July 25, 2007:
The Taliban kidnapped 18 Christian medical
missionaries from South Korea (18 women and three men) last week, and demanded
the release of imprisoned Taliban, in return for freeing the South Koreans. The
Taliban also want South Korea to withdraw its 200 troops (all combat support
and civil affairs) in Afghanistan. Police and soldiers soon located the
kidnappers, and their captives, and surrounded them. This gives the government
considerably more leverage in the negotiations. The government says if will use
force, if negotiations fail. So far, negotiations have failed. The Taliban also
say they have killed two German captives, but there is no proof. All this
kidnapping of foreigners is an ancient practice in a region that has, for
thousands of years, been notorious for its banditry and general lawlessness.
The Taliban continue to lose
battles, with over a hundred of them killed in the last few days. The Taliban
are desperate to protect drug producing operations in Helmand province, but
they have been unable to do so. Large (a hundred or men) groups of Taliban try
to take on NATO forces, but never succeed. The survivors of these battles flee
back to Pakistan, where their descriptions of
NATO combat techniques makes it more difficult for the Taliban to
recruit new fighters. But the Taliban pays well, better than the Afghan police
and army. But the risk is very high, and the quality of Taliban recruits has
been declining. The Taliban need the income from heroin and opium production in
order to meet their payroll and stay in business.
Afghan border guard officers
claim that Iran is openly moving weapons across the border, and giving them to
the Taliban. Iran is also allowing the Taliban to receive terrorist training
(bomb making) in Iran. Normally, the Taliban is anti-Shia, and during the 1990s
persecuted Afghan Shia (often to death). But Islamic radicals hate the United
States more than they hate Afghans who kill Shia (the majority sect in Iran.
but a minority in Afghanistan and Pakistan). The Iranians expect the Taliban to
lay off the Afghan Shia while receiving Iranian aid, and that takes some of the
edge off this distasteful business. The Iranians have huge (over 100,000)
police and military forces on its eastern border, mainly to deal with Afghan drug
smugglers.