Taliban highlights militants' mobile tracking fear

An Afghan National Army soldier plays with his mobile phone at a checkpoint near Panjwaii town in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, October 25, 2007.

LONDON (Reuters) - A Taliban threat to attack Afghan telecoms companies is the latest sign of paranoia from militants who fear their mobile phones will betray their hiding places.

The Islamist militia on Monday gave mobile operators a three-day ultimatum to shut down their networks at night or face attacks on their towers and offices.

It issued the demand because "the occupying forces stationed in Afghanistan usually at night use mobile phones for espionage to track down the mujahideen," a Taliban spokesman told Reuters.

The threat comes several months after publication on the Internet of a "security encyclopedia" for militant Islamists which urges strict precautions when using mobiles.

Chechen rebel leader Dzhokhar Dudayev was assassinated after his phone signal gave away his whereabouts, and Taliban leader Mullah Omar came close to suffering the same fate, said the security encyclopedia, translated by the U.S.-based SITE institute which monitors militant use of the Internet.

It even recommends a particular handset model it says is hard for the enemy to open to implant a bugging device.

A mobile phone is actually a transmitter which sends out a radio signal. Provided it is switched on, its position can be tracked by measuring the distance the signal has to travel to reach the nearest mobile masts, and triangulating between them.

Some companies offer this as a commercial service, for example to enable parents to know their children's whereabouts.

"STEALTH DEVICES"

Howard Melamed, chief executive of U.S.-based cellular communications group CellAntenna, said the Taliban threat reflected a lack of understanding of the technology.

"Common sense would dictate: turn your phone off and it's OK," he told Reuters. "I have a feeling they're not really in tune too much with this kind of technology."

Lending support to that theory, the authors of the "security encyclopedia" admit they are unsure whether switching off the phone is enough, or whether the battery and SIM card should be removed as well. "We ask anyone who has knowledge to send us what they have, accompanied with certification from a specialized entity," it says.

Melamed said the Taliban may be concerned about the possibility of spies planting stealth devices on them that may emit signals to mobile networks.

He noted that mobiles have become a crucial device to militant groups, both for communications and for triggering remote-controlled bombs.

Among other tips, the security encyclopedia recommends never speaking for more than three minutes, avoiding "clearly prohibited words", using multiple phones and changing your accent when speaking.

Recent investigations and trials suggest militants are taking the security advice to heart.

Parviz Khan, a British-Pakistani dual national who admitted plotting to kidnap and behead a Muslim British soldier and shipping militant equipment to Pakistan, used a "multiplicity" of mobile phones and SIM cards to try to keep a step ahead of the authorities, a British court was told this month.

And analysts believe that senior leaders of al Qaeda do not use either mobile or satellite phones at all in order to avoid detection, instead relying on people to carry messages by word of mouth.