Tolo News: The Ministry of Public Health on Sunday reported 547 new positive cases of COVID-19 out of 2,559 samples tested in the last 24 hours. The ministry reported that the cumulative total of known COVID-19 cases is 66,275, the total number of reported deaths is 2,812, and the total number of recoveries is 56,035. Click here to read more (external link).
Related
By Radio Free Afghanistan
May 22, 2021
The death toll from bombings outside a high school in the Afghan capital has risen to 100 dead and 160 wounded, says the office of Sarwar Danish, Afghanistan’s second vice president.
Three powerful bombs detonated outside the Sayed Ul-Shuhada high school in Kabul on May 8 as students, many of them teenage girls, were leaving class.
The attack occurred in Dasht-e-Barchi, a predominately Shi’ite enclave in Kabul that is home to the Hazara minority.
Islamic State (IS) and Taliban militants — Sunni extremist groups that consider Shi’a apostates — have been blamed for devastating attacks that have killed hundreds of Hazara in the area in recent years.
Danish’s office said on May 21 that many of the hundreds of survivors were severely wounded by the blasts.
It warned that the death toll could rise further.
The attack, which was not claimed by any group, was one of the deadliest since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 toppled the Taliban from power.
Violence has soared in Afghanistan since the start of the international troop withdrawal on May 1, with the Taliban seizing districts and overrunning government military bases in rural areas.
There has also been a sharp uptick in deadly suicide bombings in urban areas that have been blamed on the Taliban.
A file photo of American soldiers at an unknown location in Afghanistan.
AP: What would the United States do, for example, if the Taliban took advantage of the U.S. military departure by seizing power? And, can the United States and the international community, through diplomacy and financial aid alone, prevent a worsening of the instability in Afghanistan that kept American and coalition troops there for two decades? Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: Protests entered the eighth day in Faryab province on Saturday as hundreds of people rallied against the appointment of the new governor. In the latest sign of escalating tensions, protestors on Saturday took to the streets in Maimana city in front of 209 Shaheen Army Corps where a week ago Ashraf Ghani-backed governor Mohammad Daud Laghmani started his job as new governor for the province. “Ghani wants to impose the evil that exists in his mind about Turks in Afghanistan,” said Mohammad Qasim, a protester. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: An airport in Khost, which aims to become one of the international airports in the country, will be fully operational in near future, a progress that will happen 10 years after the start of its construction, officials said but did not provide an exact time. Afghanistan has four international airports in Kabul, Herat, Balkh and Kandahar. Click here to read more (external link).
Ariana: At least 149 species of animal are in danger of disappearing from Afghanistan, Afghan officials said Saturday. According to the officials, war, climate change, animal-trafficking, and illegal hunting are the main cause of loss of wildlife in the country. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: The Ministry of Public Health on Saturday reported 242 new positive cases of COVID-19 out of 1,493 samples tested in the last 24 hours. The ministry reported that the cumulative total of known COVID-19 cases is 65,728, the total number of reported deaths is 2,802, and the total number of recoveries is 55,886. Click here to read more (external link).
Radio Free Afghanistan
May 21, 2021
Taliban fighters have overrun another district in Afghanistan’s central province of Maidan Wardak after heavy fighting with government forces.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on May 21 that control of the Jalrez district was now in the hands of the group’s fighters.
Some 25 government soldiers surrendered to the militants after running out of ammunition, Jalrez district Governor Khalil-ur-Rehman Yadegari told RFE/RL, adding that the his compound and the police headquarters were under Taliban control.
Provincial lawmaker Mahdi Rasikh confirmed that the two buildings have fallen to the Taliban after heavy attacks by the group for the past three days.
Rasikh said at least seven government soldiers were killed in the fighting, while more soldiers are missing.
Rasikh blamed the loss on the lack of support from Kabul, saying “no action was taken by the central government to help the district.”
Jalrez is located in the west of Maidan Wardak, some 60 kilometers southwest of Kabul.
Jalrez is the second district in Maidan Wardak to fall to the Taliban in less than two weeks and also the second Afghan district overrun by the militants in two days, adding to a string of recent gains made by the group after President Joe Biden announced the start of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from May 1.
On May 20, Dawlat Shah district of the eastern province of Laghman was captured by the Taliban, according to lawmakers from the province after having been besieged by the Taliban for at least a month.
Local officials said they negotiated the retreat of the government forces from Dawlat Shah with the Taliban, but the Defense Ministry said its troops made a tactical retreat in the district.
Violence has remained high in the country despite peace efforts. The Afghan forces and the Taliban observed a three-day cease-fire from May 12 to May 15, but a day after the truce ended, the Defense Ministry reported clashes in 18 provinces.
With reporting by tolonews.com