Gunmen Kill 5 Polio Vaccinators in Afghanistan

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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
June 15, 2021

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN – Officials in conflict-torn Afghanistan said Tuesday gunmen had shot dead at least five polio vaccinators and injured several others in separate attacks in eastern Nangarhar province.

Afghanistan and its neighbor Pakistan are the only two countries in the world where the crippling polio disease remains endemic.

Authorities said the early morning violence in parts of Jalalabad, the provincial capital, and nearby Khogyani district came on the second day of a four-day national campaign administering polio drops to children under five years of age.

Jan Mohammad, head of the provincial immunization department, told VOA they had suspended the vaccination campaign following the deadly attack. No one immediately took responsibility for what appeared to be a coordinated shooting spree.

In March, three female anti-polio workers were gunned down in Jalalabad during this year’s first polio immunization drive. Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack. The terror group’s regional affiliate, known as IS Khorasan Province, has bases in Nangarhar and adjoining Afghan provinces.

The United Nations condemned Tuesday’s attack, saying depriving children from an assurance of a healthy life “is inhuman.”

Ramiz Alakbarov, U.N. secretary-general’s deputy special representative for Afghanistan, demanded the “senseless violence must stop” and authorities bring to justice those responsible for it.

“I am appalled by the brutality of these killings,” Alakbarov wrote on Twitter.

Afghanistan reported 56 new cases of polio last year. But officials say only one wild polio virus case has been detected in the country since October 2020, and transmissions to polio-free Afghan areas have also been contained.

Wahid Majrooh, the acting Afghan health minister, said on Monday the current immunization drive intends to administer polio drops to nearly 10 million children across the country’s 34 provinces.

He lamented, however, that relentless fighting and restrictions on door-to-door vaccinations in areas held by Taliban insurgents continue to deprive around three million children of the polio vaccine.

Majrooh again urged warring parties to help ensure trouble-free access for his teams so they can vaccinate all Afghan children against polio.
“We cannot end polio unless we are able to vaccinate children everywhere,” he said.

Football: Afghans to Play India in World Cup Qualifier

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Tolo News: Afghanistan’s national football team will face India on Tuesday in Qatar for the final group match in the second round of the 2022 FIFA World Cup and 2023 AFC Asian Cup joint qualifiers.  The match will kick off at 6:30 pm in Afghan time and will be aired on Lemar TV. Click here to read more (external link).

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Frustration Grows Within NATO Over US Handling of Afghan Exit

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Michael Hughes
AOPNEWS
June 14, 2021

Just as the NATO summit gets underway in Brussels, several alliance members are expressing frustration with how the United States has managed the entire process of withdrawing from Afghanistan, including the fact the exit is unconditional – just as the Taliban continues to make significant military advances. And this chorus of complaints has grown as Monday’s summit gets underway.  

The U.S. military has said the withdrawal process is more than halfway complete, as many brace for what seems like an inevitable Taliban takeover. A Pentagon official said the U.S. could continue to support the Afghan security forces by training them “in other countries.” However, the U.S. has struggled to convince any states in the region to host American military operations of any kind.

“It’s not a surprise that you’ve seen some countries express, pretty straightforwardly, their dissatisfaction with the way things were done,” one unnamed European official told Politico on Sunday ahead of the summit in Brussels. “This is another example of one of the issues where within NATO, we should be more substantially discussing and consulting with one another before making decisions.”

A Biden administration official immediately pushed back on this notion, telling the news outlet that the U.S. afforded its allies a “listening session” over the matter, which they greatly appreciated.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan during a press gaggle on Air Force one also tried to downplay any talk of divisions within the NATO ranks.

“In Afghanistan… we’re proceeding on an in-together, out-together basis, and coordinating very closely with our Allies as we draw down our remaining forces,” Sullivan said.

Other frictions within the alliance are over contentious issues such as how Afghans who have supported the war effort will be protected post-withdrawal as well as the possibility of leaving foreign forces to defend the airport in Kabul in addition to diplomatic posts.

On Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan saw an opportunity here, boldly claiming that his country is best-suited to play this role.

“America is preparing to leave Afghanistan soon and from the moment they leave, the only reliable country to maintain the process over there is obviously Turkey,” Erdogan told reporters before hopping on a plane en route to Brussels.

Erdogan’s remarks come a day after the Taliban said foreign forces should hold “no hope” for keeping any type of footprint on Afghan soil. The militants said protecting the embassies and airports would be the responsibility of the Afghan people alone. The issue the White House said will be on the agenda when President Joe Biden and Erdogan meet on the sidelines of the summit.

But the Taliban are not the only security concern evidenced by the attack owned by ISIS that killed 10 mine clearing aid workers in Baghlan-e-Markazi on June 8, which the UN Security Council condemned in a statement three days later.

As Biden touched down in Brussels on Sunday, his administration underscored that the withdrawal should not be seen as a total abandonment of Afghanistan, a characterization which many native Afghans would take issue with.

“As NATO winds down its military presence in Afghanistan after nearly 20 years, the United States and our NATO Allies and partners will continue supporting the people of Afghanistan through civilian and security assistance,” the White House said in a statement on Sunday, June 13.

The G7 leaders before ending their summit in the UK Sunday, expressed similar support, in addition to beating the same old drum about agreeing to and implementing a “a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire,” while calling on both sides to “engage fully with the peace process.” They said only a sustainable and inclusive political settlement can lead to peace.

“We are determined to maintain our support for the Afghan government to address the country’s urgent security and humanitarian needs, and to help the people of Afghanistan, including women, young people and minority groups, as they seek to preserve hard-won rights and freedoms,” the G7 leaders said in a joint statement.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, meanwhile, bristled over the suggestion that the Western allies would be forced to pull resources in haste akin to the end of the Vietnam war.

“Evacuation is the wrong word,” Blinken told CNN. “We’re determined to make good on our obligation to those who helped us, who put their lives on the line, put their families’ lives on the line working with our military, working with our diplomats.  And there’s a special program for so-called Special Immigrant Visas that gives them a dedicated channel to apply to come to the United States.”

Suggestions that some NATO allies are frustrated with the U.S. exit strategy has been met with skepticism in some quarters. 

“There is little appetite left to continue investing in Afghanistan,” the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Europe Program Director, Erik Brattberg, told Politico on Sunday. “There is a sense of being fed up in a lot of NATO countries, and now it’s just time to pack the bags and get out with little consideration about the consequences that could have on the ground.”


Pakistani madrasas provide military training to Taliban: documents

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1TV: Certain madrasas in Pakistan provide military training to the Taliban, documents obtained by 1TV show. Such madrasas are located mostly in Chaman and Quetta, according to the documents. Afghan authorities believe that Pakistan’s government facilitates the operation of such madrasas. Click here to read more (external link).

CENTCOM Head Says US Will Not Support Afghan Forces with Airstrikes After Troop Withdrawal

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Carla Babb
VOA News
June 14, 2021

ABOARD A MILITARY AIRCRAFT – The United States is not planning to support Afghan forces with air strikes after the U.S. troops withdrawal is complete, and counterterrorism strikes in Afghanistan will be limited to instances when attack plans have been discovered to strike the U.S. homeland or the homelands of our allies, according to the top U.S. commander in the Middle East.

“That would be the reason for any strikes that we do in Afghanistan after we leave, (it) would have to be that we’ve uncovered someone who wants to attack the homeland of the United States, one of our allies and partners,” Gen. Frank McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, told VOA in an exclusive interview as he traveled toward the region aboard a U.S. military plane.

The general’s comments appear to refute a report by the New York Times that said the Pentagon is considering seeking authorization to carry out airstrikes to support Afghan security forces if Kabul or another major city is in danger of falling to the Taliban.

McKenzie’s candid description of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan after its withdrawal coincides with a narrowing counterterror offensive against Islamic State and al-Qaida as the Pentagon prioritizes competition with China and Russia. The general said his force size in the Middle East was now “closer to 40,000,” a significant reduction from 18 months ago, when that number was between 60,000-80,000 troops.

Since President Joe Biden took office, he has ordered the full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and cut U.S. military support for the Saudi-led offensive against Iranian-back Houthi rebels in Yemen, all while the Pentagon has moved ships, weapons systems and troops out of other Middle East nations.

McKenzie says the withdrawal from Afghanistan is a major event that has strained resources, not only across his command, but also across the U.S. Transportation Command, which helps shuttle U.S. military people and equipment to various locations across the globe.

Those resources will continue to be strained, he tells VOA, as U.S. aircraft will fly from bases thousands of kilometers away in order to gather intelligence and surveillance and “keep the pressure up” on terrorists in Afghanistan.

“It’s a long haul to get forces, aircraft into Afghanistan from over the horizon. We’ve said all along this is a very difficult thing to do. It’s not an impossible thing to do, and we’re working that right now,” McKenzie said.

Plans ‘well advanced’  

Experts and former commanders have raised concerns about the lack of details that have been associated with securing Afghanistan after the withdrawal.

“The plans are very well advanced,” McKenzie said, deferring to the Defense Department to release further information.

Ret. Gen. Joseph Votel, the former commander of CENTCOM, told VOA he has hoped to see a “more comprehensive plan for what this withdrawal would look like” in order to leave the government of Afghanistan and the Afghan forces “on the very best footing that we could.”

He pointed to the 2011 withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq as a “much more deliberate approach” that left behind a large embassy and a security cooperation element of special forces on the ground.

“Those are the kinds of things that that I would be expecting to see. I think the challenge with this right now is we’re just not seeing a lot of details,” Votel added.

According to McKenzie, the U.S. will help the Afghan air force, one of the country’s biggest advantages against the Taliban, maintain its aircraft through a combination of virtual advising from afar and flying parts in and out of the country. The method will undoubtedly slow the maintenance process, which could leave Afghan forces with limited air support.

“Risk will be greater, significantly greater,” McKenzie acknowledged.

There is also a complete plan to evacuate Afghans who helped the United States, should the need arise, although the size, scope and timing of the operation would come from the Department of State, he said.

Turkey in the spotlight 

One unanswered question is how the Kabul airport will be secured. The airport serves both civilian and military aircraft.

Several hundred troops from NATO ally Turkey have been defending the airport, but it is unclear whether they will remain once NATO withdrawals, stoking fear that diplomats will not be able to safely enter and exit Afghanistan.

McKenzie said the U.S. military was still “in consultation with Turkish partners about the issue.” Biden is expected to meet with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in Brussels on Monday to discuss the airport security dilemma.

Reports have said Erdogan is looking for concessions in exchange for securing the airport, including an agreement from the U.S. that allows Ankara to keep and operate its Russian S-400 air defense system. The U.S. opposes Turkey’s acquisition and use of a Russian system alongside NATO weapons like the F-35 fighter jet.

Another major concern is how well the U.S. will be able to uncover terrorists plots in Afghanistan, the very plots its military is supposed to be preventing through airstrikes, without a military presence in the country.

Bradley Bowman, a defense expert with the Washington-based think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies, criticized the pullout for reducing the United States’ capability to monitor and deter the approximately 20 terror groups in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.

“Just because we leave and we say it’s over, it’s not over,” Bowman said. “The Taliban is interested, and al-Qaida’s interested in forever jihad, and they’re going to keep fighting.”

Related

Afghanistan Reports 1,804 New Cases, 71 Deaths from COVID-19

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Tolo News: The Ministry of Public Health on Monday reported 1,804 new positive cases of COVID-19 out of 5,070 samples tested in the last 24 hours. Afghanistan so far has recorded 93,272 positive cases and 3,683 deaths from COVID-19. Click here to read more (external link).

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What is Pakistan pursuing in Afghanistan?

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Taliban’s Baradar (left) and Pakistani Foreign Minister Qureshi (right). File photo.

1TV: Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s recent remarks and braggery of Mullah Baradar’s visit to Pakistan, in fact, unveiled Pakistan’s strategic depth in Afghanistan. The generals in Rawalpinidi are seeking to turn Afghanistan into a sixth province of Pakistan in the regional map and a solitude for its battle against India. Click here to read more (external link).