
In a recent report by RFE/RL on the growing threat that fighters from Turkmenistan pose in that country as well as in Afghanistan, it is noted that areas in Faryab and Jawzjan remain "no go" zones under Taliban control:
In April 2013, the fiercest fighting in more than a decade broke out in the southern Qaysar district of Afghanistan's Faryab Province, which borders Turkmenistan. Afghan media reported a nine-day battle between Afghan government forces and some 700 Taliban fighters. Government forces drove them out but in September fighting erupted there again. One of the reported casualties was a Taliban shadow governor from another district of Faryab Province.
RFE/RL correspondents based in Afghanistan tell Azatlyk there are already "no go" zones under Taliban control in Faryab and Jawzjan provinces. These correspondents report an increasing number of Afghanistan's ethnic Turkmen arming themselves, and some joining the Taliban or foreign fighters, among them Uzbeks allied with the Taliban.
One correspondent reported a "pro-Taliban" group captured a village in Jawzjan Province along the border with Turkmenistan some three months ago. Government forces arrived and chased the group from the village. The group, reportedly mainly ethnic Turkmen led by ethnic Uzbeks, found sanctuary on an island in the Amu-Darya, the river dividing Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, before gradually fading away back into Afghanistan.The situation in the Afghan north highlights the shortsighted nature of the Afghan "surge," in which Coalition forces focused on Taliban strongholds in Kandahar and Helmand and to a lesser degree in the east while largely ignoring Taliban activity in the north.
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