Top Taliban Military Commander: Focus on Global Jihad Operations Will Continue

By Evan Kohlmann

Al-Qaida's official As-Sahab Media Foundation has released a new video interview with Mullah Mansour Dadullah, who has served as the top military commander of the Taliban since his brother's death in May 2007. When asked whether he intended to persist on with his brother's "tactics of conducting international jihad", Mansour responded, "we have been walking on his footsteps, and following his methods. We are still following his strategy and working to finish what he started." During his interview with As-Sahab, Mansour Dadullah also repeatedly boasted of "friendly" relations between the Taliban and Sunni insurgent groups fighting U.S. forces in Iraq.

As-Sahab claimed that it had been able to arrange the interview with Mansour Dadullah by dispatching a camera team to accompany senior Al-Qaida spokesman Mustafa Abu al-Yazid as he attended high-level planning meetings with the Taliban military leadership in Afghanistan.

Relevant English-subtitled excerpts of the latest As-Sahab interview of Mansour Dadullah are now available for viewing on the NEFA Foundation website, care of its TerrorWatch news service.

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