Arghandab district is located to the north of Kandahar city which has also taken center stage in the enemy operation and the enemy has also made bold claims of routing Mujahideen from the area in their recent propaganda reports. These reports have surfaced at a time when they enemy has neither made any considerable progress and neither has the situation of the district seen any change. To shed light on what has taken place in this district and its recent situation, Alemarah interviewed one of the district leaders, Mullah Muhammad Yasir.
Alemarah: Could you please shed light on Arghandab district’s current situation?
Mullah Muhammad Yasir: As you might already know that Arghandab is situated very close to Kandahar city and in the past few years Mujahideen extended their presence and took control of more areas in the district from which the enemy feared a great danger and therefore it also included this specific district in their push for the control of Kandahar but their assaults have been few, sporadic and very ineffective.
They started their campaign from North-Eastern area, where they had already established a huge base, into Khasro and Tarako Kala and similarly in Char Kot and Char Gholbi through Baba Sahib area but their operation did not yield any result in weakening Mujahideen or taking control of any of their strategically important areas but rather the only thing they did achieved was that of harming and causing damage to the lives and properties of civilians however they did build 2 new bases in close proximity to their old ones. The operation in Arghandab was not like that of the other districts as it was carried out for only a couple of days and the situation right now is no different than it was before the operation took place.
Alemarah: What do you say about the claims of the enemy of completely taking control of Arghandab?
Mullah Muhammad Yasir: Like all their other baseless claims this is also false. As a matter of fact, we invite international media journalists to come and check out the district for themselves, so they can see who controls majority of the district. The enemy only controls Baba Sahib, Nagahan and Manara which were also previously under their control but Mujahideen have been carrying out guerilla attacks in it on a regular bases. As for Char Gholba, Tabinan, Khasro, Shahtori, Shinan and the rest of areas, they are fully under Mujahideen control. The enemy only has outposts on the road which comes from Uruzgan then leads to Herat and similarly the road which leads towards the north from Baba Sahib area. All the rural areas are under Mujahideen control, just like how they were under our control before and we have a very powerful presence in those areas.
Alemarah: Can you give us information about what took place in the operation?
Mullah Muhammad Yasir: The enemy started a campaign of heavy bombardment using cruise missiles and other means at night in Khasro’s Tarko Kala village and other places for 3 days. The bombing campaign was continued because their tanks and foot soldiers were hit by IED explosions in every meter of entering from the North and South of the district.
The civilians lost most of their property due to the enemy’s indiscriminate bombings and firing of cruise missiles. More than 20 houses were destroyed in Tarko Kala village alone. Arghandab is also covered with pomegranate trees and since this was the time of harvest, the civilians also faced a huge economic burden as their fields and trees were completely destroyed. The reason why civilians were not killed is because they had either already fled their homes or were forced by the repeated enemy warnings to vacate the district.
The enemy arrested more than 70 civilians in the name of Mujahideen, when in fact these people had only come from the city and surrounding areas to collect some of the pomegranates, so they can feed their families by selling these fruits. Similarly, more civilians were also arrested in the other areas but they were later released. Only 2 of our Mujahideen brothers have been Martyred in these operations but the enemy has suffered major losses due to the deadly IED explosions.
Alemarah: The enemy plans to make militias in the district. Do you see that happening?
Mullah Muhammad Yasir: These are just rumors spread by their propaganda machines. Nearly all the people of Arghandab are Mujahideen and are even helping us right now. The enemy cannot even leave their bases and they have been trying to implement such strategies in the last few years but without any effective outcome. The people of Arghandab hate the enemy and have therefore embraced us with open arms. There is no possibility that the enemy can take control of Arghandab by implementing such useless strategies.
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