The National Interest: Kabul is a democracy in name only. Many non-Pashtuns see the political integration of the Taliban as an intra-Pashtun reconciliation process—not all-Afghan—that will deepen the Pashtunization of the power structure under Ghani, helping consolidate the ethnic group’s dominance. Under the national unity government agreement , Afghanistan was to have convened a loya jirga
William Gallo VOA News September 7, 2018 BAGRAM AIR BASE, AFGHANISTAN — U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis met Friday with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and other top Afghan officials, including Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah. Ghani said at the meeting that stopping attacks by Afghan forces on NATO troops is a national priority. The encounters are also
Press TV September 6, 2018 An Afghan policeman has killed and burned the bodies of eight fellow officers before taking their weapons to join the Taliban militants. The insider attack took place in Takhar province, northeastern Afghanistan, on Thursday morning, provincial police spokesman Khalil Asir said. The policeman, he said, had opened fire on his colleagues
Military Times: Blackwater founder Erik Prince thinks the time is right to try a new approach in Afghanistan, one that he says will reduce war spending to a sliver of its current levels, get most troops home and eliminate Pakistan’s influence on U.S. policy there: Let him run it. In an exclusive interview with Military Times, Prince
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty September 6, 2018 Officials say 11 soldiers of the Afghan National Army were killed in an ambush by Taliban fighters in Badghis Province, in northwestern Afghanistan. At least 13 militants were also killed in the fighting, which happened early on September 6. The same day, militants killed eight police officers in
Ayaz Gul VOA News September 6, 2018 ISLAMABAD — Afghanistan mourned Thursday the death of at least 26 civilians, including sportsmen, rescue workers and journalists, in an overnight double suicide bombing in Kabul. Islamic State, via its so-called Amaq News Agency, claimed responsibility for the attack. The violence occurred Wednesday night in the western Dashti-i-Barchi suburb
RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan September 5, 2018 Twin bombings at a wrestling training center in a predominately Shi’ite neighborhood of Afghanistan’s capital has killed at least 20 people and wounded 70 others, the Interior Ministry says. Officials said a suicide bomber on September 5 blew himself up inside the sports hall, which is located in Dasht-e Barchi
Frud Behzan Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty September 4, 2018 Elderly, ill, and partially paralyzed, the founder of one of Afghanistan’s most notorious and brazen extremist organizations had been out of the insurgency game for years. But Jalaluddin Haqqani leaves behind a legacy of deadly violence that threatens to live on for decades. Haqqani, whose death
MOSCOW, September 4 (Sputnik) – The United Kingdom sent 100 Welsh Guards to Afghanistan as part of a larger pledge to boost NATO mission in the country, the UK government said on Tuesday in a statement. “100 Welsh Guards arrived in Afghanistan last week. They travelled with Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson who was in the
Michael Hughes: New military commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan Austin Miller on his first day on the job signaled that he would continue America’s stale strategy which itself is a recipe for perpetual conflict. However, there are some so-called strategists who have accomplished the impossible by concocting ideas even worse than the one that has