Jaish al-Adl: A common foe draws Taliban and Tehran together
Jaish al-Adl: A common foe draws Taliban and Tehran together
Once bitter enemies, the Shi’ite Islamic Republic of Iran and the Sunni Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan under the Taliban are finding common cause in a shared foe.
Tehran and Kabul are stepping up intelligence cooperation against Jaish al-Adl, a Sunni militant group operating in the lawless border region straddling Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.
The unlikely collaboration - corroborated by Afghan security officials both from the ousted US-backed government and the Taliban as well as former Jaish al-Adl members - faces a formidable challenge confronting the shadowy fighters after they scooped up a bonanza of US weapons left amid their hasty withdrawal in 2021.
In a high-level bilateral meeting in Tehran 2021, Taliban officials pledged to their Iranian counterparts to combat the group, a senior source from the Taliban-controlled Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Afghanistan International.
Top Iranian security officials and Taliban leaders met repeatedly in the following years to coordinate the crackdown on the group.
This report is based on information from three Taliban security sources, 11 senior officials from the former republic’s National Security Directorate, three members of the National Security Council, Taliban documents, two former Jaish al-Adl members and classified intelligence assessments.
Scourge of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards
A Sunni jihadist group hailing mostly from the Baluch ethnic group in southwest Iran, Jaish al-Adl has launched years of deadly attacks against Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and other security organs.
They claim to fight for the rights of the Sunni minority and the Baluch people.
Jaish al-Adl accuses Iran of religious discrimination against Sunnis, oppression of Baluch communities, and denial of their political, religious and economic rights.
The group was formed after the downfall of Jundullah, another militant organization led by Abdulmalik Rigi. Following Rigi's arrest and execution by Iranian authorities in 2010, Jaish al-Adl emerged as its successor.
Its intelligence wing is tasked with identifying and eliminating Sunni religious figures in the region who collaborate with the Iranian government.
Iran classifies Jaish al-Adl as a terrorist organization, accusing it of receiving support from the intelligence agencies of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan – charges they deny. China, Pakistan and the United States also deem it a terrorist group.
The Iranian government has repeatedly accused Pakistan of harboring Jaish al-Adl operatives.
Kabul’s foe turned friend
As the US-led war against the Taliban insurgency ground into its second decade, ties between Kabul authorities and Jaish al-Adl fluctuated as their interests dictated.
During former Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s tenure in 2013, Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) announced the arrest of a prominent Jaish al-Adl commander, Akbar Jan Baloch, along with three other militants.
Shortly after, President Karzai traveled to Iran in August 2013 to attend the inauguration of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Upon returning, he officially declared Jaish al-Adl a banned militant group in Afghanistan.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a member of Karzai’s National Security Council later told Afghanistan International that Karzai issued a confidential order directing Kabul’s three main security agencies to treat Jaish al-Adl members as enemy combatants.
But by February 2016 under Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Jaish al-Adl was no longer regarded as an armed opposition group in Afghanistan and security forces no longer treated it as a domestic threat.
A former member of Farah’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) confirmed that between 2016 and 2018, Jaish al-Adl and the government’s Taliban foes clashed in at least three Afghan provinces, with multiple fighters killed on both sides.
A former National Security Council member told Afghanistan International that, far from seeing the group as an enemy, it employed Jaish al-Adl to carry out attacks against Taliban hideouts across the border in Iran.
On March 19, 2017, the source revealed, militants from the group carried out a bombing attack at on the Al-Umaria Madrasa in Nusrat Abad in Iran’s southeaster Sistan-Baluchistan province under the direction of the Afghan government.
This madrasa was built in 2008 by hardline Taliban commander Ibrahim Sadr.
"The madrasa served as a covert operational-intelligence center, financially and logistically supported by Iran,” A former Afghan intelligence official said. “Its goal was to expand Iran’s influence along the Afghanistan-Iran border and counter the US presence in the region."
The double-cross
the alliance of convenience ebbed along with the Afghan government’s fortunes.
According to security sources, several Jaish al-Adl fighters in Afghanistan, as well as small Jaish al-Adl groups from Baluchistan held a meeting with Taliban representatives in the town of Turbat in Pakistan three months before the fall of the Afghan Republic.
A handler referred to as Entezarullah - a pseudonym - who facilitated relations between Afghanistan’s intelligence and Jaish al-Adl, said that after the gathering, no further clashes occurred between Jaish al-Adl and the Taliban.
Former officials of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) and some local sources also confirmed that shortly before the fall of the republic government, Jaish al-Adl, with the support of Pakistan’s intelligence agency, had deployed 600 fighters to Herat, Farah, and Nimroz provinces to fight alongside the Taliban against the government.
American arsenal
In the American haste to quit Afghanistan as local military forces rapidly crumbled, not just the Taliban but Jaish al-Adl pounced on the weapons they left.
Afghanistan International has obtained images and intelligence indicating that Jaish al-Adl members acquired significant amounts of American-made light weapons. Regional officials in Sistan-Baluchistan in southeastern Iran have also acknowledged that Jaish al-Adl has accessed abandoned American weapons in Afghanistan.
The former deputy operational chief of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) in Farah told Afghanistan International that on August 3 and 4, 2021, several border force units abandoned eight major posts and Jaish al-Adl fighters seizing their abandoned weapons.
The source said that at the time of the post's collapse, 342 firearms, including American M4 M16 rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, DShK heavy machine guns, Kalashnikov rifles, and PK machine guns were present.
A former member of the Nimroz Provincial Council confirmed to Afghanistan International that on August 3, he attended a security meeting at the governor's office, where reports indicated that 1,200 light and heavy weapons and vehicles—including 13 Rangers, 10 Humvees and two Ford pickup trucks—remained at the battalion headquarters.
In exchange, Captain Ghafoor Shah and 17 of his men escaped to Iran and received an undisclosed amount of cash.
Afghanistan International reached out to Afghan security forces Captain Ghafoor Shah, who currently resides in France, for comment.
A group of Pashtun and Baloch militants approached his post through tribal elders, he told Afghanistan International, presenting themselves as Taliban representatives. They requested that the forces leave the area to avoid bloodshed.
According to the officer, they handed over their weapons and base to the tribal elders before crossing the Iranian border under their mediation.
A senior official from the Taliban-controlled Ministry of Defense confirmed that, based on the remaining documents from the previous government, a significant portion of the border forces' weapons in Nimroz, Farah, and Herat went missing during the fall of the Afghan government.
On July 29, 2024, Iranian forces arrested four members of Jaish al-Adl in Khash, seizing three M4 rifles from them. Following the incident, a local Iranian commander said that Jaish al-Adl militants had been using American weapons.
Jaish al-Adl released a video in February showing some of its members armed with American-made weapons.
Tehran-Taliban Rapprochement
A senior source from the Taliban-controlled Ministry of Foreign Affairs revealed that in August 2021, Iran’s then-Foreign Minister, Hassan Amir-Abdollahian, met with top Taliban officials in Tehran, where one of the main topics of discussion was Jaish al-Adl.
According to the source, Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and Foreign Minister Amir Khan Mutaqi participated as well, with the Taliban pledging to suppress Jaish al-Adl members in Afghanistan and to enhance security and intelligence monitoring along their common frontier.
The next year, Muttaqi led another Taliban delegation to Tehran and met with Iranian officials, including Iran’s former Foreign Minister. A key topic of these discussions was the elimination of Jaish al-Adl in Afghanistan and the arrest of 11 of its key leaders.
Shortly afterward, Iranian National Security Council chief Ali Shamkhani visited Afghanistan to meet Taliban Prime Minister Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Baradar, Foreign Minister Muttaqi, and Defense Minister Mullah Yaqoob Mujahid.
During talks, Shamkhani raised concerns about Jaish al-Adl and Islamic State activities along the Iran-Afghanistan border, urging the Taliban to curb their operations. In response, the Taliban assured Iran that they would take action against Jaish al-Adl.
The most recent visit by Iranian officials occurred in January, when Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with Mullah Hassan Akhund, Amir Khan Muttaqi, and Mullah Yaqoob Mujahid.
The source confirmed that during this meeting, the Iranian foreign minister expressed gratitude to the Taliban for taking action against Jaish al-Adl.
The Taliban are divided into two factions regarding their stance on the Jaish al-Adl militant group and its conflict with Iran. The Kandahar Taliban, who are loyal to Iran, strongly oppose Jaish al-Adl, while the Haqqani Network does not share this opposition.
A former Jaish al-Adl member, Kayhan Baloch (pseudonym), who spent two years in Kabul during the Republic era and now resides in Iraq, told Afghanistan International – Pashto that some Kandahari Taliban had fought against Jaish al-Adl in Farah, Nimroz, Ghazni, and Helmand during the previous Afghan government.
Notably, Iranian officials have never met with the Taliban’s Interior Minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani, chief of a powerful but restless faction within the Taliban.
Haqqani Network’s Alleged Support for Jaish al-Adl
According to Kayhan Baloch, the Haqqani Network does not view Jaish al-Adl as an enemy. He further claimed that Jaish al-Adl’s key leader, Zaro Baloch, along with eight of his associates, are currently residing in a Haqqani Network guesthouse in Kabul.
These claims suggest that certain elements within the Taliban sympathize with Jaish al-Adl’s activities and may use the group as leverage against Iran.
The Kandahari Taliban who are loyal to the Taliban’s supreme leader, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, strongly oppose Jaish al-Adl.
Sources report that they have arrested 11 Jaish al-Adl members and imprisoned them in Kandahar. This move is seen as an important step to ease Iran’s security concerns.
Iran-Taliban Relations: Tensions Over Jaish al-Adl
A former commander of Afghanistan’s border police told Afghanistan International that Iran has long viewed Jaish al-Adl as a serious security threat. While Iran is working to strengthen ties with the Taliban, Jaish al-Adl remains a major source of distrust.
Iran has repeatedly urged the Taliban to suppress Jaish al-Adl, the sources added, but due to internal divisions within the Taliban, the issue remains unresolved.
"If you analyze Iranian officials’ meetings with the Taliban, it is evident that Iran has better relations with the Kandahar’s Taliban, while they suspect that the Haqqani Network supports Jaish al-Adl."
This internal rift within the Taliban highlights internal rifts which could endanger Tehran’s evolving rapprochement with Kabul.
"If the Haqqani Network continues supporting Jaish al-Adl, Taliban-Iran relations will deteriorate rapidly. Their alliance is purely based on strategic interests, but ideologically, they remain opposing factions," he warned.
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