[THEDIPLOMAT] Jani Khel district in eastern Afghanistan fell to the Taliban Friday night, with high casualties inflicted on Afghan cops. After several days of siege by Taliban forces and no resupply to besieged Afghan troops, the strategic district located in Paktia province collapsed."We were 90 people, and we had to fight against 1,200 Taliban," Jani Khel’s district governor told The New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
. "Twenty-seven of my men have been killed. At first, some of them were maimed and we brought them to the main road, but then a land mine went
kaboom!and they were killed. We killed 130 of the enemy."
Governor Abdul Rahman Solamal told Tolo News in a separate interview that 30 security forces were killed in the attack, and about 1,200 Taliban forces were involved in the operation.
Furthermore, provincial authorities believe the Taliban, specifically the Haqqani Network, were assisted by Pakistain’s Inter-Services Intelligence
...the Pak military
intelligenceagency that controls the military -- heads of ISI typically get promoted into the Chief of Army Staff position. It serves as a general command center for favored turban groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, tries to influence the politix of neighboring countries, and carries out a (usually) low-level war against India in Kashmir...
(ISI), the formidable spy network that many believe is responsible for Pakistain’s defense policy of strategic-depth -- the idea of destabilizing Afghanistan as a backdrop to an invasion by India.
The Haqqani Network, led by Sirajuddin Haqqani
...son of Pashtun warlord Jalaluddin Haqqani, still titular head of the Haqqani Network....
, is one of the most brutal networks in Afghanistan, associated with many high profile attacks in Afghanistan and Kabul
...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title
Most Evil Man in the Worldand didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either....
. The group is listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department, and so are three of its leaders. Its leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, was made the deputy leader of the Taliban by Haibatullah Akhundzada
...Deputy to Taliban supremo Mullah Akhtar Mansour...
, the group’s current supreme leader after a U.S.
The collapse of Jani Khel district has stoked fears that the Haqqani Network may utilize the region as a springboard for attacks in Kabul; moreover, the district’s geographic location offers strategic and tactical value to any force that controls it.
Located in eastern Afghanistan Paktia province, the district borders Khost province
... across the border from Miranshah, within commuting distance of Haqqani hangouts such as Datta Khel and probably within sight of Mordor. Khost is populated by six different tribes of Pashtuns, the largest probably being the Khostwal, from which it takes its name...
. Linking the two provinces is a key highway that leads from Khost to the scenic provincial capital of Gardez in Paktia. The fall of Jani Khel threatens to destabilize neighboring districts such as Jadran, Shwack, and Gardez, the collapse of which would provide the Haqqani Network access to move guns, money, supplies, and forces from tribal areas in Pakistain through the Khost-Gardez highway.