Brits vs. Brits in Afghanistan

Senior military officials are saying that British troops are engaged in a ‘surreal mini-civil war’ in Helmand province in Afghanistan. The British military reports picking up increasing amounts of insurgent radio ‘chatter’ featuring militants speaking in English in accents they’ve identified as being from the Midlands and Yorkshire regions of England. They also said that they are hearing more Pakistani accents on the radio, people speaking with accents identified as being Punjabi and Urdu, rather than Pashtu, the official Afghani language.

The British sources believe the voices all belong to a group of young British Muslims who have traveled to Afghanistan to participate in jihad against Western troops. The foreigners, they think, were ordered not to speak in English on the radio - the reason for the Punjabi and Urdu accents - but that sometimes they forget or panic and fall back to Engish.

Great Britain has struggled with home-grown Muslim militants, some violently radical, for years now. They are widely believed to have been behind 2005’s July 7th terrorist attacks on London’s public transportation system that killed 52 and injured nearly 700. MI5, the British foreign intelligence agency, believes as many as 4,000 British Muslims have traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan for military training, with unknown numbers moving on to the battlefield. So far the Ministry of Defense has not commented on the presence of the British jihadis.

Western military officials are expecting a surge in fighting in Afghanistan once the harsh winter season ends. Some estimates put as much as 70% of Afghanistan under the control of the Taliban and other insurgent groups.