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).
8am: Locals in Takhar told Hasht-e Subh that Taliban forces had shot dead two former military commanders, Shoaib Aryaei and Sohrab Haqqani. The incident took place on Tuesday morning in the Chahaab district of Takhar province in northern Afghanistan. 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
8am: Sources in the Bura-Khana area of the provincial capital told Hasht-e Subh that the demands of the Taliban, in addition to the long-running war, drought, and lack of facilities, have made life bitter for them. Ghor residents say they will face harsh treatment from the Taliban if they do not deliver the mentioned items.
8am: On Tuesday, November 9, the Prime Minister of the Taliban Mohammad Hasan Akhund ordered the General Directorate of Taliban Intelligence to precisely inquire into the case of the arrest and beating of the former representative of Parliament Allah Gul Mujahid and to bring the perpetrators to justice. Click here to read more (external link).
By RFE/RL’s Tajik Service November 9, 2021 Around 150 U.S.-trained Afghan pilots are preparing to depart Tajikistan to be relocated to the United States after nearly three months of detention, pilots and U.S. Embassy officials said. The 143 pilots and about 50 other Afghans, including journalists, are waiting at the airport in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe,
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
Ayaz Gul VOA News November 8, 2021 ISLAMABAD — The United States’ special representative for Afghanistan Monday began his first trip to Europe and Asia to discuss developments in the South Asian nation, where almost 23 million people, including children, are threatened with starvation. Ambassador Thomas West’s first stop will be Brussels where his discussions with
Cycling News: Afghan cyclist Rukhsar Habibzai will continue with her racing dreams, despite being forced to leave her country as part of the mass evacuation of vulnerable citizens who faced targeted gender violence by the Taliban. The member of the Afghanistan women’s cycling team nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016, has relocated to
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty November 8, 2021 Pakistan has reached a “complete cease-fire” with the banned Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a government minister has said. State television on November 8 quoted Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry as saying negotiations with TTP, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, were ongoing and the cease-fire would be extended, depending on the