Al-Qaida 'regrouping in Afghanistan'

“We have reports here and there that they have entered – at least half a dozen of them,” Wardak said. “The last report is that they came in just close to the time of the mosque attack.”

The blast at the mosque on June 1 killed 20 mourners at the funeral of a moderate cleric who had been assassinated days earlier. The same day, a shoulder-launched, surface-to-air missile was fired at an American aircraft, but missed. Then on Monday, another suicide bomber drove up to a US military vehicle in Kandahar and detonated himself, wounding four American soldiers.

“It looks like there has been a regrouping of al Qaida and they may have changed their tactics not only to concentrate on Iraq but also on Afghanistan,” Wardak said.

Authorities recovered the head of the mosque attacker and said he appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent. Wardak said initial indications are that the second suicide attacker was also Arab.

US military spokesman Lt Col Jerry O’Hara said today it would not be appropriate to comment on the attacks, which were still under investigation.

Wardak would not say where the al Qaida fighters entered from, but other Afghan intelligence sources said the men are believed to have crossed the border from Pakistan’s Baluchistan province, and that more were on the way. Pakistan vehemently denies it is a sanctuary for al Qaida or the Taliban.

The bombings in Kandahar represented a sea change in the tactics of the insurgency, now in its fourth year. Afghan Taliban fighters have rarely resorted to suicide attacks, a practice that is considered more common among Arab militants.

The defence minister said al Qaida and the Taliban were receiving support from “regional powers” who were rattled by Afghanistan’s request for a long-term US and NATO presence, but he declined to single out any country in particular.

“There is no doubt that there are countries in this region that have their own designs, and have had from long ago, and they are always trying to exploit the vacuums that have been created here,” he said.

Afghan officials often point the finger at Pakistan, where many Taliban and al-Qaida forces are still believed to take refuge, but Wardak said more than one country was involved, including some that did not border Afghanistan directly.

The defence minister said he did not know whether bin Laden was personally directing the shift in tactics on the ground, but he said he doubted the terror mastermind was capable of day-to-day control of his forces.

“Al-Qaida, at the moment, based on our intelligence, has a more decentralised command and control,” Wardak said. “There might have been a general instruction (from bin Laden), but I really doubt he is in daily command and control of events.”

Bin Laden is believed to be hiding in the mountains between Pakistan and Afghanistan, though there has been no definitive report on his whereabouts in more than three years.

Wardak acknowledged that recent months have represented a setback for Afghan and coalition forces in their efforts to end the insurgency.

At least 29 US troops have died here since March – about half of them in a helicopter crash whose cause has not yet been determined – a significant upsurge in what was once a relatively painless conflict for Washington. About 240 suspected rebels and three dozen Afghan soldiers and police have been killed in that same period – undercutting US and Afghan claims that the insurgency is all but finished.

“Logically, the (security) situation ought to be better than it is,” Wardak said, adding that it may get even worse as the September 18 parliamentary vote nears.

While less high-profile than last year’s presidential vote that won US-backed Hamid Karzai a five-year term, the legislative election will be far harder to organise, with thousands of candidates and election workers spread out across the country.

“We do believe that we will have three months of very tough times,” Wardak said. “The enemies of this nation will do everything they can to disrupt the elections.”