Daily Times

PESHAWAR: October 7 was marked as 15th anniversary of the United States invasion of Afghanistan in response to deadliest terror attacks in US by Arab jihadists affiliated with Afghanistan-based Al-Qaeda terrorist organization on September 11, 2001, Afghanistan was dragged into war without clear victors as the Taliban militia (ruling Afghanistan in 2001) remained intact, in fact they have appeared stronger than ever before despite fighting the well-organized and well-equipped armies of many first world nations.

During the current week, the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan (IEA), known as the Afghan Taliban have initiated a number of attacks in almost all corners of the country.

Since 2001, the Taliban have been engaged with the Afghan National Army (ANA), Afghan Police, the NATO forces besides recently locking horns with rival militants from the Islamic State (IS) and forces of former Taliban Commander Mullah Muhammad Rasool led splinter group that emerged when a rift broke out in the Taliban cadre on electing Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour as their new Amir on July 29, 2015 after the announcement of the death of their founding supreme leader Mullah Muhammad Omar.

Under Mullah Mansour, the Taliban carried out a number of attacks on Afghan and foreign forces in Afghanistan. They took control of Kunduz city for at least three days on September 30, 2015 before taking away large cache of arms and ammunitions and military vehicles during that endeavor.

Besides, the Taliban also defeated Daesh (IS) in Ningrahar and Kunar along with battering Mullah Rasool faction in Herat and Zabul earlier this year. However, the militia lost its momentum after Mullah Mansour was killed in a drone attack in Pakistan’s Balochistan province on May 21, 2016.

The Taliban have divided Afghanistan in different military zones. Sirajuddin Haqqani is responsible for Taliban action in the East, Southeast and West of the country while Mullah Muhammad Yaqoob, the eldest son of Mullah Muhammad Omar is responsible for Southwest and North of Afghanistan.

This week, the militia captured numerous areas in different provinces. In Helmand, they took control of Nawa and Khan Sheen districts before engaging the Afghan forces close to the provincial capital Lashkar Gah.

Similarly they took control of Shah Wali Kot district in Kandahar before blocking the Kabul-Kandahar highway for hours as they set up security checkpoints. Government forces were also at the back foot in Farah province, where the Taliban had launched an aggressive attack on Farah city.

The Taliban also launched an attack on Ghormach district of the western province Badghis bordering Turkmenistan. At least 78 Border Police personnel surrendered to the Taliban on Friday.

The militia also briefly captured most parts of Kunduz city, Kunduz province bordering Tajikistan in the north by confining the government forces to the airport and the governor’s house for at least three days.

The attack on Kunduz synchronized with the reconciliation of former Mujahidin commander Gulbadin Hikmatyar with the Afghan government. Hikmatyar was born in Kunduz and the Taliban might have given him and the government a message about the real resistance by invading Kunduz.

Taliban also attacked Pul-e-Khumri city in Baghlan province and blocked the Baghlan-Kunduz highway where they also attacked convey of Afghan forces, inflicting heavy casualties on them. Taliban claimed to have captured a number of soldiers as they cut off the supply route to Kunduz.

Some reports also suggest that the Shia majority of Bamiyan province were also joining hands with the Sunni-Taliban against the Afghan Government.

All of these incidents are taking place at a time when more than 70 countries and 30 international organizations and agencies attended the Brussels Conference on Afghanistan. The donor countries pledged $ 15.2 billion in aid to Afghanistan until 2020.

Coupled with 15th anniversary of the US invasion, the coordinated attacks of the Taliban at multi-fronts showed that they have planned well to invite focus of the western nations to the Afghan problem, which seemingly lost interest of the nations that joined hands 15 years ago to oust Taliban from power.

During the conference, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani said that his country was making progress on the economy, corruption and human rights and it needed constructive international support to see the changes through.

Meanwhile US Secretary of State John Kerry urged the Afghan Taliban to make an honourable peace with Kabul.

The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Peter Maurer in his speech at the conference said the Afghan conflict was not a forgotten one, but an ignored conflict. “It’s not a low-intensity conflict, but one defined by its extreme volatility and uncertainty, with dramatic humanitarian consequences for the people in Afghanistan,” he said.

One last reason for the increased activities of the militarily reorganized Taliban militia could be an attempt to gain as much control on different areas as possible before the start of the winter season when snow make fighting difficult for them as well as the government forces.