source: asisa times on line Afghan President Hamid Karzai has come out fighting after Burhanuddin Rabbani’s assassination, painting the Taliban as a Pakistani proxy. However, the death of the Afghan High Peace Council’s chief has stranded Karzai in isolation as the insurgents, the United States and erstwhile Northern Alliance allies […]
source:times of india KABUL: The suicide bomber who assassinated former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani insisted on meeting face-to-face with the ex-president and waited in Kabul for days to talk with him about brokering peace with the Taliban, an associate of Rabbani’s said Wednesday. Rabbani — who headed a government council […]
from ARABNEWS
Source: Times of India Multiple blasts rock Kabul See photo KABUL: The Taliban launched an attack on the centre of the Afghan capital on Tuesday, hitting Nato’s coalition force headquarters next to the US embassy in Kabul. The insurgent group said the ongoing assault in Kabul began with […]
Source: Asia Times Al-Qaeda’s assassination on September 9, 2001, of the Taliban regime’s most powerful enemy – Ahmad Shah Massoud – was as pivotal an event for Afghanistan as the United States-led invasion of the country following the 9/11 attacks. Ten years on, the legend of the “The Lion of […]
Suppression of one’s own crimes is virtually ubiquitous among powerful states, at least those that are not defeated. Noam Chomsky We are approaching the 10th anniversary of the horrendous atrocities of September 11, 2001, which, it is commonly held, changed the world. On May 1, the presumed mastermind of the […]
By Rami G. Khouri The Daily Star Lebanon To arrive in the United States, as I did a few days ago, one week before the 10th anniversary commemoration of the 9/11 terror attacks is to reach a land that is, remarkably, little changed from what it was on that shocking […]
Source: Express Tribune Author: Najmuddin A Shaikh If we support an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned process of reconciliation and if we are part of the solution and not part of the problem, then it is logical for the Afghans to expect us to use our influence with the Taliban to persuade […]
Source: The Guardian Author: Jonathan Jones In the photograph Thomas Hoepker took on 11 September 2001, a group of New Yorkers sit chatting in the sun in a park in Brooklyn. Behind them, across brilliant blue water, in an azure sky, a terrible cloud of smoke and dust rises above […]
Source: The Guardian Author: Gary Younge In the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks the then national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, called in her senior staff and asked them to think seriously about “how [to] capitalise on these opportunities”. The primary opportunity came from a public united in anger, […]
By MIRWAIS HAROONI | REUTERS ARABNEWS KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai ordered on Tuesday that eight would-be child suicide bombers, groomed by the Taleban but rescued by authorities, be sent back to their families. The group, which includes a seven-year-old, are the youngest among some 20 children who were detained […]
by Nicholas Schmidle, THE NEW YORKER Shortly after eleven o’clock on the night of May 1st, two MH-60 Black Hawk helicopters lifted off from Jalalabad Air Field, in eastern Afghanistan, and embarked on a covert mission into Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden. Inside the aircraft were twenty-three Navy SEALs […]
British soldiers in Afghanistan have been banned from wearing skull-and-crossbones badges on their uniforms that declare ‘Death To The Taliban’ and proclaim membership of a ‘Taliban Hunting Club’. The unofficial stick-on badges are now a cult accessory among British troops fighting Taliban insurgents. But senior Army officers visiting Helmand province […]
Source / Credit: Gulf News As the US begins a security transition in Afghanistan, it has focused the vast majority of its strategy, efforts and resources on building Afghan security forces and weakening insurgents through military pressure. Yet the broader Afghan state is in crisis. Afghans we met with during […]
by Luigi Jorio, swissinfo.ch More and more Afghan women are breaking with tradition in their male-dominated society, taking jobs and participating in public affairs. They include 1,300 or so who have joined the police force who, despite facing discrimination, make an “immense” contribution to improving the welfare of other women, […]
Source / Courtesy: BBC The helicopter was taking the personnel back to their base after an operation. It is not clear how the crash happened but the Taliban said they shot the helicopter down. The incident is believed to be the biggest single loss of life for US forces in […]
Source:asiatimes on line KAPISA PROVINCE – Wednesday’s killing of the mayor of Afghanistan’s southern city of Kandahar, Ghulam Haydar Hamidi, has once again thrown the spotlight on suicide bombings and the people who carry them out. The attack took place at Hamidi’s office compound. A spokesman for the provincial governor […]
Source / Credit Guardian UK Israel is to fund a rare genetic study to determine whether there is a link between the lost tribes of Israel and the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. Historical and anecdotal evidence strongly suggests a connection, but definitive scientific proof has never been found. Some leading […]
source:cnn.com Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) — An 8 year-old boy was hanged by militants in Afghanistan’s Helmand province after the boy’s father — a police officer in the southern city of Gereshk — refused to comply with militants’ demands to provide them with a police vehicle, officials said. More:
The number of civilians killed in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion a decade ago hit record levels last year, according to a new report. Some 2,421 civilians were killed, most at the hands of insurgents, the Kabul-based Afghanistan Rights Monitor said. Foreign troops were to blame for about a fifth […]