1.

Taliban back on the offensive in Kunduz

By Bill Roggio | May 9, 2017 | admin@longwarjournal.org | @billroggio

The Taliban is making another push to take control of the northern Afghan city of Kunduz and has
taken one of Kunduz provinces seven districts during the past several days of fighting. The
province has been a focal point of Taliban operations for more than two years.

Taliban fighters overran Qala-i-Zals district center over the weekend and raised their flag over the
administrative complex on May 6 after what appeared to be minimal resistance by Afghan forces,
according to a video released by the jihadist group. There was little damage to the administrative
complex and Afghan forces and personnel based there appeared to have fled hastily.

Afghan officials admitted that Qala-i-Zal has fallen to the Taliban but state they will retake the
district center in the near future. Afghanistans interior minister claimed that five Taliban
commanders and 32 fighters were killed in airstrikes in the district the day after it fell, according to
Khaama Press.

Qala-i-Zal borders Tajikistan, and the taking of the district prompted the Taliban to attempt to
reassure neighboring countries that it is not interested in interfering with them.

Therefore we consider it opportune to once again reassure our neighbors that the aim of our
struggle is to liberate our land from foreign occupiers and established an Islamic government, a
statement released on Voice of Jihad on May 6 noted. We have no intention of meddling in others
affairs and nor will we allow others to interfere in our internal affairs.

In addition to the fighting in Qala-i-Zal, the Taliban is threatening to retake Khanabad district, and
has blocked the highway between the district and Kunduz City. The Taliban claimed it has killed 25
Afghan security personnel and destroyed 11 tanks, which are most likely armored vehicles. The
Taliban claims cannot be independently confirmed.

Prior to the renewed push to take Kunduz, the Taliban, in a statement released on March 26,
claimed it controls 60 percent or more of six of Kunduzs seven districts (the Taliban did not
provide an assessment of Kunduz district). According to the Taliban, 95 percent of Dasht-i-Archi
and Char Dara except for the district centers are Taliban controlled, plus 80 percent of
Khanabad including the district center is in the Talibans hands, while 70 percent of Qala-i-Zal
and Imam Sahib, and 60 percent of Aliabad is run by the Taliban.

While the Talibans claims of control are difficult to assess, FDDs Long War Journal has
determined them to be credible. Additionally, the Talibans claims are not that different from an
assessment form the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. [See Afghan
Taliban lists Percent of Country under the control of Mujahideen and Taliban controls or contests
40 percent of Afghan districts: SIGAR.]

Kunduz a key battlefield for Taliban

The Taliban has put significant effort and resources in its efforts to take control of the province.
Kunduz is far from what are often considered to be the center of the Taliban power: the southern
provinces of Helmand and Kandahar. The Taliban presence in Kunduz and other northern province
shatters the image of the Taliban as a southern power comprised of Pashtun nationalists. In Kunduz
and other northern provinces, the Taliban draws fighters from an array of ethnic groups.

Led by Mullah Abdul Salam, the previous shadow governor of Kunduz, the Taliban entered Kunduz
City twice in the past two years, fully controlling it for two weeks in the fall of 2015, and seizing
half the city for more than a week in October of 2016. US special forces and air power was brought
in to help Afghan forces retake the city

Kunduz City is the only major Afghan city to fall to the Taliban since US forces entered the country
in 2001.

The US killed Salam in an airstrike on Feb. 26 in Aliabad district. General John Nicholson, the
commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, called for the Taliban to reconcile with the
Afghan government while announcing Salams death, but the Taliban immediately dismissed his
call for peace.

Salam has not been forgotten by the Taliban. In its video on the capture of Qala-i-Zal, the Taliban
honored Salams contribution to the fight in Kunduz, and displayed his image as Taliban fighters
raised the groups flag over the district center.

2. Taliban parades large convoy in Sangin

By Bill Roggio | May 10, 2017 | admin@longwarjournal.org | @billroggio

The Taliban paraded a large convoy of fighters into the district center of Sangin in Helmand
province just one month after Resolute Support denied Afghan forces were defeated there. The
Taliban force operated openly in the daylight without fear of being targeted by US or Afghan
airstrikes.

The Taliban video, simply entitled Sangin, was released on Voice of Jihad on May 6. An English-
speaking Taliban member narrated the video. When shown, his face is blotted out. According to the
Taliban, the video contains information about the strategic district of Sangin, its conquest by the
Mujahideen of Islamic Emirate, barbarity by the foreign forces and the hirelings [Afghan security
forces] and the reopening of the bazaar on the first day of the new blessed campaign Operation
Mansouri.

The video showed scores of vehicles, including several US-made Humvees, laden with Taliban
fighters entering Sangins district center. The Taliban fighters were greeted by hundreds if not
thousands of Afghans, while Taliban flags waved throughout the town. A large banner announcing
Operation Mansouri, the groups newly announced spring offensive, is hanging at the entrance to
the town.

According to the Taliban, key buildings in the town, including a hospital, were destroyed during US
airstrikes on March 22. The Taliban claimed it rebuilt and reopened the bazaar for the
commencement of Operation Mansouri, which was announced on April 28.

The Taliban seized Sangins district center on March 22 after surrounding it for several months, and
hailed its capture as an important victory. US and Afghan warplanes bombed Sangins district center
after airlifting the remaining forces during the dead of night.

Resolute Support, NATOs mission in Afghanistan, denied that the Taliban overran Sangin, and
instead claimed it relocated the district center several kilometers from the original site. In a
statement that clumsily attempted to salvage the loss of Sangins district center, Resolute Support
said that the only thing they left to the Taliban is rubble and dirt.

The Taliban video told a different story. While some buildings appeared heavily damaged, and the
Taliban attempted to use this damage as propaganda to portray the barbarity of US and Afghan
forces, much of Sangin remained intact.

Additionally, the Taliban video showed that more than a month after Afghan forces lost Sangin, and
despite the relocation of the new district center just kilometers away, the Taliban can still flaunt a
large force with little fear of reprisal.

3. Afghan forces, Taliban battle for control of Kunar

By Bill Roggio | May 18, 2017 | admin@longwarjournal.org | @billroggio

Afghan security forces claimed to have beaten back a Taliban assault on several districts in the
remote northeastern province of Kunar, while the Taliban said it launched a full-scale operation
that was successful.

The Taliban began its assault on the districts on the evening of May 15. The Afghan military
claimed it killed 22 Taliban fighters and wounded five more, while suffering no casualties of its
own. The military also said it had repelled the jihadists attacks on security posts located in Shegal,
Watapur, Chapadara, Marwara district and several other areas, Khaama Press reported.

In a statement released on Voice of Jihad, the Taliban boasted that it killed as many as 22 puppets,
or Afghan security personnel, and wounded a large number of them during a full-scale operation
in eastern Kunar province. The Taliban claimed that five of its fighters were killed and three more
were wounded. According to the Taliban, it targeted military units, bases as well as government
facilities in the provincial capital of Kunar province and other district [sic].

The Taliban maintains a significant presence in Kunar, and routinely overruns district centers such
as Marawara and Dangam. As of late March, the Taliban did not claim full control of any of Kunars
15 districts, but did say it controlled 80 percent of Marawara, Khas Kunar, Sarkano, Shegal,
Dangam, Asmar, Nari, Nurgul, Tsukai, Narang, Watapur and Chapa Dara, and 20 percent of the
provincial capital of Asadabad. FDDs Long War Journal has assessed the Talibans claim of
territorial control to be credible.

Withdrawal from Kunar fed the Taliban insurgency

Kunar province has remained both a battleground and a haven for the Taliban and allied jihadist
groups such as al Qaeda, Laskhar-e-Taiba, and Jamaat ul Dawa al Quran since US forces withdrew
from the province in 2010. US government designations of Laskhar-e-Taiba and Jamaat ul Dawa al
Quran operatives indicate that these two groups maintain training camps in Kunar to this day.

The US withdrawal from Kunar in 2010, which took place as US forces were surging in
Afghanistan in an effort to defeat the Taliban, was influenced by a July 2009 report by the Institute
for the Study of War (ISW), entitled Kunar and Nuristan, Rethinking U.S. Counterinsurgency
Operations.

In the report, ISW claimed that the US presence in Kunars remote valleys, and not the jihadists
based there, was driving the insurgency, which was being carried out by locals.

The presence of US forces in the Korengal generates violence and undermines US efforts to bring
stability and security, according to the reports summary. The resistance in this area is confined to
locals in the valley. It does not accelerate the insurgency beyond the valley.
However, this premise was quickly disproved as US forces withdrew from remote areas such as the
Korengal and Pech valleys. The Taliban and allied forces began to assault military bases and district
centers throughout the province. Following the American withdrawal, the US killed numerous al
Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba leaders and fighters in airstrikes throughout Kunar, including in areas
where ISW claimed that the insurgency was driven by local Afghans.

Additionally, the ISW report gave weight to the idea that the remote districts in Afghanistan are not
as important as the population centers.

Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan requires less interdiction on the borders and greater security in
the population centers, the ISW summary noted. During the surge, the US followed this approach,
and focused its efforts on key areas, primarily in southern Afghanistan, while leaving the Taliban
alone in more remote districts (for instance, the district of Baghran in Helmand remained under
Taliban control even as US forces flooded the province).

The Afghan and US militaries have placed an emphasis on securing population centers at the
expense of ceding control of remote districts to the Taliban. In its most recent report, the Special
Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) noted that the the Afghan military is
placing less emphasis on less vital areas. Previously, the US military justified the loss of territory
to the Taliban by claiming the Afghan governments new Sustainable Security Strategy calls for
abandoning districts that are not important.

The Taliban, on the other hand, has said that it relies on its bases in the remote districts to put
pressure on Afghanistans more populous districts. [See FDDs Long War Journal reports, Taliban
seizes a district in Uruzgan, and Capturing Sangin an important victory, Taliban says]

The result of the Afghan and US strategy is that, according to SIGAR, 40 percent of Afghanistans
districts are controlled or contested by the Taliban. The Taliban claims it controls or contests 50
percent of the country.

4. Taliban parades large convoy in Sangin

By Bill Roggio | May 10, 2017 | admin@longwarjournal.org | @billroggio

The Taliban paraded a large convoy of fighters into the district center of Sangin in Helmand
province just one month after Resolute Support denied Afghan forces were defeated there. The
Taliban force operated openly in the daylight without fear of being targeted by US or Afghan
airstrikes.

The Taliban video, simply entitled Sangin, was released on Voice of Jihad on May 6. An English-
speaking Taliban member narrated the video. When shown, his face is blotted out. According to the
Taliban, the video contains information about the strategic district of Sangin, its conquest by the
Mujahideen of Islamic Emirate, barbarity by the foreign forces and the hirelings [Afghan security
forces] and the reopening of the bazaar on the first day of the new blessed campaign Operation
Mansouri.

The video showed scores of vehicles, including several US-made Humvees, laden with Taliban
fighters entering Sangins district center. The Taliban fighters were greeted by hundreds if not
thousands of Afghans, while Taliban flags waved throughout the town. A large banner announcing
Operation Mansouri, the groups newly announced spring offensive, is hanging at the entrance to
the town.
According to the Taliban, key buildings in the town, including a hospital, were destroyed during US
airstrikes on March 22. The Taliban claimed it rebuilt and reopened the bazaar for the
commencement of Operation Mansouri, which was announced on April 28.

The Taliban seized Sangins district center on March 22 after surrounding it for several months, and
hailed its capture as an important victory. US and Afghan warplanes bombed Sangins district center
after airlifting the remaining forces during the dead of night.

Resolute Support, NATOs mission in Afghanistan, denied that the Taliban overran Sangin, and
instead claimed it relocated the district center several kilometers from the original site. In a
statement that clumsily attempted to salvage the loss of Sangins district center, Resolute Support
said that the only thing they left to the Taliban is rubble and dirt.

The Taliban video told a different story. While some buildings appeared heavily damaged, and the
Taliban attempted to use this damage as propaganda to portray the barbarity of US and Afghan
forces, much of Sangin remained intact.

Additionally, the Taliban video showed that more than a month after Afghan forces lost Sangin, and
despite the relocation of the new district center just kilometers away, the Taliban can still flaunt a
large force with little fear of reprisal.

For more information the Taliban takeover of Sangin, see the following reports from FDDs Long
War Journal: Taliban takes key district in Helmand province, Resolute Support spins loss of Sangin
district center as a victory, and Capturing Sangin an important victory, Taliban says

6.