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.
The daylight ambush destroyed multiple Afghan vehicles, and despite the fact that US helicopters were nearby, the Taliban do not appear to have been targeted during the fighting.
Resolute Support, NATO’s mission in Afghanistan, claimed the aircraft made “a precautionary landing for a maintenance issue.”
The Taliban released a statement attributed to its emir, Hibatullah Akhundzada, who says that “peace” is only possible if the “occupation” is ended. The statement is entirely self-serving and contains absurd claims. For example, Akhundzada writes that the Taliban wants a “free, independent and progressive Afghanistan,” which is completely inconsistent with the group’s ideology and history.
While such tactics may be viewed as reactionary or defensive, if the Afghan government wants to arrest Taliban gains, the Taliban must be forced to pay a heavy price for massing and striking outposts, bases, and district centers.
The Taliban continues to demonstrate that it can conduct concurrent operations across the country, while Afghan forces largely remain on the defensive.
For decades the country has permitted a number of jihadist groups to openly operate under its aegis. A map highlights the more prominent groups openly operating inside Pakistan.
Taliban spokesman Zahibullah Mujahid denounced Trump’s decision to remain engaged in Afghanistan and said that Taliban fighters will “sustain our Jihad.” Additionally he repeated the canard that the Taliban does not pose a threat to foreign countries.
With words unprecedented for a US president, Trump called out Pakistan for harboring and supporting terrorist groups that target and kill US citizens and said there would be a radical change in policy toward the South Asian nation. Trump indicated the US would work to increase ties with India, Pakistan’s neighbor and greatest enemy, a move sure to both enrage as well as frighten Pakistani elites.
A complete US withdrawal from Afghanistan would have been disastrous. The US government needs to drastically reassess America’s jihadist enemies and avoid the policy pitfalls of the past.
The Taliban, which continues to make inroads in Kandahar province, released a video flaunting a bounty of weapons, ammunition and military equipment after it overran bases and outposts in Khakrez and Shah Wali Kot.
The Taliban has released an “open letter” to President Trump urging him to “adopt the strategy of a complete withdrawal from Afghanistan instead of a troops increase.” The propaganda letter contains several erroneous or misleading claims. It is also disingenuous with respect to the jihadist threat emanating out of Afghanistan.
The Afghan Taliban has again retaken control of the district of Ghormach in Faryab province. The remote district has changed hands twice in less than two years.
Jani Khel in Paktia province has changed hands three times over the past two weeks. The loss of Jani Khel to the Taliban demonstrates the difficulties Afghan forces face in holding onto remote contested districts.
Mullah Mustafa, a Taliban commander who was targeted by the US military in an airstrike nearly a decade ago and who has links to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp – Qods Force, remains a key player in the insurgency in central Afghanistan. He was involved in the Taliban takeover of a district in Ghor.
An Afghan policeman opened fire on Romanian soldiers in Kandahar and wounded one before being killed in return fire. The insider, or “green-on-blue,” attack is the fourth of its kind recorded so far this year.
The Islamic State’s Khorasan continues to target Shiites in mosques and other civilian areas. At least 50 people were killed in the suicide attack.
Resolute Support released a statement confirming that the attack “did cause casualties” and said it would release more details at a later time. The Pentagon later confirmed that two US soldiers were killed.
The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction’s assessment, based on data provided by the US military, is the best case scenario of the security situation for the country. At best, Afghanistan is a “stalemate.”
The Taliban displayed US-supplied HUMVEES and Ranger pickup trucks used by the police and military that were captured or destroyed. The Taliban also seized a large quantity of rocket propelled grenade launchers, machine guns, rifles, mortars, and other weapons.
Approximately 57 of the 82 soldiers at an Afghan National Army base in the southern province of Kandahar were either killed, wounded or captured during the attack.
The Taliban is demonstrating that it can sustain operations in all theaters of Afghanistan. The three districts are located in three different regions of Afghanistan.
The son of Mullah Haibatullah, the emir of the Afghan Taliban, killed himself in a suicide attack that targeted Afghan forces in the southern province of Helmand earlier this week.
The State Department’s newly released Country Reports on Terrorism says that Pakistan “did not take substantial action against the Afghan Taliban,” including the Haqqani Network, in 2016. The Taliban’s leadership has long had a presence in Pakistan.
The Pakistan military recoiled after Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense called on Pakistan to launched operations against “terrorist centers” throughout the country, including in the Pakistani cities of Lahore and Quetta.
Nawa district, which is adjacent to the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, was under Taliban control for nine months before Afghan forces could muster the strength to mount an operation and retake it.
The Islamic State’s Wilayah Khorasan (or Khorasan province) released a set of photos documenting its battles against the Taliban near the Tora Bora Mountains. The group’s offensive in the area forced the Afghan government to provide more support to locals who had sided with the Taliban in order to counter Wilayah Khorasan’s offensive in June.
The Taliban has issued 11 official statements on Voice of Jihad where it has wrongly claimed to have killed 45 American soldiers, and Resolute Support ignored them. Yet when the Islamic State falsely claimed it killed two Americans, Resolute Support quickly jumped into action to refute it.