Return of the Arabs: Al-Qa`Ida's Current Military Role in the Afghan
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FEBRUARY 2008 . VOL 1 . ISSUE 3 Return of the Arabs: their positions with mortars, RPGs, Valley of eastern Afghanistan. In this machine guns and AK-47s. valley they fought with greater effect Al-Qa`ida’s Current against U.S. troops in 2002’s Operation Military Role in the While many media savvy Arab Anaconda, an asymmetric guerrilla Afghan Insurgency volunteers earned a reputation as fight that more closely resembled the “gucci jihadists” during the Soviet mujahidin’s skirmishes with Soviet period, some did move on to become heliborne Spetsnaz troops in the 1980s. By Brian Glyn Williams seasoned fighters. In the late 1990s, for example, Bin Ladin helped make the Following the mixed success of Shah- in the pashtun tribal belt, from Arab jihadist dream of fielding a bona i-Kot, the remaining Arab fighters the JDAM-blasted ruins of Usama bin fide Arab jund (army) come true when retreated over the border into Pakistan Ladin’s bombed out terrorist camp he formed the 055 International Brigade where they were given sanctuary by at Darunta near Jalalabad to the “red to fight against the Northern Alliance. major Taliban leaders such as Jalaladin zone” between the volatile provinces Based in Rishikor, a former Communist Haqqani, who had fought alongside of Khost and Paktia, local Afghans are base just outside Kabul, this foreign Arabs in the Khost area during the increasingly talking in concerned tones legion—which was often known as the 1980s. Up and coming middle-ranked about the return of the “Araban” or Ansars (Companions)—played a key role Taliban commanders, such as Baitullah “Ikhwanis,” as Arab fighters are known in the Taliban’s defense of Kabul against Mehsud and Nek Muhammad, also in Pashtu.1 Wealthy al-Qa`ida financiers Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah provided the Arabs and Islamic are said to be lurking in the distant Massoud, and in the Taliban conquests Movement of Uzbekistan jihadists with mountains distributing large sums of Northern Alliance General Rashid sanctuary in the Waziri tribal lands of of cash to Pashtun tribes on the other Dostum’s capital at Mazar-i-Sharif and North and South Waziristan. Another side of the Pakistani border, hardened Massoud’s capital of Taloqan. Pakistani tribal agency to the north, Arab fighters from Iraq are rumored to Bajaur, served as the third fallback area be training Pashtuns in the previously In addition to their activities as for retreating Arab fighters. Ominously, taboo tactic of suicide bombing and terrorists who attack “soft” civilian all three border agencies previously had al-Qa`ida leaders are reported to have targets, as seen in the case of the a history of serving as rear area staging an increasingly strong voice in the infamous Hamburg akhund (cell) that grounds for Arab and Afghan mujahidin Taliban shuras (councils) in Waziristan attacked the U.S. mainland on 9/11, al- during the 1980s jihad and they would and Quetta. If the rumors are true, it Qa`ida also had a fighting wing. This soon serve that role again. seems that al-Qa`ida is putting renewed branch was engaged in frontal combat, emphasis on galvanizing military often driving old Soviet-era tanks, Building a “Pyre for the Americans” resistance in a land that has tremendous utilizing light artillery and acting as While many in the West thought al- symbolism in jihadist circles as the shock troops for the Taliban in their Qa`ida was nearly finished in the original theater of action for the modern struggles with the Northern Alliance. aftermath of the toppling of the Taliban, jihad movement. Thousands of Arabs in Afghanistan the coalition had a difficult time killing actually fought under al-Qa`ida’s al- or capturing high-value targets such The following is a preliminary effort Raya (flag) in frontal combat from 1997- as Bin Ladin, Ayman al-Zawahiri to sift through these vague rumors and 2001. Arab fighters who were trained (who narrowly missed being killed reports in order to gain a clear picture in these camps bolstered the Taliban by a Hellfire missile strike in 2006) of al-Qa`ida’s actual role in a Taliban regime when it decided to confront the and a new generation of leaders who guerrilla war that has, to all outward U.S.-led coalition in the fall of 2001. were operating in the Pashtun tribal appearances, morphed into an Iraqi- In light of their well-known fervor, areas, such as charismatic commander style terrorist insurgency. it is not surprising that Arab fighters Abu Yahya al-Libi.2 The latter leader tenaciously held their positions in seemed to be most successful in running Precursors: Al-Qa`ida’s Field Army Taloqan, Kunduz, Kabul and Kandahar a media operation with al-Sahab In 1987, Usama bin Ladin proudly when the indigenous Taliban proved Media Production (The Clouds, which proclaimed that the somnolent Arab less inclined to fight to the death. refers to the cloud covered mountains youth living under the munafiq (apostate) of Afghanistan). It was this media governments of the Middle East could Yet, the technologically advanced operation that began to provide a unique come to his Ma`sada al-Ansar (Lion’s Americans were not the Soviets, and window into al-Qa`ida’s re-calibrated Den of the Companions, a tunnel base key al-Qa`ida military leaders Juma military operations in Afghanistan. built in the mountains of the Afghan Namangani (the military head of the 055 border province of Paktia) to fight International Brigade) and Muhammad While the media-savvy al-Qa`ida in Iraq for their honor and faith against the `Atif (al-Qa`ida’s military leader) leader Abu Mus`ab al-Zarqawi stole the “atheist infidels.” By all accounts, Bin were killed by precision-guided U.S. limelight from 2003-2005, by 2005 al- Ladin and his “Ansars” subsequently munitions in November 2001. With the Libi’s media service began to compete fought ferociously against Soviet Arab state-within-a-state in the Taliban with Iraqi insurgent webpages. Al-Libi Spetsnaz (Special Forces), defending Emirate of Afghanistan collapsing around them by December 2001, the 2 Although in December 2005 a senior operational plan- 1 Personal interviews, Pashtun tribal belt, April-May Arab Ansars withdrew from Kabul and ner, Abu Hamza Rabia, was killed in a Predator attack in 2007. Kandahar to the remote Shah-i-Kot North Waziristan. FEBRUARY 2008 . VOL 1 . ISSUE 3 began by posting a series of online videos 2007, they also featured images of Arab reports, al-Qa`ida is also running as that showed small numbers of Arabs fighters ambushing Pakistani soldiers many as 29 training camps in the region, carrying out attacks on “Christian kafirs in the mountains of Waziristan, and the albeit less elaborate than those found in (infidels) and puppet munafiq (apostate) Pakistani authorities began to suspect Afghanistan in the 1990s. Afghan army troops.” These included that Arabs were bolstering the Taliban such videos as “Pyre for the Americans insurgency in their country.7 The Arabs have also played a key role in in Afghanistan” and “The Winds of “al-Qa`idifying” the Taliban insurgency Paradise.”3 As in the previous jihad against the and importing the horror tactics of Soviets, the Arab fighters seemed much the Iraqi conflict to Afghanistan. Key Al-Libi’s propaganda films featured more concerned about photographing Taliban leaders, such as the recently combat footage of Arabs carrying out and filming themselves than their slain Mullah Dadullah, have claimed suicide bombings against U.S. soldiers, simple Afghan hosts, and this appears that they learned suicide bombing firing mortars at U.S. Forward Operating to be part of a calculated effort to recruit techniques from their Arab “brothers.”10 Bases (including one sequence that young men for the jihad in Afghanistan Al-Qa`ida has also distributed tutorial shows Arabs firing shells with the name and Pakistan. By 2007, jihadist jihadist videos throughout the Pashtun Zarqawi painted on them), using IEDs websites from Chechnya to Turkey regions that give instructions on how to against U.S. troops and ambushing U.S. to the Arab world began to feature build car bombs, IEDs and inspirational soldiers.4 According to the Arabic sub- recruitment ads calling on the “Lions “snuff film” images of U.S. troops being headings, these videos were filmed in of Islam” to come fight in Afghanistan. killed in Iraq. The first wave of suicide a series of Pashtun border provinces It appears that many heeded the call.8 bombings in Afghanistan seems to in Afghanistan ranging from Kunar This was especially true after the Anbar have been carried out by Arabs, and it Province in the north to Uruzgan and Awakening of anti-al-Qa`ida tribal appears clear that it was al-Qa`ida— Zabul in the south.5 In other words, leaders and General David Petraeus’ which has long had an emphasis on these were the very border provinces “surge strategy” made Iraq less istishhad (martyrdom) operations— where the first generation of Arab hospitable for foreign volunteers. that taught the local Taliban this Afghan volunteers (many of whom had alien tactic. Arabs such as Abu Yahya married local women, learned Pashtu Al-Qa`ida Adds an Edge to Taliban Insurgency al-Libi have also been influential in and settled in the region) had fought in Since 2002, one of al-Qa`ida’s main roles encouraging the technophobic Taliban the 1980s. has been diverting wealth from the Arab fundamentalists to create “Islamic Gulf States to funding the struggling Emirate of Afghanistan” online videos By 2006, a more developed al-Sahab Taliban.