Taliban fighters (file photo)
Ariana: Afghan commando forces freed 23 security force members and one civilian from a Taliban prison in Kunduz on Wednesday, 217 Pamir Corps said in a statement. According to the officials, 16 of the prisoners are members of the Afghan National Army (ANA), four of them are commando forces, two were police, and one was a National Directorate of Security (NDS) soldier and one other was a civilian. Click here to read more (external link).
1TV: Hundreds of vehicles were burnt in a massive blaze that tore through the customs post last week. Iranian drivers say nearly a hundred of vehicles belonged to them. One of the drivers, as quoted by Fars news agency, criticized customs officials for stopping his vehicles for six days while usually it would be released within six hours. Click here to read more (external link).
Ariana: Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) stated in a report released Thursday that despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent on efforts to support Afghan women and girls since 2002, some programs were designed on assumptions that proved to be ill-suited to the Afghan context. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: The Ministry of Public Health on Thursday reported 18 new positive cases of COVID-19 out of 1,027 samples tested in the last 24 hours. The ministry says the cumulative total of known COVID-19 cases is 55,575, the total number of reported deaths is 2,430, and the total number of recoveries is 48,798. Click here to read more (external link).
Scott Miller
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
February 17, 2021
Unusually high levels of fighting in the winter by Taliban militants risks further endangering an already fragile peace process in Afghanistan, according to the commander of U.S. forces in the war-wracked country.
“Taliban violence is much higher than historical norms,” General Scott Miller told Reuters on February 17. “It just doesn’t create the conditions to move forward in what is hopefully a historic turning point for Afghanistan.”
Fighting usually dwindles during the snowy winter months before the Taliban launches a “spring offensive” around March.
But Miller said more frequent and intense Taliban attacks this winter have prompted the Afghan government to step up preparations for increased violence in the warmer spring, which the international community fears will further endanger the talks between Kabul and the militants that started in September in Qatar.
Nearly a year after the United States signed a troop-withdrawal deal with the Taliban that called for a reduction in violence by all sides, attacks by the group have escalated, Miller said, adding that a more intense spring offensive by the militants is likely.
The increased fighting came as negotiations in Qatar’s capital, Doha, have largely stalled in recent weeks.
Furthermore, Taliban leaders have left Qatar, according to an unnamed senior State Department official, prompting concern that talks could be on the brink of collapse.
“If the violence isn’t reduced, it’s going to make a peace process very, very difficult; it would be very difficult for any side to make the necessary compromises,” Miller said.
A Taliban spokesman did not reply to Reuters’ request for comment on the spring offensive.
The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden is reviewing a peace deal that former President Donald Trump’s administration signed with the Taliban in February last year, including whether to observe the May 1 deadline in the troop withdrawal agreement.
Miller said foreign forces could be a target if the Taliban views the deal as breached.
With reporting by Reuters
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Kabulov
Tolo News: Russian Special Envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov in an interview with Sputnik said that Moscow prefers that all parties to the conflict in Afghanistan agree on the establishment of an inclusive and transitional coalition government. Answering a question about the Taliban’s alleged agenda to take complete control of Afghanistan, the Russian envoy stated that it would be a bad scenario if the Taliban insisted on such an approach; however, he said, Russia believes that it would be good if there was a transitional coalition government in place in which the Taliban had political status. Click here to read more (external link).
By Radio Free Afghanistan
February 17, 2021
Two Afghan policemen were shot dead in eastern parts of Kabul on February 17, officials said, in the latest such attack in the capital.
Police said unidentified gunmen opened fire on the pair’s vehicle, killing them, while a security official said the two were father and son.
Kabul has seen multiple attacks with small magnetic bombs attached under vehicles and targeted assassinations in recent weeks against security forces, officials, judges, civil society activists, and journalists.
In a separate incident in the western province of Herat, a roadside bomb killed two officers and wounded three more.
TOLOnews said on February 17 that up to 340 people were either killed or wounded in security incidents in Afghanistan since the start of this month as a result of magnetic IEDs, roadside bombs, and targeted killings.
TOLOnews said 168 people were killed and 172 were wounded.
Afghan officials said this week they had arrested a network of militants that was responsible for the attacks.
Violence in parts of the country has increased recently as peace talks between the government and Taliban insurgents have largely stalled.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is reviewing how to handle the peace process, including a troop withdrawal.
With reporting by Reuters and TOLOnews.com
Tolo News: The joint task team made up of members of the private sector and the House of Representatives, which went to the Islam Qala customs area to investigate the cause of the fire that started on Saturday, said that a “non-standard method of sampling of liquid natural gas” by the Afghanistan National Standards Authority. According to the findings of the task team, “corrupt and negligent behavior” of customs officials at Islam Qala was the main cause of the fire’s expansion. Click here to read more (external link).
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