Afghanistan: A fighter’s story

Al Jazeera has been speaking to all sides involved in the ongoing battle for control of Afghanistan.

For one Taliban member that means continuing to fight, even when wounded, and taking his eight-year-old son with him to battle. James Bays talked to him in Kandahar.

The death of Mullah Dadullah is certainly a blow to the Taliban: he was not just their best-known commander, he was also their chief military strategist.

The government of Afghanistan is hoping this could be a turning point in the war in the south.

It is also hoping to persuade Taliban fighters to give up arms. It knows it will be difficult to convince the group’s highest leaders.

The focus, I am told, will be on mid-level commanders.

‘Pouring our blood’

One of those commanders is Mullah Siddique, whom I first encountered earlier this year when he was being treated in a hospital run by an Italian charity. He has been a Taliban fighter for eight years.

When you meet him, you quickly discover he is a man firmly committed to his faith and to the Taliban movement.

He says: “These infidels have disgraced our Quran and are still doing it.

“Everybody knows that they have trodden all over our Quran and they have put it inside the toilet. We can’t tolerate this.

“We will defend our Quran by any means. Whether by martyrdom, by being injured or by pouring our blood, we will do it.”

‘A dirty death’

Siddique showed me the injuries he has received in battle.

“I killed six British soldiers myself,” he says. “They died a dirty death. Their bodies remained on the battlefield. After that I got injured.” 

“Since the Americans arrived, this is the eighth time that I have been injured. I was injured twice under the Taliban government.”

As soon as his wounds had healed, Siddique was back on the battlefield.

We filmed him again last week. So, what would be the reaction of someone like Siddiqque to Dadullah’s death?

When we spoke to him a few days ago, he said he would be increasing his efforts, stepping up the fight to kill those he calls invaders.

However, he said: “I’m not fighting for [Mullah] Dadullah. I’m fighting for my God and for my beliefs.

“The infidels have invaded my country and they kill our women, children, and we must protect our Islam against those infidels.

“My children are also Muslim and they will do jihad until they die.”