Taliban fighters (file photo)
Ariana: Four districts in four provinces fell to the Taliban in the past 24 hours, sources told Ariana News on Sunday, adding these were in Kunduz, Farah, Ghor and Zabul provinces. The districts are Ali Abad in Kunduz, Arghandab in Zabul, Saghar in Ghor and Lash Jawin in Farah province. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: A day after two blasts occurred in the west of Kabul, former vice president Mohammad Karim Khalili warned that the people will “attempt anything” to ensure their safety if the government does not prevent “targeted attacks against Hazara community” as well as other injustices in the country. Click here to read more (external link).
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Tolo News: Afghanistan’s U-20 national football team beat Tajikistan 1-0 on Saturday night in the U-20 Women’s Championship 2021 in Dushanbe. The competition is run by the Central Asian Football Association (CAFA). The Afghan team will face Iran on Monday in its third match of the tournament. Click here to read more (external link).
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Tolo News: The Ministry of Public Health on Sunday reported 1,597 new positive cases of COVID-19 out of 4,587 samples tested in the last 24 hours. Afghanistan so far has recorded 91,458 positive cases and 3,612 deaths from COVID-19. Click here to read more (external link).
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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
June 12, 2021
ISLAMABAD – The Taliban warned Saturday that it would be “unacceptable” to them and a “mistake” on the part of any nation to retain a military presence in Afghanistan to guard airports or other installations after the departure of U.S.-led NATO troops from the warn-torn country.
The insurgent group’s warning raises questions for Washington, other world countries, and aid groups with missions in Kabul about how to safely evacuate their personnel from the landlocked South Asian nation should fighting intensify and engulf the Afghan capital once all international forces withdraw by a September 11 deadline.
Turkey, with about 500 soldiers still in Afghanistan, has offered its services to guard and run Kabul’s international airport beyond the withdrawal deadline set by U.S. President Joe Biden. Ankara reportedly floated the proposal at a NATO meeting last month.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Friday that talks between different allies, including Turkey, were underway on exactly how to ensure security and safe administration of the Kabul international airport.
But the Taliban vowed to resist deployment of any foreign military in the country after all international forces leave.
“The presence of foreign forces under whatever name or by whichever country in our homeland is unacceptable for the Afghan people and the Islamic Emirate [the name of the Taliban’s ex-government in Kabul],” the insurgent group cautioned Saturday in a policy statement sent to journalists.
The Taliban insisted that security of airports, foreign embassies and diplomatic offices is the responsibility of Afghans, saying that “no one should hold out hope of keeping military or security presence” in Afghanistan.
“If anyone does make such a mistake, the Afghan people and the Islamic Emirate shall view them as occupiers and shall take a stance against them as they have taken against invaders throughout history,” the statement said.
Stoltenberg said the security of the Kabul airport and other “critical” infrastructure” would be discussed at Monday’s NATO summit in Brussels.
“Because this is important not only for NATO but … for the whole international community, for a diplomatic presence of all countries, and of course, also for development aid and different aid organizations. So, NATO allies are addressing these issues as we speak.”
While the Taliban regularly attacked U.S. and allied troops during their nearly two-decade long stay in Afghanistan, Turkish forces remain unharmed.
Turkey is the only Islamic country serving under NATO’s non-combatant Resolute Support mission, which is mandated to train, advise and assist Afghan security forces battling the insurgents.
The U.S.-led military drawdown is an outcome of the February 2020 agreement Washington signed with the Taliban in return for counterterrorism guarantees and pledges the group would negotiate a political settlement to the war with the Afghan government.
But the so-called intra-Afghan dialogue, which started last September in Qatar, has met with little success and mostly has been stalled, with each side blaming the other for the deadlock.
Afghan battlefield hostilities have particularly intensified since the foreign forces formally began pulling out from the country on May 1.
The Taliban have captured at least 15 new districts in recent days, while hundreds of combatants on both sides and Afghan civilians have been killed.
Meanwhile, Islamic State militants have stepped up attacks, targeting Afghan forces and civilians, mainly those from the minority Hazara Shi’ite community.
Officials said Saturday bomb blasts struck two buses in the western part of Kabul, killing at least seven people. There were no immediate claims of responsibility.
The surge in violence has raised concerns Afghanistan will see more bloodshed in coming months, which could plunge the country into another round of civil war once all international forces leave.
Radio Free Afghanistan
June 12, 2021
Officials in the Afghan capital reported dual bomb attacks that killed at least seven people on June 12 as reports from the provinces said two more districts had fallen to Taliban militants.
In Kabul, at least two bombs struck minivans about 2 kilometers apart in a predominantly Hazara area in the west of the city, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.
There were at least six people wounded, in addition to the seven deaths initially confirmed, officials said.
A Kabul police spokesman, Firdous Framarz, told RFE/RL that both blasts were caused by so-called sticky bombs, which are attached to vehicles with magnetics.
No group claimed responsibility.
The same area has been the scene of at least four other attacks on minivans in the past month that have killed 18 people and were claimed by Islamic State (IS) militants.
One of the explosions detonated in front of the Muhammad Ali Jinnah hospital, a center for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.
Reports of new fighting in the provinces on June 12 suggested the Taliban has now captured at least 10 districts among several provinces since May 1, when U.S. and other foreign forces officially began withdrawing from the decades-old conflict.
In western Ghor Province, a district chief in Tulak told Radio Free Afghanistan on June 12 that a Taliban attack had killed 19 security troops and wounded 20 more there.
Ghor’s governor’s office confirmed that communication with Tulak had been cut off since late morning on June 12 but did not say whether the town had been captured by militants.
But a source in Ghor’s provincial administration who was not authorized to speak publicly on the events confirmed that the Taliban now controlled the district of Tulak.
Government forces have withdrawn from the district and police headquarters, the same source said.
In the northern Afghan province of Balkh, local officials said Taliban fighters had captured the Zara district after a long siege that eventually forced government troops to evacuate the district headquarters.
Provincial councilor Afzal Hadid said the militants had blocked water supplies to the compound.
Differing reports said security forces had withdrawn or relocated the security forces but suggested there were no casualties on the government side.
Elsewhere, reports said Taliban fighters launched large-scale attacks on two districts of northern Kunduz Province.
A police spokesman in Kunduz said the attacks had been repelled in fighting that left one Afghan soldier dead and 27 Taliban militants dead.
A spokesman for the Afghan National Army’s Shaheen Corps in the north of the country told RFE/RL on June 12 that at least 20 Taliban insurgents had been killed by air strikes in the Balkh, Dawlatabad, and Chamtal districts.
The dead included a Taliban commander known as Mullah Delawar, the spokesman said.
Another Afghan corps reported that 47 Taliban militants were killed in an operation in the Andar district of Ghazni Province late on June 11.
Radio Free Afghanistan could not immediately confirm the casualty reports on either side.
With violence raging, there is concern the departure of foreign forces could lead to the collapse of the government in Kabul and return of the Taliban to power.
One high priority is securing Kabul’s international airport to ensure diplomatic and humanitarian work can continue in the country.
The Taliban has reportedly rejected NATO member Turkey’s proposal to guard and run the airport after other U.S.-led NATO forces depart.
A Taliban spokesman said on June 10 that Turkey should withdraw its troops from Afghanistan together with all other international forces.
Under the February 2020 deal secured with the Taliban under former President Donald Trump, all U.S. forces and NATO forces were to be out of Afghanistan by May 1.
U.S. President Joe Biden pushed back the planned withdrawal of U.S. troops to September, citing logistical complications of leaving earlier.
With reporting by AP and dpa
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Ariana: A batch of COVID-19 vaccines donated by China arrived in Kabul amid a surge in infections, the Presidential Palace (ARG) said in a statement. According to the statement, the Chinese government has donated 700,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccines to Afghanistan. Click here to read more (external link).
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Tolo News: Oman defeated Afghanistan 2-1 in the Asian Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and AFC Asian Cup China 2023 match at Jassim bin Hamad Stadium in Qatar on Friday. Afghanistan will face India in Group E on Tuesday. Click here to read more (external link).