Global InformationRaes Abdul Wahed information
 | This article may be confusing or unclear to readers. (August 2010) |
Raes Abdul Wahed رئیس عبدالواحد | |
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| Occupation | Taliban member |
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.
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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.
- ^ 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. - ^
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.
- ^ Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Abdul Bagi's Administrative Review Board hearing - page 42
- ^ Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Rahmatullah's Administrative Review Board hearing - page 49