Trump: I think 19 years in Afghanistan is enough

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Donald Trump

1TV: The United States has had enough of 19 years in Afghanistan, US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, reiterating that US troops are leaving the country. “We never had anything like it — and sacrificing American blood and treasure in endless foreign wars in countries that you’ve never even heard of. And they’re all coming back. You know that, right? I hope nobody objects,” Trump told his supporters at an election rally in Gastonia, in the battleground state of North Carolina. Click here to read more (external link).

Air Strike On Mosque Kills 12 Children In Northern Afghanistan

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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
October 22, 2020

Afghan officials say 12 children were killed and several others were wounded in an air strike on a mosque in the northern Takhar Province.

The strike occurred on October 21 in the Baharak district, some 15 kilometers from the regional capital of Takhar, where Taliban fighters had killed dozens of Afghan security forces in the early morning, provincial councilor Mohammad Azam Afzali said.

The provincial governor spokesman also confirmed the report.

A warplane bombed the mosque after receiving information that Taliban militants who were involved in the hours-before bloody attack on security forces were hiding there, Afzali added.

Security officials have yet to comment on the air strike, and it is not clear whether it was conducted by Afghan or foreign forces.

However, the militants had already left the mosque, Afzali and another security source said.

Tolo News quoted an unnamed source as saying that the target of the strike had been a madrasah.

Earlier on October 22, Takhar’s deputy police chief Raz Mohammad Doorandish and nearly 50 members of Afghan security forces were killed in clashes with the Taliban in Baharak, according to officials.

The Taliban attacked security forces in the Masjid-e-Safid village of Baharak, according to local officials. The Taliban has also suffered heavy casualties in the clashes, but there is no exact information.

Violence in Afghanistan continues despite ongoing peace talks between the representatives of the government and the militants in Qatar that kicked off last month.

The Taliban so far has refused to accept a cease-fire.

A Taliban assault by the militants in the southern province of Helmand forced nearly 40,000 civilians to flee their homes this month, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.

“Disruptions in telecommunications, the threat of improvised explosive devices, and the continued closure of the highway between Kandahar and Helmand following the destruction of several bridges are adding to the challenges,” said Caroline Van Buren, the UNHCR’s representative to Afghanistan.

With reporting by dpa and tolonews.com

Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

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116 New Cases of COVID-19, 4 Deaths Reported in Afghanistan

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Tolo News: The Ministry of Public Health on Thursday reported 116 new positive cases of COVID-19 out of 440 samples tested in the last 24 hours. According to the Public Health Ministry’s data, the cumulative total number of cases is now 40,626, the number of total reported deaths is 1,505, and the total number of recoveries is 33,831. Click here to read more (external link).

Australian forces kill Afghan prisoner due to lack of room on aircraft

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Australian Special Forces reportedly shot and killed an Afghan prisoner because there was not enough space on their aircraft during a drug operation at Camp Bastion in 2012.

Dozens Killed in Afghan Stampede While Waiting for Pakistan Visas

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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
October 21, 2020

ISLAMABAD – Officials in Afghanistan say a stampede near Pakistan’s consulate in an eastern border city and insurgent attacks elsewhere in the war-torn country have killed about 50 people.

Witnesses said thousands of Afghans had gathered Wednesday morning in a stadium outside the consulate in Jalalabad waiting to collect tokens required to apply for a Pakistani visa before jostling broke out between applicants.

A provincial government spokesman told VOA at least 15 people, including eleven elderly women, were crushed to death in the ensuing stampede. Attaullah Khogyani said that many more people were trampled, including women, as they tried to exit the stadium. He expected the number of casualties to rise.

A Pakistan Embassy statement issued in Kabul expressed “deep grief and sadness” over the loss of Afghan lives. It noted that the stadium is five kilometers away from the Pakistani consulate in Jalalabad where Afghan authorities gather and organize visa applicants.

Pakistan has recently relaxed visa rules for Afghans to encourage people-to-people contacts between the two countries, which share a nearly 2,600 kilometer border.

The new visa policy has prompted thousands of people to rush to the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul and four consulates elsewhere in Afghanistan to apply for visas to secure medical treatment, education and jobs in the neighboring country.

Pakistan hosts nearly three million Afghan refugees and economic migrants, who have fled decades of hostilities, religious persecution and poverty in their war-torn country.

Taliban attacks 

Authorities in Afghanistan’s northeastern Takhar province said Wednesday that the Taliban there had killed at least 34 government forces in overnight attacks. A local government spokesman told VOA the provincial police chief for security was also among the slain men.

Meanwhile, fresh clashes have erupted between Afghan security forces and the Taliban near Lashkargah, the embattled capital of the southern Helmand province.

A provincial government spokesman, Omar Zawak, told VOA the insurgents attempted to enter the city from a forested area but Afghan forces quickly countered the action and killed more than 25 assailants in the process. Zawak confirmed the fighting killed at least one Afghan soldier and wounded several others.

The official claim could not be verified from independent sources and the Taliban did not immediately comment on the latest fighting in Helmand.

Lashkargah has been under a major Taliban attack for two weeks, cutting off road links into the city and reportedly displacing 40,000 civilians. The United Nations says the fighting has caused more than 200 casualties.

Gun-battles were also raging in neighboring Kandahar province Wednesday following two Taliban suicide car bombings there. Officials confirmed the attacks but did not immediately share any details about casualties.

The increased violence in Afghanistan has undermined ongoing U.S.-brokered peace negotiations between the Taliban and representatives of the Afghan government.

The dialogue in Doha, Qatar, is the product of a U.S.-Taliban agreement reached in February aimed at closing the 19-year-old Afghan war, America’s longest.

The deal requires all American and allied forces to leave the country by May 2021. In return, the Taliban is bound to fight terrorism on Afghan soil and reach a political power-sharing arrangement with rival factions to end four decades of conflict in Afghanistan.

Afghan Peace Talks: What’s At Stake For You?

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As Afghan government and Taliban negotiators try to broker a peace deal in Doha, RFE/RL’s Gandhara begins a new series that asks Afghans: “What’s at stake for you in the Afghan peace talks?” Atefa Tayeb draws a “red line” when it comes to education for girls and women, and says access to schooling is not negotiable.

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Stoltenberg Rules Out Rushed NATO Exit From Afghanistan

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Jens Stoltenberg

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
October 21, 2020

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said the military alliance will not leave Afghanistan until security conditions allow, as rising violence threatens to derail ongoing intra-Afghan peace talks in Qatar.

“We went into Afghanistan together, we will adjust together, and when the time is right, when the conditions are met, we will leave together in a coordinated and orderly way. This is a commitment by all allies and I’m absolutely certain that all allies will live up to this commitment,” Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels on October 21, ahead of a two-day NATO foreign ministers’ meeting.

NATO has led international security efforts in Afghanistan since 2003, two years after a U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban from power, and currently has around 12,000 troops in the country to train and assist the national security forces.

Some 8,000 U.S. soldiers were involved in NATO’s Resolute Support mission in August, and NATO allies and their partners rely on U.S. air power, transport, and logistics to operate.

U.S. commanders say the plan is to reduce the American troop presence to 4.500 by November, according to the Associated Press.

On October 7, U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted that he wants all U.S. troops to leave Afghanistan by December 25, but his national-security adviser, Robert O’Brien, last week said the number of U.S. troops would shrink to 2,500 early next year.

Meanwhile, Taliban militants have stepped up attacks throughout Afghanistan even as the group is holding peace talks with government negotiators in the Qatari capital, Doha.

The talks “offer the best chance for peace in a generation,” Stoltenberg said, adding: “They must preserve the gains made at such high price over the last two decades, including for women and girls.”

NATO’s secretary-general urged the Taliban to “live up to their commitments, significantly reduce the levels of violence, and pave the way for a cease-fire.”

“They must break all ties with Al-Qaeda and other international terrorist groups. And they must negotiate in good faith,” he added.

Earlier this week, U.S. envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad warned that “distressingly high” levels of violence threaten to derail the peace process.

The intra-Afghan talks follow a deal signed by the United States and the Taliban in Doha in February.

Under the deal, foreign forces will leave Afghanistan by May 2021 in exchange for counterterrorism guarantees from the Taliban, which agreed to negotiate a permanent cease-fire and a power-sharing formula with the Afghan government.

With reporting by AP

Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

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Crime Remains High in Kabul City, Ex-Police Official Killed

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Tolo News: Criminal incidents continue to take lives in Kabul despite the recent commitments by First Vice President Amrullah Saleh who pledged to fix the fragile situation in the nation’s capital. In the latest incident, Lemar Khalil, a former counter-narcotics commander of Kabul Police Headquarters was assassinated in Kabul. Also,a young girl was injured in PD18 of the city after armed men snatched her mobile phone and money on Tuesday night. Click here to read more (external link).