BBC News: Afghanistan bowled India out off the penultimate ball of the game to earn a thrilling tie in the Asia Cup in Dubai. India, who had qualified for Friday’s final, needed seven off the final over and one from the last two balls in the dead-rubber Super Four match.
Afghanistan 252-8 (50 overs): Shahzad 124, Nabi 64; Jadeja 3-46
India 252 (49.5 overs): Rahul 60, Rayudu 54
Match tied
Click here to read more (external link).
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Asia Cup 2018 India Vs Afghanistan – Full Match
Ashraf Ghani
Eisa Khan Ayoobi via Al Jazeera: The NUG is struggling with containing the Taliban and addressing internal divisions – [Ghani’s] intra-Pashtun clan politics seems to have made reaching out to the Taliban more difficult. The Taliban leadership are Durrani Pashtun from Kandahar who take pride in being the descendants of “conventional” Afghan rulers like Ahmad Shah Durrani. Ghani is a Ghilzai Pashtun and this seems to have coloured the “extreme Pashtun nationalism” he has been said to display in his governmental appointments. Although the Afghan president has been accused of favouring Pashtuns in general over other ethnic groups, he has specifically surrounded himself with mostly “eastern Pashtuns”. Click here to read more (external link).
James Mattis
Tolo News: The US Defense Secretary James Mattis said Monday that the US military is adjusting tactics in Afghanistan as the Taliban continue to inflict heavy casualties on local forces. “So far, they have taken hard casualties over the last year,” Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon as quoted in a report by AFP. “But they have continued to fight, and we are adjusting tactics. We’re bringing more support in certain areas,” he said, declining to go into further detail. Click here to read more (external link).
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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
September 25, 2018
ISLAMABAD — The United Nations announced Tuesday it has received “multiple, credible allegations” the latest anti-Taliban airstrikes by pro-government forces in Afghanistan killed at least nine civilians, mostly women and children.
The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan expressed its concern about the rising number of civilian casualties from airstrikes this year in the conflict-ridden country.
The latest incident of civilian casualties occurred Saturday in the northeastern Kapisa province where “aerial ordnance” destroyed the home of a teacher, according to UNAMA. It noted the attack in Tagab district killed nine civilians, including four children and three women.
“All the victims from the attack were from the same family, including grandparents and children aged between two and 12. Five of the six other family members who were injured when their home was destroyed were women and young children,” the mission said, and added it is still in the process of establishing facts.
UNAMA noted that it was not immediately clear whether the strike was carried out by U.S.-led international military forces or by the Afghan Air Force.
A statement by the U.S. military Monday confirmed an airstrike in Kapisa, which wounded six members of local pro-government militias. It, however, denied the attack caused “casualties of non-combatants.”
The U.N. mission in its statement Tuesday reminded all parties to the conflict to uphold their obligations to protect civilian from harm and called for ensuring independent and “effective” investigations into these incidents.
It did not mention another operation by pro-government forces that allegedly also killed at least 12 civilians in Maidan Wardak province late Sunday.
Afghan officials said the raid targeted a Taliban-run prison and rescued eight people, mostly members of the Special Forces. They said the operation killed more than 40 insurgents.
The Taliban and local Afghan politicians alleged the joint operation killed at least 13 civilians, including women and children. It was not possible to independently verify the claims.
UNAMA has documented a 52 percent increase in civilian casualties from air operations by Afghan forces and their foreign partners in the first six months of 2018, with women and children more than half of the casualties.
The mission warned Tuesday that since the release of UNAMA’s mid-year report on civilian casualties, it has continued to record increasing numbers of civilian casualties caused by airstrikes.
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Ghani (left) and Trump (right)
Tolo News: … Ghani canceled his trip because US President Donald Trump refused to meet him on the sidelines of the general assembly. A number of international affairs analysts meanwhile said Trump is reluctant to meet Ghani because he feels Ghani has not contributed enough to implement the US’s strategy. Click here to read more (external link).
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Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
Tolo News: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of Hizb-e-Islami, on Monday said during a meeting visit with Nangarhar residents that Taliban and Daesh are the same – and only their flags differ. “Talib and Daesh are the same, only their flags and names have changed. They were friends of one stronghold and they have shared aims and similar slogans. Only the white (Taliban) flag changed to (Daesh’s) black,” said Hekmatyar. Click here to read more (external link).
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Tolo News: Mahfoz Safi, the provincial council’s deputy chief, said the incident occurred on Sunday night in the Badrab village during a foreign forces operation against Taliban and as a result civilians were killed. According to Safi, children and women were also among the victims and three others were wounded in the incident. Safi said that all the victims were residents of the area. Click here to read more (external link).
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
September 24, 2018
ISLAMABAD — Officials in Afghanistan confirmed Monday a Taliban prisoner has killed at least eight policemen, including three senior officers, after covertly seizing an assault rifle from a guard at the detention facility in southern Zabul province.
The incident happened while security guards were offering evening prayers late Sunday at the Shar-e-Safa district jail, a police officer told VOA. Ghulam Jilani said the assailant sprayed the unarmed group of personnel with bullets. The officer promised to provide more details later in the day.
A security official in Shar-e-Safa, disclosed to VOA on the condition of anonymity that Afghan forces swiftly engaged the armed prisoner and the firefight with him continued into Monday morning.
The official suspected the Taliban detainee had managed to seize weapons from other slain officers, preventing prison guards from ending the siege, though the assailant’s fate was still not known.
The latest security forces’ casualties came a day after the Afghan ministers of defense and interior acknowledged that Taliban battlefield attacks in recent weeks have inflicted some of the worst casualties on Afghan National Army (ANA) and police forces.
While briefing the upper house of parliament or Senate on Sunday, Interior Minister Wais Ahmad Barmak disclosed that “daily, 30 ANA and police personnel get killed.”
Afghan Defense Minister Tariq Shah Bahrami told the Senate session that in the last one month alone, the ANA has suffered 1,231 casualties, including 513 fatalities.
Around 14,000 Afghan security forces were killed between April 2016 and July 2018, according to the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). Insurgents have since intensified battlefield attacks around Afghanistan, inflicting more losses and capturing new territory.
Meanwhile, security forces raided a Taliban-run detention center in the central-eastern Maidan Wardak province late Sunday and rescued eight prisoners, mostly personnel of the Afghan Special Forces.
General Wais Samimi, the provincial police commander, told VOA the rescue operation also killed 40 insurgents, including their shadow district chief.
Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujuahid, claimed Afghan and U.S. forces jointly conducted the raid and it targeted a civilian compound. He went on to assert that the security action in the Jaghato district killed 14 civilians, including women and children. The Taliban’s claims are often inflated.
Afghanistan’s Pajhwok news agency quoted villagers as telling it that foreign forces were part of the raid and those killed in it were all civilians.
It was not possible to independently verify the claims.
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