Coordination between Al-Qaeda and Taliban Is a Reflection of the Shared Ultra-Religious Islamist Ideology and Al-Qaeda’s Early Support for a Fledgling Taliban
By
Susannah George
Dec. 8,
2020
As the
Taliban and the United States were finalizing their February deal, Taliban
leaders were in frequent communication with al-Qaeda, consulting with their
counterparts on the terms of the agreement and assuring them that they would
not be betrayed, according to U.N. monitors.
Members of the Taliban’s peace negotiation team meet with Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo amid talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government in
Doha, Qatar, in November. (Patrick Semansky/Pool/AP)
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“Al-Qaeda
trained the Taliban for the talks,” said Abdul Salam Hanafi, a former Taliban
governor who left the group in 2001 but remains in contact with several senior
leaders.
The active
coordination between the two groups has continued to this day, despite the
Taliban’s commitment to sever ties as a condition of the peace deal, according
to U.N. and Afghan officials and current and former Taliban members. U.S.
officials see the Taliban’s pledge as essential to preventing Afghanistan from
once again becoming a safe haven for groups with aims of attacking the United
States.
Since the
signing of the U.S.-Taliban deal, al-Qaeda has become more active in
Afghanistan, communicating more frequently with Taliban leaders and traveling
around the country to rally support among sympathetic local Taliban leadership,
according to an Afghan security official who spoke on the condition of
anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The ongoing
coordination is a reflection of the deep bonds that were forged decades ago
over a shared ultra-religious Islamist ideology and al-Qaeda’s early support
for a fledgling Taliban.
“It’s a
bond that cannot be broken,” Hanafi said.
Of the two
groups, the Taliban is by far the larger and more powerful in Afghanistan.
Estimates of the group’s fighting force range from 55,000 to 85,000, according
to a recent U.N. report. Though there may be thousands of al-Qaeda fighters
worldwide, only 400 to 600 are estimated to be in Afghanistan.
Afghan security officials present arrested members of the Haqqani
network, in Paktia, Afghanistan, on Dec. 3. (Ahmadullah Ahmadi/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
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The
Pentagon warns that while al-Qaeda currently poses a “limited threat” to the
United States in Afghanistan, the group is resilient and its interest in
attacking U.S. and Western targets “persists.” And while the group may be
diminished in Afghanistan, it’s growing in strength in other parts of the
world, particularly North Africa and the Sahel region.
The U.S.
war in Afghanistan was launched in response to al-Qaeda’s Sept. 11, 2001,
attacks and the Taliban’s refusal to hand over the group’s leader, Osama bin
Laden. Now, as peace talks in Doha, Qatar, show signs of progress and the
United States pushes forward with an accelerated troop withdrawal, U.S.
officials have been vague when pressed to respond to questions about ties
between the two groups.
The special
U.S. envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, said the Taliban has “taken
additional steps to comply with the agreement” in the past three months but
that the group still has “work to do before they satisfy their commitments.” He
declined to discuss the specific steps the Taliban has taken.
Taliban
leaders have rejected the claims of continued links to al-Qaeda, but official
Taliban spokesmen have been reluctant to directly address the issue.
“We are
fully committed to the Doha deal,” Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in
response to questions about links to al-Qaeda. “We will not allow anyone to use
Afghan soil against the United States and its allies.”
Another
senior Taliban member put a finer point on the group’s stance, saying al-Qaeda
fighters might be allowed to live as “refugees” in Taliban-controlled areas of
Afghanistan but “they would not be allowed to carry out their activities.” He
spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject.
Afghan officials
dispute the characterization that al-Qaeda members are living as “peaceful
refugees.” They say al-Qaeda members are fighting alongside the Taliban and are
involved in training, according to statements from the National Security
Council and Afghanistan’s top intelligence agency.
Those
assessments are supported by the U.N. monitoring team focusing on al-Qaeda and
the Taliban. Edmund Fitton-Brown, the team’s coordinator, said his group has
evidence of al-Qaeda fighters training and advising the Taliban. Al-Qaeda
members are often embedded in Taliban units to act as military advisers for key
operations, he said.
Last month,
Afghanistan’s top spy agency announced that a senior al-Qaeda member was killed
in a Taliban-controlled district in western Afghanistan. The National
Directorate of Security said in a statement that the al-Qaeda member “had close
ties with the Taliban terrorist group. He helped and trained them in planting
explosive materials, making car bombs and other types of makeshift mines.”
In October,
the intelligence agency announced the killing of another senior al-Qaeda
member, Abu Muhsin al-Masri, during an operation in Taliban territory in Ghazni
province. Masri was on the FBI’s most-wanted list for providing material
support to a foreign terrorist organization and conspiracy to kill U.S.
nationals.
The Afghan
security official said Masri was a key member of al-Qaeda’s finance operations
in Afghanistan and was in Ghazni to reassure local Taliban leaders that
al-Qaeda would continue to provide them funds and support regardless of what
the group’s leadership in Doha says about cutting ties.
It was
ultrareligious Islamic ideology during the fight against Soviet forces in
Afghanistan that brought together al-Qaeda and fighters who would later make up
the Taliban. Al-Qaeda was an experienced militant group with an established
global brand when the Taliban was in its infancy in the 1990s. While many
factors and sources of support would help bring about the Taliban’s eventual
success as a national force, al-Qaeda provided early training, fundraising and
supplies that many Taliban members saw as critical.
“The
Taliban had nothing at that time. All the professionalism in fighting and all
the equipment, that came from al-Qaeda,” said a former al-Qaeda member in
Afghanistan who is now a local Taliban leader. He spoke on the condition of
anonymity because he was not authorized by Taliban leadership to speak to
journalists.
The Taliban
was “not acquainted with the methods of fighting,” he said. “Al-Qaeda had
already spent 13 years fighting in Afghanistan [against the Soviet Union]. They
knew the geography of Afghanistan and they knew combat.”
Over the
past two decades, the al-Qaeda-Taliban relationship has gone through periods of
intense strain and the organizations themselves have changed dramatically.
The
strength of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan has been significantly diminished by a
punishing U.S. air campaign targeting the group’s leadership in Pakistan and
Afghanistan. The Taliban, meanwhile, is emerging from war with the United
States battle-hardened and ascendant. In particular, the Doha deal calling for
the full withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan was seen by many within the
Taliban as a declaration of victory.
With the
shifts in fortunes of the two groups, their relationship has also changed.
The
partnership now is based on “growing up together and sharing common adversity
and remaining committed friends and allies,” said Fitton-Brown, the U.N.
official. “It’s not that the Taliban desperately needs al-Qaeda. It’s that
there’s still a strong sense of commitment for many Talibs.”
Since the
signing of the Doha agreement, the Taliban has taken steps to distance itself
from al-Qaeda, said the former al-Qaeda member who is now a local Taliban
leader. He said all financial and military support from al-Qaeda to the Taliban
was halted, but he conceded that cutting ties completely would be difficult and
probably protracted.
“They will
at least need two to three years [to completely sever ties]” and clear al-Qaeda
members from Afghanistan, he said.
But it is
unclear whether severing ties completely is possible under Islamic law or the
tribal code of conduct that the Taliban adheres to. Al-Qaeda members swear
allegiance to the Taliban’s leader, and they are considered guests of the
Taliban, a status that commands deep respect within the movement.
As peace
talks in Doha progress, the relationship between al-Qaeda and the Taliban is
likely to come under intense strain once more. If the talks succeed, the
Taliban will be on the path to assuming formal power in Afghanistan.
“If the
Taliban want to become a legitimate power in an Afghan state, a power
recognized by more than three countries around the world, then they’re going to
need to show the world that they take global counterterrorism concerns
seriously,” said Andrew Watkins, the senior Afghanistan analyst for the
International Crisis Group.
Watkins
said that could require Taliban leadership to take concrete action on al-Qaeda
in Afghanistan or reach an accommodation that appeases both the international
community and Taliban members who continue to feel indebted to al-Qaeda for the
group’s help during the early years.
“It’s a
real problem,” Watkins said, “and I’m not sure that Taliban leadership have
even figured out what that compromise could look like.”
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Aziz
Tassal and Sharif Hassan in Kabul, Haq Nawaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, and
Souad Mekhennet in Washington contributed to this report.
Susannah
George is The Washington Post's Afghanistan and Pakistan bureau chief. She
previously headed the Associated Press’s Baghdad bureau and covered national
security and intelligence from the AP’s Washington bureau
Original
Headline: Behind the Taliban’s ties to
al-Qaeda: A shared ideology and decades of battlefield support
Source: The Washington Post
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