Iran Designates US CENTCOM As A ‘Terrorist Organization’

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centcomTolo News: Afghan experts said the tensions between US and Iran “could affect” the situation in Afghanistan — In a reciprocal move, the Iranian Supreme National Security Council has denounced the US government as a ‘supporter of terrorism’ and has designated the US forces in west Asia or the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) as a terrorist organization. This comes a day after US designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization. Click here to read more (external link).

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Three U.S. Soldiers, One American Contractor Killed In Afghanistan

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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
April 9, 2019

Three U.S. service members and an American contractor have been killed in a roadside bombing near the main NATO air base in Afghanistan, U.S. forces in Afghanistan said on April 8.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

The NATO-led Resolute Support mission said in a statement on April 8 that four Americans were killed on April 8 near Bagram Air Base, around 50 kilometers north of Kabul.

Three American soldiers were wounded in the blast and were receiving medical treatment, the statement also said.

Colonel David Butler, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said a car bomb had detonated near a NATO security convoy, which lead to deaths and injuries.

The names of the service members killed in action were being withheld until 24 hours after notification of next of kin, in accordance with U.S. Department of Defense policy.

The Taliban said a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden car near the NATO base in the Bagram district of Parwan Province.

Local officials said at least five Afghan civilians were wounded in the blast.

The incident brings the number of U.S. service member deaths in Afghanistan to seven in 2019, and a total of 68 U.S. military deaths since January 2015, according to the U.S. government.

Afghan security forces have borne the brunt of the fighting since NATO’s combat mission ended in 2014.

President Ashraf Ghani said that about 45,000 Afghan soldiers and policemen have been killed since he took office in September 2014 — an average of 849 per month.

Based on reporting by AP and Stripes.com

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

A veteran’s war movie sheds damning light on how the Marines fight in Afghanistan

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US Marine (file photo)

US Marine (file photo)

The Intercept: In “Combat Obscura,” a new documentary set in Afghanistan, Marines don’t do what they normally do in American-made documentaries about war – they don’t echo narratives of God and country, kill bad guys, and win hearts and minds. In “Combat Obscura,” Marines shoot guns and patrol, but they also insult women, shake their weapons at children, die needlessly and with little dignity, murder innocent people and cover it up. At one point in the film, a Marine points his gun at children passing by on donkeys. “Where’s the fucking Taliban? Where’s the fucking Taliban?” he screams in their faces. They look back in fear and incomprehension. The Marine hands one of the boys a chocolate bar, but it does not feel like a kindness. Click here to read more (external link).

At Least 150 Killed in Battle for Control of Afghan District

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badghisAyaz Gul
VOA News
April 8, 2019

ISLAMABAD — Authorities in Afghanistan say the latest military-led offensives, backed by coalition air power, have killed nearly 100 Taliban insurgents and injured dozens more in a bid to reclaim full control of a volatile district in western Badghis province.

Hundreds of heavily armed insurgents assaulted Bala Murghab last Thursday for the second time in a month and overran key parts of the district, including the police headquarters and main prison, before killing at least 30 Afghan troops and capturing as many others.

A government counteroffensive has since regularly carried out air raids against Taliban positions in the district and U.S.-led coalition planes have assisted, the Defense Ministry in Kabul said Monday.

The fighting during the past two days has killed 12 Afghan troops and wounded at least 34 others, according to the ministry.

“The clearing operation continues in Bala Murghab district,” it added.

Fighting also has intensified in other parts of Afghanistan with the advent of spring, despite U.S.-led efforts to reach a peace deal with the Taliban.

Sunday, chief American peace negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, concluded a nearly week-long visit to Kabul where he held extensive consultations with leaders inside and outside the Afghan government as well as civil society representatives.

The Afghan-born U.S. special reconciliation representative is expected to enter into another round of peace negotiations with the Taliban later this month in Qatar in his bid to start an intra-Afghan dialogue to bring an end to the 18-year-old war that continues to inflict record levels of casualties on combatants and civilians.

Ex-Minister Imprisoned On Graft Charges

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Abdul Razaq Wahidi

Abdul Razaq Wahidi

Tolo News: Former Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdul Razaq Wahidi was sentenced to three years in prison on corruption charges and misuse of authority related to his duty when he was serving as deputy minister of finance back in 2015. He was nominated as minister of communications in 2015 and served as a minister until early 2017. He was once again accused of “corruption” in the collection of 10 percent levy on telecom services and was suspended from the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology in early 2017. However, he was acquitted by a special court in 2017. Click here to read more (external link).

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Afghanistan To Send Delegates To ‘Exchange Views’ With Taliban In Qatar

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qatar_mapBy RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan
April 8, 2019

Afghanistan will send a government delegation for talks with the Taliban in Qatar, in a potential breakthrough in efforts to end the nearly 18-year war, even as the militants said participants will attend the meeting only in a “personal capacity.”

U.S. and Taliban negotiators have held several rounds of talks in the Qatari capital, Doha, but the militant group has refused to talk directly with the Kabul government which it sees as a U.S. “puppet.”

Omar Daudzai, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s peace envoy, said on April 7 that a government delegation would go to Doha to “exchange views with the Taliban.”

Daudzai said the government would finalize the delegates by April 10, with the talks scheduled for April 14-15.

The Taliban said in a April 7 statement that those attending the Doha talks will not be representing the government and will only “participate in a personal capacity.”

The statement also said that the participants would not engage in peace negotiations, but “will only be clarifying their views and policies and sharing their stance with others.”

Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy seeking a peace deal with the Taliban, said in a statement late on April 7 that “representatives of the Afghan government and wider society will participate” in an intra-Afghan dialogue in Doha next week.

Khalilzad has spent most of the past week in Afghanistan as part of an ongoing push for a peace deal.

He had previously said there were indications that the Taliban could sit down with government representatives in a “multiparty format.”

Although the Taliban has not held direct talks with the government, it did meet powerful opposition politicians in Moscow in February.

Some of the prominent Afghan figures that took part in the Moscow talks are expected to be part of the government delegation in Qatar.

With reporting by AFP

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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