UPDATE: Baradar reportedly wounded in gunfight with Haqqani network, in Pakistan receiving treatment; The situation in Afghanistan today, September 6, 2021

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Posted By: James Rowles September 6, 2021

UPDATE
September 6, 2021,
5:00p.m. EDT

News Reports say Baradar wounded in gunfight on Friday, September 3, currently receiving medical treatment in Pakistan

See,

1) Meera Suresh, “Taliban Leader Baradar The Butcher Injured In Fighting With Haqqani Network In Kabul, Say Reports,” International Business Times, September 6, 2021 (3:25 AM).

2) ANI (Kabul), “Mullah Baradar, Haqqani fought over disagreement on Panjshir situation: Report; The incident took place over an alleged disagreement among the Taliban leaders on how to resolve the Panjshir situation,” Hindustan Times, September 5, 2021 (10:12 PM IST).

According to news reports, Mollah Baradar was wounded in a gunfight with the Haqqani network. The latter, led bu Anas Haqqani and supported by Pakistani military intelligence (ISI), reportedly insisted on retaking the Psnjshir Vallet by force, which was opposed by Baradar. The fact that the Panjshir valley was in fact taken by force suggests that, for the moment, the Haqqani network may be ahead in the struggle for power within the Taliban.

The fact that the head of the Pakistani ISI military intelligence bagency traveled to Kabul on Saturday lends credence to the above reports.

For an analysis of the three main factions within the Taliban, see,

1) “Afghanistan today, September 3, 2021: The Taliban government is forming, with no nods to Western wishful thinking,” The Trenchant Observer, September 3, 2021.

2) “The situation in Afghanistan today, August 30, 2021,” The Trenchant Observer, August 30,:2021.
https://trenchantobserver.com/2021/08/30/the-situation-in-afghanistan-today-ahttps://trenchantobserver.com/2021/08/30/the-situation-in-afghanistan-today-august-30-2021/ugust-30-2021/

This article contains excerpts from and analysis of outstanding article by Jacques Follorou of Le Mondeof factions within the Taliban.

***

Original article

See,

1) Daniel Dylan Böhmer, “Da lacht der Taliban-Kämpfer und haut mir auf die Schulter,” Die Welt, den 6. September 2021 (08:26 Uhr CEST).

2) Siobhán O’Grady, Rachel Pannett, Haq Nawaz Khan and Ezzatullah Mehrdad, “Panjshir Valley, last resistance holdout in Afghanistan, falls to the Taliban Washington Post, September 6, 2021(1:28 p.m. EDT).

Die Zeit’s Senior editor Daniel Dylan Böhme reports from Kabul that the Taliban he is encountering seem to be relaxed and friendly, and good-humored. One cannot know how representative of the Taliban in Kabul his sample is, but at least his report provides ground for some limited, cautious hope.

in the article cited above,the Washington Post reports that Taliban leaders have announced that they will rehire Afghan army soldiers trained by the Americans, and integrate them with their own fighters into the national army.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement that the Islamist group had “completely conquered” the Panjshir Meanwhile, at a news conference in Kabul, Mujahid said that Afghan troops who had been trained by Western governments in the past two decades would be asked to rejoin the country’s security forces alongside Taliban fighters. Some Afghan soldiers are among those who fled to Panjshir after the Taliban seized Kabul last month.
“The forces that were trained by the previous government

“The forces that were trained by the previous government must rejoin,” he said. “In the upcoming system, all the forces that were previously trained and are professional will be reintegrated with our forces, because our country needs a strong army.”

This development may also be viewed as a hopeful sign that the Taliban are seriously intent on fostering a process of reconciliation. Much, however, will depend on the competition for leadership among the different factions in the Taliban, beginning with the new government shortly to be announced in Kandahar, and as that competition develops over time.

The Trenchant Observer

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About the Author

James Rowles
"The Trenchant Observer" is edited and published by James Rowles (aka "The Observer"), an author and international lawyer who has taught International Law, Human Rights, and Comparative Law at major U.S. universities, including Harvard, Brandeis, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Kansas. Dr. Rowles is a former staff attorney at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of American States OAS), in Wasington, D.C., , where he was in charge of Brazil, Haiti, Mexico and the United States, and also worked on complaints from and reports on other countries including Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. As an international development expert, he has worked on Rule of Law, Human Rights, and Judicial Reform in a number of countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and the Russian Federation. In the private sector, Dr. Rowles has worked as an international attorney for a leading national law firm and major global companies, on joint ventures and other matters in a number of countries in Europe (including Russia and the Ukraine), throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, and in Australia, Indonesia, Vietnam, China and Japan. The Trenchant Observer blog provides an unfiltered international perspective for news and opinion on current events, in their historical context, drawing on a daily review of leading German, French, Spanish and English newspapers as well as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and other American newspapers, and on sources in other countries relevant to issues being analyzed. Dr. Rowles speaks fluent English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish, and also knows other languages. He holds an S.J.D. or Doctor of Juridical Science in International Law from Harvard University, and a Doctor of Law (J.D.) and a Master of the Science of Law (J.S.M.=LL.M.), from Stanford University. As an undergraduate, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree, also from Stanford, where he graduated “With Great Distinction” (summa cum laude) and received the James Birdsall Weter Prize for the best Senior Honors Thesis in History. In addition to having taught as a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, Dr. Rowles has been a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University's Center for International Affairs (CFIA). His fellowships include a Stanford Postdoctoral Fellowship in Law and Development, the Rómulo Gallegos Fellowship in International Human Rights awarded by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and a Harvard MacArthur Fellowship in International Peace and Security. Beyond his articles in The Trenchant Observer, he is the author of two books and numerous scholarly articles on subjects of international and comparative law. Currently he is working on a manuscript drawing on some the best articles that have appeared in the blog.

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