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How US unknowingly funded Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel – Firstpost

How US unknowingly funded Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel – Firstpost



The brutal October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel, killing over 1,250 and abducting 251 Israeli citizens, have changed the face of geopolitics in West Asia, with dire predictions of a third world war becoming almost a buzzword among foreign policy and security analysts. Apparently, the events following the attacks are fast-forwarding the ultimate doomsday awaited in the Middle East.

Hamas has almost been decimated, Hezbollah’s leadership has been neutralised, and fighting units have been forced beyond the Litani River. Syria’s 50-year-old dictatorial regime of Assads (both father and son) has vanished into thin air. As of now, a ceasefire exists between Hezbollah and Israel on one front and Hamas and Israel on the other. As regards Israel and Iran, despite a few incidents of heightened friction and confrontation, Tel Aviv and Tehran exercised restraint and avoided escalation. However, apprehensions galore that the restraint is tactical and Tel Aviv will ultimately aim to dislodge the Mullah regime.

Amidst the flurry of diplomatic and military developments in West Asia, the critical investigation of the conspiracy behind the Hamas attacks has remained elusive. Former CIA official, author of Benghazi: Know Thy Enemy, and counter-terrorism expert, Sarah Adams, has made some startling observations in her investigative report, October 7th: Know Thy Enemy. Sarah’s findings suggest that the Hamas attacks resulted from a highly layered, planned, and complex conspiracy planned over a year and a half by Al Qaeda (AQ), the Taliban, the Haqqani Network, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Hamas.

The report concludes that the October 7th attack was a dress rehearsal for much grander and more lethal attacks that will be orchestrated by these groups in Europe and the US Homeland in the future; hence, cosying up with the Taliban and depending on them for intelligence is a futile exercise. The US needs to refurbish its intelligence network in the Af-Pak region, which suffered a massive setback after its withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

Iranian Ties with AQ and Taliban

Sarah’s list of October 7 masterminds barely leaves any doubt about the robust ties between the IRGC, AQ, and Taliban. The list includes Saif Al Adel, head of AQ military operations; Hamza bin Laden, Osama’s son and AQ Emir; Mohammad Deif, Hamas leader of its Izz-al-Din Qasam Brigade; Ali Rezaei, IRGC intelligence official; Brig Mohammad Kazemi, head of IRGC intelligence operations; Taliban chief Haibatullah Akhunzada; Mullah Yakub Mujahid, Taliban’s defence minister; and Sirajuddin Haqani, Taliban interior minister.

IRGC-QF chief, late Gen Qasem Soleimani, forged ties with AQ and the Taliban. Under his supervision, IRGC intelligence chief Brigadier Kazemi harboured senior AQ leaders Saif al-Adel, Hamza bin-Laden, and Abdul Azim Ali Musa bin Ali in Iran during the US military’s operation enduring freedom in Afghanistan. Incidentally, Musa bin Ali was the key mastermind behind the 2012 Benghazi attack on the US mission and CIA annex. IRGC also entrusted Musa with executing covert operations in the Middle East. Saif al-Adel was Iran’s main interlocutor with AQ.

After Soleimani’s death, Saif al-Adel and Kazemi, through the Iranian embassy in Kabul, proposed to establish peace between the Ashraf Ghani government and the Taliban on the condition of expelling the US forces and ‘dismantling the coalition bases’. However, the proposal was shot down by Hamza bin Laden, who was hiding in the Waziristan region. Hamza, his brother Abdullah, and Abu Ikhlas al Masri, who had together fought alongside the Taliban against the coalition forces, insisted on the complete destruction of the Afghan government.

After Zawahiri’s death in July 2022, Hamza Bin Laden assumed the interim leadership of AQ with the support of his robust Arab networks. His friendship and family ties with mighty Taliban commanders like Mullah Yaqoob Mujahid and Sirajuddin Haqqani also strengthened his position. He has maintained a working relationship with Saif al-Adel. However, Saif is more trusted by the IRGC because of his extensive operational experience, joint missions, and disciplined approach vis-à-vis Hamza’s ambitious leadership style. In the professional domain, Iranian leadership engages with both because of their anti-West ideological positioning.

October 7th Attack Plot

After the onset of the Russia-Ukraine war, global diplomatic and military attention shifted to Europe, which provided an opportune moment for anti-Israel groups like Hamas and AQ to prepare for the attacks, eluding the scrutiny of the Western intelligence community. The initial preparations began in March 2022. Along with Hamza Bin Laden, his brother Abdullah played an instrumental role in planning the attacks. He supervised AQ terrorist training infrastructure in Afghanistan, where the Hamas cadres were trained. IRGC sent Musa Bin Ali to Afghanistan in 2022 to work out the details of the plot against Israel with AQ and Haqqanis, to whom he had marital ties.

Mullah Ubaidullah Akhudzada, military advisor to Taliban chief Haibatullah Akhudzada, organised the initial meeting in March 2022 in the AQ Central camp in southwest Afghanistan to prepare for the attack. The Taliban aimed to align the main stakeholders for the attack plans. All the key masterminds attended it, including Brig Kazemi, Col Ali Rezaei, Hamza, Saif, Sirajuddin, Mullah Yaqoob, and Mullah Abdul Ahad Talib as the Taliban chief’s envoy.

Following the meeting, the planners communicated regularly on Telegram. Kazemi coordinated with Hamas commander Mohammad Deif, who in turn was in regular communication with Abdul Hakim Al Masri and the Haqqanis and their AQ advisor, Musa Bin Ali. Deif did not attend the March 2022 meeting. The Taliban was reluctant to have senior Hamas commanders present in Afghanistan lest it scuttle all the alibis for plausible deniability.

In a most shocking revelation, Sarah’s findings show that top Taliban leaders like Mullah Abdullah Ghani Barader and its Doha office chief Sher Mohammad Abbas Shinikzai, who were negotiating the ‘official peace agreement’ with the Americans, knew about the October 7th attack but did not share it with the Americans. Reportedly, Americans continue to fund the Taliban’s Doha office with about $10 million per month. Also, Mohammad Suhail Shaheen, the head of the Taliban’s political office in Doha, maintained regular contact with the key players of the October 7th attack.

In July 2022, Mullah Rafiq Akhund, deputy head of Haibatullah’s military office, visited Iran and met Iranian leadership to develop further the strategic and tactical details of the imminent attack between the AQ, Hamas, and Taliban leadership. Following this, in mid-July, the Taliban chief coordinated the ‘kick-off’ meeting to operationalise the Hamas attacks, initially scheduled for October 7th, 2022. Mullah Yaqoob presided over the meeting in a safe house owned by the Taliban’s deputy intelligence minister, Tajmir Jawad, in Kabul’s Wazir Akbar Khan. Haqqanis provided security to the safehouse when AQ used it. AQ leaders Hamza, Abdul Rahman al-Maghrebi, and Abdul Hakim al-Masri were present in the meeting. Sirajuddin Haqqani and Mullah Abdul Haq Akhund represented the Taliban.

Besides, Mullah Yaqoob’s Ministry of Defence team, who supervised the training and equipment of Hamas cadres, also attended the meeting. It included top Taliban commanders of its special forces, like Badri 313. Most of the preparatory meetings for the attack were held in Kabul by the Kabul branch of the Taliban. The Kandahar branch led by Haibatullah did not coordinate these meetings. Brig Kazemi coordinated preparatory meetings with Haibatullah. The operational preparations began as planned in August 2022.

The original date of October 7th, 2022, had to be cancelled due to the death of AQ leader Zawahiri in a US drone strike in July 2022. His death created a leadership vacuum in AQ. Haqqanis faced the immediate US backlash in the form of more drone strikes. However, the Taliban and AQ realised that if they did not postpone it, the Americans would build more pressure with drone strikes, and there was a likelihood of the plan getting leaked. Hence, the training continued in Afghanistan, Gaza, and Syria, albeit with tactical pauses, to feign a low profile lest they feared intensified US drone strikes.

The AQ-Taliban operational support to the IRGC-Hamas attacks was revived with a January 2023 meeting between Saif al-Adel and Haji Mali Khan Sadiq, who is Mullah Yaqoob’s deputy chief of staff and Sirajuddin Haqqani’s uncle, at the Abdullah bin Masood Joint Combat Training Centre, also a terrorist training camp, in Nimruz province of Afghanistan. After the meeting, the Taliban officially confirmed its resumption of operational support to the impending Hamas through Suhail Shaheen, the head of the Taliban’s Qatar office.

The date was postponed to October 7th, 2023. Saif also assured of weakening Israel and its allies from Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen. Following the January meeting, Hamas cadres’ training in Afghanistan recommenced alongside AQ, the Taliban, and the cadres of the Martyr Qassam Sulemani Brigade. Abdullah Bin Laden supervised the overall training of Hamas cadres with a specific focus on AQ’s manual on urban terrorism. Haibatullah Akhudzada deputed his security chief, Ahad Talib, a veteran of the Taliban’s lethal Red Units and an expert in creating suicide units, to oversee the training infrastructure. The Haqqanis deployed their lethal Badri 313 to secure the training compound and facilitate the movement of Hamas cadres between six training camps in Helmand, Nimruz, Zabul, and Oruzgan. Reportedly, some Badri 313 fighters also participated in the Oct 7th attack with the Hamas fighters.

In a mid-Sept 2023 meeting at Al Bukamal, a border city on the Syria-Iraq border, Kazemi expressed Iran’s firm support for Hamas attacks in a meeting attended by Hamas and Hezbollah leaders and some senior members of Bashar Al-Assad’s army. Kazemi also assured the support of AQ, the Taliban, Russia, and Syria. On September 19, 2023, the Fatwa planning meeting was held in Kandahar at the Taliban Military Commission and suicide bombers’ office. The meeting was attended by Haibatullah, Haqqanis, AQ leaders Hamza, Abu-Ikhlas al-Masri, and Abdul Hakim al-Masri, and Jaish-e-Mohammad supremo Maulana Masood Azhar. The meeting issued a religious fatwa in support of the Hamas attack.

Finally, on October 3, 2023, Col Rezaei held a secret meeting with Asaad’s senior commanders to ensure their support for the operation. After Marwan Issa received the fatwa on October 6, 2023, from the Habatullah via Kazemi, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar gave a green signal for the attack. IRGC deputy commander Gen Nilforoushan gave the military directives, and orders for the final attack were given by Deif on October 7, 2023.

Funding of the October 7th Attack

According to Sarah’s investigation findings, partly it came from the US taxpayer dollars. The US government provides $87 million to the Taliban every week for humanitarian and counter-terrorism efforts. A part of this fund reached Hamas and Al Qaeda. This weekly funding also goes to the Taliban’s defence ministry, whose several officials were the key masterminds of the October 7 attack. In addition to training, logistical, and housing support to Hamas terrorists, the Taliban also supplied arms to them.

The IRGC is likely funding and deeply involved with the Taliban in planning attacks on senior political and military leaders of the US to avenge the killing of Qasem Soleimani and other senior Hamas and Iranian leaders killed by the US and Israel in several operations in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, etc. Once again, the likelihood of a considerable portion of this funding coming from US taxpayer dollars cannot be ruled out.

The author is a Cornell University graduate in public affairs, bachelors from St Stephen’s College, Delhi and has done his PhD on Jaish-e-Mohammad. He is a policy analyst specialising in counterterrorism, Indian foreign policy and Afghanistan-Pakistan geopolitics. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.



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