https://sputniknews.com/20211129/ws...ft-downfall-of-us-backed-govt-1091108313.html
KABUL—Undercover Taliban agents—often clean-shaven, dressed in jeans and sporting sunglasses—spent years infiltrating Afghan government ministries, universities, businesses and aid organizations.
Then, as U.S. forces were completing their withdrawal in August, these operatives stepped out of the shadows in Kabul and other big cities across Afghanistan, surprising their neighbors and colleagues. Pulling their weapons from hiding, they helped the Taliban rapidly seize control from the inside…….
The agents went as far as to ditch traditional Afghan clothing in favour of more westernised apparel and shaved their beards in violation of the Taliban’s* ultra-conservative norms. All this was done to avoid any suspicion of secretly being loyal to the Taliban.
The Taliban had sleeper agents across Afghanistan, including Kabul, who helped the insurgents to rapidly seize control of the country once the US started to withdraw its troops, The Wall Street Journal has reported, citing accounts by several Afghan commanders and former undercover agents.
These agents had different roles – some were designated to become fighters when the time came, some worked as fundraisers, while others worked on recruiting more followers to the Taliban’s cause. In order to avoid detection or even suspicion from the country’s law enforcement, many of these agents wore jeans and other western outfits, as well as shaved their beards – a tell-tale sign of a possible Taliban sympathiser.
Mawlawi Mohammad Salim Saad, a senior Taliban leader, boasted in the interview with the WSJ that the insurgent organisation had its men in many cities, government bodies, and companies across Afghanistan. Saad himself is a member of the Taliban’s elite Badri force, which was responsible for taking control of Kabul after President Ashraf Ghani’s reportedly unexpected and swift escape from the capital on 15 August…
KABUL—Undercover Taliban agents—often clean-shaven, dressed in jeans and sporting sunglasses—spent years infiltrating Afghan government ministries, universities, businesses and aid organizations.
Then, as U.S. forces were completing their withdrawal in August, these operatives stepped out of the shadows in Kabul and other big cities across Afghanistan, surprising their neighbors and colleagues. Pulling their weapons from hiding, they helped the Taliban rapidly seize control from the inside…….
The agents went as far as to ditch traditional Afghan clothing in favour of more westernised apparel and shaved their beards in violation of the Taliban’s* ultra-conservative norms. All this was done to avoid any suspicion of secretly being loyal to the Taliban.
The Taliban had sleeper agents across Afghanistan, including Kabul, who helped the insurgents to rapidly seize control of the country once the US started to withdraw its troops, The Wall Street Journal has reported, citing accounts by several Afghan commanders and former undercover agents.
These agents had different roles – some were designated to become fighters when the time came, some worked as fundraisers, while others worked on recruiting more followers to the Taliban’s cause. In order to avoid detection or even suspicion from the country’s law enforcement, many of these agents wore jeans and other western outfits, as well as shaved their beards – a tell-tale sign of a possible Taliban sympathiser.
Mawlawi Mohammad Salim Saad, a senior Taliban leader, boasted in the interview with the WSJ that the insurgent organisation had its men in many cities, government bodies, and companies across Afghanistan. Saad himself is a member of the Taliban’s elite Badri force, which was responsible for taking control of Kabul after President Ashraf Ghani’s reportedly unexpected and swift escape from the capital on 15 August…
