Really? Tell it to those warriors who fought them in Afghanistan. Yet this is not a new standard especially as the Obama White House released 5 of their top commanders back to the ranks of the Taliban.
Shameful…
WASHINGTON: The US Department of Defence has said that it’s no longer conducting counter-terrorism operations against the Taliban in Afghanistan because it views the group as an important partner in its efforts for restoring peace in the war-ravaged country.
“What we’re not doing (is) counter-terrorism operations against the Taliban,” Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis told a Wednesday evening news briefing in Washington.
“We actually view the Taliban as being an important partner in a peaceful Afghan-led reconciliation process. We are not actively targeting the Taliban,” he added.
‘No institutional presence of IS in Pak-Afghan region’
The briefing, however, focused on US efforts to defeat the Middle East-based terrorist group IS (the self-styled Islamic State) which also has some presence in the Pak-Afghan region.
Capt Davis said that some “lone wolves” in Pakistan and Afghanistan were using the IS brand to raise their stature but the group did not have an institutional presence in the region.
He said the IS had a “pretty good” command and control system in Iraq and Syria but those claiming to represent the group in Afghanistan and Pakistan did not have the command and control relationship with the main IS.
The Pentagon official said the United States was working “very extensively” with the Pakistani government in the fight against terrorists.
Capt Davis explained that while the Coalition Support Fund was aimed to enhance Pakistan’s ability to fight the Haqqani Network, it also helped develop other broader spectrum counter-terrorism capabilities.
In Afghanistan, the US ended its combat operations last year and its role there now was simply to advise and assist the Afghan forces, he said.
Capt Davis said the US also had “unilateral role” of being able to conduct counter-terrorism missions in Afghanistan primarily against Al Qaeda and its remnants.
“But IS would be fair game as well,” he added.
(CNN) Here’s a look at the Taliban, a Sunni Islamist organization operating primarily in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Facts:
Reclusive leader Mullah Mohammed Omar led the Taliban from the mid-1990s until his death in 2013.
Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour was announced in July 2015 as the new leader.
Taliban, in Pashto, is the plural of Talib, which means student.
Most members are Pashtun, the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan.
The exact number of Taliban forces is unknown.
The group’s aim is to impose its interpretation of Islamic law on Afghanistan and remove foreign influence from the country.
Timeline:
1979-1989 – The Soviet Union invades and occupies Afghanistan. Afghan resistance fighters, known collectively as mujahedeen, fight back.
1989-1993 – After the Soviet Union withdraws, fighting among the mujahedeen leads to chaos.
1994 – The Taliban is formed, comprised mostly of students and led by mujahedeen veteran Mullah Omar.
November 1994 – The Taliban seizes the city of Kandahar.
September 1996 – The capital, Kabul, falls to the Taliban.
1997 – The Taliban issue an edict renaming Afghanistan the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The country is only officially recognized by three countries: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
1996-2001 – The group imposes strict Islamic laws on the Afghan people. Women must wear head-to-toe coverings, are not allowed to attend school or work outside the home and are forbidden to travel alone. Television, music and non-Islamic holidays are also banned.
1997 – Mullah Omar forges a relationship with Osama bin Laden, who then moves his base of operations to Kandahar.
August 1998 – The Taliban captures Mazar-e-Sharif, gaining control of about 90% of Afghanistan.
March 2001 – The Taliban destroys two 1,500 year old Buddha figures in the town of Bamiyan, saying they are idols that violate Islam.
October-November 2001 – After massive U.S. bombardment as a part of Operation Enduring Freedom, the Taliban lose Afghanistan to U.S. and Northern Alliance forces.
December 2006 – Senior Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani is killed in an airstrike by the U.S.
February 2007 – Mullah Manan, a senior Taliban commander, is killed in an air strike in southern Afghanistan.
May 2007 – Mullah Dadullah Lang, a senior Taliban leader, is killed in a U.S.-led coalition operation supported by NATO.
August 2007 – During a visit to Afghanistan, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denies his country is providing the Taliban weapons.
December 11, 2007 – Afghan troops backed by NATO recapture the provincial town of Musa Qala from Taliban control.
February 2008 – Taliban operative Mullah Bakht Mohammed is captured by Pakistani forces.
October 21, 2008 – Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal confirms that Saudi Arabia hosted talks between Afghan officials and the Taliban in September. It is reported that no agreements were made.
April 25, 2011 – Hundreds of prisoners escape from a prison in Kandahar by crawling through a tunnel. The Taliban takes responsibility for the escape and claims that 541 prisoners escaped, while ISAF says the number is 470.
September 10, 2011 – Two Afghan civilians are killed and 77 U.S. troops are wounded during a vehicle borne improvised explosive device (SVBIED) attack at the entrance of Combat Outpost Sayed Abad, an ISAF base in Afghanistan’s Wardak province. The Taliban claims responsibility.
September 13, 2011 – Taliban militants open fire on the U.S. embassy and NATO’s International Security Assistance Force headquarters in central Kabul. Three police officers and one civilian are killed. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid tells CNN their target is the U.S. embassy, governmental organizations and other foreign organizations.
February 27, 2012 – The Taliban claims responsibility for a suicide bombing near the front gate of the International Security Assistance Force base at Jalalabad airport in Afghanistan. At least nine people are killed and 12 wounded in the explosion. The Taliban says the bombing is in retaliation for the burning of Qurans at a U.S. base last week.
August 8, 2012 – According to senior U.S. officials, in an effort to revive peace talks with the Taliban, President Barack Obama‘s administration has proposed a prisoner swap under which it would transfer five Taliban prisoners to Qatar in exchange for a U.S. soldier held by the Taliban. The new proposal involves sending all five Taliban prisoners to Qatar first, before the Taliban release Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, a member of the U.S. army captured in 2009. The original offer proposed transferring the Taliban prisoners in two groups, with Bergdahl being released in between.
June 18, 2013 – An official political office of the Taliban opens in Doha, Qatar’s capital city. The Taliban announces that they hope to improve relations with other countries, head toward a peaceful solution to the Afghanistan occupation and establish an independent Islamic system in the country.
September 21, 2013 – Pakistan announces that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, one of the founding members of the Taliban, has been released from prison. Baradar had been captured in Karachi, Pakistan in 2010.
May 31, 2014 – The United States transfers five Guantanamo Bay detainees to Qatar in exchange for the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl: Khair Ulla Said Wali Khairkhwa, Mullah Mohammad Fazl, Mullah Norullah Nori, Abdul Haq Wasiq and Mohammad Nabi Omari. It is believed Bergdahl was being held by the Taliban and al Qaeda-aligned Haqqani network in Pakistan.
September 26, 2014 – A Taliban offensive in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, leaves an estimated 100 civilians dead or wounded, including some women and children who were beheaded, according to a provincial deputy governor.
July 29, 2015 – The Afghan government says in a news release that Taliban leader Mullah Omar died in April 2013 in Pakistan, citing “credible information,” and a spokesman for Afghanistan’s intelligence service tells CNN that Omar died in a hospital in Karachi at that time.
September 28, 2015 – Taliban insurgents seize the main roundabout in the Afghan provincial capital of Kunduz, then free more than 500 inmates at the prison. This is the first time the Taliban have taken over a provincial capital since 2001.
