Sami Yousafzai, Kabul Airport Attack Comes as Pakistani Fighters Join Afghan Taliban --- Bad news for Kabul—and for Washington. According to Afghan Taliban sources, Pakistani Taliban have flooded into Afghanistan and joined the ranks of the jihad there. --- ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The Taliban attack on the Kabul airport this morning may be linked to a new and dangerous development on the ground in Afghanistan: a flood of fresh fighters from the ranks of the Pakistani Taliban, known as TTP, on the other side of the frontier. -- I was able to reach a senior Afghan Taliban commander operating in Kabul as the airport attack was still under way, and he told me that “big numbers of the Pakistani Taliban have crossed the border to Afghanistan,” enabling the Afghan Taliban to “deploy rapidly in massive numbers all over Afghanistan.” -- “That is why we have more manpower this year,” commander Qari Talha told The Daily Beast over his mobile phone. “We are using Pakistani Taliban in big numbers for collective attacks.” He said they had deployed on the hotly contested battlefields of Helmand province, in Kabul and in other parts of the country. “We send them for big ground attacks and spectacular attacks in cities,” he said, and current fighting in Helmand is part of that new offensive. -- The strike against the Kabul airport early on Thursday morning involved four fighters armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades firing from the top of a nearby building under construction. According to statements from the Afghan government, after about four hours all of the attackers were killed and there were no government casualties. But as the battle raged near the edge of the runway all flights had to be diverted to other cities. It has not yet been determined if the attackers included Afghans, Pakistanis, or both. -- As The Daily Beast reported in early May, border security was badly weakened by the Central Intelligence Agency’s decision to dismantle its front-line Afghan counterterrorist forces in the southern and eastern parts of the country. The chaotic aftermath of the Afghan presidential elections has complicated the situation, and U.S. military commanders are saying American counterterrorism forces may be needed in Afghanistan long after the supposedly final U.S. troop withdrawal in 2016. -- “Despite the increase in the numbers of Afghan security forces, actually the Taliban are able to penetrate very easily into Kabul and other cities,” Qari Talah boasted. -- The Kabul airport handles both civilian and military flights, with military operations taking precedence, making it “a very appealing and legitimate target,” said Talah. - More, Daily Beast, http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/17/kabul-airport-attack-comes-as-pakistani-fighters-join-afghan-taliban.html#