Al Qaeda Runs Shadow Army In Afghanistan; Taliban On Verge Of Surge

Documents seized from Osama bin Laden’s hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan, during the May 2011 raid revealed that the terrorist group was actively relocating operatives from northern Pakistan back into Afghanistan, said Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington.

Mr. Joscelyn, who edits the foundation’s Long War Journal, told lawmakers in prepared testimony Tuesday that “one way that al Qaeda operates in Afghanistan today is through the Lashkar al Zil, or ‘shadow army,’ which is al Qaeda’s primary paramilitary force in the region.”

“As the name implies, al Qaeda is trying to hide the extent of its influence over this group as well as over other allied groups,” Mr. Joscelyn said. “This makes it difficult to assess the full scope of al Qaeda’s operations inside Afghanistan today.”