The Taliban videotaped a nighttime assault on an Afghan base in the highly contested district of Khakrez in Kandahar province. The base was overran and the Taliban loitered there into daytime without fear of reprisal for Coalition and Afghan air forces.
The Taliban killed more than 20 soldiers during a nighttime raid on an Afghan military base. Security in Farah has deteriorated over the past several years and Afghan officials now say the provincial capital is again threatened by the Taliban.
The Taliban has consistently stated over the past decade that it does not seek to share power with the Afghan government, and the only peace possible begins with the US abandoning the country.
General Bajwa and Pakistani officials can pontificate all they like about how their country has eliminated terrorism and no longer permit terrorists to use its soil to attack another country. A look at the facts tells another story, and that is one of Pakistani duplicity.
Sajna Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike in North Waziristan, not in Afghanistan like some Pakistani officials have claimed. Sajna lead the group’s powerful Mehsud faction, was close to al Qaeda, and was responsible for murdering thousands of Pakistanis.
The US Treasury Department designated three jihadist facilitators who work for Sheikh Aminullah, a key al Qaeda and Taliban facilitator based in Peshawar, Pakistan. All three have allegedly facilitated Aminullah’s travels to the Gulf, where he has presumably raised funds. Two of the newly-sanctioned jihadists have been tied to operations in Afghanistan.
The camps were used by the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and other terrorist groups.
The Taliban previously publicized this training facility in a video that was released in July of 2016. Since 2014, the Taliban has disclosed the existence of 17 training camps.
The district control data shows that the Taliban continues to slowly wrest control of Afghan districts from the government. SIGAR is still not authorized to released key information on district and population control as well as the Afghan security forces.
The estimate has tripled from 20,000 a few years ago. However, one US official somehow remains “hopeful many fighters are not ideological and will eventually lay down their arms,” despite the fact that the Taliban has demonstrated a commitment to the fight for over 16 years.
The DoD would not be suppressing information on Taliban district and population control as well as key metrics on the Afghan security forces if the fight was going well.
A Taliban suicide bomber struck the old interior ministry building in Kabul, Afghanistan earlier today. He reportedly drove an ambulance packed with explosives. It was the second major Taliban attack inside the city in one week.
The designation of Taliban leaders on the Peshawar Shura highlights the continuity of the Taliban-al Qaeda relationship in Afghanistan and Pakistan that has endured more than 16 years of war against the US and its allies.
The US Treasury Department designated six Taliban-Haqqani figures as terrorists today. Treasury’s identifying information locates five of the six — including three senior Taliban finance officials and the deputy leader of the group’s military commission — inside Pakistan. At least two of the newly-sanctioned men have ties to al Qaeda.
The attack forced the charity to temporarily shut down its offices across the country.
The Pakistan government often criticizes US airstrikes that kill members of the Afghan Taliban, including Haqqani Network leaders.
Afghan forces will be on the offensive in the coming year, but have significant challenges ahead.
The Taliban quickly claimed credit for an assault on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan. The jihadists’ siege lasted more than half a day before it was finally ended by Afghan security forces.
The last five US counterterrorism strikes have all taken place inside Pakistan’s Kurram tribal agency. The Afghan Taliban, including the Haqqani Network, is known to operate inside Kurram and use it as a base to attack Afghanistan.
In a conversation with Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff, the Pakistani military claimed CENTCOM commander General Joseph Votel said the idea that the Taliban uses Pakistan as a safe haven is “undermining … Pakistan’s contributions in war against terrorism” in Washington.
Sufi Mohammed was responsible for the Taliban uprising in Swat and the peace agreement that put jihadists in control of a significant area of Pakistan from 2007 to 2009.
The pattern of operations in 2017 in what the Obama administration used to call areas outside of active hostilities indicates that the US will continue the reinvigorated air campaign in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Libya in the coming year.
If Trump is serious about hitting back at Pakistan, expect the US to ramp up drone strikes against jihadists, and not just in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
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.
Al Qaeda’s general leadership and regional branches have released statements denouncing the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
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.
US and Afghan forces have targeted al Qaeda operatives in at least three Afghan provinces in recent weeks. One of the jihadists killed has been identified as Omar Khetab, the deputy leader of Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS). Khetab and other AQIS operatives have been supporting the Taliban’s insurgency.
The Taliban is touting the defection of Mullah Abdul Razzaq Mehdi, the purported “deputy” of the Islamic State’s Wilayah Khorasan. The Taliban is using his testimony to undermine the will of its jihadist rivals inside Afghanistan. But in so doing, the group reveals just how similar the two often are.