Dresser, Jeffery and David Witter. "Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and the Changing Face of Uzbek Militancy". Small Wars Journal, 14 Nov. 2011.

Dresser, Jeffery and David Witter. "Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and the Changing Face of Uzbek Militancy". Small Wars Journal, 14 Nov. 2011.

• The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan [O'zbekiston Islomiy Harakati] (IMU/O'zIH), formed in 1998 by Toher Yuldashev and Juma Namangani, is the primary network of ethnic Uzbek Islamic militants. It was created to overthrow the constitutional rule of President Islom Karimov and replace the Republic with a caliphate (1).
• The IMU has strong connections with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, with its leaders meeting Osama bin Laden in 1997, and setting up operational bases in Northern Afghanistan in 1998. The personal connections forged also grew, as Yuldashev resided in Kandahar for much of 1998 (1).
• The agreement between the groups operation until 2001 was that the Taliban would allow the IMU to use Northern Afghanistan as a base for attacks into Central Asia and in return the IMU would supply fighters to the Taliban and Al Qaeda for use in operations elsewhere (1).
• After the NATO invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the IMU and other jihadi groups were forced to evacuate the north. The IMU fled to South Waziristan in Pakistan, setting up an agreement wherein its fighters help Waziri tribal militias attack the Pakistani government (1).
• The cooperation with mainly non-Islamist Waziri tribal militants did not go well for the IMU and they were expelled from large areas of the province. The IMU only reentered South Waziristan in December 2007, when Baitullah Mehsud, an influential tribal leader who formed the Pakistani Taliban, agreed to allow the IMU to base themselves there in return for assisting in combat against the Pakistani government. This agreement was largely based on a personal friendship between Mehsud and Yuldashev (1).
• In 2009, Pakistan carried out major counter-insurgency operations in South Waziristan which evicted the IMU and other weaker groups. These operations also resulted in the death of Toher Yuldashev in August 2009. These factors led to the collapse of the tactical alliance between the Pakistani Taliban and the IMU (1).
• After being removed from South Waziristan, the IMU fled into North Waziristan, a melting pot of terrorist groups controlled by the Haqqani Network. This group has the backing of the Pakistani security forces to conduct operations in Afghanistan which promote Pakistani interests and undermine Indian interests, leaving it largely unmolested. This internationalist environment at a time of a leadership gap within the organization led to an increased association with Al Qaeda and its global goals for jihad and international terrorism (1-2).
• The IMU appears to have developed a working relationship with Al Qaeda and the Taliban whereby all three groups benefit each other and assist in operations. The IMU and the Taliban receive resources from Al Qaeda in return for carrying out international terrorist attacks, and the Taliban has provided a base in Northern Afghanistan since at least 2007 from which the IMU can plan terror attacks in Uzbekistan. In return, the IMU has integrated itself into the Taliban's shadow governance, helping the group control Uzbek groups that it has been historically unable to penetrate (2).