Taliban Posting Gains in Northern Afghanistan

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Source: McClatchy

MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan — While British and U.S. forces concentrate their efforts in southern Afghanistan, the once-peaceful north is fast spiraling out of control with the Taliban making a number of important gains.

In the town of Chahrdara in Kunduz province, for example, a recent visitor reported that the Taliban have set up their own administration rivaling that of the local government, complete with tax collection and a court system.

The northern provinces – Balkh, Kunduz, Jowzjan, Faryab, Sar-e-Pul and Baghlan – have seen a surge in violence over the last few months, with suicide attacks, armed assaults and roadside bombs.

While American and British forces clearly have their hands full in the south, experts are warning that they ignore the north at their own peril.

Gilles Dorronsoro, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, recently released a study of the Afghan insurgency warning of the dangers of ignoring the normally peaceful northern provinces.

"The strength of the insurgency makes the current coalition strategy of focusing its reinforcements in the south (Helmand and Kandahar) risky to say the least," Dorronsoro said. "The Taliban will move the insurgency to the north." In fact, economic and security conditions in the north are similar to those in the south that made it fertile ground for the Taliban.

Promised assistance has been slow to materialize; unemployment is high and the central government is weak and cannot rein in commanders or warlords who terrorize the populations under their control.

All of these factors, say local officials, are contributing to the rise of the Taliban and other anti-government rebellions in the north.

more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/71850.html
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