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Home , 173rd Airborne Brigade, Ahmad Shah (Taliban), Anthony Hyman, Kandahar, Kashmir Khan, Korengal

november 2008 . Vol 1 . Issue 12

Afghanistan’s Heart of against them. This article will examine best way to suppress the local the history of warfare in was to divide their lands artificially Darkness: Fighting the up until the present day, in an effort to and place the Pashtuns of Bajaur in in Kunar Province provide a context of understanding for British (later ) leaving U.S.-led international forces. the remainder in Kunar, . By Brian Glyn Williams The artificial border did not prevent the A Natural Fortress: The History of Kunar Kunari Pashtuns from joining with their most observers see Afghanistan’s In Afghanistan, Kunar is a rare forested Bajauri Pashtun kin in waging guerrilla southern provinces of Helmand and valley carved by the , which against the British up until the as being the heart of the flows 300 miles southward along the late 1930s. country’s . Northeastern Pakistani- border from Kunar Province, however, has been down to the River near . The vast majority of Kunar’s population described in mythic proportions as Along the way, the Kunar River is joined is Pashtun, with the Pech-based the “most dangerous terrain for U.S. by numerous tributaries—such as the tribe the most prominent.5 Yet if one forces anywhere in the world.”1 U.S. Pech Dara—that add to its flow. Kunar’s goes up the Kunar Valley, into the Pech soldiers who fight a bold enemy in population is roughly 380,000.3 The and Valleys which reach up Kunar Province’s rugged mountains north-south Kunar Valley parallels the to the remote mountains of Nuristan, have dubbed it Afghanistan’s “Heart of Pakistani border and has been used as a one encounters non- Darkness.” In 2007, the province saw corridor of communications between the previously known as “” (pagan 973 insurgent attacks making it the uplands of Badakshan (Tajik territories unbelievers). The Kafirs were conquered second most active Afghan province to the north) and the Pashtun lands of by the Afghan-Pashtun state in the 1890s after Kandahar. The Kunar battlefield the south for centuries. Insurgents have and converted to the nur (light) of ; is not the flat open plains or scrub their land was renamed Nuristan. By covered desert mountains of the south, the mid-20th century, these two remote but forested mountains similar to those “The first sparks of peoples had put aside their differences found in Colorado’s Rockies. What what would become the and came to be included in one province Kunar does share with Helmand and known as Kunar.6 Fundamentalism Kandahar is a “bleed over” of tribes mujahidin resistance came to Kunar in the 1950s via the and loyalties between Pashtuns living were lit in the mountains neighboring Pakistani Pashtun province in Afghanistan and those found in the of Bajaur. Like new converts elsewhere, Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Kunar by the summer the became zealots, and the (FATA) of Pakistan.2 of 1978 as local lashkars Kunari Pashtuns similarly developed a reputation for being fundamentalists. The combination of lush tree cover, (fighting units) began to rugged mountains, cross-border attack regional Communist The Kunari Pashtuns and the newly sanctuaries, and prickly mountain tribes converted Nuristanis were driven closer that resent outside rule is a volatile government police and together in 1978 by the clumsy policies mixture that has made Kunar prime garrisons.” of the new Communist government that insurgent territory. Kunar Province has assumed power in the been a “no-go zone” since its people rose of April 1978. Both conservative tribal up against the Communists in 1978. In groups resented the new government’s many ways, it remains one today. Kunar long used the Kunar-Nuristan corridor interference in their lives and rose made headlines across the world for for attacking Kabul and other parts of up in opposition to Kabul’s efforts to the coalition’s two deadliest actions in Afghanistan. the Great saw arrest their elders, de-emphasize Islam, Afghanistan to date, namely the spring the strategic importance of Kunar and empower women, and redistribute 2006 ambush of a U.S. Navy SEAL team invaded the valley in fourth century land. In fact, the first sparks of what followed by the shooting down of a BC on his way into Bajaur, the tribal would become the mujahidin resistance Chinook sent to rescue them, land to the east. When he invaded, the were lit in the mountains of Kunar by and the summer 2008 swarm attack on local inhabitants burnt their houses the summer of 1978 as local lashkars a newly built U.S. outpost that almost and fled to wage (fighting units) began to attack regional succeeded in overwhelming it. Both against his troops, a style of warfare Communist government police and attacks revealed the existence of a bold their descendents would continue right garrisons. enemy that had seemingly found the way up until the modern era.4 In the late to use the local terrain and the enemy’s 19th century the British found that the The Peoples Democratic Party of unfamiliarity with Kunar’s history, Afghanistan’s (PDPA) army eventually tribal politics, culture and tactics 3 For a virtual tour of Kunar featuring its landscapes and tribes, see the video at www.youtube.com/ 5 The Safis or Safays are broken down into the Masaud, 1 , “The Fight for Korengal,” Vanity watch?v=B1uJG16M3_k. Also see www.youtube.com/ Gurbaz, and Wadir sub-tribes. Smaller tribes include the Fair, December 3, 2007. watch?v=DiuPV6wB-3E. , Mahmund, Kuchis, Pashai, Hisarak, among 2 Kunar shares a border with FATA’s Bajaur Agency, 4 A.B. Bosworth, Conquest and Empire: The Reign of Alex- others. which can be crossed through the Nawa and Ghahki ander the Great (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 6 In 2004, Nuristan was administratively separated mountain passes. 1988), p. 121. from Kunar and now forms its own province. november 2008 . Vol 1 . Issue 12 responded to these attacks by carrying time fighting off local mujahidin swarm he took refuge. On August 30, 1991, out the systematic massacre of Kunari attacks and being shelled by rebels he was assassinated by an Egyptian, Pashtuns in the farming village of Kerala who had an almost ritualistic style of presumably on Hekmatyar’s orders. in April 1979. In this tragic event that has warfare.11 The Soviets responded to Hizb-i-Islami took control over most of come to define the Kunari Pashtuns’ deep these attacks with large clumsy sweeps the valley. distrust of outside government forces, and by using close air support that led some 200 Afghan Army troops and to high civilian casualties. In 1996, Hizb-i-Islami’s dominance in Soviet advisers executed and bulldozed Kunar was threatened by a new anti- almost 1,700 men into a mass grave.7 By the mid-1980s, Kunar had become mujahidin force emerging from the south: The slain men’s women and children one of the “hottest” zones in all of the Taliban. By late 1996, the Taliban fled over the border into Bajaur, and Afghanistan for the Soviets. By this had defeated Hizb-i-Islami and forced became the first of millions of Afghan time, all the major mujahidin resistance its leader, , to flee war refugees who would soon settle in groups had established a presence in into exile. The Taliban subsequently Pakistan. By the summer of 1979 Kunar the valley. The independent commander claimed the right to rule. Most local had become “virtually independent,” Jamil ur Rahman from Pech, a Salafist Salafists rejected the Taliban due to and the local government forces had religious leader belonging to the their insistence on referring to Mullah been forced into their compound in the Safi tribe (and former Hizb-i-Islami Omar as Amir ul Mui’meen (Commander of provincial capital of Asadabad.8 This commander), succeeded in expelling the Faithful), a claim that the Salafist garrison later mutinied and joined the Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s Hizb-i-Islami puritans did not accept. The main rebels who, for a brief time, seized the and establishing an independent Salafist leader in Kunar, Haji Rohullah, provincial capital. Wahhabi-style state with Saudi aid.12 in fact moved to Pakistan to avoid the Soon thereafter, scores of Taliban and stayed there in exile until In response to these insurgent activities, made their way to Kunar via Bajaur the Taliban regime was destroyed in the PDPA’s Soviet allies helped the to fight the Soviets alongside Jamil ur 2001’s Operation Enduring Freedom. Afghan Communist government shore up Rahman. Saudi and Egyptian fighters in garrisons in key points along the Kunar particular came to consider the province Kunar Post 9/11: The Crucible of the Afghan Valley at Asadabad, Asmar and Barikot. to be their home base. One of these Arab Insurgency While the Soviets initially aimed to hold volunteer mujahidin, Abu Ikhlas al- When Operation Enduring Freedom static positions and allow their Afghan Masri, married a local woman and was commenced, the locals either waited Communist allies to move out into the to play a key role in reintroducing Arab on the sidelines or helped their former countryside to fight, they eventually got fighters to Kunar after 2001. Taliban and al-Qa`ida opponents escape sucked into the fighting. They launched through their territory into Pakistan several large-scale military operations When the Soviets began to pull out their out of a feeling of Islamic solidarity or in Kunar designed to open up the troops in 1988, the Afghan Communist because they were bribed. The locals valley, such as their first major Afghan government saw its position in Kunar began to turn against the government operation in February-March 1980. The as untenable and withdrew troops from and its coalition allies in June 2002 when Kunar invasion included approximately the isolated garrisons in spring of that an elder from Ganjgal named Abdul 10,000 Soviet troops backed by 7,500 year. By November 1988, Asadabad had Wali, who was wanted by the coalition, Afghan Communist troops.9 The been taken by the rebels, making it one was taken to their headquarters. He invasion forced as much as two-thirds of of the first provincial capitals to fall to subsequently died under mysterious the local population (estimated to have the mujahidin. With the removal of the circumstances. When his body was been around 330,000 at the start of the Communists, Jamil ur Rahman set up a released13 two days later, the locals war) to flee to Bajaur in Pakistan. While Salafist-Wahhabi “amirate” in Kunar. decided to revolt much as they had in the Russian did occasionally Jamil ur Rahman crushed all other local 1978. Additionally, the locals began issue out from their bases to destroy fighting groups and fought to fend off to complain that policemen sent to the mujahidin bases and groups or launch attacks by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s province from Kabul were extorting air assaults to relieve bases, for the Hizb-i-Islami, which aimed to control money from them. To compound most part the Soviets and their Afghan the entire northeast. In August 1991, matters, the recently returned Salafist Communist allies remained “bottled up Hekmatyar launched a major invasion leader Haji Rohullah was arrested by in their forts” and under a state of “semi- of the Kunar Valley that led to the the coalition on grounds that he was siege.”10 The Soviets spent most of their deaths of 50 of Jamil ur Rahman’s Arab collaborating with the Taliban.14 As allies and the sacking of his capital at these events were taking place, the local 7 Edward Girardet, Afghanistan: The Soviet War (New Asadabad. In response, Jamil ur Rahman Salafists began to lose power as their York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985), pp. 107-110. fled across the border to Bajaur, where leaders were displaced by professionals 8 Anthony Hyman, Afghanistan Under Soviet Domination: 1964-1981 (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1982), p. 124. rorism Focus 4:30 (2007). 13 One popular account said his body was thrown on the 9 Mark Urban, War in Afghanistan (New York: St. Mar- 11 Ibid. side of the road. tin’s Press, 1989), p. 156. 12 Gilles Dorronsoro, Revolution Unending: Afghanistan, 14 Antonio Giustozzi, Koran, Kalashnikov, and Laptop: 10 Brigadier Mohammad Yousaf and Mark Adkin, Af- 1979 to the Present (New York: Columbia University The Neo- in Afghanistan (New York: ghanistan the Bear Trap: The Defeat of a Superpower (Hav- Press, 2005), p. 230. A similar Wahhabi state known as Columbia University Press, 2008), pp. 71-72. Antonio erton, PA: Casemate, 1989), p. 132; Michael Scheuer, the Dawlat (the state) was also formed in neighboring re- Giustozzi points out that the accusations against Rohul- “Assessing the Six Year Hunt for ,” Ter- gions of Nuristan at this time by Maulvi Afzar. lah may have been false. november 2008 . Vol 1 . Issue 12 sent to rule the province from Kabul. Regional Command East decided that Unlike in , where the captains This bred further resentment against Kunar and the neighboring province and lieutenants could let down the government. of Nuristan needed a greater military their guard in a relatively safe, presence. In response, it launched fortified operating base, swapping Fears that Kunar would turn on the Operation Whaler in August 2005, stories and ideas, here [Korengal coalition seem to have been borne out. Operation Pil in October 2005 and Operating Post] they had no one Fighting began in late 2002 as the 82nd Operation Mountain Lion in April 2006. to talk to and were almost as Airborne arrived in the valley. Hundreds of Taliban-linked fighters vulnerable to enemy fire inside the Khan, the Hizb-i-Islami commander were killed in the operations. Since wire as out…And unlike every other who had earlier fought against the then, Regional Command East has also place I’ve been in Afghanistan— Taliban, seemed to be leading the revolt. been active in building roads (including even the valley, just an In an effort to flush out Kashmir Khan’s a $7.5 million road linking the Pech hour’s drive away—the Korengal Hizb-i-Islami fighters as well as dozens Valley to Asadabad), bridges, schools had no Afghan police or district of foreign fighters led by Abu Ikhlas al- and other Provisional Reconstruction leaders for the Americans to work Masri, who was declared al-Qa`ida’s amir Team projects as part of a “hearts and with.21 in Kunar and Nuristan, the minds” strategy. launched Operation Mountain Resolve The enemy in Korengal and nearby Pech on November 7, 2003. The operation The military has been active in consists of a variety of fighters belonging involved a Soviet-style airdrop into establishing forward operating bases to Kashmir Khan’s Hizb-i-Islami the mountains by the U.S. far from the town centers controlled faction, Abu Ikhlas’ al-Qa`ida, angry 10th Mountain and resulted in by the Soviets in the 1980s. This has local Afghans who resent the presence the killing of Hizb-i-Islami commander meant inserting a U.S. presence18 deep of “infidels” or any outsiders in their Ghulam Sakhee, a few clashes with the into a countryside that is hostile to the valleys, Lashkar-i-Tayyaba, Taliban enemy, and the discovery of some minor coalition and generally supportive of fighters led by Dost and weapon caches.15 the local Pashtun, Pashai, Nuristani Qara Ziaur Rahman, Nuristanis led by and Arab insurgents. Moreover, the Mullah Munibullah, Arab fighters from The next U.S. operation was Operation new counter-insurgency strategy has a group calling itself Jami`at al-Da`wa Red Wing, which occurred on June 28, resulted in the construction of small, al-Qur’an wa’l-Sunna, and Pakistani 2005. The small operation involved -sized outposts throughout the volunteers. Among these groups are the insertion of four elite Navy SEALs province. These have become magnets hundreds of fighters who routinely into Kunar to track and kill Ahmad for local insurgent attacks.19 While ambush U.S. patrols, plant IEDs, snipe Shah Ismail, a mid-level Taliban/al- this forward base policy has increased at exposed soldiers, shell observation Qa`ida mercenary commander said to U.S. casualties in the region, it has posts, and on occasion even attempt to be leading a group of 200-300 Afghan also extended the writ of the Afghan storm forward operating bases.22 and Arab fighters calling themselves government to places where there the Bara bin Malik. The operation failed has been no government presence for This last point was vividly demonstrated when the Navy SEAL team operating on decades. It has helped cut off insurgent in one of the boldest insurgent attacks a 10,000-foot high ridge known as Abas “rat lines” over the Ghahki and Nawa in Afghanistan to date: the July 13, 2008 Ghar (near Korengal Valley) was spotted passes from Pakistan into Kunar and mass assault on a partially established by local shepherds. The shepherds on to Nuristan. Writing about one such overt observation post in the Kunar/ informed Ismail, who sent base in the Salafist-Wahhabi-dominated Nuristani border village of Wanat. roughly 140 fighters to surround and Korengal Valley,20 Elizabeth Rubin of The attack was launched by Hizb-i- attack them.16 Reinforcements arrived, explained: Islami commander Maulawi Usman and but one of the Chinooks carrying SEALs involved between 200-400 Arab and was shot down en route by a Taliban Afghan fighters in a pre-dawn ambush rocket-propelled grenade. Sixteen soldiers were killed in the ensuing crash. get of this failed operation, Ahmad Shah, escaped his 21 The story of the insurgency in Korengal Valley be- Meanwhile, three of the encircled Navy pursuers and survived a subsequent B-52 strike on his gins with the Americans getting caught up in a feud with SEALs on the ground were killed, while compound, but was eventually killed two years later. rivals from the nearby Pech Valley. According to Eliza- 17 the fourth escaped. In the aftermath, 18 The Marines, 173rd Airborne , 10th Mountain beth Rubin, the Americans were duped into bombing Division and 503rd Regiment have all been in- the house of a local lumber magnate named Haji Matin. 15 Sergeant Greg Heath, “10th Mtn. Div. Shows its Mettle volved. Several of Haji Matin’s family members were killed in In Operation Mountain Resolve,” Defend America, U.S. 19 These attacks are often posted online. For a Taliban the attack. To gain revenge, he took his men over to al- Department of Defense, November 2003. perspective video of the fighting in Kunar, see “Part 2 Qa`ida commander Abu Ikhlas al-Masri and began to 16 “US Navy Seal’s Afghan Disaster,” BBC News, July of BM Rocket Operation in Kunar,” at www.liveleak. fight against the Americans. As more blood was spilled, 25, 2005. com/view?i=3c9_1174862660&c=1. See also “ Matin’s lashkar gathered up the support of locals in the 17 The story of this tragedy, the worse loss of Navy Launch Hawk Rockets at American Post in Kunar” at Korengal who made it their mission to destroy the U.S. SEALS in its history, was vividly recounted in a Time www.liveleak.com/view?i=a37_1174985631. forward operating post in their valley. Magazine article entitled, “How the Shepherd Saved the 20 For remarkable video footage shot by Sebas- 22 For video of an example of a typical ambush SEAL,” and a book entitled : The Eyewitness tian Younger for ABC on life in an outpost in Ku- on one of these patrols, see www.liveleak.com/ Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL nar’s deadly Korengal Valley, see www.liveleak.com/ view?i=2b1_1193703874. Also see , “Re- Team 10 (London: Little, Brown and Co., 2007). The tar- view?i=d0f_1197424119. turn to the Valley of Death,” Vanity Fair, October 2008. november 2008 . Vol 1 . Issue 12 on 45 Americans and 25 Afghan Army break the central government. soldiers who were protected only by Whoever has been defeated in concertina barbed wire, earthen barriers Afghanistan, his defeat began and a wall of . At one point they from Kunar. Hence, everybody is breached the post and fighting was done terrified of this region. The Soviets face to face before the insurgents were were defeated in this province and repulsed.23 In the eight hour firefight, the NATO knows that if it is defeated Americans came close to being overrun here it will be defeated all over and were only saved when A-10s, F-15s, Afghanistan.25 Apaches, and a Predator drone bombed and strafed the perimeter of the base. Dr. Brian Glyn Williams is currently When the smoke cleared, nine members Associate Professor of Islamic History of Chosen Company serving in Wanat at the University of Massachusetts- had been killed, 21 wounded, and Dartmouth. In addition to his scholarship, four allied Afghan soldiers wounded. which includes numerous articles on jihadi Between 15 and 40 of the enemy were terrorism, ethnic violence, and nationalism also killed in the assault. While the in Islamic Eurasia, he has a book entitled operation was a Taliban military failure, The Crimean Tatars: The Diaspora it was a strategic success because of the Experience and the Forging of a Nation propaganda value of the attack. Three (2001). His field work has ranged from days later, the U.S. military decided to Kosovo to Kashmir to and evacuate the base altogether. varies from living with warlords in Afghanistan to interviewing The Future of Kunar Kosovar Albanian field commanders. Most From a larger perspective, the United recently he served as an expert witness States has little presence along the at Guantanamo Bay in the case of Salim porous Kunar-Bajaur border and its Hamdan, Usama bin Ladin’s driver. Dr. authority is largely limited to the Williams’ website is located at www. Jalalabad-Asadabad-Asmar highway, brianglynwilliams.com. the same area the Soviets tried to control. The arrival of thousands of Pashtun refugees into Kunar fleeing a Pakistani offensive across the border in Bajaur in the fall of 2008 might exacerbate problems.24 Thus a pattern of revenge killings, spontaneous tribal jihad, and counter-insurgency that goes back 30 years to the original lashkar uprising against the Afghan Communist regime continues in the Kunar Valley and its tributaries. While the coalition has advantages over its Soviet predecessors in terms of intelligence, training, equipment, and fighting spirit, it will continue to sustain heavy losses as it fights valley by valley for control of Kunar. Qari Ziaur Rahman, the overall Taliban commander for Kunar, Bajaur, and Nuristan, summed up the importance of the battle for Kunar as follows:

From the Soviet days in Afghanistan, Kunar’s importance has been clear. This is a border province and trouble here can

23 This was the first time a U.S. post had been breached. 24 This problem may be mitigated, however, by the Pak- istani Army’s recent success in taking back much of the neighboring cross-border Taliban sanctuary in Bajaur 25 Syed Saleem Shahzad, “At War with the Taliban: A Agency in late October 2008. Fighter and a Financier,” Asia Times, May 23, 2008.

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