the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan:
The untold reality of Kandahar Operation (Part 3)
Zul Qadah 26, 1431 A.H, Thursday, November 04, 2010
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.
Arghandab district is located to the
north of Kandahar city which has also taken center stage in
the enemy operation and the enemy has also made bold claims of
routing Mujahideen from the area in their recent propaganda
reports. These reports have surfaced at a time when they enemy
has neither made any considerable progress and neither has the
situation of the district seen any change. To shed light on
what has taken place in this district and its recent
situation, Alemarah interviewed one of the district leaders,
Mullah Muhammad Yasir.
Alemarah: Could you please
shed light on Arghandab district’s current situation?
Mullah Muhammad Yasir: As
you might already know that Arghandab is situated very close
to Kandahar city and in the past few years Mujahideen extended
their presence and took control of more areas in the district
from which the enemy feared a great danger and therefore it
also included this specific district in their push for the
control of Kandahar but their assaults have been few, sporadic
and very ineffective.
They started their campaign from North-Eastern area, where
they had already established a huge base, into Khasro and
Tarako Kala and similarly in Char Kot and Char Gholbi through
Baba Sahib area but their operation did not yield any result
in weakening Mujahideen or taking control of any of their
strategically important areas but rather the only thing they
did achieved was that of harming and causing damage to the
lives and properties of civilians however they did build 2 new
bases in close proximity to their old ones. The operation in
Arghandab was not like that of the other districts as it was
carried out for only a couple of days and the situation right
now is no different than it was before the operation took
place.
Alemarah: What do you say
about the claims of the enemy of completely taking control of
Arghandab?
Mullah Muhammad Yasir:
Like all their other baseless claims this is also false. As a
matter of fact, we invite international media journalists to
come and check out the district for themselves, so they can
see who controls majority of the district. The enemy only
controls Baba Sahib, Nagahan and Manara which were also
previously under their control but Mujahideen have been
carrying out guerilla attacks in it on a regular bases. As for
Char Gholba, Tabinan, Khasro, Shahtori, Shinan and the rest of
areas, they are fully under Mujahideen control. The enemy only
has outposts on the road which comes from Uruzgan then leads
to Herat and similarly the road which leads towards the north
from Baba Sahib area. All the rural areas are under Mujahideen
control, just like how they were under our control before and
we have a very powerful presence in those areas.
Alemarah: Can you give us
information about what took place in the operation?
Mullah Muhammad Yasir: The
enemy started a campaign of heavy bombardment using cruise
missiles and other means at night in Khasro’s Tarko Kala
village and other places for 3 days. The bombing campaign was
continued because their tanks and foot soldiers were hit by
IED explosions in every meter of entering from the North and
South of the district.
The civilians lost most of their property due to the enemy’s
indiscriminate bombings and firing of cruise missiles. More
than 20 houses were destroyed in Tarko Kala village alone.
Arghandab is also covered with pomegranate trees and since
this was the time of harvest, the civilians also faced a huge
economic burden as their fields and trees were completely
destroyed. The reason why civilians were not killed is because
they had either already fled their homes or were forced by the
repeated enemy warnings to vacate the district.
The enemy arrested more than 70 civilians in the name of
Mujahideen, when in fact these people had only come from the
city and surrounding areas to collect some of the
pomegranates, so they can feed their families by selling these
fruits. Similarly, more civilians were also arrested in the
other areas but they were later released. Only 2 of our
Mujahideen brothers have been Martyred in these operations but
the enemy has suffered major losses due to the deadly IED
explosions.
Alemarah: The enemy plans
to make militias in the district. Do you see that happening?
Mullah Muhammad Yasir:
These are just rumors spread by their propaganda machines.
Nearly all the people of Arghandab are Mujahideen and are even
helping us right now. The enemy cannot even leave their bases
and they have been trying to implement such strategies in the
last few years but without any effective outcome. The people
of Arghandab hate the enemy and have therefore embraced us
with open arms. There is no possibility that the enemy can
take control of Arghandab by implementing such useless
strategies.
The
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan