Ariana: In a statement released on Tuesday, the Taliban said that their negotiating team is headed by Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, a leading negotiator of the armed group. The list also includes Anas Haqqani, – the brother of Sirajuddin Haqqani, leader of the Haqqani network – who is being held in Kabul. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah
Tolo News: All commissioners from the two electoral commissions – the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) – were dismissed from their posts, including the two chiefs, after President Ashraf Ghani signed off on an amendment to the electoral law. Ghani approved the amendment on Tuesday, which resulted in the instant
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty February 12, 2019 A commander of the so-called Muslim Battalion of Soviet troops in Afghanistan, retired Colonel Boris Kerimbaev, has died at the age of 71 in Kazakhstan. Kerimbaev died in Almaty on February 12. He gained prominence in 1981-83 when he commanded the Soviet Army’s 177th special battalion, which was
By RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan February 12, 2019 KABUL — Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, an Afghan mujahedin commander who fought against Soviet forces and rose to become the country’s first president after the Soviet Army’s withdrawal, has died. Mojaddedi died late on February 11 in a Kabul hospital, his family said. He was 93. Mojaddedi “has played
Al Jazeera: Before there was Guantanamo, there was Bagram, a US detention site near its giant airbase in Afghanistan, which came to be synonymous with torture and prisoner abuse. But when the US relinquished control of the prison, now called Parwan Detention Facility, to Afghan security forces in December 2014, Washington renounced responsibility for the men once held there. “The Bagram prison was a melting pot
Tolo News: President Ashraf Ghani on Monday called for a grand consultative Jirga, a traditional assembly, on the peace process in the country amid Washington’s marathon diplomatic efforts to facilitate direct talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban who has been fighting against Afghan and foreign forces over the past 18 years. “At the Jirga, people
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty February 11, 2019 U.S. Acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan has arrived in Afghanistan on an unannounced visit to meet with military commanders and Afghan officials amid a heightened push by Washington for a peace deal with the Taliban. Shanahan, who arrived early on February 11, told reporters traveling with him that
South China Morning Post: Raffaello Pantucci says it is not clear that Beijing fully appreciates the role it is taking on by trying to broker peace in strife-torn Afghanistan. Beijing may assume that by brokering a negotiation, it buys itself immunity from these problems. But as the US withdraws from the region, regional powers will increasingly look