8am: Local sources in Panjshir province report that six Taliban members are killed as a result of a roadside mine explosion in the province. The incident took place around 9:00pm on Sunday night in the Tambenah area of Dara district of the province. In an interview with Hasht-e Subh, a reliable source in the National Resistance Front (NRF) said that the mine was planted by its forces. Click here to read more (external link).
Other News from Panjshir
cointelegraph: The Taliban have finally banned crypto in Afghanistan, but many users and traders call it one of the “worst” decisions taken by the government so far. With the rise of the Taliban last year in August, Afghanistan faced global sanctions that led to many international organizations and money transaction services halting operations in the country. This made room for digital currencies and stablecoins to be widely used, at least to send or receive remittances. Click here to read more (external link).
NPR: A recent visit to Afghanistan showed a country facing an economic crisis. The banking system has seized up. Credit cards aren’t working. Afghans abroad struggle to send money to relatives back home. The central bank’s shortage of funds is far from Afghanistan’s only banking problem. Private banks have struggled to do business with foreign banks, which fear potential entanglement with U.S. sanctions against the Taliban. This has complicated both remittances and day-to-day trade. Click here to read more (external link).
8am: The Pentagon will train former Afghan pilots in California to send them to Ukraine via Poland, a military-diplomatic source told TASS on Monday. “As we know, the Pentagon began recruiting former Afghan pilots who ran to the US together with the Americans a year ago. Their training now kicks off in California with plans to dispatch all of them to Ukraine via Poland afterwards,” the source said. Click here to read more (external link).
Ariana: Responding to a claim by the Afghan minister of defense of the US using Pakistan’s airspace for drone operations, Pakistan said late Sunday it was “highly regrettable”. According to a statement, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said Islamabad has noted with deep concern the allegation by Afghanistan’s Defense Minister Mullah Muhammad Yaqoub regarding the use of Pakistan’s airspace in a US counter-terrorism drone operation in Afghanistan. “In the absence of any evidence, as acknowledged by the Afghan minister himself, such conjectural allegations are highly regrettable and defy the norms of responsible diplomatic conduct,” said the ministry. Click here to read more (external link).
Yaqoob
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
August 28, 2022
ISLAMABAD — The Taliban defense minister Sunday directly accused neighboring Pakistan of allowing the United States to use its airspace for drone attacks against Afghanistan.
Mohammad Yaqoob leveled the allegations nearly a month after Washington said it killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri with a missile fired from a drone against his hideout in central Kabul on July 31.
Yaqoob told a news conference in the Afghan capital that U.S. drones have since continued to fly over his country’s airspace in breach of its territorial sovereignty, urging both Washington and Islamabad to stop these violations.
The Taliban could not accurately track the airspace violations because the withdrawing American military had “completely destroyed” the “Afghan radar system,” the minister said when asked whether his government knew which neighboring country was facilitating the post-exit U.S. drone operations.
“But according to our information the drones are entering through Pakistan to Afghanistan, they use Pakistani airspace, we demand Pakistan stop the use of its airspace against us,” he said.
Officials in Islamabad have not immediately commented on the Taliban charges. Pakistani authorities have previously denied media reports their country had played a role in the U.S. attack.
Taliban leaders until now had warned an unnamed neighboring country of “bad consequences” for permitting the U.S. to use its territory to conduct the airstrike that killed al-Zawahiri while he stood on a balcony at his posh Kabul neighborhood hideout.
Yaqoob’s allegations are likely to fuel mutual tensions as his government is mediating talks between Pakistan and leaders of an outlawed extremist group, known as the Pakistani Taliban, that has taken refuge in Afghanistan.
The landlocked country’s Taliban rulers heavily rely on trade with and through Pakistan to overcome economic and humanitarian challenges facing Afghanistan in the wake of international financial and banking sanctions.
While speaking Sunday, Yaqoob again cast doubt on al-Zawahiri’s death, saying a Taliban investigation into the incident was still ongoing and yet to reach a conclusion.
Taliban officials maintain they have not yet found the al-Qaida leader’s body or any other evidence, saying the missile attack destroyed everything in the target area.
A post-strike Taliban declaration said they were unaware of the slain terror leader’s presence in Kabul, reiterating they had no ties to al-Qaida, nor have they allowed their soil to be used to threaten other countries since taking control of Afghanistan last August.
The Taliban have condemned the strike and subsequent alleged drone intrusions as a violation of the U.S. withdrawal deal. Washington denounced al-Zawahiri’s presence in the heart of Kabul as a violation of the pact.
The February 2020 agreement required the Islamist group to prevent Afghan territory from becoming a safe haven for terrorist groups, including al-Qaida, in return for all the U.S.-led foreign troops leaving the country.
8am: Local sources in Panjshir report the occurrence of clashes between the Taliban and the National Resistance Front (NRF).The conflict started when the Taliban attacked NRF positions from several directions, a source added. During this conflict, Taliban fighters set fire to the villas/houses of local residents. The Taliban have not said anything about these claims so far. Click here to read more (external link).
Related
8am: The Taliban have prevented those female students who did not wear niqab from entering Badakhshan University. Local sources told Hasht-e Subh on Sunday (August 28th), that when female students wanted to attend their classes at Badakhshan University, they were met with harsh treatment by Taliban officials. Click here to read more (external link).
By RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal
August 28, 2022
The Taliban rulers of Afghanistan have shown no signs of moderation since taking over the country a year ago and the situation for people in the country remains “dire,” the EU’s top diplomat said in an analysis on the European Commission website.
“Afghanistan may have dropped from the headlines. However, the situation for its people is dire,” Josep Borrell wrote in his commentary dated August 27.
“In the past year, the Taliban have shown no sign of moderation, quite the contrary: All girls, despite earlier promises, are banned from education; huge swathes of the country are gripped by hunger (70 percent of the population); and many Afghans live in fear or exile.”
He said that “understandably,” despite pleas from the Taliban, “no government, not even Pakistan or Qatar, has officially recognized” its government in the war-torn country.
The Taliban captured Kabul on August 15, 2021, bringing the hard-line movement back into power in Afghanistan nearly 20 years after it was toppled by the U.S. invasion following the attacks of September 11, 2001.
After initially signaling they would be more moderate than in their previous time in power, the Taliban rulers turned to a hard line, crushing women’s rights, allowing little criticism, and imposing greater control over the press.
Borrell, in his analysis, said, “The Afghan people pay a heavy price for their country’s isolation: Humanitarian aid levels are tiny compared to the needs.”
Earlier this month, three UN agencies responsible for improving the lives of women and children around the world hit out against the Taliban, saying the past 12 months have dealt a blow to “all aspects” of their rights.
The warning echoed criticisms by Western leaders and international rights advocates that coincided with the anniversary of the Taliban grabbing control after two decades of war.