CENTCOM Groups of Interest

As Western forces withdraw from Afghanistan, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU) could become more dangerous to Western and Afghan interests. Both groups are active in the Afghanistan-Pakistan theater and may use northern Afghanistan as a springboard for extending the banner of Sharia north of the Amu Darya River, the natural boundary separating Afghanistan from post-Soviet Central Asia.

Even more than a decade after the attacks on September 11, a profound murkiness surrounds the Taliban and the Islamist militancy that straddles the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The crossroads of the world remains one of its core trouble spots, and for reasons few Americans clarly understand. Talibanistan can only be seen by looking at it from every direction. In this book, a group of experts do exactly that. Edited by Middle East expert, CNN security analyst, and bestselling author Peter Bergen, these essays examine in detail the embattle dterritory from Kandahar in Afghanistan to Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas. They pull apart the distinctions between the Taliban and al Qaeda - and the fractures within each movement; assess the effectiveness of American and Pakistani counterinsurgency campaigns; and explores the pipeline of militants into and out of the war zone.