 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(February 2013) |
 First edition (UK) | |
| Author | Frederick Forsyth |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Thriller |
| Publisher | Bantam Press |
Publication date | 2006 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 343 |
| ISBN | 0-593-05725-2 |
The Afghan is a 2006 thriller novel by British writer Frederick Forsyth.
A joint operation by MI6, the CIA, and Pakistan's ISI against al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan uncovers documents concerning a planned terrorist attack codenamed "al-Isra". The cryptic nature of the codename triggers further investigations authorised at the most senior level.
Now eager to learn more about al Qaeda's plans for al-Isra, MI6 and CIA scramble to find out information through their various contacts, including inserting an operative close enough into the terror network's confidence. Middle Eastern scholar Dr. Terry Martin, who is part of a special committee studying the Koran for references to al-Isra, accidentally mentions that his elder brother Mike, a retired Paras and SAS officer, can pass for an Afghan native; Mike's chestnut-brown complexion, which he inherited from his mother and maternal grandmother, is indeed a perfect match. The elder Martin also has a near-perfect command of Arabic and Pashto, based from his tour of duty in Afghanistan supporting the Mujahideen.
Interested with Mike's appearance, the CIA and MI6 recall him to infiltrate al-Qaeda by assuming the identity of Izmat Khan, a Taliban commander now detained at Guantanamo Bay. It is revealed that Khan and Mike share a common past – he saved the wounded Khan from an attack by Soviet helicopters and brought him to a clinic run by Ayman al Zawahiri, where he also meets "the sheikh", Osama Bin Laden. A wayward US missile that was launched as part of a strike in retaliation for the 1998 East Africa bombings hits a slope in the Tora Bora, resulting in a landslide that buries Khan's village and his entire family; he swears revenge against the US, joining the Taliban in the process. He is later caught after the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi.
Mike is trained to fully assume Khan's identity (right down to saying Muslim prayers in Pashto) while the real Khan is slated for repatriation to Afghanistan. CIA operatives kidnap Khan and bring him to a secret safehouse in Washington State, with Mike in his place. The ISI engineer Mike's escape after his arrival in Afghanistan and he makes his way back to al Qaeda safe houses in Pakistan and the UAE, where he is accepted as a compatriot after extensive verification by al-Qaeda representatives. The interrogation delves into every chapter of Khan's life, which includes showing his old wound in Afghanistan.
Now accepted into al-Qaeda's fold as Izmat Khan, Mike volunteers to join the operating team for al-Isra. Part of the plan calls for an al-Qaeda agent posing as a businessman to charter a freighter and a tanker carrying liquid petroleum gas. The freighter is later captured by pirates and sank with all hands killed while the tanker is brought to a secret place in Borneo and refitted as the freighter. Another group hijacks a cargo ship in the Caribbean, although this is intended to serve as a decoy. Martin successfully alerts his handlers to the general nature of the threat, but is left incommunicado for several weeks as the ship steams to the US East Coast through the Indian Ocean (maritime authorities search all ships in the Pacific). A CIA official involved with planning Mike's mission drops hints about the al-Isra attack possibly a repeat of the 1917 explosion in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Meanwhile, an aircraft on approach to McChord Air Force Base develops engine trouble and accidentally crashes into the CIA safehouse, blasting open Khan's cell and giving him an opportunity to escape his captors. A Special Forces team chases Khan across the Cascades and kills him as he uses a public phone in Canada to call his allies.
Eventually, the tanker reaches the mid-Atlantic, where a G8 summit is being held on the Queen Mary 2 . Martin finally learns that the terrorists intend to release and then ignite the gas on board the tanker, which could incinerate the liner as it passed within range. Martin's last-minute heroism, quick reflexes and self-sacrifice prevent a tragedy.
The Afghan can be seen as a sequel to The Fist of God , with the re-appearance of the Martin brothers. However, due to unexplained reasons, Forsyth rewrote the brothers' backstory as explained in The Fist of God. In that book, their parents got married in Iraq in 1952 with Mike being born in 1953 and Terry in 1955. In The Afghan, the couple waited ten years before deciding to have children. As a result, Mike's military record is adjusted ten years forward, with his career now including stints in Northern Ireland, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan - he was part of the relieving force during the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi. The story relationship with The Fist of God ends when Mike escapes Iraq and is almost killed by Foreign Legionnaires patrolling the border with no details are alluded to anything connected to the Supergun.
The book reaped mixed reviews. Kirkus Reviews labelled the book as a "post 9/11 apocalyptic western." [1]
John Philip Walker Lindh is an American convicted felon who was captured as an enemy combatant during the United States' invasion of Afghanistan in November 2001. He was detained at Qala-i-Jangi fortress, used as a prison. He denied participating in the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi, a violent uprising of the Taliban prisoners, stating that he was wounded in the leg and hid in the cellar of the Pink House, in the southern half of the fort. He was one of 86 of the estimated 400 prisoners to survive the uprising, in which CIA officer Johnny "Mike" Spann was killed. Brought to trial in United States federal court in February 2002, Lindh accepted a plea bargain; he pleaded guilty to two charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was released on supervision on May 23, 2019, for a three-year period of supervised release.
Johnny Micheal "Mike" Spann was an American paramilitary officer in the Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division. Spann was the first American killed in combat during the United States invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. He died at the Qala-i-Jangi fortress during an al-Qaeda prisoner uprising.
The Special Activities Center (SAC) is a division of the United States Central Intelligence Agency responsible for covert and paramilitary operations. The unit was named Special Activities Division (SAD) prior to 2015. Within SAC there are two separate groups: SAC/SOG for tactical paramilitary operations and SAC/PAG for covert political action.
The Fist of God is a 1994 suspense novel by British writer Frederick Forsyth, with a fictitious retelling of the Iraqi Project Babylon and the resulting "supergun".
In late 2001, the United States and its close allies invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban government. The invasion's aims were to dismantle al-Qaeda, which had executed the September 11 attacks, and to deny it a safe base of operations in Afghanistan by removing the Taliban government from power. The United Kingdom was a key ally of the United States, offering support for military action from the start of invasion preparations. The invasion came after the Afghan Civil War's 1996–2001 phase between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance groups, resulting in the Taliban controlling 80% of the country by 2001. The invasion became the first phase of the 20-year-long War in Afghanistan and marked the beginning of the American-led War on Terror.
Nek Muhammad Wazir was a prominent Pakistani mujahideen or jihadi leader. He was killed in a US drone strike in South Waziristan, FATA, Pakistan in 2004. This was the first CIA drone strike inside Pakistan.
Osama bin Laden, the founder and former leader of al-Qaeda, went into hiding following the start of the War in Afghanistan in order to avoid capture by the United States and/or its allies for his role in the September 11, 2001 attacks, and having been on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list since 1999. After evading capture at the Battle of Tora Bora in December 2001, his whereabouts became unclear, and various rumours about his health, continued role in al-Qaeda, and location were circulated. Bin Laden also released several video and audio recordings during this time.
The Battle of Tora Bora was a military engagement that took place in the cave complex of Tora Bora, eastern Afghanistan, from December 6–17, 2001, during the opening stages of the United States invasion of Afghanistan. It was launched by the United States and its allies with the objective to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, the founder and leader of the militant organization al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda and bin Laden were suspected of being responsible for the September 11 attacks three months prior. Tora Bora is located in the White Mountains near the Khyber Pass. The U.S. stated that al-Qaeda had its headquarters there and that it was Bin Laden's location at the time.
Maulvi Faqir Mohammed is an Islamist militant and, until March 2012, a deputy leader of the Pakistani Taliban umbrella group Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. He was reported as killed on 5 March 2010 during a helicopter gunship attack on militants by the Pakistani military although he denied the reports as false. In July 2011, he resurfaced on the air broadcasting radio shows out of Afghanistan. He was captured in Afghanistan on 17 February 2013, and released by the Afghan Taliban in 2021.
The Battle of Qala-i-Jangi was a six-day military engagement following an uprising of prisoners-of-war on November 25, 2001. The battle took place between November 25 and December 1, 2001, in northern Afghanistan. It followed the intervention by United States-led coalition forces to overthrow the Taliban's Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which had been harboring al-Qaeda operatives.
The American invastion of Afgahaistan started in 2001 and ended in 2021. It started because of the 9/11 attacks conducted by Al-Qaeda.
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, commonly known as the Pakistani Taliban, is an umbrella organization of various Islamist armed militant groups operating along the Afghan–Pakistani border. Formed in 2007 by Baitullah Mehsud, its current leader is Noor Wali Mehsud, who has publicly pledged allegiance to the Afghan Taliban. The Pakistani Taliban share a common ideology with the Afghan Taliban and have assisted them in the 2001–2021 war, but the two groups have separate operation and command structures.
The Haqqani network is an Afghan Islamist group, built around the family of the same name, that has used asymmetric warfare in Afghanistan to fight against Soviet forces in the 1980s, and US-led NATO forces and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan government in the 21st century. It is considered to be a "semi-autonomous" offshoot of the Taliban. It has been most active in eastern Afghanistan and across the border in north-west Pakistan.
Islām Qala, known historically as Kafir Qala, is a border town in the western Herat province of Afghanistan, near the Afghanistan–Iran border. It is the official entry by land from neighboring Taybad, Iran.
Qala-i-Jangi is a 19th-century fortress located near Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan. It is known for being the site of a bloody 2001 Taliban uprising named the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi, in which at least 470 people were killed, including CIA agent Johnny "Mike" Spann. It served as Northern Alliance General Abdul Rashid Dostum's military garrison during the opening stages of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021).
The Camp Chapman attack was a suicide attack by Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi against the Central Intelligence Agency facility inside Forward Operating Base Chapman on December 30, 2009. One of the main tasks of the CIA personnel stationed at the base was to provide intelligence supporting drone attacks in Pakistan. Seven American CIA officers and contractors, an officer of Jordan's intelligence service, and an Afghan working for the CIA were killed when al-Balawi detonated a bomb sewn into a vest he was wearing. Six other American CIA officers were wounded. The bombing was the most lethal attack against the CIA in more than 25 years.
The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) intelligence agency of Pakistan has been accused of being heavily involved in covertly running military intelligence programs in Afghanistan since before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The first ISI operation in Afghanistan took place in 1975. It was in "retaliation to Republic of Afghanistan's proxy war and support to the militants against Pakistan". Before 1975, ISI did not conduct any operation in Afghanistan and it was only after decade of Republic of Afghanistan's proxy war against Pakistan, support to militants and armed incursion in 1960 and 1961 in Bajaur that Pakistan was forced to retaliate. Later on, in the 1980s, the ISI in Operation Cyclone systematically coordinated the distribution of arms and financial means provided by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to factions of the Afghan mujahideen such as the Hezb-e Islami (HeI) of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and the forces of Ahmad Shah Massoud whose forces would later be known as the Northern Alliance. After the Soviet retreat, the different Mujahideen factions turned on each other and were unable to come to a power sharing deal which resulted in a civil war. The United States, along with the ISI and the Pakistani government of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto became the primary source of support for Hekmatyar in his 1992–1994 bombardment campaign against the Islamic State of Afghanistan and the capital Kabul.
Sayyid Muhammad Tayyab Agha is a prominent figure in the Afghan Taliban. He was the head of the political wing of the Taliban from 2009 to 2015 and was a close aide to Taliban founder Mohammed Omar. During the Taliban government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (1996–2001), he served as chief of staff to Omar, as well as his personal secretary, translator, and press spokesman.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of the Salafi jihadist group al-Qaeda, was killed by a United States drone strike on 31 July 2022 in Kabul, Afghanistan. He was the successor of Osama bin Laden, who was killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan on 2 May 2011. Al-Zawahiri, who had helped to plan the September 11 attacks against the U.S., had gone into hiding following the attacks, and was located by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) months before his death. After receiving authorization from U.S. President Joe Biden to initiate the strike, the CIA fired two Hellfire missiles at the balcony of al-Zawahiri's house, killing him.