‘Half of Afghanistan at high risk of Taliban attack’

[Bill Longley]

‘Half of Afghanistan at high risk of Taliban attack’
KABUL, Aug 5: Almost half of Afghanistan is at a high risk of attack by the Taliban and other militant groups or is under “enemy control”, a secret Afghan government map shows, painting a dire security picture before presidential elections.

The threat assessment map, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, shows 133 of Afghanistan’s 356 districts are regarded as high-risk areas with at least 13 under “enemy control”.

The map, which bears the logos of Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry and the army as well as the United Nations Department of Safety and Security, was produced in April 2009, before a dramatic escalation of violence ahead of the Aug 20 election.

The Interior Ministry was not immediately available for comment despite several telephone calls and emails on Wednesday.

The map shows virtually the entire south of the country under extreme risk of attack, a vast swathe stretching from Farah in the west through the Helmand province in the south and east towards provinces such as Paktia and Nangarhar.

The Taliban have vowed to disrupt the poll and have called on Afghans to boycott the vote. Their traditional strongholds have been in the south and east but their influence has steadily spread to the west and north, even to the outskirts of Kabul. It shows at-risk areas on three sides of the capital, Kabul.

In a dramatic attack demonstrating their new reach, Afghan Taliban fired up to nine rockets into the capital early on Tuesday, the first attack of its kind in several years.

Attacks across the country this year had already reached their worst level since the Taliban were toppled by US invasion in 2001 and escalated further after thousands of invading US Marines and Nato-led forces launched a new offensive in Helmand last month.

The offensive, and a similar British thrust in Helmand, were the first under US President Barack Obama’s new regional strategy to defeat the Afghan Taliban and its allies and ‘stabilise’ Afghanistan.

Escalating violence threatens to overshadow the ballot, which in turn is seen as a crucial test of Obama’s new strategy and of the US-installed Karzai government’s ability to stage a credible and legitimate ballot.

“The Afghan National Security Forces and the International Security Assistance Force are ready to secure the upcoming elections and we expect that no major security incident will take place during the elections,” said Ministry of Defence spokesman General Zaher Azimy.

The United Nations confirmed the map’s authenticity but said it had merely played an oversight role, helping with graphics.

“The map is an Afghan government map,” said UN spokesman Aleem Siddique in Kabul. “It’s certainly not for us to speak publicly on it or comment on it or define it,” he said.

The map, entitled ANSF Provincial/District Threat Assessment, April 23, 2009, provides some of the first concrete evidence of poor security that may threaten voter turnout in Afghanistan’s southern Pashtun belt.

Potentially poor turnout in the south is one of the biggest threats to Karzai’s chances of re-election. He is the clear front-runner in a slowly diminishing field of 35 challengers.

A poor turnout in the south would increase the likelihood of a second round run-off if no candidate gets more than 50 per cent in the first round of voting, election observers say.

That would in turn open the chance for one of Karzai’s main rivals, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah or ex-finance minister Ashraf Ghani, to build a coalition to take on Karzai, who has ruled since 2001.—Reuters

 

[Bill Longley]

I dont think so
Pakistan has sucessfully contained taliban threat
they are on run where as in afghanistan US and NATO has failed