NATO Troops Kill Two Civilians in Kandahar: Police
31 March 2011
Foreign troops killed two Afghan civilians in restive southern Kandahar city on Thursday, a police detective said, days after the publication of gruesome photos of the body of an unarmed teenager murdered by U.S. soldiers nearby. NATO soldiers opened fire after a car with brake failure sped towards a checkpoint set up by foreign and Afghan troops, who thought the vehicle was part of a suicide attack, said Fazel Ahmad Sherzad, a senior detective in...
Read the post »
Afghan Asylum-seekers Hit by Tighter Immigration Rules
31 March 2011
There were fewer Afghan asylum-seekers in 2010 and this could, in part, be due to tighter immigration controls in destination countries, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Afghan Ministry of Refugees and Returnees. The number of Afghan asylum-seekers in “44 industrialized countries” (mainly European countries, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and the Republic of Korea) dropped by 9 percent in 2010 compared...
Read the post »
Taliban Show Increasing Strain Following Killings, Arrests and Internal Disputes
31 March 2011
The Afghan Taliban are showing signs of increasing strain after a number of killings, arrests and internal disputes that have reached them even in their haven in Pakistan, Afghan security officials and Afghans with contacts in the Taliban say. Three powerful Taliban commanders were killed in February in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, well known to be the command center of the Taliban leadership, according to an Afghan businessman and...
Read the post »
Afghan Women at the Crossroads: Agents of Peace - Or Its Victims?
31 March 2011
[The aim of] this paper to explore how Afghanistan’s women have sought to protect themselves and improve their situation during their country’s upheavals over the past three decades, and how in coming years they can secure what they have won. In order to understand how the status of women has changed in that time, there is a need to understand their historical position throughout the twentieth century—in the decades of peace that...
Read the post »
NATO to Shift Troops, Focus on "Key Terrain Districts"
30 March 2011
With the first American troops slated to withdraw in July, the Afghanistan surge is nearly over. But even as the overall U.S. force in Afghanistan contracts, portions of a handful of particularly important districts — the rough equivalent of U.S. counties — could actually get more troops and more development cash. The shift toward these so-called “key terrain districts” is the result of a slowly evolving plan for making the...
Read the post »
Haqqani Network Influence in Kurram and Its Implications for Afghanistan
30 March 2011
The Haqqani Network is one of Afghanistan’s most capable insurgent groups. Based in Pakistan’s North Waziristan Agency, the Haqqani network’s senior leadership directs the insurgency in Afghanistan’s southeastern provinces of Khost, Paktika, and Paktia. The network is important not only because of its tactical and operational proficiency, but because it links foreign terrorists, such as al-Qa`ida, to operations inside Afghanistan....
Read the post »
"Taliban Surrenders" Not All They Seem
30 March 2011
While the Afghan authorities say hundreds of insurgents have surrendered since a new peace mechanism was established last year, others are less than convinced. Sources interviewed by IWPR in northern Afghanistan say many of those coming over to the government are not insurgents at all. As long as the real Taleban stay away, analysts say there is little point to this aspect of the peace process. [...] According to officials and local commentators,...
Read the post »
Karzai Blasts US Troops for Gruesome Afghan Deaths
30 March 2011
Afghanistan's president on Wednesday condemned the actions of a group of U.S. soldiers charged with murdering three unarmed Afghans, charging they killed for entertainment after taking drugs. It was Hamid Karzai's first public mention of the actions of five soldiers from the 5th Stryker Brigade who have been charged with murder and conspiracy in the deaths of the three men in southern Afghanistan. Civilian deaths in Afghanistan have created tensions...
Read the post »
29 March 2011
Taliban insurgents seized a district in Afghanisan's remote northeast after a brief battle with police, provincial officials said on Tuesday, underscoring the difficulty Afghan and foreign forces face in securing the increasingly violent region. Hundreds of Taliban fighters had captured the Waygal district centre in mountainous Nuristan province in the pre-dawn hours on Tuesday, said Mohammad Zarin, a spokesman for the provincial governor. Nimatullah...
Read the post »
Karzai Aide Arrested, Then Released Following President's Intervention
29 March 2011
President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday ordered the release of a prominent presidential aide two hours after his arrest on corruption charges, according to two officials in the office of Afghanistan’s attorney general. [...] A spokesman for Mr. Karzai did not respond to requests for comment on Mr. Delawari’s release. “I heard the president was extremely displeased and felt they should never have announced this and ruined someone’s...
Read the post »