Taliban’s Haqqani network have considered joint al-Qaeda force claims US Treasury

US planes bomb al-Qaeda positions in Afghanistan in 2001

The Taliban’s notorious Haqqani network faction has discussed forming a joint unit with al-Qaeda as the terrorist group gains strength in Afghanistan, the US Treasury has said.

The terrorist group continues to operate with the Taliban and is protected by the Afghan insurgent movement battling Ashraf Ghani’s internationally-backed government.

The assessment from the US Department of the Treasury is the latest to highlight continuing links between the groups, despite the Taliban agreeing to turn their backs on terrorist groups in return for the withdrawal of US troops.

The memo dated January 4 comes as  Joe Biden’s new administration has said it will review Donald Trump’s Doha deal to see if the Taliban were keeping their end.

Under Mr Trump’s February 2020 deal the Taliban said they would not allow terrorists to use Afghan soil as a base for attacks and would not let them fund raise, train, or recruit. 

The five-page memo responding to questions from the Pentagon’s lead inspector general said al-Qaeda “capitalises on its relationship with the Taliban through its network of mentors and advisers who are embedded with the Taliban, providing advice, guidance, and financial support.”

It also said that senior figures of the Haqqani Network faction of the Taliban, which has been known in the past for both for its links to Pakistan and its high profile attacks “have discussed forming a new joint unit of armed fighters in cooperation with and funded by al-Qaeda”.

The Taliban deny a close relationship. One Taliban minister told the Telegraph the Taliban no longer needed the group. He said: “Honestly I don’t see any on ground cooperation and practical joint activities and contribution between Taliban and al-Qaeda at all. It might be some have an ideological understanding and sympathies still exist.”

Analysts questioned how much of the information was new, and said much seemed to have already been reported last year.

Andrew Watkins, Afghanistan researcher for the International Crisis Group, said the Taliban and al Qaeda “have a decades-long history, mostly complicated, but also mostly supportive”.

He said relations between the two had changed as the Taliban gained more power. 

“A decade or two ago, al-Qaeda may have been bringing something to the table, such as financial support, jihadist legitimacy, or advising from experienced operatives. But at this point the tables have turned. The Taliban is the great white shark in this relationship, and al-Qaeda is the remora fish, hanging on, tucked away in its slipstream.”