Taliban Sets Up Special Unit To Hunt Down Afghans Who Helped U.S. And Allied Forces
The Taliban has set up a special unit to hunt down Afghans who worked for the U.S. and Western allies, the New York Post reported on Friday. The operation is being led by the members of the Al Qaeda-linked Haqqani Network, a Taliban faction with a history of killing and kidnapping American service members and civilians in the region.
The Taliban has reportedly seized U.S.-built biometric devices and could use them to target Afghans who helped U.S. troops and other agencies. This cache of information comes at a time when the Taliban in Kabul is conducting door-to-door searches looking for former Afghan government officials and security personnel. The Taliban has drawn up “kill lists” to eliminate the “enemies” of the newly-declared Islamic Emirate, UK’s Daily Mirror reported.
There are also reports of U.S. handing out the names of American evacuees to the Taliban, making them potential targets for killings and hostage taking. “U.S. officials in Kabul gave the Taliban a list of names of American citizens, green card holders and Afghan allies to grant entry into the militant-controlled outer perimeter of the city’s airport,” The Politico reported on Thursday. The names were shared because the “Biden administration has been relying on the Taliban for security outside the airport,” the new outlet added. It was an grave lack of judgement as Thursday’s Kabul airport bombing showed.
The NY Post reported on Taliban’s hunt for those to helped the U.S. and Western allies:
The Taliban has mobilized a special unit, called Al Isha, to hunt down Afghans who helped US and allied forces — and it’s using US equipment and data to do it.Nawazuddin Haqqani, one of the brigade commanders over the Al Isha unit, bragged in an interview with Zenger News that his unit is using US-made hand-held scanners to tap into a massive US-built biometric database and positively identify any person who helped the NATO allies or worked with Indian intelligence. Afghans who try to deny or minimize their role will find themselves contradicted by the detailed computer records that the US left behind in its frenzied withdrawal. (…)The US separately has provided the Taliban with a list of Americans and Afghans it wants to evacuate from the country, a move one defense official told Politico was “just put[ing] all those Afghans on a kill list.”
The US Military Strikes ISIS Targets in Afghanistan
The U.S. military conducted a retaliatory strike against the Islamic State in Afghanistan in response to the Thursday’s bombings near the Kabul airport that killed at least 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. servicemen. The drone strike eliminated one of the planners of the deady bombing, the spokesman for U.S. Central Command said. “The air strike is reported to have been carried out from outside Afghanistan and was authorised by President Biden,” UK’s Daily Telegraph noted.
The suicide bombing targeting the U.S. evacuation mission was carried out by the Islamic State’s Khorasan chapter (ISIS-K) — Khorasan region being the Quranic reference to present-day Afghanistan.
The CNBC reported the retaliatory U.S. drone strike:
The United States military struck back at the Islamic State on Saturday, bombing an IS member in Afghanistan less than 48 hours after a devastating suicide bombing claimed by the group killed as many as 169 Afghans and 13 American service members at the Kabul airport.U.S. Central Command said the U.S. conducted a drone strike against an Islamic State member in Nangahar believed to be involved in planning attacks against the U.S. in Kabul. The strike killed one individual, and spokesman Navy Capt. William Urban said they knew of no civilian casualties.“U.S. military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an ISIS-K planner. The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangahar Province of Afghanistan. Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties,” Urban said in his statement.
Ahead of the ISIS bombing, U.S. and several intelligence agencies had repeatedly warned of an impending terrorist attack on the airport. Hours before the blast, German and British defense ministers repeated those warnings, announcing the halting of the evacuations days before the August 31 deadline in light of the terror threats.
After Afghanistan Debacle, Biden Promises Israel That Iran Will ‘Never’ Get a Nuclear Bomb
With Taliban overthrowing the Afghan government in matter of weeks — something President Joe Biden promised will never happen, he is now assuring Israel that Iranian regime will ‘never’ get a nuclear bomb. The promise was made by the U.S. president to the visiting Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
“Speaking after their one-on-one meeting, US President Joe Biden tells Prime Minister Naftali Bennett that he prefers the diplomatic route to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, but if that fails, the US is willing to consider “other options” to ensure Iran “never” gets the bomb,” The Times of Israel reported on Friday.
The Biden administration is currently negotiating with Iran to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal abandoned by former President Donald Trump. The White House has eased series of sanctions on Tehran, including an international weapons embargo, put in place to stop Iran and its proxy terrorist groups from getting latest weapons and military technology.
Since President Biden began appeasing the Mullah regime in hopes of restoring the Obama-era deal, Tehran has expanded its nuclear weapons program and continues to produce near weapons-grade uranium.
Russian Envoy: Taliban Wants Moscow to Exploit Afghan Mineral Resources
China and Russia are apparently moving in to fill the power vacuum left by the U.S. and Western withdrawal from Afghanistan. The Taliban would welcome Russians to exploit Afghan mineral resources, Russian envoy to Afghanistan said.
On Friday, New Delhi-based newspaper The Economic Times reported Taliban’s willingness to work with Russians:
Russian Ambassador to Kabul, Dmitry Zhirnov said that the Taliban is open to Moscow[‘]s participation in the Afghan economy, particularly in developing resource deposits.”The Taliban is open to us taking part in the economy, including deposit exploitation,” he said, TASS News Agency reported.According to the diplomat, the Taliban is also interested in establishing transport and energy projects with Central Asian states.
“In 2010, a report by US military experts and geologists estimated that Afghanistan … was sitting on nearly $1 trillion (€850 billion) in mineral wealth, thanks to huge iron, copper, lithium, cobalt and rare-earth deposits,” Germany’s DW News reported earlier this month. “A follow-up report by the Afghan government in 2017 estimated that Kabul’s new mineral wealth may be as high as $3 trillion, including fossil fuels,” the broadcaster added.
China is particularly interested in lithium, a rare earth mineral used in batteries for electric vehicles, mobile phones and laptops. Afghanistan could have one of the world’s largest lithium reserves, official U.S. reports say.
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