A former detainee at Guantánamo Bay has become the Taliban’s chief operations officer in southern Afghanistan. The former detainee, Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul, was captured in Afghanistan in December of 2001 and transferred to Afghanistan six years later in December of 2007. His internment serial number (ISN) at Guantánamo was 8, a comparatively low number indicating that he was most likely one of the first detainees transferred from Afghanistan to Guantánamo after the facility was opened in 2002.
Rasoul currently operates in southern Afghanistan using the nom de guerre Mullah Abdullah Zakir, according to an account by the Associated Press. The AP cites “Pentagon and intelligence officials” as saying that Mullah Abdullah Zakir is “in charge of operations against U.S. and Afghan forces in southern Afghanistan.” One anonymous intelligence official cited by the AP says Rasoul’s “stated mission is to counter the U.S. troop surge” that began earlier this year in Afghanistan.
The Times (UK) has confirmed the AP’s story and provided additional details. The Times reported that Rasoul is “responsible for increasingly sophisticated explosives attacks on British soldiers in Afghanistan” and is currently operating out of the Taliban stronghold in Quetta, Pakistan. Prior to his detention at Guantánamo, he was a “high-ranking military commander close to the Taliban’s supreme leader, Mullah Omar.”
