Day 9,000 of America's Longest War — Op Ghazab Day 93; Russia-Taliban Military Pact Confirmed; TTP Eid Al-Adha Ceasefire; Jawid Niazi Day 23 in Taliban GDI Custody

May 29, 2026 marks exactly 9,000 days since the United States launched Operation Enduring Freedom on October 7, 2001 — America's longest-ever war, now in its 25th year. Day 93 of Pakistan's Operation Ghazab lil-Haq continues with no confirmed cross-border airstrikes for the 24th consecutive day since the May 5 Dangam (Kunar) strike. DAY 9,000 MILESTONE: The 9,000th day of the Afghanistan war arrives with the country still under Taliban rule and facing intersecting crises: a regional conflict (the 2026 Af-Pak war) that began 25 years after the US invasion, the world's worst ongoing humanitarian catastrophe (23.7 million people needing aid), and systematic erasure of women's rights that UN experts document may constitute crimes against humanity. No US troops remain in Afghanistan. The US has spent $2.3 trillion. Afghanistan's GDP has fallen 27% since the Taliban takeover. The Taliban — overthrown in 2001, reconstituted in Pakistani safe havens, and returned to power in 2021 — now hosts a Russian military partnership and commands a nuclear-adjacent conflict with Pakistan. RUSSIA-TALIBAN MILITARY-TECHNICAL COOPERATION AGREEMENT: The most consequential development of the past 72 hours continued to reverberate on May 29. On May 27-28 at Moscow's International Security Forum (held May 26-29 in Moscow Oblast), Afghan Defense Minister Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid and Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu signed a Military-Technical Cooperation Agreement — making Russia the first country to formalize a bilateral defense pact with Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. Terms are classified, but such agreements between Russia and CSTO/SCO-adjacent actors typically cover weapons transfers, manufacturing licenses, joint training, and defense R&D. The pact follows Russia's SCO declaration of 'full-fledged partnership' with Taliban-ruled Afghanistan (May 26) and Russia's Supreme Court lifting the Taliban ban from its terrorist designations list in 2025. This is a significant strategic shift: Russia, long one of the Taliban's most vocal critics for harboring extremists threatening Central Asia, has now formalized military ties with the same government it fought by proxy in the 1980s. AFGHAN DEFENSE MINISTER AT MOSCOW FORUM — IRAN OUTREACH: On the margins of the Moscow Security Forum, Defense Minister Yaqoob Mujahid met Iranian Deputy National Security Council Secretary Ali Bagheri on May 28, telling him directly that 'Afghanistan's territory, airspace and borders have not been and will not be a source of threat to Iran.' The statement is significant amid heightened US-Iran tensions: it signals the Taliban is working to maintain positive relations with Iran even as Russia deepens military ties with the Islamic Emirate, and it directly rebuts US pressure to view the Taliban-Afghanistan-Russia axis as a threat to the Iran nuclear deal architecture. TTP EID AL-ADHA CEASEFIRE: TTP leader Noor Wali Mehsud announced a 3-day Eid al-Adha ceasefire covering the 10th–12th of Dhu al-Hijjah (Eid falls in early June 2026), with the caveat that TTP forces would respond if Pakistan initiates attacks first. The announcement — first reported around May 24 — mirrors the TTP's Eid al-Fitr ceasefire practice and comes amid the broader 24-day informal strike pause in the Af-Pak theater. While TTP's ceasefire is distinct from the Af-Pak bilateral ceasefire dynamic (which involves the Afghan Taliban IEA, not TTP), Pakistani authorities view it as a signal that TTP is calibrating to the Urumqi process rather than openly defying it. Religious scholars from both countries had previously called for extending the ceasefire to Eid al-Adha. JAWID NIAZI DETENTION — DAY 23: Paigard News Agency director Jawid (Ahmad Jawed) Niazi entered his 23rd consecutive day in Taliban General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) custody on May 29, with no bail, no publicly announced charges, and no confirmed legal access. His detention remains the most opaque of the three journalist detentions that began May 6-9. TOLOnews journalists Mansoor Niazi (released May 27 after Day 20) and Imran Danish (released May 27 after Day 18) remain in Afghanistan on bail pending trial after Eid. CPJ continued to specifically flag Niazi's case as requiring urgent resolution. OPERATIONAL STATUS — DAY 93 / 24-DAY PAUSE: No confirmed Pakistani cross-border airstrikes into Afghanistan for the 24th consecutive day since the May 5 Dangam (Kunar) strike. Pakistan security forces continued intelligence-based operations (IBOs) within Pakistani territory. No formal ceasefire has been agreed; no Urumqi Round 2 date announced; China has not publicly engaged on mediation since April 8. Pakistan's three core demands — Taliban formally designating TTP as a terrorist organization, dismantling TTP infrastructure, providing verifiable proof — remain unmet. The Russia-Taliban military pact, signed at a forum where Pakistan has no influence, reduces Taliban's incentive to make concessions on the TTP question.