'Things will get worse here'

Afghanistan's Islamist militants are ramping up their fight against US and Nato forces.

He speaks a warning, of how the "new" Taliban has become more radical, more sophisticated, and more brutal than the Taliban ousted by US-led forces in 2001 — and of how its jihadist agenda now mirrors that of Al Qaida, stretching far beyond Afghanistan.

Among the keys to the Taliban resurgence — which is sparking lethal violence on a scale unknown here for almost five years — are crucial lessons drawn from Iraq.

"That's part of our strategy — we are trying to bring [the Iraqi model] to Afghanistan," says the fighter. "Things will get worse here."

Those "things" include suicide attacks, assassinations of government officials, moderate clerics, and civilians, along with guerrilla tactics now in use against Western forces in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar.

Among the most recent suicide attacks was one near the US Embassy early this month, killing two US soldiers and 14 Afghans.

"I'm very happy about the murder of the Americans, though I am a little bit sad about the death of the Afghans — but this is wartime," says the fighter matter-of-factly.

Such deaths, he says, are "inevitable", even if they cause a popular backlash.

Figures tabulated by CAPS indicate a recent 60 per cent increase in attacks across Afghanistan, from 85 in July to 136 in August.

"The tactics have been imported from Iraq: suicide bombers, remote-controlled roadside bombs," says says Waheed Mozhdah, a Taliban-era Foreign Affairs Ministry official, and author on the Taliban.

"These things we didn't have in the [past] jihad, and they have been very effective ... "

Other tactics have also changed. Prior to 2001, the Taliban would take on the Northern Alliance by charging through their front lines — despite high casualties from mines. Today, they use more guerrilla-style strikes.

Another factor chills many Afghans. "[The Taliban] have become more violent. They slaughter people, beheading them, and this didn't exist before," says Mozhdah. "They used to regard video cameras as haram [forbidden by religion], but now they use these videos as a tool. It shows how Al Qaida has affected the Taliban."

Most analysts say the Taliban is still no strategic threat to the fragile government, a view challenged by militants like the wounded fighter.

Schooled in the extreme Deobandi strain of Islam followed by most Talibs, he joined 18 months ago, prompted, he says, when US troops arrested his cleric father from their home in Kandahar after a roadside bomb went off nearby.

The father's body was dropped off at the hospital by US forces 10 days later, the militant claims.
"I want two things: revenge and martyrdom.

Martyrdom is the hope of every true Muslim," declares the 26-year-old. His mother stopped his two older brothers, the fathers of seven, from joining the Taliban. But she could not stop this son.

"Every jihad fighter has the best morale — you can't compare it to any other type of fighter," he says, tightening his head wrap in the dark.

"In this country, there are many religious people and they want a reason to fight for God, for martyrdom. They welcome this opportunity to ... go to Paradise."

While he recovers in Kabul, the militant keeps in contact with Taliban networks, and claims that the Nato figure of more than 500 insurgents killed during "Operation Medusa" in the south is a "total lie".

Nato commanders say the sustained fighting has at times been fiercer than in Iraq.

The militant says the Taliban grow stronger daily, with support from locals fed-up with insecurity and corruption.

"The Taliban have increased their attacks, because people came and asked for help to bring back justice," he says. "Security was ensured under the Taliban. We will reintroduce Sharia law."

The fighter is certain of victory. "It's the will of God," he says, adding there must be a reason he is not yet a martyr. "Maybe God wants me to fight more."