Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty February 20, 2017 U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says he will make recommendations soon to President Donald Trump on whether to increase the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Mattis said on February 19 that the president had been “rightfully reticent” on the matter, as he was waiting for input from
Michael Hughes: Shortly after President Donald Trump drew national opprobrium for daring to suggest that the United States was not “so innocent” when it came to killing, military forces under his command – as if on cue – killed 18 noncombatants, mostly women and children, in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. This latest episode of so-called collateral damage
Interview Press TV February 13, 2017 Under the pretext of chasing al-Qaeda operatives implicated in the 9/11 attacks on US soil, American forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001. The continued military operation has caused heavy casualties, but US officials claim they are fighting al-Qaeda, the Taliban and most recently Daesh terrorists in the Asian nation. Press
Ayaz Gul VOA News February 12, 2017 ISLAMABAD — Afghan troops, backed by American air support, Sunday launched a major offensive against Islamic State, or IS, bases in the eastern Nangarhar province. A regional military spokesman, Shirin Aqa, told reporters in the provincial capital of Jalalabad that security forces have been tasked to clear Kot and
Press TV February 10, 2017 Kabul says it supports a call by the commander of US and international forces in Afghanistan for more foreign troops to advise the country’s security forces. US Army General John Nicholson told the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington on Thursday that there was “a shortfall of a few thousand”
Al Jazeera: Kabul has joined Moscow, Tel Aviv and a few other capitals in welcoming Donald Trump’s presidential administration. Although Trump has not yet elaborated on his policy towards Afghanistan, his harsh and blunt criticisms of Washington’s ills, of the opportunistic and duplicitous US allies and of the US’ failure to win wars resonate with many
Michael Hughes: Former President Barack Obama left behind for his predecessor a covert extrajudicial drone targeting program that affords the executive unchecked power to employ American military force anywhere in the world with little to no accountability or congressional oversight. The type of program that secretly makes Dick Cheney jealous. In other words, Obama left the
Ayaz Gul VOA News February 3, 2017 ISLAMABAD — Officials in northwestern Afghanistan say a suspected Taliban insurgent has killed at least eight police personnel just days after surrendering and joining the force. The overnight massacre took place at a security outpost in the Almar district in the province of Faryab. Insurgent took weapons Area police
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty February 1, 2017 Afghan forces have continued to lose ground to insurgents throughout the country since taking over security responsibilities from NATO at the end of 2014, a report by a U.S. watchdog said on February 1. As of mid-November, the government controlled or influenced 57.2 percent of Afghanistan’s 407 districts,
The Los Angeles Times: For seven years, Ekram Razeqy worked alongside U.S. forces in some of Afghanistan’s most volatile provinces, surviving roadside bombings and Taliban ambushes as an interpreter for American troops. Fearing he could be targeted by Taliban sympathizers when he returned to civilian life, he applied for a special visa that allows interpreters who