Afghanistan International: In its annual report on terrorism, the US State Department announced that the Taliban continues to host and shelter al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. The report, citing the UN’s independent assessment of Afghanistan, said that the Afghan Taliban also allowed the Pakistani Taliban to operate on Afghan soil. Click here to read more (external link).
Afghanistan International: The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) wrote in a report that attacks by opposition fronts do not pose a serious threat to the Taliban, and that the group has been able to maintain its military dominance in Afghanistan. He predicted that the Taliban would likely be able to maintain this advantage
Ariana: The United States and its allies are making pretexts for resuming their military presence in Afghanistan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. Speaking at the Second Minsk International Conference on Eurasian Security in Minsk, Lavrov said that the US and its allies are trying to destablize the situation in Afghanistan. Earlier, Lavrov had said
Afghanistan International: Sarah Adams, a former CIA agent, has claimed that the Taliban handed over Afghan-American citizen Mahmood Shah Habibi to Al-Qaeda. Adams warned that “Habibi is now awaiting execution”. On Saturday, Adams warned on social media platform X that if the United States does not take necessary action immediately, “an American will be executed
8am: One analysis suggests that given the developments in the Russia-Ukraine war, Western powers, especially the U.S., may be seeking to exploit al-Qaeda and other Central Asian militant groups to undermine Russian interests. After the September 11 attacks, the U.S. significantly weakened al-Qaeda and eliminated many of its senior leaders, but it either did not
NDTV: Hamza bin Laden, the son of Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, is alive and leading the terror outfit, according to intelligence reports cited by The Mirror. Hamza is secretly running Al Qaeda from Afghanistan along with his brother, Abdullah bin Laden, the publication says in an explosive report. The National Mobilisation Front (NMF),
8am: The security and intelligence gaps created by the Taliban’s control over Afghanistan and the extensive presence of active terrorist and radical Islamic groups under their umbrella represent a significant and growing threat. This environment has created a remarkable opportunity for international terrorist organizations, including ISIS-K, al-Qaeda, and TTP, to strengthen and expand their operations.
Michael Hughes: The CIA claims it established a back channel with the Taliban to cooperate on operations against anti-Western terrorist groups, while suggesting dire warnings of Afghanistan becoming a terrorist sanctuary are overblown. The narrative has been spun harder recently, undeniably for political purposes ahead of a presidential election, but the covert agency’s assertions are
Foreign Policy: Al Qaeda has set up nine new terrorist camps in Afghanistan in 2024, a sign of the Taliban’s increasing tolerance of terror groups in their backyard in spite of pledges to crack down, according to an Afghan resistance leader visiting Washington this week. “These are training centers; these are recruitment centers,” said Ali
Michael Hughes August 10, 2024 The Taliban have long represented themselves as a group with a local vision and little to no aspirations of carrying jihad beyond Afghan borders. Putting aside that aligning with al-Qaeda, an international terrorist group, single-handedly undermines this narrative, evidence continues to mount that Afghanistan has become an ideal base for