United States invasion of Afghanistan The 055 Brigade was a guerrilla organization loyal to Osama bin Laden that was sponsored and trained by al-Qaeda, and was integrated into the Taliban between 1996 and 2001.
The Brigade was also the beneficiary of Al Qaeda's worldwide network of procurement officers who obtained sophisticated equipment including satellite phones, night vision goggles, and even airplanes.
The 055 Brigade was set up as a foreign legion to drive ahead with the vision, shared by Bin Laden and the Taliban hardline regime, of a global Islamist revolution.
According to Joint Task Force Guantanamo counterterrorism analysts the brigade was a unit of foreign fighters in Afghanistan under the command of Osama bin Laden.
Information indicates that the ideology of those in the 055 Brigade includes willingness to give their lives for tactical objectives as declared by Osama bin Laden and the Taliban.
[3] Most members are volunteers from Chechnya, Pakistan, Bosnia, China and Uzbekistan, who are veterans of battles in their own home nations or the Soviet war in Afghanistan and primarily led by Egyptian and Saudi revolutionaries.
[4] Since at least 1998, the Brigade was used to back up Taliban attacks during the Afghan Civil War: One of their first reported action inside Afghanistan was in 1998 when 055 fighters were used in the battle to capture Mazar-i Sharif.
In July 1999 in they took part in the battle for Bamiyan and they were also believed to be behind a string of civilian massacres of the Shia population nearby in Hazarajat, including one attack in early 2001, in which more than 200 people died.