Taliban leaders have sanctioned suicide squads to seek and destroy US and Northern Alliance targets in a significant escalation of their resistance to ground assaults, it was claimed Wednesday.
Teams of militants have allegedly been granted permission to strap explosives to their bodies and vehicles to launch potentially devastating attacks against enemy forces, despite unease over Islam's disapproval of suicide.
PHOTO: AFP
A determination to inflict maximum casualties against American troops and their Northern Alliance proxies has apparently convinced the Taliban to approve a tactic which has bloodied Indian security forces in Kashmir.
Muslim militants waging an insurgency in the disputed Himalayan territory have bombed Indian military bases, checkpoints and patrols in a series of spectacular raids which claimed dozens of lives.
Fighters willing to make the ultimate sacrifice are known as fidayeen.
The Islamist groups trained for suicide attacks in Afghanistan under the sponsorship of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, which see the fight against the US as a holy war.
According to refugees, Arab and Pakistani hardliners have in recent weeks taken an increasingly dominant role in organizing Taliban resistance, elbowing aside those Afghans deemed too moderate.
Jaish-e-Mohammad, a fundamentalist Pakistani group suspected of last month's car bomb which killed at least 38 people outside a state assembly building in Kashmir, said its militants had infiltrated Afghanistan and would use identical methods.
"They work against India and they will work against the Americans," said Mohammad Gul, who trains the volunteers.
"We have redirected our members from Kashmir to Afghanistan."
Sardar Ahmedia, a spokesman for the Northern Alliance in New Delhi, claimed the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Omar, mobilized fidayeen at a meeting in the southern city of Kandahar last week.
After being drilled in commando tactics the squads would be slipped across the border to target US bases and depots in neighboring countries such as Tajikistan, he said.
Trucks, tanks and other vehicles loaded with explosives could also be driven at opposition forces trying to retake the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, he told Defence Week magazine.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft