Australian war crimes whistleblower sentenced to 5 years in prison

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Khaama: The Guardian reported that David McBride, a former Australian army lawyer, has been sentenced to five years and eight months in prison for leaking “classified documents” related to the Afghan war. On Tuesday, May 13, The Guardian announced the conviction of the former lawyer, stating that he shared the classified documents with journalists after stealing them. The exposure of these classified documents by the former lawyer has brought the war crimes of Australian forces in Afghanistan into focus, initiating investigations into these matters. Following these reports, a four-year investigation by the Australian Defence Ministry led to evidence showing that Australian special forces illegally killed 39 Afghans.

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Taliban Exploitation of Women: Militants Extort Female Kabul Residents with Some Women

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Taliban militants (file photo)

8am: Abdullah (pseudonym) is one of the residents of the fourth security district of Kabul City. Speaking to the Hasht-e Subh Daily, he says that the Taliban exploited some women associated with them for extorting detained individuals. Abdullah states: “Some Taliban checkpoint commanders, especially in the fourth security district, gather information about individuals beforehand, and if they are convinced that his economic status is good or he is wealthy, they detain him at their checkpoint and then demand a large sum of money.” Abdullah adds: “Some women collaborate with the Taliban and rush to the checkpoint during the detention of individuals, claiming that I have an illegitimate relationship with this person. Then the Taliban threatened the detained person to pay money in exchange for his release, otherwise, they would report him to the morality police of the group.” Abdullah emphasizes that detained individuals are forced to pay this amount of money to the Taliban commanders to preserve their “honor and dignity.” Sources add that the Taliban’s demands range from one thousand Afghanis to fifteen thousand US dollars. Click here to read more (external link).

Flash floods strike Afghanistan ‘hunger hotspots’

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Lisa Schlein
VOA News
May 14, 2024

GENEVA — U.N. agencies are banding together in coordination with Afghanistan’s de facto Taliban rulers to aid hundreds of thousands of survivors of devastating flash floods that struck northeastern Afghanistan Friday.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, reported Monday that search and rescue operations continue. It said that 14 U.N. teams have been deployed to jointly assess the damage and needs, and that humanitarian partners “have identified available emergency stocks in the region.”

Speaking to journalists in Geneva from Kabul Tuesday, World Food Program official Timothy Anderson stressed the critical need to provide emergency food aid in the worst-affected areas, which were already facing multiple crises.

“There has been widespread destruction, death and injury in areas where people are least able to absorb shocks,” said Anderson, the WFP’s head of program in Afghanistan. “On our current information, about 540 people are dead and injured, around 3,000 houses fully or partially destroyed, 10,000 acres of orchards destroyed, and 2,000 livestock killed.

“Many of those who have survived have nothing left, no homes to return to and no food,” he said, adding that the full impact of this disaster will not be known until U.N. personnel are able to reach currently inaccessible areas.

“We are taking food via donkeys, as that is the only way we can reach some of these districts. … So far, WFP provided the survivors with emergency food assistance, and we are planning to distribute blanket cash assistance in the coming days, which is enough to cover their basic needs for a month,” he said.

WFP reports that two of the hardest-hit areas, Baghlan and Badakhshan, are in so-called “hunger hotspots” — areas where the seasonal harvest has been destroyed and little food is available.

“These communities will still need food assistance over the summer just to survive,” Anderson said. “Our staff on the ground tell me everyone they speak to is worried less about the homes they lost and more about their destroyed agricultural land. As subsistence farmers, it is their sole source of livelihood — and already marginal to meet their basic needs.”

UNICEF reports 3.2 million Afghan children under the age of 5 suffer from malnutrition, a figure that “is set to climb.” UNICEF says undernutrition is responsible for nearly half of all deaths in children under 5 as it puts them at greater risk of dying from common infections.

Anderson said this worries him because WFP is suffering from a severe funding shortfall. He said WFP has received only 30% of the $1 billion it needs for its operation this year, forcing the agency to make drastic cuts in food aid.

Anderson said the agency is currently serving about 2 million people in Afghanistan, down from 12 million previously.

The World Health Organization reports the heavy rainfall that triggered the violent flooding has rendered several health facilities nonoperational, making it difficult for people to access essential services.

“The full extent of the damage caused by the floods is still being assessed, and WHO and local health authorities are closely looking into the situation on the ground to see what we can identify,” said Christian Lindmeier, WHO spokesperson.

He noted that WHO so far has delivered seven metric tons of essential medicines and medical supplies and has “immediately deployed a surveillance support team and other experts for flood-response activities.”

Prior to the disaster, he said, WHO had already provided enough medication for pneumonia and acute watery diarrhea, as well as enough malnutrition treatments for some 20,000 people, plus supplies for 500 trauma cases.

Additionally, he said, “Seventeen mobile health teams were deployed by WHO and health partners to support the delivery of health care.”

WFP’s Anderson said that to date, there have been no reported problems with the Taliban regarding “the integration of our female staff members” into WFP’s humanitarian operation.

“We are always very keen to ensure that all beneficiaries, all affected populations, male or female, are adequately and equally covered in our response mechanisms and processes,” he said.

While acknowledging the many competing crises in the world, the WFP official said this was no time to abandon Afghanistan. He repeated his appeal for international support, saying, “You cannot just stop feeding starving people.”

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Pakistan, US discuss how to counter Afghan-based IS and TTP terrorists

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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
May 13, 2024

ISLAMABAD — The United States and Pakistan have concluded their latest round of counterterrorism talks, agreeing to intensify their collaboration in the fight against terrorist organizations like the Pakistani Taliban and a regional Islamic State affiliate.

Washington and Islamabad issued a joint statement simultaneously on Monday, saying the May 10 bilateral dialogue hosted by the U.S. was centered on tackling “the most pressing challenges to regional and global security.”

The meeting came amid a recent surge in terrorism in Pakistan, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of people, including security forces. The violence is mostly claimed by Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), known as the Pakistani Taliban, who are believed to operate from sanctuaries in neighboring Afghanistan.

“Pakistan and the United States recognize that a partnership to counter ISIS-Khorasan, TTP, and other terrorist organizations will advance security in the region and serve as a model of bilateral and regional cooperation to address transnational terrorism threats,” the statement read.

The statement used an acronym for an Afghanistan-based Islamic State affiliate known as IS-Khorasan, which routinely carries out terrorist attacks in the country and beyond its borders.

Pakistani and U.S. officials at Friday’s talks in Washington resolved to step up communication and continue collaboration “to detect and deter violent extremism through whole-of-government approaches.”

According to the statement, the two sides stressed the importance of capacity building, including sharing technical expertise and best practices, providing investigative and prosecutorial assistance and enhancing border security infrastructure and training.

Islamabad maintains that TTP-led terrorist attacks on Pakistani soil have intensified since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021 following the withdrawal of U.S.-led NATO forces after a 20-year counterterrorism mission.

Pakistani authorities allege that members of the Afghan Taliban are facilitating TTP fighters in carrying out cross-border attacks.

The Taliban government in Kabul denies the allegations, saying it is not allowing anyone to threaten other countries, including Pakistan, from Afghan soil.

In a new report slated for release on Tuesday, the U.S. Institute of Peace has warned that Afghanistan “presents growing space for terrorist groups compared to the period before the U.S. withdrawal.”

USIP published a summary of the study on its website, noting that ISIS-K poses “a rising threat with reach beyond the immediate region, greater than during the pre-withdrawal period,” and the TTP “has also returned as a regional security threat.”

The report also stated that al-Qaida and its South Asia affiliate “continue to maintain ties with and receive support” from Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers.

National Resistance Front Reports Killing Three Taliban Members in Herat

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Afghanistan International: The National Resistance Front (NRF) has declared that it conducted two separate attacks in Herat city and Tulk district, resulting in the deaths of three Taliban members and the injury of another. The Taliban has not yet issued any response to this assertion by the National Resistance Front. The statement revealed that Mawlawi Noorullah Hanza from Ghor province was among those killed in the incident. Click here to read more (external link).

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Iranian official: Gemstones from Afghanistan smuggled into Iranian market

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Lapis

Khaama: Qadir Qiafeh, deputy head of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, stated that gemstones from Afghanistan are smuggled into Iran and sold illegally, as reported by Iranian media. In an interview with an Iranian media outlet, Qiafeh stated that gemstones mined in Afghanistan enter Iran through unofficial channels and trade in their markets. Click here to read more (external link).

Taliban Totalitarianism and the Effort to Homogenize Afghanistan

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Taliban militants (file photo)

8am: Given the strong ethnic inclinations within the Taliban, their religious ideology has also taken on an ethnocentric hue. They are striving for the widespread promotion of the Pashto language and consider the Persian language, which historically served as a lingua franca facilitating understanding and communication among all the country’s inhabitants, as a foreign and secondary language. They seek to eradicate it from government offices, remove Persian-language signs, create official correspondences only in Pashto, and compel people to speak Pashto. On the other hand, the presence of other ethnicities in Taliban security forces is very rare, and if they are present, it is ineffective. Click here to read more (external link).

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Search For Victims Under Way As Death Toll Hits 315 In Afghan Flooding

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By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
May 12, 2024

Emergency crews battled the elements as they searched for victims in hard-to-reach areas of northern Afghanistan, where at least 315 people have died in flash flooding caused by heavy rainfall. The Taliban, Afghanistan’s de facto rulers, on May 12 said at least 1,630 people were injured in Baghlan Province, the worst-hit area, and more than 2,660 homes destroyed. Badakhshan, Takhar, Ghor, Faryab, and other provinces have also been hit by the flooding. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement that the UN and “its partners in Afghanistan are coordinating with the de facto authorities to swiftly assess needs and provide emergency assistance.”

Copyright (c) 2024. 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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