Taliban advances as U.S. completes withdrawal
The Taliban and al Qaeda advanced throughout Afghanistan after President Biden announced the withdrawal of American and NATO forces on Apr. 14.
Author Archives: Bill Roggio
Taliban squeezes Afghan government by seizing key border towns
The Taliban’s strategy of seizing rural districts has not only allowed it to surround major cities and put pressure on population centers, it has also enabled it to squeeze the Afghan government’s revenue from goods crossing the border.
Taliban assaults northern provincial capital
The Taliban entered Qala-i-Naw, the provincial capital of Badghis, stormed the city’s prison and freed inmates, and briefly seized control of the governor’s office and the police and National Directorate of Security headquarters before government forces counterattacked.
Afghanistan at risk of collapse as Taliban storms the north
The importance of the Taliban’s northern thrust cannot be understated. If the Taliban can deny Afghanistan’s government and its backers their base of power, Afghanistan is effectively lost.
Taliban doubles number of controlled Afghan districts since May 1
The Taliban’s multiyear strategy of gaining influence in the rural districts to pressure the population centers is paying dividends.
Kunduz province in danger of falling to the Taliban
The Taliban has gone on the offensive in northern Afghanistan and is on the verge of taking control of Kunduz province if Afghan security forces cannot stay the siege of Kunduz City. Kunduz is one of eight provinces in danger of falling to the Taliban before U.S. forces are scheduled to completely withdraw in September. […]
Taliban enters Kunduz City, seizes control of more than 20 districts
The Taliban took control of nine districts in Takhar and is fighting inside Kunduz City. The Afghan military has so far been unable to halt the onslaught, particularly in the north, where the Taliban has the momentum and is dictating the pace of the fighting.
Taliban takes control of 30 districts in past six weeks
In the six weeks since the May 1 deadline for U.S. troops to withdraw from Afghanistan, the Taliban has seized control of 32 additional districts, their reach spanning half of the country’s 34 provinces.
Taliban seizes eight districts in the past week
The disbursed locations of the Taliban attacks will force the already strained Afghan military to divide its forces if it wants to retake the districts.
UN report on Taliban controlled and contested districts tracks with LWJ data
The United Nations Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team reports that as of April 2021, the Taliban contests or controls “an estimated 50 to 70 per cent of Afghan territory” and exerts “direct control over 57 per cent of district administrative centres.” LWJ’s analysis of the security situation is very similar.
Afghan military targets Al Qaeda’s network in Helmand
The Afghan military targeted Al Qaeda’s network in four different districts in Helmand province over the past month. Al Qaeda was operating a “training center” and fighting alongside the Taliban.
Analysis: Predicting the coming Taliban offensive
Taliban will continue to wage its war against a weakened Afghan government to resurrect its Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. A look at how the Taliban may attempt to achieve this goal now that U.S. forces, which were unable to prevent the Taliban from seizing key rural districts, will soon be gone.
Taliban overruns district in central Afghanistan
With the fall of Dawlat Shah, the Taliban now control one of Laghman’s five districts, and contest the other four. The Taliban is laying the groundwork for a potential siege of Kabul, which likely would take place if the Taliban could first secure the south and east.
Taliban control in Afghanistan expands significantly since 2018
The number of Afghan districts controlled and contested by the Taliban has nearly doubled since early 2018. With the withdrawal of U.S. airpower and special operations forces, the Taliban is poised to take over large regions of the country.
Taliban overruns district in central Afghanistan
The security situation in Wardak province and neighboring Logar is dire. A potential battle for control of Kabul will likely begin in Wardak and Logar.
Taliban takes control of two districts in Afghan north
The move presages a coming Taliban offensive, which the goal is to reestablish its Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan by force.
Taliban demands U.S. withdraw forces by May 1 deadline
The Taliban demanded that all U.S. forces leave by May 1. It has threatened to resume attacks on U.S. forces if they do not leave by the date agreed upon in the Doha Accords.
Taliban pushes Osama bin Laden truther conspiracy theories
The Taliban denied that Osama bin Laden was responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S. and questioned whether he was killed by U.S. soldiers in Abbottabad, Pakistan in 2011.
Analysis: Al Qaeda continues to operate throughout Afghanistan
Based on reports from Al Qaeda, the United Nations, and press reports, the terror group and its allies are operating in 21 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces.
As U.S. seeks peace, Taliban celebrates its jihadist training camps
The Taliban continues to promote its training camps that pump out jihadist fighters who indiscriminately attack Afghan civilians, soldiers and police.
NDS kills Al Qaeda commander in eastern Afghanistan
Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security killed an Al Qaeda commander and a Taliban leader during a recent operation in the eastern province of Paktika. The two supported Al Qaeda’s operations in the east and planned and supported high profile attacks.
Taliban threatens to ‘continue its Jihad’ if U.S., NATO forces remain in Afghanistan
After President Biden said it would be difficult for the U.S. to leave Afghanistan by May 1, 2021, the Taliban threatened to “continue its Jihad and armed struggle against foreign forces.”
Taliban celebrates 2002 battle in which it defended Al Qaeda
The Taliban’s celebration of Mullah Saif ur Rahman Mansoor and the battle of Shahi Kot is a reminder of the Taliban’s enduring relationship with Al Qaeda.
Latest U.S. proposal for ending Afghan conflict runs counter to Taliban beliefs
The plan called for the current Afghan constitution to serve as the framework for a future constitution, elections, and power sharing, all of which have been flatly rejected by the Taliban in the past.
Afghan security forces withdrawing from checkpoints, bases
Nearly forty percent of the police checkpoints across Afghanistan have been shut down. The Afghan Army abandoned a military base in Badghis, giving the Taliban full control of a district.
Taliban calls for ‘the declaration’ of the ‘Islamic Emirate’
The Taliban called for the return of its Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan as it denounced the Afghan government as a “corrupt and illegitimate regime.”
Taliban falsely claims: ‘There are no Al Qaeda operatives present in Afghanistan’
The Taliban cannot be trusted to live up to any agreement when it won’t admit that Al Qaeda remains in Afghanistan, under its protection
U.S. designates Iraqi PMF chairman for human rights violations
Falih al-Fayyadh, the Chairman of the Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces and the former National Security Advisor to the Iraq’s Prime Minister, was identified as a member of an “Islamic Revolutionary Guard Force Qods Force supported crisis cell” that supported attacks on protesters in 2019.
Afghan Air Force kills 15 Al Qaeda operatives in Helmand
Afghan security forces continue to target Al Qaeda as the Taliban promises that it won’t allow allow foreign fighters to attack the West, even though the Taliban claims Al Qaeda doesn’t exist inside Afghanistan.
U.S. and Afghan forces target Al Qaeda in the south
Despite the repeated targeting, killing, and capturing of Al Qaeda leaders and operatives, the Taliban maintains that the terror group does not operate in Afghanistan.