Afghan Forces Reclaim Key District From Taliban

·

badakhshanAyaz Gul
VOA News
April 2, 2019

ISLAMABAD — Authorities in Afghanistan say a military-led counteroffensive has evicted the Taliban from a strategically important district in northeastern Badakhshan province, inflicting heavy casualties on retreating insurgents.

The Taliban had late last week overrun Arghanj Khwa, located in the vicinity of the provincial capital of Faizabad, disrupting links with at least 10 other districts in the mountainous Afghan province near the border with Pakistan and China.

Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said in a tweet the clearance operation in the district ended Tuesday, killing at least 14 insurgents and injuring several others. A provincial government spokesman, Naik Mohammad Nazari, told VOA airstrikes against Taliban positions forced the insurgents to retreat from the district.

The Taliban claimed its fighters “abandoned” Arghanj Khwa and took new positions about a kilometer away after transferring all seized military-related equipment from the district.

“Enemy claims of retaking the district headquarters in a military operation and causing (Taliban) casualties is fabrications,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid asserted in a brief statement sent to journalists.

The Taliban, which controls or contests more than 50 percent of Afghan territory, has stepped up attacks on Afghan forces across many provinces in recent weeks, reportedly killing or injuring hundreds of security forces in March. Two American special forces troops were also among the battlefield fatalities.

Afghan officials cite preemptive counter-Taliban offensive operations this year ahead of spring fighting season for an intensification in clashes and increased casualties. The offensives, they say, have killed scores of insurgents.

Continued Afghan hostilities are also causing record levels of civilian casualties after more than 3,800 Afghan civilians were killed in 2018, the highest number of fatalities in the past 10 years.

US-Taliban talks

The spike in violence comes as U.S. and Taliban representatives are expected to start a new round of negotiations later this month in search for a political settlement to the Afghan war.

Both the sides reported progress at the end of the last round of talks concluded in early March. The issues in focus were a timeline for the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan and Taliban’s assurances to disallow terrorist groups from plotting international attacks from the country.

“No date has been fixed for the next meeting (with the U.S. team) as of this moment. But we believe it would certainly happen because a continued dialogue process could only lead to a resolution of the problem,” a senior Taliban official told VOA Tuesday. He spoke on condition of anonymity.

“There is no other option because the other option is war and that has been going on for the past 18 years,” said the insurgent official.

U.S. chief negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad is visiting Kabul where he met with President Ashraf Ghani and prominent Afghan opposition leaders as well as civil society representatives to share with them details of his talks with the Taliban before his next meeting with insurgent negotiators. Khalilzad has emphasized that Afghan leaders in and outside of the government need to form an inclusive negotiating team for a peace dialogue with the Taliban.

“While Afghans alone will decide the composition of their delegation for talks, women must be at the table during all negotiations about peace and Afghanistan’s future,” the Afghan-born U.S. diplomat tweeted Monday.

Khalilzad has repeatedly said any final agreement with the Taliban will be linked to a comprehensive cease-fire and intra-Afghan talks.

Meanwhile, Afghan opposition politicians, civil society, as well as youth representatives, and tribal elders, are also scheduled to hold another round of their unofficial talks with Taliban delegates in Qatar in mid-April. The last round of the intra-Afghan dialogue process was held in November in Moscow, but the Afghan government had boycotted the meeting and it is not clear whether Kabul will participate in the upcoming talks.

Ghani insists any negotiations with the Taliban must be led by his government, but the insurgents refuse to engage in a peace process with the government, denouncing it as an illegitimate entity.

More Security News

Nabi ‘Excited’ About His Good Performance In IPL

·
Mohammad Nabi

Mohammad Nabi

Tolo News: Afghanistan’s all-rounder Mohammad Nabi says he is happy about his good performance in his first appearance in the Indian Premier League (IPL) match for Sunrisers Hyderabad. On Sunday’s match against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Nabi, playing his first match of the season, sunk Royal Challengers with a sensational spell of 4/11 after coming on to bowl in the powerplay overs. Click here to read more (external link).

More Cricket News

Other Sports News

Footballer Nadia Nadim switches teams

I Was Fired After Resisting Ghani’s Order, Claims Senator

·
Bakhtar Aminzai

Bakhtar Aminzai

Tolo News: Bakhtar Aminzai, a former member of Meshrano Jirga, the Upper House of the Parliament in Afghanistan, claimed that he was fired from his post after President Ashraf Ghani asked him not to run against the Senate Speaker Fazl Hadi Muslimyar in an internal election at the Afghan Senate last year to elect the speaker of the house. “The Meshrano Jirga does not work as the representative of the nation; they work as the slaves of government and they do whatever government dictates them,” Jawed Ghafoor, head of Meshrano Jirga’s International Relations Commission, said [in] the press conference. Click here to read more (external link).

‘Billions Worth Equipment’ Missing From Paktika Base: Governor

·

paktikaTolo News: “Billions of dollars” worth equipment at an abandoned US base in Paktika province in the east of Afghanistan have been “stolen” by local officials and some lawmakers after the camp was handed to Afghan forces in 2014, the provincial governor Mujib Rahman Samkanai claimed.  “They entered the PRT base and looted it. Based on my information, they even looted locked containers full of computers, weapons, and even Humvees and Pickup vehicles had existed at the base,” Samkanai said.  Click here to read more (external link).

Gen. Miller Walks Out of Security Meeting Over Mohib’s Presence

·
Miller (Left) and Mohib (Right)

Miller (Left) and Mohib (Right)

Ariana: Gen. Scott Miller, the Commander of U.S. and NATO Forces in Afghanistan has walked out of a security meeting in Kabul in protest to the presence of Afghan National Security Advisor Hamdullah Mohib. Recently, U.S. cut all ties with Mohib over controversial remarks he made on a visit to the United State last month. Mohib claimed that Khalilzad was trying to delegitimize the Afghan government and set himself as “viceroy” of Afghanistan. Click here to read more (external link).

U.S. Special Envoy Arrives In Kabul Ahead Of New Round Of Peace Talks

·
Zalmay Khalilzad

Zalmay Khalilzad

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
April 1, 2019

The U.S. envoy seeking a peace deal with the Taliban to end nearly 18 years of war in Afghanistan has returned to Kabul ahead of a new round of talks.

Fereydoun Khuzon, deputy spokesman for the Afghan presidential administration, told RFE/RL on April 1 that he expects the visit of U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad to pave the way for the start of direct talks between the government and the Taliban.

Khalilzad, the chief negotiator with the Taliban, has held several rounds of peace talks with the militant group in Qatar. But the Western-backed government in Kabul has complained it is being left out of the negotiations, with the Taliban refusing to negotiate with what they consider “a U.S. puppet.”

Khalilzad appears to have hit the ground trying to smooth those complaints and facilitate a peace process that brings all Afghan parties together in inclusive intra-Afghan negotiations.

“We discussed the urgency of making progress on intra-Afghan dialogue,” Khalilzad tweeted on April 1.

The growing rift between Kabul and Washington over the talks with the Taliban erupted in public view on March 14, when Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s national-security adviser harshly criticized Khalilzad, a veteran, Afghan-born U.S. diplomat.

During a visit to Washington, Hamdullah Mohib accused the U.S. envoy of “delegitimizing” the government by excluding it from the negotiations, acting like a “viceroy,” and harboring personal ambitions in Afghanistan.

Khalilzad’s trip also comes amid heightened tensions between Kabul and Islamabad over recent statements made by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan that suggested that Afghanistan should set up an interim government.

Khan told Pakistani journalists on March 25 that such a move would help the talks between U.S. and Taliban negotiators, since the militant group refuses to speak to the current government.

Afghanistan has recalled its Islamabad ambassador and summoned Pakistan’s deputy ambassador to Kabul to discuss what a Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman called the “irresponsible” remarks by Khan.

In a statement on March 27, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said that Khan’s comments had been “reported out of context in the media, leading to unwarranted reaction from various quarters.”

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.

Related

Over 18M Afghans Suffer From Multidimensional Poverty: Study

·

afghanistanTolo News: Based on the study, 32 percent of six-member families had only one working person.  The study shows that 48 percent of families have no educated woman. The level of multidimensional poverty, according to the study, ranges from a low of 12 percent in Kabul to a high of 81 percent in Badghis province in the west of Afghanistan. Click here to read more (external link).

Taliban Says Dostum Remains on Hit List

·
Dostum

Dostum

Ayaz Gul
VOA News
March 31, 2019

ISLAMABAD — A day after Afghanistan’s First Vice President, General Abdul Rashid Dostum, narrowly survived an assassination attempt, the Taliban vowed Sunday the former warlord remains one of their prime targets.

Officials in Afghanistan have confirmed Dostum’s convoy came under a Taliban attack Saturday evening in the northern Balkh province that killed one of his security guards and wounded several others.

Regional security officials and close aides of the powerful ethnic Uzbek leader said he was traveling back Saturday evening to his native neighboring province of Jawzjan when insurgents ambushed the convoy.

Both sides suffered casualties in the ensuing hour-long intense gunfight but Dostum escaped unhurt, they added.

The Taliban swiftly took credit for plotting the assassination attempt, saying it killed four loyalists of Dostum, including a key commander.

A regional Afghan military statement claimed that five Taliban assailants were killed and many more were wounded.

Long a target

“Dostum has long been our target and we have never given any undertaking not to attack him,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told VOA when asked whether the raid could undermine their ongoing peace talks with the United States. Mujahid also rejected as baseless propaganda official statements claiming Saturday’s ambush killed or injured any Taliban fighters.

Dostum had landed in Balkh from a foreign trip and addressed a public gathering in the provincial capital of Mazar-i-Sharif hours before his convoy was attacked, party and police officials said.

In his speech to the gathering, the powerful politician had asserted that if given the opportunity he would “eliminate” the Taliban from northern Afghanistan in “just six months.”

Saturday’s attack was the second assassination attempt on Dostum since July 2018 when he escaped a suicide bomb attack at Kabul airport soon after landing in the country from more than a year in self-imposed exile in Turkey over allegations of torturing and abusing a political rival in his native Afghan province.

Human rights accusations

The Uzbek strongman is notorious in Afghanistan and was one of the warlords who helped the United States oust the Taliban from power in 2001.

Human rights groups have long accused Dostum of committing war crimes, including the deaths of hundreds of Taliban prisoners in the custody of his militia forces.

A political opponent, Ahmad Ishchi, alleged in 2016 that he had been tortured and raped by Dostum and his militiamen. Dostum was the acting president of Afghanistan at the time because President Ashraf Ghani was out of the country.

Soon after the government had launched an investigation into the assault against Ishchi, the former warlord fled the country and returned 15 months later after a deal with Ghani that ended weeks of crippling protests in northern Afghan provinces by Dostum’s supporters.

Other Dostum News