TALEBAN fighters have no choice but to hide among civilians while they fight foreign troops in Afghanistan and accept their families may become victims of their holy war, a Taleban commander has said.
Mullah Mahmoud, a Taleban commander in the Golestan district of Farah province, also said most Taleban fighters in Afghanistan were foreigners. He said 60 per cent were from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan's Punjab region and other countries.
US and Nato-
led forces have accused Taleban insurgents of hiding in Afghan homes in an attempt to increase the number of civilian casualties caused by air strikes by foreign forces.
"There is truth in this to some extent, but what can Talebs do? Should they just let themselves be killed by Americans?" Mahmoud said.
"When Talebs are part of that community and live amongst the people, when the Americans arrive, they have to go the house where their brother is, where their family is, so when (Americans] come to our house to kill us, they will kill our families, too."
A teacher in the time of the Taleban government, Mahmoud said he joined the austere Sunni Islamist movement six years ago.
"After the Afghan government was installed, I was compelled to join the Taleban because of its treatment of the people," he said.
Golestan is adjacent to Bala Boluk province, where Afghan officials say a US air strike in early May killed 140 civilians. The US military says between 20 and 35 civilians were among 80-95 killed and that the Taleban had deliberately hidden among local villagers.
"When the air strikes came, we did not feel pain because we know that when we start jihad we have to accept that our women, our daughters and children, may be killed in the fight," Mahmoud said.
"The situation in Farah is getting worse, in some districts the insecurity is so bad that Americans cannot move on the ground."
US and Afghan military officers have in the past accused Iran of supporting or arming the Taleban in the west, but Mahmoud denied the claims.
"So far, Saudi Arabia and Sunnis only help us," he said.
The full article contains 363 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
