Suicide bomber kills senior anti-Taliban leader in Nangarhar

A suicide bomber killed an influential Afghan tribal leader in an attack in the eastern province of Nangarhar.

Mohammad Haji Zaman was one of 15 people killed after a suicide bomber detonated in the midst of a meeting with Afghan refugees in the Khogyani district of Nangarhar, the BBC reported. Fifteen others were wounded in the attack, according to Xinhua.

Zaman was a mujahedeen commander who led a force of more than 4,000 fighters against the Soviets during the occupation from 1980-89. He was exiled from Afghanistan after the Taliban took power in 1996, and returned to Afghanistan in 2001 to ally with the US against the Taliban and al Qaeda.

In December 2001, Zaman’s fighters were involved in the siege against al Qaeda and allied groups at their mountain fortress of Tora Bora in Nangarhar. Osama bin Laden and hundreds of al Qaeda fighters were holed up at Tora Bora, but bin Laden escaped after a truce was negotiated with the anti-Taliban tribal leaders. Bin Laden and a cadre of his bodyguards and al Qaeda commanders escaped during the truce. More than 200 al Qaeda and allied fighters are thought to have been killed during the battle.

Zaman returned to Pakistan after it was alleged that he had helped bin Laden escape, Al Jazeera reported . But Zaman denied that he had helped the al Qaeda leader flee the battle at Tora Bora.

The assassination of Zaman took place as the the US has turned a major tribe in Nangarhar against the Taliban. At the end of January, tribal leaders from the Shinwari tribe, which has more than 400,000 members, denounced the Taliban and vowed to support the government, The New York Times reported. The US agreed to fund more than $1 million in development projects in return for the tribe’s support. The turn of the Shinwari tribe is seen as a crucial step in getting the Afghan tribes to reject the Taliban as US forces are going on the offensive.

US and Pakistani security forces have recently dealt two significant blows to the Taliban leadership in Nangarhar. The Taliban’s shadow governor of Nangarhar is said to have been killed sometime within the past month.

Pakistani security forces also arrested Maulvi Abdul Kabir, a former governor of Nanagarhar during the rule of the Taliban and a former shadow governor. Kabir directed the Taliban’s Peshawar Shura and served as the liaison between the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda, Hezb-i-Islami Gulbuddin (Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s faction of Hezb-i-Islami), and the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, US intelligence officials told The Long War Journal.

Also, in June 2009, Pakistani security forces reportedly captured Anwarul Haq Mujahid, the commander of the Tora Bora Military Front, a Taliban group based in Nangarhar that has been behind a series of deadly attacks in the province. Mujahid is the son of Maulvi Mohammed Yunis Khalis, who was instrumental in welcoming Osama bin Laden to Afghanistan after al Qaeda was ejected from Sudan in 1996.

Nangarhar is a strategic province for both the Taliban and the Coalition. The province borders the Pakistani tribal agency of Khyber. The majority of NATO’s supplies pass through Khyber and Nangarhar before reaching Kabul and points beyond.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

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1 Comment

  • TomEgatherion says:

    …and Tom Greer had such wonderful things to say about Haji Zaman’s performance at Tora Bora /sarcasm
    Still, regardless of his performance or capabilities, it is unfortunate to see an ally pass.
    -Tom

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