KABUL: Hundreds of suspected Taliban fighters armed with rockets, grenades and automatic weapons have been attacking Afghan security forces for days.

The rebels can only be beaten back with the help of US warplanes. While the world is engrossed with events in Iraq, Afghanistan is experiencing the worst wave of violence since the Taliban regime was toppled at the end of 2001.

No-one in Afghanistan doubts that Taliban fighters and those of the Al Qaeda network have again formed ranks two years after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

In the past two weeks, at least 180 people have been killed in battles mainly in the south and east of the country. Hardly a day passes without attacks on US-led coalition forces, Afghan security forces, relief agencies or civilians.

Suspected Taliban fighters stage hour-long occupations of border points and police stations or ambush soldiers and high-ranking police officers. The rebels fire rockets at army bases, blow up buses packed with civilians or open fire on vehicles tasked with mine clearing.

Warnings that the country could fail on the path to real peace and democracy are becoming more frequent. That would prove to be a dramatic defeat of the West, especially the United States, in its “war against terror”, and also Germany, which has committed itself to Afghan peace in a manner unequalled by most other countries.

German Defence Minister Peter Struck said recently that there would be no point in having relative stability in Kabul and the surrounding area, “If terrorist groups in particular and Taliban supporters still wield power in the remainder of the country”.

The new commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, German NATO General Goetz Gliemeroth warns of creating “Kabulistan”, meaning a secure strip of land around the capital, while terror reigns in the remainder of country.

Everyone involved believes “Kabulistan” could be prevented by expanding ISAF’s mission to protect Kabul and the surroundings to the entire country. According to earlier ISAF estimates, about 10,000 extra soldiers would be needed in addition to the current force of 5,500. But no-one wants to provide these troops.

Germany offered on Wednesday to send 250 soldiers to the northern Afghan province of Kunduz to rebuild roads, schools and hospitals, but underlined a difference with Washington by stressing that Berlin needed a United Nations mandate before acting. Germany currently contributes about half the troops protecting Kabul.

Such a minimalist solution is not quite as expensive as it involves a small reconstruction team of soldiers and helpers bringing security to the provinces.

Taliban fighters have not been deterred by the fact that the location of more recent targets for attack lie in the sphere of a US reconstruction team.

It will soon become clear whether it is possible to bring security to the provinces. In June next year, the first scheduled elections to take place in Afghanistan will set a milestone in the peace process.

If free elections do not take place punctually, a power vacuum looms and thus catastrophe. President Hamid Karzai and his cabinet form only a transitional government which received a two-year mandate from the loya jirga or grand assembly in June 2002.

ISAF General Gliemeroth sees only gloom, if the elections are postponed for security reasons and the government no longer has any authoritative power. He said: “I dare not imagine which way it would go.”—dpa