Ariana: Iranian authorities have arrested a group of Afghans who waved a flag in celebration of Eid al-Adha in a park in Tehran. MENAFM reported that Iranian intelligence and police officials confirmed to local media outlets that the security forces arrested the group during an operation. The Iranian authorities reportedly acted to detain the Taliban supporters after the images shocked Iranians on social media. Click here to read more (external link).
1TV Afghanistan Dari News – August 3, 2020
Islamic State Attack on Afghan Prison Lasts 20 Hours, Kills 29
By Ayesha Tanzeem
VOA News
August 3, 2020
ISLAMABAD – A deadly Islamic State attack on a prison in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad has left at least 29 people dead and around 50 others wounded, including prisoners and security personnel. Authorities say the attack by the local IS chapter went well into Monday afternoon after starting more than 20 hours earlier.
Army Chief of Staff General Yasin Zia arrived on the scene Monday to lead the clearing operations.
The Afghan Ministry of Defense said in a statement the facility was “completely cleared.” Officials said the operation “resulted in the killing of five attackers inside the prison,” along with three inmates killed by IS. Two of the dead were Taliban.
“The prison is now under the control of Afghan security forces,” Defense Ministry spokesman Fawad Aman told Afghan channel Tolo News.
Ataullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the Nangarhar provincial government, said clean-up operations were under way in nearby buildings.
The prison held nearly 1,800 inmates at the time it was attacked. Police said they arrested more than 1,000 prisoners who tried to flee but some inmates were still missing.
The attack, claimed by the Islamic State group through its media arm, started with a car bomb blast followed by gunmen storming the facility.
Security officials said their operations moved slowly in order to protect civilians in the area.
Various local health officials confirmed that the wounded as well as bodies of the dead were shifted to Nangarhar Regional Hospital.
Nangarhar was a stronghold of the local chapter of IS, called IS Khorasan, before the Afghan government declared the group defeated in 2019 after several years of sustained military operations by Afghan and U.S. forces. The group, however, has continued to attack targets in areas including in Jalalabad and Kabul.
Most of those attacks have been against civilian targets, like the minority Sikh or Shi’ite communities.
Jalalabad is vulnerable due to its proximity to the border, according to Andrew Watkins, a senior analyst on Afghanistan at the non-profit International Crisis Group in Washington.
“IS-KP’s cross-border ties and ideological appeal are rooted in Nangarhar’s border areas. For these reasons, attacks on Jalalabad will always be easier than most of the rest of Afghanistan, in terms of logistics and local support,” he said.
The Afghan Taliban have distanced themselves from the attack. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said his group “had nothing to do with it.”
The Taliban are under pressure to keep the level of violence low in the country ahead of direct talks with the government and other Afghan factions expected to begin this month.
The negotiations to end the decades-long conflict were supposed to be part of a deal the United States signed in February with the militant group. The agreement, that included a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, called on the Taliban to demonstrate their commitment to counter terrorism.
Watkins said attacks like these could spoil the atmosphere for talks and needed to be addressed.
“In order to establish greater trust during intra-Afghan negotiations, both sides should quickly discuss practical measures that can be taken to combat the violence of spoiler groups,” he said.
The negotiations have been stalled several times over prisoner releases. They had been scheduled to start back in March.
Under the U.S.-Taliban deal, the Afghan government was supposed to release up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners in return for 1,000 Afghan security personnel held by the militants.
President Ashraf Ghani announced last week that he would complete the release of 5,000 prisoners soon. While his announcement was followed by a cease-fire from both sides for the three-day Muslim holy festival of Eid al Adha – Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in Afghanistan – the dispute on the prisoners continued.
The Taliban want the 5,000 prisoners to be those on a list the militants have provided the Afghan government. Ghani said 400 of the 5,000 were involved in serious terrorist attacks and that he did not have the authority to release them. Instead, he wants to call a loya jirga, a traditional grand assembly, on Aug. 7 to decide their fate.
Related
Afghans draw strength from the tale of a teen girl battling the Taliban
Qamar Gul
NBC News: In mid-July, reports emerged about Qamar Gul, 15, who says she gunned down two fighters with her father’s AK-47 weapon. Almost immediately, the story electrified some in Afghanistan, a country buffeted by decades of war. “Yesterday it was Malalai, today it is Qamar Gul,” said Turkmen, a student of political science, comparing her to the female folk hero Malalai of Maiwand, who is remembered across the country for rallying fighters against the British during the second Anglo-Afghan war in 1880. Click here to read more (external link).
Afghan Prison Attack Leaves Several Dead, Dozens Injured
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
August 2, 2020
An attack on a prison in Afghanistan has left several people dead and dozens wounded as violence continues unabated in the war-torn nation.
Assailants on August 2 set off a car bomb outside a prison in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar and then proceeded to storm it, officials said.
The gunmen exchanged fire as they entered the prison and a number of nearby buildings in the provincial capital, Jalalabad.
At least three people were killed and 24 wounded, according to the AP. Some prisoners may have escaped. The fighting is ongoing, so the number of casualties could increase, officials said.
The Taliban and the local affiliate of the Islamic State group are active in eastern Afghanistan. The Taliban denied responsibility.
The attack occurred one day after Afghan special forces announced they had killed the intelligence chief of the Islamic State’s Afghan headquarters in Jalalabad.
It also comes during a mutually agreed three-day cease-fire between the Taliban and the Afghan government to mark the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha that began on July 31.
The Taliban and the Afghan government have been unable to make progress on issues including prisoner releases since the United States reached an agreement with the Taliban in February that was seen as a first step toward an intra-Afghan deal.
Under the U.S.-Taliban deal, Kabul was to release up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners in exchange for the militants freeing 1,000 government and military personnel.
Reporting by dpa and 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.
Related
1TV Afghanistan Dari News – August 2, 2020
COVID-19: total cases now 36,710
Tolo News: Officials at the Ministry of Public Health on Sunday reported one new positive case of the coronavirus from 19 samples tested over the last 24 hours. “A lower number of people have come for testing during Eid days,” the officials said. The number of total cases is now 36,710, the total reported deaths is 1,284, and the total recoveries is 25,509. Click here to read more (external link).
Afghan Intelligence Says High-Ranking Islamic State Leader Killed
Assadullah Orakzai in an undated photo
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
August 2, 2020
Afghanistan’s intelligence service announced late on August 1 that Afghan special forces had killed a senior intelligence leader for the militant group Islamic State (IS).
The Afghan National Directorate of Security said Assadullah Orakzai — who was suspected of involvement in numerous deadly attacks against Afghan military and civilian targets — was killed in an operation near the eastern city of Jalalabad. It did not give a date.
The UN warned in a recent report that IS remains capable of high-profile attacks and hopes to recruit more fighters from among opponents of a 5-month-old deal between Taliban militants, who have long battled against Kabul’s authority, and the United States.
News of Orakzai’s killing came against a general decline in attacks by the radical IS group, which has a considerably smaller presence in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, a 2-day-old cease-fire between the government and Taliban militants to coincide with the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha reportedly was holding across much of the country on August 1, fueling hopes that highly anticipated peace talks might soon begin.
The two sides have been unable to make progress since an agreement between the United States and the Taliban in February that was seen as a first step toward an intra-Afghan deal, in part over prisoner releases.
That U.S.-Taliban agreement included a Taliban pledge to prevent Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups from using Afghanistan to stage attacks against the United States or its partners.
The United Nations said recently that more than 100,000 people had fled conflict inside Afghanistan’s borders so far this year.
The UN also said IS attacks that resulted in civilian deaths in the first half of 2020 were down by around 80 percent on the same period a year ago.
The same report said that, overall, the number of civilian casualties in militant attacks fell by a more modest 13 percent.
ISIS-K, an offshoot of IS in Iraq and Syria, “remains a threat to Afghanistan, the U.S., NATO allies, and our partners” despite being flushed out of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar and Kunar provinces, the U.S. military command in Afghanistan said in late July.
The IS claimed responsibility for one of this year’s deadliest militant attacks in the capital when a lone gunman killed 25 people and wounded eight more in a rifle-and-grenade attack on a Sikh religious venue in March.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said on July 28 that more than 10,000 government troops had been killed or wounded since the U.S.-Taliban deal was signed.
The current Afghan-Taliban cease-fire is slated to last for the duration of the Eid festival, which marks the end of Islam’s annual hajj pilgrimage.
Under the U.S.-Taliban deal, Kabul was to release up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners in exchange for the militants freeing 1,000 government and military personnel.
The Afghan National Security Council said via Twitter on August 2 that authorities had released 317 Taliban prisoners since the beginning of Eid al-Adha on July 31, bringing the total number to 4,917.
The 317 were among an additional 500 Taliban prisoners that Ghani had ordered freed as a goodwill gesture.
With reporting by AP, AFP, dpa, and Stars And Stripes
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.
Kabul-Taliban Legitimacy War Hits Pivotal Phase
“The strongest is never strong enough to be always the master, unless he transforms strength into right, and obedience into duty.”
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau, On the Social Contract (1762)
Michael Hughes: The Taliban’s leader – in too many words – essentially signaled that the insurgent group will not rest until a Wahhabi-style theocracy is established in Kabul, a message not well received by Afghan government officials. The exchange could be a preview of deeper ideological and propaganda battles to come, as both sides compete to shape the minds and win the souls of the Afghan people. Click here to read more.