Afghanistan news and discussions

weatheriscool
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Al Qaeda could rebuild in Afghanistan in a year or two, U.S. officials say.
Source: NY Times
Al Qaeda could rebuild inside Afghanistan in one to two years, top intelligence officials said Tuesday, noting that some members of the terrorist group had already returned to the country.

Earlier in the year, top Pentagon officials said Al Qaeda could reconstitute in two years, then told lawmakers after the fall of the Afghanistan government they were revising that timeline.

The new timeline is not a drastic shift, but reflects the reality that the Taliban have a limited ability to control the borders of Afghanistan. While the Taliban have long fought the Islamic State affiliate, they are established allies of Al Qaeda. Though the Taliban pledged in the February 2020 peace agreement with the United States not to let Afghanistan be used by terrorist groups, analysts have said such promises ring hollow.

“The current assessment probably conservatively is one to two years for Al Qaeda to build some capability to at least threaten the homeland,” Lt. Gen. Scott D. Berrier, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency said Tuesday at the annual Intelligence and National Security Summit.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/14/us/p ... istan.html
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Lurking
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"rebuild"
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weatheriscool
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U.S. drone strike in Kabul mistakenly killed civilians, not terrorists, Pentagon says
Source: NBC
An Aug. 29 drone strike targeting terrorists in Afghanistan mistakenly killed innocent civilians, including children, Pentagon officials admitted Friday.

"We now assess it is unlikely that the vehicle and those who died were associated with ISIS-K," Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command said. "It was a mistake."

He said he is "fully responsible for this strike and the tragic outcome."

"I offer my profound condolences to the family and friends of those who were killed," McKenzie said.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politi ... s-n1279476
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caltrek
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Taliban Effectively Bar Education for Girls in Secondary School
by Stefanie Glinski
September 18, 2021

https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/a ... ry-school/

Introduction:
(The National) At Kabul’s Zarghona High School, where hundreds of students sit on wooden benches, squeezing into their small classrooms, 6,000 of the 8,000 students are missing.

While the Taliban on Friday said classes would resume for boys who are grade seven and above, the situation for girls in Afghanistan under the hardline group is unclear.

There was no mention of girls schooling in the statement, effectively leaving half of all Afghan children unable to attend secondary education and missing out on weeks of classes.

The only girls in class at Zarghona High School were those below grade six whom the Taliban have said can return.

“We miss the older students. Our wish is for them to come back,” deputy principal Rabia Rashid told The National from her office.
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caltrek
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Under Taliban, Thriving Afghan Music Scene Heads to Silence
September 22, 2021

https://indianexpress.com/article/world ... -7528132/

Introduction:
(The Indian Express) A month after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, the music is starting to go quiet.

The last time that the militant group ruled the country, in the late 1990s, it outright banned music. So far this time, the government set up by the Taliban hasn’t taken that step officially. But already, musicians are afraid a ban will come, and some Taliban fighters on the ground have started enforcing rules on their own, harassing musicians and music venues.

Many wedding halls are limiting music at their gatherings. Musicians are afraid to perform. At least one reported that Taliban fighters at one of the many checkpoints around the capital smashed his instrument. Drivers silence their radios whenever they see a Taliban checkpoint.

In the alleys of Kharabat, a neighbourhood in Kabul’s Old City, families where music is a profession passed through generations are looking for ways to leave the country. The profession was already hit hard by Afghanistan’s foundering economy, along with the coronavirus pandemic, and some families now too fearful to work are selling off furniture to get by.

“The current situation is oppressive,” said Muzafar Bakhsh, a 21-year-old who played in a wedding band. His family had just sold off part of its belongings at Kabul’s new flea market, Chaman-e-Hozari. “We keep selling them … so we don’t die of starvation,” said Bakhsh, whose late grandfather was Ustad Rahim Bakhsh, a famous ustad — or maestro — of Afghan classical music.
Don't mourn, organize.

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weatheriscool
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Witness: Taliban hang dead body in Afghan city's main square
Source: AP

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban hanged a dead body from a crane in the main square of Herat city in western Afghanistan, a witness said Saturday, in a gruesome display that signaled a return to some of the Taliban’s methods of the past.

Wazir Ahmad Seddiqi, who runs a pharmacy on the side of the square, told The Associated Press that four bodies were brought to the main square and three bodies were moved to other parts of the city for public display.

Seddiqi said the Taliban announced in the square that the four were caught taking part in a kidnapping and were killed by police.

Ziaulhaq Jalali, a Taliban appointed district police chief in Herat, said later that Taliban members rescued a father and son who had been abducted by four kidnappers after an exchange of gunfire. He said a Taliban fighter and a civilian were wounded by the kidnappers but “the four (kidnappers) were killed in crossfire.”

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan- ... 48b7dce10a
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caltrek
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Another example of shoddy news reporting and borderline unethical conduct by Fox News:

Afghanistan Withdrawal: Hawley, Blackburn Call on Top U.S. Military Officials to Resign
by: Jessica Chasmar and Edmund DeMarche
September 28, 2021

https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/afgha ... ley-austin

Introduction:
(Fox News) Hawley, Blackburn call on top U.S. military officials to resign.

Republican Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee called on top U.S. military officials to resign over their handling of the Afghanistan troop withdrawal during Tuesday’s Senate hearing.

“In my view, that mission can't be called a success in any way, shape or form, logistical or otherwise,” Hawley said. “Secretary Austin, I think you should resign. I think this mission was a catastrophe. I think there's no other way to say it, and there has to be accountability. I respectfully submit it should begin with you.”

Blackburn scolded Austin, as well as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and the head of U.S. Central Command, Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, for not having already submitted a letter of resignation over the Afghanistan debacle.

“Nobody has resigned,” she said. “Nobody has submitted their resignation. And we've got thousands of people watching this hearing today that are looking at you all and saying, ‘I can't believe they're sitting there and not answering the questions and are trying to punt.’”
caltrek's comment: Left out of the story is that General Mark Milley was accused of treason by Trump. The reason?

Milley had the good sense to take precautions so that Trump did not start a war with China in the last days of his presidency. Wag the Dog movie fans will be familiar with the theme, as will students of the last days of the Nixon presidency. So, for saving us from a potential themonuclear war, Milley is asked to resign for carrying out orders in regards to Afghanistan. Proving, once again, that in Washington D.C. no good deed goes unpunished, especially if you are not a Republican.
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caltrek
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Afghanistan’s Impoverished People Live Amid Enormous Riches
by Vijay Prishad
October 1, 2021

https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/10/01 ... us-riches/

Extract:
(Counterpunch) With opium production contributing a large chunk of Afghanistan’s gross domestic product, it is often a focus of global media coverage on the country’s economy and has partly financed the terrible wars that have wracked the country for the past several years. The gems of Badakhshan, meanwhile, provided the financing for Ahmad Shah Massoud’s Jamiat-e Islami faction in the 1980s; after 1992, when Massoud became the defense minister in Kabul, he made an alliance with a Polish company—Intercommerce—to sell the gems for an estimated $200 million per year. When the Taliban ejected Massoud from power, he returned to the Panjshir Valley and used the Badakhshan, Takhar, and Panjshir gems to finance his anti-Taliban resistance.

When the Northern Alliance—which included Massoud’s faction—came to power under U.S. bombardment in 2001, these mines became the property of the Northern Alliance commanders. Men such as Haji Abdul Malek, Zekria Sawda and Zulmai Mujadidi—all Northern Alliance politicians—controlled the mines. Mujadidi’s brother Asadullah Mujadidi was the militia commander of the Mining Protection Force, which protected the mines for these new elites.

In 2012, Afghanistan’s then Mining Minister Wahidullah Shahrani revealed the extent of corruption in the deals, which he had made clear to the U.S. Embassy in 2009. Shahrani’s attempt at transparency, however, was understood inside Afghanistan as a mechanism to delegitimize Afghan mining concerns and push through a new law that would allow international mining companies more freedom of access to the country’s resources. Various international entities—including Centar (United Kingdom) and the Polish billionaire Jan Kulczyk—attempted to access the gold, copper and gemstone mines of the province; Centar formed an alliance with the Afghanistan Gold and Minerals Company, headed by former Urban Development Minister Sadat Naderi. The consortium’s mining equipment has now been seized by the Taliban. Earlier this year, Shahrani was sentenced to 13 months’ jail time by the Afghan Supreme Court for misuse of authority.

What Will the Taliban Do?

(Afghanistan’s Economy Minister Qari Din Mohammad) Haniff has an impossible agenda. The IMF has suspended funds for Afghanistan, and the U.S. government continues to block access to the nearly $10 billion of Afghan external reserves held in the United States. Some humanitarian aid has now entered the country, but it will not be sufficient.
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caltrek
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While there is a possibility of a distorting bias in the following article, it still poses an interesting argument.

‘Afghans Know Who Were Better Friends'
by Shankhyaneel Sarkar
October 8, 2021

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-ne ... 73853.html

Introduction:
(Hindustan Times) Union external affairs minister S Jaishankar has said Afghanistan people know how to draw a contrast between India and Pakistan based on the amount of help India has extended to the war-torn nation over the past decade.

“Afghan people know what India has done for them, what kind of friends we have been, I'm sure they're contrasted with what Pakistan did for them in the same period,” Jaishankar said at the DD News Conclave Finale on Thursday.

India and Afghanistan had deep trade, cultural and commercial relations before the Taliban took over the reins of the government. The total bilateral trade between India and Afghanistan for 2019-20 was at $ 1.5 billion.

India also helped operationalise the Chabahar Port in 2017 and also established the India- Afghanistan Foundation (IAF) in the same year which enhances economic, scientific, educational, technical as well as cultural cooperation between the two countries.

Jaishankar said that based on what India has done for the people of Afghanistan they are in a better position to understand who has been a better friend. “The differences are obvious,” Jaishankar said.
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caltrek
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Taliban Official: At Least 100 Dead, Wounded in Afghan Blast
October 8, 2021

https://indianexpress.com/article/world ... n-7560645/

Introduction:
(AP via The Indian Express) A blast went off Friday at a mosque packed with Shiite Muslim worshippers in northern Afghanistan, killing or wounding at least 100 people, a Taliban police official said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, which took place in Kunduz, the capital of Kunduz province, but militants from the Islamic State group have a long history of attacking Afghanistan’s Shiite minority.

Dost Mohammad Obaida, the deputy police chief for Kunduz province, said that the “majority of them have been killed,” in reference to the victims. He said the attack may have been carried out by a suicide bomber who had mingled among the worshipers inside the mosque.

“I assure our Shiite brothers that the Taliban are prepared to ensure their safety,” Obaida said, adding that an investigation was underway.

If confirmed, a death toll of dozens would be the highest since US and NATO forces left Afghanistan at the end of August and the Taliban took control of the country. The Taliban have been targeted in a series of deadly attacks by rival IS militants, including shooting ambushes and an explosion at a mosque in the capital of Kabul.
Image
The blast occurred in a Shiite mosque in Kunduz province during the weekly Friday prayer service.
AP
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