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Two senior Afghan Taliban commanders were killed in recent days in Pakistan, in what the insurgent group suspects is an unfolding cross-border assassination campaign run by Kabul's security operatives.
The killings, in the volatile western city of Quetta, could demonstrate a new capability of Afghan security forces to work inside Pakistani territory. They could also further complicate efforts to persuade the insurgent group to enter peace talks.
Some Taliban figures accused the Afghan intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security, or NDS, of being behind the killings. However, some Afghan Taliban commanders inside Pakistan said they believed the powerful police chief of Afghanistan's Kandahar province, Brig. Gen. Abdul Razzik, had organized a group of assassins to target them.
Enlarge Image
Afghan security personnel at the scene of a Jan. 4 attack in Nangarhar province Six Taliban suicide attackers launched an assault on a joint Afghan-NATO base in the east of Afghanistan, killing one NATO soldier during a prolonged firefight, officials said. omar gul/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Gen. Razzik's spokesman declined to comment on the Quetta killings.
A senior Afghan intelligence official also declined to confirm or deny the involvement of Afghan security forces in the killing of the two Taliban leaders.
"The war is now shifting to the Afghan leadership," he added, however.
Another Afghan intelligence official said the deaths were the result of internal rifts within the Taliban movement.
"We wouldn't do something that would hurt the peace process and our government's policies," he said.
That process hasn't precluded direct attacks. The Taliban have frequently assassinated senior Afghan government officials. In late 2012, a Taliban suicide bomber severely injured the then head of the NDS. Gen. Razzik, too, has survived Taliban assassination attempts.
The killings in Quetta, which is near the border with Kandahar province, follow November's unexplained assassination in Islamabad of Nasiruddin Haqqani, a top leader of the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network.
Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's Baluchistan province, became known as the home of the Afghan Taliban's leadership, allegedly with Pakistani support, after the Taliban regime was toppled by the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. The Taliban's top decision-making body is often referred to as the "Quetta Shura."
Senior Afghan Taliban commander Noorullah Hotak was gunned down in Quetta on Dec. 26, according to the Afghan Taliban. This was followed on Dec. 29 by the shooting in the same city of Mullah Abdul Malik, also known as Baryalai, along with two guards, Taliban officials said.
Pakistani officials haven't confirmed or commented on the killings in Quetta. "I am unaware of this," Baluchistan's chief minister, Abdul Malik Baloch, said on Sunday.
Quetta city police chief Abdul Razzaq Cheema didn't respond to calls seeking comment.
Two Afghan Taliban commanders said that the insurgent group had captured six members of the assassination ring targeting them in Pakistan. They alleged that, under interrogation, the detainees confessed to being part of a special cell created by Gen. Razzik.
"The group was also assigned to monitor our movement and collect information about our whereabouts in Baluchistan," said one of the Taliban commanders. "The detainees told us that they are awarded 500,000 rupees [about $4,750] after a target is eliminated."
Taliban attacks, meanwhile, continued across Afghanistan this weekend.
In the first combat death of 2014, an American soldier was killed on Saturday by a suicide bomber in the eastern province of Nangarhar. The Taliban attack, which targeted a joint U.S.-Afghan base, triggered a clearing operation in the area, a provincial spokesman said.
Later Saturday, two explosions shook Kabul, a reminder that the capital remains a prime target. The Taliban claimed responsibility for a blast that took place near the entrance of a coalition base in central Kabul, despite the many layers of security around it. An hour earlier, a bomb exploded near a police station. Both explosions were small and no one was hurt, coalition and Afghan officials said.
Two senior Afghan Taliban commanders were killed in recent days in Pakistan, in what the insurgent group suspects is an unfolding cross-border assassination campaign run by Kabul's security operatives.
The killings, in the volatile western city of Quetta, could demonstrate a new capability of Afghan security forces to work inside Pakistani territory. They could also further complicate efforts to persuade the insurgent group to enter peace talks.
Some Taliban figures accused the Afghan intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security, or NDS, of being behind the killings. However, some Afghan Taliban commanders inside Pakistan said they believed the powerful police chief of Afghanistan's Kandahar province, Brig. Gen. Abdul Razzik, had organized a group of assassins to target them.
Enlarge Image
Afghan security personnel at the scene of a Jan. 4 attack in Nangarhar province Six Taliban suicide attackers launched an assault on a joint Afghan-NATO base in the east of Afghanistan, killing one NATO soldier during a prolonged firefight, officials said. omar gul/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Gen. Razzik's spokesman declined to comment on the Quetta killings.
A senior Afghan intelligence official also declined to confirm or deny the involvement of Afghan security forces in the killing of the two Taliban leaders.
"The war is now shifting to the Afghan leadership," he added, however.
Another Afghan intelligence official said the deaths were the result of internal rifts within the Taliban movement.
"We wouldn't do something that would hurt the peace process and our government's policies," he said.
That process hasn't precluded direct attacks. The Taliban have frequently assassinated senior Afghan government officials. In late 2012, a Taliban suicide bomber severely injured the then head of the NDS. Gen. Razzik, too, has survived Taliban assassination attempts.
The killings in Quetta, which is near the border with Kandahar province, follow November's unexplained assassination in Islamabad of Nasiruddin Haqqani, a top leader of the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network.
Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's Baluchistan province, became known as the home of the Afghan Taliban's leadership, allegedly with Pakistani support, after the Taliban regime was toppled by the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. The Taliban's top decision-making body is often referred to as the "Quetta Shura."
Senior Afghan Taliban commander Noorullah Hotak was gunned down in Quetta on Dec. 26, according to the Afghan Taliban. This was followed on Dec. 29 by the shooting in the same city of Mullah Abdul Malik, also known as Baryalai, along with two guards, Taliban officials said.
Pakistani officials haven't confirmed or commented on the killings in Quetta. "I am unaware of this," Baluchistan's chief minister, Abdul Malik Baloch, said on Sunday.
Quetta city police chief Abdul Razzaq Cheema didn't respond to calls seeking comment.
Two Afghan Taliban commanders said that the insurgent group had captured six members of the assassination ring targeting them in Pakistan. They alleged that, under interrogation, the detainees confessed to being part of a special cell created by Gen. Razzik.
"The group was also assigned to monitor our movement and collect information about our whereabouts in Baluchistan," said one of the Taliban commanders. "The detainees told us that they are awarded 500,000 rupees [about $4,750] after a target is eliminated."
Taliban attacks, meanwhile, continued across Afghanistan this weekend.
In the first combat death of 2014, an American soldier was killed on Saturday by a suicide bomber in the eastern province of Nangarhar. The Taliban attack, which targeted a joint U.S.-Afghan base, triggered a clearing operation in the area, a provincial spokesman said.
Later Saturday, two explosions shook Kabul, a reminder that the capital remains a prime target. The Taliban claimed responsibility for a blast that took place near the entrance of a coalition base in central Kabul, despite the many layers of security around it. An hour earlier, a bomb exploded near a police station. Both explosions were small and no one was hurt, coalition and Afghan officials said.
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