a piece of broken glass of a vehicle at the site of a bomb attack in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Photo by Rahmatullah Alizadah/Xinhua)
The US embassy in Kabul announced USD 266 million in new humanitarian assistance from the US Department of State and the US Agency for International Development (USAID)…reports Asian Lite News
US Charge d’ Affaires Ross Wilson on Saturday said that Washington is stepping up its engagement in Afghanistan through its additional USD 266 million assistance, which was recently announced by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Taking to Twitter, Wilson said that as part of its commitment, the US will provide essential health care, food aid, and other supplies to the millions of Afghans.
“We are stepping up our engagement in Afghanistan, including humanitarian assistance. This commitment will provide lifesaving protection, shelter, livelihoods opportunities, essential health care, food aid, water and other supplies to the 18M Afghans in need,” Wilson tweeted.
In a press release, the US embassy in Kabul announced USD 266 million in new humanitarian assistance from the US Department of State and the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The total US humanitarian aid for Afghanistan now stands at nearly USD 3.9 billion since 2002.
“The US Embassy in Kabul remains a stalwart friend to the government and people of Afghanistan, and will build upon two decades of assistance in many fields, including humanitarian relief as well as a variety of cooperative projects in infrastructure, gender, education, agriculture, health, security, democracy, counter-narcotics, and anticorruption,” the release said.
It further said that the humanitarian aid contributions of the United States and their international partners seek to address the needs of an estimated 18 million Afghans who are suffering due to poverty, hunger, COVID-19, and displacement.
Meanwhile, Two police chiefs and six soldiers were killed in an attack by the Taliban in the Jugla district of the Baghlan province in Afghanistan, TOLOnews reported on Saturday.
According to an anonymous security official speaking to the Afghan broadcaster, the attack started after midnight on Friday and the clashes between the security forces and the Taliban continued until the early hours of Saturday morning.
The district is under threat to fall under Taliban control if reinforcements will not be sent, the official added.
In the past 24 hours at least 10 provinces have faced clashes between government forces and the Taliban in the country.
Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid confirmed the clashes on Twitter and said that ten Afghans had been killed and eight injured. (ANI/Sputnik)
During the meeting, the foreign ministers of the three countries will exchange views on the key issues of the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan….reports Asian Lite News
Amid the drawdown of US troops from Afghanistan, the foreign ministers of China, Afghanistan and Pakistan will discuss the Afghan peace process during a trilateral dialogue on Thursday.
During the meeting, the foreign ministers of the three countries will exchange views on the key issues of the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan.
“The minister will discuss the reconciliation process in Afghanistan, the trilateral practical cooperation as well as fighting terrorism. The trilateral dialogue mechanism is an important platform for strengthening mutual trust between the three countries,” said Wang Wenbin, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson during a press briefing on Wednesday.
The spokesperson claimed the withdrawal of US and NATO troops, amid the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan, has brought uncertainties in the region.
“At present, the unilateral withdrawal of US and NATO troops at the critical stage of the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan has brought uncertainties to Afghanistan’s domestic situation and regional security landscape,” he added.
Taliban attack at the peak in Afghanistan
Wang also expressed China’s confidence in the positive results of the upcoming meeting.
The trilateral dialogue mechanism of the foreign ministers of China, Afghanistan, Pakistan was created in 2017 at the initiative of the Chinese side. On May 18, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi offered Afghanistan to hold intra-Afghan talks in China, Sputnik reported.
Last month, China had blamed the United States’ “abrupt announcement of complete withdrawal of forces” for the succession of explosive attacks throughout Afghanistan, saying the step has worsened the security situation and has threatened peace and stability as well as people’s lives and safety in the war-torn country.
“It needs to be pointed out that the recent abrupt US announcement of complete withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan has led to a succession of explosive attacks throughout the country, worsening the security situation and threatening peace and stability as well as people’s lives and safety,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a statement.
In April, US President Joe Biden had announced the pullback of troops from Afghanistan. The withdrawal which started in the month of May is set to complete on September 11. (ANI)
Afghanistan’s National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib said that Taliban leaders had not been in contact with their supreme leader for one year, reports Mrityunjoy Kumar Jha
The Taliban’s top leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada has been absent from important meetings and has not been seen in public for the last one year, triggering speculation about his physical status.
Citing the intelligence reports, Afghanistan’s National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib said during a press conference on Saturday that Taliban leaders had not been in contact with their supreme leader for one year.
“Taliban have had no contact with Mullah Haibatullah for the last 12 months. There is no information available whether he is alive or dead? No one had heard his voice and no one had met him. Intelligence information proves it,” the Pajhwok news quoted him saying.
According to senior Afghan intelligence, army and NATO officials, most decisions of the Taliban regarding peace and security are being taken by the group’s deputy leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the infamous Haqqani network, known for working hand-in-glove with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
But the Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid told Pajhwok Afghan News that Mullah Haibatullah was alive and was doing his job. Mujahid said that all their leaders and officials are in contact with the supreme leader. They take his advice on all important issues and share their reports with him.
Taliban
He added that Akhundzada is in a safe and secure place, and his absence in public was driven by security reasons.
There have been several reports that senior leaders of the Taliban are in a safe hideout near Quetta under the protection of the Pakistani army. Few weeks ago, members of the Taliban negotiating team had travelled to some undisclosed locations near Quetta for further consultations with their senior leaders, but the absence of the top leader’s name stood out.
Three months ago, there were media reports that Akhundzada had been killed in a bomb blast in a mosque in Quetta. His brother and a number of people of his seminary had apparently also suffered casualties in the incident, which is said to have taken place in April 2020.
The Taliban had rejected the report. Taliban leader Ahmadullah Wasiq said on Twitter: “This is false news and baseless rumours have no truth. Spreading such rumours and false news is a failed propaganda attempt by the enemy’s intelligence services. The enemy wants to hide its defeats in such rumours and distract the people’s minds.”
However, it is not unknown for the Taliban to hide the death of its leaders.
Mullah Omar’s death in Pakistan in 2013 was kept hidden from the public by the Taliban for about two years. The group confirmed the death in July 2015 only after Afghanistan’s spy agency went public with the development.
Mullah Omar’s successor, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, was killed in a US drone strike in Balochistan, in May 2016. Akhundzada was named the new head of the Taliban days later. He was previously the Taliban’s chief justice and most of the decisions and fatwas were made by him.
It is no secret that scores of top Afghan Taliban leaders are based in Pakistan. The top leadership council is called the “Quetta Shura” because most of its members are based in Quetta.
This year, Salaam Times raised the issue about the whereabouts of the Taliban supremo. It said that no voice clip of the Taliban’s leader had been released since a year and his Eid messages were all in written form.
(This content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)
Taliban has besieged seven rural Afghan military outposts across the wheat fields and onion patches of the Laghman province, in eastern Afghanistan…reports Asian Lite News
Since the US troops began leaving Afghanistan since early May, there has been a wave of Afghan military surrendering to the Taliban in rural areas.
Taliban has besieged seven rural Afghan military outposts across the wheat fields and onion patches of the Laghman province, in eastern Afghanistan, reported The Frontier Post.
Ammunition was depleted inside the bedraggled outposts in Laghman province. Food was scarce. Some police officers hadn’t been paid in five months.
By mid-month, security forces had surrendered all seven outposts after extended negotiations, according to village elders. At least 120 soldiers and police were given safe passage to the government-held provincial center in return for handing over weapons and equipment.
Taliban enlisted village elders to visit the outposts bearing a message: Surrender or die.
Taliban
“We told them, ‘Look, your situation is bad — reinforcements aren’t coming,” said Nabi Sarwar Khadim, 53, one of several elders who negotiated the surrenders.
Since May 1, at least 26 outposts and bases in just four provinces — Laghman, Baghlan, Wardak and Ghazni — have surrendered after such negotiations, according to village elders and government officials, reported The Frontier Post.
With morale diving as US troops leave, and the Taliban seizing on each surrender as a propaganda victory, each collapse feeds the next in the Afghan countryside.
Among the negotiated surrenders were four district centers, which house local governors, police and intelligence chiefs — effectively handing the government facilities to Taliban control and scattering the officials there, at least temporarily.
The Taliban have negotiated Afghan troop surrenders in the past, but never at the scale and pace of the base collapses this month in the four provinces extending east, north and west of Kabul.
The tactic has removed hundreds of government forces from the battlefield, secured strategic territory and reaped weapons, ammunition and vehicles for the Taliban — often without firing a shot, reported The Frontier Post.
Taliban
The base collapses are one measure of the rapidly deteriorating government war effort as one outpost after another falls, sometimes after battles, but often after wholesale surrenders.
The surrenders are part of a broader Taliban playbook of seizing and holding territory as security force morale plummets with the exit of international troops. Buyoffs of local police and militia. Local cease-fires that allow the Taliban to consolidate gains. A sustained military offensive despite pleas for peace talks and a nationwide cease-fire, reported The Frontier Post.
“The government is not able to save the security forces,” said Mohammed Jalal, a village elder in Baghlan province. “If they fight, they will be killed, so they have to surrender.”
The surrenders are the work of Taliban Invitation and Guidance Committees, which intervene after insurgents cut off roads and supplies to surrounded outposts.
Committee leaders or Taliban military leaders phone base commanders — and sometimes their families — and offer to spare troops’ lives if they surrender their outposts, weapons and ammunition.
In several cases, the committees have given surrendering troops money — typically around USD 130 — and civilian clothes and sent them home unharmed. But first they videotape the men as they promise not to rejoin the security forces. They log their phone numbers and the names of family members — and vow to kill the men if they rejoin the military, reported The Frontier Post.
“The Taliban commander and the Invitation and Guidance Committee called me more than 10 times and asked me to surrender,” said Maj. Imam Shah Zafari, 34, a district police chief in Wardak province who surrendered his command center and weapons on May 11 after negotiations mediated by local elders.
Taliban attack at the peak in Afghanistan
After the Taliban provided a car ride home to Kabul, he said, a committee member phoned to assure him that the government would not imprison him for surrendering. “He said, ‘We have so much power in the government and we can release you,” Zafari said.
The Taliban committees take advantage of a defining characteristic of Afghan wars: Fighters and commanders regularly switch sides, cut deals, negotiate surrenders and cultivate village elders for influence with local residents.
The current conflict is really dozens of local wars. These are intimate struggles, where brothers and cousins battle one another and commanders on each side cajole, threatened and negotiated by cellphone, reported The Frontier Post.
“A Taliban commander calls me all the time, trying to destroy my morale, so that I’ll surrender,” said Wahidullah Zindani, 36, a bearded, sunburned police commander who has rejected Taliban demands to surrender his nine-man, bullet-pocked outpost in Laghman province.
The negotiated surrenders are part of a broader offensive in which the Taliban have surrounded at least five provincial capitals this spring, according to a Pentagon inspector general report released May 18.
The offensive has intensified since the US withdrawal began May 1. The Taliban have used their control of several major highways to cut off bases and garrisons, leaving them vulnerable. (ANI)
The United States’ military withdrawal from Afghanistan is up to 20 percent complete, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Monday…reports Asian Lite News
The Afghan government is ready to fight against the Taliban after the full withdrawal of foreign troops from the country, said President Ashraf Ghani as the US announced the completion of up to 20 per cent troops from the war-torn country.
“The threat of terrorism has changed. It has not disappeared. We are all agreed on this,” Ghani said in an interview with American public broadcasting service PBS on May 17.
“The US is committed to support things, providing support. This is financial, in the security area, in the economic area, in the humanitarian area, because the US, fortunately, shares the values of supporting the gains of the last 20 years. And our discussion is enormously productive.”
The United States’ military withdrawal from Afghanistan is up to 20 percent complete, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Monday.
“US Central Command estimates that we have completed between 13-20 per cent of the entire retrograde process. We expect to be able to provide weekly updates on the progress of the retrograde,” the combatant command responsible for the Middle East and parts of Central Asia said in a statement.
Taliban terrorists have intensified activities since the formal start of the US-led forces pull out from Afghanistan on May 1. The US aims to complete the withdrawal by September 11.
Taliban
Ghani has recently held talks with influential political leaders, including the reconciliation council chief Abdullah Abdullah and former president Hamid Karzai, to build a consensus around peace and form a high-level state council.
The US entered Afghanistan ostensibly to eliminate and destroy the Al-Qaeda terror group under its “war on terror” military campaign. However, the effort morphed into an extended attempt to establish democracy on Afghan soil, Sputnik reported.
During the intervening years, the Taliban regrouped and gained control of large parts of the nation in what has become America’s longest war that lasted over two decades and led to cost up to USD 1 trillion. (ANI)
U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad during the talks in Doha
Sources familiar with the meeting said the Taliban has asked to maintain the Doha negotiations–with serious discussions– but they want the final outcome to be achieved in Doha, not in Istanbul…reports Asian Lite News
Amid the final drawdown of US troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban has agreed to begin substantive talks with the Republic team in Doha in the coming days, which would end the peace process stalemate.
According to Tolo News, the Taliban group plans to attend the Istanbul summit but wants the end negotiations to take place in Doha.
The negotiating teams met in Doha on May 14 after a long pause. Sources familiar with the meeting said the Taliban has asked to maintain the Doha negotiations–with serious discussions– but they want the final outcome to be achieved in Doha, not in Istanbul.
“I think that this will open the way for an Istanbul conference where the Taliban will attend. They might make the agenda based on who in the Afghan government team will attend, not based on the US agenda,” said Sayed Akbar Agha, a former Taliban commander said to Tolo news.
The Republic team said that efforts in Doha and Istanbul will help achieve results in the negotiations, but they stressed that the Taliban’s commitment is key.
Taliban
“A meeting will be meaningful when the attendees include decision-makers and when there is a commitment for decision making. Only participation of high-ranking leaders can affect the current Doha process,” said Fawzia Koofi, member of the negotiating team of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, a delegation representing the Taliban led by Shai Abdul Hakim Haqqani has been in Pakistan over the last 20 days discussing with the leadership of the group the details of attending the Istanbul summit and the withdrawal of international troops from Afghanistan.
“Pakistan’s influence on the Taliban and the possible encouragement from Pakistan of course has an impact,” said Mohammad Amin Waqad, former deputy head of the High Peace Council, as reported by Tolo news.
Intra-Afghan talks in Doha.
President Ashraf Ghani has emphasised the need for a decision on peace by the regional players, and for Europe’s much-needed role to “get Pakistan on board” on the ongoing peace talks with Taliban.
“Peace will primarily be decided upon regionally, and I believe we are at a crucial moment of rethinking. It is first and foremost a matter of getting Pakistan on board. The US now plays only a minor role. The question of peace or hostility is now in Pakistani hands,” Ghani told the German news website, Der Spiegel, in an interview.
Over Pakistan’s influence on the Taliban, Ghani said, “Pakistan operates an organized system of support. The Taliban receive logistics there, their finances are there and recruitment is there.”
“The names of the various decision-making bodies of the Taliban are Quetta Shura, Miramshah Shura, and Peshawar Shura – named after the Pakistani cities where they are located. There is a deep relationship with the state,” he added.
The negotiations in Doha were stalled after the announcement of a delay in US forces withdrawal in Afghanistan from the original May 1st deadline. (ANI)
Fight between rivals in Afghanistan resumes as 3 day Eid ceasefire ends…reports Asian Lite News
Fighting in Afghanistan resumed with 31 Afghans, mostly militants, killed in the insurgency-battered Asian country on Sunday after a three-day ceasefire observed with the start of Eid al-Fitr on Thursday to enable celebrations of the end of the Muslim fasting month Ramadan, officials said.
Mohammad Zaman Hamdard, the spokesman for provincial police in the southern Helmand province, has accused the Taliban militants of violating the ceasefire, saying the Taliban fighters attacked security checkpoints on Friday, the second day of the Eid al-Fitr festival, the Xinhua news agency reported.
Hamdard said that the security forces after the end of the three-day truce targeted the militants from the ground and air on Sunday killing 21 militants and injuring 13 others.
In the meantime, a roadside mine planted by militants struck a car in Khwaja Omari district of the southeastern Ghazni province early Sunday killing three civilians and injuring three others, district chief Ahmad Zia Yaqubi said.
Similarly, Taliban attacks on security checkpoints in Nasay district of the northern Badakhshan province were repulsed Sunday and the militants fled away after leaving seven bodies behind, army officer Abdul Razaq told said.
Four other militants and two security personnel were injured in the fighting lasting hours, the officer added.
A driver sustained injury as his car ran over a mine in the Dasht-e-Padola area of PD 7 of the capital city of Kabul on Sunday, police said.
Afghan security force members take part in a military operation in Ghazni province, eastern Afghanistan
Taliban-related militancy, according to the Afghan Defense Ministry had left more than 40 people dead and injured during the three-day Eid al-Fitr holidays in Kandahar, Kunduz, Ghazni, Herat, Farah, Logar and Wardak provinces as the armed group violated the cease-fire.
Among the deadly violent incidents was a blast inside a mosque on the outskirts of Kabul on Friday, the second day of Eid al-Fitr, which claimed 12 lives and injured 15 others. Taliban purported spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid besides condemning the attack has denied the group’s involvement.
In a counter claim, Mujahid has accused the government forces of breaking the ceasefire.
The intra-Afghan negotiations provide a historic opportunity to achieve an inclusive, broad-based and comprehensive political settlement in Afghanistan for ending the long-lasting conflict, said Qureshi…reports Asian Lite News
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has reaffirmed his country’s support to the Afghan peace process for a sustainable political settlement in the war-torn neighbouring country.
The intra-Afghan negotiations provide a historic opportunity to achieve an inclusive, broad-based and comprehensive political settlement in Afghanistan for ending the long-lasting conflict, Qureshi said during a call on with his Afghan counterpart Mohammad Hanif Atmar, Xinhua news agency reported.
He said Pakistan welcomed the announcement of the three-day Eid-ul-Fitr ceasefire by the Afghan parties recently, adding that efforts should continue for a permanent ceasefire.
Both sides also agreed to maintain high-level bilateral exchanges and work together for the further consolidation of Pakistan-Afghanistan relations.
Meanwhile, Pakistani Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa was in Kabul to discuss the Afghan peace process with all stakeholders.
Ashraf Ghani
He arrived unannounced at a time of heightened uncertainty in a region where violence has surged amid US intent to pull out all troops from Afghanistan. According to sources, Bajwa is going to meet Afghan president Ashraf Ghani and other Afghan leaders in Kabul.
The sources said that Pakistani security officials have approached the Afghan Taliban leadership in Doha and made it clear to them that their refusal to participate in the Istanbul Conference was a big blow to the Afghan Peace Process, and if they do not show some flexibility, they will have to face the consequences.
It is believed that few senior Taliban leaders of the negotiating team are already in Pakistan to seek “guidance” from their leadership who are in Pakistan.
“Where are stalemate in talks, they (Taliban) say that we are going to consult our elders. In reality their elders are the ISI and Pakistani army,” said the first vice president of Afghanistan Amrullah Saleh.
Afghan President Ghani, after the US decision to withdraw its troops, had said, “the withdrawal has forced them to make a choice. Taliban and their patrons in Pakistan, will they become credible stakeholders, or will they foster more chaos and violence? If the Taliban choose the latter path, the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces (ANDSF) will fight them. And if the Taliban still refuse to negotiate, they will be choosing the peace of the grave.” He further said, “The negotiations would confront difficult issues, such as whether and how the Taliban would end their relationship with Pakistan, which provides them with support for logistics, finances, and recruitment.” (with inputs from IndiaNarrative)
Mining sites under Taliban control: 165 in Badakhshan, 16 in Helmand, 11 in Nuristan, as many in Kunduz, eight in Uruzgan and 72 in 21 other provinces…reports Asian Lite News
Around 75 per cent of total mining sites in Afghanistan are under the control of Taliban and local strongmen, leading to their dominance in the sector which has the potential to generate large government revenues in the country.
According to the Afghanistan Ministry of Mines and Petroleum (MoMP) of 748 mining areas in different parts of Afghanistan, about 283 are controlled by the Taliban, 281 by the government and the remaining by powerful individuals, Pajhwok News Agency reported.
Mining areas under government control are 139 in Kabul, 37 in Badakhshan, 24 in Farah, 19 in Logar, 13 in Khost, and 49 in 11 other provinces.
Mining sites under Taliban control: 165 in Badakhshan, 16 in Helmand, 11 in Nuristan, as many in Kunduz, eight in Uruzgan and 72 in 21 other provinces.
Taliban
Similarly, the mining sites under the control of strongmen include 127 in Kunar, 10 in Samangan, 10 in Baghlan, nine in Maidan Wardak, six in Kunduz and 27 in seven other provinces.
According to the table provided by the ministry, there has been no mining activity in 14 areas. However, mining has been ongoing at one site for 40 years, at three sites for 30 years, at six sites for 20 years, at two sites for 18 years and at three other sites for 15 years.
Afghanistan is a mineral rich nation whose mineral wealth is estimated to exceed one trillion dollars. But according to data, every year the government loses around USD 300m in revenue from mining, reported Al Jazeera.
Poor security, the lack of proper legal framework and organisational capacity, as well as corruption, have prevented the development of the sector.
Taliban
The poor management of the country’s wealth, coupled with poverty, have enabled armed groups and local strongmen to illegally extract resources and sell them on the black market to neighbouring countries and beyond.
According to the investigation by Global Witness, both the Taliban and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL or ISIS) have benefited.
The watchdog group estimated that the Taliban earn between USD 2.5m and USD 10m a year from mining talc alone, which has become, next to opium, their main source of revenue.
Illegal mining thus helps to prolong the ongoing conflict, especially in the northern and eastern provinces where warring groups compete for mineral wealth. (ANI)
Citing the recent rise in violence, top US diplomat Khalilzad on Tuesday said that Afghans deserve a political settlement and a permanent ceasefire….reports Asian Lite News
Amid the surge in violence in Afghanistan in recent weeks, US Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad on Tuesday welcomed the announcements by the Taliban and the Afghan government to uphold ceasefire in the country during the festival of Eid.
“I welcome the announcements by the Taliban and the Afghan government to observe an Eid ceasefire. Violence has been horrific in recent weeks, and the Afghan people have paid the price,” Khalilzad tweeted.
A day after the deadly bombing outside a school in Kabul claimed the lives of over 60 students, the Taliban on Sunday night had announced that they would observe a three-day ceasefire for the festival of Eid. Later on Monday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani also instructed all Afghan forces to observe the ceasefire during Eid.
Photo shows the site of a car bomb in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan. (Photo by Rahmatullah AlizadahXinhuaIANS)
Noting the recent rise in violence, top US diplomat Khalilzad on Tuesday said that Afghans deserve a political settlement and a permanent ceasefire.
“But Afghans deserve much more: a political settlement and a permanent ceasefire. We, therefore, urge accelerated negotiations among Afghans on a political settlement and an end to this senseless war. This is what the Afghan people yearn for. The United States stands with them,” he added.
This comes after at least three explosions that took place near Sayed-ul-Shuhada High School in the west of Kabul on Saturday afternoon. As many as 63 people, all students, were killed in a Kabul school bombing and 150 more were wounded, TOLO News reported citing sources and relatives of victims.
Amid the ongoing drawdown of US troops from Afghanistan, the war-torn country has seen a spike in the incidents of violence in recent weeks, leading to casualties of Afghan security forces and civilians. (ANI)
