How a lethal raid reveals al Qaeda retains international attain beneath Taliban ‘safety’

But in a collection of interviews in Kabul, Afghan officers depicted a terror group each having fun with a snug shelter in Taliban-controlled areas, and hunted at occasions by their particular forces. One Afghan official advised the group was about 18 months away from with the ability to launch assaults on the West, and able to launching regional assaults from Afghanistan by the tip of the yr. The uncommon interviews had been granted as Afghan officers develop more and more involved that the US withdrawal from the nation — due for completion earlier than the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 assaults carried out by al Qaeda — will result in a surge within the group’s actions.

The senior Afghan intelligence official mentioned the peace pledge to the Trump administration “was similar to a joke between themselves. They knew that this won’t occur.”

Raid nets new clues about al Qaeda’s attain

The Afghan officers cited beforehand undisclosed particulars in regards to the October raid focusing on al-Rauf, often known as Abu Muhsen al-Masri, as proof of al Qaeda’s progress. He died of his accidents shortly after being taken into custody by Afghan particular forces within the tiny Taliban-controlled village of Kunsaf, in Ghazni province.

He was the topic of an arrest warrant issued by a Manhattan courtroom on December 27, 2018 for “conspiracy to kill United States nationals” and “offering materials help for a international terrorist group,” in accordance with the FBI needed poster launched on the time. Up to now decade, he had launched a collection of audio recordings and movies by means of al Qaeda media channels. At occasions he railed in opposition to “the liar within the evil White Home who claims that he’ll withdraw their forces from Afghanistan as a result of the mission has ended.” At different factors, he scorned Britain and the US for being racist.

Senior Afghan officers mentioned the Egyptian nationwide had been hiding in Afghanistan since he left Pakistan in 2014, speaking with al Qaeda cells in different nations. One other Afghan official added that particular messages discovered on al-Rauf’s private laptop confirmed encrypted communications with different al Qaeda cells in Syria and Pakistan.

“He was in contact with different key members of al Qaeda in the remainder of the world. He had some operational applications,” mentioned the senior Afghan intelligence official, individually. The official declined to provide extra particulars, citing ongoing counter-terrorism work, however added: “His compound was very well-protected by the Taliban.”

Within the messages discovered on his laptop, al-Rauf instructed his al Qaeda counterparts that Afghanistan might quickly return to its pre-9/11 place as a number one hub for the phobia group, the senior official mentioned. He expressed concern that the subsequent section of the US withdrawal would lead Afghanistan to “change into [a] base, a stronghold for these folks to arrange assaults outdoors [the country].”

The senior intelligence official mentioned he didn’t have any proof at current to counsel that al Qaeda was planning operations past Afghanistan. “However they’re getting into a brand new place of reorganization after which making missions on a bigger scale,” he mentioned, including {that a} detainee from the al-Rauf operation had offered proof of this throughout interrogation.

Afghan particular forces, seen right here in a coaching video, say they misplaced a soldier within the raid on the compound Husam Abd-al-Rauf was hiding in. Credit score: Afghan Nationwide Safety Directorate coaching footage

In a doable signal of the worldwide attain of the terrorist group’s Afghan cells, two pinpoint strikes in opposition to al Qaeda militants in Syria had been carried out by the US within the days after the al-Rauf raid, and the invention of messages on his laptop to Syrian al Qaeda militants. A second senior Afghan intelligence official instructed CNN that the US had requested for a delay in publicizing the raid in opposition to al-Rauf, which occurred as a lot as a fortnight earlier than it was introduced on October 24. That official added the raid was “most definitely” linked to the Syria strikes, however added that they had no proof to that impact.

One US official performed down connections between the al-Rauf raid, the intercepted messages, and the sudden flurry of strikes on al Qaeda in Syria. Lt Col Karen Roxberry, a spokeswoman for CENTCOM, the US command answerable for each Afghanistan and Syria, mentioned in an announcement it was “not conscious of a hyperlink” between the raid and the Idlib strikes.

A US drone strike on October 15 focused an al Qaeda cell in Idlib, Syria. Credit score: Idlib and its Countryside Now

Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman in Doha for the Taliban, who prefers the identify the Islamic Emirate, instructed CNN the allegations had been “not true.” He mentioned the federal government in Kabul had for the previous twenty years needed “to create suspicion to make international forces keep,” in order that they “will then keep in energy and have billions to make their financial institution accounts larger.”

Shaheen mentioned the Emirate’s settlement with the US specified they might not allow Afghanistan for use to assault the US or its allies. “If we do, we create issues for ourselves, and there shall be no peace in Afghanistan. Conflict after conflict. It’s in opposition to our curiosity.” He mentioned that after the take care of the US in Doha was signed, their army commanders had been gathered collectively and that dedication was spelled out in a gathering, after which in a letter.

A second letter was then despatched, Shaheen mentioned, during which their management mentioned any Taliban member with foreigners of their ranks can be instantly fired and brought to courtroom. He mentioned that included fighters from neighbouring Pakistan. “All people,” he mentioned.

The Taliban’s relationship with al Qaeda has been the topic of differing assessments, with US officers at occasions accused by critics of taking part in up the menace in pursuit of better army sources, and extra lately taking part in it down forward of the deliberate withdrawal.

Whereas many analysts consider the Taliban finally regrets harboring the phobia group behind 9/11 and sparking the US invasion, they’ve prior to now decade promoted Siraj Haqqani, an al Qaeda-affiliated rebel who heads the Haqqani Community, to change into the Taliban’s army operations commander in 2015.

The senior Afghan intelligence official mentioned that a number of particulars about al-Rauf’s time in Afghanistan confirmed his intimate connections to the Taliban management. One in all his Taliban handlers, often known as Zahed, was on a listing of prisoners the Taliban requested be launched as a part of the sooner Doha peace talks, the official mentioned. “At the moment, we didn’t know the connection,” the senior Afghan official mentioned of the early 2020 releases. “It reveals the sympathy of Taliban management for that individual, who [was] working as a liaison between al-Qaida and Taliban.”

The UN report concludes: “Each seem to have been given shelter and safety by the Taliban.” It provides there may be “additional proof of shut relations between the teams,” citing the Taliban’s request that the spouse of a senior al Qaeda determine killed in a 2019 raid be included within the 2020 prisoner alternate with the Afghan authorities.

The senior Afghan official declined to call the present al Qaeda chief in Afghanistan and mentioned that technically Ayman al-Zawahiri remained the group’s head because the loss of life of Osama Bin Laden in 2011. “Our intelligence nonetheless means that al-Zawahiri is someplace within the FATA space of Pakistan in that space,” he mentioned. “However we now have no clear intelligence about his actual location.”