June 1, 2011
Taliban Aim to Derail Afghan Security Transfer
By ROD NORDLAND
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Insurgents have stepped up attacks in parts of Afghanistan scheduled to be handed over to Afghan military control next month and have put a new emphasis on a campaign of assassinations aimed at important officials around the country, Afghan officials say.
Afghan officials say the combined campaigns are intended to undermine the first stage of a transition to full Afghan responsibility for security, which is scheduled to begin within weeks in seven of the country's safest provinces and cities. The Afghans and NATO officials insisted that the transition would not be delayed. A delay might call into question President Obama's goal to begin withdrawing some of the 100,000 troops the United States has in the country by July.
However, there has already been some delay in drafting specific plans for the transition, which President Hamid Karzai announced [1] in March. A governmentwide meeting to complete those plans has been put off until June 15, even though Western diplomats say they expect the transition to begin between June 22 and July 22.
"The insurgents are trying to interfere with the security transition and are focusing on the places that are scheduled to go to our control," said Lutfullah Mashal, a spokesman for the National Directorate of Security, the Afghan intelligence service, citing a variety of recent attacks.
But NATO officials say they do not see recent attacks as part of a worrisome trend. "We don't see a significant increase in Taliban attacks in the transition areas," an official with the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, said, speaking anonymously as a matter of policy.
A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabiullah Mujahid, interviewed by cellphone, also denied that the insurgents were focused on the transition. "We will continue our fight in all areas of the country," he said. "The security transition is not important."
Undoubtedly, there have been a string of prominent attacks in areas scheduled to be handed over. On Monday, insurgents struck in the western city of Herat, [2] one of the first seven places scheduled for the transition, attacking an Italian NATO base as well as the central shopping district; seven people died, most of them civilians.
Two days earlier, a sophisticated bomb planted at a meeting between German NATO officers and police officials in northern Afghanistan killed Gen. Daoud Daoud, [3] the regional police chief for northern Afghanistan, who was a hero to many Afghans in the north from the war against the Taliban in the 1990s. He was based in Mazar-i-Sharif, a northern city selected for the early phase of the transition.
"The Afghan security forces with their current leadership will not be able to take over the security responsibilities in Mazar-i-Sharif," said Qayum Baabak, a political analyst from the city. "They cannot maintain security for themselves; how can they protect the city?"
Taliban assassins also ambushed the governor of Helmand Province, Gulab Mangal, as he left the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, another site for the transition, on May 24, riddling his car with bullets but missing the governor and his bodyguards.
And in Laghman Province, where the provincial capital, Mehtarlam, is scheduled to be part of the transition, two suicide bombers have struck since April.
In Mehtarlam itself, a member of the Laghman provincial council, Ajmal Wafa, said that local officials were worried about the transition. "The Taliban wouldn't dare attack the provincial capital while the Americans are there, but if the Americans leave the Taliban will march in," Mr. Wafa said. "If anyone asked us, we would say, 'Delay the transition,' but no one has asked us."
Some of the places Mr. Karzai listed for the early phase of the transition, like Bamian and Panjshir Provinces, have been very quiet. In Kabul at least, Afghan forces have long been in charge, although there are NATO forces on standby at major bases there.
Ashraf Ghani, who is in charge of the government's transition effort, was not available for comment. But on Tuesday he met with local officials in Lashkar Gah and said there would be no delay in the transition there.
In Herat, the provincial police chief, Gen. Sayid Aqa Saqib, said there had been a noticeable increase in attacks there, in addition to Monday's suicide bombings. "There's no doubt that the enemies of peace and stability will try to target these places, which are under security transition," he said.
"This is not going to delay transition," he said. "The government of Afghanistan has nothing to be concerned about."
Mr. Mashal said the Taliban's effort to interfere with the transition also included attacks on prominent figures, like the assassination of General Daoud. He said Afghan intelligence agents had thwarted other attacks and arrested suspects accused of plotting the assassinations of government officials.
Still, the ISAF official said, the attacks did not necessarily appear to be aimed at transition areas. "What we're really seeing is the Taliban spring offensive gearing up," the official said. "They're on the run, and they're trying to assert themselves and regain the offensive."
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/world/asia/23afghanistan.html
[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/world/asia/31afghanistan.html
[3] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/world/asia/29afghan.html