Taliban seize key area between Kabul and Kandahar on major highway

Hundreds of Taliban attacked the Ajrestan District of Ghazni province a key link between the capital Kabul and southern areas. The Taliban have also been making advances in the south recently.

Some 700 Taliban are said to be involved in the battle which has lasted about a week already. Although fighting is still continuing, there have been over 100 killed and the Afghan forces have been pushed back giving the Taliban effective control over the area. The highway through the area links Kabul to the main southern city of Kandahar.
 Provincial officials say they have lost all contact with police in the area. NATO has attempted to allow the Afghan military to counter Taliban attacks of late with the result that the Taliban are making gains in the south and central areas of Afghanistan. Earlier, Taliban had attacked a government compound in the area containing intelligence and police offices killing at least 8 security personnel and losing 19 of their own fighters. Deputy police chief of the Ajrestan area Asadullah Safi said on Friday: "If there is no urgent help from the central government, the district will collapse". The authorities have lost contact with Safi. With no air cover to pin down the Taliban attackers the Taliban have launched many attacks against military posts. Provincial officials were able to contact an army unit late Friday. The unit reported that fighting was still raging and that Afghan army commandos from outside Ghazni province had arrived as reinforcement.
Ajrestan is a small town but surrounded by about 100 villages. Control of the mountainous Ajrestan district that is about 125 miles southwest of Kabul will provide the Taliban a base to launch attacks on two bordering provinces and along the crucial highway as well. Provincial governor Ahmadi said that he had asked repeatedly for helicopters to evacuate wounded security forces but to no avail.
 Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq, leader of the ethnic Hazara minority said: "Peace with the Taliban requires a strong government. At the moment, the Taliban think they can fight in every province and they believe they can overthrow the government, Without international support it will be hard to provide security ... The example of Ajrestan district shows that without international commitment of troops, it will be difficult to handle the Taliban."
 These attacks come just days before the new Afghan president Ashraf Ghani is to be inaugurated in a unity deal with his opponent Abdullah Abdullah. All foreign troops are set to withdraw by the end of 2014 but the new president has promised that he will sign on to a bilateral security agreement that will allow some troops to remain after that time. The control of the battle against the Taliban already seems to be mainly by the Afghan government. Afghan officials claim that the continuing loses by their forces show that a peace settlement must be negotiated with the Taliban since without a powerful NATO occupation force they will be unable to defeat the Taliban in battle.

A member of the Kandahar provincial council says that at least seventeen civilians were killed as a result of the shooting spree. However the governor's puts the number killed at 15. Haji Samad an elder from the area said:"Eleven members of my family are dead. They are all dead," Haji Samad, an elder from Panjwai district.

A spokesperson for the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) Captain Brockhoff could not confirm that anyone was killed. This cautiousness about such issues often makes authorities seem foolish or completely out of touch with reality. He did say however:"This is a horrific incident, and our thoughts are with the families of the affected. Our initial reports indicate multiple civilians - between four and six- are wounded. Those civilians are receiving care at coalition medical facilities,"

Bernard Smith an Al Jazeera reporter said: "We are now being told by the police sources that the US soldier left his base at three o clock this morning. It would have been pitch-black wherever he walked," "The soldier went through three separate houses, shooting at people as they slept in their beds.""The soldier then returned to his base and turned himself in. One wonders why a soldier would be allowed out of the base at 3 AM to wander off by himself and obviously armed as well.

Some reports say that the soldier suffered a nervous breakdown before the incident. So a person suffering a nervous breakdown is allowed out of the base at 3 AM and armed into the bargain.The soldier will be held in U.S. custody. The Afghan authorities will probably have nothing to do with any trial or punishment since U.S. troops are not subject to Afghan law.

There is already a huge surge in opposition to NATO forces after the recent burning of copies of the Koran. There has been strong opposition as well to night raids that often kill civilians. This latest incident will make things worse.

Forty one people have already been killed since the Koran burning. I imagine similar violent protests will follow this event.

Najeeb Azizi an analyst in Kabul said::"It is a very tragic incident in particular because the Afghan and US governments are trying to sign a strategic agreement for a long term," Everyone seems to have forgotten that the U.S. far from getting out entirely from Afghanistan in 2014 is trying to negotiate a long term stay in the country. For more see this Al Jazeera article. The event is also covered here by Reuters. in the BBC.

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