BBC News: Afghanistan’s ex-finance minister has blamed the government’s fall on corrupt officials who invented “ghost soldiers” and took payments from the Taliban. Khalid Payenda told the BBC that most of the 300,000 troops and police on the government’s books did not exist. Click here to read more (external link).
Daily Beast: While on the surface, ISIS’s shift toward mass-casualty attacks, accompanied by a targeted anti-Taliban media campaign, can be seen as signals of confidence—it’s far more likely that the group is acting out of pure desperation. Both locally and globally, the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan threatens ISIS in profound new ways, and marks yet
News18: The National Resistance Front (NRF) leader Ahmad Massoud is reportedly in Iran . Reports say that Massoud travelled to Iran to meet former Afghan cabinet minister, Ismail Khan. Ismail Khan fought against Taliban fighters before the collapse of the Ashraf Ghani govt in August. Click here to read more (external link). Related Foreign ministry
Fox News: Former President Donald Trump slammed the Biden administration’s “surrender” of Afghanistan, warning that China could take hold over Bagram Air Base. Trump told Fox News that even while he planned to eventually withdraw from Afghanistan, he would have maintained hold over the Parwan Detention Facility—a military prison at the Bagram Air Base. Click
Reuters: The Taliban appointed 44 of its members to key roles including provincial governors and police chiefs on Sunday, a key step in shoring up its governance as the country grapples with growing security and economic problems. Click here to read more (external link). Related Taliban changed the names of eight Afghanistan's corpshttps://t.co/4TMlgjKAW8 pic.twitter.com/BxBYBXJWgK —
8am: According to the female activist’s relatives, they have contacted local Taliban officials to track down the perpetrators, but have not received a positive response. According to them, there are currently four unidentified bodies of young women in the hospital morgue, whose families have not yet been found. Click here to read more (external link).
By Mansur Mirovalev Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty November 4, 2021 TASHKENT — Sergei grew up in Namangan, the eastern Uzbek city where Islamic traditions persisted despite decades of atheist Soviet rule. As a young communist in high school in the 1980s, Sergei was ordered to a nearby bazaar to forcibly remove burqas — known locally as
By Abubakar Siddique Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty November 4, 2021 During its 20-year insurgency, the Taliban employed suicide bombers as a lethal tool to kill foreign and Afghan government troops and terrorize the civilian population. Even now, as the Taliban attempts to transform from an insurgency into a government, its contingent of trained suicide bombers
Al Jazeera: The supreme leader of the Taliban, Haibatullah Akhunzada, has warned the group that there may be “unknown” entities among their ranks who are “working against the will of the government”. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: The Russian Federation is concerned by the activities of Daesh in Afghanistan following a recent complex attack conducted by Daesh affiliates on a military hospital in the city of Kabul. “I can confirm that the terrorist and drug threats coming from Afghanistan’s territory, as well as the general situation in these areas in