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The Afghanistan JSOC task force has been using SIGINT to figure out where the Taliban needs help against ISIS in Kunar, then delivering it via drone strikes, troops involved told me.
They jokingly nicknamed the targeting team the “Taliban Air Force.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/10/22/taliban-isis-drones-afghanistan/?arc404=true
They jokingly nicknamed the targeting team the “Taliban Air Force.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/10/22/taliban-isis-drones-afghanistan/?arc404=true
“What we’re doing with the strikes against ISIS is helping the Taliban move,” one special operator told me. The Taliban and ISIS are duking it out in the same old terrain—Korengal, Chowkay—where U.S. spent years relying heavily on airpower and artillery. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/10/22/taliban-isis-drones-afghanistan/?arc404=true
It’s a way of tipping the scales against ISIS, which the US sees as more dangerous, without having to talk to Taliban. “It’s easy to capture the Taliban’s communications,” said Bill Ostlund. “Why directly coordinate with them when you can do it that way?” https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/10/22/taliban-isis-drones-afghanistan/?arc404=true
“Yeah, it raised eyebrows,” in the JSOC task force, a special operator told me. “Everyone in the task force would rather be out there fighting the war themselves. But I think everyone understands that it’s time to try something different.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/10/22/taliban-isis-drones-afghanistan/?arc404=true
“I can understand a certain distaste for doing it....[but] it’s the kind of thing that needs to happen” in a future where the Taliban is responsible for policing terrorist groups in Afg, former JSOC and CENTCOM commander Joe Votel told me. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/10/22/taliban-isis-drones-afghanistan/?arc404=true
But some question how serious a threat ISIS-K really is. "We’re not seeing foreign fighters up there. These are localized folks,” Brig. Gen. Joe Ryan told me. "I don’t believe a transnational terrorist attack is going to emanate from Konar anytime soon.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/10/22/taliban-isis-drones-afghanistan/?arc404=true
That's while the Taliban remains allied w/ & supported by al-Qaeda. “Senior [AQ] figures remain in Afg" & Taliban have "offered informal guarantees that they would honor their historic ties" w/ AQ, a senior UN counterterrorism official said last week. https://www.voanews.com/south-central-asia/concerns-mount-us-seen-downplaying-al-qaida-threat-afghanistan
"Are we more concerned about ISIS taking over Afg, or the Taliban?” asked @LorenCrowe, who did 2 Kunar tours & was wounded 2x there. “If ISIS in the Korengal is mostly a bunch of Korengalis, why do we care?...There will always be dragons to slay up there." https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/10/22/taliban-isis-drones-afghanistan/?arc404=true
JSOC “Taliban Air Force” strikes that I reported this fall referenced in this @WSJ op-ed by former Marine combat advisers Gil Barndollar (of @QuincyInst) and Sam Long today https://www.wsj.com/articles/now-is-as-good-a-time-as-any-for-the-u-s-to-quit-afghanistan-11607643116?st=s3e21k028ed9ces&reflink=article_imessage_share
Also here’s CENTCOM commander Gen. McKenzie partially confirming the JSOC “Taliban Air Force” story yesterday in response to a question from @KatieBoWill—thanks @JeffSchogol for noting https://taskandpurpose.com/news/us-drone-strikes-isis-assist-taliban/
