Ousted rulers masters of a wide area in Afghanistan

The Taleban find there's no shortage of recruits in Pakistan's Waziristan border region. Picture / Reuters

HELMAND PROVINCE - Racing at high speed across the desert in the north of Helmand province, our convoy was kicking up a dust-storm that could be seen from space.

A couple of saloon cars and four trucks, with fighters dangling their legs over the side.

The Taleban were demonstrating their control over a wide region.

These are the same Taleban that Brigadier Ed Butler, the commander of British forces in the region, said were "practically defeated" in Helmand.

Instead, they are confident and well-armed, all with AK 47s, and many carrying rocket-propelled grenade launchers, which they use with lethal effect against helicopters as well as armoured vehicles and supply convoys.

We shot past the burned-out remains of a Spartan armoured personnel carrier, destroyed on August 1 with the loss of three British lives.

The Taleban said that when British troops first came to northern Helmand in the northern summer, they would try to go out on patrol every day. By the time they pulled out, they hardly left their bases at all.

Last week the British were forced to abandon their northernmost "platoon house" at Musa Qala, and were only able to get their vehicles after a deal brokered by local tribal elders. The plan to spread goodwill from these "inkspots", and provide an environment to deliver aid, has had to be radically reviewed in the face of heavy Taleban attacks.

Their communications equipment and vehicles are new and they have a constant supply of fresh men from the madrassas, the religious schools in Pakistan fighting alongside local Helmand recruits.

In recent weeks, the "Waziristan accord", which has seen Pakistani forces withdraw from large parts of the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, has made it even easier for the Taleban to manoeuvre.

The man leading these forces against the British said this kind of high speed patrol is "essential training".

The Taleban always valued speed and mobility. It was the secret of their success when they swept aside rival mujahideen to take the capital and most of the country 10 years ago. Few carry any possessions other than weapons. They clean their teeth with pointed sticks, and carry only long shawls to cover themselves at night.

When we stopped for the night, they broke into groups to eat in different houses in a village. They demand and get food and shelter wherever they stop, but it is impossible to say how enthusiastic the villagers really are.

The Taleban commander said that the tactic of suicide bombing, still relatively new to Afghanistan, was going to be employed far more intensively in the future.

"There are thousands waiting at the border. We are trying to stop them because they would cause chaos if they all came at once."

He denied that the Taleban support the growing of opium poppies, claiming that they have been trying to persuade people to stop it because it is unislamic. For the last two years of their rule before their Government fell in 2001, they imposed a nationwide ban.

"The British have brought it back by encouraging warlords and not giving the people anything. Poppy growing has led to support for crime, so Helmand is full again of corrupt bandits."

What is clear is the Taleban are now far more numerous than the "200 core fighters" dismissed by Afghan President Hamid Karzai not so long ago. Thousands of young men, including more prosperous urban Afghans, as well as villagers, now see them as a national resistance force against international troops who have had five years and are not seen to have delivered results.

Driving around the region during the next day with a local commander, Mahmud Khan, was a little like visiting villages in Britain with a popular local politician. He knew everybody and stopped often to chat. He made a virtue of the fact that he walked around unarmed, although he carried a discreet 9mm pistol in a belt slung over the driving seat of the car.

He had gathered together an impressive display of captured weapons to show, including two American heavy machine guns - one now mounted on a wheelbarrow - that the Taleban have been using against British forces in Helmand.

As well as the failure of development policies to make any difference to lives here, the increasing violence of the conflict, with inevitable civilian casualties, makes it harder for the Nato force to persuade people of their good intentions.

On the night of October 7 two bombs fell on the village of Regan in Helmand. One hit a house, killing six members of a family, including three young girls. The other bomb partially demolished the mosque.

After the bombs fell, villagers saw four helicopters land. Nato sources describe this village as being heavily defended by the Taleban, who fired on their forces throughout the operation. They arrested a suspect and flew away.

Meanwhile, the scale of institutionalised corruption carried out by the newly trained and armed Afghan National Army is shocking.

They demand money at gunpoint from every driver on the main roads in the south.

The symbolism could not be more powerful since it was to stop just this kind of casual theft on this very road that the Taleban was formed in the first place in 1994.

For the first time since then the Taleban are now being paid again by the trucking companies to sort out the problem.

- INDEPENDENT