Taliban Covert Operatives Seized Kabul, Other Afghan Cities From Within
By Trofimov & Stancati, 11/28/21, Wall St. Journal

KABUL—Undercover Taliban agents—often clean-shaven,
dressed in jeans & sporting sunglasses—spent years
infiltrating Afghan govt ministries, universities,
businesses & aid organizations.

Then, as U.S. forces were completing their withdrawal in
August, these operatives stepped out of the shadows in
Kabul & other big cities across Afghanistan, surprising
their neighbors & colleagues. Pulling their weapons from
hiding, they helped the Taliban rapidly seize control
from the inside.

The pivotal role played by these clandestine cells is
becoming apparent only now, 3 months after the U.S. pullout.
At the time, Afghan cities fell one after another like
dominoes with little resistance from the American-backed
govt’s troops. Kabul collapsed in a matter of hours, with
hardly a shot fired.

“We had agents in every organization & department,” boasted
Mawlawi Mohammad Salim Saad, a senior Taliban leader who
directed suicide-bombing operations & assassinations inside
the capital before its fall. “The units we had already
present in Kabul took control of the strategic locations.”

Saad’s men belong to the so-called Badri force of the
Haqqani network, a part of the Taliban that is designated
as a terrorist org by the U.S. because of its links to
al Qaeda. Sitting before a bank of closed-circuit TV monitors
in the Kabul airport security command center, which he now
oversees, he said, “We had people even in the office that
I'm occupying today.”

The 20-year war in Afghanistan was often seen as a fight
between bands of Taliban insurgents—bearded men operating
from mountain hide-outs—& Afghan & U.S. forces struggling
to control rural terrain. The endgame, however, was won by
a large underground network of urban operatives.

On Aug. 15, after President Ashraf Ghani fled Kabul, it was
these men who seized the capital city while the Taliban’s
more conventional forces remained outside.

Mohammad Rahim Omari, a midlevel commander in the Badri
force, was working undercover at his family’s gasoline-
trading business in Kabul before he was called into action
that day. He said he & 12 others were dispatched to an
Afghan intel service compound in the east of the city, where
they disarmed the officers on duty & stopped them from
destroying computers & files.

Other cells fanned out to seize other govt & military
installations & reached Kabul airport, where the U.S. was
mounting a massive evacuation effort. They took control of
the airport’s perimeter until better-armed Taliban troops
arrived from the countryside in the morning. One agent,
Mullah Rahim, was even dispatched to secure the Afghan
Inst of Archaeology & its treasures from potential looters.

Omari said the Badri force had compartmentalized cells
working on different tasks—armed fighters, fundraisers &
those involved with propaganda & recruitment.

“Now these 3 types of mujahedeen have reunited,” he said.
Omari himself is now deputy police chief in Kabul’s 12th
District.

Their success has helped boost the influence of the
Haqqanis within the overall Taliban movement. Badri was
founded by Badruddin Haqqani, who was killed in a U.S.
drone strike in Pakistan in 2012. It now is under the
ultimate command of his brother, Sirajuddin Haqqani,
who is in charge of Afghanistan’s internal security as
its new interior minister.

Named after the Battle of Badr that was won by Prophet
Muhammad in 624, the Badri force includes several subgroups.
The best known is its special-ops unit, Badri 313, whose
fighters in high-end helmets & body armor were deployed
next to U.S. Marines at the Kabul airport in the two weeks
between the fall of Kabul & the completion of the American
airlift.

Kamran, who didn’t want his surname to be used, was tasked
with taking over his alma mater, Kabul University, & the
Ministry of Higher Education.

A 30-year-old from Wardak province west of Kabul, he said
he became a Taliban recruiter when he was pursuing a
master’s in Arabic at the university in 2017. He estimates
that, over the years, he persuaded some 500 people, mostly
students, to join the insurgency. To maintain his cover, he
shaved his chin, wore sunglasses & dressed in suits or jeans.

“Many of our friends who had beards were targeted,” he
recalled. “I was above suspicion. While many of our low-
ranking friends were arrested, I wasn’t. Even though I
was their leader.”

Many of his acquaintances—former classmates, teachers &
guards—first realized he was a member of the Taliban when
he showed up with a gun on Aug. 15, he said. “Many employees
of the ministry & the entire staff of the university knew me.
They were surprised to see me,” said Kamran, whose new job
is head of security for Kabul’s several universities.

Kamran has since adopted the Taliban’s trademark look: a
black turban, a white shalwar kameez & a long beard. As for
his suits & jeans, they are gathering dust in his closet.
“Those aren’t our traditional outfits,” he said. “I don’t
think I'll have to wear them again.”

Similar Taliban cells operated in other major Afghan
cities. In Kandahar, Afghanistan’s 2nd-largest metropolis,
university lecturer Ahmad Wali Haqmal said he repeatedly
asked Taliban leaders for permission to join the armed
struggle against the U.S.-backed govt after he completed
his bachelor’s degree in Shariah law.

“I was ready to take the AK-47 & go because no Afghan can
tolerate the invasion of their country,” he recalled. “But
then our elders told us no, don’t come here, stay over
there, work in the universities because these are also our
people & the media & the world are deceiving them about us.”

The Taliban sent Haqmal to India to earn a master’s in
human rights from Aligarh Muslim Univ, he said. When he
returned to Kandahar, he was focused on recruitment &
propaganda for the Taliban. After the fall of Kabul, he
became the chief spokesman for the Taliban-run finance
ministry.

Fereshta Abbasi, an Afghan lawyer, said she'd long been
suspicious about a man who worked alongside her at a
fortified compound, Camp Baron near the Kabul airport,
that hosted offices for development projects funded by
the U.S. & other Western countries.

But it wasn’t until the day after the fall of Kabul—when
the man appeared on TV clutching a Kalashnikov rifle—that
she discovered he was in fact a Taliban commander. “I was
shocked,” said Abbasi, who's now based in London.

The commander, Assad Massoud Kohistani, said in an
interview with CNN that women should cover their faces.

A person familiar with Kohistani’s employment history
said he worked for a USAID-funded irrigation project & was
previously employed by a UN agency as a finance officer.
The U.S. Agency for Int'l Development, asked about
Kohistani, said it subjects its Afghan programs to
counterterrorism partner vetting.

Run by Westerners, Camp Baron included a hotel with a
restaurant that openly served beer & other alcoholic
drinks. Abbasi, like many female colleagues working at
Camp Baron, wore a loose head scarf in the office, &
sometimes none at all. “I can’t imagine how angry he must
have been with us,” she said.

Saad, the Badri commander, said he was shocked by his
initial encounters with Kabul residents like Abbasi as
he arrived to take charge at the Kabul airport at 7 a.m.
on Aug. 16. Many of them screamed “You are death” at the
Taliban, he recalled.

“It was painful to see Afghan women flee abroad, leaving
their bags behind,” he said. “The generation of the past
20 years hadn’t seen us at all and were afraid of us.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/taliban-covert-operatives-seized-kabul-other-afghan-cities-from-within-11638095401

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