Mullah claims Taliban, Iraqi jihadists sharing fighters, intel

While any claim by Mullah Dadullah is worth taking with a grain of salt, the appearance of Iraq-style tactics in Afghanistan lends credence to the idea of a somewhat organized exchange. "Afghan Taliban says sending fighters to Iraq: TV," from Reuters:

DUBAI (Reuters) - A senior Taliban commander said in remarks broadcast on Friday that the Afghan Islamist group was sending fighters to Iraq to support anti-U.S. insurgents.

"Whenever there is a chance the (Afghanistan-based holy fighters) mujahideen travel to Iraq and the opposite is also true," Mullah Dadullah told Al Jazeera television in an interview.

"We have very strong relations with the mujahideen in Iraq. The mujahideen stay in Iraq for a month for example then they come here," he added in remarks dubbed in Arabic. "We also share intelligence."

"Travel from and to Iraq is at a peak currently ... if any mujahid wants to carry out an operation in Iraq he can travel."

Several Sunni Muslim groups including a wing of al Qaeda, which is allied to the Taliban, have been fighting U.S.-led and Iraqi government forces in Iraq.

[...]

Dadullah was speaking to a Jazeera correspondent outdoors interview with heavily armed bodyguards nearby.

Dadullah said the Taliban has obtained weapons but did not say from where, adding that the group was making its own weapons when necessary.

"The Taliban today is not the same as the Taliban of five years ago," he said.

NATO, the United States and the Taliban are promising spring offensives in what they and analysts regard a crunch year in a country still in crisis more than five years after the Taliban's fall.

Posted by Marisol at March 3, 2007 6:49 AM
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