.Ex-Gitmo prisoner helps lead Taliban in Afghanistan
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan – A man who was freed from Guantánamo more than two years ago, after claiming that he only wanted to go home and help his family, is now a senior commander running Taliban resistance to the U.S.-led offensive in southern Afghanistan, two senior Afghan intelligence officials say.
Abdul Qayyum also is seen as a leading candidate to be the next No. 2 in the Afghan Taliban hierarchy, the officials said.
The story of Abdul Qayyum could add to the complications President Barack Obama is facing in fulfilling his pledge to close the prison at Guantánamo by sending some current prisoners back to their home countries or to other willing nations, while putting others on trial.
U.S. intelligence officials say that 20 percent of inmates released from the Guantánamo Bay prison have returned to the fight and that the number has been steadily increasing.
Qayyum's key aide in plotting attacks on Afghan and international forces is another former Guantánamo prisoner, Abdul Rauf, according to the officials and a former governor of Helmand province, Sher Mohammed Akhundzada.
Akhundzada said he warned the Afghan authorities against releasing both Rauf and Qayyum.
Like Qayyum, Rauf is from Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. During the Taliban's rule, which ended in late 2001, Rauf was a corps commander in the western province of Herat and in the Afghan capital, Kabul, Akhundzada said.
The intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Qayyum was given charge of the military campaign in the south about 14 months ago, soon after his release from an Afghan jail, to which he had been transferred from Guantánamo. His duties included managing the battle for the town of Marjah, where NATO troops are flushing out remaining militants, the officials said.
Qayyum, whose Taliban nom de guerre is Qayyum Zakir, is thought to be running operations from the Pakistani border city of Quetta. A Pakistani newspaper report that he was recently arrested was denied by Abdul Razik, a former governor of Kajaki, Qayyum's home district, which is under extensive Taliban control.
Qayyum, who is about 36 years old, was a Taliban commander in the 1990s and is close to the Taliban's spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar. He has been identified as a possible candidate to replace the militia's second-in-command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was among several Taliban leaders arrested recently in Pakistan.
Dallas Morning News
Abdul Qayyum also is seen as a leading candidate to be the next No. 2 in the Afghan Taliban hierarchy, the officials said.
The story of Abdul Qayyum could add to the complications President Barack Obama is facing in fulfilling his pledge to close the prison at Guantánamo by sending some current prisoners back to their home countries or to other willing nations, while putting others on trial.
U.S. intelligence officials say that 20 percent of inmates released from the Guantánamo Bay prison have returned to the fight and that the number has been steadily increasing.
Qayyum's key aide in plotting attacks on Afghan and international forces is another former Guantánamo prisoner, Abdul Rauf, according to the officials and a former governor of Helmand province, Sher Mohammed Akhundzada.
Akhundzada said he warned the Afghan authorities against releasing both Rauf and Qayyum.
Like Qayyum, Rauf is from Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. During the Taliban's rule, which ended in late 2001, Rauf was a corps commander in the western province of Herat and in the Afghan capital, Kabul, Akhundzada said.
The intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Qayyum was given charge of the military campaign in the south about 14 months ago, soon after his release from an Afghan jail, to which he had been transferred from Guantánamo. His duties included managing the battle for the town of Marjah, where NATO troops are flushing out remaining militants, the officials said.
Qayyum, whose Taliban nom de guerre is Qayyum Zakir, is thought to be running operations from the Pakistani border city of Quetta. A Pakistani newspaper report that he was recently arrested was denied by Abdul Razik, a former governor of Kajaki, Qayyum's home district, which is under extensive Taliban control.
Qayyum, who is about 36 years old, was a Taliban commander in the 1990s and is close to the Taliban's spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar. He has been identified as a possible candidate to replace the militia's second-in-command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was among several Taliban leaders arrested recently in Pakistan.
Dallas Morning News
posted by madtom at 6:44 PM
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