Word: guerrillas
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Spanish were in pre-democracy turmoil and washed their hands of the Saharawi people, most of whom now live in vast desert refugee camps across the border in Algeria. But, perhaps ashamed of their politicians having abandoned the Saharawi to their fate - which was to wage a long guerrilla war against Morocco - the Spanish people have adopted them. In the refugee camps outside the Algerian town of Tindouf you see 4WD vehicles, solar panels, stoves, medical supplies, torch batteries ... all gifts from Spanish fund raisers. Several thousand Saharawi children spend their summer holidays with Spanish families. Each year a "caravan...
...guerrilla fights the war of the flea," wrote Robert Taber in his 1965 textbook on (and for) guerilla warfare. "And his military enemy suffers the dog's disadvantages: too much to defend; too small, ubiquitous, and agile an enemy to come to grips with." Not only that, the guerrillas take shelter in the civilian population, knowing that any "collateral damage" incidents will potentially alienate that civilian population from the guerrillas' enemies...
...Since the Taliban fell, their forces along with al-Qaeda members have engaged in guerrilla actions aimed at harassing U.S. troops and local warlords aligned with the Kabul government. U.S. bases and patrols regularly come under fire; just last weekend 19 people were killed in the town of Spin Boldak after an ammunition depot used by a pro-Kabul warlord exploded under suspicious circumstances...
...Rather than base their new guerrilla campaign on resurrecting their own mediaeval Islamist ideology, the Taliban survivors have attempted to rally new support along ethnic lines. Their propaganda appeals to Pashtun nationalism, accusing Karzai of being beholden to the Americans and the Tajiks of the Northern Alliance. On that basis, they've sought to make common cause with former adversaries such as the notorious Pashtun warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and local commanders once opposed to the Taliban...
...extent of the threat posed by the Taliban/al-Qaeda guerrilla campaign is difficult to gauge. But what is clear is that even though the peacekeeping mission has been formally taken over by Turkish forces, the ongoing guerrilla campaign continues to keep thousands of U.S. troops busy in Afghanistan more than six months after Karzai's transitional administration was first installed in Kabul. Clearly, the mission involves more than simply mopping up a few desperadoes. It looks likely to continue as long as Mullah Omar and his ilk are able to find support and succor among the locals...