Mullah Abdul Salam, the Taliban’s shadow governor for the embattled Afghan province of Kunduz, denied NDS reports that he was killed in a US airstrike. Salam is directing the fighting in Kunduz. Afghan soldiers are reported to have retaken the center of the city of Kunduz city and are battling the Taliban in several neighborhoods.
If the Taliban’s takeover of Khaki Safid in Farah province is confirmed, the jihadist group has seized five districts in three provinces and the provincial capital of Kunduz in the span of three days.
A senior Afghan military official confirmed that US Special Forces engaged the Taliban outside of Kunduz Airport. Maintaining control of the airport is vital if Afghan security forces hope to regain control of Kunduz city.
The Taliban reports cannot be independently confirmed as media reporting in the Afghan north has focused on Kunduz. But the Taliban has been accurate in its reporting of districts it has taken in the past.
The Taliban’s statements as well as its speedy offensive indicate that the effort to take Kunduz city was planned and coordinated in advance at the Taliban’s highest levels.
Reports from Afghan officials, residents and Taliban fighters inside Kunduz indicate that Afghan forces have been driven out of the city and the Taliban is in full control.
The IJU claims it is “controlling many territories bordering Tajikistan,” and released photographs purporting to show a small unit crossing into northern Afghanistan.
As the jihadist group mounts offensives in the northern province of Kunduz and the southern province of Helmand, it has also been consolidating its grip on areas in eastern Afghanistan, including within the Haqqani Network stronghold of Paktika.
The strike took place in an area in Paksitan’s tribal agency of South Waziristan that is administered by Sajna Mehsud, who heads a splinter faction that broke away from the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan (TTP) in May 2014.
The Movement of the Taliban is capable of organizing, training and executing attacks such as today’s assault on the Air Force camp near Peshawar despite the military offensive that is targeting the group in North Waziristan.
Mullah Manan and Mullah Yacoub’s pledge to Afghan Taliban emir Akhtar Mohammad Mansour closes a major rift that existed after Omar’s death was announced on July 31.
The raid that killed “Khuram,” the al Qaeda leader, took place in the same district in Paktika province where 15 Pakistani Taliban fighters were reported killed last week.
The Taliban freed more than 140 of its fighters and 200 prisoners in a coordinated suicide assault on a jail in the southeastern Afghan province of Ghazni.
Both the Taliban in Pakistan and its ally, al Qaeda, have stepped up their presence in eastern Afghanistan over the past several years.
Al Qaeda’s branches and allies have held or continue to control ground in Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Mali, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Libya, contrary to the narrative that only the Islamic State seeks to take territory.
Among those who eulogized Mullah Omar in the September 2015 edition of Al Sumud include al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri, former Islamic Caucasus Emirate leader Abu Usman Gimrinsky, al Qaeda-linked cleric Abdullah al Muhaysini, and Specially Designated nationals Hani al Siba’i and Sheikh Hamid bin Abdallah al ‘Ali.
Mullah Mansour Dadullah, who has rejected the appointment of Mullah Mansour to replace Mullah Omar, also said that the Taliban’s leadership is based in Pakistan. He has not expressed a desire to join the Islamic State.
One Iraqi soldier was killed today as the military raided a Hezbollah Brigades headquarters while searching for 18 Turkish construction workers who were kidnapped in Baghdad.
The Ugandan military confirmed that 12 of its troops were killed after the al Qaeda branch assault a base in Janale near the capital of Mogadishu. Shabaab had claimed fighters from its Sheikh Abu Zubayr Battalion killed 50 troops while overrunning the facility.
The Uzbeks may have been members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, whose leader recently swore allegiance to the Islamic State, or the splinter Islamic Jihadi Union, which remains loyal to the Taliban and al Qaeda. Both groups are known to operate in North Waziristan.
As the shadow governor for Faryab, Qari Salahuddin is responsible for directing the Taliban’s political and military activities. He was one of the first governors to swear allegiance to the Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour.
The jihadist group has reacted similarly to the designation of Haqqani Network leaders in the past. Additionally, the Taliban disputed the claim that Abdul Aziz Haqqani is “a senior member of the Haqqani Network,” as State said.
The Islamic State claimed credit for killing Major General Abdel Rahman Abu Raghif, the deputy commander for the Anbar Operations command, and Brigadier Safin Abdel Majid, the commander of the 10th Iraqi Army Division, in a six-man suicide assault on a military headquarters near Ramadi.
Hundreds of Taliban fighters gathered in the open in Kunduz to witness Mullah Abdul Salam, the Taliban’s shadow governor, and other senior commanders swear allegiance to Mullah Mansour.
The insider or green-on-blue attack, where a member of the Afghan security forces or a Taliban infiltrator kills Coalition personnel, is the third of its kind recorded this year.
The fall of Musa Qala puts the Taliban in effective control of northern Helmand, and will allow it to threaten the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah.
Siraj Haqqani’s brother, Abdul Aziz, is a key military commander who directs operations for the Haqqani Network and also is a member of the Kabul Attack Network. He is the 14th Haqqani network leader added to the US list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists since 2008. All have ties to al Qaeda.
Hazrat, who is also known as Abu Hazefa, was killed in Kunduz, where a number of jihadist groups are fighting Afghan forces. He served as a Taliban military commander and also was a member of al Qaeda.
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar’s spokesman said that the Punjab home minister was killed in “revenge for the martyrdom” of Malik Ishaq, the head of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi who was killed by Pakistani police in late July.
The full text of Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour’s statement, entitled “New Amir of Islamic Emirate thanks and accepts all who pledged allegiance.”