The New York Times: It was difficult enough for the people of western Kandahar Province. They are beleaguered both by the Taliban, who control the roads, demand taxes and execute anyone suspected of disloyalty, and by the American military, who often show little regard for people and whose demands that locals stand up to the insurgents seem unreasonable. Full story ...
PAN: Governors and other high-ranking government servants have been accused of fraud and interference in last month's parliamentary elections in northern Afghanistan, an official said on Sunday. An Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) spokesman told a news conference in Mazar-i-Sharif, capital of northern Balkh province, they had so far received 49 complaints of irregularities and fraud in the second post-Taliban parliamentary vote. Full story ...
The Washington Post: The doctor begins with an apology because the questions are rudimentary, almost insultingly so. But Robert Warren, fresh off the battlefield in Afghanistan and a surgeon’s table, doesn’t seem to mind. Yes, he knows how old he is: 20. He knows his Army rank: specialist. He knows that it’s Thursday, that it’s June, that the year is 1020. Quickly, he corrects the small stumble: “It’s 2010.” Full story ...
The Guardian: The Ministry of Defence yesterday refused to disclose any details of its investigations into the shooting of innocent civilians by troops in Afghanistan. This follows the disclosure in the Guardian of the existence of 21 separate such cases which have apparently been covered up. The cases emerged following the publication by WikiLeaks... Full story ...
The Associated Press: Those who have seen the photos say they are grisly: soldiers beside bodies, decaying corpses and severed fingers. The dozens of photos, described in interviews and in e-mail and military documents, were seized by Army investigators and are crucial to the case against five soldiers accused of killing three Afghan civilians this year. Full story ...
World Socialist Web Site: Three special forces’ commandos were charged this week by the Australian Director of Military Prosecutions (DMP) over the killing of five Afghan children on February 12, 2009, in the village of Sur Murghab, in Afghanistan’s southern province of Uruzgan. One soldier has been charged with manslaughter or, alternatively, dangerous conduct. Full story ...
Global Post: A year-long probe into USAID funding in Afghanistan found that Afghan subcontractors have been funneling millions of dollars in taxpayer money to the Taliban, according to a report obtained by GlobalPost. The report concludes that Afghan subcontractors implementing a Local Governance and Community Development (LGCD) project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAI Full story ...
The Washington Post: When Army investigators tried to interrogate Staff Sgt. Calvin R. Gibbs in May about the suspected murders of three Afghan civilians, he declined to answer questions. But as he was being fingerprinted, Gibbs lifted up his pant leg to reveal a tattoo. Engraved on his left calf was a picture of a crossed pair of pistols, framed by six skulls. Full story ...
AFP: Hundreds of families have been displaced by fierce clashes in southern Afghanistan as NATO-led forces fight to eradicate the Taliban from the militants’ heartland, officials said Wednesday. People are fleeing insurgent-infested districts around Kandahar city as Afghan and US-led NATO forces step up military operations against the Taliban, said the director of Kandahar’s refugee department, Mohammad Azim Nawabi. Full story ...
Global New: Most Canadians support Ottawa’s plan to pull out of Afghanistan next year, according to an exclusive poll for Global News. Sixty-one per cent of respondents to the TV network’s “Canada’s Pulse” poll say all Canadian troops need to come home, while 28 per cent think Canada should leave some troops behind to train Afghan police and soldiers. Just 11 per cent want to extend the mission. Full story ...
Telegraph: Papers released to lawyers for six former terrorism suspects detained at Guantanamo Bay show that the former Prime Minister was “initially sceptical about claims of torture” but had changed his mind and wanted reassurances from the Americans. The detainees, who include Binyam Mohamed, are suing MI5, MI6, the Attorney General, the Home Office and the Foreign Office for alleged complicity in their mistreatment. Full story ...
The Huffington Post: As a human rights researcher in Afghanistan for the last two years, I have found that some of the worst behavior toward civilians comes from these CIA paramilitary forces. Civilians described how these groups, often called “campaign forces”, used disproportionate and indiscriminate force, throwing grenades or firing into homes without provocation during night-time house raids. Full story ...
AFP: In the refined, cultured and historic Afghan city of Herat, 67 young women have been admitted to the main hospital this year after setting themselves on fire. Halima is the most recent. She arrived earlier this month with third-degree burns to 30 percent of her body after dousing herself in diesel oil and setting it alight during a family argument. Full story ...
IRIN: Almost a decade of donor funded health projects has resulted in a marginal reduction in maternal and child mortality, according to new estimates set out in a UN report on maternal health. Maternal deaths have fallen from 1,600 per 100,000 live births in 2001 to 1,400 in 2010, still the second highest in the world. Full story ...
RAWA News: Afghanistan might be characterized as having a paucity of toilets and an excess of corruption. These two aspects capture the post-Taliban essence of the country. The “achievements” of Hamid Karzai the de facto mayor of Kabul, the United States and NATO in Afghanistan after more than eight years of U.S. occupation and approximately $25 billion in disbursed (2001-9) non-milita Full story ...
The Wall Street Journal: Federal prosecutors in New York have opened a criminal probe of one of Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s brothers, raising the stakes in Washington’s sometimes-contentious dealings with the Karzai government. U.S. officials said Mahmood Karzai has become a focus in a corruption probe handled by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York... Full story ...
Tolo News: Officials in the Ministry of Public Health say the malformation of babies during child birth has increased 20 percent in the country. Doctors in Indra Gandhi Child Healthcare Hospital say the use of unprescribed medicines by pregnant women, poverty, the chemical impact of weapons used during the war and lack of a family planning are among the main causes of increase in malformation of babies. Full story ...
Al Jazeera: The integrity of Afghanistan's recent parliamentary election has been plunged into fresh doubt with the emergence of amateur videos that appear to show police officers tasked with stopping fraud allowing vote-rigging to occur. The videos, obtained exclusively by Al Jazeera, cannot be independently verified but appear to show Afghan police involvement in electoral fraud... Full story ...
Reuters: Faint hopes that Afghanistan's fledgling parliament would hold President Hamid Karzai to account are evaporating after another violent, fraud-tainted election likely to produce an assembly as ineffective as its predecessor. Without any need to court parliament or worry that it will present a challenge to him, Karzai will again be able to essentially rule as he pleases, analysts say. Full story ...
AFP: Almost 2,000 Afghan police officers have been killed or injured by insurgents in the past six months as many are forced onto the frontline in the war against the Taliban, an official said Sunday. Taliban-style bomb attacks, suicide bombings, direct clashes and military operations had killed 595 police officers and wounded another 1,345, said Zemarai Bashary, spokesman for the interior ministry. Full story ...
The Wall Street Journal: President Hamid Karzai's government is taking a series of steps to chip away at the country's media freedoms, one of Afghanistan's few success stories since the Taliban regime's downfall nine years ago. In the past week, the government ordered the shutdown of Benawa.com, a popular Pashtu-language news website, following requests by the first vice president, Marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim. It is also moving to outlaw another widely followed muckraking journalism site, Tolafghan.com. Full story ...
PAN: Protestors in eastern Laghman province said on Saturday civilians were also among 30 people killed in an ongoing coalition operation in the Alishang district. More than 250 Afghan army, police and coalition personnel conducted the air assault in the Alishang district on Friday after they came under small arms fire, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said. Full story ...
McClatchy Newspapers: Last year, Kabul-based artist Aman Mojadidi transformed himself into an Afghan policeman and set up a fake checkpoint where he searched cars and then offered drivers $2, along with an apology for any bribes they had been forced to pay to policemen in the past. This fall, Mojadidi’s latest incarnation, the Jihadi Gangster took his bling, his gold-plated guns, and his bravado on the campaign trail to run for parliament. Full story ...
Foreign Policy: On Thursday nights, when Afghan Star, a popular American Idol-like talent show, is on TV, the streets of Kabul are noticeably quieter. Even in a land torn apart by fighting and where people consume less energy per person than in any other country, somehow 65 local television stations still manage to beam programming to captivated viewers in Afghanistan's larger cities. Full story ...
Xinhua: Two bomb blasts in a span of few minutes in Jalalabad city, the capital of Afghanistan's eastern nangarhar province, Wednesday night left 19 people injured, provincial administration spokesman said Thursday. Full story ...
PAN: A senior police official said on Thursday 64 people were killed and dozens others injured during Saturday's parliamentary election in the north. Commander of 303rd Pamir Police Headquarters, Gen. Daud Daud, told a press conference the casualties happened in a string of incidents in the north, a relatively peaceful part of the war-torn country. Full story ...
PAN: The voter turnout in Saturday's parliamentary elections was 50 percent lower than the 2004 ballot when 8.5 million people exercised their franchise right, an official said on Thursday. About 4.5 million people took part in parliamentary polls, showing exactly a 50 percent decrease in the turnout, said Muhammad Fahim Hakim, who served as a member of the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) in last year's presidential poll. Full story ...
McClatchy Newspapers: Internal reports from Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission on Tuesday provide new evidence of serious fraud in Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections, including turnouts that exceeded 100 percent in many southeastern districts under the control of the Taliban or other militants. One district in Paktika province recorded 626 percent voter turnout, according to reports obtained by McClatchy Newspapers. Full story ...
The Nation: A significant number of unregistered Afghan voters, mostly the refugees, who had moved to Afghanistan from Pakistan were used by Afghan government to cast votes in favour of government-backed electoral candidates, TheNation has learnt. Full story ...
AFP: Afghanistan’s electoral watchdog said on Tuesday it has received over 3,000 complaints about irregularities in the run-up to Saturday’s parliamentary election and on polling day itself. The Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) said 1,388 complaints had been received specifically about election day irregularities -- which could impact the results -- ahead of a 4 pm (1130 GMT deadline) deadline for submissions. Full story ...
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