China Sees Opportunity After America’s Withdrawal From Afghanistan. But Can Beijing Do Any Better?

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Time: Today, in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal, Chinese strategists are thinking bigger, and eyeing deals to exploit Afghanistan’s mineral deposits. An Afghan parallel to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor—the $50 billion development of factories, power plants and pipelines from Kashgar in Xinjiang province to the Pakistani port of Gwadar in the Persian Gulf—might even be on the cards. Click here to read more (external link).

Afghan Journalists’ Open Letter to World: ‘Protect Us’

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Tolo News: Afghan journalists, cameramen and photographers in an open letter called on the United Nations, the international community, human rights organizations and media-supporting organizations to protect them against threats.  The letter was published on Saturday and signed by 150 reporters. Click here to read more (external link).

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Islamic State Claims It Fired Rockets At Kabul Airport Amid Race To Evacuate Thousands

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By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
August 30, 2021

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for firing six rockets at Kabul’s airport on August 30.

The group’s Nasher News said on its Telegram channel that six Katyusha rockets were fired in the attack.

U.S. officials have been quoted as saying that anti-missile defenses intercepted as many as five rockets fired at the airport as a mass evacuation of people from the war-torn country enters into its final hours before all foreign troops withdraw by an August 31 deadline.

There were no immediate reports of casualties from the August 30 attack, which comes the day before the United States is set to withdraw all its forces from Afghanistan, drawing to a close its 20-year military presence in the war-torn country.

The rocket attack comes in the wake of the United States carrying out two separate drone strikes on targets affiliated with Islamic State (IS) since August 26, when the group claimed responsibility for killing more than 170 people in a suicide attack outside the airport.

The U.S.-led airlift has taken more than 117,000 foreigners and Afghans out of Kabul airport since the Taliban took control of the capital over two weeks ago.

As the August 31 deadline set by President Joe Biden approaches, U.S. forces are now mostly focused on flying themselves and American diplomats out safely.

The White House said that Biden was briefed “on the rocket attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport” early on August 30, and was informed that operations there “continue uninterrupted.”

The president “has reconfirmed his order that commanders redouble their efforts to prioritize doing whatever is necessary to protect our forces on the ground,” spokesman Jen Psaki said in a statement.

After the August 30 attack, local residents in Kabul reported shrapnel falling on their homes and into the streets.

About 2 kilometers from the airport, an AFP photographer took images of a destroyed car with a launcher system still visible in the back seat.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press quoted witnesses as saying that rockets struck the Salim Karwan neighborhood near Kabul’s airport. They said that gunfire followed the explosions.

U.S. military cargo planes continued their evacuations at the airport after the rocket fire, according to the news agency.

Biden and other top U.S. officials have warned that the final hours of the operation in Kabul will be extremely dangerous.

On August 29, the U.S. military said a drone strike on a vehicle in Kabul thwarted an imminent attack by Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) on the military evacuation at the airport.

A Taliban spokesman said the strike resulted in civilian casualties and chided the United States for failing to inform the militants before ordering the strike. The Tolo news agency said at least 10 civilians died in the air strike.

The U.S. military said it was investigating the reports, which said the dead included children.

“We know that there were substantial and powerful subsequent explosions resulting from the destruction of the vehicle, indicating a large amount of explosive material inside that may have caused additional casualties. It is unclear what may have happened, and we are investigating further,” U.S. Central Command said in a statement.

The U.S. military also carried out a retaliatory drone strike in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar Province the previous day that the Pentagon said killed two members of IS-K.

The strikes came after an IS-K suicide attack outside the airport killed some 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. troops — the deadliest single incident for American forces in Afghanistan in a decade.

In recent years, IS-K has been behind some of the deadliest attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

While both IS and the Taliban are hard-line Sunni Islamist groups, they are bitter foes.

The Taliban has promised an inclusive government since sweeping back into power on August 15, and to exercise a softer brand of rule compared with their first regime in Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001.

But many Afghans fear a repeat of the militants’ brutal interpretation of Islamic law, as well as violent retribution for working with foreign militaries and missions and with the previous Western-backed government.

Late on August 29, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi that the group’s leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, was in the southern city of Kandahar.

A Taliban source said the Taliban was “preparing for a mass gathering after August 31 to discuss the future government in Afghanistan.”

As evacuations from Kabul draw to a close, Biden’s national-security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on August 29 that for those U.S. citizens seeking immediately to leave Afghanistan by the looming deadline, “we have the capacity to have 300 Americans, which is roughly the number we think are remaining, come to the airport and get on planes in the time that is remaining.”

Western allies have warned that thousands of at-risk Afghans have not been able to get on the evacuation flights by the United States and its allies.

But the United States and dozens of other countries have committed to ensuring that “our citizens, nationals and residents, employees, Afghans who have worked with us and those who are at risk can continue to travel freely to destinations outside Afghanistan.”

“We will continue issuing travel documentation to designated Afghans, and we have the clear expectation of and commitment from the Taliban that they can travel to our respective countries,” according to a joint statement published on the State Department website on August 29.

Russia was not among the signatories, but the Russian Embassy in Kabul said it was accepting applications from those seeking to leave Afghanistan on additional evacuation flights, after Moscow evacuated about 360 people from the country last week.

Meanwhile, another plane carrying 150 Afghans arrived in Albania, the Albanian Foreign Ministry said, bringing the total number of Afghans brought to the Balkan country to 607.

The ministry said the plane had come from the United Arab Emirates.

Later on August 30, the United States said it will host a virtual ministerial meeting with allies such as Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain, Turkey, Qatar, the European Union, and NATO to discuss “an aligned approach [on Afghanistan] for the days and weeks ahead.”

French President Emmanuel Macron has said that France and Britain plan to propose at a meeting of the UN Security Council’s permanent members on August 30 a resolution “aimed at defining a safe zone in Kabul under UN control” that would allow for continued “humanitarian operations.”

The permanent members of the United Nations Security Council are Russia, China, the United States, France, and the United Kingdom.

In Rome, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said the Afghan crisis exposed the need for the bloc to set up a rapid reaction force of about 5,000 soldiers to respond to similar events in future.

“As Europeans we have not been able to send 6,000 soldiers around the Kabul airport to secure the area. The U.S. have been, we haven’t,” Borrell told the newspaper Il Corriere della Sera in an interview.

This story includes reporting by Radio Azadi correspondents on the ground in Afghanistan. Their names are being withheld for their protection.

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and AP

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.

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Afghan Musicians Fear Being Silenced By The Taliban

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Haroon Bacha
Abubakar Siddique

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
August 29, 2021

Young musician Ahmad Khan says doomsday arrived for him when the hard-line Taliban movement overran the Afghan capital, Kabul — the conclusion of a dramatic sweep across the war-torn country that saw Afghanistan’s pro-Western government melt away.

Khan — using a pseudonym for security reasons — had eked out a living playing his “rubab,” a stringed instrument similar to the guitar. He was happy with his moderate income supplemented by generous tips when he performed at weddings and other celebrations.

But Khan has been in hiding since the Taliban took over Kabul on August 15 — unable to make music or earn money.

“We are extremely anxious and terrified now because our art was also our livelihood,” he told RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal. “We have no other skills and won’t be able to pursue another job or career. Unlike others, we have no prospect of being allowed to escape to another country.”

Khan wants Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers to announce their policies on music, musicians, and artistic expression in general.

“We really don’t know what our fate will be,” he says. “We request that the Taliban tell us what we can and can’t do so that we can get on with our lives. Musicians are already being forced to sell their belongings to survive the current uncertainty.”

Shari’a Law

The Taliban has thus far strongly hinted it would reimpose a ban on music.

“Our future political system and laws will be based on the Islamic Shari’a law, so we will allow everything that Shari’a permits,” Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, told journalists on July 24. “If something is not allowed by Shari’a, my hope will be that our compatriots chasing such professions will reconsider their choices. It is better for all of us that we spend our lives in accordance with the Islamic teachings.”

In an interview with The New York Times, Mujahid said music would not be allowed in public. “Music is forbidden in Islam,” he claimed, “but we’re hoping that we can persuade people not to do such things instead of pressuring them.”

The Afghan media has been confused over whether the Taliban will permit people to play music or wants to ban them from doing so.

One official who requested anonymity due to security fears says the incoming Taliban chief of the state Radio Television Afghanistan has told staff to stop playing music. But another employee, also requesting anonymity, says he was unaware of any such order.

Several private television and radio stations, however, continue to broadcast some music and continue to air local and dubbed soap operas. They too, however, are careful about what kind of music and shows they broadcast in this transition period under which the Taliban has promised to install an “inclusive Islamic government.”

Other radio stations in Afghanistan have, however, stopped playing music entirely and no longer broadcast things such as game shows, sitcoms, and soap operas. They are instead broadcasting Koranic recitations and similar religious programming.

In the eastern province of Nangarhar, one musician told Radio Mashaal that the fate of some 470 registered musicians and singers hangs in the balance as they wait to hear from the new head of the province’s office of culture and information.

“We were always opposed to vulgar dance videos and other such things done in bad taste,” he told Radio Mashaal, requesting anonymity due to security fears. “We do hope that the Taliban will not completely ban us from playing traditional Afghan music.”

‘Hanging Instruments On Trees’

But many Afghan musicians are bracing for the worst.

“My concerns are based on the past policies of the Taliban against music, art, and culture,” Ahmad Sarmast, the head of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM), told Radio Mashaal.

Sarmast went to Australia in July to meet family and seek medical treatment before the fast-paced events this month that saw the collapse of the government. He is worried that the Taliban’s previous attitude toward music will also be reflected in their future policies.

“We all clearly remember the past: the destruction of the musical instruments, hanging instruments on trees, and punishing people for playing, learning, or listening to music,” he says, recalling the extensive Taliban prohibition on music and other arts when they ruled from 1996-2001. “Based on how the foot soldiers of the Taliban are now behaving in Kabul, we have reason to worry about the future of music in Afghanistan.”

Opened in 2010, ANIM is a vibrant music school that has revived Afghanistan’s musical heritage. Its orchestra has performed around the world and the institution has trained a new generation of musicians, composers, and singers. But the school has been closed since the Taliban rolled into Kabul, and Sarmast says it won’t open unless there are security guarantees from the new authorities.

“I am worried about the safety and security of our students and the future of our school,” he says.

The ban on music is likely to become a hallmark of the Taliban’s second stint in power.

Jasmina Lazovic, program coordinator of global monitoring at Freemuse, a Swedish-based NGO working to preserve artistic expression, says the prevailing uncertainty about Afghanistan’s future government puts artists in a vulnerable position — particularly women and those who have been known for work that tackles the issue of human rights or took part in state activities under the previous government.

“The current situation in the country can be best described as a state of uncertainty, followed by a deeply rooted fear of reprisals against artists,” Lazovic told Gandhara, adding that Western governments should also help evacuate artists who are at risk. “The key further step would be to work with the future Afghan government and get guarantees that [it] will respect human rights in line with the best international practices and international human rights conventions to which Afghanistan has been party to for decades.”

The Taliban’s return is reverberating in neighboring countries, too.

Shakeela Naz, a popular singer in Pakistan, has a large fan base among Pashtuns in Afghanistan. She is urging the Taliban to look at the policies in other Muslim countries before imposing a blanket ban on music and other performing arts in Afghanistan.

“In [conservative] Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia [there is] music, dramas, poetry, film, and other arts,” she told Radio Mashaal. “Oppressing artists will not achieve anything as artists in Afghanistan have already faced a lot suffering because of the war there.”

Abdul Ghafoor Liwal, an Afghan writer, poet, and former official, says preserving and promoting Afghanistan’s arts and cultural heritage will be a key responsibility of its government.

“Artists and musicians are innocent members of society who have no role in shaping or influencing government policies. They need to be protected,” he told Radio Mashaal. “Immediate steps need to be taken to protect them.”

Although Sarmast sees little hope, he is appealing to the militant Islamist group.

“I call on the Taliban to keep this [musical] institution shining — let this institution progress,” he says.

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.

Highly suspicious: CNN interviewed Daesh terrorist before Kabul bombing

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Press TV
August 29, 2021

American broadcaster CNN aired an interview with a “senior” Daesh commander from a Kabul hotel two weeks before the Kabul airport bombing while the US-backed government was still in power in Afghanistan.

Shockingly, the Daesh commander told CNN reporter Clarissa Ward that the group was “laying low and waiting for its moment to strike,” but the broadcaster apparently did not share this vital information with US authorities or maybe it did and they simply ignored it.

Daesh struck the Kabul airport on Thursday, killing at least 180 people, mostly Afghan civilians and about a dozen US troops. The terrorist group claimed the responsibility for the attack.

The interview left observers and social media users wondering how the American media outlet gained access to the terrorist leader and protected his identity when the city was still under the control of the US-supported government, virtually under the control of US forces.

People questioned CNN’s motive behind the interview and its connection to the terrorist group, called Daesh-K, which was not known to anyone before Thursday’s deadly bombing.

The CNN reporter called the commander’s interview “eerily prophetic,” but social media users suggested that the statement was not a prophecy but a plot because the terrorist was speaking of what his group was about to carry out.

Some social media users said that CNN aided and abetted the Kabul attack by having advance knowledge of the possible bombing and apparently doing nothing to help prevent it.  They also wonder that how CNN did not lead American authorities to the terrorist commander.

One commentator called CNN’s explanation of the interview “quite fishy.”

“‘Let’s fly to this place and meet with this terror group K that most people haven’t heard of and understand their intentions,’ said nobody ever. Very fishy,” he tweeted. Another said, “CIA tweets CIA interview with CIA.”

Some commentators slammed CNN for airing the interview of a terrorist commander. “Who are they trying to protect, our people or the terrorist?” one observer asked. “These interviews seem odd to me as I think about the families of our fallen men and women.”

Meanwhile, the US military this week destroyed the final CIA base in Kabul, where the agency claimed it used to train Afghan forces in counterterrorism. But the real nature of the CIA’s activities in that sprawling outpost is shrouded in mystery.

The New York Times reported on Friday that the CIA outpost, called Eagle Base, outside the Kabul airport was destroyed on Thursday, as it is preparing to leave Afghanistan after implementing a policy of death and destruction in the country for twenty years

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Top Iranian general: US leaving Afghanistan with humiliating defeat

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A file photo of American soldiers at an unknown location in Afghanistan.

Press TV
August 29, 2021

Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Baqeri says the United States suffered a “humiliating defeat” in Afghanistan that led to its withdrawal after years of atrocities in the country.

He made the remarks on Sunday, two weeks after the Afghan government and military collapsed in the face of the Taliban’s swift advances on the ground, which many attribute to an irresponsible pullout of US-led foreign forces from the country.

Hundreds of people still await evacuation at Kabul’s international airport as a Tuesday deadline to withdraw all American troops approaches.

The recent developments have caused insecurity in Afghanistan, with the Daesh terrorist group conducting deadly bombing attacks.

“The criminal US deployed troops to the region under various pretexts, including the suspicious 9/11 attacks,” Baqeri said.

“The United States has not left the region in all these 42 years, and as time passes, it concocts more conspiracies and threats against the region.”

The general said what is happening in Afghanistan is a tragedy and the US is behind it.

“The United States occupied Afghanistan with a lot of killings, lootings and many other crimes, but left the country with a humiliating defeat. It left the oppressed people of this country in the throes of problems, troubles and turmoils without a clear future,” he said.

“Despite spending over $2,000 billion in Afghanistan, the US turned the Afghan national army into a useless and spineless force with a glamorous appearance and seemingly advanced equipment that, in their own words, was able to resist an insurgent group only for 11 days.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, Baqeri said that the development of defense power for the Islamic Iran is a definite and inevitable task for various reasons and necessities.

“The Islamic establishment is located in the most sensitive part of the world at a critical time. Over the past years, the most important conflicts and skirmished in the world have occurred in our region, and there is no clear prospect of seeing a period of calm and tranquility in the region,” he added.

Baqeri said although Iran’s defense budget is very low compared to those of other countries, the achievements of Iran’s armed forces are not comparable with their peers.

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Taliban Close to Formation of Cabinet, Announcement of New Government

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Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada

Tahir Khan
Ayesha Tanzeem
VOA News
August 29, 2021

KABUL/ISLAMABAD – A senior Taliban leader confirmed to VOA on condition of anonymity that the group is in the final stages of announcing a new Cabinet that was expected to include all members of its current Rahbari Shura, or leadership council.

Taliban supreme commander Hibatullah Akhundzada is holding the consultations in Kandahar, the city known as the birthplace of the Taliban, along with his deputies Sirajuddin Haqqani, the head of Haqqani network, and Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, son of Taliban founder Mullah Omar and the head of Taliban military commission.

“Currently, the Taliban leadership is consulting with different ethnic groups, political parties and within the Islamic Emirate about forming a government that has to be accepted both inside and outside Afghanistan and to be recognized,” Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, another senior Taliban leader said in a televised address Saturday.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told VOA the process was “near completion.”

“The leadership has assigned deputy chief Sirajuddin Haqqani and the other deputy chief Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob to finalize names for the cabinet,” the senior Taliban leader said. The final approval of the names would come from Akhundzada himself.

He said the Cabinet could have more than 26 members and might include people other than leadership council members.

The Rahbari Shura is the most important decision-making body for the Taliban and is headed by Akhundzada himself, who is called Ameer ul Momineen, or leader of the faithful.

While the Taliban claim the government will be inclusive, their spokesman said sharing power was not the group’s priority for now.

“There is no agreement with any political leader to induct him in the government,” Mujahid Said. “I want to make it clear that this is not our focus to share government with others.”

He said the group was seeking opinions of “known faces, ulema, former Mujahideen leaders” on the new system of governance.

The shura held its first formal meeting in Kabul after the takeover of the city in the Presidential Palace on August 21. Haqqani and Yaqoob jointly presided over it. Since then, shura members and other senior officials have been holding informal meetings almost daily.

“The shura has in principle decided that if the United States and other invaders complete their withdrawal by August 31, the Islamic Emirate [the Taliban name for their government] will announce the Cabinet,” the senior leader said.  “The Amir ul Momineen is of the opinion that if a government is announced in the presence of the American forces it will raise many questions.”

He said the shura has also floated the idea that the announcement of the Cabinet should come from Akhundzada himself in a nationally televised address.

“If Amir ul Momineen does not want to appear in public, he could nominate a confidant and senior leader to make the announcement,” he added.

The shura was also of the view that the cabinet should be announced in the first week of September and the name of the new Taliban government should be Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, but that decision required approval from Akhundzada.

The Taliban leader said they intended to keep the national army intact and include their own fighters into the institution. Decisions on the national flag and constitution were to be made by the new cabinet.

In their internal consultations, the Taliban were also discussing the possibility of making either Sirajuddin Haqqani or Mullah Yaqoob the “Raees ul Wazara,” a position equivalent to a prime minister.  During the Taliban’s last government in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, Mullah Mohammad Rabbani, held this post as the head of the ruling shura of ministers.

Shura members are also discussing the possibility that if Haqqani becomes prime minister, Yaqoob could be defense minister, since he currently heads the military commission of Taliban.

Other than the formation of government, the leader said internal discussions were heavily focused on security in the capital, Kabul.

Two explosions, at least one of them a suicide bomber, outside Kabul’s airport last week killed at least 170 people including 13 American service members guarding the airport. The Islamic State Khorasan, the regional branch of IS, took responsibility for the attack.

Since the attack the Taliban have increased their security around the airport and set up checkpoints on roads leading to the airport.

Below is a list of members of Taliban’s Rahbari shura, expected to be included in their Cabinet when it is announced.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, head of the political office in Qatar’s capital Doha

Sheikh Abdul Hakeem, head of the Taliban negotiation team in Doha

Sher Abbas Stanekzai, deputy of the negotiation team in Doha

Sadar Ibrahim, former chief of the military commission

Abdul Qayyum Zakir, former chief of the military commission

Mullah Fazil, former deputy defense minister

Abdul Manan Akhund, brother of Taliban founder Mullah Omar

Maulvi Noor Muhammad Saqib, former Taliban chief justice

Amir Khan Muttaqi, former information minister

Abdul Salam Hanafi, member of the Taliban negotiation team in Doha

Qari Deen Muhammad, member of the Taliban negotiation team in Doha

Lateef Mansoor, member of the Taliban negotiation team in Doha

Sheikh Qasim, member of the Taliban negotiation team in Doha

Muhammad Zahid  Ahmadzai, former Taliban diplomat in Pakistan

Maulvi Abdul Kabeer, former governor, Nangarhar province

Sheikh Abdul Hakim Sharee, an influential cleric

Noorulah Noori, former Guantanamo Bay detainee

Abdur Rahman

Mullah Gul agha

Ameer Haqqani

Mullah Mohammad Hasan

Sheihkh Sharif

Faizullah Khan

Taj Mir

Hafiz Majeed

Veteran Afghan strongmen to form new front for talks with Taliban

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Dostum

Ariana: A band of veteran Afghan leaders, including two regional strongmen, are angling for talks with the Taliban and plan to meet within weeks to form a new front for holding negotiations on the country’s next government, a member of a group said. Khalid Noor, son of Atta Mohammad Noor, the once-powerful governor of northern Afghanistan’s Balkh province, said the group comprised of veteran ethnic Uzbek leader Abdul Rashid Dostum and others opposed to the Taliban’s takeover. Click here to read more (external link).