The Taliban strike in their heartland. Why is Kandahar so important?

Thursday October 18, saw the total political leadership of Kandahar province in Afghanistan killed.

Kandahar's powerful police chief, General Abdul Raziq Achakzai, Momin Hassankhel, the local chief of the NDS – the Afghan intelligence service – and Zalmay Wesa, the governor of Kandahar, were killed by an insider attack, dealing a massive blow both to the US occupation forces and the government in Kabul.

For the Taliban, this is a propaganda coup for two reasons. One, the senior people that were killed. The other, and arguably of longer term value, is it demonstrated its ability to strike in Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban.

Why is Kandahar important?

With a population of more than 500,000, Kandahar is Afghanistan's second largest city and critical in ensuring American supremacy over the south of the country.

The city served as the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban and was a centre for the movement. The group’s founder Mullah Mohammad Omar was also from the province.

The group emerged in the early 1990s as a group of students who promised Afghans – in a society ravaged by the Afghan-Soviet War, which then fell into warlordism – peace, security, justice and the implementation of Islamic law.

Within months of establishing itself in 1994, the ranks of the Taliban swelled, by 1998 the group controlled more than 90 percent of the country.

The Long War

However, the Taliban saw a reversal of its fortunes after 9/11.

America held Osama bin Laden responsible for the attacks. After the Taliban resisted US pressure to hand bin Laden over, on October 7, 2011 America initiated an attack against Afghanistan.

Since then America has been mired in a winnable war against the Taliban, which has now entered its 17th year. The US occupation of Afghanistan is the longest US military engagement in American history.

However, despite the considerable blood spilled and money spent by the Americans, the Taliban continue to have an open and active presence in more than 70 percent of the country. Whereas the government only has full and total control over 30 percent of the country.

More than 2,200 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan. Whereas more than 31,000 Afghans have been killed. In that time America has spent, according to conservative estimates, more than $850 billion fighting the Taliban.