Donald Trump
1TV: Former US President Donald Trump slammed the Biden administration on Sunday for delaying withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan. Biden earlier this week announced that he will withdraw US troops from Afghanistan by September 11. This comes as the US-Taliban agreement signed during Trump era requires the withdrawal to be completed by May 1. Click here to read more (external link).
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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
April 18, 2021
The German defense minister says she wants to help bring some Afghan employees of her country’s military to Germany as NATO allies prepare to withdraw their remaining troops from Afghanistan after nearly two decades.
“I feel it is Germany’s sincere duty to not leave these people without protection now that we will permanently withdraw,” Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer told the German news agency dpa in comments published on April 18.
U.S. President Joe Biden and NATO announced on April 14 that they would pull out the roughly 10,000 international troops still in Afghanistan by September 11. The troop withdrawal is expected to begin on May 1.
Germany is the second-largest contingent in Afghanistan, with nearly 1,100 troops and about 300 local employees, including interpreters.
The Welt am Sonntag newspaper cited the Interior Ministry as saying that Germany plans to set up an office in Kabul and probably also one in Mazar-e Sharif in northern Afghanistan to help process cases.
Since 2013, Germany has taken in 781 Afghans at risk in their own country after working for the foreign military, as well as about 2,500 family members.
Based on reporting by AP and Reuters
Pentagon
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
April 17, 2021
The U.S. military is likely to increase its troop presence in Afghanistan temporarily in order to ensure a safe withdrawal of all forces from the country by September 11, the Pentagon said on April 16.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby declined to provide specifics, but said that troops currently in Afghanistan may need various kinds of assistance to complete the withdrawal.
“It’s logical to assume that you may need some logistics help, maybe some engineering help, you may have to add some force protection capabilities — again temporarily — just to make sure that the drawdown goes in a safe, orderly, and effective way,” Kirby said at a briefing.
Biden announced on April 14 plans to withdraw all U.S. troops by September 11 — the 20th anniversary of the attacks that triggered the American and NATO intervention in Afghanistan.
The date is a new deadline for the departure of the remaining 2,500 U.S. troops. U.S. forces had been scheduled to leave by May 1 under an agreement reached between the United States and the Taliban last year. Biden said, however, that the withdrawal would only begin by May 1.
Kirby said it was not clear how many troops would be out of the country by May 1 as a signal to the Taliban that the U.S. was abiding by its new plan.
There are concerns about threats by the Taliban that it will retaliate if the United States does not abide by the May 1 date set by the February 2020 agreement.
Washington has said that any attacks on U.S. or allied personnel would face a strong U.S. reaction.
Kirby also said it’s not clear if any U.S. private security contractors will remain in the country but added that the goal is to get all Defense Department personnel out.
Based on reporting by AP
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File photo
Tolo News: The last two decades of conflicts in Afghanistan has taken tens of thousands of lives from civilians to security force members and from international troops to the Taliban. Figures by Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission indicate that 31,113 civilians were killed in Afghanistan in the past 13 years and 62,662 more were wounded. The commission has blamed the Taliban for most of the fatalities. Of the figure, 4,393 were children and 2,801 were women. Click here to read more (external link).
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Ariana: A number of Afghan media officials and journalists Saturday officially launched the Afghanistan Center for Freedom of Speech, which is aimed at supporting the values of free speech, the media, and journalists. During an event to mark the official launch in Kabul, media workers called for an immediate end to the targeted assassinations of journalists and urged the government to prosecute those responsible. Click here to read more (external link).
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Abbas Karimi
Ariana: Afghan swimmer Abbas Karimi won a silver medal at the World Para Swimming Series tournament in Texas on Friday evening in the men’s 50m butterfly S5 category. The Afghan-born swimmer is competing as part of his bid to get into the Refugee Para Athletes Team for the Tokyo Olympics. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: The Ministry of Public Health on Saturday reported 72 new positive cases of COVID-19 out of 1,124 samples tested in the last 24 hours. The ministry reported that the cumulative total of known COVID-19 cases is 57,793, the total number of reported deaths is 2,539, and the total number of recoveries is 52,115. Click here to read more (external link).
US soldiers (file photo)
The Guardian (UK): The longest, most pointless and unsuccessful war that Britain has fought in the past 70 years – its intervention in Afghanistan – is to end in September. I doubt anyone will notice. Nations celebrate victories, not defeats. What has the US and UK intervention achieved? The military theorist Gen Sir Rupert Smith, in his book The Utility of Force, has pointed out that modern armies are almost useless in counter-insurgency wars. Click here to read more (external link).