Leaders of the United States, Japan, Australia and India are to meet in person Friday in Washington to discuss cooperation in the Indo-Pacific in the face of China’s growing power in the region.

Leaders of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or the Quad – U.S. President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga of Japan – met virtually in March, but Friday marks their first face-to-face summit. 

“The Quad Leaders will be focused on deepening our ties and advancing practical cooperation on areas such as combatting COVID-19, addressing the climate crisis, partnering on emerging technologies and cyberspace, and promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific,” White House spokesman Jenn Psaki said in a statement.

China has been steadily building military outposts in the region and using them to back claims it controls vital sea lanes.

The Washington meeting comes in the wake of a recently announced agreement among the U.S., Britain and Australia to supply Australia with nuclear submarines.  

The deal angered France by undercutting a deal it had with Australia to supply it with diesel submarines. France recalled its ambassadors from both the U.S. and Australia in protest.

China condemned the deal, calling it damaging to regional peace.

The Quad meeting also comes amid stronger talk by the U.S. and its allies in support of Taiwan, which China views as a rogue province, and a renewed effort by the European Union to “enhance” its naval presence in the region.
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Abdugheni Sabit has been closely watching the developments in Afghanistan since the Taliban took control of the government. 

Sabit is Uyghur, a member of the Muslim minority group from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. As an exile living in the Netherlands, he has been fighting for the rights of Uyghurs since 2007. He has been following the Taliban’s comments about other allegedly mistreated Muslim groups around the world.

“The Taliban has been making statements for years about Muslim groups who were allegedly abused in the countries or regions by the state authorities,” Sabit told VOA. “They raised their voice for Muslims in Palestine, Kashmir and other parts of the world and called the Islamic ummah [community] to rise up.” 

The Taliban, however, have been silent on what human rights organizations have identified as the mistreatment of more than 12 million Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China, which shares a border with Afghanistan, Sabit said. 

Rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch accuse the Chinese government of arbitrarily detaining more than 1 million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in internment camps, where people allegedly have been forced to denounce their religion of Islam, pledge allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party and endure other mistreatments such as forced labor and involuntary sterilization.

China denies these accusations, saying those complexes are not internment camps but vocational education and training centers for the reeducation of people whose minds were poisoned by the “three forces of evil,” namely “religious extremism, terrorism and separatism.” 

Taliban-Uyghur relationship 

Many Central Asia scholars have been trying to understand the Taliban and its views of the Uyghurs. 

The Taliban are a multiethnic political movement, while Uyghurs are an ethnic group. Many Uyghurs live in China and share a belief system with the people of Afghanistan. 

When referring to the Taliban, “we generally use the term ‘movement’ because of how it originated. It was organic and kind of erupted from the south of the country, and then people joined it as it advanced,” said Ibraheem Bahiss, a consultant on Afghanistan with the International Crisis Group, an anti-war advocacy group. “It’s got its own ideology affiliation,” he told VOA. “It’s got various groups join[ing] it. So, it’s a political entity, and it’s not really an ethnic entity, per se.” 

According to scholars of Islam and to Sabit, who considers himself a devout Muslim, in terms of faith, most of the Uyghurs in China and the people of Afghanistan belong to the Hanafi sect of Sunni Muslims, which creates the potential for historic, religious and cultural bonds between the two groups. Many Uyghurs, however, see the Taliban as an outlier.

Most Uyghurs are highly liberal in how they understand and implement their Islamic beliefs, said Salih Hudayar, the Uyghur president and founder of the Washington-based East Turkistan National Awakening Movement. 

“Unlike the Taliban, Uyghurs hold women and children’s rights, especially education, in high regards. Most Uyghurs are not sympathetic of the Taliban and view them as very extreme,” Hudayar told VOA. “I personally view the Taliban as extremists as their implementation of religion is not compatible with the general teachings of Islam, and the Taliban has effectively politicized religion to undermine the very human rights of the Afghan people.” 

The Taliban and China 

“If the Taliban speaks up for Uyghur Muslims in China, it might increase its reputation [globally]. But at the same time, the group is wary of losing China’s support,” Sabit told VOA. 

Experts say that when it comes to Muslim world issues, the Taliban are now more selective in picking their fights because they are no longer just a movement, but representatives of a country. The Taliban government is also trying to establish relations with China to solicit the resources Afghanistan needs. 

“China is one of the few countries that has the capacity and that has shown a willingness to work with the Taliban, provided they meet basic requirements around counterterrorism,” Bahiss said. 

Uyghur militants in Afghanistan 

On September 9, the Chinese state paper Global Times asked Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen whether the Taliban would consider extraditing members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a Uyghur militant group, to China at the Beijing’s request. 

“I know after the Doha [Qatar] agreement, many have left Afghanistan, because we categorically said that there is no place for anyone to use Afghanistan against other countries, including neighboring countries,” Shaheen told the Global Times. 

According to a June U.N. report, the Turkestan Islamic Party, an insurgent group formed in Afghanistan by exiled Islamist Uyghurs from China — which is also known by the widely accepted alias of ETIM — has several hundred members. The U.N. designated ETIM as an international terrorist organization. The U.S. removed it from its terrorist list in November. 

“I don’t imagine the Taliban will in the coming months, or perhaps even years, acquiesce to a request to deport people out of the country,” Bahiss told VOA. “And that’s because of the mentality within the movement — because they do fear a backlash” from potential Uyghur sympathizers within the Taliban rank and file. 

But other experts look at the Taliban’s actions in the past. The Taliban have never taken a clear stance on the fate of Uyghurs inside China, but they have cooperated with China regarding Uyghurs inside Afghanistan, said Sean Roberts, director of the International Development Studies Program at  George Washington University and author of the book, The War on the Uyghurs.

“Starting back in the late 1990s, the Chinese government sought the assistance of the Taliban to ensure that any Uyghurs in Afghanistan could not advocate for Uyghur independence or establish any sort of security threat to the People’s Republic of China,” Roberts told VOA. “And the Taliban appears to have done that and made sure that Uyghurs in Afghanistan in the late 1990s and early 2000s were unable to be a threat to the People’s Republic of China or to really advocate for legal or political rights or human rights.” 

Not all Uyghurs back militants 

Roberts said many Uyghurs reject the use of religion as a political tool in their struggle for human and political rights. 

“There’s a lot of Uyghurs who, particularly since [the 9/11 attacks in the U.S.], have tried to communicate to the world that Uyghurs are not aligned with [religious] extremist groups,” Roberts said. 

That is also the view of Abdugheni Sabit. 

“Even though Uyghurs are not religious radicals or extremists or did not create a religious political movement like the Taliban, after the U.S. war on terror, China has wrongfully been labeling us as religious extremists or terrorists who need to be civilized in camps,” he said. 
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China’s top diplomat Thursday urged a virtual conference of G-20 foreign ministers to end economic sanctions against Taliban-ruled Afghanistan to help the country tackle a looming humanitarian crisis and an economic meltdown. 

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the conference, which took place on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session, that member states of the G-20 — as the premiere global platform for international economic cooperation — are obligated to play a “constructive role” in helping the South Asian nation. 

“All kinds of unilateral sanctions or restrictions on Afghanistan should be lifted,” said Wang. 

The Islamist Taliban’s return to power last month prompted the United States to freeze billions of dollars held in its reserve for Kabul while the World Bank and International Monetary Fund both halted Afghanistan’s access to developmental funding. 

“Afghanistan’s foreign exchange reserves are its national assets and should be owned by and used for the people, rather than being used as a bargaining chip to exert political pressure on Afghanistan,” Wang told the conference, which was focused on the situation in Afghanistan. 

The United States and other countries have called on the Taliban to put together an inclusive government that includes respect for human rights, and to desist from bringing back their harsh Islamist rule, before any direct engagement or diplomatic recognition can occur. 

“China calls on G-20 members to actively take practical steps to help Afghanistan ease the current liquidity stress,” Wang said. He went on to urge international financial institutions to also provide financing support for the Afghan poverty reduction, sustainable development, livelihood and infrastructure projects. 

Wang also called for redoubling efforts and speeding up the provision of humanitarian assistance to address urgent needs of Afghan citizens. He said Beijing has decided to provide around $31 million “worth of related materials” to Kabul, including the donation of COVID-19 vaccine doses. 

The Chinese diplomat also renewed his government’s expectations the Taliban caretaker government in Kabul will eventually build into a “broad and inclusive political structure, which respects the basic rights of minority groups, women and children.” 

Wang said Afghanistan “must earnestly honor its commitments by making a clean break with and resolutely fighting all kinds of international terrorist forces.” 

The Taliban announced this week an expansion in their all-male interim Cabinet, saying all Afghan ethnicities have now been given representation in the government. But they again failed bring any women on board, fueling fears the Islamist movement intends to restrict female participation. 

Some of the top Cabinet slots have been given to Taliban leaders who are blacklisted by the U.S. and the U.N., which makes it difficult for Washington and other countries to directly engage with the group. 

During their previous rule of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, the Taliban barred women and girls from work and public life, and from receiving an education. Taliban officials have promised to give women a role in their government, but they have not yet said when. They’ve also vowed not to make such changes amid foreign pressure. 

But global rights defenders are skeptical about the Taliban’s intentions and are accusing the group of “steadily dismantling” Afghan gains in human rights achieved over the past two decades with the help of the international community. 

Pakistan hails Taliban cabinet changes 

Pakistan, which shares a nearly 2,600-kilometer border with Afghanistan and has traditionally maintained close ties with the Taliban, reiterated Thursday that ensuing peace and stability in Afghanistan was a “shared responsibly” of the international community. 

“We have taken note of the expansion in the interim [Taliban] Cabinet with representation of different ethnic and political groups,” Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Asim Iftikhar told a weekly news conference in Islamabad. 

“This is a positive direction, and we hope they continue to take steps leading to lasting stability in the country,” he added. 

The Pakistani spokesman said his country continues to urge the world to address “the imperative of constructive engagement and timely mobilization” of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. 

The World Health Organization warned Wednesday that the Afghan health care system is on the verge of collapse and the nation faces a humanitarian catastrophe without urgent action by the international community. 
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Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders have asked to have their representative speak to the U.N. General Assembly this week, as other world leaders call on the Taliban to grant equal rights and opportunities to girls and women. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
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The biggest danger to the United States and the West following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan could well come from the Islamic State terror group’s Afghan affiliate, and not from al-Qaida, despite the latter’s long-standing relationship with the Taliban.

The top U.S. counterterrorism official told lawmakers Wednesday that while both terror groups have been more heavily focused on expanding their regional networks, there are indications that when it comes to the IS affiliate, known as IS-Khorasan or ISIS-K, that might be changing.

“My own concern is very specifically around ISIS-K and the degree to which ISIS-K [is] building off the notoriety it received after the attack on August 26,” National Counterterrorism Center Director Christine Abizaid said during a hearing on threats to the United States.

“Will it become more focused on the West? Will it become more focused on the homeland than it was?” Abizaid asked.

The August 26 suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, during the waning days of the U.S. evacuation, killed 13 American service members and more than 160 Afghans.

The attack, quickly claimed by IS-Khorasan, sparked a series of warnings about additional attacks targeting the airport.

The group also claimed a rocket attack targeting the airport four days later, and the effort to prevent another IS-Khorasan attack led the U.S. to launch an August 29 drone strike in Kabul, which instead killed as many as 10 civilians, including seven children.

U.S. military officials believe IS-Khorasan has at least 2,000 “hardcore” fighters in cells across Afghanistan, but some foreign intelligence services think the number may be higher.

U.S. and Western counterterrorism officials also warn that IS-Khorasan has maintained a steady operational tempo across the country, with an ability to strike in cities like Kabul.

Additionally, U.S. intelligence officials and independent experts have pointed to evidence that some IS supporters elsewhere in the world are trying to relocate to Afghanistan, which worries U.S. law enforcement officials.

“We’re concerned that ISIS-K can take advantage of a significantly weakened security environment,” FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers Wednesday, warning other groups may also start to see Afghanistan as a “safe haven” where they can operate freely.

U.S. officials, including the State Department’s former counterterrorism coordinator, have previously raised concerns about the ability of IS-Khorasan to carry out external operations, though those fears have waxed and waned with the fortunes of IS-Khorasan itself.

But even if IS-Khorasan and al-Qaida are unable to quickly pivot to launch new attacks against the U.S., officials like Wray warn there is still a danger.

“Events there could serve as a catalyst or an inspiration for terrorists, whether they be members of FTOs — foreign terrorist organizations — or homegrown,” the FBI director said, noting his agency currently has about 2,000 cases involving foreign terrorist plots.

 
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Envoys of Pakistan, Russia, and China pushed for an inclusive government in their meeting with the Taliban acting prime minister in Kabul on Tuesday.

“Special Envoys on Afg of Pakistan Amb Sadiq, Russia Zamir Kabulov and China Yue Xiayong visited Kabul & called on Afghan Acting Prime Minister M. Hasan AKhund & senior leaders to discuss peace, stability & inclusive governance,” tweeted Pakistan’s ambassador to Kabul, Mansoor Ahmed Khan.

Inclusivity in the new Taliban government is one of the key demands of all of Afghanistan’s neighbors as well as the rest of the international community.

After talks last week on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe, foreign ministers of Russia, China, Pakistan, and Iran emphasized the “need to conclude national reconciliation in Afghanistan, resulting in an inclusive government that takes into account the interests of all ethno-political forces of the country.”

Despite their promises on inclusivity and upholding women’s rights, the Taliban Cabinet is full of loyalists with few minorities and no women.

In an interview with BBC, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said this could lead to problems for the Taliban going forward.

“If they do not include all the factions, sooner or later they will have a civil war,” he said. “That would mean an unstable, chaotic, Afghanistan and an ideal place for terrorists. That is a worry,” he said.

Defending the Taliban Cabinet, spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid has said in previous press briefings that it is an interim set up that can be changed later. Other Taliban leaders have indicated Taliban reluctance for the idea. 

“We do not give the right to anyone to call for an inclusive government,” Taliban leader Mohammad Mobeen said Sunday on Afghanistan’s Ariana TV, adding that asking for inclusivity was tantamount to asking the Taliban to include spies of neighboring countries in their government.

Tajikistan, one of Afghanistan’s central Asian neighbors, has also been one of its strongest critics. Tajiks make up more than 20 percent of Afghanistan’s population including the only group that continues to resist Taliban rule in Afghanistan, the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRFA) based out of Panjshir.

The Taliban claim they have crushed the resistance in Panjshir but the group claims it is hiding in the mountains and trying to reorganize itself in preparation for a long guerrilla war.

Tweeting photographs of Tuesday’s meeting with Pakistani, Russian, and Chinese envoys, Taliban official Ahmadullah Muttaqi said the Taliban acting ministers of foreign affairs and finance were also present.

During their Kabul visit, the three foreign envoys also held talks with former President Hamid Karzai and the chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, Abdullah Abdullah.

Pakistan’s ambassador said the meeting was part of efforts to bring “lasting peace & stability in Afghanistan.”

Meanwhile, the group, which is still not formally recognized as a government by any country, has nominated its Doha-based spokesman, Suhail Shaheen, as its new ambassador to the United Nations and requested that he be allowed to address world leaders during the ongoing General Assembly session in New York. That request must go to a U.N. credentials committee which is not expected to meet before the end of the current session.

Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi made the request in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday.

The last time the Taliban held power, from 1996 to 2001, the U.N. allowed the representative of the government that the Taliban deposed to hold the seat.
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The World Health Organization warned Wednesday that Afghanistan’s health care system is on the verge of collapse and the nation faces a humanitarian catastrophe without urgent action by the international community.

Earlier this week, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and WHO’s regional director for the eastern Mediterranean, Ahmed Al-Mandhari, visited the Wazir Mohammad Akbar Khan National Hospital, whose health workers treated many people injured in the recent airport attack in the capital city, Kabul.

In a press release on Wednesday, Tedros said the visit allowed WHO to see firsthand the immediate needs of the Afghan people and meet with stakeholders to determine how the organization can help.  

In the statement, WHO said cuts in international donor support to the Sehatmandi project, the country’s largest health care project, have left thousands of health facilities without funding for medical supplies and salaries for health staff.  

Tedros said only 17% of all Sehatmandi health facilities are now fully functional. He said many of the facilities have now reduced operations or shut down, “forcing health providers to make decisions on who to save and who to let die.”  

“This breakdown in health services is having a rippling effect on the availability of basic and essential health care, as well as on emergency response, polio eradication, and COVID-19 vaccination efforts,” he said.

In response, Martin Griffiths, United Nations undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs, announced he was releasing $45 million from the U.N.’s Central Emergency Response Fund to help protect Afghanistan’s health care system from collapse.

In a statement, Griffiths said the funding will go to WHO and the U.N. Children’s Fund, UNICEF, and working through national and international nongovernmental organizations, the funding will hopefully be used to keep health care facilities operating until the end of the year.

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters. 
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Those watching the Taliban establish a government and assert control over Afghanistan are growing ever more wary of pledges by the group’s leaders to make sure no terrorist organization can ever again use the country as a base for attacks against the United States. 

The Taliban’s counterterrorism commitment was a key part of the 2020 Doha Agreement that paved the way for the U.S. exit and eventual military evacuation from Afghanistan. Yet despite some praise for the businesslike way the Taliban cooperated with Washington’s withdrawal, there have been few signs of any real action. 

“Now is the time for the Taliban to show their commitment to not allow Afghan soil to be used by ISIS-K or any other terrorist group that threatens the security of the United States or its allies, and certainly not innocent Afghans for that matter,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss the sensitive subject. 

“We are closely watching the Taliban’s actions across the country,” the spokesperson added. “We’ll hold them accountable.” 

Top U.S. military and intelligence officials have been even more blunt. 

“I don’t know that they’re doing anything at all for us right now,” General Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, said Friday when pressed by VOA on whether the Taliban were making good on their counterterrorism promise. 

Threat to US 

The director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) told lawmakers Tuesday that with the Taliban now in control of Afghanistan, terror groups like al-Qaida, long intertwined with the Taliban, and the Islamic State’s Afghan affiliate, known as IS-Khorasan or ISIS-K, could try to target the U.S. homeland in as little as a year. 

“We’ve got to monitor and assess whether that’s going to happen faster,” Christine Abizaid said. 

Taliban leaders have repeatedly pushed back against accusations that they will allow groups like al-Qaida and IS-Khorasan to flourish. 

Taliban denial 

On Tuesday, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid went even further, denying that either of the groups had a foothold in the country. 

“We do not see anyone in Afghanistan who has anything to do with al-Qaida,” Mujahid told a news conference in Kabul.  

“The ISIS that exists in Iraq and Syria does not exist here,” he added. “We are committed to the fact that, from Afghanistan, there will not be any danger to any country.” 

U.S. and international intelligence officials, however, say the evidence shows otherwise. 

According to a United Nations assessment from June, al-Qaida, and its affiliate, al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), have as many as 500 members in Afghanistan. AQIS, it said, “operates under the Taliban umbrella from Kandahar, Helmand (notably Baramcha) and Nimruz provinces.” 

Rise in terror fighters 

More recent U.S. assessments concluded that since the Taliban takeover, there are at least “2,000 hardcore ISIS fighters” roaming in the country. Previous U.N. assessments indicated the number might be even higher. 

In written testimony submitted to Congress on Tuesday, the NCTC’s Abizaid further warned that IS-Khorasan “maintains a steady operational tempo in Afghanistan and retains the ability to execute attacks in cities like Kabul.” 

And both IS-Khorasan and al-Qaida could soon see their numbers start to grow. 

“We are already beginning to see some of the indications of some potential movement of al-Qaida to Afghanistan,” Central Intelligence Agency Deputy Director David Cohen said last week during an intelligence and security conference just outside of Washington. 

Western counterterrorism officials and aid workers on the ground in the region have further warned that both al-Qaida and IS-Khorasan have been laying the groundwork for a sure but steady expansion once U.S. troops finally left the country. 

Furthermore, despite a string of recent attacks against the Taliban across Afghanistan claimed by IS-Khorasan, officials and analysts say they have seen few signs of a serious or concerted crackdown by Taliban forces since they took power. 

Moves like giving a leading role to Sirajuddin Haqqani, a senior leader of the Haqqani Network which has maintained close ties to both al-Qaida and IS-Khorasan, have also gotten their attention. 

“[It] certainly concerns me,” Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray said Tuesday at a Senate hearing on threats to the U.S. homeland, calling the Taliban itself a “terrorist organization.” 

“We are concerned about what the future holds, whether it’s the possibility of another safe haven, whether it’s the possibility of ISIS-K being able to operate more freely in a less secure environment,” Wray added. 

Still, there are some who see hope that the Taliban will keep both al-Qaida and IS-Khorasan in check. 

“They know that the last time they harbored al-Qaida and it engaged in an outwardly directed attack, an attack on our homeland, certain things followed, which I believe the Taliban would have an interest in not seeing repeated,” the State Department spokesperson told VOA.  “So, whatever their views on al-Qaida, there is a strong disincentive built in to allow it to engage in outwardly directed attacks.” 

Natural enemies 

The Taliban’s long-standing ties with al-Qaida also make it a natural enemy of IS-Khorasan. 

As recently as March of last year, U.S. officials credited the Taliban with helping oust IS-Khorasan from its Afghan strongholds. 

But some more recent intelligence assessments, not from the U.S., reported the Taliban had been using IS-Khorasan, through the Haqqani Network, to attack the now defunct U.S.-backed Afghan government. 

And even if the Taliban want to crack down on IS-Khorasan cells, they may not have the right capabilities. 

“I don’t think what we’ll see from the Taliban will be traditional [counterterrorism], as we think of it,” Colin Clarke, director of policy and research at the global intelligence firm The Soufan Group, told VOA. 

“It’s much easier to play a spoiler role than to perform effectively in the role of counterinsurgent,” he said. “I think the Taliban could be effective in clearing an area, but it will struggle more with holding it.” 

“At the end of the day, it’s insurgent fratricide, and we’ll see guerrilla-on-guerrilla engagements between the Taliban and ISIS-K … assassinations, hit-and-run attacks, the use of IEDs, and other classic insurgent tactics.” 

Ayaz Gul in Islamabad contributed to this report.

 
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At first, it seemed like a regular commute home for Mohammad Ali Ahmadi. The Kabul-based journalist was riding a city van home Saturday evening after leaving work at a radio station.

Sitting in the middle seat of the Toyota TownAce, Ahmadi sensed nothing out of the ordinary about the other passengers, just regular commuters shooting the breeze about the latest developments in the Afghan capital.

Then the passenger next him — a man who Ahmadi said was bearded and in his early 30s — asked what he did for a living.

“I’m a reporter,” Ahmadi responded.

“What television station do you work for?” the man asked.

“I don’t work for a television station,” Ahmadi said. “I work for Radio Salam Watandar.”

“Oh, the American radio station?” the man asked.

Ahmadi explained that the station was a local radio network and not American, he told VOA. The man, saying nothing, signaled for the driver to drop him at the next stop.

As the passenger stepped out of the van, he pulled out a gun. Without uttering a word, he fired several shots at Ahmadi. Two struck the journalist in the leg.

“It was so sudden and so loud, for a second I thought it was a suicide explosion or something,” Ahmadi said. ”It took me some time to realize I’d been hit.”

The gunman fled, the other passengers scurried out of the van and the driver left.

Bleeding heavily, Ahmadi lay on the side of the street. A passerby finally came to his aid, using a scarf as a tourniquet to stanch the bleeding.

“I was still conscious, and I was able to call my family,” Ahmadi told VOA on Tuesday, in an interview from the hospital.

The gunman has not been identified. Ahmadi and his network both said it was unclear which group, if any, the man was affiliated with.

Nasir Maimanagy, managing director of Salam Watandar Radio Network, told VOA that the station reported the attack to the Taliban, who denied responsibility and promised to investigate

“We demanded that they investigate this thoroughly as it’s a crime and it happened under their watch,” Maimanagy said in an email to VOA.

Still, the shooting “has sent a strong wave of fear down the spine of every single employee of (Salam Watandar),” Maimanagy said.

“They are shocked and afraid,” he said. “They feel that soon they will be targeted and much worse might await them. Ahmadi was fired at five times and only two of them hit him. He is lucky to have survived.”

The shooting is one of several violent incidents directed at the media since the Taliban took control of Kabul on August 15.

The Taliban detained and later released at least 14 journalists covering protests on September 7 and 8, according to media watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists. At least nine were subjected to violence during their arrests or detention. 

Salam Watandar reporter Shakib Siavash was among those detained and beaten for covering a protest.

Two of those detained, Etilaatroz photographer Nematullah Naqdi and reporter Taqi Daryabi, recalled how they had been beaten and kicked for hours while in custody.

The Taliban have said they would investigate the beatings.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has said all media outlets “will be free” as long as they operate within the bounds of Islamic law, known as Shariah, and promote national unity. 

During their previous rule over Afghanistan, from 1996 to 2001, the Taliban banned all independent media outlets. Over the next two decades, under Afghanistan’s U.S.-backed government, hundreds of independent radio and TV stations, including Salam Watandar, operated in the country.

Despite the Taliban’s pledge to respect press freedom, dozens of news outlets have shut down, and thousands of journalists have tried to leave the country.

The International Federation of Journalists estimates that at least 153 Afghan media organizations have stopped operating since the Taliban takeover.

Those outlets that have continued are adapting their tone and content to avoid running afoul of the Taliban, according to Salam Watandar journalist Ahmadi.

In a September 16 appeal sent to Reporters Without Borders, a group of more than 100 Afghan journalists — nearly all still working in Afghanistan — called for “a campaign on behalf of press freedom in our country, for the preservation of the gains of the past 20 years, including media independence, pluralism and the protection of journalists.”

“Despite public undertakings by the Taliban, we see concrete signs of an undeclared general crackdown that includes threats to journalists in the field, intimidation of news media and indirect censorship,” the anonymous journalists wrote. 

So far, Salam Watandar has not had to make dramatic changes, Ahmadi said.

Established in the early 2000s by Internews, a California-based media development organization, Salam Watandar distributes news and other programming to a network of independent stations around Afghanistan.

“I felt that if things were left as they were, it would not be a huge difference from the past (for us),” Ahmadi said. “Unless, of course, if they change the laws and impose new restrictions on us. In which case, we’d have to change professions or leave the country.”

But the gun attack has changed how Ahmadi feels about his own safety.

Once optimistic, Ahmadi, who graduated from journalism school in 2014 and has since worked as a reporter and editor at several news outlets, says the shooting was a turning point.

“My priority at the moment is to get better, to recover my health,” Ahmadi said from his hospital bed at the Italian-supported emergency hospital in Kabul. “I didn’t want to leave the country before, but after this incident, I’ve come to the conclusion that my life is no longer safe here.”

 
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Afghanistan’s neighbors reacted to last month’s U.S. military withdrawal and the Taliban takeover at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, calling for peace and stability in their region. 

“The American decision to withdraw from Afghanistan following negotiations with the Taliban constituted an extremely critical turning point for this country,” said Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani, the emir of Qatar. 

Qatar has good relations with both Washington and the Taliban, hosting talks between the two in Doha, its capital. The Taliban have also had an office in Doha since 2013. 

The emir said they would continue to coordinate with partners to ensure gains made during those talks would be maintained and commitments kept. 

“We also stress the necessity of continuing dialogue with the Taliban because boycott only leads to polarization and reactions, whereas dialogue could bring in positive results,” the emir said. “The issue in Afghanistan is not a matter of victory or defeat but rather an issue of failure to impose a political system from outside.” 

Qatar has also been one of the countries that has helped to evacuate thousands of foreigners and Afghan nationals from the country, following the August 15 takeover by the Taliban. 

“Regardless of the political process, Afghanistan needs the help and solidarity of the international community,” Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the gathering. “We hope that peace, stability and security will be established in the country as soon as possible, and that the Afghan people will find relief.” 

Iran has a large Afghan refugee population. The U.N. refugee agency says there are about 780,000 registered Afghans in the country and as many as 2 million more who are undocumented. 

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi used his address to poke the United States, saying it did not “exit” Afghanistan, but had been “expelled.” He also issued a word of caution to Taliban leaders. 

“If an inclusive government having an effective participation of all ethnicities shouldn’t emerge to run Afghanistan, security will not be restored to the country,” he said in a video message. A number of leaders have opted not to attend this year’s meeting in person, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Afghanistan’s security is very important to Central Asian nations. Many fear that continued instability and insecurity could lead to mass migration to their countries. There is also concern that if the Taliban do not crack down on Islamist extremists, they could export ideology and terror to their countries. 

“The influence and voice of the United Nations on Afghanistan must be heard louder than ever,” Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said in a prerecorded address. 

“We have recently opened the Uzbek-Afghan border and resumed the supply of basic needs and oil products, as well as electricity to this country,” Mirziyoyev said. 

He reiterated his proposal for the General Assembly to establish a permanent U.N. Committee on Afghanistan to improve international cooperation. 

As the Taliban swept into Kabul in mid-August, the United Nations evacuated about 100 mostly foreign staff out of the country to Almaty, Kazakhstan. 

On Tuesday, the Kyrgyz Republic’s president offered to set up a temporary U.N. office in his capital, Bishkek, and urged U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to consider it. He also announced that 500 places at Kyrgz universities have been made available to ethnic Kyrgz living in Afghanistan. 

“We hope that social, political stability and law and order will be quickly reestablished in Afghanistan,” President Sadyr Zhaparov added during in his recorded message. 

Afghanistan Ambassador Ghulam Isaczai listened to the remarks in the General Assembly. He was appointed in July by the former government of President Abdul Ghani and continues to speak out strongly on social media against the Taliban.

On Monday, the U.N. secretary-general received a letter from the Taliban notifying him that they want to replace Isaczai with their own envoy, a U.N. spokesman said. The letter also said the Taliban want to participate in this week’s General Assembly debate. 

Presently, Afghanistan is slated to speak last, on September 27, at the ambassador level, so presumably that would be Isaczai, who is still the accredited representative.

The U.N. said it sent the Taliban letter and a September 15 letter from Isaczai listing himself as the head of the Afghan delegation to the General Assembly’s credentials committee.

It will be up to the nine-member committee to come to a decision about who will represent Afghanistan at the United Nations. They are unlikely to meet before October, however, making it unlikely that the Taliban could address the annual debate.

 
…

Afghanistan’s Taliban have rejected as “baseless propaganda” American concerns that al-Qaida, or militants linked to the Middle East-based Islamic State terrorist group, maintains a presence in the South Asian country.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid made the assertions at a news conference in Kabul just days after the Islamic State’s regional affiliate, ISIS-K, claimed responsibility for a string of deadly bomb attacks over the weekend targeting Taliban fighters in eastern Nangarhar province.

Mujahid’s remarks also follow recent warnings by U.S. intelligence officials that al-Qaida and Islamic State operatives were making their way back to Afghanistan, emboldened by the Islamist Taliban takeover of the conflict-torn nation five weeks ago. 

The Taliban spokesman denounced the bombings in Nangarhar. He said his ruling Islamist group was determined to stem the violence and does not see ISIS-K as a significant threat.

“You will witness for yourself that these will be the last attacks they have carried out and they will not be able to conduct them in the future.”

Mujahid asserted Tuesday that militants operating in Afghanistan in the name of ISIS-K have no ties to those fighting in Syria and Iraq.

“Daesh [Islamic State] has no physical presence here, but it is possible some people who may be our own Afghans have adopted Daesh ideology, which is a phenomenon that is neither popular nor is supported by Afghans,” he said, using an Arabic acronym for the Middle East-based terror outfit. 

ISIS-K also claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack at Kabul airport last month that killed 13 U.S. service members and nearly 170 Afghan civilians who had crowded outside the airport gates. 

Al-Qaida in Afghanistan 

Central Intelligence Agency Deputy Director David Cohen said last week that the U.S. is “already beginning to see some of the indications of some potential movement of al-Qaida to Afghanistan.”

“But it’s early days,” Cohen told a panel discussion at an intelligence summit outside of Washington. He warned that al-Qaida could reconstitute in as little as a year. “We will obviously keep a very close eye on that.” 

But Mujahid denied those assertions.

“These concerns about foreign militants or anyone linked to al-Qaida being present in Afghanistan are misplaced and they are expressed for the sake of propaganda only. We don’t see anyone in Afghanistan who has anything to do with al-Qaida,” said the Taliban spokesman. 

“We have given commitment to the world and to America, as well that we will not allow anyone to use Afghan soil to harm or threaten any country. This is a principled position and we strictly stand by it because it is also in the interest of Afghans,” Mujahid added. 

Since ousting the U.S.-backed government in Kabul last month, the Taliban have been under pressure to deliver on counterterrorism pledges and renounce ties with al-Qaida, the terrorist group Washington says organized the September 11, 2001, strikes on America from the then -Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. 

The attacks provoked the United States and its Western allies to swiftly invade the country and removed the Taliban from power for refusing to hand over the al-Qaida planners.

The Taliban regained power in Kabul after all U.S.-led NATO forces withdrew from Afghanistan, and the government and its military collapsed in the face of increased attacks by the insurgent group. 

Male Taliban Cabinet

Mujahid addressed Tuesday’s news conference mainly to announce an expansion in the Taliban’s two-week-old caretaker government, but failed to name any women to the all-male cabinet of about 60 members.

He insisted the Taliban government represented all Afghan ethnicities, saying women will be added to the cabinet at a later stage but did not say when. The spokesman again urged the United Nations, the U.S., the European Union, and other countries, as well as Afghanistan’s neighbors, to recognize the Kabul government. 

Also, several key Taliban Cabinet members are blacklisted by the U.S. and U.N., preventing countries from dealing directly with Kabul. 

Washington and other countries maintain they will judge the Taliban by their actions, and that recognition of a Taliban-led government would be linked to the treatment of women and minorities, among other concerns. 

The demand stems from fears the Taliban may try to reimpose their hardline Islamist rule the group enforced in Afghanistan when it was in control of most of the country from 1996 to 2001. A brutal justice system, the barring of women from work and public life, and girls from receiving an education, marked Taliban rule during that time.

 
…

The Taliban announced a list of deputy ministers on Tuesday, failing to name any women, despite an international outcry when they presented their all-male Cabinet ministers earlier this month. 

The list was presented by government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid at a news conference in the Afghan capital, Kabul. 

The list of deputy ministers signals that the Taliban have not been swayed by the international criticism and that they are doubling down on their current hardline path despite initial promises of inclusivity and upholding women’s rights. 

The international community has warned that it will judge the Taliban by their actions, and that recognition of a Taliban-led government would be linked to the treatment of women and minorities. In their previous rule of Afghanistan in the late 1990s, the Taliban had barred girls and women from schools, work and public life. 

The Taliban have framed their current Cabinet as an interim government, suggesting that change was still possible, but they have not said if there would ever be elections. 

In response to questions, Mujahid defended the expanded Cabinet lineup, saying it included members of ethnic minorities, such as Hazaras, and that women might be added later. 
…

China and Pakistan expect the Taliban to fulfill pledges to crack down on foreign extremist groups in Afghanistan, but experts say these groups have already been “energized” by the Taliban’s takeover, posing new challenges for Pakistani and Chinese interests. 

Last week, during the 20th Shanghai Cooperation Conference summit, President Xi Jinping of China and Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan both called on the international community to engage with the Taliban and called on the Taliban to fulfill their pledges to clamp down on terrorist groups.

The Taliban have said that they will not allow any group to use Afghan soil against any country, without laying out specifics. Some experts say the group’s swift takeover of Kabul has already emboldened extremist groups in the region and regional countries should expect more insecurity, not less. 

“There is no evidence that the Taliban will clamp down on these groups,” said Aqil Shah, professor of South Asian Studies at the University of Oklahoma and non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, adding that the problem with the Taliban is that “they say one thing and they do quite the opposite.” 

Shah said the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan leading up to the capture of Kabul was “a morale booster” for the terrorist groups, particularly those based in Afghanistan. 

There are approximately 8,000 to 10,000 “foreign terrorist fighters” in Afghanistan, including people from “Central Asia, the north Caucasus region of the Russian Federation, Pakistan and the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China” according to a U.N. report released in June 2021. 

A July 2020 U.N. report stated 6,000 to 6,500 of the foreign fighters in Afghanistan are from Pakistan, and majority of these militants are affiliated with Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a U.S.-designated terror group that has mostly carried out attacks against Pakistani security forces. 

Threat to Pakistan 

The TTP, which pledges allegiance to the Taliban in Afghanistan, has increased its attacks in Pakistan in recent weeks. 

The group killed seven Pakistani soldiers in a gunfight in South Waziristan, a district in northwest Pakistan near the Afghanistan border on September 15. 

The TTP also claimed responsibility for a suicide attack in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province, on September 5 that killed at least three Pakistani soldiers. 

Shah added that the TTP is “the main threat” to Pakistan’s security as it intends “to destabilize Pakistan” and eventually “overthrow the government in Pakistan.” 

Pakistani officials said the TTP is planning attacks from Afghanistan, and they expect the Taliban to make good on pledges to prevent the group from using Afghan soil to attack Pakistani security forces. But there is little public information so far to indicate that any kind of Taliban crackdown against the group is imminent.

Abdul Basit, a research fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore, predicts the TTP will continue its attacks. 

“For TTP, it is the same. If you can defeat the US, certainly you can defeat the Pakistani army,” added Basit. 

Pakistani officials blamed TTP militants for a suicide bomb attack on a bus last month that killed 13 people, including nine Chinese workers who were headed to a dam construction project in the north of the country.

Far from promising a crackdown on the TTP, Pakistani officials have made more conciliatory gestures. On September 15, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Islamabad is ready to pardon those members of the TTP who promise not to get involved in terrorist activities which the group rejected. He indicated he hoped the Taliban helps convince TTP members to submit to the Pakistani constitution and drop their armed insurgency.

Qureshi said he remained concerned over reports that hundreds of TTP fighters were released from Afghan prisons as the Taliban took control of the country. 

Basit said the Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan will further increase “radicalism” in the region, and “as a result, the recruitment for the groups would increase.” 

He added the TTP has close relations with other extremist groups, including East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM). “TTP provided them refuge. They lived together. They fought together.” 

ETIM, the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, is a Uighur separatist group that China calls “the most dangerous and extremist terrorist group” in its Xinjiang region. However although ETIM remains a U.N.-designated terrorist group with several hundred fighters reportedly located in Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province, the U.S. removed the group from its terror list in 2020, citing “no credible evidence” that it continued to exist.

Threat to China 

China now faces multiple threats from the region with America’s complete withdrawal from Afghanistan, Basit said.

“The Americans only fought the jihadists in the region. For China, it’s a double blow, because not only the Jihadists, (but) the ethno-nationalists are also against China.” Basit added, “these (terrorist) groups need a big enemy to justify their violence. For the last 20 years, the enemy was the U.S. forces. Now the next big villain is China.”

The Baloch National Freedom Movement, a terrorist organization that seeks the independence of Balochistan province in southwest Pakistan, has made it clear that China is their target. In August 2020, the Baloch National Freedom Movement announced an alliance with the Sindhu Desh Liberation Army, a terrorist organization based in Pakistan’s Sindh province. Together, the two accused China of expansionism and occupying local resources in the region. 

While terrorist attacks inside China remain unlikely because of the tight security there, said Basit, the Chinese Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project in Pakistan is “China’s soft underbelly and (a) good opportunity for these (militant) groups to target and (pressure) China to amend its behavior (toward the) Xinjiang Muslim community. Otherwise, attacks would continue.” 

CPEC is a series of infrastructure projects including highways and ports. Prime Minister Khan describes CPEC as the “flagship project” of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to expand China’s political and economic influence to Europe.

China hopes the Taliban will prevent the infiltration of ETIM militants into Xinjiang. That scenario is considered “a major threat” for China, said Huping Ling, history professor at Truman State University and visiting fellow of the Hoover Institute at Stanford University. 

China and Afghanistan may only share a 75-km border, which is undeveloped and largely impassable during winter months, but Ling said the country has invested resources in securing the border. 

“For China, it is strategically important to secure the border because that is one of the headaches regarding maintaining the stability,” Ling added. 

She said the Taliban is looking to China to build up infrastructure in Afghanistan to extract an estimated $1 trillion to $3 trillion worth of minerals there. “It will be beneficial to both China and the Taliban’s government.” 

The Taliban has repeatedly stated they want close relations with China, particularly as Afghanistan is on the verge of economic collapse since the international community has frozen donors’ funds and billions of dollars in assets. 

“China is our main partner and represents a fundamental and extraordinary opportunity for us because it is ready to invest and rebuild our country,” Taliban spokesperson, Zabiullah Mujahid told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica on September 2.

Washington says China’s crackdown against ethnic Uighurs amount to a genocide against the majority Muslim group, but so far those repressive policies appear to have had little impact on the Taliban’s view of Beijing.

“They (Taliban) are so anxious to have political and economic assistance from China that they are forgetting the fact that China is one of the greatest abusers of Islamic population on the globe,” said Marvin Weinbaum, the director of the Afghanistan and Pakistan Program at the Washington-based Middle East Institute.

“This suggests that when it comes to the practical politics of governing, ideology takes the back seat,” said Weinbaum. 

Human rights organizations accuse Beijing of committing crimes against humanity by arbitrarily detaining more than 1 million Uighurs and other Muslims in internment camps and forcing others into forced labor. 

 
…

A new report released Monday warned that the human rights gains made by Afghanistan during the last two decades are at risk of collapsing following the Taliban’s takeover of the country more than a month ago. 

The Islamist movement is wasting no time in “steadily dismantling” the progress, Amnesty International, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) said in the report, which documents the Taliban’s alleged wide-ranging crackdown. 

Contrary to the Taliban’s repeated public pledges that they will respect the rights of all Afghans, the report detailed “a litany” of abuses, noting that restrictions have also been placed on women, freedom of expression and civil society. 

“In just over five weeks since assuming control of Afghanistan, the Taliban have clearly demonstrated that they are not serious about protecting or respecting human rights. We have already seen a wave of violations, from reprisal attacks and restrictions on women, to crackdowns on protests, the media and civil society,” said Dinushika Dissanayake, Amnesty International’s deputy director for South Asia.

The report alleges that attacks on human rights defenders have been reported on “a near-daily basis” since August 15, the day when the Taliban marched into the Afghan capital, Kabul, and established their control over almost all of the country. 

“The Taliban are conducting door-to-door searches for human rights defenders, forcing many into hiding,” the report said.

The findings “are likely to represent just a snapshot” of what is happening in Afghanistan, the report said, citing the prevailing climate of fear, lack of mobile connectivity in many areas and internet blackouts enforced by the Taliban. 

“The international community must uphold its moral and political commitments and not fail the people who have dedicated their lives to the defense of human rights, gender equality, the rule of law and democratic freedoms in their country but protect them at all costs,” said Delphine Reculeau, program director at OMCT. 

Taliban officials have not immediately commented on the allegations.

On Monday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed they had closed the government’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs and replaced it with a ministry aimed at promoting morality and preventing wrongdoing. 

Employees of the World Bank’s $100 million Women’s Economic Empowerment and Rural Development Program were escorted out of the building Saturday as part of the change, according to program staffer Sharif Akhtar, who was among those forced out. 

On Twitter, the state-owned Bakhtar News Agency quoted Mujahid as saying the female staff of the ministry will be accommodated in other government departments.

“Now, efforts are being made to create a modern organization in which women’s Islamic rights are introduced and achieved,” he insisted.

Mujahid denied claims that girls would be banned from secondary schools. He said that while boys have resumed education, arrangements are being made for a special transportation system for female students, among other rules, so they can return to schools in a safe environment. 

The denial came just days after the Taliban’s Ministry of Education directed male students and teachers from the 6th to the 12th grade to resume their classes last Saturday. The directive did not mention female students, fueling concerns that girls would once again be barred from receiving an education.

The Taliban had banned women from leaving home without a male relative and girls from schools when they were in power from 1996 to 2001.

The Taliban also have dissolved the official Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), saying an investigation has also been launched into allegations of corruption against members of the commission. 

The move came a day after the AIHRC urged the Taliban in a statement to respect human rights and the independence of the official watchdog, as well as its staff. 

The Taliban have also told female employees in the Kabul city government to stay home, with work only allowed for those who cannot be replaced by men. 

‘One-sided criticism’ 

The United States and other countries have demanded that Taliban control of the country involves inclusive government, respect for human rights, and to desist from bringing back their harsh Islamist rule to avoid being internationally isolated.

Mujahid urged the international community Monday to recognize the new Taliban government and stop “one-sided” criticism of Kabul’s human rights record. 

“As long as we are not recognized, and they make criticisms (over rights violations), we think it is a one-sided approach. It would be good for them to treat us responsibly and recognize our current government as a responsible administration,” he told the private Afghan TOLO news channel.

“Afterward, they can share their concerns lawfully with us, and we will address their concerns,” the Taliban spokesman said. 

 
…

Aleena Jun Nawabi was born in Afghanistan but was brought to the United States as an injured war victim and spent years in hospitals. Today, she is fighting to help more people leave Afghanistan. Genia Dulot reports
…

Female employees in the Kabul city government have been told to stay home, with work only allowed for those who cannot be replaced by men, the interim mayor of Afghanistan’s capital said Sunday, detailing the latest restrictions on women by the new Taliban rulers.

Witnesses, meanwhile, said an explosion targeted a Taliban vehicle in the eastern provincial city of Jalalabad, and hospital officials said five people were killed in the second such deadly blast in as many days in the Islamic State stronghold.

The decision to prevent most female city workers from returning to their jobs is another sign that the Taliban, who overran Kabul last month, are enforcing their harsh interpretation of Islam despite initial promises by some that they would be tolerant and inclusive. In their previous rule in the 1990s, the Taliban had barred girls and women from schools, jobs and public life.

In recent days, the new Taliban government issued several decrees rolling back the rights of girls and women. It told female middle school and high school students that they could not return to school for the time being, while boys in those grades resumed studies this weekend. Female university students were informed that studies would take place in gender-segregated settings from now on, and that they must abide by a strict

Islamic dress code. Under the U.S.-backed government deposed by the Taliban, university studies had been co-ed, for the most part.

On Friday, the Taliban shut down the Women’s Affairs Ministry, replacing it with a ministry for the “propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice” and tasked with enforcing Islamic law.

On Sunday, just more than a dozen women staged a protest outside the ministry, holding up signs calling for the participation of women in public life.

The protest lasted about 10 minutes. After a short verbal confrontation with a man, the women got into cars and left, as Taliban in two cars observed from nearby. Over the past months, Taliban fighters had broken up several women’s protests by force.

Elsewhere, about 30 women, many of them young, held a news conference in a basement of a home tucked away in a Kabul neighborhood. Marzia Ahmadi, a rights activist and government employee now forced to sit at home, said they would demand the Taliban reopen public spaces to women.

“It’s our right,” she said. “We want to talk to them. We want to tell them that we have the same rights as they have.”

Most of the participants said they would try to leave the country if they had an opportunity.

The explosion Sunday in Jalalabad was the second attack in two days to target the Taliban in the Islamic State group stronghold. The Taliban and IS extremists are enemies and fought each other even before the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan last month.

In a statement Sunday, Islamic State Khorasan claimed responsibility for the four weekend attacks.

Hospital officials in Jalalabad said they received the bodies of five people killed in the explosion. Among the dead were two civilians, including a child, and three others who according to witnesses were in a targeted border police vehicle and were believed to be Taliban.

The Taliban were not immediately available for comment about possible casualties among their ranks.

On Saturday, three explosions targeted Taliban vehicles in Jalalabad, killing three people and wounding 20, witnesses said.

With the Taliban facing major economic and security problems as they attempt to govern, a growing challenge by IS militants would further stretch their resources.

Also on Sunday, interim Kabul Mayor Hamdullah Namony gave his first news conference since being appointed by the Taliban.

He said that before the Taliban takeover last month, just under one-third of the nearly 3,000 city employees were women, and that they had worked in all departments.

Namony said the female employees have been ordered to stay home, pending a further decision. He said exceptions were made for women who could not be replaced by men, including some in the design and engineering departments and the attendants of public toilets for women. Namony did not say how many female employees were forced to stay home.

Across Afghanistan, women in many areas have been told to stay home from jobs, both in the public and private sectors; however, the Taliban have not yet announced a uniform policy.

Perhaps the toughest challenge faced by the new Taliban rulers is the accelerated economic downturn. Even before the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan was plagued by major problems, including large-scale poverty, drought and heavy reliance on foreign aid for the state budget.

In a sign of growing desperation, street markets have sprung up in Kabul where residents are selling their belongings. Some of the sellers are Afghans hoping to leave the country, while others are forced to offer their meager belongings in hopes of getting money for the next meal.
…

To help newcomers from Afghanistan resettle in America, Fatima Popal started collecting donations in her Washington, D.C., restaurant. Karina Bafradzhian has the story.

Camera: : David Gogokhia, Artyom Kokhan
…

Organizers and participants in an online U.S. academic conference on Hindu nationalism say right-wing Hindu groups targeted the meeting, calling it “anti-Hindu” and “Hindu-phobic.”

These organizers and participants in the September 10-12 Dismantling Global Hindutva (DGH) conference — “Hindutva” refers to a right-wing Hindu movement aiming to turn India into a Hindu state — say they received hate mail and death threats and that the attacks came from right-wing Hindu groups and their supporters.

Indian poet and activist Meena Kandasamy, a conference speaker, told VOA September 18 she had received an online death threat, while Rohit Chopra, an associate professor at Santa Clara University in California and conference organizer, said several participants had received death threats.

While the death threat to Kandasamy was apparently from an individual, “Only right wing groups are officially targeting me through tweets, conferences, posters, articles and mass trolling. I am certain the threats are coming from members of those groups,” she told VOA.

The threats and harassment have been “relentless and unimaginable in their scale and scope,” said Chopra.

“There have been direct threats of violence sent by phone, email and on social media to specific individuals associated with the conference. These hateful messages include threats of death and sexual violence to the individuals in question and to their families. The rightwing media frenzy in India and the attacks on the conference launched by right-wing Hindu Organizations in the U.S. have, and are, contributing to this climate of violence.”

An email received by one organizer said: “If this event will take place, then I will become Osama bin Laden and will kill all the speakers, don’t blame me.”

Hindu groups have accused the conference of being an attack on Hinduism. The India-based group Hindu Janjagruti Samiti, or Hindu Mass-Awakening Committee, held a discussion on Twitter September 15 in which several speakers said that the DGH conference was anti-Hindu and it was held to launch a campaign against Hinduism.

Sourish Mukherjee a spokesperson of Vishwa Hindu Parishad or World Hindu Organization, the largest Hindu group in India — which has not been accused of any attacks on the conference — told VOA, “The conference was part of a global conspiracy to malign Hinduism.”

Conference organizers, though, call the accusation “false” and say the conference was only an academic discussion on the political ideology of Hindutva by the participating scholars.

The Hindu groups, identified by the organizers as “far-right fringe groups” and their supporters, sent more than a million emails to universities sponsoring the conference urging them to withdraw and take action against staff that participated, organizers say.

Kandasamy has faced violent threats since her name as a speaker at the conference became public last month. Pictures of Kandasamy and her 4-year-old son were posted online with vulgar captions and threats. She also received threats of being raped on Twitter.

A well-known Indian documentary maker and activist, who participated in the conference, told VOA he received at least two death threats from one group called Kalki Army for taking part in the conference.

Chopra said that several of the speakers, mostly with their roots in India, withdrew from the conference.

Despite the pressure campaign, Chopra said no university dropped support for the conference.

“In fact, since news of the highly organized attack against the conference, and, indeed, the principle of academic freedom, has become public, we have received overwhelming support from all segments of global civil society, including academic associations, PEN International, academicians, and others,” Chopra told VOA.

Several Hindu groups charged that the conference is aimed at demeaning Hinduism.

The Hindu American Foundation said that it never tried to stop the DGH conference, but sought to present its views to counter those of the speakers there. The foundation never encouraged opponents of the conference to make violent threats against its organizers, speakers and supporters, the statement said.

“We are aware of threatening and harassing messages on social media targeting organizers of the event and some of those who are promoting the conference, and even their family members. Some report receiving violent threats and menacing phone calls. We emphatically condemn all such actions,” the statement said.

Ben Baer, the director of South Asian Studies Program at Princeton University, said that his university had received thousands of emails calling the conference “Hindu-phobic.”

Chopra said that the organizers of the DGH conference had repeatedly emphasized from the very start, on the conference site and in all materials related to it that “Hindutva is not synonymous with Hinduism.”

“Hindutva is a very specific historical phenomenon but meaningful analogies to that accusation would be to label a conference on global rightwing Christian fundamentalism as Christian-phobic or to designate a conference on White Supremacy as motivated by hatred of all White people. It is precisely because the Hindu Right and pro-Hindutva organizations opposing the conference want that Hindutva should be seen as the authentic incarnation of Hinduism that they are making such untenable claims,” said Chopra.

Audrey Truschke, an associate professor of South Asian history at Rutgers University, who has received several violent threats despite not being involved in the DGH conference, said that the right-wing Hindu nationalist groups have attacked U.S.-based academics, on and off, for a few decades with the goal of stifling academic discourse.

“These right-wing groups have become significantly emboldened and virulent in their attacks over the past few years, deploying standard Hindu nationalist strategies of disinformation campaigns, trolling, threatening and filing lawsuits, intimidation, and pressuring employers. Such attacks seek to silence a wide range of scholars, including those who work on Indo-Muslim history, Hinduism, Kashmir, and, of course, Hindu nationalism,” Truschke told VOA.

“Such attacks are infringing on academic freedom and so are being opposed by a broad array of scholars, academic organizations, universities, and civil society groups,” she said.
…

There is growing optimism that India could resume exports of COVID-19 vaccines as production expands at a rapid pace, putting the country on track to immunize its adult population in the coming months

“We had put a target of 1.85 billion doses for ourselves. That has been organized by the end of December and thereafter the government will be able to allow vaccine exports,” N.K. Arora, head of the national technical advisory group on immunization told VOA. “We will have several billion doses available next year.”

India, a vaccine powerhouse, was expected to be a major supplier of affordable COVID- 19 vaccines to developing countries.

However, after supplying 66 million doses to nearly 100 countries, New Delhi halted exports in April following a deadly second wave of the pandemic, slowing inoculation programs of countries from Africa to Indonesia.

There is no official comment on a timeline for resumption of exports, with officials stressing that for the time being, the focus is on India’s domestic rollout.

“First, all of our adults will have to be immunized, we have to take care of our own people,” Arora said.

The issue of vaccine supplies is expected to figure in the summit meeting of the Quad nations —  the United States, Japan, India and Australia — Friday in Washington.

Public health experts say India will likely wait to restart exports until the country’s festive season ends in November to ensure it does not have to grapple with a third wave. Currently authorities are racing to administer at least one dose to all adults.

India has given one shot to roughly two thirds of its population but only 20% of its approximately 900 million adults have been fully inoculated.

In April, as a ferocious surge in infections took a heavy toll, the government had faced criticism for exporting vaccines when most of its own population was not inoculated.

India has been urged to resume exports as the country’s vaccination program gains momentum and the supply of vaccines increases.

The World Health Organization told a press briefing in Geneva Tuesday that it has been assured that supplies from India will restart this year. Officials said that discussions in New Delhi have emphasized the importance of ensuring that India is “part of the solution for Africa.”

African countries have struggled to inoculate their populations — only about 3% of the continent’s population is vaccinated.

“Given the successful ramp-up of domestic production and the diminishing intensity of its own outbreak, we hope that India will ease its restrictions,” a spokesman for the Gavi alliance, co-leading the global vaccine sharing platform COVAX, told VOA.

The Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest producer of the AstraZeneca vaccines, has said that exports could resume as India nears a level where sufficient stocks are available for its inoculation drive.

“In the next two months, we do expect slow easement of exports. But you have to also check with the government; ultimately it is their decision,” SII chief executive Adar Poonawalla said on Friday.

The institute was to be one of the major suppliers of affordable vaccines to COVAX, but the vaccine-sharing platform’s ability to get sufficient doses for low- and middle-income countries took a hit when India shut down exports.

“Countries with a low level of vaccination can breed variants and if the world does not cover those people there is an opportunity for mutants to rise and creep into other countries, making it harder control the pandemic,” K. Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India, said.

Eyes will also be on the Quad summit next week to see how it makes headway on the vaccine initiative announced in March under which the four countries had decided to produce 1 billion doses in India by 2022 with financial backing from the United States and Japan.

“The summit will be a good opportunity to take stock and expedite that initiative. Some conversations have happened, let us see what progress is made,” an official in India’s Ministry of External Affairs, who did not want to be named, said.

Vaccines produced under the Quad initiative were meant for countries in the Indo-Pacific region. These and other developing countries have turned to China, which has supplied over a billion doses, while Western countries are seen to have lagged in their efforts to vaccinate developing countries.

However, hopes are rising that India will emerge as a major global supplier as new production facilities are set up and the basket of vaccines expands.

The SII for example is set to ramp up production to 200 million doses next month –nearly three times its output in April when India halted exports. Indian companies are also set to make millions of doses of both domestically developed vaccines and those developed overseas, such as the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and Russia’s Sputnik V.

“It may look like a presumptuous statement, but we will immunize many countries next year, and these will be with affordable shots. There is no confusion in that. India is committed to it and I see no difficulty at all,” Arora said. 
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A Qatar Airways flight on Friday took more Americans out of Afghanistan, according to Washington’s peace envoy, the third such airlift by the Mideast carrier since the Taliban takeover and the frantic U.S. troop pullout from the country.

U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad tweeted he was “grateful that more Americans were able to leave on a Qatar Airways flight.” There was no immediate information how many Americans were on the flight.

An Afghan official said more than 150 passengers were on the flight, though it was not immediately clear how many were Americans.

On Saturday, the U.S. State Department said 28 U.S. citizens and seven lawful permanent residents were on the flight. 

In the past week, more than 300 foreign nationals as well as U.S. green card holders and Afghans with special visas have left Afghanistan. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

He said more flights were expected on Saturday, including another Qatar Airways flight. It’s unclear how many American nationals are still in Afghanistan, but Khalilzad tweeted “we remain committed to get them out if they want to come home.” 

U.S. State Department spokesperson Jalina Porter confirmed that the plane departed Kabul on Friday and told reporters that officials were still trying to determine how many Americans, green card holders or holders of special immigrant visas for Afghans were on the flight heading to Doha, the Qatari capital.

Porter said that in all, “between the charter flights and overland crossings, a total of 36 U.S. citizens” have left Afghanistan since the U.S. troop pullout.

The development came amid rising concerns over the future of Afghanistan under the Taliban. The country’s new Islamic rulers on Friday ordered boys and male teachers of grades six to 12 to return to school and resume classes, starting Saturday, but not girls and women teachers.

The statement, posted on the Facebook page of the now Taliban-run education ministry, underscored fears that the Taliban might again impose restrictions on girls and women. Since taking power, the Taliban had allowed girls in grades one to six to resume classes. When they ruled Afghanistan previously in the late 1990s, the Taliban banned girls and women from attending school and work. 

The Taliban order for the boys and male teachers to return to junior high and high schools went against earlier promises by the Taliban to guarantee girls equal access to education. Since taking over, the Taliban have only allowed women back to work in the health sector and as teachers in grades one through five.

At a news conference last week, the Taliban minister for higher education, Abdul Baqi Haqqani, had said classes would be gender segregated but that girls would have the same access to education as boys.

Earlier this month, the Taliban declared their interim, all-male government — devoid of any women or members of the country’s minorities. The 33-member Cabinet is stacked with veterans of the Taliban’s hard-line rule from the 1990s and the 20-year battle against the U.S.-led coalition.

This is unlikely to win the Taliban the international support they desperately need to avoid an economic meltdown. 
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Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan says he has opened a dialogue with Afghanistan’s Taliban to try to persuade them to form an “inclusive” government in Kabul to ensure peace and stability in the war-torn country.

Khan disclosed the initiative Saturday via Twitter, saying it stemmed from his meetings this week in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, with leaders of countries bordering Afghanistan.

The Pakistani leader concluded a two-day visit to Dushanbe on Friday, where he held bilateral talks on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, an annual meeting of the China- and Russia-led regional security bloc.

“After meetings in Dushanbe with leaders of Afghanistan’s neighbors & especially a lengthy discussion with Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon, I have initiated a dialogue with the Taliban for an inclusive Afghan govt to include Tajiks, Hazaras & Uzbeks,” Khan tweeted.

Without elaborating, he emphasized “inclusivity” as key to ensuring Afghan peace and stability after four decades of conflict, adding that it would serve the interest of not only the war-ravaged South Asian nation but also the entire region.

Pakistan shares a nearly 2,600-kilometer border with Afghanistan, where the Taliban swept back to power last month as all U.S.-led troops withdrew, ending nearly two decades of war.

The insurgent group last week named an all-male 33-member caretaker government, comprising mostly senior leaders of the Taliban, who are predominantly ethnic Pashtun.

The move drew strong criticism at home and internationally for excluding women and not giving proper representation to Afghan ethnic minorities such as Tajiks, Hazara and Uzbeks, contrary to the Taliban’s pledges on inclusivity.

At Friday’s summit, leaders of SCO member states — China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — vowed to work with the Taliban and urged the global community to engage with Kabul rather than abandoning it to help prevent a looming humanitarian crisis and an economic collapse in the war-torn country.

“Abandoning Afghanistan could take us back to an unstable situation resulting in civil strife, negative spillover effect on neighboring countries, outflow of refugees, rise in terrorist incidents, drug trafficking and transnational organized crime,” Khan told a meeting of the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Eurasian intergovernmental military alliance comprising several post-Soviet states, also hosted by Dushanbe.

Afghanistan is an observer state, but it was not invited to the SCO huddle because member nations have not yet recognized the Taliban government, nor has the international community at large.

Pakistan has had close ties with the Taliban and has been accused of sheltering its supporters as they directed a deadly insurgency against the U.S.-backed government in Kabul for 20 years, charges Islamabad denies.

Washington has acknowledged Islamabad’s role in arranging negotiations that culminated in the February 2020 deal, paving the way for the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Some conflict of interests

However, Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week told a congressional hearing in Washington that Pakistan has a “multiplicity of interests, some that are in conflict with ours.”

“It is one that is involved hedging its bets constantly about the future of Afghanistan, it’s one that’s involved harboring members of the Taliban. … It is one that’s also involved in different points cooperation with us on counterterrorism,” Blinken said.

He noted that the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden would soon be reassessing its relationship with Pakistan.

“This is one of the things we’re going to be looking at in the days and weeks ahead — the role that Pakistan has played over the last 20 years but also the role we would want to see it play in the coming years and what it will take for it to do that,” Blinken said.

Pakistan responded by expressing “surprise” over Blinken’s remarks, saying they were “not in line with the close cooperation” between the two countries.

A foreign ministry statement noted that Islamabad’s “positive” role in the Afghan peace process, facilitation of the multinational evacuation effort from Kabul before and after the U.S. withdrawal from the country, and continued support for an inclusive political settlement in Afghanistan had been “duly acknowledged” by the international community.
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Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers apparently have closed the government’s ministry of women’s affairs and replaced it with a ministry aimed at promoting morality and averting wrongdoing.  

Outside the building in Kabul that housed the women’s affairs ministry, a new sign was raised Friday saying it was now the headquarters of the “Ministry for Preaching and Guidance and the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.”

Employees of the World Bank’s $100 million Women’s Economic Empowerment and Rural Development Program were escorted out of the building Saturday as part of the change, according to program staffer Sharif Akhtar, who was among those forced out.

In a statement Saturday, the Taliban-run education ministry said, “All male teachers and students should attend their educational institutions.” It did not mention women teachers or female students.

The developments are the latest indications the Taliban are limiting women’s rights since they seized the capital of Kabul last month, despite recent statements they are willing to ease restrictions on women and girls.  

When the Taliban ruled the country from 1996 until the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, the Taliban denied women and girls the right to education and largely excluded them from public life.

The Taliban has not commented on the developments.  

Also Saturday, three people were killed in three explosions targeting Taliban vehicles in the eastern provincial capital of Jalalabad. No one has claimed responsibility, but Islamic State militants, enemies of the Taliban, are based in the area.

More than 500 people left Afghanistan Saturday morning on two flights out of Kabul’s airport, one by Pakistan’s national carrier and the other by Iran’s Mahan Air, an airport official said. The official said the identities and nationalities of the people were not immediately known.

On a Qatar Airways flight on Friday, more Americans flew out of Afghanistan, according to Washington’s peace envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad.  

Some information in this report came from the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.

 
…

At least two people were killed and up to 20 more wounded in three explosions Saturday in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, a Taliban official said.

“So far we have reports of two killed and up to 20 wounded,” said the Taliban official, who asked not to be named, and said that a patrol vehicle was targeted.

“Women and children were among the injured,” he said.

An investigation was under way to establish the extent of the damage and the cause of the explosions, he added.

The attacks are the first deadly blasts since the American withdrawal from Afghanistan.

An official from the health department of Nangarhar province told AFP that three people were killed and 18 were wounded.

Several local media reported the attacks left at least two dead and 19 injured.

Jalalabad is the capital of Nangarhar, the heartland of Afghanistan’s Islamic State group, which claimed responsibility for a bloody attack that killed more than 100 people at Kabul airport at the end of August.

The Taliban returned to power in mid-August after toppling the former government, and they have promised to restore peace and security to the country.

Pictures taken at the site of the blast showed a green pick-up truck with a white Taliban flag surrounded by debris as armed fighters looked on.

 
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A drone strike carried out during the waning hours of the U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan did not kill a terrorist bent on attacking the international airport in Kabul, and instead killed as many as 10 civilians, including an aid worker and seven children. 

The admission Friday from the commander of U.S. troops in the region followed a military investigation sparked by claims from people on the ground, as well as media reports, that the target struck August 29 by a Hellfire missile was never a threat. 

“This strike was taken in the earnest belief that it would prevent an imminent threat to our forces and the evacuees at the airport,” General Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, told reporters at the Pentagon via a video link. “Our investigation now concludes the strike was a tragic mistake.” 

“We now assess that it is unlikely that the vehicle or those that died were associated with ISIS-K,” McKenzie added, using an acronym for the Islamic State terror group’s affiliate in Afghanistan, also known as IS-Khorasan. 

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also apologized for the errant strike. 

“On behalf of the men and women of the Department of Defense, I offer my deepest condolences to surviving family members of those who were killed,” Austin said in a statement. “We apologize, and we will endeavor to learn from this horrible mistake.” 

The apology was a dramatic turnaround for the U.S. military, which had been defending the airstrike for weeks. 

Just days after, the senior-most U.S. military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, defended the strike as “righteous.” 

“We know from a variety of other means that at least one of those people that were killed was an ISIS facilitator,” Milley told Pentagon reporters September 1. “The procedures were correctly followed.” 

Even then, accounts from the ground were telling a different story – that instead of killing an IS-Khorasan facilitator, the U.S. drone strike had actually blown up Ezmarai Ahmadi, an aid worker with the California-based Nutrition and Education International who had applied for resettlement in the U.S. 

Family members said the other fatalities included Ahmadi’s daughter, as well as nephews and nieces. 

Additional investigations by The New York Times  and The Washington Post  cast further doubt on the U.S. assertion that the strike had eliminated an IS-Khorasan terrorist.

The Times investigation determined that the car, a white Toyota Corolla, which U.S. officials thought was filled with explosives, was actually carrying canisters of water. And the suspicious stops Ahmadi had made as the U.S. watched him from the sky were stops to pick up colleagues and to make water deliveries. 

“We didn’t take the strike because we thought we were wrong. We took the strike because we thought we had a good target,” CENTCOM’s McKenzie said Friday, pointing to what he said were “over 60 very, very high-caliber reports of imminent threat to our forces in and around Kabul,” many centered on the use of a white Toyota Corolla. 

“Clearly our intelligence was wrong on this particular white Toyota Corolla,” he said. 

U.S. military officials said they still believe there was an IS-Khorasan plot to attack the airport with that type of car from one of the locations where Ahmadi’s Toyota was spotted. But they now believe that attack may have been disrupted by a U.S airstrike days earlier that targeted the terror group’s operatives in Nangarhar province. 

McKenzie said the U.S. is now looking into making so-called ex gratia payments to the surviving family members, though he admitted delivering the reparations could be difficult without a U.S. presence on the ground. 

The CENTCOM commander declined to say whether any disciplinary action would be taken against those involved in carrying out the strike, saying that the ultimate responsibility lay with him. 

Human rights organizations are demanding more. 

“The U.S. must now commit to a full, transparent and impartial investigation into this incident,” said Brian Castner, a senior crisis adviser with Amnesty International. 

“Anyone suspected of criminal responsibility should be prosecuted in a fair trial,” Castner said in a formal statement. “Survivors and families of the victims should be kept informed of the progress of the investigation and be given full reparation.” 

The American Civil Liberties Union said the drone strike in Kabul should be “a wake-up call.” 

“In this strike, we see the echoes of so many other civilian lives lost and gravely harmed, whether in wars like in Afghanistan, or outside of them, like in Somalia,” Hina Shamsi of the ACLU said in a statement.

Some U.S. lawmakers are also calling for more to be done. 

“The Department of Defense has taken the first step towards transparency and accountability,” said Representative Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, in a written statement. He called the deadly drone strike “a devastating failure.” 

“We need to know what went wrong in the hours and minutes leading up to the strike to prevent similar tragedies in the future,” he added. 

“The Armed Services Committee will hear from administration officials in the weeks ahead on the chaotic and deadly Afghanistan withdrawal,” Senator James Inhofe, the ranking member of the committee, said in a written statement. 

“The August 29 strike shows how difficult and complex counterterrorism operations can be, and unfortunately it highlights that an ‘over-the-horizon’ strategy will only increase the complexity and difficulty,” he said. 

There are also questions about the future of any U.S. counterterrorism strikes in Afghanistan against groups like IS-Khorasan or al-Qaida, which for now would be conducted “over the horizon” – from U.S. bases hours away in the Middle East. 

But McKenzie said the rules of engagement for such airstrikes would be different. 

“We will have a lot more opportunity probably than we had under this extreme time pressure to take a look at the target … to soak the target with multiple platforms to have an opportunity to develop extended pattern of life,” he said. “None of these things were available to us given the urgent and pressing nature of the imminent threat to our forces.” 

The U.S. commander also said that despite their repeated assurances and commitments, the Taliban had done little to help the evacuation aside from establishing an outer security perimeter around Kabul airport that “also allowed them to screen people that might otherwise have gotten to the airfield.” 

As far as any other help against IS-Khorasan, “I don’t know that they’re doing anything at all for us right now,” McKenzie said.
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