Salima Mazari
The Guardian (UK): As one of only three female district governors in Afghanistan, Mazari has attracted attention simply by being a woman in charge. What sets the 40-year-old apart, particularly amid the recent wave of Taliban violence, is her hands-on military leadership. “Sometimes I’m in the office in Charkint, and other times I have to pick up a gun and join the battle,” she says. Click here to read more (external link).
RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
August 11, 2021
Russia completed joint military exercises with troops from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan on August 10 as the Taliban gain control of much of northern Afghanistan bordering Moscow’s Central Asian allies.
The war games began last week, involving about 2,500 Russian, Tajik, and Uzbek troops at a training ground in Tajikistan about 20 kilometers from the Afghan border.
“The exercise was conducted against the background of the aggravation of the situation and the threat of penetration of radical terrorist groups into the border countries of the Central Asian region,” Russia’s Central Military District commander, Colonel General Alexander Lapin, said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the drills involved tanks, armored personnel carriers, Su-25 attack jets, helicopters, and other weaponry in a simulated joint response to cross-border militant attacks.
Lapin said the combined forces for the first time used tactics gained by Russian forces fighting in Syria.
Russia, which has a military base in Tajikistan, has vowed defend the former Soviet Central Asian states against any security threat from Afghanistan.
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan are members of the Moscow-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organization.
The exercises followed smaller Russian-Uzbek drills held near Uzbekistan’s border with Afghanistan that concluded last week.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said at a separate event on August 10 that Russian forces will continue to conduct regular drills with its Central Asian allies near the Afghan border.
Central Asians states bordering Afghanistan are concerned about security threats emanating from Afghanistan and the potential for tens of thousands of refugees to pour over the border.
The Taliban has sought to reassure neighboring countries and Russia that it poses no threat as it gains control over much of Afghanistan’s territory and captures provincial cities from the government in Kabul as U.S.-led forces leave the country.
With reporting by TASS
Zalmay Khalilzad
By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
August 10, 2021
The United States scrambled to press for an Afghan peace deal and the European Union debated greater help in the region to handle refugee flows on August 10 as Taliban fighters continued to overrun at least two new population centers in the war-ravaged country.
The moves came ahead of news that the militant group had captured the eighth provincial hub in the span of a week when they took the northern city of Pol-e Khomri, the capital of Baghlan Province.
Earlier, an RFE/RL correspondent on the ground said strategic buildings, including the governor’s office in Farah city, the capital of the southwestern Farah Province, had also fallen to the Taliban.
Farther north, the dpa news agency quoted local officials as saying security has also worsened around Afghanistan’s fourth-largest city, Mazar-e Sharif, with a population of around half a million people.
In the capital, Kabul, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani called on regional Afghan warlords to support his embattled government and appealed to civilians to defend the country’s “democratic fabric,” aides said on August 10.
Taliban gains in recent weeks have been accompanied by widespread reports of revenge killings and other attacks on civilians.
U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad is in Qatar for talks with the Taliban in a push to get the group to stop its sweeping offensive.
In the Qatari capital, Doha, where the militant group has a political office, Khalilzad will “press the Taliban to stop their military offensive and to negotiate a political settlement, which is the only path to stability and development in Afghanistan,” the State Department said on August 9.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki repeated Washington’s position on August 10 that Afghan defense forces are sufficiently trained and equipped to fight back against the Taliban.
Psaki was speaking after international news agencies quoted a “senior EU official” as saying Taliban fighters now control 65 percent of Afghanistan, are poised to capture 11 provincial hubs, and are seeking to cut off Kabul’s traditional support from forces in the north of the country.
The Taliban has been on the offensive across Afghanistan since May 1, when the United States and its allies officially began withdrawing their forces in a pullout that is expected to be completed by the end of this month.
The European Union said on August 10 that it was considering more support for countries neighboring Afghanistan while a handful of EU member states insisted on continuing forced deportations amid fears of an exodus of hundreds of thousands of Afghans as Taliban fighters advance.
The interior ministers of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, and the Netherlands — in a letter dated August 5 and disclosed only later — reportedly urged the EU’s executive arm to “intensify talks” with the Afghan government after Kabul said it was suspending “nonvoluntary returns” of Afghans fleeing the violence for three months.
They reportedly fear a repeat of the migrant crisis that engulfed Europe in 2015 when well over a million migrants, including many from war-torn Syria, arrived in the European Union and sparked lasting political divisions in the bloc.
“We would like to highlight the urgent need to perform returns, both voluntary and nonvoluntary, to Afghanistan,” the ministers wrote to the European Commission, which confirmed receipt of the letter. “Stopping returns sends the wrong signal and is likely to motivate even more Afghan citizens to leave their home for the EU.”
A senior EU official was quoted as saying “the first priority” was support “to those countries that are the most affected.”
The United Nations has said that there have so far been no “large-scale displacements” across Afghanistan’s borders.
But an EU official was quoted as saying the UN estimated that 500,000 Afghans could be pushed toward neighboring Pakistan, Iran, or Tajikistan if the situation continues to deteriorate.
The head of the International Organization for Migration, Antonio Vitorino, said in a statement on August 10 that he was “extremely concerned by the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan — particularly the impact on mobile and displaced populations, including returnees.”
He cited deadly escalations in Helmand, Kandahar, Herat, Kunduz, and Nimroz provinces, “adding untold suffering in a country where over 5 million people are already displaced internally.”
Gulam Bahauddin Jailani, head of the national disaster authority, told Reuters that fighting was going on in 25 of the 34 provinces and 60,000 families had been displaced over the past two months, with most seeking refuge in the Afghan capital.
A security source and provincial councilor in northern Baghlan Province told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi on condition of anonymity that government forces had retreated and Taliban fighters entered Pol-e Khomri at around 7:30 p.m. local time on August 10.
The sources said sporadic fighting was continuing in some areas of the city.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said on his Twitter account that the city had been “fully seized” by the militants.
Taliban militants were also consolidating their grip on the local levers of power in Aybak, the capital of the northern Samangan Province overrun by the group, residents said, as national security forces battled militants in three other northern provinces — Balkh, Takhar, and Kunduz.
The fall of Aybak on August 9 came a day after militants overran three provincial capitals, including most of the strategic northeastern city of Kunduz, the provincial capital of Sar-e Pol and Taloqan, the capital of northeastern Takhar Province.
Militants on August 6 took Zaranj, the capital of the southwestern Nimroz Province, and the northern Jawzjan Province’s capital, Sheberghan.
Heavy clashes were also reported close to Mazar-e Sharif, the capital of Balkh Province, officials told RFE/RL, while Afghan commandos launched a counterattack on August 9 to try to beat back Taliban fighters who had overrun most of Kunduz.
If the Taliban cements its control of Kunduz, a city of some 375,000 inhabitants, it would be the most significant urban center to fall to the militants since May.
In Balkh, militants appear to be in a position to advance from different directions on Mazar-e Sharif, the biggest city in the region, whose fall would deal a devastating blow to the Kabul government.
Atta Mohammad Noor, a northern militia commander, vowed to fight the Taliban to the end, saying there would be “resistance until the last drop of my blood.”
Security officials also reported fighting on the outskirts of the western city of Herat, near the Iranian border.
As fighting raged, tens of thousands of people were on the move inside the country, with families fleeing newly captured Taliban cities with tales of brutal treatment at the hands of the militants, despite an order on August 10 from the group’s military commander to his fighters not to harm Afghan forces and government officials in territories they conquer.
In a nearly five-minute audio, Mohammad Yaqoob, the son of late Taliban leader Mullah Omar, told militants to stay out of abandoned homes of government and security officials who have fled, leave marketplaces open and protect places of business, including banks.
There have been reports by civilians who have fled Taliban advances of heavy-handed treatment by the insurgents — schools being burned down and repressive restrictions on women.
The Afghanistan representative for UNICEF, the UN’s children’s agency, said on August 9 that it was “shocked by the rapid escalation of grave violations against children in Afghanistan,” adding, “The atrocities grow higher by the day.”
The Taliban has also taken most of Lashkar Gah, the capital of southern Helmand Province, where heavy fighting including air strikes by the U.S. and Afghan forces continues.
Khalilzad, the architect of the peace deal that the previous U.S. administration of President Donald Trump brokered with the Taliban in February 2020, was expected to hold talks with key players and seek a commitment from Afghanistan’s neighbors and the region not to recognize a Taliban government that comes to power by force.
Senior Afghan officials may also travel to Doha in the coming days, including Abdullah Abdullah, who heads the government’s reconciliation council.
Kabul and several western governments say Pakistan’s support for the Taliban allowed the group to resurface after being pushed from power by the U.S. invasion in 2001.
#SanctionPakistan is among the top trending hashtags on Twitter as tens of thousands of Afghans demand an end to the Taliban offensive which they labeled as “Pakistan’s proxy war in Afghanistan.”
Afghans have also been taking to the streets in European, Canadian, and U.S. cities to protest against Taliban’s human rights violations and seek an end to regional support for the militant group.
Pakistan denies supporting the Taliban.
The U.S. Central Command has said the troop withdrawal is more than 95 percent complete and will be finished by August 31, ahead of the September 11 anniversary of two decades since the Al-Qaeda attacks on the United States that prompted the invasion of Afghanistan.
This story includes reporting by Radio Azadi correspondents on the ground in Afghanistan. Their names are being withheld for their protection.
With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, and Tolo News
Related
The Guardian (UK): Two days ago I had to flee my home and life in the north of Afghanistan after the Taliban took my city. I am still on the run and there is no safe place for me to go. Last week I was a news journalist. Today I can’t write under my own name or say where I am from or where I am. My whole life has been obliterated in just a few days. Click here to read more (external link).
Press TV
August 10, 2021
An Iranian businessman says trade with Afghanistan has fully stopped amid rising tensions in the neighboring country.
Hossein Salimi, who chairs the Iran-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce, said on Tuesday that even Afghan traders had stopped processing Iranian export cargoes destined for Afghanistan because of surging violence in Afghan cities and towns.
Trade with Afghanistan accounts for a considerable part of Iran’s export revenues with monthly purchases by customers in the country normally reaching over a quarter of a billion US dollars.
However, exports started to decline last month after fighting intensified between the Taliban and government forces in various regions.
Salimi told the semi-official ILNA news agency that air strikes carried out by the United States in recent days had complicated the security situation in Afghanistan and led to full closure of border crossings from Iran.
He said that local middlemen who had been taking risk of delivering Iranian cargoes to Afghan customers had stopped operating because of increased fighting.
The businessman said it would take at least 10 days before the two countries can resume limited trade through their border crossings.
Figures by Iran’s customs office IRICA published on Monday showed that exports to Afghanistan had reached $258 million in value terms in the calendar month to July 22.
The figures showed that Iranian monthly exports to Afghanistan had increased by nearly 20% year on year in late July and just before violence began to intensify in the country.
That comes as an IRICA spokesman on Tuesday denied reports about a full closure of border crossings on the Iran-Afghan borders, saying trade was flowing normally between the two countries.
Press TV
August 10, 2021
Ongoing offensives by the Taliban militants in Afghanistan have forced thousands of civilians to flee their homes across the country.
The Taliban on Tuesday captured Farah City in western Afghanistan, the seventh provincial capital to fall to them since Friday.
“This afternoon, the Taliban entered the city of Farah after briefly fighting with the security forces. They have captured the governor’s office and police headquarters,” Shahla Abubar, a member of Farah’s provincial council, said.
Tens of thousands of people also fled their homes in the north for the relative safety of Kabul and other urban centers as the militants focused on the major city of Mazar-i-Sharif, whose collapse would give the Taliban total control over northern Afghanistan.
The Taliban earlier claimed they were closing in on Mazar-i-Sharif after capturing Sheberghan to its west, and Kunduz and Taloqan to its east. But Fawad Aman, spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense, said Afghan government forces had the upper hand there.
The Indian consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif, however, called on its nationals to board a “special flight” scheduled for later in the day.
In the northern city of Kunduz, which was captured by the Taliban over the weekend, residents said the militant focused their attention on government forces who had retreated to the airport. Witnesses and local residents living close to the airport reported days of heavy fighting in the area.
In another development, the Afghan forces in Pul-e Khumri, the capital of Baghlan Province, were also surrounded as Taliban closed in on the town at a main junction on the road to Kabul.
Following the capture of Aibak, the capital city of the north-central province of Samangan, on Monday, the Taliban militants have now captured seven out of the 34 provincial capitals in Afghanistan in less than a week. They are now battling the government for control of the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand.
To contain Taliban advances, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and a group of political leaders on Tuesday agreed to form a joint command center to mobilize regional militias and public uprising forces against the militants. The presidential palace said the center would oversee rapid equipment and mobilization of the forces in various part of Afghanistan. The command center will have key political leaders as its members.
Ghani has also appealed to civilians to defend the country’s “democratic fabric.”
Meanwhile, the European Union (EU) said on Tuesday that it sought to prevent Afghanistan from slipping into a state of civil war, becoming an even bigger producer of drugs or a source for a “massive flow of migration.”
The United States has been withdrawing foreign forces from Afghanistan in a hasty plan that was devised after two decades of war and occupation. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said it was down to the Afghan government and its forces to turn the tide, and there was “not much” the United States could do to help.
In a last-ditch effort, Washington’s special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad was, however, in Qatar to try and convince the Taliban to accept a ceasefire. The State Department said he “will press the Taliban to stop their military offensive” and to “help formulate a joint international response to the rapidly deteriorating situation.”
Fighting between the Taliban militants and Afghan government forces has significantly soared since May, when the US-led military coalition started the troop withdrawal.
Afghan commando Hasibullah Faizi was captured by Taliban militants when his helicopter was shot down in 2016. He has given RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi a horrific account of brutal torture that has left him praying for his own death.
Rashid Khan
Indian Express: “Dear World Leaders! My country is in chaos,thousand of innocent people, including children & women, get martyred everyday, houses & properties being destructed.Thousand families displaced. Don’t leave us in chaos. Stop killing Afghans & destroying Afghaniatan. We want peace,” wrote Rashid. Click here to read more (external link).