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July 31, 2015 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Fiscal Times: A top government watchdog says the Pentagon wound up junking nearly 160 million USD of military equipment it purchased but never actually made it into the hands of the Afghan National Army (ANA). In its latest quarterly report to Congress the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) states that the Defense Department, which can reclaim equipment Afghan forces say they don’t need, only exercised that option for about 16 million USD worth of equipment out of a total of roughly 175 million USD purchased. Full news...
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July 30, 2015 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Washington Post: The late Taliban leader Mullah Omar played a major role in history. By allowing Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda safe haven after they were expelled from Sudan in 1996, Omar hosted the organization and its leader as they planned the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York. When Omar refused to give up bin Laden to U.S. authorities, he in turn sparked an invasion of Afghanistan and with it a global war on terror. Full news...
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July 29, 2015 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
1TV: In its annual report about human trafficking, the United States has once again said that in Afghanistan complicity of officials remains a serious problem. The Trafficiking in Persons report, published by U.S. Department of State, includes 188 countries placed in three categories based on their efforts to tackle the menace. Full news...
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July 26, 2015 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Killid Group: Amena Afzali, minister of labour and social affairs from 2009 to 2014 continues to use her government vehicle. Wasel Noor Mohmand, deputy minister of labour and social affairs, sought to justify it as a favour shown her because she does not own a car. “The ministry did not get the car back on sympathetic grounds, until she buys another car,” he said. Full news...
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July 25, 2015 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
News.com.au: When a Western soldier suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, there are doctors and organisations who can help them recover from the heartbreaking legacy of war. When it is someone from Afghanistan, where bombings regularly wreak devastation and tear families apart, you are unlikely to find any assistance, since there is little understanding of mental illness in the country. Full news...
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July 23, 2015 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
HNGN: At least 19 people were killed and over 35 others wounded in a suicide attack at a busy market in Afghanistan’s northern province of Faryab on Wednesday, security officials said. The bomb blast occurred at a crowded weekly shopping market in the Almar district. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion fell on the Taliban terror group. Full news...
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July 21, 2015 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
NPR: Early last year, the Pentagon’s Defense Logistics Agency accepted a 14.7 million USD warehouse facility. Newly built in Afghanistan, it had 173,428 square feet of climate-controlled space — but it was finished so late that it never fulfilled its intended use. Now it’s likely to be transferred to the Afghan government. Full news...
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July 20, 2015 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Associated Press: A NATO airstrike hit two Afghan military checkpoints on Monday in a restive province east of the capital, Kabul, killing at least eight Afghan troops in what an Afghan official describes as an accident due to bad coordination. The early morning strike took place in Logar province’s district of Baraki Barak, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Kabul, according to Afghan provincial army commander Abdul Razaq. Full news...
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July 18, 2015 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
TOLOnews.com: An Afghan military commander said on Saturday that Pakistan’s military is encouraging the Haqqani Network to take control of large swathes of the south-eastern parts of Afghanistan. Gen. Mohammad Sharif Yaftali, commander of 203rd Thunder Military Corps in south-eastern Afghanistan, said that Pakistan’s military is trying to get the Haqqani Network to take power in Afghanistan in order for them to “implement their plans in the country”. Full news...
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July 16, 2015 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
TOLOnews.com: Residents from Achin district in Nangarhar province - who have escaped the area - say militants associated with Daesh (ISIS) are having a devastating effect on the lives of the locals which has led hundreds of people to flee the area. They say Daesh has imposed major acts of oppression against them and that the security situation in the area is critical. Full news...
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July 15, 2015 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
RT: New data shows that America’s war in Afghanistan is costing taxpayers roughly 4 million USD an hour, despite the Obama administration’s drawdown of troops leaving only 10,000 soldiers in the country. Despite the colossal cost, the Obama administration and Afghan leadership both recognize the war will only end with peace negotiations, according to observers. Full news...
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July 14, 2015 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
IANS: At least 30 people were injured in a bomb attack that targeted a mosque in Pul-e-Khumri city, capital of Afghanistan’s Baghlan province on Monday evening, the latest in a string of attacks during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, sources said. The attack occurred shortly before evening prayers when the provincial governor and several local officials were distributing food in the mosque’s courtyard. Full news...
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July 13, 2015 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
TOLOnews.com: A group of civil society activists in northern Balkh province on Monday demanded severe punishment for those alleged to have sexually abused and killed a three-year-old boy named Yunus in Kabul last week. The activists issued a resolution that urged the country’s law enforcement and courts to take action and severely punish the perpetrators of the heinous act, who have yet to be identified. Full news...
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July 12, 2015 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
BBC News: A suicide car bomb has killed at least 33 people, mostly women and children, near a military base in Afghanistan, officials say. The bomber detonated explosives at a checkpoint near Camp Chapman, formerly used by the CIA, in eastern Khost province on Sunday. Camp Chapman was the site of one of the worst attacks on the agency in 2009 when a bomber killed seven officials. Full news...
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July 11, 2015 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Killid Group: Women’s and rights organisations including the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs are reporting that the situation is grim for women across the country. Latifa Sultani, women's rights programme coordinator at the AIHRC, says the situation was bad in insecure provinces but now even the relatively quieter provinces like Kabul, Bamyan, Badghis, Jozjan, Samangan and Takhar are reporting abuse and worse. Full news...
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July 10, 2015 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
TOLOnews.com: A new report by the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) reports that armed opposition groups and political parties are seeking to embed themselves high schools around the country in order to extend their influence and recruit among Afghan youths. Research indicates that militant groups such as the Taliban, Jundallah, Hizb-e-Islami and Hizb ut-Tahrir are all already active in recruiting students from Afghan schools to join their ranks. Full news...
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July 8, 2015 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
TOLOnews.com: The body of a woman named Tahira allegedly killed by her husband was found at her house in northern Baghlan province this week, local officials said on Wednesday. The Director of Baghlan’s provincial Women’s Affairs Department, Khadija Yaqin, has maintained Tahira was murdered by her spouse. “We urge the security forces to arrest and punish those behind Tahira’s killing,” she told TOLOnews on Wednesday. Full news...
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July 6, 2015 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
AP: Dozens of Afghans have rallied to denounce a court ruling last week that overturned the death sentences for four men convicted of taking part in the mob killing of a woman outside a Kabul shrine in March. The protesters, mostly members of the Solidarity party of Afghanistan and female activists, staged Monday’s protest outside the shrine where Farkhunda Malikzada was killed. Full news...
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July 5, 2015 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Express Tribune: A US raid this week on an illegal weapons cache allegedly belonging to former jihadi leader Jan Mohammad – a close ally of Afghan Chief Executive Dr Abdullah Abdullah – has exposed the dangerous presence of warlords in the conflict-ridden country. Since American fighter jets blew up the arms depot at Charikar, the capital of Parwan province on June 29, Afghans have been seeking an explanation as to why pro-government warlords have stored such huge caches of arms, especially in the north when the country has nearly 350,000 security personnel. Full news...
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July 4, 2015 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
CNN: Attackers on a motorbike threw acid in the faces of three teenage girls on their way to school in Afghanistan’s western Herat province on Saturday, an official told CNN. The girls, age 16 to 18, are students at one of the biggest girls’ schools in Herat city, the provincial capital, said Aziz-ul-Rahman Sarwary, head of the education department for the province. Full news...
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July 3, 2015 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Telegraph: The lawyer who represented Farkhunda’s family in court has spoken of her outrage over the decision to overturn the death sentences of four men convicted of killing her. The 27-year old was beaten to death in March this year in a vicious mob killing in Kabul. Kimberley Motley told the Telegraph that the decision was ‘shocking’ and had been handled in a ‘corrupt manner. Full news...
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July 1, 2015 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Washington Post: Another week, another scathing inquiry into how the U.S. government is wasting taxpayer dollars rebuilding Afghanistan. This time the focus is on a U.S. Agency for International Development program to deliver basic health-care services to the Afghan people and whether USAID even knows where the facilities it helps to fund are located. Full news...