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Afghanistan

Dissident commanders meet to choose rival Afghan Taliban leader

2015-10-21

[DAWN] Weeks after the Afghan Taliban's biggest battlefield success since 2001, dissident commanders unhappy with their new leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor are meeting to choose a rival, they told Rooters on Tuesday. Analysts say the recent brief occupation of the northern city of Kunduz has cemented Mansoor's power, boosting his reputation among foot soldiers and causing the US government and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... to slow plans for withdrawing their troops. But in the opaque manoeuvring around the Taliban leadership, it is unclear whether the anti-Mansoor faction will seek to challenge him on the battlefield, how many fighters they control or how much money they have. A leadership battle within the Taliban could create space for Death Eaters loyal to the self-styled Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) to expand their foothold in the region, and could discourage Mansoor from resuming Pakistain-backed peace talks with the Afghan government. Afghanistan's Caped President Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. is pushing for a negotiated settlement to the 14-year insurgency, which has escalated markedly since tens of thousands of NATO combat troops withdrew ahead of an end-2014 deadline. The two sides held inaugural talks in Pakistain in July, but many commanders, including prominent dissident Mullah Abdul Qayum Zakir, opposed the process. It has since stalled. Mullah Abdul Manan Niazi, a front man for the anti-Mansoor faction, said a new leader would be chosen within days. "There is one agenda, and that's to choose the new emir (leader) unanimously and get rid of Mullah Mansoor," he said. Niazi said the dissident commanders would not accept Mansour despite the Taliban's brief occupation of Kunduz earlier this month, their most important military success since the US-led invasion toppled the Taliban government in 2001. Just weeks after the peace talks, Mansoor was hastily appointed head of the Afghan Taliban when Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... 's intelligence agency leaked news that Mullah Omar ... a minor Pashtun commander in the war against the Soviets who made good as leader of the Taliban. As ruler of Afghanistan, he took the title Leader of the Faithful. The imposition of Pashtunkhwa on the nation institutionalized ignorance and brutality in a country already notable for its own fair share of ignorance and brutality... , the reclusive one-eyed founder of the Taliban, had been dead for more than two years. During that time, Mansoor issued statements in Omar's name, a subterfuge he said was necessary to unify the insurgency. But many commanders were furious over the deception and refused to accept him. A front man for Mansoor was not immediately available for comment. "I can say no more!"

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Afghanistan

Walkout at Taliban leadership meeting raises specter of split

2015-08-01

REUTERS] At the Taliban meeting this week where Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour was named as the Islamist murderous Moslem group's new head, several senior figures in the movement, including the son and brother of late leader Mullah Omar ... a minor Pashtun commander in the war against the Soviets who made good as leader of the Taliban. As ruler of Afghanistan, he took the title Leader of the Faithful. The imposition of Pashtunkhwa on the nation institutionalized ignorance and brutality in a country already notable for its own fair share of ignorance and brutality... , walked out in protest. The display of dissent within the group's secretive core is the clearest sign yet of the challenge Mansour faces in uniting a group already split over whether to pursue peace talks with the Afghan government and facing a new, external threat - Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... Rifts in the Taliban leadership are likely to widen after confirmation this week of the death of elusive founder Omar. Mansour, Omar's longtime deputy who has been effectively in charge for years, favors talks to bring an end to more than 13 years of war. He recently sent a delegation to inaugural meetings with Afghan officials hosted by Pakistain, hailed as a breakthrough. But Mansour, 50, has powerful rivals within the Taliban who oppose negotiations, notably battlefield commander Abdul Qayum Zakir, a former inmate of the U.S. prison in Cuba's Guantanamo Bay. Zakir is pushing for Mullah Omar's son Yaqoob to take over the movement, and a sizeable faction also supports Yaqoob. Yaqoob and his uncle Abdul Manan, Omar's younger brother, were among several Taliban figures who walked out of Wednesday's leadership meeting held in the western Pak city of Quetta, according to three people who were at the shura, or gathering. "Actually, it wasn't a Taliban Leadership Council meeting. Mansoor had invited only members of his group to pave the way for his election," said one of the sources, a senior member of Taliban in Quetta. "And when Yaqoob and Manan noticed this, they left the meeting." PEACE TALKS IN JEOPARDY The leadership shura, or gathering, was held outside Quetta, where many Taliban leaders have been based since their hardline regime in Afghanistan was toppled in a 2001 U.S.-led military intervention. Afghan Taliban leaders have long had sanctuaries in Pakistain, even as Pak government officials have denied offering support in recent years. Mansour leads the Taliban's strongest faction and appears to control most of its spokesmen, websites and statements, said Graeme Smith, senior Afghanistan analyst for the think-tank International Crisis Group. But some intelligence officials estimate Mansour only directly controls about 40 percent of fighters in the field, he said. That could make it difficult for him to deliver on any ceasefire that could emerge from future negotiations. And Taliban insiders say that by sending a three-member delegation to meet Afghan officials in the Pak resort of Murree earlier in July, Mansour sparked new criticism. Especially riled were members of the Taliban's political office in Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... , who insisted only they were empowered to negotiate. "People ... were not happy with Mullah Mansour‎ when he agreed with ‎Pakistain ... to hold a meeting with Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... ," said a Taliban capo based in Quetta. "The Qatar office wasn't taken into confidence before taking such an important decision." The Quetta shura has sent a six-member team to Qatari capital Doha to meet with one of its leaders, Tayyab Agha, seeking his support for Mansour, according to another Taliban source close to the leadership.

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Afghanistan

Secret meetings expose obstacles to Afghan peace talks

2015-03-13

[DAWN] Days after word leaked that the Afghan Taliban had signalled willingness to enter into talks to end Afghanistan's long war, senior representatives of the Lion of Islam group visited Islamabad for secret discussions on the next step forward. They left with a blunt message from Pakistain: the Taliban must end a rift between two top leaders, or talks might never get off the ground. The warning was a reminder of how tough it will be to get bandidos krazed killers and the Afghan government on the same table, let alone agree on lasting peace, even with help from Pakistain-- the Taliban's erstwhile backer that still wields influence over them. The two senior Taliban figures in question are political leader Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, who favours negotiation, and battlefield commander Abdul Qayum Zakir, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, who opposes talks with Kabul. Mansour and Zakir, long-time rivals, met recently to resolve their personal differences, slaughtering sheep for a feast to mark the occasion, according to two Taliban sources. But Mansour was unable to persuade Zakir to reverse his opposition to direct talks with Kabul, which he sees as "wasting time" because the United States holds real power in Afghanistan, the sources added.

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Afghanistan

Taliban Repeating Pattern of Zarqawi's Al Q in Iraq?

2011-02-27

I'd feel better about this if it was in something other than Newsweak. The Taliban has lost its swagger. Eighteen months ago they were stronger than ever in eastern Afghanistan and their home provinces in the south, and they were growing fast in the formerly secure north and west. But fighters on the front lines are far less cocky. The USMC can do that to you. They freely admit that defections, desertions, and battlefield losses are undermining their military effectiveness. Worse, the defectors have given valuable intelligence to the Americans. One of their biggest concerns is the lack of real leadership at the top. Opening for #3 - submit your application, hurry, hurry. The movement's founder, Mullah Mohammed Omar, has been unseen and silent since he fled Afghanistan in late 2001, and his right-hand man, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, has been held for the past year by Pakistani security forces. The two senior commanders who nominally run the war in the south now--Abdul Qayum Zakir and Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor--inspire little confidence in the ranks. Kidnappings, indiscriminate IED and suicide-bomb attacks, abuses of power, and outright banditry are alienating formerly sympathetic villagers. Cuz it worked so well for Zarqawi.

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Afghanistan

New Leaders for the Taliban

2011-01-19

The article reads like a corporate personnel promotion announcement. Summary: two newly promoted Numbers 2.5 for our guys to play with: Abdul Qayum Zakir, field commander, and Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor, finances and logistics. They replace Mullah Omar's former Number Two, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, arrested a year ago. Now all they need do is figure out how to recruit without acquiring more unnoticed spies, and how to communicate without being caught by spy satellites and UAV missiles. Other Taliban have been promoted to replace Mansoor and Zakir, and others wanted the post.

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Afghanistan

Newsweak: Talibs Need A Timeout

2010-11-27

Hudna time for the Dread Afghan Winter™. You KNOW it had to hurt the NW asshats to write this or months, NEWSWEEK has reported emphatic denials by senior Afghan Taliban officials that they were engaged in secret peace talks with the government in Kabul. Those denials received further weight last week when The New York Times exposed a purported top-level Taliban negotiator as an impostor who made off with large sums of U.S. cash. Embarrassing Even so, Taliban forces—the real ones—are definitely feeling the impact of stepped-up U.S. action in southern Afghanistan. A group of 17 ground commanders recently traveled to the Pakistani frontier city of Quetta to meet with one of their top military chiefs, Abdul Qayum Zakir, say four Taliban officials who didn’t want to be named for safety reasons. but who are probably NYT and Newsweak subscribers The commanders informed Zakir that they and their men were temporarily suspending combat operations and asked that he either transfer them to less hotly contested areas or let them recover in Pakistan until the spring thaw. “We have lost many friends and commanders and lovers,” one member of the delegation told Zakir, says Mullah Salam Khan, a midlevel commander in Helmand province who was briefed on the meeting by a participant. “We are tired and want to take a rest.” Zakir, says Khan, acknowledged their complaint—but said he needed the commanders to help him keep up at least a harassing presence in their areas so villagers could see that the insurgents are not on the run. They promised to do what they could. "It's a strategic...repositioning.... to the rear. A little poolside time with Omar in Quetta and we'll be right back, winning the war against the infidel, and blowing up Girl's schools! Yarrr!"

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India-Pakistan

Top Taliban leader among six set free by Pakistan

2010-04-29

ISI gave them new suits, spending money and an escort back to Wazoo. LAHORE: When Pakistani security forces, aided by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) captured the Taliban's second-in-command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in February, US officials hailed it as a "turning point" in the war against the Taliban. His arrest was followed quickly by the nabbing of some 10 or more Taliban leaders, though their detention was never officially announced. But the biggest catch among these most recent detainees -- Abdul Qayum Zakir -- has been released, according to an article published in Newsweek magazine. Perhaps he was getting bored lounging beside the hotel pool ... Zakir was Baradar's top military commander and one of Mullah Omar's most effective and most feared commanders during the Taliban's fight to defeat the resisting Northern Alliance 10 years ago. The Washington Post recently reported that US officials believe at least two of the arrested Taliban were recently released. And reliable Taliban sources told Newsweek that at least six of those captured leaders were quietly released, Zakir among them. Several other Taliban sources from different regions whom Newsweek interviewed separately confirmed that Zakir had been detained and released. Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told Newsweek he has no information about the arrest and release of these leaders. "I know nothing! Nothing!" A US government official, who declined to be identified because he is not authorised to speak on the record, confirmed to Newsweek that some of the Taliban leaders had been released, but added that it was not surprising, according to Newsweek. "It's not a surprise that in a country where politics is often messy, competing interests are carefully balanced, and relationships are complex, some of those people have been let go," the official says. "We know they don't have a consistent policy that they apply consistently, but that doesn't mean we can't work with them. Quite frankly, we have to," he added. According to the Taliban sources, those who have been freed besides Zakir include Maulvi Abdul Kabir -- who heads the insurgency in eastern Afghanistan from his perch near Peshawar -- three of Kabir's top deputies, and Latif Mansoor -- a senior commander in three eastern Afghanistan provinces. Not a single one of them was ground up in the land campaign in Wazoo ... But several other Taliban sources believed Zakir's arrest and release was more likely a determined effort by Pakistan to once again emphasise Islamabad's influence over and importance to the insurgency that still relies on Pakistani sanctuaries and supply lines, Newsweek reported. Then again, it might be that the Paks are tired of them and just want us to drone-zap them all ...

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Afghanistan

Freed Gitmo mullah back with Taliban fighting our troops

2009-07-06

As Marine Corps forces roll into southern Afghanistan, they face an enemy familiar to US officials -- Mullah Zakir, a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner who now leads a reconstituted Taliban. Abdul Qayum Zakir, also known as Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul, is from Helmand Province and has taken a circuitous route to become head of the radical Islamic group. Zakir was a senior fighter during the Taliban regime in the 1990s. In a memorandum prepared for his administrative review board at Guantanamo, Zakir apparently "felt it would be fine to wage jihad against Americans, Jews, or Israelis if they were invading his country." And he acknowledged that he was "called to fight jihad in approximately 1997," when he joined the Taliban. In 2001, he surrendered to US and Afghan forces in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif as the regime was collapsing. He spent the next several years in custody, was transferred to Guantanamo around 2006, then to Afghanistan government custody in late 2007, and was eventually released around May 2008. American officials won't say why he was let go and have not released a photograph of him. Zakir wasted little time rekindling his relationship with the Taliban, especially its inner shura, or leadership council, based in Pakistan. According to some accounts, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar appointed Zakir as a senior military commander in mid-2008. He quickly developed a reputation as a charismatic leader. By this time, the Taliban had established a system of shadow-government structures in parts of Afghanistan: provincial governors, military commanders, and mullahs who served on Islamic courts. The Taliban's goal, as with many insurgent groups, has been to provide more effective law and order than the Afghan government. But it has been one of the most oppressive governments in modern history, banning many forms of entertainment, prohibiting women from working, and conducting public executions of suspected collaborators. It was in this context that Zakir made his defining contribution to the southern insurgency -- and created an opportunity for US forces to exploit. Early this year, he began to reorganize the Taliban. He helped create an "accountability commission" to monitor and evaluate the performance of key Taliban leaders and track spending. In some ways, Zakir's efforts paralleled those of the United States, which was laying out a new Afghanistan strategy under the Obama administration at about the same time. The Taliban, apparently concerned that some governors and military commanders had become ineffective and bracing for the growing US military presence, announced its own new strategy in April. They called it Operation Nasrat ("victory") and pledged to use "ambushes, offensives, explosions, martyrdom-seeking attacks, and surprise attacks." The Taliban also warned that they would attack "military units of the invading forces, diplomatic centers, mobile convoys and high-ranking officials" of the Afghan government. As Marines move through Helmand, they will be on the lookout for Zakir and his support network. But like many senior Taliban leaders, Zakir spends a lot of time in Pakistani cities like Quetta and Karachi, frightened he'll be killed in an attack. Zakir's restructuring presents an opportunity for NATO and Afghan forces. As in any business reorganization, firing senior leaders is bound to create a contingent of disgruntled individuals who may be co-opted to turn against the Taliban. A number of fired Taliban commanders have apparently refused to give up their jobs.

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