Victory Point - Ed Darack [92]
8
REDOUBLED EFFORTS
Arabs, Chechens, Yemenis . . . and from many other countries. They’re all grouping in Peshawar and will come into Kunar very soon, to help Ahmad Shah.” Bobby translated the words of a confidential source, introduced by L.C., during Regan Turner’s second trip to Khewa, in July. “Ahmad Shah will soon have maybe sixty to one hundred fighters with him,” the source revealed. Regan learned that indeed, the tragic events that had befallen the SOF personnel and the subsequent worldwide media attention given to the ambush and fiery shootdown of the MH-47 had greatly enhanced the cachet of the cell leader. “The fighters will be here for three months, to help Shah in stopping the elections in Kunar, Nangarhar, and Nuristan with road bombings, mortar, and rocket attacks. Shah even now has an Egyptian who commands the Arabs for him. He is also hiring some locals—not regular fighters—along the Asadabad-Jalalabad road and in the Korangal and other valleys, to look out for him, and some to shoot for him.”
Turner further learned that Shah had been giving financial support to an al-Qaeda operative who would be placing his name on the ballot as a representative of the Kuz Kunar district in the September elections; the extremist clearly sought a multipronged assault on regional stability, intending, on the one hand, to disrupt the elections with violence, and on the other, to sully the democratic process with an al-Qaeda candidate. To vet the accuracy of the source’s information, Turner asked a question about the shoot-down. “He says that it was not shot down by an SA-7, but with an RPG.” With that piece of information, and with the source’s confirmation of other details that had not yet made it into media reports, the lieutenant felt confident in the reliability of his source.
“The picture . . .” Bobby held up a widely distributed Army-produced “wanted” flyer of Ahmad Shah as he translated the source’s information. “The picture is wrong. That is one of his assistants.” The source ducked inside his house and then emerged seconds later, holding two small, grainy color photographs. “These, he says, are actual, real pictures of Shah.” After the meeting, Turner asked a number of other Khewa locals to identify the man in the photographs; all responded with the same name: Ahmad Shah. “He will be back in the Chichal area, many villagers throughout there will help him. He won’t go into Chichal by going up the Korangal Valley, though.” The source motioned with his hands as he spoke to Bobby and Lieutenant Turner. “He’ll be coming in from the Chowkay Valley, the way he just escaped from the Korangal before he went into Pakistan, and then when he returns, he will come up the Chowkay Valley, over the summit of Sawtalo Sar mountain, and down into Chichal in the upper Korangal. If he has to run again, he’ll go through the Chowkay or possibly the Narang Valley—no Marines there!—then move up to hiding not in Pakistan, but in Nuristan. No Afghan Army in Nuristan, no police, no Marines—nobody!” The Afghan man chopped his hand through the air, accentuating his statement. “Ahmad Shah really believes that he is the new, reborn Taliban, that he can bring them back into power, and that he can be a big leader. If he returns to Pakistan again, he’ll be seen as weak, because he’ll be running away. He has to stay here now—and scare people off from the elections in the area to show that the Taliban is the only way.”
“Coalition forces have no presence in Nuristan? None?” Lieutenant Colonel Jim Donnellan