Al-Qaida South Asia Chief Killed in Afghanistan Raid
By Ayesha Tanzeem
VOA News
October 8, 2019
KABUL – Al-Qaida’s South Asia region chief, Asim Omar, was killed along with many others in southern Afghanistan last month, according to a statement released by Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security.
The Tuesday statement said a joint operation — a term usually used to describe an operation that involves NATO forces — led to the killing of Omar in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province, along with the capture of several others, including some Pakistani citizens.
Omar was an Indian national, born in Uttar Pradesh between 1974 and 1976, according to the U.S. Treasury Department, which added him to a list of designated terrorists in 2016, along with al-Qaida’s branch for the region called al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS).
The Sept. 23 raid was followed by allegations of large-scale civilian casualties and conflicting reports from U.S. officials, the Afghan government, and local officials.
A provincial council member from Helmand alleged that 40 members of a wedding party, including women and children, were killed in an airstrike.
Haji Abdul Majed Akhund told VOA at the time that the residents of Musa Qala district, the site of the attack, had informed provincial authorities of the wedding ceremony in advance.
“We brought 13 members of our family to the emergency hospital in Lashkargah city last night,” a man named Abdullah told VOA after the raid, which was followed by an airstrike. Local health officials confirmed that 13 wounded people were shifted to the hospital.
“[T]he operation was aimed at al-Qaida targets in the Musa Qala district in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province, a U.S. official in Kabul told The Washington Post at the time, on the condition of anonymity. The official acknowledged the possibility of civilian casualties.
A separate statement from the office of the governor of neighboring Kandahar province at the time said the target was al-Qaida.
“Last night, Afghan special forces conducted an air and ground operation in Takht Put village in Musa Qala district of Helmand province, killing five key members of the al-Qaida network and arresting three key female members,” the statement read, adding that all the members were from Karachi, Pakistan.
Other Security News
The ‘India Question’ in Afghanistan
Lawfare: Pakistan and the United States are not the only important outside actors in Afghanistan. India has long courted the government in Kabul, and Islamabad views this potential relationship with alarm. Avinash Paliwal of SOAS explains India’s policies regarding Afghanistan and discusses how this might shift in the years to come. Click here to read more (external link).
Abdullah’s Team: Real Voter Turnout Lower Than IEC’s Claim
Dr. Abdullah
Tolo News: The presidential campaign team for Abdullah Abdullah held a press conference on Monday and again claimed that a clear winner exists and that there is no need for further voting. “According to our calculations, the election has a winner and it will not go to a second round,” said Fazal Ahmad Manawi, a member of Abdullah Abdullah’s electoral team. “The people’s turnout is actually lower than what the IEC announced,” Manawi said. “Votes have come from some polling centers where no candidate’s observers were present.” Click here to read more (external link).
Other Election News
1TV Afghanistan Dari News – October 7, 2019
Every single Afghan child affected by conflict, charity says as war turns 18
1TV: Every single child born and raised in Afghanistan has experienced war in their country, an aid agency said as the conflict turned 18. In a statement, Save the Children said that an estimated 20 million children wake up every day in fear of gunshots or bombs and being killed or maimed in their streets, schools or homes. Over 12,500 children were killed or maimed in the violence between 2015 and 2018, the statement said. 274 children were recruited for combat or support roles, it added. Click here to read more (external link).
Ten Killed In Blast In Eastern Afghanistan
By RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan
October 7, 2019
At least 10 civilians, including a child, were killed after explosives placed in a rickshaw blew up next to a bus carrying Afghan army recruits in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar Province, an official said on October 7.
Ataullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said 27 other people were wounded in the attack in the local capital, Jalalabad.
Khogyani said those wounded, some of them in critical condition, had been transported to the hospital.
No group has claimed the attack. Both the Islamic State militant group and the Taliban are active in Nangarhar.
According to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), 1,366 civilians were killed and 2,446 others wounded this year up to June 30.
A child rights group said that every single child born and raised in Afghanistan in the past 18 years has experienced and been affected by war and conflict.
The Save the Children statement was issued on the day marking 18 years since the U.S.-led intervention in Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
According to the statement, “an estimated 20 million children wake up every day in fear of gunshots or bombs and being killed or maimed in their streets, schools or homes.”
The statement said 12,500 children were either killed or maimed between 2015 and 2018, and 3.7 million children — 60 percent of them girls — are out of school, with 3.8 million children in need of humanitarian assistance.
With reporting by AP, AFP, and dpa
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.
Other Security News
Taliban Prisoners Freed From Joint Afghan-US Detention in Exchange for 3 Indian Hostages
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
October 6, 2019
ISLAMABAD – A group of 11 key Taliban prisoners is reported to have been released from the joint Afghan-U.S. Bagram detention facility in Afghanistan in exchange for three Indian hostages.
Insurgent sources said Sunday the swap took place in the northern province of Baghlan and two former Taliban provincial governors were among those freed. Taliban men could be seen being welcomed by insurgent fighters in video images released via social media.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid when asked for his comments on the reported swap told VOA “I have not received the details. I am trying to get them and will share with you.”
U.S. officials said they had nothing to do with the release noting that it was between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
The Indian hostages were abducted last year along with four other countrymen while they were working on a project in Baghlan for the construction of a power generation station. One of them managed to escape and returned to India this past May while the fate of the rest was not known.
Many of the districts in the troubled Afghan province are either controlled or hotly contested by the Taliban.
U.S.-Taliban Meetings in Pakistan
Sunday’s reported prisoner exchange followed last week’s informal meetings between American and Taliban negotiators in neighboring Pakistan.
It was not immediately known, however, whether the prisoner swap was an outcome of the contacts, the first since early last month when U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly called off the year-long dialogue with the Taliban.
Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Idrees Zaman, while commenting on the Taliban’s visit to Pakistan, said on Saturday the insurgents were discussing with U.S, envoys the release of two Western hostages and not the resumption of the stalled dialogue.
Zaman was referring to an American professor and his Australian colleague who were kidnapped more than three years ago in Kabul. Kevin King, 60, and Timothy Weeks, 48, from Australia were teaching at the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF) in the capital city before gunmen took them hostage near the campus in August 2016.
Neither U.S. nor insurgent officials publicly acknowledged the two sides held meetings during their last week’s stay in Pakistan, though officials of the host government had confirmed such meetings would take place.
American chief negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, deputy Taliban chief for political affairs, led their respective delegations at “several” interactions in Islamabad, according to insurgent sources.
General Scott Miller, the U.S. commander of NATO-led foreign troops in Afghanistan, also accompanied Khalilzad at the meetings, the sources said.
The U.S. embassy in Islamabad had insisted while confirming Khalilzad’s presence in the country that he was visiting for bilateral “consultations” with Pakistani officials.
U.S. and Taliban negotiators were said to be on the verge of signing a peace agreement after nine long rounds of negotiations hosted by Qatar before Trump declared the process “dead” citing continued insurgent deadly attacks on Afghan civilians and American troops in Afghanistan.
1TV Afghanistan Dari News – October 6, 2019
Ghani Fires MoFA Spokesman, Abdullah Says He Is Not Fired
Ghani (left) and Abdulllah (right) – File photo
Tolo News: Following a public row between Sediq Seddiqi, the presidential spokesman, and Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Sibaghatullah Ahmadi, President Ghani on Sunday fired Ahmadi and replaced him with the former ambassador to Turkmenistan, Mirwais Nab. The argument was over the propriety of the Taliban delegation to Pakistan. On Thursday Ahmadi publicly supported Pakistan’s hosting of the Taliban because it was in the interest of peace, while Ghani’s spokesperson Sediq Sediqqi condemned the meeting as inappropriate, saying that welcoming terrorists–whose only agenda is war–violates diplomatic norms. Click here to read more (external link).