| Ander Nieuws week 48 / nieuwe oorlog 2008 |
The Sunday Times
November 16, 2008
Dean Nelson and Daud Khattak in Peshawar
A Taliban "Robin Hood", who distributes cut-price food from Nato convoys to the poor, is disrupting supply lines to British and US troops in Afghanistan.
In an audacious raid in Pakistan's border region last week, two American Humvee armoured personnel carriers and 10 lorries laden with food were seized by Taliban fighters.
In the past year the Taliban have increased attacks on convoys carrying hardware, food and oil as they make their way from Karachi to Peshawar and through the Khyber Pass.
Lorry-loads of hijacked grain have been sold off cheaply in local markets and the Humvees paraded as war "booty", giving the rebels a propaganda boost. More than 30 tankers with fuel bound for allied forces have been destroyed in bomb attacks on the road this year.
The Taliban commander who led the raids, Mustafa Kamran Hijrat, told The Sunday Times last week that he planned to sever the allied supply lines. "We will continue to seize convoys carrying goods for Nato and American troops. We are waging holy war and we shall continue the struggle by every means," he said.
Hijrat claims to have hundreds of fighters under his command, although local officials estimate his force at no more than 200.
The Humvees, Hijrat boasted, were "maal-e-ghaneemat" or booty. They were seized on Monday as the Taliban launched three ambushes on a 12-vehicle convoy as it wound through hairpin bends on the approach to the Khyber Pass.
As the convoy began to ascend the pass, it split into three, protected by just 10 armed guards from the local tribal police. Just before 11am, 15 Taliban fighters armed with rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers stepped in front of the lead driver as he reached Tedi Bazaar. The driver and guards surrendered.
A few miles away at the market towns of Jamrud and Sur Kamar, the remaining sections of the convoy were hijacked.
The lorries loaded with grain were driven to two other towns where Taliban fighters used loudspeakers to invite locals to buy it at knockdown prices.
Eyewitnesses said the militants were welcomed because the grain was being sold for a quarter of its normal price.
Last week Khyber Agency officials said they had appealed to Islamabad for more military assistance to tackle the Taliban build-up in the area. No help had been offered, they claimed.
Copyright 2008 Times Newspapers Ltd.
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| Ander Nieuws week 48 / nieuwe oorlog 2008 |