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Tag: Afghan

  • Dozens of Afghan soldiers killed in attack on base

    Dozens of bodies of Afghan soldiers have been found in a military base stormed by Taliban militants in the embattled Southern Province of Uruzgan, officials said on Thursday.

    The attack in Chinartu district on Aug. 3, underlined the ferocity of fighting in many areas of Afghanistan even as speculation has increased about a possible ceasefire during the Eid holiday later this month.

    “We have discovered and transported 40 bodies from the area, so far,” district governor Faiz Mohammad said, adding that a number of security forces were still missing.

    Read Also: Attacks: Zamfara records more IDPs

    News of the attack only began filtering out over the past two days.

    Muhammad Radmanish, a spokesman for the ministry of defence, said 27 Afghan soldiers were killed and five wounded.

    The base was back under control of security forces, said Radmanish but the attack has caused significant damage and weapons losses.

    Amir Muhammad Barekzai, a member of the provincial council, said some soldiers appear to have been shot after they were captured but it was not possible to obtain independent confirmation.

    No comment was immediately available from a Taliban spokesman.

    “By Wednesday evening, the bodies of 27 soldiers were discovered, but a number of others are still missing,’’ Barekzai said.

    The attack underlines the heavy losses still being suffered by security forces as they fight the Taliban insurgents.

    A report in 2017 by SIGAR, a U.S. Congressional watchdog, said the losses were “shockingly high’’ but Afghan authorities no longer release overall casualty data.

    The Taliban are fighting the Western-backed government to restore their version of sharia, or Islamic law, after they were driven out by U.S.-led forces in 2001.

  • Afghanistan launches new electronic ID cards

    The Afghan Government on Thursday officially launched the distribution process of e-Tazkira or electronic identity cards, the state-run television reported.

    “We mark another historic day, and I am pleased to announce the distribution of e-Tazkira by becoming the first Afghan to receive it,’’ Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, was quoted by the Radio and Television of Afghanistan (RTA) TV as saying.

    Ghani said the e-Tazkira would help Afghan Government to further promote good governance, economic planning, and provide best public services to all citizens as well.

    “Economic development planning, providing services and good governance are impossible without having accurate and complete information about citizens,’’ he said.

    After launching the process of computerised national ID cards, the government would also be able to provide better security and prevent deadly security incidents, the Afghan leader added.

    Currently, Afghans are carrying national ID cards made by a simple paper.

    The government was expected to issue electronic ID cards three years ago, but the process has been delayed due to political reasons.

  • Australia jails Afghan man for smuggling people by boat

    Australia jails Afghan man for smuggling people by boat

    An Afghan men who arranged for the travel of over 200 refugees and asylum seekers by boat to Western Australia, has been sentenced to 12 years in jail, local media said on Friday.

    Sayed Abbas, 35, was pivotal in organising the transport of the asylum seekers coming from Indonesia on three overcrowded boats in 2009 and 2011.

    He had taken payments ranging from 5,000 Australian dollars (3,900 dollars) to 10,000 dollars from each person.

    According to Australian Associated Press, the Western Australia district court in Perth sentenced Abbas to 12 years in jail.

    Since Abbas has already served an extensive amount of time in prison, he could be freed next year on parole. He was imprisoned in Indonesia before being extradited to Australia in 2015.

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    On Friday, his lawyer read out a letter sent by Abbas, who is illiterate and had to ask another inmate to write for him, in the court that described his desperate life in Afghanistan.

    Abbas said that he had no job prospects and had to flee the Taliban.

    The court also heard thay he lived in a refugee camp for five years.

    He had endured torture while incarcerated in Indonesia and now suffers from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

    “I have been punished more than most in my circumstance,’’ he said.

    Judge Andrew Stavrianou said the offences Abbas committed were clearly serious and a violation of Australia’s sovereignty.

    He said Abbas was motivated by financial gain and was prepared to run the risk of punishment.

    “His crimes put the lives and safety of those on board at risk,’’ the judge said.

    NAN

  • Afghan election commission to reveal results today

    Afghanistan’s election commission will announce long-delayed final results in the bitterly disputed presidential vote today, whether or not the rival candidates claiming victory reach a power-sharing deal, a spokesman said yesterday.

    Two months of crisis over the election to replace President Hamid Karzai have further destabilized violence-plagued Afghanistan as foreign troops prepare to withdraw at year’s end, leaving Afghan forces to fight the Taliban insurgency.

    The rival candidates – former finance minister Ashraf Ghani and ex-foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah – were meeting yesterday. Aides said they were close to finalizing a deal but an Abdullah spokesman threatened to pull out of the talks if the poll results were released before an agreement.

    Preliminary results released in July showed Ghani in the lead with 56 percent of the vote.

    The early results prompted street protests from supporters of Abdullah, who charged massive fraud and said he was the rightful winner.

    Final results have been delayed for weeks by a U.N.-monitored audit of all 8 million ballots cast in the June 14 run-off vote between Ghani and Abdullah, the top finishers of the first round in April.

    However Independent Election Commission spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor said the body is legally bound to release results now that all technical details have been completed.

    “It is clear that tomorrow the IEC will announce the final results based on the 100 percent audit,” Noor said.

  • U.S. fails to probe Afghan civilian deaths, says report

    U.S. fails to probe Afghan civilian deaths, says report

    Many Afghan civilians are injured and killed as a result of roadside bombs laid by the Taliban

    The US has failed to properly investigate Afghan civilian deaths caused by their forces, human rights group Amnesty International says in a new report.

    Amnesty International alleges that even potential war crimes have gone uninvestigated and unpunished.

    The report focused primarily on air strikes and night raids carried out by US forces between 2009 and 2103.

    Nato told the AP news agency it would review the report and respond later.

    A spokesman told AP they take allegations of civilian casualties extremely seriously and fully investigate all reports.

    The number of civilians killed and wounded in the conflict in Afghanistan rose 14% last year, UN figures show. Nearly 3,000 civilians were killed and more than 5,600 were injured in 2013.

    Most casualties in 2013 were a result of roadside bombs laid by the Taliban or getting caught in the crossfire during ground battles between Taliban-led insurgents and Afghan forces.

    But the issue of civilian casualties caused by Nato is highly sensitive in Afghanistan and has long been a source of tension between Nato forces and outgoing President Hamid Karzai.

    Last year the Afghan leader banned foreign air strikes in residential areas after civilians were mistakenly killed in a night raid.

    But Amnesty’s 84-page report, Left in the Dark, focused on how the US investigates such attacks and what it describes as the failure of accountability for US military operations in Afghanistan.

    “Thousands of Afghans have been killed or injured by US forces since the invasion, but the victims and their families have little chance of redress. The US military justice system almost always fails to hold its soldiers accountable for unlawful killings and other abuses,” said Richard Bennett, Amnesty International’s Asia Pacific Director.

     

     

     

    It gathered accounts from 125 eyewitnesses of 10 incidents between 2009 and 2013, in which it says at least 140 civilians died during US military strikes.

    All Nato combat forces are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014. The report also urges the Afghan government to establish a mechanism to investigate abuses by Afghan forces who take on full combat responsibility at the end of 2014.

     

  • Afghan President, Boko Haram and peace

    Afghan President, Boko Haram and peace

    SIR: At a time the Nigerian government is considering granting an amnesty to Boko Haram jihadists, the president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai has reportedly offered a very important advice to the militants in Northern Nigeria: “Lay down your arms if you are true muslims and embrace the amnesty offered by the federal government”.

    He also said “Boko Haram should stop burning schools, mosques, churches in the name of Islam. You should not destroy your country if you are true muslims. You should protect lives because in Islam if you kill one, it is as if you killed the whole of humanity and if you save life, it is as if you saved the whole of humanity”.

    Drawing parallels between the activities of Boko Haram militants and those of the Taliban in his country, he acknowledged that the suicide bombing and other atrocities of the jihadist group were externally motivated, urging the insurgents not to allow external forces to get them to destabillize and destroy their country.

    Karzai timely advice to Boko Haram militants is a welcome development and the strongest case for peace made by a president of another country since this insurgency began.

    Like the Taliban, Boko Haram militants have both local and international support. They need to be isolated and denounced by all peace loving muslims. Leaders of muslim groups around the globe should add their voice in calling the Boko Haram militants to order and in undermining its support base.

    The insurgents should be made to understand the incompatibilty of their campaign with the cause of peace, unity, harmony and development in the country.

    Personally I disagree with Karzai that no religion preaches violence. This is clearly a mistaken notion of religion, and does not reflect the facts of history or the actual experiences of the people. Religions, particularly the Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam preach both peace and violence. These faiths have at certain times in history used or advocated violence. We should not shy away from this bloody reality and instead we should thoughtfully engage and reconstruct it to further the cause of peace around the globe.

    Violence originates from human beings, not from religion. Violent expressions are human and reflect how humans sometimes do things. Human beings sometimes have used and still use violence to advance their cause including religious cause. Boko Haram militants should be persuaded on moral grounds to embrace peace and shun violence. There is an urgent need of some ‘mental detoxification’.

    Boko Haram insurgents and their local and international backers should be made to understand that they stand to benefit; that their religion or cause stands to benefit if they adopt peaceful, human rights compatible and civil ways of promoting their goals and mission.

     

    • Leo Igwe

    Bayreuth, Germany

  • Militants storm Afghan court as Talibans stand trial

    Militants storm Afghan court as Talibans stand trial

    Five militants stormed a court in Afghanistan on Wednesday where Taliban insurgents were standing trial, killing seven people and wounding 75, officials said.

    At least one of the attackers blew himself up and a gun battle between Afghan security forces and an insurgent holed up inside the court was going on in the capital of the western province of Farah, near the Iranian border, said provincial

    deputy governor Mohammad Younis Rasouli.

    “They stormed the court as a trial was being held to convict 10 Taliban fighters,’’ he told Reuters, adding that four

    civilians and three members of the security forces were killed.

    The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a text message to media, spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said, adding that the insurgents standing trial had been freed in the attack.

    Concerns are growing over how the 352,000-strong Afghan security forces will manage once NATO-led combat troops withdraw by the end of next year.

  • Afghan roadside bomb kills 18 wedding guests

    Afghan roadside bomb kills 18 wedding guests

    A massive roadside bomb has killed at least 18 people on their way to a wedding in northern Afghanistan.

    At least 15 others have been wounded in what the BBC described as one of the worst such attacks in the country for some time.

    A minibus was carrying men, women and children to the wedding in the Dawlatabad district of Balkh province when it was struck by the bomb.

    It is not clear whether they were the intended target.

    No-one has yet claimed responsibility.

    Officials said they expect the number of dead to increase.

    BBC reported that Northern Afghanistan has generally been one of the safest parts of the country since the United States-led invasion in 2001.

    But Balkh has seen an increase in Taliban activity in recent years, which NATO forces – despite their extra numbers – have been unable to suppress.

    A United Nations report in August said civilian casualties had actually fallen for the first time in five years in Afghanistan – suggesting both sides in the war are becoming increasingly sensitive to the impact of civilian deaths.

    But the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (Unama), which published the report, said it was concerned that the number of civilian deaths and injuries “remains at a high level.”

    There are no exact figures for the number of civilians killed since the war began in 2001, but most estimates calculate a minimum of 20,000 civilian deaths.