James Mackenzie

Israel Says Reporter Shireen Abu Akleh Was ‘Likely Killed Unintentionally’ by Its Forces

The US-Palestinian was shot dead on May 11 while covering an Israeli military operation in the volatile town of Jenin.

Jerusalem: Israeli investigations into the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in May concluded that she was likely to have been unintentionally shot by an Israeli soldier but was not deliberately targeted, the military said on Monday.

Abu Akleh, a US-Palestinian citizen, was shot dead on May 11 while covering an Israeli military operation in the volatile town of Jenin in the occupied West Bank in circumstances that remain heavily disputed.

The Israeli military says that troops conducting operations in Jenin had come under heavy fire from all sides and had fired back, including towards the area where Abu Akleh was standing about 200 metres from their position, but that they had not been able to identify her as a journalist.

It said “there is a high possibility that Ms. Abu Akleh was accidentally hit by IDF (Israel Defense Forces) gunfire that was fired toward suspects identified as armed Palestinian gunmen”. It said it was also possible that she was hit by Palestinian gunmen.

One of the most recognisable faces reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for two decades, Abu Akleh’s death triggered outrage across the world, particularly after police beat mourners at her funeral in Jerusalem.

Other witness accounts of the incident have disputed that Israeli positions were under fire from the area where Abu Akleh was standing when she was killed.

Also read: The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh is No Aberration

“All evidence, facts and investigations that have been conducted proved that Israel was the perpetrator and that it had killed Shireen and it should bear responsibility for its crime,” said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Abu Akleh’s family said it was “deeply hurt, frustrated and disappointed” by the Israeli statement which it said “tried to obscure the truth and avoid responsibility for killing Shireen Abu Akleh”.

The Israeli investigation, which included interviews with the country’s soldiers, analysis of the scene as well as audio and video recordings, found it was “not possible to unequivocally determine the source of the gunfire” which killed Abu Akleh.

But Israel has repeatedly denied she was knowingly targeted by its forces and said the investigation showed that soldiers had acted according to their rules of engagement.

“We can say for 100% sure that no IDF soldier intentionally directed fire on a reporter or non-involved person on the ground,” a senior military official who briefed journalists on the findings of the investigations said.

Walid al-Omari, Al Jazeera’s local bureau chief, told Reuters that Israel’s conclusions of the incident were an attempt to avoid an independent criminal investigation.

“It is clear that they are trying to perpetuate ambiguity and deception on the one hand, while at the same time clear themselves of wrongdoing by claiming that there was an exchange of fire,” he said. “These are all lies, because all the accounts and videos and witnesses disprove their claims.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists said the statement issued by the Israeli military was “late and incomplete” and “does not provide the answers–by any measure of transparency or accountability–that her family and colleagues deserve.”

A report from the United Nations human rights office in June said Abu Akleh had been standing with other reporters and was clearly identifiable as a journalist from her helmet and blue flak jacket marked with a press badge when she was shot and killed by a single bullet. A colleague was wounded in the incident by another bullet.

The report said information it had gathered suggested she had been killed by an Israeli soldier.

Palestinian officials and Abu Akleh’s own family have said they believe she was killed deliberately and they have rejected Israeli statements that there were militants near where she was standing.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement: “We welcome Israel’s review of this tragic incident, and again underscore the importance of accountability in this case, such as policies and procedures to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.”

Forensic examination of the bullet which killed her, conducted under US oversight in July, failed to reach any conclusion because the bullet was too badly damaged.

A report from the US State Department in July concluded that she was probably killed by fire from an Israeli position but that there was no evidence to suggest she was intentionally targeted by Israeli forces.

(Reuters)

How Ukraine Has Managed to Keep Russia’s Army at Bay Near Kyiv

More than a month since Russia’s invasion, the defence of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv has played out in heavy clashes.

Lukyanivka (Ukraine): The burnt wreckage of two Russian tanks with blown off turrets and several armoured personnel carriers attest the ferocity of last week’s clashes in Lukyanivka village just outside Kyiv. The charred corpse of a Russian soldier lies in a field nearby.

“There were mortars so strong that it was scary even in the cellar”, local resident Valeriy Hudym told Reuters on Sunday, two days after Ukrainian soldiers seized back control of Lukyanivka in a five-hour battle with the Russians.

“Tanks were firing, artillery, and machine guns. Everything possible was there”, Hudym said. Two Ukrainian soldiers, involved in the battle to retake the village, said the fighting was intense.

More than a month since Russia’s invasion, the defence of Ukraine‘s capital Kyiv has played out in heavy clashes in places like Lukyanivka and the nearby town of Brovary to the east, Irpin and Bucha to the northwest and Makariv to the west.

When the histories are written such towns and villages may be minor details, but they are where the Russian advance has been halted, sometimes by small, mobile Ukrainian units wielding anti-tank weapons shipped in from abroad.

Moscow promised at peace talks in Istanbul on Tuesday that it would drastically scale back operations around Kyiv to help the dialogue.

In Lukyanivka, two hours’ drive from the centre of Kyiv, residents recall warning Russian troops who had occupied their settlement to leave while they could.

“I have a neighbour called Svitlana. She told them openly to their face: ‘Guys, go home. You will be killed here'”, Hudym said. Reuters was unable to independently confirm this.

The reversal in Lukyanivka has been repeated in areas around the northern half of the capital, as Ukrainian troops claw back territory lost in the first month of fighting in small battles, without scoring a decisive victory.

The Russian defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the military situation around Kyiv.

But the small victories have dealt a psychological blow to a more powerful enemy and shown how nimble units with knowledge of the area can defend lines and even push them back, according to military experts.

They also serve strategic goals – to keep Russian artillery further from the city centre and prevent the invading army from fully encircling Kyiv, the experts said.

Cities including Kharkiv and Mariupol have suffered heavy bombardment as Russian ground advances stalled – part of what the Pentagon and other Western military officials describe as a sign of Russian frustration at the lack of progress.

Kyiv has also been struck by shells and missiles, and at least 264 civilians have been killed according to city authorities. But the scale of devastation, particularly to the city centre, is far smaller, according to witnesses.

Russia describes its actions in Ukraine as a “special operation” with the aim of demilitarising its neighbour. It has denied targeting civilians.

In Lukyanivka, Reuters saw Ukrainian soldiers driving away two apparently serviceable Russian heavy tanks captured during the fighting.

“We knocked out the Russians. The Russians are now being moved a few kilometres away”, said Marat Saifulin, from the Ukrainian “Brotherhood battalion” that took part in recapturing the village in an attack that lasted from noon until dusk.

Setbacks And Resistance

CIA Director William Burns said in early March that the intention of Russian President Vladimir Putin was to seize Kyiv within two days of the start of the invasion on Feb. 24.

Putin and Russian officials have consistently said that Russia’s military operation in Ukraine has gone according to plan.

However, two early setbacks suggested it would not be plain sailing for an available Russian force estimated by some diplomats before the war at around 190,000 troops. Russia has not given a figure for its deployment in Ukraine.

Russian paratroopers attacked Hostomel airport, a potential bridgehead northwest of Kyiv, on the first day of the invasion. But heavy fighting there slowed the Russian advance toward the capital, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Satellite imagery also captured a huge column of military hardware stretching 40 miles (64 km) and coming from a similar direction.

Seen by some Western defence officials as a major threat to Kyiv in the first days of the war, by March 10 it had largely dispersed, with some vehicles spreading into surrounding towns.

A senior US defence official said in early March that Russia’s advance on Kyiv, including the convoy, appeared to be stalling because of logistical problems including shortage of food and fuel, as well as low morale among some units.

Attacks by small units of Ukrainian troops on advancing tank columns, in some cases using shoulder-held anti-tank weapons such as the US-made Javelin system, were also a factor in bogging down Russia’s military machine.

To the east, in Brovary, a convoy of Russian tanks was repelled after several were destroyed in an ambush captured in dramatic drone footage released by pro-Ukrainian forces.

To the north in Bucha, near Irpin, the town’s mayor filmed scenes of burnt out tanks and armoured vehicles still smouldering after coming under fierce attack.

In Irpin, Ukrainian forces destroyed a large bridge linking northwestern towns to Kyiv as a way of stalling the enemy’s progress. On Monday, Irpin’s mayor said Ukraine was back in full control. Reuters could not immediately verify his claim.

The result of the flexible defensive strategy and Russian shortcomings has been no major advances on Kyiv for several days.

In the city, where only half the peacetime population of 3.4 million remains, there have been signs of normal life returning to the streets, with some shops, restaurants and cinemas opening and people enjoying the spring sunshine in parks.

Hopes that the immediate threat to the capital may be receding were fuelled last week by the head of the Russian General Staff’s Main Operational Directorate.

He said that the first phase of the operation in Ukraine had largely been completed and that Russian forces would henceforth concentrate on the Donbass region in the east.

That appeared to chime with Western intelligence assessments that Russian forces had abandoned, at least for the moment, their active attempt to take Kyiv following heavy losses and unexpectedly stubborn Ukrainian defences.

Paying Pensions, Poor Morale

On many roads leading out of Kyiv, wrecked houses and debris show the price paid by those who decided to stay. Gas and electricity is often cut and there is no certainty about when and where the next missile might fall.

In Krasylivka village, 92-year-old Hanna Yevdokimova said the invasion was her third conflict after the Soviet-Finnish Winter War of 1939-1940 and World War Two, when she saw German troops march through the village.

Last week, her home was hit by missile wreckage. A twisted fragment of a Russian Kalibr missile lay 100 metres (328 ft) away in a neighbour’s garden.

“What can I do? All I want is to rebuild so that I can die in my own home”, she said.

Some residents of Lukyanivka said they spent nearly a month under Russian occupation as virtual prisoners in their own homes, their mobile phones confiscated and movement only permitted under armed escort.

Now they can come and go as they please amid badly damaged houses.

Near Makariv west of Kyiv, which is still contested, heavy shelling could be heard last week. Even so, the town’s mayor Vadym Tokar travelled through surrounding villages wearing military fatigues and handing out pensions to the elderly.

Farmer Vasyl Chaylo, from Peremoha, described what he said were fearful Russian conscripts, short on rations and disciplined by tougher professional fighters.

“They are afraid. According to my observation, some of them perhaps do not want to fight and want to surrender, but they are kept in line by special forces”, he said.

Also Read: Ukraine Sets Ceasefire Goal for Russia Talks as Us Says Putin Not Ready to End War

Chaylo added that he had asked tank crews who set up outside his house how long their dry rations would last and been told a week. “They came to us on the eighth day and said that they had nothing to eat.”

Russia’s defence ministry has acknowledged some conscripts have taken part in the conflict, after earlier denials by the Kremlin and military authorities. The ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment about rations.

Halyna Shybka, a former nurse in a military hospital in Kyiv for 25 years, ignored the entreaties of her grandchildren and remains with her husband Mykola in the house in Kalynivka, near the frontlines of Brovary, where they have lived in since 1974.

“They tried to persuade us in every way they could to leave with them, but I wanted to stay,” she said, pouring cups of tea in her small kitchen, the sound of outgoing Ukrainian artillery fire rumbling in the background.

“This is our land, we’re not going to leave.”

(Reuters)

Pakistan Says Willing to Open Peace Talks With India, Conducts Missile Test

Prime Minister Imran Khan has repeatedly offered to start talks with India to resolve the Kashmir issue, and officials have said that they hope the process starts once the election is concluded.

Islamabad: Pakistan has signalled a willingness to open peace talks with India as Prime Minister Narendra Modi appears set to return to power in New Delhi after an election that was fought in the shadow of renewed confrontation between the nuclear-armed enemies.

But in a possible warning to India, Pakistan also announced that it has conducted a training launch of a Shaheen II, surface-to-surface ballistic missile, which it said is capable of delivering conventional and nuclear weapons at a range of up to 1,500 miles.

“Shaheen II is a highly capable missile which fully meets Pakistan‘s strategic needs towards maintenance of deterrence stability in the region,” Pakistan‘s military said in a statement that made no direct mention of its neighbour.

On Wednesday, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmud Qureshi spoke briefly with his Indian counterpart at the sidelines of a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states in Kyrgyzstan’s capital, Bishkek.

“We never speak bitterly, we want to live like good neighbours and settle our outstanding issues through talks,” he said following the meeting.

The remark follows months of tension between the long-time rivals, which came close to war in February over the disputed region of Kashmir, which both sides have claimed since independence from Britain in 1947.

Also read: Better Chance of Peace Talks With India if BJP Wins: Pakistan PM Imran Khan

Following a suicide attack in Kashmir that killed 40 members of an Indian paramilitary police force in February, Indian jets launched a raid inside Pakistan, striking what New Delhi said was a training camp of Jaish-e Mohammed, the radical group that claimed the Kashmir attack.

In response, Pakistan conducted a retaliatory strike of its own and jets from the two countries fought a dogfight in the skies over Kashmir during which an Indian pilot was shot down and captured.

Amid international pressure to end the conflict, Pakistan returned the pilot and there were no further strikes but tensions remained high, with regular exchanges of artillery fire from both sides in Kashmir.

Pakistan has also kept part of its airspace closed to international air traffic, disrupting flights to India and other parts of the region.

Prime Minister Imran Khan has repeatedly offered to start talks with India to resolve the Kashmir issue, and officials have said that they hoped the process could start once the election is concluded.

Khan himself said last month he believed there was more prospect of peace talks with India if Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the election.

(Reuters)

Pakistan Foreign Minister Says Ready to Return Pilot to Ease Tension

India had earlier demanded the immediate release of Wing Commander Abhinandan.

Islamabad: Pakistan would be prepared to return the Indian pilot shot down and captured this week if it helped ease the crisis with its neighbour, foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told Pakistani television station Geo TV on Thursday.

“We are willing to return the captured Indian pilot if it leads to de-escalation,” he was quoted as saying.

He also said the Saudi foreign minister was expected to visit Pakistan with a special message from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who visited both Pakistan and India earlier this month.

(Reuters)

Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan Hit Record High as ISIS Attacks Surge

Deaths rose 1% to 1,692, although injuries dropped 5% to 3,430, said the UN assistance mission in Afghanistan in its latest civilian casualty report.

Kabul: The number of civilians killed in Afghanistan reached record numbers in the first half of the year despite last month’s ceasefire, with a surge in suicide attacks claimed by ISIS, said the UN on Sunday.

Deaths rose 1% to 1,692, although injuries dropped 5% to 3,430, said the UN assistance mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in its latest civilian casualty report. Overall civilian casualties were down 3%.

Hopes that peace may one day be established in Afghanistan were raised last month by a three-day truce over the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which saw unprecedented scenes of Taliban fighters mingling with security forces in Kabul and other cities.

“The brief ceasefire demonstrated that the fighting can be stopped and that Afghan civilians no longer need to bear the brunt of the war,” said senior UN official in Afghanistan, Yamamoto, in a statement.

But with heavy fighting witnessed across the country during the first half of the year and repeated suicide attacks in Kabul and major provincial cities like Jalalabad, the security situation in Afghanistan remains dire.

It also pointed to increased activity by ISIS, reflected in a doubling in casualties in Nangarhar, the eastern province whose capital is Jalalabad, where the militant group has conducted a series of attacks over recent months.

Ministry attacked

The main causes of casualties were ground engagements between security forces and militants, roadside bombs, as well as suicide and other so-called complex attacks, which caused 22% more casualties than in the same period last year.

Hundreds of civilians were killed in attacks on targets as diverse as Shi’ite shrines, offices of government ministries and aid groups, sports events and voter registration stations.

On Sunday, the day the report was issued, at least seven people were killed and more than 15 wounded by a suicide attack as staff at a government ministry were going home.

The report said that two thirds of civilian casualties were caused by anti-government forces, mainly the Taliban and ISIS.

Fifty-two percent of the casualties from suicide and complex attacks were attributed to Islamic State, often known as Daesh, while 40% were attributed to the Taliban.

The Taliban, who say they take great care to avoid civilian casualties, issued a statement rejecting the report as “one sided” and accused UNAMA of working in close coordination with US authorities to push propaganda against them.

With parliamentary elections scheduled for October, there is concern about greater violence as polling day approaches.

The Taliban, fighting to restore their version of strict Islamic law, have rejected President Ashraf Ghani’s offer of peace talks, demanding that foreign forces leave Afghanistan.

(Reuters)

Kabul Airport Attacked by Militants During Mattis’s Visit, US Retaliation Kills Civilians

US forces suffered a “missile malfunction”, causing several civilian casualties, the US-led NATO mission said.

Afghan security forces keep watch at the site of an attack and gun fire between insurgents and Afghan forces in Kabul, Afghanistan. September 27, 2017. Credit: Reuters/Omar Sobhani

Kabul: Suicide bombers and militants firing mortars attacked Kabul‘s airport during a visit by US defence secretary Jim Mattis on Wednesday, prompting a US air strike that accidentally killed civilians, officials said.

The clashes and casualties overshadowed a visit intended to demonstrate US support for the Afghan government and provided a sharp reminder of the risks associated with a more aggressive US policy that is expected to increase the number of air strikes.

Hours after Mattis touched down in Kabul, militants fired high explosive ammunition including mortar rounds near the main airport and detonated several suicide vests in an attack claimed by both the Taliban and ISIS.

Gunmen holed up in a nearby house battled security forces for much of the day.

US forces conducted an air strike supporting an Afghan special police unit fighting the attackers but suffered a “missile malfunction”, causing several casualties, the US-led NATO mission there said. It gave no further details.

“Resolute Support deeply regrets the harm to non-combatants,” the statement said. “We take every precaution to avoid civilian casualties, even as the enemies of Afghanistan continue to operate in locations that deliberately put civilians at very high risk.”

Mattis’s visit came after US President Donald Trump announced a new strategy for Afghanistan, promising a stepped-up military campaign against the Taliban who have gained ground as they seek to re-establish their brand of Islamic law after their 2001 defeat.

The strategy will give US commanders greater freedom to use American firepower against the militants but, speaking a few hours before the air strike, Mattis said they would do “everything humanly possible” to prevent civilian casualties.

“We are here to protect the Afghan people while we attack the terrorists,” he told a joint news conference with Ghani and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, accusing militants of hiding behind women and children.

Negotiated settlement

Mattis said the Taliban could not hope for a military victory and promised a more “holistic” approach without fixed timetables and involving other countries in the region, including Pakistan. “I want to reinforce to the Taliban that the only path to peace and political legitimacy for them is through a negotiated settlement,” he said.

Ghani said his government “remains open to talks with the Taliban” as well as a peace strategy involving Pakistan.

Mattis has said the US will send an additional 3,000 troops to help train Afghan security forces, which are focussing on building up the air force and special forces, but he gave few details of what would change.

“I don’t want to tell the enemy exactly what we are doing but the whole point is to make certain we have a compelling battlefield advantage over anything the Taliban tries to mass against your forces,” he said.

The Taliban have made steady inroads since NATO ended its main combat operation in 2014 and are now estimated to control or contest at least 40% of the country. Afghan commanders have regularly pleaded for more air support.

However the Kabul air strike showed the risks that the new strategy could cause a repeat of the bitter disputes over civilian casualties that soured relations between Washington and the government of former President Hamid Karzai.

Already in the first half of the year, as Afghan and US aerial operations have picked up, UN figures have shown a 43% jump in civilian casualties caused by air strikes and Ghani called on his allies to limit the damage.

There are now about 8,400 US troops in Afghanistan as part of the 13,500-strong NATO-led Resolute Support mission advising and training Afghan forces as well as a separate counter-terrorism mission, targeting ISIS and al Qaida.

Trump has said he expects NATO allies to increase contributions of both troops and funding to the Afghanistan mission, and Stoltenberg said the credibility of the international alliance depended on maintaining support.

“We know the cost of staying in Afghanistan,” he said. “But the cost of leaving would be higher. If NATO forces leave too soon, there is a risk Afghanistan may return to a state of chaos and once again become a safe haven for international terrorism.”

(Reuters)

Kabul Mosque Attack: Four Year Old in Mosque Picture Called to Safety

A four-year-old boy photographed in a Kabul mosque last week as police desperately tried to call him to safety during an attack by ISIS gunmen is back with his family.

Afghan policemen try to rescue four-year-old Ali Ahmad at the site of a suicide attack followed by a clash between Afghan forces and insurgents after an attack on a Shi’ite Muslim mosque in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 25, 2017. Credit:Reuters

Kabul: A four-year-old boy photographed in a Kabul mosque last week as police desperately tried to call him to safety during an attack by ISIS gunmen is back with his family but still suffering nightmares, his father said.

Ali Ahmad was with his grandfather in the Shi’ite Imam Zaman mosque on Friday when at least two attackers in police uniforms stormed in, one exploding a suicide-bomb vest and the other firing indiscriminately at the hundreds of worshippers inside.

A picture by Reuters photographer Omar Sobhani showed Ali standing alone in the courtyard of the mosque as policemen taking cover behind a doorway called and waved to him. He survived the attack but his grandfather was among at least 20 killed.

Sayed Bashir, Ali’s father, was nearby but not in the mosque for the initial blast and ran to check on his family.

“Right after the explosion I thought everything was finished,” he said. “I called my father’s mobile phone number and my son answered and said: ‘They killed grandpa’. He wanted me to bring the car and get him.”

“We were running everywhere in search of my son but the police were stopping us and didn’t let us get close,” Bashir said.

Bashir called the number again and was speaking to Ali when another explosion went off.

“I lost hope. I said to myself that everything was finished. I tried the number again but it was switched off,” Bashir said.

Ali Ahmad, 4, sits with his father as they pose for a photograph at their house after he survived a suicide attack at a mosque in Kabul, Afghanistan August 27, 2017. Credit:Reuters

In fact, Ali had run around behind the mosque, disregarding the policeman frantically signalling to him in the courtyard. He was rescued soon afterwards but the effects of the attack may take much longer to heal.

Bashir, a building worker who lives in a district with many Shi’ite families, said Ali was still traumatised and having difficulty coming to terms with what happened.

“After the incident, my son has some problems. He’s scared a lot at night,” he said.

The attack, the latest in a series targeting Shi’ite mosques, was claimed by ISIS Khorasan, the local branch of the group which takes the name of an old region that included what is now Afghanistan.

According to the UN, at least 62 civilians have been killed and 119 injured in six separate attacks on Shi’ite mosques this year.

(Reuters)

Taliban Kidnap at Least 25 Bus Passengers in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province

More than 200 people were reported to have been kidnapped since the end of May, with at least another 21 murdered in northern and eastern Afghanistan.

Afghan security forces prepare for battle with the Taliban in Kunduz province, Afghanistan. Credit: Reuters

Kabul: Taliban fighters in the southern Afghan province of Helmand stopped vehicles and detained at least 25 people, officials said on June 21, as the insurgents continued a series of abductions on Afghanistan’s highways over the past few weeks.

Omar Zwak, a spokesman for the governor of Helmand, said 18 women and children were released by the Taliban after the Islamist group’s fighters stopped a number of buses and cars near the town of Gereshk, on the main highway linking Kabul with the south. He said 25 men had been taken away and were being held by the Taliban. Police and army forces were searching for the men.

Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, said in a statement that 27 people had been taken from three buses and were currently being investigated.

“Those who are innocent will be released but those who are working for the slave administration of Kabul’s security organs will be submitted to the Islamic emirate’s courts,” he said, using the term the Taliban use to describe themselves.

The kidnappings follow a series of similar incidents in other parts of the country, underlining the precarious security on Afghanistan’s main highways, which are vital lifelines in a country where many cannot afford to travel by air.

Before the latest abduction, more than 200 people were reported to have been kidnapped on the road since the end of May, with at least another 21 murdered in northern and eastern Afghanistan.

Such incidents have led some officials and travellers to question a NATO-backed strategy that has reduced the number of security checkpoints in order to free up police and soldiers to go after the Taliban.

The Taliban have had to cope with the loss of their former leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour in a US drone strike last month but the insurgency has shown little sign of slowing under new leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada.

More than 20 people were killed in separate bomb attacks in Kabul and the northern province of Badakhshan on June 20.

(Reuters)

Taliban Announces Start of Spring Offensive in Afghanistan

The Taliban has pledged to launch large-scale offensives against government strongholds backed by suicide and guerrilla attacks to drive Afghanistan’s Western-backed government from power.

Smoke billows from a building after a Taliban attack in Gereshk district of Helmand province, Afghanistan March 9, 2016. Credit: Reuters

Kabul: The Taliban announced the start of their spring offensive on Tuesday (April 12), pledging to launch large-scale offensives against government strongholds backed by suicide and guerrilla attacks to drive Afghanistan’s Western-backed government from power.

The announcement of the formal start of “Operation Omari,” named after the late Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar, comes just days after US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Kabul and reaffirmed US support for the national unity government led by President Ashraf Ghani.

“Jihad against the aggressive and usurping infidel army is a holy obligation upon our necks and our only recourse for reestablishing an Islamic system and regaining our independence,” the Taliban said in a statement.

The insurgency has gained in strength since the withdrawal of international troops from combat at the end of 2014 and the Taliban are stronger than at any point since they were driven from power by US-backed forces in 2001.

As well as suicide and tactical attacks, the operation would include assassinations of enemy commanders in urban centres, the Taliban statement said.

“The present operation will also employ all means at our disposal to bog the enemy down in a war of attrition that lowers the morale of the foreign invaders and their internal armed militias,” it said.

In line with recent statements, it also said it would establish good governance in areas it controlled as well as avoiding civilian casualties and damage to infrastructure.

How far the announcement will lead to an immediate escalation in fighting, which caused 11,000 civilian casualties last year, remains unclear. However, NATO and Afghan officials have said they expect very tough combat in 2016.

Heavy fighting has continued for months across Afghanistan, from Kunduz, the northern city that fell briefly to the insurgents last year, to Helmand province bordering Pakistan in the south.

In Helmand, where thousands of British and American troops were killed or injured fighting the Taliban, government forces have pulled back from many areas and are struggling to hold on to centres close to the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.

Understrength Afghan security forces, struggling with heavy casualties and high desertion rates and short of air power, transport and logistical support, have struggled in their first year fighting largely alone.

According to NATO commanders, the Taliban exerts control over only six percent of Afghanistan but up to a third of the country is at risk from the insurgents and government forces control no more than 70% of the country’s territory.

US General John Nicholson, who took over as commander of international troops in Afghanistan last month, is conducting a strategic review, including plans to cut US troops in Afghanistan from 9,800 to 5,500 by the end of the year.

Unless the plan is changed, the reduction would mean the end of most of NATO’s training and assistance operation, leaving the remaining US troops focusing on counterterrorism operations against radical groups like ISIS.