17 Taliban, ‘foreign fighters’ killed during hunt for al Qaeda commander in Kunar

Seventeen Taliban and “foreign fighters” were killed by Coalition and Afghan special operations teams during raids last night that targeted a senior al Qaeda leader in the northeastern province of Kunar.

The combined special operations team launched the raids in the district of Dangam, a known terrorist sanctuary where al Qaeda’s military commander for the contested province was killed just one week ago.

The target of the raids was a “senior al Qaeda leader” who “commands and facilitates insurgents throughout the province and border region, directing weapons acquisition, movement, employment of fighters and equipment to Kunar for attacks against Afghan and Coalition forces,” the International Security Assistance Force stated in a press release.

The security forces clashed with Taliban and al Qaeda fighters six separate times during the nighttime operation. In one instance, terrorists opened fire from behind two women; one of the women was killed when the special operations teams returned fire. Air weapons teams opened fire on the Taliban/al Qaeda force twice during the engagement.

ISAF said that 17 “insurgents including foreign fighters” were killed and another was captured during the operation in Dangam. ISAF uses the term “foreign fighters” to describe al Qaeda and allied terror groups operating in Afghanistan.

While the al Qaeda commander who was targeted in today’s raid was not named, the US has been hunting Qari Zia Rahman, the dual-hatted Taliban and al Qaeda leader who fits the description in today’s press release on the fighting in Kunar. Rahman operates in Kunar and neighboring Nuristan province in Afghanistan, and he also operates across the border in Pakistan’s tribal agencies of Bajaur and Mohmand.

In addition, another al Qaeda commander, known as Abu Hafs, has been targeted in the area, US officials told The Long War Journal.

Background on al Qaeda and ISAF operations in Kunar

Kunar province is a known sanctuary for al Qaeda and allied terror groups. The presence of al Qaeda cells has been detected in the districts of Pech, Shaikal Shate, Sarkani, Dangam, Asmar, Asadabad, Shigal, and Marawana; or eight of Kunar’s 15 districts, according to an investigation by The Long War Journal.

Despite the known presence of al Qaeda camps in the provinces, US troops have abandoned several combat outposts in Kunar and the neighboring province of Nuristan after major attacks on remote bases. US Army commanders said that the outposts were closed or turned over to Afghan forces as part of a new counterinsurgency strategy to secure population centers.

But as the US military began drawing down its forces in Kunar and Nuristan in late 2009, it acknowledged that al Qaeda camps were in operation in Kunar. ISAF targeted three al Qaeda camps in Kunar between October 2009 and October 2010.

The Taliban and al Qaeda took the opportunity of a security vacuum to expand their control in areas of Kunar and launch attacks in neighboring provinces. The Taliban also gained a propaganda coup by putting out videos of their forces occupying abandoned US outposts.

ISAF has since resorted to special operations raids and large-scale clearing operations, described by a US general as “mowing the grass,” to keep al Qaeda and the Taliban at bay. More than 100 Taliban fighters and six US soldiers were killed during an early April operation in Kunar. Many of those reported to have been killed were “foreigners.”

Since the end of 2009, special operations forces have killed and captured four top al Qaeda commanders in Kunar. On Dec. 1, 2009, ISAF announced that Qari Masiullah, the al Qaeda chief of security for Kunar province, was killed during an operation in Kunar. Masiullah ran a training camp that taught insurgents how to use and emplace IEDs that were used in attacks on Afghan civilians as well as on Afghan and Coalition forces throughout the provinces of Nangarhar, Nuristan, Kunar, and Laghman.

On Sept. 25, 2010, Abdallah Umar al Qurayshi and two other senior operatives were killed in an airstrike in Kunar. Qurayshi, a Saudi, was a senior al Qaeda commander who coordinated the attacks of a group of Arab fighters in Kunar and Nuristan provinces and also maintained extensive contacts with al Qaeda facilitators throughout the Middle East. The two operatives also confirmed killed in the strike were Abu Atta al Kuwaiti, an explosives expert; and Sa’ad Mohammad al Shahri, a longtime jihadist and the son of a retired Saudi colonel.

In December 2010, Abu Ikhlas al Masri, al Qaeda’s operations chief for Kunar, was captured. And on April 14 this year, Abu Ikhlas’ successor, Waqas, was killed during a raid in Dangam.

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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6 Comments

  • gerald says:

    It’s like they say the defense is a good offense!

  • Johno says:

    In a country where you usually remove a zero from every number quoted when someone is boasting the number of goats, fine horses, nickel plated pistols, AKSU-74s, sons, fine carpets, helicopters, slain enemy fighters etc. etc. it is no exaggeration to say that hundreds of Arab extremists settled into the area in the 80’s.
    The Shah of Afghanistan had his summer retreat in Nuristan in much the same way the British Raj moved into Shimla in the summer.
    The leadership of AQ considered it appropriate they too should tread this elite path and flooded into the region.
    A successful ambush made them aware of the vulnerability of Mi 17 Soviet Spetsnaz helicopters attempting to operate in the region and a conscious decision was made by the AQ leadership to intermarry into the local populace so as to provide a safe-haven where they were welcome.
    Unfortunately there now must be thousands of fighting age men who have very strong family reasons for defending any AQ leadership in the region.

  • sports says:

    @Gerald…my son would agree…he participated (dropped the first bomb) in Operation Arrowhead Ripper in Diyala Province-Iraq. He told me that once they actually went after them instead of driving around waiting to get blown up that morale amongst the troops changed 180 degrees.

  • David Eliezer says:

    Who is reporting the Taliban deaths? If it is US Troops, how did we figure out who was a “foreigner” or not, and if we did, why didn’t we give the nationality, instead of using the Pakistani dodge of “foreigner”? If it wasn’t us, why is someone else reporting to us from territory we are controlling?

  • Richard Bennett says:

    It is truly a disgrace that ISAF is “mowing the grass,” instead of fighting the weeds. It is almost as if we would resurrect General Sherman to pass through Georgia once a month to kill everyone he observed with a Confederate battle flag in his pick-up truck window because we presumed they fervently desired the secession to be revived.
    ISAF is conveying a strong message to the locals – we don’t care you are being overtaken by dandelions but we must cut them off before the seedballs can form and infect our lawns. Is it a shock that the young people are easily swayed to join the ascendant powers in local politics?

  • Nemmar says:

    This article is interesting.
    The leadership of AQ considered it appropriate they too should tread this elite path and flooded into the region.
    Check our latest article about taliban and al qaeda:
    http://www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/difference-between-taliban-and-al-qaeda/

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