At the beginning of April 2002 the Pakistani authorities said that they have captured an al-Qaida leader close to bin Laden. Abu Zubaydah was in charge of recruitment and training of the new recruits. The Pakistan army captured him a few days ago after he was wounded in a gun battle. He has been handed since to the US, and soon will be sent to Guantanamo Bay.
The biggest search for Taliban and al-Qaida fugitives took place around August 20, 2002 but, again, the US soldiers did not find any enemies. They took nine prisoners -they did not know if they were fighters, or local armed people- and found about one ton of weapons, but they did not engage in any form of combat. This result was the same to what the British obtained a few months ago, a negative result criticized by the Americans!
On January 30, 2003, we were told to believe that some evidences were found showing that al-Qaida was trying to build a dirty atomic bomb, that is a bomb that releases radioactive products following a classical explosion. It is far less dangerous that the real atomic bomb but it could still cause many casualties.
On April 16, 2003, American forces in Afghanistan arrested eight Taliban fighters including two commanders. This followed the killing of an Italian tourist in the region of Sur Ghar or Red Mountain. Two Afghan soldiers died in the operation.
In June 2003, the new head of the police in Khost escaped a few attempts to kill him. Abdul Saboor, a close friend of president Hamid Karzai, is still non-pulsed by these attacks coming probably from Taliban sympathisers. The Taliban are supposed to have disappeared from Afghanistan about 18 months ago, but some seem to have come back reorganising themselves. They have already made a few attacks and, probably, many more will take place in the near future. Many Afghans are becoming resentful of the presence of about 11,500 foreign soldiers -mainly Americans- and are ready to help the Taliban, and perhaps al-Qaida, to attacks them. Many Pashtun, who are the majority in the country, are also unhappy that president Hamid Karzai's government includes too many Tajiks. The peace is not for tomorrow in this poor country. More over, like in Iraq, the US soldiers are trigger-happy, and are still killing many civilians two years after the end of the war. They are also accused of stealing money from the Afghans, destroying their properties and of arrogance. Nothing new under the American sun.
On January 29, 2004, the US military authorities said that they are "sure" that they will capture Osama bin Laden this year. However Pakistan refused to allow US soldiers to enter their country to search for the al-Qaida leader.
A suspected al Qaida operative who was captured in Pakistan, along with another man, during a raid on September 3, 2004, is an "explosive expert" from Iran. The suspects, an Egyptian named Sharif al Misri and a man of Middle Eastern origin identified as Abdul Hakeem, were caught by Pakistani intelligence. Al Misri lived in Afghanistan but he fled to Iran after the US-led coalition ousted the Taliban in late 2001.
On September 4, 2004, several suspected Taliban militants were killed and at least one captured in southeast Khost province. Two members of the Khost provincial forces were wounded in the gun battle. Remnants of the former fundamentalist regime have stepped up their activities following the death of their key commander, Mullah Rozi Khan, last week in south Afghanistan. The insurgents hit US troops and government bases in Kunar, Jalalabad, and Kandahar for the last four days. At least two people died and nine, including two US soldiers, were injured. An explosion in Kandahar left four people, including one American soldier and one UN official, wounded. The Taliban's Mullah Mohammad Omar who describes the upcoming presidential elections as a "drama to legitimise the US occupation of Afghanistan" has vowed to derail it by any means. Attacks and threats by the Taliban are likely to worsen in the next few days before the October 9 elections.
An investigation by Peter Bergen, a leading expert on terrorism, revealed on September 5, 2004, that Osama Bin Laden is more likely to be hiding either in a Pakistani city, or somewhere in the mountains of Azad Kashmir. His investigations took him to Pakistan and Afghanistan where he conducted a large number of interviews with a cross-section of people.
In a videotape aired on al-Jazeera television on September 9, 2004, al-Qaida number two, Ayman al-Zawahri, forecasted a US defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan, "The American defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan has become just a question of time, God willing," he said. "In the two countries, the Americans are between two fires: if they remain there they will bleed to death, and if they withdraw they will have lost everything." Ayman al-Zawahri also said in another tape broadcasted on the al-Jazeera television network that the mujahedeen -holy fighters- have taken control of much of Afghanistan and driven US forces into the "trenches," in a tape aired on Al-Jazeera television on September 9, 2004. He added that "southern and eastern Afghanistan have completely become an open field for the mujahedeen". Al-Jazeera said it had received the latest Zawahiri tape exclusively, but it was not clear how or when it received it.
Al Qaida chief Osama bin Laden and his No. 2 are still directing the attacks in Afghanistan, a top US commander, Major General Eric Olson, said Saturday September 11, 2004, three years after the invasion of the country. He added that the trail in the hunt for the al Qaida leaders was cold, even though strikes, such as the recent bombing of an American security firm in Kabul, bear hallmarks of the militant network.
In the three years since September 11, 2001, the United States has made great progress in dispersing al-Qaida on the ground and in dismantling the organization worldwide. The al-Qaida of September 11, 2001, no longer exists according to the Bush administration on September 12, 2004. The United States has invested heavily in homeland security although it is hard to measure the return. Since 9/11 there have been no further attacks on US soil, even though recent alerts and publicly expressed fears about a major terrorist attack, belie any expression of relief. But while al-Qaida has been battered, its determination is still there. Al-Qaida has mutated into something different, but still very dangerous.
Senior al Qaida figures such as leader Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri are more likely to be in Pakistan than Afghanistan, the US commander of the coalition forces in Afghanistan says on September 27, 2004.
Pakistan, on September 27, 2004, boasted that they had caught Bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri. Pakistani forces operating against al Qaida strongholds in the country reported capturing the Egyptian national, who was formerly the head of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which operated against the Egyptian regime. Once more the information was wrong and the lie seems to be only poor propaganda, and nothing else.
On January 10, 2005, the US military authorities believe that Osama bin Laden and his remaining followers could be hiding in eastern Afghanistan. They also believe that the Taliban leaders are loosing control of the insurgency although they still attack US forces. The USA still has about 18,000 troops in Afghanistan still hunting Osama bin Laden and supporting president Hamid Karzai who, without them, would have no authority whatsoever.
Osama bin Laden bribed Afghan militias to give him free passage into hiding after the US-led invasion in 2001, the head of Germany's spy agency, August Hanning, said on Tuesday April 12, 2005. "The principal mistake was made in 2001, when the US entrusted Afghan militias in Tora Bora to catch bin Laden." "Bin Laden could buy himself free with a lot of money." August Hanning did not explicitly blame the United States, whose forces used Afghans as their eyes and ears in the hunt for Al Qaeda and Taliban after the war, but the context was clear. The US military authorities acknowledged that some Afghans were accepting bribes to let free al Qaeda or Taliban fighters whom the US wished to arrest. Military experts warned at the time that many Afghan tribal leaders were working first to consolidate their own power, viewing the American goals of capturing Al Qaeda figures as secondary. The failure to catch bin Laden quickly allowed the terrorist leader blamed for the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York City and Washington DC, to slip away.
On April 19, 2005, Afghanistan's Taliban guerrillas launched a clandestine mobile radio station broadcasting anti-government commentaries and Islamic hymns from a mobile transmitter. Called "Shariat Shagh," or Voice of Shariat, after the station the Taliban ran while in power. The broadcast can be heard in five southern provinces, including the former regime's old power base of Kandahar.
A former senior Taliban official surrendered to authorities in Afghanistan on April 21, 2005, the fourth in the past month to give himself up as part of an amnesty offer. Habib-ur Rehman headed the criminal investigation department at the ministry of interior under the Islamic extremist Taliban regime.
On May 27, 2005, fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar accused Afghanistan's Western-backed President of selling the country to the US, and urged Afghans to resist. The accusation followed the signing this week by President Hamid Karzai of a broad "strategic partnership" agreement with US President George W. Bush covering security and other issues and allowing US forces continued freedom of action in Afghanistan. Omar statement said the "valiant people of Afghanistan" will never accept Mr Karzai's pact with the US.
US Ambassador in Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad has said on June 16, 2005, that neither al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden nor Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar were in Afghanistan.
Al Qaida has marked the fourth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington with a warning of future strikes in Los Angeles and Melbourne, and this rebuke to the American people: You don't get what we're fighting for. In the video, a masked combatant identified as Azam al-Amriki, or Azam the American, speaks in American-accented English. Mr. Azam says Western leaders have misled the public about Al Qaida's motivations. For some US analysts, the frustration expressed in the most recent tape is more a reflection of the failings of Al Qaeda since the success of their September 11 attacks than of the world's inability to understand their cause.
An alleged top lieutenant of al-Qaeda terrorist group leader Osama bin Laden was among four people who escaped from a detention centre near Kabul in July, the U.S. military command in Afghanistan said on November 3, 2005. While the escape was announced in July, the identity of the escapee was kept secret.
Mullah Mohammad Omar, the Taliban leader who fled to Pakistan after U.S.-led forces routed his fighters in Afghanistan, has resurfaced with a message asking all Muslims to join his fight. He is believed to be in hiding somewhere near the Afghan-Pakistani border. The message distributed in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar the Taliban leader said his forces are intensifying their fight against those whom he called foreign occupiers of their homeland.
A statement released on March 16, 2006, by Taliban leader Mullah Omar claimed that a large numbers of Afghans were signing up as suicide bombers. It said an offensive in the next few months would cause many casualties among foreign and Afghan troops.
Taliban leader Mullah Omar, in a message released a week ago, said Taliban militants will raise another new surge of attacks against foreign and Afghan troops during the Afghan New Year, which began from Tuesday March 21, 2006.
Taliban rebels launched a major, brazen attack on a coalition military base in Afghanistan, killing a US and a Canadian soldier but losing 32 of their own in an American-led retaliation. On March 30, 2006.
Afghan government forces have been pursuing Taliban fighters in the south on Saturday April 15, 2006, after a major battle. The clashes in Kandahar province on Friday were some of the most serious in a recent upsurge of fighting. Seven police were killed and the bodies of 13 Taliban had been found -but there also were reports of up to 41 Taliban dead.
On April 24, 2006, we were told that Osama Bin Laden is hiding in a remote tribal area along Afghanistan's 2,413-kilometre border with Pakistan. His No 2, Ayman Al-Zawahri, is hiding in a more settled area along the border. Their separation has opened a debate in national security circles in the United States and elsewhere about whether the leaders have split up. Neither man mentions the other by name in public pronouncements, and both headed separate groups before joining forces in 1998.
A local Taliban commander in Helmand told the BBC on April 25, 2006, they plan to target and kill British troops starting a tour of duty in Afghanistan. The comments emerged as Defence Secretary John Reid visited UK troops in the southern Helmand province, where they are aiding reconstruction efforts. He acknowledged the 3,300 soldiers being deployed faced "massive risks".
Taliban militants will kill the Indian engineer being held hostage in southern Afghanistan if all Indians don't leave Afghanistan within 24 hours, a spokesman for the insurgent group said on Saturday April 29, 2006. Indian engineer, K Surya Narayana, working for a Bahraini telecom and construction business company Al Moayyad, was abducted by the Taliban on Friday evening.
Afghan local authorities have found the body of Indian hostage Suryanarayan hours after his execution on April 30, 2006, by suspected Taliban militants in southern Zabul province. Earlier, Taliban's purported spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi claimed from unknown location that the fundamentalist fighters opened fire and killed the engineer on the spot after he attempted escape from detention centre. The militias also linked his release with the packing and withdrawal of Indian companies from Afghanistan.
As of May 6, 2006, at least 234 members of the US military have died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan. Of those, the military reports 141 were killed by hostile action. Outside the Afghan region, the Defence Department reports 56 more members of the US military died in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Of those, two are the result of hostile action. The military lists these other locations as: Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba, Djibouti, Eritrea, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Philippines, Seychelles, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkey and Yemen. There was also one military civilian death and four CIA officer deaths.
Rescuers recovered the bodies of 10 soldiers who perished in a helicopter crash while scouring remote Afghan mountains along the Pakistan border for al-Qaida and Taliban militants on Sunday May 7, 2006. The military said Friday's crash into an inaccessible ravine was not caused by hostile fire.
Taliban members on Wednesday May 10, 2006, claimed to have killed five Afghan policemen and injured four others, while the Afghan police were reported to have killed three insurgents in Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand.
A top commander in the radical-Islamic Taliban has been arrested in southern Afghanistan after days of fierce fighting which claimed dozens of lives on Friday May 19, 2006. The commander, Mullah Dadullah, has been arrested by international troops in the restive Kandahar province.
Al-Qaida number two Ayman al-Zawahiri on June 22, 2006, called on Afghans to fight foreign forces in their country.
Al-Qaida's leader Osama bin Laden, reported last week to have died, is
alive and hiding in Afghanistan, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said
in an interview on September 27, 2006.
On Saturday September 30, 2006, President Hamid Karzai rejected the possible
presence of al-Qaida network's chief Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan. Pakistani
President Pervez Musharraf said Thursday that Bin Laden and Gulbudin Hekmatyar,
the leader of his own radical faction Islamic party the Hizb-e-Islami, are
in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province. The Pakistani president also said
during his visit to Kabul earlier this month that Taliban's chief Mullah
Mohammad Omar was hiding in Kandahar. But the Afghan leader rejected the
claim as baseless. They must be somewhere but where?
The Taliban fugitive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, is alive and leading
the anti-government insurgency from inside Afghanistan, a spokesman for
the militant chief said on October 9, 2006. In fact the Taliban have always
be present after the invasion of 2001.
Talks are underway between the Taliban and NATO forces -through tribal elders- over the pullout of troops from 12 districts along the Pakistan Afghan border, providing the Taliban make concessions to the NATO forces and agree not to attack their bases in those Afghan provinces where the deal is signed. "So far all 12 districts are situated from Kandahar to Kunar, but later on there would be a consideration for other districts situated in Nangarhar province". A Taliban spokesperson, Mohammad Hanif, on Sunday October 22, 2006, said that both American and Afghan soldiers had pulled out of an area in eastern Afghanistan, under a deal clinched with tribal elders, the second in a week.
Two UK men held on Afghanistan-related terror charges have lost their legal fight on November 30, 2006, to avoid extradition to the US. Babar Ahmad, 32, from Tooting, southwest London is accused of running websites inciting murder, urging holy war and raising money for the Taliban. Haroon Aswat, from Yorkshire, is accused of plotting to set up a terror camp to train fighters for Afghanistan. The men said they risked mistreatment by the US, but High Court judges said these claims were not proven.
A senior Taliban commander and associate of al-Qaida leader, Osama Bin Laden, has been killed in Afghanistan on December 23, 2006. Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani's vehicle was reportedly hit in an air strike in Helmand province. Mullah Osmani was the chief Taliban military commander in southern Afghanistan. However a Taliban spokesman dismissed reports of his death.
On January 12, 2007, an Afghan rebel leader wanted by the US claimed credit for helping Osama bin Laden escape a massive hunt in eastern Afghanistan more than five years ago. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former Afghanistan prime minister in early 1990s, said that he met Bin Laden and his deputy Ayman Al Zawahiri after fighters loyal to his Hizb-e-Islami group helped the two al Qaida leaders escape from the Tora Bora region in late 2001. "After the American attack on Afghanistan, I directed my people to evacuate our guest brothers to safer places," said Hekmatyar. "Some valiant and honest mujahideen of Hizb-e-Islami evacuated Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al Zawahiri along with other comrades and transferred them to a safer place," he said. "I met with them there." The whereabouts of both al Qaida leaders have remained a mystery since the September 11 attacks, the US forces are believed to have come closest to trapping Bin Laden when he retreated to a complex of caves in mountainous Tora Bora region near the Pakistan border. He is probably hiding in the rugged border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Zawahiri is believed to be hiding in the same region. Hekmatyar's whereabouts have also remained unknown, though he is believed to be hiding in eastern Afghanistan.
On January 21, 2007, we were told that Taliban in Afghanistan are going to launch a parallel educational programme in 10 district, which they claim are under their control, in the southern parts of Afghanistan. Taliban are against the western style of education, describing it as against the spirit of Islam. The ousted militia had also banned girls from schools and had introduced new curriculum in Afghanistan during their six-year rule. Their leadership had sanctioned approval to the educational programme and had allocated an amount of USD one million to provide free-of-cost books and stationery to the students.
Pakistan said on January 23, 2007, that the Taliban's fugitive chief, Mullah Mohammad Omar, is in Afghanistan leading an insurgency against Afghan, US and NATO-led forces. A Taliban spokesman, captured in Afghanistan last week, had claimed that Omar was in Pakistan, and denied that he was leading the revolt in Afghanistan. The Pakistan Foreign Office rejected the claim, saying Omar was most probably in Kandahar.
A senior Taliban commander, Mullah Dadullah, said on March 1, 2007, Osama bin Laden is alive and in contact with leaders of Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents. He has not met bin Laden since the fall of the Taliban regime after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, but said, "We know he's still alive."
Islamic militants threatened to attack Germany and Austria on March 11, 2007unless the two European countries break ranks with the US and withdraw their personnel from Afghanistan. The authenticity of the video could not be verified, but it was released by the Voice of the Caliphate, which is said to be run by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida group.
Followers of Osama bin Laden flooded Islamist Web sites on Saturday March 10, 2007, posting messages pledging their devotion to the world's most-wanted man in celebration of his 50th birthday. His whereabouts remains a mystery more than five years after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Dozens of bin Laden fans posted videos and pictures on the Internet commemorating the elusive al-Qaida leader's life and renewing their allegiance to him and his terrorist netwAl Qaida Chief Osama bin Laden is orchestrating militants' operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, a senior Taliban commander said on Wednesday April 25, 2007. Bin Laden has not made any video statements for many months raising speculation that he may have died. "He is drawing plans in Iraq and Afghanistan...Praise God he is alive," Mullah Dadullah told Al Jazeera television.
The Taliban released on May 11, 2007, a male French aid worker, who was kidnapped over one month ago, in Kandahar province. The French man, who is identified as Eric, was handed over to tribal elders in Marwand district. The man was released as a "good gesture" toward the French people. Afghan authorities released no Taliban prisoners as exchange. Taliban militants kidnapped two French working for "Terre d'Enfance" (Children's Land), an organization assisting children and their three Afghan staff in the southern Nimroz province on April 3. The lady named Celine was freed on April 28. There is no news about the three Afghans.
A Canadian citizen has been detained by Afghan police on suspicion of attending a militant training camp in southern Afghanistan, Canada's foreign minister said Friday May 11, 2007. Canadian officials have visited the man, who is being held for investigation in Kabul.
The Taliban's top military commander in Afghanistan, Mullah Dadullah, has been killed in fighting in the south of the country on May 12, 2007. His body was shown to reporters in Kandahar, and Taliban sources confirmed the death, after initial denials. Dadullah died in a clash with Afghan and Western forces in Helmand province.
Former Guantanamo detainees have organized a jailbreak in Afghanistan,
kidnapped Chinese engineers and taken leadership positions with the Taliban,
the US military said Tuesday May 15, 2007. The former detainees were released
from the prison at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba between 2002-2004
by claiming to be innocent or low-level figures. The Pentagon gave brief
descriptions of six detainees. The statement suggested that the six were
released from Guantanamo by mistake.
A man identified on tape as the Taliban's new top field commander warned Wednesday May 23, 2007, that new recruits were volunteering as suicide bombers and that fighters would continue their holy war until western powers leave Afghanistan. Shuhabuddin Athul, a Taliban spokesman, played an audio tape over the telephone to an Associated Press reporter that Athul said was a recording of Dadullah Mansoor, brother and replacement of Mullah Dadullah, the top Taliban commander shot to death in a US operation this month in southern Afghanistan. The man on the tape said Taliban fighters were ready to avenge his brother's death and would "pursue holy war until the occupying countries leave."
A man, who identified himself as Mustafa Abu al-Yazeed, claiming to be
the new al-Qaida leader in Afghanistan appeared in a videotape on al-Jazeera
television Thursday May 24, 2007, saying the number of Islamic extremists
in Afghanistan was on the rise. Abu al-Yazeed said the number of Islamic
militants in Afghanistan had increased after the Afghan people witnessed
a rise in poverty and drugs under the current democratic administration.
Violence has been on the rise in Afghanistan for the past several weeks and on Sunday May 27, 2007, the Taliban had announced a countrywide operation against government and foreign forces. The Taliban-led fighting has left more than 1,700 people dead, mostly insurgents, so far this year.
Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden is alive and well, according to Taliban leader, Hajji Mansour Dadullah, the brother of Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah who was killed by NATO forces in May in the southern Afghan province of Helmand. In an interview on June 5, 2007, with Arabic television channel Al Jazeera, Dadullah said that bin Laden gives them "military instructions". Since his brother's death, Dadullah has taken over as military commander of the Taliban. Also, 21 suspected Taliban militants were killed.
The Taliban are changing their tactics to mount more attacks on the capital, we were told on June 21, 2007, as the Taliban were recovering after NATO had infiltrated the group and killed some of its leaders. But more people were volunteering to carry out suicide bombings.
Al-Qaida's fugitive chief Osama bin Laden, who has not been heard from for more than a year, appeared in an undated videotape posted on the Internet on July 15, 2007, in which he praises martyrdom.
On July 27, 2007, we were told that at least 30 former Guantanamo Bay detainees
have been killed or recaptured after taking up arms against allied forces
following their release. They have been discovered mostly in Afghanistan
and Pakistan, but not in Iraq.
Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader in Afghanistan, issued a statement on August 19, 2007, calling for people to join the insurgency to oust the US-backed Karzai government.
Afghan police said on Saturday March 1, 2008, Taliban militants have destroyed two telephone towers in southern Afghanistan. They burned a tower base station in Kandahar owned by the mobile phone company Roshan. In an earlier raid Friday, they destroyed a tower owned by Areeba, also in Kandahar Province.
Taliban militants attacked a signal tower of a mobile telecommunication service company in Shar-e-Safa district in Zabul province, southern Afghanistan, destroying a guard's room near the tower Wednesday March 5, 2008. It is the third time over the past two weeks that the anti-government insurgents have been attacking mobile phone towers in south Afghanistan since giving ultimatum to shut down signalling during nighttime.
In a new audio message purportedly from Osama Bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader threatens the EU on March 20, 2008, over the re-printing of a cartoon offensive to Muslims. The voice on it says the cartoon, re-published recently in all major Danish newspapers, was part of a crusade involving Pope Benedict XVI. The drawing, first published in 2005, depicts the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban. The voice on the audio has not yet been verified as belonging to Bin Laden.
On March 21, 2008, a new audio message from Osama Bin Laden urged Muslims to join the insurgency in Iraq as the best way to support the Palestinians. The message, aired on al-Jazeera TV, comes a day after the al-Qaeda leader threatened the EU over the reprint of a cartoon deemed offensive to Muslims. The messages coincide with the fifth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq.
An audio message attributed to al-Qaeda's deputy leader, Ayman Zawahiri,
called for attacks on American and Israeli interests. The voice, not confirmed
as Zawahiri's, urged retaliation for Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip. The
message was posted Match 24, 2008, on an Islamist website and follows two
audio speeches purportedly from Osama Bin Laden.
On April 3, 2008, al-Qaeda deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri defended attacks on the UN, describing the body as an enemy of Muslims. The Egyptian-born militant also said his leader, Osama Bin Laden, was in good health. The questions covered topics from the group's plans for Palestine and opportunities for women militants, al-Qaeda's al-Sahab media arm said.
More foreign fighters are joining the Taliban in Afghanistan as militants increasingly cross the border from Pakistan to attack Afghan and Western troops we were told on Wednesday July 30, 2008. Afghan, NATO and U.S.-led coalition forces are struggling to contain a sharp surge in violence as the traditional summer fighting season gets into full swing.
The CIA said on November 14, 2008, that Osama Bin Laden is isolated from the day-to-day operations of al-Qaeda, but that the organisation is still the greatest threat to the US. He is probably hiding in the tribal area of north-west Pakistan. He is "putting a lot of energy into his own survival" and his capture remained the US government's top priority. Al-Qaeda continues to grow in Africa and the Middle East.
A Taliban spokesman said Monday November 17, 2008, that Afghan President
Hamid Karzai did not have the authority to make a peace offering to its
reclusive leader, Mullah Omar. Hamid Karzai says he will "go to any
lengths" to provide protection to Mullah Omar if he enters peace talks.
This offer is meaningless because he has to rely on the British and the
Americans to provide his own security. The Taliban would not negotiate peace
as long as international forces remained in Afghanistan
On July 14, 2009, Al-Qaida's deputy leader called on Pakistanis to join his group's holy war against the United States in Pakistan and Afghanistan and warned they could face the destruction of both countries and provoke God's wrath if they don't. Ayman al-Zawahri's audio message comes as the Pakistani military has stepped up its operations against militants along the border with Afghanistan, including in South Waziristan where some suspect al-Zawahri and Osama bin Laden could be hiding. The military offensive has received widespread support from Pakistanis who once viewed al-Qaida and Taliban militants as little threat to the country, but have grown increasingly alarmed as attacks have killed hundreds of Pakistani civilians.
One of Osama Bin Laden's sons is believed to have been killed by a US missile strike in Pakistan earlier this year we were told on July 23, 2009. Saad Bin Laden was not a major figure in his father's al-Qaeda but was known because of his surname. The son was not targeted but was caught in the strike.
On July 27, 2009, David Miliband has urged the Afghan government to talk
to moderate members of the Taliban as part of efforts to bring stability
to the country. In a speech to Nato, the UK foreign secretary said those
insurgents willing to renounce violence should be included in a broad-based
political coalition.
The Taliban's leader, Mullah Omar, warned the U.S. and NATO forces that they will face defeat in Afghanistan. In a statement Saturday September 19, 2009, Omar said Westerners need only study Afghanistan's history to see that they will fail. The Taliban leader is thought to be in Pakistan but has not been seen in public for years.
A recorded message attributed to al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden calls
on Europeans to end their alliance with the United States and pull their
troops out of Afghanistan. The audio message, with English and German subtitles,
threatens retaliation against Europeans unless they withdraw their troops.
It was posted on Internet sites on Friday September 25, 2009, two days before
parliamentary elections in Germany. The message from Bin Laden follows the
posting of three German recordings by a speaker believed to be Bekkay Harrach,
also known as Abu Talha, a German of Moroccan origin. The latest, posted
on the Internet Thursday, calls on Muslims in Germany to take part in jihad,
or holy war.
The US has had no reliable information on the whereabouts of al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in years, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday December 6, 2009. He added "we don't know for a fact where Osama Bin Laden is. If we did, we'd go get him." A Taliban detainee in Pakistan told the BBC last week that he had information Bin Laden was in Afghanistan this year.
The top US commander in Afghanistan said on December 9, 2009, that al-Qaeda will not be defeated unless its leader, Osama Bin Laden, is captured or killed.
A group of armed militants have raided a house in southern Afghanistan's
Uruzgan province, beheading six former militants and wounding another on
Wednesday December 30, 2009, in the provincial capital of Trinkot. The dead
were moderate and opposing the war."
A tape said to be from al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden released on January 24, 2010 warned US President Barack Obama there will be more attacks if the US continues to support Israel. Bin Laden said the US will never live in peace until there is "peace in Palestine".
The Taliban on Saturday January 30, 2010, denied reports that its leaders
met with the United Nations envoy to Afghanistan in Dubai this month.
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed in a fire fight with U.S. forces in Pakistan on Sunday May 1, 2011, President Barack Obama announced.
Here are some details on Al Qaeda's main affiliate groups in the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq and North Africa.
i - AL QAEDA IN THE ARABIAN PENINSULA (AQAP)
. Al Qaeda's Yemeni and Saudi wings merged in 2009 into a new group, al
Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), based in Yemen. They announced this
three years after a counter-terrorism drive halted an al Qaeda campaign
in Saudi Arabia.
. AQAP's Yemeni leader, Nasser al-Wahayshi, was once a close associate of
al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, whose father was born in Yemen, a neighbour
of top oil exporter Saudi Arabia.
. Yemen's foreign minister has said 300 AQAP militants might be in the country.
. Nearly a year before the September 11, 2001 attacks, al Qaeda bombed the
USS Cole warship in October 2000 when it was docked in the southern Yemen
port of Aden, killing 17 U.S. sailors.
. AQAP claimed responsibility for an attempt to bomb a U.S.-bound airliner
on December 25, 2009, and said it provided the explosive device used in
the failed attack. The suspected bomber, a young Nigerian man, Umar Farouk
Abdulmutallab, had visited Yemen and been in contact with militants there.
. AQAP staged several attacks in Yemen in 2010, among them a suicide bombing
in April aimed at the British ambassador, who was not injured.
. The group also claimed responsibility for a foiled plot to send two air
freight packages containing bombs to the United States in October 2010.
The bombs were found on planes in Britain and Dubai. Last November AQAP
vowed to "bleed" U.S. resources with small-scale attacks that
are inexpensive but cost billions for the West to guard against.
Ii - AL QAEDA IN THE ISLAMIC MAGHREB (AQIM)
. Led by Algerian militant Abdelmalek Droukdel, AQIM burst onto the public
stage in January 2007, a product of the rebranding of fighters previously
known as Algeria's Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).
. The Salafists had waged war against Algeria's security forces but in late
2006 they sought to adopt a broader jihadi ideology by allying themselves
with al Qaeda.
. AQIM scored initial high-profile successes with attacks on the government,
security services and the United Nations office in Algiers in 2007. Since
2008, attacks have tailed off as security forces broke up AQIM cells in
Algeria.
. Although concrete intelligence is scant, analysts say there are a few
hundred fighters who operate in the vast desert region of northeastern Mauritania,
and northern Mali and Niger. AQIM's most high-profile activity is the kidnapping
of Westerners, many of whom have been ransomed for large sums.
. AQIM has claimed responsibility for the abduction of two Frenchmen found
dead after a failed rescue attempt in Niger last January and it is also
holding other French nationals kidnapped in Niger in September 2010. A tape,
released on Islamist forums late last month, showed pictures of each of
the hostages.
iii - AL QAEDA IN IRAQ (AQI):
. The group was founded in October 2004 when Jordanian militant Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi pledged his faith to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda.
. An Egyptian called Abu Ayyab al-Masri but also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir
is said to have assumed the leadership of al Qaeda in Iraq after Zarqawi
was killed in 2006.
. In October 2006, the al Qaeda-led Mujahideen Shura Council said it had
set up the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), an umbrella group of Sunni militant
affiliates and tribal leaders led by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi. In April 2007
it named a 10-man "cabinet," including Masri as its war minister.
. Fewer foreign volunteers have made it into Iraq to fight with al Qaeda
against the U.S.-backed government but the group has switched to fewer albeit
more deadly attacks.
. Militants linked to al Qaeda claimed bombings in Baghdad on December 8,
2009 near a courthouse, a judge training centre, a Finance Ministry building
and a police checkpoint in southern Baghdad. At least 112 people were killed
and hundreds wounded. -- On April 18, 2010 Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Omar
al-Baghdadi were killed in a raid in a rural area northwest of Baghdad by
Iraqi and U.S. forces.
. A month later the ISI said its governing council had selected Abu Baker
al-Baghdadi al-Husseini al-Qurashi as its caliph, or head, and Abu Abdullah
al-Hassani al-Qurashi as his deputy and first minister, replacing al-Baghdadi
and al-Masri.
. Last October gunmen linked to the Iraqi al Qaeda group seized hostages
at a Catholic church in Baghdad during Sunday mass. Around 52 hostages and
police were killed in the incident, which ended when security forces raided
the church to free around 100 Iraqi Catholic hostages.
On May 2, 2011, we were told -and retold again- that President Obama and the American military and intelligence communities have sent a message to the international terrorist organization al Qaeda and others who seek to harm American citizens. They have demonstrated the unwavering resolve of the U.S. to pursue international terrorists wherever they may hide and proven the strength of the US efforts to eradicate terrorist networks and bring those who would kill innocent civilians to justice. Today, in 2011, it is estimated that fewer than 100 members of Al Qaeda remain in Afghanistan. Al Qaeda's network is spreading its roots throughout the globe, in places like Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, and even the United States. The USA must focus on al Qaeda like a laser, wherever they reside. This operation against bin Laden, through a targeted strike involving cooperation between Special Forces and intelligence, is a perfect example and suggests that a more focused strategy can be successful. The biggest security threat to America isn't one person or one country, rather the ideologies and conditions that fuel extremism and terrorism. We must remain vigilant, keeping America and our troops serving overseas safe and secure. Bin Laden's death does not end al Qaeda or the serious threat it poses to America and our allies.
Eight years ago Osama bin Laden called on his followers to head to Iraq
to fight the United States. Within months, Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia took
form, eventually allying itself with militants from the country's Sunni
minority. The group took a leading role in the insurgency that plunged Iraq
into a bloody sectarian war. Today, Tuesday May 3, 2011, Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia
is a shell of the organization that was once led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,
the one that beheaded hostages on camera and controlled significant portions
of the country. Although the group still conducts attacks across Iraq -typically
roadside bombs, suicide bombings and assassinations- the number of violent
incidents the group has been involved in has plummeted since the height
of the sectarian war in 2006. Although Bin Laden helped create Al Qaeda
in Mesopotamia, he never had direct control over it and provided little
aid to the group other than his public statements and moral support. Sometimes,
the failure to provide support created tensions. In 2005, Bin Laden's top
deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, chastised Mr. Zarqawi for killing civilians and
Shiites because it hurt their movement's image. Mr. Zawahri, now seen as
the successor to Bin Laden after he was killed by American forces on Sunday,
later praised Mr. Zarqawi. And when Mr. Zarqawi was killed by the Americans
in 2006, Bin Laden said Mr. Zarqawi had instructions to kill whoever supported
the United States.
On December 27, 2011 we were told that Taliban plans to open an office in Qatar may be a sign that after 10 years of war with the United States in Afghanistan, the extremist insurgent group could be trying to achieve through talks what it can't get through battle, foreign policy analysts say.
After initially rejecting the idea, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said
Wednesday December 28, 2011, he agrees with the opening of a Taliban liaison
office in Qatar. The office is intended to help consolidate the peace process.
This is the first time Karzai has given public support to the US plan to
create a Taliban base in Qatar, where future talks could be held. Originally
he rejected the idea, angry with the fact that the United States and Germany
discussed potential locations without him.
Giving a first major public sign that they may be ready for formal talks with the American-led coalition in Afghanistan, the Taliban announced Tuesday January 3, 2012, that they had struck a deal to open a political office in Qatar that could allow for direct negotiations over the endgame in the Afghan war. The step was a reversal of the Taliban's longstanding public denials that they were involved in, or even willing to consider, talks related to their insurgency, and it had the potential to revive a reconciliation effort that stalled in September, with the assassination of the head of Afghanistan's High Peace Council.
President Hamid Karzai said on Wednesday January 4, 2012, that Afghanistan agrees with US efforts to talk with the Taliban, and the insurgent group's plan to open an office in Qatar, because they could prevent further conflict and the deaths of innocent civilians. The Afghan Taliban said on Tuesday they had reached a preliminary agreement to set up a political office in the Gulf nation of Qatar and asked for the release of prisoners held at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay. The office is seen by Western and Afghan officials as a crucial step to moving forward with secretive attempts to reach a negotiated end to a decade of war. The Taliban statement pointedly made no mention of the Kabul government.
The Afghan president met Saturday February 18, 2012, with a Pakistani cleric
linked to Taliban insurgents, a meeting that marked the first public contact
between an Afghan official and members of the Afghan Taliban's support network
in Pakistan in Afghanistan's bid to bring the militant movement to the negotiating
table. The meeting between President Hamid Karzai and the cleric was held
in Islamabad said the cleric and Afghan officials, and shows how far the
Afghan president is willing to go to open contact with the insurgent leaders.
The Taliban leaders are widely believed to be based in Pakistan with some
level of protection by the country's security forces. The U.S. and Afghanistan
increasingly see negotiating with the Taliban as the only way to end the
more than ten years of warfare in Afghanistan and allow American troops
to leave the country without it falling further into chaos.
The Taliban have closed or partially closed about 50 schools in southeastern Afghanistan we were told on Thursday April 26, 2012, a bold display of the insurgency's power in a part of the country now at the centre of the U.S. war effort. The closings apparently were in response to an Afghan government decision to ban motorcycles in the southern districts of Ghazni province. Militants responded this week by warning educators and families to keep children at home. The message spread quickly through traditional social networks. Of the 36,000 students who usually attend schools in southern Ghazni, about half have yielded to the Taliban threat.
In a shocking video smuggled out of Afghanistan, an unarmed burqa-clad woman is shot to death by a man as a crowd behind her shouts "God is great!" The 22-year-old woman, only identified as Najiba is repeatedly shot by the man long after she falls over dead in a sequence that is difficult to watch. According to some sources, Najiba was having an affair with Taliban members, and "because two fighters couldn't decide who could have her." The woman is reputed to have been married to a member of a hard-line Taliban militant group and was killed after being accused of adultery with a Taliban commander. The shooting took place in Qimchok village, in Afghanistan's Parwan province.
The Taliban detonated a bomb on a fuel tanker Wednesday July 18, 2012, and then opened fire on other NATO supply trucks, destroying 22 vehicles loaded with fuel and other goods for U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan’s Taliban has called for a new constitution as a pre-condition for it joining the nation peace process they said at a landmark meeting in France. Representatives from the country’s warring factions met Thursday December20, 2012, for two days of talks that diplomats hope will bolster relations in the war-torn country. It is the first time since a US-led bombing campaign drove the Taliban from power in 2001 that senior representatives have sat down with officials from the government and other opposition groups to discuss the country’s future, in a meeting brokered by a French think tank. The meeting in France was organised by the Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS), and was held behind closed doors at an undisclosed location near Paris.
On Monday February 4, 2013, David Cameron issued a direct appeal to the Taliban to enter peaceful talks on the future of Afghanistan after hosting talks at Chequers with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, and Pakistan's president, Asif Ali Zardari. The prime minister said the two leaders had agreed "an unprecedented level of co-operation". He said they had agreed to sign up to a strategic partnership between their two countries in the autumn. At the same time, they also agreed to the opening of an office in the Qatari capital, Doha, for negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan high peace council.
The US is to open direct peace talks with the Taliban, senior White House officials have announced on Tuesday June 18, 2013. The first meeting is due to take place in the coming days in Doha, Qatar, where the Taliban have just opened their first official overseas office. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said his government was also sending delegates to Qatar to talk to the Taliban. The announcement came on the day Nato handed over security for the whole of Afghanistan to government forces. Prisoner exchanges would be one topic for discussion with the Taliban, but the first weeks will mainly be used to explore each other's agendas. However, the talks are on condition that the Taliban renounce violence, break ties with al-Qaeda and respect the Afghan constitution -including the rights of women and minorities. ---
The new leader of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor, vowed to continue his group's bloody, nearly 14-year insurgency in an audio message released Saturday August 1, 2015, urging his fighters to remain unified after the death of their long-time leader. The audio message also included comments about the Taliban's nascent peace talks with the Afghan government, though it wasn't immediately clear whether he supported them or not. Mansoor took over the Taliban after the group on Thursday confirmed that former leader Mullah Mohammad Omar had died and said they elected Mansoor as his successor.
Taliban supremo Mullah Akhtar Mansoor has died of injuries we were told on Friday December 4, 2015. Mansoor was critically injured in a gunfight on Wednesday in an argument with commanders in the militant group. The Taliban has been divided into two factions after Mansoor succeeded former Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar as the hardliner group's leader after Omar was confirmed dead in late July. Mullah Akhtar Mansoor had been wounded in firefight that broke out at a gathering of several Taliban figures in neighboring Pakistan the previous night. After reports emerged a few days ago of the leaders critical condition, the Taliban had promptly denied the claims. The truth will soon come out.
The Afghan Taliban has installed a new leader after a US drone strike killed former head Mullah Akhtar Mansour. He died on Saturday May 21, 2016, after less than a year leading the fundamentalist group. The Taliban named his successor as Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, one of two former deputies. Akhundzada, known for his jihadist teachings, was previously named in propaganda as “the former judiciary chief of the Islamic Emirate and religious scholar”. ---
Afghanistan Wednesday May 30, 2018:
Afghanistan Thursday May 31, 2018: