Ariana: State Ministry for Natural Disasters Management officials said 511 people have died and more than 3,700 people have been injured during the past year in flash floods across Afghanistan. Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, officials said more than 23,000 residential areas and 66,700 acres of agricultural land were destroyed and almost 8,000 livestock were killed in these floods. Click here to read more (external link).
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8am: Local sources in Nimruz province have reported that during the past seven days, nearly 3,000 Afghan immigrants have been deported from Iran. Almost 2,844 Afghan immigrants have entered Nimruz province from the Silk Bridge on the Afghan–Iranian border, sources said on Thursday, August 18. Forced deportation, harassment, and pushing the refugees behind the wall within the Iran territories have been very normal and usual practices against the refugees. Click here to read more (external link).
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
August 18, 2022
An explosion that ripped through a mosque packed with worshippers during evening prayers in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on August 17 killed 21 people, police say.
Police spokesman Khalid Zadran said on August 18 that 33 people had been wounded in the blast.
Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed there were dead and wounded in the blast, but did not specify how many.
“The murderers of civilians and perpetrators…will soon be punished for their crimes,” he said on Twitter.
Italian nongovernmental organization Emergency, which operates a hospital in Kabul, said, “Most of the patients we received following the explosion inside a mosque are suffering from shell and burn injuries.”
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State local affiliate has stepped up attacks since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021 following the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces.
Based on reporting by AFP, AP, Reuters, and Al-Jazeera
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Tolo News: Officials at a hospital in Parwan treating COVID-19 say that the number of patients infected by the virus have increased by 70 percent, and the hospital is facing a lack of beds and other supplies. Abdul Hameed Zhekafer, a hospital official, said that in the past one month they recorded more than one thousand positive cases at the hospital. Click here to read more (external link).
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Hamdullah Mohib
EuroNews: Since the fall of Kabul and the collapse of the Afghan government many of its members have been trying to set the record straight and tell their side of the story. Among those officials is Mr Hamdullah Mohib the former national security advisor for president Ashraf Ghani. One year on, Mohib sat down with Euronews International Correspondent Anelise Borges to discuss the government’s exit. Click here to read more (external link).
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Mahbouba Seraj
UN: Mahbouba Sera, one of the world’s most prominent women’s rights activists, chose to stay in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover in August 2021, to witness what was happening to her country, and to work for a society that benefits all of its people In 24 hours a democracy we worked for over a 20-year period crumbled. The first thought I had in mind was what is going to happen to the women of Afghanistan? What were we going to do? 15 August was the day the women of Afghanistan started to become non-human, the day when we knew there was no place for women’s rights anywhere anymore. Click here to read more (external link).
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Taliban fighters (file photo)
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