Abdul Samad Amiri
1TV: Abdul Samad Amiri, provincial acting chief of Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission in Ghor, had been abducted while he was travelling from capital Kabul to Ghor. He was stopped in Jalrez district of Maidan Wardak province. Sources said that Amiri was killed on Thursday. Click here to read more (external link).
Taliban militants (file photo)
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
September 5, 2019
At least 12 people have been killed — including a U.S. and a Romanian soldier — and dozens more injured when a car bomb struck a checkpoint on September 5 in a neighborhood of Kabul that houses the embassies, government buildings, and local NATO headquarters.
The fundamentalist Taliban claimed responsibility for the late-morning attack.
It is the second major Taliban attack in the Afghan capital this week as U.S. and Taliban officials are said to be in an intense final phase of efforts toward a peace deal to end their 18-year conflict.
Another Taliban car bombing later on September 5, in a neighboring province, reportedly killed at least four civilians.
The Taliban, which is pressing for the departure of U.S. and other international troops in the negotiations, claimed that foreigners were among the dead in the September 5 attack in Kabul. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted that the suicide bomber had killed 12 “foreign invaders.”
Reports said the checkpoint that was targeted was near the headquarters of NATO’s Resolute Support mission.
NATO said in a statement later in the day that two members of that mission, a Romanian and an American, “were killed in action today in Kabul.”
Romanian authorities have confirmed that a Romanian soldier on “a mixed patrol mission” was among the dead and another Romanian was seriously wounded.
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis condemned the attack and stressed his country’s “profound commitment to combating terrorism at the international level.”
A large plume of smoke rose over the blast and sirens blared as first responders rushed to the scene.
Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said a minibus packed with explosives had detonated on a main road in the Shash Darak district at around 10:10 a.m. local time.
Ten civilians were dead and 42 others were injured in the attack, Rahimi later tweeted.
Later reports put the number of injured at more than 100.
Agreement Reached ‘In Principle’
Quoting a spokesman for Kabul’s police chief, AP suggested the attack was also not far from offices of Afghan national-security authorities.
A draft agreement to end years of war in Afghanistan was said to have been reached “in principle” recently between U.S. and Taliban representatives after nine rounds of talks involving U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who has been briefing Afghan officials on its terms.
But completion of the deal is reportedly still contingent on final approval from U.S. President Donald Trump and assent among Taliban leaders.
The Afghan government is also said to be weighing its position on the agreement.
Afghan presidential Waheed Omer, who was talking to reporters at the time of the September 5 explosion, said the deal was proceeding with “excessive speed” and warned of difficult times ahead, according to AP.
A Taliban suicide attack late on September 2 killed at least 16 people and injured more than 100 others, also in eastern Kabul. The dead in that attack included another Romanian.
So far in 18 such attacks in the Afghan capital this year, at least 209 people have been killed and more than 1,000 others injured, according to dpa.
Based on RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan, Reuters, dpa, AFP, and AP reporting
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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
September 5, 2019
Officials in Serbia has accused border police in EU neighbor Croatia of torturing an Afghan teen and ignoring his and 15 other fellow migrants’ right to claim asylum within the Brussels-based bloc.
The allegation was quickly dismissed by Zagreb as an effort by Belgrade to deflect criticism of Serbian policies toward migrants, according to a September 5 Reuters report.
Both countries lie along one of the so-called Balkan routes used by hundreds of thousands of migrants fleeing conflict or hardship to the south and east and determined to make their way to Western Europe in recent years.
The Serbian refugee agency accused Croatian officers of “physical and psychological torture,” which included electric shocks and beatings, leaving the 16-year-old Afghan, whose name was given as Sharukhan, with fractured bones and internal bleeding.
Reuters said it spoke to the young man at a Serbian refugee camp, where it saw bandages on other members of the migrant group traveling with Sharukhan that they said had been inflicted by Croatian authorities.
Croatia has been criticized in the past for its treatment of migrants, including by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
“We consider this to be another in a series of unfounded and substantially unsupported allegations against the Croatian police due to its persistence and determination in protecting the state border and the external border of the European Union,” Croatia’s Interior Ministry said in a statement. “The allegations about the torture of migrants are absolutely incomprehensible and have no real basis.”
The flow of refugees and other migrants has slowed since coordinated European efforts intensified in 2016, but thousands still travel routes in the Balkans in hopes of settling in the West.
Police violence in the region is said to be a common problem by refugee rights groups and other activists.
Based on Reuters reporting
1TV: Afghanistan defeated Pakistan by 85 runs in their first match of Under-19 Asia Cup in Sri Lanka on Thursday. Afghanistan will next face Kuwait in their next match of the tournament on Saturday. Click here to read more (external link).
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Donald Trump
Michael Hughes: The so-called withdrawal agreement the United States struck with the Taliban will leave about as many troops in Afghanistan as the Trump administration inherited. However, for U.S. President Donald Trump the net of this equation is trivial and something he hopes American voters don’t notice. This is because the White House’s single overriding objective is – and has always been – achieving the mere perception of withdrawal for domestic public consumption. Click here to read more.
Sediq Sediqqi
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
September 4, 2019
Afghan officials say they support progress toward peace but are concerned about a draft agreement reached “in principle” between U.S. and Taliban negotiators on ending their 18-year conflict.
Afghan presidential spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said in a series of tweets on September 4 that despite seeing a draft accord, questions remained over the contents of a deal and how it would be implemented.
“The Afghan government supports any progress in the peace process that will lead to lasting peace and an end to the war in Afghanistan, but the main concern of the Afghan government in the U.S. agreement with the Taliban is that of the consequences and dangers. How will they be prevented?” he said.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. diplomat who has led nearly a year of negotiations with the Taliban in Qatar, told RFE/RL on September 2 that the two sides had reached a deal “in principle” to end hostilities.
Under the draft peace deal, the Taliban agreed that any Afghan territory it controls in the future will not be used as a sanctuary for terrorists to launch attacks against the United States and its allies.
U.S. and Taliban negotiators also agreed on the gradual “reduction and withdrawal” of Western forces from Afghanistan, Khalizad said.
News of the deal prompted nine former U.S. ambassadors on September 3 to warn that Afghanistan could collapse into “total civil war” if the United States withdraws its forces before a “real” peace deal involving the Kabul government is reached with the Taliban.
Sediqqi echoed those sentiments in his tweets.
“As former officials and U.S. senators have concerns about the implications of this memorandum, the Afghan government is also concerned, and we therefore call for clarity on this document to address its dangers and consequences,” he said.
Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Washington would reduce its troop presence in Afghanistan by almost half, to 8,600, if the peace deal was finalized.
The Taliban, which refuses to negotiate with the Afghan government calling it a foreign-imposed “puppet” regime, has long demanded a complete pullout of all foreign forces from the country.
About 20,000 foreign troops, most of them American, are now in Afghanistan as part of a U.S.-led NATO mission to train, assist and advise Afghan forces. Some U.S. forces carry out counterterrorism operations.
The nine former U.S. ambassadors served under Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Trump. They include James Dobbins, John Negroponte, and Ryan Crocker.
With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP
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