Mohammad Hanif was involved in the 2002 assassination attempt on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and the suicide attack on the U.S. Consulate in Karachi that same year. He was killed in Farah province. But the Taliban somehow continues to maintain that Al Qaeda isn’t in Afghanistan.
The Taliban continues to press its offensive nationwide. Over the past 48 hours, the Taliban has launched strikes in 24 of the country’s 36 provinces.
Takhar province’s deputy chief of police is among 47 security personnel killed overnight in the restive northern province. Taliban attacks persist throughout the country.
U.S. officials continue to maintain that the Taliban committed to a “reduction in violence” as part of the withdrawal agreement. The deal says no such thing, and the Taliban continues to mount attacks.
In Logar province, a large Taliban convoy that carried the Taliban’s shadow governor paraded through a town unopposed by Afghan and Coalition forces.
The U.S. government, military, and intelligence services have provided inaccurate assessments of Al Qaeda’s strength in Afghanistan for more than a decade. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo continued that tradition by recent regurgitating that Al Qaeda has fewer than 200 fighters in the country. This estimate, like previous ones, should not be trusted.
American politicians, military leaders, and reporters have been claiming that the Taliban is “tired,” “desperate,” “war weary” and other such statements for the past decade and a half. Yet the Taliban keeps fighting.
The Taliban’s demand of the release of the wife of slain Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent leader Asim Umar is curious, as the group maintains that Al Qaeda does not have a presence in Afghanistan.
