Insurgents bring suicide terror to Afghanistan

A 15-year-old suicide bomber killed five Afghan soldiers yesterday by throwing himself in front of a convoy.

In a separate attack, 20 more died when a motorcyclist detonated his explosive-packed vest.

Just the previous day, a Canadian diplomat and two others were the victims in a similar blast.

It was the bloodiest 48 hours in what is turning into the most violent months in Afghanistan since the country was "liberated" during the US-led invasion in October 2001.

And it is into this increasingly savage insurgency that up to 4,500 British troops will be sent from March.

The most lethal attack was on the town of Spin Boldak near the border with Pakistan, the birthplace of the Taleban, and the relentless rise in recent violence has been described as the "re-Talebanisation" of Afghanistan.

The new Taleban are deploying tactics that have torn Iraq to shreds and Afghanistan is seeing a surge in the previously unknown practice of suicide bombings - 25 in four months.

This is seen as the re-introduction of al Qaeda into Afghanistan - a devastating example of how over-extending the "War on Terror" into Iraq is rebounding on the West with vengeance.

Tony Blair declared after the overthrow of the Taleban and the retreat of Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda that, "this time we will not walk away", a reference to how Afghanistan was allowed to sink into its cycle of destruction after the West had used and then abandoned the country in the Cold War against the Soviets.

President George W Bush, supported by Mr Blair, the critics say, have subsequently neglected Afghanistan, toppled Saddam, and spawned "al Qaeda in Iraq" led by the Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

This is the reality on the ground awaiting thousands of British troops being sent in the next few months into Afghanistan - a redeployment in itself part of the disengagement plan for Iraq.

Ironically, they are going into an area of increasing and unrelenting violence which makes Basra and British-controlled southern Iraq seem relatively benign.

The British force will be supported by planned contributions from the Netherlands of 1,300 to add to forces already there from the US, Canada, Germany, Italy and Spain.

The bulk of the US combat troops are going to withdraw to be replaced by British forces in the province of Helmand and the most dangerous of the frontier areas.

There is, however, rising apprehension that Britain will be forced to take up the vast bulk of the fighting burden.

The Nato "commitment" is, however, a matter of intense debate within member countries.

The Dutch deployment has been agreed by the government, but not ratified by Parliament.

Countries such as Italy have refused to send more troops.

Francesc Vandrell, the EU's special representative to Afghanistan, warned it would be a "a heavy blow" to Europe's commitment, and Afghanistan's future, if the Dutch failed to agree their deployment.

Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's president, said the attacks were designed to "frighten" off Nato members planning to send extra troops as well as donor countries who are due to meet in London at the end of the month to draw up a plan for a land described as a "basket case".

President Karzai, speaking at his heavily fortified palace at Kandahar, said the attacks showed "desperation".

He also warned the country may once again become the breeding ground for devastating attacks, such as the World Trade Center attacks in New York, unless urgent steps are taken now to combat resurgent Islamist militancy.

He said: "We are in a joint struggle against terrorism, for us and for the international community.

"If you don't defend yourself here, you will have to defend yourself back home, in European capitals and America's capitals."

Despite the elections last year, presented as concrete steps towards stability, President Karzai's Afghan forces, trained by Nato, are no match for al Qaeda and its supporting phalanx of former Taleban.

The real fight will have to be continued by Western troops.

Heroin cultivation has rocketed in the atmosphere of lawlessness with 90 per cent of the supplies in Europe now coming from the country.

The attack by the teenager was at the southern city of Kandahar, the heart of the Pashtun belt.

Khalid Abdullah, who witnessed the attack, said: "I saw a boy of about 15 with bulky clothes running towards the soldiers in their trucks, then there was a loud explosion. He had blown himself up.

"People were screaming, there was blood everywhere."

The attack at Spin Boldak took place during a wrestling contest on the holiday of Eid al-Adha.

- INDEPENDENT