Tolo News: The Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Saturday released new statistics on the votes registered at the commission’s central database. The commission said that the Dermalog company has identified 1,843,107 valid votes out of the 1,929,333 votes already transferred to the commission’s central database. Click here to read more (external link).
VOA News
November 2, 2019
A land mine explosion in Afghanistan claimed the lives of 9 children Saturday as they walked to school, according to police.
Spokesman Khalil Asir said the mine detonated in the northeastern province of Takhar, killing the children, who were nine to 12 years old.
Asir said the Taliban planted anti-personnel mines to clear the area but, “Unfortunately, today, one of those mines exploded and killed nine primary school students.”
The Taliban, which controls the area and is fighting to oust U.S.-backed foreign troops, was not immediately available for comment.
Saturday’s deaths are the latest in a growing number of civilian casualties this year, despite U.S.-Taliban talks to reach a peace agreement.
The U.N. said last month a record 4,313 civilians were killed or injured between July and September, a more than 40 percent increase from the same period last year.
Of that number, more than 1,000 were fatalities — making the period the most deadly since the U.N. began compiling figures in 2009.
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Iran’s First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri (R) and Afghanistan’s Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah meet in Uzbekistan on November 1, 2019. (Photo by IRNA)
Press TV
November 1, 2019
Iran’s First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri has warned that the Daesh Takfiri group may seek to transfer its terrorists to Afghanistan against the backdrop of its consecutive defeats in Iraq and Syria, urging the Afghan government to remain vigilant in the face of such a plot.
Jahangiri, who is in Uzbekistan to attend the 18th meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), made the remarks in a meeting with Afghanistan’s chief executive Abdullah Abdullah on Friday.
“Afghanistan’s government should show great sensitivity in this regard and prevent efforts by Daesh terrorist group to increase insecurity along the borders,” he added.
On October 27, US President Donald Trump announced that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Daesh, had blown himself up after American forces trapped him inside a dead-end tunnel in a village in Syria.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in January last year expressed regret over the deaths of Afghan civilians in terrorist attacks by Daesh, saying the United States has been relocating the terror group from the Middle East to the South Asian country to rationalize its military presence in the region.
By transferring the Daesh terror group from Iraq and Syria to Afghanistan, the US seeks “to justify the continuation of its presence in the region and to create security for the Zionist regime,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.
Elsewhere in the meeting, the Iranian vice president pointed to recent presidential election in Afghanistan and expressed hope that the country would witness more development after the establishment of the legal and popular government.
He added that the election was an “important step towards democracy” and expressed hope that ongoing problems would be solved in Afghanistan as soon as possible and security would be restored to the country through vigilance of Afghan authorities.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran, like in the past, will support the government elected by the Afghan nation,” Jahangiri said.
Pointing to an agreement signed among Iran, Afghanistan and India in 2016 to boost trade and economic cooperation in Iran’s Chabahar Port, Jahangiri said, “Both state sector and private sector are ready to make investment and carry out necessary measures in this regard.”
He urged Kabul and New Delhi to play a more active role in implementing the agreement. “Chabahar can pave the way for India’s connection and interaction with Central Asia and be a gate for Afghanistan to connect to important countries in the world.”
In May 2016, Iran, India and Afghanistan signed a key trilateral deal, known as the Chabahar agreement, to establish a strategic transit and transport route connecting the three countries.
The agreement was signed in the presence of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in the Iranian capital of Tehran.
The Afghan chief executive, for his part, said the Daesh terrorist group seeks to expand its activities in east Afghanistan and stressed the importance of thwarting such a plot through collective cooperation.
Abdullah added that Tehran and Kabul enjoy growing trade and economic relations and expressed hope the two sides would finalize an agreement for comprehensive cooperation after the announcement of the final election result and the establishment of a new government in Afghanistan.
Ariana: Dermalog Company has submitted a complete report on verification of biometric votes to Independent Election Commission, IEC spokesman confirmed. IEC spokespersons Zabi Sadat said on Friday that the commission will share details of the report with media after technical assessments are done. Independent Election Commission (IEC) said that 47,000 cases of underage, duplicate photos and photos taken of photos have been detected by Dermalog server and shared with the IEC. Click here to read more (external link).
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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
October 31, 2019
A total of 403,338 people have returned to Afghanistan from neighboring Iran and Pakistan since the beginning of the year, the UN-affiliated International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a report released on October 31.
The report said that some 385,000 Afghans have been repatriated from Iran, with just over half of them being forced to leave under deportation orders.
The IOM estimates that 1.5 million to 2 million undocumented Afghans are currently living in Iran.
Many Afghans have settled in Iran mainly for economic purposes, but due to the dire economic situation in the Islamic republic, they have returned in large numbers, the Geneva-based IOM said.
The IOM also said that some 17,500 Afghans have returned from Pakistan since the start of the year. Pakistan hosts 1.3 million registered Afghan nationals, and more than 1 million Afghans who are unregistered, the IOM said.
High unemployment, a weak economy, and a precarious security situation in Afghanistan have driven the migration to neighboring countries and the rest of the world.
More than 38,000 civilians have been killed in the 18-year conflict in Afghanistan, according to estimates.
A UN report earlier this month said almost 1,200 civilians were killed from July to September this year — a 42 percent increase over the same period last year.
With reporting by dpa
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
October 31, 2019
Human Rights Watch (HRW) says CIA-backed Afghan paramilitary forces have “committed summary executions and other grave abuses without accountability” — including extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, and attacks on health-care facilities.
In its report, released on October 31, HRW called on the Afghan government to immediately disband all pro-government paramilitary groups that operate outside the “ordinary military chain of command.”
It is also calling for the Afghan government to “impartially investigate all allegations of abuse by Afghan security forces” and to “prosecute those responsible for war crimes and serious abuses.”
It says both the United States and the Afghan government should also “cooperate with independent investigations of all allegations of war crimes and other human rights abuses.”
It also says the U.S. government should “investigate any U.S. personnel” involved in abuses, and should “cease supporting Afghan forces that have been responsible for serious violations.”
HRW documented 14 cases from late 2017 to mid-2019 in which it said CIA-backed “strike groups” committed grave abuses during night raids, such as one in the southeastern province of Paktia in which a paramilitary squad killed 11 men, including eight who were home for the Eid holidays.
In some cases, HRW says, troops detained men and didn’t tell families where they were being held.
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has disputed the HRW report, saying many of the claims against Afghan special forces were “likely false or exaggerated.”
“In ramping up operations against the Taliban, the CIA has enabled abusive Afghan forces to commit atrocities including extrajudicial executions and disappearances,” said Patricia Gossman, the report’s author and HRW’s associate Asia director.
“In case after case, these forces have simply shot people in their custody and consigned entire communities to the terror of abusive night raids and indiscriminate air strikes,” Grossman said.
Night raids, which combine surprise, overwhelming firepower, and night-vision equipment, are a tactic preferred by special forces.
On several occasions, raids which usually take place in Taliban-controlled areas were backed by air strikes that “indiscriminately or disproportionately” killed civilians, HRW said.
According to data released this week by NATO, the United States conducted 1,113 air and artillery strikes in September, a large increase on previous months that came as talks between Washington and the Taliban collapsed.
CIA spokesman Timothy Barrett said the agency’s operations abroad are conducted in “accordance with law and under a robust system of oversight.”
Barrett accused the Taliban of spreading misinformation and noted that the militants do not operate under any similar rules.
“Unlike the Taliban, the United States is committed to the rule of law,” officials added in a CIA statement.
“We neither condone nor would knowingly participate in illegal activities, and we continually work with our foreign partners to promote adherence to the law.”
Afghanistan’s CIA-backed militias, whose tradition goes back to the Soviet-Afghan war of the 1980s, are seen as a critical tool in the fight against Taliban and Islamic State militants.
Such paramilitary groups are officially under Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) but often operate almost independently of Afghan authorities.
Speaking to HRW, one unnamed diplomat referred to them as “death squads.”
The NDS did not immediately comment.
The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), a U.S. government monitor, says Afghan special forces conducted 2,531 ground operations from January-September this year, more than the total of 2,365 for all of last year.
A UN report earlier this month said 1,174 civilians were killed and 3,139 wounded in Afghanistan from July to September this year — a 42 percent increase over the same period last year.
With reporting by AFP, AP, Reuters, and dpa
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Ayesha Tanzeem
VOA News
October 31, 2019
ISLAMABAD – Attacks carried out by Taliban and other insurgent groups in Afghanistan were twice as effective in the third quarter of 2019 than they were earlier in the year, according to a leading oversight authority on Afghanistan that reports to the United States Congress.
“Roughly half of the 3,495 EIA (enemy initiated attacks) this quarter (49% from June 1 to August 31) were considered “effective” enemy-initiated attacks (EEIA) that resulted in ANDSF, Coalition, or civilian casualties. Enemy attacks have been more effective this quarter than they were during the preceding months of this year (42% effective from January-May 2019),” according to the latest quarterly report presented to the Congress Thursday by the U.S. Special Inspector General on Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).
In addition, the report said, the number of attacks on Afghan government or coalition forces also increased compared to last summer.
“RS (Resolute Support, the NATO mission) reported 7,183 EIA (enemy initiated attacks) this quarter (June 1-August 31, 2019), with most attacks occurring in the south, west and northwest of the country,” the SIGAR report said.
More bombs dropped
On the other hand, Afghan security forces increased their ground operations and air strikes, and the U.S. and coalition forces dropped more bombs in September this year, 948 according to U.S. Air Force Central Command, than at any time since October 2010.
“According to NATO Special Operations Component Command-Afghanistan (NSOCC-A), the 2,531 ground operations conducted by ASSF (Afghan Special Security Forces) from January-September 2019 have already outpaced the total for all of 2018 (2,365),” the report added.
The heightened intensity in fighting is responsible for raising the level of civilian casualties in Afghanistan in recent months.
The Unites Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) recorded what it called an “unprecedented number of civilian casualties” in the third quarter of 2019.
Record civilian deaths
“Civilian casualties at record-high levels clearly show the need for all parties concerned to pay much more attention to protecting the civilian population, including through a review of conduct during combat operations,” said Tadamichi Yamamoto, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan.
A special BBC investigation revealed “an average of 74 men, women and children were killed every day in Afghanistan throughout the month of August.” However, BBC clarified that only a fifth of those were civilians and the rest were combatants “including more Taliban than expected.”
Following the collapse of peace talks between the U.S. and Taliban in early September, both sides ramped up attacks. According to a report on the website of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, “Almost 40 strikes hit Afghanistan every day in September.”
The report called the jump from previous months “dramatic,” 1,113 in September compared to 810 in August and 537 the previous month.
In addition, the Taliban ramped up attacks on activities related to Afghan presidential elections that were held September 28, resulting in a historic low voter turnout.
“The number of civilian casualties attributed to the Taliban in July, August and September more than tripled compared to the same period last year,” according to the SIGAR report.
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Mozhdah Jamalzadah
The Guardian (UK): The presenter, pop star and women’s rights activist Mozhdah Jamalzadah talks about fleeing her country, before returning and revolutionising Afghan TV – Jamalzadah was five when her family escaped Afghanistan, eventually settling in Canada. In 2009, in her mid-20s, she returned to Kabul after being invited by a new TV station to host a talent show. She had started singing a few years earlier, posting music videos on YouTube; one song, Afghan Girl, had become a hit in her homeland (she would be invited to perform it in 2010 at the White House to mark International Women’s Day in front of the Obamas). Click here to read more (external link).