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Former TTP - media wing released a documentary, beside unveiling their relationship with the Afghan Taliban, it’s an acknowledgement & declarations of dissolving, joining the Afghan Taliban under their leadership. Confirming the assessments after the death of Hakimullah Mehsud.
This is major development, confirming my sources and reports from Paktika, Zabul & the battles against ISKP in Nangarhar & Kunar. Where former allies turned their guns on eachother. One fighting on behalf of the Afghan Taliban the others in the ranks of ISKP.
And yet once again TTP fooled @NDSAfghanistan , used their feeded intel & support provided to them returned it to the Afghan Taliban to take out NDS officials & spies in their ranks or heads in several provinces. Reducing CIA, NDS activity in south, east to a minimum.
Orakzai, Bajaur factions and some other small groups from the TTP joined their salafist allies in Kunar, Nangarhar to form ISKP that’s correct, not the whole TTP. It gained them wealth, power & attention. Like ISIS in MENA, always hungry for headlines. https://twitter.com/inzagxi/status/1249702236286050304?s=21 https://twitter.com/inzagxi/status/1249702236286050304
Here is how really close Hakimullah Mehsud got with Afghanistan. Pictured with Mullah Sangeen and Sirajudin Haqqani, the current Taliban deputy head, who trained TTP fighters in Afghanistan on how to ambush, raid and carry out attacks, later used against Pakistani forces.
I think the term loosely allied described best the factions once fought under the TTP. The TTP was a unification out of necessity and not due to their goals, because they varied dramatically, in times it worked like criminal mafia structures.
Hakimullah was the Afghan Taliban’s man for many things in Pakistan. His death made them handicap and their operations inside Pakistan and asked their loyal fighters to move to Afghanistan. https://www.pajhwok.com/en/2013/11/02/afghan-taliban-slam-mehsud%E2%80%99s-killing
Many underestimated the salafist groups independent from Afghan Taliban in Kunar & Nangarhar. In times they fought alongside the Taliban, but with ISIS rise in Syria & Iraq they were joined by those other factions from TTP.
https://twitter.com/marwanafridi77/status/1249724916934553600?s=21 https://twitter.com/marwanafridi77/status/1249724916934553600
https://twitter.com/marwanafridi77/status/1249724916934553600?s=21 https://twitter.com/marwanafridi77/status/1249724916934553600
Here is @AANafgh report about them: https://www.afghanistan-analysts.org/en/reports/war-and-peace/on-kunars-salafi-insurgents/
The APS attack was a heinous and gruesome attack carried out by a elements of a TTP faction. But the casualties weren’t only caused by the terrorist attackers, but also by the raiding teams. They indiscriminately killed civilians. https://twitter.com/ahmed066ahmed/status/1249726745248440320?s=21 https://twitter.com/ahmed066ahmed/status/1249726745248440320
There is a small scale local insurgency. But most of the fighters are now based/shattered alongside Afghan Taliban. And have been retrained and regrouped to fit them into the Afghan structure. They have fought heavy battles against ISKP & other militias. https://twitter.com/iiafridi/status/1249717397713498118?s=21
It’s a small boost for the Afghan Taliban having extra reliable 2000 to 4000 fighters, but they were necessary to reclaim areas and defeat ISKP in Nangarhar, Laghman & keep government forces at bay in #Paktika & #Zabul.
There are plent of ways to prove that Pakistani forces killed civilians in the APS incident. The forensics, use of explosive and heavy arms in the raid, just to name a few. The witness will tell you that government forces used excessive force. https://twitter.com/0threshold/status/1249730616326848513?s=21 https://twitter.com/0threshold/status/1249730616326848513
The video confirms, what researchers & sources on the ground. That with 2015 things changed. Not only did 1000s of Waziristani fighters vanished along with allies across the border but they became then an integral part, especially deployed against ISKP. https://twitter.com/yaar3ka/status/1249740271635632128?s=21 https://twitter.com/yaar3ka/status/1249740271635632128
There are still clashes with Pakistan army here & there. But the bulk of Mehsud & Wazir tribesmen formerly with Hakimullah are today with the Afghan Taliban in their ranks, not as a separate entity, but as a part of their fighting units, dissolved into the local groups.
In contrary, ISKP rise swallowed almost all extremist groups & tore a line between factions having regional and those with international goals. Afraid fighting at two fronts. A minority of fighters chose to join their allies, the Afghan Taliban. https://twitter.com/najibsadid/status/1249743158629601280?s=21 https://twitter.com/najibsadid/status/1249743158629601280
Just for clarification, things mentioned here already happend. They have been integrated & it’s been now almost 4 years since factions with Hakimullah have dissolved & intermixed in Afghan Taliban ranks. They have no separate entities or groups. https://twitter.com/darvishkhel/status/1249779799142346752?s=21 https://twitter.com/darvishkhel/status/1249779799142346752
