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Al-Qaeda Plans to Reignite Partnership With Taliban
And by reignite, they don't mean windy walks and candlelit dinners.The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has said that al-Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan are plotting to reunite with the Taliban for a comeback. The al-Qaeda affiliates by seeking partnership with the Taliban are trying to remain safe from U.S air strikes and to share rare terror tactics with the Taliban fighters, said a NATO official. However, the official said that al-Qaeda fighters and their backers will not be safe from Afghan security forces and their NATO counterparts. In the wake of NATO's concerns about the security situation in Afghanistan, the alliance however has called for continued international support to local forces to thwart threats. NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg has said that the alliance is committed to overcoming the ongoing challenges in Afghanistan that threatens the nation's stability. "What we do in Afghanistan ...what we are aiming at doing more often and that is to project stability not by deploying NATO forces into combat operations, but by projecting stability by training local forces," said NATO chief Stoltenberg. Apparently the US and NATO forces are concerned about a resurgence of al-Qaeda operatives and the Taliban. "We think that they have tried to become closer to the Taliban, primarily because they recognize that if the Taliban can carve out some space, then al-Qaeda can move in under the Taliban and they have got some freedom from U.S strikes, they have got the freedom and the ability to plan that type of thing," said Brig. Gen. Charles Cleveland, deputy chief of staff for communications for Operation Resolute Support, the NATO mission in Afghanistan. "We don't think that the Taliban would have cut their ties with other terrorist groups, they are already in touch with al-Qaeda, Haqqani network and other groups," MoI spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said. Meanwhile, a number of political analysts have said that sidelining the security threats in Afghanistan by the world community would have repercussions in future and Afghanistan must reassess its partnership with the world. NATO statistics reveal that a number of al-Qaeda affiliates are present in Kunar, Paktika, Paktia and Kandahar provinces, but they are not able to launch major attacks on the west. This comes at a time that the Afghan security forces are struggling against the Taliban and other terrorist groups on multiple fronts with the Afghan officials persistently asking international partners to leverage the process of mobilizing a strong and capable air power and deliver more weapons to the army of Afghanistan to battle the insurgents effectively on the battlefields. Posted by: badanov 2016-06-04 |
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