By Jerome Starkey in Kabul
TALEBAN commanders have been bribed with cash from the international community to hold off violent attacks in the run up to Thursday’s Afghan elections, The Scotsman has learned.
Intelligence sources say the money was given to fighters in the hope it would form the basis of permanent peace talks with the Taleban. The news came as the head of the British Army warned that UK troops might remain engaged in operations in Afghanistan for another five years.
General Sir Richard Dannatt, in Edinburgh yesterday for the official opening of the UK’s first purpose-built recovery centre for injured service personnel, said it would take “a bit of time” before Afghan forces were able to take over responsibility for security in the country.
President Hamid Karzai is tipped to be re-elected this week after the bloodiest month for British troops in the eight-year war. His brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, and another key Afghan government figure in reconciliation efforts, Arif Noorzai, have been in negotiations with the Taleban.
They claimed that they had split local commanders in the particularly violent south and east of the country from the Taleban high command in Pakistan. Under the terms of the truce, local insurgents have agreed to “neither help, nor intervene” so long as Nato troops do not attack them on polling day, Mr Noorzai said. (Read more)
