Taliban training suicide squads to confront invasion of ground troops

The Taliban are preparing to confront Allied ground troops in Afghanistan with a kamikaze-style suicide squad, according to sources in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, close to the Afghan border.

The special unit, which includes Afghan as well as Arab fighters, is being trained for suicide attacks, said Hamid Nawaz, a Pakistani journalist in touch with sources close to the Taliban regime.

The special squad of fedayeen fighters – meaning those who are about to sacrifice themselves – is being readied for action once the Allies have committed forces to a ground war.

The fedayeen squad is already in existence and its members have been spotted in several Taliban-controlled areas. The mastermind behind it is a shadowy Arab, Moroccan in origin, with family connections to leaders of the Palestinian organisation Al Fatah. He has persuaded Taliban leaders, who have never previously countenanced suicide operations, that the times demand them.

The last suicide operation inside Afghanistan was carried out on 9 September, two days before the attacks on America, but it was not the work of Afghans. Two Arabs posing as journalists assassinated Ahmed Shah Masood, the legendary leader of the Northern Alliance, by means of a bomb hidden in their video camera. The assassins also died in the blast. It emerged this week that they had been hoping to wipe out the entire Northern Alliance leadership, but failed to persuade them to sit for a group photograph.

The 11 September suicide attacks on America by terrorists believed to be operating on instructions from Osama bin Laden were also carried out by Arabs – the majority from Saudi Arabia.

The new squad has a distinctive look. Its members carry Russian AK-83 or German HK-MP5 assault rifles rather than the Taliban's standard issue AK-45s, and wear strips on their chests embroidered with verses from the Koran. Their vehicles also have distinctive livery, though exactly what remains secret.

No Afghans have been involved in suicide operations before because the Hanafi school of Islam, to which most Taliban subscribe, forbids it. The rival Hanbali school believes such attacks are permissible in emergencies, hence the Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters who blow themselves up in Israeli pizza parlours and discotheques, and the Kashmiri fedayeen squads which fight their way into Indian army installations in the Himalayan territory and wreak as much havoc as they can before they are shot dead. The overwhelming military might of the US and its allies seem to have persuaded the Taliban to revise their opinions and permit suicide attacks.

The leaders of the 11 September attacks seem to have followed the pattern of Japan's Second World War kamikaze pilots who steeled themselves for certain death with the help of strong drink and barbiturates and allowed young women to throw themselves upon them on the eve of operations.

The Allies may draw heart from this: the Japanese only adopted kamikaze tactics in January 1945, when defeat stared them in the face. But it adds one more dire menace for ground troops to overcome in the world's most daunting battlefield.