Monthly Archives: June 2011
Taliban mines and assassinations disrupt transition in Lashkar Gah
The Sunday Times Their faces concealed with chequered scarves, the Taliban assassins found Haji Zahir Arian sitting on cushions in the living room of a friend’s house. They wasted no time in striking a blow against peace. The first hitman to enter the small room raised his rifle and loosed off four rounds as Arian, […]
Rise of the Taliban’s kneecap commanders
The Sunday Times The young Taliban commander with a penchant for severing spies’ heads with strands of thin wire dragged 28 of his foot soldiers from a makeshift jail and lined them up against a mud wall at his base. Pacing along the row of handcuffed men, the fresh-faced 21-year-old — surrounded by bodyguards — […]
Return of the Radio Mullah?
In keeping with the Nuristan theme, I thought I’d add a small detail that was left out of the story on Sunday. Maulana Fazlullah, nicknamed the “Radio Mullah” after he launched a pirate radio station in Pakistan’s Swat Valley in 2006, is apparently still hiding in Nuristan despite claims that he was killed in May […]
Nuristan – province in terror as Taliban return
The Sunday Times The Al-Qaeda instructor spent an hour schooling his protégé, a 12-year-old Afghan boy, in the art of suicide bombing. Flanked by retired officers from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Arab militant is said to have shown the boy how to approach his target calmly before pressing the handheld button that would detonate […]
Miles Amoore 