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Map of Afghanistan’s provinces. Click map to view larger image. |
The International Security Assistance Force has captured a district-level Taliban shadow governor in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar.
The shadow governor, who was not named, was captured during a Dec. 11 raid in the district of Sherzad, a Taliban stronghold in the province. During the raid, one Taliban fighter was killed and seven others were captured. Two local Taliban leaders were also captured.
The Taliban shadow governor “was an active senior leader in Sherzad district commanding a large group of fighters”; he also led IED attacks and “ambush-style attacks against Afghan and coalition forces,” ISAF stated in a press release.
This summer, Coalition and Afghan forces struck a blow against the Taliban’s senior leadership in Nangarhar. Malauwi Ghulam Haideri, the Taliban’s acting shadow governor, and Malauwi Shir Agha, a facilitator, were killed in a joint forces raid in the village of Khwazakheyl in the Sherzad district on Aug. 4. Twelve Taliban fighters were also reported killed In the combined assault.
Also, in July, Coalition and Afghan forces targeted networks supporting the Pakistan-based, al Qaeda-linked Lashkar-e-Taiba operating in Nangarhar.
Al Qaeda and the Lashkar-e-Taiba maintain a strong presence in Nangarhar, according to an investigation by The Long War Journal.
The presence of al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba cells has been detected in the districts of Achin, Bati Kowt, Behsud, Chaparhar, Dara Noor, Deh Bala, Jalalabad, Khogyani, Sherzad, Shinwar, or 10 of Nangarhar’s 22 districts.
Taliban leadership in the east
The Peshawar Regional Military Shura, one of the Afghan Taliban’s four major commands, directs activities in the eastern Afghan provinces of Nangarhar, Laghman, Nuristan, and Kunar. Abdul Latif Mansur is thought to currently lead the Taliban’s Peshawar shura. Mansur formerly served as the Taliban’s shadow governor of Nangarhar.
The Peshawar Regional Military Shura was led by Maulvi Abdul Kabir before his detention in Pakistan in February 2010.
A Taliban group known as the Tora Bora Military Front operates in Nangarhar and has been behind a series of deadly attacks in the province. The Tora Bora Military Front is led by Anwarul Haq Mujahid, the son of Maulvi Mohammed Yunis Khalis, who was instrumental in welcoming Osama bin Laden to Afghanistan after al Qaeda was ejected from Sudan in 1996. Pakistan detained Mujahid in Peshawar in June 2009. Prior to his detention, Muhajid served as the Taliban’s shadow governor of Nangarhar.
Earlier this year, media reports had claimed that both Kabir and Muhajid, though both were said to detained by the Pakistani authorities at the time, were in negotiations with the Afghan government. But Kabir released a statement on Voice of Jihad, the Taliban’s website, denouncing any talks. Further doubt was cast on peace talks with the Taliban after ISAF discovered that it was in discussions with someone impersonating Mullah Akhtar Mohammed Mansour, one of Mullah Omar’s top two deputies who ran the Quetta Shura.
Sharing a border with the Pakistani tribal agency of Khyber, Nangarhar is a strategic province for both the Taliban and the Coalition. The majority of NATO’s supplies pass through Khyber and Nangarhar before reaching Kabul and points beyond.
1 Comment
150,000 U.S./NATO troops in afghanistan. What a gamechanger a few nuclear bombs launched from Pakistan targeting those troops would be. Al Qaeda and its allies should and probably do have them at the top of their list. Just one jihadi working in a nuclear missle section is all they need to accomplish, what no conventional army could achieve. Not to mention, the blow the west would have to explain to its people. A great military triumph, not a terrorist one could achieve remarkable results. Hope someone is awake in our defence circles.