Some Afghans who worked with U.S.-funded programs and projects in Afghanistan are welcoming the U.S. State Department’s Priority 2 program, which grants access to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program for certain Afghans and their families. But other Afghans warn the program could accelerate a brain drain from the country. VOA’s Samsama Sirat and Sayed Ziarmal Hashimi filed this report, narrated by Roshan Noorzai.
Camera: Samsama Sirat and Sayed Ziarmal Hashimi
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The Taliban condemned the United States on Wednesday for what they described as “plain interference” in Afghanistan by offering to resettle Afghan civilians with affiliations to international forces who could be targeted by the insurgent group.Washington on Monday announced the program that offers thousands of Afghan interpreters and translators, along with their families, a chance to relocate as refugees in America.U.S. and NATO allies are just weeks away from winding down their military missions in the war-torn South Asian nation after 20 years. The troop withdrawal, however, has led to a record escalation in insurgent violence as the Taliban have overrun dozens of government-held districts.“The offer of visas and encouragement to leave their home country by the U.S. government to Afghans who worked with the American occupation as interpreters and in other sectors is plain interference in our country which the Islamic Emirate [Taliban] condemns,” said a statement Wednesday.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 10 MB480p | 14 MB540p | 17 MB720p | 34 MB1080p | 65 MBOriginal | 88 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioThe insurgent group renewed its pledge not to harm the Afghans in question following the end of “the American occupation” of the country.“They may live comfortably in their homeland without any fear of threats. We urge the United States along with other countries to desist from such interventionist policies,” said the insurgent statement.Washington, however, is not convinced and has increasingly denounced reports the Taliban are allegedly committing war crimes in their recent territorial advances.“If the Taliban want their promises of safety to be taken seriously, then they cannot allow those they claim to protect to come to harm in this way,” the U.S. Embassy in Kabul tweeted Wednesday.(1/2) Concerning reports the Taliban entice ANDSF units to surrender with the promise they will be unharmed, and then those soldiers disappear in the night and their widows are forced to marry Taliban fighters. If true, these could constitute war crimes. pic.twitter.com/EvlWUWANEo
— U.S. Embassy Kabul (@USEmbassyKabul) An Afghan national army soldier, left, stands guard near debris following an attack in Kabul, Aug. 4, 2021.Fighting has intensified across Afghanistan in recent days as government forces attempt to contain insurgent advances and keep them from major cities. Embattled Lashkar Gah, the capital of southern Helmand province, has been the scene of deadly clashes between the warring Afghans.Recent clashes have enabled the insurgents to capture most of the city, except government administrative buildings and the airport.The Taliban assaulted the provincial police headquarters in Lashkar Gah on Wednesday and clashes were ongoing throughout the day.Afghan special forces patrol a deserted street during fighting with Taliban fighters, in Lashkar Gah, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Aug. 3, 2021.Provincial health officials and charities running private clinics urged residents of the city to stay inside their homes to avoid being caught in the crossfire. They also reported receiving scores of casualties, including some in critical condition, but would not say whether they were combatants or Afghan civilians.The Taliban have extended control to roughly half of Afghanistan’s districts since the U.S.-led foreign troops officially began withdrawing from the country in early May.The violence is expected to increase in coming days. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced on Tuesday that his government had started implementing a new plan to improve the security situation over the next six months.The U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, talks to VOA on Zoom, Aug. 2, 2021.The U.S. envoy negotiated and signed a landmark deal with the Taliban that paved the way for the American military withdrawal and opened peace talks between the Afghan parties to the conflict. The dialogue has failed to produce any significant outcome or reduce the Afghan violence.The United Nations says Afghan civilian deaths and injuries went up by 47 percent in the first six months of 2021 compared with the same period last year.Most casualties have occurred since early May. The global body warned last week that Afghanistan was on course to witness its highest-ever number of civilian casualties in a single year.
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The rise of violence between the Taliban and the Afghan government forces has triggered a new influx of Afghan refugees to Turkey. VOA’s Arif Aslan reports from Turkey’s Van province in this story narrated by Namo Al-Jaf.Produced by: Farhad Fallahi        Camera: Arif Aslan   
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A powerful explosion rocked the heart of the Afghan capital late Tuesday, followed by gunfire inside Kabul’s heavily fortified green zone. “7:54 PM Kabul That was a loud bang in Kabul. Shook my home. Explosion followed by gunfire,” Kabul-based journalist Bilal Sarwary tweeted. 7:54 PM Kabul That was a loud bang in Kabul. Shook my home. Explosion followed by gunfire.— BILAL SARWARY (@bsarwary) August 3, 2021″Yes, same here. Felt like an earthquake,” journalist Magda Gad responded on Twitter. Yes same here. Felt like an earthquake.— Magda Gad ماجده جاد (@gad_media) August 3, 2021 Several sources confirmed to VOA that a suicide bomb attack was carried out on the house of Afghanistan’s Defense Minister Gen. Bismillah Khan Mohammadi. The minister was not at home and his family was evacuated to safety. Soon after the attack, the general reassured the public through his Twitter account. “Do not worry. Everything is fine,” he said. نگران نباشید همه چیز خوب است !— General Bismillah Mohammadi (@Muham_madi1) August 3, 2021Local media reported that it was a complex attack involving a vehicle-born improvised explosive device followed by gunmen who tried to enter the house of the defense minister. Mirwais Stanikzai, a spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry, told journalists that the attack happened in an area called Sherpour, near the upscale neighborhood of Wazir Akbar Khan. No casualties have been reported.  Several other government officials and members of parliament live in the area. Eyewitnesses said the sound of the explosion could be heard kilometers away. Several local residents posted pictures on social media showing gray smoke rising into the sky. The area was quickly surrounded by security forces. The attack did not deter Kabul residents from coming out and shouting, “Allah o Akbar,” a pre-scheduled activity in solidarity with fellow Afghans in Herat city who shouted these words after they warded off a Taliban attack. Several Afghan cities, including Herat, were besieged over the weekend. Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, continues to see heavy fighting between government forces and the Taliban. 
 
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken underscored the American commitment to Afghanistan Tuesday during a call with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.According to State Department spokesman Ned Price, they discussed the need to “accelerate peace negotiations” and achieve an “inclusive” political settlement that allows the Afghan people to have a say in choosing their leaders and prevents Afghan soil from being used to threaten the United States and its allies and partners.Both leaders condemned recent Taliban attacks that have seen the group make strategic gains, including capturing nine of 10 districts in Helmand province.On Tuesday Afghan forces, backed by the U.S., launched airstrikes on the Taliban to stave off the capture of the city Lashkar Gah. Should the city fall, it would be the first provincial capital to be taken over by the Taliban in years.In recent weeks, the Taliban have also captured key border crossings with Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan.  The provincial capitals of Kandahar and Herat provinces are also reportedly under siege.U.S. and NATO forces have completed more than 95% of their troop withdrawals, with 100% expected to be reached by Aug. 31.The U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, told a security forum that neither side to the conflict can win militarily.
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Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said Monday that the “abrupt” U.S. withdrawal of all its remaining forces from Afghanistan was the reason for the deteriorating security situation in the country. He added that his government has a plan to bring the security situation under control within six months. VOA’s Sayed Hasib Maududi filed this report, narrated by Roshan Noorzai.Camera: Sayed Hasib Maududi 
 
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The U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, says the United States remains committed to promoting a political settlement between warring Afghans, stressing that neither side to the conflict can win militarily.In an interview with VOA that comes as the United States works to complete its withdrawal from Afghanistan by the end of August, Khalilzad spoke about what responsibility Washington has for Afghanistan following its troop departure and whether the Taliban are already violating their February agreement with the United States.The Afghan-born American envoy stressed that if the Taliban take over the country by force, they will not win international recognition and “they will become a pariah state.” Khalilzad spoke via Zoom with VOA reporter Ayaz Gul in Islamabad.VOA: Do you think the U.S. has a moral and political responsibility to ensure that Afghanistan does not slide into another civil war, after U.S. military departure, as it happened following the Soviet army exit in 1989?Khalilzad: Well, you raise a very important point, it is a point that we have kept in mind that what happened in the 90s should not be repeated and that working with the Afghans we did something big, a huge sacrifice on the part of the Afghans with our support to get the Soviets out, and then we abandon Afghanistan, and a terrible war took place and it produced challenges particularly in 9/11. So, we do not want to repeat that mistake. That’s why although we could have left Afghanistan we didn’t need to, we have an agreement with the Taliban in principle to depart. But we engaged the Taliban as part of a strategy a plan to have safe withdrawal of US forces, but also as a package to start a peace process in Afghanistan that brings the Afghan war, a long very, very long war, where there has been a lot of suffering, to an end. The agreement with the Taliban provided the opportunity for Afghans to sit across the table from each other, a historic development, to reach an agreement to agree on a formula that would have broad support in Afghanistan and international support as well. And unfortunately, the two sides have not taken advantage of that opportunity as quickly as we would have liked, as the Afghan people would have liked because they are yearning the people are yearning for peace. We are always looking for ways and means to help accelerate the negotiations because we don’t see a military solution to the war in Afghanistan. There must be a political solution, a political agreement for a lasting peace, and we will stay with it, we are committed to staying with it until that that goal is achieved.VOA: Aren’t the Taliban violating the letter and spirit of the Doha Accord by their brazen attempt to militarily conquer Afghanistan and their use of violence and targeted assassinations in their quest for absolute power?Khalilzad: Well, the agreement necessitated, committed the Taliban to negotiations for a new Islamic government in Afghanistan and a comprehensive cease fire, and there is this agreement that the government also has had challenges or difficulties in terms of agreeing to or embracing the idea of a new Islamic government and the Taliban have used force to see if it could coerce the government into agreeing to a formula for a new Islamic government, a new constitution as they see it as well. And that there has got to be a political formula. The government cannot get rid of the Taliban, it’s our assessment and the Taliban cannot conquer Afghanistan and have a government and that has the support of the overwhelming majority of the Afghans and international support. Maybe some Taliban think there is a military solution to the conflict although they tell us otherwise when they speak to us the Taliban says there is no military solution. But if some commanders or some military leaders think that they are miscalculating because there will be resistance and even if they take over the country, there will be resistance and there will be international opposition that they won’t be recognized that they will not receive international assistance and they will become a pariah state which they say they don’t want. And the wise thing is for both sides to engage seriously and quickly, urgently to respond to the wishes of the people of Afghanistan for a political agreement. No one side the history of Afghanistan over the last almost 45, 50 years indicates that an effort by one side, one party to impose its will, its formula on others leads to war and intervention. I hope that the leaders of Afghanistan have learned that lesson and that they need to find a formula agreed to a formula that has broad support, accepts that all Afghans have legitimate rights, that those rights have to be respected and the people have to have a say ultimately in how they are governed. I hope that that’s the lesson they have learned, although the current situation is discouraging, it’s heartbreaking given the level of violence and the suffering, the pictures one sees coming out of places like Lashkar Gah.VOA: Afghan officials and even some in the U.S. have been critical of you for negotiating what they argue is a bad deal with the Taliban that has surely paved the way for the American military withdrawal but at the same time fueled the violence, and which effectively has stalled progress in the intra-Afghan negotiations?Khalilzad: I can see that there are differences of view but the U.S. president, starting with (former) President (Barack) Obama, decided that there was no military solution to the problem of Afghanistan and that there has to be a political solution. And also the U.S. wanted to adjust to the circumstances in which they world is in now and the issue of terrorism and that given that there was no military solution and that new challenges have arisen, such as a great power competition, that the terrorism problem has changed that Afghanistan is not the center of the al-Qaida terrorism threatening the world and that it has diffused that the U.S. needed to adjust And the adjustment was in order to get the Taliban to negotiate with the government which it wasn’t willing to do until there was an agreement on U.S. withdrawal. And that agreement as you know was signed over a year ago, 15, 16 months ago, and the Afghan government knew that, of course, and the withdrawal timeline was clear, and the Biden administration added some time because we were supposed to be out of there by May but now the president has decided it should be by the end of August. The agreement was to give peace a chance and to make adjustments on behalf of the United States in terms of the security situation worldwide. So, it is now the obligation of the Afghan leaders, Taliban. The government has to also recognize that there is no military solution and their engagement with each other that one side will not be able to conquer Afghanistan and not to lose this opportunity not to repeat the mistakes of the past.VOA:How much blame does the Afghan government share for bringing the situation to where it is today and what is your response to the way Afghan security forces behaved on the battlefield, enabling Taliban to make rapid territorial gains?Khalilzad: As you know the Afghan security forces are numerically far superior than the Taliban. They have over three hundred thousand troops, it has an Air Force and it has special forces, It has heavy equipment and both proper leadership, political and military and proper military strategy and plan and execution, that the government forces should have done a lot better than they are doing. We continue to support Afghan security forces and we are committed to supporting those forces well into the future. The president is asking his budget for next year, three point three billion dollars for the support of the Afghan security forces. So, it is a question of leadership, political and military, uniting the Afghan leaders and motivating the forces that they are fighting for a just cause, then having the right plan the right tactics and the right execution. I know that the Afghan leadership has been taking a look at how to adjust their approach in the light of the experience and that you alluded to.VOA:Do you feel let down by both the Afghan warring sides?Khalilzad: Well, I am concerned very much by the lack of progress. I know that the gap has been large, continues to be a big gap between the two sides, but they need to put the leader or the interests of the Country first, rather than their own interest or their factional interest. There cannot be peace without a compromise, without give and take, without respect for the fundamental rights of all Afghans men and women and the Afghans having a say, ultimately the people and in terms of what happens to them. But for the short term although those are things that in the long term will really be determinative. It is the responsibility of the leaders because the people are there, in a sense, at their mercy and they both argue that they are they are people of God and they and that they are fighting for a righteous cause. Well, there is nothing worse, morally and otherwise than innocent people getting killed and killing innocent people. And innocent people are getting killed every day unfortunately, and it is the responsibility of leaders to accommodate each other accept each other as Afghans as fellow Afghans or citizens of the same country that has suffered for so long and the eyes of the Afghan people are really focused on their leaders on both sides and the eyes of the international community is also focused. And the question really is, ‘will these leaders rise to the occasion and put country first or will they go down in history as people who put their own interests or the interests of their faction first’ and to be judged and evaluated harshly therefore, for what the people are striving for it.VOA:Pakistani leaders say that short of military action, they have done all they could and that they are still determined to keep trying to diplomatically encourage the Taliban to seek a negotiated settlement with Afghan rivals. Do you support and agree with what Pakistanis are saying? Does Islamabad still have sway over the Taliban?Khalilzad: Well, I think Pakistan as the Pakistani leaders say and we agree with them that what happens in Afghanistan, that continuing war there will have negative implications for Pakistan because a neighbor at war can only produce problems, refugees, for example, violence, lost economic opportunities for trade, lost opportunity from connectivity of linking Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia together. There are vast opportunities for regional cooperation that the war puts at risk. So, Pakistan has a special role and responsibility, given also that many Taliban leaders are in Pakistan located there to do what it can to encourage peace and a political settlement as soon as possible, for it will be judged internationally also as to whether it has done all that it can or it could to promote a political settlement. But I believe that a political settlement and that’s broadly accepted that ends the war and make sure Afghanistan is not a threat to any country in the region and the world that it doesn’t return to being a sanctuary for terrorists and that that’s Afghanistan that type of Afghanistan is very much in Pakistan’s interest and many Pakistani leaders do tell me that that’s exactly right and that that’s what they want and that’s what they are working for. But Pakistan has a special role and responsibility with regard to the conflict in Afghanistan. 
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Every day sees more Afghan refugees reach Turkey after a grueling trek across Iran. As far as they’re concerned their journey is far from over — they want to get to the countries of the European Union — for them the Promised Land.
But it is a land that is unwilling to accept them and is making plans to deter them from arriving.
Around 2,000 Afghans a day are entering Turkey, and migration experts expect the numbers to surge as the Taliban seizes control of more of Afghanistan.
The Taliban is currently besieging three major cities in south and west Afghanistan to add to the rapid rural gains it has made in recent weeks in the wake of the decision by the Biden administration to withdraw US troops from the country. Almost all NATO troops will be gone by September. Few observers believe the Afghan government will be able to hold out and last week a Pentagon watchdog warned that the country’s government will likely face an “existential crisis.”
The Afghans making their way through Iran to Turkey are voting with their feet, fearful of what a Taliban future of strict Islamic rule will hold for them. Most arriving at the Turkish borders are single men, and many are uneducated, but hope to secure settlement in Europe and for their families to join them later, say migration groups.An Afghan migrant eats outside a bus terminal, as he and others struggle to find buses to take them to western Turkish cities, after crossing the Turkey-Iran border in April 11, 2018.Turkey the GatekeeperEuropean leaders are preparing for a new migration crisis and are negotiating another multi-year migration deal with Turkey to get Ankara to block Afghan and other asylum-seekers from heading their way. It would be a renewal of a five-year deal struck in 2016 that saw the EU pay Ankara billions of dollars to curb irregular migration towards Europe, improve the living conditions of refugees in Turkey, and foster legal migration through official resettlement schemes.
“The 2016 agreement had a significant impact on limiting the number of arrivals” in the EU, according to Daniele Albanese of Caritas Italiana, a non-profit and the charitable arm of the Italian Bishops Conference. “While nearly 861.630 people reached Greece in 2015, that number dropped to 36, 310 the following year,” she noted in a commentary for the Italian Institute for International Political Studies, a think tank.
But she warns that a “political approach that does not take into consideration the needs of the refugee population deserving a better life is far from a long-term, durable solution.”Afghans wait inside the passport office in Kabul, Afghanistan, June 30, 2021.No repeat of 2015For now, though, European governments are focused on the short-terms and are in no mood to see a return to the open-doors migration policy of 2015, one that in its wake roiled the continent’s politics and fueled the rise of populist nationalist parties. “Post-U.S. Afghanistan poses a severe migration problem, and we expect a rising number of people attempting to flee the Taliban,” a senior EU diplomat told VOA.
Around a million asylum-seekers from the Mideast, most of them Syrians, Afghanistan and sub-Saharan Africa arrived and settled in Europe in 2015-2016.
Asked last month at a press conference whether Germany should welcome Afghan refugees, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the architect of the 2015 open-doors policy, replied: “We cannot solve all of these problems by taking everyone in.” She called instead for political negotiations so “people can live as peacefully as possible in the country.”
Greek authorities are reporting that Afghans now make up the largest share of asylum-seekers who manage to navigate the Aegean from Turkey. Austria last week announced it is to deploy additional soldiers to its borders with Slovenia and Hungary so as to increase the number of border guards by 40 percent. The country’s interior minister Karl Nehammer said at a news conference that EU migration policies have proven ineffective against irregular migrants, and he said Austrian immigration authorities have already apprehended 15,768 migrants attempting to cross illegally the Austrian border this year, compared to 21,700 for the whole of 2020.
“In Austria we have one of the biggest Afghan communities in the whole of Europe,” Nehammer said. “It cannot be the case that Austria and Germany have to solve the Afghanistan problem for the EU,” Nehammer added.
Despite the advance of the Taliban, European countries have been continuing with deportations of Afghan asylum-seekers — only Finland, Sweden and Norway have announced temporary suspensions of forced returns to Afghanistan.
Turkey is already hosting anywhere from an estimated 200,000 to 600,000 Afghans and – unlike the more than three million Syrian refugees living in Turkey – they have few legal rights of protection and no access to public services. Turkish opposition parties have been seizing on migration as an issue to try to outmaneuver President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and last month jumped on remarks by Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz that Turkey is “a more suitable place” for Afghans than his or other western European countries.
On Sunday, Devlet Bahçeli, chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party, MHP, told the Türkgün newspaper “there should be a limit on asylum seekers from going and settling wherever they want without the control [of authorities].”“It’s understood that an influx of refugees will reach our borders in the risky and dangerous period ahead. We must be on the alert,” he added.  
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Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani announced Monday that he finally has a clear plan to counter Taliban offensives across the country after his government was heavily criticized for its seeming lack of strategy in the last three months.The militants have made unexpectedly swift territorial gains, including taking over several key international border crossings as foreign forces withdraw from the country.“I want to tell you that a clear plan is prepared for reaching stability in six months and the implementation of the plan has started,” Ghani said in his address to a special joint session of the Afghan parliament. This was the first time since the withdrawal announcement that he was addressing lawmakers.Without sharing specifics, Ghani said the military will be responsible for defending strategic targets while the police, under the Interior Ministry, will defend cities and strategic district centers. The National Directorate of Security (NDS), Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, will coordinate the people’s militias called the anti-Taliban uprising forces.“The reality is that we have faced an unexpected situation in the last three months. . …We are facing an influx of domestic and foreign propaganda,” said President Ghani, calling on all parliamentarians to help mobilize the population in support of Afghan security forces.FILE – A member of an anti-Taliban militia fires a machine gun during a fight with Taliban insurgents in Mukhtar, on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan, March 28, 2021.He blamed the deterioration in the country’s security to a “sudden decision” by the United States and NATO forces to leave but said it was now up to Afghans to manage the fallout.For many years, the U.S. has publicly expressed its desire to leave Afghanistan, with multiple statements by former President Donald Trump and the campaign promises of President Joe Biden.There was an expectation, however, that President Biden, unlike his predecessor, would listen to his Pentagon advisers who wanted to keep a small military footprint on the ground.“We did not go to Afghanistan to nation-build.  And it’s the right and the responsibility of the Afghan people alone to decide their future and how they want to run their country,” Biden said last month about the U.S. drawdown.The U.S. and Taliban signed a deal in 2020 that would see the U.S. leave Afghanistan in exchange for the insurgents reducing violence and finding a negotiated end to the long-running war with the government in Kabul. Violence, however, has increased since then. The United States blames the Taliban for the unrest.Ghani has ruled out repeated rumors that Taliban advances were caused by a secret deal. Instead, he acknowledged that lack of preparation and weakness in mid-level leadership caused district after district to fall to the militants, often without resistance.Supporters of the Taliban carry Islamic flags after the Taliban said they seized the Afghan border town of Spin Boldaka across from the town of Chaman, Pakistan, July 14, 2021.Ghani accused the Taliban of oppression as well as strengthening their relations with international terrorist groups rather than cutting them as per the deal they made with the Americans in Doha in February 2020.“Reports of Taliban atrocities are spreading across Afghanistan. I follow all these reports closely,” he said.The Afghan president made it clear that he thought the Taliban would not partake in meaningful peace negotiations until the situation on the battlefield changed.In a joint statement following Ghani’s address, parliament reiterated its support for the country’s democracy, human rights, including women’s rights, and freedom of speech.Ghani’s former political rival and the head of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR) lauded the statement, followed by the senior most U.S. official in Afghanistan.“Today alongside other leaders of the country I attended the extraordinary joint session of the AFG National Assembly. They declared their unanimous support for the republic, the #ANDSF & a just & durable peace in the country. I thank & commend them for their historic decision,” Abdullah Abdullah tweeted.Today alongside other leaders of the country I attended the extraordinary joint session of the AFG National Assembly. They declared their unanimous support for the republic, the #ANDSF & a just & durable peace in the country. I thank & commend them for their historic decision. pic.twitter.com/68Lbc64oFH
— Dr. Abdullah Abdullah (@DrabdullahCE) August 2, 2021“As friends and allies of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, we support you, the Afghan people,” tweeted the U.S. chargé d’affaires, Ross Wilson.As friends and allies of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, we support you, the Afghan people. https://t.co/QdcHvIYdVW
— Chargé d’Affaires Ross Wilson (@USAmbKabul) August 2, 2021Ghani’s address comes at a time when the Taliban have increased attacks on Afghan cities, besieging several of them simultaneously. At least three cities, Kandahar, Herat, and Lashkar Gah have seen intense fighting over the last few days.“In Lashkar Gah, #Helmand province, fighting in the city has brought life to a standstill. People are trapped in their homes and there are many casualties due to airstrikes, bullets and mortars. The @MSF supported Boost hospital treated 70 war wounded patients from 29-31 July,” said a statement from Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) on Twitter.In Lashkar Gah, #Helmand province, fighting in the city has brought life to a standstill. People are trapped in their homes and there are many casualties due to airstrikes, bullets and mortars.
The @MSF supported Boost hospital treated 70 war wounded patients from 29-31 July https://t.co/g7VSUu7JPK
— MSF Afghanistan (@MSF_Afghanistan) August 2, 2021The international non-profit aid group said it performed an unprecedented 10 surgeries in one day in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province.The Afghan Defense Ministry confirmed that the U.S. Air Force helped push back Taliban advances. Most of Helmand’s districts are under Taliban control. “#US Air Forces targeted #Taliban terrorist in #Lashkargah city today morning. 7 terrorists were killed and a large amount of their weapons and ammunition were destroyed as a result of the #airstrike,” Defense Ministry spokesman Fawad Aman said. He later revised the Taliban death toll to 18.#US Air Forces targeted #Taliban terrorist in #Lashkargah city today morning. 7 terrorists were killed and a large amount of their weapons and ammunition were destroyed as a result of the #airstrike.
— Fawad Aman (@FawadAman2) August 2, 2021The Taliban issued a statement in Pashto blaming “American drones” and Afghan “gunship helicopters” for bombing and injuring civilians in Lashkar Gah, including women and children.On Sunday, the Afghan government boosted Herat city’s defenses with hundreds of special forces troops. The city had seen intense fighting on its outskirts and many credited 70-year-old former warlord Ismail Khan and his militia for saving the city from falling under a Taliban onslaught.Late Saturday, Taliban rockets hit Kandahar airport, partially damaging a runway and forcing authorities to temporarily shut down the airport. 
 
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The United States announced Monday it is expanding eligibility for resettling refugees from Afghanistan who may be at risk of Taliban retaliation due to affiliation with U.S. entities.The State Department said thousands of Afghans and their immediate family members who worked for the U.S. government, a U.S.-funded project, the NATO-led military mission, or a U.S.-based media or nongovernmental organization are now eligible.A State Department statement said access to the U.S. refugee admissions program “is a critical mechanism to provide protection for these individuals.”Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to speak about the action later Monday.The move comes as the United States winds down its military presence in Afghanistan after nearly 20 years.  A more limited group of Afghans was already eligible for resettlement under the State Department’s Special Immigrant Visa program.The United States and NATO allies announced May 1 they were beginning to withdraw their last remaining troops from the country, and the Pentagon said in early July its withdrawal was 90% complete.  The process is due to be complete by August 31.Since international troops started leaving, Taliban insurgents have unleashed a widespread onslaught against Afghan forces, capturing nearly half of the country’s roughly 420 districts.
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The mountain kingdom of Bhutan has scripted a rare success story in the South Asian region devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, reporting just two deaths, about 2,500 cases and inoculating 90% of its adult population in one of the world’s fastest inoculation campaigns.Experts say mobilizing the community, meticulous planning by authorities and international donations of vaccines paved the way for the tiny country with limited resources to get a grip on the pandemic and emerge ahead of most nations.When the coronavirus began ravaging countries last year, Bhutan offered financial incentives to people to augment its small pool of health workers and simultaneously called for volunteers.Thousands stepped forward.“Within a very short period of time the volunteer system crashed because there were so many people wanting to volunteer. And it was an amazing experience to see that instead of the incentives people were registering to volunteer, wanting to give something back to the community,” Dechen Wangmo, the country’s health minister, told VOA.The country now has a roughly 30,000-strong force of citizens volunteers. Dressed in bright orange and known as “desuups,” they have boosted the efforts of some 350 doctors and 3,000 health workers.  They have helped reinforce public health messages such as encouragement of wearing masks, and assisted in testing, surveillance and contact tracing among Bhutan’s approximately 750,000 people.The first half a million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, donated by India, were administered in March during a 16-day campaign that was timed to coincide with auspicious dates suggested by Buddhist monks. Choosing the right time to roll out the vaccines helped build faith in the shot — Bhutan is a Buddhist country and is sometimes called the world’s last Shangri-la.  When New Delhi halted exports due to domestic shortages, Bhutan turned elsewhere. A batch of Moderna vaccines arrived in July from the COVAX program, an initiative to give vaccines to underdeveloped countries. Several other countries have also donated vaccines.While some questions were raised on social media about inoculating people with two different vaccines, those issues were quickly laid to rest in a country known for its implicit faith in its Oxford-educated, 41-year-old constitutional monarch, King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk. Although he has turned the country from an absolute monarchy into a democratic, constitutional monarchy, he is still hugely popular.The medical background of its leadership helped — Bhutan’s prime minister and foreign minister are doctors and health minister Wangmo is a Yale-educated epidemiologist.FILE – Bhutanese people wash their hands before entering their office as a precaution against the COVID-19 in Thimpu, April 12, 2021.Unlike many countries, vaccine hesitancy did not pose a problem — although Bhutan has few doctors, it has a strong primary health care system.“There is a lot of trust and confidence in the health system and people do understand the benefits of vaccine, that vaccines prevent diseases and they have seen it for generations,” Wangmo said.The second doses were administered to 90% of the adult population in a weeklong campaign that began July 20, the health ministry said. UNICEF officials called it the fastest vaccination campaign during the pandemic. While Bhutan’s small population made the task easier, it faced the challenge of reaching far-flung mountain areas, often across difficult terrain.“If Bhutan can succeed in a monsoon with so few health workers to get almost the entire population vaccinated and then move to the children, maybe Bhutan can be a beacon of hope in a region that is on fire,” said Will Parks, UNICEF Representative in Bhutan.Even as many countries scramble for vaccines for adults, Bhutan now plans to inoculate 12- to 17-year-olds. The goal, officials said, is to reach herd immunity or at least avert serious infections in a country with only one doctor trained in critical care.This photograph provided by UNICEF shows airport personnel in protective suit handle unloaded 500,000 doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine gifted from the United States arrived at Paro International Airport in Bhutan, July 12, 2021.Inoculations are not the only achievement. Unlike many countries, Bhutan opened schools earlier this year.UNICEF’s Park and domestic media credit the leadership with astutely navigating the pandemic.King Wangchuck has traveled to remote hamlets to alert people about the pandemic – by car, foot or horseback.  When the transmissible delta variant tore through India earlier this year, he visited areas in the east and south that adjoin India, with which the country has a porous border.Bhutanese officials say those visits reinforced the message of solidarity and were more effective than public health guidelines.“The visits conveyed that it is time for everyone to fight the common enemy. He would give that moral confidence to people and assurance that we are in it together and we are all going to follow the same rules,” Wangmo said.The king would follow the country’s strict quarantine rules after each trip. Bhutan has shown that the COVID pandemic is not just about the virus, but also about leadership, according to Parks.“If there are lessons to be learnt from Bhutan, it is about compassionate leadership that has to come from the top,” Parks said. “By compassionate leadership I mean having deep empathy, really walking in the shoes of others, and then actively making efforts to support people throughout this terrible, terrible pandemic.” 
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Officials in southern Afghanistan confirmed Sunday that an overnight rocket attack by Taliban insurgents damaged the runway at Kandahar Airport, forcing suspension of all flights.The attack occurred during ongoing fierce clashes between Afghan security forces and the Taliban in Kandahar and the adjoining city of Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province.Afghan authorities said several rockets struck the airport and all flights out of the country’s second-largest city have been halted until the runway is repaired.“We targeted the Kandahar airport and damaged the runway along with other facilities there,” Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid told VOA.“Fighter aircraft were actively using it for launching strikes [against us] and civilian homes in the area. They also bombed and destroyed a hospital in Helmand yesterday,” Mujahid said.Dr. Mohammad Din Narewal, the owner of the private hospital in Lashkar Gah confirmed that the Afghan air force bombed the facility on Saturday, killing one person and injuring three others.Narewal said the facility was targeted because Afghan security forces mistakenly believed Taliban fighters were under treatment there.Most of Helmand’s districts are under the control of the Taliban.The Taliban have in recent days staged major assaults on Kandahar, Lashkar Gah and Herat, capital of the western province of the same name.The Taliban on Saturday apparently came close to taking control of Lashkar Gah and Herat, but government officials said arrival of reinforcements enabled Afghan forces to push back the insurgents.During fighting Friday, a rocket attack targeted the entrance to the United Nations office in Herat, killing a local security guard and wounding other officers. The U.N. denounced the attack and blamed the Taliban for carrying it out.The U.N. said Sunday it had called upon the Taliban to undertake a “full investigation and provide answers” concerning the Friday attack. “Perpetrators for the attack that killed an Afghan guard need to be held accountable,” the mission said.Helmand province in AfghanistanAfghanistan’s private TOLO news channel reported that out of Herat’s 17 districts, only one district and the provincial capital are controlled by Kabul, while the rest are held by the insurgents.Residents reported Sunday clashes continued in and around Lashkar Gah and Herat, with government planes hitting Taliban positions.Senior Afghan military and police officials in Helmand told VOA that overnight air strikes killed more than 50 Taliban fighters in Lashkar Gah and clearing operations were underway in parts of the city.Both the warring sides routinely inflate their battlefield gains, which are difficult to verify because of a lack of independent sources in the Afghan conflict zones.Security conditions have deteriorated across Afghanistan since May 1, when the United States and NATO allies, after a 20-year presence, began withdrawing their last remaining troops from the country.The foreign military drawdown apparently emboldened the Taliban, and they unleashed a widespread onslaught against Afghan forces, capturing nearly half of the country’s roughly 420 districts. But they have not succeeded in capturing any of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals.The Taliban have previously assaulted and tried to seize control of major cities, including Lashkar Gah, but they were beaten back mainly because Afghan forces at the time had the backing of U.S. military airstrikes.That cover is no longer available to Afghan forces, though U.S. officials confirmed conducting some strikes against Taliban positions in Helmand in recent days to halt insurgent advances there.Both Afghan parties to the conflict have ignored calls for resuming U.S.-brokered talks on a peace deal that would the country’s long conflict.The Taliban advances in recent months have raised prospects of the Islamist group’s return to power in Afghanistan.The insurgent group hanged two men Saturday from the entrance gate of a nearby town, accusing them of kidnapping children. An insurgent statement sent to journalists said the men were found guilty of the crime by a Taliban court.The incident revived memories of the harsh Islamic rule the Taliban had imposed on most of Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001.The United States, which signed a peace deal with the Taliban in February 2020 to remove all American and allied troops from the country, and other countries, including neighbors of Afghanistan, have warned the Islamist group against trying to militarily regain power, saying such an attempt would only prolong the Afghan civil war.Some information for this report came from the Associated Press.
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Human rights and media freedom advocates are urging authorities in Afghanistan to release four journalists arrested this week on charges they were “spreading enemy propaganda.”
 
It was not immediately known whether the journalists have formally been charged, nor have Afghan authorities discussed their fate since taking them into custody Monday.  
 
“As the Afghan conflict escalates, all parties seem intent on silencing the country’s media,” lamented Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a statement issued late Friday. “Unless charged with a genuine crime, the four journalists should be released immediately.”
 
The journalists – Mohib Obaidi, Sanaullah Siyam, Qudrat Sultani and Bismillah Watandost – were arrested after they returned from a reporting trip to the Taliban-held district of Spin Boldak in southern Kandahar province. They had traveled to the district to investigate reports of Afghan civilian killings by Taliban insurgents.
 
Obaidi, Sultani and Watandost are reporters of Kandahar-based Millat Zagh Radio, and Siam, is a free-lance cameraperson.
 
“The arrests …underscore rising concerns the Afghan government is trying to shield itself from media criticism. Among the many threats they face, Afghanistan’s embattled journalists should not also have to face prosecution for doing their jobs,” said HWR.Afghanistan Government Arrests Four Journalists on Propaganda Charges Journalists travelled to disputed area to interview Taliban commanders  
An Afghan interior ministry spokesman defended the action Tuesday, stressing it was unlawful to broadcast propaganda in favor of an enemy or against the interests of the country.  
 
Officials also insisted the detainees ignored government warnings to journalists not to enter Spin Boldak, where Reuters photojournalist Danish Siddiqui was killed on July 16 while covering clashes between Afghan security forces and Taliban fighters.Journalists place candles next to a portrait of Reuters journalist Danish Siddiqui as a tribute in Kolkata on July 16, 2021. 
The Afghan Journalists Safety Committee denounced the arrests and demanded on Tuesday the government release the journalists “as soon as possible.” The local watchdog pressed the government to refer the case to “the Media Complaints Commission to ascertain whether any violation has taken place or not” in line with relevant laws. 
 
Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem condemned the arrests and argued the journalists were simply trying to “follow the events and try to reveal the facts.”
 
HRW noted in its Friday’s statement that Afghan officials also have ordered the arrests of journalists reporting on civilian casualties from security force operations.
 
The watchdog group said the Taliban have demonstrated no tolerance for the media and are believed responsible for “the vast majority of recent attacks” on journalists. “But the government has rarely investigated attacks on journalists, even when these take place in cities under government control.”  
 
France-based Reporters Without Borders’ regional office and other media freedom advocates, while speaking Friday in Kabul, expressed serious concerns about the safety of journalists in the wake of the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan and demanded the four journalists be immediately freed.
 
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also called on Afghan authorities to immediately release the four journalists and “drop their investigation, and cease harassing journalists for their work.”
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A global human rights monitor on Friday accused the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan of detaining and executing suspected government officials as well as security forces, and in some cases their relatives.
Human Rights Watch lamented in a statement that the Taliban’s retaliatory actions ran counter to their pledges that no harm would be inflicted on people who worked for the Afghan government or assisted the United States and NATO troops.
The allegations came as the Taliban continue to make territorial gains across Afghanistan and government security forces struggle to contain them. The insurgents deny they are carrying out revenge killings.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that among recent cases, in southern Kandahar province the Taliban earlier in the month executed a popular comedian, Nazar Mohammad, better known as Khasha Zwan.
The slain man had posted routines that included songs and jokes on TikTok and reportedly also worked with the Afghan police force. Taliban fighters abducted him from his home and beat him before shooting him to death, according to HRW.
“Taliban forces apparently executed Khasha Zwan because he poked fun at Taliban leaders,” said Patrica Gossman, associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
“His murder and other recent abuses demonstrate the willingness of Taliban commanders to violently crush even the tamest criticism or objection,” Gossman said.
A video of two armed men slapping and abusing the detained comedian went viral on social media, prompting Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid to admit insurgent fighters were behind the incident.
Mujahid said the men have been arrested and will be tried because they were bound to bring the comedian before a Taliban court instead of executing him.
Insurgent commanders are also accused of detaining scores of people associated with the government or police in Kandahar.
“Advancing Taliban forces have no blank check to brutally target their critics,” Gossman said. “The Taliban leadership usually denies the abuses, but it’s their fighters carrying out these attacks and their responsibility to stop the killings.”
The U.S. government also condemned the killing of the comic.
“Nazar Mohammad ‘Khasha’ was a beloved comedian, bringing laughter & joy to his community even in dark times,” tweeted Ross Wilson, acting U.S. ambassador in Kabul. “The Taliban kidnapped & lynched him, then gleefully published video evidence on Twitter. We condemn these sickening actions & the Taliban leadership should too.”The Taliban unleashed their latest wave of battlefield attacks in early May, when the United States and NATO officially began pulling their remaining troops from Afghanistan after 20 years.
The foreign troop withdrawal has largely been completed, and the process is scheduled to be finished by August 31 under President Joe Biden’s orders.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during a visit to India on Wednesday, described as “deeply troubling” reports of escalating attacks on Afghan civilians. He urged Afghanistan’s warring sides to seriously negotiate a peace arrangement to end the conflict.
“An Afghanistan that commits atrocities against its own people would become a pariah state. There’s only one path, and that’s at the negotiating table, to resolve the conflict peacefully,” Blinken said.
The U.S. military withdrawal is an outcome of a deal Washington signed with the Taliban in February 2020 in exchange for the insurgents to reduce violence and find a negotiated end to the war with the Afghan government.
The agreement encouraged the warring sides to open peace talks in Qatar last September, but the U.S.-brokered, intra-Afghan process has largely stalled and the conflict has dramatically intensified.
The United Nations said this week that Afghan civilian casualties rose by 47% in the first six months of 2021 compared with the same period last year.
The report warned that Afghanistan could witness the highest-ever number of civilian casualties in a single year if the warring parties fail to urgently negotiate a peace deal in coming months.
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The United Nations warns global hunger is increasing and urgent action is needed to stave off famine and death over coming months in nearly two dozen unstable, violence-prone countries.A report by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program said more than a half-million people are experiencing catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity and 41 million are at risk of famine.The report from the WFP and FAO focuses on the particularly serious situation in 23 so-called hunger hot spots.  Most of those countries are in sub-Saharan Africa, with others in Central America, Asia and the Middle East.Patrick Jacqueson, FAO officer in charge of the Geneva office, said acute hunger is set to increase in those countries over the next four months without urgent, scaled-up humanitarian assistance.“Conflict continues to be the primary driver for the largest share of people facing acute food insecurity,” Jacqueson said. “Closely associated with conflict are humanitarian access constraints, which remain significant, compounding food insecurity. Weather extremes and climate variability are likely to affect several parts of the world during the outlook period.”The report said dry conditions are likely to affect Haiti, Nigeria’s Middle Belt and the “Dry Corridor” in Guatemala, while above-average rainfall and flooding are forecast in South Sudan, central and eastern Sahel, and Gulf of Guinea countries.400,000 face starvation in TigrayThe report highlighted the perilous situation in Ethiopia and Madagascar, the world’s newest highest-alert hunger hot spots.Annalisa Conte, WFP Geneva Office director, said the aggravation of conflict in recent months is having a catastrophic impact on the food security of the Tigrayan population in Ethiopia.  She warned that more than 400,000 people would face starvation if they did not receive sufficient humanitarian aid.“If we move to Madagascar, Madagascar is experiencing the worst drought in 40 years,” Conte said. “On top of that, economic decline largely caused by COVID. As a result, 1.3 million people are currently facing the acute food insecurity.”The FAO and WFP said fighting, blockades that cut off lifesaving aid to families on the verge of famine, and a lack of funding were hampering efforts to provide emergency food aid to millions of desperate people.The agencies said families who rely on humanitarian aid to survive were hanging by a thread. They noted that most of those on the verge of famine in the 23 hot spots were farmers and must receive help to resume food production.  That, they said, will allow them to feed themselves and become self-sufficient.
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A United Nations compound in Herat, Afghanistan was attacked Friday with rocket propelled grenades and gunfire, killing an Afghan police guard and wounding other officers, the U.N. said.“The attack targeting entrances of the clearly marked United Nations facility was carried out by anti-government elements,” a U.N. statement said.Deborah Lyons, the head of U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, called the attack “deplorable.”“[W]e condemn it in the strongest terms,” said Lyons, who is also the secretary-general’s special representative for Afghanistan. “Our first thoughts are with the family of the officer slain and we wish a speedy recovery to those injured.”The U.N. statement reiterated that such attacks against its personnel and facilities are “prohibited under international law and may amount to war crimes.”The Taliban issued a statement saying the UNAMA compound in Herat was not under any threat.“It is possible that (UNAMA) guards could have sustained harm in cross-fire due to close proximity of the office to the fighting but it has now been secured as Mujahidin arrived at the scene,” said a tweet by Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid.#ClarificationOffice of @UNAMAnews in #Herat is safe & not under any threat.It is possible that guards could have sustained harm in cross-fire due to close proximity of the office to the fighting but it has now been secured as Mujahidin arrived at the scene. https://t.co/i7NnA5ooDq— Zabihullah (..ذبـــــیح الله م ) (@Zabehulah_M33) July 30, 2021Intense fighting around the city has been ongoing since late Wednesday. Local officials claimed Thursday that they pushed back a Taliban offensive on Herat and on Karokh, a district 35 kilometers northeast of Herat. It is the first time in 20 years of war that the Taliban has entered parts of Herat.  “We have tanks and military equipment and will fight against the Taliban with strength,” commando force commander Akram Khan told Tolo news, an Afghan news channel.Tolo also quoted local security officials claiming to kill at least 40 Taliban.However, in the last 24 hours, the Taliban have again captured large parts of Korokh as well as another district called Guzara, which is very close to Herat airport.Flights to Herat have been suspended for two days.On Friday, Taliban supporters posted videos on Twitter and other social media showing Taliban fighters with guns outside the headquarters of Karokh district government.  Abdul Razaq Ahmadi, a spokesman for anti-Taliban local armed forces, told VOA that Taliban and Afghan forces engaged in heavy fighting south of the city.  Jailani Farhad, a spokesman for the provincial government, said after several hours of heavy fighting, the situation around Pashtun-Pul was now normal. He also claimed that 150 Taliban were killed in the past 24 hours in the area.Dr. Arif Jalali, the head of the provincial hospital in Herat, said 21 people were wounded, including two civilians and some were transferred to the regional Herat hospital. He said five bodies, including the body of a U.N. compound guard, were moved to the hospital.
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Noor Mukadam’s last hours were terror-filled. Beaten repeatedly, the 27-year-old jumped from a window but was dragged back, beaten again and finally beheaded. A childhood friend has been charged with her killing.The gruesome death last week in an upscale neighborhood of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, is the latest in a series of attacks on women in Pakistan, where rights activists say such gender-based assaults are on the rise as the country barrels toward greater religious extremism.Mukadam was the daughter of a diplomat, and her status as a member of the country’s elite has shone a spotlight on the relentless and growing violence against women in Pakistan, said prominent rights activist Tahira Abdullah. But the majority of women who are victims of such violence are among the country’s poor and middle classes, and their deaths are often not reported or, when they are, often ignored.”I could give you a list longer than my arm, only in one week” of attacks against women, said Abdullah. “The epidemic of sexual crimes and violence against women in Pakistan is a silent epidemic. No one sees it. No one is talking about it.”A women’s rights activist places a candle beside a poster with the pictures of Noor Mukadam, who was recently beheaded, during a candle light vigil to pay tribute to Noor and other domestic violence victims, in Islamabad, Pakistan, July 25, 2021.Still, Pakistan’s Parliament this month failed to pass a bill that seeks to protect women from violence in the home, including attacks by a husband. Instead, it asked an Islamic ideology council to weigh in on the measure — the same council that previously said it was OK for a husband to beat his wife.Data collected from domestic violence hotlines across the country showed a 200% increase in domestic violence between January and March last year, according to a Human Rights Watch report released earlier this year. The numbers were even worse after March, when COVID-19 lockdowns began, according to the report.In 2020, Pakistan was near the bottom of the World Economic Forum’s global gender index, coming in at 153 of 156 countries, ahead of only Iraq, Yemen and Afghanistan, which held the last spot despite billions of dollars spent and 20 years of international attention on gender issues there.Many of the attacks in Pakistan are so-called honor killings, where the perpetrator is a brother, father or other male relative. Each year, more than 1,000 women are killed in this way, many of them unreported, say human rights workers.”The authorities have failed to establish adequate protection or accountability for abuses against women and girls, including so-called ‘honor killings’ and forced marriage,” according to the HRW report.Rights groups have been sharply critical of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and his government, saying he panders to the religious right and excuses the perpetrators of attacks on women.A former cricket star who has married three times, Khan once had a reputation as a womanizer but has now embraced a conservative Islam. He keeps close ties with a religious ceric who blamed COVID-19 on “the wrongdoing of women.” He once appeared to blame women for attacks by men saying, “if you raise temptation in society … all these young guys have nowhere to go, it has consequences in the society.”Women’s rights activists demonstrate to condemn the violence against women in Lahore, Pakistan, Saturday, July 24, 2021.His information minister, Fawad Chaudhry, says Khan’s statements have been taken out of context and denied violence against women is on the rise, without offering evidence. He said his government encourages women in politics and sports and in provinces where Khan’s party dominates human rights legislation has been strengthened.”I think this perception is not really close to reality, that in Pakistan women are not safe or maybe that there’s a misogyny in practice in Pakistan,” Chaudhry said in an interview.Yet last week, one of Khan’s Cabinet ministers, Ali Amin Gandapur, told a rally of thousands of mostly male supporters, that he would “slap and slap” a female opposition political leader.Last September, a senior police officer blamed a woman who was ambushed and gang raped in front of her two children, saying she should not have been traveling at night and without a man.Such remarks reflect an increase in ultraconservative and even extremist religious values in Pakistan, said Amir Rana of the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies.The country has seen an explosion of religious organizations and religious political parties, many with extreme beliefs, said Rana, whose organization tracks and documents extremism in Pakistan.These organizations have tremendous reach in most cities and towns, where they provide services from education to health care, and thus have extensive ability to influence social values, said Rana.The history of religious extremism in Pakistan is complicated, and Chaudhry, the information minister, argued that America shares responsibility for the role it played in the region in the 1980s. At that time, Pakistan’s military dictator aided by the U.S. used religious fervor to inspire Afghans to fight an invading Soviet Union. Many of those Afghans ended up in Pakistan as refugees.”And very conveniently now, the U.S. media and U.S. authorities … blame everything on Pakistan and have left the region,” he said.Pakistan’s prominent rights activist Tahira Abdullah speaks about violence against women during an interview with The Associated Press in Islamabad, Pakistan, July 27, 2021.But Abdullah, the rights activist, said Pakistan cannot shirk its own responsibility, noting that same dictator, Gen. Mohammad Zia-ul Haq, introduced Islamic laws that, among other things, reduced women’s rights to inheritance, limited the value of their testimony in court and made reporting a rape almost impossible by requiring four male witnesses.In Mukadam’s assault, police have charged Zahir Jaffar, the son of a wealthy industrialist, with murder. Initial reports say she was killed after spurning his marriage proposal. It’s not clear whether Jaffar has a lawyer.The brutality of the assault — the attacker used so-called brass knuckles — and the fear that his high social status means he could be freed, galvanized many in Pakistan to speak out. They have held protests and a candlelight vigil and launched a social media campaign #justicefornoor to preempt attempts to use influence and money to whisk the accused out of the country.In one petition circulating online, the author demanded the country’s judicial system “hold perpetrators of violence responsible. We demand justice. We demand it swiftly. We demand it for Noor. We demand it for all women.”Zarqa Khan, a student who attended a candlelight vigil for Mukadam, bemoaned how religion now pervades so much of life in Pakistan and how today she fears walking alone on the streets.”I just didn’t feel safe outside anymore,” said Khan. “And that shouldn’t be the scenario.”
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Taliban assassinations of Afghan pilots detailed by Reuters this month mark another “worrisome development” for the Afghan Air Force as it reels from a surge in fighting, a U.S. government watchdog said in a report released on Thursday.At least seven Afghan pilots have been assassinated off base in recent months, two senior Afghan government officials told Reuters, part of what the Islamist Taliban says is a campaign to see U.S.-trained Afghan pilots “targeted and eliminated.”As the United States prepares to formally end its 20-year military mission in Afghanistan on Aug. 31, Taliban insurgents are quickly seizing territory once controlled by the U.S.-backed government of President Ashraf Ghani, raising fears they could eventually try to take the capital, Kabul.The Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR), in its quarterly report to Congress covering the three-month period through June, broadly portrayed an Afghan Air Force (AAF) under growing strain from battling the Taliban amid the U.S. withdrawal – and becoming less ready to fight.The AAF’s fleet of UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, for example, had a 39 percent readiness rate in June, about half the level of April and May. All Afghan airframes were flying at least 25% over their recommended scheduled-maintenance intervals, SIGAR reported.”All aircraft platforms are overtaxed due to increased requests for close air support, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance missions and aerial resupply now that the (Afghan military) largely lacks U.S. air support,” it wrote.At the same time, air crews remain over-tasked due to the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan and a pace of operations that “has only increased”, it said.SIGAR also cited the Reuters report.”Another worrisome development concerning AAF aircrew was a (Reuters) report that the Taliban is deliberately targeting Afghan pilots,” it said, before presenting the Reuters’ findings without additional comment.Along with Afghanistan’s Special Forces, the Afghan Air Force is a pillar of the nation’s strategy for preventing a Taliban takeover of cities. But special operations forces are also being misused, SIGAR reported.It said most Afghan National Army corps refuse to execute missions without support from its elite commandos. Citing NATO data, SIGAR said that when Afghan commandos arrive, they are misused to perform tasks intended for conventional forces, including route clearance and checkpoint security.Still, the report cautioned that it was difficult to evaluate what constituted military misuse of the elite forces when the Afghan government “is fighting for its existence.” 
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Afghanistan’s Taliban took responsibility this week for the killing of a comic in the country’s south, raising the specter of revenge killings as the U.S. and NATO put the final touches on their departure.A video of two men slapping and abusing Nazar Mohammad, better known as Khasha Zwan, spread widely on social media. He was later killed, shot multiple times. Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid acknowledged that the two men were Taliban.The men have been arrested and will be tried, Mujahid said. He alleged that the comic, from the southern part of Kandahar province, was also a member of the Afghan National Police and had been implicated in the torture and killing of Taliban.Mujahid said the Taliban should have arrested the comic and brought him before a Taliban court, instead of killing him.Mohammad was not a TV personality but would post his routines on TikTok. He was known for crude jokes, funny songs, poking fun at himself, and often making fun of topics thrown at him from fans.The brutality of the killing heightened fears of revenge attacks. It also undermined the Taliban’s assurances that no harm would come to people who worked for the government, with the U.S. military or with U.S. organizations.Hundreds of people are reportedly being held by Taliban in areas they have overrun. Schools have been burned and reports have emerged of restrictions being imposed on women akin to those imposed when the insurgents last ruled Afghanistan. Back then, they had denied girls access to schools, and barred women from working.In an interview last week with The Associated Press, Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen said the group’s commanders have orders not to interfere with civilians, or impose restrictions in newly captured areas. He said that when complaints of wrongdoings arise, they are investigated.However Patricia Gossman of Human Rights Watch says that revenge killings have been committed by all sides during Afghanistan’s decades of war.”The war — all 43 years of it — has a revenge-driven dynamic,” she said in an interview on Tuesday. “Revenge for past wrongs, including terrible atrocities, committed by one side or the other has been a mobilizing factor for all the various armed forces.”For example, in 2001 when the U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban and many surrendered, hundreds were packed into containers by troops loyal to warlord Rashid Dostum, with dozens suffocating in the brutally hot sun. Others who returned home after the Taliban defeat were often singled out for extortion by government officials.Reports have also since surfaced of U.S.-allied warlords calling in American airstrikes on supposed Taliban, or al-Qaida targets that turned out to involve personal vendettas, not extremists.”Each new horror — understandably — brings new outrage,” Gossman said. “With no hope for any other kind of justice, this is likely to continue… and every side is far too blind to the fact that this sense of outrage and horror at wrongs done is shared.”The fear of revenge has driven as many as 18,000 Afghans who worked for the U.S. military to apply for Special Immigration Visas to the United States. In Washington and in NATO capitals there is a growing demand to evacuate Afghans who worked with the military.The U.S. has promised it will move quickly on thousands of special visa requests.Gossman pressed for investigations into alleged atrocities.”The U.N. should be much more engaged in investigating these atrocities, as Afghan and international human rights groups have called for, and has happened in other countries,” she said. 
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Days of heavy rainfall have pounded Rohingya refugee camps in southern Bangladesh, destroying dwellings and sending thousands of people to live with extended families or in communal shelters.In the 24 hours until Wednesday afternoon, more than 30 centimeters of rain fell on the camps in Cox’s Bazar district hosting more than 800,000 Rohingya, the U.N. refugee agency said. That’s nearly half the average July rainfall in one day, and more heavy downpours are expected in the next few days, and the monsoon season stretches over the next three months.”The situation is further compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is currently a strict national lockdown in response to rising cases across the country,” the agency said.It said six people died in the camps earlier this week — five people in a landslide caused by the rains and a child swept away by floodwaters.Citing initial reports, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said more than 12,000 refugees were affected by the heavy rain and an estimated 2,500 shelters were damaged or destroyed. More than 5,000 refugees have been temporarily relocated to other family members’ shelters or communal facilities, the agency said in a statement.Hannah Macdonald, a spokesperson for the UNHCR, said in an email that emergency response teams have been deployed to help affected families.Refugees said they were struggling to eat and drink properly.”Due to the continuous rainfall for the last four days, today my house is full of water,” said Khatija Begum, who has five children. “We are not even able to eat.” Begum said she fears her children will drown and die in their sleep.The refugee agency said the bad weather, landslides and floods have further exacerbated the suffering and humanitarian needs of the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.Cyclones, heavy monsoon rains, floods, landslides and other natural hazards are an annual difficulty in the camps. More than 700,000 Rohingya have fled to refugee camps in Bangladesh since August 2017, when the military in Buddhist-majority Myanmar began a harsh crackdown on the Muslim ethnic group following an attack by insurgents.The crackdown included rapes, killings and the torching of thousands of homes, and was termed ethnic cleansing by global rights groups and the United Nations. While Bangladesh and Myanmar have sought to arrange repatriations, the Rohingya are too fearful to return home.The International Organization for Migration says Cox’s Bazar district, where more than 1 million Rohingya refugees live, is one of the most disaster-prone parts of Bangladesh.It is a delta nation crisscrossed by many rivers that regularly receives intense rainfall due to its monsoon climate and location on the Bay of Bengal, where the warm waters can generate destructive tropical cyclones.
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Current and future attempts by the United States to use its military might abroad could very well meet the same fate as the country’s nearly two-decade-long war in Afghanistan, a U.S. government watchdog warned, citing the repeated failure of top officials to learn from their mistakes.U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko unleashed the blunt assessment Thursday during a discussion with reporters, accusing wave after wave of top-ranking defense officials and diplomats of lying to themselves, as well as the American public.”We exaggerated, overexaggerated,” Sopko said in response to a question from VOA. “Our generals did. Our ambassadors did. All of our officials did, to go to Congress and the American people about ‘We’re just turning the corner.'”We turned the corner so much, we did 360 degrees,” he said. “We’re like a top.”Sopko, speaking to the Defense Writers Group, said that while there were “multiple reasons” the U.S. failed to create a more effective and cohesive Afghan military, some of it was “this hubris that we can somehow take a country that was desolate in 2001 and turn it into little Norway.” But another key factor, he said, was “mendacity.”Top ranking U.S. military leaders “knew how bad the Afghan military was,” Sopko said, adding that they tried to keep such problems hidden.’We changed the goal posts'”Every time we had a problem with the Afghan military, we changed the goal posts,” he said. “The U.S. military changed the goal posts and made it easier to show success. And then, finally, when they couldn’t even do that, they classified the assessment tool.”Sopko cautioned that part of the problem with setting up Afghanistan for success also hinged on Washington’s refusal over almost 20 years to plan for long-term success.”We’ve highlighted time and again we had unrealistic timelines for all of our work,” he said, pointing to a series of reports by his office during the past 12 years.”Four-star generals, four-star military, four-star ambassadors forced the USAID [U.S. Agency for International Development] to try to show success in short timelines, which they themselves knew were never going to work,” Sopko said. “These short timelines, which have no basis in reality except the political reality of the appropriations cycle or whatever, whatever is popular at the moment, are dooming us to failure.”That unfortunately is a problem not just with Afghanistan,” he added. “I think you find it in other countries where we’ve gone in.””That unfortunately is a problem not just w/#Afghanistan” per @SIGARHQ’s Sopko “I think you find it in other countries where we’ve gone in””We have to be honest. We to be honest ourselves & we have to be honest w/the American people who pay for this…”— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) July 29, 2021Sopko’s critique Thursday came just after the release of his office’s most recent report, which described the situation on the ground in Afghanistan as “bleak” and warned that the Afghan government could be facing an “existential crisis.”Afghan Government Facing ‘Existential Crisis’ A report from the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction raises concerns about whether Afghan government forces can hold off the TalibanPentagon and State Department officials did not immediately respond to Sopko’s criticism, but they repeatedly have defended U.S. efforts in Afghanistan and elsewhere.Last week, America’s most senior military officer, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley, said Afghan forces were well trained and well equipped, even though the Taliban had “strategic momentum.”Pentagon Admits Taliban Control Half of Afghan District CentersTop US general says Afghan forces purposely ceding ground to protect major population centersMilley also has defended the U.S. model known as “train, advise and assist,” calling it “the best approach” to counterterrorism.Counterterrorism in the #Sahel-“The best approach, not only there but globally, is to work by, with& thru friends & allies in the region, small train, advise & assist missions…” per @thejointstaff’s Gen Milley Says would recommend direct action if necessary— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) June 17, 2021 
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Days of heavy rainfall have pelted Rohingya refugee camps in southern Bangladesh, destroying dwellings and sending thousands of people to live with extended family or in communal shelters.Just in the 24 hours to Wednesday alone, more than 30 centimeters of rain fell on the camps in Cox’s Bazar district hosting more than 800,000 Rohingya, the U.N. refugee agency said. That’s nearly half the average July rainfall in one day while more heavy downpours are expected in the next few days and the monsoon season stretches over the next three months.“The situation is further compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is currently a strict national lockdown in response to rising cases across the country,” the agency said.The agency said it was saddened by the deaths of six people at the camps earlier this week, five in a landslide caused by the rains and a child swept away by floodwaters.Citing initial reports, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said more than 12,000 refugees were affected by the heavy rainfall while an estimated 2,500 shelters have been damaged or destroyed. More than 5,000 refugees have temporarily been relocated to other family member’s shelters or communal facilities, the agency said in a statement.Refugees said they were struggling to eat or drink properly.“Due to the continuous rainfall for the last four days, today my house is full of water,” says Khatija Begum, who has five children. “We are not even able to eat.” Begum says she fears her children will drown and die in their sleep.Cyclones, heavy monsoon rains, floods, landslides and other natural hazards are an annual difficulty in the camps. More than 700,000 Rohingya have lived in refugee camps in Bangladesh since August 2017, when the military in Buddhist-majority Myanmar began a harsh crackdown on the Muslim ethnic group following an attack by insurgents.The crackdown included rapes, killings and the torching of thousands of homes, and was termed ethnic cleansing by global rights groups and the United Nations. While Bangladesh and Myanmar have sought to arrange repatriations, the Rohingya are too fearful to return home.The International Organization for Migration says Cox’s Bazar district, where more than 1 million Rohingya refugees live, is one of the most disaster-prone parts of Bangladesh.It is a delta nation crisscrossed by many rivers that gets intense rainfall regularly due to its monsoon climate and location on the Bay of Bengal, where the warm waters can generate destructive tropical cyclones.
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The Afghan government in Kabul will be fighting for its life and could well fall to the Taliban after the United States completes its military withdrawal from the country in August, according to a U.S. government watchdog charged with monitoring events on the ground.Despite a series of cautiously optimistic assessments by high-ranking U.S. military officials and Afghan leaders, a new report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) describes the situation as “bleak” and echoes concerns that Afghan security forces are not ready to mount any meaningful resistance.”The overall trend is clearly unfavorable to the Afghan government, which could face an existential crisis if it isn’t addressed and reversed,” Special Inspector General John Sopko wrote in the report, released Wednesday.”The ANDSF (Afghan National Defense and Security Forces) has retaken some districts and the Afghan government still controls all 34 provincial capitals, including Kabul,” he added. “But from public reporting, the ANDSF appeared surprised and unready, and is now on its back foot.”Ever since U.S. President Joe Biden announced in April that American combat troops would leave Afghanistan, U.S. officials have been careful not to minimize the challenge facing the Afghan government.Just this past Sunday, the commander of U.S. Central Command, General Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, told reporters in Kabul that the Afghan government “faces a stern test.”But he added that despite attempts by the Taliban to create a sense of inevitability, “there is no preordained conclusion to this fight.”Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has also promised better results as well, saying that the Afghan military will be able to regain momentum by focusing its efforts on defending urban areas.Help has also come in the form of U.S. airstrikes in support of Afghan forces, despite the U.S. no longer having aircraft based in Afghanistan. Officials have promised the strikes will continue unless the Taliban scale back their military offensive.NEW: US airstrikes in #Afghanistan – “we’re prepared to continue this heightened level of support in the coming weeks if the #Taliban continue their attacks” per @CENTCOM Commander Gen Frank McKenzie— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) July 27, 2021The SIGAR report, however, warns the Taliban have provided no reason to believe they will ease off on their attacks.”Despite continued calls from U.S. officials for the Taliban to reduce its levels of violence in line with their commitments in the U.S.-Taliban agreement … the Taliban have not done so,” the report said. “Each three-month period since the February 29, 2020, U.S.-Taliban agreement has had significantly more EIAs (enemy-initiated attacks) than their corresponding quarters the previous year.”The report also suggests that the Taliban, beyond having momentum, appear to have a definitive psychological edge.NATO military officials told SIGAR that Afghan National Army units routinely refused to conduct operations without the presence of Afghan special operations forces.Additionally, SIGAR said that when special forces have been brought in, “they are misused to perform tasks intended for conventional forces such as route clearance.”The SIGAR report also repeated earlier warnings that the Afghan air force is “overtaxed” and will not likely be able to sustain its current pace of operation.”All airframes are flying at least 25% over their recommended scheduled-maintenance intervals,” the report said. “This is exacerbating supply-chain issues and delaying scheduled maintenance and battle-damage repair.”Four key airframes — the A-29 Super Tucano light attack plane, the C-208 Caravan light airlift plane, the MD 530 Cayuse Warrior light attack helicopter and the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter — “failed to meet readiness benchmarks,” the SIGAR report added.The Afghan air force, in particular, has been dependent on U.S. government contractors for maintenance and logistics. But as of last month, SIGAR reported that the number of contractors had been cut in half because of the ongoing U.S. withdrawal.
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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi reportedly pressed the leaders of Afghanistan’s insurgent Taliban group Wednesday to “make a clean break” from all terrorists, including the anti-China East Turkistan Islamic Movement, or ETIM, during a meeting he hosted. Officials from both sides said Taliban deputy political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who heads the group’s office in Qatar, led his nine-member delegation at the talks in the northern city of Tianjin. The meeting, some analysts said, underscores Beijing’s warming ties with the Islamist insurgent group and the Taliban’s growing clout on the global stage. “Wang pointed out that the Afghan Taliban is an important military and political force in Afghanistan and is expected to play an important role in the country’s peace, reconciliation and reconstruction process,” according to the Chinese foreign ministry. As the largest neighbor of FILE – Humvees that belong to Afghan Special Forces are seen destroyed during heavy clashes with Taliban, in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, July 13, 2021.The Taliban in their deal with the U.S. have pledged to cut ties with all terrorist groups, including al-Qaida, and to prevent Afghan soil from being used to threaten American national security interests. But critics and the latest U.N. reports say the Taliban have not yet severed ties with terrorists. “We hope the Afghan Taliban will make a clean break with all terrorist organizations, including the ETIM, and resolutely and effectively combat them to remove obstacles, play a positive role and create enabling conditions for security, stability, development and cooperation in the region,” Wang said.Baradar was quoted as assuring the Chinese hosts the Taliban “will never allow any force to use Afghan territory to engage in acts detrimental to China.” China and the United Nations have outlawed the ETIM as a global terrorist organization. The militant outfit claims to be representing and fighting for minority Uyghur Muslims in Chinese western Xinjiang region. FILE – A guard stands in a watchtower in Kashgar, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China, May 3, 2021.Beijing’s crackdown against the militants has led to widespread international allegations of rights abuses in Xinjiang. China denies the charges. The Taliban’s recent onslaught has taken control of seven border crossings used by landlocked Afghanistan for trade with neighboring countries. Those countries include Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, China and Pakistan, effectively depriving the beleaguered U.S.-backed Afghan government of millions of dollars in customs revenues. Insurgent leaders have traveled to all of those countries, barring Pakistan, in a bid to assure their respective governments that Taliban advances have remained within the Afghan territory and do not threaten the regional stability. Wang emphasized the need for warring Afghans to negotiate a peace arrangement to bring security to their war-ravaged country and ensure regional stability. “The Afghan Taliban has the utmost sincerity to work toward and realize peace. It stands ready to work with other parties to establish a political framework in Afghanistan that is broadly-based, inclusive and accepted by the people and protect human rights, especially rights of women and children,” Baradar said. While the Afghan government objected to the Taliban’s recent visits to neighboring countries and Russia, the foreign ministry said Wednesday that Beijing informed Kabul in advance on the insurgents’ two-day visit to China. “With a U.S. exit from Afghanistan and the inability of [Afghan] President Ashraf Ghani to secure the country’s borders, neighbors and regional powers have to hedge their bets regarding the future,” said Torek Farhadi, a former Afghan government adviser. “While the Taliban give promises of security to Afghanistan’s neighbors, Kabul keeps asking for help. This perception of an embattled President Ghani doesn’t make for good looks,” Farhadi noted.  
 
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