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Tag: Taliban news

  • Afghanistan Taliban highlights right this moment: Legislation in US Senate seeks report on Pakistan’s function in Taliban offensive

    Afghanistan Taliban Crisis LIVE Updates: A laws has been launched within the US Senate in search of a report from the Secretary of State about his evaluation of Pakistan’s function within the Taliban offensive that led to the toppling of the US-backed Afghan authorities and its help for Taliban offensive in Panjshir Valley, prompting Islamabad to time period the transfer as “unwarranted”.
    The ‘Afghanistan Counterterrorism, Oversight and Accountability Act’ seeks a report from the Secretary of State about his evaluation of Pakistan’s function in supporting the Taliban from 2001-2020; within the offensive that led to the toppling of the Government of Afghanistan and the trying into the Pakistan help for Taliban offensive towards Panjshir Valley and Afghan resistance.
    Here are extra updates:

    Pentagon management needs to debate ISI’s ties with Taliban inside closed doorways
    US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin together with two of his prime generals have informed Senators that the ties that Pakistan and its spy company ISI have with the Taliban can solely be mentioned inside closed doorways. In the general public area they’ll solely say that the connection between the 2 goes to grow to be more and more advanced publish withdrawal.
    “An in-depth conversation about Pakistan probably would be better suited in a closed hearing here so,” Austin informed members of the Senate Armed Services Committee when Senators requested pointed questions on latest information reviews of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the intelligence wing of Pakistan Army, and its ties with the Taliban. (PTI)
    Afghan collapse rooted in 2020 take care of Taliban, says US normal
    Senior Pentagon officers stated Wednesday the collapse of the Afghan authorities and its safety forces in August might be traced to a 2020 US settlement with the Taliban that promised a whole US troop withdrawal.
    Gen. Frank McKenzie, the pinnacle of Central Command, informed the House Armed Services Committee that when the US troop presence was pushed under 2,500 as a part of President Joe Biden’s choice in April to finish a complete withdrawal by September, the unraveling of the US-backed Afghan authorities accelerated. “The signing of the Doha agreement had a really pernicious effect on the government of Afghanistan and on its military — psychological more than anything else, but we set a date-certain for when we were going to leave and when they could expect all assistance to end,” McKenzie stated.
     
     
     

  • World information right now: 5 in a single day developments from across the globe

    Here is a round-up of the highest developments world wide right now.
    1.North Korea says name to declare finish of Korean War is untimely
    North Korea on Friday mentioned that South Korea’s name to declare a proper finish to the Korean battle is untimely as there isn’t a assure it could result in the withdrawal of the “US hostile policy” towards Pyongyang, North Korea state media KCNA reported on Friday, citing Vice Foreign Minister Ri Thae Song.
    This comes as South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday repeated a name for a proper finish to the Korean War in an deal with to the UN General Assembly and proposed that the 2 Koreas with the US, or with each US and China, make such a declaration.
    FILE – In this April 27, 2018, file picture, North Korean chief Kim Jong Un, left, poses with South Korean President Moon Jae-in for a photograph contained in the Peace House on the border village of Panmunjom in Demilitarized Zone, South Korea. (Korea Summit Press Pool by way of AP, File)

    One of the founders of the Taliban, Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, has mentioned that the intense types of punishment together with executions and amputations of fingers will return, although maybe not in public. In an interview with The Associated Press, Turabi warned the world in opposition to interfering with Afghanistan’s new rulers. He additionally dismissed outrage in opposition to the world’s criticism of Taliban executions, which typically came about in entrance of crowds at a stadium.

    “No one will tell us what our laws should be. We will follow Islam and we will make our laws on the Quran, he highlighted. ”Turabi’s feedback pointed to how the group’s leaders stay entrenched in a deeply conservative, hard-line worldview, even when they’re embracing technological adjustments, like video and cellphones.

    3.PM Modi and VP Kamala Harris meet as US eyes Asia
    Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US Vice President Kamala Harris held their first in-person assembly on Thursday, because the Joe Biden administration takes steps to deepen its relationship with its allies in Asia. The assembly was additionally a celebratory second for the 4 million sturdy Indian diaspora within the States and Indians again residence who take satisfaction in Harris’s Indian roots.
    Prime Minister Narendra Modi with US Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington DC. (Twitter/NarendraModi)
    Things that have been mentioned: Both the leaders burdened the significance of a free and open Indo-Pacific area, particularly at a time of China’s ever-growing affect within the area, the 2 nations highlighted their shared priorities and values as democracies, mentioned the coordination to battle in opposition to Covid-19, vaccine exports and larger cooperation in know-how, area and different sectors.

    4.US envoy to Haiti resigns, blasts returning migrants to ‘collapsed state’
    The US flew the Haitian migrants camped within the Texas border city again to their homeland and blocked others from crossing the border from Mexico. (AP)
    The US particular envoy to Haiti resigned in protest in a letter that blasted the Biden administration for deporting a whole lot of migrants again to the crisis-engulfed nation from a camp on the US-Mexican border in current days.”I can’t be related to the United States’ inhumane, counterproductive determination to deport 1000’s of Haitian refugees and unlawful immigrants,” Daniel Foote mentioned.
    This comes because the White House mentioned that it has no plans to ship any of the 1000’s o f Haitian migrants. Till now, the US border authorities have nonetheless returned over 1,400 migrants from the camp and moved over 3,200 folks from staying there. Some are being despatched again on flights to Haiti whereas others are being launched in courts to pursue their immigration instances.
    5.Clashes between Yemen’s rebels, authorities forces kill 35
    At least 35 folks have been killed as preventing closely elevated this week between Yemen’s Houthi rebels and pro-government forces, safety officers have mentioned. Dozens have been wounded on either side. Major clashes are actually of their third day in a number of districts of the federal government=managed provinces.
    Houthi rebels journey on a automobile throughout a funeral procession for Houthi fighters who have been killed in current preventing with forces of Yemen’s Saudi-backed internationally acknowledged authorities, in Sanaa, Yemen. (AP/File)
    Context: Yemen has been within the state of a civil battle since 2014 when the Iran-backed Houthis captured the capital, Sanaa and far of the north of the nation, forcing the internationally recognised authorities to flee to the south, then to Saudi Arabia. A Saudi-led coalition entered the battle in March 2015, backed by the United States, to attempt restore the federal government to energy. This preventing has resulted on this planet’s worst humanitarian disaster.

  • Afghanistan’s Taliban need to tackle General Assembly, says UN

    The Taliban, Afghanistan’s new rulers for a matter of weeks, are difficult the credentials of their nation’s former UN ambassador and need to communicate on the General Assembly’s high-level assembly of world leaders this week, the worldwide physique says.
    The query now dealing with UN officers comes simply over a month after the Taliban, ejected from Afghanistan by the United States and its allies after 9/11, swept again into energy as US forces ready to withdraw from the nation on the finish of August.
    The Taliban surprised the world by taking territory with stunning velocity and little resistance from the US-trained Afghan navy. The Western-backed authorities collapsed on August 15.

    UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric stated Secretary-General Antonio Guterres acquired a communication on September 15 from the at present accredited Afghan Ambassador, Ghulam Isaczai, with the record of Afghanistan’s delegation for the meeting’s 76th annual session.
    Five days later, Guterres acquired one other communication with the letterhead ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs,’ signed by ‘Ameer Khan Muttaqi’ as ‘Minister of Foreign Affairs,’ requesting to take part within the UN gathering of world leaders.
    Muttaqi stated within the letter that former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani was “ousted” as of August 15 and that international locations the world over “no longer recognise him as president,” and subsequently Isaczai not represents Afghanistan, Dujarric stated.

    The Taliban stated it was nominating a brand new UN everlasting consultant, Mohammad Suhail Shaheen, the UN spokesman stated. He has been a spokesman for the Taliban throughout peace negotiations in Qatar.
    Senior US State Department officers stated they had been conscious of the Taliban’s request — the United States is a member of the UN credentials committee — however they’d not predict how that panel may rule.
    However, one of many officers stated the committee “would take some time to deliberate,” suggesting the Taliban’s envoy wouldn’t be capable of communicate on the General Assembly at this session not less than through the high-level leaders’ week.
    In instances of disputes over seats on the United Nations, the General Assembly’s nine-member credentials committee should meet to decide. Both letters have been despatched to the committee after consultations with General Assembly President Abdulla Shahid’s workplace.
    The committee’s members are the United States, Russia, China, Bahama, Bhutan, Chile, Namibia, Sierra Leone and Sweden.
    Afghanistan is scheduled to offer the final speech on the ultimate day of the high-level assembly on September 27. It wasn’t clear who would communicate if the committee met and the Taliban got Afghanistan’s seat.
    When the Taliban final dominated from 1996 to 2001, the UN refused to recognise their authorities and as an alternative gave Afghanistan’s seat to the earlier, warlord-dominated authorities of President Burhanuddin Rabbani, who ultimately was killed by a suicide bomber in 2011. It was Rabbani’s authorities that introduced Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of 9/11, to Afghanistan from Sudan in 1996.

    The Taliban have stated they need worldwide recognition and monetary assist to rebuild the war-battered nation. But the make-up of the brand new Taliban authorities poses a dilemma for the United Nations. Several of the interim ministers are on the UN’s so-called blacklist of worldwide terrorists and funders of terrorism.
    Credentials committee members might additionally use Taliban recognition as leverage to press for a extra inclusive authorities that ensures human rights, particularly for ladies who had been barred from going to high school throughout their earlier rule, and ladies who weren’t in a position to work.

  • How the US helped, and hampered, the escape of Afghan journalists

    As American information organisations scrambled to evacuate their Afghan journalists and their households final month, I reported that these working for The New York Times had discovered refuge not in New York or Washington, however in Mexico City.
    The gist of that column was that even retailers just like the Times and The Wall Street Journal had realized that the US authorities wouldn’t be capable of assist at important moments. In its place was a hodgepodge of different nations, led by tiny Qatar, together with reduction teams, veterans associations and personal corporations.

    Some State Department officers took umbrage at the concept that the US authorities had deserted Afghans who had labored alongside American journalists through the 20-year warfare. In phone interviews final week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and two different officers intently concerned within the evacuation of journalists and plenty of others from Afghanistan made the case to me that the US exit ought to be seen as successful. They pointed to the size of the operation — 124,000 folks evacuated, in whole — as the last word American dedication to Afghanistan’s civil society.
    “We evacuated at least 700 media affiliates, the majority of whom are Afghan nationals, under the most challenging conditions imaginable,” Blinken stated in an interview Friday. “That was a massive effort and one that didn’t just start on evacuation day.”

    When it got here to the federal government’s position, Blinken stated he was referring, primarily, to the truth that the United States was in a position to function Hamid Karzai International Airport, to the braveness of army and State Department workers who labored there and to the choice in early August to incorporate journalists among the many “at risk” teams eligible to go away Afghanistan. (A spokesperson later referred to as to say Blinken wasn’t attempting to take full credit score for evacuations.) Blinken additionally stated the United States was nonetheless attempting to carry out extra Afghan journalists, notably those that have labored for Voice of America and different media retailers funded by the US authorities.
    But folks at main information organisations and others who pushed to get journalists overseas informed me they have been incredulous that the United States would declare to have performed a pivotal position within the exodus. And additional reporting bore out their competition.
    Major American information organisations ended up dealing immediately with Qatar’s authorities, which had cultivated a relationship with the Taliban. A Qatari official stated that his authorities had led the evacuations of individuals working for the Times, the Journal, The Washington Post, CBS News, NBC News, ABC News, NPR, Vice and CNN, in addition to the Committee to Protect Journalists group. Several folks at these organisations confirmed that account, although they spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of they’re nonetheless attempting to get different journalists out of Afghanistan.
    Many Afghan journalists who labored for media retailers funded by the US authorities, together with Radio Free Europe, additionally needed to make different preparations. Jamie Fly, the president of Radio Free Europe, informed me that about 10 journalists from the outlet flew with their households on a non-public constitution to a different nation within the area over the weekend with out US assist, and plenty of extra stay in Afghanistan.
    “The US government has yet to fulfill its commitment to evacuate vulnerable Afghan journalists,” Fly stated.
    Blinken stated he was “really disappointed, frustrated that we were not able to evacuate all the Afghan staff” of the US authorities retailers. He added that “the commitment to bring them out is enduring.”
    Blinken stated his present aim was to work with the Taliban on enacting “a normalised system of emigration,” which, he stated, could be “a much better way of dealing comprehensively with those who wish to leave than doing one-off efforts.”
    The expertise of 1 Afghan reporter, Ahmad Wali Sarhadi, affords a glimpse of the roles performed by the United States and its allies, personal organisations, nonprofit teams and sheer probability.
    Sarhadi had been freelancing for Afghan tv retailers, The Financial Times, The Associated Press and Der Spiegel. He additionally did work for a challenge, Salaam Times, that was funded by the Defense Department. In addition, Sarhadi had appeared on tv accusing the Taliban of human rights violations in rural villages.
    On the morning of Aug. 12, moments after he had filed a tv report on the state of affairs in Kandahar, he realized that the Taliban had entered town, he stated in an interview. He fled out the again of his home and lied his manner by checkpoints all alongside a day’s drive to Kabul.
    There, he despatched panicked emails to the worldwide information media retailers he had labored for and to anybody else he thought may assist. The solely promising response got here from the Committee to Protect Journalists, a well-connected American nonprofit organisation that helps journalists on this planet’s bother spots.
    “You are not alone — we are going to support you,” the e-mail stated, in accordance with Sarhadi.
    “That’s an email I will never forget,” he stated.
    Maria Salazar Ferro, the emergencies director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, had already been placing collectively a listing of Afghan journalists who weren’t being helped by different organisations, and her workforce had vetted Sarhadi’s paperwork.
    The nonprofit’s Washington lobbyist, Michael De Dora, was additionally a part of the trouble, having taken half in conversations in July and August with State Department officers. Those talks started hopefully, and on Aug. 2 the State Department introduced that it will prolong to journalists a precedence visa, supposed for Afghans who didn’t work immediately for the US army however have been nonetheless in danger.
    Then, obstacles started to mount. On Aug. 5, a US official utilizing solely a primary title despatched an e-mail from an account staffed round the clock by totally different workers that supplied an vital clarification: It stated that freelancers and contractors, a class of employee that made up the majority of these working with US organisations, wouldn’t be eligible for the visa. A duplicate of the e-mail was shared with me by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
    On Aug. 12, the Committee to Protect Journalists started sharing its listing of at-risk Afghan journalists, which might in the end develop to greater than 400, with the State Department. Three days later, on Aug. 15, Kabul fell to the Taliban. On Aug. 16, the State Department reversed course and informed information organisations that it will broaden the visa program to incorporate freelancers and contractors. By then, nonetheless, it was too late to simply transfer journalists to 3rd international locations to use for visas.
    People collect in entrance of the worldwide airport in Kabul, Afghanistan on Monday after the Taliban took management of the nation. (Jim Huylebroek/The New York Times)
    Sarhadi joined the dense crowd at Hamid Karzai International Airport, attempting and failing to get by a gate.
    On Aug. 20, Joel Simon, the top of the Committee to Protect Journalists, and De Dora met through Zoom with Uzra Zeya, the undersecretary of state for civilian safety, democracy and human rights. They stated they left the assembly satisfied that the US would do nothing to assist.
    They went searching for assist elsewhere, and met the identical day with the deputy director of the Qatari authorities’s communications workplace, Sheikh Thamer bin Hamad Al Thani. Al Thani requested for a listing of the Afghan journalists it thought of most in peril, then despatched phrase {that a} convoy ought to assemble at a secure location close to the Kabul airport. On Aug. 23, the Qatari ambassador to Afghanistan led 16 journalists and their households from the secure home to the airport. They flew to Doha the following day. Many of the opposite journalists on the listing are nonetheless in Afghanistan.
    “We didn’t see any policy here,” Simon stated of the US authorities’s position within the evacuation. “Our experience was that powerful media organisations were able to leverage their own relationships and use their own resources,” he stated.
    Others concerned in rescue efforts had comparable experiences, discovering that formal US authorities channels have been at greatest ineffective and at worst an impediment.
    The chief of 1 rescue effort spoke with me on the situation of anonymity to disclose particulars of delicate dealings with the State Department. On Aug. 29, this group chief emailed a State Department official to say that they have been ready to fly 181 folks, together with some Afghan journalists, out of Mazar-e-Sharif, a metropolis in northern Afghanistan.
    The group, whose constitution was paid for by the Facebook Journalism Project, in accordance with the e-mail and a Facebook official, had gained approvals from the airline working the flight, Kam Air, in addition to from the United Arab Emirates, the place the aircraft would land, and Mexico, the flight’s final vacation spot.
    Taliban forces stand guard on the airport. (Reuters)
    The group had additionally gotten the go-ahead from the Taliban, in accordance with the e-mail, which was shared with me, however that approval got here with the situation that the US authorities log off on the plan.
    Instead of providing formal approval, State Department officers prompt the group direct its request to a Gmail account utilized by officers approving air visitors for the airport in Kabul, 200 miles away. In one other e-mail, a State Department official stated that whereas the US was “appreciative of all efforts to assist in the relocation efforts out of Afghanistan,” the organisers could be liable for the small print.
    Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who was amongst these pushing for evacuations out of Mazar-e-Sharif, stated he was informed the US authorities wouldn’t approve the flights as a result of it didn’t have officers in place to vet vacationers — even when they weren’t headed for the United States.
    “The planes could have left if there were sufficient clearances,” Blumenthal stated
    The Facebook-funded flight lastly acquired off the bottom after its organisers reached out to a distinct State Department official, Zalmay Khalilzad, who had managed US negotiations with the Taliban.
    US officers identified that paperwork wasn’t the principle impediment in Afghanistan. “The issue was not the back end organisation in Washington,” stated John Bass, the previous US ambassador to Afghanistan who returned to handle the evacuation from the airport. “We could have had 10 times as many people sorting and sifting inquiries and creating great manifests, a great plan for how we were going to move people in 10-minute segments through gates, and all of that still would have crashed up against the reality of human desperation outside the airport and this very capricious set of security checkpoints the Taliban set up.”
    The story of evacuating US journalists is a microcosm of the bigger evacuation and of the broader debate over the withdrawal. Journalists, critics prompt, have been too near the story, certain up within the lives of their Afghan associates, to see the knowledge in getting out. But the correspondents on the bottom have been largely depicting what was in entrance of their eyes — each chaos, and the shocking absence of American organisational capability.

    Sarhadi, for his half, stays caught in a housing advanced constructed for subsequent yr’s World Cup in Doha. He is much better off than he was within the jumble exterior the Kabul airport, however his subsequent vacation spot is unsure.
    The Qatari authorities is now working some flights within the different course. A international ministry spokesperson, Ibrahim Al Hashmi, informed me the nation now has a distinct job: “securing trips for foreign reporters wishing to return to Afghanistan.”

  • Some Afghan women return to highschool, others face anxious wait

    Some Afghan women returned to main colleges with gender-segregated courses on Saturday, however older women confronted an anxious wait with no readability over if and once they would be capable of resume their research on the secondary faculty degree.
    Most colleges within the capital Kabul have stayed shut because the Taliban captured the town simply over a month in the past.

    Taliban officers say they won’t return to the fundamentalist insurance policies – together with a ban on women receiving an training – once they final dominated Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.
    They have now promised that women will be capable of examine – however solely in segregated school rooms.Nazife, a instructor at a non-public faculty in Kabul which had combined school rooms earlier than the Taliban takeover, mentioned that they had made adjustments so as to reopen.
    “Girls study in the morning and boys in the afternoon,” she mentioned. “Male teachers teach boys and female teachers teach girls.”

    However, there was uncertainty for a lot of different women on the faculty, which teaches at each main and secondary ranges.
    On Friday the training ministry mentioned boys’ secondary colleges would quickly reopen, however made no point out of ladies.
    “Their spirits are down and they are waiting for government announcements so they can resume studying,” mentioned Hadis Rezaei, who teaches the college’s feminine secondary-level pupils.
    Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid instructed the native Bakhtar News Agency on Saturday that preparations had been being made to reopen women’ secondary colleges however he gave no date.

    “The education of girls is fixing a generation. The education of boys may affect a family but the education of girls affects society,” mentioned the college’s principal, Mohammadreza.
    “We are very closely following the matter so that girls can resume their education and complete their studies.”

  • Taliban say Afghan boys’ colleges to reopen, no point out of ladies

    Afghan colleges will open for boys from Saturday, the brand new Taliban ministry of training mentioned in a press release that gave no indication of when ladies may have the ability to return to their courses.
    More than a month after the motion seized the capital Kabul, most academic establishments have remained closed because the Taliban have struggled to reopen the economic system and restore regular life within the cities.

    At a number of the colleges which have managed to function, ladies as much as the sixth grade have attended, and ladies college students have gone to school courses. But excessive colleges for ladies have been closed.
    Taliban officers have mentioned they won’t replicate the fundamentalist insurance policies of the earlier Taliban authorities, which banned ladies’ training, and so they have promised that ladies will have the ability to examine as long as they achieve this in segregated school rooms.
    While the Taliban didn’t order colleges to shut after their takeover, the motion has mentioned the safety scenario meant that many actions for girls and ladies weren’t but potential, and the newest assertion didn’t point out ladies in any respect.

    It mentioned state and personal colleges on the major and secondary degree in addition to official madrasa non secular colleges can be open from Saturday.
    “All teachers and male students should attend school,” the assertion mentioned.

  • IMF suspends its engagement with Afghanistan

    The IMF mentioned it was deeply involved with financial situations in Afghanistan, urging the worldwide neighborhood to take pressing steps to stall a “looming humanitarian crisis” within the nation.
    “Our engagement with Afghanistan has been suspended until there is clarity within the international community on the recognition of the government,” IMF spokesperson Gerry Rice instructed reporters at a information convention right here on Thursday.

    “We’re guided by the international community in terms of the recognition of the government in Afghanistan and we don’t have that. So, the IMF programme there has been put on hold; and, again, as we said, last month, the country cannot access IMF resources, SDRs, and so on, at this point,” he mentioned.
    The Taliban seized management of Afghanistan on August 15, ousting the earlier elected management which was backed by the West. The interim Cabinet introduced by the Taliban consists of high-profile members of the rebel group.

    Several world leaders have introduced they’d see whether or not the Taliban fulfils its guarantees to the worldwide neighborhood on points like an inclusive Afghan authorities and human rights earlier than giving their regime diplomatic recognition.
    Afghanistan was already going through power poverty and drought however the scenario has deteriorated because the Taliban seized energy final month with the disruption of assist, the departure of tens of 1000’s of individuals together with authorities and assist employees, and the collapse of a lot financial exercise.
    Foreign donors have suspended assist to Afghanistan, saying disbursements are contingent on the behaviour of the brand new Taliban-led authorities, which has not been recognised by any nation.
    Ordinary financial institution transfers to people in Afghanistan have additionally been blocked. That has left unusual Afghans reeling from rocketing inflation, rising poverty, money shortages, a plummeting foreign money, and rising unemployment.
    Rice, nevertheless, mentioned the IMF stands able to work with the worldwide neighborhood to advocate for pressing actions to stall a looming humanitarian disaster. The IMF is deeply involved with the troublesome financial scenario in Afghanistan and the humanitarian scenario in Afghanistan, he added.
    “We have said the immediate focus should indeed be on that humanitarian situation, aid to help the Afghanistan people; and allowing the flow of remittances and small-scale transfers; and providing assistance to countries hosting Afghan refugees,” he mentioned.
    The IMF’s warning comes after United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres mentioned earlier that Afghanistan faces a “humanitarian catastrophe” and a whole collapse of primary providers below Taliban rule.
    Guterres instructed a global assist convention this week that Afghans had been going through “perhaps their most perilous hour”. Donors on the convention pledged greater than USD 1.1 billion to assist Afghanistan.

    UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi has mentioned that even earlier than the Taliban took over final month, greater than 18 million Afghans, or about half the inhabitants, required humanitarian assist.
    Over 3.5 million Afghans had been already displaced in a rustic that’s battling drought and the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • One month since Taliban takeover: Here’s the whole lot that has occurred in Afghanistan

    On August 15, the Taliban took over Kabul.
    With the capital of their fingers, the hardline Islamist militant group accomplished their takeover of Afghanistan in a fast offensive that noticed provinces and warlords surrender with no combat.

    The siege got here two weeks previous to the date the United States chosen to finish its troop withdrawal, after a pricey two-decade battle. It has now been a month for the reason that Taliban seized energy in Afghanistan. Here’s what all has occurred within the nation.
    The fall of Kabul
    Despite the US and NATO’s pouring of lots of of billions of {dollars} to construct up the Afghan safety power, the Taliban seized practically all of Afghanistan in simply over every week.
    On August 15, the insurgents entered the outskirts of Kabul however remained exterior town’s downtown. According to the Associated Press, staff on the time fled authorities workplaces, and smoke rose over town as embassy workers had been seen burning necessary paperwork.
    Taliban fighters contained in the Afghan presidential palace, in Kabul. (File/AP)
    While the Taliban fighters remained on the outskirts, stories of Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani leaving the nation added extra panic.
    Ghani later mentioned in an announcement mentioned that he fled to stop additional bloodshed. “The Taliban have won with the judgement of their swords and guns, and are now responsible for the honour, property and self-preservation of their countrymen,” he wrote in a Facebook publish.

    In a number of hours, Al Jazeera aired visuals of Taliban fighters coming into Afghanistan’s presidential palace. The group’s management, surrounded by dozens of armed fighters, addressed the media from the nation’s seat of energy, signalling an official takeover.
    Grim visuals from airport
    As Taliban fighters moved across the corridors of the luxurious Presidential palace, 1000’s of Afghans determined to go away the nation thronged the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.
    Fearful that the Taliban would reimpose the form of brutal rule that each one however eradicated girls’s rights, a number of Afghans lined up at money machines to withdraw their life financial savings.
    Hundreds of individuals collect close to a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport aircraft at a fringe on the worldwide airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 16, 2021. (AP)
    In visuals that shocked the world, many had been seen clinging to a US navy transport aircraft because it taxied on the runway. Another video on social media confirmed a number of falling via the air because the aeroplane quickly gained altitude over town. Seven Afghan civilians had been killed within the chaos on the airport.
    Though the Taliban had promised a peaceable transition, the US Embassy suspended operations and warned Americans late within the day to shelter in place and never attempt to get to the airport.
    Some lots of of individuals run alongside a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport aircraft because it strikes down a runway of the worldwide airport, in Kabul (AP)
    Many individuals watched in disbelief as helicopters landed within the US Embassy compound to take diplomats to a brand new outpost on the airport. The United States rejected comparisons to the US pullout from Vietnam. In phrases of worldwide response, most international locations mentioned their major focus was on evacuating their residents who’re caught in war-torn international locations.

    On August 17, US President Joe Biden broke his silence and mentioned that he stand by his determination to withdraw American troops. In an almost 15-minutes lengthy handle, Biden mentioned, “I am the President of the USA and the buck stops with me.”
    US President Joe Biden (Left); A person pulls a woman to get inside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan August 16, 2021. (Reuters)
    Two days later, a twin-suicide bomb assault exterior the Kabul airport killed at the very least 95 Afghans and 13 US troops. The Islamic State group later claimed accountability for the killings.
    US-led overseas forces ultimately evacuated about 1,24,000 foreigners and at-risk Afghans, however tens of 1000’s had been left behind.
    Anti-Afghan protests
    While 1000’s of Afghans had been attempting to flee Taliban rule, movies emerged on social media of a small group of ladies holding placards and demanding equal rights on the streets of Kabul. This was reportedly the primary agitation of its form for the reason that militant group seized management of the nation.
    An individual wounded in a bomb blast exterior the worldwide airport in Kabul, Afghanistan on Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021, arrives at a hospital in Kabul. (The New York Times)
    More protests throughout the cities of Afghanistan additionally emerged on the event of the nation’s Independence day. At one demonstration within the metropolis, about 200 individuals gathered earlier than the Taliban broke it up violently.

    “It was a remarkable display of defiance…It was also further evidence that while tens of thousands are now seeking escape, there were many more left behind and determined to have a voice in the kind of country in which they live,” a New York Times report remarked on the protest.
    A member of the Taliban forces factors his gun at protesters, as Afghan demonstrators shout slogans throughout an anti-Pakistan protest, close to the Pakistan embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan September 7, 2021. (Reuters)
    Meanwhile, away from Kabul within the Panjshir Valley, an anti-Taliban guerrilla motion started to kind below the management of Ahmad Massoud, the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, who was one of many predominant leaders of Afghanistan’s anti-Soviet resistance within the Nineteen Eighties and was killed in 2001, on the behest of the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
    The area, situated 150 kilometers northeast of the capital, Kabul, hosted some senior members of the ousted authorities, together with the deposed Vice President Amrullah Saleh and ex-Defense Minister Bismillah Mohammadi. Saleh has declared himself the caretaker president after ousted President Ashraf Ghani fled the nation.
    Militiamen loyal to Ahmad Massoud, son of the late Ahmad Shah Massoud, participate in a coaching train, in Panjshir province, northeastern Afghanistan. (AP)
    “I will never, ever and under no circumstances bow to the Taliban terrorists. I will never betray the soul and legacy of my hero Ahmad Shah Mas[s]oud, the commander, the legend and the guide,” Saleh wrote on Twitter.
    The Panjshir Valley has repeatedly performed a decisive position in Afghanistan’s navy historical past, as its geographical place nearly utterly closes it off from the remainder of the nation. However, the Taliban in current days have claimed victory over Panjshir.
    New Taliban govt
    On September 7, the Taliban named Mullah Hasan Akhund, an affiliate of the motion’s late founder Mullah Omar, as the pinnacle of Afghanistan’s new authorities on Tuesday, with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, head of the motion’s political workplace, as deputy.
    Sarajuddin Haqqani, son of the founding father of the Haqqani community, designated as a terrorist group by the United States, was appointed as the brand new inside minister.
    Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar (Left) and Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada.
    In phrases of construction, the brand new authorities in Kabul was much like the one in Tehran in some methods. The prime non secular chief of the Taliban, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, who introduced as Afghanistan’s supreme authority, though he’s not a part of the federal government.
    According to an announcement launched after the cabinet appointments, Akhundzada instructed the brand new authorities to uphold Islamic guidelines and Sharia regulation in Afghanistan. In the assertion launched in English, Akhundzada additionally urged these in cost to guard the nation’s highest pursuits, and to make sure “lasting peace, prosperity and development”.
    Photographs of school rooms divided by curtains had been circulated broadly on social media. (Reuters)
    In phrases of schooling, the all-male interim authorities introduced a algorithm to be adopted by feminine college students. The girls are anticipated to observe a strict gown code as accepted by the Taliban’s interpretation of Islam and put on a hijab whereas attending lessons, segregated from the male college students. The authorities has additionally suggested that separate entrances be created for women and men.

    Reports of violence in opposition to journalists have additionally emerged.
    Economic woes
    Ever for the reason that takeover, the Taliban appears to face daunting issues as they search to transform their lightning navy victory right into a sturdy peacetime authorities.
    According to Reuters, even after a long time of battle and the deaths of tens of 1000’s of individuals, safety has largely improved, however Afghanistan’s economic system is in ruins regardless of lots of of billions of {dollars} in growth spending over the previous 20 years.
    Afghans line up exterior a financial institution to take out their cash after Taliban takeover in Kabul, Afghanistan on Sept. 1, 2021. (Reuters)
    The Kabul airport, which witnessed chaotic scenes in August, is alleged to be up and working with help from Qatari officers. The first worldwide industrial flight departed from Kabul airport final week.
    However, very like in August, lengthy traces are nonetheless seen exterior banks, the place weekly withdrawal limits of 20,000 afghanis (approx $200) have been imposed to guard the nation’s dwindling reserves.
    Impromptu markets the place individuals promote family items for money are reported to have sprung up throughout the capital. However, consumers nonetheless stay in brief provide. “Thefts have disappeared. But bread has also disappeared,” one shopkeeper informed Reuters.

  • Taliban’s Mullah Baradar says experiences he was harm in inside conflict are false

    Afghanistan’s appearing deputy prime minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar appeared in a video interview posted on Wednesday to disclaim experiences that he was harm in a conflict with a rival faction of the Taliban.
    “No this is not true; I am OK and healthy,” Baradar mentioned in an interview with state TV which was posted on Twitter by the Taliban’s political workplace in Doha. “The media says that there is internal disputes. There is nothing between us, it is not true.”
    The temporary clip confirmed him seated on a settee subsequent to an interviewer with an RTA state tv microphone, apparently studying from a sheet of paper.

    “There is nothing to worry about,” he mentioned.
    Earlier, an official from the Taliban’s cultural fee mentioned on Twitter that the interview could be proven on RTA TV to disprove “enemy propaganda”.
    Taliban officers have issued repeated denials in current days that Baradar had been harm. The denials comply with days of rumours that supporters of Baradar had clashed with members of the Haqqani community, a bunch affiliated with the Taliban based mostly close to the border with Pakistan and blamed for a few of the worst suicide assaults of the battle.
    Baradar, one of many founding members of the Taliban and as soon as seen because the possible head of a Taliban authorities, had not been seen in public for a while. He was not a part of the ministerial delegation which met Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani in Kabul on Sunday.
    In the clip, he mentioned he had been on a visit when the go to occurred and had not been capable of get again in time.

    On Wednesday, Anas Haqqani, youthful brother of the Taliban’s newly appointed Acting Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, additionally issued a press release on Twitter denying experiences of inside rifts within the motion.
    The rumours comply with hypothesis over rivalries between navy commanders like Haqqani and leaders from the political workplace in Doha like Baradar, who led diplomatic efforts to achieve a settlement with the United States.

  • Afghanistan Taliban highlights at present: One month after fall of Kabul, financial disaster stalks Taliban

    A month after seizing Kabul, the Taliban face daunting issues as they search to transform their lightning army victory right into a sturdy peacetime authorities.
    After 4 a long time of struggle and the deaths of tens of hundreds of individuals, safety has largely improved, however Afghanistan’s financial system is in ruins regardless of tons of of billions of {dollars} in improvement spending over the previous 20 years. While a lot consideration within the West has centered on whether or not the brand new Taliban authorities will hold its guarantees to guard girls’s rights or supply shelter to militant teams like al Qaeda, for a lot of Afghans the primary precedence is easy survival.
    Here are a few of the key tales to observe:
    UN says rural Afghans have crucial want for help
    UN official says 4 million Afghans are dealing with “a food emergency,” with the bulk in rural areas the place there’s a crucial want for funding for planting winter wheat, feed for livestock and money help for weak households, aged and disabled.
    In Kabul, first help flights have began to reach because the airport reopens and worldwide donors have pledged over $1 billion to stop what United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned might be “the collapse of an entire country.”

    Pakistan’s function in enabling Taliban is victory for hardliners, says high US senator
    The function of Pakistan in enabling the Taliban is a victory for the hardliners within the nation’s authorities, Republican Senator Marco Rubio mentioned throughout a Congressional listening to on Afghanistan on Thursday.

    Rubio mentioned a number of US administrations had been responsible of ignoring Pakistan’s function in serving to the Taliban to regroup, as different US senators expressed concern over the “double dealing” of Islamabad.
    Explained: What have Taliban mentioned about girls’s training thus far?
    Ever because the Taliban took over Afghanistan, the plight of ladies within the nation has been the main target of dialogue internationally. During its earlier authorities (1996-2001), the Taliban had banned ladies from colleges and academic institutes.

    Earlier this week, the group’s newly shaped all-male interim authorities allowed feminine college students to attend non-public universities however with harsh restrictions. Several non-public universities resumed lessons within the nation as pictures of scholars sitting in lecture rooms partitioned with curtains made rounds on social media, shortly after the Taliban’s announcement.