The Lashkar al-Zil or Shadow Army (also known as Jaish al Usrah, or the ''Army of the Protective Shield'') is a paramilitary organization linked to al-Qaeda and descended from the 055 Brigade. According to Syed Saleem Shahzad, it "comprises the

Pakistani Taliban The Pakistani Taliban (), formally called the Tehreek-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan (Urdu/ ps, , lit=Student Movement of Pakistan, TTP), is an umbrella organization of various Islamist armed militant groups operating along the Afghan–Pakistani bor ...

, 313 Brigade, the Afghan

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pasht ...

, Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan and former

Iraqi Republican Guard Iraqi or Iraqis (in plural) means from Iraq, a country in the Middle East, and may refer to: * Iraqi people or Iraqis, people from Iraq or of Iraqi descent * A citizen of Iraq, see demographics of Iraq * Iraqi or Araghi ( fa, عراقی), someone o ...

s". Lashkar al-Zil has reportedly been led by Khalid Habib al Shami (killed October 2008), Abdullah Said al Libi (killed December 2009), and Ilyas Kashmiri (killed June 3, 2011). The Lashkar al-Zil has been involved in attacks in Afghanistan's eastern and southern provinces. News reports have linked it to several specific attacks, including the

Camp Chapman attack Forward Operating Base Chapman was a United States Armed Forces Forward Operating Base located in Khost province, Afghanistan. As a prominent U.S. base, it was a repeated target of terror attacks. There have been at least seven attacks; t ...

(December 30, 2009) and the Sudhnati suicide bombing (January 6, 2010).

References

Al-Qaeda activities Terrorism in Afghanistan Military units and formations of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) {{Afghanistan-stub