Frud Bezhan Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty March 23, 2020 In the mid-1990s, U.S. oil company Unocal attempted to secure a gas-pipeline deal with the Taliban, which had seized control of the Afghan capital, Kabul, after a devastating civil war. It was the United States’ first attempt to forge a partnership with the fundamentalist Taliban regime,
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty March 19, 2020 By Freshta Jalalzai Five years ago — on March 19, 2015 — a 27-year-old Afghan woman was beaten and burned alive in the very heart of Kabul by a mob of angry men. Hundreds of people watched the killing of Farkhunda Malikzada, a student of the Koran and Islamic
Tolo News: Afghans across the country on Saturday marked the 31st anniversary of former Soviet Union troops withdrawal from the country. Meetings and gatherings were held in various parts of the country where the speakers paid homage to the “bravery” of those who fought against the then Soviet forces and forced them to end the
Al Jazeera: The narrow road that leads to the Yu Aw synagogue in the ancient city of Herat in western Afghanistan is lined with traditional mud homes that, despite their rough exterior, are fine examples of centuries-old architectural dexterity. Ghulam Sakhi, the caretaker of some of the heritage sites, leads the way, taking short quick
The Art Newspaper: The recovery of an ancient limestone temple sculpture stolen from the National Museum of Afghanistan almost 30 years ago sends out a “powerful message” that related pieces looted at the same time can now be tracked down, says St John Simpson, assistant keeper of the Middle East department at the British Museum.
By Frud Bezhan Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty January 15, 2020 It was in the late 1980s when Ismail Qaani — then a local commander in Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) — first became active in Afghanistan. It was to be the start of Qaani’s decades-long involvement in Iran’s eastern neighbor, where Tehran has
Phys.org: After bearing the brunt of jihadist dynamite and looting by thieves, the archaeological treasures of Afghanistan’s Bamiyan province are facing a new and possibly more daunting threat: climate change. Afghan officials warned in a 2016 United Nations report that the structures “may collapse and suffer from severe erosion”due to conditions directly linked to climate change. The Global
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty December 27, 2019 By Frud Bezhan KABUL — Afghanistan’s communist President Hafizullah Amin was lying unconscious in his bed. A KGB agent who had infiltrated Amin’s staff as a cook had poisoned the president and his ministers during lunch at the Tajbeg presidential palace in Kabul. It was December 27, 1979.
The National Interest: It’s well past time to let Afghans decide Afghanistan’s future without foreign “assistance.” During the early days after the 9/11 attacks and the initiation of the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan, it was relatively common to reference the woeful Soviet experience in that country. Here was a clear paradigm of what not to do
AFP: Gholam Mahaiuddin sighs softly as he thinks of his 14-year-old son, who was killed in the spring by a bomb dropped last century in the hills of Bamiyan province in central Afghanistan. “We knew the mountain was dangerous,” said Mahaiuddin, who found his son’s remains after he didn’t come home one day. “We were aware