Tolo News: Kabul residents said Eid was a good time for people to put their differences aside and to work towards building national unity Afghans, who celebrated the first day of Eid on Sunday, welcomed the fact that no security incidents were reported at mosques in the country during the morning’s key prayer services. This was particularly welcomed by Kabul residents. Click here to read more (external link).
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Washington Post: For the first time in nearly two decades, Ramadan has come and gone without the White House recognizing it with an iftar or Eid celebration, as had taken place each year under the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations. In recent weeks, several former White House staff members told The Post they would usually begin planning an iftar “months in advance” and didn’t anticipate the Trump White House could pull something off before the end of Ramadan. Click here to read more (external link).
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HNN: Hollywood loves to make war movies. Some are resoundingly patriotic and optimistic, despite the carnage, while others are frank about the ambiguity of American wars and even about their uselessness. Click here to read more (external link).
Press TV / June 25, 2017
The Taliban militants have attacked a security post in Afghanistan’s Herat province, killing at least 10 policemen and wounding another three.
Jelani Farhad, the spokesman for the governor of the western province, said the militants carried out the deadly assault late Saturday.
The official added that at least five militants were also killed in the ensuing gun battle.
On Thursday, over 30 people were killed in a powerful blast at a bank in Lashkar Gah, the capital of the southern province of Helmand. The bombing targeted the New Kabul Bank branch, where members of Afghan security forces had gathered to collect their pay.
On June 20, gunmen attacked Afghan troops working at the largest US military base in Afghanistan. Eight soldiers were killed. The attack was carried out near the Bagram Airbase in Shah Kah village.
In April, the Taliban announced the start of its annual spring offensive against Afghan security forces and US-led foreign troops across the country. The militant group has stepped up offensives in various parts of Afghanistan over the past few months.
Several civilians and members of Afghan security forces have been killed in recent years in US-led airstrikes allegedly targeting hideouts used by militants.
Afghanistan has been gripped by insecurity since the United States and its allies invaded the country as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror in 2001. Many parts of the country remain plagued by militancy despite the presence of foreign troops.
Over the past 16 years, the Taliban militants have been conducting terrorist attacks across the country, killing and displacing civilians.
In addition, the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, which is mainly active in Syria and Iraq, has recently managed to take recruits from Afghan Taliban defectors.
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VOA News / June 24, 2017
Ayaz Gul
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN — China has formally initiated a mediation bid to ease Afghanistan’s tensions with Pakistan and to encourage the two uneasy neighbors to jointly work for countering terrorism and promoting regional peace.
Beijing’s diplomatic offensive comes as relations between Islamabad and Kabul have deteriorated in the past two years over mutual allegations of sponsoring terrorist attacks on each other’s soil.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi traveled to Kabul on Saturday, where he met with President Ashraf Ghani and other senior Afghan officials to discuss ways to improve ties with Pakistan.
An official statement later quoted Yi as telling his Afghan interlocutors that “if required, China will be ready to observe and explain steps” both Pakistan and Afghanistan are taking against terrorism and extremism.
Diplomatic relations
Earlier this year, diplomatic intervention by Britain helped ease tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The mediation led to an understanding that the two countries develop a way to address mutual concerns and promote peace efforts.
Ghani later proposed involving a third country to help verify efforts taken by the two countries to reach those goals, which apparently prompted China to undertake the current mediation effort as it enjoys good relations with both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
A statement from Ghani’s office quoted the president as saying, “Wang believes Pakistan has an influence on Taliban and will ask Pakistan to strictly control them, especially the Haqqani group.”
The statement also said the Chinese foreign minister had said he would urge Pakistan to commit to fighting terrorism.
The Chinese foreign minister later arrived in Islamabad to further his mediation mission in talks with Pakistani foreign policy adviser Sartaj Aziz. It was not immediately known whether Yi brought with him any proposals from the Afghan side.
More meetings Sunday
“Both sides held wide-ranging discussions and overview on matters related to bilateral relations, regional security and the situation in Afghanistan,” Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria said.
The visiting Chinese foreign minister is also scheduled to meet with Pakistani army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Sunday before holding a joint news conference with Aziz to share details of their talks.
Yi will then travel back to Kabul to brief Afghan leaders on his meetings in Islamabad, officials said.
China considers stability in Afghanistan vital to its national security and economic interests. It is worried that continued Afghan insecurity could threaten security of its western Xinjiang province, which shares a border with the war-torn nation.
Major investment
Beijing is investing billions of dollars in Pakistan, China’s staunch ally, to establish a trade route to gain access to international markets through the Pakistani port of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea.
Afghan leaders allege sanctuaries and safe havens on Pakistani soil have enabled the Taliban to intensify insurgent attacks and prolong the Afghan war.
Islamabad denies the charges and in turn says sanctuaries in border areas of Afghanistan are where terrorist attacks are plotted against Pakistan, including Friday’s deadly suicide bombings in two cities that killed more than 80 people and injured more than 200 others.
On Saturday, Bajwa alleged that militant sanctuaries in Afghanistan were operating “under the patronage” of the country’s intelligence agency and its Indian counterparts.
The army chief made the remarks while chairing an emergency meeting of his top commanders, according to an official statement released Saturday night. Bajwa dismissed criticism that Pakistan is not doing enough to counter terrorism.
“Unfortunately, our sacrifices against terrorism are not well-acknowledged and we are often subjected to the demand of ‘Do more.’ … It is time now for the other stakeholders, particularly Afghanistan, to do more,” he said.
Bajwa’s remarks came days after the U.S. Department of Defense in its latest report alleged that the Taliban and militants linked to the Haqqani terrorist network continue to use sanctuaries on Pakistani soil for staging attacks in Afghanistan.
Samaa: Sunday is the first day of Eid ul Fitr as the crescent of Shawwal has been sighted in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, Arab media reported. “Sunday, June 25, is the first day of Eid Al-Fitr in Saudi Arabia” the Supreme Court announced, in a statement. Shawwal’s crescent moon was sighted on Saturday evening, which means Eid will start on Sunday. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: The ACB officials on Saturday called on President Ashraf Ghani to help them maintain their Full Membership status. Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) officials said at a press conference on Saturday that Afghanistan’s status as a Full Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) is a great achievement but that in order to maintain this status, ICC conditions will have to met continuously. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: The Central Bank of Afghanistan said Saturday that after five years Afghanistan has finally been removed from the gray list, of countries with questionable banking systems, by the Financial Action Task Force(FATF). Officials at the Central Bank said Afghanistan has fulfilled all FATA conditions in order for it to be removed from the list. This means, Afghanistan’s financial system will gain credibility around the world and all banks in the country will in future be able to deal with international banks in other countries, officials at the bank said. Countries on the gray list are faced with serious limitations in money dealings. Click here to read more (external link).
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AFP: The first women settled on this stony slope outside Kabul in the 1990s hoping to escape the stigma they were forced to endure. Today it is known as Afghanistan’s ‘hill of widows’, home to a cluster of women who have eked out independence in a society that shuns and condemns them as immoral. Click here to read more (external link).
Noor Zahid
VOA News / June 23, 2017
The Islamic State group is rapidly expanding in parts of Afghanistan, advancing militarily into areas where it once had a weak presence and strengthening its forces in core regions, according to Afghan and U.S. officials.
Depending on the location, the proliferation of IS has drawn varied resistance from the Afghan military, U.S. air support and ground troops, local militias, Taliban forces and other militant groups.
Attacking IS has become such a priority in the country, that disparate forces sometimes join together in the ad-hoc fight, with Afghan and U.S. forces finding themselves inadvertently supporting the enemy Taliban in battling IS.
Confusion leads to mistakes
All too often, officials say, mistakes are made due to confusion on the ground.
Afghan army planes on Wednesday night accidentally air dropped vital supplies of food and water to IS militants in the Darzab district of northern Jouzjan province instead of to their own besieged troops, provincial police chief, Rahmatullah Turkistani told VOA. The supplies were meant to help Afghan forces that are countering twin attacks by IS and Taliban militants but were used instead by IS.
“It’s not getting better in Afghanistan in terms of IS,” U.S. Chief Pentagon Spokeswoman Dana White told VOA this week. “We have a problem, and we have to defeat them and we have to be focused on that problem.”
Reinforcements for the IS cause reportedly are streaming into isolated areas of the country from far and wide. There are reports of fighters from varied nationalities joining the ranks, including militants from Pakistan, India, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Russia and Central Asian neighbors.
Confusing scenarios
Still, the Islamic State-Khorasan (ISK) as IS is known in Afghanistan remains a fragmented group composed of differing regional forces with different agendas in different parts of the country.
“IS-K is still conducting low-level recruiting and distribution of propaganda in various provinces across Afghanistan, but it does not have the ability or authority to conduct multiple operations across the country,” a recent Pentagon report said. But where it operates, IS is inflicting chaos and casualties and causing confusing scenarios for disparate opponents.
In the Tora Bora area, where IS has made a strong stand in recent days, local villagers and militias joined with Taliban to rout IS. IS regained ground after a few days, leading to U.S. military air attacks on IS positions in conjunction with Afghan intelligence instructions and army operations.
IS fighters reportedly have fled from mountain caves of Tora Bora, where al-Qaida’s leader Osama bin Laden hid from U.S. attack in 2001.
Families displaced
IS fighters were also reportedly advancing in neighboring Khogyani district, displacing hundreds of families, according to district officials. It is one of several areas in Nangarhar province, near the Pakistani border, where IS has been active for over two years.
Fierce clashes in the Chaparhar district of Nangarhar last month left 21 Taliban fighters and seven IS militants dead, according to a provincial spokesman. At least three civilians who were caught in the crossfire were killed and five others wounded.
“IS has overpowered Taliban in some parts of Nangarhar because the Taliban dispatched its elite commando force called Sara Qeta (Red Brigade) to other parts of the country, including some northern provinces to contain the growing influence of IS there,” Wahid Muzhda, a Taliban expert in Kabul, told VOA.
Recruiting unemployed youths
IS has also expanded in neighboring Kunar province, where, according to provincial police chief, it has a presence in at least eight districts and runs a training base, where foreign members of IS, train new recruits.
Hundreds of miles from Nangarhar, IS is attempting to establish a persistent presence in several northern provinces where it has found a fertile ground for attracting militants and recruiting unemployed youths, mostly between the age of 13 and 20.
IS has been able to draw its members from the Pakistani Taliban fighters, former Afghan Taliban, and other militants who “believe that associating with or pledging allegiance” to IS will further their interests, according to the Pentagon report.
Hundreds of militants have joined IS ranks in northern Jouzjan and Sar-e-Pul province where local militant commanders lead IS-affiliate groups in several districts.
Darzab district
Qari Hekmat, an ethnic Uzbek and former Taliban militant who joined IS a year ago, claims to have up to 500 members, including around 50 Uzbek nationals who are affiliated with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) — previously associated with al-Qaida and Taliban in Afghanistan.
IS and Taliban are reportedly fighting over the control of Darzab district in Jouzjan which they stormed this week from two different directions and besieged scores of government forces. The Taliban has reportedly captured the center of the district while IS militants control the city outskirts.
Afghanistan faces a continuing threat from as many as 20 insurgent and terrorist networks present or operating in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, including IS, the Pentagon said.
“In areas where the government has limited influence and control, IS attempts to emerge and expand there,” Ateequllah Amarkhail, an analysts and former Army general in Kabul told VOA.
Hit-and-hide strategy
IS has also claimed responsibility for several recent attacks in urban areas, however, with a hit-and-hide strategy that is proving effective. And it is engaging too in more skirmishes with U.S. forces that initially were sent to the country to help Afghan forces halt the spread of Taliban.
Three American service members based in eastern Afghanistan were killed in April during operations targeting IS militants, according to the Pentagon.
“ISIS-K remains a threat to Afghan and regional security, a threat to U.S. and coalition forces, and it retains the ability to conduct high-profile attacks in urban centers,” the Pentagon said.
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