US kills Afghan Taliban commander in drone strike inside Pakistan
Jamiuddin, was a “trusted man” within the Haqqani Network, a subgroup of the Afghan Taliban, who helped fighters move from Pakistan to Afghanistan.
Jamiuddin, was a “trusted man” within the Haqqani Network, a subgroup of the Afghan Taliban, who helped fighters move from Pakistan to Afghanistan.
The video is the latest in a series of propaganda that promotes Taliban units and the network of training camps.
F/A-18 Super Hornets, flown from a US Navy aircraft carrier, targeted and destroyed the Taliban drug labs in Helmand province.
Mullah Shah Wali, the leader of the Red Unit’s forces in Helmand , was killed in a US airstrike in the Taliban-controlled district of Musa Qala. The Red Unit has served as the Taliban’s shock troops and special forces.
“We are very happy with this work of the Taliban,” Herat’s director of education said after noting that 219 of the province’s 969 schools are controlled by the Taliban. He admitted that five districts are off limits to education officials.
“Pakistan’s resolve, actions and successes in the fight against terrorism, terrorist violence and terrorists is unmatched in the world,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the day after Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Hafiz Saeed was freed from house arrest.
The video is similar to others produced by the Taliban that highlights the group’s battlefield gains against overstretched Afghan forces.
The US military and Afghan Air Force hit a Taliban command and control center and seven “drug labs” in what was described as “previously un-targeted safe havens in the South and Southwest” Afghanistan.
The US military has now targeted Shabaab forces using airstrikes at least 14 times this year. Shabaab has continued to threaten the Somali capital despite the increased US targeting.
The Taliban released video of its forces entering the Fanduqistan Valley in Afghanistan’s central province of Parwan after Afghan forces retreated.
While the Taliban’s “Special Forces Unit” certainly isn’t trained to the same standards and proficiency as US special operations forces, it has proven to be effective on the battlefield against its Afghan adversaries.
The Syrian military has taken full control of Deir Ezzour, while Iraqi troops and Iranian supported militias ejected the Islamic State from Al Qaim.
The Afghan government’s ability to control its territory has “deteriorated” as the Taliban has gained control of additional districts, according to SIGAR. This tracks with an analysis of Afghanistan’s districts conducted by FDD’s Long War Journal, which tracks Taliban controlled and contested districts.
Hundreds of Taliban fighters in the western province of Farah paraded their vehicles and then stood in formation for a lengthy period of time, without fear of being targeted by Afghan or Coalition forces, to listen to an official give a speech recently.
An estimated 60 Islamic State fighters are thought to have been killed in three US strikes that have targeted the group over the past two weeks.
Omar Khalid Khurasani, who was reported to have died on Oct. 19 after a US drone strike, is alive. However, he confirmed the death of Khalifa Umar Mansour, the group’s military leader who was killed in a US airstrike back in Afghanistan in July 2016.
Resolute Support, NATO’s mission in Afghanistan, claimed that today’s bombing in Kabul “shows the insurgents are desperate and cannot win.” However the Taliban has sustained offensive operations in all areas of the country and has had battlefield successes against a struggling Afghan military.
Omar Khalid al Khurasani was closely allied with al Qaeda and its emir, Ayman al Zawahiri. In the past Khurasani has called for the imposition of sharia law, the establishment of a global caliphate, and the seizure of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. He was killed in a drone strike in Paktia province.
Afghan forces suffered 97 percent casualties during the suicide assault. The attack is the latest in the southern province, where the Taliban has stepped up its attacks on Afghan military outposts.
Taliban suicide teams hit the police headquarters and a training center in the provincial capital of Gardez City. Twenty-two policemen and 20 civilians were killed and scores more were wounded.
Taliban forces have overrun two district centers in Kandahar and Farah provinces over the past two days. The jihadist group continues to gain ground in Afghanistan despite a change in US strategy that has reduced restrictions on local commanders to launch airstrikes against the group.
CJTF-OIR made the statement despite the fact that it was abundantly obvious that the Iraqi government sought to seize Kirkuk from the Kurdish Peshmerga, and had signaled its intentions days before.
The strike took place just days after Pakistan freed two westerners and their children from Taliban custody in the same tribal agency.
The strike is the latest in a series that have targeted the entirety of AQAP’s network in the war-torn country.
In what has become an all too common, the Taliban has released yet another propaganda video that shows it fighters occupying an Afghan military base during the daytime after overrunning it in a nighttime assault.
As with previous propaganda videos, the Taliban demonstrates that it can organize its forces for assaults on bases and district centers and execute attacks over extended periods of time, or parade its troops in the open, without fear of being targeted from the air by Afghan or Coalition forces.
Islamic State forces still control a small pocket of villages to the north and east of the town, but are now surrounded.
Mattis and Dunford placed all of the blame for Pakistan’s support of terrorist groups on the ISI, and essentially absolved Pakistan’s government and the military of any responsibility for incubating and supporting regional and global jihadist organizations.
“The brave and Mujahid nation of Afghanistan rejects disbelief, apostasy, democracy, and slavery!” said one fighter interviewed in the Taliban’s latest propaganda video.
“Last half century proves that this land was and will be the land of Islam and Jihad.”
Pakistani Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif accused the United States of creating jihadist groups such as the Haqqani Network and Lashkar-e-Taiba, and supporting them to this day.