Taliban claims obtaining Afghan security plan

The Afghan Taliban claims to have obtained highly classified documents detailing the security plan for next week’s Loya Jirga, a traditional assembly of elders called to discuss a crucial strategic agreement with the United States.

In an email sent out to journalists from a verified Taliban account, the group’s spokesman said that "with help of infiltrators, we have obtained the security plan, maps, and some other important documents for the so called Loya Jirga."

The claims were immediately denied by Sediq Seddiqi, spokesman for the Afghan ministry of interior, saying the Taliban were desperate for attention.

"The plan is highly classified, with only four or five members of the assembly’s security committee having access to it," Seddiqi told Al Jazeera.

"This is a continuation of their baseless propaganda and it is an indication that they are under tremendous pressure from the Afghan security forces."

Lieutenant Colonel Jimmie Cummings, a spokesman for the NATO-led military coalition, told Al Jazeera the coalition was aware of the Taliban's claim but could not confirm its accuracy.

The consultative Loya Jirga, scheduled to begin on November 16, brings together representatives from Afghan provinces, ethnic groups, and civil society to discuss the future of the stalled peace talks with the Taliban as well as a crucial agreement with the United States.

Both the US and the government of President Hamid Karzai are hoping this meeting will provide the legitimacy necessary to sign the agreement, paving the way for relations beyond 2014, when US forces are scheduled to withdraw. The Taliban has not been invited to take part.

Opposition members as well as a number of parliamentarians boycotted the assembly, calling Karzai’s move to hold such a meeting illegal.

Leak plausible

In their email, the Taliban also circulated the content of the alleged security plan, totalling 20 pages, with purported signatures of an ISAF commander, Lieutenant-General Curtis Scaparrotti, the deputy minister of interior, General Abdul Rahman Rahman, and the army chief of staff, General Sher Mohamed Karimi.

But a NATO official told Al Jazeera that the signature of Scaparrotti was not authentic. In great detail, the document also charts the deployment of various forces, including the special force protecting the president, the police, the army, and the national intelligence agency.

It goes as far as giving the alleged number of soldiers in each security belt extending far into the city, and the name and phone numbers of commanders leading the various divisions.

AL-JAZEERA