A special operations team of coalition and Afghan officials captured a senior Taliban leader in Afghanistan’s north who served as a liaison to the Peshawar Shura, one of the Taliban’s four military councils.
The special operations force captured the Taliban leader, who was not named, and two associates during a raid in the Aliabad district in Kunduz province on May 16, according to an International Security Assistance Force press release.
In addition to serving as a liaison to the Peshawar Shura, he “also served as a facilitator for the Nuristan Taliban shadow governor and organized the transportation of weapons, foreign fighters and suicide bombers for attacks throughout the region,” ISAF stated. ISAF often uses the term “foreign fighters” to describe al Qaeda and other terror groups such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which is also active in northern Afghanistan.
Dost Mohammed serves as the Taliban’s shadow governor for Nuristan. He is one of the most wanted Taliban commanders in Afghanistan, and has organised mass assaults on US bases in the province. In one such attack in October 2009, on Camp Keating, Dost’s fighters, backed by al Qaeda and other foreign militants, overran a portion of the base and killed nine US soldiers.
The Peshawar Regional Military Shura, one of the Afghan Taliban’s four major commands, directs activities in northern and northeastern Afghanistan. Sheikh Mohammed Aminullah is thought to currently lead the Peshawar Shura. Aminullah, who is also known as Fazeel-a-Tul Shaykh Abu Mohammed Ameen al Peshawari, replaced Abdul Latif Mansur sometime in early 2011.
Aminullah is closely tied to al Qaeda. According to the United Nations Sanctions Committee, which added Aminullah to its list in 2009, he runs the Ganj Madrassa, or religious school, which he has used to recruit and provide support for al Qaeda. Aminullah also furnished suicide vests to al Qaeda and Taliban suicide bombers, and paid the families of the terror groups’ so-called martyrs.
Three of the Taliban’s four regional councils are now run by leaders who are closely linked to al Qaeda.
Siraj Haqqani, the son of Jalaluddin Haqqani and operational commander of the Haqqani Network, commands the Miramshah Regional Military Shura. Siraj directs activities in southeastern Afghanistan, including the provinces of Paktika, Paktia, Khost, Logar, and Wardak. The group has recently expanded its operations into the capital city, Kabul, and in Kandahar province. The Haqqanis shelter and support al Qaeda leaders and fighters from Haqqani bases across the border in the Miramshah area of North Waziristan, Pakistan, a report in the Long War Journal said on Sunday.
Mullah Adbul Qayoum Zakir leads the Gerdi Jangal Regional Military Shura, which directs operations in Helmand and Nimroz provinces.