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December 31, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The New York Time: Early this year, officials in Washington extolled a rare success in the fight against the drug trade in Afghanistan: The authorities there had imprisoned a leading opium trafficker on the United States’ kingpin list, Haji Lal Jan Ishaqzai. The incarceration hinted at a newfound willingness by the Afghan authorities to prosecute criminals whose clout once made them untouchable. Full news...
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December 29, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Democracy Now!: In the 13 years since the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001, the country’s opium production has doubled, now accounting for about 90 percent of the world’s supply. To learn more, we are joined by Matthieu Aikins, a Kabul-based journalist whose latest report for Rolling Stone magazine explores Afghanistan’s heroin boom. Full news...
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December 27, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Killid Group: People in power have usurped more than 100,000 jeribs of public land in the west of the country. The government has obligingly looked the other way in half the cases, according to an investigation by Killid. Among the estimated 1,138 usurpers – 650 in Herat province alone – are two former governors, a former mayor and the mayor of Farah district who have taken over public land for private use with the support of cabinet ministers in the previous government. Full news...
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December 26, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: Five civilians were killed and as many wounded in a NATO airstrike in the Baraki Barak district of central Logar province, the town’s administrative chief said on Friday. Eng. Rahim Amin told Pajhwok Afghan News the air assault took place late on Thursday night in Abjosh area. Full news...
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December 25, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Khaama Press: A woman was killed by her husband in central Logar province late on Wednesday night, local officials said Thursday. The main reason behind the murder of the woman is not clear so far, but the provincial human rights officials are saying that the woman is apparently murdered due to domestic violence. Full news...
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December 21, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Killid Group: No government can any longer shut its eyes to the problem of armed groups in the country. They are behind the almost daily crimes in Kunduz, Badakshan, Baghlan, Parwan and Bamyan provinces. Local authorities in Kunduz accuse the Kabul government of supporting the men, some 4,000 in number, who are behind the kidnappings, rape and robberies particularly in the province’s Khan Abad and Dasht-e Archi districts. Full news...
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December 19, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
UN News Center: Civilian casualties in Afghanistan increased by nearly 20 per cent in 2014 compared to the previous year and are expected to rise to a figure over 10,000 by end of December – for the first time since the UN mission in the country began keeping record in 2008. “Men, women and children are suffering an enormous human cost as the transition evolves in Afghanistan,” Georgette Gagnon, the Director of Human Rights at the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said... Full news...
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December 18, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Bloomberg Businessweek: “Do you want to listen to Taliban cassette?” Matiullah Matie asks as he steers his white Toyota Corolla along a narrow road surrounded by cornfields and mud huts. He keeps the tapes in the car for long drives, Matie explains, just in case he picks up a hitchhiker who looks like a Talib. “They think I am such a pious mujahid man,” the round, bearded businessman laughs. “They don’t know I am screwing them all.” Full news...
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December 17, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Truthdig: There is a pattern emerging in my Facebook feed this week. One group of friends has been posting stories of police brutality and protests accompanied by personal statements of outrage. Another group has been remarking on the disgusting revelations from the Senate Intelligence Committee’s CIA torture report and the need for accountability. Full news...
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December 16, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Hill: The war in Afghanistan has cost the United States nearly 1 trillion USD, according to a report published Monday. The calculation was by the Financial Times and independent researchers. They found that the war has cost nearly 1 trillion USD, and that most of that was spent under President Obama, who escalated the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan upon taking office. Full news...
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December 15, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Killid Group: The Ashraf Ghani government’s failure to restore investor confidence by announcing a cabinet and ending political uncertainty has worsened fears of insecurity. With no clear end to the grave economic crisis in the country, millions of jobless Afghans face a bleak future. The National Labour Union (NLU) estimates there are 12 million unemployed. Maroof Qaderi, the chairman, accuses the government of failing people. Full news...
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December 14, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
AFP: Taliban insurgents killed at least 20 people in a series of gun and suicide attacks in Afghanistan on Saturday, underlining worsening security as US-led NATO forces end their combat mission in the country. A suicide blast wrecked an Afghan military bus in Kabul, killing seven soldiers, while a senior court official was assassinated in the city and 12 Afghan mine clearance workers were gunned down in the south. Full news...
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December 13, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Los Angeles Times: Taliban fighters shot dead at least 12 workers clearing mines Saturday in southern Afghanistan, authorities said, part of a series of attacks that saw two U.S. troops killed and a top Afghan court official gunned down. Security in the capital, Kabul, has been stepped up as the Taliban have warned that attacks will continue as most foreign troops prepare to withdraw at the end of the month... Full news...
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December 13, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: The father of a rape victim on Saturday threatened with setting himself and his children on fire if the rapists were not awarded harsh punishment. Nooruddin, who had gone to neighbouring Iran in search of a livelihood, returned home in the Rustaq district of Takhar province after receiving news of his daughter’s rape. Full news...
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December 9, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
IWPR: An IWPR investigation has found that Ghor province in western Afghanistan is in the grip of around 40 warlords backed by thousands of paramilitaries. The armed groups they lead are accused of murder, kidnapping, gang rape, theft and drug trafficking, all carried out with impunity. The numerous groups typically range in size from 200 to 1,200 men, giving a total somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000. Full news...
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December 8, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: A pregnant girl, whose face was badly burnt by acid, has been found dead in the southern province of Helmand, an official said on Monday. Police spokesman Maj. Farid Ahmad Obaid told Pajhwok Afghan News the body was recovered a ruined house in Bashran area late on Sunday. The victim’s identity is yet to be established. The Bost Civil Hospital director said the victim was 17 years old and was pregnant. Full news...
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December 7, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: At least four people were killed and 20 others injured when unidentified people lobbed a hand grenade at a wedding party in northern Balkh province, an official said Sunday. Col. Abdur Razzaq Qadiri, the acting police chief for the province, told Pajhwok Afghan News the incident took place in Chamtal district on Saturday night. Full news...
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December 6, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: Foreign troops killed two civilians in the Daman district of southern Kandahar province on Saturday, an official claimed. The incident took place in the this afternoon in front of the airport on the Spin Boldak highway, police spokesman Zia Durrani told Pajhwok Afghan News. Foreigner soldiers abruptly opened fire on a car carrying civilians, killing two of them, he added. Full news...
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December 5, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Gallup: As delegates from around the world depart the United Kingdom following Thursday’s London Conference on Afghanistan, a new Gallup World Poll underscores just how bleak life is for most Afghans. Already the worst in the world in 2013, Afghans’ ratings of their lives declined even further in 2014. More than six in 10 Afghans evaluate their lives poorly enough to be considered “suffering” Full news...
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December 4, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Los Angeles Times: A rogue Afghan policeman who shot and killed an American two-star general in Afghanistan in August had no known links to insurgents and apparently took advantage of an unplanned opportunity to kill American and coalition officers, a military investigation has concluded. The policeman, identified only as Rafiqullah, killed Army Maj. Gen. Harold J. Greene and wounded 18 other coalition and Afghan soldiers, including a German general, during a so-called insider attack during an Aug. 5 briefing at an Afghan military training center in Kabul Full news...
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December 3, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: Two women have been found dead in the Shirin Tagab district of northwestern Faryab province, an official said on Wednesday. District chief Syed Luqman Kharik told Pajhwok Afghan News unidentified gunman killed the two women in their house located in Sayyad area. He said the slain women were mother, 50, and daughter, 20. The reason of their killing is said to be a family dispute, he added. Full news...
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December 2, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
MailOnline: These heartbreaking pictures reveal a little-reported tragedy of the fighting in Afghanistan – the helpless babies left orphaned or motherless by the conflict. The battle against the Taliban has left a deadly legacy for Helmand’s children of war: babies without mothers and children so malnourished they are at risk of dying. MailOnline visited a hospital treating children and civilians who have been hit by improvised explosive devices or who have been prevented from getting basic healthcare by the insurgency. Full news...
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December 1, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Al Jazeera: At least nine people, including two policemen, have been killed in a suicide attack at a funeral of a tribal elder in Afghanistan's Baghlan province, police officials have said. Aminullah Amarkhil, the police chief of the northern province, said at least 20 others were wounded in Monday’s attack in Burka District. Full news...
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November 30, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Killd Group: Far from providing shelter for the poor, a housing project bankrolled by the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development has been appropriated by the government. A Killid investigation. Documents in Killid’s possession, including a letter dated Feb 2, 2014, show 64 percent of the apartments in the 179-million USD Qasabah housing project – also called Amarat Township to honour the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – has been shared among office and domestic staff of the president and two vice-presidents. Full news...
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November 29, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
RT: An Afghan mother, enraged by the Taliban’s fatal shooting of her policeman son, has allegedly helped to kill 25 militants. She rushed to a police outpost near her home upon hearing gunfire, before her adrenalin took over and she “began to shoot back.” The incident happened early in the morning on November 17 in the Balabolok district, in the Farah province of western Afghanistan, near the border with Iran. Full news...
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November 28, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
At least 30 people were injured after a bomb explosion at a mosque in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province on Friday. Those injured included the Mullah of the mosque, as officials said the explosives were planted under his seat and blew up while he was delivering the Friday sermon in Khogyani district’s mosque. Full news...
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November 27, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
IWPR: Participants in recent IWPR-organised debates in Afghanistan identified corruption as the most enduring legacy of ex-president Hamed Karzai and the post-Taleban era. Residents of Badghis, Baghlan and Kapisa provinces accused the government of being unable to fight massive corruption in these three provinces because it was itself mired in graft. Full news...
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November 25, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
American Free Press: The United States has been gradually withdrawing troops from Afghanistan since 2011. According to President Barack Hussein Obama, only 9,800 “peacekeeping” troops will remain by the end of December, and all the troops are supposed to be gone by the end of 2016, ending the longest war in American history. But what exactly are we still doing in Afghanistan after 13 years and why did we really go there in the first place? Full news...
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November 24, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Busines Insider Australia: Afghanistan’s new president has quietly gotten rid of the country’s ban on controversial night raids that are used to catch Taliban insurgents off-guard, The New York Times reports. The country’s previous president, Hamid Karzai, had mostly banned the raids even though the US government has said they’re key to catching insurgents. Full news...
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November 23, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: The death toll from Sunday’s suicide bombing during a volleyball match in southeastern Paktika province has risen to 61, with more than 66 wounded, officials said. The suicide bomber detonated his explosives as he mingled with the large crowd watching a volleyball match between the Yahyakhel and Yusufkhel districts as part of an inter-district volleyball tournament in the Yahyakhel district at around 4:30 pm. Full news...