In 2017, LWJ reported unprecedented levels of airstrikes in Somalia and Yemen. Thus far in 2018, the United States has sustained its high strike tempo in Somalia and improved transparency on its air campaign in Yemen. Strikes in Pakistan have leveled off, however press restrictions make tracking operations there difficult. In Libya, the U.S. has targeted jihadists sparingly.
A team of jihadists assaulted Afghanistan’s Ministry of Interior in Kabul earlier today. It is the latest in a string of attacks inside the Afghan capital this year. Both the Taliban and the Islamic State’s Khorasan “province” are able to hit targets inside the city.
General Bajwa and Pakistani officials can pontificate all they like about how their country has eliminated terrorism and no longer permit terrorists to use its soil to attack another country. A look at the facts tells another story, and that is one of Pakistani duplicity.
A Taliban suicide bomber struck the old interior ministry building in Kabul, Afghanistan earlier today. He reportedly drove an ambulance packed with explosives. It was the second major Taliban attack inside the city in one week.
The US Treasury Department designated six Taliban-Haqqani figures as terrorists today. Treasury’s identifying information locates five of the six — including three senior Taliban finance officials and the deputy leader of the group’s military commission — inside Pakistan. At least two of the newly-sanctioned men have ties to al Qaeda.
The Taliban quickly claimed credit for an assault on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan. The jihadists’ siege lasted more than half a day before it was finally ended by Afghan security forces.
If Trump is serious about hitting back at Pakistan, expect the US to ramp up drone strikes against jihadists, and not just in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
Jamiuddin, was a “trusted man” within the Haqqani Network, a subgroup of the Afghan Taliban, who helped fighters move from Pakistan to Afghanistan.
On Nov. 17, The Foundation for Defense of Democracies and FDD’s Long War Journal held an event to discuss the findings from the recently released documents from Osama bin Laden’s compound.
Taliban suicide teams hit the police headquarters and a training center in the provincial capital of Gardez City. Twenty-two policemen and 20 civilians were killed and scores more were wounded.
The strike took place just days after Pakistan freed two westerners and their children from Taliban custody in the same tribal agency.
The Pakistani and American governments announced today that Caitlan Coleman and Joshua Boyle, along with their three children, have been released from the Taliban’s custody. The couple was abducted in Afghanistan in 2012.
Mattis and Dunford placed all of the blame for Pakistan’s support of terrorist groups on the ISI, and essentially absolved Pakistan’s government and the military of any responsibility for incubating and supporting regional and global jihadist organizations.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif accused the United States of creating jihadist groups such as the Haqqani Network and Lashkar-e-Taiba, and supporting them to this day.
The US is likely to step up drone strikes in Pakistan after President Trump accused Pakistan of harboring and supporting jihadist groups last month.
The blow comes just two weeks after President Trump called out Pakistan for providing “safe haven” for terrorist groups operating in the region and advocated for closer ties with India.
A complete US withdrawal from Afghanistan would have been disastrous. The US government needs to drastically reassess America’s jihadist enemies and avoid the policy pitfalls of the past.
The Taliban displayed US-supplied HUMVEES and Ranger pickup trucks used by the police and military that were captured or destroyed. The Taliban also seized a large quantity of rocket propelled grenade launchers, machine guns, rifles, mortars, and other weapons.
While denouncing the designation of Syed Salahuddin, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed that “Pakistan has a demonstrated and longstanding commitment of combating terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.”
The Taliban suicide team used tactics that have been perfected by multiple jihadist groups on numerous battlefields over the past decade and a half.
Haqqani Network commander Abu Bakar and two close aides from the Afghan province of Paktika were killed in the attack, the fourth drone strike recorded in Pakistan this year.
The Taliban has issued a second statement denying any responsibility for the May 31 bombing in Kabul. Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) has accused the Haqqani Network and Pakistan of orchestrating the attack. The Taliban claims the NDS is lying and defends the Haqqanis, once again affirming their key role in the organization.
Yesterday’s strike is just the second reported in Pakistan this year, and the second since the US killed Afghan Taliban emir Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour in an attack in Baluchistan province in May 2016.
Bill Roggio testifies before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade on terrorist groups in Afghanistan and the threat posed to the United States and its allies.
A new video from the Taliban features several images and clips of al Qaeda leaders, further demonstrating that the two remain firmly allied more than 15 years after the 9/11 hijackings.
US and Afghan forces struck a group of leaders and operatives from the Pakistan-based Movement of the Taliban in South Waziristan, the Haqqani Network, and al Qaeda in the province of Paktika, according to reports from the region. At least one senior leader, known as Azam Tariq, is thought to have been killed in the strike.
The Taliban threatened to attack “judicial installations” if the Afghan government follows through on executing Anas Haqqani, the brother of the group’s deputy emir who is also the operational leader of the Haqqani Network.
The Taliban’s condemnation is not surprising as it has relied on Saudi Arabia as a source for fundraising and other support to fuel the Afghan insurgency.
At least 27 people are reported to have been killed in the twin bombings. The second suicide bomber targeted emergency personnel as they rendered aid to the victims of the first blast.
The US military said it carried out a “counterterror mission” to rescue Ali Haider Gilani. Afghan officials said that al Qaeda was holding him hostage. Al Qaeda operated a training camp in Paktika as recently as the summer of 2015. Paktika is also a stronghold for the al Qaeda-allied Haqqani Network.