Insider Attack Kills 25 Afghan Security Forces

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ghazniAyaz Gul
VOA News
December 14, 2019

ISLAMABAD – Officials in Afghanistan said Saturday Taliban infiltrators have killed at least 25 government security forces in the eastern volatile Ghazni province.

The overnight insider attack happened in the Qarabagh district where a group of seven security personnel Friday night turned their guns on fellow soldiers at a local Afghan army base.

District chief Ghulam Habib Zerak told VOA the assailants collected arms and a military vehicle from the base before fleeing and rejoining insurgents in the area. He said at least two Afghan soldiers were wounded in the incident.

The Taliban claimed in a statement the attack killed 32 security forces and its fighters captured the base, though insurgent claims are often exaggerated.

Earlier this week, an Afghan policeman allegedly linked to the Taliban killed seven fellow officers at a post in the Shahr-e-Safa district in southern Zabul province. Local authorities confirmed the attacker took away weapons of slain policemen and rejoined insurgent ranks.

Afghan security forces are reported to have experienced around 50 insider attacks this year that have killed scores of personnel.

Ghazni has been for months the site of heavy fighting between Afghan forces and the Taliban. The insurgent group controls or hotly contests many districts in the province.

On Friday, at least ten civilians were killed and six injured when their minivan traveling to the provincial capital, also named Ghazni, hit a roadside bomb.

No-one took responsibility for the violence but Afghan officials blamed the Taliban for planting the bomb.

Election Commission Set to Kick Off Recount in Seven Provinces

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Dr. Abdullah

Dr. Abdullah

Tolo News: The Independent Election Commission (IEC) is set to start the recount of votes in the seven remaining provinces (out of 34) on Sunday after presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah on Friday asked his supporters in the provinces to stop blocking the election centers and let the process continue. The seven provinces are Faryab, Sar-e-Pul, Jawzjan, Badakhshan, Panjshir, Baghlan and Takhar. Click here to read more (external link).

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Roadside Bomb Kills 10 Civilians In Eastern Afghanistan

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ghazniRFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan
December 13, 2019

Ten people, including four women and a child, were killed in a roadside bomb explosion in eastern Afghanistan, officials said on December 13.

The occurred in the volatile district of Jaghatu in Ghazni province.

All the victims of the blast were civilians, said Aref Noori, a spokesman for the provincial governor, adding that six others were wounded.

“Unfortunately, in the explosion, 10 people, including four women and a child, were killed,” Noori said.

Marwa Amini, deputy spokeswoman for the Afghan Interior Ministry in Kabul, confirmed the blast and death toll.

Officials said the bomb was planted to target Afghan security forces, since it detonated some 300 meters from a military base.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but officials blamed the Taliban.

Earlier this week, the Taliban launched an attack near Bagram, a major U.S. airbase.

This is the second such incident within the past two weeks in the district. In a previous incident, a civilian truck was hit with a roadside bomb that left one dead and one wounded.

Based on reporting by dpa and AFP

Copyright (c) 2019. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

US Peace Envoy in Pakistan After Suspending Talks With Afghan Taliban

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Khalilzad

Khalilzad

Ayaz Gul
VOA News
December 13, 2019

ISLAMABAD – America’s chief negotiator for peace in Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, visited Pakistan on Friday, a day after he briefly suspended peace talks with the Taliban in Qatar in retaliation to this week’s attack by the insurgent group on the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan.

Khalilzad met Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Islamabad and briefed him on the U.S.-Taliban discussions in the Qatari capital of Doha, said a Pakistani statement.

“We hope the U.S.-Taliban negotiations will resume soon,” Qureshi was quoted as saying, apparently in reference to the disrupted talks that had only recently restarted.

Qureshi reaffirmed Pakistan’s resolve to continue to play its “facilitating” role in the Afghan peace process and emphasized again the conflict in the neighboring country had no military solution.

Khalilzad later met with Pakistani military chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa in the neighboring city of Rawalpindi where the army is headquartered. “Regional security situation with particular reference to (the) ongoing Afghan reconciliation process was discussed,” the army spokesman said.

Taliban leaders maintain close contacts with Islamabad, and their families also live in Pakistan among nearly three million Afghan refugees the country still hosts.

Taliban attacks

Wednesday’s suicide car bomb-and-gun attack on the Bagram base mostly caused Afghan civilian casualties in nearby civilian localities and did not harm U.S. and NATO forces.

The Taliban swiftly took credit for staging the assault.

“When I met the Talibs today, I expressed outrage about yesterday’s attack on Bagram, which recklessly killed two and wounded dozens of civilians. (The) Taliban must show they are willing & able to respond to Afghan desire for peace,” Khalilzad tweeted Thursday after his meeting with insurgent negotiators.

“We’re taking a brief pause for them to consult their leadership on this essential topic,” the Afghan-born U.S. envoy emphasized.

Hours earlier, Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen in a his tweet insisted the two sides wrapped up nearly a week of peace negotiations in a “good and positive” atmosphere, and with an agreement to resume the talks after “a few days and internal consultations.”

The disruption in the talks comes as a roadside bomb Friday ripped through a minivan in the eastern Ghazni province, killing at least ten civilians. There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the bombing in the province, the site of almost daily clashes between Taliban insurgents and Afghan security forces.

Negotiations

The negotiations restarted last Saturday, three months after President Donald Trump abruptly suspended the process, citing increased insurgent attacks in the Afghan capital of Kabul that killed an American soldier, among others.

Insurgent sources said that in the meetings in Qatar over the past six days, Khalilzad and his team pressed the Taliban to reduce violence or declare a cease-fire and enter into intra-Afghan negotiations aimed at finding a political settlement to the war.

Khalilzad is trying to seal a U.S.-Taliban agreement that would lead to Afghan-Taliban negotiations to permanently end decades of hostilities and enable all international forces to leave the country.

Shaheen stated again earlier this week that once a troop-withdrawal agreement is signed between the Taliban and the U.S., insurgents would observe a cease-fire with U.S. and NATO forces to facilitate their departure. A nationwide cease-fire with Afghan security forces, he said, would be on the agenda when Afghan-Taliban negotiations begin.

The extraordinary story of the only B Corp in Afghanistan

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roshanQuartz: Since its inception in 2003, Roshan has grown to become the biggest telecoms operator in Afghanistan, and the superlatives don’t stop there.  It is also the only B Corporation in Afghanistan.  The B Corp designation means the company has adopted globally recognized business standards that encompass a lot of what it does—the community it’s striving to support, the enfranchised workforce it wants to have, and the kind of company it believes it can be—in a system that holds it internationally accountable. Click here to read more (external link).

If you’re surprised by what’s in the Afghanistan Papers, you haven’t been paying attention

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sigar

The Washington Post: On Monday, The Washington Post published the Afghanistan Papers, a major years-long investigation into the costs and conducts of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. These papers largely consist of more than 400 interviews conducted by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR)’s for its Lessons Learned project. Click here to read more (external link).

Bagram Attack Casts Shadow Over Qatar Peace Talks: Sources

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no_peaceTolo News: Taliban’s Wednesday attack at Bagram airbase has negatively affected the peace talks,  sources said on Thursday, but peace talks are continuing “despite the tension.” “Before the Taliban’s (Bagram airbase) attack, Americans launched airstrikes in Sangin (district of Helmand) and I wished neither had happened so the talks would continue normally” said Sayed Akbar Agha, a former Taliban commander, “but it didn’t have a big enough effect to stop them.” The Afghan government once again urged the Taliban to agree to a ceasefire and reduction of violence in the country. Click here to read more (external link).

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