Previously released prisoners
Ariana: In an exclusive report by Reuters, published on Saturday, the news agency stated the US has proposed that hundreds of Taliban prisoners be transferred to house arrest in a supervised facility when they are freed from Afghan jails. Citing three senior official sources, Reuters reported that this was a proposed solution for a deadlock that is holding up peace talks. Click here to read more (external link).
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Suleiman Layeq
Tolo News: Afghan writer, poet and former politician, Suleiman Layeq, passed away at the age of 90 on Friday, according to his family. His family said Layeq’s death was due to the wounds he received in an explosion in the Shash Darak area in downtown Kabul last year. Layeq was the founder of the Parcham newspaper in 1968. He represented the moderate faction of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) in the 1960s. Click here to read more (external link).
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Tolo News: Like millions of other Muslims in the world, Afghans also began the Eid-al-Adha celebrations on Friday. But in Afghanistan, it coincides with a three-day ceasefire between the Afghan government and the Taliban. Click here to read more (external link).
Al Jazeera: Investigators in New Zealand have concluded that the country’s military repeatedly misled government ministers and the public for years over civilian casualties in a special forces raid in Afghanistan 10 years ago. Click here to read more (external link).
Taliban fighters (file photo)
Jeff Seldin
VOA News
July 31, 2020
WASHINGTON – U.S. and coalition defense officials fear the Taliban are successfully ratcheting up attacks against the Afghan government, hoping to push it past its breaking point, while often keeping allied forces at bay.
The officials, who spoke with the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), warn that despite the February agreement between the Taliban and the United States, violence directed at Afghan government forces “stayed well above historic norms” from April through the end of June.
The only respite for Afghan forces during that time came during the three-day Eid holiday cease-fire in late May, the officials said, demonstrating “the Taliban’s ability to exert command and control of their fighters.”
A separate U.S. Defense Department assessment provided to SIGAR for its quarterly report, released Thursday, was equally blunt.
“The Taliban is calibrating its use of violence to harass and undermine the [Afghan defense and security forces] and [the Afghan government], but remain at a level it perceives is within the bounds of the agreement, probably to encourage a U.S. troop withdrawal and set favorable conditions for a post-withdrawal Afghanistan,” it said.
The latest warnings come at the start of another three-day cease-fire (for the Eid al-Adha holiday), and as the Taliban promise the imminent release of imprisoned Afghan security forces, both developments seen as signs that long hoped-for intra-Afghan negotiations will soon get under way.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani expressed hope this past Tuesday that such talks could start “in a week’s time.”
Taliban officials have likewise expressed cautious optimism about the talks, insisting they are negotiating in good faith.
“Our clear message remains that we are not looking for monopoly over power because all the diverse Afghan tribes and ethnicities are in need of one another,” said Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada said in a speech this week, ahead of the Eid festivities.
Hibatullah accused the United States of violating certain commitments in the agreement.
“For example – extending the ten-day prisoner exchange process to four months, the continuing existence of black lists and carrying out frequent drone strikes, bombardments, raids and artillery attacks on unjustifiable grounds do not serve the interests of anyone nor can such actions play a role in winning the war,” the Taliban chief said.
Under the U.S.-Taliban deal, intra-Afghan peace talks were to begin on March 10 at the conclusion of the prisoner swap. The Taliban also is seeking removal of names of its senior leaders from a United Nations blacklist.
U.S. military officials remain wary of the Taliban’s intent.
“The number of enemy-initiated attacks is, in fact, very worrisome,” U.S. Central Command’s General Kenneth McKenzie told VOA in an exclusive interview earlier this month.
“The Taliban has not lived up to some of the obligations they have made,” he added. “I don’t know that they will.”
But there are questions about how much leverage the U.S. has in its deal with the Taliban.
According to Defense Department officials, the deal with the Taliban “included commitments to seek to continue reducing violence.” But the State Department told SIGAR those commitments only go so far.
Instead, State Department officials said there is no blanket prohibition against Taliban attacks against Afghan security forces. And during a May briefing, they said Taliban attacks against Afghan forces broke only “the spirit” of the agreement.
Making the situation even more precarious, the SIGAR report cautions the Afghan government is struggling to contain the coronavirus pandemic.
The latest data show about 36,500 confirmed COVID-19 cases and just fewer than 1,300 deaths. But researchers warn those numbers likely underestimate the problem.
As of July 15, despite limited testing, nearly 43 percent of COVID-19 test samples in Afghanistan came up positive, according Johns Hopkins University, giving the country one of the highest positivity rates in the world.
Afghanistan’s Ministry of Public Health has said the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases rose by almost 700 percent in May alone.
The pandemic, which has caused countries to shut down borders and trade, is also hammering the Afghan government’s finances, sending revenue plunging by more than 23 percent during the first half of 2020.
The lack of food is also worsening, as prices for staples such as flour and cooking oil increase and more Afghans fall into poverty.
“About one-third of Afghanistan’s estimated 32.2 million people remain in either a crisis or emergency state of food insecurity and require urgent action,” the SIGAR report said.
Ayesha Tanzeem and Carla Babb contributed to this story.
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RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan
July 31, 2020
Cross-border shelling by Pakistan killed at least 15 civilians in Afghanistan on July 31, prompting Kabul to put its ground and air forces on alert.
The shelling came after clashes between Pakistani and Afghan security forces at the closed Chaman-Spin Boldak border crossing, where people were waiting to cross on both sides of the border to celebrate the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha.
The Afghan Defense Ministry on July 31 said that the country’s chief of army staff had ordered the armed forces to respond with full force if the artillery attacks by the Pakistani Army continued along a disputed border between the neighboring countries.
Pakistani security officials said a protest against the closure of the border for daily commute turned violent at the Chaman area on the other side of Spin Boldak in Pakistan’s Balochistan Province, but no live ammunition had been used.
However, activists blamed Pakistani security forces for opening fire on protesters and shelling into Afghanistan where people were also protesting.
“If the Pakistani military continues its rocket attacks on Afghan territory, they will face retaliation by the Afghan Army,” Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told reporters that the matter had been taken up with Afghan authorities and hoped it would be resolved amicably.
The 2,430-kilometer-long Afghan-Pakistan border was created in 1893 between then-British India and the Emirate of Afghanistan.
Clashes between neighboring states along the de facto border known as the Durand Line rarely occur, but relations are considered tense.
With reporting by RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal, Reuters, and dpa
RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan
July 30, 2020
Afghan officials say at least eight people were killed and dozens injured in a bomb attack in the eastern province of Logar on July 30, just hours before a three-day cease-fire was to begin for the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha.
The suspected car bomb went off in the central Azadi (Liberty) Square in the provincial capital, Pol-e-Alam, which was packed with people shopping for Eid celebrations, according to local officials and eyewitnesses.
The Interior Ministry said in a statement that all the victims were civilians, with women and children among the dead.
However, provincial police spokesman Shahpoor Ahmadzai said the attack targeted a police checkpoint and that there were security forces among the victims.
According to Ahmadzai, government forces had gathered in the city to prepare for security measures ahead of the Eid celebrations.
He said the civilian casualties were mainly in cars that had stopped at a checkpoint.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. The Taliban denied involvement.
The Afghan government and the Taliban have agreed on a three-day ceasefire starting on July 31, the first day of Eid in Afghanistan.
The cease-fire is slated to last for the duration of the festival, which marks the end of the annual hajj pilgrimage.
With reporting by Reuters, AFP, dpa
Farzad Bonesh: From a specific point of view, Afghanistan’s mineral reserves could be a source of hope for citizens for development and a formula for supplying financial resources. Currently Afghanistan faces such problems as a major proportion of its population in poverty, insecurity in many provinces, political and administrative corruption, low per capita income, dependence on foreign economic aid, and dozens of other economic challenges. Click here to read more (external link).