Afghan military officials are playing up the growing number of Taliban attacks in border provinces, something the Pentagon had similarly claimed. They are adding a detail, claiming that the Taliban are fighting alongside al-Qaeda and Jaish-e Mohammad (JeM).
Though the Taliban had past ties to al-Qaeda, they were never directly reported to be aligned with JeM. The US-Taliban peace deal obliged the Taliban to sever all ties to al-Qaeda, and these contacts could be interpreted, if true, as a violation.
The US is already treating the putative increase in attacks as a violation, and Afghan officials who are not keen to see the peace deal survive are probably counting on that in these latest claims, hoping this will add to the growing mistrust.
The Taliban hasn’t responded to these claims, though they’ve been fighting with the Afghan government over its failure to deliver prisoner releases promised in the peace deal, and have faulted the US for not doing more about that.
When in doubt, trot out the al Qaeda alliance. I’m always curious as to how they can distinguish which group these people belong to. Do they have tattoos on their foreheads like “AQ” or “JeM”? And who in the f*ck is JeM?
Supposedly a Pakistan-sponsored group in Kashmir created to keep India on its toes.
Nanochip nanny; came with the travel vaccination.
we have over 80 MOAB’s ready to drop on any of these sub humans. we’d rather slow drain them to extinction however.
Lets not further endanger rare human species…
Marketing boys at Langley phoning it in from home….
The intent to pull out must be real enough that the Taliban are to be left with the parting gift of an Islamic State insurgency.
Its not clear if Afghanistan is that easy, but they’ve been in Islamic conflict since President Carter and ZBig arranged an Afghan Vietnam for the Soviets.