COVID-19 Latest: 108 of 753 Cases Test Positive in Afghanistan
Tolo News: The Ministry of Public Health on Thursday reported that 108 new cases of the coronavirus were positive out of 753 samples tested over the last 24 hours. So far, 90,575 samples have been tested in government centers and there are 9,799 known active COVID-19 cases in the country, according to data by the Ministry of Public Health. In the last 24 hours, the ministry also reported 4 new deaths from COVID-19 and 98 recoveries. The number of total cases is now 36,937, the total reported deaths is 1,298, and the total recoveries is 25,840. Click here to read more (external link).
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Female 30K Cycling Race Starts in Afghanistan
Tolo News: The first female multi-stage cycling race started in the central province of Bamiyan with 46 cyclists from Ghazni, Faryab, Balkh, Kabul and Bamiyan provinces, and 12 will qualify for the national women’s cycling team. The cyclists will ride 30 kilometers starting from the outskirts of Baba Mountain into the Shibar district of the province. Click here to read more (external link).
Afghan Civilians, Taliban Militants Killed In Attacks Across Afghanistan
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
August 6, 2020
Taliban militants and Afghan civilians have been killed in attacks and clashes across Afghanistan amid peace efforts aimed at ending the nearly 19-year war.
Defense Ministry spokesman Fawad Aman said at least 16 Taliban militants were killed in two separate clashes with government forces in the eastern province of Ghazni on August 6
It was the first direct fighting between the Taliban and government security forces since a recent cease-fire was announced.
Aman did not comment on casualties suffered by government forces.
In one attack near the provincial capital, Ghazni city, Afghan forces called in an air strike on Taliban fighters who stormed a military facility where about 300 government troops were based
Aman said Taliban fighters also attacked a military convoy in the Gilan district of Ghazni Province late on August 5.
Officials said seven civilians were killed when their vehicle struck a land mine in the Khash Rod district of the western province of Nimroz late on August 5.
There was no immediate claim of responsibly for the land mine, although similar cases in the past have been blamed on the Taliban.
Meanwhile, officials said clashes erupted between Taliban fighters and government forces along a highway in the northern province of Baghlan, leaving four militants dead.
Officials said the militants torched two oil tankers that were traveling along the highway.
The Taliban and government forces agreed a three-day truce to mark the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha which started on July 31.
The truce came ahead of proposed peace talks between the Taliban and authorities in Kabul aimed at ending their long-running war.
Based on AFP, Khaama, and Tolo News
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.
Russia Is Winning the Information War in Afghanistan
FP: The country’s former occupier is using Kremlin-backed media to fuel anger toward the United States. Russia’s disinformation seeks to increase Afghan support for the complete withdrawal of U.S. forces and fuel suspicions about the intentions of the residual U.S. security force presence in postwar Afghanistan. Click here to read more (external link).
Roadside bomb kills 3, wounds 2 in Afghanistan’s northern province
Xinhua: At least three persons were killed and two others wounded as a roadside bomb struck a car in Pul-e-Khumri, the capital of Afghanistan’s northern Baghlan province, on Wednesday, provincial government spokesman Nazir Najam said. According to the official, a mine planted by the Taliban militants struck the car of Mahboubullah Ghafari, a former member of provincial council, at around 1:00 p.m. local time in Chashma-e-Shir area of Pul-e-Khumri city, killing three of his bodyguards and wounding two others. However, Ghafari has escaped unhurt, the official added. Click here to read more (external link).
1TV Afghanistan Dari News – August 5, 2020
’10M’ COVID-19 Cases in Afghanistan: Health Ministry
Osmani
Tolo News: “Ten million” Afghans have been infected with coronavirus in Afghanistan, said Ahmad Jawad Osmani, the acting health minister, on Wednesday, citing a recent survey. Osmani at a press conference said that 31.5% Afghans have been infected with the coronavirus, which is about 10 million people, adding that 37% of the infected people were in the cities. The breakdown of those infected was 32% women and 29% men, according to the survey of the MoPH. Before this, the MoPH officially announced that over 36,000 were infected with the coronavirus. The MoPH was also announced that so far 1,288 people have died of the coronavirus across the country while more than 25,000 others have recovered. Click here to read more (external link).
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US Troop Size in Afghanistan Will Reduce to 4,000 ‘Very Soon’, Trump Says
Donald Trump
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
August 4, 2020
ISLAMABAD – U.S. President Donald Trump has said the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan will be reduced to “anywhere from 4,000 to 5,000” troops by November this year.
Trump’s remarks to Axios for HBO came as the Afghan Taliban has said its chief peace negotiator in a video meeting on Monday with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed the state of the Afghan peace process.
“It’s already planned. We’ll be down in a very short period of time to 8,000 [troops], then we’re going to be down to 4,000, we’re negotiating right now. We have been there for 19 years,” Trump told the media outlet. The U.S. president declined to specify the exact time but said that it would happen “very soon.”
When asked how many American troops will be in Afghanistan on U.S. election day in November, Trump said it would be “probably, anywhere from 4,000 to 5,000.”
Speaking to reporters on Saturday, the U.S. president also stressed “We’re leaving Afghanistan fairly shortly.”
The U.S military began a gradual drawdown soon after the Trump administration sealed a peace pact with the Taliban insurgency in February to close the 19-year-old Afghan war, America’s longest.
The United States has since reduced the number of its troops to 8,600 from around 13,000 and vacated five Afghan military bases.
The deal called for all American and allied troops to leave Afghanistan by July 2021 in return for assurances that the Islamist insurgency would prevent the country from becoming a safe haven for transnational terrorists.
U.S. officials say the agreement also binds the Taliban to negotiate a political settlement with rival Afghan groups to end decades of hostilities in the conflict-torn country.
The proposed intra-Afghan peace dialogue, however, is tied to the release of 5,000 Taliban prison inmates under a protracted prisoner swap between the insurgent group and the Afghan government, which was not part of the U.S.-negotiated pact.
The Taliban has completed its part of the prisoner exchange and freed 1,000 Afghan security personnel from its custody.
But Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has refused to release a last set of about 400 insurgent prisoners for their involvement in “serious” crimes, including killing innocent Afghans. Ghani has announced he would convene a consultative Loya Jirga, the traditional assembly of Afghan elders and lawmakers, to determine the fate of the remaining Taliban prisoners. The Afghan leader defended his move, saying the constitution does not allow him to free the detainees.
Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said that in Monday’s video meeting with Pompeo, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the group’s Qatar-based deputy leader, stressed that “release of the remaining prisoners is essential for the commencement of intra-Afghan negotiations.”
Shaheen asserted that Pompeo also welcomed announcement of the three-day Eid cease-fire by the Taliban that ended on Sunday. The insurgent spokesman also tweeted images from the Pompeo-Baradar video meeting.
The U.S. State Department has so far not commented on Pompeo’s interaction.
Afghan officials alleged that there was no let up in insurgent attacks during the Eid festivities, saying the violence killed more than 20 civilians. The Taliban has rejected the allegations as baseless.
Afghanistan To Convene Loya Jirga On Release Of Taliban Prisoners
Previously released prisoners
RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan
August 4, 2020
The Afghan government will convene a grand assembly of elders, known as the Loya Jirga, in Kabul on August 7 to decide the fate of hundreds of Taliban prisoners that Taliban leaders insist should be released before they join peace talks with the government.
Last week, President Ashraf Ghani ordered the release of 500 Taliban prisoners as a goodwill gesture amid a three-day cease-fire proposed by the Taliban and agreed to by the government. That cease-fire took effect on July 31.
During a televised speech on July 31, Ghani said the government had released 4,600 Taliban prisoners out of the 5,000 pledged in a landmark agreement signed in February by the United States and Afghanistan’s Taliban.
But Ghani said he had “no authority” under the country’s constitution to release the remaining 400 inmates on the Taliban’s list because of their involvement in serious crimes.
Ghani then announced he would summon a consultative Loya Jirga to decide the fate of the remaining 400 prisoners on the Taliban’s list.
“These 400 are those who have been convicted in killings from two to 40 people, drug trafficking, those sentenced to death and involved in major crimes, including kidnapping,” Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for Ghani, said as he announced the date of the Loya Jirga.
The Taliban says it has freed all 1,000 prisoners it had pledged in the agreement with U.S. negotiators. The Taliban insists on its demand for the release of the remaining 400 prisoners on its list.
Ghani has called on the Taliban to enter into peace talks as soon as possible.
The United States has reportedly proposed the Taliban prisoners be transferred from Afghan jails to a location where they would be under both Taliban and Afghan government surveillance.
Of the 400 Taliban prisoners left, around 200 are accused by the Afghan government of masterminding attacks on embassies, public squares, and government offices, killing thousands of civilians in recent years.
Held under a giant tent, the Loya Jirga is a centuries-old institution used to build consensus among Afghanistan’s rival tribes, factions, and ethnic groups.
They are traditionally convened under extraordinary circumstances to discuss matters of national importance.
Since the U.S.-Taliban agreement in February, 3,560 Afghan security personnel have been killed in attacks by militants, Ghani said last week.
He said thousands more were wounded.
The same week, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said in a report that more than 1,280 Afghan civilians had been killed during the first half of 2020 — mainly as a result of fighting between government forces and Taliban militants.
With reporting by Reuters