GCC secretary-general stresses commitment to completing Gulf railway project on schedule    Saudi minister holds strategic AI and tech talks with French institutions in Paris    Absher processed over 35 million transactions in June 2025    Seven Umrah companies suspended for housing pilgrims in unlicensed accommodations    KSrelief signs Syria wildfire response deal in Latakia    Youth-led Saudi businesses exceed 474K    ASICS and Saudi Sports for All launch startup pitch to boost sports innovation in Saudi Arabia    GCC and Muslim World League condemn Israeli strikes on Syria    Striking trade deal with US was an 'extraordinary struggle,' Indonesia says    Scientists recover proteins from a 24 million-year-old rhino fossil    Harry Potter actress Emma Watson banned from driving for speeding    Thousands of Afghans were moved to UK in secret scheme after data breach    Trump says attorney general should release any 'credible' information on Epstein    Saudi Arabia to expand railway network by over 50% under transport strategy    Health official warns against unsupervised use of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, Mounjaro    Biggest human imaging study scans 100,000th person    Jorge Jesus returns to Saudi Arabia as Al Nassr head coach on one-year deal    Jannik Sinner beats Carlos Alcaraz to win his maiden Wimbledon title    Chelsea defeat PSG 3-0 to win first expanded Club World Cup    Theo Hernández: Al Hilal can compete with Europe's best    Sholay: Bollywood epic roars back to big screen after 50 years with new ending    Ministry launches online booking for slaughterhouses on eve of Eid Al-Adha    Shah Rukh Khan makes Met Gala debut in Sabyasachi    Pakistani star's Bollywood return excites fans and riles far right    Exotic Taif Roses Simulation Performed at Taif Rose Festival    Asian shares mixed Tuesday    Weather Forecast for Tuesday    Saudi Tourism Authority Participates in Arabian Travel Market Exhibition in Dubai    Minister of Industry Announces 50 Investment Opportunities Worth over SAR 96 Billion in Machinery, Equipment Sector    HRH Crown Prince Offers Condolences to Crown Prince of Kuwait on Death of Sheikh Fawaz Salman Abdullah Al-Ali Al-Malek Al-Sabah    HRH Crown Prince Congratulates Santiago Peña on Winning Presidential Election in Paraguay    SDAIA Launches 1st Phase of 'Elevate Program' to Train 1,000 Women on Data, AI    41 Saudi Citizens and 171 Others from Brotherly and Friendly Countries Arrive in Saudi Arabia from Sudan    Saudi Arabia Hosts 1st Meeting of Arab Authorities Controlling Medicines    General Directorate of Narcotics Control Foils Attempt to Smuggle over 5 Million Amphetamine Pills    NAVI Javelins Crowned as Champions of Women's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) Competitions    Saudi Karate Team Wins Four Medals in World Youth League Championship    Third Edition of FIFA Forward Program Kicks off in Riyadh    Evacuated from Sudan, 187 Nationals from Several Countries Arrive in Jeddah    SPA Documents Thajjud Prayer at Prophet's Mosque in Madinah    SFDA Recommends to Test Blood Sugar at Home Two or Three Hours after Meals    SFDA Offers Various Recommendations for Safe Food Frying    SFDA Provides Five Tips for Using Home Blood Pressure Monitor    SFDA: Instant Soup Contains Large Amounts of Salt    Mawani: New shipping service to connect Jubail Commercial Port to 11 global ports    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Delivers Speech to Pilgrims, Citizens, Residents and Muslims around the World    Sheikh Al-Issa in Arafah's Sermon: Allaah Blessed You by Making It Easy for You to Carry out This Obligation. Thus, Ensure Following the Guidance of Your Prophet    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques addresses citizens and all Muslims on the occasion of the Holy month of Ramadan    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



Rise of Afghan anti-Taliban militias stokes instability fears
Published in The Saudi Gazette on 02 - 12 - 2015

Riding on horseback and motorbikes, commander Naeem's fighters combed a fog-enveloped Taliban infiltration route in Afghanistan's northern badlands, as the government expands anti-insurgent militias across a patchwork of fiefdoms.
Desperate to muzzle the resurgent Taliban, the government is cultivating thousands of militias with checkered pasts as a short-term security fix to supplement ground troops suffering record casualties.
But the rise of these groups, a throwback to the devastating civil war in the 1990s that set the stage for a Taliban takeover, risk aggravating factionalism and pushing Afghanistan deeper into what observers call a self-perpetuating conflict.
For Naeem, a militia commander with a short, thickset frame who leads around 200 fighters in the volatile Pashtun Kot district in Faryab province bordering Turkmenistan, they are key for survival.
In a scene that could have been lifted from history books, his horse-mounted warriors with back-slung guns and RPG warheads scoured a mountain pass near the village of Jamshedi for Taliban intruders blamed for a spate of fatal ambushes.
"Without uprising forces," said Naeem, who is strongly averse to the label militias because of their contentious history, "the Taliban will overrun the district within minutes, killing their way into villages."
"Without us, Faryab will become another Kunduz," he said, referring to the northern city that the Taliban briefly captured in September in their most spectacular victory in 14 years.
There are around 5,000 men serving in Faryab's irregular or semi-regular armed groups — and Afghan politicians are pushing for thousands more across the region as the stubborn insurgency expands, a Western official said.
"The price of an AK47 has roughly doubled in the capital Maimana's bazaar over the last two years as militias have re-mobilized in Faryab," the official said, requesting anonymity.
President Ashraf Ghani's government also plans to scale up the Afghan Local Police (ALP) — US-backed village defense forces likened to militias — to 45,000 from a nationwide force of around 30,000, he said.
The proliferation of militias, a potential powder keg in the already strife-torn nation, represents a complete departure from previous government efforts to disarm these groups and is at odds with Ghani's recent pledges to rein them in.
"The rapid growth of armed groups is alarming as these groups have a terrible history of abusing human rights and refusing to obey their purported masters in the government," the official said.
With inadequate training, a lack of government oversight and a pervasive culture of corruption and impunity, some militias have morphed into brutal criminal gangs.
One ALP unit in Faryab was accused of using a dry well filled with snakes as a torture chamber, according to a recent International Crisis Group report.
Another used a captive in an open field for target practice. Their terrifying tactics including theft, rape and drug trafficking have turned some villages into ghost towns while driving residents in other areas to join the insurgency for self-protection.
"Militias in some areas are bedeviled by internal rivalries, revenge attacks and intra-group clashes," said Obaid Ali, a researcher with the think-tank Afghanistan Analysts Network.
"Their end goal is ensuring their own financial survival through smuggling and extortion."
The rise of militias also lays bare the shortcomings of the multibillion dollar US-led effort to develop self-reliant Afghan forces, who are suffering large daily casualties and struggling to beat back the multifront insurgency.
Government forces have been unable to stem the alarming Taliban advance in Faryab, a once-tranquil landscape of honey-colored mountains and orchard-covered knolls, where insurgents recently came close to overrunning the capital city and besieged key districts.
On the night of Oct. 4 when the Taliban sought to capture Maimana, Naeem says he fielded phone calls from panic-stricken security officials fleeing the city and asking him for refuge in his village.
"'I will beat you on your head if you release your grip on Maimana,' I told them," Naeem recalled.
"If security forces were capable of beating the Taliban on their own, shopkeepers and farmers would not need to stand up to fight, people would not have to sell their jewelry, cows and buffaloes to buy new weapons."
Naeem's force is an unusual group of 12 ALP fighters, including himself, on the government payroll and dozens of other irregular militiamen — mostly unpaid villagers eager to be integrated into the ranks of salaried forces.
"The Taliban forcibly collect usher (Islamic tax) from farmers. We don't even demand a piece of bread from anyone," he said. "We are protectors of our motherland, not predators."
Among Naeem's men is 24-year-old Shah Mohammed Raheemi — a university student of economics by day, militiaman by night.
Three years ago, troubled by the killing of three close friends in a daytime Taliban ambush, he traded an entire season's harvest of sesame seeds from his terraced farm for a Kalashnikov.
"We face a stark choice," said Raheemi. "Either go with the militias or fall prey to the Taliban."


Clic here to read the story from its source.