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DANGEROUS JOB * Afghanistan - Northern Afghan violence undercuts US supply route
Renewed Taliban influence in northern Afghanistan is threatening the new supply line painstakingly negotiated by the U.S.
(AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus - A German ISAF convoy patrols a street outside Kunduz, Afghanistan, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2009)
Pol-I-Kumri, Afghanistan —AP, by LORI HINNANT, AMIR SHAH, Rahim Faiez and Frank Jordans -25 Sept 2009: -- As convoy attacks, militant roadblocks and a nascent shadow government, rising violence takes hold on the one-time Silk Road route...
(AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus - A German ISAF convoy patrols a street outside Kunduz, Afghanistan, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2009)
The north has deteriorated over just a few months, showing how quickly Taliban influence is spreading in a once peaceful area. Local officials say the Taliban are establishing a shadow government along the dilapidated road that ultimately could prevent vital supplies carried in hundreds of trucks every week from reaching the military. It also raises the danger that the supplies could end up in militant hands as fodder for suicide attacks...
(AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus - German ISAF soldiers securing a road outside Kunduz, Afghanistan, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2009)
Meanwhile, Quinn-Judge said, the newly paved highway and bridge leading into Central Asia essentially means "the jihadists' own route has been reopened"...
(AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus - German ISAF soldiers securing a road outside Kunduz, Afghanistan, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2009)Abdul Razaq Yaqoubi, the Kunduz police chief, said the convoys have made a tenuous situation worse. The Americans, he complained, tell no one when the trucks are coming through or how many to expect and the police forces are understaffed...
(AP Photo/Amir Shah - Sept. 23, 2009. Troubled highway is seen near Pol-I-Kumari, Afghanistan, along the one time Silk Road route)
In Baghlan, Zalmay Mangal, the province's deputy police chief, said violence worsened right around the same time that the supplies started moving through in large numbers. He does not blame the convoys, but he and the Kunduz police chief said the truck traffic is a tempting target...
(AP Photo/Amir Shah - In this Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2009. Troubled highway is seen near Pol-I-Kumari, Afghanistan, along the one time Silk Road route)
"One of the main reasons (for the new insecurity) is the NATO and coalition supply convoys," said Yaqoubi. The other reasons, he added, are poverty and anger at the government...
(AP Photo/Amir Shah - Sept. 23, 2009. Vehicles take a sharp turn on a troubled highway near Pol-I-Kumari, Afghanistan, along the one time Silk Road route)Mangal said more coalition troops could help; McChrystal and the Germans prefer to emphasize building up local Afghan forces.
(AP Photo/Amir Shah - Sept. 23, 2009, picture, an Afghan fills water from a hand pump in Pol-I-Kumari, Afghanistan)
"The enemy is not afraid of us," Mangal said of his police force. "They are afraid of our international allies."...
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