The Assassination of Taliban Officials in the North: Internal Disputes or ISIS Attacks?

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Taliban fighters (file photo)

8am: Over the past two years, suicide attacks have claimed the lives of several Taliban officials. In the most recent incident, a suicide attack targeted and killed the acting governor and deputy governor of the Taliban in Badakhshan province. Similarly, Daud Muzamil, the Taliban governor of Balkh province, was previously killed by an ISIS suicide attacker inside his office. While no group has claimed responsibility for the attack in Badakhshan province, sources informed the Hasht-e Subh Daily that it was carried out by ISIS. However, some sources suggest that the assassination of the Taliban deputy governor stems from internal and local disputes. Earlier, similar incidents resulted in the deaths of the security commander and the head of the mines directorate for the Taliban in Badakhshan province. Click here to read more (external link).

24 people including 8 children die in Sar-e-Pul traffic accident

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Ariana: At least 24 people died in a traffic accident on Wednesday in Sar-e-Pul province of Afghanistan, local officials said. Din Mohammad Nazari, the spokesman of the Sar-e-Pul Province Police Command, said eight children, 12 women and four men died in the accident. Nazari said the accident was the result of careless driving. Click here to read more (external link).

Sri Lanka Thrash Afghanistan to Win ODI Series 2-1

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Khaama: Sri Lanka strode to 120 with 34 overs to spare in Hambantota, striding past the 117 set by the tourists after a fast-bowling attack led by Dushmantha Chameera that demolished the hapless Afghan top order. In a nine-wicket thrashing that sealed a 2-1 ODI series victory for the hosts on Wednesday, Sri Lanka’s openers Dimuth Karunaratne and Pathum Nissanka made short work of Afghanistan. Afghanistan easily won the first game by six wickets, but Sri Lanka fought back to win the second game by 132 runs. To compete for one of the two remaining spots in the World Cup, Sri Lanka will go to Zimbabwe for World Cup qualifications. Afghanistan has already qualified for the World Cup, which will start in India in October. Click here to read more (external link).

‘Embarrassing’ dissent cable shows Biden ‘allowed’ Afghanistan to collapse: Rep. Issa

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Joe Biden

Fox News: Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., is slamming the Afghanistan dissent cable that Secretary of State Antony Blinken allowed congressional access to Tuesday as “embarrassing” and said it debunks the Biden administration’s narrative that it was caught off guard by the country’s swift collapse in 2021. Issa, who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Fox News Digital that he was the first committee member to view the dissent channel cable from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and Washington’s response. Click here to read more (external link).

Car Bomb Kills Taliban Provincial Deputy Governor in Northern Afghanistan

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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
June 6, 2023

ISLAMABAD — Taliban authorities in Afghanistan said Tuesday that a car bomb blast had killed at least two people, including the deputy governor of the northeastern Badakhshan border province.

A local official spokesman told VOA by phone that Molvi Nisar Ahmad Ahmadi was being driven to work in the provincial capital of Faizabad when a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into his vehicle.

Moazuddin Ahmadi said the powerful blast had wounded at least six civilians.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the high-profile attack in the mountainous Afghan province abutting China, Pakistan, and Tajikistan.

A car bombing in December killed the Taliban police chief of Badakhshan in an attack claimed by the Islamic State terror group’s Afghan branch, known as Islamic State-Khorasan, or IS-K.

Several top Taliban leaders have been killed in IS-K-claimed attacks since the hardline group retook control of Afghanistan nearly two years ago.

Mohammad Dawood Muzammil, the governor of the northern Balkh province, was killed in a suicide bombing in March. IS-K took credit for assassinating one of the most senior Taliban leaders.

Muzamil had served as the governor of the eastern Nangarhar province, which borders Pakistan, and oversaw operations against IS-K there before moving to Balkh last year.

The Taliban are sworn enemies of IS-K and have routinely raided its bases around the country, killing high-profile operatives of the terror group in recent months. Mualawi Muhammad, also known as Mualawi Ziauddin, was among them. He was killed in March, along with two key commanders, and was known to be the second highest-ranked IS-K member in Afghanistan.

Islamic State launched its attacks in the conflict-torn country in 2015 from bases in Nangarhar. It has since expanded the violence to other Afghan provinces.

Taliban authorities insist their counterterrorism forces have significantly diminished IS-K’s abilities and don’t see the group as a security challenge for their government.

A top U.S. military commander told a congressional hearing in March that IS-K could launch an attack from Afghan bases before the year is out.

“They can do external operations against U.S. or Western interests abroad in under six months with little to no warning,” said Army General Michael Kurilla, head of the U.S. Central Command overseeing U.S. troops in the region.

Why Iran Prefers Taliban Over Ahmad Massoud?

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Massoud

8am: Following the recent border conflict between the Taliban and Iranian border guards, Ahmad Massoud, the leader of the National Resistance Front (NRF), tweeted a stanza of Rumi’s famous poems, indicating that he had warned Iran not to go to the Taliban as he himself was the true acquaintance of Iran. This tweet provoked a widespread response and elicited various reactions from the people of Afghanistan and Iran. Despite the reactions, the content of Massoud’s tweet for the first time officially revealed that the relationship between Massoud’s Front and the Iranian government was not in a good state, and his attempts to persuade the Iranians to support him financially and morally had failed. Previously, the official stance of the Iranian government towards the events that had occurred in Afghanistan over the past two years had demonstrated that the Iranian government viewed the Taliban as a trusted partner and felt elation over their victory against the “Western-backed regime”. Even once, one of the officials of the Iranian Foreign Ministry had declared the resistance against the Taliban to be an American project. The gist of the story is that Iran believes it has a role in bringing the Taliban to victory, and thus, it considers this group to be indebted to it, believing that this group is able to serve Iran’s interests in Afghanistan in a beneficial way. Iranians are so determined to maintain their relationship with the Taliban that one of them, in his reaction to the border clashes between Iran and the Taliban, which resulted in casualties, deemed these conflicts to be minor and referred to them as “family disputes”. Click here to read more (external link).

Russia Cannot Recognize Taliban As Long As Inclusive Is Not in Place: Russian FM

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Lavrov

Khaama: Russia can only start recognizing the Taliban in Afghanistan if the pledges to form an inclusive government are kept, Lavrov said on Tuesday while speaking at the Russian-Tajik Slavonic University, Tass Reported.  “Until the conditions above have been met, we cannot talk about officially recognizing the Taliban movement’s government,” he said.  “These commitments include the formation of an ethnically and politically balanced government, more vigorous measures to combat terrorism and drug trafficking, and guarantees of the basic human rights for all peoples living in Afghanistan, including Tajiks.” Click here to read more (external link).