Taliban sows terror in remote Afghan areas
KABUL, Afghanistan — First, the insurgent fighters attacked a security checkpoint, shooting half a dozen local militiamen. Then, officials said, they entered Mirza Oleng, a village in the rugged hills of northwestern Sar-e Pol province, and started grabbing civilians — men, women and children. When they were done, more than 40 people were dead.
“Some were beheaded, some had their bodies pierced, and some were thrown off the mountain,” said Zabiullah Amani, a spokesman for the Sar-e Pol governor. “They were savagely slaughtered.”
There were conflicting claims about who carried out the Saturday attack. The Taliban, who control much of the area, claimed they killed only members of the local militia. Some officials said Islamic State fighters also were involved, and the gruesome tactics bore the hallmarks of the international Sunni extremist militia, which has fought against the Taliban and also welcomed renegades from their ranks. But there seemed to be method to the mayhem.
The Taliban, making a summer show of force as the Trump administration weighs its options for combating the 16-year war, has been stymied in earlier efforts to take over major cities. The insurgents are now refocusing their strategy to showcase their wide geographical reach. In the past month alone, there has been a surge of scattered attacks in remote regions, especially the northwestern provinces of Ghowr, Faryab and now Sar-e Pol.
The insurgents also are using crueler tactics to intimidate the populace and local security forces — even as they provide services, security, quick-justice courts and even recreation in communities they control. They appear to be capitalizing on the high rate of civilian casualties that has fueled much of the growing public discontent with the divided and struggling government headed by President Ashraf Ghani.
All of these developments have escalated since a May 31 truck bombing in Kabul, still unclaimed by any group, that killed 150 people and injured another 400, sparking protests that led to more deaths. In rural areas, local officials have repeatedly complained that security forces are inadequate to protect them.
A third factor in the insurgents’ rural upsurge may be support from the government of Iran, which has recently been accused by Afghan officials of supplying the Taliban with weapons and money. Iran, a Shiite theocracy, was once militarily opposed to the Sunni extremist Taliban, but it is now believed to be backing them as an antidote to the Islamic State, a more brutal and expansionist militia.
A number of recent insurgent attacks have taken place in northwestern Afghanistan, far from the Taliban’s southern base and much closer to the Iran border. On Aug. 1, a gunman in a suicide vest attacked a Shiite mosque near Herat, the ancient gateway city to Iran, killing at least 29 worshipers and provoking emotional protests.
In nearby Faryab province, where Taliban forces nearly overran the capital in October, insurgents captured the Kohistan district two weeks ago, while in next-door Ghowr province, they infiltrated and seized the Taywara district.
“The Ministry of Defense spokesman, Gen. Dawlat Waziri, said he believes the Taliban is targeting such regions, home to many Shiites from the ethnic Hazara minority, “to turn the war into a sectarian one.” He said the Taliban are staging some attacks “in the name of Daesh,” as the Islamic State is known here, to exploit fears of the Mideast-based militia and win support from Russia and Iran.
The U.S. Embassy strongly condemned the slayings, saying that “for insurgent fighters to mercilessly execute innocent villagers and those who serve to protect them proves once again that these terrorist groups are a force of evil in Afghanistan.”