The Taliban and al qaeda

Welcome A'bin Bin Layd, my brother!

Today we fight against the vile infidels of the west protecting our homeland from their corruption and immorality all in the name of our leader Osama bin Laden.  We must stop and hinder these pestilent camel humping invaders anyway possible. We must deny them every bridge, every checkpoint and every village. We must persuade our loyal citizenry to give disinformation to them and to rise up against them. We must deny them access to our oil, land, virgins and  most of all, our beloved sheep. To do this, we must recruit all our brethren from every village and rally our forces against the American devils wherever they go. Allah Akbar!

Your brother in jihad,
Lt. Col. N'er bin Fukd

History & Background

Al-Qaeda is an Islamist group founded between 1988 and early 1990.It operates as a terrorist, fundamentalist Sunni movement calling for global jihad. In 1996, their leader, Osama bin Laden, moved to Afghanistan from Sudan. He came without any invitation from the Taliban, and sometimes irritated Mullah Omar with his declaration of war and fatwa to murder citizens of third-party countries, and follow-up interviews, but relations between the two groups became closer over time. Bin Laden was able to forge an alliance between the Taliban and his Al-Qaeda organization. It is understood that Al-Qaeda-trained fighters known as the 055 Brigade were integrated with the Taliban army between 1997 and 2001. Several hundred Arab Afghan fighters sent by bin Laden assisted the Taliban in the slaughter at Mazar-e-Sharif. Taliban-Al-Qaeda connections, were also strengthened by the reported marriage of one of bin Laden's sons to Omar's daughter. During Osama bin Laden's stay in Afghanistan, he may have helped finance the Taliban.

Jihad: The word jihad is a noun meaning "struggle." Jihad appears frequently in the Qur'an and common usage as the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of Allah. A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid, the plural is mujahideen.

The Taliban is a Sunni Islamist, predominantly Pashtun radical religious and political movement that governed Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, when its leaders were removed from power by NATO forces. It has regrouped and since 2004 revived as a strong insurgency movement governing at the local level and fighting a guerrilla war against the governments of Afghanistan, Pakistan, allied NATO forces participating in Operation Enduring Freedom, and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

The Taliban movement is headed by Mullah Mohammed Omar. Mullah Omar's original commanders were "a mixture of former small-unit military commanders and madrasah teachers,"and the rank and file made up mostly of Afghan refugees who had studied at Islamic religious schools in Pakistan. The overwhelming majority of the Taliban movement were ethnic Pashtuns from southern Afghanistan and western Pakistan, along with a smaller number of volunteers from Islamic countries. The former Afghan warlords and political strongmen were responsible for numerous human rights violations in 2003 including kidnapping, rape, robbery, and extortion.

The Game

Okay... For those of you not up to speed yet... these are the bad guys.  If you look up bad guys in the dictionary, the reference would just spit on these guys. They have taken off their uniforms so the Marines can't tell them apart from the citizenry. They lay in ambush. They do not adhere to the same military code of honor that the Marine forces do and they are just plain mean. They will have missions of their own, but for the most part, they are going to trying to hinder and stop the U.S. forces every chance they get.

And, in some cases,  they get more points for it! For example, if the U.S. objective is to hold a base, and the Taliban forces PREVENT them from taking control of the base, the Taliban get points for stopping the mission (say they prevented the Marines from getting close by forming a perimeter around it.) . If the Taliban mission was to blow that base up or take it themselves, they get MORE points for not only stopping the U.S. Mission, but accomplishing their own counter mission. Devious bastards aren't they. Nobody said war was fair. But Marines adapt and overcome.

UPDATE: 12/2/2009 - Kevin Shimwell, owner of Adventure Beach Paintball, will be the commander of the Taliban and al Qaeda forces. His XO will be Ironman of Rogue Cell. You can contact Kevin at taliban@GenKillPaintball.com 

NOTE: Even though the rules say that the Pashtun Mafia can make deals with both sides, that doesn't mean the Taliban can't. It's just hard to trust these guys.

More Factoids:

The increase in Taliban power has led to increased human rights violations against women in Afghanistan, according to the U.S. State Department. According to Amnesty International, the Taliban commit war crimes by targeting civilians, including killing teachers, abducting aid workers and burning school buildings. Amnesty International said that up to 756 civilians were killed in 2006 by bombs, mostly on roads or carried by suicide attackers belonging to the Taliban.

Controversy over torture
In March 2002, ABC News claimed top officials at the CIA authorized controversial, harsh interrogation techniques.The Bush administration declared that al-Qaeda members captured on the battlefield were not subject to the Geneva Conventions as it was not a conventional war, and al-Qaeda members do not wear uniforms, as set by the convention.