Al-Qaeda mocks US withdrawal from Afghanistan, as Taliban continues to advance
- Following the exit of US troops, the Taliban says it will not allow al-Qaeda to operate in the country – but analysts say this is not the case
- The Taliban is changing its public image to improve its legitimacy and is making overtures to China to attract more investment to Afghanistan
The Taliban has also said it would not allow al-Qaeda to operate in Afghanistan, a pledge that drew scepticism from analysts.
Nico Prucha, an independent terror expert who monitors online jihadist activities, said that from the perspective of the Taliban and al-Qaeda, the war in Afghanistan was “won by true Muslims” following the exit of American troops.
“Al-Qaeda has used the hashtag ‘the year of running away’ since early June to refer to the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and France’s announcement of its withdrawal from the Sahel region in Africa,” said Prucha who is fluent in Arabic.
French President Emmanuel Macron said in June he was ending the country’s eight-year operation in the region and would be pulling out more than 2,000 troops by early next year.
Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told This Week In Asia that al-Qaeda belonged to a “past era” and would not be allowed to operate in the country “any more”.
The Taliban claimed there were no longer any al-Qaeda members in Afghanistan and insisted that under the Doha peace deal signed with the US in February 2020, the Taliban had “committed ourselves that we will not allow” any individual, group or entity to use Afghanistan to carry out attacks against the US, its allies or “any other country in the world”.
“We will not permit any open recruitment or any training or fundraising centre for any group in Afghanistan,” said Suhail. “If there is one who is hiding and we find them, we will tell them they cannot [stay].”