From: "Stasi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [Peoples War] Afghanistan: 55 Brigade - Arab Legion Of Elite Troops - Sunday Times Sunday Times 21.10.01 http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/ 55 BRIGADE: Arab legion of elite troops is key target ===================================== Rohan Gunaratna AS American ground troops launched their first attacks inside Afghanistan this weekend, one of their key targets will be an elite fighting corps of Muslim fundamentalists - the 55 Brigade. They are the Taliban's shock troops, a multinational force of up to 5,000 men financed and trained by Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda organisation. Many have become battle-hardened from fighting in some of the world's most bloodthirsty wars of the past 20 years. The 55 Brigade members are better trained and equipped than regular Taliban troops and they have experience of guerrilla warfare and terrorism. According to former members, they are the most dedicated soldiers, often spearheading Taliban offensives and forcing reluctant fighters into battle. Many proudly carry battle scars from the time when they fought against the Russians. The Al-Qaeda fighters dress like Afghans, but mostly speak Arabic. The largest contingent is drawn from the Arabian peninsula as well as Egypt, Algeria and Libya. Some of these "Afghan Arabs", particularly those from north Africa, have their own speciality - throat-slitting. Russian troops are known to have killed themselves rather than face being taken prisoner by the Afghan Arabs, who often took delight in butchering their captives. Others have joined the brigade from similarly troubled parts of the world: from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, from southeast Asia and Indonesia. There are Muslims from western China (Uigurs), Russia (Chechens) and the Balkans (Bosnians). All are united by their religious fervour and a ruthless pursuit of jihad. Such is their reputation within Islamic fundamentalism that a few have joined from western Europe and north America. Their names end with the country of their citizenship: Muhammad Hasan from Brooklyn in New York, for example, would be known as Muhammad Hasan al-Ameriki. Known by western intelligence as 055 Brigade, their fighting expertise has been bolstered by drawing on the techniques of the best soldiers from around the world. Recent defectors say their training methods include the use of special services' manuals from America and Pakistan, which are reinforced with religious instruction. Weapons and equipment have come from Sudan, Pakistan and the Taliban, as well as from Al-Qaeda procurement officers in the West. Essam al-Ridi, Bin Laden's personal pilot and an American citizen, gathered communication equipment from Japan, scuba gear and rangefinders from Britain, phone equipment from Germany, night-vision goggles, video equipment, Barrett 50-calibre rifles and a T389 plane from America. Initially, Al-Qaeda fighters in Pakistan and Afghanistan used the same infrastructure employed to train the anti- Soviet mujaheddin. For a while, after Bin Laden moved to Khartoum in Sudan, 30 terrorist training camps were set up in farms that he owned there. But when he returned to Afghanistan in 1996, so did the fighters and the camps. Bin Laden used his wealth and civil engineering background to build high-quality roads, houses, barracks and training camps for the brigade. According to one report, more than 500 construction workers were working earlier this year on a massive underground defence system near Kandahar, which is likely to have been one of the main targets for American bombing raids. Many of the training camps were used exclusively by particular groups, with 200 Uzbeks reported in one camp, 400 Chechens in another and so on. The 55 Brigade had its own designated airstrip, also close to Kandahar, as well as technical support and weapon repair workshops. Much of its ammunition is made locally in the many unlicensed gunshops that straddle the border with Pakistan. Those trained and dispatched abroad were vanguard troops as well as master trainers. In Chechnya, they constituted the Al-Ansar, or foreign mujaheddin, the fiercest of the three main groups, responsible for almost all suicide bombings. In Bosnia, the Al-Qaeda-trained mujaheddin saw European Muslims as too soft, and helped them become better fighters. The 55 Brigade comprises two overlapping generations of Afghan veterans. One fought in the anti-Soviet jihad between 1979 and 1989. This group was funded by the CIA and Saudi intelligence and trained almost solely by Pakistan's intelligence services. After the Soviet military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989, the soldiers were unwanted, but many countries refused to take them back. As a result these men, driven by Islamist zeal, formed a free-floating pool of Afghan Arab mujaheddin in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The second generation comprises fighters trained in Afghanistan but who went home to Kashmir, Chechnya and Bosnia to fight their own jihads. As these struggles died down or grew harder, they returned to Afghanistan. They are similar in age and ideology to the earlier generation, but better educated and trained. The Afghan Arabs are far less tolerant than their hosts towards outsiders. Afghan society comprises many nationalities, and, despite their fearsome fighting reputation, Afghans find it easy to relate to foreigners. In contrast, many of the extreme Wahhabi Arabs come from isolated, culturally homogenous societies and often refuse contact with non-Muslims. They have attacked Afghanistan's Shi'ite minority of Hazara tribesmen, inspired by religious rather than political differences. There have also been reports of tensions as Arab fighters have tried to press-gang ethnic Tajiks into military service. As pressure on the regime intensifies, this is likely to become a possible line of fracture. Most Afghan Arabs live in the southern, Pashto-speaking region near Kandahar, which has become the base for many Taliban activities. Kabul, the capital, badly damaged by the Taliban in 1994, is almost a second city. Many senior Al-Qaeda figures have brought their families from their home countries or married locally. The 55 Brigade is now helping retreating Taliban units to hold their positions. Many are dug in on the front lines north of Kabul facing the Northern Alliance. Nobody expects them to give in and many will gladly die at their posts. As a direct descendant of the famed International Brigade - the fierce frontline troops who fought the Soviets - its fighters are likely to be the last to survive the American-led intervention force. Dr Rohan Gunaratna is a terrorism specialist at the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, University of St Andrews _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
