US Envoy, Taliban Blame Ghani for Scuttling Peaceful Transfer of Power Plan

·

Ashraf Ghani (left) and Zalmay Khalilzad (right)

Ayaz Gul
VOA News
September 15, 2021

ISLAMABAD – The U.S. peace envoy for Afghanistan says he secured a last-minute deal with the Taliban in mid-August to keep the insurgents outside Kabul while they negotiated a political transition. But, he says, President Ashraf Ghani’s decision to flee the country scuttled that plan.

Afghan-born envoy Zalmay Khalilzad made the disclosure in an interview with the Financial Times, saying he had negotiated a two-week grace period hours before the Afghan capital fell to the Taliban on August 15. He said Ghani’s escape left a security vacuum in the city, however, which prompted the Islamist group to march into the city that day.

Khalilzad explained that the deal would have allowed Ghani to remain in his post until a settlement was reached in Doha on a future government, even as the Taliban stood at Kabul’s gates.

Taliban confirmation

A Taliban official Wednesday confirmed details of the understanding they had reached with Khalilzad in Doha, the capital of Qatar, where the insurgents run their political office.

“Yes, there was a gentleman word from our side that our forces will not enter Kabul city, and we will talk about a peaceful transfer of power,” Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told VOA from Doha.

Khalilzad told the Financial Times he had no clue that Ghani was intending to flee into exile in the United Arab Emirates.

“There were questions of law and order in Kabul after Ghani fled. … The Talibs [then] … say: ‘Are you going to take responsibility for security of Kabul now?’ And then you know what happened, we weren’t going to take responsibility,” the U.S. envoy said.

Khalilzad negotiated an agreement with the Taliban in February 2020, paving the way for the United States to bring home all American troops from Afghanistan after nearly 20 years of involvement in the Afghan war.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken also has repeatedly stated in recent days he had received assurances from Ghani on the eve of his escape that the Afghan president was on board with Washington’s plan.

“What he [Ghani] told me in that conversation the night before he fled is that, as he put it, he was prepared to ‘fight to the death,’ ” Blinken told Afghan-based Tolo News earlier this month.

Ghani has issued statements in recent days from the UAE apologizing for “abandoning” Afghans and saying he acted on the advice of the presidential palace security. The former president also dismissed allegations of taking off with tens of millions of stolen dollars.

Caretaker government

The Taliban announced a caretaker government last week in Afghanistan, 20 years after they were ousted from power by the U.S.-led international military invasion for harboring al-Qaida leaders.

The Taliban introduced strict Islamic laws when they were previously in control of the country from 1996 to 2001. A brutal justice system, mistreatment of Afghan minorities, the barring of women from public life and banning of girls from receiving an education marked the Taliban rule at the time, leading to Afghanistan’s global isolation.

The U.S. and many other countries now are pressuring the Taliban not to bring back their hardline governance system if they want their country to remain part of the international community and win diplomatic recognition for any Taliban-led government in Kabul.

Taliban say mulling creation of regular army in Afghanistan

·

Qari Fasihuddin

Press TV
September 15, 2021

The Taliban are considering the creation of regular armed forces in Afghanistan in the near future.

The group’s Chief of Staff Qari Fasihuddin said during a press conference in Kabul on Wednesday that consultations on the matter were ongoing.

The Afghan army reportedly had more than 300,000 service members, in addition to an air force and other US-supplied equipment, before it collapsed.

The Taliban in Afghanistan had seized billions of dollars of US weapons following the quick collapse of security forces.

The United States claims it has spent more than $80 billion on training and equipping Afghan security forces over the past twenty years. All that failed to stop the Taliban from taking over Kabul.

The United States handed over 75,898 vehicles, 599,690 weapons, 162,643 pieces of communications equipment, 208 aircraft, and 16,191 pieces of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment to the Afghan forces between 2003 and 2016, according to a 2017 Government Accountability Office report.

Washington also gave Afghan forces 7,035 machine guns, 4,702 Humvees, 20,040 hand grenades, 2,520 bombs and 1,394 grenade launchers, among other equipment, from 2017 to 2019, according to a report last year from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).

Some 46 of those aircraft are now in Uzbekistan after more than 500 Afghan government troops used them to flee Afghanistan following the collapse of the government last week. The rest have been taken over by the Taliban.

The White House has acknowledged that a “fair amount” of weapons have fallen into the hands of the Taliban.

The United States fully withdrew its forces before the Taliban’s August 31 deadline to officially end 20 years of war and occupation.

The government of Afghanistan rapidly collapsed on August 15 with President Ashraf Ghani fleeing the country in the face of lightning advances of the Taliban.

The United Nations has recently criticized the Taliban’s interim administration, which is dominated by veteran loyalists, most of them ethnic Pashtuns.

Presenting an oral update on the situation in Afghanistan to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, the UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said she was “dismayed by the lack of inclusivity of the so-called caretaker cabinet, which includes no women and few non-Pashtuns.”

She pointed in particular to “credible allegations of reprisal killings” of former members of the Afghan national security forces.

Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban spokesman, however, on Tuesday told Press TV in an exclusive interview that the makeup of the caretaker government was dictated by urgency and that there will be changes in the future.

He also noted that war is over in Afghanistan and the new government is focused on rebuilding the country after the 20-year-long presence of foreign forces.

Tajikistan summons US ambassador over Biden’s offensive remarks

·

Joe Biden

Press TV
September 15, 2021

Tajikistan has summoned the US ambassador over the offensive remarks President Joe Biden made about Tajik people during his recent visit to Pennsylvania.

The Central Asian country took offense to a jibe Biden used to deflect criticism from his handling of the chaotic US withdrawal from neighboring Afghanistan.

In a statement, Tajikistan’s Foreign Ministry said Ambassador John Mark Pommersheim was summoned and “a verbal note of protest was conveyed” to him “in connection with the statements by the President.”

“The verbal note stated that such statements do not correspond to the spirit of friendly relations and partnership,” the statement added.

During his visit to Pennsylvania at the 20th anniversary of Sep.11, Biden, who was trying to defend the ill-prepared withdrawal from Afghanistan, said people in Tajikistan would also be “hanging in the well of the wheel” if the US pulled up a C-130 Hercules aircraft from the country.

He was referring to a tragic incident that occurred at the Kabul international airport in the early days of the evacuation operation when Afghans seeking to flee the country tried to climb aboard a cargo jet as it rolled down the runway.

The desperate scene was caught on footage that showed two people falling to their death from the aircraft’s landing gear to the city below, well after takeoff.

“Seventy percent of the American people think it was time to get out of Afghanistan … But the flip of it is, they didn’t like the way we got out,” Biden said.

“But it’s hard to explain to anybody how else could you get out. For example, if we were in Tajikistan, and we pulled up with a C-130 and said, ‘We’re going to let, you know, anybody who was involved with being sympathetic to us to get on the plane,’ you’d have people hanging in the wheel well. Come on,” Biden said.
The United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 as part of the so-called war on terror. While the invasion ended the Taliban’s rule in the country back then, it has now come to an end with the return of the group to power.

The unfolding situation in Afghanistan raised concerns over security threats against Tajikistan.

Russia, an ally to Tajikistan, said previously that Washington’s chaotic, hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan had aggravated stability in the Central Asia region.

Last week, the Russian Defense Ministry said it had sent armored vehicles and military equipment to its military base in Tajikistan amid “growing instability” near the southern border.

Passenger Flights Between Iran And Afghanistan Resume

·

Radio Farda
September 15, 2021

Iran has resumed regular commercial flights to neighboring Afghanistan following a monthlong hiatus.

An Iranian Mahan Air aircraft landed in Kabul on September 15 with 19 passengers onboard after departing from the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad, the state-run al-Alam TV channel reported.

“At present, this airliner is returning to Mashhad with passengers,” the semiofficial Fars news agency later reported.

Regular passenger services between the two countries had stopped after the Taliban toppled the Western-backed government in Kabul a month ago, with the Iranian civil aviation agency citing security reasons for the interruption.

Previously, Mahan Air — the second-largest Iranian airline — had operated two flights per week between Mashhad and the Afghan capital.

Iran shares a 945-kilometer border with Afghanistan.

According to the United Nations and affiliated agencies, Iran hosts some 800,000 registered Afghan refugees and more than 2 million undocumented Afghans.

With reporting by AFP and Reuters

Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

Afghans In Kandahar Protest Against Evictions By Taliban

·

Hundreds of people marched in Kandahar on September 14 to protest against what they say are plans by the Taliban to evict them from their homes. Many of those said to be facing eviction are widows or wives of Afghan soldiers killed or wounded in action over the past 20 years in fighting against the Taliban. One person said people were told they had to give their homes to Taliban fighters.

Top Afghan Girls Soccer Players Flee Taliban Threat To Pakistan

·

Khalida Popal

By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
September 15, 2021

A group of top Afghan girls soccer players, their coaches, and family members have fled across the border into neighboring Pakistan as questions linger over the status of female athletes under the newly installed Taliban-led government.

“I am so happy to announce that today, more than 79 youth female football team players and their family members managed to get out of Afghanistan safely,” Khalida Popalzai, former captain of the Afghan women’s national team and founder and director of the Denmark-based Girl Power nongovernmental organization, wrote on Facebook.

According to Sardar Naveed Haider, an ambassador of the London-based NGO Football for Peace, the players included members of the under-14, under-16, and under-18 national teams who crossed the border dressed in burqas covering their whole bodies.

Dozens of members of the Afghan women’s national soccer team and family members were evacuated to Australia in August as tens of thousands of Afghans, fearing reprisal attacks and repression, fled the country after the Taliban toppled the Western-backed government in Kabul.

Pakistani Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry tweeted that the female soccer players crossed the border at the Torkham crossing with valid Afghan passports and Pakistani visas.

Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported that they had been issued emergency humanitarian visas.

The group traveled to the southern city of Lahore after crossing the border, AFP reported, adding that the players are expected to stay in Pakistan for a month before moving on to another country.

About 30 other female players were still hoping to cross into Pakistan, according to the news agency.

When the Taliban imposed its brutal rule on Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, girls were not allowed to attend school and women were banned from work, education, and sports.

The hard-line Islamist group has suggested it is now more moderate, including in its attitude toward women and girls.

But many Afghans remain deeply fearful, especially after the militants formed an all-male government led by hard-line Taliban veterans, banned protests, and cracked down on demonstrators and journalists.

Afghanistan’s new rulers have indicated that women and girls will face restrictions in playing sport, with a senior Taliban official saying last week it was “not necessary” for women to play sports.

But on September 15, Bashir Ahmad Rustamzai, a sports official in the Taliban-led administration, said top-level leaders of the group were still deciding.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters

Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

Clash With Militants Kills 7 Soldiers in Pakistan

·

TTP Flag

Ayaz Gul
VOA News
September 15, 2021

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan military officials on Wednesday said at least seven soldiers were killed in a gunfight with militants in a remote district bordering Afghanistan.

An army statement said security forces, acting on intelligence, raided a suspected terrorist hideout in South Waziristan and suffered the casualties in the ensuing “intense exchange of fire.”

At least five “terrorists” were also killed and a “cordon and search operation” was underway to clear the area of any remaining militants, the statement added.

The outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) confirmed the overnight raid of one of its bases in the border district.

The militant group, commonly known as the Pakistani Taliban, claimed the firefight had killed nine Pakistani soldiers and injured several others while all TTP fighters managed to escape the area. It was not immediately possible to independently verify the group’s claims, which are often exaggerated.

The Pakistani Taliban is designated as a global terrorist organization by the United States.

Pakistan says the TTP uses sanctuaries in Afghanistan to orchestrate cross-border terrorist attacks.

The country’s military in recent years has conducted major offensives, backed by air power, in a bid to secure districts along the Afghan border, which have historically served as strongholds for local and foreign militant groups.

The security operations have forced TTP fighters to flee into Afghanistan and organize deadly attacks against Pakistan from that side of the border.

Last week, the TTP claimed responsibility for a suicide attack in Pakistan that killed at least three people and left 20 wounded. That latest attack came a month after the Afghan Taliban, to whom the TTP has vowed allegiance, seized power in Afghanistan by toppling the U.S.-backed government in Kabul.

Top Pakistani security officials say Islamabad is in contact with the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan, pressing the Islamist group to prevent TTP members from using Afghan soil to attack Pakistan.

US Spots ‘Potential Movement’ of al-Qaida to Afghanistan

·

Al Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahri

Jeff Seldin
VOA News
September 14, 2021

WASHINGTON – There are growing indications that supporters of both the al-Qaida and Islamic State terror groups have their sights set on Afghanistan, emboldened by the Taliban takeover of the country late last month.

Initial reports over the past week or so have highlighted an uptick in chatter among terrorists, expressing a desire to go to Afghanistan, but a top U.S. intelligence official said Tuesday that some already have begun the journey.

“We are already beginning to see some of the indications of some potential movement of al-Qaida to Afghanistan,” Central Intelligence Agency Deputy Director David Cohen said during a panel discussion at an intelligence summit outside of Washington.

“But it’s early days,” he said, warning that al-Qaida could reconstitute in as little as a year. “We will obviously keep a very close eye on that.”

U.S. intelligence officials declined to share specifics on the identities of the al-Qaida members making their way back to Afghanistan, or about where they were coming from, though a recent video posted online showed Amin al-Haq, who served with al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden during the battle of Tora Bora, returning to his native Nangarhar province.

There also have been lingering doubts from other intelligence agencies that some key al-Qaida leaders currently in Iran, like Saif al-Adel, the group’s second-in-command, will head back to Afghanistan given they have stronger connections elsewhere.

Still, the CIA warning follows concerns from international counterterrorism officials and analysts about Afghanistan reemerging as a terrorist safe haven.

“There’s no doubt that the chatter is about this,” Edmund Fitton-Brown, coordinator of the United Nations team that monitors the Islamic State group, al-Qaida and the Taliban, told an online forum Friday.

“There is definitely a very strong sort of sense of enthusiasm out there for Afghanistan,” he added.

Analysts, like Charles Lister at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, also have raised concerns, noting growing interest in Afghanistan from supporters of al-Qaida’s main rival, the Islamic State (IS).

When asked about the threat, U.S. officials who spoke to VOA last week on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence, admitted there was reason for concern. And even before the U.S. completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan, U.S. intelligence agencies were warning of a “trickle” of incoming foreign fighters.

Complicating matters for the U.S. and its allies is the newfound lack of visibility into developments on the ground due to the withdrawal.

“Our current capability in Afghanistan is not what it was six months ago or a year ago,” said the CIA’s Cohen, though he cautioned it was not an unsurmountable obstacle.

“We with the agency and with our partners have experience in collecting intelligence in in areas that are non-permissive and doing so without a physical presence on the ground,” he said. “We will be using many of those same techniques in Afghanistan as we work from over-the-horizon principally, although I think we will also look for ways to work from within the horizon to the extent that is possible.”

So far, the intelligence suggests both al-Qaida and IS-Khorasan are well on their way to reestablishing their capabilities.

“The current assessment, probably conservatively, is one to two years for al-Qaida to build some capability to at least threaten the homeland,” said Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Scott Berrier.

Other Western counterterrorism officials and aid workers in the region have warned that while al-Qaida is likely to keep a low profile for the foreseeable future, IS-Khorasan has for months been building up its infrastructure in Afghanistan and in neighboring countries.

In Afghanistan, the resistance begins

·

Massoud

Bernard-Henry Levi via The Globe and Mail: I maintain that the nobility, beauty and greatness of humanity belong, in this case, not to the conquerors but to the conquered. Not to the barbarians, but to Ahmad Massoud, whom I did not hesitate to praise last year in the presence of his commanders, saying that a young lion had emerged in Panjshir. Lions can lose battles, but they remain lions – and this one will win! Click here to read more (external link).