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For the last two weeks, fighting has been intensifying in Afghanistan between the Taliban and the NATO forces, backed by Afghan forces, over the southern part of Kandahar province, which is strategically important to both sides for its special position in the south - bordering Pakistan - and being the starting point and birthplace of the Taliban. Taliban's control over this province, where the majority of population supports them, will deal a tough blow to the frail regime that is losing much of its credibility being unable to fight corruption and mismanagement in nearly every aspect of Afghanistan's daily life.

The break of Taliban into Arghandab - a district about 20 km north west of the Kandahar city - was an unexpected event. On June 14, about 500 armed Taliban elements sneaked into the city from Khakriz and Zeray areas occupying 11 villages within three days. Hundreds of villagers were forced to flee the area after Taliban fighters blew up three bridges and laid mines along several roadways around Arghandab. But can we say Taliban is coming back so quickly?

Taliban's spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location that Taliban would use Arghandab for strategic attacks on Kandahar city.

Responding to the Taliban offensive, 1,400 troops of Afghan National Army (ANA) along with 600 NATO soldiers, mostly Canadians, backed by gunship helicopters rolled into the battlefield. After massive air strikes on Taliban's positions, the Afghan and NATO forces could cautiously enter to the combat area on June 18. After a short time, the government troops claimed killing of 20 Taliban militants while Taliban, on the other hand, claimed killing many Afghan and foreign troops and destroying their tanks and armored vehicles.

After 24 hours of the battle, the situation changed dramatically. A statement was released by Taliban's spokesmen on a local website saying that they had retreated from Arghandab during the night and had tactically withdrawn to Shawalikot and Khakriz following orders from their leader Mulla Omar.

The Governor of Kandahar, on behalf of Afghan government, claimed that five villages had been freed from Taliban and more than hundreds of militants including a Taliban commander, Mulla Shokur, were killed. He further said that the battle was going on till the complete defeat of the attacking Taliban. Leaders of Taliban denied the reports of their loss.

The Mortal Combat

Arghandab has a strategic location for Taliban. Being covered with trees, it allows Taliban to launch ambushes and attacks more easily than any other place in the province. The trees and terrain also enable them to hide from air strikes. Due to the strategic importance of the area the battle was a mortal combat for both sides.

The Taliban attack was also accompanied by their media campaign being launched by their spokesmen. They were consistently issuing warnings of attack on Kandahar city after consolidating their positions in Arghandab. They had warned that a group of bombers called Khalid Ebinul Walid had entered Kandahar city to attack the Canadian and Afghan troops and the government officials. They also had put a hint to the joining of hundreds of their fellow fighters in Arghandab who had recently escaped from the central jail in Kandahar.

The push into Arghandab came three days after a coordinated Taliban attack on the Kandahar's prison that freed 400 fighters besides 600 criminals. Several analysts believe that the successful jail-breaking operation of Taliban on June 13 was the basic motive of Taliban attack on Arghandab.

The attack began when a tanker full of 1800 kg of explosives went off at the main gate of Jail, some 30 km of NATO's main base in southern Afghanistan. Shortly a walking suicide bomber blasted a hole in the wall at the back of the prison. Lastly a commando group of about 30 people (according to Taliban's spokesmen) coming on motorbikes attacked the huge wall of jail with their RPG rocket launchers resulting in the release of about a thousand prisoners out of a total 1100. This successful operation of Taliban seemed as if they were trying to strengthen themselves for further attacks on Kandahar.

Forgotten Losers

The Afghan government and NATO forces defused Taliban in Arghandab forcing them to retreat to their previous positions. According to General Zahir Azimi, spokesman of Afghan defense ministry, 56 Taliban fighters were killed and many were injured during the operation of Arghandab. The governor of Kandahar, Assadulla Khalid, also claimed killing and injuring hundreds of Taliban fighters but a few dead bodies were shown to media on June 20.

But the real losers in the battle are the people of Arghandab. Thousands of them (about 5000 families) were displaced before the fighting and hundreds lost their homes and crops, stacked for threshing, due to the air strikes by the NATO aircrafts and the fire trading with Taliban.

The Taliban, NATO, and Afghan forces may leave the area after sometime, but the poor villagers would remain there to suffer the added woes to their life bitterness. Who would compensate for their losses or would rebuild their homes? This harsh reality in the aftermath of the battle is a commonplace thing in the south of Afghanistan.

Last year, when the Afghan and NATO forces recaptured Sangin and some other districts of Helmand from Taliban fighters, they pledged to compensate people for their losses and would speedily complete reconstruction projects, but so far nothing has changed on the ground.

A vocal BBC reporter, Abdul Samad Rohani, who highlighted this problem, was killed on June 8 near Lashkar Gah, capital city of Helmand. Some reports suggest that he was killed by some elements within the Afghan government for reporting about the 'corruption' in the Helmand administration.

Pak-Afghan Troubled Relations

Fighting in Arghandab occurred in the backdrop of tense and unfriendly relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Afghan government and NATO officials have been consistently blaming Pakistan for its April peace deal with Taliban where the two sides agreed on a 15-point agenda. The blame game started after Baitullah Mehsood, leader of Tahrik-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan (TTP), said to continue the fight against the NATO forces in Afghanistan. NATO officials also claimed to have realized 50 percent increase in Taliban attacks after that peace deal.

The situation got worse when Afghan President Hamid Karzai threatened Pakistan on June 15 to send the Afghan Army into the tribal areas of Pakistan to stamp out "militias" and "terrorists". The statement spawned a huge reaction from Pakistan and generated a heated debate in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Soon after the end of fighting in Arghandab, General Azimi claimed that the majority of the Taliban who attacked Arghandab were Pakistanis. The next day, the Kandahar governor also told the media that most of the killed people during the fighting were Pakistanis belonging to Baitullah Mehsood, Muhammad Omar, and Sufi Muhammad. He openly called upon the people of Afghanistan to "defend" their country against the "foreign invasion".

This indicates that the blame game between the two countries would have no stop but rather would intense over the Pakistani Taliban issue as both sides have different policies towards the group. The new government of Pakistan, despite the US pressure, is pursuing a peace policy with the militants in its Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA). On the other hand, the Afghan government claims that FATA is a safe haven for Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters and demands the Pakistani side to use force against them and close down their training camps in the area.

The US and NATO claim that Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar are inside the Pakistani territory. They also blame Pakistan for its peace deal policy with Taliban. All these developments indicate that Pakistan's tribal areas would remain an issue of concern for all the regional players: Afghanistan, Pakistan, the NATO, and the US.

In a recent development, Taliban in the Pakistani tribal areas captured three US helicopters: Chinook, Black Hawk and Cobra, while they were being shipped in huge containers from Peshawar to Jalalabad in Afghanistan. This operation, which took place some weeks ago, shocked the Pentagon and the US administration. According to the Los Angeles based Daily News of June 18, top US officials have recently asked Pakistan to launch an operation for the recovery of their stolen helicopters. They have expressed concern that instead of initiating the operation, the new Pakistani government is negotiating peace with Taliban. In the meanwhile, the US and NATO planes are hovering over the Waziristan and Mohmand agencies. Locals are in fear especially after the US and NATO attack on an outpost Mohmand agency in which 12 Pakistani soldiers were killed.

According to some reports, the US assistant secretary, Richard Boucher, is due to visit Pakistan and Afghanistan soon in view of the complex situation in the region.

Naseer Ahmad Nawidy is a writer and researcher for the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), Islamabad. He is specialized in researching the Taliban movement in Afghanistan and Pakistan.