Tolo News: The Ministry of Public Health on Thursday reported 2,313 new positive cases of COVID-19 out of 6,092 samples tested in the last 24 hours. The ministry also reported 101 deaths and 301 recoveries from COVID-19 in the same period –the highest reported death toll from COVID-19 in a single day in Afghanistan. Afghanistan has so far recorded 98,844 positive cases and 3,943 deaths from COVID-19. Click here to read more (external link).
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Bismillah Mohammadi
Ariana: Bismillah Mohammadi has been appointed as Acting Interior Minister, replacing Hayatullah Hayat, sources said Wednesday. Mohammadi, a member of Jamiat-e-Islami Party, previously has worked as Minister of Defence, Minister of Interior Affairs, and Chief of the Army Staff. The development comes as violence dramatically increased across Afghanistan. Click here to read more (external link).
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CNN: On Monday, the CDC said it was suspending the import of dogs from more than 100 countries, including Afghanistan, where rabies is a problem. The agency said it had been given falsified rabies certificates, seen the import of three rabies-infected dogs since 2015 and was stretched beyond thin by the coronavirus pandemic response. Click here to read more (external link).
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
June 16, 2021
Amnesty International is urging the Afghan authorities to investigate and bring to justice the perpetrators of a recent series of deadly attacks against civilians amounting to war crimes.
“The targeting of civilians with near total impunity continues unabated,” Samira Hamidi, the London-based human rights watchdog’s South Asia campaigner, said in a statement on June 16, after at least 24 civilians were killed across Afghanistan in just over a week.
“While peace talks falter and preparations for the full withdrawal of international forces gathers pace, it’s Afghanistan’s civilians who are paying the brutal price of this conflict.”
Health workers, humanitarians, human rights defenders, and journalists “have been particularly targeted in a wave of assassinations” since peace talks launched in Qatar in September 2020 between the Afghan government and the Taliban, with at least 24 of them being killed since the beginning of the year, according to Amnesty International.
With the exception of one of these killings, no other investigations have taken place, and nobody has been brought to justice in any of the cases, it added.
The watchdog’s plea comes after gunmen on June 15 targeted polio vaccination teams in the eastern province of Nangarhar, killing five health workers and wounding four others.
Three days earlier, two car bombs killed at least seven civilians and wounded six others in an area of Kabul largely populated by members of the Shi’ite Hazara minority.
There were no claims of responsibility for these attacks.
This week’s incidents followed the killing of 10 Afghans working for a mine-clearance organization in the northern province of Baghlan on June 8 in an attack claimed by an affiliate of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group. Sixteen workers were also wounded.
Amnesty International also noted that two doctors were also killed in separate attacks in Parwan and Farah provinces over the past week.
“In recent months we have seen appalling attacks on schoolchildren, health workers, humanitarians and other civilians in busy streets and markets. Deliberately attacking medical personnel, humanitarian workers and other civilians are war crimes,” Hamidi said.
She called on the Afghan authorities to “end this cycle of impunity by launching independent and effective investigations” into attacks on civilians and bring those responsible to justice.
All parties to the conflict must “take all measures necessary to protect civilians and respect international humanitarian law,” while the international community should make the protection of civilians and of minorities a “central component of their ongoing support of the peace process,” she added.
Meanwhile, the European Union’s acting special envoy for Afghanistan said that time is running out for peace negotiations and more needed to be done to boost the negotiations as international forces withdraw from the war-torn country.
“Time is getting shorter as we speak,” Tomas Niklasson, told Reuters during a visit to Islamabad. “There has been no or very little progress on substance, so from that perspective more has to be done.”
The stalled intra-Afghan talks in Doha largely broke off in April, when the United States announced it would pull out its forces by September 11 following a May 1 deadline the previous U.S. administration had agreed with the Taliban.
With reporting by Reuters
More Security News
Tolo News: The Afghan Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), referring to the killing of at least five polio vaccinators in the eastern province of Nangarhar, on Wednesday said that the attack on health workers, including the polio vaccinators, will cause the paralysis of more children in Afghanistan. The health ministry said that security threats in the past years have deprived nearly 3.5 million children of polio vaccination. Click here to read more (external link).
Other Health News
Karim Khan
VOA News
June 16, 2021
The International Criminal Court has sworn in a top international defense lawyer as its new prosecutor.
British lawyer Karim Khan inherits investigations from outgoing prosecutor Fatou Bensouda in unsettled areas, such as the Palestinian territories, Myanmar and Afghanistan.
The 51-year-old Khan, who previously led the United Nations’ special team investigating Islamic State crimes in Iraq, vowed to reach out to non-member nations in his effort to end immunity for atrocities.
The United States, Russia and China are not members of the 123-member ICC and do not recognize its authority.
The ICC, in need of resources, is currently handling 14 investigations and eight preliminary probes. Khan will be scrutinized as he handles investigations opposed by non-member countries like the United States, Russia and Israel.
The Trump administration sanctioned Bensouda over her decision to investigate allegations of war crimes in Afghanistan, including by American troops, and by Israeli troops and other armed groups in Palestinian territories.
President Joe Biden’s top U.S. diplomat, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, lifted the sanctions against Bensouda on April 2.
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Tolo News: Despite a 1-1 draw against India on Tuesday night’s qualifying match for the World Cup 2022 and AFC Asian Cup 2023, Afghanistan has only qualified for the third round of the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers. Afghanistan’s football team is no longer in the running for the World Cup 2022. Click here to read more (external link).
Fatimah Hossaini
Tehran Times: Tehran-based Afghan photographer Fatimah Hossaini has put the spotlight in her latest collection on the beauty of her homeland’s women that for years has been hidden under the rubble of war. The collection named “Beauty amid War” is currently on view in an exhibit at the Iranian Artists Forum in Tehran. Click here to read more (external link).
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Erdogan
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
June 15, 2021
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country would need support from the United States to protect Kabul’s international airport if it were to maintain troops in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of other NATO troops.
Turkey is also seeking Pakistan and Hungary’s involvement in a new mission in Afghanistan following the departure of the U.S.-led NATO force, Erdogan said on June 14 at the end of a series of meetings with NATO leaders in Brussels.
“If they don’t want us to leave Afghanistan, if they want [Turkish] support there, then the diplomatic, logistic, and financial support that the United States will give us will [be] of great importance,” Erdogan said.
NATO leaders agreed earlier at their one-day summit to maintain funding for Kabul’s civilian airport after the withdrawal of allied troops scheduled to be finished by September 11.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance is working on how to ensure the continued operation of the airport, adding that “Turkey of course plays a key role in those efforts.”
U.S. President Joe Biden said there was a strong consensus among the NATO leaders on Afghanistan.
“Our troops are coming home, but we agreed that our diplomatic, economic, and humanitarian commitment to the Afghan people and our support for the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces will endure,” he said.
Meanwhile, a top U.S. commander has clarified the role U.S. aircraft are expected to provide as so-called “over-the-horizon” support for Afghan government forces after the last U.S. troops leave Afghanistan.
General Frank McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command, told the Voice Of America on June 14 that the United States is not planning to support Afghan forces with air strikes after the U.S. troop withdrawal is complete.
McKenzie said counterterrorism strikes in Afghanistan would be limited to cases in which plans have been discovered by “someone who wants to attack the homeland of the United States, [or] one of our allies and partners.”
The general’s comments appear to refute a report by the New York Times that said the Pentagon was considering seeking authorization to carry out air strikes to support Afghan security forces if Kabul or another major city is in danger of falling to the Taliban.
In Brussels, Erdogan criticized what he said was a lack of support from NATO for counterterrorism efforts.
But Erdogan described his meeting with Biden as constructive and said he invited him to visit Turkey.
“There is a strong will for the start of a new era in all areas based on mutual respect and interest,” Erdogan said.
“There is no problem in Turkey-U.S. relations that cannot be solved,” he said, while Biden told reporters he was “confident we’ll make real progress with Turkey.”
Erdogan said the issue of Biden’s declaration in April that the Ottoman-era mass killing and deportations of Armenians was “genocide” was not discussed during his meeting with Biden.
Turkey, which was furious over Biden ‘s declaration, denies the deportations and massacres, which began in 1915 and killed an estimated 1.5 million Armenians, amounted to genocide.
The Turkish leader used the meeting to renew a call for an end to U.S. support for the Kurdish fighters in Syria, who Ankara argues are linked to a Kurdish insurgency in Turkey.
He also signaled no change over Turkey’s purchase of the S-400 advanced Russian missile defense system, which Washington says is a threat to NATO.
“Our thoughts on the S-400 are the same as before. I relayed our same thoughts to Mr. Biden,” Erdogan said, but added efforts to resolve the differences continue through contacts between the two countries’ foreign and defense ministers.
In Brussels, Erdogan also met with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
After meeting with Erdogan, Macron said on Twitter that he wants to “move forward” with clarity on Turkey.
Erdogan said Macron told him as “a friend” that it’s “out of the question for me to be against Islam.” He also said that Turkey and France would continue to work together to tackle conflicts in Libya and Syria.
With reporting by VOA, AP, and Anadolu