Raes Abdul Wahed

Raes Abdul Wahed (also transliterated as Abdul Rais Wahid and Abdul Wahid) is an Afghan warlord.[1]

According to an article in the May 23, 2002 issue of Time magazine, Wahed was a Taliban commander who surrendered on January 5, 2002. Time reported that Wahed remained at large and in command of his district. Other sources report that Wahed hid Taliban leader Mullah Omar, and enabled his escape.[2][3]

By 2003 Wahed had gone underground. Intelligence reports, prepared for the Combatant Status Review Tribunals and Administrative Review Board hearings of some Afghan detainees described Wahed as “...the Supreme Commander of a forty-man guerilla unit.”[4]

Several Guantanamo detainees were captured following an ambush attempt near the village of Lejay, Afghanistan, described as "Wahed's stronghold".[5] According to Abdul Bagi, one of the detainees captured following the skirmish on February 10, 2003, Wahed's base was in the neighboring village of Shna, Afghanistan. Bagi said Wahid didn't spend much time in the vicinity of Shna and Lejay, but rather spent most of his time in Kandahar. The Lejay villagers disputed that Wahed was associated with the Taliban. They asserted he had built the fortified compound when the communists had appointed him a regional administrator, and that they all hated him because he had murdered their neighbors and relatives during his time in power, during the Communist regime. They asserted he was from a rival tribe from theirs.

The "forty-man unit"

According to the allegations prepared for the Guantanamo Combatant Status Review Tribunals and Administrative Review Board hearings, a number of the captives had served in the "forty-man unit".

Individuals alleged to have served in the "forty-man unit"
isnnamenotes
849Mohammed Nassim
  • Faced the allegation:
The detainee worked for a Taliban Commander and was part of a special forty-man unit.[6]
886Nasrullah
  • Faced the allegations:
  • The detainee is identified as joining a 40-man group after the end of the Taliban regime.
  • A source identified the detainee as part of the 40-man unit. The detainee reports to his cousin who is a sub-commander in the 40-man unit. The 40-man unit is an organization supported by al Qaida.
888Esmatulla
  • Faced the allegations:
  • Detainee states he was part of a forty-man unit under the control of Commander Akhund Zada and fought on the front line against General Dostum's Northern Alliance forces.[7]
  • The detainee was a sub-Commander of some members of a 40-man unit.[8] This unit fought at Tora Bora and escaped to Peshawar, Pakistan.
  • This 40-man Taliban team was under the control of Commander Akhund Zada.[8] The team was part of the front line against the Northern Alliance.
890Rahmatullah Sangaryar
942Abdul Razzaq Hekmati
  • Alleged to be second in command of the 40-man unit.[9]
  • Abdul Razzaq Hekmati had an iron-clad alibi. He had been living as a refugee in Iran, receiving a stipend, which was a reward for rescuing three Northern Alliance leaders from a Taliban prison.
943Abdul Ghani
  • Among the allegations Abdul Ghani faced were:
  • A source stated the detainee was also a part of a 40-man training team that taught hand grenade techniques, use of plastic explosives and automobile explosive device use for deployment outside of Afghanistan.[10]
  • One of the tasks of the 40-man unit was to provide protection to al Qaida for travel in Afghanistan.[11]
963Abdul Bagi
968Bismullah
1030Abdul Hafiz

See also

References
  1. Michael Ware (2002-05-23). "Encountering the Taliban: A TIME correspondent tracks down unrepentant anti-American forces who vow to keep fighting". Time. Archived from the original on 2006-06-23. Retrieved 2008-07-30. Although the Kandahar government has made dramatic announcements of Taliban surrenders, many of the trumpeted capitulations have turned out later to have been shams. In Baghran in the southwestern province of Helmand, formidable Taliban General Abdul Wahid, known as Rais the Baghran, was said to have given up around Jan. 5. The next day, TIME met with the resolute Wahid. Most of his arsenal and troops remained intact. To this day he controls the district.
  2. Shahzada Zulfiqar (February 2002). "The Fall and After". Newsline. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved 2008-07-30. Rais Abdul Wahid, a powerful warlord in Baghran, a Tora Bora like mountainous area, agreed to cooperate in the search in the wake of threats by US forces to bombard the area. The search met with no success and some people believe Rais may have delayed it to give Mullah Omar enough time to get away.. Additional archives: 2007-09-28.
  3. Victoria Burnett (July 11, 2004). "As a vote nears, Taliban fight on". Boston Globe. Archived from the original on 2005-03-05. Retrieved 2008-07-30. For example, Afghan officials had intelligence indicating that Akhtar Mohammed Usmani, a former Taliban commander of Kandahar, and Rais Abdul Wahid, who is believed to have sheltered the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, from coalition forces after the Taliban were forced from Kabul, are living in northern Helmand Province and financing their operations through opium, he said.
  4. Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Abdul Bagi's Administrative Review Board hearing - page 42
  5. Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Rahmatullah's Administrative Review Board hearing - page 49
  6. OARDEC (8 November 2004). "Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Nasam, Mohammed" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. p. page 37. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-12-14. Retrieved 2008-07-29.
  7. OARDEC (2004-09-02). "Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Ullah, Ismat (published in September 2007)" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. p. page 44. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-12-14. Retrieved 2008-07-31.
  8. OARDEC (2005-10-29). "Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Ismat Ullah" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 18–20. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-12-01. Retrieved 2008-07-29.
  9. OARDEC (16 August 2005). "Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Razzak, Abdul" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 61–63. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-12-01. Retrieved 2007-10-12. The detainee was the number two commander of a 40-man unit of the Taliban in Afghanistan. The unit was formed in approximately November 2001 and was supported by al Qaida. The group continually plans to kill Americans. The Supreme Commander of the unit was Hajji Raes Abdul Wahed [sic].
  10. OARDEC (26 October 2006). "Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Ghani, Abdul" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 84–86. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-12-01. Retrieved 2008-03-07.
  11. OARDEC (9 November 2005). "Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Ghani, Abdul" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 51–52. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-12-01. Retrieved 2008-03-07.
  12. "Charge Sheet: Abdul Ghani" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. 2008-07-28. Archived from the original on 2008-08-02. Retrieved 2008-07-29.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
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