Mullah Omar orders Taliban to attack civilians, Afghan women

[gubbi]

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Mullah Omar orders Taliban to attack civilians, Afghan women

The battle for hearts and minds in Afghanistan has taken a new turn in the past two months. The Taliban’s supreme leader, Mullah Omar, has ordered his forces to kill or capture any civilians, including Afghan women, who cooperate with Coalition forces. Omar’s latest directive contradicts his marching orders from just one year ago, when he told his Taliban commanders to refrain from harming civilians working with the Coalition.


Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Amir al Mumineen ("the commander of the faithful") of the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban.

Omar reportedly issued his latest order in June. NATO announced that it had recovered a copy of the directive in July. Since then, Afghan press outlets have published a translation of Omar’s five-point order.

The Long War Journal has received a translation of Omar’s order, as it appeared in the Afghan press, from US intelligence sources. Senior US intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal say the order is most likely genuine.

According to the translation, Mullah Omar’s five-point directive reads:

1. Fight coalition forces to the death without withdrawing or surrendering; attempt to capture coalition forces whenever possible.
2. Capture and kill any Afghan who is supporting and/or working for coalition forces or the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

3. Capture and kill any Afghan women who are helping or providing information to coalition forces.

4. Recruit anyone that has access to coalition force bases and have the ability to collect detailed information about coalition forces.

5. Purchase or obtain more heavy weapons such as rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns and anti-aircraft machine guns.

Points 2 and 3 are a dramatic about-face for the Taliban leader. In the summer of 2009, Omar issued a Code of Conduct for Taliban forces that explicitly commanded his shadow governors and other Taliban leaders to do the opposite.

“Governors, district chiefs and line commanders and every member of the Mujahideen must do their best to avoid civilian deaths, civilian injuries and damage to civilian property. Great care must be taken,” the Taliban’s Code of Conduct reads, according to a translation available on al Jazeera’s web site.

Coalition military officials have been quick to cite Mullah Omar’s most recent order, highlighting its impact on the Afghan people. On Tuesday, ISAF issued a press release describing a Taliban attack in which six Afghan civilians were killed, two more were wounded, and an Afghan government official was kidnapped in the Siahgird district of Parwan province.

"These insurgents have chosen to follow Mullah Omar’s recent guidance of attempting to capture or kill innocent civilians who are working for the coalition or government," Col. Rafael Torres, ISAF Joint Command’s Combined Joint Operations Center director, is quoted as saying in the press release. "Meanwhile, Omar is directing these attacks from the relative safety of his hiding place in Pakistan."

A July 19 news release on the Defense Department’s web site includes a summary of Mullah Omar’s order that is nearly identical to the language cited above. In that release, ISAF spokesperson Brig. Gen. Josef Blotz references Mullah Omar’s five-point directive in the context of another attack on Afghan civilians, pointing out that the 2009 Code of Conduct is apparently no longer binding.

"This [order] proves the Taliban are willing to ignore their own Code of Conduct when they sense they are losing influence and control, as today's attack [July 18] against several Afghan civilians [who] were killed and injured by a suicide attack in a residential area in Kabul today demonstrates," Blotz explained.

The Taliban's use of suicide bombers against civilian targets, highlighted in the July 19 DOD release, is another reversal in Taliban policy. The Taliban's 2009 Code of Conduct called for limiting the use of suicide bombers in attacks against civilians. "A brave son of Islam should not be used for lower and useless targets. The utmost effort should be made to avoid civilian casualties," the document reads.

Up until Mullah Omar’s June directive, it was widely thought that the Taliban would try to limit civilian casualties in order to compete with ISAF’s counterinsurgency strategy. American-led forces in Afghanistan treat the Afghan populace as the center of gravity and are trying to win their support by limiting civilian casualties and extending good governance.

The Taliban, as evidenced by its 2009 Code of Conduct, initially adopted a similar strategy. But Mullah Omar has now abandoned that effort in favor a more violent course. It remains to be seen whether Omar and the Taliban stick to the new strategy, or revert back to a more civilian-friendly approach.



Read more: Mullah Omar orders Taliban to attack civilians, Afghan women - The Long War Journal

Aren't points 2 & 4 contradictory?

Anyhow, what's with all those aggrandized titles these idiots give to themselves, even to small time commanders? "commander of the faithful", "supreme commander". etc etc. Seriously? Lol!

[Dance]

Well thats no surprise, the taliban are barbarians

[zeeshe100]

naa i dont think its true ......Pakistani Talibans are slaves of india indian agents only they kill innocent people not the afghani talibans follow mullah omar.......

[greatsequence]

unreliable source and by the way nothing wrong in that everyone in the world kill the traitors.

[Syama Ayas]

naa i dont think its true ......Pakistani Talibans are slaves of india indian agents only they kill innocent people not the afghani talibans follow mullah omar.......

Wow! A Taliban sympathizer? You must be rare

[blain2]

So how do we know that Mullah Omar really issued such orders? Simply because Longwarjournal reports it? Do we really have to be that gullible to believe everything?

Taliban have carried out selective targeting of civilians, but they would have to be really stupid to kill their own people indiscriminately. I would think that after waging a guerrilla war for almost a decade, Mullah Omar and team would know a thing or two about Insurgency 101 and how you do not cripple the hand that sustains you. No?

This is like saying that Americans have decided to launch attacks on all Pashtuns because they could be hiding Taliban or be Taliban themselves...reality is that no side would want to commit such a suicide when both are trying to win hearts and minds (either through a show of force, or maintaining presence or by doing public welfare work).

[Neither Right Nor Wrong]

Wow! A Taliban sympathizer? You must be rare

Had Taliban sympathizers been as rare a commodity, as one would expect...then Pakistan would not be in a predicament, as it is today in.

[Malik Usman]

Wow! A Taliban sympathizer? You must be rare

Without any favor to talibans........What u know about taliban's......do you know their culture, living style, values, history........... i guess no.....if yes don't comment on others.

[Ahmad]

naa i dont think its true ......Pakistani Talibans are slaves of india indian agents only they kill innocent people not the afghani talibans follow mullah omar.......

are you sure about this? it will not be difficult to provide you tons of evidence of their barbarism.

[Ahmad]

unreliable source and by the way nothing wrong in that everyone in the world kill the traitors.

Your gov is also cooperating with the americans, they get money from them while the americans are busy killing your people by drone attacks, hope you call your gov and those gov employees traitros as well and wish them to be killed.

[Ahmad]

Wow! A Taliban sympathizer? You must be rare

not rare, plenty of them out there.

[Syama Ayas]

Without any favor to talibans........What u know about taliban's......do you know their culture, living style, values, history........... i guess no.....if yes don't comment on others.

One more sympathizer!

Well its true that any documentary or reference from movies (ex: Kite Runner) that i"ve seen on Taliban has mostly shown negative side.

But even for a layman its not difficult to figure out that they are a mere tool for expanding extremist Sunni-imperialism.

And their idea of a society,i can picture what Afghanistan was during the medieval times.(Considering other factors such economy too.)

I do respect the Taliban for driving away the Soviets ,but thats history.

[somebozo]

Mullah Omar needs some tomhawks or predator to chase him to death

[BATMAN]

Your gov is also cooperating with the americans, they get money from them while the americans are busy killing your people by drone attacks, hope you call your gov and those gov employees traitros as well and wish them to be killed.

Our army has captured and killed more terrorists than any other army of the world.

To clear accounts claims; We only charge to US, 2% of standard tax and transit fees.
We provide US security escort of more than 1000 km. for free.
US also directed us to give similar aid to india hence we can count value of that multi billion dollar aid in US account.
In the end US had enjoyed about 5 trillion USD tax and transit exemptions collectively.
As a matter of fact Pakistan parliament also suggested not to receive this 2% due to improper understanding of the whole deal by bhartis.

One thing is also sure that US and indians need to hurry up with their operations as next President will not be mr. kickback and US and indians may endup with cancelation of this transit and tax aid.

[Capt.Popeye]

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Originally Posted by gubbi:
"Aren't points 2 & 4 contradictory?"

@ gubbi
Yes they are; especially if acted upon in the order that they are written in.