High Council of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan | |
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د افغانستان اسلامي امارت عالي شوری | |
Jihadist flag, which was used by the group multiple times Flag of the Taliban, which the group split from | |
Leader |
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Foundation | 2015 |
Dissolved | 2021 |
Split from | ![]() |
Allegiance | ![]() |
Active regions | Afghanistan |
Ideology | Jihadism Pro-Islamic State (alleged, until 2021) |
Size | 3,000–3,500 [4] |
Part of | ![]() |
Allies | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Opponents |
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Battles and wars | War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) Islamic State–Taliban conflict |
High Council of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (HCIEA) [10] [8] [9] (Pashto : دٙ اَفغانِستان اِسلامي اِمارَت عالي شوریٰ, romanized: Də Afġānistān Islāmī Imārat Ālī Šūrā ; Dari : شُورٰایِ عٰالئِ اِمٰارَتِ اِسلٰامئِ اَفغٰانِستٰان, romanized: Šūrā-yi Ālī-yi Imārat-i Islāmī-yi Afġānistān) was a breakaway Taliban faction active in Afghanistan since 2015. The faction broke away from the Taliban in 2015 following the appointment of Akhtar Mansour as the leader of the Taliban [4] and elected Muhammad Rasul as its leader. [11] The faction was involved in deadly clashes with mainstream Taliban in southern and western Afghanistan, leaving scores of dead on both sides. [10] The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan allegedly provided financial and military support to the faction, however, both the Islamic Republic and the faction denied this. [5] [6] Following the Taliban offensive of 2021 and the fall of Afghanistan to Taliban forces, the group dissolved, and its leaders pledged allegiance to the new government. [12] [13]
In 2015, Akhtar Mansour was appointed as the leader of the Taliban. However, Mansour's claim to the leadership was rejected by some among the Taliban ranks. [14] Dissidents within the Taliban, particularly from the Nurzai tribe, unhappy with the appointment of Mansour as the new chief, formed a breakaway faction and elected Muhammad Rasul as its leader. [8] The faction was named High Council of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan by its newly elected leader. Abdul Manan Niazi, Mansoor Dadullah and Shir Mohammad Akhundzada were appointed to deputies on military affairs and Mullah Baz Mohammad Haris was appointed deputy for political affairs of the faction. [11] The same year, clashes broke out between the Taliban faction and mainstream Taliban in Zabul province. Mohmand Nostrayar, governor of Arghandab, and a Taliban commander in Zabul said that Islamic State militants had joined forces with Rasul's faction in southern Afghanistan. [15] Mansour responded by sending as many as 450 Taliban fighters to crush Mullah Dadullah, a deputy in Rasul's faction, and Islamic State element in Zabul. Dadullah and IS were eventually defeated by Mansour's forces. [16] Mohmand Nostrayar said the fighting took place in three districts of Zabul province and 86 IS militants and fighters loyal to Dadullah were killed in the clash. 26 Taliban fighters were also killed in the same clash. [17] Hajji Atta Jan, the Zabul provincial council chief, said the offensive by Mullah Mansour’s fighters was so intense that at least three Islamic State commanders, all of them ethnic Uzbeks, had surrendered. They were also asking others IS militants to do the same. [17] [18]
However, while the Taliban had succeeded in quickly crushing the rebellion in Zabul province, they had more difficulty fighting in the predominantly Nurzai western region of Afghanistan, particularly the stronghold of Shindand district near Herat. This prompted Akhtar Mansour to seek help from Iran against the mutineers, which agreed to his request and sided with the Taliban loyalists. [19] The High Council responded by claiming to have killed multiple members of the Fatemiyoun division near Herat. [20]
In 2017, the Taliban said that they have arrested 90 infiltrators in Helmand province. According to the Taliban, the infiltrators were involved in assassination plots against the mainstream Taliban. [6]
In 2020, Nangialai Khan was killed in a US drone strike in Herat province. [3]
In 2021, Abdul Manan Niazi, one of the deputy of Rasul's faction, was killed in an attack in Herat province. No group took responsibility for the attack, but many suspect the Islamic Emirate to be responsible. [20] Former spokesman of the Afghan National Security Council Javid Faisal paid homage to Niazi and prayed for him in a tweet. [21] A funeral ceremony was held in the city of Herat's grand mosque, unopposed by the governor of Herat, who said that the families of High Council fighters would be allowed to bury their dead and hold funerals. [22]
Following his killing, Abdul Manan Niazi's son, Hafiz Khalid Niazi, was elected to succeed his father by supporters of the High Council. [20] [22] After the 2021 Taliban offensive defeated the Islamic Republic's forces, he pledged allegiance to the Islamic Emirate's leadership, dissolving the High Council and handing all of its military equipment to the Taliban. [12] [23] In January 2022, Muhammad Rasul met with defense minister Mullah Yaqoob in Kabul and affirmed the factions's support for the new government. [13]
The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan has allegedly provided financial and military support to the faction, although the High Council has always denied it. [19] The Wall Street Journal reported that the aim of the support was create rift within the insurgency and force some of its leaders toward peace talks. [5] Senior Afghan and US officials, including those who had role in creating the program, told Wall Street Journal that Afghan intelligence agency was leading the drive to recruit Taliban assets using the funds and resources provided by United States. The aim of the program was to exploit divisions among the Taliban and it targeted insurgents who have defected to Rasul's faction. [5] Afghan and U.S. officials said that the former Afghan government had been providing Rasul's faction and other fractious Taliban groups with cash, ammunition and weapons. In March 2016, Afghan special forces rescued Nangialai Khan, a commander loyal to Rasul's faction, and his foot soldiers from a Taliban encirclement in Zerkoh Valley. [5] Since then, Afghan intelligence agency has provided financial and military support to Nangialai in his fight against the Taliban, according to US coalition officer and a member of Afghan special forces who maintain contact with Nangialai. [5]
In 2020, following the death of Nangialai Khan, elders and provincial council members from Herat province said that Nangialai had close relations with the Afghan government. Elders also claimed that Nangialai had foiled multiple Taliban attacks on the center of Shindand and even saved Herat's governor, Abdul Qayum Rahimi, from a Taliban ambush. [3]
The New York Times reported that Rasul's faction has become a de facto ally of the Islamic Republic and has been able to achieve success in areas where it had suffered defeats in the past. [6] In 2017, a Taliban suicide bomber struck a base belonging to Rasul's faction near an Afghan army base. Hamidullah Afghan, a local police official, said that the attack had killed 11 fighters of Rasul's faction and that the authorities had helped evacuate the wounded fighters to a hospital in Lashkar Gah. [6] An Afghan border police official told The New York Times that the Afghan intelligence agency pays the fighters loyal to Rasul with salaries equivalent to $150 to $300 a month, and supplies them with food, weapons and vehicles. [6] Haji Ajab Gul, a former governor of Shindand, said that Rasul's faction moved freely in government controlled areas and they could come to the main town of Shindand and target people who they dislike. Lal Muhammad Omarzay, the governor of Adraskan District, said that the Afghan army had thwarted a planned assault by the Taliban against Rasul's faction in Herat province. Lal Muhammad Omarzay also said that Afghan government forces did not confront Rasul's faction. Rasul's faction also avoided fighting the Islamic Republic. [6]
Mullah Muhammad Omar was an Afghan mujahideen commander, revolutionary, and the cleric who founded the Taliban. During the Third Afghan Civil War, the Taliban fought the Northern Alliance and took control of most of the country, establishing the First Islamic Emirate for which Omar began to serve as Supreme Leader in 1996. Shortly after al-Qaeda carried out the September 11 attacks, the Taliban government was toppled by an American invasion of Afghanistan, prompting Omar to go into hiding. He successfully evaded capture by the American-led coalition before dying in 2013 from tuberculosis.
Dadullah was the Taliban's most senior militant commander in Afghanistan until his death in 2007. He was also known as Maulavi or Mullah Dadullah Akhund. He also earned the nickname of Lang, meaning "lame", because of a leg he lost during fighting.
Operation Achilles was a NATO operation, part of the War in Afghanistan. Its objective was to clear Helmand province of the Taliban. The operation began on March 6, 2007. The offensive is the largest NATO-based operation in Afghanistan to date. NATO officials reported that, contrary to previous operations, Taliban fighters were avoiding direct confrontation in favor of guerilla tactics.
Mullah Mansoor Dadullah was the Taliban militant commander Mullah Dadullah's younger half-brother who succeeded him as a senior military commander of the Taliban in southern Afghanistan. He came from the Arghandab district of Kandahar province, and belonged to the Kakar Pashtun tribe.
Maulvi Nazir was a leading militant of the Pakistani Taliban in South Waziristan. Nazir's operations were based in Wana.
Muhammad Rasul was the leader of the High Council of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, a Taliban dissident group in Afghanistan, until the group's dissolution in 2021. He was a Taliban-appointed governor of Nimruz Province, Afghanistan. Rasul exerted pressure and suppression on Pashtun factions unpopular with the Taliban, and made a considerable fortune controlling cross-border drug-smuggling through Nimruz.
2003 in Afghanistan. A list of notable incidents in Afghanistan during 2003
The Mullah Dadullah Front was an insurgent group in Afghanistan that claimed responsibility for a series of bombings and assassinations centered in Kabul.
Akhtar Mohammad Mansour was the second supreme leader of the Taliban. Succeeding the founding leader, Mullah Omar, he was the supreme leader from July 2015 to May 2016, when he was killed in a US drone strike in Balochistan, Pakistan.
The Sacrifice Front, more commonly known as Fidai Mahaz, was a Taliban splinter group and faction in the War in Afghanistan. It was led by Mullah Najibullah, also known as Omar Khitab, a former Taliban commander.
Najibullah, often referred to as Mullah Najibullah or Hajji Najibullah, and also known by the pseudonym Omar Khitab, is an Afghan militant leader who is the head of the Taliban splinter group Fidai Mahaz in Afghanistan.
Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, also spelled Haibatullah Akhunzada, is an Afghan cleric who is the supreme leader of Afghanistan in the internationally unrecognized Taliban regime. He has led the Taliban since 2016, and came to power with its victory over U.S.-backed forces in the 2001–2021 war. A highly reclusive figure, he has almost no digital footprint except for an unverified photograph and several audio recordings of speeches.
Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid is an Afghan militant commander and cleric who is the second deputy leader of Afghanistan and the acting defense minister in the internationally unrecognized Taliban regime since 2021. He has been a deputy leader of the Taliban since 2016, and was additionally appointed to his ministerial role after the Taliban's victory over Western-backed forces in the 2001–2021 war. He has been the Taliban's military chief since 2020.
Usman Ghazi was the Emir of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a militant group based in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He succeeded Usman Adil after the latter's death in a drone strike.
The Afghan Armed Forces, officially the Armed Forces of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and also referred to as the Islamic Emirate Armed Forces, is the military of Afghanistan, commanded by the Taliban government from 1997 to 2001 and since August 2021. According to Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense, its total manpower is 170,000.
The Islamic State–Taliban conflict is an ongoing insurgency by the Islamic State Khorasan Province (IS-KP) against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The conflict initially began when both operated as rival insurgent groups in Nangarhar; since the formation of the Taliban's state in 2021, IS-KP members have enacted a campaign of terrorism targeting both civilians and assassinating Taliban members using hit-and-run tactics. The group have also caused incidents and attacks across the border in Pakistan.
The Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, officially the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and also styled by his religious title Amir al-Mu'minin, is the absolute ruler, head of state, and national religious leader of Afghanistan, as well as the leader of the Taliban. The supreme leader wields unlimited authority and is the ultimate source of all law.
The Fall of Herat was a battle and subsequent capture of Herat by Taliban fighters. The attack on the city started around 28 July 2021, and ended in Taliban victory by 13 August of the same year. Several of the surrounding districts fell to the Taliban from June to mid-July, leaving only the city and two other districts in government hands by 10 July. The border crossings in Herat Province were captured by the Taliban on 9 July, raising prices of goods inside the city. Ismail Khan, former governor and warlord, led a public uprising force to assist the Afghan National Security Forces in defending the city.
The government of Afghanistan, officially called the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and informally known as the Taliban government, is the central government of Afghanistan, a unitary state. Under the leadership of the Taliban, the government is a theocracy and an emirate with political power concentrated in the hands of a supreme leader and his clerical advisors, collectively referred to as the Leadership. The Leadership makes all major policy decisions behind closed doors, which are then implemented by the country's civil service and judiciary. As Afghanistan is an Islamic state, governance is based on Sharia law and Pashtunwali, which the Taliban enforces strictly through extensive social and cultural policies.
Mullah Abdul Manan Niazi was an Afghan politician and military commander. In the 1990s, he was the governor of the Herat and Balkh provinces. He was one of the famous commanders of the splinter group of the Taliban led by Mullah Rasool, and one of the helpers of the Taliban group led by Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada. He was also a critic of the policy of regional countries, especially Iran and Pakistan, towards Afghanistan.
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: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)حافظ خالد نیاز پسر ملا عبدالمنان نیازی (معروف به قصاب شیعیان افغانستان) با انتشار ویدئیی، با امارت اسلامی طالبان اعلام بیعت كرد. [Hafiz Khalid Niazi, son of Mullah Abdul Manan Niazi (known as the Shiite butcher of Afghanistan) released a video declaring his allegiance to the Islamic Emirate.]