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Tag: Afghanistan

  • Afghan Taliban to hold first news conference – Spokesperson

    Afghan Taliban to hold first news conference – Spokesperson

    Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said in a tweet that he will hold a news conference on Tuesday at a media centre in Kabul that was previously used by the Afghan government.

    Mujahid said media representatives and journalists could come to the media centre.

    The Taliban urged people in Afghanistan on Tuesday to live their routine lives with confidence, two days after the group took control of the Afghan capital.

    Asian countries including Japan, Nepal, India, and the Philippines have evacuated diplomats and citizens from the country.

    The Taliban declared a general amnesty and urged government employees to return to work and women to join its government.

    Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted that the situation in Kabul was completely under control, and that law and order had returned to the city.

    Media reported that senior Taliban leader Amir Khan Muttaqi had held several rounds of talks with the Afghan leadership, and talks were going on how the Taliban-led government could absorb new members beyond the Taliban and how the current rights could be preserved.

    Evacuation flights carrying diplomats and civilians from Afghanistan’s capital continued as of Tuesday afternoon, a witness confirmed.

    “Military flights are continuing in Kabul airport. Roughly at 3:28 p.m. (local time), a huge cargo plane took off from Hamid Karzai International Airport,” witness Farhad Mohammdi who lives near the Kabul airport told Xinhua.

    “All Monday night, huge planes were taking off or landing in the airport.

    “The sound of four-engine military cargo planes could be heard from Monday night to early hours of the day (Tuesday),” he said.

    The United States is taking charge of air traffic control at the airport for military and commercial flights as around 2,500 U.S. soldiers are in Kabul to assist the evacuation of U.S. personnel and others, according to reports.

    Earlier on Tuesday, unconfirmed reports said Taliban officials suspended all flights in the airport.

    On Monday morning, all commercial flights from Kabul’s airport were suspended amid a big rush of people at the airport.

    A government official said an Indian Air Force (IAF) C-17 plane evacuated over 120 Indians, including diplomats, from Kabul and landed in the western state of Gujarat on Tuesday.

    During the day, Japan has evacuated all personnel from its embassy in Kabul due to the possible deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan and established a temporary office in Istanbul for resuming the embassy’s operations.

    As many as 118 Nepalis arrived in the capital Kathmandu from Afghanistan via Kuwait on Tuesday, Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

    Sewa Lamal, the spokesperson of the Nepali Foreign Ministry, said the Nepali government had made a request to various foreign governments having presence in Afghanistan for help in bringing out Nepalis.

    The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) of the Philippines said 35 Filipinos had been evacuated from Afghanistan after it issued an alert level 4 “due to the uncertain security situation in the country” on Sunday.

    Taliban spokesman Mujahid reiterated that the lives and properties of people were safe as there are reports that the Taliban has arrested about 200 people involved in the looting of government properties and vehicles.

    The Taliban leadership has ordered its members that “no one is allowed to enter anyone’s house without permission.

    “Life, property and honour of none shall be harmed but must be protected,” Mujahid said.

    Taliban members on Monday took control of the outside of Kabul airport while thousands of U.S. forces were inside the airport helping to evacuate the crowds.

    At least 10 Afghans were reportedly killed in the stampede and shooting inside the airport within the past two days.

    The offices of the Afghan Public Health Ministry and the Kabul municipality were reopened on Monday.

    Wahid Majrooh, acting minister of public health, appeared together with Taliban public health representatives in televised footage, urging medical workers including female medical employees to return to their jobs.

    Small shops were also reopened around the city while banks and business centres mostly remained closed as of Tuesday morning.

    Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani left the country on Sunday night, while the Taliban forces entered the capital of Kabul and took control of the presidential palace.

  • Afghan Taliban to hold first news conference – Spokesperson

    Afghan Taliban to hold first news conference – Spokesperson

    Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said in a tweet that he will hold a news conference on Tuesday at a media centre in Kabul that was previously used by the Afghan government.

    Mujahid said media representatives and journalists could come to the media centre.

    The Taliban urged people in Afghanistan on Tuesday to live their routine lives with confidence, two days after the group took control of the Afghan capital.

    Asian countries including Japan, Nepal, India, and the Philippines have evacuated diplomats and citizens from the country.

    The Taliban declared a general amnesty and urged government employees to return to work and women to join its government.

    Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted that the situation in Kabul was completely under control, and that law and order had returned to the city.

    Media reported that senior Taliban leader Amir Khan Muttaqi had held several rounds of talks with the Afghan leadership, and talks were going on how the Taliban-led government could absorb new members beyond the Taliban and how the current rights could be preserved.

    Evacuation flights carrying diplomats and civilians from Afghanistan’s capital continued as of Tuesday afternoon, a witness confirmed.

    “Military flights are continuing in Kabul airport. Roughly at 3:28 p.m. (local time), a huge cargo plane took off from Hamid Karzai International Airport,” witness Farhad Mohammdi who lives near the Kabul airport told Xinhua.

    “All Monday night, huge planes were taking off or landing in the airport.

    “The sound of four-engine military cargo planes could be heard from Monday night to early hours of the day (Tuesday),” he said.

    The United States is taking charge of air traffic control at the airport for military and commercial flights as around 2,500 U.S. soldiers are in Kabul to assist the evacuation of U.S. personnel and others, according to reports.

    Earlier on Tuesday, unconfirmed reports said Taliban officials suspended all flights in the airport.

    On Monday morning, all commercial flights from Kabul’s airport were suspended amid a big rush of people at the airport.

    A government official said an Indian Air Force (IAF) C-17 plane evacuated over 120 Indians, including diplomats, from Kabul and landed in the western state of Gujarat on Tuesday.

    During the day, Japan has evacuated all personnel from its embassy in Kabul due to the possible deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan and established a temporary office in Istanbul for resuming the embassy’s operations.

    As many as 118 Nepalis arrived in the capital Kathmandu from Afghanistan via Kuwait on Tuesday, Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

    Sewa Lamal, the spokesperson of the Nepali Foreign Ministry, said the Nepali government had made a request to various foreign governments having presence in Afghanistan for help in bringing out Nepalis.

    The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) of the Philippines said 35 Filipinos had been evacuated from Afghanistan after it issued an alert level 4 “due to the uncertain security situation in the country” on Sunday.

    Taliban spokesman Mujahid reiterated that the lives and properties of people were safe as there are reports that the Taliban has arrested about 200 people involved in the looting of government properties and vehicles.

    The Taliban leadership has ordered its members that “no one is allowed to enter anyone’s house without permission.

    “Life, property and honour of none shall be harmed but must be protected,” Mujahid said.

    Taliban members on Monday took control of the outside of Kabul airport while thousands of U.S. forces were inside the airport helping to evacuate the crowds.

    At least 10 Afghans were reportedly killed in the stampede and shooting inside the airport within the past two days.

    The offices of the Afghan Public Health Ministry and the Kabul municipality were reopened on Monday.

    Wahid Majrooh, acting minister of public health, appeared together with Taliban public health representatives in televised footage, urging medical workers including female medical employees to return to their jobs.

    Small shops were also reopened around the city while banks and business centres mostly remained closed as of Tuesday morning.

    Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani left the country on Sunday night, while the Taliban forces entered the capital of Kabul and took control of the presidential palace.

  • Germany to help people in Afghanistan who previously provided assistance – Merkel

    Germany to help people in Afghanistan who previously provided assistance – Merkel

    Germany intends to help a large number of people in Afghanistan who previously provided assistance to it, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday at a joint news conference with Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas.

    “We know that the situation is extremely difficult. I told Kallas that Germany wants to help even more people who provided assistance to us before.

    “We are concerned as we see that Afghanistan’s achievements related to the situation with girls and women, education and development can be reversed,’’ Merkel said.

    Berlin seeks evacuating as many people as possible from Afghanistan, the chancellor emphasized.

    She praised the arrival of a second German military plane in Kabul as a positive sign.

  • China condemns ‘hurried’ U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan

    China condemns ‘hurried’ U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan

    Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Secretary of State Antony Blinken on that the hasty pullout of U.S. troops from Afghanistan had a “serious negative impact,”but pledged to work with Washington to promote stability in the country.

    Similarly, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying on Tuesday said Washington had left “an awful mess of unrest, division and broken families” in Afghanistan.

    Beijing has long feared the neighbour could become a staging point for minority Uyghur separatists in the sensitive border region of Xinjiang.

    But a top-level Taliban delegation met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Tianjin last month, promising that Afghanistan would not be used as a base for militants.

    In exchange, China offered economic support and investment for Afghanistan’s reconstruction.

    Hua on Monday said China was ready to continue “friendly and cooperative” relations with Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

    She urged the new Afghan regime on Tuesday to “make a clean break with international forces” and “prevent Afghanistan from becoming a gathering place for terrorists and extremists again”.

    Biden promised a complete withdrawal of US troops by September 11, marking an end to two decades of war.

    But Washington was left shocked by the rapid collapse of the Afghan government and the Taliban’s sweeping advance.

  • Nigeria must never recognize Taliban-led Afghanistan- Moghalu

    Nigeria must never recognize Taliban-led Afghanistan- Moghalu

    Kingsley Moghalu, former presidential candidate of the Young Progressive Party (YPP), has advised the Nigerian government not to acknowledge the Taliban-led Afghanistan.

    TheNewsGuru recalls that Taliban fighters had on Sunday stormed Kabul, and took over power after Ashraf Ghani, the Afghanistan president, fled.

    Speaking on the development, Moghalu said the situation in Afghanistan is an important lesson for Nigeria, noting that religious fundamentalism, as seen in the activities of Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), does not bode well for the nation.

    In a sequence of posts on Twitter, he cautioned Nigeria not to have any dealing with the Taliban.

     

    He said Nigeria, as a multi-religious country, must not condone people who are sympathetic to the cause of “globally recognised terrorist groups while political dissenters are branded terrorists”.

    “Recent events in Afghanistan, where the fundamentalist and terrorism-incubating Taliban has taken over the country, carries important lessons for Nigeria. Religious fundamentalism is dangerous and tends to verge into terrorism as we see with BH, ISWAP etc,” he said.

    “We must stop cuddling so-called “repentant” Boko Haram. Which serious country absorbs erstwhile terrorists into its armed forces?

     

    “Nigeria and its @NGRPresident and @NigeriaGov must never recognize or deal with the Taliban. We can never be a theocracy. What has happened in Afghanistan is possible only because of its monolithic religious makeup.

    “The Government of a multi-religious country that is constitutionally a secular state must never tolerate some of its members harboring and expressing sympathy for globally recognized terrorist groups, while political dissenters are very quickly branded terrorists.”

    Moghalu further stated that the chaos in Afghanistan shows that violence does not pay, adding that if Nigeria breaks down into civil war, no one will come to save the country.

    “The other lesson from this is that the destiny of any country will ultimately be decided by its own people. Clearly, many Afghans are quite comfortable with the Taliban, while a minority are opposed to them. American intervention in 2004 that dislodged them from power was clearly unpopular with the locals, and Washington has decided to leave the Afghans to their fate. If Nigeria breaks down into civil war and violence, no one is coming here to save anyone. We will ALL suffer the consequences,” he added.

    “A word is enough for the wise on all sides of our political divides, whether “this” or “that”. Violence destroys, does not pay, and is destructive. It is only permissible in self-defense.

    “The characteristic of a failing state is when non-state actors use it without consequence. That is Nigeria today. Can we turn this ship around? Certainly. But not without Nigerians citizens taking their destiny in their own hands and voting massively for democratic change to a competent government that can protect our territory and our citizens.”

  • Trending video: Taliban militants wine, dine in presidential palace

    Trending video: Taliban militants wine, dine in presidential palace

    New footage has come out on social media showing the Taliban militants wining and dining in the presidential palace formerly occupied by President Ashraf Ghani and his cabinet.

    Some of the militants sat ontop the sofa while others could be seen eating as they chatted and laughed in the palace.

    The Taliban have taken total control of the war torn country as Western nations scramble to fly their citizens and diplomats out of Kabul as fast as possible.

    On Sunday, August 15, former president Ashraf Ghani fled the country to neighboring Tajikistan as the Taliban advanced on the capital, Kabul. By Sunday evening the Taliban had already declared the ‘Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan’ bringing to mind the dark days of pre-2001 when the group ruled the country with iron fist, where women had no rights, had no education and had no voice.

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  • I stand ‘squarely’ behind decision, President Biden defends withdrawal of U.S. military from Afghanistan

    I stand ‘squarely’ behind decision, President Biden defends withdrawal of U.S. military from Afghanistan

    President Joe Biden has said he stands “squarely” behind the US exit from Afghanistan as he faces withering criticism over the Taliban’s lightning conquest of the war-torn country.

    “How many more American lives is it worth?” said the president.

    He said despite the “gut-wrenching” scenes in Kabul “there is never a good time to withdraw US forces”.

    On Sunday the Taliban declared victory after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled and his government collapsed.

    The militants’ return to rule brings an end to almost 20 years of a US-led coalition’s presence in the country.

    Kabul was the last major city in Afghanistan to fall to a Taliban offensive that began months ago but accelerated in recent days as they gained control of territories, shocking many observers.

    Biden returned on Monday to the White House from the Camp David presidential retreat to make his first public remarks on Afghanistan in nearly a week.

    “If anything, the developments of the past week reinforce that ending US military involvement in Afghanistan now was the right decision,” said Mr Biden.

    “American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves.”

    Mr Biden is facing intense political backlash over his April decision to order all American troops out of Afghanistan by 11 September – the 20 year anniversary of the terror attacks that triggered the US invasion.

    On Monday he said the US mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been about nation-building.

    He said he had opposed the 2009 deployment of thousands more troops into the country by former President Barack Obama when he was vice-president.

    Mr Biden also noted he had inherited a deal negotiated with the Taliban under former President Donald Trump for the US to withdraw from Afghanistan by May of this year.

    He said he was now the fourth US president to preside over America’s longest war.

    “I will not pass this responsibility on to a fifth president,” said Mr Biden, a Democrat.

    “I will not mislead the American people by claiming that just a little more time in Afghanistan will make all the difference.”

    Mr Biden campaigned as a seasoned expert in foreign policy and declared after assuming office this year that “America is back”.

    Last month he assured reporters it was “highly unlikely” the Taliban would overrun the entire country.

    But he conceded on Monday that “this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated”.

    Opinion polls show most Americans support the US exiting Afghanistan.

    But Mr Biden is facing a barrage of criticism over the manner of the departure, after he withdrew US troops then sent thousands back in to help the evacuation.

    Images circulated on Sunday showing US helicopters circling the US Embassy in Kabul.

    For many, the pictures evoked America’s humiliating departure from Saigon, Vietnam, in 1975 when Mr Biden was a junior senator.

    Earlier on Monday, the US suspended its evacuation from Kabul after scenes of panic at the capital’s airport turned deadly.

    Thousands of civilians desperate to flee the country had thronged the tarmac.

  • Afghanistan: Five killed at Kabul airport during mass evacuation

    Afghanistan: Five killed at Kabul airport during mass evacuation

    At least five people were killed in Kabul airport as hundreds of people tried to forcibly enter planes leaving the Afghan capital.

    One witness said he had seen the bodies of five people being taken to a vehicle. Another witness said it was not clear whether the victims were killed by gunshots or in a stampede.

    U.S. troops, who are in charge of the airport, earlier fired in the air to scatter the crowd, a U.S. official revealed.

    Thousands of civilians desperate to flee Afghanistan thronged Kabul airport on Monday after the Taliban seized the capital, prompting the U.S. military to suspend evacuations as the United States came under mounting criticism at home over its pullout.

    Crowds converged on the airport seeking to escape, including some clinging to a U.S. military transport plane as it taxied on the runway, according to footage posted by a media company. Five people were killed in the chaos.

    The Taliban’s rapid conquest of Kabul follows the U.S. withdrawal of troops after 20 years of war that cost billions of dollars.

    President Joe Biden defended his decision to pull out, ending the United States’ longest war, arguing that Afghan forces had to fight back against the Islamist Taliban.

    But the speed at which Afghan cities fell in just days and the likely crackdowns on freedom of speech and women’s rights gained in 20 years have sparked angry criticism.

    “If President Biden truly has no regrets about his decision to withdraw, then he is disconnected from reality when it comes to Afghanistan,” a Twitter post from Republican Senator Lindsey Graham read.

    Republican Representative Jim Banks, a member of the House armed services committee, said on Fox News that Biden should explain his actions to the American people.

    “What was more shocking to me than the images coming out of Afghanistan is what’s happening right here at home,” he said.

    “We have never seen an American leader abdicate his responsibilities and leadership like Joe Biden has. He’s in hiding. The lights are on at the White House, but nobody’s home. Where is Joe Biden?”

    Jim Messina, a White House deputy chief of staff under former President Barack Obama, defended Biden’s move.

    “There’s been bipartisan consensus that it was time to get out of Afghanistan, Mike Pompeo, the former Secretary of State, said earlier this month he supported Biden’s plan, and we’ve been there 20 years. It’s America’s longest-running war, it is time to get out,” he said on Fox.

    “Why should American troops be fighting a civil war that Afghan troops this week refused to fight for themselves, it was time to get out.”

  • Gunmen kill two female Supreme Court judges

    Gunmen kill two female Supreme Court judges

    Unidentified gunmen killed two female judges from Afghanistan’s Supreme Court on Sunday morning, police said, adding to a wave of assassinations in Kabul and other cities while government and Taliban representatives have been holding peace talks in Qatar.

    The two judges, who have not yet been named, were killed and their driver wounded, in an attack at around 8:30 am, police said, adding the case was being investigated by security forces.

    A spokesman for the Taliban said its fighters were not involved.

    Afghan President Ashraf Ghani issued a statement condemning attacks on civilians by the Taliban and other militant groups.

    Ghani said “terror, horror and crime” was not a solution to Afghanistan’s problem and beseeched the Taliban to accept “a permanent ceasefire”.

    Government officials, journalists, and activists have been targeted in recent months, stoking fear particularly in the capital Kabul.

    The Taliban has denied involvement in some of the attacks, but has said its fighters would continue to “eliminate” important government figures, though not journalists or civil society members.

    Rising violence has complicated U.S.-brokered peace talks taking place in Doha as Washington withdraws troops.

    Sources on both sides say negotiations are only likely to make substantive progress once U.S. President-elect Joe Biden takes office and makes his Afghan policy known.

    The number of U.S troops in Afghanistan has been reduced to 2,500, the lowest level of American forces there since 2001, according to the Pentagon on Friday.

  • Suicide bombing in Afghanistan leaves 7 dead, dozens wounded

    Suicide bombing in Afghanistan leaves 7 dead, dozens wounded

    A suicide bombing in Afghanistan’s south-eastern province of Ghazni left no fewer than seven dead and wounded a further 40 people, the provincial governor’s spokesman on Monday.

    “The bomber detonated a Humvee vehicle inside a facility of the provincial intelligence agency’s Special Forces early Monday morning,’’ spokesman Arif Noori said.

    Nasir Ahmad Faqiri, the council chief for the province, confirmed the casualties.

    The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the incident left tens of the special forces of the National Directorate of Security, the Afghan intelligence agency, dead and wounded.

    On Thursday, the Taliban detonated a truck close to a military building in Gardiz city in south-eastern Paktia province, leaving five dead and 20 injured, including military and civilians.

    Recently, the Taliban attacked a military checkpoint in the Alishang district of eastern Laghman province that left dozens dead or wounded.

    The Taliban attribute these attacks as a response to a decree from President Ashraf Ghani, who ordered Afghan forces to go on the offensive against the Taliban after deadly attacks on civilians in Afghanistan.

    Following the order, the Afghan Ministry of Defense has also claimed to have killed dozens of Taliban militants across the country during various ground or aerial operations.