By Sara Daniel and Sami Yousafzay
Le Nouvel Observateur
In Iraq, they learn the secrets of technological jihad.
"In Zabol province, on the Pakistan border, where the former religious students control virtually all the villages, the choice is simple, a merchant explains: get arrested by the government because you wear a beard, or get killed by the Taliban because you look like a spy ..."
It's a town from a Western, nestled in the tribal regions that separate Afghanistan from Pakistan, to the south of Peshawar. Here, in Darra Adam Khel, Pakistani law is no longer enforced, and the inhabitants walk around with Kalashnikovs on their shoulders. From the first houses, a sign warns you that access to the city is strictly forbidden to foreigners. Why? You understand very quickly as you drive along the streets: everywhere inscriptions on the walls invite young men to join the "Army of Mohammed" jihad, the group of fighters accused of being responsible for the kidnapping and decapitation of American journalist Daniel Pearl. But by abandoning several dollars to one of the watchmen, one may stroll through the alleys without the governmental authorization necessary to cross the city of a thousand rifles.
Darra Adam Khel - 2,600 weapons stores, 3,000 craftsmen who reproduce on average close to 400 weapons a day - is at the heart of one of the biggest non-official weapons markets in the world. The one that supplies the tribal regions of Waziristan, the rear base for Arab fighters, and perhaps for Osama bin Laden since he was chased out of the mountains of Tora Bora. One finds everything in Darra, from Berettas to grenades to anti-aircraft missiles. It's here to the weapons market (which prospers with the blessing of the Pakistani government) that Hafiz Obeidullah, called Abu Jihad, one of the Taliban fighters who conduct guerrilla operations against American forces in Afghanistan, comes for supplies.
But it was on the other side of the border at Spin Boldak, in Afghanistan, that Abu Jihad, settled in the back room of a television store, told the "Nouvel Observateur" about his daily routine of Afghan combat. First surprise of this incursion into the "grey zone" of the Pakistani-Afghan border: the Taliban - often linked to al-Qaeda - who conduct the guerrilla war against the Americans in Afghanistan - are not, as we thought, entrenched in the gorges of inaccessible mountain ranges, nor lying low in underground caves. They live quietly in the heart of Afghan or Pakistani cities. They have their winter quarters in Karachi, buy provisions in Peshawar, buy their weapons in Darra, have their meetings in Quetta, and live in Kandahar or Jalalabad. Sometimes they cross the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan every day, a border they don't recognize because, according to them, it artificially divides Pashtunistan. By virtue of the agreements concluded between Kabul and Islamabad, they are even exempt from presenting their papers at border posts.
Sitting on a broken Japanese television, Hafiz, wearing a black shalwar kamiz, the region's traditional outfit, recounts enthusiastically how the war in Iraq has given new life to the struggle in Afghanistan. He congratulates himself particularly over the records reached the last few months: there have not been so many attacks and American deaths since the fall of the Taliban regime. Since the Iraqi brothers have shown us the way, he rejoices, a new front for jihad has opened here in southern Afghanistan. If you believe him, and also according to other fighters the "Nouvel Observateur" has met, Osama bin Laden has decided to open training camps in the Sunni triangle of Iraq for Afghans, so that they can learn Iraqi insurgents' latest methods. Hafiz himself undertook the trip to be trained by these masters of jihad the Iraqis have become.
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