Richard
03-14-2010, 20:27
And so it goes...
Richard
Taliban starts to shun al-Qaeda
David S. Cloud and Julian E. Barnes, McClatchy Newspapers, 14 Mar 2010
A growing number of Taliban militants in the Pakistani border region are refusing to collaborate with al-Qaeda fighters, declining to provide shelter or assist in attacks in Afghanistan even in return for payment, according to U.S. military and counterterrorism officials.
The officials, citing evidence from interrogation of detainees, communications intercepts and public statements on extremist Web sites, say that threats to the militants' long-term survival from Pakistani, Afghan and foreign military action are driving some Afghan Taliban away from al-Qaeda.
As a result, al-Qaeda fighters are in some cases being excluded from villages and other areas near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border where they once received sanctuary.
Al-Qaeda's attempts to restore its dwindling presence in Afghanistan are also running into problems, the officials say.
Al-Qaeda was forced out of Afghanistan by the U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban in 2001, and it re-established itself across the border in Pakistan, where Osama bin Laden and other leaders are thought to have taken refuge.
Al-Qaeda is believed to have fewer than 100 operatives still in Afghanistan. Though mounting attacks there is not the network's main focus, it remains interested in striking U.S. and other targets.
But its capabilities have been degraded in recent years, and such attacks now require assistance from the Taliban.
Last year, the organization began offering stipends to Afghans who would escort its operatives into Afghanistan, but there are indications that many Taliban are refusing this inducement, one U.S. official said.
"The Afghan Taliban does not want to be seen as or heard of having the same relationship with AQ that they had in the past," said the senior official, using an abbreviation for al-Qaeda. The official and others described the assessments on condition of anonymity.
Indications of strains between al-Qaeda and the Taliban are at odds with recent public statements by the Obama administration, which has stressed close connections among militant groups to build support from the Pakistani government and other allies to take them on all at once.
U.S. officials remain unsure whether the alliance between al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban is splintering for good, and some regard the possibility as little more than wishful thinking. A complete rupture is unlikely, some analysts say, because al-Qaeda members have married into many tribes and formed other connections in years of hiding in Pakistan's remote regions.
But the tension has led to debate within the U.S. government about whether there are ways to exploit fissures. One idea under consideration, an official said, is to reduce drone airstrikes against Taliban factions whose members are shunning contacts with al-Qaeda.
The drone strikes, a stepped-up campaign of targeted killings by U.S. Special Operations troops, and an intensified military campaign in both Pakistan and Afghanistan have raised the risks to Taliban fighters who assist al-Qaeda, the senior U.S. official said.
The arrest in recent months of several top Afghan Taliban leaders may also be leading some Taliban commanders to reassess their ties to al-Qaeda in hopes of easing pressure from the Pakistani intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, which long allowed the Afghan Taliban to operate relatively unbothered.
"If the Taliban is telling them to get lost, that creates a problem for al-Qaeda," said Barbara Sude, a former CIA terrorism analyst now at the Rand Corp., a research organization. "Maybe that's the beginning of what we're seeing."
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/world/stories/DN-taliban_14int.ART.State.Edition1.4a85fb8.html
Richard
Taliban starts to shun al-Qaeda
David S. Cloud and Julian E. Barnes, McClatchy Newspapers, 14 Mar 2010
A growing number of Taliban militants in the Pakistani border region are refusing to collaborate with al-Qaeda fighters, declining to provide shelter or assist in attacks in Afghanistan even in return for payment, according to U.S. military and counterterrorism officials.
The officials, citing evidence from interrogation of detainees, communications intercepts and public statements on extremist Web sites, say that threats to the militants' long-term survival from Pakistani, Afghan and foreign military action are driving some Afghan Taliban away from al-Qaeda.
As a result, al-Qaeda fighters are in some cases being excluded from villages and other areas near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border where they once received sanctuary.
Al-Qaeda's attempts to restore its dwindling presence in Afghanistan are also running into problems, the officials say.
Al-Qaeda was forced out of Afghanistan by the U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban in 2001, and it re-established itself across the border in Pakistan, where Osama bin Laden and other leaders are thought to have taken refuge.
Al-Qaeda is believed to have fewer than 100 operatives still in Afghanistan. Though mounting attacks there is not the network's main focus, it remains interested in striking U.S. and other targets.
But its capabilities have been degraded in recent years, and such attacks now require assistance from the Taliban.
Last year, the organization began offering stipends to Afghans who would escort its operatives into Afghanistan, but there are indications that many Taliban are refusing this inducement, one U.S. official said.
"The Afghan Taliban does not want to be seen as or heard of having the same relationship with AQ that they had in the past," said the senior official, using an abbreviation for al-Qaeda. The official and others described the assessments on condition of anonymity.
Indications of strains between al-Qaeda and the Taliban are at odds with recent public statements by the Obama administration, which has stressed close connections among militant groups to build support from the Pakistani government and other allies to take them on all at once.
U.S. officials remain unsure whether the alliance between al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban is splintering for good, and some regard the possibility as little more than wishful thinking. A complete rupture is unlikely, some analysts say, because al-Qaeda members have married into many tribes and formed other connections in years of hiding in Pakistan's remote regions.
But the tension has led to debate within the U.S. government about whether there are ways to exploit fissures. One idea under consideration, an official said, is to reduce drone airstrikes against Taliban factions whose members are shunning contacts with al-Qaeda.
The drone strikes, a stepped-up campaign of targeted killings by U.S. Special Operations troops, and an intensified military campaign in both Pakistan and Afghanistan have raised the risks to Taliban fighters who assist al-Qaeda, the senior U.S. official said.
The arrest in recent months of several top Afghan Taliban leaders may also be leading some Taliban commanders to reassess their ties to al-Qaeda in hopes of easing pressure from the Pakistani intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, which long allowed the Afghan Taliban to operate relatively unbothered.
"If the Taliban is telling them to get lost, that creates a problem for al-Qaeda," said Barbara Sude, a former CIA terrorism analyst now at the Rand Corp., a research organization. "Maybe that's the beginning of what we're seeing."
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/world/stories/DN-taliban_14int.ART.State.Edition1.4a85fb8.html