Tolo News: Over 400 runners participated in the 2020 Marathon of Afghanistan in Bamiyan province that ended on Friday. Organizers said 40% of the participants were women. Runners from Afghanistan, Wales, Scotland, France, Swiss, USA and Russia took part in the race to compete in 42 kilometers and 10 kilometers distances. Click here to read more (external link).
Other Sports News
Taliban fighters (file photo)
By Ayaz Gul
VOA News
October 23, 2020
ISLAMABAD – The Taliban has killed at least 23 Afghan soldiers in fresh attacks, as a stalemate persists in U.S.-brokered peace talks under way in Qatar.
Officials said Friday insurgents overnight staged a major assault on an Afghan National Army (ANA) base in Khashrod district in southwestern Nimroz province.
District chief Jalil Watandost told VOA the Taliban destroyed the base and took four ANA personnel hostage. He said the Afghan air force carried out several retaliatory airstrikes in the area against insurgent positions. Watandost did not share further details.
Separately, insurgents raided security outposts in Afghanistan’s northern Kunduz province, killing at least seven security forces and injuring several others. A provincial police spokesman told VOA the Taliban also suffered heavy casualties in the ensuing clashes but he did not elaborate.
Afghan security forces have sustained a number of casualties in recent weeks in battles with the Taliban.
Takhar airstrike and civilian casualties
Earlier this week, at least 40 ANA personnel were killed in two separate insurgent ambushes in northeastern Takhar province.
The Afghan air force carried out an airstrike in Takhar on Wednesday against the assailants, hitting a mosque school and killing at least 12 children, while another 18 were injured.
It was not known if Taliban fighters were in the vicinity of the mosque but the Afghan Defense Ministry insisted those killed were Taliban fighters and commanders.
The ministry noted, however, that a special team had been assigned to investigate reports of civilian casualties.
Senior members of the Takhar provincial council confirmed to VOA on Thursday that all the victims were children receiving Islamic education at the school. They said the Afghan air force mistook the school for a Taliban hideout.
The United Nations said it was also investigating the reports and promised to release its findings “when complete.”
On Friday, Human Rights Watch slammed a top Afghan leader for ordering the arrest of the individual who reported the civilian casualties from the airstrike in Takhar.
Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh, the official in question, denied on Twitter that any civilians had died in the air raid. He said “the person responsible for spread of this venomous & fake news was arrested immediately.”
In a Facebook post, Saleh also threatened legal action against those “who make false allegations,” but he did not share details about the suspected detainee.
“Vice President Amrullah Saleh is trying to silence those who reported a potentially unlawful airstrike that killed civilians, including many children,” said Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director at HRW.
“The government should immediately release anyone detained under Saleh’s order and carry out a thorough and impartial investigation of the airstrike,” said Gossman. “The free expression rights of those reporting on alleged violations should be respected.”
The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has reported that women and children comprised 65 percent of the civilian casualties from airstrikes by the Afghan air force for the first half of 2020.
Gossman lamented the Afghan government has “a poor record” of investigating such incidents and no one has been held accountable to date.
Stalemate in Afghan talks
The uptick in violence comes as month-long direct peace talks between the Taliban and representatives of the Afghan government in the Qatari capital of Doha continue to face a stalemate over procedural matters.
The dialogue, which seeks a permanent cease-fire and a political power-sharing deal between the Afghan rivals, stems from a February conditional agreement between the U.S. and the Taliban aimed at ending the 19-year-old war.
The pact requires a phased withdrawal of all American and NATO forces from Afghanistan by May 2021 in return for the Taliban’s counterterrorism assurances and pledges to negotiate a peace deal with Afghan rivals to permanently stop four decades of hostilities.
Amrullah Saleh
Ariana: Vice President Amrullah Saleh has ordered the arrest of the individual who reported civilian casualties from an Afghan government airstrike on October 22, 2020, Human Rights Watch said Thursday. The Afghan air forces targeted a Taliban gathering at a mosque in Hazara Qarluq village in Takhar on Wednesday morning in which at least 12 children were killed and 18 civilians were wounded, sources said. Saleh, however, rejected claims, stating: “No child was killed in Afghan Air Force strike in Takhar.” Click here to read more (external link).
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At a time when growing numbers of people are shunning vaccines, the polio vaccine proves that they work. As VOA’s Carol Pearson reports, despite setbacks and a coronavirus pandemic, the world is making headway in eliminating the crippling disease.
Greek City Times: A Memorandum of Understanding between Greece and Afghanistan was signed yesterday by Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis and Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Meerwais Nab. Nab expressed the desire to cooperate with Greece on the issue of voluntary returns through the Afghan Embassy in Athens, as well as the hope for a Greek Embassy in Kabul, noting that the Afghanistan side can assist about. Click here to read more (external link).
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).
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
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