Within the Taliban’s leadership council, known as the Quetta Shura, there has been an ongoing debate about whether to renounce al-Qaeda, causing significant divides. Detainees in Afghanistan have told interrogators that they resent al-Qaeda for provoking the U.S. invasion that helped to overthrow the Taliban.
“I’m of the opinion that [al-Qaeda] has become more of a burden on [the Taliban] and the other networks,” Matt Sherman, a former adviser to Petraeus, said in an e-mail. “I question how much [al-Qaeda] really brings / brought to the fight, in terms of quality fighters, resources and money.”
A former head of Pakistan’s intelligence service, Gen. Ziauddin Butt, told a Pakistani newspaper last week that Omar had once told him that bin Laden had “become a bone in the throat that can neither be swallowed nor thrown out.” Omar claimed that he was unable to break ties with bin Laden, Butt said, because “he is considered a heroic figure by some people within Taliban.”
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