The Long War Journal: Coalition and Taliban vie for control of southwestern Afghanistan in Nimroz province

Written by Matt Dupee on May 22, 2008 4:41 PM to The Long War Journal

Available online at: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/05/coalition_and_insurg.php

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[Part one of a two-part series on the conflict in western Afghanistan.]

The desolate, hardscrabble desert provinces of southwestern Afghanistan have increasingly been targeted by Taliban insurgents and criminal elements. The ferocity of the attacks, and their frequency threaten to derail the feeble grip the central government struggles to maintain over this vulnerable area. Farah and Nimroz provinces have both suffered a surge in suicide attacks and deadly clashes at police checkpoints and government centers.

On April 17, a Taliban suicide bomber detonated himself at a crowded marketplace in Zaranj, the provincial capital of Nimroz, killing 27 people and wounding more than 40 others. That same week, another Taliban suicide bomber detonated in a crowd of international road workers employed by the Indian Army’s Border Reconstruction Organization (BRO), killing two highly regarded Indian engineers and an Afghan civilian. Five other BRO employees were seriously wounded in the attack.

Once extremely rare in this region of Afghanistan, suicide bombings have struck Nimroz at least six times since November. The first suicide bombing of this cycle occurred on Nov. 17 and nearly killed the provincial governor as he and his entourage attempted to leave the governor’s compound. The governor’s son and six bodyguards were killed in the blast, and several civilians were injured. The other suicide attacks targeted BRO workers in January along with police units and their commanders.

April’s deadly suicide attacks highlight the Taliban’s decision to repeat last year’s spring offensive strategy, which includes disruptive attacks against non-military targets, infrastructure and those working to rebuild it. Last year’s Taliban campaign, Operation Kamin (Ambush), resulted in the deaths of more than 900 Afghan security personnel and incorporated the intensified use of suicide bombers and improvised-explosive devices. The number of lethal attacks against non-military targets, infrastructure and those working to rebuild it has increased since Mullah Berader, the self-described Deputy Emir of the Taliban, announced the start of the Taliban’s spring offensive in mid-March. Dubbed Operation Ebrat (Lesson), the Taliban’s 2008 offensive aims to spread the conflict countrywide, a trend progressively more evident in the troubled southwest.

Blood on the Asphalt

Recent suicide attacks, ambushes and roadside bombs have killed dozens of security officers, policemen, and foreign workers in southwestern Afghanistan. Most of these attacks took place on or near Nimroz’s most crucial construction project, the 218-kilometer Zaranj-Delaram highway. The $80 million road project will eventually link Zaranj, which is on the Afghan-Iran border, with the city of Delaram in neighboring Farah province. Delaram sits along the refurbished Herat-Kandahar highway, also known as Highway 1, which connects the western city of Herat to Kandahar and Kabul.

The Zaranj-Delaram highway is funded by the Indian government and is being paved by the Indian Army’s Border Reconstruction Organization (BRO), the ad hoc Provincial Reconstruction Team for Nimroz province. The deteriorating security situation has delayed the road project by nearly a year and has doubled the overall cost to $180 million. The Taliban have demanded the withdrawal of all Indian nationals working in Afghanistan since reconstruction efforts began in 2002 and have repeatedly attacked them since. Indian engineers have worked in Nimroz since 2004 and lost their first employee to Taliban savagery in 2005.

“It has been a challenging project,” Sandeep Kumar, the deputy chief for Indian’s embassy in Kabul, told the Long War Journal in a recent communiqué. “Since the start of the project, several incidents of killings (five Indians and 45 Afghans) and attacks on camps and destruction of equipment have taken place. India has always maintained that it will not be deterred by terrorist attacks, and remains totally committed to the ongoing reconstruction and development work in Afghanistan.”

There are approximately 400 Indian BRO personnel in Nimroz province working on the Zaranj-Delaram highway, which is expected to be completed later this summer. A rash of deadly attacks against BRO personnel in late 2007 forced the Indian government to increase its 38-strong paramilitary force, known as the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), drastically. “The total number of ITBP has, indeed, risen to 385,” Sandeep Kumar said. The ITBP is not allowed to carry firearms outside the vicinity of designated BRO campsites, forcing the Indian construction contingent to rely solely on Afghan security personnel provided by provincial authorities. The Taliban have repeatedly targeted these police units and deployed suicide bombers to assassinate key police commanders in several districts.

The Fall of Colonel Bismillah

A majority of the deadly attacks in Nimroz take place around Zaranj and the neighboring district of Kash Rod, where the current section of highway is being paved. Colonel Bismillah, the Kash Rod district police chief, led the Afghan security contingent tasked with protecting the BRO workers and countering any threats posed by criminals and bandits.

"Colonel Bismillah Khan was an enemy of the Taliban, apart from all the police officers of Zaranj," Mustafa Kazemi, a political advisor and resident of Nimroz province told the Long War Journal. "I heard from local people that the colonel stopped many weapon, food and drug convoys of the Taliban and demolished them. And because of this, the Taliban were in a search to kill him."

The 218-kilometer stretch of the highway is equally perilous on both ends, but heavy insurgent and criminal activity has persisted in the Delaram area for the past several months. The security situation became so dire that in late January, the Afghan highway police command in western Herat dispatched a 178-strong mobile police unit to patrol the Delaram area around the clock. The decision to deploy the additional security personnel would prove to have a temporary and marginal impact on the overall security situation.

On April 1, a Taliban suicide car-bomber rammed his vehicle into the Kash Rod district headquarters while Colonel Bismillah met with local elders to discuss security concerns. Two police officers died in the blast and five police trucks were destroyed along with a portion of the district headquarters. Colonel Bismillah narrowly escaped death.

Colonel Bismillah’s luck would run out a short time later. A Taliban suicide bomber detonated himself at a busy Zaranj marketplace on April 17, only 300 meters from the provincial police headquarters, setting off a tremendous blast that killed 27 people including Colonel Bismillah and his brother, Hidayatullah.

“Colonel Bismillah Khan along with seven members of his family including two of his sons and brothers were killed in the blast," Kazemi said. "Samiullah, the son of the chief of the Department of Work and Social Affairs of Zaranj, who was one of my best and closest friends who worked as a teller in the mentioned market, was also killed.The people told me that the Taliban said that they had deployed ten attackers ready to kill the colonel. This was I think the fourth attack which killed him. He was a really good Muslim and also a real police commander against the Taliban."

Officials later reported that many children were among those killed and that 35 other civilians also were injured in the blast. The Taliban’s assassination campaign continued into May despite a security crackdown in parts of Nimroz and neighboring Farah province.

Taliban locust swarm moving west

Attacks along the Zaranj-Delaram highway are not contained only to the Kashrod district. Significant Taliban activity in the Delaram area of Farah’s Gulistan district has also plagued the region’s security situation. Insurgents are increasingly moving deeper into the southwest from their former strongholds on south central Afghanistan, namely Helmand province, and are establishing footholds in many parts of Farah province.

A suicide attack in Farah’s Delaram district on May 15 killed Muhammad Ihsan, the commander of public order forces, and several other police officers. The suicide bomber, possibly disguised as a woman in a full burqa, managed to detonate his explosives vest in a crowd of police officials manning a security checkpoint. Dozens of civilians and police personnel were wounded in the blast.

A Taliban spokesman quickly claimed responsibly for the attack and said their target was a senior highway police commander whom they did not identify. The Taliban claimed to have killed 10 policemen and wounded Angar, a senior highway police commander, although their claims could not be independently verified. Only five days later another suicide bomber prematurely detonated his car bomb near a police checkpoint in Delaram, injuring two police officers. The Taliban quickly assumed responsibility for the attack.

The ongoing unrest throughout Farah province and the repeated attacks against Afghan police personnel indicate the Taliban's commitment to spreading the conflict deep into southwestern Afghanistan. There are only 2,600 NATO troops deployed to the International Security Force's Regional Command West, which includes Farah, Herat, Badghis, and Ghor provinces, a small number compared to the 18,000 troops deployed to Regional Command South or the 16,000 operating in Regional Command East. Most of the NATO troops stationed in RC-West are non-combat support and construction staff, a weak link the Taliban are dangerously exploiting.

Part 2 of Coalition and Taliban vie for control of southwestern Afghanistan will examine the Taliban’s influx into Farah province, what role the porous Iranian border is playing in the deteriorating security situation and how Coalition forces fit into the equation.