Taliban Publishes How-To Guide For Insurgents

The Taliban has published its first military field manual detailing how to spring ambushes, run spies, and conduct an insurgency against coalition forces in Afghanistan. At 144 pages, "Military Teachings — for the Preparation of Mujahideen," is a detailed how-to book on subjects ranging from tactics and weapons to building training camps and spycraft.

The guide, which is similar in its aims to British and American military field manuals, was obtained by the Daily Telegraph from a source in Pakistan who claimed to be close to the Taliban. Its cover bears the image of two crossed swords and the Koran — the symbol of the Taliban's ousted government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

The book, written in the Pashto language, "will soon be made available to the commanders in Afghanistan as well as its adjacent tribal areas in Pakistan," the source said. He added that copies of the manual had been circulated to the Pakistani tribal area of Bajaur. Its publication highlights the extent of the Taliban's revival six years after it was deposed by an American-led invasion.

"This is the first of its kind and shows a significant level of organization," said Brigadier Mahmood Shah, a retired military intelligence officer who was in charge of security in the tribal areas.

Brigadier Shah said "soft" Pakistani government policy toward the pro-Taliban militants had allowed them to flourish in the lawless ethnic Pashtun tribal areas that straddle the Afghan-Pakistani border.

Maulana Nek Zaman, an MP from North Waziristan, where security forces and local pro-Taliban militants are engaged in daily skirmishes, said the manual had a potentially large readership. "It is not a case of just Taliban who are fighting but all the tribes are resisting because they have been attacked," he said.