Taliban kill up to 15 police

The Taliban are stepping up their summer offensive, launched in late April, amid a bitter leadership dispute following the announcement of the death of longtime supremo Mullah Omar.

In June, Al-Qaeda’s American mouthpiece said atrocities being perpetrated by IS were utterly unspeakable, and would prevent perpetrators from entering “paradise” if they continued to sin against their Muslim brothers and sisters.

“We are telling them they can not survive as a militant force, and have to sit at the table with other Afghan stakeholders to resolve their differences politically”, the spokesman said. “The incidents of the past two months in general and the recent days in particular show that suicide training camps and bomb making facilities used to target and murder our innocent people still operate, as in the past, in Pakistan”. Since the spring, for instance, the Taliban have maintained an offensive in north Afghanistan, targeting especially Kunduz province.

But Pakistan clearly wants to control the reconciliation process and retain its influence over the Taliban. A tiny faction such as Fidai Mahaz poses no military threat to the Taliban, but such groups are spreading propaganda – including a claim that Omar was poisoned – that could further undermine insurgency unity.

With the death of Mullah Omar confirmed, a debate has started regarding the likely ramifications of his demise. Now we know why. We will have to wait and see what the long-term impact will be.

One encouraging sign is the changing stance of Pakistan’s religious right towards peace talks, which echoes the thinking of a security establishment that for years supported the insurgency but is now pushing hard for a negotiated end to the conflict. On the other hand, if the contest persists, then it is possible that the Taliban may fragment. “It could be integration into the official government power structure, it could be a tacit or explicit arrangement giving the Taliban ruling power in some parts of the country, for example”.

It is hard to say. But I couldn’t say that for certain.

Kerry and Ghani talked about the terrorist attacks, the issue of the safe havens and of the need for both countries to continue to work at this to try to eliminate those safe havens, Kirby said. The string of attacks had the Haqqani terrorist network written virtually all over it. And we also hear continuing criticism related to logistical difficulties and intelligence failures. Seeing the situation within the Taliban, some of the bigwigs in the Afghan security establishment might just consider torpedoing peace talks with the Taliban. Most Afghans were fed up with the decades of violence. It’s less palatable for ordinary Afghans. McCain, who is chairman of the US Senate Armed Services Committee, asserts that a significantly larger worldwide force is needed to help repel the Taliban, and has warned that Afghanistan risks becoming destabilised in what he called the “same movie” we have seen in Iraq. There is no alternative.

Khan Jan Alakozay, Vice President of the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries, supported the move to boycott Pakistani products but warned against it being merely sentimental. In an interview with The Guardian, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai – said that the country’s historic struggles against British imperialism and Soviet invasion will have been in vain if it succumbs to pressure from Pakistan.

Kabul has frequently been targeted by the Taliban and other insurgent groups seeking to destabilise the fragile government of President Ashraf Ghani, although the scale of the latest attacks was unusually large.

From the time that the Taliban conquered Kabul and took over most of Afhanistan in 1996, Mullah Muhammad Omar Mansoor was the man who ran the show and was effectively the head of state. The political views expressed in Afghanistan over the past week have reflected outrage at the increased levels of violence.