U.S. Offers Payments, Relocation To Relatives Of Afghans Killed In Drone Strike

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Kirby

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
October 16, 2021

The U.S. Defense Department says it is has offered to pay compensation to relatives of the 10 people who were killed in a drone strike in August during the final phase of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The Defense Department is also working with the State Department to help family members relocate to the United States, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement on October 15.

Kirby said Colin Kahl, undersecretary of defense for policy, reiterated Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s commitment to offer condolence payments during a virtual meeting this week with Steven Kwon, founder and president of the nonprofit Nutrition & Education International (NEI).

The missile struck a car driven by Zemerai Ahmadi, an employee of NEI, killing him and 10 members of his family, including seven children.

Kwon said Ahmadi had work with the NEI for many years “providing care and lifesaving assistance for people facing high mortality rates in Afghanistan,” according to Kirby.

Kirby did not say how much money would be offered to the family. He said Ahmadi and the others who were killed in the strike were innocent victims who bore no blame and were not affiliated with Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K) or threats to U.S. forces.

The drone strike occurred on August 29 as the U.S. military rushed to evacuate U.S. citizens and Afghans who had worked with U.S. forces during the war. Three days earlier, a suicide attack claimed by IS-K outside the airport killed some 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. troops.

The U.S. military said at the time that there was “very credible” intelligence that IS-K militants were planning another attack on people gathered at the airport trying to leave the country after the Taliban took over the government.

A spokesman for U.S. Central Command initially said that the drone strike thwarted an imminent attack by IS-K on the evacuation, but last month General Kenneth McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, admitted it was a mistake and apologized.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP

Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

Ahead Of Talks, Putin Claims IS Has 2,000 Fighters In Afghanistan

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Putin

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
October 15, 2021

Russian President Vladimir Putin on October 15 said the Islamic State (IS) militant group has thousands of fighters in northern Afghanistan, as Moscow prepares to host international talks next week on the situation in the country.

“According to our intelligence, the number of (IS) members alone in northern Afghanistan is about 2,000 people,” Putin said during a video address to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit of ex-Soviet states.

The Russian leader claimed the alleged IS fighters planned to move between ex-Soviet Central Asian countries disguised as refugees in order to stir up religious and ethnic discord. He did not give details.

Earlier this week, Putin warned of the threat of veteran fighters from Iraq and Syria with IS links crossing into Afghanistan, while the Russian Foreign Ministry urged the Taliban rulers to deal with the threat.

Putin’s special envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, said on October 15 that next week’s talks would focus on trying “to work out a common position on the changing situation in Afghanistan.”

The United States, China, and Pakistan will join talks scheduled for October 19, Kabulov said, adding that the Taliban and other regional actors will join the meeting a day later.

He said the Taliban had yet to announce the composition of its delegation.

Kabulov said Moscow did not expect any “breakthrough solutions” but would “openly state our complaints to the Afghan delegation.”

The Taliban, which seized control of Kabul from the internationally recognized government in mid-August, is seeking international recognition and aid in order to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe as Afghanistan’s economy is in free fall.

Since the Taliban takeover, Moscow has voiced concern about the possibility of Islamist militants infiltrating the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, which it sees as its backyard, and has held military exercises in Tajikistan, beefing up equipment at its military base there.

Putin on October 15 said there was no need to rush official recognition of the Taliban but noted that “we understand that we need to interact with them.”

Moscow fought a disastrous war in Afghanistan in the 1980s that killed up to 2 million Afghans, forced 7 million more from their homes, and led to the deaths of more than 14,000 Soviet troops.

With reporting by AFP and TASS

Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

Related

Shiite Mosque Blast Kills Dozens in Afghanistan’s Kandahar

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Ayesha Tanzeem
VOA News
October 15, 2021

ISLAMABAD — An explosion ripped through a Shiite mosque Friday in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, killing at least 32 people and wounding more than 70, according to sources at the local Mirwais hospital and local media.

The blast went off during Friday prayers, usually attended by large crowds. Pictures and videos shared on social media showed a bloody scene inside the mosque, with bodies and body parts strewn about and worshippers trying to rescue the wounded.

A spokesman for the Taliban, Bilal Karimi, confirmed to VOA that the bomb attack in Kandahar “killed and injured a number of compatriots.” He said an investigation into the violence is ongoing “to identify the culprits and bring them to justice.”

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The explosion came a week after a Friday-prayer attack in another Afghan city, Kunduz, left more than 50 dead. That attack was claimed by Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), the local branch of the Islamic State group. ISKP had claimed a Uyghur carried out the Kunduz attack.

In an interview with VOA earlier this week, Taliban Deputy Information Minister Zabihulah Mujahid denied that ISKP was a serious threat, despite multiple attacks, including one on a gathering for the last rituals of Mujahid’s own mother in Kabul.

He said the only reason why ISKP had managed to carry out attacks in recent weeks was that the Taliban broke open many jails when it took over the country, allowing ISKP facilitators to escape.

“Our forces are trying to find its roots. In the last week-and-a-half we have arrested several people belonging to IS and have destroyed several of their safe houses. We have neutralized several of their attacks,” Mujahid said.

ISKP claimed a Uyghur had carried out the Kunduz attack, but Mujahid said China had not discussed the issue with the Taliban.

This is the fourth high-profile attack IS Khorasan has carried out since August 15, the day the Taliban walked into Kabul.

The group also claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on Kabul airport while thousands of Afghans who were fleeing from the Taliban were being evacuated. That attack killed nearly 100 Afghans and 13 American service personnel.

VOA’s Ayaz Gul contributed to this report.

Afghan women’s handball team was left behind — and now they fear for their lives

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New York Post: The team tried desperately and fruitlessly to get inside Hamid Karzai International Airport amid the frantic US evacuation, according to team member Soraya Karimi, 25, who was also a law student and rights activist, as well as the proud daughter of a woman police officer. Still, each time they got close to the gates, authorities turned them away. Click here to read more (external link).

Report: Taliban leader died last year

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Turkey Presses Taliban for Female Education and Inclusive Afghan Government

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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
October 14, 2021

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN — Turkey hosted leaders of Afghanistan’s Taliban government for the first time Thursday, repeating its advice to the Islamist group on the need to form an inclusive government in the war-torn South Asian nation and to ensure Afghan female participation in education as well as public life.

After Thursday’s meeting with the visitors, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a televised news conference in Ankara that the Taliban asked for humanitarian aid and the continuation of Turkish investment in Afghanistan.

Taliban acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and his delegation arrived in Turkey for the talks following meetings in Qatar this week with envoys from the United States and European diplomats. In those discussions, Muttaqi warned that attempts to pressure his government through sanctions would undermine the security of not only Afghanistan but the world in general and spark an exodus of Afghan economic migrants.

“We have told the international community about the importance of engagement with the Taliban administration. In fact, recognition and engagement are two different things,” Cavusoglu said.

The Taliban have been seeking international legitimacy for their male-only Cabinet in Kabul since returning to power two months ago after waging an insurgency against the Western-backed Afghan government for 20 years. Several members of the Taliban Cabinet have been blacklisted by the United Nations.

Cavusoglu said that in talks with the Taliban delegates, the Turkish side underscored the importance of Afghan girls’ education and women’s employment in business life.

While boys were allowed last month to return to secondary school, the hardline movement has not permitted girls at the same level to resume their education, insisting that it must put in place a “safe learning environment” before female students could return.

Taliban acting Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi wrote on his Twitter feed that the wide-ranging discussions with officials in Ankara covered bilateral diplomatic ties, humanitarian aid, Afghan refugees and resumption of Turkish commercial flights to Afghanistan.

Washington has frozen nearly $10 billion in Afghan assets — parked mainly in the U.S. Federal Reserve — since the Taliban took over the country. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have also halted financial assistance and lending programs for Kabul, citing human rights concerns under the Taliban rule.

The U.S. and other Western countries have been pressing the Taliban to keep their promises to form an inclusive Afghan government, protect human rights (especially those of women), fight terrorism and not restrict freedom of expression.

However, critics say freezing Afghan assets could trigger an economic meltdown that could worsen the growing humanitarian crisis facing the country.

The United Nations has warned that about 1 million Afghan children are at risk of starvation and more than 18 million people need urgent humanitarian assistance. A deepening drought and the approaching harsh winter are only going to make matters worse, the U.N. says.

U.N. officials told reporters in New York on Thursday that they are working to scale up assistance to reach Afghans in need.

The World Food Program last month reached 4 million people with food and nutrition assistance across all 34 Afghan provinces, three times the number it reached in August, said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric

The head of WFP, David Beasley, stressed that if international aid did not flow as soon as possible, it would be catastrophic, and that this was a war on hunger.

Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.

Taliban Police Chief Killed In Bomb Attack In Eastern Afghanistan

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By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
October 14, 2021

A Taliban police chief has been killed and 11 people wounded in a bomb blast in Asadabad, the capital of Kunar Province, in eastern Afghanistan, local authorities say.

Witnesses told RFE/RL that the bomb targeted a vehicle carrying the Taliban police chief for the Shigal district on October 14.

Local Taliban officials did not disclose details of the incident.

A doctor at the Asadabad Central Hospital, who requested anonymity, told RFE/RL that 12 people injured in the blast had been hospitalized. The doctor confirmed Abdullah Irfan, the Taliban-appointed police chief of Shigal district, had succumbed to his injuries.

Seven civilians, including a schoolboy, were also among the wounded, the doctor added.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack but the Islamic State-Khorasan Province (IS-K) group, which is active in eastern Afghanistan, has claimed similar attacks on the Taliban in the past.

The Taliban has battled IS-K since its emergence in Afghanistan in 2014.

IS-K has claimed responsibility for some of the most recent attacks, including a suicide bombing among worshippers last week in a Shi’ite mosque in Kunduz Province that killed around 100 people.

With reporting by AFP

Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.