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Map of Afghanistan’s provinces. Click map to view larger image. |
Three days ago, a combined Coalition and Afghan security force captured the Taliban’s deputy shadow governor for the southwestern province of Nimroz.
The deputy shadow governor, who was not named, was captured along with five Taliban fighters during an Oct. 11 raid in the Khash Rod district, according to Pajwhok Afghan News and the International Security Assistance Force.
The Taliban leader was initially misidentified as a senior facilitator for roadside bombs in Nimroz, ISAF stated. That facilitator was detained during a raid yesterday in Khash Rod.
Earlier this year, the people of the district of Khash Rod, which is considered by the US military to be a strategic district, were assessed as being sympathetic to the Taliban, according to a Department of Defense survey of the local population’s support for the Taliban and the government that was released last spring. Khash Rod was the only district in Nimroz that was surveyed for the report.
The sparsely populated province of Nimroz borders both Iran and Pakistan. The Taliban in Nimroz receive the bulk of their support from the Movement of the Taliban in Baluchistan, a shadowy organization in Pakistan of which little is publicly known. The group supports operations against Afghan and Coalition forces, and operates without any restraint from the Pakistani military or government.
The Taliban in Nimroz also receive support from Iran’s Qods Force, the special operations branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Qods Force has tasked the Ansar Corps with aiding the Taliban and other terror groups in Afghanistan. Based in Mashhad in northeastern Iran, the Ansar Corps operates much like the Ramazan Corps, which supports and directs Shia terror groups in Iraq. [See LWJ reports, Iranian Qods Force commanders linked to Taliban: US Treasury and Iran’s Ramazan Corps and the ratlines into Iraq.]
Iran’s Ansar Corps funnels weapons and money into Afghanistan’s western provinces, and facilitates the movement of al Qaeda operatives into the country. Two days ago, Afghan border police uncovered weapons caches along the Afghan/Iranian border which included Iranian-made weapons. Seven days ago, a container filled with 19 tons of Iranian-made explosives imported from Iran was seized in Nimroz.
Taliban commanders and fighters receive training inside Iran and are sent back to Afghanistan to carry out attacks on US and NATO forces. The Ansar Corps has offered reward money of several thousands of dollars for each NATO soldier killed.
