Fazlullah

March 18, 2024 | Bill Roggio |

Pakistani military, Afghan Taliban exchange fire along the border

The Afghan Taliban launched attacks across the border into Pakistan on Monday in response to Pakistani military airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan. The Pakistani military, which helped the Afghan Taliban...

April 22, 2021 | Thomas Joscelyn |

Pakistani Taliban claims suicide bombing in Quetta

Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (the TTP, or Pakistani Taliban) has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a luxury hotel in Quetta, Pakistan. The group has identified the terrorist responsible as...

August 14, 2019 | Bill Roggio |

Taliban promotes its ‘Preparation for Jihad’

1) From Taliban’s new ‘Preparation for Jihad’ video: Taliban fighters going through obstacle course, reminiscent if al Qaeda training camp videos. Note the Taliban fighters are wearing...

June 23, 2019 | Thomas Joscelyn |

Al Qaeda growing stronger under Taliban’s umbrella, UN finds

[caption id="attachment_95422" align="alignnone" width="1024"]...

January 13, 2015 | Bill Roggio The Long War Journal

US Adds Mullah Fazlullah to List of Global Terrorists

The US government has added Mullah Fazlullah, the emir of the fractured Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, to its list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists today. Fazlullah, who a...

November 8, 2013 | Bill Roggio FDD Policy Brief

The Pakistani Taliban Appoints a New Leader

The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, an al Qaeda-linked group that has fought a brutal insurgency in Pakistan since 2007, named a new leader yesterday. The announcement came just six days aft...

February 19, 2013 | Bill Roggio The Long War Journal

Former Taliban Emir Faqir Mohammed Reported Captured by Afghan Intel

Faqir Mohammed, the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan's former deputy emir and a previous leader in Bajaur, is reported to have been captured by Afghan intelligence officials along the Afg...

February 1, 2013 | Bill Roggio The Long War Journal

Sidelined Pakistani Taliban Commander Back in Good Graces

Faqir Mohammed, the former emir in Bajaur of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, has returned to the fold after his dismissal a year ago for conducting negotiations with the Pakistani govern...

December 19, 2012 | Bill Roggio The Long War Journal

Taliban Target Polio Vaccination Program in Pakistan

The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan's top spokesman, Ihsanullah Ihsan, claimed credit for the wave of atta...

June 25, 2012 | Bill Roggio The Long War Journal

Taliban Behead 7 Pakistani Soldiers: Report

The Taliban claimed to have killed 17 Pakistani soldiers in an attack in the northern district of Upper Dir yesterday. Seven of the soldiers are reported to have been beheaded. Pakistani...

July 18, 2011 | The Long War Journal

Video of Brutal Taliban Execution of Pakistani Policemen Emerges

Co-authored by Bill Ardolino The Taliban videotaped the brutal execution of more than a dozen Pakistani policemen who were captured during last month's raid in a remote are...

June 15, 2011 | Weekly Standard

Descent into Appeasement

Pakistan's dangerous deals with terrorists.

July 14, 2010 | Mark Dubowitz |

Countering The Threat From Terrorist Media

The Long War against radical Islam is a war of ideas as much as a war of arms. Yet, for much of the past decade, the incitement and violent propaganda emanating from satellite television stations...

May 28, 2010 |

Nuristani Taliban commander denies Fazlullah killed

Munibullah.jpg

Mullah Munibullah, the Taliban's military commander for Nuristan province.

A top Taliban commander in eastern Afghanistan denied that a wanted Pakistani Taliban leader was killed in fighting in the region.

Mullah Munibullah, the Taliban's military commander for Nuristan, denied that Mullah Fazlullah, the Taliban leader of the district of Swat in Pakistan, was killed during clashes along the border region. Munibullah said that while Fazlullah had been in the region, he was no longer there and would not have led a military attack regardless.

"There is no truth in Afghan government claims and media reports that Maulana Fazlullah-led Pakistani Taliban attacked some posts of the Afghan army and police at Barg-e-Matal," Munibullah told The News. "I am military commander of Nuristan province and no such incident happened here."

"It is almost impossible for an outsider like Maulana Fazlullah to raise a group of 300 militants in Nuristan and attack security posts," Munibullah continued in his interview with The News. "Except us, no other Taliban group can operate here. We have stopped attacking the Afghan army and police here in Nuristan after the US forces vacated their outposts. We signed agreement with the local tribesmen in which we promised them we would not fight against local forces."

While Pakistani Taliban and al Qaeda and other jihadist groups often take shelter with and fight with the Nuristani Taliban, they do not typically lead operations in the region, US intelligence officials told The Long War Journal.

Afghan officials are now backing off initial claims that Fazlullah was killed in a clash with border police on May 25 along with six other fighters. Earlier that day, reports indicated that Fazlullah led a force estimated at between 300 and 500 Pakistani fighters in an assault on the district center in Barg-e-Matal. The Afghan police, backed by local Nuristanis, repelled the attack.

Fazlullah controlled Swat in northwestern Pakistan from 2007 until May 2009, when the Pakistani military ousted the Taliban from the region after the group encroached on districts near Islamabad.

In October 2009, Munibullah, along with Dost Mohammed, the shadow governor of Nuristan, led the Taliban and al Qaeda assault on Combat Outpost Keating in the Kamdesh district of Nuristan province. US troops withdrew from the base weeks later, allowing the Taliban to claim a propaganda victory.

Munibullah admitted during an interview in 2007 that his forces operate closely with al Qaeda and other Central Asian jihadist groups.

"We are all one now with a common enemy," Munibullah told NBC in the interview. "Everyone ' the Arabs, the Uzbeks, the Tajiks and the Chinese ' have all accepted Mullah Omar as the supreme leader and we all fight together."

May 27, 2010 | Bill Roggio The Long War Journal

Mullah Fazlullah reported killed in Afghanistan

An Afghan police commander claimed that his forces killed a top Pakistani Taliban leader during a clash in Nuristan province. The report has not been confirmed by US officials. M...

May 17, 2010 | Long War Journal

The Pakistani Taliban’s top leaders

After the failed car bomb attack in New York City's Times Square, the Pakistani Taliban have suddenly risen to the top of the list of concerns for Western intelligence and law enforcement of...

August 23, 2008 | Bill Roggio The Long War Journal

Taliban suicide bomber kills 17 in Pakistan’s Swat district

Map of the tribal areas and the Northwest Frontier Province. Hangu is the latest district to fall under Taliban control. The government signed peace agreements in the red agencies/...

August 7, 2008 | Bill Roggio The Long War Journal

Pakistani forces clash with Taliban in Bajaur

The Pakistani military and the Taliban battled in the northern tribal agency of Bajaur after security forces launched an attack. More than 25 extremists were...

July 30, 2008 | Bill Roggio The Long War Journal

Taliban, Pakistani Army clash in Swat

Map of Swat. Click map to view. The Pakistani Army claimed 48 Taliban fighters, including ten senior Swat leaders, were killed in a major battle in the settled district of the...

July 29, 2008 | Bill Roggio The Long War Journal

Taliban capture 25 Pakistani security personnel in Swat

Mullah Fazlullah. Click image to view the slideshow of the Taliban Leadership in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Taliban have struck again in Pakistan' s lawless Northwest...