Can the world get any more fucked up?
The story comes from DAWN.
Russia providing weapons to Taliban, says US general
WASHINGTON: As a US lawmaker on Thursday described Russia as a revisionist power, a top American general warned that Moscow may be providing weapons and other support to the Taliban in Afghanistan.
“In my view, Russia is a revisionist power that will cause further trouble across Europe and in the international order more generally,” Senator Ben Cardin, a ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said at a congressional hearing in Washington.
“Russia sought to undermine and interfere in our election, and how we respond to (President) Putin’s broader strategic game is one of the key challenges of our time,” he added.
At another Capitol Hill hearing, Gen Joselg L Votel, Commander of the US Central Command (CENTCOM), told members of the House Armed Services Committee that Russia was trying to revive its influence in Afghanistan.
Gen Votel also confirmed that the Trump administration was doing a complete review of the US policy on Afghanistan, which explains why there have been more than a dozen congressional hearings and think-tank debates in Washington this month on the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
At the Senate hearing — “The Road Ahead: US Interests, Values and the American people” — Senator Cardin said that the end of the Cold War was not the end of Russia’s influence, which reminded the American people of its presence by interfering in the 2016 US elections.
“Russia has attacked our democracy, illegally annexed Crimea and invaded eastern Ukraine. Putin’s Russia now considers itself in an existential struggle with the West,” he warned.
At the House panel, Congressman Rodney Davis, an Illinois Republican, asked Gen. Votel: “What kinds of support are the Russians sending to the Taliban? And how direct is their involvement? What does that mean about our ongoing conflict there?
“It’s fair to assume they may be providing some kind of support to them in terms of weapons or other things that may be there. Again, I think that is the possibility. I believe what Russia is attempting to do is they are attempting to be an influential party in this part of the world,” said the general, who as CENTCOM chief looks after the greater Middle East region, including Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Gen. Votel, however, acknowledged that the Russians also had some concerns about Afghanistan because it’s close to former Soviet states that they consider to be within their sphere.
“But in general, I don’t consider their outreach and linkage to the Taliban to be helpful to what we have been … trying to accomplish for some time now in Afghanistan,” he said.
Congressman Brad Wenstrup, a Republican from Ohio, asked how the growing Russian influence in Afghanistan could affect the US policy for that region.
Shocking stats revealed in this report by The Long War Journal. All of those years, all of those sacrifices....
Afghan Taliban lists ‘Percent of Country under the control of Mujahideen’
The Taliban issued a “report” that attempts to determine areas in Afghanistan it controls as well as contested areas and areas under the influence of the Afghan government. While the report may be seen as propaganda to bolster its claims of controlling territory, it does not inflate or exaggerate the Taliban’s control of districts centers and contested areas throughout the country, compared to data compiled by FDD’s Long War Journal. The report was actually a rather conservative estimate, painting a dire but realistic picture of the security situation in Afghanistan. The Taliban also admits that there are large areas in Afghanistan where it has only a minimal presence.
The report, entitled “Percent of Country under the control of Mujahideen,” was released on Voice of Jihad, the group’s official website. It was “published by the Commission for Cultural Affairs of the Islamic Emirate after a long rigorous research” on March 26.
Of the 400 known districts in Afghanistan, 349 are covered by the report. FDD’s Long War Journal was unable to match 38 districts listed by the Taliban with known districts throughout the country, and the Taliban did not provide the status of an additional 13 districts; therefore, the status of 51 districts could not be determined.
FDD’s Long War Journal mapped the Taliban’s report (see map above) and color-coded and categorized the districts as follows:
According to the Taliban, it fully controls 34 districts, including the district centers, and contests another 167 districts (these are districts where the Taliban claims it controls between 40 to 99 percent of the territory). The Taliban has a significant presence (10 to 39 percent) in another 52 districts, and a minimal presence in six more districts (1 to 9 percent). The Taliban said it has no presence in 89 districts, however, in some of those provinces it says it is conducting “guerrilla activities.”
Additionally, the Taliban claims it controls areas in 16 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces. The percentages range from 10 in Maimana, Faryab to 97 in Tarinkot, Uruzgan.
According to the Taliban, it controls or contests nearly all of the districts in the southern provinces of Helmand, Nimroz, Uruzgan, Zabul, and Ghazni, and half of Kandahar. Eastern and northwestern Afghanistan look equally bleak, as do the northern provinces of Kunduz and Baghlan.
The Taliban report may be dismissed as propaganda by Resolute Support, however its claims of district control largely match with press reporting from Afghanistan. Additionally, in early Feb., the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) issued a report stating that the Taliban controls, contests, or influences 171 districts. By contrast, the Taliban report, as of March 26, claims that 211 districts are controlled or contested.
Sitting at home now, one of the Taliban's biggest fans, Barack Hussein Obama, can start waving his little pom poms as his beloved Taliban begin their move to retake control of Afghanistan.
The story comes from The Long War Journal.
Taliban takes key district in Helmand province
The Taliban seized the district of Sangin in southern Helmand province, forcing Afghan troops to withdrawal and Coalition forces to launch airstrikes to destroy bases and government facilities left behind. Sangin has been a battleground in Helmand for several years and has exchanged hands multiple times.
In a statement released on Voice of Jihad, the Taliban said that it controls the “Sangin district administration center, police headquarter and a key military base” after the district center was “completely overrun by Mujahideen of Islamic Emirate last night.”
According to the Taliban, Afghan forces “fled by airplanes overnight, leaving many tanks, vehicles, heavy artillery and a sizable amount of military equipment behind.” The group claimed that 39 armored personnel carriers, one tank, 34 pickup trucks and other vehicles and equipment were taken during the assault.
“[The] Enemy has bombarded the said installations after escaping,” the Taliban claimed.
The Taliban’s update from Sangin cannot be independently verified by FDD’s Long War Journal, but their claims can largely be substantiated by press reporting from Afghanistan. TOLONews reported that “security forces moved all their equipment out on Wednesday night before the air force bombed the installations in order to destroy them.”
While the spokesman for Helmand’s governor denied Sangin was overrun, “local Afghan government and military officials said there was no doubt Sangin had finally fallen to their enemy,” The New York Times noted.
The Taliban had previously overran Sangin’s district center in July 2016, but Afghan forces – backed by US air support – pushed the jihadists to the outskirts of the town.
Afghan security forces have telegraphed their weakness to the Taliban for several years. In Aug. 2014, senior officers attempted to negotiate a “peace deal” in Sangin, which was overrun by the Taliban in June of that year.
The security situation in Sangin is a microcosm of that in Helmand. All of the southern province is an active battleground. In Helmand, the Taliban now controls seven of the province’s 14 districts (Baghran, Dishu, Khanashin, Now Zad, Nawa, Musa Qala, and Sangin) and contests another six, including the provincial capital (Lashkar Gah, Nahr-i-Sarraj, Kajaki, Nad Ali, Marjah, and Garmsir), according to data compiled by FDD’s Long War Journal. The status of Washir district is uncertain as new reports from the district are scarce. Nearly all of Helmand has been controlled or influenced/contested for well over a year.
The situation in Helmand is so bleak that the Taliban has effectively surrounded the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah for well over a year, and have launched several forays into the city. Two days ago, a suicide bomber killed eight Afghan security personnel in an attack in the capital. The Taliban have also launched major attacks in the district. In Oct. 2016, the Taliban ambushed a large convoy of Afghan troops after they negotiated their safe passage from their base on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah. More than 200 Afghan troops were killed, wounded, captured, or surrendered. [See LWJ report, Taliban details deadly ambush of Afghan military convoy.]
As the Taliban has ramped up pressure in Helmand, it has also increased its footprint throughout Afghanistan. FDD’s Long War Journal has identified 45 Afghan districts under the Afghan jihadist group’s control, and another 55 that are heavily contested. The number of Taliban controlled and influenced/contested districts has risen from 70 in Oct. 2015 to 100 this month.
This assessment has been verified by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), which noted last month that the Afghan government “has lost territory to the insurgency” and “district control continues to decline.” According to SIGAR, the Afghan government controls or influences just 52 percent of the nation’s districts today compared to 72 percent in Nov. 2015. An estimated 15 percent of Afghanistan’s districts have slipped from the government’s control over the past six months. [See FDD’s Long War Journal report, Afghan government ‘has lost territory to the insurgency’.]
That predictable transfer of power in Afghanistan back to the Taliban is right on schedule. Another element of the Obama legacy.
The story comes from The Long War Journal.
Taliban kills dozens in double suicide attack in Kabul
A Taliban suicide assault team killed and wounded more than 100 people in a coordinated attack that targeted intelligence officials and government workers today in the Afghan capital of Kabul. The attack included a blast that preyed on first responders who rushed in to help those injured in the initial bombing.
Afghan officials said at least 38 people were killed and 70 more were wounded in the double bombing that took place “as a convoy of parliament staff was leaving the offices in Darulaman Road in PD6,” or Police District 6, according to TOLONews. The first suicide bomber detonated his explosives “at the entrance to parliament’s offices,” then the second bomber struck as first responders arrived at the scene of the attack.
Among those killed was the head of the National Directorate of Security for Police District 6, TOLONews reported. A female member of parliament was also wounded.
The Taliban claimed credit for the deadly blasts in a statement released on Voice of Jihad, its official propaganda website. The jihadist group admitted it deliberately targeted first responders.
According to the Taliban, the first suicide bomber hit “a mini bus ferrying workers of NDS [National Directorate of Security] 5th Directorate,” while the second “targeted the Quick Reaction Force troops and other intelligence personnel gathered at the site.”
Today’s attack is similar to another executed by the Taliban on June 30, 2016. In that attack, a suicide bomber hit a bus transporting police cadets in Kabul. The second suicide bomber then detonated his explosives as emergency personnel rendered aid to the victims of the first blast. [See FDD’s Long War Journal report, Taliban suicide bombers target police cadets, first responders in Kabul attack.]
The Taliban has launched several high-profile attacks in the capital since last summer. Other targets include the Afghan Ministry of Defense, the home of a member of parliament, and Canadian embassy personnel.
Suicide bombers were from the Taliban’s “Martyr Battalion”
In its statement claiming credit for today’s attack, the Taliban said “both of the attackers were from the Martyr Battalion of Islamic Emirate who successfully reached their targets and handed the enemy a heavy blow.”
In the past, the Taliban has claimed that it has “thousands of fully armed martyrdom seekers” at its disposal to conduct attacks inside Afghanistan and has provided some information on the structure of its “martyrdom units.”
The Taliban has identified two key leaders of its “Suicide Groups.” Mullah Taj Mir Jawad has been described as the head of a “martyrdom-seekers battalion.” Jawad swore allegiance to Mullah Mansour, the group’s previous emir, in a video released in Sept. 2015.
Qari Abdul Raouf Zakir, the “commander” of the Taliban’s “suicide groups,” also swore allegiance to Mullah Mansour in the same video. Qari Zakir, who was designated as a terrorist by the State Department in Nov. 2012, has long commanded the Haqqani Network’s suicide operations.
The Haqqani Network is an al Qaeda-linked Taliban subgroup that operates throughout Afghanistan and is based in Pakistan, where it is supported by Pakistan’s military and the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate. Sirajuddin Haqqani, the operational commander of the Haqqani Network, serves as one of two deputies to Mullah Habaitullah, the emir of the Taliban, and as the head of the Taliban’s military.
The Taliban has also promoted suicide teams in its propaganda. The Muaskar ul Fida, one of several suicide squads operating in Afghanistan, previously swore allegiance to the Taliban’s last emir in Nov. 2015.
The story comes from The Long War Journal.
Taliban rejects peace talks, emphasizes alliance with al Qaeda in new video
The Taliban rejects “peace talks” with the West and advertises its continuing alliance with al Qaeda in a newly released video entitled, “Bond of Nation with the Mujahideen.”
The video was produced by Manba’ al-Jihad Media for Production, which has long been affiliated with the Haqqani Network and was folded into the Taliban’s media arm years ago. The production was disseminated on the Taliban’s websites and social media, including on accounts affiliated with the group’s spokesman.
The video is also attributed to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s Commission for Cultural Affairs. Until late 2001, the Taliban ruled over its own emirate inside Afghanistan and it has retained that name to this day, as the jihadists hope to resurrect their nation.
The propaganda film opens with clips of Secretary of State John Kerry and President Barack Obama discussing the prospect of a peace deal with the Taliban.
The Taliban responds with an old audio message from Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, who was named the emir of the Taliban in 2015 after the organization was forced to admit that Mullah Omar had passed away two years earlier. Mansour was killed in an American airstrike in May.
Mansour described the “peace and reconciliation process” as “mere claims of the enemy.” The Taliban’s foes have tried to “weaken” the jihad with “money, media and deviant scholars,” and they tried “to eradicate [the] unity of the Mujahideen.” But they failed, according to Mansour. “We should not listen to these propagandas [sic] neither these ‘Peace Talks,’” Mansour said. “And this jihad will continue until the Word of Allah and Shariah is implemented.“
Taliban officials often claim that they seek negotiations with the West. But the Taliban has used such talks to extract concessions, without giving up anything of substance. And these negotiations are different from true “peace talks,” which the Taliban’s senior leadership rejects in the video.
The production includes a translation of an Islamic text that is intended to underscore the bond between native Afghans and those who migrate for the sake of jihad. The Koranic passage is used to emphasize the Taliban’s relationship with al Qaeda. An image (seen above) of Taliban figures, Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders, such as Nasir al Wuhayshi (the emir of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula until his death last year), is shown as the following text is scrolls across the screen:
“But those who have believed and emigrated and fought in the cause of Allah and those who gave shelter and aided — it is they who are the believers, truly. For them is forgiveness and noble provision. [Al-Anfal: 74]”
An excerpt from a speech previously recorded by Siraj Haqqani (seen above), one of the Taliban’s top deputy leaders, is also featured. Haqqani has long been closely allied with al Qaeda. These ties are documented in Osama bin Laden’s files and can be seen in other evidence as well.
Haqqani praises the founding of the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, saying it was not established for “fame,” or because people wanted to increase their “position,” but to implement Allah’s Sharia (Islamic law) “upon this land.”
Haqqani says that it is “possible” some disagreements may occur between the mujahideen, but these differences should not be exacerbated “to a level that it affects our overall struggles in this path.” Haqqani claims that Muslims “both inside and outside [of Afghanistan] are following us in our claim that we have made,” meaning the jihadists’ quest to build and then rebuild the Taliban’s emirate. He argues that “Muslims both inside and outside [of Afghanistan] have accepted our methodology without any objections,” which “indicates that our officials and representatives have effectively and efficiently performed their duties.”
A clip from Sheikh Khalid Batarfi (seen above), a senior official in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), is also included. Batarfi is an al Qaeda veteran who was trained and fought in Afghanistan during the 1990s. The Long War Journal assesses that he is likely part of al Qaeda’s global management team. Other AQAP leaders with similar dossiers served dual roles as both regional officials in al Qaeda’s network and as members of the organization’s senior management.
“Muslim brothers! Our beloved Afghan brothers who greatly supported [the] religion of Allah are indeed an excellent example for you,” Batarfi says. “The entire world saw how Amir-ul-Mumineen [“Emir of the Faithful”] Mullah Omar, [the] Taliban and all the Afghan people bravely stood and [are] still standing alongside their Mujahid brothers and Arab and non-Arab migrants.”
On top of these jihadi migrants was “our Sheikh and Imam al Mujahid Osama bin Laden (may Allah accept his martyrdom),” Batarfi says, referring to the fact that the Taliban did not break with bin Laden even after the 9/11 hijackings. Batarfi heaps praise on the Taliban and says that Afghanistan’s jihadists will “destroy” the US.
“Groups of Afghan Mujahideen have emerged from the land of Afghans that will destroy the biggest idol and head of kufr of our time, America,” Batarfi says. The “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan was sacrificed and even vanished in support of our sacred religion, but they (the Taliban) did not trade off their religion.” Batarfi says that the jihadists can finally “see [the] light of victory,” as governance according to the “rule of Sharia” law is “even stronger in Afghanistan than before.”
In yet another audio clip, Hibatullah Akhundzada, the current emir of the Taliban, explains that the “mujahideen must be very lenient towards the Muslims and very forceful towards the disbelievers.” He advocates for a more forgiving version, even if only slightly, of the jihadists’ strict ideology. Akhundzada believes that Muslims should be given a chance to repent and see the supposed errors of their ways if they do not worship and live as the Taliban does.
Another ideologue, Sheikh Neda Muhammad Nadeem, speaks in this same vein, advocating for a populist version of jihadism. “We all, whether Mujahideen or the general public, must understand that the general public cannot be successful without the help and support of the Mujahideen and similarly [the] Mujahideen cannot be successful without the help and support of the general public,” Nadeem says. Therefore, “Mujahideen must deal [with] the general public with love, good behavior and tolerance.”
The Taliban’s desire to win popular support is consistent with their role as insurgents, as guerrilla fighters often depend on the citizenry’s goodwill to accomplish their goals. This has often forced the Taliban, as well as al Qaeda and other like-minded extremists, to walk a fine line between imposing their draconian laws and alienating the people.
The alleged virtues of Taliban-style sharia rule are advocated throughout the lengthy propaganda film. The video includes scenes of Taliban members handing out candy to children, providing security in rural areas, and gently chastising a shopkeeper who was selling “immoral” CDs and other paraphernalia. In what was likely a staged scene, the store owner quickly agrees to hand over his offending material, which is then burned to chants of “Death to America!”
The “muhajideen want to completely eliminate democracy,” one speaker says. In another clip, leaflets written in Uzbek are distributed.
Even while marketing itself as a benign force, the Taliban cannot hide its misogyny. One member criticizes Afghans who do not join the jihad, arguing that if the West can bring its women into the war, then young Muslim males have no excuse for failing to fight.
The Taliban’s anti-Americanism is on full display. And while the group is often described in local or nationalist terms, some scenes make its global ideas quite clear. The Taliban speaks of the ummah, the worldwide community of Muslims, and the jihadists’ desire to reclaim all lost Muslim lands.
The text at the bottom of one scene reads: “Mujahideen are the hope of Muslims for reviving back the honor of the Muslim Ummah!…A hope for taking back the Islamic lands! A hope for not repeating defeats and tragedies of the last century!”
But America stands in their way. The Taliban claims that the US wants to create distance between Muslims and their religion. But the mujahideen will make America pay, the Taliban claims.
“Allah will shake the White House [with] your [the Mujahideen’s] religious zeal by the permission of Allah,” the Taliban threatens.
The Taliban also makes an argument that is very similar to the one adopted by al Qaeda in the 1990s. Al Qaeda became infamous for alleging that the US was propping up Muslim dictators who stood in the way of jihadi rule.
“While the cheapest and degraded people forcibly and tyrannically rule over the Muslim lands, still the Muslim Ummah does not attach their hopes to these robbers, who are enforced upon the Muslim lands by Europe and America,” a Taliban narrator says, as images of Secretary Kerry and President Obama are shown. “And these foolish [Muslim rulers] lack confidence and trust [among the Muslim Ummah].” This is why, according to the Taliban, “sincere Muslims consider jihad to be the glory of the greatest Islamic history and all of their hopes are attached towards the Mujahideen.”
In case there was any doubt about what the Taliban believes, the video makes it clear that the Taliban’s version of Islam is, in their eyes, the only true one. And it is the same version of Islam as al Qaeda’s.
One speaker says: “Islam is not the religion of the Taliban alone! Neither of al Qaeda! Rather, Islam is the religion of all the Muslims!”
And so it begins...
The story comes from DAWN.
Taliban hang university student in public
GHAZNI: Taliban militants publicly hanged a university student after accusing him of killing a senior intelligence officer, Afghan officials said on Saturday.
The militants took Faizul Rehman, a fourth-year student at Kabul Polytechnic university, from his car as he was travelling home to visit his family in the Chak district of Maidan Wardak province, around 60 kilometres west of Kabul.
“They hanged him on Friday in front of (the) public. Local elders tried to mediate to release him, but they failed,” Abdul Rehman Mangal, a spokesman for the governor of Maidan Wardak, said.
“They accused him of killing Mullah Mirwais the head of their intelligence in the area,” he said.
The Afghan interior ministry confirmed the execution and said they had launched an investigation “to arrest and punish the perpetrators of this criminal act”.
"Tit for tat"....gone horribly wrong in Afghanistan.
The story comes from DAWN.
Taliban kill 23 civilians in Afghanistan, say police
Taliban insurgents killed 23 civilians after they lost 29 of their fighters in an abortive attack on police in southern Afghanistan, police sources said on Friday.
“Taliban insurgents have launched coordinated attacks on police checkpoints in Nesh district of Kandahar yesterday, and they faced resistance from Afghan forces,” Kandahar police said in a press statement.
“Following the taliban attack, 29 taliban fighters were killed and a number of others sustained injuries, and large numbers of weapons and ammunition were confiscated from them,” the statement added.
“The brutal enemy after suffering defeat against Afghan forces, took their revenge by killing 23 civilians including five children and two women,” it said.
The police statement said the taliban had sought refuge in the homes of civilians and killed them after they opposed the insurgents.
According to Nesh district police commander Niaz Mohammed the attacks occurred on Wednesday and Thursday.
“After their defeat, the taliban wanted to hide in the houses and when the civilians showed their opposition, the taliban killed them,” he told AFP.
“Six members of a policeman's family were among the victims. In total 23 people (civilians) were killed.” said Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi rejected the claims as false.
While Nesh district borders Uruzgan province, which is a major opium producer and has a high taliban presence, its population is considered pro-government and Islamists insurgents rarely intervene there.
During the last taliban offensive in October on Kunduz, the economic capital of northeast Afghanistan, civilians who had fled the fighting accused the insurgents of hiding in their houses or seeking to establish their positions there. As in Nesh, they told AFP that those who resisted were killed.
The security situation has eased on most fronts in recent weeks with the coming of winter after a particularly brutal fighting season in which nearly 2,600 civilians were killed and another 5,800 wounded in the first nine months of the year, according to the UN.
Afghan military has also suffered at least 2,000 deaths since January, according to a security source, while a record half million people have been displaced by fighting.
Taliban militants, who were arrested by Afghan border police, stand
during a presentation of seized weapons and equipment to the media in
Jalalabad. (File photo: Reuters)
Now that Afghanistan is on its own against the Taliban, they start to admit the shit that we pointed out five years ago.
The story comes from Al Arabiya.
Afghanistan accuses Iran of supporting Taliban
Afghanistan security forces have formally complained of Iran logistically and militarily supporting the extremist activities of the Afghan Taliban group.
An Afghan official told Kabul Television that Iran supports the extremist group by hosting training exercises inside the country.
A former foreign ministry official told German media outlet Deutsche Welle: “This is the first time that Iran has confessed to supporting the Taliban. In the past, they always blamed Pakistan for this.”
Late in October, Al Arabiya English reported on how one Afghan Taliban leader revealed details of his group’s relations with Iran.
“The movement is trying to benefit from all legitimate means to reach a regional agreement as part of the war against the American invasion; therefore, the Imara holds ongoing networks with a large number of regional and neighboring states,” he said at the time.
He said to the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat in an email 19 months ago, that the movement had received drone planes from Iran, which help film suicidal operations.
The handover of Afghanistan to the Taliban by Barack Hussein Obama is well on its way.
The story comes from The Long War Journal.
Taliban forces enter Kunduz city center
Taliban fighters have invaded the city of Kunduz once again, according to multiple online sources. Just over one year ago, in late September 2015, the Taliban seized Kunduz and briefly held it before being driven back. But the Taliban has retained a presence in the surrounding areas ever since and launched another assault on the center of Kunduz earlier today.
The Taliban’s push into Kunduz was first trumpeted on a Twitter account attributed to the group’s spokesman, Zabihulla Mujahid. Some of the tweets can be seen below.
The propaganda feed reported that Police District #2 (“PD2”) and a recruiting center for Afghan forces were “overrun” during the offensive. The Taliban’s fighters then moved into the city’s “main intersection” while also attacking the governor’s compound and a police headquarters. A short video shows a jihadist hoisting the Taliban’s white flag above a small building in the city’s “main” traffic intersection. A screen shot from the video can be seen above.
In still other tweets, “Zabihulla Mujahid” claimed that the Taliban is firmly in control. One tweet read: “Efforts underway to quickly establish normalcy in #Kunduz so people restart work, Mujahidin are treating people with kindness.”
The Taliban’s push into Kunduz was quickly confirmed by independent sources. For example, a reporter for TOLONews said that an office belonging to Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) in Kunduz is now “under Taliban control.” Citing the Kunduz provincial council, TOLONews also reported that the Taliban was “moving towards the governor’s office.”
NATO’s Resolute Support initially downplayed reports of the Taliban’s assault on Kunduz. “We are aware of reports of ongoing sporadic fighting in Kunduz & are coordinating closely with our Afghan partners to assist,” one tweet on Resolute Support’s official feed read. Another tweet continued: “At this point, we are not observing evidence via our internal means to support the reports that Kunduz is under significant attack.” And in a third, Resolute Support said that its forces would “continue to support ANDSF through training, advising & assisting as well as strategic enabler support.”
But just two hours later Resolute Support tweeted: “(Update) U.S. enablers, including air power, are in position and prepared to assist in Kunduz as needed.” And a subsequent tweet read: “Our #AFG partners are responding to increased Taliban activity in #Kunduz & US forces have multiple assets & enablers within area to support.”
It remains to be seen if the Taliban can maintain its presence inside the city’s center this time. Last year, the Taliban was ejected from Kunduz after approximately two weeks. Still, the temporary fall of Kunduz in 2015 was an ominous sign, as it was the first major urban area to be recaptured by the Taliban since 2001.
The Taliban has relied on its al Qaeda-linked jihadi allies during the fighting in Kunduz. Last year, for example, the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU) participated in the siege of the city. The IJU is an offshoot of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State’s Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. However, the IJU remains loyal to the Taliban’s senior leader. [See LWJ report, Islamic Jihad Union participated in siege of Kunduz.]
Still other jihadist groups that recruit from central Asia have likely bolstered the Taliban’s ranks in Kunduz as well.
The Taliban are alive and well in Afghanistan - 22 Afghan security guards and others....are not.
The story comes from DAWN.
Separate bomb attacks kill at least 22 in Afghanistan
KABUL: More than 20 people were killed in separate bomb attacks in Afghanistan on Monday, including at least 14 when a suicide bomber struck a minibus carrying Nepalese security contractors in the Afghan capital, officials said.
In Kabul, a Reuters witness saw several apparently dead victims and at least two wounded being carried out of the twisted remains of a yellow bus after the suicide bomber struck the vehicle during the morning rush hour in the capital.
Hours later, a bomb planted in a motorbike killed at least eight civilians and wounded another 18 in a crowded market in the northern province of Badakhshan, said provincial government spokesman Naveed Frotan. The casualty count could rise, he said.
The attacks are the latest in a recent surge of violence that highlights the challenges faced by the Afghan government in Kabul and its Western backers as Washington slowly draws down its remaining troops despite a persistent insurgency.
Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said on Twitter that 14 people had been killed and eight wounded in the attack in Kabul. Police were working to identify the victims, he said.
"The suicide bomber targeted a minibus of security guards of a foreign company, right now we are working to identify the nationalities of the victims," said Sediqqi.
The casualties appeared to include Afghan civilians and Nepalese security contractors, Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi said after police and emergency vehicles surrounded the scene in the Banae district in the east of the city.
He said the suicide bomber had waited near a compound housing the security contractors and struck as the vehicle moved through early morning traffic. As well as the bus passengers, several people in an adjacent market were also wounded in the attack, which occurred during Ramazan.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Kabul attack in a statement from the militant group's main spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, on Twitter. There was no immediate indication of who carried out the attack in Badakshan.
The Nepalese government was still working through its embassy in Pakistan, which also oversees Afghanistan, to verify reports that its citizens were involved in the attack, Foreign Ministry spokesman Bharat Paudel said.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent his condolences to his two South Asian neighbours after the attack.
“We strongly condemn the horrible tragedy in Kabul. Our deep condolences to people & Govts of Afghanistan & Nepal on loss of innocent lives,” Modi said on Twitter.
Another explosion in Kabul later on Monday morning wounded a provincial council member and at least three of his bodyguards, Kabul police spokesman Basir Mujahid said. It was thought a bomb had been attached to the lawmaker's car, he said.
The attacks underlined how serious the security threat facing Afghanistan remains since former Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a US drone strike last month and was replaced by Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada.
The blasts follow a deadly suicide attack on a bus carrying justice ministry staff near Kabul last month and a separate attack on a court in the central city of Ghazni on June 1.
The Taliban claimed both those attacks in revenge for the execution of six Taliban prisoners.
I'd have to say that the progress of the Taliban in retaking control of Afghanistan has been much slower than I anticipated but they are making progress and they WILL make my prediction come true that they will take complete control of Afghanistan (without outside intervention) within a year.
The story comes from The Long War Journal.
Taliban seizes a district in Uruzgan
The Taliban took control of a district center in the central Afghan province of Uruzgan after several days of fighting Afghan forces who are reported to have been supported by US forces.
The Taliban said it overran the “police HQ [headquarters] and other installations” at Char Chino and “dismantled” the “district administration center and other buildings.” The jihadist group made the claim on its official propaganda website, Voice of Jihad.
According to the Taliban, it launched the attack yesterday morning and killed 35 “puppets,” or Afghan police and military personnel. The Taliban claimed it destroyed two armored personnel carriers and 7 Ford Ranger pickup trucks. Four Taliban fighters were killed during the assault, the group claimed.
The fall of Char Chino was confirmed by Stars & Stripes, which reported that “the international coalition was providing support to government forces” during the fighting.
However, the spokesman for Uruzgan province claimed that the governor’s office was still under Afghan forces’ control and security forces withdrew from the police headquarters in a “tactical move,” Stars and Stripes reported.
The Taliban currently control 39 districts in Afghanistan and contest another 43, according to data compiled by The Long War Journal. Districts under Taliban control are being administered by the group, or it controls the district center. Typically the Taliban controls all of the areas of a district except the administrative center in contested districts. The Taliban likely controls or contests more districts displayed on the map above, however the districts listed on the map are ones that can be confirmed via independent sources such as Taliban claims, government reports, and news reports.
In Uruzgan, the Taliban contest four districts and control one more (Char Chino).
Fighting in the provinces has intensified over the past month. Just prior to taking Char Chino, the Taliban killed 11 Afghan soldiers and captured 12 others in the district of Dehrawood on June 7. And on May 31, the Taliban overran 11 police checkposts in Gizab district.
The Taliban considers Uruzgan to be a strategic district, and has previously said that it controls all areas of the province except for the district centers.
In a Voice of Jihad interview in April 2016 with Mullah Aminullah Yousuf, the Taliban’s shadow governor for Uruzgan, he described the province as “the linking point for many provinces” and a traditional “strong fortress of mujahideen.”
“The enemy thinks that if the province fell into the mujahideen’s hands, recapturing it back would be very hard,” Yousef said.
Yousef explained that US, Dutch, and Australian forces committed significant resources to secure Uruzgan and stand up to the police and Arbakis, or local militias. But the Taliban continued to fight in the province and gained grounds after Coalition forces withdrew.
“[I]n the course of last year, with the exception of district headquarters, all villages, suburbs, and valleys slipped away from enemy hands,” Yousef claimed in April.
Yousef said the Taliban would continue to pursue gaining control of the district centers, and predicted that the loss of all five districts would be a serious problem for the Afghan government.
“If … the mujahideen capture the headquarters of districts as we expect and have plans for, then provincial headquarters will not be able to resist. It would be a big blow to the enemy, and the enemy would leave the area,” he stated.
Now one of Uruzgan’s five district centers is controlled by the Taliban.
Once again, the Taliban do what the Taliban do best. They kill people.
The story comes from Times of India.
Six killed as Taliban bombers raid Afghan courthouse
GHAZNI: Taliban suicide bombers wearing police uniforms raided a courthouse in the eastern Afghan city of Ghazni on Wednesday, killing six people in what they said was revenge for last month's execution of six Taliban-linked prisoners.
The militants are stepping up their annual spring offensive after naming a new leader.
"Four attackers entered the court compound after killing the guard," provincial police chief Aminullah Amarkhail told AFP. "One of the attackers detonated his suicide vest inside the compound and the three others were gunned down by police."
The interior ministry said five civilians and one policeman were killed in the 30-minute attack, which left bloodied corpses littered around the complex. Amarkhail said 13 others were wounded.
On Tuesday the Taliban killed 10 people after pulling them off buses in the northern province of Kunduz, officials said, revising down their earlier toll of 16. The militants also kidnapped dozens of passengers, saying they were targeting Afghan security officials aboard the buses passing through the insurgency-prone district of Aliabad.
Most of the passengers have since been released but a handful are still in Taliban captivity, officials said, without giving a precise number.
The violence underscores Afghanistan's fragile security situation as the militants intensify assaults against troops and police after launching their spring offensive in April. The Taliban last week announced Haibatullah Akhundzada as their new leader, elevating a low-profile religious figure in a swift power transition after officially confirming the death of Mullah Mansour in a US drone strike.
The drone attack was the first known American assault on a top Afghan Taliban leader on Pakistani soil.
Mansour was killed just nine months after being formally appointed leader following a bitter power struggle upon the confirmation of the death of Taliban founder Mullah Omar.
On Tuesday Pakistan said his body had been handed back to his family.
The story comes from The Long War Journal.
Analysis: Iran has supported the Taliban’s insurgency since late 2001
On May 21, an American drone strike ended Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour’s reign as the Taliban’s leader. As The Wall Street Journal first reported, US intelligence officials tracked Mansour to Iran, where he was visiting his family, and then targeted his car as he crossed back over the border into Pakistan. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Hossein Jaber Ansari, quickly denied this version of events, claiming that his country “welcomes any measure in line with bringing peace and stability to Afghanistan.”
However, Zabihullah Mujahid (the Taliban’s chief spokesman) has conceded that Mansour was indeed inside Iran. Dawn quotes Mujahid as saying the Taliban chief crossed the border because of “ongoing battle obligations,” adding that Mansour made multiple “unofficial trips” to Iran.
While many of the details concerning Mansour’s travels remain murky, his presence inside Iranian territory shortly before his death isn’t surprising. Iran has a long history of backing the Taliban’s insurgency against US and allied forces in Afghanistan. Indeed, the relationship between the two former foes is one of the most misunderstood and oft-overlooked aspects of the 9/11 wars.
Iran and the Taliban nearly went to war in 1998 after senior Taliban commanders slaughtered Iranian diplomats and other Shiites in Mazar-i-Sharif. But by late 2001, as the Americans prepared to topple the Taliban’s government, the situation changed dramatically. Outwardly, the Iranians acted as if they just wanted to help rebuild Afghanistan. Western diplomats have praised Iran for its role in the Dec. 2001 meetings in Bonn, Germany, where a post-Taliban government was established. But there is much more to this story. Just before the American-led invasion of Afghanistan two months earlier, the Iranians cut a secret deal with Mullah Omar’s representatives.
One of Omar’s most trusted lieutenants, Khairullah Khairkhwa, helped broker an agreement with the Iranians in Oct. 2001. We know this because Khairkhwa was captured in Pakistan in early 2002, transferred to Guantanamo and then told American officials all about it.
A district court in Washington, DC denied Khairkhwa’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus in 2011. The court found that Khairkhwa “repeatedly admitted” that after the 9/11 attacks “he served as a member of a Taliban envoy that met clandestinely with senior Iranian officials to discuss Iran’s offer to provide the Taliban with weapons and other military support in anticipation of imminent hostilities with U.S. coalition forces.” [See LWJ report, DC district court denies former Taliban governor’s habeas petition.]
According to the court, the Iranians told Khairkhwa and his Taliban delegation that they could provide shoulder-fired missiles (SAM-7’s) and “track all movements by the United States.” In addition, the Iranians “offered to open their border to Arabs entering Afghanistan.” Iran did just that, allowing some al Qaeda members and others to escape the American onslaught.
Joint Task Force – Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO), which oversees the detention facility, deemed Khairkhwa a “high” risk to the U.S. and its allies, in part, because of his dealings with the Iranians. Despite JTF-GTMO’s assessment, and the DC court’s rejection of his habeas petition, Khairkhwa was transferred to Qatar in 2014. He was one of the five Taliban commanders exchanged for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
During the twelve years Khairkhwa was detained in Cuba, Iran continued to collude with the Taliban. The Defense, State and Treasury Departments have all documented the relationship.
In its “Annual Report on [the] Military Power of Iran,” which was delivered to Congress in 2012, the Department of Defense explained that Iran’s support for the Taliban was part of its “grand strategy” to challenge “US influence.” Although there was “historic enmity” between the two sides, the Pentagon said, support for the Taliban “complements Iran’s strategy of backing many groups to maximize its influence while also undermining US and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) objectives by fomenting violence.”
“Since 2006,” the State Department noted in its Country Reports on Terrorism for 2012, “Iran has arranged arms shipments to select Taliban members, including small arms and associated ammunition, rocket propelled grenades, mortar rounds, 107mm rockets, and plastic explosives.” In 2012, the Iranians “shipped a large number of weapons to Kandahar, Afghanistan, aiming to increase its influence in this key province.”
Foggy Bottom added that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force (IRGC-QF) “trained Taliban elements on small unit tactics, small arms, explosives, and indirect fire weapons, such as mortars, artillery, and rockets.”
A series of Treasury Department terror designations illuminate the relationship between the IRGC-QF and the Taliban.
In August 2010, Treasury designated two IRGC-QF commanders as terrorists for providing “financial and material support to the Taliban.” A special unit in the IRGC-QF known as the Ansar Corps is responsible for orchestrating attacks in Afghanistan. Nearly two years later, in Mar. 2012, Treasury identified IRGC-QF General Gholamreza Baghbani as a narcotics trafficker. At the time, Baghbani was based in Zahedan, Iran, which is near the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan. From this strategically situated crossroads, Baghbani allegedly oversaw an operation that “moved weapons to the Taliban,” while smuggling “heroin precursor chemicals through the Iranian border” and facilitating “shipments of opium into Iran.” This guns-for-drugs scheme directly fueled the Taliban’s insurgency, according to Treasury.
Treasury wasn’t finished. In February 2014, three other IRGC-QF officials and one of their associates were designated for plotting terrorist acts in Afghanistan and also using “intelligence operations as tools of influence against” the Afghan government. Iran’s duplicitous scheme meant that the IRGC-QF was “currying favor” with some Afghan politicians while targeting other officials for assassination.
In the weeks immediately following 9/11, the Iranian regime and the Taliban met in the shadows. In the 14-plus years since, their relationship has become overt. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2012 that the Taliban has set up an office in Zahedan, which is also a well-known al Qaeda hub. Taliban officials have repeatedly and openly attended meetings in Tehran. And other sources confirm that Iran has often provided the Taliban with arms and training.
Contrary to what Ansari claims, the Iranians don’t want “peace and stability” in Afghanistan – at least not at the expense of achieving their other objectives. They want to force the US out and expand their influence. Given Iran’s enduring partnership with the Taliban, forged in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Mansour’s trips to Iran may have been “unofficial,” but they are definitely unsurprising.
That's right. A guy heading up an army dedicated to the killing of hundreds and hundreds of American troops in Afghanistan doesn't even fall on the terrorist list of the Obama government.
You might say....."they can't do that!" Well, when Obama ran on "Yes We Can" - now ya know.
The story comes from DAWN.
Haibatullah not on terrorist list, says US
WASHINGTON: The US State Department has said that the new Taliban leader Mawlawi Haibatullah is not on its list of designated terrorists and urged him to opt for peace, not war.
“No, he’s not. You asked if he was on the designated terrorist (list), he’s not,” the department’s deputy spokesman Mark Toner told a news briefing.
On Saturday, a US drone killed Mawlawi Haibatullah’s predecessor, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, in a remote area of Balochistan and on Monday the Taliban elected him as their new chief.
When a journalist reminded Mr Toner that like his predecessor, Mawlawi Haibatullah had also rejected the peace process, he said: “We would hope that he would seize the opportunity. He does have an opportunity in front of him to choose peace and to work towards a negotiated solution. We hope that he makes that choice now.”
Asked if the new Taliban chief would be the next target for a US drone attack if he rejects the peace process, the State Department official said: “I’m not going to predict who we might target in the national security interests of the United States.”
In a statement issued by his office on Monday, US President Barack Obama said that Mullah Mansour was killed because he had rejected efforts to seriously engage in peace talks and end the violence that took the lives of countless Afghan men, women and children.
Mr Obama said that Mullah Mansour’s death had created an opportunity for peace and “the Taliban should seize the opportunity to pursue the only real path for ending this long conflict – joining the Afghan government in a reconciliation process that leads to lasting peace and stability”.
The Pentagon in a statement on Saturday also noted that Mansour was not only an obstacle to reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Taliban but was also prohibiting other Taliban leaders from participating in peace talks.
The two statements indicate a strong US desire to push forward the peace process, even if it requires to eliminate those who oppose it.
“The reminder that he (Haibatullah) was not on their list of designated terrorists could also be interpreted as saying, ‘you are someone we can deal with,’” said a diplomatic observer.
The US media, while reporting Mawlawi Haibatullah’s selection, noted that he was a religious scholar, not a warlord, and had served as Afghanistan’s chief justice in the Taliban government.
