Afghanistan attack

In Joint Statement, Taliban and Afghan Government Agree to Reduce Violence

The statement also gives assurances on “women’s rights in political, social, economic, educational and cultural affairs in the contexts of Islamic values.”

The Taliban on Monday agreed to reduce the number of civilian casualties in its offensive against Afghanistan’s central government, according to a joint statement by representatives of the warring factions.

During talks in Doha, the militant group agreed to stop attacks on “religious centers, schools, hospitals, educational centers, bazaars, water dams and work places,” according to a statement seen by DW.

The encounter ended with a joint “appeal and promise to reduce violence in Afghanistan,” said Markus Potzel, Germany’s Afghanistan envoy, who co-hosted the talks with Qatar.

The statement also gives assurances on “women’s rights in political, social, economic, educational and cultural affairs in the contexts of Islamic values,” according to DW‘s Pashto service.

Though the group refuses to recognise Afghanistan’s central government in Kabul, calling it a “US puppet,” Taliban representatives had agreed to meet with officials in Doha in a “personal capacity.”

“The differences are almost so narrow,” said Mutlaq al-Qahtani, Qatar’s counter-terrorism special envoy. “We are quite frankly surprised how serious both sides are,” he added, “and they are so committed to putting an end to this conflict.”

Also read: Taliban Car Bomb Kills at Least 14 in Afghanistan, More Than 180 Injured

The Taliban has also been negotiating with the US to bring an end to a conflict that started in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

But Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and US officials have said the Taliban must communicate with the government if they wish to seal a peace deal.

A previously planned meeting between Afghan representatives and the Taliban collapsed in April following a disagreement over the size of the proposed 250-member government delegation and its official status.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he hoped for a peace agreement before September 1.

“Afghans meeting with the Taliban was a big success,” said Zalmay Khalilzad, the US’s lead negotiator.

This article was originally published by Deutsche Welle.

43 Killed in Attack on Government Building in Kabul

The attack began when the suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car in front of a government building that houses a public welfare department.

Kabul: Afghan authorities on Tuesday collected 43 bodies from a government compound in the Afghan capital Kabul that was targeted by a suicide bomber and extremists armed with assault rifles on Monday, officials said.

The attack began when the suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car in front of a government building that houses a public welfare department in an eastern neighbourhood of Kabul.

Some of the attackers rampaged through the building of the Ministry for Martyrs and Disabled Persons taking workers hostage, and others fought a prolonged gun battle with local security forces.

Health ministry spokesman Wahid Majroh said so far 43 bodies and 10 injured had been transported by ambulances from the attack site. One policeman was killed and three militants were gunned down during seven hours of fighting inside the government compound.

Afghan forces evacuated over 350 civilians from the building before calling off the operation on Monday night. No militant group has claimed responsibility for the complex attack that was identical to previous attacks by Taliban insurgents on government offices, foreign buildings, and military bases.

An Afghan policeman keeps watch at a back of truck at the site of an attack in Kabul, Afghanistan December 24, 2018. Credit: Reuters/Omar Sobhani

The latest assault came just days after US President Donald Trump said he was considering pulling out at least 5,000 of the 14,000 US troops currently deployed in Afghanistan.

The possibility of thousands of US troops leaving has triggered confusion and panic in the Kabul government and foreign missions who fear that sudden withdrawal would lead to a Taliban regime who are fighting to expel foreign forces, topple the Western-backed government and restore their version of hardline Islamic law in Afghanistan.

Also read: What Talking to the Taliban Means

But Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who was in Afghanistan on Christmas eve was quoted by local news channels as saying that the mission for troops in Afghanistan continues without any changes.

“There are all kinds of rumours swirling around,” said Dunford according to local news channels while addressing hundreds of US troops gathered Monday at a base in Afghanistan.

“The mission you have today is the same as the mission you had yesterday,” he said.

ISIS Claims Responsibility for Blast at Afghanistan Mosque

Security officials in the area said on Friday that the blast at a mosque in an army base had killed at least 26 people and wounded 50.

Reuters: Islamic State has claimed responsibility for an explosion at a mosque in Afghanistan’s eastern Khost province that killed and wounded scores of people, its Amaq news agency reported on Saturday.

“Around 50 of the Afghan army were killed and 110 were wounded when a martyr blew himself up on Friday,” the agency said.

Security officials in the area said on Friday that the blast at a mosque in an army base had killed at least 26 people and wounded 50.

(Reuters)

A Middle Finger to the Past: Afghanistan Votes, Despite the Odds

Polls last month proved the resilience of the Afghan parliament in the face of violence and executive domination.

A smiling face and a middle finger aren’t usually seen together, but in an extraordinary Afghanistan, the paired gestures were proof of a moral victory. Millions of Afghans did last month what Indians take as routine: they voted and had their fingers dabbed with blue ink.

Afghanistan went to polls to elect the Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of the parliament. After three years of delay, these elections carried immense political and strategic significance – happening against the backdrop of a new push for negotiations, preceding next year’s presidential run-off due.

The long road

Where political and administrative conflicts have kept parliament from functioning as prescribed, spiralling insecurity in Afghanistan meant that law-makers and the parliament itself were targeted by the Taliban. For the parliament, much like the people of Afghanistan, the struggle has been for relevance and survival.

The parliament of Afghanistan, also known as Milli Shura (Pashto)/Shura-e-Milli (Dari) or the national assembly, has a long and somewhat democratic lineage. It was made a part of Afghanistan’s political landscape in 1919 under the ‘reformist king’, Amanullah Khan, essentially as a body of consultants which was governed by his personal rulebook, Nezamnama Amanullah.

An Afghan election commission worker prepares ballot boxes and election material to send to the polling stations at a warehouse in Jalalabad city, Afghanistan, October 19, 2018. Credit: Reuters/Parwiz

It had to wait until 1969 to become a legislative body worth its salt, when elections were conducted for the first time. But fortune did not favour it in the decades that followed. The violent period from 1979 to 2001, which saw the Soviet invasion, civil war and the reign of the puritan Taliban, destroyed the progress Afghanistan had made as a modern, sovereign nation.

With it, the parliament came crashing down, both literally and metaphorically. Its building was destroyed and many in Afghanistan’s political class were either assassinated or forced into exile. It was this political void that the US-led international efforts in Afghanistan had to fill.

… To the new parliament

Following the US invasion in 2001, the parliament was resuscitated. The new constitution of 2004 put in place a bicameral structure whose lower house, Wolesi Jirga, is to be directly elected. The people of Afghanistan voted for this house for the first time in 2005, electing 250 representatives, of which 68 were women.

The proportion of women MPs in Afghanistan – higher than what we have in India – was hailed as a sign of progress. While these ‘winds of change’ were reversed on various occasions, the fact that the constitution reserved two seats for women in each of its 34 provinces was a feat in itself.

This add-women-and-stir approach, it was thought, would gradually build a critical mass of support in favour of a liberal, rights-supporting, equality-granting discourse. Far from it, Afghanistan continues to be one of the most dangerous places to be born a woman.

Even so, in many ways the parliament still embodies the resilience of the people of Afghanistan. It continues to wage a battle for survival and significance in the face of the President’s arbitrary and excessive powers.

Also read: Afghan Elections Overshadowed by Chaos, Corruption and Taliban Threats

The new constitution of Afghanistan is heavily tilted in favour of the latter, who is not only the supreme commander of the army, the head of the state and the head of the executive, but also makes judicial appointments. This makes two of the three organs of the government executive-centred, and the legislature weak.

On many occasions, the absence of effective checks and balances has been glaringly evident. For instance, the Hamid Karzai-led government made a full display of its executive power as it exploited “constitutional ambiguities” and a “beholden judiciary” to its advantage in Rangin Spanta’s (former foreign minister) no-confidence motion case.

Weakening the parliament further is the system of voting, which too was subject to the wishes of the president. The voting system followed by the Wolesi Jirga is neither specified in the constitution nor in the electoral decree of 2004. The decision to use single, non-transferable voting system (SNTV) was said to have been a result of a “process of random elimination than a studied analysis”. Apparently, SNTV looked like the “least bad” option to the Hamid Karzai government, which feared that alternative models could give more power to the opposition.

Hamid Karzai. Credit: Facebook

Given the system’s bias in favour of either individual candidates or highly-organised political parties, the use of SNTV has impeded the consolidation of political parties in Afghanistan. Even today, political parties are a little more than network support to their candidates.

The emergence of grand coalitions can be read as a good sign, but overall parties still look pretty useless. This makes accountability and transparency a distant objective for the country. Still Afghans went out and voted.

Finally, the third term

The term of the now-dissolved lower house was expected to end on June 22, 2015. However, quarrels over electoral reforms within the current National Unity Government delayed the election process by three years even as most of what was proposed is yet to be implemented.

Finally, beginning on October 20, 33 of 34 Afghanistan’s provinces went to polls Technical troubles, and in some cases lax manning of the electoral booths, resulted in the voting process spilling over to the subsequent day. Of the 32 provinces that voted, the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan recorded a voter turnout of 3 million, which is about 45% of the estimated electorate, and of which 33% were women. The total number of candidates was 2677 with 400 women candidates.

The province of Kandahar, which had witnessed the assassinations of its Police Chief Abdul Raziq and head of intelligence Abdul Momin on October 18, voted on October 27. Ghazni, which is the only province that didn’t go to polls due to poor security and conflict over delimitation of constituencies, is expected to hold them alongside the presidential polls on April 20, 2019.

The run-up to the elections was violent. Three candidates were killed in pre-election violence, including the only candidate for the reserved Hindu/Sikh seat, Narinder Singh Khalsa. On the day(s) of the election, the ministry of interior reported 1700 threats and 192 security incidents in which 435 civilians were wounded and 56 killed. According to UNAMA, these elections were the deadliest of them all.

Counting of votes is currently underway, although not without its fair share of delays and disasters, including an ISIS-claimed attack in front of IEC’s office on October 29. The first set of results were expected to come out on November 6, but the wait continues.

Nevertheless, the fact that people of Afghanistan came out to vote, braving threats from Taliban that had vowed to disrupt this “misleading drama”, reflected their belief in democracy. Undeterred by threats and persistent in the face of glitches, millions of people turned up to vote, and gave space to young and new to stand for office – Afghanistan’s firm message to disruptors as well as political fossils.

Chayanika Saxena is a President Graduate Fellow and PhD Candidate at the Department of Geography, National University of Singapore. She works on the Afghan diaspora in India.

Top Afghan Police Chief Killed in Kandahar Shooting, US General Unhurt

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they had targeted both Miller and Razeq, the police chief of Kandahar who had a fearsome reputation as a ruthless opponent of the insurgents in their southern Afghan heartlands.

Kandahar, Afghanistan: Gen. Abdul Razeq, one of Afghanistan’s most powerful security officials, was killed on Thursday when a bodyguard opened fire following a meeting in the governor’s compound in the southern province of Kandahar, officials said.

Gen. Scott Miller, the top US commander in Afghanistan who had been at the meeting with Razeq only moments earlier, was not injured in the attack. But the local commander of the NDS intelligence service and the Kandahar provincial governor Zalmay Wesa were also killed.

The attack was a devastating blow to the Afghan government ahead of parliamentary elections on Saturday, which the Taliban have vowed to disrupt.

The attack underlined how precarious the situation remains in Afghanistan even after Taliban and US officials had opened preliminary contacts aimed at establishing the basis for future peace talks.

Also read: Founder of the Militant Haqqani Network in Afghanistan Dies

Officials said Razeq, Miller and the other officials were walking towards a landing zone as the helicopter taking the US general’s party back to Kabul approached to land when the gunman, who was waiting outside, opened fire on the group.

“Provincial officials including the governor, the police chief and other officials were accompanying the foreign guests to the aircraft when the gunshots happened,” said Said Jan Khakrezwal, the head of the provincial council.

Body armour

At least two hand grenade explosions and sporadic gunfire from around the compound were also reported by officials.

The three Afghan officials were all severely wounded when the gunman opened fire and two members of Miller’s protection detail were also hit in the crossfire but Miller, who took command of US forces in Afghanistan and the NATO-led Resolute Support mission last month was not injured.

Local officials said Miller appeared to have been saved by his body armour but there was no immediate confirmation from NATO headquarters.

“The brutal police chief of Kandahar has been killed along several other officials,” a Taliban statement said.

Razeq was criticised by human rights groups but highly respected by US officers who saw him as one of Afghanistan’s most effective leaders, largely responsible for keeping Kandahar province under control.

The flamboyant commander, whose men wore badges bearing his name, had survived several attempts on his life over many years and narrowly escaped an attack last year in which five diplomats from the United Arab Emirates were killed in Kandahar.

A cameramen working for Afghanistan’s RTA state television was also killed on Thursday, the director of the Afghanistan journalists centre, Ahmad Quraishi, said.

Kabul Intercontinental Hotel Siege Ends, All Gunmen Killed: Government

Interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said at least five other people had been killed and six wounded, while 153 people, including 41 foreigners, had been evacuated.

Afghan security force keep watch near the site of an attack on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan January 20, 2018.Credit: Reuters/Mohammad Ismail

Kabul: Afghan Special Forces ended an overnight siege at Kabul‘s Intercontinental Hotel on Sunday, killing the last gunman from a group of three attackers who stormed the hotel, taking hostages and battling security forces for hours.

Two gunmen were killed on Saturday night. It was initially reported that four gunmen had attacked the hotel.

Interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said at least five other people had been killed and six wounded, a lower casualty total than earlier feared, while 153 people, including 41 foreigners, had been evacuated.

As day broke on Sunday, thick clouds of black smoke could be seen pouring from the building. Several armoured US military vehicles with heavy machine guns could be seen close to the hotel along with Afghan police units.

The raid came just days after a US embassy warning of possible attacks on hotels in Kabul.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The raid was the latest in a long series of attacks which have underlined the city’s precarious situation and the ability of militants to mount high profile operations aimed at undermining confidence in the Western-backed government.

Hotel manager Ahmad Haris Nayab, who escaped unhurt, said the attackers had got into the main part of the hotel through a kitchen before going through the hotel.

According to one witness, who did not want to be named, the attackers took hotel staff and guests hostage.

Smoke rises from the Intercontinental Hotel during an attack in Kabul, Afghanistan January 21, 2018. Credit: Reuters/Mohammad Ismail

The Intercontinental Hotel, an imposing 1960s structure set on a hilltop and heavily protected like most public buildings in Kabul, was previously attacked by Taliban fighters in 2011.

It is one of two main luxury hotels in the city and had been due to host an information technology conference on Sunday. More than 100 IT managers and engineers were on site when the attack took place, Ahmad Waheed, an official at the telecommunications ministry, said.

US warning

The attack, just days after a UN Security Council visit to Kabul to allow senior representatives of member states to assess the situation in Afghanistan, may lead to a further tightening of security in Kabul.

Large areas of the city centre are already closed off behind high concrete blast walls and police checkpoints but the ability of the attackers to get into a well-protected hotel frequented by both government officials and foreigners demonstrated how difficult it remains to prevent high profile attacks.

Danish said a private company had taken over security of the hotel about three weeks ago.

The State Department said on Saturday it was monitoring the situation and was in contact with Afghan authorities to determine whether any US citizens had been affected.

Captain Tom Gresback, spokesman for the NATO-led Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan, said they were also watching closely but it was not clear what role international forces were taking in suppressing the attack.

“Afghan National Defense and Security Forces are leading the response efforts. According to initial reports, no Resolute Support or (US forces) members were injured in this incident,” he said in an emailed statement.

Although Resolute Support says the Taliban has come under pressure after the US increased assistance to Afghan security forces and stepped up air strikes against insurgents, security remains precarious.

As pressure on the battlefield has increased, security officials have warned that the danger of attacks on high-profile targets in Kabul and other cities would increase.

After repeated attacks in Kabul, notably an incident last May in which a truck bomber killed at least 150 people outside the German embassy, security has been further tightened.

While it shares the same name, the hotel in Kabul is not part of InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), which issued a statement in 2011 saying that “the hotel Inter-continental in Kabul is not part of IHG and has not been since 1980″.

(Reuters)

Gunmen Attack Kabul Hotel, at Least Five Dead

Officials said two attackers had been killed and one or two others were believed to be still resisting.

FILE PHOTO: View of the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan, January 25, 2016. Picture taken January 25, 2016. Credit: Reuters/Mohammad Ismail/File Photo

View of the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan, January 25, 2016. Picture taken January 25, 2016. Credit: Reuters/Mohammad Ismail/File Photo

Kabul: Afghan Special Forces moved through Kabul‘s Intercontinental Hotel floor by floor on Sunday fighting the surviving gunmen who attacked the hotel a day earlier, seizing hostages and staging an overnight siege.

Television pictures also showed Afghan Special Forces personnel manoeuvering on the roof of the hotel.

Officials said two attackers had been killed and one or two others were believed to be still resisting.

Najib Danish, an interior ministry spokesman, said at least five people had been killed and six wounded in the raid, which came days after a US embassy warning of possible attacks on hotels in Kabul.

Danish said 16 foreigners had been rescued but it was not clear what their nationality was.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest in a long series of attacks which have underlined the city’s precarious situation and the ability of militants to mount high profile operations aimed at undermining confidence in the Western-backed government.

Hotel manager Ahmad Haris Nayab, who escaped unhurt, said the attackers had got into the main part of the hotel through a kitchen before going through the hotel.

According to one witness, who did not want to be named, the attackers took hotel staff and guests hostage.

The Intercontinental Hotel, an imposing 1960s structure set on a hilltop and heavily protected like most public buildings in Kabul, was previously attacked by Taliban fighters in 2011.

The Intercontinental Hotel is seen during an attack in Kabul, Afghanistan January 21, 2018. Credit: Reuters/Mohammad Ismail

US warning

The attack came days after a UN Security Council visit to Kabul to allow senior representatives of member states to assess the situation in Afghanistan.

Many details of the incident were still unclear, but Danish said a private company had taken over security of the hotel about three weeks ago.

The State Department said on Saturday it was monitoring the situation and was in contact with Afghan authorities to determine whether any US citizens had been affected.

As pressure on the battlefield has increased, security officials have warned that the danger of attacks on high-profile targets in Kabul and other cities would increase.

After repeated attacks in Kabul, notably an incident last May in which a truck bomber killed at least 150 people outside the German embassy, security has been further tightened.

While it shares the same name, the hotel in Kabul is not part of Inter Continental Hotels Group (IHG), which issued a statement in 2011 saying that “the hotel Inter-continental in Kabul is not part of IHG and has not been since 1980″.

(Reuters)