...the Pashtun equivalent of men...and al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan, accused of carrying out bombing and suicide kabooms across the country.
Baryal and the bully boyz he oversaw were "involved in the supervision of IED [improvised bomb] production, suicide personnel allocation, and overall attack planning and execution" in Kabul and surrounding provinces, according to U.S. military reports.
In November 2021, two months after U.S. and NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
forces withdrew from Afghanistan, the Taliban appointed Baryal as the governor of Kabul province. In March 2022, he became the provincial governor for Kapisa province, northeast of Kabul.
Baryal is among those listed in a recent United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
report as one of the Taliban’s leaders "affiliated" with al-Qaeda. Besides Baryal, Nuristan Governor Hafiz Muhammad Agha Hakeem and Tajmir Jawad, the Taliban’s deputy director of intelligence, are also listed in the report.
"With the patronage of the Taliban, al-Qaeda members have received appointments and advisory roles in the Taliban security and administrative structures," the U.N. Security Council’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team said in the report earlier in June. It called relations between the Taliban and al-Qaeda "strong and symbiotic."
According to the report, an estimated 400 al-Qaeda gunnies were in Afghanistan, and there are signs that the terrorist group "is rebuilding operational capability."
The Taliban rejected the report, calling it "biased and far from reality."
U.S. officials have long expressed skepticism over Taliban claims that they have distanced themselves from al-Qaeda. When a U.S. drone killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri
...Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as
the real brains of the outfit.Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area assuming he's not dead like Mullah Omar. He lost major face when he ordered the nascent Islamic State to cease and desist and merge with the orthodox al-Qaeda spring, al-Nusra...
last July, he was found living in a home in a central neighborhood of the capital, Kabul.
The U.S. said his presence there demonstrated the Taliban had broken the 2020 Doha Agreement signed by the U.S. and the Taiban. By hosting and sheltering the al-Qaeda leader, the Taliban violated commitments to not allow bully boyz in Afghan territory threaten the security of other countries.
The Taliban "will send a clear message that those who pose a threat to the security of the United States and its allies have no place in Afghanistan," the agreement stated.
Bill Roggio, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told VOA that by appointing "double-hatted" al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders, including Baryal, who killed American troops, the Taliban "are openly flouting" the so-called peace agreement.
These appointments show that the Taliban "are not concerned about the perception of the international community," Roggio said.
He said the Taliban "always lied" about their ties with al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, and that the group’s statements cannot be "trusted."
Roggio said Afghanistan could again become a training hub for the terrorist group.
"This is everything that al-Qaeda can hope for. They have safe haven. They have support from the Taliban, who are in full control of the country," he said.
But some experts do not think the country is becoming a magnet for imported muscle.
Sami Yousafzai, a journalist who covered Afghanistan for years, told VOA he believes al-Qaeda members now in Afghanistan are mainly Arabs, with just a few Afghan Taliban members who joined "out of necessity."
"They had contacts with al-Qaeda since they were living there, and they were protecting al-Qaeda as they paid them," he said.
Other regional experts say the region’s long military conflict between the Taliban and U.S.-led forces created loose alliances among regional militia groups.
Rahmatullah Andar, the former front man for Afghanistan’s National Security Council, told VOA that the Taliban groups in the districts have been hosting al-Qaeda members for more than 20 years.
"Therefore, it is difficult to separate them. Not only with al-Qaeda but also with the Pak Taliban," he said.
Andar added that some Afghans were working with al-Qaeda, but there were also some who were group members.
"They have the same worldview, the same goals and the same approach," he said.
Back in Afghanistan’s Kapisa province, Baryal now posts Facebook videos showing his outreach to the local community as the Taliban government’s official representative.