Crossfire War – TEHRAN WATCH – Central Asia Theatre: Tehran – Kabul – Islamabad/Berlin – Brussels; Confidential Document on “Militant Opposition Forces” – Taliban to Concentrate Attacks on Major Afghan Cities During Winter
Night Watch: KABUL – Winter is normally a time for Islamic militant units to regroup in Afghanistan, as they did last year, before this year’s spring offensive. But according to a confidential report of the German military in Afghanistan, published by the weekly Der Spiegel, “militant opposition forces” will be concentrating their attacks on major Afghan cities this winter including the capital Kabul. [IRNA]
Berlin has several hundred troops in the capital but according to the report two of the capital districts are openly used by the Taliban as staging areas to prepare attacks. The security situation, in those two districts, has deteriorated to such an extent that the Afghan Army does not dare patrol there at night. All this year reports would mention that the Taliban had been instructed in the latest tactics and explosives Tehran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guards had been sending to Islamic militant and militia units in Iraq.
Berlin has committed 2,700 troops to the NATO – Brussels led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). They are concentrated in three northern Afghan cities, Faizabad, Kunduz and Mazar-i-Sharif. There is virtually no action in northern Afghanistan but Berlin, as with every Western government that has forces in the country, assumed the Taliban would never re-emerge, with more serious training and equipped with heavier weaponry. NATO is not really prepared for heavy, sustained combat operations in Afghanistan and in some of the world’s most hostile terrain.
NATO should withdraw from the country. Tehran will soon help Belgrade keep Brussels – Berlin busy in the Balkans.
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