Afghan Insurgency Drawing New Fighters

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Afghan Insurgency Drawing New Fighters
January 13, 2009
Agence France-Presse

Afghanistan's long years of unrest have produced a new generation of Islamic militants, many of them bent on holy war, who are reinforcing the "old Taliban" in their deadly insurgency, analysts say.

When the Taliban regime was toppled in a US-led invasion in late 2001, the hardliners were considered a spent force.

But in their safe havens across the border in Pakistan, they have been able to regroup, recruit and -- armed with new ideologies, funds and warfare from the Al-Qaeda terror network -- make a deadly comeback, analysts say.

"Today's Taliban are different to what they were in 2001," said Waheed Mujda, a former foreign ministry official in the Taliban government who has written a book on the hardliners' five years in office.

"Back in 2001 and before, the Taliban were a nationalist movement trying to gain power and bring stability to Afghanistan," he said, referring to the anarchy of the 1990s when the country was mired in civil war.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/afghan-insurgency-drawing-new-fighters.html?col=1186032310810