against the Taliban,” said Rahman. “We are not afraid of Taliban fighters.
We can [fight] as many as they come.”
Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, a former
defense minister who has called for the arrest of the former president, Ashraf
Ghani, confirmed in
a tweet that the local forces retook three districts in Baghlan province.
“Resistance is still alive,” said
Mohammadi, who was an anti-Taliban commander during the group’s first stint in
power.
On Twitter, Afghans posted
photos and videos from the captured districts, including images of
rifle-toting fighters congratulating one another on their victory and chanting
“Allahu akbar,” or “God is great.”
Friday’s uprising appears
unconnected to another anti-Taliban force that emerged this week in the north:
The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, led by Ahmad Massoud, the son of
the late Afghan mujahideen leader, Ahmad Shah Massoud.
The elder Massoud fought the
Taliban in the late 1990s from his base in the Panjshir Valley, roughly
90 miles northeast of Kabul. Two days before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks
in 2001, he was assassinated by al-Qaeda operatives.
The National Resistance Front
appears to be backing former vice president Amrullah Saleh, who is widely
believed to be in the Panjshir Valley, the only area in the country not under
Taliban control.
Saleh claims he is the legitimate
caretaker of Afghanistan after former Ghani fled to the United Arab Emirates
hours before the Taliban entered Kabul last weekend.
On Wednesday, Ahmad Massoud published an op-ed in The Washington Post seeking U.S. and
Western support, arms, ammunition and supplies. He wrote that he is “ready to
follow in my father’s footsteps, with mujahideen fighters who are prepared to
once again take on the Taliban.”
Massoud said his forces include
former Afghan regular army soldiers and Afghan Special Forces, as well as
ordinary Afghans who have responded to his call to join the resistance. “We
have stores of ammunition and arms that we have patiently collected since my
father’s time, because we knew this day might come,” wrote Massoud.
His cause, however, has not been
joined by other Afghan leaders who resisted Taliban rule the last time around.
Many have chosen instead to work
with the Taliban in the hopes of creating an inclusive transitional government.
Former reconciliation council leader Abdullah Abdullah, former president Hamid
Karzai and a powerful warlord, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, have formed a council that seeks a political settlement with
the Taliban, rather than join the budding insurgency.
“Talks and meetings are all about
how we can pass on the current situation toward forming a government,” said
Fraidoon Khwazoon, a spokesperson for Abdullah. “The Taliban says that all
leaders must be invited back to Kabul for negotiations.”
Abdullah has been asking the
Taliban to guarantee security for leaders who are not part of the group, while
stopping house-to-house searches and the seizure of government-issued vehicles,
said Khwazoon.
“A senior Taliban leader is in
Kabul for talks, but first Afghan leaders need assurance of safety from the
Taliban,” said the spokesperson.
On Friday, such assurances of
safety were in doubt, especially for Afghanistan’s minority Hazara community,
who are Shiite Muslims. An Amnesty International report detailed the torture
and massacre of nine Hazara men last month by the Taliban, who are Sunni, after
they captured territory in Ghazni province.
[The
Taliban insists it has changed. Afghanistan’s future hinges on whether that’s
true.]
The allegations came just after the
Taliban offered security for rituals and processions during Ashura, a
significant Shiite commemoration that is considered blasphemous by hardline
Sunnis. The decision raised hopes that perhaps the Taliban has changed its
approach toward the Hazara — who were persecuted during the last Taliban
government. But deep skepticism remains.
“I cannot believe that the Taliban
has changed,” said Habibullah, a 33-year-old Hazara who, like many Afghans,
uses one name. “Taliban fighters are the same as they have been trained. And
for them, Hazaras are infidels.”
Raghavan reported from Dubai.
