Archive for November, 2008

Afghan forces dispatched the Taliban fighters, but not before the lorry was destroyed

The Taliban is stepping up attacks on US and Nato supply convoys in Afghanistan, a spokesman for the armed group has said.

“Up to now our operations on the highways leading to Kabul have been weak. We’re about to boost the attacks … until the government and the Americans are smashed,” Zabiullah Mujahid, told Al Jazeera.

Supply lorries carry 75 per cent of the food and fuel for the foreign troops in Afghanistan along a largely exposed highway.

Taliban fighters ambushed a Nato lorry on the main road between Pakistan and Kabul just west of Jalalabad recently, setting fire to food and other vital supplies.

A heavily-armed Afghan highway patrol was on the scene within minutes and managed to push back the Taliban fighters after an exchange of fire.

“We were manning a checkpoint when we heard an explosion,” Naweb Khan, an Afghan police officer, said.

“There was strong resistance from the enemy when we got here. But they soon fled from the area [and] we defeated them.”

Change of strategy

So far attacks on supply convoys have had a limited impact on American and Nato troops but the Taliban says that will soon change.

“We want to show them they are not all-powerful and the mujahadin of Afghanistan can carry out attacks on our enemies in any part of the country,” the spokesman said. Most convoy attacks have previously taken place in Pakistan before they cross the border.

“The fact they launched a successful operation on the stretch of highway between Kabul and Jalalabad is what makes this important,” Al Jazeera’s David Chater, reporting from the scene in Aziz Khan Kaly, said.

“The fighters also had clear intelligence about which vehicles were carrying Nato supplies. Something like 600 lorries make this journey every day.”

The supply route weaves through steep Afghan mountain passes, offering ideal territory for ambushes.

In view of the heightened risk, coalition forces are already discussing new supply routes from Russia, and even Iran, Al Jazeera’s correspondent said.

Many people were wounded in Friday’s attack

A bomb has killed at least six people at the funeral of a Shia Muslim in north-western Pakistan, police say.

The blast, in the town of Dera Ismail Khan, injured many more. The town has a history of violence between Sunni and Shia Muslims.

In violence elsewhere, a suicide bomber killed nine worshippers on Thursday night at a mosque in the tribal district of Bajaur.

The dead included the head of a local militia formed to fight the Taleban.

Mourning hymns

The bomb in Dera Ismail Khan exploded as Shia Muslims were burying a man murdered on Thursday. Before the funeral took place a Shia cleric was killed in the town.

Anti-Taleban elder killed

“One of our men was martyred yesterday and one today. We were taking the coffin to the graveyard, reciting mourning hymns, when suddenly this blast happened,” mourner Tauqir Zaidi told the Reuters news agency.

It is not clear how the bomb was triggered. Officials said it appeared to be another sectarian attack.

It provoked an outbreak of shooting near the hospital where the injured were taken for treatment.

Dera Ismail Khan lies in North West Frontier Province (NWFP). The province’s police chief, Malik Naveed, told the BBC Urdu service that six people were confirmed dead but the death toll could rise.

The great majority of Pakistan’s Muslims are Sunni. Shias form about 15%. Violence between the two communities dates back to the 1980s.

Further north, in district of Bajaur, there was more violence blamed on the Pakistan Taleban late on Thursday when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives at a mosque.

Among the dead was the head of a local militia formed to fight the Taleban.

The army has been encouraging the tribes to take on the militants in their areas and suspected Taleban insurgents have retaliated with attacks on tribal gatherings.

For some months the Pakistan military has waged a sustained campaign against Islamic militants in Bajaur that forced up to 300,000 people to flee their homes.

US ambassador summoned

The United States has been encouraging the Pakistan government to step up its fight against Islamist militants.

The rubble of a house hit by a US drone missile attack near Bannu

But at the same time relations have soured over America’s growing use since August of unmanned drone aircraft to carry out missile attacks on targets across the border from Afghanistan.

On Thursday the US ambassador in Islamabad was summoned to receive a formal protest over a drone attack near the town of Bannu.

The Bannu attack was unusual in that it took place in NWFP, much deeper inside Pakistani territory than previous attacks.