Taliban vs. ISIS: The Islamic State Is Doomed in Afghanistan

[rdean]

However, one powerful Islamist group has not only rejected the Islamic State but has actively fought against it—the Taliban of Afghanistan and Pakistan. And the Taliban are going to absolutely crush the Islamic State in Afghanistan.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, the Taliban are deeply rooted in the local tribal culture of the region and are, in many ways, an alliance of related Pashtun tribes (with some Afghan Tajik and Pakistani Punjabi allies) in the Hindu Kush mountains. This makes it hard for the Islamic State, which claims to be universal, to appeal to those fighting for nationalistic reasons. The Taliban see their struggle as being regionally limited and do not seek to fight in places like Syria. In fact, the Taliban recently sent a letter to al-Baghdadi warning the Islamic State to keep out of Afghanistan: “The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from a brotherhood point of religion wants your goodness and has no intention of interfering in your affairs. Reciprocally, we hope and expect the same from you.” There have been several clashes between the Taliban and Islamic State over the past few months, with the Taliban usually gaining the upper hand.

Taliban vs. ISIS The Islamic State Is Doomed in Afghanistan The National Interest

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The Taliban doesn't even want to leave Afghanistan. The US should have gone in, taken out Bin Laden instead of letting him go and then came home. But they got greedy. They thought they could profit from Iraqi oil. A party that doesn't want to spend a dime here spent trillions over there blinded by black gold. They did the job to this country al Qaeda wanted to do. But we can still leave.

 

[IsaacNewton]

IsiL has certainly bitten off more than it can chew. The Taliban on the other hand is no one's ally, they also want to force their 3rd century religious tyranny on everyone there.

So the best outcome is similar to what Churchill noted about the fight between Germany and Russia. Best to see them annialate each other, but he didn't want the Nazi's to win in any scenario.

Better that the Taliban wins, after they have annialated each other.

 

[waltky]

Jailbreak!...

Taliban insurgents raid Afghan prison and free inmates
Sep 14,`15 -- More than 350 inmates escaped an Afghan prison following a coordinated attack by Taliban insurgents, an Afghan official and the Taliban said.

Mohammad Ali Ahmadi, deputy governor of Ghazni province, said Monday that insurgents wearing military uniforms launched a well-organized attack early Monday morning that included using a suicide bomber to breach the compound's walls. Four guards were killed and seven others were wounded, while three insurgents were also killed, Ahmadi said.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack on the Ghazni prison in an email sent to the media. A total of 355 prisoners escaped, the Afghan Interior Ministry said in a statement, and only 82 prisoners remain in custody in the prison. However Ahmadi added that 20 of the prison's most dangerous inmates had been transferred to another facility a day earlier after a fight broke out.

Afghan national army stand guard near the dead body of a Taliban attacker in front of the main prison building after an attack in Ghazni province, eastern Afghanistan, Monday, Sept. 14, 2015. An Afghan official says that more than 350 inmates have escaped after an attack by the Taliban insurgents on the main prison.

Officials in Ghazni said that there were attacks by the Taliban in at least 10 different parts of the city overnight. "There was an organized attack around 2:00 a.m. on the Ghazni prison, to make their plan successful the enemy at the same time launched attacks in different locations of the city as well," Ahmadi said, adding that the suicide car bomber breached the jail's entrance gates while security forces were busy defending other parts of the city. "At least 148 of the escaped inmates are considered to be a serious threat to national security," the Interior Ministry statement said, adding that three of the escaped prisoners have been recaptured so far.

News from The Associated Press

 

[Obiwan]

However, one powerful Islamist group has not only rejected the Islamic State but has actively fought against it—the Taliban of Afghanistan and Pakistan. And the Taliban are going to absolutely crush the Islamic State in Afghanistan.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, the Taliban are deeply rooted in the local tribal culture of the region and are, in many ways, an alliance of related Pashtun tribes (with some Afghan Tajik and Pakistani Punjabi allies) in the Hindu Kush mountains. This makes it hard for the Islamic State, which claims to be universal, to appeal to those fighting for nationalistic reasons. The Taliban see their struggle as being regionally limited and do not seek to fight in places like Syria. In fact, the Taliban recently sent a letter to al-Baghdadi warning the Islamic State to keep out of Afghanistan: “The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from a brotherhood point of religion wants your goodness and has no intention of interfering in your affairs. Reciprocally, we hope and expect the same from you.” There have been several clashes between the Taliban and Islamic State over the past few months, with the Taliban usually gaining the upper hand.

Taliban vs. ISIS The Islamic State Is Doomed in Afghanistan The National Interest

-------------------------------

The Taliban doesn't even want to leave Afghanistan. The US should have gone in, taken out Bin Laden instead of letting him go and then came home. But they got greedy. They thought they could profit from Iraqi oil. A party that doesn't want to spend a dime here spent trillions over there blinded by black gold. They did the job to this country al Qaeda wanted to do. But we can still leave.

You DO know AQ and the Taliban work together, and that the Taliban shelters al-Zawahiri, right???
Al Qaeda's al-Zawahiri to ISIS: We can work together - CNN.com

 

[bedowin62]

you complete idiot; they may compete with each other but that doesnt mean they are rejecting islamic extremism in Afghanistand you dullard

 

[waltky]

Uncle Ferd says, "Yea, ugly-ass varmit, ain't he?

Taliban leader Mullah Mansour wounded in shootout: sources
Wed Dec 2, 2015 - Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour has been seriously wounded in Pakistan in a shootout between senior members of the Islamist movement, Taliban sources said on Wednesday, but the group's main spokesman dismissed their report as "baseless".

The conflicting accounts deepen the confusion over the already opaque leadership situation in the Taliban following the death of the movement's founder Mullah Mohammad Omar and cloud prospects for any resumption of stalled peace talks. Two Taliban commanders said Mansour, whose authority is disputed by rival factions in the Islamist movement, was wounded when fighting broke out over strategic issues in the house of a senior Taliban leader called Mullah Abdullah Sarhadi outside Quetta in western Pakistan. "During the discussion, some senior people developed differences and they opened fire on each other," one of the commanders said.

Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, Taliban militants' new leader, is seen in this undated handout photograph by the Taliban.​

He said five senior Taliban members had died on the spot and more than a dozen, including Mullah Mansour, had suffered serious bullet injuries. Mansour was being treated in a private hospital after being hit four times by bullets from an AK-47 assault rifle, the Taliban commander said. However, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied the incident ever took place and said Mansour was in Afghanistan. "This is a rumor which is completely baseless. Akthar Mohammad Mansour is totally fine and nothing has happened to him," he told Reuters. "This is the act of Afghan intelligence agencies. They spread these rumors about a clash between Taliban leaders. Nothing happened like this even in that area".

The Taliban has faced serious internal divisions since it was confirmed in July that Mullah Omar had actually died two years earlier. Mansour, Mullah Omar's longtime deputy, was immediately named leader but some sections of the Islamist group quickly rejected his claim, accusing him of covering up Omar's death and saying that Pakistan had steered his appointment. His grip on the leadership appeared to have been tightened by the capture of the northern city of Kunduz in late September, which insurgents held for several days before government forces could regain control.

UNCERTAINTY

See also:

Taliban Denies Claim Leader Wounded in Firefight
Dec. 2, 2015 - Afghan government spokesman said Mullah Akhtar Mansour reported shot

Afghan government officials said Wednesday that the Taliban’s leader had been wounded in a firefight between members of his group, but the claim was swiftly rebutted by the Taliban and sources close to the group. A spokesman for Afghanistan’s first vice president, Abdul Rashid Dostum, said the Taliban’s leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, was seriously wounded after a verbal dispute escalated into a firefight between members of the group’s leadership at a meeting in Pakistan, near the city of Quetta. The argument had broken out with a former Guantanamo detainee, Mullah Abdullah Sarhadi, he added, and it was unclear whether Mullah Mansour had survived. “Five people were killed, and Mullah Mansour was wounded and taken to a hospital,” said the vice president’s spokesman, Sultan Faizy.

However, the Taliban said talk of the shooting was the work of enemy intelligence services aimed at making the movement appear fragmented and weak. A spokesman denied the shooting had taken place at the meeting. “Mansour was not in place that has been mentioned,” spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said. Other aides to Mullah Mansour also denied that any such incident took place. Some said that the source of the story were critics of the peace process in the Kabul government, as well as one the dissident groups within the Taliban, led by Mullah Rasool. “I find it so implausible that I think this story is fabricated,” said Michael Semple, a long-standing expert on the Taliban, adding that it would damage the reconciliation process. “If the government in Kabul still wants peace talks, they should avoid being seen as the source of stories like this.” The Taliban has, however, closely guarded the condition of its leader’s health before.

Mullah Mansour, the Taliban’s acting chief since 2010, was among a handful of people who knew that Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar had been dead for two years before the Afghan government announced it in July. That disclosure created a crisis over leadership that was only partly settled after a group of senior Taliban leaders formally elected Mullah Mansour as his successor. The decision has been challenged by several factions that now operate separately in the south and west of the country. The splintering of Taliban support derailed a nascent Pakistan-brokered peace process between the government and the militants aimed at ending Afghanistan’s long-running war. In the months that followed, the insurgency pressed an aggressive offensive across Afghanistan, prompting Kabul to call for Pakistan to go on the offensive against the Taliban instead of bringing them to the negotiating table.

Mullah Mansour is widely believed to be in favor of talks with the Afghan government. If the government’s claims are true, Mullah Mansour’s injury or death could put recent efforts to restart a peace process on hold. The leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan met earlier this week to discuss the matter of peace on the sidelines of a conference in Paris. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called the meeting, seen as a first step toward mending bilateral ties, “useful.” Afghanistan and Pakistan have long accused each other of sheltering Taliban militants, and repairing ties between the two countries is seen as essential to reviving stalled peace talks. The U.S. and China are actively supporting the process, and the Paris meeting had fostered early hope that talks with the Taliban could be resuscitated in the next few weeks.

Taliban Denies Claim Leader Wounded in Firefight

 

[FA_Q2]

One extremist for another - and they consider that a victory.

Asinine.