South Waziristan Taliban leader Mullah Nazir. Click to view.

Forces under the command of a leader considered to be one of the “good Taliban” by the Pakistani military destroyed an Afghan Army camp.

Taliban forces commanded by Mullah Nazir blew up an the Afghan Army base, which was just across the border from the Angoor Adda region in Pakistan. The region is under the control of Nazir, a Pakistani Taliban commander.

“Sources said the Taliban planted explosives all over the base and blew it up, destroying bunkers and installations,” Dawn reported. The based was destroyed after “a contingent stationed there moved out of the fortified compound.” The Taliban and “a group of tribesmen” then looted the base.

The destruction of the Afghan base by Nazir’s forces follows the Dec. 6 attack on a Pakistani Army checkpoint at a bridge in Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, which is also under the control of Nazir. The attack resulted in one one soldier killed. The Taliban suffered six of their own killed after the Pakistani Army counterattacked. The military did not take further actions against Nazir.

Pakistan’s military and intelligence services consider Nazir and his followers “good Taliban” as they do not openly seek the overthrow of the Pakistani state. However, Nazir openly supports Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden, and wages jihad in Afghanistan; more senior al Qaeda leaders have been killed in Nazir’s tribal areas during the US air campaign than in those of any other Taliban leader in Pakistan.

Earlier this year, just prior to launching a military operation against the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan in the Mehsud tribal areas in South Waziristan, the military agreed to a peace deal with Nazir as well as with North Waziristan Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadar. Nazir and Bahadar are not members of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan. Bahadar and the Haqqani Network, which is also based in North Waziristan, are also considered “good” Taliban by the Pakistani government and military.

The peace agreement allows for the Pakistani military to move through Nazir and Bahadar’s tribal areas without being attacked. Another condition of the agreement prohibits Bahadar and Nazir from providing shelter to fleeing members of the Mehsud branch of the Taliban.

But Taliban fighters from the Mehsud tribal areas have sought shelter with Mullah Nazir in the Wazir tribal areas, and the rearguard fighters still opposing the Army’s advance are receiving support from Nazir’s forces, US military and intelligence officials have told The Long War Journal.

Bahadar and the Haqqanis are also providing shelter to fleeing Taliban fighters and covert support to the Mehsud Taliban, and they also shelter al Qaeda leaders and fighters. The covert US air campaign in Pakistan’s tribal areas has zeroed in on North Waziristan. Since the Aug. 5 strike that killed Baitullah Mehsud, the former leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, 14 of the 18 reported airstrikes have taken place in North Waziristan. And nine of those 14 attacks in North Waziristan occurred in territory administered by the Haqqani Network.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

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