“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.
On Nov. 17, The Foundation for Defense of Democracies and FDD’s Long War Journal held an event to discuss the findings from the recently released documents from Osama bin Laden’s compound.
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 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.
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.
The strike took place just days after Pakistan freed two westerners and their children from Taliban custody in the same tribal agency.
The Taliban has made claims like this in the past, only to have them be proven false. No official US or coalition spokesperson has confirmed the loss of a drone or verified the Taliban’s claims.
The commander, who went by the alias Abu “Khalid,” or Shahid Showkat, was highly sought by Indian security forces for his role in orchestrating attacks targeting Indian military positions and personnel.
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.
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.
Both the Taliban and the Islamic State’s Khorasan “province” claimed responsibility for an assault on the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan this morning. The attack coincided with a visit by Secretary of Defense James Mattis to the country, although it appears he was not at the airport at the time.
As the United States enters a new phase of its war in Afghanistan, FDD’s Long War Journal presents a renewed assessment of the Taliban’s strength and disposition, with new interactive features.
The district of Kohistan in Faryab province has changed hands twice over the past several months.
The US is likely to step up drone strikes in Pakistan after President Trump accused Pakistan of harboring and supporting jihadist groups last month.
A public affairs or information operations specialist made the grave error of equating the shahada solely with the Taliban, and the commanding general of Special Operations Joint Task Force – Afghanistan is now forced to apologize for the mistake.
The blow comes just two weeks after President Trump called out Pakistan for providing “safe haven” for terrorist groups operating in the region and advocated for closer ties with India.
As with previous videos reported on by FDD’s Long War Journal, the Taliban is able to organize and launch its attack, and then subsequently overrun Afghan government-controlled headquarters during broad daylight without fear of being targeted.