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Pakistani Taliban says Islamic State leader Baghdadi ‘is not a Islamic Khalifa’BY BILL ROGGIO | December 19, 2015 | The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan has yet again rejected the Islamic State and said its emir, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, is unfit to lead an Islamic caliphate.The jihadist group, which is Pakistan’s largest Taliban faction, denounced Baghdadi and his Islamic State in a statement obtained by Reuters.

“Baghdadi is not Khalifa (caliph) because in Islam, Khalifa means that he has command over all the Muslim world, while Baghdadi has no such command; he has command over a specific people and territory,” the Pakistani Taliban said.

“Baghdadi is not a Islamic Khalifa because his selection is not according to Islamic rules,” the Taliban faction continued, making the same arguments that has been been made by al Qaeda and its various branches, and the Afghan Taliban.

In addition to rejecting Baghdadi as caliph, the Pakistani Taliban said the Islamic State is illegitimate because its followers kill “innocent mujahideen.”

“Baghdadi’s caliphate is not Islamic because in a real caliphate you provide real justice while Baghdadi’s men kill many innocent mujahideen (fighters) of other groups,” the Taliban continued.

The Islamic State routinely attacks other jihadist group and Islamist rebel factions who refuse to swear allegiance to Baghdadi and join the Islamic State. The Islamic State regularly clashes with its rivals for control of territory in Syria, Afghanistan, and Libya.The statement obtained by Reuters is similar to one issued by the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan in May, when the group issued a lengthy rejection of the Islamic State’s “self-professed caliphate” in Iraq and Syria. The Islamic State has attempted to cut into the support enjoyed by the Taliban and al Qaeda inside Pakistan. In January, a group of mid-level Pakistani Taliban commanders pledged their loyalty to Baghdadi. In February, the group’s emir for the Pakistani tribal agency of Bajaur also defected to Baghdadi’s cause. The defections came after internal discord and disputes dissolved the original Pakistani Taliban coalition last year.Pakistani Taliban leaders, likely with the aid of al Qaeda, have worked to reunite the feuding factions. In March, a major faction calling itself the Pakistani Taliban Jamaat ul Ahrar decided to rejoin the original umbrella organization. Lashkar-i-Islam also decided to join the Pakistani Taliban.Also, in May, three Pakistani jihadist groups, including one led by Matiur Rehman, joined the ranks of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan. Rehman, a key commander who has served as a senior leader in al Qaeda and the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, was put in charge of the three groups. His involvement was likely supported and approved by al Qaeda’s high command. The Islamic State is thought to have a small presence inside Pakistan. The jihadist group has advertised several small training camps, which are thought to be based in South Waziristan, but it has not conducted any significant attacks inside Pakistan.Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of The Long War Journal.

Dec 20, Pakistan: Victim or exporter of terrorism?General Asad Durrani, the former head of the ISI, Pakistan's notorious spy agency, on its role in the "War on Terror". 10 Apr 2015 "They deluded themselves in believing that they

The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.–Winston Churchill

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were allies. Actually, they were not," says former Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt. General Asad Durrani, commenting on Pakistan's rocky relationship with the United States since they allied in the "War on Terror".

WASHINGTON—Violence in Afghanistan is on the rise, according to a new Pentagon report to Congress that says the Taliban was emboldened by the reduced U.S. military role and can be expected to build momentum from their 2015 attack strategy. While Afghan forces have demonstrated a will to fight and to learn from their battlefield mistakes, the report said the Taliban’s resilience has made security fragile in key areas and at risk of deteriorating in others. “As a result, the Taliban will continue to test the (Afghan forces) aggressively in 2016,” it said. “The resilient Taliban-led insurgency remains an enduring threat to U.S., coalition, and Afghan forces, as well as to the Afghan people,” the report said. The report also said Al Qaeda, which used Afghanistan as a base from which to launch the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, has a “sustained presence” in eastern and northeastern Afghanistan and remains a threat to the United States. It did not estimate how many Al Qaeda fighters are in the country. Other problems that have persisted in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in October 2001 are still unsolved, the report said. Revenue from opium trafficking, for example, continues to sustain the insurgency and Afghan criminal networks. The report cited an increase in extortion and kidnappings by low-level criminal networks.Despite years of U.S. efforts to build an effective Afghan army and police, security is still threatened by a host of insurgent and extremist networks. The report said these include the Taliban, the Haqqani Network, and to a lesser extent Al Qaeda as well as an Islamic State affiliate that is openly fighting with the Taliban for establishment of a safe haven.

Dec 18, The US defence secretary has warned of a threat from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in Afghanistan during an unannounced visit.Ashton Carter's visit comes just days after the Pentagon said, in a report to the US Congress, that there was a 27 percent increase in high-profile attacks in Kabul from January to mid-November this year, compared with the same period in 2014."We are seeing little nests of ISIL spring up around the world, including here in Afghanistan, but I will say that that is a threat that we track very closely," Carter said after meeting Masoom Stanekzai, the acting Afghan defence minister, in Kabul on Friday. "The Taliban's advances in some parts of the country, even if only temporary, underscore that this is a tough fight and it's far from over." Between 1,000 and 3,000 ISIL fighters are in Afghanistan, according to Campbell.He said their presence had forced the Taliban to re-direct some resources away from fighting Afghan security forces. "It [ISIL] doesn't have the capability, I believe, to go to Europe and attack Europe and go to our homeland at this point," Campbell said

Dec 18, A prominent jihadi leader and former member of the Afghan parliament on Friday slammed Taliban and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group for defaming Islam. This is not the first Abdul Rab Rasool Sayyaf 1has taken a hard stance

1 During the war, he received patronage from Arab sources and mobilized Arab volunteers for the Mujahedin forces. Sayyaf is said to have been the one who first invited Osama bin Laden to take refuge in Afghanistan (Jalalabad), after bin Laden's 1996 expulsion from Sudan by the otherwise sympathetic Sudanese régime under Saudi, Egyptian, and American pressure. He has also been accused of having knowingly assisted the two assassins that killed Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud in a suicide bomb blast two days before 11 September 2001





against the militant groups, specifically the Taliban group. In his speech during the inauguration of ‘Afghanistan Protection and Stability Council’, Sayyaf raised a question regarding the motive behind Taliban’s dispute, saying the group has defamed Islam and the religion.He said the ongoing insurgency in Afghanistan is not due to conflict between Muslims and Kufars but the war is waged by paid criminal and murderers. Sayyaf also called on the government to use the former Mujahid commanders in fight against the emergent ISIS terrorist group. In regards to the formation of the new council – Afghanistan Protection and Stability Council, Sayyaf said the main aim of the council is to unite the Afghan people for the survival of Afghanistan and dignity of the Afghan people. Sayyaf further added that the council members are not in favor of the collapse of the current political system and they have shared their concerns regarding the deteriorating situation of the country with President Ghani.

US continues to push for negotiations with Taliban despite direct ties to al QaedaBY BILL ROGGIO AND THOMAS JOSCELYN | December 17, 2015 | Images of Siraj Haqqani, one of the Taliban’s two deputy emirs, from a US government wanted poster. The US government and military continue to seek a negotiated settlement with the Afghan Taliban despite the group’s continuing support for al Qaeda and the increased leadership role the Haqqani Network plays in the Afghan insurgency.

The Department of Defense asserts in its biannual Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan report, released earlier this week, that “reconciliation and a political settlement with the Taliban” is a

key part of its strategy to end the conflict in Afghanistan.“The U.S. and Afghan governments agree that the best way to ensure lasting peace and security in Afghanistan is reconciliation and a political settlement with the Taliban,” the report says in its very first section, titled US Strategy in Afghanistan. The report then states that to achieve a political settlement, the Taliban must take the very steps the group has refused for 15 years: denounce al Qaeda and submit to Afghanistan’s constitution. “Success of an Afghan-led peace process will require the Taliban and other armed opposition groups to end violence, break ties with international terrorist groups, and accept Afghanistan’s constitution, including its protections for the rights of women and under-represented groups.”The Pentagon report continues to advocate for reconciliation with the Taliban despite the fact that al Qaeda’s emir, Ayman al Zawahiri, swore an oath of allegiance to the new leader of the Taliban, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, after he was publicly named successor to Mullah Omar over the summer. Mansour accepted Zawahiri’s oath just days after it was given.Shockingly, the Pentagon report made no mention of Zawahiri’s oath and Mansour’s acceptance. The report did note that the emir of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan swore allegiance to the Islamic State’s leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.The Pentagon also continues to press for negotiations despite the fact that Sirajuddin Haqqani, the operational commander of the Haqqani Network – a powerful Taliban subgroup that is closely tied to al Qaeda and backed by Pakistan’s military and intelligence





establishment – was appointed as one of Mansour’s two deputies. Siraj is effectively the Taliban’s military commander. The US military does recognize that Siraj’s “elevation” in the Taliban leadership is problematic. “The elevation of Haqqani Network leader Siraj Haqqani as Taliban leader Mullah Mansour’s deputy signals that the Haqqani Network will remain a critical and lethal component of the overall Taliban-led insurgency,” the report states.“Of the groups involved in the Taliban-led insurgency, the Haqqani Network remains the greatest threat to U.S., coalition, and Afghan forces and continues to be the most critical enabler of al Qaeda,” the report continues. “Haqqani Network leader Siraj Haqqani’s elevation as Taliban leader Mullah Mansour’s deputy has further strengthened the Haqqani Network’s role in the Taliban-led insurgency. The Haqqani Network and affiliated groups share the goals of expelling U.S. and coalition forces, overthrowing the Afghan government, and re-establishing an Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.”Siraj’s tight working relationship with al Qaeda has been confirmed by multiple sources. Files recovered in Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound revealed the depth of the collusion. [See LWJ report, The Taliban’s new leadership is allied with al Qaeda.]Since accepting Zawahiri’s oath of loyalty and appointing Siraj as a top deputy, the Taliban have not backed off from either party. In early September the Taliban released a video that highlighted Siraj’s importance to the group as well as Mansour’s accepting Zawahiri’s pledge. In early September, the Taliban also devoted significant space to al Qaeda leaders and pro-al Qaeda clerics eulogizing its former emir in that month’s edition of Al Sumud, the group’s official magazine.Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of The Long War Journal. Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for The Long War Journal.

Pentagon report on Afghanistan excludes al Qaeda’s pledge to the TalibanBY BILL ROGGIO | December 18th, 2015 |

While reading through the December 2015 edition of the Department of Defense’s Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan report, there is one glaring omission: the





report makes no mention whatsoever of Mullah Mansour accepting an oath of allegiance from al Qaeda’s Ayman al Zawahiri.There is no way possible that those in the Pentagon writing this report were not aware of Zawahiri’s oath and Mansour’s acceptance. Sources indicated to Long War Journal that US military and intelligence officials were aware when Zawahiri pledged allegiance to Mansour. Sources said officials were also aware when Mansour accepted Zawahiri’s pledge.The Taliban publicly advertised Zawahiri’s oath of allegiance, in English no less, on its official propaganda website, Voice of Jihad. You can see a screen shot of the page above (the page at Voice of Jihad is no longer online). And at least two other times, the Taliban highlighted Zawahiri’s pledge. In early September, the Taliban released a video that highlighted Mansour accepting Zawahiri’s pledge. The Taliban also re-published Zawahiri’s oath in that month’s edition of Al Sumud, the group’s official magazine. Ironically, the Pentagon report does catch that the emir of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan swore allegiance to the Islamic State. How do the writers of this report catch the development related to the IMU, yet miss the bigger issue of the al Qaeda-Taliban alliance? US military and intelligence officials who work Afghanistan closely monitor the Taliban’s propaganda on Voice of Jihad, Al Sumud, and on other platforms on a daily basis. The failure to mention al Qaeda’s renewed oath to the Taliban seems to be no accidental omission.The bigger question is: Why? Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of The Long War Journal.

Dec 16 LWJ. US military insists al Qaeda is “concentrated” in Afghan east and northeastBY BILL ROGGIO | December 16, 2015 | The US military continues to claim that al Qaeda is “primarily concentrated in the east and northeast” of Afghanistan, despite a major operation two months ago that targeted the jihadist group at two established training facilities in the southeast.The Department of Defense asserts in its biannual Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan report, which was released today, that al Qaeda is largely confined to the east and northeast. The military also claims that Pakistani military operations in North Waziristan over the past year, and not orders from Osama bin Laden that date back to 2010, caused al Qaeda leaders to be “displaced into Afghanistan.”

“Following Pakistani military operations in North Waziristan, many foreign fighters, including some al Qaeda leaders, were displaced into Afghanistan,” the report states in a section that assesses threats from insurgent and terrorist groups. “Al Qaeda activities remain focused on survival, regeneration, and planning and facilitating future attacks; they remain a threat to the United States and its interests. The organization has a sustained presence in Afghanistan primarily concentrated in the east and northeast.”

The military’s claim that al Qaeda is “primarily concentrated in the east and northeast” is directly contradicted by its own reporting on an operation that targeted two al Qaeda camps in Shorabak district in Kandahar province that began on Oct. 7 and took four days to complete. The two camps, including one that was nearly 30 square miles in size, were “well-established,” Brigadier General Wilson Shoffner, a US military spokesman said two days after the operation ended.An al Qaeda media cell, likely part of As Sahab, was dismantled, and large stockpiles of weapons, ammunition, IEDs, and other supplies were seized and destroyed. The US launched 63 airstrikes in the two al Qaeda camps over the course of four days. [See Long





War Journal report, US military strikes large al Qaeda training camps in southern Afghanistan.]

The operation was “one of the largest joint ground-assault operations we have ever conducted in Afghanistan,” Shoffner said at the time. “We struck a major al Qaeda sanctuary in the center of the Taliban’s historic heartland” in southern Afghanistan.

General John Campbell, the NATO commander in Afghanistan, backed up Shoffner’s statements on the Shorabak operation, and indicated that the location of the two al Qaeda camps was something of a shock to US commanders. [See Threat Matrix report, Al Qaeda’s Kandahar training camp ‘probably the largest’ in Afghan War.]

“It’s [Shorabak] a place where you would probably think you wouldn’t have AQ [al Qaeda]. I would agree with that,” Campbell said in an interview with The Washington Post. “This was really AQIS [Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent], and probably the largest training camp-type facility that we have seen in 14 years of war.”The Department of Defense’s latest Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan report does mention the operation that destroyed the al Qaeda camps, but wrongly says it targeted a single camp. Also, there is no mention of the camps being “well-established” or the military commander’s surprise at their existence in southeastern Afghanistan.“The U.S. and Afghan partnered operation against an al Qaeda training camp in Kandahar in October 2015 demonstrates the importance of continued counterterrorism efforts against al Qaeda as they seek to reconstitute their strike capabilities against Western targets,” the report states in the only mention of the Shorabak raid.

The US military has insisted for years that al Qaeda remains confined to eastern and northeastern Afghanistan, despite its own reporting on raids against the terrorist group and its allies from 2007 to 2013 (note, the US military ceased reporting on raids against al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan in June 2013). In the June 2015 Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan report, the US military claimed that al Qaeda “has a sustained presence in Afghanistan of probably fewer than 100 operatives concentrated largely in Kunar and Nuristan Provinces, where they remain year-round.”Yet scores of al Qaeda fighters are said to have been killed during the US military attack on the camps in Shorabak, which was an established facility at the time the US military released its June 2015 assessment on Afghanistan.Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of The Long War Journal.

13.12.2015 The Western media report that Daesh (IS/ISIL) is beefing up its military presence in Afghanistan in order to establish the 'province of Khorasan of the Islamic State' with the prospect of grabbing of Pakistan and certain areas of Iran, India and China, Martin Berger notes, posing the question who benefits from the Islamist advance.

Western media outlets are banging the drums over Daesh's growing influence in Afghanistan; they insist that Daesh has overshadowed the Taliban and even seized swathes of eastern Afghanistan.Western experts suggest that the infamous jihadi group is intending to create an Islamist realm in Afghanistan and spread its influence over neighboring countries. They insist that the root of all evil is the departure of US and British troops from Afghanistan."The West is using such reports to present the situation in Afghanistan in the grimmest colors one could imagine to persuade the general public to support the expansion of the US military presence in the country. We are being told that Washington, which is





allegedly the ardent fighter of ISIL [Daesh], won't be able to do anything once the US military forces leave the country. Western media sources argue that Afghan troops are not strong enough, so should the US get through the door, we are going to witness a sharp aggravation of the internal political situation," Czech-based freelance journalist and analyst Martin Berger emphasizes in his article for New Eastern Outlook.

The analyst recalls that in 2015 Daesh spokesman Abu Muhammad Al Adnani released a video message declaring the creation of the Islamic State's province of Khorasan in Afghanistan. He specified that Daesh is planning to seize Pakistan and certain areas of India, Iran and China.

Some experts suggest that the Taliban would be ousted from the region and replaced by more radical Daesh group. In early November 2015 Jordan-based Albawaba media outlet reported of fierce clashes between Taliban and Daesh fighters in the southern Zabul province of Afghanistan.According to Martin Berger the situation is far more complicated."Experts argue that the Taliban project, which essentially is nothing more than Washington's brainchild, just like al-Qaeda, has outlived its days and will be brought down. It will be replaced by a new project — the so-called Islamic State [Daesh/ISIL], that is a US creation too. Taliban's ideology is pretty close to the one pursued by ISIL [Daesh], and those two groups have similar goals and methods they would use to achieve them," the journalist points out.© AP PHOTO/ KHALIL HAMRA'Moderate' Islamism? Washington, Brussels Playing With Fire in Syria, IraqCommenting on the possible confrontation between the two Islamist entities, Berger calls attention to the fact that the groups have close ties.

"It's not a coincidence that Afghan experts are calling the Taliban and ISIL [Daesh] 'two sides of the same coin'," he notes.The journalist points out that notorious Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi received training in the Mujahedeen camps in Afghanistan back in the 1980s."It's also noteworthy that Osama bin Laden, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and al-Baghdadi himself maintained close, friendly relations with the leaders of the Mujahedeen, and worked closely with them," Berger stresses.Citing the Afghani media reports, the journalist reveals that at one time Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was running a big Taliban training camp located near the town of Islam Qala in the western Herat province of Afghanistan, on the border with Iran."Under these conditions, instead of saying that ISIL [Daesh] is expanding its influence in Afghanistan, as the Western media tries to convince us, we can speak about the United States using its creation to destabilize Afghanistan once again," Berger suggests, adding that Daesh in Afghanistan would pose a serious threat to Russia and China, Washington's geopolitical competitors.




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