Tolo News: A bomb blast targeted the vehicle of a religious scholar, Mawllawi Abdul Salam Abid, the Interior Ministry said, adding that Abid and three companions suffered slight injuries. Eyewitnesses told TOLO news that the explosion was due to a magnetic bomb blast. The incident occurred on Friday afternoon in the Parwan-e-Si area of PD4
AP: The Taliban didn’t take the Afghan capital — they were invited, says the man who issued the invitation. In an Associated Press interview, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai offered some of the first insights into the secret and sudden departure of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani — and how he came to invite the Taliban
Michael Hughes AOPNEWS December 14, 2021 President Joe Biden’s nominee to serve as Ambassador to Pakistan, Donald Blome, during his confirmation hearing told a Senate panel that, if confirmed, he aims to pressure Islamabad to abandon its selective counterterrorism practices. Islamabad has been long criticized for cracking down on anti-government groups such as the TTP
The National Interest: The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan led by Ahmad Massoud, the son of the late Afghan war hero Ahmad Shah Massoud, is the last remaining ally resolved to fight against terror groups in Afghanistan. It is today the only alternative. Click here to read more (external link).
The New Yorker: A trove of unreleased documents reveals a dispiriting record of misjudgment, hubris, and delusion that led to the fall of the Western-backed government. Rahimi told Ghani that the Taliban had pledged not to enter Kabul. Yet this was based on assurances from Khalilzad and the Taliban, and Ghani regarded both as unreliable
The Hill: “What we would like to see from the Taliban would be a strong position against al-Qaeda,” he told the AP, but also noted that “I think there are internal arguments inside the Taliban about the way forward.” Click here to read more (external link).
8am: Residents of Kabul reported three explosions in the western part [Hazara] of the city. Two explosions took place at around 3:25 pm on Friday (December 10th). Shortly afterward, a third explosion occurred in the same neighborhood. The exact number of casualties is unknown. However, Taliban officials said two civilians were killed and three others
8am: The prosecutors claim that they have repeatedly approached Taliban officials to provide them with security and allow them to return to their duties, but the Taliban have said that former government prosecutors and judges have no place in their government. Click here to read more (external link).
8am: Some residents of Baghlan province say that the rates of criminal offenses, especially armed robberies, have risen in the last few months. On the other hand, local Taliban officials for Baghlan province say that the city is safe and people can live in peace. Click here to read more (external link). More Security News
The Strategist: So brutal is this Taliban war with IS-K that the hospital in Jalalabad, Nangarhar’s provincial capital, treated more casualties in November than it treated during the war between the Taliban, NATO and the Afghan government. Given that many of those being disappeared and murdered are not IS-K operatives, the Taliban’s campaign may only