Report: Al-Qaeda Chief Tells Muslims to ‘Go to Afghanistan,’ Learn from Taliban

Al-Qaeda leader Sayf al-Adl, believed to have taken over after the death of predecessor Ayman al-Zawahiri, reportedly urged Muslims to “go to Afghanistan” to train with the Taliban, learn from their success, and become useful in the global war against the free world in a recent jihadist propaganda pamphlet.

The order to travel to Afghanistan is significant in light of a growing mound of evidence, compiled in the past year, that al-Qaeda has rehabilitated its terrorist infrastructure in the country, presumably with the Taliban’s blessing. Reports by the United Nations and U.S. inspectors suggest al-Qaeda is operating training camps, madrassas (schools), and weapons warehouses in the country. The Taliban has enthusiastically denied the reports.

Adl is believed to have replaced Zawahiri in 2022, when the former chief was killed by an American  drone strike in Kabul. Zawahiri was reportedly living out in the open in the capital, basking in the breeze on his balcony, under Taliban protection. Taliban leaders condemned the airstrike that eliminated him from the battlefield.

Adl made the call in the most recent publication by the al-Qaeda media entity “as-Sahab,” the Long War Journal, a Foundation for Defense of Democracies outlet dedicated to coverage of the post-9/11 War on Terror reported on Saturday.

The Long War Journal translated a statement in the pamphlet attributed to “Salim al-Sharif,” a pseudonym of the al-Qaeda leader, in which he celebrated the Taliban as “heroes” for toppling the legitimate government of Afghanistan and replacing it with a repressive jihadist terror state. He urged sympathizers to “go to Afghanistan, learn from its conditions, and benefit from their [the Taliban’s] experience.”

The pamphlet reportedly focused on the ongoing war between Israel and the jihadist terror group Hamas, which began when Hamas invaded Israel on October 7 and engaged in a mass murder, gang rape, torture, and abduction rampage. The writing attributed to Adl described Israel’s self-defense operations against Hamas as a “genocide.”

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“The continuation of the genocide [in Gaza] calls for the Islamic peoples to strike all Zionist interests (both Western and Jewish) in all Islamic lands,” the text reportedly reads. “This strike must be a painful one as we are too late in doing what is required of us.”

According to Long War Journal, the text encouraged the creation of “sleeper cells” of terrorists abroad and explicitly celebrated the October 7 atrocities, among other terrorist acts.

The American outlet interpreted the message as a confirmation on behalf of al-Qaeda that Afghanistan under Taliban rule is a “safe haven” for Islamist terrorists, following years of reports that the Taliban have not only tolerated, but protected terrorist leaders in the country, despite its denials.

Taliban terrorists have ruled Afghanistan since August 15, 2021, when they arrived at the city limits of Kabul, the national capital, and then-President Ashraf Ghani abruptly fled the country. In the months prior to the Taliban conquest, American President Joe Biden violated an agreement brokered by his predecessor Donald Trump with the Taliban that would have seen American troops leave the country and the 20-year-old Afghan war end by May 1, 2021, extending the war into September. Biden did not make it to September, withdrawing in August as the Taliban staged tens of thousands of attacks, many of them unanswered, on the now-defunct Afghan military.

A report published in May by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), a U.S. government watchdog office, found that the Biden administration has paid nearly $11 million to the Taliban since August 2021 in various “taxes” and other payments, and that that number was “likely only a fraction of the total amount of U.S. assistance funds provided to the Taliban.”

Biden has refused to admit to any errors in his disastrous handling of the end of the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan.

The Taliban, meanwhile, has encouraged the world to embrace it as a legitimate government eager to expand global trade with both its neighbors and far-off potential allies. No government has officially accepted the Taliban as a government at press time, but several rogue states have established unofficial relationships with the terrorists, including Russia, China, and neighboring Iran. Russia maintains ties with the Taliban despite still designating it a terrorist organization. China became the first nation to accept a Taliban ambassador in Beijing in December.

Part of the Taliban’s campaign to improve relations with other states has been an insistence that it has no relationship with any terrorist entities.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has seriously started its fight against any phenomenon that incites insecurity in Afghanistan and has stood up effectively,” top spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid proclaimed in December. “Therefore, Afghanistan is safe. Expressing concerns about Afghanistan’s soil is not true, we reject it. And all countries should recognize Afghanistan as a safe area.”

Mujahid was responding to a State Department report detailing the growing presence of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in Afghanistan, one of several similarly refuting the Taliban’s claims.

In February, the United Nations Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team submitted a report to that entity’s Security Council finding evidence that al-Qaeda had built at least eight training camps and five madrassas, which it uses to indoctrinate children. The report claimed al-Qaeda was actively recruiting among Afghans with no visible opposition from the Taliban.

“There is no one related to al-Qaeda in Afghanistan,” the Taliban insisted in response to the report, dismissing it as “propaganda.”

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