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2017-01-23 | Afghanistan | EC-130s maintain constant presence in Afghanistan 15 years later > Air Force > Article Display - af.mil | 200 | [
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2017-01-19 | Afghanistan | Obama leaves behind a mess in Afghanistan - dw.com | 200 | [
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2017-01-01 | Afghanistan | Vice President Biden Visits Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq - National Archives (.gov) | ---
title: The decline of Afghanistan’s Hindu and Sikh communities
author: Ruchi Kumar
url: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/1/1/the-decline-of-afghanistans-hindu-and-sikh-communities
hostname: aljazeera.com
description: "I am an Afghan first... But if our life is under threat, if our families are faced with risks, we have to leave."
sitename: Al Jazeera
date: 2017-01-01
tags: ['Refugees, Religion', 'Features, Refugees, Religion, Afghanistan, Asia']
---
# The decline of Afghanistan’s Hindu and Sikh communities
*“I am an Afghan first… But if our life is under threat, if our families are faced with risks, we have to leave.”*
** Kabul, Afghanistan – ** Hidden in plain sight, on a poorly lit busy road, the exteriors of the Asmayee temple are deceiving – a plain, old building that could easily be confused for any other building in Kabul.
In contrast, the mosque next door stands out with its beautiful, intricate architecture. The call for evening prayers from the mosque intertwines with the sounds of the Hindu chants resonating from within the halls of the temple.
Several finely dressed, middle-aged women, move in and out of the many rooms of the vast temple complex, offering prayers and lighting candles. There are seven rooms built in a circle that serve as the temple for the various Hindu goddesses and gods, and one expansive hall, colourfully decorated and covered in Persian carpets, that serves as the community prayer room.
The women celebrate separately from the men. There is also a separate dining hall and community kitchen for the men and women who come to the temple.
Ramnath, 25, explains that “this is because the culture among Afghan Hindus is predominantly Pashtun”.
|
|
Over the years, Hinduism in Afghanistan survived and thrived in Pashtun-dominant provinces, resulting in a confluence of cultures that combines practices and rituals of the region.
“If you go up the hill, there is another small temple of the Sherawali,” says Ramnath, referring to the Hindu goddess Durga by one of her many names.
“It was said that years ago, a white river of milk flowed down from the foot of the statue of the goddess to Kabul. This is how this place got its name joy-e-sheer, which translates to ‘stream of milk’ from Dari,” Ramnath tells as the men gather quietly in one of the rooms over a cup of tea.
Ramnath, like many Afghans, only uses one name.
“Of course, those are reminiscent tales of the past. Who can tell how much of that legend is true?” he adds.
READ MORE: Inside the little-known kitchen of Afghanistan’s Sikhs
## A history of diversity and repression
Afghanistan’s history is full of such anecdotes and lore about a substantial thriving community of Hindus and Sikhs who have called this country their home over the centuries.
“There is a place in Jalalabad where it is believed Guru Nanak visited in the 15th century and is very sacred to the Sikhs in Afghanistan,” says Rawail Singh, an Afghan Sikh civil rights activist, adding that Jalalabad, to the east of Kabul, continues to have a substantial Sikh population.
But, sociologists note, the population of Hindu and Sikh minorities has seen a drastic decline over the past several decades.
“If you go through the evidence and data from the 1970s to date, you will be able to see how drastically their population has fallen,” says Ehsan Shayegan, an Afghan researcher with Porsesh Research and Studies Organization studying the minority religions of Kabul.
“In the 70s, there were around 700,000 Hindus and Sikhs, and now they are estimated to be less than 7,000,” Shayegan says.
Although there is no census data available in the country to estimate exact numbers due to years of war and conflict, the community members themselves speculate that there are perhaps no more than a few thousand Hindus and Sikhs left in Afghanistan today.
“It is estimated that Hindus and Sikhs make up around 3,000 Afghans scattered across provinces of Kabul, Nangarhar and Ghazni,” says Singh. “In 1992, they were a 220,000-strong community, just before the start of the civil war in Kabul. It was also around the same time that our problems started,” he says.
According to Singh, during the years of Mujahideen rule and the civil war in the early 90s, after the fall of the Soviet-backed government, were the worst for Afghan religious minorities.
“We were harassed, our lands were forcefully taken, we were persecuted and even killed for even slightest display of our faith. Kidnappings of Hindus and Sikhs were rampant,” he recalls.
Many Hindus and Sikhs who spoke to Al Jazeera agreed that in comparison, the Taliban regime that followed, although extremely conservative and discriminatory, offered a relief from the repression of the Mujahideen.
“Under the Taliban, we were often required to identify ourselves in public by wearing a yellow armband, but were largely left alone,” Singh explains.
OPINION: Taliban peace talks – First empower the minorities
## Religious persecution
After the United States invasion in 2001, many Hindus and Sikhs who had fled the country in the last decade retuned, including Singh and Ramnath, who had briefly moved to India and Pakistan with their families.
“The first few years of the Karzai regime were very prosperous,” shares Amarnath, Ramnath’s older brother, in Pashto, one of Afghanistan’s national languages.
However, things quickly started to deteriorate as Mujahideen groups returned after President Hamid Karzai came to power and gained positions in government and ruling structures.
“Persecution started again, and several big and small warlords forcefully took away lands belonging to the Hindu and Sikh minorities,” Singh says.
Threatened and afraid for their lives, many have felt compelled to leave again. “There were around 100 families in Khost, but they’ve all left because of the conflict and moved either to India, or are in Kabul,” says Ramnath. He moved his family from Khost, a city also in the east of the country, to Delhi in 2009, but he continues to work in Kabul.
OPINION: New Afghanistan: Mujahideen need not apply?
“There are no Hindus in Khost today,” he says.
|
|
Despite the continued violence in the country, religious persecution remains the strongest motivator for Afghan Hindus leaving the country.
At the Hindu temple, people say the temple hasn’t faced any direct threat so far. “We have been left to practise our faith in peace,” one man says.
“If we don’t hurt anyone, why would anyone want to hurt us?” Ramnath adds.
“The security of the country is deteriorating for all – whether they are Hindu or Muslim. When you leave the house in the mornings, you can’t guarantee you’ll return alive in the evening,” he says.
On December 29, 2016, an Afghan Sikh Nirmohan Singh, fondly known as Lala Dilsoz, was killed by armed gunmen in Kunduz. The city has has seen repeated bouts of heavy fighting where the Taliban has made attempts to capture the city. An outcry from the Hindu and Sikh communities and other Afghans followed the murder, with some community leaders reportedly appealing to the Indian Prime Minster Narendra Modi to “rescue the remaining Afghan Hindus and Sikhs” by providing them asylum in India.
The emigration figures are serious, with Afghanistan producing significant numbers of refugees – second only to Syria, according to a UNHCR report. The Taliban has gained more ground than the last 15 years and even the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL, also known as ISIS) has dug roots in parts of the country.
However, despite Ramnath’s reluctance to admit this, Hindus in Afghanistan are leaving because of religious discrimination and social exclusion, insists Shayegan. Incidents of systematic and institutional discrimination have even made local headlines, although many more go unreported, he says.
Singh agrees. “There is only so much a community can tolerate. We can’t practise our faith openly; our children can’t go to school because of harassment; we can’t even cremate our dead without being stoned by the public,” he says, referring to the 2012 incident when civilians and security forces prevented them from performing funeral rites at their ancient cremation grounds, parts of which had been taken over by armed locals.
## Institutionalised discrimination
With years of war and internal conflict, the minorities in Afghanistan have fallen through cracks, where even the international and local civil organisations often fail to notice and recognise the plight of the Afghan Hindus and Sikhs.
Kamal Sadat, Afghanistan’s minister of culture and information, agrees that the treatment of the minority groups hasn’t been fair, but says the government is taking necessary steps to address the matter.
“It is indeed tragic how our Hindu and Sikh brothers have been treated over the years. They’re an integral part of our history and community, and we are working to improve their conditions,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that the government was looking into all allegations of land grabbing made by Sikhs and Hindus.
The problem, however, lies in the inadequate systems and institutions that were brought in place post-2001, according to Shayegan.
“Our new constitution was drafted to imitate some of the best model constitutions of the world, but they are still inadequate when it comes to supporting a pluralistic system of democracy,” he says. He notes, for example, the example of Article 62 that prohibits non-Muslim Afghans from becoming president of the country.
“The constitution guarantees equal rights to all Afghan citizens in Article 22 and then contradicts itself in Article 62 by excluding a section of the population,” Shayegan points out.
Furthermore, courts that operate on laws emulating Islamic religious law are sometimes unsuited to the needs of the religious minority populations. “When we go the courts, at times they ask us if we are even really Afghan. Can’t a non-Muslim be an Afghan?” he asks.
Despite the discrimination, Afghan Hindus and Sikh strongly identify with their national identity.
“Of course, I am an Afghan first,” Ramnath answers fiercely when asked about his Afghan identity. “This is our land, the land of our ancestors. We owe our loyalty to the soil of Afghanistan – we are Afghans,” he says.
“But if our life is under threat, if our families are faced with risks, we have to leave,” he adds with some sadness.
At the Hindu temple, the men huddle together in rooms for a shared meal of delicacies of sweet rice made with raisins, sweets, and dried fruits. In the evening, they sit around in a candle-lit courtyard talking and speculating over the future of Afghanistan, a country they love dearly.
“As of now, I would not want my children in Delhi to return to this life in Kabul,” says one of the older men. “Maybe if the situation changes and things get better, they might come back to better Afghanistan,” he says.
“God willing,” everyone replies. | 200 | [
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2017-01-01 | Afghanistan | The Afghan War and the Evolution of Obama (Published 2017) - The New York Times | 200 | [
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2017-01-30 | Afghanistan | Afghanistan: The Shame of Having Daughters - Institute for War & Peace Reporting - IWPR | 200 | [
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2017-01-13 | Afghanistan | Obama leaves complicated legacy in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria - PBS | 200 | [
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2017-01-31 | Afghanistan | This time it's different: Collective training advisors in Afghanistan - army.mil | ---
title: All-Female Orchestra From Afghanistan Is A Force For Change
author: Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson
url: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/01/31/512592727/all-female-orchestra-from-afghanistan-is-a-force-for-change
hostname: npr.org
description: An orchestra composed of 30 Afghan women, ages 14 to 20, is defying stereotypes and reviving the country's musical tradition.
sitename: NPR
date: 2017-01-31
tags: ['Berlin', 'classical music', 'Afghanistan', 'symphony orchestra']
---
# All-Female Orchestra From Afghanistan Is A Force For Change
#### All-Female Orchestra From Afghanistan Is A Force For Change
It's perhaps the unlikeliest symphony orchestra in the world — an all-female ensemble from a strict Muslim society where it's often dangerous for young women to step outside of their homes unescorted. It's called Zohra — the name of a music goddess in Persian literature, according to its founder.
And they were performing at an unlikely venue — a hall attached to Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, a bombed-out ruin in western Berlin commemorating the horrors of World War II. It's just steps from where Berliners experienced their first ISIS-linked terror attack six weeks ago.
But to Ahmad Naser Sarmast, 54, of Kabul, the Afghan musicologist who founded the orchestra, the venue for their second-to-last European concert made sense.
Sarmast is on a mission to restore his country's rich music tradition decimated by decades of war. He told Sunday's largely German audience that the location resonated with him and his 30 female musicians, who range in age from 14 to 20. Sarmast — himself a survivor of a suicide bombing in Kabul in 2014 — dedicated the concert to the 12 people who were killed in the German attack. He added that the orchestra members would try and "wash away with the beauty of music the blood spilled on the streets of Berlin."
The orchestra's European tour started at the World Economic Forum in Davos in mid-January and ends Tuesday night in the eastern German hamlet of Weimar.
An all-female orchestra was an idea that came from female students he taught. Sarmast said a couple of years ago he initially thought of maybe a four-or-five member ensemble, but that there was so much interest that it quickly evolved into the 30-woman orchestra.
Sarmast bragged that many of its members, who are students at his Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM) in Kabul, are not only the first in their families, but sometimes the first in their province to play musical instruments.
According to the ANIM Web site, Afghan children wanting to come to his school audition after they finish third grade and are tested on their musical aptitude. Half the spaces are dedicated to female students and homeless or orphaned children.
The "Zohra" members performing in Berlin dressed in traditional embroidered costumes and brightly colored headscarves — many of them in the green, red and black of the Afghan flag — played traditional South Asian instruments like the sitar and its ancestor, the Afghan *rubab *and the bongo-like *tabla*,* *as well as European inventions like the piano, violin and oboe.
Negin Khpolwak, one of Zohra's two female conductors, said she gets a tad nervous every time she steps into the spotlight but that the music quickly soothes her.
"I see the smile on the girls' faces when they play and I don't think about anything else," Khpolwak explained in Dari. "You want the concert to go off perfectly. My whole attention is on that."
The petite woman is 19 and belongs to Afghanistan's long-dominant and arch-conservative Pashtun ethnic group. She hails from the restive eastern province of Kunar and sacrificed a lot to get to where she is. Khpolwak said because her village had no schools and her family couldn't afford to pay for her education, her father took her to live in a Kabul orphanage, where Sarmast's school has recruited some of its students.
"But it wasn't until this trip that I learned how valuable we are to Afghanistan and to our people," she added. "We can raise their voice through our music."
Their soothing mix of Afghan folk songs and Western classics like Beethoven's Ninth Symphony reflect Sarmast's vision of reestablishing not only Afghanistan's musical tradition but infusing classic and newer Western influences.
"I want to make music part of every (Afghan) school curriculum but that takes time," he said. So does creating an Afghan faculty at his school, so for now he still relies on Western educators and foreign donations to help train his staff and students. The U.S. Embassy in Kabul is one of his program's key donors.
As to why Sarmast risks the ire of Afghan society by training and featuring female musicians in concert, he told me it's not a choice.
"Afghanistan should move on the same path as every other nation goes," he declared. "And the girls and the women of Afghanistan should also enjoy the freedom that ... other girls and women are enjoying outside of Afghanistan.
"We can't build a democratic society in Afghanistan if we will be neglecting half of the population of this nation," he added.
And he thinks they're doing a better job than their male counterparts. "To me it seems right now that the Zohra orchestra probably will become the [first] national orchestra of Afghanistan, because they are much more disciplined" than his male students, he said.
Given the unusual nature of the orchestra, security is a concern. Since Sarmast's own near-death experience in the Kabul suicide attack, he is hypervigilant about looking for any potential threat to his young charges, including on social media and on Afghan broadcasts.
"We are working in an environment where we have millions of supporters, but we also have some very vocal ...enemies who are very much pro-Taliban minded," he explained.
Khpolwak said threats won't keep her from playing. Nor will it deter her fellow female conductor, Zarifa Adiba. The 18-year-old, declines to reveal her ethnicity, explaining: "I'm Afghan and before being Afghan, I'm Muslim and before being Muslim, I'm human."
She was born in Taliban-rife Ghazni province, one of many regions where girls are more likely to marry young than attend school. But she had other ambitions.
"The thing that I loved was music from my childhood and my mother is a great supporter of me and she told me, what you love, go ahead and find out. I had kind of view about pop singing rock singing and I wanted to be a pop singer actually," Adiba explained.
She was a latecomer to ANIM, starting in the ninth grade. There she discovered music was more than singing and that girls could play musical instruments, too. She started with the flute: "It was so beautiful," she explained, but soon began exploring other instruments.
"All of them were cool ... but the viola was ... was so attractive me," she said. "There was just one boy and one girl playing the viola and I said I wanted to be the second girl playing viola."
Adiba said she's loved playing in Europe this month but is eager to go home, especially after learning that an uncle, who had always disapproved of her playing, recently told her mother how proud he is of his niece.
"I'm happy that at least I changed my family," she said, adding, her fellow musicians, too, "are going to change their families and when their families are going to change, you can have a society which is changed." | 200 | [
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2017-05-01 | Afghanistan | All-Female Orchestra From Afghanistan Is A Force For Change : Goats and Soda - NPR | ---
title: Major New Report: The Trump Transition and the Afghan War: The Need for Decisive Action
author: Anthony H Cordesman
url: https://www.csis.org/analysis/major-new-report-trump-transition-and-afghan-war-need-decisive-action
hostname: csis.org
description: It provides a detailed analysis of the problems caused by both the failures of past U.S. Administrations to properly structure and resource the U.S. combat support forces, and military and civil aid missions necessary to support Afghanistan, and of the critical failures in the Afghan government that threaten its survival and military success.
sitename: Center for Strategic and International Studies
date: 2017-05-01
---
# Major New Report: The Trump Transition and the Afghan War: The Need for Decisive Action
The Burke Chair at CSIS has issued a major new report entitled The Trump Transition and the Afghan War: The Need for Decisive Action. The report is available on the CSIS web site at:http://csis-website-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/publication/170105_Afghanistan_in_Transition.pdf.
It provides a detailed analysis of the problems caused by both the failures of past U.S. Administrations to properly structure and resource the U.S. combat support forces, and military and civil aid missions necessary to support Afghanistan, and of the critical failures in the Afghan government that threaten its survival and military success. It includes a detailed analysis of key weaknesses in U.S. allied train and assist, counterterrorism, and combat air support missions, and in the security efforts of the Afghan government. It also addresses key problems in the Afghan civil sector, in politics, governance, corruption, the economy and winning Afghan popular support.
The report suggests significant changes to the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan that shift from a deadline-driven withdrawal strategy to a conditions-based strategy that provide the resources needed to help Afghan forces until they are truly ready for transition. It also suggests a major shift in the U.S. civil efforts from one focused on development to one focused on addressing the key weaknesses in Afghan politics and governance, and meeting critical Afghan civil needs and winning popular support.
At the same time, the report suggests that any such U.S. and allied effort must be made firmly conditional on actual Afghan reforms and performance, and that continued Afghan failure should lead the United States and other outside states to seriously consider ending aid and withdrawing from Afghanistan.
**Table of Contents**
The table of contents of the report is shown below. It includes numerous tables, maps, and charts and a series of analytic appendices:
**Executive Summary**
The Trump Administration will inherit an under-resourced mess in Afghanistan when it takes office. Two previous Administrations have failed to properly prepare Afghan forces for the withdrawal of most foreign forces that took place in 2014, or to shape an effective Afghan civil government. It is not clear whether the Afghans risk losing the war in 2017, but it is more than possible that they will be locked into a war of attrition with no clear end, and that 2017 could at least be the beginning of a major defeat.
War is not won through half-measures or denial. Unless the incoming Trump Administration takes a far more decisive approach to both the security and civil sectors in Afghanistan, its security and popular support for its government may collapse—either slowly and painfully over years, or in some catalytic political struggle.
**The Need for a Conditions Based Strategy, but One Based on Making Aid Conditional and on Actual Afghan Progress**
This analysis indicates that Afghan forces do need more U.S. and allied combat support and a stronger train and assist mission. Any chance of winning a decisive victory by 2020 requires a new U.S. approach to both military and civil aid. *The U.S. can only succeed if it shifts from a deadline and withdrawal-oriented strategy to one based on providing enough aid to achieve decisive results that reflect the military and civil realities on the ground, and the real world conditions of Afghan forces and governance.*
At the same time, any analysis of the need for more effective U.S. aid must be prefaced with the statement that this does not mean the incoming Trump Administration should simply increase United States military and economic support for Afghanistan without setting clear conditions for action by the Afghans as well.i
Many of Afghanistan’s problems are the result of self-inflicted wounds that have been delivered by its own political leaders. Unless Afghan leaders become more responsible and effective, more outside support will continue to fail. The United States must also weigh its choices carefully. The United States has many other strategic priorities. Afghanistan is scarcely the current center of the terrorist threat to the United States, and leaving the Afghan (and Pakistani) problems to Russia, China, Iran, India, and Central Asian states is one way to impose the burden on other countries.
Current analysis of the Afghan security sector shows that United States has already identified a long list of military security problems that can only be addressed by the Afghan government, and where the United States needs to make military aid far more conditional on Afghan efforts to solve these problems.
The later sections of this analysis cover the Afghan civil sector, and show that the U.S. approach to this aspect of the war needs radical change—a change toward a focus on Afghanistan’s failed levels of governance and its growing post-transition economic crisis rather than the current types of aid. Such changes can only be effective, however, if Afghan politics and governance make serious reforms. The United States cannot help a government that will not help itself.
If the Afghan government can be persuaded to make the necessary reforms over the next few years, and take the most urgent steps during the coming 2017 campaign season, there is a case for stronger U.S. and other outside military and civil support, and the analysis indicates that the cost to the United States of doing what is needed may well be acceptable.
It must be stressed, however, that continued and expanded U.S. aid and support to Afghanistan should be conditional on actual Afghan performance, and not simply on further promises of reform. The costs and risks of U.S. involvement in the war are not acceptable if Afghanistan's leaders continue to fail their country. The United States cannot help a nation from the outside that will not help itself, as the United States has many other needs and obligations.
All aspects of military and civil aid should be clearly tied to full accountability, measures of effectiveness, and transparent reporting. The threat of cutting off aid should be rigidly enforced when Afghanistan does not actually execute necessary reforms, and when corruption, incompetence, and political favoritism make them ineffective. The United States should also target corrupt, incompetent, and self-seeking Afghan leaders and officials, by making it clear that they must resign—or be fired—for given flows of aid to be resumed, by denying them visas, and by carefully examining measures to remove any dual nationality.
**Planning an Effective U.S. and Allied Train and Assist, Counterterrorism, and Combat Air Support Effort**
No one can assess the detailed requirements for an adequate U.S. support effort from the outside. The detailed planning to both reform the Afghan force development effort and provide the kind of U.S. train/assist and air support can only be done at the command level in Afghanistan, and it should be done in concert with the matching effort to tie aid to Afghan civil reform, called for in the following parts of this analysis.
What is needed is a zero-based net assessment of both the current and probable threat, and of the current and probable capabilities of Afghan forces, and a "zero-based" assessment of the need for train and assist personnel that accepts the fact the United States must be the major provider of such aid. "Zero-based" must mean assessing the need to have a good prospect of winning, not how to minimize the U.S. effort and reduce it as quickly as possible. It must include an honest risk assessment, including contingency studies.
The United States must not repeat the mistake of spinning the analysis to suit some policy goal and minimizing the requirement to make it politically acceptable. If adequate and decisive force is too costly—which seems unlikely—the study should honestly address this.
At the same time, the assessment must look beyond the tactical level and evaluate the impact of the political and civil dimensions of the conflict. Insurgencies are battles for control over populations and territory, not just fights between hostile forces. The assessment must address the level of government influence and support as compared to insurgent influence and support, not just combat outcomes. It must look at the ability hold and build, and not simply to win.
This has been a consistent failure in far too much of the military planning in Afghanistan, and it risks repeating a lesson raised all too clearly by an incident described the late Colonel Harry Sommers. Sommers was talking with an officer who had served in the then North Vietnamese forces. Sommers pointed out that the United States had won virtually every tactical encounter. His Vietnamese counterpart smiled and responded that, "Yes, but it was irrelevant." The winner is the side that ends up controlling the state, whether by military means or political ones, and control of the population is critical.
**Planning Effective U.S. and Allied Support to the Afghan Civil Sector**
Any effort to create an effective U.S. civil effort is going to require very careful planning of a kind that needs to be done in country. In practice, such an effort will almost certainly also have to limit any aid requirement to something very close to the $15.2 billion for 2017-2018 aid to Afghanistan agreed to at the conference the EU hosted in Brussels in October 2016.
At the same time, it must look beyond fiscal measures and focus on how to use the money to best meet the needs and expectations of the Afghan people and win support for the government. What is needed is to expand the zero-based net assessment of Afghan military needs recommended earlier in this report to includes Afghan civil needs as well.
This should include a net assessment of Afghan popular perceptions of the government and the insurgent threat that deals with key differences by region, sect, ethnicity, and key power brokers. It should also focus on stability and security and not development. There simply will not be enough time, money, and qualified personnel many to deal with every urgent need or grievance, much less pay for development in mid-conflict.
Job creation may well prove to be the key priority—along creating effective leadership and governance—but basic services like justice, education, and medical help are also critical. Once again, aid must also be conditional and tied to effective plans, audits and fiscal controls, transparency, and measures of effectiveness.
It must also be tied to the same measures to limit waste, incompetence, and corruption. One of the fundamental absurdities of Afghan civil aid is setting goals for central government control and allocation of aid money as if the government was competent and not corrupt. Promise of reform should also never be substituted by actual reform. There are many highly competent, patriotic, and honest Afghans, but no one can count on their presence. Past promises of reform have also had about the same success as granting parole to a lifetime recidivist felon.
Once again, it will also have to be hammered home that *conditional means conditional*, and that Afghan leaders either take responsibility or the United States can and will leave. It is one of the ironies of a successful U.S. strategy in Afghanistan that the ability to stay is dependent on the willingness to leave.
**Taking a Transactional Approach to Afghanistan's Neighbors**
The changes in U.S. strategy must also reexamine the role of Pakistan, and the emerging roles of nations like Russia, Iran, India, and the Central Asian states. The most important such reexamination should be Pakistan.
Almost since the start of the Afghan War, Pakistan has pursued its own interest in Afghanistan at a high cost to the United States—sometimes in dollars and sometimes in lives. For all the rhetoric of alliance, Pakistan’s ISI and other elements of its military have consistently dealt with —and have offered sanctuary to—elements of the Taliban, al Qaeda, Haqqani Network, and other insurgents. The United States has also had to pay for access to Pakistani air space and lines of communication with aid, and to some extent by endorsing the facade of an alliance that is only partly real.
It is possible the United States can have a successful strategy that is sufficiently Afghan-centric so that it can continue such relations indefinitely. This, however, requires an objective risk assessment, and the United States needs to consider what options it has to quietly or overtly pressure Pakistan—particularly if Afghan-Pakistani relations continue to deteriorate and/or if the United States seeks to seriously try to convince the Taliban to come to the conference table in some way that can actually end the conflict.
Cutting aid, sanctions, tilting to India are all options, although scarcely good or easy ones. So is transparency. Leaking all of the details of given Pakistani actions, providing an official report to Congress, systematically rebutting the usual Pakistani claims of martyrdom, and outing Pakistani ties to the Taliban are all possibilities. This may or may not mean openly ceasing to keep up the facade that Pakistan is an ally, but the relationship should be seen as what it is: A transactional relationship where you get what you pay, pressure, or threaten for.
The same is true in a broader sense. Searches for regional cooperation, or based of some idealistic view of groups of rational bargainers do not fit the region or the individual nations involved. Leaders change, but at present, India seems to be the only case where there is enough common interest to go beyond pay, pressure, or threaten.
At the same time, the United States does have one potential compensation. To some extent, all of the nations outside Afghanistan can to some extent exploit the U.S. position while the U.S. greatly reduces the risk of an unstable Afghanistan to them. The situation changes radically if the United States withdraws. If the U.S. withdraws, Afghanistan's neighbors have to become involved to some degree, or live with the consequences. It also becomes far easier for the United States to play a spoiler role at little to no risk to itself.
**Other Burke Chair Studies of Afghanistan**
; September 12, 2016, https://www.csis.org/analysis/afghan-war-reshaping-american-strategy-and-finding-ways-win**The Afghan War: Reshaping American Strategy and Finding Ways to Win****The Obama Strategy in Afghanistan: Finding a Way to Win**; https://www.csis.org/analysis/obama-strategy-afghanistan-finding-way-win; July 7, 2016;An Update; December 10, 2015; https://www.csis.org/analysis/afghanistan-and-failed-state-wars-update**Afghanistan and Failed State Wars:****Afghanistan at Transition: The Lessons of the Longest War**; March 19, 2015; https://www.csis.org/analysis/afghanistan-transition**A Key Update: Afghan Forces on the Edge of Transition**; November 21, 2014; https://www.csis.org/programs/burke-chair-strategy/afghanistan.iDepartment of Defense (DoD),*Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan,*December 2016, https://www.defense.gov/Portals/1/Documents/pubs/Afghanistan-1225-Report-December-2016.pdf , pp. 5 & 31. | 200 | [
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2017-01-04 | Afghanistan | In Afghanistan, Farmer Trades Old Horticultural Practices for New to See Income Rise - World Bank | ---
title: In Afghanistan, Farmer Trades Old Horticultural Practices for New to See Income Rise
url: https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2017/01/04/in-afghanistan-farmer-trades-old-horticultural-practices-for-new-to-see-income-rise
hostname: worldbank.org
description: Shrubby trees, boxy mud-brick houses, and bare sheaths of rock dot the stark landscape on the two-hour rocky drive from Daykundi’s provincial capital, Nili, to Chahr Asban village.
sitename: World Bank Group
date: 2017-01-04
tags: ['Afghanistan(AF), Water, Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, & Pakistan (MENAAP), Agriculture and Food Security, Water Allocation and Water Economics, Rural Development, Agribusiness, International Development Association (IDA)']
---
**NILI DISTRICT, Daykundi Province –** Shrubby trees, boxy mud-brick houses, and bare sheaths of rock dot the stark landscape on the two-hour rocky drive from Daykundi’s provincial capital, Nili, to Chahr Asban village.
Niamatullah’s family has farmed here for decades, and the orchards and gardens lie a short walk from the compound walls. Like all the local villagers, the family has used traditional horticultural methods that stretch back generations to care for their crops. “All of the villagers here earn their income from agriculture and livestock,” Niamatullah says. “We have been using traditional horticultural systems.”
Niamatullah has five *jeribs*, or one hectare, of land, where he has planted grapevines, and almond, and apples trees, using improved practices and systems with the help of the National Horticulture and Livestock Project (NHLP). “For the past year, NHLP has been here and introduced improved management technologies and practices for growing grapes,” he says. “The people have seen this and now they are eager to join the NHLP schemes and use these new methods next year.”
He was the only villager who decided to participate when NHLP launched its activities in Chahr Asban, home to 500 families, in 2015. Ali, an officer in Nili district, says that people were not eager because they did not trust NHLP and had not previously seen the advantages of new technologies and farming practices introduced by NHLP. “They doubted the project because there had never been long-term support here,” Ali says. After seeing NHLP’s activities and Niamatullah’s success with the project, villagers are eager to join. “Now people trust NHLP,” he says.
Niamatullah’s success in adopting modern methods is demonstrated in the grapes he is growing, which is proving profitable. “Before NHLP, all the orchards in the village were using the low productive traditional methods and, thus, income was low,” he says. He expects this year’s harvest to sell for triple or even quadruple the price of last year’s crop. “I think that this project will increase the villagers’ income and their situation in life will be better,” he adds. | 200 | [
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2017-01-18 | Afghanistan | Russia’s View of Afghanistan and the Taliban - Geopolitical Futures | ---
title: Russia’s View of Afghanistan and the Taliban - Geopolitical Futures
author: GPF Team
url: https://geopoliticalfutures.com/russias-view-of-afghanistan-and-the-taliban/
hostname: geopoliticalfutures.com
description: Jan. 18, 2017 Improving relations with the Taliban gives Moscow the ability to increase its bargaining position in dealings with Washington.
sitename: Geopolitical Futures
date: 2017-01-18
categories: ['Analysis', 'Eurasia', 'Reality Check', 'South Asia']
---
**By Kamran Bokhari **
Russia’s involvement in Afghanistan is not new. Dealing with the Taliban, however, is. The Russians are well aware of the constraints they face, and it is unlikely they can bring an end to the war in the southwest Asian nation. However, Russia must try to manage the insurgency because of regional security threats and the need to gain leverage in dealings with the Americans.
Afghanistan is an old stomping ground of the Russians. It was a key area where the “Great Game” between Czarist Russia and Britain played out in the 19th century. In the 1920s, the Soviet Union was a key supporter of King Amanullah Khan, Afghanistan’s first ruler who tried to modernize the country. Soviet influence in Afghanistan grew under King Mohammad Zahir Shah in the ’50s and ’60s.
The logic of the Cold War continued to shape Moscow-Kabul relations during the republican regime of Sardar Mohammad Daoud Khan, president of Afghanistan from 1973-78. The Soviets had the closest ties with Afghanistan in the era of a Marxist regime from 1978-92. In the ’80s, Moscow militarily intervened with over 100,000 troops to support the communist government against Islamist insurgents backed by the United States, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The Kremlin maintained its ties to the country even after the fall of the Soviet Union and during the days of intra-Islamist civil war in the ’90s.
###### Former Afghan Taliban fighters turn in their weapons as part of a government reconciliation process in Jalalabad, on Feb. 24, 2016. NOORULLAH SHIRZADA/AFP/Getty Images
Also in the ’90s, the Russians backed certain Islamist factions they had fought during the ’80s to combat the Taliban, even as Russia maintained its own links to the jihadist movement. By the time the Marxist regime collapsed in April 1992 (three years after the Soviet military withdrawal and months after the implosion of the Soviet Union), the communists had been obliterated as a political force. For a while, the Russians were busy sorting out their own mess at home. But it wouldn’t be long before they were forced to pay attention to what was happening in Afghanistan, especially given the emergence of the Central Asian republics as independent states. Moscow had no choice but to side with the least radical of the groups.
Thus, Russia, in cooperation with Iran and India, backed the Northern Alliance rebels during the years of the Taliban regime, from 1996-2001. After the fall of the Taliban regime in the aftermath of 9/11, the Russians supported anti-Taliban forces. In fact, Russia provided an alternative supply route to NATO forces fighting the Taliban in the late 2000s when the main one running through Pakistan had become unreliable.
The Russians were intent on seeing the West do the heavy lifting in the fight against the Taliban. At the same time, Moscow was happy to see Washington embroiled in wars in the Muslim world because a United States bogged down elsewhere could do very little against a resurging Russia. In the past few years, the Russians have seen that Afghanistan is no longer important to the U.S. This has caused a shift in Russian thinking. On one hand, the Kremlin has been forced to get involved because the U.S. has scaled back its involvement. However, Russia has the additional benefit of inserting itself in an area of interest for the U.S. in hopes that it can increase its leverage over Washington.
As a result, Moscow has been moving toward enhancing relations with the Taliban. The latest move entails the governor of Afghanistan’s southern Farah province, Mohammad Asif Nang, claiming that Russia provided Taliban insurgents with sophisticated weaponry, Shamshad TV reported on Jan. 16. These weapons included 82mm mortars, night-vision devices and missiles. Nang added that it is unclear whether these weapons reached the Taliban via Pakistan or Iran. Nang’s comments are the latest and most specific indicators that Afghan officials increasingly believe that Russia has begun militarily backing the jihadist movement.
There is no definitive proof that Russia is supplying the Taliban with weapons. It may be that some weapons used by the jihadist militiamen are Russian. Afghanistan and the wider region are awash with weaponry. Certainly those weapons are obtainable on the black market.
But the issue is not weapons. Given that their insurgency has steadily been gaining steam, the Taliban are not hurting for weapons. It is also not in the interest of Russia to add more fuel to the proverbial fire. Russia’s interest is in limiting the spillover effect into Central Asia and inside its own borders. For this reason, Russia over the past year has become very open about its relationship with the Taliban. That relationship is largely diplomatic, although some intelligence-sharing takes place regarding the Islamic State, a common enemy.
On Dec. 27, a trilateral meeting was held in Moscow between senior Russian, Chinese and Pakistani officials. This was the third such gathering between the three countries to discuss the deteriorating security situation in post-NATO Afghanistan. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told journalists that the three sides agreed on a “flexible approach to remove certain [Taliban] figures from [international] sanctions lists as part of efforts to foster a peaceful dialogue between Kabul and the Taliban movement.” The Kremlin’s point man on Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, has been managing the developing relationship between Moscow and the Afghan jihadist group.
In a Dec. 31 interview with Turkey’s official press service, Anadolu Agency, Kabulov – a seasoned diplomat and a former KGB official with extensive experience in the country and with the jihadist movement – openly said that with the exception of certain elements, the Taliban’s core represented an Afghan national force. The implication is that the Taliban need to be distinguished from al-Qaida and IS. The Russian view is that despite the fluidity within the broader jihadist space, the Afghan jihadist group does not have transnational aspirations. It is important to keep in mind that this is also the U.S. position, which would explain U.S.-Taliban negotiations that have taken place in recent years but yielded no success.
Therefore, the question is why is Russia engaged in a diplomatic process that it knows the U.S. has failed at? Given their far greater historical interactions with Afghanistan, the Russians are unlikely to be under any illusion about Afghanistan. Of all great powers that have dealt with Afghanistan, the Russians know too well how difficult a country it is to pacify. But unlike the U.S., the Russians cannot simply ignore it given that the country sits on the southern flank of a major Russian area of influence.
The Russians are not bound by Western ideals of democracy and freedom that limit the extent to which the U.S. can work with the Taliban. The Russians also are not as invested in the Afghan state. The Russians will continue to work closely with the Taliban in the hope that the relationship will allow Russia to counter IS and other Islamist militants. Meanwhile, Afghanistan, while not as important as Syria to the U.S., is still a place in which Washington is invested. By getting involved in a country with about 10,000 American troops, the Russians hope to enhance as much as possible their leverage over the United States. Improving relations with the Taliban gives Moscow the ability to increase its bargaining position in its broader dealings with Washington.
It is ironic how geopolitics has forced the Russians to go from fighting jihadis in Afghanistan to aligning with them. | 200 | [
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2017-01-12 | Afghanistan | Five UAE diplomats killed in Afghanistan attack - Al Jazeera | ---
title: For rural Afghan women, agriculture holds the potential for better jobs
author: Izabela Leao; Anuja Kar; Mansur Ahmed
url: https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/endpovertyinsouthasia/rural-afghan-women-agriculture-holds-potential-better-jobs
hostname: worldbank.org
description: Photo: National Horticulture and livestock project “… If women in rural areas had the same access to land, technology, financial services, education and markets as men, agricultural production could be increased and the number of hungry people reduced by 100-150 million …” Agriculture Sector: Creating Opportunities for Women In Afghanistan, ...
sitename: World Bank Group
date: 2017-01-12
tags: ['Afghanistan,End Poverty in South Asia,Gender,Agriculture and Food,Social Protection,Labor and Social Protection,Jobs & Development,Poverty,South Asia']
---
*“… If women in rural areas had the same access to land, technology, financial services, education and markets as men, agricultural production could be increased and the number of hungry people reduced by 100-150 million …”*
**Agriculture Sector: Creating Opportunities for Women**
In Afghanistan, agriculture continues to be the backbone of the rural economy – about 70% of the population in rural areas is engaged in on-farm activities. At the same time, large share of the employment generated in non-farm and off-farm sectors, such as manufacturing, are also closely linked to agriculture and food-processing.
Women’s participation in the labor market has been generally low in rural Afghanistan. For the last decade, the country had one of the world’s lowest rates (19%). In recent years, however, the rural labor market in Afghanistan has experienced an impressive influx of women, increasing the rate to 29%. Yet, a large share of the working-age female in rural Afghanistan (71%) remains out of the labor force. In 2013/14, out of 5.2 million women of age 14 or above, only 1.5 million (29% of total) were in the labor force, about one-third of that 1.5 million workers remained unemployed, and the other two-third were employed – which accounts for only 22% of total rural employment (Figure 1). Of the employed female workers, majority are employed in agriculture (11%) and livestock (59%).
**Figure 1: Female Employment and Labor Force Dynamics in Rural Afghanistan (2011-12/2013-14)**
Source: Authors’ own calculation using NRVA 2011-12 / ALCS 2013-14
Rural women continue to be the cornerstone of agriculture and food security, and hold the potential to lift their households as well as their communities out of poverty. In the developing world, women comprise over 40 percent of the agricultural workforce (FAO).
**Looking Forward: Enabling Women to Increased Access to Agricultural Markets**
Overall, a dominant share of female workers in agriculture and livestock sectors in Afghanistan is represented as unpaid family workers – those who participate in the economic activities of their households. In 2013/14, about 80% of female employed workers were unpaid family workers. As a result, the average earning of employed female workers has decreased or remained low across rural Afghanistan. The World Bank Group together with the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) have been supporting the government’s programs to revitalize the agriculture sector to combat poverty and to create more productive and sustainable jobs for rural Afghans.
Most of these programs give special attention to rural women and provide technical and financial support as well as trainings to female workers. The ongoing National Horticulture and Livestock Program and the Afghanistan Rural Enterprise Development Program are two of them. Upcoming programs, such as the Women’s Economic Empowerment – National Priority Program (WEE-NPP), also hold great potential to ensure a more inclusive and dynamic development impact for women in agriculture.
## Join the Conversation | 200 | [
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2017-01-11 | Afghanistan | For rural Afghan women, agriculture holds the potential for better jobs - World Bank Blogs | ---
title: Five UAE diplomats killed in Afghanistan attack
author: News Agencies
url: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/1/11/five-uae-diplomats-killed-in-afghanistan-attack
hostname: aljazeera.com
description: Bombing in Kandahar kills seven people, including five UAE diplomats, and wounds Ambassador Juma al-Kaabi.
sitename: Al Jazeera
date: 2017-01-11
tags: ['News, Afghanistan, Asia, Middle East']
---
# Five UAE diplomats killed in Afghanistan attack
*Bombing in Kandahar kills seven people, including five UAE diplomats, and wounds Ambassador Juma al-Kaabi.*
The United Arab Emirates says five of its diplomats died in a bombing in Afghanistan’s Kandahar that killed at least 11 people and wounded 17 others, including Juma al-Kaabi, the UAE ambassador to Afghanistan.
The official Emirati news agency, WAM, said the officials were “on a mission to carry out humanitarian, educational and development projects”.
The blast, which struck the provincial governor’s office during a visit by the UAE delegation, was one of a string of bombings that hit three Afghan cities on Tuesday, killing nearly 50 people and wounding 100.
Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the UAE’s prime minister and vice president, said on Twitter that “there is no human, moral or religious justification for the bombing and killing of people trying to help” others.
On the Afghan side, authorities said the dead included two politicians, a deputy governor from Kandahar and an Afghan diplomat stationed at its embassy in Washington.
The diplomats were expected to open a number of UAE-backed projects as part of an aid programme to Afghanistan.
In honour of the dead, government institutions across the UAE were directed to fly the flag at half-mast for three days.
The Taliban denied carrying out the bombing, saying the attack was a result of “internal local rivalry”.
Elsewhere on Tuesday, two suicide blasts claimed by the Taliban near Afghanistan’s parliament in Kabul killed at least 30 people and wounded 80.
In a separate incident on the same day, a suicide bomber on foot struck in the southern Helmand province, killing at least seven people, according to officials.
The target of the attack, also claimed by the Taliban, was a guesthouse used by a provincial intelligence official in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital.
Afghanistan last week welcomed the Pentagon’s decision to deploy some 300 US Marines to Helmand, where American forces engaged in heated combat until they pulled out in 2014.
The Marines will head to the poppy-growing province this spring to assist a NATO-led mission to train Afghan forces, in the latest sign that foreign forces are increasingly being drawn back into the worsening conflict.
NATO officially ended its combat mission in December 2014, but US forces were granted greater powers in June to strike armed groups as President Barack Obama vowed a more aggressive campaign. | 200 | [
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2017-01-10 | Afghanistan | Dozens killed in double suicide attack in Kabul - Al Jazeera | 200 | [
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2017-01-25 | Afghanistan | Afghan Military Police Guard Command Training Exercise - centcom.mil | 200 | [
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2017-01-25 | Afghanistan | Afghanistan/Pakistan: Family of US independent writer Paul Overby asking for information - RSF.ORG | ---
title: Afghanistan/Pakistan: Family of US independent writer Paul Overby asking for information
url: https://rsf.org/en/afghanistanpakistan-family-us-independent-writer-paul-overby-asking-information
hostname: rsf.org
description: Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for the immediate release of Paul Overby, an American independent writer who was last heard from in the Khost province of Afghanistan in May 2014. Paul Overby is a published independent writer and a researcher of Afghanistan and Pakistan affairs. He is the author of Holy Blood: An Inside View of the Afghan War (1993). He turned 74 years old in November, 2016.
sitename: rsf.org
date: 2017-01-25
---
# Afghanistan/Pakistan: Family of US independent writer Paul Overby asking for information
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for the immediate release of Paul Overby, an American independent writer who was last heard from in the Khost province of Afghanistan in May 2014. Paul Overby is a published independent writer and a researcher of Afghanistan and Pakistan affairs. He is the author of Holy Blood: An Inside View of the Afghan War (1993). He turned 74 years old in November, 2016.
Overby disappeared on his way to North Waziristan, Pakistan, to meet and interview Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the Haqqani network, for a new book on the Taliban and the war in Afghanistan.
Overby's family has not heard from him since May 2014 and is asking anyone who has information about his whereabouts to share with them. | 200 | [
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2017-01-24 | Afghanistan | Why the European Union Shouldn’t Deport Afghans - Human Rights Watch | ---
title: Why the European Union Shouldn’t Deport Afghans
author: Patricia Gossman Associate Asia Director
url: https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/01/24/why-european-union-shouldnt-deport-afghans
hostname: hrw.org
description: This week, the German government deported to Kabul another 26 rejected Afghan asylum seekers – the second such wave of deportations in as many months. They come home to a city that is both divided and insecure.
sitename: Human Rights Watch
date: 2017-01-24
---
This week, the German government deported to Kabul another 26 rejected Afghan asylum seekers – the second such wave of deportations in as many months. They come home to a city that is both divided and insecure.
There is the Kabul of the embassies: barricaded fortresses where diplomats hold meetings via Skype with their counterparts in other local embassies and commute to Afghan ministries via helicopter.
Then, there is the other Kabul, home to
a growing population of some 4 million, where explosions and suicide bombings take a daily, terrible toll on civilians. It is a city
struggling to absorb hundreds of thousands of refugees that Pakistan has driven out and displaced persons fleeing the widening conflict in the rest of the country. In this Kabul,
economic opportunity has plummeted, civil society is struggling, and fear has replaced many of the hopes the post-2001 transition had brought.
In October 2016,
the European Union arm-twisted the Afghan government into potentially accepting back tens of thousands of deportees. And while Germany is not alone in its efforts to speed up deportations of rejected asylum seekers, it has moved swiftly, turning a blind eye to the dangers
by declaring Kabul safe – or safe enough for Afghans. This week, German Interior Minister Thomas De Maiziere displayed a willful ignorance about the skyrocketing civilian toll and
justified recent deportations by arguing that Taliban attacks have been aimed at “representatives of the international community” in Afghanistan and not the Afghan population.
Statistics compiled by the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan prove that is wrong: attacks by the Taliban and other insurgents in 2016 targeting civilian demonstrators, educational and religious facilities, and the media were the deadliest since 2001.
Extolling a “safe” Kabul is a thin cover for what Western governments are too ashamed to admit: despite all the promises and the billions spent, Afghanistan is not a success story. It’s teetering on the edge of a
humanitarian crisis.
Germany and other EU member states should stop deporting rejected Afghan asylum seekers until it is clear how the Afghan government copes with Pakistan’s mass forced return of refugees. They should not detain Afghans but instead grant them the most favorable status possible under national law.
Returning desperate Afghan asylums seekers to conflict and crisis is not just inhumane, it will add to the instability that drove them to flee in the first place. | 200 | [
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2017-01-12 | Afghanistan | Afghanistan: How we've helped in 2016 - ICRC | ---
title: World powers jostle in Afghanistan's new 'Great Game'
author: Dawood Azami
url: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38582323
hostname: bbc.com
description: Amid precarious security, world powers jostle for influence in a new "Great Game" in Afghanistan.
sitename: BBC News
date: 2017-01-12
categories: ['Asia']
---
**Afghanistan's strategic landscape is changing as regional powers forge links with the Taliban and vie to outdo each other in what's being seen as a new "Great Game".**
Fifteen years after the US-led intervention in Afghanistan, competition for influence - reminiscent of that rivalry between the Russian and British empires in the 19th and early 20th Centuries, and that during the Cold War in the 1980s - is intensifying, complicating an already precarious security situation.
Suspicion and mistrust remain the biggest obstacle to stability in strategically-located Afghanistan, which has the potential to destabilise the wider region.
Pakistan, considered the main supporter of the Afghan Taliban, has been accused of playing a double game. But Afghan and Western officials as well as Taliban sources have also spoken about the Taliban's clandestine links with Iran for the past few years.
And recently it emerged that Russia's ties with the Taliban were warming too.
In December the top US commander in Afghanistan, Gen John Nicholson, criticised Russia and Iran for establishing links with the militants, which both countries have confirmed.
The US has also pursued contacts with the Taliban in recent years but those efforts have not brought peace. Several regional powers, most notably Russia and Iran, criticise the US and its allies for "failing" in achieving its original objectives of eliminating violent extremism and drugs in Afghanistan.
Three major factors have contributed to the shifting of regional alliances:
the emergence of so-called Islamic State in Afghanistan;
changes in the approach of the new Afghan government;
and tensions between the US and regional players such as Russia, China, Iran and Pakistan.
## Fears over Islamic State
The emergence of IS in Afghanistan - the group announced the creation of its Khorasan Province branch in January 2015 - provided Russia and Iran with the opportunity to make "contacts" with the Taliban.
The US's decreasing military role in Afghanistan and a resurgent Taliban had contributed to creating a sense in regional capitals that Afghanistan's fate was up for grabs. The political infighting in the central government in Kabul also raised concerns about political stability both inside and outside the country.
Over the past two years, alarm in Russia and former Soviet Central Asian republics grew as militancy spread to northern Afghan provinces close to their borders as well as to China's Xinjiang region.
Conspiracy theories in Russia, Iran and China paint IS as an American or Western creation aimed at destabilising their countries.
The emergence of IS posed a serious challenge to the supremacy of the Taliban but also encouraged Iran, China and Russia, who were fearful of IS expansion, to review their policies and open dialogue with the Taliban.
## Russia's Taliban 'channels'
Softening its approach towards the Taliban is a dramatic and unexpected shift for Russia.
Moscow has for years opposed the Taliban, calling them terrorists, and supported the anti-Taliban "Northern Alliance" in the Afghan civil war of the 1990s.
But faced with a common enemy in the shape of IS, Russia has changed its mind.
In December 2015, a senior Russian diplomat declared that "the Taliban interest objectively coincides with ours" in the fight against IS and that his country and the Taliban "have channels for exchanging information".
Taliban sources also confirmed that the group's representatives met Russians inside Russia and "other" countries several times over the past two years.
But Moscow's current assertiveness in Afghanistan can also be seen as a tactic to put pressure on the US and to enhance its role and regional influence.
Taliban contacts with Russia and Iran might also help Pakistan to distribute and dilute the international pressure it is under for hosting the Afghan Taliban leadership.
## Iran and the Taliban make up
Shared animosity towards IS has also brought the Sunni Taliban closer to their historic nemesis, Iran, a Shia powerhouse, whose clerical regime had previously viewed the Afghan Taliban as a major threat.
Like Russia, Iran supported the anti-Taliban groups in the 1990s. Tehran also co-operated with the US-led international coalition to topple the Taliban regime in late 2001. But, at the same time, Taliban sources say Iran sent them a message that it was willing to support them against the US.
When the Taliban insurgency gained momentum in Afghanistan, Iran publically supported the US-backed Afghan government but reportedly kept a link to the Taliban alive. Since the emergence of IS (which considers Shia to be infidels), the Tehran-Taliban relationship has deepened.
A delegation from the Afghan Taliban's political office in Qatar visited Iran in mid-May 2015 where the two sides discussed, among other things, ways to counter IS in Afghanistan.
The Taliban supreme leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, was reportedly on his way back from Iran when he was killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan's Balochistan province in May 2016.
## Afghanistan's 'imbalanced' foreign policy
The foreign policy of the Afghan government established in September 2014 has also altered political calculations.
Hawks in Russia, Iran and China consider President Ashraf Ghani's government with suspicion and see it as too weak to deal with the multiple security challenges it faces.
They also view Mr Ghani as too close to the US compared with his predecessor, Hamid Karzai.
And some of Mr Ghani's decisions have raised eyebrows in regional capitals.
Soon after taking office, he said that improving relations with Pakistan was a top priority. While ignoring India, Pakistan's arch-rival but Afghanistan's traditional ally, the new president made several positive gestures to appease Islamabad. But that rapprochement ended within a year and Kabul and Islamabad reverted to hurling accusations at each other.
Mr Ghani then revived Afghanistan's close relationship with India and on a few occasions seemed to be taunting Pakistan while speaking in India.
His government also pledged support for the Saudi-led military coalition against Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen. That gesture was not received well in Tehran.
These rivalries underline the nature and scale of possible troubles ahead.
## The Taliban as Trojan horse?
The Afghan Taliban had been largely dependent on their support base in Pakistan, a country where their leadership is allegedly living. Fears are now growing in Afghanistan that the Taliban are being used as a Trojan horse by state actors in three main ways:
to put pressure on the Afghan government and its US/Nato allies;
to increase the influence of individual countries;
and to outdo one another in a regional competition.
The Taliban see their expanding regional portfolio and diplomatic push as evidence of their "legitimate struggle" - in some ways more important for them than material assistance.
The price the Taliban ask has generally been for these countries to help them rid Afghanistan of foreign forces. In return the Taliban offer the following assurances:
not to allow IS to establish a base in Afghanistan;
to prevent foreign militants from using Afghanistan against these states;
to keep their war focused on Afghanistan.
## So where will a new 'Great Game' lead?
Major regional players seem to have realised that they cannot rely on the US alone to sort out Afghanistan and stabilise the wider region. They are keen to make themselves much more relevant and are looking to play a more assertive role. They also insist that their "contacts" with the Taliban are aimed at promoting regional security.
Afghanistan has been the scene of foreign interventions for a long time. The British and Russian Empires jockeyed for control during the 19th and early 20th Centuries. In the 1980s the US-led Western alliance helped Pakistan provide weapons and funding to Afghan mujahideen fighting to end Soviet occupation.
Recent developments show the extent of a new "Great Game" taking shape.
And once again Afghan civilians are caught in the crossfire.
The past few decades have shown that no country has the means to impose its will in Afghanistan on its own, but many actors have created disorder.
Because a big part of the chaos in Afghanistan is rooted in the wider region, the solution needs co-operation and a wider consensus. One positive outcome of the shifting regional alliances might be a more inclusive approach towards stabilising Afghanistan and its neighbourhood.
Many Afghans are hopeful that Russian leader Vladimir Putin and incoming US President Donald Trump will improve bilateral relations, with a positive impact on the situation in Afghanistan.
For many decades during its recent past, when it was left alone, Afghanistan was one of the most peaceful and stable countries. History shows that what Afghanistan needs is less foreign interference, not more of it.
- Published12 August 2022
- Published5 January 2016
- Published26 November 2016
- Published18 December 2015
- Published10 March 2025 | 200 | [
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2017-01-26 | Afghanistan | Football’s road to recognition in war-torn Afghanistan - Al Jazeera | ---
title: Football’s road to recognition in war-torn Afghanistan
author: Paul Williams
url: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/1/26/footballs-road-to-recognition-in-war-torn-afghanistan
hostname: aljazeera.com
description: Shaheen Asmayee will become the first Afghan club at an AFC event, but life was not simple for the players growing up.
sitename: Al Jazeera
date: 2017-01-26
tags: ['Football', 'Features, Football, Afghanistan, Asia']
---
# Football’s road to recognition in war-torn Afghanistan
*Shaheen Asmayee will become the first Afghan club at an AFC event, but life was not simple for the players growing up.*
In the football world that is increasingly dominated by an overpowering win-at-all-costs attitude, it’s refreshing to be reminded that, for some, simply participating is equal to winning.
Shaheen Asmayee Football Club, based in the Afghan capital of Kabul, will create history at the end of this month when it becomes the first Afghan side to participate in an Asian Football Confederation club competition.
The new format of the second-tier AFC Cup, which now splits the group stage into five regional zones, means that more clubs from more nations are now eligible to participate.
Shaheen Asmayee, the 2016 Afghan Premier League champions and one of the lowest ranked teams to enter the tournament, will enter at the preliminary stage when they play Tajikistan’s Khosilot in a two-leg play-off.
Few expect them to get beyond the first hurdle. But just competing in an AFC competition, and showcasing Afghan football, is reward enough for Shaheen Asmayee’s star attacker Amredin Sharifi.
“It’s exciting for us to participate in this tournament, because we have talented players in Afghanistan and the world doesn’t know about them,” the 24-year-old told Al Jazeera.
“This is important for us. We want to tell our people and government to invest in football and encourage the youth to play football.”
Being a footballer in Afghanistan is not like anything the majority of players around the world would have experienced or imagined.
Former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly once said that football is not a matter of life and death, it is much more important.
For some, just playing football is a matter of life or death.
Hashmatullah Barakzai grew up in the northern Afghan province of Baghlan during the Taliban regime. Unlike some of those on the team, Barakzai has lived in Afghanistan all his life.
“Growing up amid the clashes and conflicts meant focusing on football was extremely hard for me,” Barakzai told Al Jazeera.
## Financial woes
During the Taliban regime, things were very unpredictable and it wasn’t safe for anyone, especially for children. In order to play, I had to take my dad or grandfather with me to the ground to protect me.
“Even some of the matches had to be stopped at half-time because fighting in the close areas would break out all of a sudden. I was a child at the time and was scared whenever the fights started.”
There was suffering for Barakzai off the pitch as well, with money so sparse he often had to go without food, a situation that saw many of his friends and teammates simply give up their football dream.
“There were times when I kept exercising and playing football without having breakfast or lunch.”
Afghanistan football has enjoyed something of a purple patch in recent years.
The men’s national team won the South Asian Football Federation Championships in 2013 and followed that up with a second-place finish in 2015.
Sandwiched in between was a best-ever fourth-placed finish at the AFC Challenge Cup, a tournament for Asia’s developing football nations.
Meanwhile, finishing fourth in their second round 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying group saw them advance directly to the third and final round of qualifying for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, avoiding a difficult play-off round in the process.
But thing have not been smooth off the field.
Former Afghan national team player Ali Askar Lali called representing his country a “feeling that can’t be described”. He was a member of the Afghanistan squad that made it to the quarter-finals of the 1977 AFC Youth Championships.
After the Soviet invasion in 1979, and the war that followed, Lali feared for his life.
“My life was in danger,” he said. “I was arrested twice. It was a miracle that I wasn’t killed.”
Lali, like millions of others from his country, was forced to flee Afghanistan. He first went to Iran, living there for nine months, before moving to Germany where he continued his football career at club level.
“I was a national player, I was a student and I had unfulfilled dreams when I was forced to leave my beloved country,” Lali said.
“It’s never easy to leave everything behind and to start afresh.”
Lali would never play for his country again. The same is sadly the case for many talented players who never made it to that level due circumstances beyond their control.
## Shattered dreams
“A lot of players were forced to leave Afghanistan. Some of them disappeared without a trace. One of the best national players of Afghanistan, Hafiz Qadami, was reported to have drowned on the way to Australia.”
It is a harrowing story, and sadly one that is all-too-familiar in Afghanistan.
After being forced to give up his dream, Lali is determined to help the next generation of players so they don’t have to make the same sacrifices as he did.
Lali has quit his job in a development role with the Afghan Football Federation and will run for president in the federation election due to take place in April.
“The next election is a big challenge for Afghan football,” he told Al Jazeera shortly before heading to Kabul to continue his campaign.
“One of the reasons why I returned to Afghanistan was to pave the way for young men and women to play football. It is a fulfilment for me.”
Afghanistan’s rise in the football world has partially been down to the development of the Afghan Premier League, or APL, in 2012.
While the league is quite possibly the shortest in world football, running to only six matches for teams that make it to the final, its impact has been profound according to Zia Aria, the deputy commissioner of the APL.
“The APL has played an immense role in the development of football in Afghanistan,” Aria said.
“It has contributed to national unity among the Afghans. This season, we saw players from Herat, the western region of Afghanistan, go and play for De Spinghar Bazan, the team representing the eastern region of the country.
“These are the perfect examples of cohesion and positive social change that we were aiming to bring about through the APL.”
## Setting the house in order
Lali, however, is not satisfied with how the APL functions.
“At the start, the APL created great enthusiasm and it is still the biggest football event here, but its negative influence marked the decline of all other clubs.
“The clubs are artificially created and only exist for four or five months a year. I had a clear agreement with the responsible people of the APL that in three years, it will be developed into a real league. After five years, I see no sign of that.”
Aria concedes that their expansion plans have been delayed due to the security situation in the country.
“It has been quite challenging given that we are in a war zone,” he explained.
“Security is the biggest challenge of all for us. It has caused our budget to soar tremendously as we have invested in our security resources and measures. It has significantly pulled us back on our expansion plans and has prevented a lot our grassroots programming out in the provinces.
“In addition, not everyone feels safe to come and watch the games in the stadiums, affecting our revenue that we could generate from our ticketing in the stadiums.
“But despite these mounting challenges, we have pushed forward and will keep pushing forward in order to keep the league and the hope alive.”
Shaheen Asmayee’s attacker Sharifi admits that while it will be difficult to be one of the 12 nations who advance from qualifying to the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, it will not be through lack of effort.
“The other teams are well prepared. We have less facilities, but we will try and we trust in ourselves.”
Winning would be nice, he added, but it is not the most important thing for him.
“It’s a pleasure to put a smile on our people’s faces, because we live to make our people happy and proud.”
|
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2017-01-29 | Afghanistan | News - 36th Inf. Div. Soldiers from Texas deploy to Afghanistan - DVIDS | 200 | [
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2017-01-30 | Afghanistan | World powers jostle in Afghanistan's new 'Great Game' - BBC | ---
title: Afghanistan: How we've helped in 2016
url: https://www.icrc.org/en/document/afghanistan-how-weve-helped-2016
hostname: icrc.org
sitename: International Committee of the Red Cross
date: 2017-01-30
---
# Afghanistan: How we've helped in 2016
The ever growing needs of the Afghan population suffering from the conflict has been exacerbated by the shrinking access of humanitarian aid workers in numerous parts of the country. Intensification of conflict related violence, growing insecurity, lack of access, attacks on health facilities and health workers, are among the main issues that have made 2016 a difficult year for Afghan people and the humanitarian community.
Despite it all, we have remained true to our commitment to the people of Afghanistan, as we have throughout the last 30 years of our continuous presence in the country.
**Read:** the full facts and figures on ICRC's work in Afghanistan in 2016 | 200 | [
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2017-01-19 | Afghanistan | Ten Facts About the Afghanistan War: Toppling Terrorist Groups - The Borgen Project | 200 | [
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2017-01-11 | Afghanistan | Afghanistan: UN condemns latest terrorist attacks against civilians and diplomats - UN News | ---
title: Afghanistan: UN condemns latest terrorist attacks against civilians and diplomats
author: UNAMA
url: https://news.un.org/en/story/2017/01/549172
hostname: news.un.org
description: The United Nations has condemned yesterday's terrorist attacks near the Parliament in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, and the residence of the Provincial Governor of Kandahar, calling for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.
sitename: UN News
date: 2017-01-11
---
# Afghanistan: UN condemns latest terrorist attacks against civilians and diplomats
The UN mission in the country said that the attacks killed more than 40 people, mainly civilians and including five diplomats from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Many others were injured, including the Kandahar Governor and the visiting UAE Ambassador.
“Indiscriminate attacks against civilians, including diplomatic envoys, are violations of human rights and international humanitarian law and cannot be justified,” said Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, in a statement issued overnight, in which the United Nations extended its deepest condolences to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to those injured while expressing its solidarity with the people and Governments of Afghanistan and of the UAE.
According to a press release issued by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), as many as 13 civilians were killed in an explosion at the residence of the Kandahar Provincial Governor while he was hosting a dinner event for visiting diplomats and dignitaries. No group claimed responsibility for the attack.
UNAMA also said that a Taliban suicide attacker detonated his vest outside the Parliamentary Administration Compound in the Daruluman area of Kabul. Shortly afterwards, the Taliban detonated a vehicle packed with explosives on the main road near the compound, impacting a civilian bus, parliamentary staff, bystanders, security guards and those responding to the first attack.
The attacks in the capital killed at least 35 people and injured more than 50. While authorities confirmed two National Directorate of Security (NDS) officials were killed and four injured, preliminary information indicates the majority of the casualties were civilians.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, stating that they were targeting the NDS. The Taliban also acknowledged that they had deliberately timed the second blast to take place as first responders attended to persons caught in the initial explosion.
“Such unprincipled, unlawful and deplorable attacks cause immense human suffering and make the peace that Afghans need and deserve even more difficult to achieve,” said Pernille Kardel, the Secretary-General's Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan. “Those responsible for these attacks must be held accountable," said Ms. Kardel, who is also acting head of UNAMA. | 200 | [
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2017-01-25 | Afghanistan | NATO, ACAA integrate airport meteorology efforts - centcom.mil | ---
title: What will Trump do about Afghanistan?
author: Justin Rowlatt
url: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38730061
hostname: bbc.com
description: Will the US cut its losses and bring America's longest war to an end?
sitename: BBC News
date: 2017-01-25
categories: ['Asia']
---
**As Donald Trump settles into his new home in the White House, one of the most pressing issues in his in-tray is Afghanistan.**
America's longest war isn't something that he has said much about, and - as with so many issues - what he has said is contradictory.
In the past, he has described America's involvement in Afghanistan as a "disaster", and has talked about pulling out US troops.
But when he spoke to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on 2 December, he reportedly told him that America would not waver in its commitment to Afghanistan.
Then, however, he failed to invite Mr Ghani to his inauguration, deepening worries in Afghanistan that it simply was not a priority for the new president.
The Taliban pitched in earlier this week, calling on President Trump to withdraw American forces from what they described as the "quagmire" of Afghanistan.
"Nothing has been achieved," said the insurgent group, "except the staining of innocent Afghans in their blood, and the destruction of villages and gardens."
The official American assessment of progress is not much more upbeat.
Mr Trump's challenge was summarised with shocking clarity earlier this month by the US watchdog overseeing the reconstruction process in Afghanistan, external, the special inspector general for Afghanistan, John F Sopko.
Mr Sopko says the US has spent more in real terms in Afghanistan than America spent on the reconstruction of Europe after World War Two, yet only 63% of the country is currently controlled by the Afghan government, opium production is at record highs and corruption is still rife.
"After 15 years," he says, "Afghanistan still cannot support itself financially or functionally.
"Long-term financial assistance is required if the country is to survive."
## Lack of resources
Just how vulnerable parts of the country are became very apparent when an Afghan colleague was given rare access to the battle against the Taliban in Helmand a few weeks ago.
Aziz Ahmad Shafee flew into the provincial capital, Lashkargah, with soldiers from the Afghan National Army's 215th Corps.
A convoy of Humvees drove the troops a few kilometres to the outskirts of the city: that is where the front line is now.
The Taliban now control more than 80% of Helmand.
A province, let us not forget, where most of the 456 British military personnel killed in the Afghan conflict lost their lives.
And - despite a complete restructuring of the command of the 215th Corps overseen by American forces - it seems it still is not combat effective.
Afghan troops complain they lack even the most basic supplies.
"For a month we've been saying we are running out of ammunition but we don't get any new supplies," Sgt class 1 Hyatullah told the BBC.
"Our enemy is firing at us, but we don't have enough bullets to take them on."
## Clear strategic interest?
His commander urged America's new president not to falter in his commitment to the Afghan government.
"As a soldier of Afghanistan, I ask his excellency Donald Trump to continue the fight here", said Brig Gen Mohammad Wali Ahmadzai, the commander of the 215th Corps in Helmand.
"If he can give us more support, we can wipe the terrorists out."
Most of the foreign troops in Afghanistan were withdrawn at the end of 2014, but when I visited the headquarters of Resolute Support, the Nato mission in Afghanistan, it was busy, with helicopters flying in and out every few minutes.
There are still 13,000 Nato military personnel in Afghanistan, mostly American.
Brig Gen Charlie Cleveland, the spokesman for the Resolute Support mission, believes America still has a clear strategic interest in Afghanistan.
He says the US troops now have two tasks:
training and assisting the Afghan army
targeting terrorist organisations
Resolute Support's work with the Afghan army has, says the brigadier general, been instrumental in ensuring it has managed to hold the ground it does.
## 'Equilibrium'
"In the winter of 2015-16, the government of Afghanistan changed their strategy," Brig Gen Cleveland tells me.
"They realised they couldn't defend everywhere, and so what they really started focusing their efforts on was the major population centres.
"As we look at the security situation right now, the government controls - secures - really about two-thirds of the population.
"About 10% of the population is controlled by the Taliban, and the remaining difference is really what's contested."
He says while this situation is not ideal, the Afghan army has managed to reverse what was a deteriorating situation in 2015 and establish an "equilibrium" in favour of the government.
Nevertheless, there is much work to be done.
Some 5,000 Afghan military personnel were killed last year, losses both the Afghan government and Resolute Support agree are unsustainable in the long term.
And, amid the uncertainty about American policy, other powers have been flexing their muscles in Afghanistan.
Last month, Russia hosted a meeting in Moscow about the country's future, with senior officials from China and Pakistan, and it makes no secret of the fact it has been talking to the Taliban.
So the big question is what will President Trump do?
Two of his key cabinet picks may provide a clue.
President Trump's Defence Secretary, Gen James Mattis, is a former commander of forces here.
He has spoken in the past about the need to urge Pakistan to take further action against the Taliban and the Sunni Islamist militant Haqqani network.
The new president's national security adviser, Lt Gen Michael Flynn, has also talked about the need for Pakistan to take tougher action against Taliban fighters who shelter there.
And President Trump has been very consistent about his desire to take a tougher line against the so-called Islamic State group.
Pulling out of Afghanistan would make that more difficult, given the toe-hold it has established in eastern Afghanistan over the past couple of years.
So it seems unlikely that - in his effort to extricate America from foreign entanglements - President Trump will simply declare that it has no strategic interest in Afghanistan and withdraw his troops.
He and his advisers will certainly not want to be responsible for America's longest war ending in what many people would regard as a clear defeat.
- Published10 March 2025
- Published15 October 2015
- Published12 January 2017
- Published10 January 2017 | 200 | [
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2017-01-17 | Afghanistan | Obama’s covert drone war in numbers: ten times more strikes than Bush - TBIJ | ---
title: Obama’s covert drone war in numbers: ten times more strikes than Bush
author: Jessica Purkiss; Jack Serle
url: https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2017-01-17/obamas-covert-drone-war-in-numbers-ten-times-more-strikes-than-bush
hostname: thebureauinvestigates.com
description: The use of drones aligned with Obama’s ambition to keep up the war against al Qaeda while extricating the US military from intractable ground wars, but…
sitename: The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
date: 2017-01-17
---
# Obama’s covert drone war in numbers: ten times more strikes than Bush
There were ten times more air strikes in the covert war on terror during President Barack Obama’s presidency than under his predecessor, George W. Bush.
Obama embraced the US drone programme, overseeing more strikes in his first year than Bush carried out during his entire presidency. A total of 563 strikes, largely by drones, targeted Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen during Obama’s two terms, compared to 57 strikes under Bush. Between 384 and 807 civilians were killed in those countries, according to reports logged by the Bureau.
The use of drones aligned with Obama’s ambition to keep up the war against al Qaeda while extricating the US military from intractable, costly ground wars in the Middle East and Asia. But the targeted killing programme has drawn much criticism.
The Obama administration has insisted that drone strikes are so “exceptionally surgical and precise” that they pluck off terror suspects while not putting “innocent men, women and children in danger”. This claim has been contested by numerous human rights groups, however, and the Bureau’s figures on civilian casualties also demonstrate that this is often not the case.
The White House released long-awaited figures last July on the number of people killed in drone strikes between January 2009 and the end of 2015, an announcement which insiders said was a direct response to pressure from the Bureau and other organisations that collect data. However the US’s estimate of the number of civilians killed – between 64 and 116 – contrasted strongly with the number recorded by the Bureau, which at 380 to 801 was six times higher.
That figure does not include deaths in active battlefields including Afghanistan – where US air attacks have shot up since Obama withdrew the majority of his troops at the end of 2014. The country has since come under frequent US bombardment, in an unreported war that saw 1,337 weapons dropped last year alone – a 40% rise on 2015.
Afghan civilian casualties have been high, with the United Nations (UN) reporting at least 85 deaths in 2016. The Bureau recorded 65 to 105 civilian deaths during this period. We did not start collecting data on Afghanistan until 2015.
Pakistan was the hub of drone operations during Obama’s first term. The pace of attacks had accelerated in the second half of 2008 at the end of Bush’s term, after four years pocked by occasional strikes. However in the year after taking office, Obama ordered more drone strikes than Bush did during his entire presidency. The 54 strikes in 2009 all took place in Pakistan.
Strikes in the country peaked in 2010, with 128 CIA drone attacks and at least 89 civilians killed, at the same time US troop numbers surged in Afghanistan. Pakistan strikes have since fallen with just three conducted in the country last year.
Obama also began an air campaign targeting Yemen. His first strike was a catastrophe: commanders thought they were targeting al Qaeda but instead hit a tribe with cluster munitions, killing 55 people. Twenty-one were children – 10 of them under five. Twelve were women, five of them pregnant.
Through 2010 and the first half of 2011 US strikes in Yemen continued sporadically. The air campaign then began in earnest, with the US using its drones and jets to help Yemeni ground forces oust al Qaeda forces who had taken advantage of the country’s Arab Spring to seize a swath of territory in the south of the country.
In Somalia, US Special Operations Forces and gunships had been fighting al Qaeda and its al Shabaab allies since January 2007. The US sent drones to Djibouti in 2010 to support American operations in Yemen, but did not start striking in Somalia until 2011.
The number of civilian casualties increased alongside the rise in strikes. However reported civilian casualties began to fall as Obama’s first term progressed, both in real terms and as a rate of civilians reported killed per strike.
In Yemen, where there has been a minimum of 65 civilian deaths since 2002, the Bureau recorded no instances of civilian casualties last year. There were three non-combatants reportedly killed in 2016 in Somalia, where the US Air Force has been given broader authority to target al Shabaab – in previous years there were no confirmed civilian deaths.
Strikes in Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia have always been dwarfed by the frequency of air attacks on battlefields such as Afghanistan.
December 2014 saw the end of Nato combat operations there, and the frequency of air attacks plummeted in 2015. Strikes are now increasing again, with a 40% rise in 2016, though numbers remain below the 2011 peak.
The number of countries being simultaneously bombed by the US increased to seven last year as a new front opened up in the fight against Islamic State (IS). The US has been leading a coalition of countries in the fight against IS in Iraq and Syria since August 2014, conducting a total of 13,501 strikes across both countries, according to monitoring group Airwars.
In August US warplanes started hitting the group hard in Libya. The US declared 495 strikes in the country between August 1 and December 5 as part of efforts to stop IS gaining more ground, Airwars data shows.
In the final days of Obama’s time in the White House, the Bureau has broken down his covert war on terror in numbers. Our annual 2016 report provides figures on the number of US strikes and related casualties last year, as well as collating the total across Obama’s eight years in power:
| Pakistan | Yemen | Somalia | Afghanistan | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strikes | 3 | 38 | 14 | 1071 |
| Total people reported killed | 11-12 | 147-203 | 204-292 | 1389-1597 |
| Civilians reported killed | 1 | 0 | 3-5 | 65-101 |
*Notes on the data: The Bureau is not logging strikes in active battlefields except Afghanistan; strikes in Syria, Iraq and Libya are not included in this data. To see data for those countries, visit Airwars.org.*
## Somalia
| December 2016 | 2016 | 2009 to 2016 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| US strikes | 0 | 14 | 32-39 |
| Total people reported killed | 0 | 204-292 | 242-454 |
| Civilians reported killed | 0 | 3-5 | 3-12 |
| Children reported killed | 0 | 0 | 0-2 |
| Total people reported injured | 0 | 3-16 | 5-26 |
*Notes on the data: in the final column, strikes carried out between Jan 1 and Jan 19 2009 are not included. The figure refers to the number of strikes that took place from Jan 20, 2009, onwards – the data Obama’s presidency began. This applies to all the tables in this report.*
The US officially designated Somali militant group al Shabaab as an al Qaeda affiliate at the end of November amid a rising number of US strikes in the country last year.
One week after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Congress passed the Authorisation for Use of Military Force law allowing the president to go after those responsible and “associated forces”.
The US has used this law, which predates the formation of al Shabaab, to target individual members of the group deemed to have al Qaeda links. The military has also hit the group in defence of partner forces. The group is now deemed an “associated force”, meaning all members are legitimate terrorist targets.
The US has been aggressively pursuing al Shabaab. At least 204 people were killed in US strikes in Somalia last year – ten times higher than the number recorded for any other year. The vast majority of those killed were reported as belonging to al Shabaab.
An attack on an al Shabaab training camp in the Hiran region on March 5 accounts for 150 of these deaths. This is the highest death toll from a single US strike ever recorded by the Bureau, overtaking the previous highest of 81 people killed in Pakistan in 2006.
One of the more controversial of last year’s strikes occurred on September 28. Somali forces were disrupting a bomb-making network when they came under attack from a group of al Shabaab fighters. The US launched an air strike to “neutralize the threat”.
Local officials said 22 local soldiers and civilians were killed. In the city of Galkayo, where the strike took place, citizens protested in the streets.
US Africa Command told the Bureau the reports of non-combatant deaths were wrong. However the US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced the next day that the Pentagon would investigate the strike. The investigation found the strike had not killed members of al Shabaab. It instead killed ten members of a local militia reportedly allied with the Americans, US Africa Command concluded.
## Afghanistan
| December 2016 | 2016 | 2015-2016 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| US strikes | 8 | 1071 | 1306-1307 |
| Total people reported killed | 24-26 | 1389-1597 | 2371-3031 |
| Civilians reported killed | 0 | 65-105 | 125-182 |
| Children reported killed | 0 | 3-7 | 6-23 |
| Total people reported injured | 12 | 196-243 | 338-390 |
*Notes on the data: The US Air Force has a variety of aircraft carrying out missions over Afghanistan, including jets, drones and AC-130 gunships. The UN reported in August 2015 that most US strikes were by unmanned aerial vehicles. This m**atches the Bureau’s records that show most US air attacks since January were by drones. However in the absence of US authorities revealing which type of aircraft carried out which attack, it remains unclear which of the attacks recorded were by manned or unmanned aircraft.*
The Bureau’s data on strikes in Afghanistan is not exhaustive. The ongoing war creates barriers to reporting and the Bureau’s data is an accumulation of what publicly available information exists on specific strikes and casualties. The US government publishes monthly aggregates of air operations in Afghanistan, minus information on casualties.
| Total Close Air Support (CAS) sorties with at least one weapon release | 615 |
| Total CAS sorties | 5162 |
| Total weapons released | 1337 |
US warplanes dropped 1,337 weapons over the country last year, a 40% rise on 2015, according to data released by the US Air Force.
The increase follows President Barack Obama’s decision in June to give US commanders more leeway to target the Taliban, amid the Afghan army’s struggle to keep strategic cities from falling into the insurgents’ hands.
Strikes conducted under this authority, referred to by the military as “strategic effects” strikes, have increased in frequency since the new rules came into force.
The continuing rise in attacks against the Taliban demonstrates the battle against the insurgents is far from over, despite combat operations targeting the group officially ending almost two years ago. Since then, Taliban violence has increased and Afghanistan’s branch of Islamic State has been trying to carve out territory in the east of the country.
IS emerged in Afghanistan in late 2014, growing as a force through 2015. The US responded by allowing the military to specifically target the group in a bid to stop it gaining strength.
As strikes have risen, so have reports of civilian casualties, with some significant incidents taking place in the second half of 2016.
The UN's biannual report on civilian casualties released in July detailed the deaths of 38 civilians in US strikes. Since then, the UN has highlighted two US strikes that took the lives of a further 47 civilians.
One of the more controversial strikes hit a house in Nangarhar province on September 28. While the US has maintained that members of Islamic State were killed in the attack, the UN, with uncharacteristic speed, released a report saying the victims were civilians. In subsequent reporting, the Bureau was able to confirm this and identify the victims.
This particular strike caused a rift between the UN and US. In an unusual step, the US commander in charge of the Afghanistan operations General Nicholson reportedly considered banning or restricting UN access to a military base in Kabul as a result of its assertion.
There could be more civilian casualties than the two incidents highlighted. These may be documented in the UN’s annual report due for release in February. The Bureau recorded the deaths of up to 105 civilians in Afghanistan as a result of US strikes in 2016.
Not included in these figures were instances of “friendly fire” attacks. The Bureau published an investigation into one of the three such incidents in 2016 when a US strike on a Taliban prison killed Afghan police officers being held captive.
## Yemen
| December 2016 | 2016 | 2009 to 2016 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| US strikes | 1 | 38 | 158-178 |
| Total people reported killed | 2 | 147-203 | 777-1075 |
| Civilians reported killed | 0 | 0 | 124-161 |
| Children reported killed | 0 | 0 | 32-34 |
| Total people reported injured | 0 | 34-41 | 143-287 |
Last year American air operations in Yemen reached their second highest level since 2002, when the US conducted its first ever lethal drone strike in the country.
At least 38 US strikes hit the country in 2016, targeting operatives belonging to terrorist group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) amid Yemen’s civil war.
The conflict ignited when the Houthi militant group stormed the capital of Sanaa in September 2014. Allied to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, the rebels pushed the internationally-recognised government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi into exile.
On October 12, the military launched cruise missile strikes at three rebel targets in Houthi-controlled territory following failed missile attacks on a US Navy ship. This is the first and only time the US has directly targeted Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Last year, a Saudi-led coalition began airstrikes against the rebels, which has led to widescale destruction. One of these strikes hit a funeral ceremony, killing 140 people. The munition used was identified by Human Rights Watch as a US-manufactured air-dropped GBU-12 Paveway II laser-guided bomb.
## Pakistan
| December 2016 | 2016 | 2009-2016 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| US strikes | 0 | 3 | 373 |
| Total people reported killed | 0 | 11 | 2089-3406 |
| Civilians reported killed | 0 | 1 | 257-634 |
| Children reported killed | 0 | 0 | 66-78 |
| Total people reported injured | 0 | 3-6 | 986-1467 |
Drone strikes in Pakistan last year fell to their lowest level in a decade, with only three strikes conducted in the country.
The most recent attack targeted Mullah Akhtar Mansour, the leader of the Afghan Taliban. Mansour was killed on May 21 while being driven through Balochistan, a restive region home to a separatist movement as well as the Afghan Taliban’s leadership. His civilian taxi driver, Mohammed Azam, was also killed in the strike.
It was the first ever US strike to hit Balochistan and only the sixth to hit a location outside Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas. It was also the first to be carried out by the US military in Pakistan. The CIA has carried out strikes since the drone program began in Pakistan in 2004.
The Pakistan government summoned the US ambassador in protest following the strike. Sartaj Aziz, foreign affairs special adviser to Pakistani Prime Minister, also claimed that killing Mansour had dented efforts to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table.
US drone strikes in Pakistan peaked in 2010, during which at least 755 people were killed. It is unclear what has led to the steep drop in strikes since then. The Pakistani military conducted an 18-month ground offensive in the tribal regions flushing out many militants and pushing them into Afghanistan. It is possible that the US ran out of targets.
This does not mean that the drone programme in Pakistan has come to end. Strikes paused for a six-month period at the end of December 2013 while the Pakistani government unsuccessfully tried to negotiate a peace accord with the Taliban. It is possible attacks will resume with the change in presidency in January.
*Main photo by Pete Marovich/Bloomberg via Getty Images*
Hear about our latest investigations, before they break | 200 | [
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2017-01-04 | Afghanistan | Facebook, Firecrackers, and War: The Story of Afghanistan’s New Year’s Babies - psmag.com | 200 | [
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2017-01-10 | Afghanistan | Multiple casualties in Afghanistan after major explosions - dw.com | 200 | [
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2017-01-17 | Afghanistan | The Costliest Day in SEAL Team Six History - History.com | ---
title: The Costliest Day in SEAL Team Six History | HISTORY
author: Sarah Pruitt
url: https://www.history.com/articles/the-costliest-day-in-seal-team-six-history
hostname: history.com
description: On August 6, 2011, insurgents shot down a Chinook transport helicopter in Afghanistan, killing all 38 people on board...
sitename: HISTORY
date: 2017-01-17
categories: ['U.S. Government and Politics']
---
The Tangi Valley, located along the border between Afghanistan’s Wardak and Logar provinces some 80 miles southwest of Kabul, is a remote, inaccessible area known for its resistance to foreign invasion. Alexander the Great suffered heavy troop losses there during his campaign in Afghanistan in the fourth century B.C. In the 1980s, mujahideen fighters in Wardak and Logar provinces devastated an entire division of Soviet fighters.
In 2009, U.S. forces from the 10th Mountain Division of the U.S. Army established a base in the Tangi Valley area after it became clear the Taliban had taken advantage of low coalition presence there to establish a stronghold within striking distance of the Afghan capital. As the United States and NATO allies began a drawdown of their troops in the spring of 2011, U.S. forces turned over the Tangi Valley outpost to their Afghan counterparts. They continued to run operations in the area, however, using helicopters and special operations forces to combat groups of insurgents in the region.
### The Storied History of SEAL Team Six, the Secret Unit That Killed Bin Laden
SEAL Team Six's security and counterterrorism missions have ranged from Grenada to Bosnia to Iraq.
SEAL Team Six's security and counterterrorism missions have ranged from Grenada to Bosnia to Iraq.
Under cover of darkness on the night of August 6, 2011, a special ops team that included a group of U.S. Army Rangers began an assault on a Taliban compound in the village of Jaw-e-Mekh Zareen in the Tangi Valley. The firefight at the house went on for at least two hours, and the ground team called in reinforcements. As the Chinook CH-47 transport helicopter (call sign: Extortion 17) carrying 30 U.S. troops, seven Afghan commandos, an Afghan civilian interpreter and a U.S. military dog approached, the insurgents fired on the helicopter and it crashed to the ground, killing all aboard.
Of the 30 Americans killed, 22 were Navy personnel, and 17 were SEALs. These included two bomb specialists and 15 operators in the Gold Squadron of DEVGRU, or Team Six, the highly classified unit that conducted the raid that killed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan the previous May. None of the operators killed in the Afghan helicopter crash had been involved in that mission, officials said. In addition to the SEALs, the others killed in the Chinook crash included five other Naval Special Warfare (NSW) personnel, three Air Force forward air controllers and five Army helicopter crewmembers.
The attack on August 6 was the most devastating day in SEAL Team Six history, as well as the single largest loss of life for U.S. forces since the war in Afghanistan began in October 2001. More than twice as many NSW personnel died in the Wardak crash than were killed on June 28, 2005, during Operation Redwings. That day, eight SEALs and eight members of the Army’s 160th Special Forces Operations Regiment (SOAR) were killed when insurgents shot down their Chinook helicopter in Kunar province, near Asadabad. Three SEALs involved in a firefight on the ground were also killed, in what would stand as the deadliest day in NSW history since the Normandy landings on D-Day, June 6, 1944. | 200 | [
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2017-01-09 | Afghanistan | The U.S. dropped an average of 3 bombs per hour last year - NBC News | ---
title: The U.S. dropped an average of 3 bombs per hour last year
author: F Brinley Bruton
url: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/u-s-bombed-iraq-syria-pakistan-afghanistan-libya-yemen-somalia-n704636
hostname: nbcnews.com
description: The U.S. dropped 26,171 bombs on seven countries in 2016, according to an analysis by the Council of Foreign Relations.
sitename: NBC News
date: 2017-01-09
---
The U.S. dropped an average of 72 bombs every day — the equivalent of three an hour — in 2016, according to an analysis of American strikes around the world.
The report from the Council of Foreign Relations comes as Barack Obama finishes up his presidency — one that began with promises to withdraw from international conflicts.
According to the New York City-based think tank, 26,171 bombs were dropped on Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan during the year.
CFR warned that its estimates were “undoubtedly low, considering reliable data is only available for airstrikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Libya, and a single ‘strike,’ according to the Pentagon’s definition, can involve multiple bombs or munitions.”
**Related:** U.S. Airstrikes Kill Twice the Civilians Previously Thought
Some 24,287 bombs were used in Iraq and Syria, where the U.S. is helping drive ISIS militants from swaths of both countries. In 2015, the U.S. dropped 22,110 bombs in Iraq and Syria, CFR reported.
Last year saw a sharp uptick in strikes in Afghanistan, with 1,337 compared with 947 in 2015, CFR found.
The study, which drew data from a variety of military and press sources, showed that three bombs were dropped on Pakistan during 2016, 14 in Somalia and 34 in Yemen.
A similar study looking at 2015 showed that 11 bombs were dropped in Pakistan during the year, 58 in Yemen and 18 in Somalia. The 2015 analysis did not include Libya.
When he was campaigning for president in 2008, Obama pledged that when he became commander-in-chief he would “set a new goal on day one: I will end [the Iraq] war.”
Upon accepting the Democratic nomination that year, Obama again outlined priorities that would make the country safer, saying: “I will end this war in Iraq responsibly, and finish the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.”
However, ISIS later seized parts of Syria and Iraq — and the Taliban won back territory in Afghanistan as the number of NATO troops in the country dwindled. | 200 | [
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2017-01-12 | Afghanistan | US says 33 Afghanistan civilians died in special forces raid last year - The Guardian | 200 | [
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2017-01-24 | Afghanistan | Romanian Military Police Detachment Provides Bagram Airfield Security - centcom.mil | 200 | [
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2017-01-20 | Afghanistan | As Afghanistan Comes Online, It Grapples With Its First Cyber Security Laws - VICE | ---
title: Afghan Taliban seek 'to establish an Islamic state on earth'
author: Bill Roggio
url: https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2017/01/afghan-taliban-seek-to-establish-an-islamic-state-on-earth.php
hostname: longwarjournal.org
description: While promoting its Al Farouq Training Camp, a speaker said that Taliban's ultimate goal is the establishment of a global Islamic state.
sitename: FDD's Long War Journal
date: 2017-01-20
categories: ['Feature Articles', 'Long War Journal']
---
In a propaganda video that promoted its Al Farouq Training Camp, the Taliban said that the ultimate goal of its jihad is “to establish an Islamic state on earth.” The Al Farouq camp is the latest training site publicized by the Taliban.
The video, entitled Ribat 1 and released on Voice of Jihad on Jan. 20, was produced by Tora Bora Jihadi Studio and the Multimedia Branch of the Cultural Commission of the Islamic Emirate. “Ribat” is defined as a base or fortress used to defend Islam.
The location of the Al Farouq camp was not disclosed by the Taliban; it could be located in either Afghanistan or Pakistan. The makeshift camp (there are no permanent structures seen in the video) is situated on a wooded hillside. An improvised range and obstacle course are shown during the course of the video.
The first half of the video is standard fare for Taliban training camp videos: an estimated 20 recruits are shown exercising and practicing with various weapons, including handguns, assault rifles, and machine guns. A group of 12 fighters are in what appears to be the camp uniform: a red keffiyeh, woodland camouflage uniforms, and new white high top sneakers.
The Taliban fighters are operating in the open in broad daylight, without fear of reprisal from US, Afghan, or Pakistani forces.
**Taliban calls for a global Islamic state**
The video is clearly geared toward a Western audience. Clips of the fighters training are subtitled with English-language captions such as The Training Madresa, The Center of Understanding Jihad, The School of Developing Minds, The Training Center of Mujahid Nation, Defending the Divine Way, and The Address of Jihadic Thinking.
The second half of the video features an unknown speaker who provides religious justification for jihad, which he calls a “holy obligation,” based on readings from the Koran. His entire speech is subtitled in English. The speaker then reaches out to “other Muslim brothers,” a clear reference to non-Afghans, to take part in jihad.
“We also have a responsibility to invite other Muslim brothers to take part in waging jihad with their blood and souls,” the Taliban speaker implores.
The Ribat 1 video, like a previous video entitled Real Men that also promoted a Taliban camp, contradicts many of the group’s public statements and claims that it only seeks to liberate Afghanistan from Western occupation. In Real Men, the Taliban’s message clearly indicated that it is a fervent defender of Islam and part of the global jihad.
In Ribat 1, the Taliban could not be more explicit about its support of the global jihad. At one point, the speaker said the Taliban’s ultimate goal is the establishment of a global Islamic state.
“Our aim of all these struggles and effort is to establish an Islamic state on earth,” the speaker said.
This should come as no surprise as the Taliban has often revealed its close relation to global jihadist groups, such as when it publicly accepted a pledge of allegiance from al Qaeda’s emir, Ayman al Zawahiri.
**Jihadist training camps in Afghanistan**
The Taliban has publicized at least 10 of its training camps since the end of 2014 (see list below). Other jihadist groups, including al Qaeda, are known to operate camps inside Afghanistan. In 2015, the US raided an al Qaeda camp in Bermal district in Paktika, and two others in the Shorabak district in Kandahar province. The outgoing commander of US forces in Afghanistan, General John Campbell, said that one of the camps in Shorabak was the largest in Afghanistan since the US invaded in 2001. Al Qaeda has also operated camps in Kunar and Nuristan.
Harakat-ul-Mujahideen, a Pakistani jihadist group that is closely allied with al Qaeda,“operates terrorist training camps in eastern Afghanistan,” the US government stated in 2014. The Turkistan Islamic Party, the Islamic Jihad Union, and the Imam Bukhari Jamaat, an Uzbek jihadist group that operates in both Syria and Afghanistan, have all claimed to operate camps inside Afghanistan. Coalition forces have also raided Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan suicide training camps in Samagan and Sar-i-Pul.
**Training camps promoted by the Taliban since Dec. 2014**
Dec. 2014: The Taliban announced the existence of a training camp in Faryab province.
Dec. 2014:The Khalid bin Waleed camp in Kunar province.
June 2015: The Taliban touted its “special forces” training camp; the location was not disclosed.
Aug. 2015: Training Camp Shaheed Ustaz Aasim in the Lions Den, in Paktia province.
Sept. 2015 The Salahadin Ayyubi camp; the location was not disclosed.
July 2016: The Omar bin Khattab training camp in Kunduz.
Oct. 2016: Abdullah bin Mubarak Jihad Training Camp; the location was not disclosed.
Nov. 2015: The Khalid bin Walid Camp; the location was not disclosed. According to the Taliban, it has 12 “branches.”
Nov. 2015: The Abu Dujana Camp, in Sar-i-Pul province. It is one of 12 branch camps of the Khalid bin Walid Camp.
Jan. 2017: Al Farouq Training Camp; the location was not disclosed.
## 12 Comments
Wasn’t this obvious? Why else would they accept the allegiance of Al Qaeda. They have been very vocal about their aim to establish an Islamic state in Afghanistan. Lately they have also been very vocal about having accepted the allegiance of Al Qaeda which should complete the picture of their long term goal.
They call their leader as Emir ul Mumineen which means the leaders of all muslims – not just Afghan muslims. How can the leader of all muslims have only local ambitions.
Sadly it is not obvious to everyone… People in Washington and Europe still want to negotiate with the Taliban.
1) The picture is neither static nor straightforward. Therefore I don’t think anything was/is as obvious with regards to all terrorist, militant and insurgent groups operating worldwide nowadays. They undergo an unparalleled, unprecedented paths and their modus operandi is based on continuous adaptation to changing circumstances. They keep evolving, and the driving force of this evolution is what they find about our vulnerabilities, through continuously testing and experimenting. We are largely ignorant of their testing and thinking, and we base our assumptions mostly ex-post, once they demonstrate their intentions, through statements or actions. Such a reactive position means that we are too late, at east to anticipate and prevent. 2) Situation with Taleban was complicated from the outset, and due to miscalculated strategic approaches to address the driving forces of the conflict in Afghanistan I am afraid we have missed the opportunity to engage them in a meaningful political process. They kept fighting on their own soil but also kept evolving in a competitive regional and global environment (with other jihadist movements and groups, for funding and other resources and support). As a result, we somehow failed to recognize the Taleban as part of the global jihadism—they serve it for quite some period as one major training facility. This is their function (perhaps, as agreed with other key players like al-Qaeda). To be recognized as a global jihadist movement it is not necessary to directing terrorist attacks elsewhere and claiming responsibility—offering technical support to perpetrators of those attacks already qualifies. 3) This poses hard questions to international community. The Afghan government is desperately seeking an agreement with the Taleban. The war has turned into perpetual confrontation, with the land changing hands continuously, while claiming thousands of lives and sucking billions of dollars on military campaigns and the maintenance of government. How to proceed in such a situation? Up until now, the international community has encouraged the talks between major political forces in Afghanistan; this was reflected in the last Afghanistan donor conference communiqué as well. However, the Taleban now openly claiming their belonging to global Jihadism changes everything. It is clear that the Government of Afghanistan is ready to make significant concessions to the Taleban. Moving their headquarters to Afghanistan and becoming a legitimate political power there, the Taleban gains high chances to win democratic elections, or at the very least to participate in power sharing. And what will happen with its ties with and commitments to the global Jihad organisations? If the Taleban ends the war and becomes part of political system (and influences the policies, if not directly runs the country) and at the same time shelters the jihadists and offers them training facilities and other resources, for perpetrating the attacks globally—then, one may ask, are not we back in square one of 2001? What then? This is a very real prospect of the developments, and without analyzing and assessing the possible strategic options no further steps shall be taken.
Bill, in your opinion should the Afghan Taliban be acknowledged as a terrorist organisation as opposed to an insurgent group? If they were to be listed would the fight against them be any different to what it is now? (that is, in my opinion, somewhat ineffective).
The Taliban are piece of a big pie, it was obvious that they wanted to establish Islamic state, eventually ISIK Islamic state of Khorasan will join and unite with same ideology and make the situation worse for the coalition forces to counter such threats they should seek regional cooperation such as China and Russia to get the more involved.
Maybe this I a revival of Anwar al-Haqq s/o Yunis Khalis’ media operation. He had shut down the Tora Bora Front in 2015. In 2016 someone took it online again and they allegedly also pledged loyalty to the new amir al-muminin Mawlawi Hibatullah (btw itäs NOT Haibatullah – see https://alemara1.org/?p=71495), so it would make sense to use pictures made in late high summer for that video from wherever along the Spin Ghar range they have their camp now in a media release for the Taliban. Yunus Khalis faction was always very global in outlook, Khalis was one of the original sponsors of OBL in Nangarhar, and his most reliable protector. Taliban central communications command includes this and the “Real Men” stuff to bolster its stance in any negotiations, showing off how awful they can be.
Shane, I am a believer in calling things what they are. But only a policy shift would change the situation on the ground.
Love the informed commentary, but anyone that talks about the Taliban without mentioning their trainers and sponsors, the ISI, in the same sentence is wasting their breath. Just like Iran owns Hezbollah, Pakistan owns these Cyclopean freaks. That the ISI was able to keep Mullah Omar’s death a secret from the world (CIA) is Exhibit A in how Uncle Sam allows himself to be hoodwinked by these murderous gangsters (PakMil). They (ISI) perfected the use of 6-8 kg. suicide vests as a strategic weapon. The entire world is under strain because these Svengali trainers are so good at making people blow themselves up. Every TB training camp has an ISI overseer. Bring PakMil to heel and the world will be a much safer place. Talk to their terror proxies (like State wanted to do) is just rewarding the generals’ bad behavior and giving the ISI/Pakistanis a beach-head in AFG.
Arjuna, your heavy bias against Pakistan is a credit to your Indian patriotism but, ironically, can hardly be considered the kind of informed commentary that so enamours you.
I actually wonder, though, whether a change in recognition would make it more possible for Afghans who have fled the country (I know many) due to threats against them, murders of family members, etc. to have improved options to remain in the more peaceful nations where they landed. Some of us have wondered why on earth they are treated so poorly vis a vis, for example, Syrians (in Europe), Eritreans etc. Of course case by case analysis is necessary, but with Iran and Pakistan sending hundreds of thousands of Afghans away, to become internally displaced, starving residents again of Afghanistan, it is worth asking: would this acknowledgment (I agree to call it what it is – I an currently trying to understand why it was ever an idea to negotiate with the Taliban) give asylumseekers who are already in other countries, with cases, some hope? I consider a lack of hope to be a risk, in some cases, for radicalization.
Other than the lame excuse that Pakistan is nuclear, I have never understood how we became cow-towed ($$) to those idiots in the isi. Their allowing Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters to rest-up on their side, giving them shelter and re-arming capabilities is as good a reason as any to expand operations by our military well into their territory. War? Why not? The only way to defeat them is to go after them. It is an atrocity to our troops to put them under those engagement terms. Pakistani people should be more pro-active in ridding their country of these vermin as well as whomever in the isi is supporting them. Why would you allow such criminals refuge?
Isn’t Saudi Arabia an Islamic State on Earth? ThevTaliban can go there. | 200 | [
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2017-01-07 | Afghanistan | Afghan Taliban seek ‘to establish an Islamic state on earth’ - Long War Journal | ---
title: As Afghanistan Comes Online, It Grapples With Its First Cyber Security Laws
author: Ruchi Kumar
url: https://www.vice.com/en/article/afghanistan-first-cyber-security-law/
hostname: vice.com
description: The internet presents a new battlefield for the Afghan government as it prepares legislation to regulate and protect citizens online.
sitename: VICE
date: 2017-01-07
categories: ['Tech']
---
As one of Afghanistan’s contemporary female pop stars Aryana Sayeed, is used to getting misogynist comments for her work, her music, and even her appearance. After all, her songs, her performances, and her very existence are intentionally designed to make the many thousands of Afghan men who hold on dearly to patriarchal values uncomfortable.
She often ignores the many unbecoming remarks threats issued by extremists and insurgent groups, most of which are delivered from behind the anonymity provided by social media. But then there are those that are more difficult to ignore, such as a bounty announced by an Afghan social media user on Facebook offering 50,000 AFN (about $750) for the death of Aryana.
## Videos by VICE
“What’s appalling is that not only is his post and profile both public, he makes no effort to hide his identity and there is no fear of the law,” said Hasib Sayed, Aryana’s manager.
While Aryana has approached the National Directorate of Security (NDS), Afghanistan’s primary intelligence agency, to help her track the threat, there are no mechanisms in place in Afghanistan for the millions of other users to report cybercrimes. However, that is about to change soon with a new cybersecurity bill currently under consideration by the Afghan government.
“What’s appalling is that not only is his post and profile both public, he makes no effort to hide his identity and there is no fear of the law.”
As a country reeling from decades of war, Afghanistan witnessed an exponential growth in the technology sector, primarily driven by user demand. Since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001, following the US invasion, the number of Afghan users connected to the internet has risen significantly, and continues to rise despite renewed conflict in the region. According to USAID, the latest data available indicates that there are around 20 million mobile users and about 3 million internet users in Afghanistan.
As empowering as the internet has been, especially for the average Afghan woman, it has come with its share of drawbacks—online harassment and privacy violations among many others, some more unique to the region than others.
“We have more knowledge and understanding of IT now along with institutions that support online activity for Afghans,” said Aimal Marjan, deputy minister for communication and IT, explaining why the bill took this long to be drafted. “Had we pursued this seven years ago, it would have had little real world application.”
Indeed, the telecom sector has substantially grown over the last decade to become one of the largest revenue generating sectors in Afghanistan with annual average revenue of $139.6 million— accounting for more than 12 percent—of total government revenues. Consequently, internet users have grown from a mere 300,000 in 2006 to over 4 million in 2016.
The Afghan Cyber Security Bill, prepared by the Afghan Ministry of Communication, Information and Technology (MCIT), lays down definitions of cybercrime and procedures to tackle them within the purview of the existing criminal law. The law also proposes that there needs to be a separate court to deliberate on cybercrimes, asks for an office under the Attorney General for matters of cyber offences, and someone trained specifically to handle these cases.
At face value, the law is rather impressive, borrowing from and adopting best practices from around the world. But a detailed peek into the document reveals an overtly ambitious plan, the implementation of which would require logistical and procedural systems that do not yet exist in Afghanistan.
“They [the government] are counting on too many non-existent state actors to bring it to reality,” said, Javid Hamdard, an Afghan IT expert and Consultant. Hamdard, who has in the past worked extensively with the MCIT and the IT private sector in Afghanistan, is skeptical of the practicality of the bill. “It is assumed that once approved, the required entities will act accordingly and have the capacity to do what is needed,” he said, pointing to the failure of the electronic ID-Card program that was entrusted to the Ministry of Interior (MoI) but never saw the light of day owing to a number of issues, ranging from lack of technical expertise and social and political hurdles.
In fact, just in the last three months, several Afghan government websites and social media pages have come under cyber-attack, some even believed to be conducted by increasingly tech-savvy insurgent groups. It also means that Afghan web is relatively free, owing to the lack of technical capacity needed to regulate it, which also means that insurgent groups and elements frequently exploit it as a tool of propaganda.
In its defense, the MCIT is working on setting up a Cyber Emergency Response Team (CERT) with a substantial budget and in consultation with several international counterparts, including US government security agencies. It will aim to build a forensics laboratory within the MCIT and train officials to conduct investigation into alleged crimes. “We will also provide support to the MoI, NDS and other defense agencies when needed,” Marjan said.
Hamdard is not convinced that either of the agencies tasked with this responsibility are capable of dealing with investigations into cybercrime.
“The technical gap and imbalance among various Afghan government entities is massive,” he said. “There is a limited understanding of the problems, so much that in the past they have criminalised ‘white hat’ ethical hackers who tried to help them secure their networks, forcing them to either go underground or flee the country.”
This is evident in conversations with local police officials, who use the internet in their personal lives, but have little understanding of a user’s rights and protection on the internet. For instance, one of the men who commented on the post calling for Aryana’s execution was a law official.
“This NDS commander advised the man who issued the threat to be careful about posts online for the sake of his own security. He did not seem to think that there was anything wrong in the threat itself,” Hasib said.
Poor implementation could actually create newer hurdles and possible misuse of the law. Hamdard expressed concern over a particular Article 11 that allows MCIT’s technical officials the policing authority to seize equipment, peripherals, and material in cases of cybercrime.
“This isn’t constitutional to bestow ministry officials the authority to make legal and criminal judgments and take relevant actions, a role that is assigned for law enforcement agencies,” he said. “Additionally, the MCIT also does not have jurisdiction over content; that’s the job of the Ministry of Culture and Information (MoIC). And yet a lot of the cyber law drafted by them regulates content online.”
The law, in fact, attempts to be very culturally relevant and religiously compliant to Islamic values. “Activities that harm social fabric and are not allowed by religion are prohibited in the law including gambling, pornography, and dating,” Marjan informs. “For instance, there is a clause against all forms of pornography not just child pornography—unlike other countries where pornography is allowed,” he elaborates.
Also, there isn’t any special clause addressing issues related to vulnerable communities, including women, who remain disproportionately vulnerable online to harassment, privacy threats and even identity thefts that could result in dire consequences for them. “Those are matters of policy and will be addressed separately,” Marjan said. “The law is general and will equally protect everyone, regardless of who they are.”
Afghan users are concerned about the bureaucratic behemoth that could potentially be unleashed could cause more damage, rather than empower, especially for vulnerable groups in Afghanistan. “The law is supposed to create an environment of safety by creating systems that demand accountability for every action. I don’t see that happening with the way things are currently run,” said Elham, a young Afghan entrepreneur, who did not want to use his real name.
“The thing to understand here is that for my sister, the use of the internet wasn’t given to her as a right”
The internet came to the rescue for Elham’s 18-year-old sister, Freshta (name changed to protect her identity) when their conservative parents were reluctant to allow her to continue her education. It is fairly uncommon for most women in the region to pursue higher education, where gender roles dictate a life of early marriage and motherhood. In fact, none of Elham’s four sisters had studied beyond high school, and that Freshta aspired to was previously unheard of. Despite much cajoling, Elham couldn’t convince his family to let Freshta go to university, so he did the next best thing—enrolled her for an online degree.
He bought her a laptop and smartphone with an internet connection and helped set up social media accounts that she would need to connect with her classmates who participate from all over the world. Now for four days a week, Freshta logs on to the internet for three hours a day to attend her online classes in Persian literature. The rest of the week she works on her assignments and reading course materials and exchanging notes with her classmates. There is little left for anyone to object, and after the initial few days, their family has come to see that an online degree wouldn’t be too bad after all.
“The thing to understand here is that for my sister, the use of the internet wasn’t given to her as a right, but a privilege granted to her,” Elham said. “It could just as well be taken away from her if she faces any threats while she is online. And this could also discourage her from complaining about it,” he said, adding that law needs to be such that it becomes a deterrent to offenders.
Hamdard agreed. “For any law to work, there first needs to be a general acceptance of the rule of law, which is scarce in Afghanistan,” he said. “If there are still elements that can exert influence and threaten the public security in the real world, a law to protect someone online can only offer a semblance of safety.”
For now, the bill is still under consideration of the Supreme Court and is expected to go to the parliament in February.
With that timeline, the bill aspires to train technical officials, the attorney general’s office, and law enforcement agencies to recognize cases that fall under this law.
While there is a general agreement—even among critics like Hamdard—that the new law could be relatively sufficient in its current form, concerns over its implementation remain firmly rooted among stakeholders in Afghanistan, who, by experience, have learned to be cautious of the contemporary legal systems in the country. | 200 | [
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2017-01-24 | Afghanistan | Salute the Badge: The many roles of U.S. military police in Afghanistan - WIBW | ---
title: Salute the Badge: The many roles of U.S. military police in Afghanistan
author: Kenia Mills
url: https://www.wibw.com/content/news/Salute-the-Badge-Military-Police-411662145.html
hostname: wibw.com
description: “When I recruited in 2004, my recruiter’s biggest selling point was (military police) deploy to Iraq and kick in doors. There wasn’t a big focus on the law enforcement of this job, it was the combat mission,” said Da Giau.
sitename: WIBW
date: 2017-01-24
categories: ['Salute The Badge']
---
# Salute the Badge: The many roles of U.S. military police in Afghanistan
“It just keeps me on my toes,” said Army Staff Sgt. Samuel Da Giau of his daily responsibilities as a military police officer on Ft. Riley.
Da Giau joined the army 12 years ago enlisting as military police officer during the height of the wars in the Middle East.
“When I recruited in 2004, my recruiter’s biggest selling point was they (military police) deploy to Iraq and kick in doors. There wasn’t a big focus on the law enforcement of this job, it was the combat mission,” said Da Giau.
Army Capt. Cesar Patino was an enlisted infantry soldier for eight years prior to commissioning as a lieutenant and joining the Military Police Corps in 2008.
“Back when I joined the ranks of the Military Police Corps, we were the force of choice because of our flexibility,” said Patino. “We have many skills that we use on a daily basis: investigations, law and order, resettlement or detainee ops, intelligence operations. We are just a very versatile force.”
Both soldiers have trained Afghan police officers.
During a nine month deployment to Afghanistan in 2006, Da Giau and his unit trained 60 Afghan police officers, a difficult task he says due to the language barrier.
“Interesting getting over that language barrier right off the bat and figuring out what their ethics are, mirror them to ours and find common ground. Realizing that policing is an international language, mostly with the basis of protecting your own family and protecting your own property. Getting interpreters not familiar with the local area, made it kind of tough,” said Da Giau.
In 2008, Patino was deployed to Afghanistan and was in charge of training the chiefs of police at six stations.
“Whenever we visited the districts, I would train the chief of police; my squad leaders would train the section supervisors and the station commanders and so on…down to the team leader, down to the patrolman. Teaching the patrolman how to do police operations, crime analysis, identifying trends, identifying crimes...down to cuffing, how to process detainees, how to do proper approaching of suspects. So at every skill level, we had tasks that we trained that specific police department,” said Patino.
Both MPs agree their missions in a combat setting required flexibility, switching gears at a moment’s notice.
According to Da Giau, a day in combat could include training police, pulling security during convoy missions, assisting engineers with route clearance of roadside bombs or quickly reacting to an emergency in which a combat unit may need fire support.
“When it comes to securing the enemy, in-processing the enemy to the permanent detainment facility, that’s when the military police skills, specific skills come into play,” said Patino.
Those skills include knowledge of the host nation’s laws and in the case of Afghanistan, knowledge of Sharia Law.
“'Multipurpose' is about the main quote I can use for being an MP in combat. I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything,” said Da Giau.
“If I had to do it all over again, I would’ve found myself in the same recruiting station,” said Patino. | 200 | [
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2017-01-06 | Afghanistan | The U.S. Marines are sending a task force back to Afghanistan's Helmand province - Marine Corps Times | ---
title: The U.S. Marines are sending a task force back to Afghanistan's Helmand province
author: Shawn Snow; Andrew deGrandpre
url: https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2017/01/06/the-u-s-marines-are-sending-a-task-force-back-to-afghanistan-s-helmand-province/
hostname: marinecorpstimes.com
description: The deployment of 300 advisers comes as Taliban forces have made steady gains in the region.
sitename: Marine Corps Times
date: 2017-01-06
categories: ['name']
---
The U.S. Marines will deploy a 300-person task force to southwestern Afghanistan this spring to help local security forces beat back Taliban gains in the restive Helmand province.
The deployment will last nine months, marking the first in what's expected to become a series of similar rotations for the Marines, officials said Friday. Security in Helmand, a long-time Taliban stronghold that's home to the abundant poppy crop fueling Afghanistan's lucrative heroin trade, has deteriorated precipitously since U.S. forces largely withdrew from the province in 2014. The Marines say they are preparing to encounter hostile conditions.
The task force will serve in an advise-and-assist role, said Lt. Gen. William Beydler, commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces Central Command. Task Force Southwest, as it will be known, is in the midst of a five-month training workup. Once in theater, the Marines will work alongside "key leaders" from the Afghan National Army's 215th Corps and the 505th Zone National Police "to further optimize their capabilities in that region," officials said.
"Afghanistan remains a dangerous and dynamic environment," Beydler said. "And our aim, training and advising the Afghan forces, is to preserve and build upon the gains they've made. Marines will face risk in this new assignment."
There are approximately 8,500 U.S. troops assigned to the NATO mission in Afghanistan. Most are concentrated at major installations in the capital, Kabul, and at the international coalition's main airfield in Bagram. Their chief focus is supporting the Afghan security forces' campaign to thwart the Taliban. A separate mission is focused on secretive counter-terrorism operations, including efforts to target Islamic State loyalists who've seized territory along the Pakistan border in Nangarhar province.
Task Force Southwest will comprise mostly more-senior military personnel pulled from units across II Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, including from the 6th Marine Regiment, officials said. They will be focused on enhancing the Afghans' ability to gather and interpret battlefield intelligence, and on improving upon their logistical coordination and other areas where key "challenges and capability gaps persist," said Brig. Gen. Roger B. Turner Jr., the task force commander.
"The challenges they have," Turner said, "are really intel operations, integration, logistics, sustainment of their forces, administration and things like that." The Afghans have made considerable progress, he later added, a reality that drove the commander's decision to tap personnel with considerable experience. "It’s not a simplistic mission," Turner said. The Afghans have "really gotten to a point where our level of advising needs to be pretty sophisticated to match where their capabilities are."
Turner is a combat-decorated officer who led the 5th Marine Regiment from 2011-2013, time that included a yearlong combat tour in Helmand province. Previously, as an infantry battalion commander, he led combat forces during two deployments to Iraq's Anbar province.
His Marines are replacing an Army unit, Task Force Forge, which has filled a similar advisory role for much of the last year. It's not immediately clear why the Marine Corps is supplanting the Army for this mission, although the Marines did accumulate deep experience in the region between 2009 and 2014, during what would become the war's most violent period. Regardless, officials are planning to own the role for the foreseeable future.
"We will do this mission as long as we are required," Beydler said.
Turner's task force will be distributed throughout various parts of Helmand, officials said. They declined to identify specific districts. However, one base of operations will be the Marines' former hub in Afghanistan, a sprawling facility known as Camp Leatherneck, where tens of thousands of U.S. military personnel were deployed through the years. The base abuts a coalition airfield.
Lance Cpl. Jedidiah Morgan, Lance Cpl. Michael Pavlik, and Cpl. Patrick McCall take overwatch positions on rooftops, the best way to see over a maze of high compound walls in the Sangin area. Second Squad, Third Platoon of Baker Co., 1st Battalion, 7th Marines operates out of Patrol Base Fulod, in the "Fish Tank" section of Sangin, an area that has been historically dangerous due to it's high walls, and narrow alleys. PB Fulod in Sangin, Helmand on May 1, 2012. (James J. Lee/Marine Corps Times)
The Afghans have seen security erode in several Helmand districts, including Marjah, Sangin and in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. All have experienced resurgent violence as a determined Taliban seeks to reclaim lost ground and once again push out any political and security entities loyal to the central Afghan government.
"We're viewing this as a high-risk mission that really requires training to ensure our Marines are capable of countering the full spectrum of threat," Turner said. "We're not in any way viewing this as a noncombat mission, or something to take lightly. We're following the situation [in Helmand] closely ... to make sure the training and force protection is commensurate with that threat."
Some estimates suggest the Taliban has retaken more than 80 percent of Helmand province, erasing gains that came at great cost — in money spent and in lives lost — to the U.S. and its military forces. Earlier this week, the Taliban launched a large-scale attack on the Sangin district center, with local sources warning of its potential collapse.
It's a major setback for the Afghan government, which is reeling from a bloody fighting season in which Afghan security forces sustained nearly 15,000 casualties during the first eight months of 2016, according to a recent report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, a government monitoring agency.
"It is not uncommon for the southern districts of Afghanistan to see elevated Taliban activity during the winter months," Captain Bill Salvin, a spokesman for Operation Resolute Support, told Military Times. "The weather there is more conducive to year-round fighting. The Taliban has engaged Afghan forces in Sangin district, but our Afghan partners maintain control of the district and continue to fend off Taliban advances."
Holding a special place in the annals of Marine Corps history, Sangin claimed the lives of nearly 50 U.S. Marines, 25 of those from 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, a unit known as Darkhorse. Another 100 British troops also lost there lives due to the violence there.
**AS AFGHANS REGROUP, TALIBAN WREAKS HAVOC**
A tenuous security environment is not unique to Helmand. Violence continues to haunt several regions in Afghanistan. Nine American service members were killed in action there throughout the last year, according to Defense Department statistics. Another 70 were wounded by hostile activity.
For the U.S. and NATO forces deployed to Afghanistan, the challenges are cyclical. While Afghan forces seek to rebuild following an exhausting 2016 fighting season, Taliban militants continue to wage war across the countryside. Today, of Afghanistan's 407 districts across 34 provinces, 258 are under government control, according to the inspector general's report. Thirty-three districts, areas spread across 16 Afghan provinces, are under insurgent control.
Nearly 120 districts remain "contested," the report says.
Nevertheless, senior U.S. officials describe the situation with an air of optimism. "We feel good about the situation right now in Afghanistan with regard to the support we’re providing," Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said this week. "In terms of bolstering the Afghan security forces, improving their fighting capabilities so that ultimately they can secure the country on their own, we see progress there."
However, the Afghans have been plagued by high attrition, raising questions about their ability to survive another brutal fighting season. The Afghan army comprises about 169,000 soldiers, but last year suffered a 33 percent attrition rate — a 7 percent increase from 2015, according to in inspector general.
Afghan forces are spending the winter working to "regenerate capability and capacity," NATO officials say. Their training includes air integration operations to assist Afghan special forces in calling in combat air support.
"Before March of 2016, the Afghan air force had no ground-attack aircraft," the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Army Gen. John Nicholson, told Pentagon reporters last month. "They've added eight aircraft for this and — and have also, more importantly, added about 120 Afghan tactical air controllers. So not only are they adding the attack aircraft, they're adding the capability to control those aircraft on the ground.
"When you look at the amount of the population secured by the government, it equates to roughly two-thirds, about 64 percent," he said. "There's also great confidence expressed in the Afghan security forces. And roughly three-quarters of the population say they have faith and confidence in the Afghan security forces."
*Andrew deGrandpre is Military Times' senior editor and Pentagon bureau chief. On Twitter:* *@adegrandpre**. Shawn Snow is Military Times' Early Bird editor. On Twitter:*
*.*
Shawn Snow is the senior reporter for Marine Corps Times and a Marine Corps veteran. | 200 | [
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2017-01-24 | Afghanistan | Task Force Southwest Marines prep for Afghanistan deployment - marines.mil | 200 | [
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2017-01-23 | Afghanistan | Afghanistan: UN-backed $550 million aid plan aims to reach 5.7 million people - UN News | 200 | [
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2017-01-13 | Afghanistan | Afghanistan Disputes US Report on Taliban Gains - VOA - Voice of America English News | 200 | [
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2017-01-25 | Afghanistan | To End The War In Afghanistan, The US Needs To Make Some Difficult Decisions - Task & Purpose | ---
title: To End The War In Afghanistan, The US Needs To Make Some Difficult Decisions
author: Matthew Gault
url: https://taskandpurpose.com/news/pull-afghanistan-back-brink/
hostname: taskandpurpose.com
description: Nearly 2,400 American service member have died during the war in Afghanistan. Along with so many of its sons and daughters, taxpayers sacrificed almost a $1 trillion to hold the country since 2001. Not all that cash went to war, of course.
sitename: Task & Purpose
date: 2017-01-25
categories: ['News']
---
Nearly 2,400 American service member have died during the war in Afghanistan. Along with so many of its sons and daughters, taxpayers sacrificed almost a $1 trillion to hold the country since 2001. Not all that cash went to war, of course. The United States spent around $115 billion of it to reconstruct a country the Taliban had ravaged.
Now, with sequestration cutting into the military budget and a new president coming into office, Afghanistan’s fate hangs in the balance. The Taliban is resurgent, and though they fell short of capturing a provincial capital in 2016, they still made inroads in a country Americans and Afghans have died to keep safe.
According to a recent report from John Sopko, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, “only 63.4% of the country’s districts were under Afghan government control or influence a reduction from the 72% as of November 27, 2015.”
Congress formed SIGAR and appointed Sopko in 2008. It’s the biggest governmental body providing oversight of the reconstruction effort in Afghanistan and what it discovers often isn’t pretty. The most recent report, published in January 2017, is an assessment of the high-risk areas threatening Afghanistan today.
U.S. Army aviators fly a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, assigned to 1st Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, during a mission from Tactical Base Gamberi to Camp Morehead in eastern Afghanistan Oct. 23, 2016.DoD photo
Washington and Kabul are losing Afghanistan. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Systemic corruption, a waning security force and a unhealthy relationship with the counternarcotics is destroying Afghanistan and its military.
If America wants to stay in Afghanistan and beat the Taliban, it can. But that’s a big if. Another option is to negotiate peace with the Taliban, something Kabul has attempted since the war began. But there are contentious issues neither side will relent on, such as the Taliban’s insistence on changing Afghanistan’s constitution to reflect sharia law and what form any kind of power sharing between Kabul and the Taliban would take.
There’s another way, one that would be the Taliban’s preference — the complete withdrawal of coalition forces from Afghanistan. In an article on the Taliban’s website, its leaders asked U.S. President Donald Trump to do just that.
What we can’t do is continue to lie to ourselves. Turning the tide will be take years, not to mention more money and more American troops. That’s just the way it is. If we aren’t willing to do that, then we need to leave the country and face the consequences of failure. That’ll mean saying goodbye to billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars, strategic fallout from losing an American military presence close to Pakistan’s border region, and the Pentagon accepting a defeat on a level not seen since Vietnam.
The current strategy amounts to a slow unwinding, a sustained collapse that does a disservice to the American taxpayer and the soldiers of many nations who fought and died to defeat the Taliban.
**Root out corruption**
The biggest problem eating away at the the war in Afghanistan is corruption. Kabul officials take bribes, local contractors overestimate the cost of projects to bilk the U.S. taxpayer, and Afghan army commanders overreport troop numbers to bulk up their budget. Corruption permeates Afghanistan. It’s part of the culture.
According to Transparency International — a nonprofit that tracks corruption — only North Korea and Somalia are more corrupt than Kabul. “Ninety percent of Afghans say that corruption is a problem in their daily lives,” Sopko wrote in his latest report. U.S. taxpayers have poured billions in aid into Afghanistan only to see it scooped up by corrupt government officials, businessmen and criminals.
The problem is so endemic that most U.S. officials familiar with the country feel the threat outweighs even the Taliban. “The ultimate point of failure for our efforts … wasn’t an insurgency. It was the weight of endemic corruption,” former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker told SIGAR.
Qazi Muheebullah, city court chief, speaks to defense attorneys and the crowd during a public trial in which Habib ullah Jangay, Khas Kunar Chief of Police, was charged with misuse of his position, and Shams urhman Momand, a logistics officer, was charged with corruption.DoD photo
“Corruption alienates key elements of the population, discredits the government and security forces, undermines international support, subverts state functions and rule of law, robs the state of revenue, and creates barriers to economic growth.”
To combat the problem, America must track every single dollar spent in the country. It seems simple, but it hasn’t happened yet. It must also help build a culture of honesty and transparency by strictly enforcing business ethics, prosecuting corruption cases criminally and leading by example.
Too many times, American contractors came into Afghanistan and overcharged the Pentagon and State Department for simple construction projects so it could pocket the extra cash. The Afghans watched this and learned what they could get away with.
Without oversight, strict criminal laws backed by tough prosecution and a change of culture, corruption will defeat America faster than the Taliban ever could.
**Take the fight to the Taliban**
Afghanistan must have a strong and self sustaining military force to keep the Taliban from retaking the country. Washington and Kabul both know this, and as a result, American taxpayers have spent almost $70 billion to create and support Afghanistan’s military. But the cash isn’t enough, especially with corruption remaining a systemic problem.
The Afghan National Army’s casualty rate makes it almost impossible to sustain the service. Soldiers’ pay often fails to make it into their pockets, since commanders skim cash off the top before handing it over to their troops. The logistical supply lines are a nightmare thanks to both a lack of infrastructure and pilfering as supplies move down the road.
Because of these problems the ANA is mostly a defensive force, focusing on holding ground as the Taliban continues to make gains. The problem is so bad that Kabul uses Afghan special operations forces to hold population centers and fill in for the overstretched army. “One Resolute Support advisor expressed concern that the ANA’s over-reliance on ‘commandos’ risks burning out those elite forces,” SIGAR wrote.
Soldiers from the 1st Brigade, 205th Afghan National Army Corps conducted helicopter air insertion training in Southern Kandahar province, Afghanistan.DoD Photo
Since 2015, Washington has been more hands off with the Afghan security forces, and the situation has deteriorated rapidly. The sad fact is the Afghan army simply isn’t ready to defend its own country. If it wants to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan, America will have to commit more ground forces to the fight to give the Afghans time to fill out their force and change the culture of corruption.
Related: 15 Years Later, We’re Still Fighting In Afghanistan And No One Cares »
Those are the facts on the ground. According to Pentagon reports, “from January 1, 2016, through August 19, 2016, a total of 5,523 ANDSF service members were killed and an additional 9,665 members were wounded.” America pulled its forces and attempted to let Kabul stand on it’s own. It didn’t work out.
To stop the bleeding, America has to re-commit ground troops to the fight, secure key population centers without the help of Afghan commandos, freeing them to be an offensive rather than defensive force, and then take the fight to the Taliban. Joint operations between American and Afghan forces is the only way to do this in a way that allows Kabul to rebuild its shattered forces.
This will take years.
**Make peace with the poppy**
This is going to be the hardest one to swallow, but it’s also the most important. “The cultivation and trafficking of illicit drugs put the entire U.S. and international investment in the reconstruction of Afghanistan at risk,” Sopko’s report said. He’s right. The Taliban once suppressed the poppy trade, but now it makes millions from trafficking every year.
The United States has spent almost $8 billion trying to eliminate opium in Afghanistan. It destroyed fields, paid farmers exorbitant amounts of cash to grow anything other than poppies and enforced strict drug laws. It didn’t work.
“Eradication efforts have had minimal impact on production and sometimes fostered resentment among farmers, who perceived it as a corrupt practice for local officials to extract bribes in order for their crop to be spared,” Sopko explained.
Afghan National Security forces oversee poppy eradication in Northern Marjah.DoD photo
Now, the Taliban makes tons of money off of the opium trade. The religious fanatics figured out what Washington hasn’t, or what it willfully ignores — people will always want drugs. As a result, a cash crop such as the poppy will always thrive whether supported by a regulated free market or an unregulated black market.
For America to win in Afghanistan, it has to make peace with the poppy. That runs counter to decades of U.S. drug policy, but regulating, taxing, and supporting Afghan poppy farmers may be the single biggest change the Pentagon could make in Afghanistan that would have a lasting effect on all the other problems.
A well-regulated opium trade will instantly win over local farmers, enrich the coffers of Kabul, and allow the government to quickly become self sustaining, fight corruption by bringing a black market into the daylight and destroy one of the Taliban’s main income streams.
There will, of course, be social problems associated with a thriving drug trade. But the truth is that those problems already exist and a realistic approach to the poppy is better than the fantasy of eradication.
In Afghanistan, peace with the poppy is a hard and bitter pill. But if the Pentagon doesn’t swallow it, America may well lose its longest war.
Trump and Defense Secretary James Mattis have hard choices to make. After almost two decades of perpetual war in Afghanistan, thousands of American lives and billions of taxpayer dollars, Washington and Kabul are at the brink. Only decisive and radical action will stop the Taliban from winning. It’s time to take that action or cut our losses and get out.
*Update Jan. 26, 2017: An earlier version of this article inaccurately listed one of the most corrupt countries in the world. It is South Korea. * | 200 | [
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2017-01-08 | Afghanistan | Taliban Shrugs at US Plans to Send More Troops to Afghanistan - VOA - Voice of America English News | ---
title: Taliban Shrugs at US Plans to Send More Troops to Afghanistan
author: Ayaz Gul
url: https://www.voanews.com/a/taliban-us-more-troops-to-afghanistan/3667603.html
hostname: voanews.com
description: The insurgents have captured most of Helmand Province, the largest poppy-growing Afghan province, since NATO ended its combat mission
sitename: Voice of America (VOA News)
date: 2017-01-08
categories: ['East Asia']
tags: ['USA, East Asia, Afghanistan, helmand province']
---
The Taliban has dismissed American plans to send 300 troops to Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province as nothing but “solely to lend morale” to embattled Afghan forces “in hopes they hold out until spring.”
The insurgents have captured most of the districts in Helmand since NATO ended its combat mission, and most U.S. forces withdrew from the largest poppy-growing Afghan province in 2014.
With the help of U.S. air power and military advisers on the ground, the Afghan government has been able in recent months to maintain control over the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, which remains under attack from the Taliban.
**Taliban advances**
The Islamist insurgency has made advances despite the large presence of U.S.-led foreign forces and “the arrival of a few hundred troops will not prevent their march,” said a Taliban statement Sunday.
It went on to assert that “such actions are the final failed efforts of (outgoing President Barack) Obama.”
The U.S. Marine Corps announced last week it will deploy a task force of 300 personnel to the restive province later this year as part of NATO’s advisory mission in the country.
“The Marine Corps has an operational history in Afghanistan, particularly in Helmand Province” and “will assist in preserving gains made together with the Afghans,” it said.
The announcement came amid fears that battlefield advances in 2016 have enabled the Taliban to stage major operations in the coming summer fighting season.
The U.S. maintains roughly 8,500 forces in Afghanistan under NATO’s train-and-advisory mission. The troops are also tasked with conducting independent counterterrorism operations against militants linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State.
**US committed to Afghanistan**
But the future of the U.S. military mission is unclear because President-elect Donald Trump has said almost nothing about operations in Afghanistan, which has become America’s longest war.
A senior American diplomat, however, assured Afghan leaders during a visit to Kabul on Saturday that Washington is committed to their country’s peace, prosperity and security.
“Our commitment to Afghanistan does not end on January 20 (when Trump will take oath of office), quite the contrary it will only deepen and that the strategic importance of this relationship is evident to all,” said Thomas Shannon, under secretary of state for political affairs. | 200 | [
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2017-01-31 | Afghanistan | SIGAR January 2017 Quarterly Report to the United States Congress - ReliefWeb | 200 | [
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2017-01-26 | Afghanistan | 300 U.S. Marines will return to Afghanistan to advise local forces - NBC News | ---
title: Helping Patients in Afghanistan Manage Their Diabetes #HelptheHelpers
author: Bryn Blanks
url: https://www.directrelief.org/2017/01/helping-patients-afghanistan-manage-diabetes/
hostname: directrelief.org
description: Nearly 40 percent of the Afghan population lacks access to basic health services, causing many to suffer from serious, yet preventable, diseases. Afghanistan’s poor health outcomes are greatl…
sitename: Direct Relief
date: 2017-01-26
---
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For any additional questions about republishing Direct Relief content, please email the team here. | 200 | [
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2017-01-08 | Afghanistan | Helping Patients in Afghanistan Manage Their Diabetes #HelptheHelpers - Direct Relief | ---
title: 300 U.S. Marines will return to Afghanistan to advise local forces
author: Ahmed Mengli
url: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/300-u-s-marines-return-afghanistan-s-helmand-province-n704401
hostname: nbcnews.com
description: Bill Salvin, a spokesman for the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, said the Marines will begin deploying this year and will be in Helmand for nine months.
sitename: NBC News
date: 2017-01-08
---
KABUL, Afghanistan — The United States announced it will send some 300 Marines to Afghanistan's opium-rich Helmand province to train, advise and assist local forces fighting the Taliban, officials said — a move greeted with some skepticism by Afghans.
U.S. Navy Capt. Bill Salvin, a spokesman for the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, said the Marines will begin deploying this year and will remain in the province for nine months, where they will work with the Afghan army and militarized national police who have been struggling to drive insurgents out of the region.
"The Marine Corps has a long operational history in Afghanistan, particularly in Helmand Province. Advising and assisting Afghan defense and security forces will assist in preserving gains made together with the Afghans," he said.
The U.S. and NATO formally concluded their combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of 2014, but thousands of troops remain in the country, where they train and assist Afghan forces and carry out counterterrorism operations.
However, there was a cautious reaction in Afghanistan where it was unclear if a limited deployment of military advisers would have a significant impact on the conflict.
"If [Marines] come only to give advice, it will not help. If they take part in fighting, there may be some progress. Without that, there will be no change," Abdul Ahad Masoomy, a village elder from Helmand, told NBC News.
"We know how strong the Afghan forces are — you can see the result of their strength in front of you," he added.
Others underscored a deficit of trust between ordinary Afghans and the foreign troops who have been operating in the country for 15 years.
"People in Helmand don’t trust foreigners now," Bashir Ahmad Shaker, a member of Helmand Provincial Council, told NBC News.
"They believe the war in Helmand has not ended because of these foreign troops, and that they don't have any goodwill toward the people of Helmand and the local government," he added.
The Taliban are battling Afghan forces on a number of fronts, and the fighting has been particularly intense in Helmand, where the insurgents have repeatedly assaulted the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, in recent months.
Helmand is the main source of poppies for Afghanistan's thriving opium trade, which is worth an estimated $4 billion a year, much of which funds the insurgency. Provincial officials estimate the Taliban controls 85 percent of the province, up from just 20 percent a year ago. | 200 | [
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2017-01-19 | Afghanistan | Obama vowed to make the Taliban pay. Now they're making a comeback. - NBC News | ---
title: Obama vowed to make the Taliban pay. Now they're making a comeback.
author: Ahmed Mengli; F Brinley Bruton
url: https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/president-obama-the-legacy/obama-s-afghanistan-legacy-what-trump-faces-america-s-longest-n708331
hostname: nbcnews.com
description: As a candidate, he pledged to run insurgents out of Afghanistan. But to the dismay of millions of Afghans, the war has not been won or even finished.
sitename: NBC News
date: 2017-01-19
---
KABUL, Afghanistan — Shamim Seyal should be a symbol of all that Afghanistan has achieved with the help of the U.S.
Instead, the principal of a large school for girls is on the shifting frontline of America’s longest war, an example of the raw resilience needed to simply survive in the country.
"We need to push the Taliban back and we can’t afford to let them re-dominate the country"
“Sometimes there are Taliban checkpoints and sometimes Afghan government checkpoints beside the school,” said Seyal, who runs the Fatima Al-Zahra School in the city of Kunduz, which has been fought over for years and briefly fell into the militant group's hands in September 2015.
Seyal and her family have been targeted by the insurgents, who often try to kill prominent women and destroy girls’ schools. They have also been forced to flee their home after being threatened by the Taliban.
It was not supposed to be this way when President Barack Obama took office in 2009.
As a candidate, he pledged to run extremists out of the country.
But to the dismay of millions of Afghans, the war has not been won or even finished. In fact, many believe the group, which harbored Osama bin Laden before and after the 9/11 attacks, is resurgent.
Analysts say they pose a threat not only to Afghanistan but potentially elsewhere in the world.
Here is a glimpse of Obama’s legacy in Afghanistan, and what the president is bequeathing President-elect Donald Trump.
#### What did Obama pledge to do?
As a candidate, Obama complained that his predecessor George W. Bush had missed crucial opportunities in the region.
“We could have deployed the full force of American power to hunt down and destroy Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda, the Taliban, and all of the terrorists responsible for 9/11, while supporting real security in Afghanistan,” he said during a speech on July 15, 2008.
As president, Obama declared, he would “make the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban the top priority that it should be. This is a war that we have to win.”
The U.S. “will be taking the fight to al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” he said.
#### So how did that fight go?
Bin Laden was killed in a U.S. raid in Pakistan on May 1, 2011, so that was a major success.
The death of the Afghan Taliban’s leader, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, in a U.S. drone strike on May 21, 2016 — again in Pakistan — dealt the insurgents another blow.
According to Lisa Curtis, a senior research fellow at conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, the Obama administration was successful in putting al Qaeda "on its back feet and disrupting al Qaeda safe havens."
But when it came to pushing back the Taliban back and strengthening Afghan authorities “there has not been success,” she said.
Curtis pointed to Obama’s 2009 decision to launch a troop surge in Afghanistan during a speech at West Point.
“In the very next breath he announced the date those forces would withdraw,” she said. “It is not an effective strategy to tell the enemy when you are going to retreat.”
And Afghanistan remains one of the most dangerous countries on the planet when it comes to violent extremism. In September, the top U.S. commander in the country Gen. John Nicholson, estimated that 20 of the 98 U.S. or U.N.-designated terrorist organizations were in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.
“This is highest concentration … in any area in the world,” he said.
#### What's the Pakistan connection?
At the beginning of his presidency, Obama decried nuclear-armed Pakistan’s history of meddling in the affairs of its weaker neighbor and allegedly aiding and sheltering some terror groups while going after others. Pakistani officials have repeatedly denied these charges.
In 2008, then-candidate Obama promised to focus the fight on the tribal regions on Pakistan, “where terrorists train and insurgents strike into Afghanistan.”
“Make no mistake — we can’t succeed in Afghanistan or secure our homeland unless we change our Pakistan policy,” he said.
According to Curtis, Pakistan has not changed its ways enough, and she advised the new administration to “take certain risks” with the government there.
“I’m not talking about making an enemy out Pakistan … (but) we need to start enforcing the conditions on [U.S.] aid and be willing to push the envelope to a certain degree.”
She suggested aid to the country and its major non-NATO ally status — a designation given to close military allies — “may be in jeopardy if they don’t demonstrate that they are in fact an ally in the fight against terrorism.”
#### How much territory do insurgents control?
The majority of Afghans — nearly 70 percent — live in districts under Afghan government control or influence, according to U.S. military estimates in late 2016. Nearly 10 percent are under insurgent control or influence, while the rest of the country lives in so-called “contested areas” — essentially up for grabs.
That the government in Kabul still does not control swaths of the country is a cause for alarm, said Haroun Mir, a political analyst at the Afghanistan Center for Research and Policy Studies.
“We have tremendous security challenges,” he said, pointing to the fact that the Taliban has challenged the Afghan security forces and gained the territory over the last few years — especially since the U.S. officially ended its combat mission in the country in December 2014.
Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi dismissed these fears as overblown, however, saying the Taliban does not control “any strategic places" in the country.
The insurgents launch attacks on other areas from these low-population areas, he said.
“When it comes to control of the territory, of course the Afghan government, the Afghan people, they have full control of their territory,” he said.
Sediqqi did acknowledge that the government has seen “an increase in the level of attacks by the Taliban."
#### The c-word
Security cannot be discussed without also talking about corruption.
For one thing, as Kabul loses legitimacy through corruption, the Taliban often gains it through their own parallel systems of government and justice.
“That is a dangerous thing," said Mir, the analyst. That’s because while extremely harsh, the Taliban are seen as more efficient and less corrupt than the Afghan government.
"They are famous for their delivery of justice,” he said.
Mir is far from alone in sounding the alarm over graft and impunity.
**Related: 12 Ways Your Tax Dollars Were Squandered in Afghanistan**
John F. Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction (SIGAR) — the government's leading oversight authority on reconstruction in the country — has called corruption “widespread and rampant.”
“Corruption and poor leadership go hand in hand in Afghanistan,” he said in a speech on Jan. 11.
In 2014, Gen. John Allen, the ex-head of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, called corruption — not the Taliban — the existential threat to Afghanistan.
#### How many U.S. troops are still in Afghanistan?
While the U.S. ended its official combat role in Afghanistan in Dec. 2014, there are still around 8,500 U.S. troops there.
The Americans both advise Afghan troops in their fight against the Taliban and, separately, hunt and kill al Qaeda and ISIS-linked affiliated fighters.
This is down from more than 100,000 in 2010.
#### What about dollars and cents?
More than $115 billion taxpayer dollars have been spent in Afghanistan since 2002, with another $7.5 billion appropriated but not yet spent, according to SIGAR.
International donors have said they would provide financial support to the country and its security forces until 2020, with the U.S. making up the lion’s share at around $5 billion per year.
The U.S. has stumped up more than $64 billion since 2002 — $3.45 billion in 2016 alone — to support the Afghan security forces.
#### Are people still dying?
Yes, lots of them. According to the U.N., the first six months of 2016 saw the highest number of civilian casualties on record since 2009 — 1,601 killed and 3,565 injured. Nearly one-in-three casualties were children, while more than 500 were women.
#### What does Trump and his team have to do?
The Heritage Foundation's Curtis says the first thing the new administration needs to acknowledge is that "the security situation is extremely vulnerable" in Afghanistan and the strategy will have to be reassessed.
"We need to push the Taliban back and we can’t afford to let them re-dominate the country," she said. "Both because that will turn back all the social and economic gains that have been made in the country but also because they will then provide safe havens for international terrorists intent on attacking us." | 200 | [
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2017-01-23 | Afghanistan | Soldiers sharpen skills during attack drill at BAF - army.mil | 200 | [
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2017-01-06 | Afghanistan | This Man is Afghanistan’s Last Jew - Jewish Telegraphic Agency | 200 | [
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2017-01-25 | Afghanistan | Time to leave Afghanistan, Taliban tell Donald Trump - Al Jazeera | ---
title: Taliban in letter to Trump: US should leave Afghanistan
author: News Agencies
url: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/1/25/time-to-leave-afghanistan-taliban-tell-donald-trump
hostname: aljazeera.com
description: Nothing achieved in 15 years of war except bloodshed and destruction, say the Taliban in an open letter to US president.
sitename: Al Jazeera
date: 2017-01-25
tags: ['Taliban', 'News, Taliban, Afghanistan, Asia']
---
# Time to leave Afghanistan, Taliban tell Donald Trump
*Nothing achieved in 15 years of war except bloodshed and destruction, say the Taliban in an open letter to US president.*
The Taliban has called on President Donald Trump to withdraw US forces from the “quagmire” of Afghanistan, saying nothing has been achieved in 15 years of war except bloodshed and destruction.
In an open letter to the new US president published on one of its official web pages, the Taliban said the US had lost credibility after spending a trillion dollars on a fruitless entanglement.
“So, the responsibility to bring to an end this war also rests on your [Trump’s] shoulders,” it said.
Afghanistan was invaded by the US in 2001 and has become Washington’s longest military intervention since Vietnam.
|
|
It has also been the costliest, with more than $100bn spent.
The Taliban justify their ongoing insurgency in the letter, claiming that the group’s “Jihad and struggle was legitimate religiously, intellectually, nationally and conforming to all other lawful standards”.
So far, Trump has had little to say publicly about Afghanistan, where around 8,400 US troops remain as part of the NATO-led coalition’s training mission to support local forces as well as a separate US counterterrorism mission.
Two of Trump’s top security appointments – retired Marine Corps General James Mattis as secretary of defense and former General Michael Flynn as national security adviser – both have extensive experience in Afghanistan.
The Taliban, however, warned Trump against relying on the kind of “unrealistic” reports presented to former presidents by their generals, saying: “They would emphasise continuation of war and occupation of Afghanistan because they can have better positions and privileges in war.”
Calling the ongoing violence as illegal, ineffective, and aimless, the group claimed “the Afghans, as a nation ravaged by war for 38 long years, sincerely want to bring this war to an end”.
OPINION: No consensus in Afghanistan on how to deal with Taliban
“However, they know, despite whatever reasons for previous wars, the principle cause for the ongoing conflict is the presence of foreign occupying forces in our independent country,” the letter added.
“You have to realise that the Afghan Muslim nation has risen up against foreign occupation.”
The Taliban have made steady inroads against the western-backed government in Kabul since coalition forces ended their main combat mission in 2014, with government forces now in control of only two thirds of the country.
The group has repeatedly urged the US and its allies to leave Afghanistan, ruling out peace talks with the Kabul government while foreign forces remain on Afghan soil. | 200 | [
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2017-01-25 | Afghanistan | Afghan Taliban Writes 'Open Letter' to President Trump - VOA - Voice of America English News | ---
title: Afghan Taliban Writes 'Open Letter' to President Trump
author: Ayaz Gul
url: https://www.voanews.com/a/afghan-taliban-writes-open-letter-to-president-trump/3691387.html
hostname: voanews.com
description: The insurgency has called on the new US president to withdraw all forces to end the increasingly deadly Afghan war
sitename: Voice of America (VOA News)
date: 2017-01-25
categories: ['East Asia']
tags: ['USA, East Asia']
---
The Taliban, in a so-called “open letter” to U.S. President Donald Trump, has called on him to help end what it denounced as a “futile” and “un-winnable” American war in Afghanistan.
A copy of the letter, written by Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, was released to journalists Wednesday.
There has been no immediate reaction from the Trump administration.
The letter blamed the United States for starting the Afghan war 15 years ago and called the presence of “foreign invading forces” in the country the principle cause for the continued human and material losses being suffered by both sides.
“It is on these basis that we send you our message to control this war of occupation launched by your military,” Mujahid wrote, reiterating that the Taliban will not end fighting until all the U.S.-led forces are withdrawn from Afghanistan.
The U.S.-led international military coalition ousted the Taliban from power in 2001 to punish it for harboring and refusing to handover al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, who was wanted for plotting deadly terrorist attacks against American cities.
**Corruption allegations **
The Taliban letter has again accused the U.S.-backed Afghan national unity government of President Ashraf Ghani of being a “corrupt regime” that has lost public trust.
Trump stated almost nothing about his plans for the Afghan war during his election campaign. But hours after his inauguration last Friday, the new U.S. president apparently vowed to continue with the military campaign until victory.
“We are with you a thousand, a thousand, a thousand percent. You are doing just an incredible job. So, thank you all very much. We will see you and keep fighting. We are going to win, we are going to win, we are going to win, keep fighting,” Trump told U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan during a brief chat with them via satellite link.
Afghan officials are also reported as saying that in a phone call in December, Trump told President Ghani that “after an assessment” he would consider sending more American troops to Afghanistan. The Trump administration has not commented on those reports.
**US Afghanistan mission **
There are currently about 8,400 U.S. soldiers stationed in Afghanistan, along with some 6,000 soldiers from NATO member nations.
The forces are primarily there to train, advise and assist Afghan security forces in the battle against the Taliban under NATO’s Resolute Support mission. The U.S. military additionally is tasked with conducting independent operations against terrorists linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group in Afghanistan.
The Taliban made significant battlefield advances during 2016, when it killed more than 5,500 Afghan security forces in the first eight months of the year.
Tuesday, the Afghan defense ministry disclosed the Taliban has launched around 19,000-attacks throughout the country in the last ten months while government forces conducted roughly 700-counter-insurgency operations during the same period.
Currently, the Afghan government controls two-thirds of the population while roughly ten percent is controlled by the Taliban and the rest is contested, according to latest U.S. military assessments.
Earlier this month, a U.S. government watchdog outlined for President Trump critical areas threatening the Afghan mission.
**Challenges ahead **
The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, John Sopko while releasing his assessments in Washington, said the Kabul government “still cannot support itself financially or functionally” and long-term assistance will be required for the country to survive.
But Sopko warned the new U.S. administration will also face challenges unless it effectively tackles rampant official corruption plaguing Afghan security institutions and the “bleeding ulcer” of drugs and narcotics in the country.
“(NATO’s) Resolute Support estimates that as much as 60 percent of the Taliban’s funding comes from poppy production, cultivation and taxation,” he observed.
The United States has “little to show” for roughly $8 billion it has spent since 2002 to fight narcotics in Afghanistan because the country continues to grow poppy at a near record level, said Sopko.
“Now policymakers should ask themselves if we are worried about illicit oil sales funding ISIS terrorists in Syria and Iraq why are we not as concerned about this key source of funding for the Taliban terrorists, funding which is only serving to prolong America’s longest war in Afghanistan.” | 200 | [
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2017-01-31 | Afghanistan | The dream to return to Germany - dw.com | ---
title: The dream to return to Germany
author: Masood Saifullah
url: https://www.dw.com/en/deported-afghans-dream-of-returning-to-germany/a-37352655
hostname: dw.com
description: A rejected Afghan asylum seeker who returned to Afghanistan last year may have another chance to join his family in Germany, but not all deportees to the war-torn nation enjoy the same kind of support that he has.
sitename: Deutsche Welle
date: 2017-01-31
---
# The dream to return to Germany
January 31, 2017Afghan asylum seeker Ahmad Shakib Pouya was considered as an example for successful integration into German society. During his six-year stay in Germany, the Afghan singer learned good German, became part of art projects as a stage actor and was offered paid jobs. But after his asylum application was rejected, the artist had to willingly return to Afghanistan, in order to avoid deportation and keep alive hopes of getting another chance to come to Germany.
According to German law, a deportee will not be granted visa for at least three years. Pouya did not want this to happen to him because he hoped to be able to join his German wife and finish his art projects.
Pouya applied for asylum in Germany in 2011 because, in Afghanistan, he was under threat from the Taliban - armed opponents of the Afghan government - due to his work with foreign aid workers. It had taken him two years to get to Germany where he wished to start a new life.
**A wrong turn**
After arriving in Germany, the artist became part of art projects as a stage actor, singer and performer. He learned German and even worked as a translator helping other Afghan refugees and asylum seekers and was offered paid work. But things took a wrong turn for the young Afghan in 2016.
"My application for asylum was rejected in Germany," he told DW from Afghanistan where he now lives. Pouya's documents state that he was one of the few Afghans who returned to their home country willingly, but he stresses that it was never his own choice to leave.
"Afghanistan is a very dangerous place for me because of my art and political views. But I had to leave and come here," he said, adding that he only left so that he could come back, join his family and finish his art projects.
Pouya's return to Afghanistan prompted his colleagues to lash out at the German government's policy, and they demanded that he be granted permission to stay in the European country. While they staged protests in Germany, one of them even visited Kabul to help Pouya get a German visa.
The outpouring of support from his colleagues and some activists seems to have helped further Pouya's application for a German visa. He will soon visit the German embassy in Kabul to discuss his situation with the authorities. The once-rejected asylum seeker remains hopeful that he will be able to get the visa.
**Others have to stay**
But not everyone who has been deported from Germany or has returned to Afghanistan voluntarily enjoys the same kind of support that Pouya has, as the story of Muhsin Amir reveals.
Amir - who was separated from his family and deported to Afghanistan on December 15, 2016 - says he has not received any help since his return to Afghanistan. Amir was part of the first group of deportees out of a proposed 12,000 that are to be sent back to Afghanistan under a recent agreement between the German and Afghan governments.
Amir entered Germany "legally" from Greece in 2013 within the framework of family reunification. His mother and siblings are legal residents in Germany. He was 19 when he arrived in Germany and until his deportation the young Afghan lived with his family in the northern German city of Hamburg.
Amir is now based in Afghanistan's western Herat province, which Germany considers one of the many safe zones in the conflict-afflicted country. But he claims his life has been under constant threat since he returned.
"I cannot leave my home at night. There are incidents in places that the German government considers safe zones in the country," he told DW.
**Risking another journey**
Still, Germany appears to remain steadfast in its efforts to send rejected Afghan asylum seekers back to their home country. In fact, authorities have even deported at least one member of the Afghan-Hindu minority, a community that claims to be facing religious persecution in the conservative, Muslim-majority nation.
To protest against Berlin's policy, hundreds of Afghan Hindus and Sikhs took to the streets in the western German city of Cologne on January 28 and called on the government to put an end to deportations, particularly of Hindus and Sikhs. "We are from a religious minority and face prosecution and should not be deported," one protestor told DW.
While the German government seems convinced that it can send back rejected Afghan asylum seekers to safe zones like the western Herat and northern Balkh provinces, many deported Afghans like Amir say they will take the risk all over again to return to Germany. "I cannot stay in Afghanistan. I will continue to make efforts to join my family in Germany," he said. | 200 | [
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2017-01-12 | Afghanistan | 1CD RSSB conducts Sustainment Leadership Seminar - army.mil | 200 | [
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2017-01-05 | Afghanistan | Wife of US Author Missing in Afghanistan Makes Appeal - VOA - Voice of America English News | 200 | [
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2017-01-23 | Afghanistan | Afghan Authorities Accuse Iran of Using Taliban to Undercut Water Projects - VOA - Voice of America English News | 200 | [
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2017-01-30 | Afghanistan | Deported to Afghanistan - dw.com | ---
title: The Afghans on the frontlines fighting the Taliban
author: Steve Chao
url: https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2017/1/30/the-afghans-on-the-frontlines-fighting-the-taliban
hostname: aljazeera.com
description: We meet the last defenders of the city of Lashkar Gah, considered the gateway to the rest of the country.
sitename: Al Jazeera
date: 2017-01-30
tags: ['Human Rights', 'Gallery, Human Rights, Afghanistan, Asia']
---
In Pictures
# The Afghans on the frontlines fighting the Taliban
*We meet the last defenders of the city of Lashkar Gah, considered the gateway to the rest of the country.*
Fifteen years after suffering defeat at the hands of the United States, the Taliban are rapidly retaking territory in Afghanistan. Wide swaths of the country are now under their control.
But the prize for the armed group is the city of Lashkar Gah, considered the gateway to the rest of the country.
Al Jazeera’s Steve Chao travelled to the frontline to meet the last defenders of this vital city.
He found a ragtag group of Afghan soldiers and police, poorly trained and short on supplies, but full of determination to take on the Taliban in fierce firefights.
Chao also documents the true cost of war at a busy emergency hospital, where he meets patients injured in the long-running conflict.
Watch the full documentary here: Afghanistan: Taliban at the Gate. | 200 | [
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2017-01-05 | Afghanistan | Marines May Return to Afghanistan as Advisers This Spring - Military.com | 200 | [
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2017-01-14 | Afghanistan | 1st Brigade ready for mission in Afghanistan - El Paso Times | ---
title: Deported to Afghanistan
url: https://www.dw.com/en/deported-to-afghanistan/video-37142759
hostname: dw.com
description: More and more afghans are being deported from Germany. We visit a young Afghan in Mazar-i-Sharif, who had to go back to his country of origin after six years in Germany.
sitename: dw.com
date: 2017-01-14
---
Deported to Afghanistan To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video01/14/2017January 14, 2017More and more afghans are being deported from Germany. We visit a young Afghan in Mazar-i-Sharif, who had to go back to his country of origin after six years in Germany.https://p.dw.com/p/2VqWlAdvertisement | 200 | [
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2017-01-08 | Afghanistan | NATO deploys 200 soldiers in Afghanistan’s Farah - Al Jazeera | 200 | [
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2017-01-07 | Afghanistan | US to deploy 300 marines to Afghanistan’s Helmand - Al Jazeera | 200 | [
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2017-01-07 | Afghanistan | Afghanistan: Abducted ICRC staff member released - ICRC | ---
title: Women in Afghanistan Join Forces to Fight Militants
author: Noor Zahid; Mirwais Bezhan
url: https://www.voanews.com/a/women-in-afghanistan-join-forces-to-fight-militants/3667103.html
hostname: voanews.com
description: Women say they can no longer tolerate the brutalities of the militants
sitename: Voice of America (VOA News)
date: 2017-01-07
categories: ['Extremism Watch']
tags: ['East Asia, Extremism Watch, Afghanistan, Taliban, women, Islamic state']
---
A group of women in a volatile northern Afghan province has taken up arms, vowing to battle Taliban insurgents and militants fighting in the name of the Islamic State group.
Around 150 women, most of whom lost family members in battles with the Taliban in northern Jouzjan province, say they are ready to fight alongside men from their districts.
"They [militants] killed three of my sons and burned down our livelihood. Now we have come out to fight IS and Taliban," Mamlakat, a commander of one of the two women groups, told VOA's Afghan service. Like many Afghans, she used only a first name.
Afghan women are in the country's army and police forces, but the provincial female militia marks the first time since the collapse of Taliban rule in 2001 that women have vowed to fight alongside men. A female Afghan, Malala of Maiwand, is a national folk hero in Afghanistan for helping in the fight against British troops at the Battle of Maiwand in 1880. She was killed in combat.
Taliban fighters have increased their activities in many northern provinces, including restive Jouzjan — the birthplace of Abdul Rashid Dostum, the vice president of Afghanistan and a regional strongman. Taliban forces have been engaged in large-scale clashes with Afghan security forces, prompting Dostum to spend a majority of his time in the region leading anti-Taliban operations.
The armed women say they have suffered greatly and can no longer tolerate brutalities committed against them by the militants.
"They killed my brother, sister, and a nephew. That is why I took up the gun," said Nafisa, a member of the group in Darzaab district.
Another woman, whose family members were injured or killed by the Taliban, said joining the female uprising is a way of empowerment.
"They killed my cousins, injured my son, and 20 to 30 others," the woman named Khadija said. "We are fed up and took arms to fight them."
The women's group is asking for government support and assistance, and local police authorities say the government will equip the groups.
"As a representative of the provincial government, I assure you that the women will have our support. We will help them with weapons and ammunitions," said Hafeez Khashi, a local national police commander.
**IS activity**
It's likely that most of the fight will be against the Taliban, as IS activities in the province are harder to detect, officials say.
The so-called Islamic State's Khorasan branch has been active in eastern parts of Afghanistan for the past two years. Government forces have been engaged in fierce battles with IS militants in several districts of eastern Nangarhar province.
In addition to Nangarhar, Afghan officials say, IS has expanded to neighboring Kunar and Nuristan provinces but has "significantly been weakened" by joint Afghan-U.S. forces' counterterrorism offensives.
According to the Afghan defense ministry, IS's presence in northern provinces could not be confirmed; however, some militant groups operate under the IS name to obtain fame and money.
"They [militant groups] are trying to wage a propaganda campaign for financial gains," Mohammad Radmanesh, a spokesperson for the Afghan defense ministry, told VOA. In an effort to get financial resources, he said, some militant groups use IS's name by raising the IS flag.
The IS flag is black and white and decorated with words from an Islamic declaration of faith — known as the shahada — and a white circle meant to resemble the Muslim Prophet's seal. The Taliban flag is white with the same Arabic phrase in black.
IS claimed responsibility for the killing of seven minority Shi'ite Hazara coal miners last week in northeastern Baghlan province. Prayer leaders, known as mullahs, and religious scholars in Baghlan called on people to stand against IS, saying the group causes schisms among communities and does a "disservice to Islam." | 200 | [
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2017-01-15 | Afghanistan | 300 Marines heading to Afghanistan - The Hill | ---
title: Afghanistan: Abducted ICRC staff member released
url: https://www.icrc.org/en/document/afghanistan-abducted-icrc-staff-member-released
hostname: icrc.org
sitename: International Committee of the Red Cross
date: 2017-01-15
---
Geneva (ICRC) – an ICRC staff member who was abducted on 19 December 2016 in Kunduz province, has been released and is now with the ICRC team in Kunduz.
The ICRC would like to thank the authorities and the communities who have mobilized and played a role in facilitating our colleague's release.
The staff member was abducted while travelling from the ICRC office in Kunduz to the Sub-delegation in Mazar-i-Sharif. While three other colleagues were left unharmed, he was taken and held for almost 4 weeks.
"We are relieved and grateful that Juan Carlos is now back with us, safe and sound," said the ICRC head of delegation in Afghanistan, Monica Zanarelli. "His abduction was a terrible ordeal for him, as well as for his family, friends and colleagues."
"Our priority now is Juan Carlos' well-being and getting him home to his family. We would ask everyone to respect his, and his family's, privacy at this time."
The ICRC will not comment on the identity of the abductors, their motives or the details of the release.
Present in Afghanistan for 30 years, the ICRC provides medical care, supports water and sanitation services, visits places of detention and acts as a neutral intermediary to enable humanitarian work to take place throughout the country.
**For further information, please contact:****Thomas Glass, ICRC Kabul (English), tel: +93 (0) 729 140 510****Ramin Ayaz Ahmad, ICRC Kabul (Dari and Pashto), tel: +93 (0) 794 618 908****Anastasia Isyuk, ICRC Geneva (English), tel: +41 79 251 9302****Elodie Schindler, ICRC Geneva (English and Spanish), tel: +41 22 730 3443** | 200 | [
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2017-01-10 | Afghanistan | Afghanistan bombings: Dozens killed across the country - BBC | ---
title: Afghanistan bombings: Dozens killed across the country
url: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38567241
hostname: bbc.com
description: The violence is the worst in weeks with scores killed or wounded in Kabul, Kandahar and Helmand.
sitename: BBC News
date: 2017-01-10
categories: ['Asia']
---
**Dozens of people have been killed in a series of militant attacks on Tuesday throughout Afghanistan. **
Up to 30 people were killed and 80 wounded in twin bombings near the parliament in the capital, Kabul.
Blasts at the governor's guesthouse in Kandahar killed at least 11 and injured 14 including the UAE ambassador.
Earlier, in Helmand province a Taliban suicide bomber targeted a guesthouse used by an intelligence official, killing at least seven people.
The Kabul blasts took place during rush hour as staff were leaving the parliament complex.
The Taliban said they were responsible for the twin bomb attacks in the centre of the city.
"We planned this attack for quite some time and the plan was to target some senior officers of the intelligence agency," a Taliban spokesman was reported as saying.
The attack is the latest in a series carried out by the Taliban over the past year. Most of the victims on Tuesday are said to be civilians, including parliament staff.
Reports speak of a suicide bomber striking first outside the entrance to parliament, followed by a car bomb, Tolo News reported, external.
President Ashraf Ghani vowed that all those behind the "criminal attacks" would be caught.
"The Taliban shamelessly claim credit for the attack on civilians and they're proud of it," he said in a statement.
Afghan sources said a district head of the National Directorate of Security - Afghanistan's main intelligence agency - was among the dead.
An MP from western Herat province, Rahima Jami, was said to have been injured.
An injured parliament security guard named as Zabi told AFP: "The first explosion happened outside the parliament... a number of innocent workers were killed and wounded. It was caused by a suicide bomber on foot."
He said the car containing a bomb "was parked on the other side of the road and flung me back when it detonated".
Ahmad Wali, police chief of Kabul's district 7, told the BBC that the explosions were close to the gates of the city's American University.
## 'Heinous terrorist attack'
In Kandahar, provincial governor Humayun Azizi was critically injured in the attack on his guesthouse, his spokesperson told the BBC.
The UAE foreign ministry called it a "heinous terrorist attack" in which ambassador Juma Mohammed Abdullah al-Kaabi "and a number of Emirati diplomats" were wounded.
The ambassador and other dignitaries were attending a dinner party when the attack happened.
Tolo News quoted survivors as saying that the bomb was hidden in a guesthouse couch. It said that Kandahar police chief Gen Abdul Raziq was among the guests but was unharmed.
The ambassador had been in Kandahar to lay the foundation stone of an orphanage. His exact condition is not clear.
Senior police and intelligence officials were also present, officials say.
Earlier, in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, a Taliban suicide bomber targeted a guesthouse used by an intelligence official, killing at least seven people and wounding six others.
- Published12 August 2022
- Published5 January 2016
- Published12 November 2016
- Published11 October 2016 | 200 | [
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2017-01-16 | Afghanistan | Spanish aid worker freed in Afghanistan after month-long ordeal - EL PAÍS English | ---
title: Spanish aid worker freed in Afghanistan after month-long ordeal
author: Alejandra Torres Reyes; M G
url: https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2017/01/16/inenglish/1484561122_340270.html
hostname: elpais.com
description: Small-time criminal gang behind the kidnapping, says Afghan government
sitename: Ediciones EL PAÍS S.L.
date: 2017-01-16
categories: ['Spain']
---
# Spanish aid worker freed in Afghanistan after month-long ordeal
Small-time criminal gang behind the kidnapping, says Afghan government
A Spanish aid worker who was kidnapped in Aghanistan’s Kunduz province four weeks ago was released on Sunday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Spain’s Foreign Ministry have confirmed.
The aid worker was “safe and sound and currently with a Red Cross team after Afghan special forces ensured his release,” according to Spanish news agency EFE.
The Red Cross worker was kidnapped in mid-December after being singled out from the group he was traveling with at a fake roadblock set up to ambush two vehicles without an escort, said the ICRC at the time.
Spain’s Foreign Ministry was not directly involved in the release
Although the ICRC have not revealed the identity of the kidnappers, their motives, or details of the aid worker’s release, Afghan government sources said the kidnappers were part of a well-known criminal group who did not have the capacity to hold a hostage for a long period of time.
The fear was that the group would “sell” the prisoner on to a terrorist organization with greater infrastructure, like ISIS or the Taliban. “Fortunately that did not happen,” sources said.
The chief of police for Kunduz province, General Abdul Hamid Hamidi, told EFE that the aid worker had been released when several members of the group holding him attempted to transfer him by car to a new location. Investigations were still underway, the official said, refusing to confirm whether the group known as Haji Fateh has been behind the kidnapping.
If Red Cross protocols are followed, the aid worker will be flown to Geneva before returning to Spain.
Spain’s Foreign Ministry was not directly involved in the release of the aid worker after the ICRC asked to take the lead in the operation, but offered support where required and kept in permanent contact with the Spaniard’s family.
English version by George Mills.
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2017-01-02 | Afghanistan | Taliban ramp up attacks in southwestern Afghanistan as NATO casualties hit a low - Stars and Stripes | ---
title: Taliban ramp up attacks in southwestern Afghanistan as NATO casualties hit a low
author: Zubair Babakarkhail E B Boyd
url: https://www.stripes.com/news/2017-01-02/taliban-ramp-up-attacks-in-southwestern-afghanistan-as-nato-casualties-hit-a-low-1531271.html1
hostname: stripes.com
sitename: Stars and Stripes
date: 2017-01-02
tags: ['metered']
---
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban have continued their assault on Afghanistan’s southwestern Helmand province with fresh attacks in two key districts, Afghan security forces said, as NATO announced that its forces last year suffered the fewest casualties since the U.S. invasion in 2001.
The latest round of fighting began Dec. 31 in Sangin and Marjah districts, a provincial spokesman said. The Marine Corps suffered significant casualties while fighting to liberate both areas in 2009-11.
The fact that the Taliban are conducting operations in winter is at variance with their usual practice of retreating to western areas of Pakistan to regroup before returning in the spring, when the weather is more suitable for carrying out operations.
Though Taliban activity has increased in recent months, U.S. and NATO troops, who have been performing a mainly train-and-advise mission since combat operations formally ended in 2014, are generally now at less risk of death or injury
NATO confirmed on Monday a local news report that its forces in 2016 suffered the fewest casualties since the 2001 invasion. Fifteen NATO personnel were killed last year, including two Romanians, nine Americans and four civilian staff.
Since 2015, the Taliban have made successive inroads in Helmand, including capturing several districts. Afghan security forces have suffered some of their most significant casualties trying to defend the province.
Omar Zwak, a spokesman for Helmand’s provincial governor, said Monday that offices belonging to Sangin’s district governor and its police chief remained under government control. “There is no concern that the district will fall,” he said.
The Afghanistan Analysts Network said in report last year that Afghan forces are struggling to fend off the insurgents because of a lack of coordination among army and police units and an understaffed military. Meanwhile, the Taliban have strengthened their position through the use of commando teams and the capture of Afghan ammunition and vehicles from checkpoints and bases they overran.
The United States, which pulled out of Helmand in 2014, has had to send special operations teams back to the area to help Afghan forces battle the insurgents. A NATO spokesman declined on Monday to comment on whether U.S. forces were involved with this latest set of clashes.
Fazal Muzhary, an analyst with the Afghanistan Analysts Network, said the continuation of operations into the winter marks a shift in Taliban policy. Fewer fighters are returning to Pakistan this winter than in previous years. “They don’t want to lose” their gains, he said. “In order to keep them, they must be present.”
The Taliban now control 10 percent of the country, the most they’ve held since 2001. Seventy percent of the country is under government control, while 20 percent is contested, NATO has said.
According to iCasualties.org, the NATO coalition suffered the greatest number of casualties — 711 — in 2010. The numbers have declined since then, with the greatest drop in 2013, to 161 from 402 the previous year.
Much of the front-line fighting was handed over that year to Afghan security forces.
Among those killed in Afghanistan last year was Special Forces Staff Sgt. Matthew McClintock, who was killed in a firefight in the city of Marjah, Helmand province, in January. Another Green Beret, Staff Sgt. Matthew Thompson, was killed in August, also in Helmand, while assisting Afghan forces with a clearing operation. Three troops died as a result of a suicide bomb attack at Bagram Air Field in November.
*boyd.eb@stripes.com** Twitter: @ebboyd* | 200 | [
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2017-01-21 | Afghanistan | Video - Service Members in Afghanistan Congratulate Trump - DVIDS | 200 | [
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2017-01-20 | Afghanistan | Blast At Afghan Buzkashi Match Kills Anti-Taliban Militia Leader, Two Others - Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty | ---
title: Blast At Afghan Buzkashi Match Kills Anti-Taliban Militia Leader, Two Others
author: RFE; RL's Radio Azadi
url: https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-buzkashi-bomb-attack/28247057.html
hostname: rferl.org
description: An explosion in northern Afghanistan has killed at least three people outside a game of buzkashi – a popular, traditional equestrian sport in Afghanistan and Central Asia that is similar to polo but uses a goat or calf carcass instead of a ball.
sitename: RFE/RL
date: 2017-01-20
categories: ['Afghanistan']
tags: ['News, Afghanistan, Picks']
---
An explosion in northern Afghanistan has killed at least three people outside a game of buzkashi – a popular, traditional equestrian sport in Afghanistan and Central Asia that is similar to polo but uses a goat or calf carcass instead of a ball.
The explosion was to the east of Mazar-e Shariff, in the Khulm District of Balkh Province, as spectators were leaving the buzkashi match.
Balkh Deputy Police Chief Abdul Razaq Qaderi said that the blast was caused by an improvised explosive device, which had been planted outside of the venue.
He said the target appeared to be a local anti-Taliban militia leader who was killed along with his bodyguard and a civilian.
Four other people were wounded by the explosion.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. | 200 | [
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2017-01-04 | Afghanistan | Gender Sector Fact Sheet, December 2016 - Afghanistan - ReliefWeb | 200 | [
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2017-01-27 | Afghanistan | With 2.2 million Afghans feared to be on the move, UN agency to begin tracking displacements, aid relief - UN News | ---
title: With 2.2 million Afghans feared to be on the move, UN agency to begin tracking displacements, aid relief
author: OCHA
url: https://news.un.org/en/story/2017/01/550322
hostname: news.un.org
description: Amid concerns of a severe humanitarian crisis induced by sudden return home of hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees and undocumented citizens, coupled with conflict-induced displacement, the United Nations migration agency has launched a new displacement tracking system to better understand population movements and needs in the crisis-struck country.
sitename: UN News
date: 2017-01-27
---
# With 2.2 million Afghans feared to be on the move, UN agency to begin tracking displacements, aid relief
“There is an urgent need to know where people in vulnerable situations are living and what their needs are,” said the head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) operations in Afghanistan, Laurence Hart.
In a news release issued earlier today, he added: “With a system in place to clearly track these concerns, humanitarian actors and the Government can deliver assistance and services to the families and communities that need it most.”
The UN agency hopes that with the launch of its Displacement Tracking Matrix – a system that employs a range of tools and processes to track and monitor population movement during crises – humanitarian actors will have a better understanding of the movements and evolving needs of vulnerable populations, whether on site or en route, and be alerted to urgent concerns, greatly facilitating humanitarian response.
According to IOM, in 2016, more than 600,000 registered refugees and undocumented Afghans returned back from Pakistan and, based on estimates, a further 1 million are expected to return in 2017.
On top of the returning population, last year also saw conflict-induced displacement of over 623,000, and an additional 450,000 people are expected to become internally displaced due to the ongoing conflict this year.
*Additional strain on overstretched services*
There are particular concerns that such large-scale returns and intensified conflict, combined with rapid urbanization, have created additional strain on already overstretched local services. Further compounding the issue is the lack of accurate information on the location and needs of people who have returned or those who have been forced to leave their homes.
The first phase of the Displacement Tracking Matrix in Afghanistan will put a framework in place to track at risk populations in Nangarhar, Laghman and Kunar provinces.
IOM said that its staff in these provinces will consult with community leaders and elders, national and local authorities, as well as previous registrations and assessments. They will also conduct field visits to get a comprehensive picture of the estimated number of returnees from abroad, internal movements and needs and conditions at the village, district and provincial levels.
“While there is good tracking along the borders, there is little knowledge of the actual final destinations, the villages and neighbourhoods, where people are arriving,” said IOM Human Mobility Tracking Expert Vlatko Avramovski. “The Matrix will deliver this information regularly and accurately.” | 200 | [
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2026-03-23 | Afghanistan | Loading a Hellfire [Image 9 of 13] - DVIDS | ---
title: Loading a Hellfire
url: https://www.dvidshub.net/image/3442322/loading-hellfire
hostname: dvidshub.net
description: U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to Task Force Griffin, 16th Combat Aviation Brigade, 7th Infantry Division load an AGM-114 Hellfire missile on an AH-64E Apache helicopter in Kunduz, Afghanistan, May 31, 2017. The Griffins are working hard to support U.S. Forces Afghanistan as part of Operation Freedom's Sentinel and Resolute Support Mission.
sitename: DVIDS
date: 2026-03-23
tags: ['Army Aviation', 'Black Hawk helicopter', 'U.S. Army Forces Command', 'JBLM', 'I Corps', 'Joint Base Lewis-McChord', 'UH-60M', '7th Infantry Division', 'USAACE', '16th Combat Aviation Brigade', '16th CAB', 'U.S. Forces Afghanistan', 'Northwest Guardian', '7th ID', 'AH-64E', 'U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence', 'Operation Resolute Support', 'Operation Freedom’s Sentinel', 'Resolute Support Mission', 'AH-64E Apache helicopter', 'Afghanistan', 'NATO', 'U.S. Central Command', 'USFOR-A', 'FORSCOM', 'Apache helicopter', 'CENTCOM', 'Kandahar Airfield']
---
U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to Task Force Griffin, 16th Combat Aviation Brigade, 7th Infantry Division load an AGM-114 Hellfire missile on an AH-64E Apache helicopter in Kunduz, Afghanistan, May 31, 2017. The Griffins are working hard to support U.S. Forces Afghanistan as part of Operation Freedom's Sentinel and Resolute Support Mission.
| Date Taken: | 05.31.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 06.01.2017 11:38 |
| Photo ID: | 3442322 |
| VIRIN: | 170531-A-PG801-036 |
| Resolution: | 5472x3648 |
| Size: | 8.97 MB |
| Location: | KUNDUZ, AF |
| Web Views: | 679 |
| Downloads: | 151 |
This work, Loading a Hellfire [Image 13 of 13], by MAJ Brian Harris, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright. | 200 | [
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2017-01-21 | Afghanistan | Head Of Afghan High Peace Council Dies In Kabul From Illness At Age 84 - Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty | 200 | [
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2017-01-11 | Afghanistan | Taliban Releases Video of Foreign Hostages - VOA - Voice of America English News | 200 | [
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2017-01-24 | Afghanistan | Second 'collective deportation' lands in Afghanistan - dw.com | 200 | [
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2017-01-15 | Afghanistan | Roadside Bomb Kills Seven Civilians In Eastern Afghanistan - Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty | ---
title: Roadside Bomb Kills Seven Civilians In Eastern Afghanistan
author: RFE; RL
url: https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-roadside-bomb-seven-civilians-killed/28234322.html
hostname: rferl.org
description: Afghan officials say at least seven civilians, including a woman and three children, were killed when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan on January 15.
sitename: RFE/RL
date: 2017-01-15
categories: ['Afghanistan']
tags: ['News, Afghanistan']
---
Afghan officials say at least seven civilians, including a woman and three children, were killed when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan on January 15.
The villagers were traveling from Pacheer Agam district to a nearby village in Nangarhar Province, district Governor Hijratullah Rahmani told the AFP news agency.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, which the Interior Ministry blamed on "enemies of peace and stability," a term Afghan officials use to refer to Taliban militants.
The Taliban has a strong presence in Nangarhar, a volatile province that borders Pakistan.
The Islamic State (IS) extremist group has also gained a foothold in eastern Afghanistan in recent years.
Earlier, Afghan officials said that IS fighters had been driven out of Pacheer Agam in an operation by security forces.
In a separate development in Nangarhar, officials said IS militants abducted 13 lecturers of the Haska Mina religious school on January 15.
Attaullah Khogyani, spokesman for the provincial governor, said "the teachers were taking exams from students in Shpoly area, when they were abducted."
Provincial government said in a statement that security forces have begun an operation to release the lecturers.
###### Based on reporting by AFP and pajhwok.com | 200 | [
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2017-01-01 | Afghanistan | Drone wars: the full data - TBIJ | 200 | [
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2017-01-10 | Afghanistan | Afghanistan's 'ghost soldiers' take scary toll on US taxpayers, says watchdog - Fox News | ---
title: Afghanistan's 'ghost soldiers' take scary toll on US taxpayers, says watchdog
author: Perry Chiaramonte
url: https://www.foxnews.com/world/afghanistans-ghost-soldiers-take-scary-toll-on-us-taxpayers-says-watchdog
hostname: foxnews.com
description: The U.S. government is paying the salaries of “tens of thousands” of non-existent Afghan soldiers, police, teachers and civil servants, a top Pentagon official said Wednesday in reporting on the scale and variety of misspent U.S. money.
sitename: Fox News
date: 2017-01-10
categories: ['world']
tags: ['afghanistan, world']
---
The U.S. government is paying the salaries of “tens of thousands” of non-existent Afghan soldiers, police, teachers and civil servants, a top Pentagon official said Wednesday in reporting on the scale and variety of misspent U.S. money.
John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction (SIGAR), said the salaries of “ghost soldiers” is just one of many ways Americans' money is wasted in Afghanistan – all for rather modest gains.
His comments summarize a SIGAR report that aims to help inform the new Congress and administration of the most pressing reconstruction challenges in 2017 and beyond. Sopko’s message was one American leaders have heard before.
“Including U.S. war funding unrelated to reconstruction, U.S. appropriations for Afghanistan now totals more than three quarters of a trillion dollars -- not including the $43.7 billion requested for fiscal year 2017,” he said in a speech before the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.
**U.S. taxpayers footing the bill for security at unused ‘Ghost Hotel’ in Kabul**
“To date, more than $115 billion of U.S. taxpayer money has been spent, sometimes wisely – too often not. Another $7.5 billion has been appropriated but not yet spent, and international donors have pledged to provide financial support to Afghanistan and its security forces through 2020.”
Despite the huge amounts spent in Afghanistan, conditions are deteriorating.
“As of Aug. 28, 2016, only 63.4 percent of the country’s districts were under Afghan government’s control or influence, a reduction from the 72 percent as of Nov. 27, 2015, Sopko said.
Afghan forces “are generally capable and effective at protecting major population centers, preventing the Taliban from maintaining prolonged control of specific areas and at responding to Taliban attacks.”
But the Afghan military, “a reportedly 320,000-strong force is basically playing ‘whack-a-mole’ following the Taliban around Afghanistan.”
In addition to the military situation, American efforts to curb opium production are failing.
“Although the United States has committed more than $8 billion to counter-narcotics efforts in Afghanistan, the opium trade has grown significantly since the fall of the Taliban. [The U.S.] estimates that as much as 60 percent of the Taliban’s funding comes from poppy production and cultivation.”
The scale of money spent on Afghanistan since reconstruction efforts began in 2002 mirrors the scale of casualties among U.S. personnel in Afghanistan.
Sopko said “2,247 U.S. military personnel have died in support of operations there, while more than 20,000 others were wounded in action.”
After 15 years, Afghanistan’s government is still in no position to support itself -- and corruption in endemic, he said.
“The percentage of Afghans who believe corruption is a problem of daily life, now 90 percent, has steadily increased over time. In 2016 Afghans paid more in bribes than the government is expected to have generated in revenue from taxes, customs, tariffs and other sources of income.”
There is evidence that the Taliban has instructed its field commanders to simply purchase U.S.-supplied weapons, fuel and ammunition from Afghan soldiers because to do so is both easier and less expensive, Sopko said.
Some of the blame for the wasted military spending, growing drug problem and widespread corruption can be laid on Washington’s doorstep.
“The U.S. contributed mightily to the problem by dumping too much money, too fast, into too small an economy, with too little oversight,” he said.
There have been some improvements because of American efforts to ensure that money is properly spent.
“I was encouraged to hear that, as of this month, Afghan security forces are being paid based on a DOD-developed verification system, known as AHRIMS [Afghan Human Resources Information Management System] that relies upon ID cards embedded with biometric information being registered daily to measure attendance,” he said. | 200 | [
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2017-01-10 | Afghanistan | 300 Marines to deploy to Helmand, Afghanistan - Stars and Stripes | ---
title: Afghan Governor, U.A.E. Ambassador Injured In Guesthouse Blast
author: RFE; RL's Radio Azadi
url: https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-kandahar-blast-governor-uae-ambassador/28224246.html
hostname: rferl.org
description: Afghan officials say at least three people were killed and nine others, including the provincial governor and a foreign ambassador, were injured in a blast at a government guesthouse in the southern province of Kandahar late on January 10.
sitename: RFE/RL
date: 2017-01-10
categories: ['Afghanistan']
tags: ['News, Afghanistan']
---
Afghan officials say at least five people were killed and nine others, including the provincial governor and the Emirati ambassador, were injured in a blast at a government guesthouse in the southern province of Kandahar late on January 10.
Local government spokesman Samim Khpalwak said the blast hit the compound in the provincial capital, Kandahar, where Governor Hamayoon Azizi was hosting a dinner attended by the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to Kabul, several Afghan officials, and Emirati diplomats.
The spokesman said the governor and the ambassador were injured in the blast. He said the attack occurred at 7 p.m. local time.
Khpalwak, who was also present at the gathering, told RFE/RL that explosive devices were apparently hidden in sofas.
The U.A.E. Foreign Ministry confirmed the incident, saying in a statement that the Emirati ambassador and several other diplomats were wounded in "the heinous terrorist attack on the guesthouse."
The ministry identified the wounded ambassador as Juma Mohammed Abdullah al-Kaabi. It didn't say how many U.A.E. diplomats were wounded.
Earlier in the day, the U.A.E. embassy in Kabul tweeted photos of the ambassador holding a meeting with Afghan officials and attending a ceremony to lay the foundation of an orphanage in Kandahar.
U.A.E. combat troops were deployed to Afghanistan after the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban administration.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which came just hours after deadly twin blasts near the parliament headquarters in the capital, Kabul.
Dozens were killed and wounded in that attack, which was claimed by the Taliban. | 200 | [
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2017-01-06 | Afghanistan | Afghan Governor, U.A.E. Ambassador Injured In Guesthouse Blast - Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty | ---
title: 300 Marines to deploy to Helmand, Afghanistan
author: Corey Dickstein
url: https://www.stripes.com/news/2017-01-06/300-marines-to-deploy-to-helmand-afghanistan-1524756.html1
hostname: stripes.com
sitename: Stars and Stripes
date: 2017-01-06
tags: ['metered']
---
WASHINGTON — Some 300 Marines will deploy in the spring to troubled Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan to support the NATO-led mission to train Afghan security forces in their continuing fight with the Taliban, the Marines announced Friday.
Troops from II Marine Expeditionary Force, which is based at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, will train and advise the Afghan National Army’s 215th Corps and the nation’s 505th Zone National Police, said 1st Lt. Katie Kochert, a spokeswoman for the Marine unit.
U.S. Central Command requested the deployment, she said. For the Marine Corps, it will be a return to an area where it has operated through much of the past decade. Marines first entered Helmand at the beginning of the war in Afghanistan in 2001. The unit returned in mass in early 2008 and remained in the province through October 2014, when they handed over control of their main base, Camp Leatherneck, to the Afghan army.
Helmand was the site of some of the most brutal fighting between Taliban insurgents and U.S.-led coalition forces throughout Operation Enduring Freedom. Nearly 1,000 NATO troops, including hundreds of Marines, died in the province.
“The Marine Corps has an operational history in Afghanistan, particularly in Helmand Province,” Kochert said. “Advising and assisting Afghan defense and security forces will assist in preserving gains made together with the Afghans. This new deployment of Marines to Helmand reflects our enduring commitment to the people of Afghanistan.”
Since 2015, the Taliban have made successive inroads in Helmand, where they have captured several districts. Afghan security forces have suffered some of their most significant casualties in the province.
U.S. officials have blamed failures in Helmand largely on instability within the Afghan army’s 215th Corps. The unit faced major issues in recent years, including poor leadership, overworked soldiers and fraud. Army Gen. John Nicholson told reporters last month at the Pentagon that ineffective and corrupt commanders have been removed from the unit. He said the unit has undergone retraining in the last year and has shown improvement in recent months.
Nonetheless, the Taliban has continued to target the province, with rare winter attacks occurring as recently as last week in Sangin and Marjah districts.
The United States is in the process of drawing down its force size in Afghanistan from 9,800 to 8,400 troops by Jan. 20, the day President-elect Donald Trump is sworn into office. The war in Afghanistan was rarely discussed on the campaign trail and it is unclear what policy changes Trump might make.
The Taliban controls about 10 percent of the country, the most territory that it has held since 2001, according to NATO. The Afghan government controls about 70 percent of the country and the remaining 20 percent is contested.
*dickstein.corey@stripes.com** Twitter: @CDicksteinDC* | 200 | [
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2017-01-26 | Afghanistan | Afghanistan Arrests Four In Killing Of Female Airport Workers - Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty | ---
title: Germany to Operate Israeli Drone in Afghanistan for Additional Year
author: Barbara Opall-Rome
url: https://www.defensenews.com/air/2017/01/26/germany-to-operate-israeli-drone-in-afghanistan-for-additional-year/
hostname: defensenews.com
description: Estimated at tens of millions of dollars, the contract concluded between the German Defence Procurement Agency and Airbus DS Airborne Solutions extends Heron operations in Afghanistan until February 2018.
sitename: Defense News
date: 2017-01-26
categories: ['name']
---
TEL AVIV — Germany has extended a leasing contract to operate the Israeli Heron-1 unmanned aerial system (UAS) for another year in support of ongoing operations in Afghanistan, state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) announced Thursday.
IAI is the prime contractor for the medium-altitude-long endurance system.
Estimated at tens of millions of dollars, the contract concluded between the German Defence Procurement Agency and Airbus DS Airborne Solutions, a subsidiary of Airbus Defence and Space, extends Heron operations in Afghanistan until February 2018.
The German Air Force is operating the Heron-1 in Mali as part of a UN policing mission.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of IAI
In its Jan. 26 news release, IAI noted that its Heron-1 recently marked 30,000 hours in Afghanistan since the German Air Force began operating the system in 2010. The Israeli firm noted that over the years, its Heron UAS has supported Afghanistan operations by several NATO allies, including France and Canada.
The German Air Force also is operating the Heron-1 in Mali as part of a United Nations policing mission.
"Our connection with the German Air Force is of course highly important, and we are proud to continue to provide an operational solution together with the excellent cooperation we have with Airbus," said retired Israeli Air Force Brig. Gen. Shaul Shahar, IAI's executive vice president and general manager of the firm's Military Aircraft Group.
Opall-Rome is Israel bureau chief for Defense News. She has been covering U.S.-Israel strategic cooperation, Mideast security and missile defense since May 1988. She lives north of Tel Aviv. Visit her website at www.opall-rome.com. | 200 | [
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2017-01-16 | Afghanistan | Turkey Says Nightclub Attack Suspect Uzbek-Born, Trained In Afghanistan - Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty | 200 | [
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2017-01-02 | Afghanistan | Germany to Operate Israeli Drone in Afghanistan for Additional Year - Defense News | ---
title: Afghanistan Arrests Four In Killing Of Female Airport Workers
author: RFE; RL's Radio Azadi
url: https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-airport-women-killing-suspects-presented/28209920.html
hostname: rferl.org
description: Afghan officials have arrested four suspects in the killing last month of five female airport employees and their driver in the southern province of Kandahar.
sitename: RFE/RL
date: 2017-01-02
categories: ['Afghanistan']
tags: ['News, Afghanistan, From Our Bureaus']
---
Afghan officials have arrested four suspects in the killing last month of five female airport employees and their driver in the southern province of Kandahar.
Security officials brought three of the suspects to a press conference in Kandahar late on January 1, saying the men had admitted to taking part in the slayings.
Provincial security chief Rahmatullah Atrafi told reporters that the fourth suspect was undergoing medical treatment for wounds sustained when security forces arrested the group.
At the press conference, two of the suspects said they participated in the killings of the civilian airport employees, who were gunned down on their way to work on December 17.
It's unclear if the men spoke under duress.
The Taliban militant group has denied being involved in the attack, but the men said they killed the airport workers based on instructions from a Taliban commander.
The women had been concerned about their security after receiving death threats from people who disapproved of them having careers in the deeply conservative country, airport officials said. | 200 | [
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2017-02-08 | Afghanistan | First to go: Green Berets remember earliest mission in Afghanistan - army.mil | 200 | [
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2017-02-06 | Afghanistan | Until Dawn: The Battle of Boz Qandahari - centcom.mil | 200 | [
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2017-02-22 | Afghanistan | Insurgent Peace-Making: A New Approach to End the War in Afghanistan - War on the Rocks | 200 | [
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2017-02-08 | Afghanistan | Afghanistan: Six ICRC staff members killed and two unaccounted for in attack - ICRC | 200 | [
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2017-02-10 | Afghanistan | Thousands More Troops Needed in Afghanistan, Top U.S. Commander Tells Senate Panel - WSJ | 200 | [
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2017-02-28 | Afghanistan | Anatomy of a US airstrike: Are Afghan strongmen calling the shots? - TBIJ | 200 | [
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2017-02-01 | Afghanistan | Take a look at these amazing photos of Afghanistan before the wars - Business Insider | 200 | [
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2017-02-22 | Afghanistan | Al Qaeda-linked Uzbek groups advertise operations in Afghanistan - Long War Journal | ---
title: Al Qaeda-linked Uzbek groups advertise operations in Afghanistan
author: Bill Roggio; Caleb Weiss
url: https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2017/02/al-qaeda-linked-uzbek-groups-advertise-operations-in-afghanistan.php
hostname: longwarjournal.org
description: The Imam Bukhari Jamaat and the Islamic Jihad Union have claimed attacks in eastern and northern Afghanistan. Members of these two groups are also known to have operated in Syria.
sitename: FDD's Long War Journal
date: 2017-02-22
categories: ['Long War Journal']
---
**Islamic Jihad Union fighter shooting at Afghan troops in a dawn raid in eastern Afghanistan**
Two al Qaeda-linked Uzbek jihadist groups have released videos touting their operations inside Afghanistan. The two groups, Katibat Imam al Bukhari (aka the Imam Bukhari Jamaat) and the Islamic Jihad Union, have claimed attacks in eastern and northern Afghanistan.
In Katibat Imam al Bukhari’s (KIB) video, the group shows its forces shelling an Afghan army installation somewhere in northern Afghanistan. Fighters can be seen firing mortars at buildings from afar, while also firing rounds from DShK machine guns. Archival photos are also included in the video, some of which appear to detail child or teenage soldiers. While the exact location of the attack was not provided, it appears to have taken place in the same province as last week’s IED video.
The second video released was from the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU). Unlike KIB’s video, IJU’s focuses on heavy combat with Afghan troops in the eastern part of the country sometime late last year. The video details a dawn raid on an Afghan military base and was filmed with GoPros and camcorders. The IJU force can be seen firing at Afghan positions with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, while also firing at military helicopters with anti-air weaponry. No exact location was given, but the IJU is known to be active in the eastern Afghan provinces of Paktika, Paktia, and Nangarhar.
The combat video comes just two days after IJU released another that details some of the foreign fighters in its ranks. Some of these fighters can be seen operating US weapons and vehicles.
**IJU and KIB in Afghanistan**
The IJU is an offshoot of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a jihadist group that historically fought with al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Central Asia. The IMU split in 2015 when a faction swore allegiance to the Islamic State.
While the IJU is largely comprised of Uzbeks, it has many foreign fighters from other Central Asian countries, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, within its ranks. Some Uighurs from China’s Xinjiang region have also joined the IJU.
In the past, there was a significant presence of German and Turkish Muslims in the Islamic Jihad Union. Some of these IJU fighters have been referred to as ‘German Taliban.’ This group released a video in 2009 of ‘German Taliban villages’ in Waziristan. Its fighters were seen training at camps and conducting military operations.
German members of the Islamic Jihad Union have also been killed in combat inside Pakistan. Eric Breininger, a German man who converted to Islam, was killed while assaulting a Pakistani military outpost in North Waziristan on April 28, 2010. Three Uzbek fighters were also killed in the attack. Breininger was wanted for plotting attacks against US military bases and personnel in Germany.
Turkish members of the Islamic Jihad Group were also reported killed along with an al Qaeda commander in a US Predator strike in North Waziristan in June 2010.
Americans have also joined the Islamic Jihad Group. In 2009, two Americans, Abu Ibrahim al Amriki and Sayfullah al Amriki, were featured in propaganda released by the jihadist group.
KIB has sworn allegiance to the Taliban’s leadership and has also played a prominent role in northwestern Syria fighting alongside al Qaeda’s forces there. According to *RFE/RL*, the Syrian wing is led by a veteran of the jihad in Afghanistan who was sent to Syria by Taliban deputy emir Sirajuddin Haqqani, the operational leader of the powerful al Qaeda-linked Haqqani Network.
KIB took part in the al Qaeda-led 2015 offensive that took over Idlib Province, as well as the al Qaeda-led offensive in the southern Aleppo countryside and renewed clashes in Latakia last year. It has also advertised its training camps in the country, including at least two for children.
While it is not known if the IJU has officially sent fighters to Syria, at least one former commander was killed in the country. Abu Omar al Turkistani, a Uighur jihadist formerly in the IJU, was killed alongside two al Qaeda members in a US drone strike in Syria. He was the commander of Ansar Jihad, a largely Central Asian sub-unit of al Qaeda’s main force in Syria. [See *FDD’s Long War Journal* report, Uighur jihadist fought in Afghanistan, killed in Syria.]
Last month, the IJU also released a video of some of its fighters sending a message to “the Mujahideen in Syria.” The message from foreign fighters within the IJU implored “unity and strength” among Syria’s jihadist forces.
**Photos from the KIB video:**
**Photos from the IJU videos:**
**Foreign fighters in IJU:** | 200 | [
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2017-02-03 | Afghanistan | Officials: Son of Slain Uzbek Militant Promotes So-called Islamic State in Afghanistan - VOA - Voice of America English News | ---
title: Afghanistan: New children's ward at Mirwais Hospital already overcapacity
url: https://www.icrc.org/en/document/mirwais-hospital-afghanistan-health-children-news
hostname: icrc.org
sitename: International Committee of the Red Cross
date: 2017-02-03
---
Nasir Ahmad, 5 years old, has thalassemia. He is getting ready for his regular blood transfusion, which he needs every five weeks. According to the doctors, the life expectancy of children suffering from thalassemia in Afghanistan is about 15 to 20 years. This is because few health facilities provide this service, the families affected often do not understand the disease and there is no national programme to tackle thalassemia.
Najibullah, 5 years old, from Uruzgan, enjoys a little lunch break. He suffers from nephrotic syndrome affecting his kidneys. He was referred here because the doctors in Uruzgan couldn’t manage his problem.
Zabiullah, 2 months old, sleeps while recovering from bronchiolitis, a respiratory infection affecting hundreds of babies every season.
Suleiman Shah, 5 years old, had severe meningitis with haemorrhagic problems. He is recovering well.
A young patient is all smiles upon seeing the paediatric nurse arrive.
Habib, 6 months old, has severe pneumonia.
A premature baby is kept warm in one of the new incubators, wearing a sweater knitted in Norway and brought in by an ICRC nurse.
Paediatric nurse Shagofa has been working here for four months and is one of the very few female nurses.
Muzalifa, 6 years old, suffers from bronchial asthma.
The new paediatric ward at Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar opened in September 2016. The renovated facility stands proudly in the hospital compound, among trees providing welcome shade from what has been a blisteringly hot summer. Even as the last drop of fresh paint dries, young patients are wheeled from the old ward into the new one.
The old paediatric ward was located in the main structure of the hospital compound, with 93 beds on the second floor of the building. Most of the beds had to be shared by at least two patients. The new paediatric ward is a stand-alone building, with 157 beds spread over three floors. More space means proper isolation areas for children with highly infectious diseases, such as measles, tuberculosis and meningitis. There is also a day-care unit for those suffering from thalassemia, an inherited blood disorder – very frequent in southern Afghanistan – that requires frequent blood transfusions. But the pride of the new ward is the 30-bed neonatal unit, which has 11 incubators, 6 warmer cots and state-of-the-art equipment. Babies, especially those born prematurely, receive top-quality care, while at same time there is space for their mothers to learn to breastfeed and adopt healthy maternal habits.
This is a cause for celebration. The long-awaited renovation of what was once a nursing school has resulted in a larger facility whose sole purpose is to provide children with the free medical care they so desperately need. Considerable efforts were also made to increase staff and equipment.
Yet there has been no time to celebrate. Within a month, the new, larger ward was already full and new patients kept arriving from all the provinces in the south. "Receiving new patients and being able to help them is the best part of the job," said Shagofa, a female paediatric nurse working in the neonatal unit. "We're very happy with the new ward, but we're already looking forward to having more equipment and facilities, as we're already overcapacity."
While in the end there has been no time to celebrate the opening of the new paediatric ward at Mirwais Hospital, the successful treatment of each and every child is a celebration in itself – for the paediatric staff like Shagofa as much as the patients' families.
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2017-02-16 | Afghanistan | In This Afghan Restaurant, Men Are Not Allowed Without Women - Eater | 200 | [
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2017-02-14 | Afghanistan | U.N. Refugee Agency Must Break Its Silence on Pakistan - Human Rights Watch | 200 | [
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2017-02-07 | Afghanistan | 42nd Clearance Company recognizes 22 Soldiers for actions in Afghanistan - army.mil | ---
title: Officials: Son of Slain Uzbek Militant Promotes So-called Islamic State in Afghanistan
author: Noor Zahid
url: https://www.voanews.com/a/son-slain-uzbek-militant-promotes-islamic-state-afghanistan-officials-say/3710083.html
hostname: voanews.com
description: Uzbek fighters in northern areas of Afghanistan reportedly are fleeing the Taliban and switching sides to join IS, a claim denied by the Taliban
sitename: Voice of America (VOA News)
date: 2017-02-07
categories: ['Extremism Watch']
tags: ['Extremism Watch, Afghanistan, Taliban, Islamic state, IMU']
---
The son of a fabled slain Uzbek militant commander has been luring Uzbek men in northern Afghanistan to join the so-called Islamic State group, officials in the northern province of Sar-e-Pul told VOA.
Abdul Rahman Yuldash, a reclusive wanted man, is reportedly leading efforts to help establish an IS footprint in Afghanistan's northern provinces which border his native Uzbekistan. Officials are not sure where he is based or how he operates.
Authorities, however, say they "have received reports about the presence of Tahir Yuldash's son in some villages," Zahir Wahdat, governor of the restive northern Sar-e-Pul province, told VOA.
Tahir Yuldash was a co-founder and leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), a socio-religious group that turned Islamic fundamentalist. IMU, established in the mid-1990s in Uzbekistan and including fighters from several central Asian nations, operated from bases inside Tajikistan and Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, analysts say.
Once a strong ally of the Taliban, IMU later became closely associated with al-Qaida and its leader, Osama bin Laden.
Following the Taliban ouster in 2001, Tahir Yuldash and his followers settled in tribal areas in Pakistan, near the Afghan border; however, disputes followed with local tribes that accused Yuldash of imposing his extreme ways on locals, including women, and recruiting them for military training.
Tahir Yuldash's men engaged in clashes with local militant groups and were accused of killing many tribal elders, which led to their eventual move to Afghanistan's Zabul province in 2007. Tahir Yuldash reportedly died in a U.S. drone strike in August 2009.
Little is known about the younger Yuldash, but he reportedly lived in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi after his father died.
"He used to live in Karachi and may still be based there," Wahid Muzhda, a Taliban analyst in Kabul, told VOA.
**IMU splits**
Yuldash has twice been seen in Sar-e-Pul's Sayyad district recruiting for IS, local security officials told VOA's Afghanistan service. Many militants who previously were associated with the Taliban are now signing up for IS in the area, officials say.
According to analyst Muzhda, Uzbek fighters in northern areas of Afghanistan are fleeing the Taliban and switching sides to join IS, a claim he says was denied by the Taliban.
"The IMU has split up into three smaller groups," Muzhda said, adding that one of the groups is pledged to IS.
The IMU was closely linked with the Taliban and fought against the Afghan government; however, analysts say differences surfaced after the Taliban announced its disassociation with international terrorist groups, including al-Qaida, and abandoned plans to support the spread of terrorist activities into central Asia.
Osman Ghazi, Tahir Yuldash's successor and his son-in-law, accused the Taliban of being apostates and pledged allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, according to Muzhda.
Following the split, the two groups engaged in fierce fighting in 2015 in Zabul, which left at least 110 dead, and dozens wounded. To show its allegiance to Islamic State, the IMU fighters kidnapped around a dozen ethnic Shi'ite Afghans and killed them. Ghazi was arrested and hanged by the Taliban last year.
Yuldash was recently injured in an explosion after visiting his family in Zabul, Muzhda said.
The IMU's presence is known in some parts of the northern provinces where locals have spotted Uzbek fighters and their families.
"About two years ago, 10 or 15 families that belonged to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan came and settled in Darzaab," a local resident in neighboring Jouzjan province told VOA's Uzbek service, on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.
"We believe the IMU is training fighters," he said. "I know some local Uzbeks from Sar-e-Pul, Faryab, and Badghis have also joined them."
**Militant activity grows**
Afghanistan's northern provinces have recently seen an increase in militants' activities. More than 4,000 fighters with different militant groups are active in Sar-e-Pul, according to Zabihullah Amani, a spokesperson for the provincial government.
According to the governor of Sar-e-Pul, Afghan forces are engaged in heavy battles with militants in five districts. The Kohistanat district, he said, has been under the militants' control for the past year-and-a-half and is where foreign fighters train local militants.
"Parts of the Sar-e-Pul province have become bases and safe havens for the anti-government militants," he said, adding that many fighters from several central Asian countries such as Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan are present in the area, including Tahir Yuldash's son.
"IS does not have a large base yet, but some local commanders [militants], who used to be with the Taliban, are now sympathizing with IS and want to join the group. No doubt, they [IS] are trying to establish a large base in the province," the governor told Afghan Tolo TV. | 200 | [
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2017-02-09 | Afghanistan | Afghan forces prepare for spring campaign - centcom.mil | ---
title: Top US General: Afghanistan War Still a 'Stalemate'
author: Joshua Fatzick
url: https://www.voanews.com/a/top-us-general-says-afghanistan-war-still-a-stalemate/3716256.html
hostname: voanews.com
description: Nicholson says more US troops are needed to train and assist Afghans
sitename: Voice of America (VOA News)
date: 2017-02-09
categories: ['East Asia']
tags: ['USA, East Asia']
---
The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson told the Armed Services Committee he believes the U.S.-backed Afghan forces are “in a stalemate” in the 15 year-old war. He said to break that stalemate he needs “a few thousand” more soldiers to accompany the 8,400 U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Nicholson faced questions Thursday from senators about the Trump administration’s plans for handling the long-running war in Afghanistan.
**WATCH: Nicholson on Afghanistan **
Nicholson said offensive capability is key to breaking the stalemate and while the additional U.S. troops would be involved in train, advice and assist missions, the Afghan Special Forces and Air force would be “vital” to success.
According to Nicholson, the Afghan forces operated independently 80 percent of the time last year, though they faced a higher number of casualties than in years past.
More than 6,700 Afghan soldiers were killed last year through November 12, according to a quarterly report published last month by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. That is more than the 6,600 soldiers killed in all of 2015.
Nicholson said he is “very concerned about the level of losses.” And while he said current recruiting levels allow the Afghan forces to replace soldiers who are killed, the military is not able to operate at its peak capability.
The report also noted the Afghan government is steadily losing control of areas within the country. According to the report, the government lost control of about 15 percent of the country’s districts between November 2015 and November 2016.
Nicholson said 20 of 98 designated terrorist groups operate in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, giving it the highest concentration of terror groups anywhere in the world.
Senator John McCain suggested that Russia is “playing a significant” role in Afghanistan and Nicholson agreed, saying that Russian meddling this year “has become more difficult.”
Nicholson said Russia has tried to publicly legitimize the Taliban by saying the extremist group is helping in the fight against IS, but he called this idea a “false narrative.”
According to Nicholson, Afghan security forces have eliminated about half of the IS group’s fighters and reduced the territory they hold by two-thirds.
Nicholson said he feared this public support could allow Taliban power to spill out of Afghanistan and into other countries as the group continues to gain territory.
In December, Nicholson said the Taliban controls about 10 percent of the population, while the Afghan government controls about two-thirds. The rest are contested. | 200 | [
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2017-02-28 | Afghanistan | Afghanistan hosts first ANDSF Day - army.mil | 200 | [
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2017-02-21 | Afghanistan | MPs contribute to a stable Afghanistan - army.mil | 200 | [
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2017-02-09 | Afghanistan | Until Dawn: Surviving the Battle of Boz Qandahari - army.mil | 200 | [
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2017-02-27 | Afghanistan | Are Chinese Forces Conducting Patrols in Afghanistan? - The Diplomat – Asia-Pacific Current Affairs Magazine | 200 | [
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2017-02-06 | Afghanistan | More Than 100 People Killed In Afghanistan Avalanches - WGBH | 200 | [
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2017-02-09 | Afghanistan | U.S. commander tells Congress: More troops needed in Afghanistan - Politico | 200 | [
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2017-02-14 | Afghanistan | Uighur jihadist fought in Afghanistan, killed in Syria - Long War Journal | 200 | [
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2017-02-07 | Afghanistan | Staying the course on the long road - Global Polio Eradication | 200 | [
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