Taliban Falls to Younger, 'War-Addicted' Commanders

LASHKARGAR, Helmand — The Taliban leadership in southern Afghanistan is passing into the hands of younger, more extreme insurgents as the relentless targeting of traditional commanders by American and British forces takes its toll.

In a week spent in Helmand province the Daily Telegraph found widespread evidence that special forces operations are degrading the Taliban's leadership and its ability to coordinate operations.

But there are also indications of increasing radicalization within the Taliban as more extreme fighters, many of them Al Qaeda-linked foreign militants, fill the gaps left when experienced Taliban leaders are killed.

Western military officials say privately that approximately 200 Taliban medium and high-level commanders were killed countrywide in targeted bombings or assassinations by American and British special forces last year, and an additional 100 captured.

Using local intermediaries, the Telegraph was able to meet two mid-level Taliban commanders in the provincial capital Lashkargar. Both claimed that the Taliban was increasingly recruited from outside Helmand and that hierarchies were becoming far less clear cut. "There are a lot of small commanders now," said one, a veteran of several years of fighting but still in his 20s. He said that changes had come since the death of Mullah Dadullah, the high-profile Taliban overall commander in southern Afghanistan who was killed by the Special Boat Service (SBS) last May. "Now, after Dadullah's death, we have a motto that everyone has become a Dadullah," he added. He predicted victory in Afghanistan before the Taliban focused on imposing sharia law in Pakistan. "There can be no negotiation with the West. This is a global jihad," he warned.

The other Taliban commander, met with separately, was older. He said Taliban commanders were wary of becoming "a big name" as it made them a target.

Western military sources report that Taliban attacks have become steadily less coordinated in recent months.

"The Taliban have lost so many commanders, but it is not like losing a British general with 30 years experience," a member of the provincial council of Helmand, Hajji Mohammad Anwar, said. "Anyone who just comes from the madrassas, tomorrow they are a big commander."

The older commander said that more pragmatic Taliban figures were pushing for schools to be opened and for reconstruction work. But he said such efforts met resistance from increasingly extreme fighters moving into Helmand.

As seen with Al Qaeda in Iraq, Islamist terror groups have a history of progressively alienating local support through radicalization. "The new Taliban are really emotional. They are very impulsive. They are war-addicted," said the older commander.