Via Twitter, Glenn Greenwald alerts us to this under-reported story. Reuters (my emphasis):
Protesters spilled into northern Afghan streets for a second day on Thursday, a day after 12 people were killed and scores wounded in wild protests that underscored deep tensions between Afghans and foreign troops.Both Hamid Karzai and the Taliban have denounced the raids and the killings.
The second day of outcry came as the NATO-led force in Afghanistan said some of its troops had fired during protests on Wednesday, during which at least 80 people were also wounded, although the circumstances were unclear.
The protests were sparked by a disputed "night raid" by Afghan and NATO troops late on Tuesday in which four people were killed, including two women.
This is a continuation of a protest on Wednesday, in which roughly "3,000 people stormed into the streets of the normally peaceful town of Taloqan, chanting 'death to America' and 'death to Karzai.'"
There appears to be a third force forming in Afghanistan, or at least this region, a kind of "Arab spring" rebellion that is not organized by the ethnic-Pashtun Taliban.
Note the city — Taloqan. This city is not predominantly Pashtun. It was the last to fall to the Taliban, after which the Northern Alliance stopped their (the Taliban's) advance.
On the map above (click it to big it), shaded blue shows the Pashtun areas of both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Note the position of Kabul. Taloqan (not named) is north of Kabul and on the road east of Kondûz, about a third of the way to Feyzabad. This map shows Taloqan directly.
The northern area of Afghanistan is the non-Pashtun area, and Taloqan is in the heart of it. This is the reason the Northern Alliance was the Northern Alliance — it's the anti-Pashtun alliance of northern tribal areas, including Taloqan and the whole north of Afghanistan. Again, the residents of Taloqan were the last to fall to the Taliban, prior to the U.S.-Afghan War. They obviously resisted.
Study that first map again: this is what Afghanistan is dealing with. Pashtuns have historically ruled Afghanistan for centuries, and not everyone loves them. It's also part of why the Taliban are so strong in Pakistan.
So my point — while the Taliban supports the protesters (natch), so does Karzai. And the reason is that the protesters seem to represent a third force. I'm calling it Arab Spring–like because it's a popular non-Pashtun force.
And the police — and quite possibly NATO forces as well — are shooting, wounding, and killing them. If I'm right, this is Cairo come to the Kush via Syria. It would be really bad to be on the wrong side of that movement, should it take hold.
[Updated to correct the map interpretation. Also, Chris makes a similar Arab Spring point here.]
GP
