Operation “Lion’s Roar” in May involved 5,000 Coalition forces and 55,000 Iraqi Police and Army members and cut insurgent attacks in the city to less than one a day during the following two months. The tactics used to defeat the insurgents was similar to successes in other parts of the country: joint operation with improving Iraqi forces, a focus on intelligence gathering, and economic reconstruction to create enough jobs to lower a national unemployment rate of 25-40 percent that is higher in rural areas.

“The fight in the North is still on-going. It’s a balanced fight, pursuing insurgent on the one hand and doing reconstruction and supporting Iraqi government activities,” said Major General Mark Hertling, commander of Multinational Division North and the US 1st Armored Division in an interview on July 22. “When you talk about the growth of security, you have to mention that the government is getting stronger.”

Mosul’s central position, bisected by the Tigris River and the historic crossroads between Syria, Turkey and the rest of Iraq, made it a critical hub for the Sunni insurgency. Al Qaeda’s facilitators used the city’s western Sunni-dominated neighborhoods as a center for funding, insurgent traffic and safe houses ever since the US-led Coalition toppled Saddam Hussein’s government in April 2003.

Mosul was overthrown by US Special Forces and Kurdish Peshmerga militia units on April 11, 2003 and operations were taken over by then Major General David Petraeus in late May with the 101st Airborne Division. Through the summer and fall Petraeus implemented many of the counter-insurgency techniques he would later use across Iraq, setting up a local government, rehiring police personnel, rebuilding roads and organizing reconstruction projects.

By January 2004, the 101st left and was replaced by a unit half its size, allowing ethnic tensions between Sunni and Kurdish Iraqis to grow and security to be undermined. In November, several hundred insurgents attacked police stations around the city, causing almost all of the city’s 5,000 police officers to abandon their posts.

Three battalions of the US 25th Infantry, along with several thousand Kurdish militia later retook parts of the city, but a two-year stalemate ensued with the Kurdish force, reflagged the 2nd Iraqi Army Division, dominating the east bank of the Tigris River, while Sunni insurgents controlled the western side of the city, maintaining a travel corridor for foreign fighters traveling from Syria to safe havens throughout the country.

“The security problem was a political problem,” said Ahmed Mohammed Khalif al Jibouri, the police chief of Ninewa province from December 2004 to October 2005. Tensions between Kurdish political parties and the Sunni population in Mosul cause civil order to collapse, he said. “They destroyed the police stations and left Mosul without a government for two months.”

Khalif al Jibouri reconstituted the province’s police and although terrorist activities decreased through the year, he was fired in October after losing support within the Kurdish-dominated provincial assembly. Insecurity again returned to Mosul, while the February 2006 mosque bombing in Samarra, north of Baghdad, pushed the country to the brink of a civil war, threatening a wholesale withdraw of US forces from the region.

In 2007, Petraeus returned to Iraq with his “surge” doctrine that increased Coalition combat forces and built tens of dozens of company-sized combat outposts, creating a permanent security presence in neighborhoods and a tactical template to be used by Iraqi forces if the Coalition began to downsize.

In additional, the formation of “Sons of Iraq,” an armed neighborhood-watch program that now includes 2,700 members in rural areas to the south of Mosul denied insurgency safe havens to terrorists that had used them in past years.

“You can attribute a lot of our success from Sons of Iraq,” said Major Oscar Diano, intelligence officer for the 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment’s 1st Squadron located at Q-West, about 60 kilometers south of Mosul where IED attacks have fallen by 90 percent since January. “They took responsibility for security in their area.”

The success of “Lion’s Roar,” when troops shutdown Mosul for 72 hours, had its start in January, with an increase in manpower through the arrival of the US 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and the creation of the Ninewa Operations Command, allowing the coordination of Iraqi Army, Iraqi Police, Border Patrol and Iraqi Special Operations troops with Coalition forces.
The national government of Nouri al Maliki also appointed Lieutenant General Riyadh Jalal Tawfiq, a Sunni with roots in Mosul, to lead the Ninewa Operations Command, boosting the potential for cooperation between the predominately Kurdish-led Iraqi Army Divisions and the Sunni-dominated local police forces, the US Army said.

In the first two months of 2008, Iraqi and Coalition forces captured or killed 142 al Qaeda in Iraq insurgents and Hertling said US strategy would be similar in Mosul as it had been in Baghdad, with the expansion of command outposts in neighborhoods in order to sustain 24-hour security. By March, the Coalition had built 20 command outposts in Mosul and on May 10, the lockdown began.

US M-1 Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles circled the city, freezing insurgent reinforcement from reaching Mosul while Iraqi Army and police set up an inner circle of security checkpoints, trapping the enemy within neighborhoods for days.

The operation captured more than 1,000 insurgents, 12 tons of home explosives, 500 mortars and artillery rounds that could be used to Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), 84 rocket propelled grenades, and 221 IEDs.

One of the key leaders captured at the time, Abu Nas, said forces discovered more than 70 percent of the arms caches he personally knew of, suggesting Iraqi intelligence has deeply penetrated the insurgency.

“The insurgency is no big deal now, it’s our duty, so we won’t stop fighting it,” said Brigadier General Noor Aldeen, commander of the 2nd Iraqi Division’s 8th Brigade. “But the bottom line is we are free. It is only outsiders to Mosul that are the problem. “

Attacks are expected to increase with the run-up to regional elections which were originally scheduled for October. Sunnis, who make up more than 60 percent of the region’s population, boycotted the last regional election in 2005, leaving them with a meager two seats out of 41 in the regional assembly.

Registration rates in the Ninewa province were the highest in the country during the first week of the 30-day registration, which ends Aug. 15, leaving open the possibility that a more politically engaged Sunni population turning completely against terrorism, said Lieutenant Colonel Robert Molinari, head of operations for the 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment in Mosul.
“Our solution for Iraq will become obvious with the regional elections,” Molinari said. “If you can get a representative government that is interested in getting essential services, then the terrorist will not have a leg to stand on.”

The July 23 veto of voting legislation by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani could delay regional elections for several months. Talabani, who is Kurdish, rejected the law after it passed with less than 50 percent of parliament members present and over disputes about the makeup of a provincial council in Kirkuk, the northern city which sits on some of Iraq’s largest oil reserves and is contested by both Arabs and Kurds.

Omar Khalid, the Taliban commander of Mohmand agency.

Less than two months after the Pakistani government negotiated a peace agreement with the local Taliban in the Mohmand tribal agency, the region is now under "complete control" of extremists led by Omar Khalid.

Mohmand Taliban commander Omar Khalid "is the strongest and most influential Taliban leader after Baitullah Mehsud and Maulvi Faqir," residents told Daily Times, referring to the leader and deputy leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan.

Khalid has become the dominant Taliban commander in Mohmand after defeated the Shah Sahib group, a rival pro-Taliban group. The Shah Sahib group is an offshoot of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba that operates in Mohmand and across the border in Afghanistan's Kunar province. The Lashkar-e-Taiba took part in the July 13 attack on a US outpost across the border in Afghanistan's Nuristan province, and has conducted numerous high-profile terror attacks inside Pakistan, Kashmir, and India.

Khalid's forces killed 10 members of the Shah Sahib group and captured another 80. Among those killed were Muslim Khan, the leader of the Shah Sahib group, and Mullah Obaidullah, the deputy leader.

Mohmand went red after the government signed a peace agreement with the Taliban in May. The government signed peace agreements in the red agencies/ districts; purple districts are under de facto Taliban control; yellow regions are under Taliban influence.

Baitullah Mehsud, who recruited the Shah Sahib group into the Pakistani Taliban just days before the fighting, is said to have been angered by Khalid's actions. Baitullah is said to have sent emissaries to Mohmand to investigate the incident. Khalid said he would release the prisoners after Baitullah promised Lashkar-e-Taiba members were no longer in the tribal agency.

The Mohmand Taliban took control of the tribal agency after the Pakistani government negotiated a peace agreement with the extremists at the end of May 2008. The deal required the Taliban to renounce attacks on the Pakistani government and security forces. The Taliban said it would maintain a ban on the activities of nongovernment organizations in the region but agreed not to attack women in the workplace if they wear the veil. Both sides exchanged prisoners.

The Taliban promptly established a parallel government in Mohmand. Sharia or Islamic courts were formed and orders were given for women to wear the veil in public. "Criminals" were rounded up and judged in sharia courts. Women were ordered to have a male escort at all times and prevented from working on farms. The Taliban also kidnapped members of a polio vaccination team.

The Pakistani government has been powerless to stop the rise of the Taliban in Mohmand. The government postponed a planned operation at the beginning of July at the behest of Mohmand tribal leaders. Limited operations in neighboring Khyber and Hangu ended after little more than a week of activity.

Multimedia presentation of the senior Taliban commanders in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Click to view.

Background on Omar Khalid

Omar Khalid’s involvement with terrorism stretches back at least a decade. Before becoming involved in jihadi circles, Khalid was a journalist at pro-Islamist news outlets. He joined the Harakat-ul-Mujahideen, a banned terrorist group that conducts terror attacks against Indian forces in Jammu and Kashmir, in the 1990s.

Khalid trained in terror camps in Kashmir and fought against Indian forces. He maintained close links with the Kashmiri terror outfits but also looked to contribute to the Taliban cause inside Afghanistan.

Immediately after the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, Khalid took hundreds of fighters across the border to fight US forces. His forces still enter Pakistan to attack US and Afghan forces in the east. He is said to closely coordinate operations with Bajaur's Faqir Mohammed, a close ally of senior al Qaeda leaders including Ayman al Zawahiri.

Last year, Khalid claimed to have 3,000 armed and trained fighters under his command. This year, Khalid said he has 26,000 Taliban fighters under his command.

In July 2007, Khalid’s forces seized a historic mosque and shrine in the Mohmand tribal agency and renamed it the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, after the Taliban mosque in Islamabad that was assaulted by the government in mid-July.

Khalid denied links with the Taliban and al Qaeda even as he pledged allegiance to Red Mosque leader Ghazi Abdur Rashid. "If [the Taliban] come to us, we will welcome them," said Khalid. "We will continue Ghazi Abdur Rashid’s mission even if it means sacrificing our lives." Khalid also threatened to "use suicide bombers in self defense" if the new Red Mosque was raided. He seeks to “Islamize” the local tribes and plans establishing a "vice and virtue force."

But Khalid has since joined the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, the umbrella Taliban organization led by Baitullah Mehsud that united disparate groups in the tribal areas and the settled districts of the Northwest Frontier Province. Khalid is the Taliban’s representative for Mohmand agency.

The "objectives of the operation have been achieved," according to the Associated Press of Pakistan, the official news service of the Pakistani government. The military claims the writ of the government has been restored and the "miscreants were flushed out" of the district. Twenty Taliban fighters were killed and 30 detained, the military claimed.

The military launched the Hangu offensive on July 16 after the Taliban conducted numerous attacks, including an ambush that killed 15 soldiers and a siege of a police station by more than 400 fighters.

The peace negotiations and the end of the Hangu offensive came after the Taliban again threatened to attack the provincial government due to operations in Hangu, Swat, and Khyber. "The government has breached the peace agreement with the continuation of the operation in Hangu," Muslim Khan, a spokesman for the Taliban told Adnkronos International. The Taliban are gathering in Swat and other areas and are preparing to attack if ordered.

The government unanimously backs negotiations with the Taliban

The end of the Hangu offensive happened on the same day the Pakistani federal government's coalition partners and military and intelligence chiefs met to discuss the deteriorating security situation in northwestern Pakistan. The government decided that negotiations would take primacy when dealing with the security situation.

"The main thrust of the coalition partners’ multi-pronged strategy to counter the challenge of extremism will be political engagement of the people," the government stated in a press release. "Local militants who want to surrender before the authorities would be rehabilitated and brought into mainstream of the society to lead a peaceful life," the Associated Press of Pakistan reported, paraphrasing Sherry Rehman, the Minister for Information and Broadcasting.

But the Taliban have not laid down their weapons after conducting peace talks with the government, nor have they stopped attack on the Pakistani military or across the border in Afghanistan.

The security situation in northwestern Pakistan and in neighboring Afghanistan has rapidly deteriorated since the government initiated its latest round of peace accords with the Taliban and allied extremists in the tribal areas and settled districts in the Northwest Frontier Province. Peace agreements have been signed with the Taliban in North Waziristan, Swat, Dir, Bajaur, Malakand, Mohmand, Khyber, and Orakzai.

Negotiations are under way in South Waziristan, Kohat, and Mardan. The Taliban have violated the terms of these agreements in every region where accords have been signed.

The Taliban, al Qaeda, and allied terrorist groups have established more than 100 terror camps in the tribal areas and the Northwest Frontier Province, US intelligence officials have told The Long War Journal.

Map of Iraq. Click to view.

Iraqi security forces are massing more than 30,000 soldiers and police for an upcoming operation against al Qaeda and the Mahdi Army in the eastern province of Diyala, according to police and military officials.

The operation, which was expected to be launched this week, has been scheduled to kick off on August 1, an anonymous senior Iraqi military officer told AFP. "The operation is aimed at cleansing the region of insurgents, al Qaeda and militias who are still there," the officer said.

Like other offensives against al Qaeda and the Mahdi Army, the Diyala operation will be planned and led by the Iraqi military. "It will be an operation led by the Iraqi army," an anonymous US military officer told AFP. "The US army will probably only watch. ... If they need help, we'll help them. If not, we will not do anything."

The US currently has a brigade based in Diyala. The 3rd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment is operating in northeastern Diyala and has been conducting operations against al Qaeda strongholds along the Iranian border.

The Iraqi command has shown the ability to move and mass troops for large-scale operations this year. While this is not confirmed, elements from the 1st Iraqi Army Division -- redesignated the 1st Quick Reaction Force -- along with the 9th Iraqi Army Division (Mechanized), and several Emergency Response Brigades will likely join the 5th Iraqi Army Division based in Diyala. The 1st, 9th, and the Emergency Response Brigades have been used to conduct operations against the Mahdi Army in Baghdad and throughout the South.

Iraqi and US forces have conducted several operations in Diyala province since the surge was announced in January 2007. Last summer and fall, operations focused on clearing Baqubah, the Diyala River Valley north of Baqubah, and surrounding districts of the influence of al Qaeda and Mahdi Army. In January 2008, an operation was launched in the Miqdadiyah region, where al Qaeda was building a safe haven.

Al Qaeda still maintains a stronghold in the Hamrin Mountains, which span Diyala, Salahadin, and Tamin provinces. This area is a major fallback position for al Qaeda in Iraq and allied insurgent groups. The Miqdadiyah region was reported to be an al Qaeda stronghold earlier this year. The Mahdi Army operates along the fault lines in the eastern and southern areas of the province.

More Iraqis are currently being killed in Diyala province per day per capita than in any other province in Iraq, according to numbers compiled by Chris Radin of The Long War Journal. Diyala has 2.62 Iraqis killed per day per million inhabitants, compared to Ninewa (1.4) and Baghdad (0.6), the second and third most violent provinces.

Operations in Babil and Wasit provinces loom

Iraqi forces are also preparing for a security operation in Babil province, just south of Baghdad. An operation may also take place in Wasit province as the Diyala security operation take place.

In Babil, a curfew has been imposed in the provincial capital of Hillah as Iraqi security forces, backed by US troops, launched a search operation. The operation is taking place in northern Babil, an anonymous source told Voices of Iraq.

The operation is taking place where elements from the newly formed 17th Iraqi Army Division are based. This operation is likely smaller in scope than the planned Diyala offensive or prior operations in Basrah, Sadr City, Maysan, and Mosul.

The Babil operation is likely a precursor to an operation in Wasit province, which may be launched in conjunction with the Diyala offensive. Wasit sits on the eastern border of Babil and the southern border of Diyala.

Wasit is the only central-southern province that has not been a focus of major combat operations. The Iraqi military started its rolling offensive in Basrah in March, and then proceeded to tackle the provinces of Dhi Qhar, Qadisiyah, Maysan, and now Babil. All of these provinces are major areas of operations for the Iranian-backed Shia terror groups.

Orakzai goes red. Red agencies/ districts are controlled by the Taliban; purple districts are under de facto Taliban control; yellow regions are under Taliban influence.

Just six days after the Pakistani military launched an offensive against marauding Taliban forces in Hangu, the government has initiated peace negotiations with the Taliban.

The government of the Northwest Frontier Province "authorized the jirga [tribal council] to finalize the terms with Taliban to halt the ongoing violence in the area," Daily Times reported based on anonymous sources.

The negotiations were confirmed by provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain. The provincial government ordered the jirga members to keep the terms of the negotiations secret. The Swat Taliban is said to be facilitating the negotiations.

The Hangu operation

The military moved in 1,500 regular Army forces into the region, backed by tanks, artillery, and helicopter gunships on July 16 after a week of unrelenting attacks by Taliban forces in the region. On July 8, a police force detained seven Taliban fighters, including Rafiuddin, a senior Taliban leader and a deputy of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud. Rafiuddin’s group is based out of North Waziristan, which borders Hangu to the south.

The Taliban then launched a siege on the police station where Rafiuddin and the other fighters were held. A force comprised of 400 Taliban fighters surrounded the police station, but dispersed after a Pakistani Army battalion was dispatched to lift the siege. On July 15, an estimated 250 Taliban surrounded a fort in the Shinawarai region and ordered the paramilitary troops to leave.

The Frontier Corps paramilitary troops abandoned the fort, which was subsequently looted and destroyed by the Taliban. The Taliban are said to have captured 29 members of the Pakistani security forces during the past week, and threatened to kill them if extremists in custody were not released. The fate of those captured is unknown.

Hangu is part of a pattern

The initiation of negotiations with the Taliban in Hangu is the latest attempt by the Pakistani government to make peace with the Taliban after conducting show of force operations. The recent military operation and subsequent negotiations in Khyber followed the same pattern.

The Pakistani military launched an operation in the tribal agency of Khyber earlier this month after Taliban incursions into the neighboring provincial capital of Peshawar could no longer be ignored. The military conducted ineffectual sweeps, purportedly to defeat Lashkar-e-Islam, Ansar-ul-Islam, and the Haji Namdar group, all extremist groups with ties to the Taliban.

The operation ended after 10 days, in what the government admitted was a "show of force." The government also announced the timetable of the operation as soon as it was launched, indicating the operation was not results driven.

The government then initiated peace talks with the Lashkar-e-Islam, and a peace agreement was signed on July 9. The more than 90 extremists captured during the operation were released.

The government indicated further Potemkin operations were in store in the tribal areas and regions in the Northwest Frontier Province. Yesterday, it was reported that Prime Minister Syed Yusaf Raza Gilani and his cabinet were told that more than 8,000 foreign fighters were operating in the tribal areas.

Interior Ministry Adviser Rehman Malik said further operations may be needed. Malik said the problem would require "a short and effective operation like the one in Bara [in Khyber] recently."

But a report from M. Waqar Bhatti, who recently visited Khyber, shows the operation was anything but effective. Regions of Khyber remain under full Taliban control as security forces are absent.

The Lashkar-e-Islam is enforcing sharia, or Islamic law, and has established a parallel government in contradiction to the peace agreement. Lashkar-e-Islam is forcing families to send one son to fight against the Ansar-ul-Islam, their rival in Khyber. "Their aim: to have full control of the most strategic point along the Afghanistan border," Bhatti stated.

Khyber is the gateway to Afghanistan. More than 70 percent of NATO's supplies pass through the Khyber agency. The Pakistani military is only focused on keeping the supply line to Afghanistan open, Bhatti said, noting heavy patrols and check posts on the main road through Khyber.

Pakistan makes deals with the devil

The government continues to sue for peace in the tribal areas. Yesterday, Gilani met with tribal elders from the seven tribal agencies of Bajaur, Mohmand, Kurram, Orakzai, Khyber, and North and South Waziristan.

Gilani asked for help in dealing with the rising threat of "militancy" in the tribal areas. "I ask you people to tell me how to deal with elements bent upon militancy," Gilani said. "I am deadly against use of force but some elements are compelling the government to take harsh decisions."

But the tribal elders in attendance said negotiations were required "while [the] use of force would further complicate" the situation. The tribal leaders refused to hold the Taliban accountable for problems in the agencies. "Interestingly, the turbaned men, who are known for their straightforward comments, tended to become diplomatic when questioned about the Taliban and Baitullah Mehsud," Daily Times reported.

A tribal leader in South Waziristan said the situation was stable and ignored questions about the murder and beheadings of tribal elders. A tribal leader in North Waziristan said, "99 percent of the tribesmen were supporting Baitullah Mehsud and Mullah Nazir because they considered them loyal citizens of Pakistan." A Mohmand tribal leader said, "the real Taliban are not bad people" and blamed any problems on "criminals."

The security situation in northwestern Pakistan and in neighboring Afghanistan has rapidly deteriorated since the government initiated its latest round of peace accords with the Taliban and allied extremists in the tribal areas and settled districts in the Northwest Frontier Province. Peace agreements have been signed with the Taliban in North Waziristan, Swat, Dir, Bajaur, Malakand, Mohmand, Khyber, and Orakzai.

Negotiations are under way in South Waziristan, Kohat, and Mardan. The Taliban have violated the terms of these agreements in every region where accords have been signed.

The Taliban, al Qaeda, and allied terrorist groups have established more than 100 terror camps in the tribal areas and the Northwest Frontier Province, US intelligence officials have told The Long War Journal.

Hezbollah Brigades' logo is nearly identical to that of Lebanese Hezbollah.

Coalition special forces teams, likely the terrorist hunter-killer teams of Task Force 88, have captured a Hezbollah Brigades propaganda specialist during a raid in New Baghdad.

The propaganda specialist was positively identified by his wife after the raid, and he later admitted to his role in seeding websites with attack videos.

"The man uploads web sites with imagery and video taken from attacks on Iraqi Security and Coalition forces," Multinational Forces Iraq reported in a press release. "Reports indicate this is part of a propaganda effort in order to earn money and support from their Iranian financiers."

Little information is publicly available on the Hezbollah Brigades, or the Kata'ib Hezbollah. Multinational Forces Iraq indicates the group receives support from Iran and is an “offshoot of Iranian-trained Special Groups."

The logo used by the Hezbollah Brigades is nearly an exact match of the one used by Lebanese Hezbollah, which is directly supported by Iran. The logo shows an arm extended vertically, with the fist grasping an AK-47 assault rifle. US forces captured Ali Mussa Daqduq inside Iraq in early 2007. Daqduq is a senior Hezbollah commander who was tasked with setting up the Mahdi Army Special Groups along the same lines

The Hezbollah Brigades began uploading videos of attacks on US and Iraqi forces this year.

The group has claimed responsibility for the July 8 improvised rocket-assisted mortar attack on Joint Security Station Ur in Sadr City [see video]. One US soldier and one interpreter were wounded after eight of the makeshift "flying IEDs" detonated near the outpost. Shia terror groups have launched a handful of IRAM attacks on US and Iraqi outposts in Baghdad.
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/06/mahdi_army_uses_flyi.php

Hezbollah Brigades also posted video of an attack on a US patrol with an Iranian-supplied, armor-piercing, explosively formed projectile, or EFP.

The capture of the Hezbollah Brigades propaganda expert is the latest in a series of raids against Shia terrorists. Scores of Special Groups operatives have been captured over the past month, including senior leaders, weapons smugglers, financiers, trainers, and cell leaders.

The raids have been driven by intelligence, much of it gleaned from captive Mahdi Army fighters, according to information contained in Multinational Forces Iraq press releases. Captive Mahdi Army leaders and cell members are providing US and Iraqi forces information on leaders and cells throughout central and southern Iraq.

The leadership of the Mahdi Army, which the US refers to as the “Special Groups” in an effort to divide and conquer the militia and entice moderate elements into the political process, has been heavily targeted this year. The Mahdi Army has received funding, training, weapons, and support for Iran's Qods Force.

Iraqi special operations capable forces are often at the forefront of these raids. On July 20, the Baghdad National Emergency Response Brigade killed six Mahdi Army fighters and captured two during a raid inside Baghdad. The main target was a distributor of "lethal weapons," likely the deadly Iranian supplied explosively formed projectiles, which can penetrate heavy armor. The Iraqi troops called in support from an AC-130 gunship after taking ground fire.

Iraqi and US forces conducted a series of raids on July 18. Iraqi Special Operations Forces captured a Special Groups operative who used his position at the Ministry of Oil in Baghdad "to purchase weapons and vehicles." Seven members of a Special Groups IED cell were detained in New Baghdad. In Basrah, two Mahdi fighters were detained, one of whom used his position as a police officer to obtain weapons and police vehicles for the Special Groups.

In Taji, US troops captured a Special Groups operative who was "supporting the insurgency in Iraq by supplying intelligence reports with the means to target US installations with rockets."

Coalition special forces also captured five Special Groups fighters while targeting a financier just northeast of Sadr City. The financier supported Mahdi Army propaganda efforts by paying for successful attacks on Iraqi and US forces.

The Mahdi Army has by and large offered very little opposition to these raids. Most of the suspects surrender without a fight. The operations against the Mahdi Army have come at a relatively low cost to US troops. During the month of July, only three US troops have been killed in Baghdad, where most of the action against the Mahdi Army takes place.

Background on the fighting with the Mahdi Army

The Iraqi security forces have stepped up operations against the Iranian-backed Mahdi Army in the southern provinces over the past several months. Operation Knights' Assault was launched against the Mahdi Army in Basrah on March 25. After six days of heavy fighting, the Mahdi Army pushed for a cease-fire. The Iraqi security forces also dealt the Mahdi Army a heavy blow in the southern provinces of Najaf, Karbala, Qasadiyah, Maysan, and Wasit.

The Iraqi security forces and the US military also confronted the Mahdi Army in Sadr City in Baghdad. After six weeks of heavy fighting, the Mahdi Army and the Iraqi government signed a cease-fire that allowed the military to enter Sadr City uncontested.

In May, the Iraqi security forces expanded operations throughout Basrah province in Az Zubayr, Al Qurnah, and Abu Al Khasib along the Iranian border. This week, an operation kicked off in Dhi Qhar province, which borders Maysan to the southeast.

The Mahdi Army suffered a significant blow during fighting against Iraqi and Coalition forces this year, according to an Iraq intelligence report. The heavy casualties suffered by the Mahdi Army have forced Muqtada al Sadr to change his tactics and disband the Mahdi Army in favor of a small, secretive fighting force.

Raids against the Mahdi Army Special Groups, from July 2-15:

July 15: Iraqi forces arrested 21 Mahdi Army fighters in Dhi Qhar province.

July 13: US troops captured a high-ranking Special Groups officer who was facilitating the transfer of vehicles with improvised explosive devices from Hurriyah and Shula and distributing weapons in and around Kadamiyah. His cell was behind attacks against Coalition forces.

July 12-13: Iraqi forces captured a financier for the Special Groups in the Qadisiyah Province and four members of an extra-judicial killing, assassination, kidnapping, and extortion cell in the Baghdad area.

July 12: Iraqi Company Special Weapons and Tactics teams captured a smuggler who also led a cell that conducted IED, small arms, mortar and rocket attacks in Hillah, and a cell leader and smuggler behind IED and EFP attacks in Wasit province.

July 12: US troops captured a Special Groups officer in eastern Baghdad who was behind kidnapping, murder, extortion, "sectarian indirect fire attacks" (rocket and mortar attacks against Sunni neighborhoods) and IED attacks.

July 10: US troops detained a "key suspect" behind mortar and rocket attacks in New Baghdad.

July 9: Coalition forces captured two Special Groups operatives in the Al Shula district of Baghdad. One of the men was a "senior member" who "received weapons and intelligence training in Iran, and acts as an agent of Iran."

July 8: US troops captured a high-ranking Special Groups officer in Zafaraniyah who led a death squad.

July 7-8: Iraqi special operations teams captured an IED cell leader in Al Kut; three members of an EFP, murder, kidnapping, torture, weapons smuggling and indirect fire cell; and a guard with the Facilities Protection Service who used his position to conduct assassinations, kidnapping, extortion and intimidation.

July 6: Iraqi Company Special Weapons and Tactics teams captured four members of Special Groups cell in Al Kut and a weapons smuggler and Special Groups criminal financier in Hillah.

July 6: Coalition special operations forces captured a senior member of the Iranian-trained Special Groups leadership in the Baghdad area who has conducted rocket attacks on Coalition and Iraqi bases, facilitated weapons from Iran, and sent cell members to Iran for training.

July 6: Iraqi soldiers detained Abbas Abdul Aal, a senior Sadrist leader, during a raid in Sadr City.

July 5: Iraqi soldiers closed the Sadrist office in the Baghdad neighborhood of Shula.

July 3: Iraqi Special Operations Forces captured a "mid-level" Special Groups leader commands a 250-man unit in Baghdad.

July 4: Iraqi troops captured seven Special Groups fighters in Amarah, including two "Iranian surrogates".

July 2: Coalition special operations forces captured two Special Groups operatives in the Adhamiyah district of Baghdad, including a weapons facilitator and trainer wanted in connection with high-profile attacks on Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces.

Click to view images of Major Fakhir and IEDs in Mosul. Photos by Bill Murray and Bill Roggio.

MOSUL, IRAQ: More than once, the cell phone rang in Iraqi Army Major Fakhir Ibrahim Mohammad’s hand seconds after he’d pulled wires away from the phone’s battery, disarming the remote-controlled Improvised Explosive Device that insurgents had buried in a street in the hopes of killing Iraqi police, Army or Coalition forces.

"Hello, this is your IED, come save me," he would usually answer. Insurgents at the other end of the phone line were always speechless; bombs don’t normally talk back. Other times he would add a little taunt before getting hung up upon. "Come save me if you’re man enough to come out of hiding and fight me the open."

It’s estimated by his superiors that Fahkir personally discovered and defused more than 100 IED and Vehicle Borne explosives in Mosul during a two-year period through June. No one else in the Iraqi Army’s Mosul-based 2nd Division, the Iraqi Army itself, or the Coalition for that matter, has a reputation for discovering and disabling as many planned insurgent attacks as Fakhir.

Because the Iraqi Army is still being reformed, there is no awards system, so the embedded US Army Military Transition Team, with the 8th Brigade is sending an application to the Pentagon for Fahkir to receive an US Army Commendation Medal with "V" Device for Valor.

It is no accident that US personnel working with Iraqi troops in Mosul began calling the Major "Crazy Fakhir" as a term of head-shaking endearment.

"The U.S. Army doesn’t like to give out medals to foreign nationals much," said Lt. Colonel Eric Price, the commander of the 8th Military Transition Team located at Command Outpost Lion in northern Mosul. "But when you consider everything he’s done for the Coalition, his relentless pursuit of these explosives, it’s pretty incredible."

The methods the Major used to fight the insurgents were considered both unusual and highly dangerous, both for the Coalition and the Iraqi Army. Typically, when an IED is discovered, an engineering unit is call to the scene, the area cordoned off and the explosive destroyed from a distance using more explosives.

Despite warnings from his superiors, Fakhir wouldn’t pull back from his dangerous behavior, and on June 23, after four or five planned assassination attempts, insurgents in Mosul’s Al Arabiya neighborhood finally got the Major, exploding a second, buried bomb under him as he defused a newly discovered IED. The explosion caused the amputation of his right leg below the knee and put a piece of metal shrapnel as long as a hand into the back of his right shoulder, partially destroying his shoulder joint.

The explosion knocked Fakhir unconscious. He woke up in an ambulance taking him to an emergency hospital in the Kurdish-majority dominated province of Duhok, about 50 miles north of Mosul.

"My leg is not the problem. I’m still waiting for my shoulder to heal," said Fakhir as he recuperated at his home in Duhok, the capital of the province. "The enemy was very happy with my injury so I want to go back."

Fakhir’s exploits became so well known that Arabic language media reported his death throughout the day before Kurdish language media reported his survival.

The US Army Commendation award application says Fakhir personally disarmed more than 40 IEDs, one Vehicle-Borne IED and on two occasions saved Coalition lives by directing them away from an IED. In addition, Fakhir was instrumental in the discovery of dozens of weapons caches, some hidden under abandoned cars and sheep pens, confiscating hundreds of RGP rounds, motors and tons of homemade explosives.

"After 2005, he had a great impact on us in terms of motivation," said Brigadier General Noor Aldeen, commander of Iraq’s 2nd Army Division’s 8th Brigade. "Fakhir was always motivated."

Fakhir’s activity and that of his brigade tells part of the story of the Iraqi Army’s struggle against Al-Qaeda and other insurgencies during the past three years. Throughout 2006 and 2007, the 2nd Division, which is led mostly by Kurdish officers, fought pitched battles with Sunni-led insurgents. At its peak, about 120 insurgents a month from places like Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Algeria were crossing the nearby border with Syria to participate in suicide bombings and other terrorist activity.

The major came to the attention of his superiors after a complex insurgent raid on his battalion in April 2007, caused all but 12 men to abandon their posts. The attack used two dump-trucks filled with explosives to nearly destroy an Iraqi-manned command outpost in the center of the city, injuring 39 Iraqi soldiers.

Orakzai goes red. Red agencies/ districts are controlled by the Taliban; purple districts areunder de facto Taliban control; yellow regions are under Taliban influence.

The Pakistani government has negotiated yet another peace agreement with the Taliban in the tribal agencies bordering Afghanistan. The latest agreement was signed in the Orakzai tribal agency, Geo TVreported.

The agreement mirrors other peace deals that have been signed in the tribal areas and in several settled districts in the Northwest Frontier Province. The Taliban agreed it would not shelter "terrorist, criminal or foreign elements" or create a parallel administration. The Taliban also said it would recognize the writ of the government and end "the illegal occupation" of government buildings and schools.

Information on the Taliban leadership in Orakzai is sparse. In November 2001, Dawn interviewed Akhunzada Aslam Farooqui, who was described as the "patron-in-chief" of the Taliban in the agency and a "close friend of Mullah Mohammad Omar."

Farooqui promised 12,000 tribesmen to battle US forces in Afghanistan and offered support such as sanctuary and weapons and ammunition. He claimed to lead 7,000 Taliban fighters.

The Taliban have run a parallel administration in Orakzai, with security forces patrolling and sharia courts meting out justice. The Orakzai Taliban conducted a public execution of six "criminals" in June after a sharia court determined they were guilty of kidnapping.

In May, a joint Taliban and tribal jirga, or council, ordered all non-governmental organizations to leave the agency and banned girls' schools. "The jirga also decided to burn down the houses of the local residents who cooperate with the NGOs and help in girls’ education," a Pakistani journalist told BBC Urdu.

Several of the local tribes attempted to organize against the Taliban in January. But the Taliban waged a vicious campaign against the tribes and they ultimately relented after the government failed to assist the tribes.

The Kurram tribal agency and the districts of Hangu and Kohat border Orakzai tot he south and west, while Khyber, Peshawar and Nowshera border it to the north and east.

The Pakistani military recently conducted a ten day operation in Khyber after Taliban threats to Peshawar became all too obvious to ignore. The government cut a peace agreement with the extremist groups in Khyber after conducting a show of force operation.

The military is currently conducting an operation against the Taliban in Hangu. Some of the Taliban fighters are said to be moving from Hangu into Orakzai as fighting is underway along the border of the two administrative units.

Kurram is the scene of intense sectarian fighting between Sunni extremist groups and Shia living in the region.

The Pakistani military and the Taliban have fought intense battles in Orakzai and neighboring Kohat this year. Pitched battles were fought in the city of Darra Adam Khel and at the Kohat tunnel in January.

The fighting began after Taliban forces hijacked a military convoy in Darra Adam Khel and seized weapons destined for a military operation in South Waziristan in late January. Clashes ensued as the Pakistani military moved forces into the region to battle the Taliban, but the military backed down and quickly formed a “peace jirga” to negotiate with the Taliban.

The Taliban responded by taking control of the strategic Kohat Tunnel, a vital link on the Indus Highway that connects Peshawar to the southern tribal agencies and settled districts. The Taliban kidnapped more than 50 paramilitary troops from the Frontier Corps during the fighting at the Kohat Tunnel. Several soldiers and paramilitaries were beheaded and mutilated. The government retook the Kohat Tunnel after days of fierce fighting, but not before the Taliban damaged the tunnel during an attempt to destroy it.

On May 1, the Pakistani military pulled out from Darra Adam Khel. The Taliban immediately re-emerged and began levying taxes on vehicles traveling on the Indus Highway. The Pakistani Army, backed by tanks, rolled back into Darra Adam Khel on May 11, and fighting ensued. The fighting shut down the Indus Highway.

Orakzai is the sixth of seven tribal agency agencies where the government has negotiated peace agreements with the Taliban. The western border region with Afghanistan is now virtually under Taliban control. While the Pakistani military operates outposts along the border and maintains garrisons in some agencies, the Taliban are free to establish and maintain their shadow governments and surge forces into Afghanistan.

The security situation in northwestern Pakistan and in Afghanistan has rapidly deteriorated since the government initiated its latest round of peace accords with the Taliban and allied extremists in the tribal areas and settled districts in the Northwest Frontier Province. Peace agreements have been signed with the Taliban in North Waziristan, Swat, Dir, Bajaur, Malakand, Mohmand, and Khyber.

Negotiations are under way in South Waziristan, Kohat, and Mardan. The Taliban have violated the terms of these agreements in every region where accords have been signed.

The Taliban, al Qaeda, and allied terrorist groups have established more than 100 terror camps in the tribal areas and the Northwest Frontier Province, US intelligence officials have told The Long War Journal.

ISAF said the claims made by a tribal elder and a district leader was "baseless" because Coalition aircraft were not operating near the villages where civilians were purportedly killed.

"ISAF has thoroughly investigated and rejects claims that ISAF forces killed more than 50 civilians in the Shindand area," the Afghanistan command stated in a press release. "Our extensive investigation reveals that the closest airstrikes carried out were 13 km to the South East of these villages."

Today's denial is the second of its kind made this week by ISAF. Afghan officials said a July 14 airstrike in Nuristan and Kunar provinces killed 47 members of a wedding party. An ISAF investigation concluded that it did not kill the civilians as no aircraft were within 40 kilometers of the attack.

Afghan and Coalition forces killed two "high priority Taliban targets" during yesterday's raid in the Shindand district of Herat province. The leaders were identified as Haji Dawlat Khan and Haji Nasrullah Khan. "A significant number of other insurgents were also killed," ISAF reported in a press release.

Afghan and coalition forces also found a Taliban jail in one of the compounds during the raid. "A number of men were discovered hand-cuffed and imprisoned in appalling conditions."

The deaths of the two Herat Taliban leaders comes just days after Afghan and Coalition forces killed two senior Taliban commanders in Kandahar province in the southeast.

Afghan and Coalition forces have had success in targeting the Taliban's mid and high level commanders. But the extremist's hold on southern Afghanistan has widened as the Taliban control more districts in the south due to a shortage of Afghan and Coalition forces to hold territory.

Map of Yemen. Click to view.

The boundaries of the war in Yemen war are expanding beyond the northern Sa'ada governorate. For the first time, bombing is audible from Sana’a, the nation's capital. Recent battles are among the bloodiest in memory.

After four years of armed conflict between the government and a group of Zaidi rebels, the war's impact is spread far beyond the combatants and the field of combat. Military, judicial and civil policies targeting the rebels have precipitated a humanitarian crisis in Sa'ada and a civil crisis in the nation with rights groups protesting mass arrests and other tactics.

Yemen’s government is a military dictatorship. It allows more than one political party, but President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s GPC Party is in full control. The Zaidi rebels represent a Shia-related minority.

Opposition party leaders in Sa'ada condemned the surprise military bombing of Dhahian City in July, calling the tactic "an unprecedented crime." In May, rebel spokesman Sheik Saleh Habrah said government shelling in Dhahian, Al-Mahader and al-Ghabair killed 30 civilians and wounded scores more. More than 85,000 Sa'ada residents fled indiscriminate government bombing and are internal refugees. Malnutrition is widespread among the 750,000 Sa'ada residents after a longstanding government blockade.

Casualties in the last month number in the hundreds. Aerial bombardment in Sa'ada and Amran was accompanied by direct engagement of forces. The Yemeni military is deploying helicopters, tanks, Hawn mortars and Katushkya rockets to target the Zaidi rebels, who are themselves well armed and often mingle among the civilian population.

Thousands have died since the fighting began in 2004, when security forces clashed with a small group of students protesting the U.S. military action in Iraq. The group was led by Zaidi cleric and Member of Parliament, Hussain al-Houthi, who was later killed by regime forces in what some claim was an ambush during a mediation session.

Both the military and the rebels' ranks have swelled since the war began. The Houthi rebels grew from 400 fighters then to several thousand today. Many of the rebels' newest recruits are not ideologically affiliated with the Houthist movement but motivated by anti-government sentiments and, in some cases, by financial reward. Many joined the rebellion in response to the bombardment of the governorate and a campaign of arbitrary arrests. Security forces also arrested dozens of soldiers who defected to the Houthis. Foreigners fighting on the rebels’ side purportedly include Somalis who joined for a $100 fee.

The official Yemeni armed forces inducted Salafi tribal fighters and jihadists into the campaign against the rebels. The paramilitary is led by Sheik Abdulmajid al-Zindani and Tariq al-Fadhili. Both men had personal relationships with Osama bin Laden in years past. Al-Zindani is classified by the US Treasury as a terrorist financier. Between 5,000 and 10,000 of these fighters are deployed by the state, some quite young and often without adequate military training.

President Saleh announced this week that the government is raising a "citizen's army" of about 10,000 fighters. The recruitment drive is predominantly among Saleh's Hashid tribesman and runs the risk of sparking an all-out tribal war or a cycle of tribal revenge killings. There also is a danger that this newly armed militia, organized ostensibly to support the government, eventually could compete with the state for power.

In Yemen, three peace agreements have collapsed since 2005 in part because the central government is not fully in control of state apparatuses. The July 2007 Qatar-sponsored agreement unraveled in January when the Yemeni military failed to vacate rebel homes and farms, and the rebels refused to descend from the mountains. In parts of the country, some military and security units function as personal armies for various commanders, many of whom are direct relatives of Saleh.

Military strategy has been sometimes uncoordinated and counter-productive. Dozens of government troops were killed in Miran when a three-day military bombing campaign repeatedly targeted areas of close engagement. When rebels cut the supply routes to the 17th Military division, stationed in Miran, the government took no action to re-supply the troops for 44 days. Nearing starvation, soldiers began calling local media demanding reinforcements and food.

In June, the war spread beyond Sa'ada when 400 rebels took refuge in Bani Hushaish, a city of 75,000, twelve miles outside the capital. The government shelled the city for several weeks and instituted a blockade. Hundreds of families fled the city with nowhere to go.

The Yemeni policy of food blockade began in 2004 and is intended to coerce the civilian population. One Yemeni official said, "When (the residents) begin to starve and their source of income is interrupted, they will eventually hand over the Houthis in their area." Although officials made several announcements that Bani Huashaish has been cleared of "terrorist" elements, the sounds of shelling can be heard from the capital and the blockade remains in place.

The rebel force claims it is "completely opposed to attacks on civilians" and restricts itself to engaging military targets. However, in July a teen-ager detonated an explosive device at the entrance to a government complex in Sa'ada City, killing five. In the Saqeen district, a rebel sniper killed Colonel Mohsen Tabaza, the Deputy Commander of the First Infantry. Mohammed Al-Fadhli, head of the 10th Military Division's training unit, was killed by a sniper in Al-Sama while surveying the area prior to a planned attack.

The United States affirmed recently that it does not classify the rebels in Yemen as terrorists. At the same time, the US regularly has expressed concern for the humanitarian toll of the fighting and urged both sides to allow urgently needed supplies of food, fuel and other necessities into the region.

The European Union allocated 1 million Euros to aid civilians displaced by the fighting. It is unclear when or how aid will reach the needy. Humanitarian groups are barred from most of the region for security concerns. The aid group Medicines Sans Frontiers was forced to suspend operations and abandon hospitals in June because of the numerous clashes involving heavy weaponry. The group expressed a high level of concern over the complete lack of medical care for civilians injured in the shelling and those displaced by the fighting. The International Committee of the Red Cross, noting the scarcity of clean water and food, also called for both sides to facilitate humanitarian aid shipments.

On a civil level, the number of "preventive arrests" is thought to be in the thousands and includes children as young as 10, who report being beaten by soldiers while in prison. On July 13, several civil society organizations protested in Yemen against the policy of arbitrary arrests. The National Organization for Defending Rights and Freedoms recently said, "This campaign of random arrests that mainly targets the Zaidi sect affiliates, clerics, students and rights activists will deepen the danger against social peace."

The organization also noted the kidnapping of Khalid Alsharif, Yemeni-American citizen, as part of "a vast campaign that is against Hashimi people and Zaidies." Other elements of civil targeting include use of the official media to label the rebels and sympathizers "Satanic" and to publicize fatwas issued against them, incitement from mosques, destroying religious books and banning a mainstream Zaidi holiday, al-Ghadir day. Zaidis make up about 30% of the Yemeni population.

Another prong of the civil campaign associated with the Saada war is censorship of the media. Local and foreign journalists have been excluded from the region since 2004. Several Yemeni reporters have faced judicial consequences for writing about the Sa'ada war, most notably Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani who was sentenced in June to six years in jail in a verdict that was widely condemned as a politicized. A similar clampdown on the Internet means many Yemeni news Web sites are inaccessible within Yemen and the public must rely on government sources alone for information.

President Saleh recently restated his accusation that the rebels are funded by Iran, Libya and "the centers of 12er Shia faith" in an effort to restore a Zaidi theocracy in Yemen. However, the rebellion sprung from and is mired in domestic politics and grievances. The rebels evoke their external own bogeyman, Saudi Arabia, which they claim is supporting the assault on Sa'ada. Added to the mix are the many Iraqi army officers in the Yemeni military since the fall of Saddam, who the rebels claim are instigating genocide against Sa'ada residents.

The rebels’ goals are unclear. While they oppose Yemen's alliance with the US and chant "Death to America," they have not joined with insurgent forces in Iraq or targeted US interests in Yemen. They claim President Saleh has been "trying to implant by force the Wahabbi school of thought in Zaidi areas" and that they are fighting a defensive war, opposed to dictatorship not republicanism. Along with these claims, comes a demand for substantial autonomy in the governorate.

Red agencies/ districts controlled by the Taliban; purple is de facto control; yellow is under threat.

The Pakistani Army has launched a military operation against the Taliban in the settled district of Hangu in the Northwest Frontier Province.

The military took over security in Hangu from the Frontier Corps on July 16 after imposing a curfew and warning the residents to leave the area and not to shelter the Taliban. "People who fail to move to relief camps will be considered to be anti-government," a pamphlet distributed by the district administration warned.

The Army moved more than 1,500 infantry into the region. The force is backed by Cobra attack helicopters and artillery. The target of the operation are more than 4,000 Taliban, "along with Uzbeks and Taliban from Waziristan" operating in the Zargari and Shinawari regions in Hangu. Troops have blocked the Kohat-Parachinar road to limits Taliban movement in the district, and have "secured the Naryab dam where militants were deeply entrenched and putting up stiff resistance for five days." The military reported the Taliban withdrew from Zargari and Shinawari, and the fighting has stopped.

There are no reports of Army or Taliban casualties. Five suspected Taliban were reported captured, but were later released. Civilians appear to have taken the brunt of the casualties, with 13 reported killed and homes leveled by artillery fire.

The Taliban have responded by issuing an ultimatum to the provincial government, warning it would attack if the operations against Taliabn forces did not cease and the government did not live up to the terms of the peace agreements signed throughout the tribal areas and the Northwest Frontier Province. “[The Northwest Frontier Province] government will itself be responsible for the damage,” Mullah Omar, the spokesman for Baitullah's Pakistani Taliban movement told Geo TV. “{The Awami National Party] government made peace pacts but failed to fulfill its promises,”

The operation in Hangu began after a week of unrelenting attacks by Taliban forces in the region. On July 8, a police force detained seven Taliban fighters after a clash in Hangu. Security forces found weapons and explosives as well as “poisonous injections.” Rafiuddin, a senior Taliban leader and a deputy of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, was captured during the raid. Rafiuddin’s group is based out of South Waziristan, which borders Hangu to the south.

The Taliban then launched a siege on the police station where Rafiuddin and the other fighters were held. A force comprised of 400 Taliban fighters surrounded the police station, but dispersed after a Pakistani Army battalion was dispatched to lift the siege.

On July 15, an estimated 250 Taliban surrounded a fort in the Shinawarai region and ordered the paramilitary troops to leave. The Frontier Corps paramilitary toops abandoned the fort, and it subsequently looted and destroyed by the Taliban. The Taliban are said to have captured 29 members of the Pakistani security forces during the past week, and threatened to kill them if extremists in custody were not released.

The security situation in northwestern Pakistan has rapidly deteriorated since the government initiated its latest round of peace accords with the Taliban and allied extremists in the tribal areas and settled districts in the Northwest Frontier Province. Peace agreements have been signed with the Taliban in North Waziristan, Swat, Dir, Bajaur, Malakand, Mohmand, and Khyber. Negotiations are under way in South Waziristan, Kohat, and Mardan. The Taliban have violated the terms of these agreements in every region where accords have been signed.

The Taliban, al Qaeda, and allied terrorist groups have established more than 100 terror camps in the tribal areas and the Northwest Frontier Province, US intelligence officials have told The Long War Journal.

Coalition forces have surged into three separate areas on the volatile border with Pakistan’s Taliban infested tribal states bringing regional tensions with Afghanistan’s neighbors at an all time high. Meanwhile, US, Canadian and British troops have unleashed a salvo of decapitation strikes against the Taliban’s southern zone leadership elements, eliminating several senior Taliban commanders in Helmand, Herat and Kandahar provinces.

Kandahar: Taliban central

Afghan, Canadian and British forces moved into the disputed Arghandab district in mid June to crush a suspected Taliban uprising and killed between 50 and 60 Taliban fighters over a three day period. Most of the fighting centered on the 18 villages previously overrun by Taliban fighters with the fiercest clashes occurring in the village of Munare. General Gul Agha Naibi, commander of the ANA’s Kandahar Atal Corps, later spoke about the clash which he claimed wiped out the Taliban’s shadow government council for Kandahar province.

“It was a serious blow to the opposition,’ he told reporters at Kandahar air base on June 23. ‘Many important Taliban were killed. There was Mullah Abdul Shukur, the Taliban governor of Kandahar; Mullah Kamran, the chief of police; Mullah Baaz Mohammad, chief of intelligence; Mullah Sayed Wali, head of the bank, Mullah Qader, commander of the air force, and Mullah Mohib, commander from Spin Boldak.”

Although his claims cannot be independently verified and provincial officials frequently inflate battlefield assessments, witnesses described the horrific scene of carnage following the ANA’s assault on Munare village with scores of bloated Taliban corpses rotting in canals long after the battle was over.

The latest Taliban figures to be killed in Kandahar include Mullah Mahmood, the Taliban’s shadow deputy governor for Kandahar, and field commanders Mullah Janan and Mullah Gafar (injured). Fighting has spread to outlying districts including Shah Wali Kot, Kakrez, Ghorak, and the hotly contested district of Arghandab.

Despite these recent successes against Taliban leadership elements, insurgents have lashed out, retaliating with a deadly series of ambushes, roadside bomb attacks and suicide bombings. Within hours of killing Mullah Mahmood, insurgents struck simultaneously in western Kandahar; detonating a large bomb on Highway 1 that severed a portion of the road in half, killing three Afghan policemen and setting ablaze five civilian fuel tanker trucks in separate clashes. Fighting continued throughout several other districts in Kandahar, including Shah Wali Kot district, where Taliban fighters ambushed a joint Coalition and Afghan patrol resulting in the deaths of several Taliban fighters.

“Critical Blow” in Helmand

In neighboring Helmand province, British troops conducted a pair of high profile decapitation strikes against Taliban leaders suspected of facilitating deadly roadside bomb attacks against Coalition forces. British special forces killed Mullah Bishmullah on Saturday in the insurgent plagued district of Now Zad and confirmed his death yesterday.

Bishmullah has been identified as a "senior key facilitator and logistician responsible for northern Helmand" and "a key player in the insurgency, and criminality,” according to a British military statemet. The statement also labeled the operation as "striking a critical blow to the insurgency's command and control capabilities.”

"Mullah Bismullah Akhund was a senior Taliban leader responsible for supplying weapons and IEDs that have killed civilians and ISAF forces in northern Helmand," a separate statement by the International Security Assistance Force indicated. "Bismullah was closely associated with local Taliban leader Mullah Rahim, whose brother was also killed during this operation."

Bishmullah is the second Helmand based Taliban leader killed this month. Two weeks ago, an Apache helicopter strike killed Sadiqullah, a known Taliban facilitator. “Combined with the elimination of Sadiqullah, this is the most significant blow struck against the Taliban logistics and facilitation chain in northern Helmand this year," said Lieutenant Colonel Robin Matthews, a British spokesman.

Southeastern Zone

Abu Hassan from As Asahab's recent propaganda video.

Not far from where hundreds of Coalition troops have recently established fortified positions in eastern Khost and Paktika provinces, al Qaeda in Afghanistan has lost one of its most prominent and influential commanders. Abu Hassan al Saeedi, an old guard al Qaeda commander who fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan during the 1980’s, was killed sometime in late June or early July.

As Sahab, al Qaeda’s media wing, released a tribute video lionizing Abu Hassan in early July. The video, nearly an hour long, contains interviews with top al Qaeda commanders Khalid Habib, Abu Khalil al Madani and Mustafa Abu Yazid. At one point, a sophisticated computer animation sequence plays while al-Madani describes how Abu Hassan killed himself conducting a “successful” suicide truck bombing against a US military convoy. The actual attack is never shown but Abu Hassan is seen loading explosives into a large flat bed truck believed to have been used in the attack.

Abu Hassan allegedly helped train Somali insurgents during the early 1990’s before returning to Afghanistan with Osama bin Laden in 1996. He helped run the al Farouq terrorist training camp in southern Afghanistan before taking charge of the eastern city of Jalalabad following the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and eventually became al Qaeda’s deputy head of operations in Afghanistan. He was responsible for launching attacks in Khost, Paktia and Paktika provinces up until his death.

Around the time of Abu Hassan’s death, the youngest son of the notorious Taliban kingpin Jalaluddin Haqqani, Omar Haqqani, was killed during a clash with security forces in Khost province. The 18-year old was killed in combat in Satto Kandao, the mountainous area that links Paktia with the Khost province, according to the News. His death was later confirmed by Taliban fighters in Khost province.

The ailing senior Haqqani is the leader of the feared Haqqani Network, a Taliban linked terrorist group based out of North Waziristan and eastern Afghanistan. Now led by Sirajuddin, one of Jalaluddin’s eldest sons, the Haqqani Network is closely aligned with foreign fighters and Pakistani Taliban. The group has been accused of executing the most audacious attacks in Afghanistan this year including the assault on the Serena hotel in Kabul, the massive suicide truck bombing against the Sabri district headquarters in Khost province, and the attempted assassination of Afghan president Hamid Karzai in April.

Jalaluddin has two wives, one Arab and one Afghan; His Afghan wife has six sons, and the Arab wife three sons. Omar was his Afghan wife’s sixth son, according to a recent Afghan report.

Incidents in Kandahar province, 2007 vs 2008. Click image to view.

Coalition and Afghan forces killed three Taliban commanders in the restive southern province of Kandahar over the past week. But while the military has shown prowess at knocking off extremist leaders, the Taliban have expanded their control in Kandahar as Canadian force draw back to populated districts, according to reports from the southern province.

The International Security Assistance Force reported it killed a senior Taliban political and military leader know as Mullah Mahmoud during an airstrike Kandahar's Khakrez district on July 9. Mahmoud was among "several key insurgent commanders ... meeting to regroup their forces and plan further attacks against the Arghandab district and Kandahar city," ISAF reported. Afghan commandos called in an airstrike after setting up observation post near the meeting.

Mahmoud commanded more than 250 Taliban fighters and "was responsible for many insurgent operations in Kandahar province." He also served as the Taliban's deputy "shadow" governor for the province. The Taliban conducted two high-profile, successful attacks in Kandahar in July. Taliban forces overran the Arghandab district and held it for several days after conducting a bold jailbreak in the heart of Kandahar city. More than 1,100 prisoners, including 400 mid and low-level Taliban operatives, were freed. Few of those freed have been re-arrested or killed.

Afghan and Coalition forces also killed and wounded "scores" of Taliban fighters during operations on July 15-16, Governor Assadullah Khalid said during a press conference. "Pakistani nationals had been seen fighting alongside Taliban insurgents," Xinhua reported based on Khalid's statements.

Taliban commander Mullah Janan was killed and Mullah Ghafar was wounded during clashes in Kandahar's Panjwai district. Khalid did not give further details on Janan's identity, and as RFL/RE reported in 2006, Mullah Janan is a popular nom de guerre for Taliban commanders. Afghan and US forces claimed several times to have captured persons named Mullah Janan. A "high- ranking Taliban commander with direct links to al Qaeda" with the same name was detained in central Kandahar in 2006.

Mullah Ghafar operates along the border between Kandahar and neighboring Helmand province. In 2006, the BBC reported Ghafar commanded a Taliban force with an estimated 300 to 500 fighters. "He is allegedly in regular contact with the Iranian secret service via an Iranian-Baloch tribal family which is heavily involved in the opium trade<" according to the report.

Security deteriorates in Kandahar

While Coalition and Afghan intelligence has had success in identifying an targeting senior and mid-level Taliban leaders in southern Afghanistan over the past several years, the Taliban have increased their footprint in Kandahar, according to a report in The Globe and Mail.

Incidents in Kandahar province, by type, 2007 vs 2008. Click image to view.

The Taliban are said to control six of Kandahar's 16 districts, according to a US assessment. The Canadian Army and the Afghan government are focusing their efforts on the most populous districts, and control four, including Kandahar city, Arghandab, Spin Boldak and Daman. The Taliban control remote, rural districts where Canadian and Afghan forces have pulled back its forces. The remaining six districts are classified as contested or locally controlled.

The violence in Kandahar has spiked over the past year, according to data compiled by Vigilant Strategic Services Afghanistan. Taliban incidents in Kandahar have jumped from 300 to 500 from 2007 to 2008. IED attacks have almost doubled (78 in 2008 to 121 in 2008); attempted IED attacks have more than tripled (31 to 108); complex attacks more than doubled (57 to 123); and rocket and mortar attack have more than tripled (13 to 31). Suicide attacks have remained constant, with 15 recorded this year versus 16 during the same time period last year.

An Iraqi policeman stands guard outside a voter registration center in Mosul as US and Iraqi troops enter.

When Iraqi Army Brigadier General Noor Aldeen visited his old secondary school in northern Mosul this week, he had little time to reminisce about placing first in spelling and arithmetic. His former school in the neighborhood of Al Nomaniya is an election registration site for upcoming regional elections in October, making it a popular place for a terrorist attack in the coming weeks.

Almost all of the 57 registration sites in Iraq’s third-largest city are at primary and secondary schools -- they are well-known locations to locals and Iraqi schools have summer break at the same time as in the US -- but not all schools are well protected against attacks.

"Today, we’re looking at force protection," said Aldeen, the commander of the 8th Brigade of the country’s Mosul-based 2nd Division during a tour of five schools. "There will be continuous controls at each site and quick reaction forces available, backed up by Coalition forces if trouble occurs. Because it’s my old school, I’m over-protective of it."

Al Nomaniya is relatively easy to defend. The school is on a side street with a tightly enclosed courtyard. Another school visited during the trip had a huge open courtyard with multiple-story buildings on the other side, a perfect location for snipers, while a third school is located a main road, easy pickings for a suicide bomber driving a vehicle. A return visit the next day showed an increased show of force, with armored Humvees blocking the main entrances of some schools and gun emplacements on some roofs.

As the battle over Iraq continues between insurgent forces and Iraqi and US military, the upcoming election may represent one of the last opportunities for terrorists to undermine the strengthening central government of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki.

The elections this fall are the first since 2005, when pictures of Iraqi women in conservative garb proudly waving their purple, ink-stained fingers gave the world hope that parliamentary government may possible in Iraq. Those hopes were dashed with the Feb. 2006 al Askaria mosque bombing in Samarra, north of Baghdad. The destruction of the mosque's golden dome set off a wave of deadly sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia that killed thousands and has only recently eased.

The locations are not yet well-known and no one had yet registered at any of the five sites visited by the General’s entourage of 15 Iraqi and US soldiers. Local authorities around Iraq have just started to advertise the 30-day registration period, which ends Aug. 15, even as the national parliament in Baghdad still debates the final election date.

"We’re trying to make sure the registration records are straight and see if a person’s name is missed," said Sufian al Haziz, an official with the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq who is in charge of the Tahreer school location. "I expect the number of voters will be more than in past years."

The numbers may be greater only if violence against civil authorities remains as low as it has for the past two months. Things have quieted down in Mosul since May, when the 2nd Division began its anti-insurgency campaign, called Lion’s Roar. The operation placed the entire city of 1.9 million under 72-hour lockdown as Iraqi Army and Coalition forces discovered enormous caches of weapons and explosives and captured some of Al-Qaeda in Iraq’s key leaders. Up to 70 percent of insurgent explosives caches may have been discovered during the campaign and more than 1,000 insurgents captured.

The insurgents "will probably try to regain the initiative, but they won’t be able to get back on their feet again," Aldeen said.

The career path of Aldeen tracks many leaders within the current Iraqi Army, which fought three wars, lost two and was disbanded once at the end of Saddam Hussein’s disastrous rule.

A top student at Al Nomaniya for three years in the 1970s, he entering military and became the youngest major in the Iraqi Army in 1990. A Kurd, he quit the Army in 1996 to join the Kurdish Peshmerga militia. In 2004 he filled the vacuum left by the collapsing Baathist regime with his Peshmerga division, occupying Mosul.

"People will wait until the last 10 days of the registration period," Aldeen said. "They need to know that it is a secure location first."

The number of attacks in parts of the city have fallen by two-thirds since May, while hardcore Al-Qaeda in Iraq members have fallen to between 400-500 members, allowing them to place less than one improvised explosive device (IED) a day, according to the US Army. Suicide-bomber wannabes crossing the border from Syria has also fallen to about 20 a month from 120 a month at its peak, leading the Times of London to write earlier this month that Lion’s Roar has turned out to be "one of the most spectacular victories of the war on terror."

"The situation in Mosul has gotten better in the past few months," said Major Adam Boyd, the intelligence officer for the 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment based at Camp Marez in southern Mosul. "The targets right now are not Coalition forces; its Iraqi forces and civilians."

The main question in October will be if Sunni Arabs unite enough to bring it political power in the Ninewa province, of which Mosul is the largest city. Unlike other parts of Iraq, the Northern provinces are demographically mixed, with populations of Sunni, Kurd, Shia and smaller groups including Turkoman and Christian Assyrians makes coalition governance more common.

The demographic breakdown of the province is more than 60 percent Sunni, yet Sunnis boycotted the last election in December 2005, leaving political power in the hands of the Kurdish minority. Currently Sunnis only have 2 of the 41 seats in the regional assembly. And it remains to be seen if, because a disproportionate amount of Sunnis will be registering to counteract their past boycotts, violence by Sunni insurgents will lessen.

Political violence remains. Two university professors were killed last month in a politically motivated crime. The Iraqi Army officer in charge of registering new voters was also killed last week, perhaps because he was not willing to falsify election registration documents.

US soldiers from Task Force Currahee was on the receiving end of "multiple rocket attacks" launched from inside Pakistan on July 15, the International Security Assistance Force reported. After pinpointing the firing location inside Pakistan, responded "with a combination of fires from attack helicopters and artillery into Pakistan."

US troops coordinated the response with the Pakistani military. "The Pakistani military agreed to assist and search the area if the border firing continued<" ISAF stated.

The rocket attack against US forces in Paktika is the latest in a series of cross-border incidents and Taliban attacks on bases and district centers in eastern Pakistan. On July 10, Taliban mortar and rocket teams attempted to spark a cross-border incident between US and Pakistani forces by launching rockets and mortar at bases on both sides of the border. US forces have returned fire into Pakistan several other times this year.

The Afghan Army and police and the US military have repelled a series of attacks in the border provinces of Paktia, Paktika, Khost, Kunar, and Nuristan over the past month. The Taliban are attempting to destabilize the eastern region and overrun Afghan government centers and Coalition bases. Attacks in the east are up by more than 40 percent from last year, according to the US military. More than 250 Taliban fighters have been killed during the clashes. Many of the attacks have originated from Pakistan.

US massing for attack into Pakistan?

Yesterday's rocket attack comes as Pakistani tribesmen in North Waziristan and Pakistani military sources have stated that US troops are massing across the border in Paktia, Paktika, and Khost, and are preparing to strike inside Pakistan. An estimated 300 to 500 US troops, along with armor and "heavy weaponry" were moved into positions across the border near Camp Tillman.

"They were brought by helicopters," Akmal Khan, a Pakistani tribesman from Lowara Mandi in North Waziristan told Reuters. They are at the zero point," Akmal Khan, a resident of Lowara Mandi, told Reuters. Anonymous Pakistani intelligence and security officials told Reuters they fear the US will enter Pakistani territory to take out al Qaeda and Taliban camps, and will spark a wider war with the Pakistani tribes.

Tribesmen in North Waziristan, who shelter powerful Taliban leaders such as the Haqqani family and Gul Bahadar, vowed to defend their territory from any US incursion. "More than three million tribesmen would fight along the Pakistani security forces if foreign troops enter the Tribal Areas," Malik Afzal Khan told the Daily Times. The tribes also vowed to support the Pakistani Army against any US invasion.

The reports of troop movements have not been confirmed by ISAF or the US military. But the likelihood is US troops are reinforcing established positions and building new ones in the region due to the heavy volume of Taliban attacks over the past several months, and in light of the Taliban and al Qaeda attack that came close to overrunning the forward outpost in Nuristan last weekend. The buildup in eastern Afghanistan comes as Admiral Michael Mullen, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, made a surprise visit to Pakistan and expressed concern and frustration over the rise of extremist groups in northwestern Pakistan and the impact on Afghanistan’s security.

Tensions along the ill-defined, rugged border have escalated since the Pakistani government initiated its latest round of peace accords with the Taliban and allied extremists in the tribal areas and settled districts in the Northwest Frontier Province. Peace agreements have been signed with the Taliban in North Waziristan, Swat, Dir, Bajaur, Malakand, Mohmand, and Khyber. Negotiations are under way in South Waziristan, Kohat, and Mardan. The Taliban have violated the terms of these agreements in every region where accords have been signed.

The Taliban, al Qaeda, and allied terrorist groups have established more than 100 terror camps in the tribal areas and the Northwest Frontier Province, US intelligence officials have told The Long War Journal.

Two suicide bombers detonated their vests within the Saad military camp as Iraqi Army recruits gathered inside. Twenty-two recruits were killed and more than 55 wounded, some seriously, Voices of Iraq reported.

The attack in Baqubah targeted recruits just as the Iraqi government is finalizing its plans to launch a fresh offensive in Diyala province. The final orders to launch the operation are waiting for the approval of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, the operations chief for Iraq's Interior Ministry told Voices of Iraq last weekend.

The operation is expected to be launched in the next week. Iraqi troops were reported to be massing near Baqubah on July 11.

Iraqi and US forces have conducted several operations in Diyala province since the surge was announced. Last summer and fall, operations focused on clearing Baqubah, the Diyala River Valley north of Baqubah, and surrounding districts of al Qaeda and Mahdi Army influence.
In January 2008, an operation was launched in the Miqdadiyah region, where al Qaeda was building a safe haven.

Al Qaeda still maintains a stronghold in the Hamrin Mountains, which span Diyala, Salahadin, and Tamin provinces. This area is a major fallback position for al Qaeda in Iraq and allied insurgent groups.

More Iraqis are currently being killed in Diyala province per day per capita than in any other province in Iraq, according to numbers compiled by Chris Radin of The Long War Journal. Diyala has 2.62 Iraqis killed per day per million, compared to Ninewa (1.4) and Baghdad (0.6), the second and third most violent provinces.

The upcoming Diyala operation will be the latest in a series of Iraqi planned and led offensives taking on both Sunni and Shia extremist groups. The Iraqi military took on al Qaeda and its allied terror groups in Mosul in the beginning of the year. This operation was followed by offensives against the Mahdi Army in Basrah, Baghdad's Sadr City, Dhi Qhar, Maysan, and in the wider South. US and Coalition forces have, with the exception in Sadr City, played a largely supporting role in the operations, providing, air, artillery, and logistical support.

An estimated 250 Taliban surrounded the fort in the Shinawarai region in Hangu on Monday night and ordered the paramilitary troops to leave. Dawn reported that the paramilitaries were granted "safe passage," but Geo TV reported 15 troops were killed and five set free. After the troops abandoned the fort, it was looted. The Taliban then set explosive charges and detonated after abandoning the post.

Monday's destruction of the Shinawarai fort is the latest in a series of Taliban strikes in Hangu over the past week. The fighting began on July 8, after a police force detained seven Taliban fighters after a clash in Hangu. Security forces found weapons and explosives as well as “poisonous injections.” Rafiuddin, a senior Taliban leader and a deputy of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, was captured during the raid. Rafiuddin’s group is based out of South Waziristan, which borders Hangu to the south.

The Taliban then launched a siege on the police station where Rafiuddin and the other fighters were held. A force comprised of 400 Taliban fighters surrounded the police station, but dispersed after a Pakistani Army battalion was dispatched to lift the siege.

Before retreating, the Taliban kidnapped anywhere from 16 to 35 people in Hangu, including security officials, and then threatened to execute them if Rafiuddin were not released from custody. Mullah Omar, a spokesman for Baitullah Mehsud, said the executions would start on July 12, but there is no indication the Taliban followed through on the threat.

On July 12, 22 Pakistanis, including 15 soldiers, were killed after the Taliban ambushed a three-vehicle convoy traveling in the region.

The Pakistani military is said to have launched a counteroffensive "to trace the culprits" of the convoy attack. The military is using artillery indiscriminately in its hunt for the Taliban forces. There are no report of Taliban casualties or of the recovery of hostages.

The tribal leaders in Hangu are urging an end to the operation and lobbying with the government for the release the captive Taliban fighters and their leader. "The jirga members want the government to allow them to take a peace message to Taliban commander Mullah Sanaullah and bring him to the negotiation table," Dawn reported.

The call for negotiations with the Taliban in Hangu is part of a government-sponsored initiative to cut deals with extremists in exchange for an end to attacks in Pakistan. Peace agreements have been signed with the Taliban in North Waziristan, Swat, Dir, Bajaur, Malakand, Mohmand, and Khyber. Negotiations are under way in South Waziristan, Kohat, and Mardan. The Taliban have violated the terms of these agreements in every region where accords have been signed.

Sunday's assault occurred just three days after 45 US soldiers, likely from the 173rd Airborne Brigade, and 25 Afghan troops established a new combat outpost in the town of Wanat, which straddles the provincial border between Nuristan and Kunar. The troops had little time to learn the lay of the land, establish local contacts, and build an intelligence network. The fortifications were not fully completed, according to initial reports.

A complex attack

The assault was carried out in the early morning of July 13 after the extremist forces, numbering between 200 and 500 fighters, took over a neighboring village. "What they [the Taliban] did was they moved into an adjacent village - which was close to the combat outpost - they basically expelled the villagers and used their houses to attack us," an anonymous senior Afghan defense ministry official told Al Jazeera. Tribesmen in the town stayed behind "and helped the insurgents during the fight," General Mohammad Qasim Jangalbagh, the provincial police chief, told The Associated Press.

The Taliban force then conducted a complex attack, coordinating a ground assault with supporting fires. Approximately 100 enemy fighters were reported to have moved close to the base while under a heavy barrage of machinegun fire, rocket-propelled grenades, and mortars. The fighters advanced on the outpost from three sides.

Taliban fighters breached the outer perimeter of the outpost but were repelled. US troops called in artillery, helicopter, and air support to help beat back the attacking force. Casualties were heavy on both sides, with nine US soldiers and 40 Taliban fighters killed during the assault. Fifteen US and four Afghan soldiers were also wounded in the attack.

An extremist alliance

The assault on the Wanat outpost was conducted by an alliance of extremist groups operating in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to reports. A senior Afghan defense official told Al Jazeera that "various anti-government factions including Taliban, al-Qaeda and the Hezb-i-Islami faction were involved" in the strike.

Tamim Nuristani, who served as governor of Nuristan before President Hamid Karzai relieve him of his post for criticizing a US airstrike that is thought to have killed Afghan civilians, said Taliban and Pakistani groups banded together for the attack. "The (attackers) were not only from Nuristan but from other districts," Nuristani said.

"They are not only Taliban. They were (Pakistan-based) Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hezb-i-Islami, Taliban and those people who are dissatisfied with the (Karzai) government after these recent incidents," Nuristani said, intimating the attack was revenge for the US airstrike. "They all came together for this one."

Kunar hosts a major infiltration route and a witches' brew of extremist

Activity in Kunar province has been particularly fierce over the past year. According to an Afghan security report obtained by The Long War Journal, Kunar suffered 963 attacks in 2007, making it the second most active province for insurgents, after Kandahar. The data for 2008 shows the same trend, with Kunar behind only Kandahar in the number of Taliban-related attacks.

US forces have stepped up their presence in Kunar and neighboring Nuristan province since 2005, building remote outposts and bases along established smuggling routes used by insurgent forces. According to one regional report, the US recently finished construction on a vital outpost near the notorious Ghahki Pass, a narrow gorge connecting Pakistan’s Bajaur tribal agency with Kunar province.

The Ghahki Pass has remained a vital extremist infiltration route since the conflict began. In October 2001, more than 1,000 Pakistani jihadists flooded through the narrow canyon into Afghanistan and joined the Taliban in their fight against Coalition forces. Seven years later, the local population remains openly hostile to both the Afghan government and US forces, making it an ideal area for extremist activity to thrive.

A host of Taliban, al Qaeda, and allied extremist groups operate inside Kunar and in the Bajaur tribal agency in neighboring Pakistan. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Younus Khalis's Hezb-i-Islami factions operate in Kunar and in neighboring Bajaur. The Kashmiri-based Lashkar-e-Taiba also operates in the border region. Al Qaeda's senior leadership, including Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri, are thought to shelter in the region.

Bajaur is a strategic command and control hub for al Qaeda. The tribal agency is administered by Faqir Mohammed, the local leader of the outlawed Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM - the Movement for the Implementation of Mohammad's Sharia Law) and the deputy leader of Baitullah Mehsud's unified Pakistani Taliban movement. The TNSM sent thousands of fighters into Afghanistan to fight US forces in 2001 and 2002, and continues to sponsor attacks in Afghanistan.

Pakistan remains a sanctuary for extremist leaders, as raids in early February demonstrated. After capturing Mansoor