Tag: Kabul

Taliban kill mastermind of 2021 Kabul airport bombing, say US officials

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The Islamic State leader behind the 2021 Kabul airport suicide bombing that killed about 180 people including 13 US service members has been killed by the Taliban, according to US officials.
The IS leader, whose identity has not yet been released, was killed in southern Afghanistan in early April as the Taliban conducted a series of operations against the Islamic State group, according to one of the officials. The Taliban at the time were not aware of the identity of the person they killed, the official added.
The US military has informed families of the 11 marines, one sailor and one soldier killed in the blast during the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Darin Hoover, the father of SSgt Darin Taylor Hoover, said the US Marines provided only limited information to him and did not identify the Islamic State leader or give the circumstances of his death.
Hoover is among a group of families that have kept in touch since the bombing, supporting one another and sharing information through a private group messaging chat.
Cheryl Rex, the mother of Marine L/Cpl Dylan Merola, who died in the blast, said it was through the chat group that they were informed late on Monday about the killing as they awaited official confirmation from US military officials.
Hoover said he and his son’s mother, Kelly Henson, have spent the past year and a half grieving the death of the 31-year-old US Marine Corps staff sergeant and praying for accountability from the Biden administration for the handling of the withdrawal.
The killing of the unidentified Islamic State group leader, Hoover said, does nothing to help them.

“Whatever happens, it’s not going to bring Taylor back and I understand that,” he said in a phone call. “About the only thing his mom and I can do now is be an advocate for him. All we want is the truth. And we’re not getting it. That’s the frustrating part.”
His son and the other fallen service members were among those screening the thousands of Afghans frantically trying on 26 August 2021 to get on to one of the crowded flights out of the country after the Taliban takeover.
The blast at Abbey Gate came hours after western officials warned of a major attack, urging people to leave the airport. But that advice went largely unheeded by Afghans desperate to escape the country in the last few days of an American-led evacuation before the US officially ended its 20-year presence.
The Afghanistan-based offshoot of the Islamic State, with up to 4,000 members, is the Taliban’s most bitter enemy and top threat militarily.
After the Trump administration reached a 2020 deal with the Taliban to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan and the Biden administration followed through on that agreement in 2021, there had been hope in Washington that the Taliban’s desire for international recognition and assistance for the country’s impoverished population might moderate their behavior.
But relations between the US and the Taliban have deteriorated significantly since they imposed draconian new measures banning girls from school and excluding women from working for international aid and health agencies.
The August 2021 pullout of US troops led to the swift collapse of the Afghan government and military, which the US had supported for nearly two decades, and the return to power of the Taliban. A review of the chaotic withdrawal released earlier this month largely laid blame on Trump, saying President Joe Biden was “severely constrained” by the decisions of his predecessor.
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#Taliban #kill #mastermind #Kabul #airport #bombing #officials
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

April 26, 2023
UK secretly deported 100 Nepali guards who protected staff in Kabul

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More than 100 Nepali guards who risked their lives to protect British embassy staff in Afghanistan before the Taliban seized back control were secretly returned to Nepal against their wishes shortly after being airlifted to safety in the UK, the Guardian can reveal.
Hundreds of Nepali nationals and a smaller number of Indian nationals who protected key institutions in Kabul were brought to the UK on an RAF flight during the chaotic evacuation of the Afghan capital by western countries in August 2021, as victorious Taliban forces closed in.
It has now emerged that days after they arrived in the UK, more than 100 of these evacuees were forcibly removed to their home countries even though many had been issued with six-month visas on arrival.
The Guardian has interviewed some of the deported guards, who believed their lives were in danger in Nepal. Some were forcibly removed from hotel rooms in the UK in areas including Northampton, Reading, Oxford and Swindon before completing what at the time was a mandatory 10-day period of Covid-19 pandemic hotel quarantine for new arrivals in the UK.
Nepal was designated as a red-list country, with UK government instructions that people should not travel there, when the former guards were flown back in 2021.
Some have managed to find their way back to the UK since 2021 and have claimed asylum.
In March, at least 10 Nepali guards who protected the British embassy staff in Kabul and were still living in the UK were arrested in a raid at their west London hotel and detained by the Home Office.
After the detentions came to light, the Home Office issued a statement saying that the removals of those detained had been paused “pending further review”. It said the evacuees were flown from Kabul as “a gesture of goodwill” with the understanding that they were expected to return to their home countries.

More than 100 of those forcibly removed from the UK have written to Rudra Dhakal, a British resident of Nepali heritage who is supporting them, with the Home Office, Foreign Office, Ministry of Defence, Nepalese government and UNHCR copied in, in a letter titled “Urgent appeal for further humanitarian protection in the UK”.
The deported guards wrote: “We were misled by the UK border security force. Therefore they forcefully deported us to Nepal against our will. At the time of our deportation we were never given the choice of staying in the UK for further humanitarian protection.”
Dhakal, who is continuing to support the guards, said: “These bravest of the brave veterans said they provided frontline security … but they were left behind in the end. They were used as proxies on the frontline of the war.”
One of those deported is Deepak Punmagar, 42. “We were always under threat in Afghanistan,” he told the Guardian. “We didn’t know if we would survive. When I arrived in the UK I felt safe but I was deported to Nepal on 17 August.”
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Some of the Nepali guards evacuated from Kabul in 2021 who were doing almost identical work in Afghanistan as those forcibly removed were granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK, including two of the 10 arrested in March, who remain in immigration detention.
Jamie Bell, of Duncan Lewis Solicitors, who is representing some of those currently detained, said: “These brave men were evacuated from Afghanistan and thereafter had their applications for permanent leave prepared and processed in the UK. They were never told of a gesture of goodwill and there was no understanding that they were liable to removal, let alone detained after a morning raid on their hotel. It is deeply concerning now to hear how many have been affected by this appalling situation.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We remain committed to providing protection for vulnerable and at-risk people fleeing Afghanistan and so far we have brought around 24,500 people to safety in the UK.
“A number of Nepalese nationals who were not deemed eligible for consideration under ACRS [the Afghan citizens resettlement scheme] were evacuated from Afghanistan as a gesture of goodwill. This came with the understanding that once in the UK, these individuals would arrange and be offered support for onward travel to the country of their nationality.”
The Nepalese embassy has been approached for comment.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

April 25, 2023
Political power being transferred from Kabul to Kandahar

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New Delhi: Afghanistan southern city of Kandahar is the historical birthplace and the political base of the Taliban. Now, the countrys second-largest city appears to be becoming the de facto capital under the militant groups rule, according to a media report.
Several officials have recently been transferred from capital Kabul to Kandahar. Taliban’s supreme leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada lives in the city and rarely leaves the Pashtun heartland in southern Afghanistan, RFE/RL reported.
Experts say Akhundzada’s decision to relocate the offices of two Taliban spokesmen to Kandahar is part of efforts to tighten his grip on power. The move comes amid growing reports of infighting between key Taliban ministers based in Kabul and a powerful group of clerics led by Akhundzada in Kandahar.

“It looks like political power is being transferred from Kabul to Kandahar,” Sami Yousafzai, a veteran Afghan journalist and commentator said, RFE/RL reported, adding, “[Akhundzada] is creating a parallel administration to the one in Kabul.”
In recent months, senior Taliban officials have appeared to criticise Akhundzada, accusing him of monopolising power and empowering ultraconservative clerics who share his extremist views.
Akhundzada, a hard-line cleric and former chief justice, has the ultimate say on all important matters under the Taliban’s clerical system.
After the Taliban seized power in 2021, ministers carried out the day-to-day administration of the Taliban government. But in recent months, Akhundzada has sought to micromanage the affairs of the state, said Yousufzai, RFE/RL reported.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s chief spokesman, relocated his office from Kabul to Kandahar on April 6, according to Abdul Mateen Qani, a spokesman for the Ministry of Information and Culture.

Innamullah Samangani, another key government spokesman and head of the Taliban’s Media and Information Centre, was also recently transferred to Kandahar, RFE/RL reported.
Andrew Watkins, a senior Afghanistan expert at United States Institute of Peace, a think-tank in Washington, said Mujahid’s transfer is one of the most public signs of a trend in which Akhundzada appears to be strengthening his influence.
Watkins said Akhundzada wants control over “public messaging,” which he says has “long been a priority for the Taliban”, RFE/RL reported.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 19, 2023
Afghanistan: Earthquake of 4.3 magnitude jolts Kabul

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Kabul: An earthquake of magnitude 4.3 struck 85 kilometres East of Kabul in Afghanistan on Wednesday, according to National Center (NCS) for Seismology.
Taking to its official Twitter handle, the NCS stated that the earthquake struck at a depth of 10 kilometres.
National Center (NCS) for Seismology tweeted, “Earthquake of Magnitude:4.3, Occurred on 29-03-2023, 05:49:06 IST, Lat: 34.45 & Long: 70.13, Depth: 10 Km ,Location: 85km E of Kabul, Afghanistan.”
Further details are awaited.
Earlier on Monday, an earthquake of magnitude 4.2 on the Richter scale struck 25 kilometres South of the Farkhar district of Takhar province in Afghanistan, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported.
According to the USGS, the quake occurred at 04:53:29 (UTC+05:30) at a depth of 124.1 Km. The epicentre was detected at 36.345°N and 69.912°E respectively.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 29, 2023
Kabul rejects Washington’s claim over IS strength in Afghanistan

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Kabul: The Taliban-led caretaker government in Afghanistan has dismissed Washington’s claim over the alleged stronger presence of Daesh or Islamic State (IS) in Afghanistan as utterly fabricated.
“The statements of US officials about the number of IS militants in Afghanistan are not true. Daesh militants have already been reduced in ranks and suppressed,” chief spokesman of the Afghan caretaker administration Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted.
US Central Command chief Gen. Michael Kurilla, according to media reports, has said “IS is stronger today in Afghanistan” and warned of a possible IS attack on the interests of US and allied nations within six months, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Brushing aside the baseless allegations by the US general on the IS strength in Afghanistan, Mujahid said on his Twitter account, “The interest of the US officials in this matter and their grandiosity is aiding and abetting the IS insurgents, which should be stopped.”
The Afghan caretaker government, which has downplayed Daesh, or the IS group, as a serious threat, has vowed to crack down on any armed opponents in the war-ravaged country.
The Afghan security forces have killed four armed militants affiliated with the rival IS group in two separate operations on the outskirts of Kabul over the past week.
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#Kabul #rejects #Washingtons #claim #strength #Afghanistan
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 26, 2023