The US military made an unusual public plea for information yesterday in its hunt for eight members of a terrorist network which is plotting attacks in four provinces in eastern Afghanistan. The organization, known as the Kabul Attack Network, is comprised of fighters from various jihadist groups operating in the country, and has endured for years.
“Insurgents from the Haqqani and Taliban networks are known to be planning attacks on the Afghan people in the Parwan, Khost, Kabul, and Logar Provinces, Afghanistan,” US Forces Afghanistan, or USFOR-A, reported in a press release.
USFOR-A identified the “insurgents” as Hayatullah, Mullah Mushfiq, Sangari, and Faruq from Parwan province; Tila Khan and Mansour from Khost; Hamdard-Hasib from Kabul; and Talha from Logar. Anyone with information on those individuals was encouraged to call 0702210396, USFOR-A said.
Yesterday’s call for information from USFOR-A followed a deadly suicide assault on a security installation in Kabul which took place on April 19. The Taliban killed 64 people and wounded 347 more in that attack.
The insurgents identified by USFOR-A are undoubtedly members of what the US military previously called the Kabul Attack Network. This network is made up of fighters from the Taliban, the Haqqani Network, and Hizb-i-Islami Gulbuddin, and cooperates with terror groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba and al Qaeda.
Top Afghan intelligence officials have linked the Kabul Attack Network to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate as well. The network’s tentacles extend outward from Kabul into the surrounding provinces of Logar, Wardak, Nangarhar, Kapisa, Parwan, Kunar, Ghazni, and Zabul, a US intelligence official told The Long War Journal.
The Kabul Attack Network is led by Dawood (or Daud) and Taj Mir Jawad, military and intelligence officials told The Long War Journal in 2010. Dawood previously served as the Taliban’s shadow governor for Kabul (the current shadow governor is Hafiz Muhibullah). Taj Mir Jawad is a top commander in the Haqqani Network. In the US military files released by WikiLeaks, Taj Mir Jawad is identified as a key Haqqani Network leader.
The Haqqani Network is not a separate entity, as is implied by the USFOR-A press release, but an integral part of the Taliban. Jalaluddin Haqqani, the patriarch of the Haqqani Network and a member of the Taliban’s governing council, has maintained that his followers are part of the Taliban. After the Taliban announced the death of Mullah Omar and appointed Mullah Mansour as the new emir, Jalaluddin backed the new leader. His son, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is one of the Taliban’s two deputy emirs. Siraj has also denied that the Haqqani Network operates independently of the Taliban.
“We are one of the fronts of the Islamic Emirate, and we do jihad in the Cause of Allah under its banner, and we are proud of our pledge to its Emir [Mullah Omar] and we carry out its orders and all its regulations,” Siraj stated in 2012.
7 Comments
Which ISI guys are responsible? Can’t we finger them through technical means like that rat in the MSF hospital? Zap em all, and take the proof to the world court.
Can you expand on the comment about” the rat at the MSF compoud.”
Just curious becuase i haven’t heard anything like that..
I watched the vice doc about the brief overun of kunduz by the taliban.
But all they showed was conflicting accounts from locals, officials , staff & taliban.
When I arrived in Kabul in 2009 to work for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, one of my first briefings explained the connection between the ISSI and various insurgent networks, particularly their attacks on installations and guest houses used by Indian contractors. The extreme animus between Pakistan and India needs no explanation. I would like my government to explain to me why Pakistan is an ally when it is absolutely involved in the killing and wounding of US military and other ISAF soldiers. If we know where their bases are in Pakistan, these places should be leveled with precision guided weapons with no warning to, or permission from, the Pakistani government. If the so-called civilian government cannot control the ISSI, then you have to wonder who is actually in charge. Their feckless counter-terrorism efforts are laughable and, typically, result in no serious action against these murderous criminals.
CHECK THE USED CAR LOTS!
Gotta love how the ISI keeps on taking American money, pretending to help us while still supporting the Taliban and associated networks. Seems like some things never change. One would think the Intellegence directorate of a country would try and keep its OWN people safe, but then again maybe they want to help spark the collapse of the already unstable Ghani administration in Afghanistan next door. Gotta love Middle East politics.
@Arjuna, What rat in the MSF hospital? The Pentagon just admitted it was a mistaken air strike. And any connection between the Kabul Attack Network and the ISI is very tenuous and deliberately overplayed for propaganda purposes.
None of the mentioned names are Pakistanis and they all seem to be based out of Afghanistan. This is just a tactic used to pressure Pakistan on the Afghan Taliban.
So they helped do Camp Chapman and they poisoned the Station Chief (probably)? It makes you want to start thinking about yields per sq. km. Enough already.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/in-bin-laden-raids-shadow-bad-blood-and-the-suspected-poisoning-of-a-cia-officer/2016/05/05/ace85354-0c83-11e6-a6b6-2e6de3695b0e_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_ciapakistan-115pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory