Kidnappers Free Two French Journalists, Interpreter after 18 Months
29 June 2011
Two French journalists abducted in Afghanistan 18 months ago have been released, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced. Herve Ghesquiere and Stephane Taponier were freed along with their interpreter, Reza Din, Mr Sarkozy said in a statement in Paris. They are reportedly now at a French base in north-eastern Afghanistan. Expressing delight, Mr Sarkozy thanked Afghan President Hamid Karzai for his handling of the hostage situation. Prime Minister...
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The Insurgency in Afghanistan’s Heartland: Report
29 June 2011
The insurgency in Afghanistan has expanded far beyond its stronghold in the south east. Transcending its traditional Pashtun base, the Taliban is bolstering its influence in the central-eastern provinces by installing shadow governments and tapping into the vulnerabilities of a central government crippled by corruption and deeply dependent on a corrosive war economy. Collusion between insurgents and corrupt government officials in Kabul and the nearby...
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28 June 2011
A senior leader of an al-Qaida-linked terror group has been captured in northern Afghanistan dressed up like a woman — the latest in a recent series of cases involving male militants disguised as females, the U.S.-led military coalition said Tuesday. A joint Afghan and coalition force apprehended a senior figure from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and two of his associates during a nighttime operation Monday in Kunduz city, NATO said. It...
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Taliban Use Girl, 8, as Bomb Mule in Attack on Afghan Police Post
27 June 2011
Taliban insurgents used an eight-year-old girl carrying a bag of explosives to attack a police checkpost in central Afghanistan, the Afghan government said on Sunday, making her one of the youngest child bombers of the decade-old conflict. The incident took place in Char Chino district of central Uruzgan province, the interior ministry said. "The insurgents handed over a bag with a homemade bomb to an eight-year-old girl and asked her to take it...
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Governance and Militancy in Afghanistan and Pakistan
24 June 2011
The CSIS Program on Crisis, Conflict, and Cooperation (C3), formerly the PCR Project, has studied the link between the rise of nonstate armed groups (or militants, for the sake of simplicity) and the quality of local governance in Afghanistan and Pakistan: whether a link exists and, if so, what the United States can do about it, if anything. This research, based on more than 250 field interviews and an extensive review of published literature, found...
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Nuristan Province now al-Qaeda and Taliban Central: Senior Police Official
23 June 2011
Afghan intelligence officials in the province of Nuristan have accused the central government and Nato forces in particular of ignoring insurgents there and in other strategically important areas close to the Pakistani border. They say that increasing violence in Nuristan - and in the provinces of Laghman, Kunar and Nangarhar - poses a significant security threat. "Nuristan is now al-Qaeda and Taliban central," said one senior police official in...
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Afghanistan NGO Safety Office Bi-Weekly Security Report
21 June 2011
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While May concluded with the reporting of extraordinary levels of conflict related activity (surpassing the previous peak recorded in August 2010), the opening period for June indicates a continuation of this momentum, reporting similarly high levels of incidents (see p. 7). This periods figures also reveal that despite security force efforts at interdiction and disruption of AOG networks (both manpower and supply related) through the winter and...
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Taliban Suicide Bomber Targets Afghan Governor, Kills Two
21 June 2011
A Taliban suicide bomber targeted a provincial governor in northern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing two civilians and wounding another two, the interior ministry said. The attack struck the usually peaceful province of Parwan, when the bomber tried to enter the compound of governor Basir Salangi. "At around 10:45am (0615 GMT) Tuesday, a suicide bomber detonated himself in front of the gate of the Parwan governor's compound. As a result, two civilians...
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Haqqani Leader Threatens Reprisals as Govt Executes Two over Bank Attack
20 June 2011
Insurgents in Afghanistan's violent east will target courts and judges after the execution of two fighters convicted over a brutal bank raid, one of the leaders of the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network said on Monday. At least 40 people were killed when seven gunmen and suicide bombers, dressed in border police uniforms, attacked an office of private lender Kabulbank on February 19, triggering gunbattles that lasted several hours. Security camera footage...
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US Confirms Talks with Taliban as UN Splits Taliban, Al-Qaeda on Sanctions List
20 June 2011
Outgoing US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has confirmed that the US is holding "outreach" talks with members of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Mr Gates said talks were "preliminary" but that a political solution was the way "most of these wars end". It is the first time the US has acknowledged such contact and comes a day after Afghan President Hamid Karzai said peace talks had started. The US is due to start withdrawing its 97,000 troops from Afghanistan...
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