Afghan Bloom Can Afghanistan weather the storms after the U.S. withdrawal?
by Mariam Ghani My parents have a house in Dar ul-Aman, a neighborhood on the western outskirts of Kabul that was once a separate city, when Kabul was much smaller […]
Afghanistan election: Warlords and technocrats seek to replace Karzai
By David Loyn BBC News, Kabul The race to succeed Afghan President Hamid Karzai in next April’s election looked wide open as nominations closed on Sunday night. Twenty-two people have […]
Central Asia and Afghanistan: A Tumultuous History
Summary Editor’s Note: This is the first installment of a two-part series on the relationship between Central Asia and Afghanistan and the expected effects of the U.S. drawdown in Afghanistan on Central Asian security. Contrary to popular perception, Central Asia is not likely to see an immediate explosion of violence […]
Kabul hosts Muslim scholars meet
Meeting of scholars from two dozen countries viewed as latest bid towards restoring peace in Central Asian nation. Ali M Latifi Al Jazeera Kabul, Afghanistan – Hundreds of Islamic scholars […]
US a player in Muslim wars
By Dr Paridah Abd Samad CONFLICTS: It’s been waging 3-decade war in Mideast NO single figure has had such a profound impact on world events as Saudi-born Osama bin Laden since World War 2. It has been claimed that Osama had ties with the Central Intelligence Bureau during the Afghan […]
Afghans deliver ultimate insult to Diggers with tax on military equipment leaving the country
AUSTRALIA has lost 40 young men, sustained hundreds of seriously wounded troops and invested about $7.5 billion on war-fighting alone in Afghanistan – but that isn’t enough for an Afghan Government that now wants to tax us as we leave. The regime of President Hamid Karzai has imposed a $3545 […]
At war – Tales of ‘White Taliban’ Sketch a New Legend
By HABIB ZAHORI THE NEW YORK TIMES Afghanistan is a country built on legends – we trade on the tales we’ve told and retold each other over many generations. There’s a favorite subgenre of stories here, about foreigners going local, that particularly seem to linger in memory. Accounts of Soviet […]
Divided Muslim Ummah
Asif Haroon Raja PAKISTAN OBSERVER Thursday, August 01, 2013 – The unholy practice of Muslims fighting among each other is in vogue in many Muslim countries. Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Algeria, Bahrain, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait had got infected by the Arab Spring in 2011, possibly triggered by CIA and […]
Afghan women win Magsaysay awards for work amid conflict
Source: TOI: MANILA: Afghanistan’s first woman governor and a Myanmar civil society organiser, who both helped families displaced by conflict in their home nations, are among five winners of Asia’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize this year. The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation on Wednesday singled out Afghanistan’s Habiba Sarabi, a […]
PULLING BACK: ICRC cuts activities in Afghanistan
July 23, 2013 – 20:08 After the attack on its Jalalabad office in May, the Swiss-run International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has reduced the scope of its activities […]
Donkey bomber kills 3 Nato soldiers in Afghanistan
Source: ET GHAZNI: A suicide bomber rode a donkey Tuesday into an Afghan and Nato military convoy, killing three Western soldiers and their Afghan interpreter, officials said. Nato’s International Security Assistance Force confirmed three casualties in a bombing in eastern Afghanistan but gave no details. Afghan authorities said the attack happened […]
EUROPE’S LOST CHILDREN: Journeys of Despair – and joy
Immigrants fleeing violence pay people smugglers thousands of dollars to enter Europe through Greece. The exodus includes children, alone and at risk. Their dreams are big, but the reality far different. Story, Irene Chapple. Film, Wojciech Treszczynski. Photo, Giorgos Moutafis Sisters’ tears for broken family Arazu has dressed carefully for […]
US seeks to take Press TV off air in western Afghanistan
The United States continues to build up its pressure on Iran’s English-language news network Press TV and in a new move has sought to pull the Tehran-based television channel off […]
THE TALIBAN’S LIFE OF LUXURY
IS AFGHANISTAN DESTINED TO BE RUN BY A DRUG MAFIA? by Noorullah Shirzada—AFP Pashtunabad—a poor, wind- and fly-blown suburb of Quetta—is the type of Pakistani town where commanders in the […]
Exodus: Afghan Diplomats Defect as Western Withdrawal Nears
By Hasnain Kazim SPIEGEL.DE The situation in Afghanistan is becoming so precarious that Afghan diplomats no longer want to return to their homeland. Up to 100 foreign service employees set for rotation back to Kabul from assignments abroad have now defected. A total of 105 Afghan diplomats were meant to […]
Taliban attacks Kabul’s presidential palace, CIA, ISAF HQ, Ministry of Defense
Taliban has launched an attack in central Kabul, targeting the presidential palace, the CIA and ISAF headquarters, the Ministry of Defense, as well as an international hotel. All the assailants have been killed in the 90-minute showdown. Local journalist Courtney Body told RT the attack started with a blast and […]
Robert Fisk: The three things that always accompany occupation
Torture by masters who claim the moral high ground, declarations they’ve won their war despite being in retreat, and insistence on a dignified exit after negotiation On 20th November 2001, in the Afghan embassy in Islamabad, the Taliban stamped into my passport their very last visa, number 001518, valid only […]
US and Taliban to open direct peace talks in Qatar
The US is to open direct peace talks with the Taliban, senior White House officials have announced. The first meeting is due to take place in the coming days in Doha, Qatar, where the Taliban have just opened their first official overseas office. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said his government […]
Sleeping With the Devil: How U.S. and Saudi Backing of Al Qaeda Led to 9/11
We Created Al Qaeda to Fight the Soviets in Afghanistan Jimmy Carter’s National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski admitted on CNN that the U.S. organized and supported Bin Laden and the […]
Violence up 5 percent worldwide since 2008: Report
The world has grown more hostile in recent years, according to the Global Peace Index. Hopes that we can all just march toward ever-greater peace and equality saw a serious […]