The Taliban said 100 mujahideen have graduated from its Khalid bin Walid Camp and 50 more from its branch, the Abu Dujana Camp. The Taliban claimed that the Khalid bin Walid Camp has 12 branches throughout Afghanistan.
Abdullah Ahmed al Meshedani manages foreign fighters as they enter Iraq and Syria, while Abdelilah Himich and Basil Hassan are planners for the Islamic State’s external operations network.
The claim cannot be independently verified, but Ghorak district has been hotly contested and Taliban has overrun it in the past. Security in Kandahar province also appears to be deteriorating.
The attack is the second of its kind in the Afghan capital by the Islamic State in the past six weeks.
The Taliban denied reports that Mullah Attaullah was killed by police forces. The Afghan government has a spotty track record when reporting on the deaths of Taliban commanders.
Afghan officials confirmed a helicopter encountered problems in Logar province, but said it “made a hard landing due to technical problems.”
The Taliban suicide bomber who killed two American soldiers and two contractors at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan’s central province of Parwan on Nov. 12 had joined the Afghan government’s “peace process” and reconciled in 2008.
The Taliban and the Islamic State have issued competing claims for attacks in Afghanistan in the past. The Taliban has had some success in shooting down US and Afghan military helicopters.
The base has been the focus of high-profile Taliban and jihadist attacks in the past. Resolute Support did not say how a Taliban suicide bomber was able to penetrate security at Bagram Air Base.
The Taliban claimed that it attacked the German consulate to avenge those killed in an airstrike in Kunduz, but another consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif was targeted in a similar assault earlier this year. That attack highlights the interlinking web of jihadist networks.
The US soldiers were operating as part of Resolute Support’s “train, advise and assist mission.”
The US military’s estimate does not explain how the Taliban is able to support multiple concurrent offensives across the country and threaten five provincial capitals. Additionally, the military claims that only 3 of Helmand’s 14 districts are threatened by the Taliban.
A Taliban spokesman released a video of an interview of fighters from the base. Like the recent ambush in Helmand’s capital, the Taliban fighters clearly are not concerned about either a counterattack or airstrikes.
There have been at least 31 airstrikes against AQAP in Yemen in 2016, according to data compiled by The Long War Journal.
Islamic State’s Khorasan province and the Karachi faction of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan both claimed credit for the attack on a police academy in Quetta that killed more than 60 cadets. Pakistani officials claimed the suicide assault was executed by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al Almi.
The military said it is attempting to deny al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula “a haven” in Yemen. The group still controls rural areas in the south.
Six provincial capitals now are threatened by the Taliban. On Oct. 16, the Taliban assaulted Maimana, Faryab’s capital from three directions and attacked the city’s airport and an Afghan Army base, but were repulsed by Afghan forces.
The shooter is said to have been wearing an Afghan Army uniform. If the shooting is confirmed to be a green-on-blue or insider attack, where Afghan police or soldiers target Coalition personnel, then it would be the first recorded incident since April 2015.
The fight in Iraq, as in other jihadist theaters, ebbs and flows. For the Islamic State, it is currently retreating from many of the cities it once held. But do not expect a lasting defeat of the Islamic State.
A Taliban video documents the aftermath of last week’s ambush on Afghan security personnel on the outskirts the provincial capital of Helmand which resulted in scores of troops killed and dozens more captured.
The Taliban threatens two capitals in the north (Kunduz City and Pul-i-Khumri), two in the south (Tarin Kot and Lashkar Gah), and one in the west (Farah City).
Reports from Afghanistan indicate that hundreds of police and soldiers were killed, captured, or defected to the Taliban after they tried to negotiate a withdrawal.
The Islamic State’s Khorasan province has embraced Abu Muhammad al Adnani’s call for the targeting of Shia.
The Taliban regain control of Ghormach district in Faryab province. The district has been contested since the Taliban controlled it one year ago.
The Taliban’s “Real Men” video contradicts many of its public statements where the group claims it only seeks to liberate Afghanistan from occupation. Instead, it makes it clear that the Taliban views itself as a defender of Islam and part of the global jihad.
The US has targeted AQAP’s network in Yemen at least four times in September, and 28 times so far this year, according to data compiled by The Long War Journal.
“I say to Obama, today we take Kunduz, tomorrow … we will take the White House,” a Taliban fighter at a checkpoint in Kunduz threatened. The US military claimed Kunduz was cleared three days ago.
Achin district in Nangarhar remains a hub for the Islamic State’s Khorasan province. US and Afghan forces, as well as the Taliban, have fought to wrest areas of Nangarhar from Islamic State control.
Like in Kunduz, Resolute Support’s claim that Nawa district is under government control does not match press reporting from Afghanistan.
Resolute Support appears to be putting the best possible spin on the Taliban’s latest incursion into Kunduz City. Accounts from the city indicate that half of it is still occupied by the Taliban.