The US Treasury Department said that the al-Qaeda is gaining strength in Afghanistan while “continuing to operate with the Taliban under the group’s protection.”
“Al-Qaeda broadly still depends on donations from likeminded supporters, and from individuals who believe that their money is supporting humanitarian or charitable causes,” it said in a report released on January 4.
The US Treasury Department also said that “al-Qaeda capitalizes on its relationship with the Taliban through its network of mentors and advisers who are embedded with the Taliban, providing advice, guidance, and financial support.”
“Senior Haqqani network figures have discussed forming a new joint unit of armed fighters in cooperation with and funded by al-Qaeda,” it said.
The report also said that the elements of al-Qaeda, including affiliate al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), and “terrorist groups” targeting Pakistan, such as Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), continue to use the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region as a safe haven, adding that “AQIS likely receives funding from al-Qaeda senior leadership.”
The report also mentioned that al-Qaeda maintains close contacts with the Taliban, providing advice, guidance, and financial support.
Former US President Donald Trump’s administration signed a peace agreement with Taliban on February 29, 2020 and, according to the agreement, the Taliban must break ties with al Qaeda.
On December 27, Afghanistan’s First Vice President Amrullah said that the Taliban still maintains ties with al-Qaeda and that their separation “is harder than desalination.”
Saleh on Twitter wrote that Afghan forces killed three al-Qaeda members in a Taliban compound in southern Afghanistan ten months after the Taliban committed to separate itself from the network as part of their deal with the United States.
However, at that time, Mawlawi Abdul Hakim Sharaee, a member of the Taliban’s leadership council, said that the group would not allow any foreign fighters to use Afghanistan’s soil against any other country.
On October 2020, A senior UN official said that al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has maintained close ties with the Taliban despite the Taliban’s assurance to the United States to cut ties with the group.
“Senior figures remain in Afghanistan, as well as hundreds of armed operatives,” the coordinator of the United Nations monitoring team for Daesh, al-Qaida and the Taliban, Edmund Fitton-Brown said during a webinar on the future of Afghanistan as quoted by VOA.
