An Afghan tribal leader is in talks to defect from the Taliban and take thousands of armed tribesmen with him to fight alongside British forces in southern Afghanistan. The Daily Telegraph has learned that the Afghan government hopes to seal the deal this week with Mullah Abdul Salaam and his Alizai tribe, which has been fighting alongside the Taliban in Helmand province.| I've been waiting for us to do the tribal relations thing in Afghanistan as we've done with the Sunnis in Iraq. They're different situations to be sure, but we ought to be able to wheel and deal with the different subtribes in Pashtunistan, and the Taliban have been every bit as overbearing as al-Qaeda in Iraq. |
The Afghan deal would see members of the Alizai tribe around the Taliban-held town of Musa Qala quit the insurgency and pledge support to the Afghan government. It would be the first time that the Kabul government and its Western allies have been able exploit tribal divisions that exist within the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.
Nato forces in Helmand have been monitoring mounting tensions within the Taliban around the towns of Musa Qala and Kajaki. "We have been aware in the last week that guns have been pulled and different armed camps formed within the Taliban in that area," said a military source.
According to tribal elders in Helmand and Western diplomats in Kabul, Mullah Salaam had been attempting to negotiate with the Afghan government in secret. But details of the talks were leaked late last week to his erstwhile allies and this reportedly led to a split in the Taliban ranks.
Other Taliban leaders have since plotted to assassinate Mullah Salaam. "Mullah Abdul Salaam is very influential and he has the support of thousands of our tribe," said Haji Saleem Khan, the head of the Shura (or tribal council) of the Alizai in Helmand. "When the Taliban found out that he planned to join the government three days ago they tried to kill him. But they have failed.
| Who wants to be the last man to die for the Taliban? |
| Ssssshhhhh ....... |
A Western diplomat said that President Hamid Karzai had asked Nato forces to intervene in support of Mullah Salaam, but so far no Nato troops have been committed.
Lt Col Richard Eaton, a spokesman for British forces in Helmand, said: "The solution in counter insurgency is always ultimately political. The military can set conditions but there must be a political process and in Afghanistan that will always include a tribal dynamic."
Tribal friction and competition for power and resources in Helmand underpins the insurgent violence that has engulfed the province. The Itzakzai tribe in particular have been key Taliban supporters, principally because they have felt excluded from both provincial power and the province's lucrative drugs trade since 2001.
Some sections of the Alizai, by contrast, have been dominant within both the drugs trade and provincial power structures. Sher Mohammad Akhundzada, the former provincial governor who was allegedly a kingpin in the local drugs trade, was an Alizai. However, within the Alizai are three sub-tribes and it is one of these, the Pirzai Alizai, that Mullah Salaam controls around Musa Qala. The town is a drug-growing area and has been a centre of Taliban power since the collapse of a British-backed truce between the local government and the Taliban in February.