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View Full Version : Afghan commandos kill 23 capture 7 Taliban



bobdina
06-09-2010, 03:22 PM
Afghan commandos strike at the Taliban in the northwest
By Bill RoggioJun 8, 2010

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Map of Afghanistan's provinces. Click map to view larger image.

Afghan commandos killed 23 Taliban fighters and captured seven more during a raid last night in a terrorist stronghold in the northwest. The Afghan commandos, backed by Coalition special operations forces, battled the Taliban for 12 hours in the village of Darai Bom in the Balamurghab district in Badghis province.

"We received some reports about the presence of Taliban in the area planning to attack government locations, and yesterday night we launched a joint operation with the NATO forces which was a success," Zainuddin Sharifi, a senior Afghan Army commander, told Quqnoos.

The Afghan Army commander claimed the Taliban left 23 Taliban bodies on the battlefield. Among them were Mullah Sulaiman and two other local Taliban commanders. Twenty-one Taliban fighters were said to have been wounded during the clash. An unnamed provincial official claimed four Afghan soldiers were killed, but Zainuddin denied the report.

The Balamurghab district serves as the Taliban's main operations hub for northwestern Afghanistan. Taliban commanders in Badghis have claimed to have 74 bases scattered throughout the Balamurghab district alone. Both Balamurghab and the neighboring district of Ghormach are considered to be under Taliban control. US, Spanish, and Afghan forces now maintain a presence in the Balamurghab district at Forward Operating Base Columbus.

Badghis is critical to the Taliban's northern front. The Taliban are attempting to isolate the province by keeping the instability high so the paved section of the northern ring road cannot be completed. The Taliban want to use their safe havens in Badghis to launch attacks against neighboring Faryab province and eventually Mazar-i-Sharif.

Coalition and Afghan forces have been targeting the Taliban in Badghis for years. In February 2009, Mullah Dastagir, the Taliban's shadow governor for Badghis, was killed in an airstrike along with several aides and fighters. Coalition and Afghan forces battled the Taliban through 2008 and early 2009 but have been unable to dislodge them from strongholds in the two districts.

An al Qaeda affiliate also operates in Badghis

The al Qaeda-linked Turkistan Islamic Party is also known to operate in Badghis province. In January 2010, a US airstrike in the village of Khatawaran in Balamurghab killed 13 Uighurs and two Turkish members of the Turkistan Islamic Party.

The Turkistan Islamic Party, which is also known as the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Party or Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement, operates primarily in China’s western province of Xinjiang as well as in the Central Asian republics. The group seeks to establish an Islamic state in the region. The Turkistan Islamic Party has training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan and is known to operate in both countries.

The Turkistan Islamic Party has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United Nations, the United States, China, Kazakhstan, and Pakistan.

Abdul Haq al Turkistani, the leader of the Turkistan Islamic Party, is closely linked to al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. Haq, who is also known as Maimaitiming Maimaiti, became the leader of the terror group in late 2003 after Hassan Mahsum, the group’s previous leader, was killed in Waziristan, Pakistan. Haq was appointed a member of al Qaeda’s Shura Majlis, or executive council, in 2005, according to the US Treasury Department, which designated him as a global terrorist in April 2009. The United Nations also designated Haq as a terrorist leader.

In May, Pakistan's Interior Minister claimed that Haq was killed in Pakistan, but Pakistan has not provided any evidence to back up the assertion. The Turkistan Islamic Party has not issued a martyrdom statement announcing Haq's death, nor has it named a replacement leader. US intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal would not confirm Haq's death.

Haq was rumored to have been killed in a US Predator airstrike in North Waziristan on Feb. 15, but the report was never confirmed.

Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2010/06/afghan_commandos_str.php#ixzz0qNxJYILL