EXCLUSIVE: Taliban uses Afghan fear to fight surge

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan | The Taliban is seeking to blunt the surge of an additional 20,000 U.S. troops through stepped-up attacks on Afghans working with the U.S.-backed government, U.S. and Afghan officials say.

For much of the past year, the militant group has worked to weaken the link between the government and citizens through targeted assassinations of people who work for or with Afghan institutions. This wave of intimidation is an enormous obstacle to Afghan officials and local tribal council members trying to reach out to Afghan citizens, often in areas where the government has lacked a firm grip.

“It’s becoming more difficult to recruit new people who are outspoken and willing to speak against the militants and violence, and for the government,” said Ahmed Wali Karzai, who heads Kandahar’s provincial council and is a brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. “There’s just no proper security in place.”

A police chief and three of his officers in Jalrez district, west of Kabul, the Afghan capital, were the latest victims. They died Monday in a roadside bombing. U.S. forces who were deployed into the area earlier this year had helped to organize the local police force.

Taliban leaders have made it clear that Afghans with ties to the government or foreign troops, or who display any other forms of resistance to the militants, are liable to be assassinated.

“We have already warned people not to work for the government, not to spy for the foreigners, not to denounce our men,” said Qari Mohammad Yousuf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman. “If they are going in the wrong direction and do not take care about what we tell them, we do not let them live.”

Afghan officials say that hundreds of people have been killed, although there is no official tally of civilian deaths.

A U.S. counterterrorism official with knowledge of Taliban tactics said that Afghan civilians working with the International Security Assistance Force have been targeted in response to “additional pressure” by the U.S.-led coalition in recent months. U.S. forces will reach 68,000 within the next few months.

“They’ve clearly acted out more in very bad ways,” said the official, who spoke on the condition that he not be named because of the sensitivity of the topic.

A U.S. defense official, who also spoke on the condition that he not be named because of the nature of his work, said the Taliban has been “invoking fear” by targeting innocent people who work for the U.S.-led coalition.

“It’s how they warn others, so that people will think twice before taking a job on a U.S. or foreign base,” the official said. “They see anyone who aids in the international effort as a traitor. It doesn’t matter if they’re only working as a street sweeper.”

Thousands of Afghan civilians work as janitors, ditch diggers and cafeteria workers on U.S. bases. More educated Afghans take on jobs as interpreters or as specialists in law enforcement.

The attacks also target local officials.

A suicide bombing in April killed two officials and wounded two others at a gathering of the provincial council in downtown Kandahar.

Some Afghans are defying the threats.

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