ICC: Afghanistan registered a twelfth consecutive T20I victory, a record in men’s cricket, as they beat Bangladesh by 25 runs. Man of the match: Mohammad Nabi. Click here to read more (external link).
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Over 70 percent of Kabul residents don’t have access to clean drinking water
1TV: Sardar Wali Malikzai, head of water supply department for capital zone, said that only 28 percent of Kabul residents have access to safe drinking water. He said that the level of access to drinking water in Kabul would increase by channelling water in Sayad, Panjshir and Shah Tut Dam to the city. Click here to read (external link).
1TV Afghanistan Dari News – September 15, 2019
US, Afghan forces say killed Taliban governors, fighters
Press TV
September 15, 2019
Afghan troops backed by US forces have killed two senior Taliban leaders and over three dozen fighters of the militant group in joint airstrikes conducted in northern and western regions of the war-ravaged country.
According to a statement by Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry, the Taliban’s shadow governor for northern Samangan province, Mawlavi Nooruddin, was killed along with four fighters in an airstrike in Dara-e-Soof Payeen district on Sunday morning.
But Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied the governor had been killed in the aerial attack, claiming in a statement that Nooruddin was alive.
In a separate incident, Mullah Sayed Azim, a Taliban designate governor for Anar Dara district in western Farah was killed in a joint Afghan and foreign force raid.
“Sayed Azim was killed along with 34 other insurgents in Anar Dara,” media outlets quoted Mohibullah Mohib, a spokesman for Farah provincial police as saying.
Senior security officials in capital Kabul said that the latest operations were aimed at foiling attacks planned by the Taliban on Afghan forces
Fierce clashes have escalated across Afghanistan following the collapse of diplomatic talks between the US and the Taliban.
Fighting picked up in several parts of the violence-wracked country after US President Donald Trump’s abrupt cancellation of talks with the Taliban last week.
Last week, at least four members of Afghan security forces were killed in a Taliban-claimed bomb explosion that rocked a Kabul district. A similar attack by the militant group claimed the lives of at least 10 civilians and two NATO troops near the US embassy in the capital.
For months, the militant group, which does not recognize the government in Kabul, had been holding direct talks with representatives of the US government in the Qatari capital, Doha, to reach a peace deal, but all to no avail.
Under a draft accord that the two sides had agreed to before the talks were ceased, thousands of US troops would have been pulled out over the next few months in exchange for Taliban guarantees that Afghanistan would not be used as a base for militant attacks on the United States and its allies.
Speaking at a memorial service marking the September 11, 2001 terror attack on Wednesday, Trump said the two sides “had peace talks scheduled a few days ago” but upon learning about the killing of “a great American soldier from Puerto Rico and 11 other innocent people”, he had “called them off.”
Trump said long-running talks with the Taliban in Qatar were also “dead,” to which the Taliban responded by threatening to kill more Americans in Afghanistan.
A Taliban spokesman has recently said that Trump’s decision to cancel the talks would lead to the further loss of American lives and assets.
“The Americans will suffer more than anyone else for cancelling the talks,” the spokesman said.
The Taliban’s five-year rule over at least three quarters of Afghanistan came to an end following the US invasion in 2001, but 18 years on, Washington is seeking a truce with the militants, who still control large swathes of territory.
The Taliban group, which now controls or has influence in about half of Afghanistan’s territory, has so far rejected the proposal to lay down arms and instead called on the US to end the use of force in Afghanistan. It also insists that talks cannot move ahead until foreign forces leave the country.
Nearly 20,000 foreign troops, most of them Americans, are currently deployed in Afghanistan as part of a mission to purportedly train, assist, and advise Afghan security forces.
Afghan Taliban rescind ban on Red Cross
In a separate development on Sunday, the Afghan Taliban rescinded a months-long ban on the International Committee for Red Cross (ICRC) working in areas under their control.
The militants and the ICRC “consented to following the old agreement on top of new promises in humanitarian aid leading to the Islamic Emirate granting ICRC permission of resuming their activities,” said Taliban in a statement.
Taliban fighters were instructed to “pave the way for ICRC activities and be mindful of security to this committee’s workers and equipment,” it added.
Schaerer Juan-Pedro, head of ICRC in Kabul welcomed the restoration of security guarantees by Taliban for those working for the organization.
“We welcome the acknowledgment of our humanitarian principles and renewal of security guarantees to enable us (to) work in #Afghanistan in favor of people affected by the armed conflict,” the ICRC said on Twitter.
In April the insurgents banned both the ICRC and World Health Organization (WHO) from carrying out relief activities in areas under their control and revoked security guarantees.
In August last year, the Taliban temporarily withdrew safety guarantees for the ICRC, accusing the international group of failing to meet its mission obligations to monitor detention conditions in Afghan jails and provide medical aid to Taliban prisoners.
The developments come as Taliban continue to strike Afghan installations at will after the militants issued their own vow to continue fighting the US after the peace talks with the US in Qatar came to an end.
Taliban Made Big Mistake And Have No Idea How To Recover: Trump
Donald Trump
Tolo News: “The Taliban has never been hit harder than it is being hit right now. Killing 12 people, including one great American soldier, was not a good idea. There are much better ways to set up a negotiation. The Taliban knows they made a big mistake, and they have no idea how to recover!” said Trump on Saturday, a week after he announced that Washington had called off peace negotiations with the Taliban after the group admitted to an attack in Kabul that killed at least 10 people, including one U.S. service member. Click here to read more (external link).
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Taliban Restores Security Guarantees To Red Cross In Afghanistan
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
September 15, 2019
The Afghan Taliban on September 15 revoked their ban on the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and restored its guarantee for the security of ICRC staff doing humanitarian work in Afghanistan.
“The Islamic Emirate restores the former security guarantees to ICRC in Afghanistan and instructs all mujahedin to pave the way for ICRC activities and to be mindful of security to this committee’s workers and equipment,” a Taliban statement read.
An ICRC spokesman said the same day that the organization’s operations had resumed across the country.
In April, the Taliban imposed a ban on the ICRC and the World Health Organization (WHO), alleging the two organizations were conducting “suspicious” activities connected with their vaccination campaigns.
The September 15 statement did not mention the WHO.
The WHO has been carrying out a polio-vaccination campaign in Afghanistan, one of the last countries in the world where the disease is endemic.
The Taliban control more than half of Afghanistan’s 410 districts.
Based on reporting by Reuters and AP
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.
1TV Afghanistan Dari News – September 14, 2019
Afghanistan cannot be put together: US candidate Biden
Joe Biden
1TV: US presidential hopeful Joe Biden has said that Afghanistan is three countries and it cannot be put together. Speaking at a debate, Democratic Biden, who is a former US vice president, claimed that Pakistan owns three provinces in the east of Afghanistan. “Pakistan owns the three counties — the three provinces in the east. They’re not any part of — the Haqqanis run it. I will go on and on,” Biden said. Click here to read more (external link).
Afghan government suspends peace efforts until election
Sediq Sediqqi
1TV: Afghan government said on Saturday it suspended efforts related to peace process until presidential election which is scheduled to be held on September 28. Addressing a press conference in Kabul, presidential spokesman Sediq Sediqi said that election was priority, adding consultations on peace would begin after the vote. He reiterated that the election will be held on due time and dismissed idea of forming an interim government. Click here to read more (external link).
Taliban delegation travels to Russia after talks with US collapse
Press TV
September 14, 2019
A team of negotiators from the Afghan Taliban has traveled to Russia days after the collapse of year-long negotiations between the US and the militant group.
Taliban’s Qatar-based spokesman Suhail Shaheen told Russia’s TASS news agency on Friday that the group’s delegation had met with Zamir Kabulov, President Vladimir Putin’s envoy for Afghanistan, in Moscow to discuss recent developments regarding the peace process in Afghanistan.
A spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said that during the meeting, the Russian side had underlined “the necessity of the resumption” of US-Taliban talks and that the militant outfit had, in turn, reiterated its “readiness to continue dialogue with Washington.”
Meanwhile, a senior Taliban leader in Qatar said, “The purpose of these visits is to inform leaders of these countries about the peace talks and [US] President [Donald] Trump’s decision to call off the peace process at a time when both sides had resolved all outstanding issues and were about to sign a peace agreement.”
Moscow has already hosted two rounds of talks between Taliban negotiators and prominent Afghan figures.
The recent trip to Moscow was the first international visit by the Taliban since Monday, when Trump declared talks with the group “dead” after he called off a Camp David meeting with militant negotiators as well as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, citing a deadly Taliban car bombing in Kabul.
“They thought that to kill people in order to put themselves in a little better negotiating position when they did that they killed 12 people … And you can’t do that can’t do that with me. So they’re dead as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
The US and its allies invaded Afghanistan under the guise of the war on terror. Some 18 years on, Taliban has only boosted its campaign of violence across the country and Washington has sought a truce with the militants.
After nine rounds of negotiations in Doha, which began in October 2018, American and Taliban officials agreed a draft accord that would have seen some 5,000 US troops withdrawn from Afghanistan in exchange for security guarantees from the Taliban.
However, Trump cancelled the talks in a move that surprised the Taliban leaders.
The group said that an agreement had been “finalized” and that discussions had ended in “a good atmosphere,” but the deal had been sabotaged by Trump.
In an interview with Russia’s RT TV network on Friday, top Taliban negotiator Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai expressed hope that Trump would rethink his announcement and come back to the negotiating table.
He, however, noted that if no agreement is reached the militants are ready to fight “for 100 years.”
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