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Afghanistan
Taliban, al-Qaeda Seek to Work Together to Enhance Military Strength
2016-05-07
Brigadier General Charles Cleveland, a spokesman for the NATO-led Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan has said that the Taliban are trying to enhance cooperation with the al-Qaeda network in a bid to improve their military capabilities.

It appears that the Taliban's push for expansion of ties with al-Qaeda has raised major concerns among Afghanistan's strategic partners including the U.S and NATO alliance.

The U.S army officials have said that although al-Qaeda itself is not a major threat to the Afghan government, a Taliban affiliation with the terror network could lead to more danger for the Afghan government.

"There is still an al-Qaeda presence here in Afghanistan. As you probably are well aware there are two components of al-Qaeda. There is first a core of al-Qaeda in some places in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region with Ayman Alzawahiri still really running their global operations and then there is new franchise of al-Qaeda on the Indian sub-continent or AQIS. We think both of those elements do have some type of presence here in Afghanistan," said Cleveland.‎

When asked whether al-Qaeda was a threat, Cleveland said that NATO does not think they can pose a significant threat to the government of Afghanistan, but their work with the Taliban is a threat.

"By themselves we don't think that they pose a real threat a real significant threat to the government of Afghanistan. But because we think that al-Qaeda is beginning to work more with the Taliban, so they can provide capabilities, skills and those types of things," he said.

"We have seen more in action, we have seen them working more together. But the real thing and the real reason why we continue to watch al-Qaeda is I think we have all seen before. Although they have been significantly diminished, they do have the ability to regenerate very quickly and still they do have the ability to pose a threat," he added.

Meanwhile, a number of Afghan analysts have played down the threat.

"Taliban want to use al-Qaeda's military tactics and methods and expand their guerrilla war, but Taliban will not reach to their targets, because al-Qaeda has significantly weakened after the killing of Bin Laden and also the Afghan security forces have improved considerably," security analyst Hamid Obaidi said.

Pentagon statistics show that up to 100 al-Qaeda members are still operational in Afghanistan.
Posted by:badanov

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