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Tag: Taliban news

  • Taliban admit to killing Afghan comedian crushed in video

    Afghanistan’s Taliban took duty this week for the killing of a comic book within the nation’s south, elevating the specter of revenge killings because the US and NATO put the ultimate touches on their departure.
    A video of two males slapping and abusing Nazar Mohammad, higher referred to as Khasha Zwan, unfold extensively on social media. He was later killed, shot a number of occasions. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid acknowledged that the 2 males have been Taliban.

    The males have been arrested and will likely be tried, Mujahid mentioned. He alleged that the comedian, from the southern a part of Kandahar province, was additionally a member of the Afghan National Police and had been implicated within the torture and killing of Taliban.
    Mujahid mentioned the Taliban ought to have arrested the comedian and introduced him earlier than a Taliban courtroom, as a substitute of killing him.
    The brutality of the killing heightened fears of revenge assaults. It additionally undermined the Taliban’s assurances that no hurt would come to individuals who labored for the federal government, with the U.S. army or with U.S. organizations.
    Hundreds of individuals are reportedly being held by Taliban in areas they’ve overrun. Schools have been burned and studies have emerged of restrictions being imposed on girls akin to these imposed when the insurgents final dominated Afghanistan. Back then, they’d denied women entry to colleges, and barred girls from working.
    In an interview final week with The Associated Press, Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen mentioned the group’s commanders have orders to not intrude with civilians, or impose restrictions in newly captured areas. He mentioned that when complaints of wrongdoings come up they’re investigated.
    However Patricia Gossman of Human Rights Watch says that revenge killings have been dedicated by all sides throughout Afghanistan’s a long time of conflict.
    “The war–all 43 years of it–has a revenge-driven dynamic,” she mentioned in an interview on Tuesday. “Revenge for past wrongs, including terrible atrocities, committed by one side or the other has been a mobilizing factor for all the various armed forces.”
    For instance, in 2001 when the U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban and lots of surrendered, lots of have been packed into containers by troops loyal to warlord Rashid Dostum, with dozens suffocating within the brutally sizzling solar. Others who returned dwelling after the Taliban defeat have been usually singled out for extortion by authorities officers.
    Reports have additionally since surfaced of U.S.-allied warlords calling in American airstrikes on supposed Taliban, or al-Qaida targets that turned out to contain private vendettas, not extremists.

    “Each new horror — understandably — brings new outrage,” Gossman mentioned. “With no hope for any other kind of justice, this is likely to continue… and every side is far too blind to the fact that this sense of outrage and horror at wrongs done is shared.”
    The worry of revenge has pushed as many as 18,000 Afghans who labored for the U.S. army to use for Special Immigration Visas to the United States. In Washington and in NATO capitals there’s a rising demand to evacuate Afghans who labored with the army.
    The US has promised it should transfer shortly on hundreds of particular visa requests.
    Gossman pressed for investigations into alleged atrocities.
    “The UN should be much more engaged in investigating these atrocities, as Afghan and international human rights groups have called for, and has happened in other countries,” she mentioned.

  • Afghan Army Chief Gen Ahmadzai anticipated to go to India subsequent week

    Afghan Army Chief Gen Wali Mohammad Ahmadzai is anticipated to pay a three-day essential go to to India from July 27 to discover boosting bilateral army ties within the face of the Taliban making sweeping offensive throughout Afghanistan following the withdrawal of international forces, folks accustomed to the event mentioned on Tuesday.
    Gen Ahmadzai is scheduled to carry wide-ranging talks with the highest Indian army brass together with his counterpart Gen MM Naravane and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, they mentioned.
    “The Afghan Army Chief is scheduled to arrive in India on July 27 for a three-day visit. He is scheduled to return in the first half of July 30. Strengthening defence cooperation will be the focus of the visit,” mentioned one of many individuals.

    Afghanistan has been reaching out to its key allies in searching for help to strengthen its safety forces within the backdrop of the Taliban resorting to widespread violence to broaden its affect throughout the nation after the US started withdrawing troops from May 1.
    In the previous couple of years, India has offered at the least 5 army helicopters to the war-ravaged nation which has been making an attempt to strengthen its air energy.
    Afghanistan has additionally been searching for India’s help in making purposeful Soviet-era helicopters and transport plane that weren’t in flying situation.
    The nation has been struggling to get spare elements for plane and helicopters attributable to Western sanctions in opposition to Moscow.
    Last month President Ashraf Ghani appointed Gen Wali Mohammad Ahmadzai as the brand new chief of military workers, changing Gen Yasin Zia.
    It is learnt that Gen Ahmadzai is more likely to search a provide of army {hardware} from India to boost the fight functionality of his forces.
    The Afghan Army chief’s go to to India additionally comes within the midst of accelerating pressure in Kabul’s ties with Islamabad following the temporary kidnapping of the daughter of Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan.
    Following the incident, the Afghanistan international ministry mentioned it was recalling the ambassador and different senior diplomats till all safety threats are eliminated.
    In an handle at a connectivity convention in Tashkent on Friday, President Ghani hit out at Pakistan for the inflow of international terrorists into Afghanistan and failing to do sufficient to affect the Taliban to significantly have interaction within the peace talks.
     
    “Intelligence estimates indicate the influx of over 10,000 jihadi fighters (into Afghanistan) from Pakistan and other places in the last month,” Ghani mentioned on the convention within the presence of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and a number of other different leaders.
    India has been a significant stakeholder within the peace and stability of Afghanistan. It has already invested almost USD 3 billion in assist and reconstruction actions within the nation.
    India has been supporting a nationwide peace and reconciliation course of which is Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled.

  • Taliban say they need Afghan deal, whilst they battle on

    The chief of the Taliban stated Sunday that his motion is dedicated to a political settlement to finish many years of battle in Afghanistan, even because the insurgents battle in dozens of districts throughout to nation to achieve territory.
    The assertion by Maulawi Hibatullah Akhunzada got here as Taliban leaders had been assembly with a high-level Afghan authorities delegation within the Gulf state of Qatar to jump-start stalled peace talks. The Kabul delegation contains the No. 2 within the authorities, Abdullah Abdullah, head of Afghanistan’s nationwide reconciliation council.
    The talks resumed Saturday, forward of the four-day Muslim vacation of Eid al-Adha, which in lots of components of the world is predicted to start out Tuesday. A second session was to happen Sunday afternoon.
    Washington’s peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who’s in Qatar, beforehand expressed hopes for a discount in violence and probably a cease-fire over Eid al-Adha.
    Akhundzada stated that “in spite of the military gains and advances, the Islamic Emirate strenuously favors a political settlement in the country, and every opportunity for the establishment of an Islamic system.”
    The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is what the Taliban known as their authorities once they dominated the nation for 5 years, till their ouster by a U.S.-led coalition in 2001.

    Still, there are few indicators of a political settlement on the horizon. Battles between the Taliban and authorities forces are persevering with in dozens of provinces, and 1000’s of Afghans are looking for visas in hopes of leaving the nation.

    Most are frightened that the ultimate withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops after practically 20 years will plunge their war-ravaged nation into deeper chaos. With the U.S. withdrawal greater than 95% full, Afghanistan’s future appears mired in uncertainty.
    Militias with a brutal historical past have been resurrected to combat the Taliban however their loyalties are to their commanders, lots of them U.S.-allied warlords with ethnic-based assist.
    This has raised the specter of deepening divisions between Afghanistan’s many ethnic teams. Most Taliban are ethnic Pashtuns and prior to now there have been brutal reprisal killings by one ethnic group towards one other.
    In an indication of how little progress has been made in negotiations, either side are nonetheless haggling over terminology, unable to even agree on the title for the war-tortured nation. The Taliban are insisting on the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Kabul desires the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
    Meanwhile Akhunzada’s assertion demanded an Islamic system with out explaining what that meant.

    He promised to assist training, however for women he stated the “Islamic Emirate will . . . strive to create an appropriate environment for female education within the framework of sublime Islamic law.”
    He didn’t say how that differed from the tutorial establishments which were created during the last 20 years and whether or not ladies can be allowed the liberty to work outdoors their house and transfer freely with out being accompanied by a male family member.
    He stated the Taliban have ordered their commanders to deal with civilians with care and to guard establishments and infrastructure. Yet, experiences have emerged from areas coming below Taliban management that faculties have been burned, ladies have been restricted to their houses and a few authorities buildings have been blown up.
    The Taliban have denied experiences of such destruction, saying that the footage being proven is previous and accused the federal government of being engaged in disinformation and propaganda.

  • Taliban press advances, take key border put up with Pakistan

    The Taliban are urgent on with their surge in Afghanistan, saying they seized a strategic border crossing with Pakistan on Wednesday — the newest in a sequence of key border put up to return below their management in latest weeks.
    The improvement was the newest in Taliban wins on the bottom as American and NATO troops full their pullout from the war-battered nation. On Tuesday, an Afghan official stated a senior authorities delegation, together with the top of the nation’s reconciliation council, would meet the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, to jump-start the long-stalled peace talks between the 2 sides.

    Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted a video purporting to point out Taliban fighters Wednesday within the southeastern city of Spin Boldak alongside the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. On the Pakistani aspect, residents of the border city of Chaman reported seeing the Taliban’s signature white flag flying simply throughout the boundary line and Taliban fighters in autos driving within the space.
    However, an Afghan authorities official from southern Kandahar province, the place Spin Boldak is situated, denied that the Taliban had taken management. The official declined to be recognized by identify, with out explaining why.
    Supporters of the Taliban carry the Taliban’s signature white flags within the Afghan-Pakistan border city of Chaman, Pakistan, Wednesday, July 14, 2021.  (AP Photo/Tariq Achkzai)
    The Taliban have in latest weeks taken a string of main Afghan border crossings, together with with Iran, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The border crossing with Iran at Islam Qala in Afghanistan’s western Herat province is especially profitable and an vital commerce route.
    SpinBoldak is a key crossing for all items from Pakistan’s southern port metropolis of Karachi to Afghanistan, a landlocked nation depending on the Arabian Sea port.

    Last week, the Taliban stated they now management 85% of Afghanistan’s territory — a declare that’s inconceivable to confirm however that was significantly greater than earlier Taliban statements that greater than a 3rd of the nation’s 421 districts and district facilities had been of their management.
    Many Afghan districts have fallen to the Taliban with no struggle as Afghan forces deserted their posts. Reports indicated that Spin Boldak additionally fell with no struggle.
    A member of the Afghan Special Forces directs site visitors in the course of the rescue mission of a policeman besieged at a verify put up surrounded by Taliban, in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, July 13, 2021. (Reuters)
    In northern Afghanistan, a conventional stronghold of US-allied warlords, greater than 1,000 Afghan army males fled throughout the border into northern Tajikistan final week forward of the advancing Taliban. Iran additionally reported just a few hundred Afghan troops crossing into Iran.
    The taking of key border crossings will probably imply important income for the Taliban whereas additionally strengthening their hand in any future negotiations with the Kabul authorities.
    The Taliban surge has additionally resulted in tens of 1000’s of Afghans fleeing their houses — some because of the preventing, however many out of concern of what life is perhaps like below Taliban rule.
    Members of the Taliban in Laghman Province in jap Afghanistan, March 13, 2020. (Jim Huylebroek/The New York Times)
    Zalmay Khalilzad, the US particular consultant for Afghanistan reconciliation, acknowledged the continued chaos in remarks Wednesday. However, he pointed to the a long time of unrest within the nation because the 1979 Soviet invasion.
    “The fact is that Afghanistan has been at war for 43 years — it isn’t that Afghanistan has been peaceful and now we are withdrawing and therefore it’s becoming a battleground,” Khalilzad informed a web based seminar organized by the Beirut Institute. “The Taliban were making progress each year over the last several years while we were still there.”
    The Taliban management has tried to current a softer picture — even saying that when they return to energy in Afghanistan, ladies can attend faculty and girls shall be allowed to work. However, in areas the place they’ve gained management, reviews from villagers say ladies are sometimes being ordered inside, allowed out solely when accompanied by a male family member.

    In the video circulated by Mujahid, an unidentified Taliban fighter says that whereas they might have killed the Afghan troopers on the border crossing, they had been ordered by their management to not harm them however to ship them residence.
    The Taliban had been anticipated to carry their senior leaders to the talks in Doha, the place the rebel motion has lengthy maintained a political workplace.
    The negotiations are geared toward ending the violence that has steadily elevated because the US signed a take care of the rebel motion in February final 12 months spelling out the withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan.
    There are rising considerations for what lies forward and 1000’s of Afghans are attempting to go away the nation amid rising nervousness in regards to the future. Outgoing US commander Gen. Scott Miller, who formally stepped down at a ceremony in Kabul on Monday, has warned that growing violence critically hurts Afghanistan’s possibilities of discovering a peaceable finish to a long time of struggle.
    Miller additionally warned of a potential civil struggle as US-allied warlords have been resurrecting their militias in an try to cease the Taliban surge. The militias have a violent historical past.

  • Top US commander in Afghanistan palms over command

    The high US commander in Afghanistan relinquished his command at a ceremony within the Afghan capital of Kabul on Monday, taking the United States a step nearer to ending its 20-year struggle.
    The transfer got here as Taliban insurgents proceed to achieve territory throughout the nation.
    Another four-star common will assume authority from his US put up to conduct doable airstrikes in protection of Afghan authorities forces, a minimum of till the US withdrawal concludes by August 31.
    Gen. Scott Miller, who has served as America’s high commander in Afghanistan since 2018, handed over command of what has turn into often called America’s eternally struggle’ in its waning days to Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, the top of US Central Command. McKenzie will function from Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida.
    The handover befell within the closely fortified Resolute Support headquarters within the coronary heart of Kabul, at a time of fast territorial features by Taliban insurgents throughout Afghanistan.
    The Afghanistan National Defense and Security Forces, largely funded by the US and NATO, have put up resistance in some elements of the nation, however overwhelmingly Afghan authorities troops seem to have deserted the combat.
    In current weeks, the Taliban have gained a number of strategic districts, notably alongside the borders with Iran, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
    The Taliban management greater than one-third of Afghanistan’s 421 districts and district facilities. A Taliban declare that they management 85 per cent of the districts is extensively seen as exaggerated.
    After Miller’s departure, a two-star admiral based mostly on the US Embassy in Kabul will oversee the US army’s position in securing the American diplomatic presence in Kabul, together with defending the Kabul airport.
    Miller’s departure doesn’t scale back the scope of the US army mission in Afghanistan, since McKenzie will assume the authorities now held by Miller to conduct airstrikes in protection of Afghan authorities forces underneath sure circumstances.
    The situations underneath which such strikes could be used usually are not clear, neither is it identified for the way lengthy McKenzie will hold the strike authority.

    A deal the US struck with the Taliban in February 2020 included a promise from the rebel motion to not assault US and NATO troops, a dedication it seems they’ve largely stored.
    While Washington shouldn’t be saying what number of troops stay in Afghanistan, a CENTCOM assertion greater than every week in the past mentioned the withdrawal was 90 per cent full.
    President Joe Biden has reiterated that the US will stay engaged in Afghanistan with humanitarian help. The US is also dedicated to spending USD 4.4 billion yearly to fund Afghanistan’s safety forces till 2024.

  • ‘There is no safe area’: In Kabul, worry has taken over

    Written by Adam Nossiter
    In Kabul’s unsure current, worry and dread intertwine in a vise. Fear has change into a lifestyle.
    “When you’re in the car you feel fear, when you are walking you feel fear, and when you are in the shop you feel fear,” stated Shamsullah Amini, a 22-year-old shopkeeper, whereas watching over his vats of dried grains and beans within the Taimani neighborhood. “If there was any security at all, we wouldn’t all be thinking about leaving the country.”
    “Fear is omnipresent,” stated Muqaddesa Yourish, an govt at a number one communications agency. “It’s gone from a state of fear to a state of being.”

    Fear has lengthy been a part of life in Kabul, with the potential of sudden dying from a Taliban strike. But lately — even because the Afghan authorities tries to barter peace with the Taliban — there’s a heightened sense that life is fragile right here. With the Taliban lively in many of the nation and nearly each day stories of presidency forces crushed again, there are new questions on whether or not a grim return to extremist rule is on the close to horizon.
    On Sunday morning, gunmen killed two feminine judges on a road in a central Kabul neighborhood. The girls labored for Afghanistan’s Supreme Court. Shaharzad Akbar, the chair of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, wrote on Twitter afterward that the nation is struggling “what seems to be a systematic massacre & the world seems to be just watching.”

    In the primary two weeks of January, bombs went off in a number of Kabul neighborhoods; a automotive bomb killed a authorities spokesman and two others; and a police officer, a army pilot, a soldier and a member of Afghanistan’s intelligence company have been all gunned down, in line with a New York Times report. The listing is just not exhaustive.

    “Right now, I can’t be sure of my own security,” stated Omar Sadr, a political scientist on the American University of Afghanistan. “But it’s not just about being targeted. It’s about an atmosphere of fear. If it continues, you won’t have the space needed for a democracy.”
    The assassination marketing campaign, aimed principally at authorities employees, activists, journalists and members of the army, is regarded as the Taliban’s try and stress the Afghan authorities through the halting peace talks, although the group has denied duty for the assaults.

    It can also be a way of silencing essential voices, now and sooner or later. More than 300 folks have been killed in focused assaults final 12 months, together with no less than six journalists during the last seven months, in line with a New York Times tally.
    Some who’re capable of get visas have left.
    “It is pretty morose,” stated Farahnaz Forotan, a number one tv journalist, who fled to Paris in November after her identify turned up on successful listing.
    In the capital, a veneer of normality masks the dread. In the early night, storefronts are brightly lit in opposition to the darkened streets, and a frenetic bustle of customers and road distributors, darting via the perpetual site visitors jam, is undamped by the coronavirus.

    But even these final shreds of routine might disappear if the Taliban return or Afghanistan descends once more into civil battle.
    The newest wave of violence evokes recollections of the early Nineties strife that destroyed the capital. The inner battle has already begun, some right here say; the near-daily bombings and shootings, many unclaimed, foreshadow it. At night time, the occasional burst of computerized gunfire has change into acquainted.
    “There is no safe area,” stated Mina Rezaee, who runs the Simple Café within the bustling Karte Seh neighborhood, filled with cheap outfitters. “People are killed at the mosque, they are killed in the street, they are killed at work. And this is something that’s always with me.”
    Portraits of Simone de Beauvoir, Hannah Arendt and Virginia Woolf hold on one of many cafe’s partitions subsequent to a citation from Michel Foucault about love and sensuality.

    How many explosions has Rezaee witnessed up shut? “It’s common for me,” she shrugged, noting that she was close to an enormous truck bombing exterior the German Embassy that killed 90 in 2017. In {a photograph} on her Facebook web page, taken after the 2016 Islamic State bombing in Kabul that killed over 80, she clutches her palms to a face contorted with anguish.
    “Nobody wants to die young,” stated Saib Nissar, 25, who runs one of many glassed-in storefront bakeries that dot the capital. “But here in Afghanistan, no one can think of anything but the insecurity.”
    The most banal features of each day life have change into a torment.
    “Every morning on the way to work I’m waiting for an explosion,” stated Zahra Fayazi, a buyer on the Simple Café and a former high nationwide girls’s volleyball participant who now works on the state electrical energy firm. “If it doesn’t happen in this square, it will happen in the next one.”
    “When we get to the office, everyone is talking about the latest explosions,” she stated. “I can only breathe again when my daughters return home from school.”
    The penalties of the violence are each psychological and sensible — particularly for the federal government employees, lecturers and activists who’re the most important targets.

    Akbar, the chair of the nation’s human rights fee, stated, “If you are spending your mental energy thinking about how to survive, inevitably all your days are tense and stressful.”
    Sadr, the political scientist, stated he bought his automotive, apprehensive it could be a goal. “I’m trying to use taxis instead,” he stated. “I’m trying to be cautious and move less.”
    He additionally stated he apprehensive about whether or not one thing he stated would entice undesirable discover from the Taliban. “We’re all cautious about speaking, about the implications of speaking,” he stated.

    Yourish, the communications govt, who can also be a former deputy minister, stated she now not has a routine. “I change my routes, I change vehicles,” she stated. “I need to be on extra alert about my surroundings. You do get these thoughts of, ‘What if this is my last moment?’ It’s like, taking every day as it comes.”

  • Afghan intel company says it killed council member in battle

    Afghan forces killed a provincial council member suspected of ties with the Taliban throughout a gunbattle in western Ghor province, the Afghan intelligence service mentioned late Thursday.
    The combating close to the provincial capital of Faroz Koh additionally killed one officer and wounded one other, in line with an announcement by the National Directorate for Security.

    It accused the council member, Hazatullah Beg, of masterminding the killing of one other council member in addition to an Afghan journalist and human rights activist in Ghor.
    It wasn’t instantly clear when the gunbattle between Beg and his males on one aspect and the Afghan brokers on the opposite came about. Beg was requested to give up in the course of the combating however refused, the company mentioned, including that he had hyperlinks to the Taliban within the province.
    Afghan journalist and activist Bismillah Adil Aimaq was shot and killed on Jan. 1 in Ghor. He was on the street, returning house to Feroz Koh from visiting household in a close-by village when gunmen opened hearth at his automotive. Aimaq was the fifth journalist to be killed within the war-ravaged nation up to now two months. The Taliban insisted they had been under no circumstances linked with the taking pictures.

    Ghor deputy council chief Abdul Rahman Atshan was killed in mid-December in an assault within the province that additionally wounded one other council member and their driver when a sticky bomb was connected to their automobile. No one claimed accountability for the assault.
    The violence comes because the Taliban and Afghan authorities negotiators earlier this month resumed peace talks in Qatar. However, the negotiations had been off to a gradual begin because the insurgents proceed to maintain up their assaults on Afghan authorities forces whereas maintaining their promise to not assault U.S. and NATO troops.

    The stop-and-go talks are geared toward ending many years of relentless battle. Frustration and concern have grown over the current spike in violence and each side blame each other.

    There has additionally been rising doubt these days over a U.S.-Taliban deal brokered by outgoing President Donald Trump’s administration. That accord was signed final February. Under the deal, an accelerated withdrawal of U.S. troops ordered by Trump implies that simply 2,500 American troopers will nonetheless be in Afghanistan when President-elect Joe Biden takes workplace on January 20.