Taliban commanders have revealed that hundreds of insurgents have been trained in Iran to kill NATO forces in Afghanistan. The commanders said they had learnt to mount comple ambushes and lay IEDs which have been responsible for most of the deaths of British troops in Helmand province.
According to the commanders, Iranian officials paid them to attend three-month courses during the winter. They were smuggled across the border to the city of Zahidan, in south east Iran, an hour's drive from training camps in the desert.
Instructors in plain clothes provided daily exercises in live firing. The first month was devoted to teaching the Taliban how to attack convoys and how to escape before NATO forces respond. Their second moth they were shown how to plant IEs in sequence so that the rescuers of soldiers wounded in one blast would be caught in further explosions. The third month was spent on storming bases and checkpoints.
Western officials troubled by growing Iranian support for the Taliban describe the accounts as credible.
Karl Eikenberry, the American ambassador to Afghanistan, recently described signs of co-operation between Iran and the Taliban disturbing. He acknowledged Iran or elements within Iran have provided training assistance and some weapons to the Taliban.
One of the reasons the Taliban are being trained in Iran is because of the military crackdown in Pakistan.
Will Gordon Brown take notice of what's developing in the middle east? The Afghan war is futile and a waste of lives on all sides.
Posts
15 comments:
I came across this story over the weekend and figured it was US propaganda to justify, and soften us up for, an attack on Iran.
One thing I am certain of. These IEDs are wrongly named. They are not improvised but sophisticated and expensive armaments. Now we have a hint of their source of supply, if not manufacture. The IED phrase is meant to diminish the true understanding and imply they are made in a "shed" somewhere. Not these days, they're not.
Could be US propaganda, but on the principle of"mine enemy's enemy is my friend", and a common religion, it sounds pretty likely to me!
Re IED's. there are many ways of doing this, in a country awash with weapons and explosives, its not hard to cobble something together. For control systems, mobile phones or cheap radio control, that's the hardest part taken care of, for the explosive, whatever is to hand you can rig up. Anything bought off the shelf costs a lot more.It also has to be transported. And these people know their explosives well, its their trade!
My info is that it's genuine scunnert. Of course Iran want it to be know in order to antagonise.
They are now OR, yes. Initially they were 'home made' but now they're produced en masse and not by individuals unless in certain circumstances.
The sad thing about these types of 'weapons' is that they affect the people who the 'opposition' are purported to be defending even more than they do armed forces.
Aye Apogee, it is likely. The source of the story has never been incorrect so far.
Don't forget Apogee, Brits are paying for the fertiliser which is a compound of these weapons to be brought into Afghanistan.
Can't disagree they don't know their explosives. In fact, if anyone wanted to know about them, as you say, ask a Taliban member.
Don't forget that it used to be us that was teaching and supplying them when it was the Russians they were fighting.
Yes of course Billy it was. I thought it was important to record how the sides have changed so as people can think for themselves as to new consequences.
And of course the West is going about the alienation of Iran in such an even handed and conciliatory manner?
There's only one answer to the stupidity. Get the troops out and get them out now.
Arguments as to strategies, tactics or armaments are worthless when the purpose of the war is so fundamentally flawed that any 'victory' that may be claimed couldn't reach the classification of being Pyrrhic.
Stop arguing over the quality of the oily rags - this is exactly what the warmongers want you to concentrate on - instead concentrate on saving the lives of the engineers who have to use them.
Very well said RA. Thank you.
Given that the Taliban are supported mainly by Sunni Arabs and that the Persian Shia offered the US assistance in fighting the Taliban at the start of the present conflict in Afghanistan you'll understand my scepticism.
"Like Wahhabi and other Deobandis, the Taliban do not consider Shias to be Muslims."
"The Taliban (Pashto: طالبان ṭālibān, meaning "students"), also Taleban, is a Sunni Islamist political movement that governed Afghanistan from 1996 until they were overthrown in late 2001 during Operation Enduring Freedom. It has regrouped since 2004 and revived as a strong insurgency movement governing at the local level and fighting a guerrilla war against the governments of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).[4] The movement is made up of members belonging to different ethnic Pashtun tribes,[5] along with a number of volunteers from nearby Islamic countries such as Uzbeks, Tajiks, Chechens, Arabs, Pakistani Punjabi people|Punjabis]] and others."
http://tinyurl.com/j92cz
Of course the Iranians may have their own reasons for assisting the Taliban at this time but it's not because they're co-religionists.
Hi scunnert. Many thanks for all that info. Leaves me wondering what Iran are up to really.
Scunnert, I knew there was more than lentils in the Afghan soup. But when you combine that lot with all the synthetic flavouring being added by the Western palate, the wise course may be to remove yourself from the table.
No doubt you'll be aware of the $760 billion contract which has been awarded to the Pashtun warlords - of which Karzia is a minor one - for logistical (haulage) of goods throughout Afghanistan and for the bullion runs to the same warlords banks in Abu Dhabi.
Post a Comment