kindly move the content to Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan as it was done by the TTP not the Afghan Taliban |
|||
Line 216: | Line 216: | ||
In 2009, Colonel [[Richard Kemp]], formerly Commander of British forces in Afghanistan and the intelligence coordinator for the British government, drew parallels between the tactics and strategy of [[Hamas]] in [[Gaza]] to those of the Taliban. Kemp wrote: {{quote|Like Hamas in Gaza, the Taliban in southern Afghanistan are masters at shielding themselves behind the civilian population and then melting in among them for protection. Women and children are trained and equipped to fight, collect intelligence, and ferry arms and ammunition between battles. Female suicide bombers are increasingly common. The use of women to shield gunmen as they engage [[NATO]] forces is now so normal it is deemed barely worthy of comment. Schools and houses are routinely booby-trapped. Snipers shelter in houses deliberately filled with women and children.<ref>[http://defense-update.com/analysis/analysis_280909_goldstone_kemp.html The UN Goldstone Commission: A Lesson in Farcical Hypocrisy], Defense Update. By David Eshel.</ref><ref name="kemp2">[http://www.securityaffairs.org/issues/2010/18/kemp.php Israel and the New Way of War], ''The Journal of International Security Affairs'', Spring 2010 – Number 18</ref>}} |
In 2009, Colonel [[Richard Kemp]], formerly Commander of British forces in Afghanistan and the intelligence coordinator for the British government, drew parallels between the tactics and strategy of [[Hamas]] in [[Gaza]] to those of the Taliban. Kemp wrote: {{quote|Like Hamas in Gaza, the Taliban in southern Afghanistan are masters at shielding themselves behind the civilian population and then melting in among them for protection. Women and children are trained and equipped to fight, collect intelligence, and ferry arms and ammunition between battles. Female suicide bombers are increasingly common. The use of women to shield gunmen as they engage [[NATO]] forces is now so normal it is deemed barely worthy of comment. Schools and houses are routinely booby-trapped. Snipers shelter in houses deliberately filled with women and children.<ref>[http://defense-update.com/analysis/analysis_280909_goldstone_kemp.html The UN Goldstone Commission: A Lesson in Farcical Hypocrisy], Defense Update. By David Eshel.</ref><ref name="kemp2">[http://www.securityaffairs.org/issues/2010/18/kemp.php Israel and the New Way of War], ''The Journal of International Security Affairs'', Spring 2010 – Number 18</ref>}} |
||
===Execution of 15 Pakistani soldiers=== |
|||
Taliban abducted 15 Pakistani paramilitary soldiers on 23 December 2011. On 22 January 2012 Taliban released a 2.38 minute video showing the 15 unarmed Pakistani soldiers blindfolded and handcuffed together. Taliban militant then went ahead and shot each of the soldier in the back of the head with an [[AK-47]] rifle.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2090165/Taliban-releases-horrific-video-executions-15-Pakistani-soldiers.html|title=Taliban releases horrific video of executions of 15 Pakistani soldiers | Mail Online|work=[[Mail Online]]|accessdate=22 January 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/taliban-video-shows-execution-of-pak-soldiers-169483|title=Taliban video shows execution of Pak soldiers|work=[[NDTV]]|accessdate=22 January 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/21/us-pakistan-military-video-idUSTRE80K0NT20120121|title=Taliban video highlights revenge on Pakistan military| Reuters|work=[[Reuters]]|accessdate=22 January 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/9030873/Taliban-video-shows-execution-of-Pakistani-soldiers.html|title=Taliban video shows execution of Pakistani soldiers - Telegraph|work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|accessdate=22 January 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/Afghanistan/Taliban-video-shows-execution-of-15-Pak-soldiers/Article1-800665.aspx|title=Taliban video shows execution of 15 Pak soldiers - Hindustan Times|work=[[Hindustan Times]]|accessdate=22 January 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://australianetworknews.com/stories/201201/3412970.htm?desktop|title=Australia Network News:Stories:Pakistan Taliban releases video of soldier killings|work=[[Australia Network]]|accessdate=22 January 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.oneindia.in/2012/01/22/taliban-avenge-pakmilitary-release-solider-killingvideo.html|title=Pakistan Taliban | Terrorism | Video Killing | Soliders | Pakistan Military ||work=[[Oneindia.in]]|accessdate=22 January 2012}}</ref> |
|||
==Ideology== |
==Ideology== |
Revision as of 19:41, 22 January 2012
Taliban طالبان | |
---|---|
Leaders | Mullah Mohammed Omar Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar Mullah Obaidullah Akhund |
Dates of operation | September 1994 – September 1996 (militia) September 1996 – December 2001 (government) 2004–present (insurgency) |
Active regions | Afghanistan and Pakistan |
Ideology | Islamism Islamic fundamentalism Pashtun nationalism Takfiri Strict sharia law |
Allies | Haqqani network Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin Islamic Emirate of Waziristan Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan East Turkestan Islamic Movement Al-Qaeda and Caucasian Front[1] |
Opponents | United States armed forces International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Military of Afghanistan British Army |
Battles and wars | the Civil war in Afghanistan, the War in Afghanistan (2001–present) |
Part of a series on the |
Deobandi movement |
---|
Ideology and influences |
Founders and key figures |
|
Notable institutions |
Centres (markaz) of Tablighi Jamaat |
Associated organizations |
The Taliban (Pashto: طالبان), alternative spelling Taleban,[5] (ṭālibān, meaning "students" in Arabic) is an Islamist militant and political group that ruled large parts of Afghanistan and its capital, Kabul, as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from September 1996 until October 2001. It gained diplomatic recognition from only three states: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The main leader of the Taliban movement is Mullah Mohammed Omar.[6]
While in power, the Taliban enforced one of the strictest interpretations of Sharia law ever seen in the Muslim world,[7] and leading Muslims have been highly critical of the Taliban interpretations of Islamic law.[8] The Taliban were condemned internationally for their brutal repression of women. Most Taliban leaders were influenced by Deobandi fundamentalism,[9] and many also strictly follow the social and cultural norm called Pashtunwali.[10] The Taliban movement is primarily made up of members belonging to Pashtun tribes, the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan.[11]
From 1995-2001, the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence[12] and military[13] are widely alleged by the international community to have provided support to the Taliban.[14] Pakistan has been accused by many international officials of continuing to support the Taliban today, but Pakistan claims to have dropped all support for the group since 9/11.[15][16][17] Al Qaeda also supported the Taliban with regiments of imported fighters from Arab countries and Central Asia.[18][19][20] Saudi Arabia provided financial support.[21] The Taliban and their allies committed massacres against Afghan civilians,[22][23][24] denied UN food supplies to 160,000 starving civilians[25] and conducted a policy of scorched earth burning vast areas of fertile land and destroying tens of thousands of homes during their rule from 1996-2001.[26][27] Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee to United Front-controlled territory, Pakistan and Iran.[27]
After the attacks of September 11, 2001 the Taliban were overthrown by Operation Enduring Freedom. Later it regrouped as an insurgency movement to fight the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (established in late 2001) and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).[28] They use terrorism as a specific tactic to further their ideological and political goals.[29][30] According to the United Nations, the Taliban and their allies were responsible for 75% of civilian casualties in 2010 and 80% in 2011.[31][32][33] Today the Taliban operate in Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan. It is believed one of their current major headquarters is near Quetta in Pakistan.[34][35]
Etymology
The word Taliban is Pashto, طالبان ṭālibān, meaning "students", the plural of ṭālib. This is a loanword from Arabic طالب ṭālib,[36] plus the Indo-Iranian plural ending -an ان (the Arabic plural being طلاب ṭullāb, whereas طالبان ṭālibān is a dual form with the incongruous meaning, to Arabic speakers, of "two students"). Since becoming a loanword in English, Taliban, besides a plural noun referring to the group, has also been used as a singular noun referring to an individual. For example, John Walker Lindh has been referred to as "an American Taliban", rather than "an American Talib". In the English language newspapers of Pakistan the word talibans is often used when referring to more than one taliban. The spelling 'Taliban' has come to predominate over 'Taleban' in English.[37]
History
Emergence
After the fall of the communist Mohammad Najibullah-regime in 1992, several Afghan political parties agreed on a peace and power-sharing agreement (the Peshawar Accords). The Peshawar Accords created the Islamic State of Afghanistan and appointed an interim government for a transitional period. According to Human Rights Watch:
The sovereignty of Afghanistan was vested formally in the Islamic State of Afghanistan, an entity created in April 1992, after the fall of the Soviet-backed Najibullah government. ... With the exception of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-e Islami, all of the parties... were ostensibly unified under this government in April 1992. ... Hekmatyar's Hezb-e Islami, for its part, refused to recognize the government for most of the period discussed in this report and launched attacks against government forces and Kabul generally. ... Shells and rockets fell everywhere.[38]
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar received operational, financial and military support from Pakistan.[39] Afghanistan expert Amin Saikal concludes in Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival:
Pakistan was keen to gear up for a breakthrough in Central Asia. ... Islamabad could not possibly expect the new Islamic government leaders... to subordinate their own nationalist objectives in order to help Pakistan realize its regional ambitions. ... Had it not been for the ISI's logistic support and supply of a large number of rockets, Hekmatyar's forces would not have been able to target and destroy half of Kabul.[40]
In addition, Saudi Arabia and Iran – as competitors for regional hegemony – supported Afghan militias hostile towards each other.[40] According to Human Rights Watch, Iran assisted the Shia Hazara Hezb-i Wahdat forces of Abdul Ali Mazari, as Iran attempted to maximize Wahdat's military power and influence.[38][40][41] Saudi Arabia supported the Wahhabite Abdul Rasul Sayyaf and his Ittihad-i Islami faction.[38][40] Conflict between the two militias soon escalated into a full-scale war. A publication by the George Washington University describes:
[O]utside forces saw instability in Afghanistan as an opportunity to press their own security and political agendas.[42]
Due to the sudden initiation of the war, working government departments, police units or a system of justice and accountability for the newly-created Islamic State of Afghanistan did not have time to form. Horrific crimes were committed by individuals of different factions. Rare ceasefires, usually negotiated by representatives of Ahmad Shah Massoud, Sibghatullah Mojaddedi or Burhanuddin Rabbani (the interim government), or officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), commonly collapsed within days.[38]
Meanwhile southern Afghanistan was neither under the control of foreign-backed militias nor the government in Kabul, but was ruled by local leaders such as Gul Agha Sherzai and their militias. In 1991, the Taliban (a movement originating from Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-run religious schools for Afghan refugees in Pakistan) also developed in Afghanistan as a politico-religious force, reportedly in opposition to the tyranny of the local governor.[43] Mullah Omar started his movement with fewer than 50 armed madrassah students in his hometown of Kandahar.[43] The most credible and often-repeated story of how Mullah Omar first mobilized his followers is that in the spring of 1994, neighbors in Singesar told him that the local governor had abducted two teenage girls, shaved their heads, and taken them to a camp where they were raped repeatedly. 30 Taliban (with only 16 rifles) freed the girls, and hanged the governor from the barrel of a tank. Later that year, two militia commanders killed civilians while fighting for the right to sodomize a young boy. The Taliban freed him.[43][44]
The Taliban's first major military activity was in 1994, when they marched northward from Maiwand and captured Kandahar City and the surrounding provinces, losing only a few dozen men.[45] When they took control of Kandahar in 1994, they forced the surrender of dozens of local Pashtun leaders who had presided over a situation of complete lawlessness and atrocities.[45][46] The Taliban also took-over a border crossing at Spin Baldak and an ammunition dump from Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. In the course of 1994, the Taliban took control of 12 of 34 provinces not under central government control, disarming the "heavily armed population". Militias controlling the different areas often surrendered without a fight.[47] Omar's original commanders were "a mixture of former small-unit military commanders and madrassa teachers."[48]
At the same time most of the militia factions (Hekmatyar's Hezb-i Islami, Junbish-i Milli and Hezb-i Wahdat) which had been fighting in the battle for control of Kabul were defeated militarily by forces of the Islamic State's Secretary of Defense Ahmad Shah Massoud. Bombardment of the capital came to a halt.[49][50][51] Massoud tried to initiate a nationwide political process with the goal of national consolidation and democratic elections, also inviting the Taliban to join the process and to contribute to stability.[19] Ahmad Shah Massoud had been named "The Afghan who won the cold war" by The Wall Street Journal.[52] He had defeated the Soviet Red Army nine times in his home region of Panjshir, in north-eastern Afghanistan.[53] Massoud, unarmed, went to talk to some Taliban leaders in Maidan Shar to convince them to join the initiated political process, so that democratic elections could be held to decide on a future government for Afghanistan. He hoped for them to be allies in bringing stability to Afghanistan. But the Taliban declined to join such a political process. When Massoud returned unharmed to Kabul, the Taliban leader who had received him as his guest paid with his life (he was killed by other senior Taliban) for failing to execute Massoud while the possibility had presented itself.
The Taliban started shelling Kabul in early 1995 but were defeated by forces of the Islamic State government under Ahmad Shah Massoud.[50] see video Amnesty International, referring to the Taliban offensive, wrote in a 1995 report:
This is the first time in several months that Kabul civilians have become the targets of rocket attacks and shelling aimed at residential areas in the city.[50]
The Taliban's early victories in 1994 were followed by a series of devastating defeats that resulted in heavy losses.[46] Pakistan started to provide stronger military support to the Taliban.[40][54] Many analysts like Amin Saikal describe the Taliban as developing into a proxy force for Pakistan's regional interests which the Taliban decline.[40] On September 26, 1996, as the Taliban with military support by Pakistan and financial support by Saudi Arabia prepared for another major offensive, Massoud ordered a full retreat from Kabul.[55] The Taliban seized Kabul on September 27, 1996, and established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.[56]
Taliban Emirate against United Front
Creation of the United Front
Ahmad Shah Massoud and Abdul Rashid Dostum, two former archnemeses, created the United Front (Northern Alliance) against the Taliban that were preparing offensives against the remaining areas under the control of Massoud and those under the control of Dostum. see video The United Front included beside the dominantly Tajik forces of Massoud and the Uzbek forces of Dostum, Hazara factions and Pashtun forces under the leadership of commanders such as Abdul Haq, Haji Abdul Qadir, Qari Baba or diplomat Abdul Rahim Ghafoorzai. From the Taliban conquest in 1996 until November 2001 the United Front controlled roughly 30% of Afghanistan's population in provinces such as Badakhshan, Kapisa, Takhar and parts of Parwan, Kunar, Nuristan, Laghman, Samangan, Kunduz, Ghōr and Bamyan.
Role of the Pakistani military
At first the Taliban numbered in the hundreds, and were badly equipped and low on munitions. Within months however 15,000 students arrived from the Madrassas in Pakistan. A Pakistani artillery attack on the border town of Spin Boldak allowed the Taliban to seize the town as well as the munitions dump in Pasha.[57] According to Peter Tomsen between 1988 and 9/11 hundreds of Pakistani military and ISI officers, along with thousands of regular armed forces personnel had been involved in the fighting in Afghanistan.[58]
In 2001, according to several international sources, 28,000-30,000 Pakistani nationals,[19][59] 14,000-15,000 Afghan Taliban[18][60] and 2,000-3,000 Al Qaeda militants[18][60] were fighting against anti-Taliban forces in Afghanistan.[18][19] Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf – then as Chief of Army Staff – was responsible for sending thousands of Pakistanis to fight alongside the Taliban and Bin Laden against the forces of Massoud.[19][54][61] In total there were believed to be 28,000-30,000 Pakistani nationals fighting inside Afghanistan.[19][59] 8,000 of whom were militants recruited in madrassas filling regular Taliban ranks.[18] The Taliban regular force was estimated to number 25,000 in 2001 with 8,000 being Pakistani nationals, further 3,000 being Arab and Central Asian militants and Afghans numbering 14,000.[18][60] A 1998 document by the U.S. State Department confirms that "20–40 percent of [regular] Taliban soldiers are Pakistani."[54] The document further states that the parents of those Pakistani nationals "know nothing regarding their child's military involvement with the Taliban until their bodies are brought back to Pakistan."[54] According to the U.S. State Department report and reports by Human Rights Watch, the other Pakistani nationals fighting in Afghanistan were regular Pakistani soldiers especially from the Frontier Corps but also army providing direct combat support.[14][54] From 1996 to 2001 the Al Qaeda of Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri became a state within the Taliban state.[62] Bin Laden sent Arab recruits to join the fight against the United Front.[62][63]
Ahmad Shah Massoud
Ahmad Shah Massoud was the only major anti-Taliban leader who never left Afghanistan for exile and who was able to defend vast parts of his territory against the Taliban. Abdul Rashid Dostum and his forces were defeated by the Taliban in 1998. Dostum subsequently went into exile.
In the areas under his control Massoud set up democratic institutions and signed the Women's Rights Declaration.[64] In the area of Massoud, women and girls did not have to wear the Afghan burqa. They were allowed to work and to go to school. In at least two known instances, Massoud personally intervened against cases of forced marriage.[19] To Massoud there was reportedly nothing worse than treating a person like an object.[19] He stated:
It is our conviction and we believe that both men and women are created by the Almighty. Both have equal rights. Women can pursue an education, women can pursue a career, and women can play a role in society – just like men.[19]
Author Pepe Escobar wrote in Massoud: From Warrior to Statesman:
Massoud is adamant that in Afghanistan women have suffered oppression for generations. He says that 'the cultural environment of the country suffocates women. But the Taliban exacerbate this with oppression.' His most ambitious project is to shatter this cultural prejudice and so give more space, freedom and equality to women – they would have the same rights as men.[19]
While it was Massoud's stated conviction that men and women are equal and should enjoy the same rights, he also had to deal with Afghan traditions which he said would need a generation or more to overcome. In his opinion that could only be achieved through education.[19] Humayun Tandar, who took part as a Afghan diplomat in the 2001 International Conference on Afghanistan in Bonn, said that "strictures of language, ethnicity, region were [also] stifling for Massoud. That is why ... he wanted to create a unity which could surpass the situation in which we found ourselves and still find ourselves to this day."[19] This applied also to strictures of religion. Jean-José Puig describes how Massoud often led prayers before a meal or at times asked his fellow Muslims to lead the prayer but also did not hesitate to ask a Christian friend Jean-José Puig or the Jewish Princeton University Professor Michael Barry: "Jean-José, we believe in the same God. Please, tell us the prayer before lunch or dinner in your own language."[19]
Human Rights Watch cites no human rights crimes for the forces under direct control of Massoud for the period from October 1996 until the assassination of Massoud in September 2001.[14] One million peolple fled the Taliban, many to the area of Massoud.[61][65] National Geographic concluded in its documentary "Inside the Taliban":
The only thing standing in the way of future Taliban massacres is Ahmad Shah Massoud.[61]
The Taliban repeatedly offered Massoud a position of power to make him stop his resistance. Massoud declined. He explained in one interview:
The Taliban say: 'Come and accept the post of prime minister and be with us', and they would keep the highest office in the country, the presidentship. But for what price?! The difference between us concerns mainly our way of thinking about the very principles of the society and the state. We can not accept their conditions of compromise, or else we would have to give up the principles of modern democracy. We are fundamentally against the system called 'the Emirate of Afghanistan".[66]
There should be an Afghanistan where every Afghan finds himself or herself happy. And I think that can only be assured by democracy based on consensus.[67]
Massoud with his Proposals for Peace wanted to convince the Taliban to join a political process leading towards nationwide democratic elections in a foreseeable future.[66] Massoud also stated:
The Taliban are not a force to be considered invincible. They are distanced from the people now. They are weaker than in the past. There is only the assistance given by Pakistan, Osama bin Laden and other extremist groups that keep the Taliban on their feet. With a halt to that assistance, it is extremely difficult to survive.[67]
In early 2001 Massoud employed a new strategy of local military pressure and global political appeals.[68] Resentment was increasingly gathering against Taliban rule from the bottom of Afghan society including the Pashtun areas.[68] Massoud publicized their cause "popular consensus, general elections and democracy" worldwide. At the same time he was very wary not to revive the failed Kabul government of the early 1990s.[68] Already in 1999 he started the training of police forces which he trained specifically in order to keep order and protect the civilian population in case the United Front would be successful.[19]
In early 2001 Ahmad Shah Massoud addressed the European Parliament in Brussels asking the international community to provide humanitarian help to the people of Afghanistan.[69] (see video) He stated that the Taliban and Al Qaeda had introduced "a very wrong perception of Islam" and that without the support of Pakistan and Bin Laden the Taliban would not be able to sustain their military campaign for up to a year.[70] On this visit to Europe he also warned that his intelligence had gathered information about a large-scale attack on U.S. soil being imminent.[71]
The president of the European Parliament, Nicole Fontaine, called him the "pole of liberty in Afghanistan".[72]
On September 9, 2001, Massoud, then aged 48, was the target of a suicide attack by two Arabs posing as journalists at Khwaja Bahauddin, in the Takhar Province of Afghanistan.[73][74] Massoud died in a helicopter taking him to a hospital. The funeral, though in a rather rural area, was attended by hundreds of thousands of mourning people.Sad day (video clip).
The assassination was not the first time Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, the Pakistani ISI, and before them the Soviet KGB, the Afghan Communist KHAD and Hekmatyar had tried to assassinate Massoud. He survived countless assassination attempts over a period of 26 years. The first attempt on Massoud's life was carried out by Hekmatyar and two Pakistani ISI agents in 1975, when Massoud was only 22 years old.[41] In early 2001, Al-Qaeda would-be assassins were captured by Massoud's forces while trying to enter his territory.[68] The assassination of Massoud may have had a connection to the September 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. soil, which killed nearly 3000 people, and which appeared to be the terrorist attack that Massoud had warned against in his speech to the European Parliament several months earlier.[75]
John P. O'Neill was a counter-terrorism expert and the Assistant Director of the FBI until late 2001. He retired from the FBI and was offered the position of director of security at the World Trade Center (WTC). He took the job at the WTC two weeks before 9/11. On September 10, 2001, O'Neill told two of his friends, "We're due. And we're due for something big.... Some things have happened in Afghanistan. [referring to the assassination of Massoud] I don't like the way things are lining up in Afghanistan.... I sense a shift, and I think things are going to happen ... soon."[76] O'Neill died on September 11, 2001, when the South Tower collapsed.[76]
After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Massoud's United Front troops ousted the Taliban from power in Kabul with American air support in Operation Enduring Freedom. In November and December 2001 the United Front gained control of much of the country and played a crucial role in establishing the post-Taliban interim government of Hamid Karzai in late 2001.
NATO invasion, Taliban overthrow and insurgency
Prelude
After the September 11 attacks on the U.S. and the PENTTBOM investigation, the United States made the following demands of the Taliban,[77] and refused to discuss them:
- Deliver to the U.S. all of the leaders of Al-Qaeda
- Release all foreign nationals that have been "unjustly imprisoned"
- Protect foreign journalists, diplomats, and aid workers
- Close immediately every terrorist training camp
- Hand over every terrorist and their supporters to appropriate authorities
- Give the United States full access to terrorist training camps for inspection
The U.S. petitioned the international community to back a military campaign to overthrow the Taliban. The U.N. issued two resolutions on terrorism after the Sept.11 attacks. The resolutions called on all states to "[increase] cooperation and full implementation of the relevant international conventions relating to terrorism" and specified consensus recommendations for all countries. The Security Council did not authorize military intervention in Afghanistan of any kind, and nowhere in the U.N resolutions did it say military operations in Afghanistan were justified or conformed to international law.[78] Despite this, NATO approved a campaign against Afghanistan as self-defense against armed attack.[79]
On September 21, the Taliban responded to the ultimatum, promising that if the U.S. could bring evidence that bin Laden was guilty, they would hand him over, stating that they had no evidence linking him to the September 11 attacks.[80]
On September 22, the United Arab Emirates, and later Saudi Arabia, withdrew recognition of the Taliban as Afghanistan's legal government, leaving neighbouring Pakistan as the only remaining country with diplomatic ties. On October 4, the Taliban agreed to turn bin Laden over to Pakistan for trial in an international tribunal[81] that operated according to Islamic Sharia law, but Pakistan blocked the offer as it was not possible to guarantee his safety.[82] On October 7, the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan offered to detain bin Laden and try him under Islamic law if the U.S. made a formal request and presented the Taliban with evidence. A Bush administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, rejected the Taliban offer, and stated that the U.S. would not negotiate their demands.[83]
Coalition attack
Still on October 7, and less than one month after the Twin Towers fell, the U.S., aided by the United Kingdom, Canada, and other countries including several from the NATO alliance, initiated military action, bombing Taliban and Al-Qaeda-related camps.[84][85] The stated intent of military operations was to remove the Taliban from power, and prevent the use of Afghanistan as a terrorist base of operations.[86]
The CIA's elite Special Activities Division (SAD) units were the first U.S. forces to enter Afghanistan (noting that many different countries intelligence agencies were on the ground or operating within theatre before SAD, and that SAD are not technically military forces, but civilian paramilitaries). They joined with the Afghan United Front (Northern Alliance) to prepare for the subsequent arrival of U.S. Special Operations forces. The United Front (Northern Alliance) and SAD and Special Forces combined to overthrow the Taliban with minimal coalition casualties, and without the use of international conventional ground forces. The Washington Post stated in an editorial by John Lehman in 2006:
What made the Afghan campaign a landmark in the U.S. Military's history is that it was prosecuted by Special Operations forces from all the services, along with Navy and Air Force tactical power, operations by the Afghan Northern Alliance and the CIA were equally important and fully integrated. No large Army or Marine force was employed.[87]
On October 14, the Taliban offered to discuss handing over Osama bin Laden to a neutral country in return for a bombing halt, but only if the Taliban were given evidence of bin Laden's involvement.[88] The U.S. rejected this offer, and continued military operations. Mazari Sharif fell November 9, triggering a cascade of provinces falling with minimal resistance. Many local forces switched loyalties from the Taliban to the Northern Alliance. On the night of November 12, the Taliban retreated south from Kabul. On November 15, they released eight Western aid workers after three months in captivity. By November 13, the Taliban had withdrawn from both Kabul and Jalalabad. Finally, in early December, the Taliban gave up Kandahar, their last stronghold, dispersing without surrendering.
Resurgence
Before the summer 2006 offensive began, indications existed that soldiers in Afghanistan had lost influence and power to other groups, including potentially the Taliban. [citation needed] A notable sign was rioting in May after a street accident in the city of Kabul.[89][90]
The continued support from tribal and other groups in Pakistan, the drug trade, and the small number of NATO forces, combined with the long history of resistance and isolation, indicated that Taliban forces and leaders were surviving. Suicide attacks and other terrorist methods not used in 2001 became more common. Observers suggested that poppy eradication, which destroys the livelihoods of rural Afghans, and civilian deaths caused by airstrikes encouraged the resurgence. These observers maintained that policy should focus on "hearts and minds" and on economic reconstruction, which could profit from switching from interdicting to diverting poppy production—to make medicine.[91][92]
In September 2006, Pakistan recognized the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan, an association of Waziristani chieftains with close ties to the Taliban, as the de facto security force for Waziristan. This recognition was part of the agreement to end the Waziristan War, which had exacted a heavy toll on the Pakistan Army since early 2004. Some commentators viewed Islamabad's shift from war to diplomacy as implicit recognition of the growing power of the resurgent Taliban relative to American influence, with the U.S. distracted by the threat of looming crises in Iraq, Lebanon, and Iran.[citation needed]
Other commentators viewed Islamabad's shift from war to diplomacy as an effort to appease growing discontent.[93] Because of the Taliban's leadership structure, Mullah Dadullah's targeted killing in May 2007 did not have a significant effect, other than to damage incipient relations with Pakistan.[94]
By 2009, a strong resistance was created, known as Operation Al Faath, the Arabic word for "victory" taken from the Koran,[95][96][97] in the form of a guerrilla war. The Pashtun tribal group, with over 40 million members (including Afghans and Pakistanis) had a long history of resistance to occupation forces, so the Taliban may have comprised only a part of the insurgency. Most post-invasion Taliban fighters were new recruits, mostly drawn from local madrasas.
In early December, the Taliban offered to give the U.S. "legal guarantees" that it would not allow Afghanistan to be used for attacks on other countries. The U.S. ignored the offer, and continued military action.[98]
Targeted killings
The United States and United Kingdom have used targeted killings, mainly by SOF forces, and sometimes by drones, to kill Taliban leaders. British forces also used similar tactics, as well as United Kingdom Special Forces, to eliminate individual Taliban commanders, mostly in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Among the more notable of the targeted killings of Taliban:
- In June 2004, the U.S. killed Nek Muhammad Wazir, a Taliban commander and al-Qaeda facilitator, along with five others, in an apparent Predator missile strike in South Waziristan, Pakistan.[99][100][101]
- In November 2008, Rashid Rauf, British/Pakistani suspected planner of a 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot, was killed by a missile launched from a U.S. drone on the well-guarded compound of a Taliban commander in North Waziristan, carried out by the CIA's Special Activities Division.[102][103]
- In August 2009, Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Taliban umbrella group, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which he formed from an alliance of about five pro-Taliban groups, who was thought to have commanded up to 5,000 fighters and to have been behind numerous attacks in Pakistan including the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, was killed (along with a Taliban lieutenant, seven bodyguards, his wife, and his mother- and father-in-law) in a U.S. CIA Special Activities Division drone missile attack on his father-in-law's house in South Waziristan, where he was staying.[63][104][105][106][107][108][109]
- During Operation Herrick since 2002, British special forces killed at least 50 high and local Taliban commanders in targeted killings in Helmand Province, which in the U.K. was received both positively and negatively by the media. One specific killing, by Corporal Craig Harrison of the Household Cavalry, though initially a classified operation, was later revealed to have broken the record for longest confirmed sniper kill, at a range of 2,475 m (2,707 yd).[110]
- According to Guantanamo Bay charge sheets, the United States Department of Defense believes the Taliban maintains a 40-man undercover unit called "Jihad Kandahar", which is used for undercover operations including assassination.[111]
Human rights abuses
On August 8, 1989 the Taliban launched an attack on Mazar-i Sharif. Of 1500 defenders only 100 survived the engagement. Once in control the Taliban began to kill people indiscriminately. At first shooting people in the street, they soon began to target Hazaras. Women were raped, and thousands of people were locked in containers and left to suffocate. This Ethnic Cleansing left an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 dead.[112][113] At this time ten Iranian diplomats and a journalist were killed. Iran assumed the Taliban had murdered them, and mobilized it's army, deploying men along the border with Afghanistan. By the middle of September there were 250,000 Iranian personal stationed on the border. Pakistan mediated and the bodies were returned to Tehran towards the end of the month. The killings of the Diplomats had been carried out by Sipah-e-Sahaba a Pakistani Sunni group with close ties to the ISI.[114][115] They burned orchards, crops and destroyed irrigation systems. And forced more than 100,000 people from their homes with hundreds of men, women and children still unaccounted for.[116]
In 1999 the town of Bamian was taken, hundreds of men, women and children were executed. Houses were razed and and some were used for forced labor.[117] There was a further massacre at the town of Yakaolang in January 2001. An estimated 300 people were murdered, along with two delegations of Hazara elders who had tried to intercede.[9] In Istalif the Taliban gave 24 hours notice to the population to leave, then razed the town leaving the people destitute.[118]
The Taliban were condemned internationally for their brutal repression of women.[120][121] In 2001 Laura Bush in a radio address condemned the Taliban's brutality to women.[122][123] In areas they controlled the Taliban issued edicts which forbade women from being educated, girls were forced to leave school and collages. Those who wished to leave their home to go shopping had to be accompanied by a male relative, and were required to wear the burqa, a traditional dress covering the entire body except for a small screen to see out of.to wear the burqa. Those who appeared to disobey were publicly beaten.[124] Sohaila, a young women was convicted of walking with a man who was not a relative, charged with adultery she was publicly flogged in Ghazi Stadium and received 100 lashes.[125] The religious police routinely carried out inhumane abuse on women.[126] Employment for women was restricted to the medical sector, because male medical personnel were not allowed to look at them. One result of the banning of employment of women by the Taliban was the closing down in places like Kabul of primary schools not only for girls but for boys, because almost all the teachers there were women.[127] Taliban restrictions became more severe after they took control of the capital. In February 1998, religious police forced all women off the streets of Kabul, and issued new regulations ordering people to blacken their windows, so that women would not be visible from the outside.[128] The Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) analyze:
To PHR's knowledge, no other regime in the world has methodically and violently forced half of its population into virtual house arrest, prohibiting them on pain of physical punishment.[129]
According to a report by the United Nations, the Taliban were responsible for 76% of civilian casualties in Afghanistan in 2009.[130]
According to Human Rights Watch, the Taliban's bombings and other attacks which have led to civilian casualties "sharply escalated in 2006" when "at least 669 Afghan civilians were killed in at least 350 armed attacks, most of which appear to have been intentionally launched at non-combatants."[131][132] By 2008, the Taliban had increased its use of suicide bombers and targeted unarmed civilian aid workers, such as Gayle Williams.[133]
The United Nations reported that the number of civilians killed by both the Taliban and pro-government forces in the war rose nearly 50% between 2007 and 2009. In the first half of 2008, the Taliban killed 495 civilians, and the allies 276.[134] The high number of civilians killed by the Taliban is blamed in part on their increasing use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), "for instance, 16 IEDs have been planted in girls' schools" by the Taliban.[134]
Criticism of tactics and strategy
In 2009, Colonel Richard Kemp, formerly Commander of British forces in Afghanistan and the intelligence coordinator for the British government, drew parallels between the tactics and strategy of Hamas in Gaza to those of the Taliban. Kemp wrote:
Like Hamas in Gaza, the Taliban in southern Afghanistan are masters at shielding themselves behind the civilian population and then melting in among them for protection. Women and children are trained and equipped to fight, collect intelligence, and ferry arms and ammunition between battles. Female suicide bombers are increasingly common. The use of women to shield gunmen as they engage NATO forces is now so normal it is deemed barely worthy of comment. Schools and houses are routinely booby-trapped. Snipers shelter in houses deliberately filled with women and children.[135][136]
Ideology
Overview
Part of a series on Islamism |
---|
Politics portal |
The Taliban initially enjoyed goodwill from Afghans weary of the warlords' corruption, brutality, and incessant fighting.[137] However, this popularity was not universal, particularly among non-Pashtuns.
The Taliban's extremely strict and anti-modern ideology has been described as an "innovative form of sharia combining Pashtun tribal codes,"[138] or Pashtunwali, with radical Deobandi interpretations of Islam favored by JUI and its splinter groups. Also contributing to the mix was the jihadism and pan-Islamism of Osama bin Laden.[139] Their ideology was a departure from the Islamism of the anti-Soviet mujahideen rulers they replaced who tended to be mystical Sufis, traditionalists, or radical Islamicists inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan).[140]
Under the Taliban regime, Sharia law was interpreted to forbid a wide variety of previously lawful activities in Afghanistan. One Taliban list of prohibitions included: pork, pig, pig oil, anything made from human hair, satellite dishes, cinematography, and equipment that produces the joy of music, pool tables, chess, masks, alcohol, tapes, computers, VCRs, television, anything that propagates sex and is full of music, wine, lobster, nail polish, firecrackers, statues, sewing catalogs, pictures, Christmas cards.[141] They also got rid of employment, education, and sports for all women, dancing, clapping during sports events, kite flying, and characterizations of living things, no matter if they were drawings, paintings, photographs, stuffed animals, or dolls. Men had to have a fist size beard at the bottom of their chin. Conversely, they had to wear their head hair short. Men had to wear a head covering.[142]
Many of these activities were hitherto lawful in Afghanistan. Critics complained that most Afghans followed a different, less strict, and less intrusive interpretation of Islam. The Taliban did not eschew all traditional popular practices. For example, they did not destroy the graves of Sufi pirs (holy men), and emphasized dreams as a means of revelation.[143]
Taliban have been described as both anti-nationalist and Pushtun nationalist. According to journalist Ahmed Rashid, at least in the first years of their rule, they adopted Deobandi and Islamist anti-nationalist beliefs, and opposed "tribal and feudal structures," eliminating traditional tribal or feudal leaders from leadership roles.[144] According to Ali A. Jalali and Lester Grau, the Taliban "received extensive support from Pashtuns across the country who thought that the movement might restore their national dominance. Even Pashtun intellectuals in the West, who differed with the Taliban on many issues, expressed support for the movement on purely ethnic grounds."[145]
Like Wahhabi and other Deobandis, the Taliban do not consider Shiʻi to be Muslims. The Shia in Afghanistan consist mostly of the Hazara ethnic group which totaled almost 10% of Afghanistan's population.[146]
The Taliban were averse to debating doctrine with other Muslims. "The Taliban did not allow even Muslim reporters to question [their] edicts or to discuss interpretations of the Qur'an."[147]
The Taliban mainly strictly enforced its ideologies in major cities like Herat, Kabul, and Kandahar. In rural areas the Taliban had little direct control, and the Taliban had promoted village jirgahs, so it did not as stringently enforce its ideology in rural areas.[148]
Bamyan Buddhas
In 1999, Mullah Omar issued a decree protecting the Buddha statues at Bamyan, two 6th century monumental statues of standing buddhas carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan. He did this because Afghanistan had no Buddhists, so idolatry would not be a problem. But in March 2001 the statues were destroyed by the Taliban of Mullah Omar following a decree stating: "all the statues around Afghanistan must be destroyed."[149]
Yahya Massoud, brother of the anti-Taliban and resistance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, recalls the following incident after the destruction of the Buddha statues at Bamyan:
It was the spring of 2001. I was in Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley, together with my brother Ahmad Shah Massoud, the leader of the Afghan resistance against the Taliban, and Bismillah Khan, who currently serves as Afghanistan's interior minister. One of our commanders, Commandant Momin, wanted us to see 30 Taliban fighters who had been taken hostage after a gun battle. My brother agreed to meet them. I remember that his first question concerned the centuries-old Buddha statues that were dynamited by the Taliban in March of that year, shortly before our encounter. Two Taliban combatants from Kandahar confidently responded that worshiping anything outside of Islam was unacceptable and that therefore these statues had to be destroyed. My brother looked at them and said, this time in Pashto, 'There are still many sun- worshippers in this country. Will you also try to get rid of the sun and drop darkness over the Earth?'"'[150]
Explanation of ideology
The author Ahmed Rashid suggests that the devastation and hardship of the Soviet invasion and the following period influenced Taliban ideology.[151] It is said the Taliban did not include scholars learned in Islamic law and history. The refugee students, brought up in a totally male society, not only had no education in mathematics, science, history or geography, but also had no traditional skills of farming, herding, or handicraft-making, nor even knowledge of their tribal and clan lineages.[151] In such an environment, war meant employment, peace meant unemployment. Dominating women simply affirmed manhood. For their leadership, rigid fundamentalism was a matter not only of principle, but also of political survival. Taliban leaders "repeatedly told" Rashid that "if they gave women greater freedom or a chance to go to school, they would lose the support of their rank and file."[152]
Criticisms
The Taliban were criticized for their strictness toward those who disobeyed their imposed rules. Many Muslims complained that most Taliban rules had no basis in the Qur'an or sharia. Mullah Omar's title as Amir al-Mu'minin was criticized on the grounds that he lacked scholarly learning, tribal pedigree, or connections to the Prophet's family. Sanction for the title traditionally required the support of all of the country's ulema, whereas only some 1,200 Pashtun Taliban-supporting Mullahs had declared Omar the Amir. "No Afghan had adopted the title since 1834, when King Dost Mohammed Khan assumed the title before he declared jihad against the Sikh kingdom in Peshawar. But Dost Mohammed was fighting foreigners, while Omar had declared jihad against other Afghans."[155]
Another criticism was that the Taliban called their 20% tax on truckloads of opium "zakat", which is traditionally limited to 2.5% of the zakat-payers' disposable income (or wealth).[155]
Governance
Overview
The Taliban, de jure, controlled 85% of Afghanistan. De facto the areas under its direct control were mainly Afghanistan's major cities and highways. Tribal khans and warlords had de facto direct control over various small towns, villages, and rural areas.[156]
Rashid described the Taliban government as "a secret society run by Kandaharis ... mysterious, secretive, and dictatorial."[157] They did not hold elections, as their spokesman explained:
The Sharia does not allow politics or political parties. That is why we give no salaries to officials or soldiers, just food, clothes, shoes, and weapons. We want to live a life like the Prophet lived 1400 years ago, and jihad is our right. We want to recreate the time of the Prophet, and we are only carrying out what the Afghan people have wanted for the past 14 years.[158]
They modeled their decision-making process on the Pashtun tribal council (jirga), together with what they believed to be the early Islamic model. Discussion was followed by a building of a consensus by the "believers".[159] Before capturing Kabul, there was talk of stepping aside once a government of "good Muslims" took power, and law and order were restored.
As the Taliban's power grew, decisions were made by Mullah Omar without consulting the jirga and without consulting other parts of the country. He visited the capital, Kabul, only twice while in power. Instead of an election, their leader's legitimacy came from an oath of allegiance ("Bay'ah"), in imitation of the Prophet and the first four Caliphs. On April 4, 1996, Mullah Omar had "the Cloak of the Prophet Mohammed" taken from its shrine for the first time in 60 years. Wrapping himself in the relic, he appeared on the roof of a building in the center of Kandahar while hundreds of Pashtun mullahs below shouted "Amir al-Mu'minin!" (Commander of the Faithful), in a pledge of support. Taliban spokesman Mullah Wakil explained:
Decisions are based on the advice of the Amir-ul Momineen. For us consultation is not necessary. We believe that this is in line with the Sharia. We abide by the Amir's view even if he alone takes this view. There will not be a head of state. Instead there will be an Amir al-Mu'minin. Mullah Omar will be the highest authority, and the government will not be able to implement any decision to which he does not agree. General elections are incompatible with Sharia and therefore we reject them.[160]
The Taliban were very reluctant to share power, and since their ranks were overwhelmingly Pashtun they ruled as overlords over the 60% of Afghans from other ethnic groups. In local government, such as Kabul city council[157] or Herat,[161] Taliban loyalists, not locals, dominated, even when the Pashto-speaking Taliban could not communicate with the roughly half of the population who spoke Dari or other non-Pashtun tongues.[161] Critics complained that this "lack of local representation in urban administration made the Taliban appear as an occupying force."[162]
Organization
Consistent with the governance of early Muslims was the absence of state institutions or "a methodology for command and control" that is standard today even among non-Westernized states. The Taliban did not issue press releases, policy statements, or hold regular press conferences. The outside world and most Afghans did not even know what their leaders looked like, since photography was banned.[163] The "regular army" resembled a lashkar or traditional tribal militia force with only 25,000 men (of whom 11,000 where non-Afghans).
Cabinet ministers and deputies were mullahs with a "madrasah education." Several of them, such as the Minister of Health and Governor of the State bank, were primarily military commanders who left their administrative posts to fight when needed. Military reverses that trapped them behind lines or led to their deaths increased the chaos in the national administration.[164] At the national level, "all senior Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara bureaucrats" were replaced "with Pashtuns, whether qualified or not." Consequently, the ministries "by and large ceased to function."[162]
The Ministry of Finance had neither a budget nor "qualified economist or banker." Mullah Omar collected and dispersed cash without book-keeping.
Conscription
According to the testimony of Guantanamo captives before their Combatant Status Review Tribunals, the Taliban, in addition to conscripting men to serve as soldiers, also conscripted men to staff its civil service.[citation needed]
Economy
The Kabul money markets responded positively during the first weeks of the Taliban occupation. But the Afghani soon fell in value.[165] They imposed a 50% tax on any company operating in the country, and those who failed to pay were attacked.[166] They also imposed a 6% import tax on anything brought into the country,[167] and by 1998 had control of the major airports and border crossings which allowed them to establish a monopoly on all trade.[167] By 2001 the per capita income of the 25 million population was was under $200,[168] and the country was close to total economic collapse.[126] As of 2007 the economy had begun to recover, with estimated foreign reserves of three billion dollars and a 13% increase in in economic growth.[169]
Under the Transit treaty between Afghanistan and Pakistan a massive network for smuggling developed. It had an estimated turnover of 2.5 billion dollars with the Taliban receiving between $100 & $130 million per year.[170] These operations along with the trade from the Golden Crescent financed the war in Afghanistan and also had the side effect of destroying start up industries in Pakistan.[171] Ahmed Rashid also explained that the Afghan Transit Trade agreed on by Pakistan was "the largest official source of revenue for the Taliban."[172]
Between 1996 and 1999 Mullah Omar reversed his opinions on the drug trade, apparently as it only harmed kafirs. The Taliban controlled 96 % of Afghanistan's poppy fields and made opium its largest source of taxation.[172] Taxes on opium exports became one of the mainstays of Taliban income and their war economy.[172] According to Rashid, "drug money funded the weapons, ammunition and fuel for the war."[172] In the New York Times, the Finance Minister of the United Front, Wahidullah Sabawoon, declared the Taliban had no annual budget but that they "appeared to spend US$ 300 million a year, nearly all of it on war." He added that the Taliban had come to increasingly rely on three sources of money: "poppy, the Pakistanis and bin Laden."[172]
In an economic sense it seems however he had little choice, as the war of attrition continued with the Northern Alliance the income from continued opium production was all that prevented the country from starvation.[10] By 2000 Afghanistan accounted for an estimated 75% of the world's supply and in 2000 grew an estimated 3276 tonnes of opium from poppy cultivation on 82,171 hectares.[173] At this juncture Omar passed a decree banning the cultivation of opium, and production dropped to an estimated 74 metric tonnes from poppy cultivation on 1,685 hectares.[174] Many observers say the ban - which came in a bid for international recognition at the United Nations - was only issued in order to raise opium prices and increase profit from the sale of large existing stockpiles.[172] The year 1999 had yielded a record crop and had been followed by a lower but still large 2000 harvest.[172] The trafficking of accumulated stocks by the Taliban continued in 2000 and 2001.[172] In 2002, the UN mentioned the "existence of significant stocks of opiated accumulated during previous years of bumper harvests."[172] In September 2001 - before the 11 September attacks against the United States – the Taliban allegedly authorized Afghan peasants to sow opium again.[172]
There was also an environmental toll to the country, heavy deforestation from the illegal trade in timber with hundreds of acres of pine and cedar forests in Kunar Province and Paktya being cleared.[175][176] Throughout the country millions of acres were denuded to supply timber to the Pakistani markets, with no attempt made at reforestation,[177] which has lead to significant environmental damage.[11] By 2001 when the Afghan Interim Administration took power the country's infrastructure was in ruins, Telecommunications had failed, the road network was destroyed and Ministry of Finance buildings were in such a state of disrepair some were on the verge of collapse.[178] On July 6, 1999 former president Bill Clinton signed into effect executive order 13129. This order implemented a complete ban on any trade between America and the Taliban regime and on August 10 they froze £5000,000 in Ariana assets.[179] On December 19, 2000 UN resolution 1333 was passed. It called for all assets to be frozen and for all states to close any offices belonging to the Taliban. This included the offices of Ariana Afghan Airlines.[180] In 1999 the UN had passed resolution 1267 which had banned all international flights by Ariana apart from preapproved humanitarian missions.[181]
International relations
During its time in power, the Taliban regime, or "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan", gained diplomatic recognition from only three states: the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, all of which provided substantial aid. The other nations including the United Nations recognized the government of the Islamic State of Afghanistan (parts of whom were part of the United Front (Northern Alliance) as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.
Pakistan
The "vast majority" of the Taliban's rank and file and most of the leadership, though not Mullah Omar, were Koranic students who had studied at madrasas set up for Afghan refugees, usually by JUI. Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman, JUI's leader, was a political ally of Benazir Bhutto. After Bhutto became prime minister, Rehman "had access to the government, the army and the ISI," whom he influenced to help the Taliban.[182]
Pakistan's ISI supported the previously unknown Kandahari student movement,[183] the Taliban, as the group conquered Afghanistan in the 1990s.[184]
Human Rights Watch writes, "Pakistani aircraft assisted with troop rotations of Taliban forces during combat operations in late 2000 and ... senior members of Pakistan's intelligence agency and army were involved in planning military operations."[185] Pakistan provided military equipment, recruiting assistance, training, and tactical advice.[186] Officially Pakistan denied supporting the Taliban militarily.
Author Ahmed Rashid claims that the Taliban had "unprecedented access" among Pakistan's lobbies and interest groups. He also writes that they at times were able to "play off one lobby against another and extend their influence in Pakistan even further".[187] By 1998–99, Taliban-style groups in Pakistan's Pashtun belt, and to an extent in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, "were banning TV and videos ... and forcing people, particularly women, to adapt to the Taliban dress code and way of life."[188]
After the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the U.S. operation in Afghanistan the Afghan Taliban leadership is claimed to have fled to Pakistan where they regrouped and created several shuras to coordinate their insurgency in Afghanistan. On February 8, 2009, U.S. commander of operations in Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal and other officials said that the Taliban leadership was in Quetta, Pakistan, though the Pakistani government, an official U.S. ally, denied this.[35]
A range of officials inside and outside Pakistan have stepped up suggestions of links between the ISI and terrorist groups in recent years.[189] In fall 2006, a leaked report by a British Defense Ministry think tank charged, "Indirectly Pakistan (through the ISI) has been supporting terrorism and extremism--whether in London on 7/7 [the July 2005 attacks on London's transit system], or in Afghanistan, or Iraq."[189] In June 2008, Afghan officials accused Pakistan's intelligence service of plotting a failed assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai; shortly thereafter, they implied the ISI's involvement in a July 2008 Taliban attack on the Indian embassy.[189] Indian officials also blamed the ISI for the bombing of the Indian embassy.[189] Numerous U.S. officials have also accused the ISI of supporting terrorist groups including the Afghan Taliban. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said "to a certain extent, they play both sides." Gates and others suggest the ISI maintains links with groups like the Afghan Taliban as a "strategic hedge" to help Islamabad gain influence in Kabul once U.S. troops exit the region. [189] U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen in 2011 called the Haqqani network (the Afghan Taliban's most destructive element) a "veritable arm of Pakistan's ISI".[15] He further stated, "Extremist organizations serving as proxies of the government of Pakistan are attacking Afghan troops and civilians as well as US soldiers."[15]
From 2010, a report by a leading British institution also claimed that Pakistan's intelligence service still today has a strong link with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Published by the London School of Economics, the report said that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) has an "official policy" of support for the Taliban. It said the ISI provides funding and training for the Taliban, and that the agency has representatives on the so-called Quetta Shura, the Taliban's leadership council, which is believed to meet in Pakistan. The report, based on interviews with Taliban commanders in Afghanistan, was written by Matt Waldman, a fellow at Harvard University.[190]
"Pakistan appears to be playing a double-game of astonishing magnitude," the report said. The report also linked high-level members of the Pakistani government with the Taliban. It said Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistani president, met with senior Taliban prisoners in 2010 and promised to release them. Zardari reportedly told the detainees they were only arrested because of American pressure. "The Pakistan government's apparent duplicity – and awareness of it among the American public and political establishment – could have enormous geopolitical implications," Waldman said. "Without a change in Pakistani behaviour it will be difficult if not impossible for international forces and the Afghan government to make progress against the insurgency." Afghan officials have long been suspicious of the ISI's role. Amrullah Saleh, the former director of Afghanistan's intelligence service, told Reuters that the ISI was "part of a landscape of destruction in this country".[191]
Pakistan on other hand has strongly denied all links with Taliban or any terrorist groups with the argument that Pakistan is the biggest victim of the "War on terror" with a loss of 35,000 lives including policemen, soldiers and mostly civilians.[192] Pakistan's military officials called such allegations highly biased and factually inaccurate. The military spokes person said that not a single bullet or financial support had been given to Taliban. Pakistan's foreign minister further clarified that if Pakistan had recruited some people for intelligence purposes, it did not mean that Pakistan supported them.[192] United States along with the accusations of supporting Taliban has also called Pakistan as an indispensable ally.[193][194][195] Pakistan has also reportedly warned United States that it may loose a key ally due to such accusations.[196][197]
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (Pakistani Taliban)
Before the creation of the Tehrik-i-Taliban(Pakistan), some of their leaders and fighters were part of the 8,000 Pakistani militants fighting in the War in Afghanistan (1996-2001) and the War in Afghanistan (2001-present) against the United Islamic Front and NATO forces.[18] Most of them hail from the Pakistani side of the Af-Pak border regions. After the fall of the Afghan Taliban in late 2001 most Pakistani militants including members of today's TTP fled home to Pakistan.
After the creation of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan in 2007, headed by Baitullah Mehsud,[198] its members have officially defined goals to establish their rule over Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas. They engage the Pakistani army in heavy combat operations. Some intelligence analysts believe that the TTP's attacks on the Pakistani government, police and army strained the TTP's relations with the Afghan Taliban.[199][200]
The Afghan Taliban and the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan differ greatly in their history, leadership and goals although they share a common interpretation of Islam and are both predominantly Pashtun.[199] The Afghan Taliban have no affiliation with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and routinely deny any connection to the TTP. The New York Times quoted a spokesman for the Afghan Taliban stating that:
We don't like to be involved with them, as we have rejected all affiliation with Pakistani Taliban fighters ... We have sympathy for them as Muslims, but beside that, there is nothing else between us.[201]
It is alleged that Afghan Taliban relied on support by the Pakistani army in the past and are still supported by them today in their campaign to control Afghanistan.[54][202] Regular Pakistani army troops fought alongside the Afghan Taliban in the War in Afghanistan (1996–2001).[19] Major leaders of the Afghan Taliban including Mullah Omar, Jalaluddin Haqqani and Siraj Haqqani are believed to enjoy safe haven in Pakistan.[20] In 2006 Jalaluddin Haqqani was allegedly called a 'Pakistani asset' by a senior official of Inter-Services Intelligence.[20] Pakistan denies any links with Haqqani or other terrorist groups. Haqqani himself has denied any links with Pakistan as well.[203][204][205][206]
Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar asked the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan in late 2008 and early 2009 to stop attacks inside Pakistan, to change their focus as an organization and to fight the Afghan National Army and ISAF forces in Afghanistan instead.[201] In late December 2008 and early January 2009 he sent a delegation, led by former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mullah Abdullah Zakir, to persuade leading members of the TTP to put aside differences with Pakistan.[201]
Some regional experts state the common name "Taliban" may be more misleading than illuminating.[199] Gilles Dorronsoro, a scholar of South Asia currently at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington says:
The fact that they have the same name causes all kinds of confusion.[199]
As the Pakistani Army began offensives against the Pakistani Taliban, many unfamiliar with the region thought incorrectly that the assault was against the Afghan Taliban of Mullah Omar which was not the case.[199]
The Pakistani Taliban were put under sanctions by U.N. Security Council for terrorists attacks in Pakistan and 2010 Times Square car bombing attempt.[200]
Malakand Taliban
Malakand Taliban is militant outfit led by Sufi Muhammad and his son in law Molvi Fazalullah.[207] Sufi Muhammad is in government custody, however, Molvi Fazalullah is believed to be in Afghanistan.[207] In the last week of May 2011, eight security personnel and civilians fell victim to four hundred armed Taliban who attacked Shaltalo check post in Dir, a frontier District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, located few kilometers away from Afghan border.[207] Although, they have been linked with Waziristan-based Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), however, the connection between these two groups is of symbolic nature.[207]
Al Qaeda
In 1996, bin Laden moved to Afghanistan from Sudan. He came without invitation, and sometimes irritated Mullah Omar with his declaration of war and fatwas against citizens of third-party countries,[208] but relations between the two groups improved over time, to the point that Mullah Omar rebuffed his group's patron Saudi Arabia, insulting Saudi minister Prince Turki while reneging on an earlier promise to turn bin Laden over to the Saudis.[209]
Bin Laden was able to forge an alliance between the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. The Al Qaeda-trained 055 Brigade integrated with the Taliban army between 1997 and 2001. Several hundred Arab Afghan fighters sent by bin Laden assisted the Taliban in the Mazar-e-Sharif slaughter.[210] The so-called Brigade 055 was also responsible for massacres against civilians in other parts of Afghanistan.[18] From 1996 to 2001 the organization of Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri had become a virtual state within the Taliban state.
Taliban-Al-Qaeda connections were also strengthened by the reported marriage of one of bin Laden's sons to Omar's daughter. While in Afghanistan, bin Laden may have helped finance the Taliban.[211][212]
After the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, bin Laden and several Al-Qaeda members were indicted in U.S. criminal court.[213] The Taliban rejected extradition requests by the U.S., variously claiming that bin Laden had "gone missing",[214] or that Washington "cannot provide any evidence or any proof" that bin Laden is involved in terrorist activities and that "without any evidence, bin Laden is a man without sin... he is a free man."[80][215]
Evidence against bin Laden included courtroom testimony and satellite phone records.[216][217] Bin Laden in turn, praised the Taliban as the "only Islamic government" in existence, and lauded Mullah Omar for his destruction of idols such as the Buddhas of Bamyan.[218]
At the end of 2008, the Taliban was in talks to sever all ties with Al-Qaeda.[219]
In 2011, Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn at New York University's Center on International Cooperation proclaimed that the two groups did not get along at times before the September 11 attacks, and they have continued to spar since. Contrary to the established perception that they are of one mind, the Taliban and al-Qaeda are not in lockstep. In fact, the Taliban in Afghanistan could be persuaded to renounce the infamous terrorist group led by Osama bin Laden.[220]
Iran
Iran has historically been an enemy of the Taliban. In early August 1998, after attacking the city of Mazar, Taliban forces killed several thousand civilians and 10 Iranian diplomats and intelligence officers in the Iranian consulate. Alleged radio intercepts indicate Mullah Omar personally approved the killings.[221] In the following crisis between Iran and the Taliban, the Iranian government amassed up to 200,000 regular troops on the Afghan-Iranian border.[222] War was eventually averted.
Many U.S. senior military officials such as Robert Gates,[223] Stanley McChrystal,[224] David Petraeus[225] and others believe that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps nowadays is involved in helping the Taliban to a certain extent. Reports in which NATO states accused Iran of supplying and training some Taliban insurgents started coming forward since 2004/2005.
"We did interdict a shipment, without question the Revolutionary Guard's core Quds Force, through a known Taliban facilitator. Three of the individuals were killed... 48 122 millimetre rockets were intercepted with their various components... Iranians certainly view as making life more difficult for us if Afghanistan is unstable. We don't have that kind of relationship with the Iranians. That's why I am particularly troubled by the interception of weapons coming from Iran. But we know that it's more than weapons; it's money; it's also according to some reports, training at Iranian camps as well."[226]
— General David Petraeus, Commander of US-NATO forces in Afghanistan, March 16, 2011
United States
The United States supported the Taliban through its allies in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia between 1994 and 1996 because Washington viewed the Taliban as anti-Iranian, anti-Shia and pro-Western.[227] Washington furthermore hoped that the Taliban would support development planned by the U.S.-based oil company Unocal.[228] For example, it made no comment when the Taliban captured Herat in 1995, and expelled thousands of girls from schools;[229] the Taliban began killing unarmed civilians, targeting ethnic groups (primarily Hazaras), and restricting the rights of women.[138] In late 1997, American Secretary of State Madeleine Albright began to distance the U.S. from the Taliban. The next year, the American-based oil company Unocal withdrew from negotiations on pipeline construction from Central Asia.[230]
One day before the capture of Mazar, bin Laden affiliates bombed two U.S. embassies in Africa, killing 224 and wounding 4,500, mostly Africans. The U.S. responded by launching cruise missiles on suspected terrorist camps in Afghanistan, killing over 20 though failing to kill bin Laden or even many Al-Qaeda. Mullah Omar condemned the missile attack and American President Bill Clinton.[231] Saudi Arabia expelled the Taliban envoy in protest over the refusal to turn over bin Laden, and after Mullah Omar allegedly insulted the Saudi royal family.[232] In mid-October the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to ban commercial aircraft flights to and from Afghanistan, and freeze its bank accounts worldwide.[233]
Adjusting its counterinsurgency strategy, in October 2009, the U.S announced plans to pay Taliban fighters to switch sides.[234]
On November 26, 2009, in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, President Hamid Karzai said there is an "urgent need" for negotiations with the Taliban, and made it clear that the Obama administration had opposed such talks. There was no formal American response.[235][236]
In early December 2009, the Taliban offered to give the U.S. "legal guarantees" that they would not allow Afghanistan to be used for attacks on other countries. There was no formal American response.[98]
On December 6, U.S officials indicated that they have not ruled out talks with the Taliban.[237] Several days later it was reported that Gates saw potential for reconciliation with the Taliban, but not with Al-Qaeda. Furthermore, he said that reconciliation would politically end the insurgency and the war. But he said reconciliation must be on the Afghan government's terms, and that the Taliban must be subject to the sovereignty of the government.[238]
In 2010, General McChrystal said his troop surge could lead to a negotiated peace with the Taliban.[239]
Allegations of connection to CIA There have been many claims that the CIA directly supported the Taliban or al-Qaeda. In the early 1980s, the CIA and the ISI (Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency) provided arms and money, and the ISI helped gather radical Muslims from around the world to fight against the Soviet invaders.[240] Osama Bin Laden was one of the key players in organizing training camps for the foreign Muslim volunteers. "By 1987, 65,000 tons of U.S.-made weapons and ammunition a year were entering the war."
United Kingdom
After 9/11, the United Kingdom froze the Taliban's assets in the U.K., nearly $200 million by early October 2001.[241] The U.K. also supported the U.S. decision to remove the Taliban, both politically and militarily.[242]
The UN agreed that NATO would act on its behalf, focusing on counter-terrorist operations in Afghanistan after the Taliban had been "defeated". The United Kingdom took operational responsibility for Helmand Province, a major poppy-growing province in southern Afghanistan, deploying troops there in the summer of 2006, and encountered resistance by re-formed Taliban forces allegedly entering Afghanistan from Pakistan. The Taliban turned towards the use of improvised explosive devices.[243]
In 2008, the U.K. announced plans to pay Taliban fighters to switch sides or lay down arms;[244] later, in 2009 the United Kingdom government backed talks with the Taliban.[245]
India
India is one of the Taliban's most outspoken critics. India was concerned about growing Islamic militancy in its neighborhood, and refused to recognize the Taliban regime.[246] Ahmad Shah Massoud also had close ties to India.[247]
In December 1999, Indian Airlines Flight 814 en route from Kathmandu to Delhi was hijacked and taken to Kandahar. The Taliban moved its militias near the hijacked aircraft, supposedly to prevent Indian special forces from storming the aircraft, and stalled the negotiations between India and the hijackers for days. The New York Times later reported that there were credible links between the hijackers and the Taliban.[248] As a part of the deal to free the plane, India released three militants. The Taliban gave a safe passage to the hijackers and the released militants.[249]
Following the hijacking, India drastically increased its efforts to help Massoud, providing an arms depot in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.[250] India also provided a wide range of high-altitude warfare equipment, helicopter technicians, medical services, and tactical advice.[251] According to one report, Indian military support to anti-Taliban forces totaled US$70 million, including five Mi-17 helicopters, and US$8 million worth of high-altitude equipment in 2001.[252] India extensively supported the new administration in Afghanistan,[253] leading several reconstruction projects[254] and by 2001 had emerged as the country's largest regional donor.[255]
In the wake of recent terrorist attacks in India, there have been growing concerns about fundamentalist organisations such as the Taliban seeking to expand their activities into India. During the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup which was co-hosted in India, Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik and Interpol chief Ronald Noble revealed that a terrorist bid to disrupt the tournament had been foiled; following a conference with Noble, Malik said that the Taliban had begun to base their activities in India with reports from neighboring countries exposing their activities in the country and a Sri Lankan terrorist planning to target cricketers was arrested in Colombo.[256][257][258] Kashmir-based militant groups thought to have ties with the Taliban have historically been involved in the Jammu and Kashmir insurgency in Indian-administered Kashmir.[259] In 2009, the Times of India called for India to reassess its Taliban threat.[260]
United Nations and NGOs
A major issue during the Taliban's reign was its relations with the United Nations (UN) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Twenty years of continuous warfare had devastated Afghanistan's infrastructure and economy. There was no running water, little electricity, few telephones, functioning roads or regular energy supplies. Basic necessities like water, food, housing and others were in desperately short supply. In addition, the clan and family structure that provided Afghans with a social/economic safety net was also badly damaged.[147][261] Afghanistan's infant mortality was the highest in the world. A full quarter of all children died before they reached their fifth birthday, a rate several times higher than most other developing countries.[262]
International charitable and/or development organisations (NGOs) were extremely important to the supply of food, employment, reconstruction, and other services. With one million plus deaths during the years of war, the number of families headed by widows had reached 98,000 by 1998.[263] Thus Taliban restrictions on women were sometime a matter not only of human rights, but of life and death. In Kabul, where vast portions of the city had been devastated from rocket attacks, more than half of its 1.2 million people benefited in some way from NGO activities, even for water to drink.[264] The civil war and its never-ending refugee stream continued throughout the Taliban's reign. The Mazar, Herat, and Shomali valley offensives displaced more than three-quarters of a million civilians, using "scorched earth" tactics to prevent them from supplying the enemy with aid.[265]
Despite the aid, the Taliban's attitude toward the UN and NGOs was often one of suspicion, in place of gratitude or even tolerance. The UN operates on the basis of international law, not Sharia, and the UN did not recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. Additionally, most foreign donors and aid workers, were non-Muslims. As the Taliban's Attorney General Maulvi Jalil-ullah Maulvizada put it:
Let us state what sort of education the UN wants. This is a big infidel policy which gives such obscene freedom to women which would lead to adultery and herald the destruction of Islam. In any Islamic country where adultery becomes common, that country is destroyed and enters the domination of the infidels because their men become like women and women cannot defend themselves. Anyone who talks to us should do so within Islam's framework. The Holy Koran cannot adjust itself to other people's requirements, people should adjust themselves to the requirements of the Holy Koran.[266]
Taliban decision-makers, particularly Mullah Omar, seldom if ever talked directly to non-Muslim foreigners, so aid providers had to deal with intermediaries whose approvals and agreements were often reversed.[162] Around September 1997 the heads of three UN agencies in Kandahar were expelled from the country after protesting when a female attorney for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees was forced to talk from behind a curtain so her face would not be visible.[267]
When the UN increased the number of Muslim women staff to satisfy Taliban demands, the Taliban then required all female Muslim UN staff traveling to Afghanistan to be chaperoned by a mahram or a blood relative.[268] In July 1998, the Taliban closed "all NGO offices" by force after those organizations refused to move to a bombed-out former Polytechnic College as ordered.[269] One month later the UN offices were also shut down.[270] As food prices rose and conditions deteriorated, Planning Minister Qari Din Mohammed explained the Taliban's indifference to the loss of humanitarian aid:
We Muslims believe God the Almighty will feed everybody one way or another. If the foreign NGOs leave then it is their decision. We have not expelled them.[271]
In 2009 a top U.N official called for talks with Taliban leaders.[272] In 2010 the U.N lifted sanctions on the Taliban,[273] and requested that Taliban leaders and others be removed from terrorism watch lists.[274] In 2010 the U.S. and Europe announced support for President Karzai's latest attempt to negotiate peace with the Taliban.[275]
See also
- Colonel Imam
- History of Afghanistan since 1992
- Opium production in Afghanistan
- Pashtun people
- Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs
- Taliban propaganda
- Taliban treatment of women
- Talibanization
- United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan
- United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
- US Army Special Forces
Bibliography
Rashid, Ahmed (2000), Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia, New Haven: Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-08340-8 {{citation}}
: Invalid |ref=harv
(help)
Griffiths, John C. (2001), Afghanistan: A History of Conflict, London: Carlton Books, ISBN 1 84222 597 9
References
- ^ Giustozzi, Antonio (2009). Decoding the new Taliban: insights from the Afghan field. Columbia University Press. p. 274. ISBN 978-0231701129.
- ^ "Taliban and the Northern Alliance". US Gov Info. About.com. Retrieved 2009-11-26.
- ^ 9/11 seven years later: US 'safe,' South Asia in turmoil "There are now some 62,000 foreign soldiers in Afghanistan, including 34,000 US troops, and some 150,000 Afghan security forces. They face an estimated 7,000 to 11,000 insurgents, according to US commanders." Retrieved 2010-08-24.
- ^ Hamilton, Fiona; Coates, Sam; Savage, Michael (2010-03-03). "MajorGeneral Richard Barrons puts Taleban fighter numbers at 36000". The Times. London.
- ^ "Analysis: Who are the Taleban?". BBC News. 2000-12-20.
- ^ "From the article on the Taliban in Oxford Islamic Studies Online". Oxford Islamic Studies. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
- ^ Abrams, Dennis (2007). Hamid Karzai. Infobase Publishing. p. 14. ISBN 978-0791092675.
As soon as it took power though, the Taliban imposed its strict interpretation of Islamic law on the country
- ^ Skain, Rosemarie (2002). The women of Afghanistan under the Taliban. McFarland. p. 41. ISBN 978-0786410903.
- ^ a b Maley, William (2001). Fundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban. C Hurst & Co. p. 14. ISBN 978-1850653608. Cite error: The named reference "Maley2" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ a b Shaffer, Brenda (2006). The limits of culture: Islam and foreign policy (illustrated ed.). MIT Press. p. 277. ISBN 978-0262693219.
The Taliban's mindset is, however, equally if not more deaned by Pashtunwali
Cite error: The named reference "Shaffer" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page). - ^ a b Clements, Frank A. (2003). Conflict in Afghanistan: An Encyclopedia (Roots of Modern Conflict). ABC-CLIO. p. 219. ISBN 978-1851094028. Cite error: The named reference "Clements" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ Giraldo, Jeanne K. (2007). Terrorism Financing and State Responses: A Comparative Perspective. Stanford University Press. p. 96. ISBN 978-0804755665.
Pakistan provided military support, including arms, ammunition, fuel, and military advisers, to the Taliban through its Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)
- ^ Nojumi, Neamatollah (2002). The Rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan: Mass Mobilization, Civil War and the Future of the Regio. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 127. ISBN 978-0312295844.
- ^ a b c "PAKISTAN'S SUPPORT OF THE TALIBAN". Human Rights Watch. 2000.
Of all the foreign powers involved in efforts to sustain and manipulate the ongoing fighting [in Afghanistan], Pakistan is distinguished both by the sweep of its objectives and the scale of its efforts, which include soliciting funding for the Taliban, bankrolling Taliban operations, providing diplomatic support as the Taliban's virtual emissaries abroad, arranging training for Taliban fighters, recruiting skilled and unskilled manpower to serve in Taliban armies, planning and directing offensives, providing and facilitating shipments of ammunition and fuel, and ... directly providing combat support.
Cite error: The named reference "Human Rights Watch" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page). - ^ a b c Joscelyn, Thomas (2011-09-22). "Admiral Mullen: Pakistani ISI sponsoring Haqqani attacks". The Long War Journal. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing today, Admiral Michael Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, highlighted the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence Agency's role in sponsoring the Haqqani Network - including attacks on American forces in Afghanistan. "The fact remains that the Quetta Shura [Taliban] and the Haqqani Network operate from Pakistan with impunity," Mullen said in his written testimony. "Extremist organizations serving as proxies of the government of Pakistan are attacking Afghan troops and civilians as well as US soldiers." Mullen continued: "For example, we believe the Haqqani Network--which has long enjoyed the support and protection of the Pakistani government and is, in many ways, a strategic arm of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency--is responsible for the September 13th attacks against the U.S. Embassy in Kabul."
Cite error: The named reference "longwarjournal1" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page). - ^ Barnes, Julian E.; Matthew Rosenberg; Habib Khan Totakhil (2010-10-05). "Pakistan Urges On Taliban". Wall Street Journal.
the ISI wants us to kill everyone—policemen, soldiers, engineers, teachers, civilians—just to intimidate people,
- ^ Researcher, CQ (2010). Issues in Terrorism and Homeland Security: Selections From CQ Researcher. Sage. p. 196. ISBN 978-1412992015.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Afghanistan resistance leader feared dead in blast". London: Ahmed Rashid in the Telegraph. 2001-09-11. Cite error: The named reference "Ahmed Rashid/The Telegraph" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Marcela Grad. Massoud: An Intimate Portrait of the Legendary Afghan Leader (March 1, 2009 ed.). Webster University Press. p. 310.
- ^ a b c US attack on Taliban kills 23 in Pakistan, The New York Times, 2008-09-09
- ^ Nojum, Neamatollah (2002). The Rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan: Mass Mobilization, Civil War and the Future of the Region. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 189. ISBN 978-0312295844.
- ^ Rashid, Ahmed (2002). Taliban: Islam, Oil and the New Great Game in Central Asia. I.B.Tauris. p. 253. ISBN 978-1860648304.
- ^ Newsday (2001). "Taliban massacres outlined for UN". Chicago Tribune.
{{cite news}}
: Unknown parameter|month=
ignored (help) - ^ Newsday (2001). "Confidential UN report details mass killings of civilian villagers". newsday.org. Retrieved 2001-10-12.
{{cite web}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|month=
(help) - ^ U.N. says Taliban starving hungry people for military agenda, Associated Press
- ^ Goodson, Larry P. (2002). Afghanistan's Endless War: State Failure, Regional Politics and the Rise of the Taliban. University of Washington Press. p. 121. ISBN 978-0295981116.
- ^ a b "Re-Creating Afghanistan: Returning to Istalif". NPR. 2002-08-01.
- ^ ISAF has participating forces from 39 countries, including all 26 NATO members. See ISAF Troop Contribution Placement (PDF), NATO, 2007-12-05, archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-11-09
- ^ Skaine, Rosemarie (2009). Women of Afghanistan in the Post-Taliban Era: How Lives Have Changed and Where They Stand Today. McFarland. p. 41. ISBN 978-0786437924.
- ^ Shanty, Frank (2011). The Nexus: International Terrorism and Drug Trafficking from Afghanistan. Praeger. pp. 86–88. ISBN 978-0313385216.
- ^ "Citing rising death toll, UN urges better protection of Afghan civilians". United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. 2011-03-09.
- ^ Haddon, Katherine (2011-10-06). "Afghanistan marks 10 years since war started". AFP. Retrieved 2011-10-06.
- ^ "UN: Taliban Responsible for 76% of Deaths in Afghanistan". The Weekly Standard. 2010-08-10.
- ^ Pape, Robert Anthony (2010). Cutting the Fuse: The Explosion of Global Suicide Terrorism and How to Stop It. University of Chicago Press. p. 142. ISBN 978-0226645605.
The thinking piece of the Taliban is out of Quetta in Pakistan. It's the major headquarters (Chris Vernon British Chief of Staff)
{{cite book}}
: Unknown parameter|coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (help) - ^ a b Gall, Carlotta (2007-01-21). "At Border, Signs of Pakistani Role in Taliban Surge". New York Times.
- ^ English <-> Arabic Online Dictionary.
- ^ From 'Taleban' to 'Taliban' BBC – The Editors.
- ^ a b c d "Blood-Stained Hands, Past Atrocities in Kabul and Afghanistan's Legacy of Impunity". Human Rights Watch.
- ^ Neamatollah Nojumi. The Rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan: Mass Mobilization, Civil War, and the Future of the Region (2002 1st ed.). Palgrave, New York.
- ^ a b c d e f Amin Saikal (2006). Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival (1st ed.). London New York: I.B. Tauris & Co. p. 352. ISBN 1-85043-437-9.
- ^ a b Gutman, Roy (2008): How We Missed the Story: Osama Bin Laden, the Taliban and the Hijacking of Afghanistan, Endowment of the United States Institute of Peace, 1st ed., Washington DC.
- ^ "The September 11 Sourcebooks Volume VII: The Taliban File". George Washington University. 2003.
- ^ a b c Matinuddin, Kamal, The Taliban Phenomenon, Afghanistan 1994–1997, Oxford University Press, (1999), pp. 25–6
- ^ Rashid 2000, p. 25
- ^ a b Rashid 2000, pp. 27–29.
- ^ a b "II. Background". Human Rights Watch.
- ^ Rashid 2000, p. 29
- ^ Goodson 2001, p. 114
- ^ "Casting Shadows: War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity: 1978–2001" (PDF). Afghanistan Justice Project. 2005.
- ^ a b c Amnesty International. "Document - Afghanistan: further information on fear for safety and new concern: deliberate and arbitrary killings: civilians in Kabul." 16 November 1995 Accessed at Amnesty.org
- ^ "Afghanistan: escalation of indiscriminate shelling in Kabul". International Committee of the Red Cross. 1995.
- ^ "[[Charlie Rose]], March 26, 2001". CBS. 2001.
{{cite web}}
: URL–wikilink conflict (help) - ^ "He would have found Bin Laden". CNN. 2009-05-27.
- ^ a b c d e f "Documents Detail Years of Pakistani Support for Taliban, Extremists". George Washington University. 2007.
- ^ Coll, Ghost Wars (New York: Penguin, 2005), 14.
- ^ Marcin, Gary (1998). "The Taliban". King's College. Retrieved 2011-09-26.
- ^ Felbab-Brow, Vanda (2010). Shooting up: counterinsurgency and the war on drugs. Brookings Institution Press. p. 122. ISBN 978-0815703280.
- ^ Tomsen, Peter (2011). Wars of Afghanistan. PublicAffairs. p. 322. ISBN 978-1586487638.
- ^ a b Edward Girardet. Killing the Cranes: A Reporter's Journey Through Three Decades of War in Afghanistan (August 3, 2011 ed.). Chelsea Green Publishing. p. 416.
- ^ a b c Rashid 2000, p. 91
- ^ a b c "Inside the Taliban". National Geographic. 2007.
- ^ a b "Book review: The inside track on Afghan wars by Khaled Ahmed". Daily Times. 2008.
- ^ a b "Brigade 055". CNN. unknown.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help) Cite error: The named reference "autogenerated3" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page). - ^ Marcela Grad. Massoud: An Intimate Portrait of the Legendary Afghan Leader (March 1, 2009 ed.). Webster University Press. p. 310.
- ^ "Inside the Taliban". National Geographic. 2007.
- ^ a b "The Last Interview with Ahmad Shah Massoud". Piotr Balcerowicz. 2001.
- ^ a b "The man who would have led Afghanistan". St. Petersburg Times. 2002.
- ^ a b c d Steve Coll. Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 (February 23, 2004 ed.). Penguin Press HC. p. 720.
- ^ "Massoud in the European Parliament 2001". EU media. 2001.
- ^ "Massoud in the European Parliament 2001". EU media. 2001.
- ^ Defense Intelligence Agency (2001) report GWU.edu
- ^ “” (2001-03-05). "see video". Youtube.com. Retrieved 2010-10-31.
{{cite web}}
:|author=
has numeric name (help) - ^ "Taliban Foe Hurt and Aide Killed by Bomb". Afghanistan: Nytimes.com. 2001-09-10. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
- ^ Burns, John F. (2002-09-09). "Threats and responses: assassination; Afghans, Too, Mark a Day of Disaster: A Hero Was Lost". Afghanistan: Nytimes.com. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
- ^ Boettcher, Mike (2003-11-06). "How much did Afghan leader know?". CNN.com. Retrieved 2011-06-11.
- ^ a b "The Man Who Knew". PBS. 2002.
- ^ "United States ultimatum". Archives.cnn.com. 2001-09-21. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
- ^ United Nations S.C. Res. 1368, September 12, 2001; S.C. Res. 1373, 2001-09-28.
- ^ Statement by the North Atlantic Council, September 12, 2001, in Press Release 124.
- ^ a b "Taliban Won't Turn Over Bin Laden". CBS News. 2001-09-21. Retrieved 2007-07-07.
- ^ JNV briefing.
- ^ Bishop, P., Pakistan Halts Secret Plan for bin Laden Trial, Daily Telegraph, 2001-10-04.
- ^ Taliban offers to try bin Laden in an Islamic court.
- ^ The United States declares war on the Taliban.
- ^ Operation Enduring Freedom.
- ^ Intentions of U.S. military operation.
- ^ Lehman, John (2006-08-31). "We're Not Winning This War". Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-12-03.
- ^ Taliban offers to hand bin Laden to a neutral nation for trial.
- ^ "npr: Truck Accident Sparks Riots in Afghanistan". Retrieved 2010-07-01.
- ^ Constable, Pamela (2006-06-01). "U.S. troops fired at mob after Kabul accident". Washington Post. Washington. p. 1.
- ^ "Countering the insurgency in Afghanistan, Losing friends and making enemies" The Senlis Council.[dead link]
- ^ "Poppies for Medicine" The Senlis Council.[dead link]
- ^ Pakistan Security Research Unit (PSRU).
- ^ Shahzad, Syed Saleem (2006-09-08). "Pakistan: Hello Al-Qaeda, goodbye America". Asia Times Online. Retrieved 2006-09-12.
- ^ Harnden, Toby (2010-12-11). "Man on a mission. US defence Secretary Robert Gates is still hungry for the fight in Afghanistan". The Daily Telegraph. London.
- ^ Gall, Carlotta. "Taliban". The New York Times.
- ^ "Empowering "Soft" Taliban Over "Hard" Taliban: Pakistan's Counter-Terrorism Strategy by Sadia Sulaiman"..[dead link]
- ^ a b "Asia Times Online :: South Asia news, business and economy from India and Pakistan". Atimes.com. 2009-12-17. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
- ^ Josh Meyer (2006-01-31). "CIA beefs killer drone force". The Standard. Retrieved 2010-05-20.
- ^ DHS (2004-06-21). "Department of Homeland Security IAIP Directorate Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report for June 21, 2004" (PDF). Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved 2010-05-20.
- ^ Ayaz Gul (2004-06-18). "Pakistan Military Kills Alleged Al Qaida Facilitator". Voice of America. Retrieved 2010-05-20.
- ^ Greg Miller (2009-03-22). "U.S. missile strikes said to take heavy toll on Al Qaeda". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-05-19.
- ^ Airstrike Kills Qaeda-Linked Militant in Pakistan, Ismail Khan and Jane Perlez, The New York Times, November 23, 2008, May 19, 2010
- ^ "Taliban admit commander's death". BBC. 2009-08-25. Retrieved 2010-05-20.
- ^ Ayaz Gul (2009-08-06). "Pakistan Foreign Minister: Taliban Chief Baitullah Mehsud is Dead". Islamabad: Voice of America. Retrieved 2010-05-20.
- ^ Hamid Shalizi; Peter Graff; Jeremy Laurence (2009-08-07). "Afghan Taliban say unhurt by Mehsud death". Kabul: Reuters. Retrieved 2010-05-20.
- ^ Ahmad, Munir (2009-08-18). "Forces Capture Pakistani Taliban's Top Spokesman". Islamabad: ABC News.
- ^ Mark Mazzetti, Eric P. Schmitt (2009-08-06). "C.I.A. Missile Strike May Have Killed Pakistan's Taliban Leader, Officials Say". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-05-20.
- ^ "Secret CIA Units Playing a Central Combat Role", Bob Woodward, The Washington Post, November 18, 2001, Page A01. Retrieved October 78, 2010.
- ^ "SAS assassinate Taliban commanders", Duncan Larcombe, The Sun, February 11, 2010.
- ^ OARDEC (2007). Summary of Administrative Review Board Proceedings for ISN 850. United States Department of Defense, pp 295–308, retrieved 28 Dec 2010.
- ^ Clements, Frank (2003). Conflict in Afghanistan: a historical encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 106. ISBN 978-1851094028.
- ^ Armajani, Jon (2012). Modern Islamist Movements: History, Religion, and Politics. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 207. ISBN 978-1405117425.
- ^ Riedel, Bruce (2010). The Search for Al Qaeda: Its Leadership, Ideology, and Future (2nd Revised ed.). Brookings Institution. pp. 66–67. ISBN 978-0815704515.
- ^ Gutman, Roy (2008). How We Missed the Story: Osama Bin Laden, the Taliban, and the Hijacking of Afghanistan. Institute of Peace Press. p. 142. ISBN 978-1601270245.
- ^ Tripathi, Deepak (2011). Breeding Ground: Afghanistan and the Origins of Islamist Terrorism. Potomac. p. 116. ISBN 978-1597975308.
- ^ Clements, Frank (2003). Conflict in Afghanistan: a historical encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 112. ISBN 978-1851094028.
- ^ Coburn, Noah (2011). Bazaar Politics: Power and Pottery in an Afghan Market Town. Stanford University Press. p. 13. ISBN 978-080477672.
{{cite book}}
: Check|isbn=
value: length (help) - ^ "Rawa.us". Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). Retrieved 2011-12-01.
- ^ Dupree Hatch, Nancy. "Afghan Women under the Taliban" in Maley, William. Fundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban. London: Hurst and Company, 2001, pp. 145–166.
- ^ Forsythe, David P. (2009). Encyclopedia of human rights (Volume 1 ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 2. ISBN 978-0195334029.
In 1994 the Taliban was created, funded and inspired by Pakistan
- ^ Wertheime, Molly Meijer (2004). Leading Ladies of the White House: Communication Strategies of Notable Twentieth-Century First Ladies. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 253. ISBN 978-0742536722.
- ^ Cooke, Miriam (2006). Daniel J. Sherman (ed.). Terror, Culture, Politics: 9/11 Reconsidere. Indiana University Press. p. 177. ISBN 978-0253346728.
- ^ Moghadam, Valentine M. (2003). Modernizing women: gender and social change in the Middle East (2nd Revised ed.). Lynne Rienner. p. 266. ISBN 978-1588261717.
- ^ Massoumi, Mejgan (2010). Nezar AlSayyad (ed.). The fundamentalist city?: religiosity and the remaking of urban space. Routledge. p. 223. ISBN 978-0415779357.
- ^ a b Skaine, Rosemarie (2009). Women of Afghanistan in the Post-Taliban Era: How Lives Have Changed and Where They Stand Today. McFarland. p. 57. ISBN 978-0786437924.
- ^ Rashid, Ahmed. Taliban. Yale Nota Bene Books, 2000, p.106.
- ^ Rashid, Ahmed. Taliban. Yale Nota Bene Books, 2000, p. 70.
- ^ Template:PDFlink, Physicians for Human Rights, August 1998.
- ^ Kegley, Charles W. (2011). World Politics: Trend and Transformation. Cengage. p. 230. ISBN 978-0495906551.
{{cite book}}
: Unknown parameter|coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (help) - ^ Human Rights News, Afghanistan: Civilians Bear Cost of Escalating Insurgent Attacks.
- ^ The Consequences of Insurgent Attacks in Afghanistan, April 2007, Volume 19, No. 6(C).
- ^ "South Asia | UK charity worker killed in Kabul". BBC News. 2008-10-20. Retrieved 2009-11-26.
- ^ a b Ben Arnoldy (2009-07-31). "In Afghanistan, Taliban kills more civilians than US".
- ^ The UN Goldstone Commission: A Lesson in Farcical Hypocrisy, Defense Update. By David Eshel.
- ^ Israel and the New Way of War, The Journal of International Security Affairs, Spring 2010 – Number 18
- ^ Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim world / editor in chief, Richard C. Martin, Macmillan Reference USA : Thomson/Gale, c2004
- ^ a b Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, (2004).
- ^ Rashid 2000, pp. 132, 139.
- ^ Rashid 2000, p. 87.
- ^ Waldman, Amy.
{{cite news}}
: Missing or empty|title=
(help) - ^ US Country Report on Human Rights Practices – Afghanistan 2001.
- ^ Roy, Olivier, Globalized Islam, Columbia University Press, 2004, p. 239.
- ^ Rashid 2000, p. 92.
- ^ Foreign Military Studies Office, "Whither the Taliban?" by Mr. Ali A. Jalali and Mr. Lester W. Grau .
- ^ "IV. Incitement of violence against Hazaras by governor Niazi", Human Rights Watch Report, `Afghanistan, the massacre in Mazar-e-Sharif`, November 1998., Hrw.org, retrieved 2011-12-01
- ^ a b Rashid 2000, p. 107.
- ^ Griffiths 227.
- ^ Luke Harding (2001-03-03). "How the Buddha got his wounds". London: Guardian. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
- ^ Yahya Massoud (July 2010). "Afghans Can Win This War". Foreign Policy.
- ^ a b Rashid 2000, p. 32.
- ^ Rashid 2000, p. 111.
- ^ "Taliban publicly execute woman", Associated Press, November 17, 1999; also see Antonowicz, Anton. 'Zarmina's story"], The Daily Mirror, June 20, 2002.
- ^ "Rawa.us". Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). Retrieved 2011-12-01.
- ^ a b Rashid 2000, pp. 41–42.
- ^ Griffiths 226.
- ^ a b Rashid 2000, p. 98.
- ^ Rashid 2000, p. 43 Interview with Mullah Wakil, March 1996
- ^ Rashid 2000, p. 95.
- ^ Interview with Taliban spokesman Mullah Wakil in Arabic magazine Al-Majallah, 1996-10-23.
- ^ a b Rashid 2000, pp. 39–40.
- ^ a b c Rashid 2000, pp. 101–102.
- ^ Rashid 2000, p. 5.
- ^ Rashid 2000, p. 100.
- ^ Marsden, Peter (1998). The Taliban: war, religion and the new order in Afghanistan. Zed Books. p. 51. ISBN 978-1856495226.
- ^ Lansford, Tom (2011). 9/11 and the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq: A Chronology and Reference Guide. ABC-CLIO. p. 147. ISBN 978-1598844191.
- ^ a b Pugh, Michael C. (2004). War Economies in a Regional Context: Challenges of Transformation. Lynne Rienner. p. 48. ISBN 978-1588262110.
{{cite book}}
: Unknown parameter|coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (help) Cite error: The named reference "Pugh1" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page). - ^ Castillo, Graciana del (2008). Rebuilding War-Torn States: The Challenge of Post-Conflict Economic Reconstruction. Oxford University Press. p. 167. ISBN 978-0199237739.
- ^ Skaine, Rosemarie (2009). Women of Afghanistan in the Post-Taliban Era: How Lives Have Changed and Where They Stand Today. McFarland. p. 58. ISBN 978-0786437924.
- ^ Nojum, Neamatollah (2002). The Rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan: Mass Mobilization, Civil War and the Future of the Region. St Martin's Press. p. 178. ISBN 978-0312295844.
- ^ Nojum, Neamatollah (2002). The Rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan: Mass Mobilization, Civil War and the Future of the Region. St Martin's Press. p. 186. ISBN 978-0312295844.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Chouvy, Pierre-Arnaud (2010). Opium: uncovering the politics of the poppy. Harvard University Press. pp. 52ff.
- ^ Thourni, Francisco E. (2006). Frank Bovenkerk (ed.). The Organized Crime Community: Essays in Honor of Alan A. Block. Springer. p. 130. ISBN 978-0387390192.
- ^ Lyman, Michael D. (2010). Drugs in Society: Causes, Concepts and Control. Elsevier. p. 309. ISBN 978-1437744507.
- ^ Griffin, Michael (2000). Reaping the whirlwind: the Taliban movement in Afghanistan. Pluto Press. p. 147. ISBN 978-0745312743.
- ^ Wehr, Kevin (2011). Green Culture: An A-to-Z Guide. Sage. p. 223. ISBN 978-1412996938.
- ^ Rashid, Ahmed (2002). Taliban: Islam, oil and the new great game in central Asia. I.B.Tauris. p. 187. ISBN 978-1860648304.
- ^ Bennett, Adam (2005). Reconstructing Afghanistan (illustrated ed.). International Monetary Fund. p. 29. ISBN 978-1589063242.
- ^ Farah, Douglas (2008). Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible. Wiley. p. 146. ISBN 978-0470261965.
{{cite book}}
: Unknown parameter|coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (help) - ^ Askari, Hossein (2003). Economic sanctions: examining their philosophy and efficacy. Potomac. p. 56. ISBN 978-1567205428.
- ^ Pillar, Paul R. (2003). Terrorism and U.S. foreign policy. Brookings Institution. p. 77. ISBN 978-0815770770.
- ^ Rashid 2000, p. 26.
- ^ Julian West (2001-09-23). "Pakistan's godfathers of the Taliban hold the key to the hunt for Bin Laden". London: Daily Telegraph.
- ^ Carlotta Gall (2010-03-03). "Former Pakistani officer embodies policy puzzle". New York Times.
- ^ Crisis of Impunity. Human Rights Watch (Report). July 2001.
- ^ Frantz 2001
- ^ Rashid 2000, pp. 185–186
- ^ Rashid 2000, pp. 93, 137.
- ^ a b c d e "The ISI and Terrorism: Behind the Accusations - Council on Foreign Relations". Cfr.org. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
- ^ "Discussion Papers" (PDF). Retrieved 2010-12-12.
- ^ "Afghan ex-intel chief opposed Karzai peace plan". Reuters. 2010-06-08.
- ^ a b Chris Allbritton (2011-10-27). "Pakistan strongly denied Thursday a BBC report that alleged the Pakistani military, along with its intelligence arm, supplied and protected the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda". Reuters. Retrieved Thu Oct 27, 2011.
{{cite news}}
: Check date values in:|accessdate=
(help) - ^ Shuja, Nawaz. "The US-Pakistan Roller Coaster Relationship". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2007-11-14.
- ^ Jayshree Bajoria. "The Strained U.S.-Pakistan Alliance". Retrieved 2010-10-22.
- ^ "U.S.-Pakistan relations: An unhappy alliance". Los Angeles Times. 2011-05-07. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
- ^ "Pakistan warns U.S. it may lose key ally". Macleans.ca. 2011-09-23. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
- ^ "The World Today - Pakistan denies terror links". Abc.net.au. 1980-10-02. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
- ^ Tighe, Paul and Katz, Ian (2009-08-10). "Pakistan Challenges Taliban to Show Leader Mehsud Still Alive". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2009-08-09.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b c d e Shane, Scott (2009-10-22). "Insurgents Share a Name, but Pursue Different Goals". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2011-01-26.
- ^ a b UNSC slaps sanctions on Pakistani Taliban, July 30, 2011, rediff.com
- ^ a b c Carlotta Gall, Ismail Khan, Pir Zubair Shah and Taimoor Shah (2009-03-26). "Pakistani and Afghan Taliban Unify in Face of US Influx". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-03-27.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ U.S. attack on Taliban kills 23 in Pakistan, The New York Times, 2008-09-09
- ^ Spak, Kevin (2011-10-03). "Haqqani Denies Link With Pakistan - And insists it didn't assassinate peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani". Newser.com. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
- ^ "Haqqani denies links to Pakistani government". Army Times. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
- ^ Mullen, Admiral Mike (2011-09-30). "Pakistan denies links to Haqqani network". Windsorstar.com. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
- ^ By AFP. "Haqqani network denies links to ISI: BBC". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
- ^ a b c d Mayo, Akbar (2011-06-08). "Rise of Malakand Taliban". The Daily Outlook Afghanistan. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
- ^ Wright 2006, pp. 246–247, 287–288 .
- ^ Wright 2006, pp. 288–289 .
- ^ Rashid 2000, p. 139.
- ^ International Terrorism And the Case Of Usama bin Laden, Lebanese Army Website.
- ^ However, Lawrence Wright claims bin Laden was almost completely broke at this time, cut off from his family income and fleeced by the Sudanese.Wright 2006, pp. 222–223 .
- ^ PDF of indictments.
- ^ CNN report.
- ^ "Osama bin Laden 'innocent'". BBC News. 1998-11-21. Retrieved 2011-11-17.
- ^ CNN records of evidence against bin Laden.
- ^ Cooperative Research records of evidence against bin Laden.
- ^ Bin Laden, Messages to the World, (2006), p.143, from Interview published in Al-Quds Al-Arabi in London, Nov. 12, 2001 (originally published in Pakistani daily, Ausaf, Nov. 7), shortly before the Northern Alliance entry into Kabul.
- ^ "Sources: Taliban split with al Qaeda, seek peace". CNN. Retrieved 2010-04-09.
- ^ Brinkerhoff, Noel (2011-02-09). "Surprise! Taliban and Al-Qaeda are Worlds Apart". Allgov.com. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
- ^ Rashid 2000, pp. 74–75.
- ^ Pike, John (1998-09-15). "Iranian-Afghan tensions". Globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
- ^ "Gates Warns Iran Over Afghan "Double Game"". CBS News. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
- ^ "US General Accuses Iran Of Helping Taliban". Eagleworldnews.com. 2010-05-31. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
- ^ Meyer, Henry (2009-02-14). "Iran Is Helping Taliban in Afghanistan, Petraeus Says (Update1)". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
- ^ Jha, Lalit K (2011-03-16). "Concern in US over increasing Iranian activity in Afghanistan". Pajhwok Afghan News (PAN). Retrieved 2011-01-13.
- ^ Rashid 2000, p. 176.
- ^ Rashid 2000, pp. 175–8.
- ^ Rashid 2000, p. 177.
- ^ "US pledges support for Afghan oil pipeline if Taliban makes peace". BBC News. 1997-12-10. Retrieved 2010-04-09.
- ^ Reuters, "Taliban blame Clinton scam for attacks", 1998-08-21.
- ^ Rashid 2000, pp. 138, 231.
- ^ Rashid 2000, p. 78.
- ^ "U.S. set to pay Taliban members to switch sides". CNN. 2009-10-29. Retrieved 2010-04-09.
- ^ "IPS Inter Press Service". Ipsnews.net. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
- ^ "Right after interviewing Karzai". CNN. Retrieved 2010-04-09.
- ^ Homan, Timothy R. (2009-12-06). "bloomberg.com". bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
- ^ Reuters (2001-09-11). "Pentagon sees reconciliation with Taliban". stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
{{cite web}}
:|author=
has generic name (help) - ^ (AFP) – Jan 24, 2010 (2010-01-24). "google.com/hostednews/afp/article". Google.com. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Fitchett, Joseph (2001-09-26). "What About the Taliban's Stingers?". The International Herald Tribune. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
{{cite news}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) [dead link] - ^ "AM Archive – UK freezes $200 million worth of Taliban assets". Abc.net.au. Retrieved 2010-11-04.
- ^ Conflict in Afghanistan: a ... – Google Books. Books.google.com. 2003. ISBN 9781851094028. Retrieved 2010-11-04.
- ^ "General Sir Michael Jackson: We must maintain our will in Afghanistan". London: Telegraph. 2008-06-21. Retrieved 2010-11-04.
- ^ Meo, Nick (2008-08-09). "British cash to buy off Taliban 'goes to farmers'". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 2010-04-09.
- ^ "UK news". The Guardian. London. 2008-01-23. Retrieved 2010-04-09.
- ^ The idea of Pakistan, by Stephen P. Cohen.
- ^ Massoud joins hands with India.
- ^ Bombay terrorist reveals links with IC 814 hijackers.
- ^ India reaches out to Afghanistan.
- ^ India's Afghan policy[dead link].
- ^ India joins anti-Taliban coalition[dead link]
- ^ India and Pakistan, by Duncan Mcleod.
- ^ Tharoor, Ishaan (2009-12-05). "India, Pakistan and the Battle for Afghanistan". Time.com. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
- ^ "India: Afghanistan's influential ally". BBC News. 2009-10-08. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
- ^ Bajoria, Jayshree (2009-07-22). "India-Afghanistan Relations". Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
- ^ Gishkori, Zahid. "Terrorism threat in India during World Cup". Tribune.com.pk. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
- ^ "Taliban trying to enter India: Malik". The News. 2011-03-24. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
- ^ "Terrorist plotting World Cup attack nabbed: Rehman Malik". Timesofindia.indiatimes.com. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
- ^ Gall, Carlotta (2007-01-21). "At Border, Signs of Pakistani Role in Taliban Surge - New York Times". Nytimes.com. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
- ^ "India forced to reassess Taliban threat". Articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 2009-03-31. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
- ^ Rashid 2000, p. 126.
- ^ UNCP Country Development Indicators, 1995.
- ^ Quoting the ICRC.
- ^ Rashid 2000, p. 72.
- ^ Rashid 2000, pp. 64, 78.
- ^ Maulvi Jalil-ullah Maulvizada, June 1997 interview with Ahmed Rashid; Rashid 2000, pp. 111–112.
- ^ Rashid 2000, p. 65.
- ^ Rashid 2000, p. 71.
- ^ Aid agencies pull out of Kabul The building had neither electricity or running water.
- ^ Rashid 2000, pp. 71–72.
- ^ Agence France-Presse, "Taliban reject warnings of aid pull-out", 1998-07-16.
- ^ "UN official calls for talks with taliban leaders". sify.com. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
- ^ Farmer, Ben (2010-01-25). "UN: lift sanctions on Taliban to build peace in Afghanistan". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 2010-04-09.
- ^ "UN Reduce Taliban names on terror list". upi.com. 2010-01-25. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
- ^ "Asia News". english.aljazeera.net. 2010-01-26. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
External links
- Alternative discourse: A review of the former Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan's autobiography by Qurat ul ain Siddiqui
- Taliban in Oxford Islamic Studies Online
- Taliban's website (English)[dead link] How Do I Get in Touch With a Terrorist Slate. October 2009
- The Taliban's Secret Photos
- Future Opioids: Afghanistan, Opium and the Taliban
- The National Security Archive – The September 11th Sourcebooks Volume VII: The Taliban File September 2003
- "Is One of the Lost Tribes the Taliban?" – from Moment Magazine (April 2007)
- The Taliban Diaries by Shaukat Qadir, Daily Times, 2009-06-20
- Taliban collected news and commentary at Al Jazeera English
- Taliban Conflict collected news and commentary at BBC News
- Taliban collected news and commentary at The Guardian
- Taliban collected news and commentary at The New York Times
- Template:Worldcat id
- Criticism of ideology
- Afghanistan's Taliban: Not a valid interpretation of Islam, Islam For Today
- Insurgency
- Battling Taliban: Where Does It Stop? ongoing coverage from Dawn in Pakistan
- Return Of The Taliban from PBS Frontline, October 2006
- Struggle for Kabul: The Taliban Advance from the ICOS, December 8, 2008
- Held by The Taliban: A Reporting Trip Becomes a Kidnapping from The New York Times, 2008–2009
- Military Raids, Backing of Corrupt Government Undermining Stated US Goals in Afghanistan – video report by Democracy Now!