Upwards of 40 Afghan police recruits in Kunar Province in Afghanistan were captured by the Taliban in an ambush and the Taliban have even announced the capture on their political jihad website.
From the article at The Long War Journal:
The Afghan Taliban kidnapped more than 40 Afghan police recruits during an ambush in the terrorist haven of Kunar province.
Both Afghan officials and the Taliban confirmed that more than 40 potential police recruits were captured earlier today in the district of Chara Dara in Kunar.
The Taliban, in a statement released on their propaganda website, Voice of Jihad, claimed that "as many as 50 policemen" were abducted as they traveled from the neighboring province of Nuristan. The Taliban claimed the men were "captured with the documents revealing their posts."
But General Khalilullah Ziya, the chief of police for Kunar province, said that 40 young Afghan men were captured by the Taliban as they traveled from the police recruitment center in the provincial capital of Asadabad back to Nuristan. The Afghan were not policemen, as they were rejected at the recruiting station, Ziya told TOLOnews.
The Taliban have kidnapped another large group of Afghans in Kunar over the past two months. On Jan. 31, the Taliban captured 21 pro-government tribal leaders in Kunar, and threatened to execute them if family members did not stop working for the government and security forces. Fourteen of the tribesmen were subsequently released.
Now, it isn't all that unusual for the Taliban to try this type of mass capture but we see it happen a LOT more in Pakistan, not Afghanistan. At the same time, this is another of the al Qaeda tactics that came over from the Iraq War - ambush police recruiting centers and either suicide bomb them or try a capture. As I have posted before, the message is clear from the Taliban - do NOT apply for a job as a security policeman in Afghanistan or this is what will happen to you.
Now, one could say that if the Taliban end up killing these captives, the news of that will spread amongst the people and cause backlash but the problem with that scenario is the Afghan people can still remember the rule of the Taliban and the fear is still there.
Taliban capture scores of police recruits in Kunar
The Afghan Taliban kidnapped more than 40 Afghan police recruits during an ambush in the terrorist haven of Kunar province.
Both Afghan officials and the Taliban confirmed that more than 40 potential police recruits were captured earlier today in the district of Chara Dara in Kunar.
The Taliban, in a statement released on their propaganda website, Voice of Jihad, claimed that "as many as 50 policemen" were abducted as they traveled from the neighboring province of Nuristan. The Taliban claimed the men were "captured with the documents revealing their posts."
But General Khalilullah Ziya, the chief of police for Kunar province, said that 40 young Afghan men were captured by the Taliban as they traveled from the police recruitment center in the provincial capital of Asadabad back to Nuristan. The Afghan were not policemen, as they were rejected at the recruiting station, Ziya told TOLOnews.
The Taliban have kidnapped another large group of Afghans in Kunar over the past two months. On Jan. 31, the Taliban captured 21 pro-government tribal leaders in Kunar, and threatened to execute them if family members did not stop working for the government and security forces. Fourteen of the tribesmen were subsequently released.
Kunar is the second-most violent province in Afghanistan, according to data released by the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office. In 2010, there were 1,467 attacks in Kunar, compared to 1,540 recorded attacks in Ghazni, 1,387 attacks in Helmand, and 1,162 attacks in Kandahar.
Since the pullout of US and Afghan troops from remote outposts in Kunar's Korengal Valley and the Kamdesh district in Nuristan that began in late 2009, several districts in the provinces of Nuristan have been contested. US forces also have also withdrawn from the Pech Valley in mid-February of this year, and have turned over security to Afghan forces. Al Qaeda, the Pakistani Taliban, and other allied terror groups are known to have moved into Kunar and Nuristan due to the security vacuum, and have expanded attacks throughout the region.
Kunar province is a known sanctuary for al Qaeda and allied terror groups. The presence of al Qaeda cells has been detected in the districts of Pech, Shaikal Shate, Sarkani, Dangam, Asmar, Asadabad, Shigal, and Marawana; or eight of Kunar's 15 districts, according to an investigation by The Long War Journal.
A senior al Qaeda commander named Qari Zia Rahman operates in Kunar and Nuristan, and commands military forces on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border. Qari Zia has also established suicide training camps for women, and has used female suicide bombers on both sides of the border. Over the past year, Qari Zai has been the target of several ISAF and Afghan special operations raids.
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