Bajwa’s Afghanistan visit raises several concerns

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Bajwa

News Intervention: On June 9, Pakistan Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa went to Afghanistan, unannounced. This is the first visit by a prominent Pakistani after the US-Taliban peace deal in February this year. It’s also the first prominent Pakistani visit after the results of Afghanistan elections…  it’s clear that Pakistan’s ISI and their senior government officials believe that Quetta Shura (Taliban) would be valuable assets if Taliban would somehow regain power after a withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan. Click here to read more (external link).

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ICC slams US sanctions over Afghanistan war crimes probe

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DW: The Trump administration has sanctioned International Criminal Court [ICC] employees investigating whether US troops committed war crimes in Afghanistan. The ICC accused the US of trying to “interfere with the rule of law.” “The whole argument of the court being illegal, illegitimate and corrupt obviously is not a new argument,”…  “The same argument has been made by the Nazis in Nuremberg — and by Slobodan Milosevic in the Yugoslavia tribunal. Click here to read more (external link).

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Kabul Mosque Attack Kills 4

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VOA News
Ayesha Tanzeem
June 12, 2020

ISLAMABAD – An attack on a mosque in Kabul during Friday prayers killed the imam and three worshipers and wounded several others.

Mawlawi Azizullah Mofleh, the imam of Sher Shah Suri mosque in the Kart e Char area, was a well-known religious scholar.

This is the second attack on a religious scholar in the last 10 days. On June 2, Mawlawi Ayaz Niazi was killed in a similar attack at the Wazir Mohammad Akbar Khan mosque in downtown Kabul. The local chapter of Islamic State claimed responsibility for that.

A suicide attack was carried out May 12 during a funeral in the Shewa district of Nangarhar province, killing at least 26 and wounding more than 100.

The Taliban had denied responsibility for the earlier attacks, and so far, no group has claimed responsibility for the Friday attack.

Meanwhile, security officials in Kandahar province said several people attacked a small intelligence base Thursday night on the outskirts of the city of Kandahar.

The base housed unit Zero 03 of the National Directorate for Security NDS special forces.

Jamal Barakzai, a spokesman for Kandahar police, told VOA that a number of attackers took position in nearby mountains. A security source told VOA that attackers fired heavy artillery on the NDS base.

The Zero 03 special forces base is located inside the house of the Taliban’s founding leader, Mullah Omer, in the Arghandab district.

The incidents of violence come at a time when the start of much-anticipated negotiations between the Taliban and other Afghans, including the Afghan government, seem to be near.

President Ashraf Ghani announced Thursday that his government, which had already released 3,000 Taliban prisoners, was planning to release more.

“My colleagues and I have made the decision to release an additional 2,000 prisoners within a very short period. We will announce the date soon,” the Afghan president said to an online forum hosted jointly by the Washington-based Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center and the United States Institute of Peace.

The Taliban has said it is ready to start negotiations within a week of the release of 5,000 of their prisoners.

The United States Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad, who negotiated a deal with the Taliban signed in February, hailed the development and urged both sides to grab the opportunity.

“All sides must work to get to the negotiations table ASAP and prevent spoilers from undermining the process & betraying the hopes and yearning of Afghan people for peace,” he tweeted.

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Afghanistan: 656 New COVID-19 Cases, 20 Deaths Reported

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Tolo News: The Ministry of Public Health on Friday reported 656 new cases of the coronavirus from 1,159 samples tested in the last 24 hours, taking the total to 23,546 across the country. The ministry also reported 20 deaths from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 446. The number of recovered cases, according to the ministry, reached 3,928 as 602 new cases of recovery were reported in the last 24 hours. Click here to read more (external link).

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Trump authorizes sanctions over ICC Afghanistan war crimes case

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Donald Trump

Reuters: President Donald Trump on Thursday issued an executive order authorizing U.S. sanctions against International Criminal Court employees involved in an investigation into whether American forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan. Andrea Prasow, the Washington director for Human Rights Watch, said the action “demonstrates contempt for the global rule of law” and represents a “blatant attempt at obstruction.” Click here to read more (external link).

Taliban, US Spar Over Al-Qaida Presence in Afghanistan

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U.S. Lieutenant-General Kenneth McKenzie (file photo)

Ayaz Gul
VOA News
June 11, 2020

ISLAMABAD – The Taliban on Thursday rejected a top American general’s assessment that the al-Qaida leadership is still based in Afghanistan, insisting that no foreign fighters linked to the group are present in the country.

The contention, analysts say, underscored a long-running trust deficit between the Afghan insurgency and the United States despite their February 29 landmark agreement aimed at ending the nearly 19-year-old war in Afghanistan.

“Those Arab or other (foreign) fighters who were based in Afghanistan under the banner of al-Qaida during the rule of the Islamic Emirate (the Taliban) are no longer here,” said a statement published on the Taliban’s official website.

The Taliban reaction comes a day after the commander of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was still based in the war-ravaged country, though he did not mention him by name.

General Kenneth McKenzie told a forum hosted by the Washington-based Middle East Institute on Wednesday that he was not sure if the Taliban would be able to prevent groups like al-Qaida from using Afghan soil for future terrorist attacks against the United States.

“The home of al-Qaida is in eastern Afghanistan right up against the border (with Pakistan), (a) very small presence there, but the global leader is there,” McKenzie said.

“He (Zawahiri) doesn’t have the ability to talk much. But he does actually, we think, he is probably physically up in that area somewhere,” he added.

Washington has offered a reward of $25 million to bring Zawahiri to justice.

For its part, the Taliban reiterated they are committed under the “historic” agreement with the U.S. not to allow anyone to use Afghan soil for attacks against America or any other country.

“But in return, America will have to withdraw all its forces from Afghanistan and hand over our country back to us, Afghans, because it is our universal right,” the insurgent statement said.

McKenzie praised, however, the Taliban’s successes against Islamic State terrorists in Afghanistan. He emphasized the insurgent group has never been a threat to the United States, but it’s the groups the Taliban allowed to live in Afghanistan that threaten the U.S.

“We are talking about ISIS and we are talking about al-Qaida. And as I noted earlier, we believe the Taliban are actually no friends of ISIS and work against them. It’s less clear to me that they will take the same action against al-Qaida,” McKenzie said using an acronym for Islamic State.

McKenzie said the U.S military is in the process of carrying out its obligations under the February agreement. “We’re coming down to mid-8,000 [troops.] We’re going to be ahead of the timeline that we signed up to be able to do that. So, we will be at those numbers.”

Washington has committed to reduce the number of American troops to about 8,600 by mid-July before completely withdrawing from Afghanistan in May of 2021.

“If conditions will allow, we’re prepared to go to zero…Those conditions would be, you know, can we be assured that attacks against us will not be generated there?,” General McKenzie stressed. “As of right now … if you ask my opinion, those conditions have not been fully met.”

A recent United Nations report, based on intelligence from member states, also expressed concerns about the Taliban relationship with al-Qaida, saying that if anything, the ties between the two are growing stronger.

Under the U.S.-Taliban agreement, the insurgents are supposed to reduce battlefield violence and engage in peace negotiations with other Afghan groups to agree on a permanent ceasefire and a power-sharing arrangement in post-war Afghanistan.

The proposed intra-Afghan dialogue could possibly begin by July, pending a prisoner swap between the Taliban and the Afghan government stipulated in the agreement.

McKenzie also noted in his speech on Wednesday that the Taliban is living up to its pledges by not attacking U.S. and coalition partners anymore. But the insurgents are “aggressively” targeting Afghan security forces, he said.

A U.S.-led international military coalition invaded Afghanistan weeks after the September 11, 2001 deadly terrorist strikes in the United States to punish and oust the Taliban from power for harboring al-Qaida leaders who masterminded the carnage.

Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.

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Wolesi Jirga Committee Says Ghani Issued Illegal Decrees

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Ashraf Ghani

Tolo News: A committee within the Wolesi Jirga, the Afghan house of representatives, has accused the government, particularly the president, of violating several constitutional provisions. The committee stated in a report that the president had created several new budgetary units without the approval of the house of representatives and had removed sections from a number of ministries and merged them with other departments. Click here to read more (external link).