November 7, 2001	Wednesday	Shaba’an 20, 1422

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PESHAWAR, Nov 6: The Taliban have entrusted night time security of Afghanistan’s urban centres with battle-hardened Arab fighters of Osama bin Laden, Pakistani officials said.

“Security of the major urban centres is taken over by the Arabs soon after the routine nightly curfew come into force at 8.30pm Afghanistan Time,” officials told Dawn. The deployment of Arabs to look after the security of the major urban centres showed Taliban’s increasing reliance on the Arabs and other foreign fighters of Osama bin Laden, the officials said. “They are the best fighters,” the officials commented, confirming earlier reports that the strength of Arab fighters had swelled almost to 5,000 since the US launched air strikes on Afghanistan.

Apart from deploying Arabs to look after security of urban centres, sources say, Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden has also appointed a Syrian and an Iraqi Kurd to lead his forces in defending two key Afghan cities against the Afghan opposition.

“They coordinate their attacks with the Taliban but it would be wrong to say that they dictate terms to their hosts,” the sources say. “Afghans would never take orders from an outsider.”

The appointments of a fighter calling himself Abu Musa’b and Shawqi Islamboli north of Kabul, Abu Janab in eastern Nangrahar and Abdul Hadi Iraqi in the northeast city of Taloqan in northern Takkhar highlight who will probably be the main resistance to US ground troops when they are introduced to the Afghan battle in larger numbers, these sources say. Shawqi Islamboli is the brother of Capt Khalid Islamboli who had shot and killed Egyptian President Anwar Sada’t during a military parade in Cairo.

The Arabs usually carry nicknames which they change frequently to hide their real identity, officials said.

The total strength of the Arabs is a fraction of the Taliban total number of more than 40,000. Yet, the Arabs, highly motivated and often willing to fight to the death, according to people familiar with their combat style, still appear to form the backbone of Taliban strength.

Initially, US intelligence gatherers were able to intercept communications in non-Afghan languages, and commanders sent warplanes to bomb their positions. Then, however, the communications stopped. “We got smarter everyday, but so did they,” western sources said.

Now, the US has switched tactics, assigning US Special Forces to improving the effectiveness of the Afghan opposition Northern Alliance, the sources said. The focus has been on how to combat the so-called 55th brigade, the Taliban Arab-dominated crack force, “coordinated, offensive movement on the ground in several locations,” they said.

These sources say that Egyptians dominate Osama’s fighting force with the top hierarchy led by people like Abu Hafs, Abu Jihad and Abdul Hadi Iraqi. Hadi is an engineer by profession and has reportedly served in the Iraqi army for some time before teaming up with Osama in Afghanistan. His expertise, according to informed sources, lay in imparting special training in explosives at the now-abandoned Rishkore camp, south of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The sources said that Osama’s external security parameter comprises guards drawn from Laghman and Baghlan, all Pukhtuns, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis.

The commander incharge of the external security parameter is one Janat Gul, a former mujahideen commander of Harakat-I-Inqilabi Islami of Maulavi Nabi Mohammadi, now affiliated with the Taliban. Janat Gul, these sources say, is loyal to Taliban supreme leader Mulla Muhammad Omar, a long time comrade since the days of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan when the two had fought together in Helmand province.