Afghan Violence Reports: Nearly 2,300 Casualties in May
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
June 2, 2019
ISLAMABAD — The armed conflict in Afghanistan has reportedly caused more than 2,300 casualties, including 1,317 deaths, over the past month in operations conducted by pro-government forces and Taliban insurgents.
The private Afghan news agency, Pajhwok, released the casualty figures Sunday, crediting its own sources from across 30 out of 34 provinces of the war-shattered country.
It noted the casualties in May increased by an alarming 37 percent compared to the previous month. It said that victims included Afghan security forces, insurgents and civilians.
There is no let up in the violence as the Afghan Defense Ministry claimed to have killed nearly 200 Taliban fighters in the past 24 hours while the insurgent group also has made similar assertions of inflicting massive casualties on government forces.
A bomb explosion also struck a bus carrying students in the capital Kabul on Sunday, causing more than 22 casualties.
Separately, an Afghan watchdog reported Sunday that the violence killed nearly 190 civilians, including 33 children, and injured 340 others in May.
The Civilian Protection Advocacy Group (CPAG) said in its monthly report that the number of fatalities almost doubled in the past month, which was also the Muslim holy month of fasting.
The non-governmental organization said that most of the civilian casualties occurred in capital Kabul and the provinces of Nangarhar, Herat, Ghazni and Helmand. It blamed landmines, suicide attacks, bomb blasts and incidents of targeted killings.
The second major cause for the civilian casualties during the previous month were airstrikes by pro-government forces, according to the CPAG. The watchdog urged the warring sides to protect civilian lives and seek a resolution to the Afghan conflict.
The United Nations has also warned the civilian casualty toll continues to rise and documented 1,773 civilian casualties, including 581 deaths, in the first three months of 2019.
The number of casualties has particularly been increasing since the Taliban unleashed its annual spring in mid-April, which leads to intensified battlefield and other violence in Afghanistan.
A U.S.-led initiative to seek a negotiated settlement to the war with the Taliban is currently underway but the insurgents have refused to cease fighting.
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Taliban Chief Wants US to Accept ‘Logical Proposals’, End Stalemate
Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
June 1, 2019
ISLAMABAD — The chief of the Taliban is calling on the United States to accept his insurgent group’s “logical proposals” for advancing peace negotiations between the two adversaries on ending the 17-year-old war in Afghanistan.
Hibatullah Akhundzada made the remarks in his annual message ahead of next week’s Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr in Afghanistan as the months-long dialogue process has stalemated over the Taliban’s insistence it would not stop fighting and engage in intra-Afghan peace talks until all U.S.-led foreign troops withdraw from the country.
”The Islamic Emirate (Taliban) with its peaceful policy invites America to adopt a policy of reason and understanding, to remain a sincere partner in the negotiations process and accept the logical proposals of the Islamic Emirate for advancement of this process,” said the Taliban chief.
Washington says American negotiators, led by special reconciliation envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, have reached a preliminary draft agreement with the insurgent group on how and when foreign forces would leave in exchange for Taliban guarantees to disallow transnational terrorists from using Afghan soil to attack other countries.
Khalilzad has stated that a final agreement, however, must cover not only a troop withdrawal timetable, but a cease-fire by the Taliban and their engagement with representatives of the Afghan society, including the government, for finding a durable political settlement to decades of hostilities in the country.
“No one should expect us to pour cold water on the heated battlefronts of Jihad (holy war) or forget our forty-year sacrifices before reaching our objectives,” stressed Akhundzada in his Eid message, evidently responding to cease-fire demands by U.S. and Afghan officials.
No word from Washington
There was no immediate U.S. reaction available to the Taliban chief’s assertions.
A State Department announcement Saturday said that Afghan-born U.S. chief negotiator Khalilzad has left on a new 16-day visit to regional countries that will also take him to Qatar where he will continue talks with the Taliban “to move the peace process forward.” The insurgent group maintains an informal political office in the Qatari capital, the venue of the ongoing U.S.-Taliban dialogue. “We are moving forward. I am optimistic. Success will require other parties to show flexibility,” he wrote.
Akhundzada accused the Western-backed Kabul government, which the insurgent group rejects as American “puppets”, of blocking efforts the Taliban is making to engage with Afghan politicians outside of the government as well as civil society representatives to discuss peace and the nature of future political governance setup in the country.
“The Islamic Emirate shall pay no heed to such futile efforts and diplomatic obstructions being created for the intra-Afghan dialogue,” Akhundzada vowed.
The latest round of intra-Afghan talks, involving the Taliban, took place in Moscow earlier this week but it did not produce any substantial outcome in terms of whether insurgents would observe a cease-fire during the three-day Eid festival, similar to what they did last year.
U.S. and Afghan officials insist peace talks to end the war must be held within the current constitution to preserve gains the country has made since the ouster of the fundamentalist Taliban from power 17 years ago by a U.S.-led military invasion of Afghanistan.
But Akhundzada explained the Taliban is seeking the establishment of “a sovereign, Islamic and inclusive government acceptable to all Afghans.” It is for this purpose, he noted, insurgent negotiators are engaged in talks with the American side and “we pray to Allah that our compatriots witness its positive outcome.”
Longest US overseas war
The Afghan war is the longest overseas U.S. military intervention and is said to have killed more than 150,000 people, including combatants and civilians, costing Washington nearly one trillion dollars.
The Taliban currently controls or influences more than half of 407 Afghan districts, and it continues to inflict dozens of casualties on embattled Afghan security forces daily. President Ashraf Ghani revealed last year that since he took office in 2014, government forces have lost more than 45,000 personnel while battling the insurgents. The United Nations say Afghan civilians also continue to suffer record levels of casualties.
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After Centuries Of Neglect, Afghanistan’s Historic Minaret Under Threat From Taliban
The Minaret of Jam, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, dates back to 1190. (file photo)
By Frud Bezhan
Qadir Ghafori
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
June 1, 2019
FEROZ KOH, Afghanistan — Centuries of neglect and frequent floods are threatening the Minaret of Jam, one of Afghanistan’s archaeological treasures.
Last week, the 800-year-old structure in the remote, western province of Ghor was left on the verge of collapse after a flood triggered by torrential rains. Muddy floodwaters inundated the archaeological site and smashed against the base of the minaret.
Located in a river valley flanked by soaring mountains, the tower was saved from imminent danger after the government deployed hundreds of workers, many barefoot and armed with shovels, who diverted the floodwaters.
But the UNESCO World Heritage Site dating back to 1190 remains in danger, this time from the Taliban, the fundamentalist group that has destroyed the country’s archaeological relics in the past.
Minaret In Taliban Hands
Dozens of government troops and progovernment militiamen had been stationed in security checkpoints near the minaret to protect workers toiling to save the landmark.
On May 29, dozens of Taliban militants stormed and seized control of several of the checkpoints, cutting access to the historic site and killing at least 18 government security personnel.
Abdul Hamid Nataqi, a member of the provincial council, said the security personnel protecting the minaret were forced to flee after the Taliban attack.
“In order to prevent casualties to the workers and prevent damage to the minaret, the security forces left,” Nataqi told RFE/RL.
Nataqi also said work to protect the minaret from floods was halted as the workers were evacuated.
‘Grave Danger’
The Taliban’s control of the archaeological site has alarmed activists.
“The minaret is in grave danger,” said Mohammad Wazir Noorani, a cultural activist in Feroz Koh, the capital of Ghor Province. “If the government does not launch a serious attempt to seize back control of the area, the [archaeological] site could be in danger.”
“The security situation in the area is very worrying,” said Shah Mahmud Shoab, a civil activist in Feroz Koh. “The Minaret of Jam is under the control of the Taliban.”
Ghor, a mountainous and remote province in the central highlands, is one of the poorest and most unstable areas in the country.
The provincial government’s power extends little beyond Firoz Koh. Dozens of illegal, armed groups run by former warlords and militia leaders are active in Ghor, a key transit route for arms and drugs, and the resulting clashes are seen as the source of much of the violence in the province.
History Of Destruction
The leaning minaret is thought to be the world’s second tallest made of bricks, towering at a height of 65 meters. The tower is famous for its decorations and Islamic inscriptions.
The Minaret of Jam was built by the Ghurids, rulers who carved up an empire that consisted of modern-day Afghanistan, Iran, and parts of Central Asia, Pakistan, and India. The rulers converted from Buddhism to Islam in the 12th century.
Afghanistan has been plagued by decades of civil war and foreign invasions and the country’s antiquities and historic sites have suffered years of destruction and looting.
In 2001, the Taliban shocked the world when it demolished the ancient Buddhas of Bamiyan, in central Afghanistan, a testament to Afghanistan’s pre-Islamic history.
Over the course of three weeks in the spring of 2001, the militant group dynamited and shelled the 53-meter and 35-meter statues carved into the sandstone cliffs overlooking the Bamiyan Valley.
The militant group branded the 1,500-year-old Buddhist monuments as “idols” that Muslims had a duty to destroy.
In 1996, when the Taliban seized control of Kabul following a devastating civil war, militants rampaged through the National Museum and systematically destroyed scores of ancient relics.
Written by Frud Bezhan, based on reporting by Radio Free Afghanistan correspondent Qadir Ghafori in Ghor.
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.
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Taliban Bomber Targets US Military Convoy in Kabul
Taliban fighters (file photo)
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
May 31, 2019
ISLAMABAD — Officials in Afghanistan say a suicide bomb attack Friday targeted a foreign military convoy in Kabul, killing at least four Afghan civilians and wounding four American soldiers.
The U.S. military confirmed the attack in the Afghan capital and said the service members received “minor injuries”. It did not give further details.
The Taliban took responsibility for the bombing on a busy road linking Kabul to the eastern city of Jalalabad, saying a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-packed car near the foreign military convoy.
Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said several passerby were also among those injured.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid citing initial information claimed the powerful explosion destroyed two military vehicles and killed ten “invaders”, a term insurgents use for U.S.-led NATO forces in the country. The insurgent group’s claims are often inflated.
This was the second bomb attack in as many days in the Afghan capital.
On Thursday, an Islamic State suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance gate of an Afghan military academy and training center in Kabul. That blast killed six security forces and wounded 12 others. Afghan officials said four civilians were also among those injured.
Meanwhile, fierce clashes were continuing in the northwestern province of Badghis where the Taliban fighters have taken control of the embattled strategic Bala Murghab district during overnight fighting with Afghan forces.
Azai Akazai, who represents the province in the Afghan parliament, confirmed the insurgent advances while talking to VOA and said overnight clashes killed around a dozen government forces.
The Taliban assault forced around 250 Afghan forces to retreat to a nearby Afghan military base, the lawmaker added.
The insurgent violence comes amid peace negations between U.S. and Taliban officials.
The dialogue has lately slowed down over Taliban’s insistence it will not cease hostilities and engage in peace talks with the Afghan government until all foreign forces withdraw from Afghanistan.
The insurgent group dismisses the Kabul administration as a puppet installed by “American invaders”.
The Taliban, however, has engaged in informal discussions with Afghan opposition politicians and civil society groups. The latest round of such talks took place in Moscow this week.
A joint statement issued after the meeting on Thursday, however, offered no substantial outcome on issues such as a Taliban cease-fire during upcoming Muslim festival of Eid.
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