Mawlawi Mehdi Mujahid
Aamaj: Local sources in Sar-e-Pul told Aamaj News that Taliban have resumed their attacks on positions of Mawlawi Mahdi in Balkhab district after several hours of delay. According to the sources yesterday 14 Taliban fighters [have been] killed and 10 others wounded in the skirmish. It has been three days that Taliban are trying to attack and take control of Balkhab district in Sar-e-Pul province. Click here to read more (external link).
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8am: Local sources in Badakhshan province have reported that a vehicle carrying the Taliban Environment Head has been targeted by a landmine in the province, injuring two of his bodyguards. It is reported that the explosion took place in the Yatfal Paeen district of the province today, June 25, 2022, before noon. Click here to read more (external link).
Ariana: India reopened its embassy in Kabul on Thursday, more than 10 months after closing it following the takeover of the city by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA). The Indian embassy will become the 15th mission to open in Kabul under the rule of IEA, along with Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, European Union and four Central Asian states. Click here to read more (external link).
Other Foreign Relations News
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
June 24, 2022
ISLAMABAD — Afghanistan’s Taliban announced Friday that the United States had freed one of the last two Afghans from the U.S. military detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after 15 years.
The ruling Islamist group said Asadullah Haroon’s release was the outcome of “direct and positive interaction” between the Taliban and Washington.
The 39-year-old freed prisoner was handed over to Taliban officials in Doha, the capital of Qatar, where the group maintains its political office.
“It is a positive development,” said Suhail Shaheen, who heads the Taliban’s Doha office. He told VOA that Haroon hails from the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar.
“I call on (the) U.S. to release the only last remaining Afghan detainee now in Guantanamo jail, as well as all other detainees being kept there on mere suspicions,” demanded Shaheen. He is also the Taliban’s permanent representative-designate to the United Nations.
The other Afghan inmate is Muhammad Rahim, who is accused of being a close associate of al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden.
The U.S. Department of Defense said Wednesday that Haroon’s release followed a U.S. court ruling that the Pentagon no longer had the legal authority to detain him. The statement said a review body made up of career civil servants had additionally determined this past October that Haroon was eligible for transfer from Guantanamo Bay.
A group of U.S. senators introduced legislation this week that would prevent the transfer of detainees from Guantanamo to Afghanistan.
“It is reckless and irresponsible to release Asadullah Haroon Gul al Afghani to the Taliban,” Republican Senator Marco Rubio said in a statement, using Haroon’s legal name. “The terrorist organization that now controls Afghanistan cannot and will not ensure Gul, or any future detainees who are released, will not return to the battlefield and potentially kill Americans or other innocent civilians.”
Haroon was said to be working as a honey trader before being captured by American forces in 2007 while they were fighting al-Qaida terrorists and the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.
The U.S. alleged that Haroon was an al-Qaida courier serving as a commander with the Afghan-based Hezb-e-Islami (HIA) militant group who coordinated attacks against coalition forces. The Afghan man admitted to being a member of HIA but denied any al-Qaida association.
Last October, an American court ruled that Haroon was being held unlawfully, paving the way for his transfer out of Guantanamo after languishing there for years without charge or trial.
The secretive prison once housed hundreds of suspected militants captured by U.S. forces during the “war on terror,” many held without charge or the legal power to challenge their detention.
Rights groups and detainees have accused U.S. authorities of torture and abuse against Guantanamo inmates, with some allegedly held in cages and subjected to illegal interrogation techniques. Most of the detainees have been released over the years.
“He was unanimously cleared for release by U.S. security agencies last year. Asad is finally free and about to be reunited with his family,” tweeted Reprieve, an independent group that provided legal representation to Haroon in the federal court.
“We hope the State Department will move quickly to release other detainees who have been cleared to leave but remain stuck in limbo, wondering when their long ordeal will end.”
Haroon’s family hailed his release, saying it has proved his innocence. His wife and a daughter live in Afghanistan while his brother and mother live as refugees in neighboring Pakistan, which hosts around 3 million Afghan refugees and illegal economic migrants.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has been working to reduce the number of inmates and eventually close the Guantanamo prison, which still holds around three dozen detainees.
VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.
Mawlawi Mehdi Mujahid
8am: A source close to Mawlawi Mehdi says that several Taliban fighters have been killed and several others were captured during the battle in Balkhab. The source said that local forces in Balkhab, led by Mawlawi Mehdi, attacked the Taliban forces on Thursday evening (June 23rd) in the area between Dozdan Dara and Qomkotal. Local forces, in addition to inflicting casualties, seized four Humvees belonging to the Taliban with their equipment, according to the source. They have also blown up two other Humvees belonging to the Taliban. He added that Taliban forces had been forced to retreat to the Siahghezhdi area of Zari district in Balkh after facing a counterattack by forces affiliated with Mehdi Mujahid. Click here to read more (external link).
8am: Sources in Panjshir province say that six Taliban members have been killed and four others were wounded in an ambush by the National Resistance Front (NRF) forces. Sources say that the incident took place on Thursday (June 23the) in Chamalwarda area, Rokha district. According to sources, the Taliban were attacked when they tried to carry out an offensive on the positions of NRF forces. Click here to read more (external link).
8am: Sources in Bamyan province have reported that clashes escalated between Pashtun and Tajik Taliban-affiliated members at around 11:00am Friday during a sport match at the Rohullah Nikpai Gymnasium in the new city of Bamyan province. According to sources, the Pashtun and Tajik Taliban opened fire on each other, which disrupted the sport tournament and the athletes and spectators left the gymnasium. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: Khost residents said that due to the lack of female physicians in the province many of the injured women have not yet been treated. They say that in the current situation, they are facing a shortage of medical facilities in the hospitals. “There are no female physicians. There are a number of injured women and there is no physician for them,” said a resident of Khost. Click here to read more (external link).
By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
June 24, 2022
An aftershock has killed five people in eastern Afghanistan just hours after Taliban authorities said they have ended search-and-rescue operations from a major earthquake two days ago and raised the death toll to at least 1,150 in the war-torn country’s worst such disaster in two decades.
Abdul Wahid Rayan, the Taliban director of the state-run Bakhtar news agency, said on June 24 that the death toll had risen to 1,150 from previous reports of 1,000 killed. Rayan said at least 1,600 people were injured.
Pakistan’s Meteorological Department, meanwhile, reported on June 24 that a 4.2-magnitude quake had struck the region, which the Bakhtar news agency said took five more lives in the hard-hit Gayan district.
The disaster has posed a challenge for the Taliban-led government, which is largely isolated as a result of its hard-line Islamist policies toward human rights, especial with regard to the freedoms of women and girls.
The country is already battling a severe humanitarian disaster, worsened by the Taliban takeover of the country in August 2021.
Earlier on June 24, Mohammad Nassim Haqqani, spokesman for the Taliban’s Ministry for Disaster Management, told the media that 10,000 houses were partially or completely destroyed in the earthquake in a remote area near the border with Pakistan.
“The search operation has finished,” Haqqani said, without giving an explanation as to why the search for survivors was being called off some 48 hours after the temblor.
On June 23, Haqqani told RFE/RL that it was difficult to get accurate information about the damage because of the poor condition of the telephone network in some areas.
He said supplies of medicine and other critical aid were inadequate.
The 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck about 160 kilometers southeast of Kabul, in a mountainous region with small settlements. Paktika and Khost provinces were worst hit.
Aid organizations such as the local Red Crescent and World Food Program have stepped in to assist the most vulnerable families with food and other emergency needs like tents and sleeping mats in Paktika and Khost provinces.
Wahidullah Amani, a spokesman for the World Food Program (WFP) for Afghanistan, told RFE/RL that WFP and other partners were on their way to the affected areas.
Rescuers struggled earlier to reach remote areas as efforts were hampered by bad roads and heavy rain and as the country’s Taliban rulers called on the international community to make donations to help with relief efforts.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter that eight trucks carrying food and other supplies had arrived from Pakistan. Aid also arrived by air from Iran and Qatar, he said.
The quake was the deadliest in the country since 2002, when a similarly powerful quake killed about 1,000 people in northern Afghanistan.
U.S. President Joe Biden has directed USAID and other federal government entities to assess how it can respond to help those most affected by the earthquake.
“We are committed to continuing our support for the needs of the Afghan people as we stand with them during and in the aftermath of this terrible tragedy,” national-security adviser Jake Sullivan said.
The United Nations said it was deploying medical health teams and providing medical supplies, but it said it does not have search and rescue capabilities in Afghanistan.
With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters
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