Abdul Haq al Turkistani, the emir of the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) who serves on Al Qaeda’s executive leadership council and resides in Afghanistan, is currently directing the group’s fighters inside Syria, the United Nations Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team reported. TIP fighters operate under the aegis of Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), the Al Qaeda-linked terror group that seized control of Damascus late last year and formed a government.
The Monitoring Team disclosed that Haq lives in Kabul and directs the Syrian branch in its latest 1267 report on Afghanistan issued on February 13.
“Despite its overall emir Abdul Haq residing in Kabul, he remained firmly in control of ETIM/TIP Syria faction,” the Monitoring Team reported. ETIM is an acronym for the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement, another name for the TIP.
One member state of the UN reported that Haq “directed frequent movement of fighters between Afghanistan and the Middle East.” However, another member state said there wasn’t evidence to support this assertion.
The Monitoring Team report notes that Syrian TIP forces are led by a commander known as Kaiwusair. The previous Monitoring Team report from July 2024 noted that Kaiwusair’s deputies, Zahid Qari and Shaykh Touba, were appointed by Haq in March 2024.
The TIP’s Syrian branch “maintained the majority of its forces in Syria and its headquarters in Afghanistan.” There are “between 800 and 3,000 combatants” in Syria “with potential to increase as a result of HTS military offensive and its control of Damascus.”
According to the July 2024 Monitoring Team report, the TIP “receives financial support from HTS, operates businesses in regional countries, including Türkiye to generate funds, and trains foreign terrorists with ever-increasing levels of sophistication.”
The TIP is part of Al Qaeda’s global network
The TIP has been a stalwart ally of Al Qaeda and has cooperated with the group in Afghanistan and Syria for decades. Inside Afghanistan, it has fought alongside Al Qaeda since before the US invasion in 2001. The group sided with Al Qaeda when the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan split apart, and a faction joined the Islamic State in 2016.
TIP fighters flowed into Syria immediately after the start of the Syrian revolution in early 2011 and joined forces with Al Qaeda’s Al Nusrah Front, which has since morphed into HTS. During the recent advance that toppled the Assad regime, TIP fought alongside HTS and was at the forefront of most battles, which it heavily showcased on its propaganda and social media channels.
Haq, also known as Maimaitiming Maimaiti, is a veteran jihadist who became the leader of the TIP in late 2003 after Hassan Mahsum, the group’s founder, was killed during clashes with Pakistani troops at an Al Qaeda training camp in South Waziristan in October 2003.
Prior to the US invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, Abdul Haq helped run the TIP’s main training camp in the Tora Bora Mountains. The camp, sponsored by Osama bin Laden, provided rudimentary instruction on light arms to new recruits. Several detainees held at Guantanamo Bay identified Haq as the facility’s chief instructor. (See FDD’s Long War Journal report, “The Uighurs, in their own words.”)
After the Taliban lost control of Afghanistan in late 2001, Haq helped reestablish the TIP’s camps in Pakistan’s tribal agencies along the lawless border.
In 2005, according to the US Treasury Department, Haq was awarded a seat on Al Qaeda’s elite shura (advisory) council. Two US intelligence officials told Long War Journal that this designation has not changed, and he remains on the group’s shura. Haq was designated as an Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist by Treasury in 2009. The agency stated he is involved with fundraising, recruiting, propaganda efforts, and the planning and execution of terror attacks. The UN also added him to the Al Qaeda sanctions list.
Abdul Haq was considered influential enough in Al Qaeda’s leadership circles to be dispatched to mediate between rival Taliban groups and represent the Shura Majlis in important military matters.
The US believed it killed Haq in a drone strike in Pakistan in 2010, but he re-emerged in a TIP propaganda video released in 2014. The TIP emir is thought to have been wounded in the strike.
In May 2022, Haq celebrated the Eid al Fitr holiday and the Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan. His continued presence in Afghanistan directly contradicts the Taliban’s claim that no foreign fighters operate or are based in the country and that Afghanistan isn’t a headquarters for terrorist groups.
