Afghanistan’s Taliban displays pallets of cash received for ‘humanitarian aid’

December 13, 2022 Current News Articles

Fox News

December 12, 2022

The Da Bank of Afghanistan, the Taliban-controlled central bank of Afghanistan, tweeted images of the cash

Two Cultural Support Team members discussed the escape and resettlement process for their Afghan sister force as they all reunite on U.S. soil one year later.

A large package containing around $40 million in cash for “humanitarian aid” was seen on an airport tarmac in Afghanistan, officials there said last week.

The money was handed over to the Da Bank of Afghanistan, the Taliban-controlled central bank of Afghanistan, which is headquartered in Kabul. The bank tweeted several images of the cash.

One shows packages of U.S. $100 notes bound in plastic, boxed and bagged in an airport.

The central bank of Afghanistan said it received another injection of $40 million in cash this week. (Da Afghanistan Bank- Afghanistan)

“Another package of humanitarian aid worth $40 million dollars arrived in Afghanistan and was handed over to a commercial bank in Kabul. This is the second package that has arrived in Afghanistan this week,” the caption reads.

The bank did not say where the money came from. The bank has received several separate shipments of millions of dollars in recent weeks, according to several identical tweets it posted last month.

“Any principled action that leads to the transfer of reserves to the country and helps the needy people of the society, the Da Afghanistan Bank appreciates it, and this bank will continue its efforts in strengthening the banking sector,” the bank said.

In September, the Biden administration announced the creation of a fund to assist the people of Afghanistan, apart from the country’s central bank.

“The Afghan Fund will help mitigate the economic challenges facing Afghanistan while protecting and preserving $3.5 billion in reserves from Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB), Afghanistan’s central bank, for the benefit of the people of Afghanistan,” Wally Adeyemo, U.S. deputy secretary of the Treasury, said at the time.

“The Taliban’s repression and economic mismanagement have exacerbated longstanding economic challenges for Afghanistan, including through actions that have diminished the capacity of key Afghan economic institutions and made the return of these funds to Afghanistan untenable,” Adeyemo said.

A image showing millions of dollars packaged in plastic. (Da Afghanistan Bank- Afghanistan )

Foreign aid stopped when the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021. World governments piled on sanctions, halted bank transfers and froze billions more in Afghanistan’s currency reserves.

Louis Casiano is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to louis.casiano@fox.com.

‘No Alternative’ for Dialogue With Kabul: Norwegian FM

December 13, 2022 Current News Articles

Imran Danish

TOLOnews’ Reporter

12 Dec 2022

The Islamic Emirate’s spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid suggested that engagement with Kabul is the only way to resolve the problems.

Norway’s foreign minister Anniken Huitfeldt said that there is no alternative to dialogues and that there is a need to talk with “those in power in order to help the Afghan people.”

She made the remarks at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum 2022: Afghanistan – Finding a Way Forward, held in Oslo, Norway.

“There is no alternative to the dialogues. We need to talk with those in power in order to help the Afghan people,” Anniken Huitfeldt, Norway’s foreign minister, told the Nobel Peace Prize Forum 2022: Afghanistan – Finding a Way Forward, held in Oslo Norway. “For instance, to ensure access for aid workers to all parts of the country. No access means no life-saving assistance.”

However, she expressed frustration over the Islamic Emirate regarding its previous international commitments.

The Islamic Emirate’s spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid suggested that engagement with Kabul is the only way to resolve the problems.

“This issue of engagement with the Islamic Emirate is welcomed and praised. The progress which is possible from engagement is not possible in any other way. The Islamic Emirate is also trying to address the concerns of the international community to the extent that it is possible,” he said.

“They don’t care about the engagement. The issue for them is how can the Taliban ensure their interests. As long as their interests are ensured, their conducts get better,” said Ramazan Bashardost, a political analyst.

Speaking at the same gathering, Filippo Grandi, Commissioner of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said that the “Taliban’s recent decision further limiting the rights of women and girls is both morally abhorrent and practically illogical.”

“It is unpalatable for those, many like me, who find the Taliban’s recent decision further limiting the rights of women and girls both morally abhorrent and practically illogical. And yet we have no choice but to engage because the consequences of not engaging are even more unappealing,” he said.

China urges citizens to leave Afghanistan after Kabul attack

December 13, 2022 Current News Articles

By RAHIM FAIEZ

Associated Press

13 Dec 2022

ISLAMABAD (AP) — China on Tuesday advised its citizens in Afghanistan to leave the country “as soon as possible,” following a coordinated attack by Islamic State militants the previous day on a Chinese-owned hotel in the heart of Kabul.

The Chinese advisory appeared to be a setback for Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers who seek foreign investments in hopes of halting the downward spiral of the Afghan economy since their takeover of the country more than a year ago.

The militant Islamic State group — a key rival of the Taliban — claimed responsibility for the attack Monday afternoon on Kabul Longan Hotel, which left three assailants dead and at least two hotel guests injured as they tried to escape by jumping out of a window.

Plumes of smoke rose from the 10-story building in the central Shar-e Naw neighborhood, according to images posted on social media as the attack unfolded. Residents reported explosions and gunfire.

Taliban forces rushed to the area and blocked all roads leading to the site. Khalid Zadran, the Taliban-appointed spokesman for the Kabul police chief, said the attack lasted several hours, followed by a clean-up operation.

On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin called the attack “egregious in nature” and said China was “deeply shocked.”

Beijing demanded a “thorough investigation” and urged the Taliban government “to take resolute and strong measures to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens, institutions and projects in Afghanistan,” Wang said.

The Chinese Embassy in Kabul sent its team to the site to help with the rescue, treatment and accommodations for the victims of the attack, Wang added.

“In view of the current security situation in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs once again advised Chinese citizens and institutions in Afghanistan to evacuate from Afghanistan as soon as possible,” Wang said.

The Taliban swept across the country in August 2021, seizing power as U.S. and NATO forces were in the last weeks of their final withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of war.

Since their takeover, the international community has balked at extending official recognition to the former insurgents who have broken promises of pursuing a more moderate path forward, including reopening schools to girls beyond the sixth grade and safeguarding minority rights.

The Taliban government has recently also made statements saying it intends to implement Islamic law, or Sharia, as it did when the Taliban previously ruled Afghanistan in the late 1990s. In the past weeks, the Taliban have carried out executions and public floggings on several occasions of those convicted in Taliban courts of crimes such as murder and adultery.

China has economic and mining interests in the country though those familiar with past talks between the Taliban and Chinese officials say Beijing wants Taliban commitments to prevent China’s Uyghur opponents from setting up operations in Afghanistan.

Chinese firms, with strong government backing, have tentatively sought to pursue opportunities in exploiting Afghanistan’s vast, undeveloped resource deposits, especially the Mes Aynak mine that is believed to hold the world’s largest copper deposit.

In October, Taliban-appointed government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid highlighted China as a key part of Afghanistan’s economic development. China has also revealed its aspirations to play a leading role in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of U.S. forces — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at a regional conference recently led calls for the United States to unfreeze Afghan assets held abroad and end sanctions on the Taliban government.

There was no information on the identities of the injured Chinese guests at the Kabul hotel or what they were doing in Afghanistan.

The IS statement, carried by one of the militant Telegram channels used by the group, said two of its members targeted the hotel because it is frequented by diplomats and owned by “communist China.”

It further claimed IS attackers detonated two bags with explosives that were left in the hotel earlier, including one in the main hall, and set fire to a part of the hotel. The militant group offered no proof for its claims.

There were conflicting reports as to the casualty numbers. Taliban officials said three assailants were killed; the IS claim said only two of its members took part in the attack, identifying them by name and posting their photographs. According to Mujahid, the Taliban government spokesman, two foreign residents were injured when they jumped out of hotel windows.

However, the Emergency Hospital in Kabul said in a tweet Monday that it received 21 casualties, including the bodies of three people.

The IS regional affiliate — known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province — has increased its attacks since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021.

Associated Press writers Maamoun Youssef in Cairo and Riazat Butt in Karachi, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

Pakistan-Afghanistan border crossing reopens after deadly firing

December 13, 2022 Current News Articles

By Abid Hussain

Al Jazeera

Chaman crossing reopens two days after cross-border exchange of fire killed at least nine Pakistani civilians and an Afghan soldier.

Islamabad, Pakistan – A key border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan has reopened two days after a cross-border exchange of fire killed at least nine Pakistani civilians and an Afghan soldier.

Abdul Hameed Zehri, an official at Chaman as the crossing on the Pakistani side is known, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday the situation there is back to normal.

”The border is open for trade and civilian use as usual. Things are running smoothly and situation is calm here,” Zehri said.

The Chaman border crossing, situated nearly 120km (74 miles) northwest of Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, is one of the busiest crossings between the two countries and is used by thousands of people every day.

On Sunday, the Pakistani military said “unprovoked and indiscriminate” firing from the Afghan side at the crossing killed several civilians and wounded more than a dozen others – the latest deadly flare-up at their tense border.

The next day, Pakistan’s defence minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told parliament the Afghan authorities had apologised for the firing.

”Provocation was started by Afghanistan. Our forces were repairing the border fence when they were attacked by the Taliban forces. In first round of firing, there were no casualties but in second round, they used heavy artillery and mortars which resulted in the civilian deaths,” he said.

The minister added that officials from both sides met following the incident, in which Afghan authorities assured such an incident would not be repeated.

Kabul said at least one Taliban soldier died in Sunday’s firing while 10 others were injured.

In a tweet on Monday, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, spokesman for Afghanistan’s foreign ministry, said the repetition of such incidents would be regrettable.

Also on Monday, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he will call a meeting to review the situation at the border with Afghanistan.

“The government demands the Afghan government should prevent incidents which could hurt bilateral ties,” he told reporters in Islamabad.

Last month, the Chaman crossing was closed for a week when an Afghan gunman killed a Pakistani security official on November 13.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

Deadly attack on Kabul hotel popular with Chinese nationals

December 13, 2022 Current News Articles

Al Jazeera

12 Dec 2022

At least three attackers killed by security forces after they open fire at the hotel in central Kabul, says an official.

At least three attackers have been killed by Afghanistan’s security forces after they opened fire at a Kabul hotel popular with Chinese nationals, according to a spokesman for the ruling Taliban.

The unidentified armed men opened fire inside the multi-storey Kabul Longan Hotel in central Kabul on Monday, with witnesses reporting multiple blasts and several bursts of gunfire.

The attack has now ended and no foreigners were killed, although two of them were injured while trying escape the attack by jumping from the hotel balcony, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.

Kabul’s Emergency Hospital, run by an Italian non-profit near the attacked hotel in the Shahr-e-Naw area, reported receiving 21 casualties – 18 injured and three dead on arrival.

Later on Monday, ISIL (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack on its Telegram channel.

The group said two of its personnel “attacked a big hotel frequented by Chinese diplomats and businessmen in Kabul, where they detonated two explosive devices hidden inside two bags,” one of them targeting a party for Chinese guests and the other targeting the reception hall.

While the firing was continuing inside the hotel, a fire broke out on one of its floors, sources told the Reuters news agency.

A video posted on Twitter by a journalist in Kabul, verified by Reuters, showed smoke billowing out of the building.

The attack took place around 2:30pm local time (10:00 GMT) when armed men targeted the hotel where “common people were staying”, Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said, adding that forces were trying to secure the area.

Residents of the area said the attack was carried out at a building where Chinese and other foreigners usually stay. The shooting continued after they heard a powerful explosion, they said.

The attack came a day after China’s ambassador met the Afghan deputy foreign minister to discuss security-related matters and sought more attention on the security of its embassy.

China, which shares a rugged 76-km (47-mile) border with Afghanistan, has not officially recognised the Taliban government but is one of the few countries to maintain a diplomatic presence there.

Several bombing and shooting attacks have taken place in Afghanistan in recent months, some of which have been claimed by ISIL.

The Taliban, who seized power after United States-led foreign forces withdrew in August 2021, have said they are focused on securing the country.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES

New film ‘Retrograde’ documents chaotic final months in Afghanistan

December 12, 2022 Current News Articles

By Jonathan Lehrfeld

Military Times

Wednesday, Dec 7

An Afghan woman waits outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in ‘Retrograde’. (Retrograde)

An emotional documentary that captured the last nine months of the war in Afghanistan will soon debut across various streaming platforms, offering viewers firsthand insight into what led up to America’s chaotic withdrawal from the conflict in August 2021.

“Retrograde” — a nod to America’s military exit from its longest war ― tells the story of the Army Special Forces units deployed in Afghanistan, a young Afghan general’s fight to defend his homeland and the civilians desperately attempting to flee as their country collapsed at the hands of the Taliban.

The 94-minute film will premiere in the U.S. on the National Geographic Channel on Dec. 8 before hitting Disney+ the next day. An international rollout is slated for Hulu on Sunday.

WATCH THE TRAILER NOW

“It was definitely the hardest film I’ve made, by far. Emotionally, physically, logistically,” veteran documentary filmmaker Matt Heineman told Military Times.

Heineman, an Oscar-nominee who previously tackled other complicated stories, such as the Mexican drug trade in “Cartel Land” and the Syrian civil war in “City of Ghosts”, initially planned to capture a wholistic deployment, taken from a soldier’s perspective and from the views of their families back home.

“A mentor of mine said, ‘If you end up with the story you started with then you weren’t listening along the way,’ which I think is good advice for life and for filmmaking,” he said.

The immersive film, which puts the audience directly into an active warzone, soon follows Afghan National Army Gen. Sami Sadat, who heroically led the fight against the Taliban in the country’s Helmand Province. After scenes on the front lines of battle, the film ends at the evacuation of Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport.

Heineman shared how a through line in his work has been to humanize seemingly distant, amorphous conflicts and to allow people to break the echo chambers in which they’re so often mired.

“The access that General Sadat gave us, the access that the Green Berets gave us, the access we were able to get from those underneath them as well — [it] was really unprecedented. And that’s something I take really, really seriously. I don’t take it for granted.”

The film is already opening up broader conversations about the war, even for the service members who played a role in it.

Chief Warrant Officer Jacek Waliszewski, a Green Beret with the 10th Special Forces Group, joined the Army in 2006 and has nearly 20 deployments under his belt, including to Afghanistan. He and his team helped facilitate access for Heineman and his film crew during their time embedded overseas, and while he admitted there were some initial nerves, the groups built a trustworthy relationship over time.

Waliszewski and his team were invited to Zurich for one of the film’s releases, but it wasn’t until later, after his young son got to see the film, that the Green Beret said he truly began to reflect about the documentary’s influence.

“For a 10-year-old to start asking me difficult, but very poignant geopolitical questions that I think a lot of people find themselves asking started to bring out the questions in me,” Waliszewski told Military Times.

As the conversation with his son progressed into other major world conflicts, including the war in Ukraine, the Green Beret said he realized the film’s power to stimulate discussion among family and friends.

That type of exchange was the aim for Heineman, who noted that if the film does just one thing, he hopes it will re-engage public discourse around the war in Afghanistan as well as the country and the people left behind.

“Throughout history this has happened, and it will continue to happen long into the future,” he said. “So, what can we learn from it.”

Jonathan Lehrfeld is a staff writer and editor of the Early Bird Brief newsletter for Military Times.

West: Human Rights at ‘Center’ of Engagement With Kabul

December 12, 2022 Current News Articles

By Banafsha Bines

Tolo News

11 Dec 2022

West said on Twitter that Afghan women and girls face restrictions in various sectors such as education, employment, movement.

West said on Twitter that Afghan women and girls face restrictions in various sectors such as education, employment, movement.

“We are reminded that Afghan women and girls face indefensible restrictions – in education, employment, movement, and political life. Space for free expression has shrunken for vital media and citizens,” West tweeted.

“I think that if Afghanistan and the US discuss any political issues, human rights is one of the topics that is the linking point between the US, the world, and Afghanistan,” said Najibullah Jami, a political expert.

Meanwhile, the US special envoy for women, girls and human rights in Afghanistan, Rina Amiri, said that the US will continue to support Afghan citizens.

“Afghans are seeing their human rights systematically chipped away. We stand with the brave human rights defenders who are valiantly defending these rights in increasingly difficult conditions,” Amiri tweeted.

“Women and girls currently make about half of Afghanistan’s population. We want our fundamental and human rights in the current context of the twenty-first century,” said Manizha Sediqi, women’s rights activist.

“I’m in my eleventh grade. When school reopens, I want to attend my class every day,” said Malian, a student.

However, the Islamic Emirate denies human rights violations in Afghanistan, saying the US should interact with Kabul based on world norms and diplomatic principles.

“They should base their relations with the Afghan people and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan on the basis of international norms and diplomatic principles in the world and have relations with each other on the same basis, as the human rights issues have different definitions in different countries,” said Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Islamic Emirate.

According to some political experts, respect for human rights, the right to an education and employment are necessary preconditions for the international community to recognize Afghanistan. However, the Islamic Emirate has always said that Afghanistan respects human rights more than ever before.

Officials: Islamic System Needs Skilled, Educated People

December 11, 2022 Current News Articles

Nazir Shinwari

Tolo News

11 Dec 2022

According to ministry officials, the Islamic Emirate wants modern education to be provided throughout the nation.

‘Unprovoked’ firing from Afghan forces kills civilians: Pakistan

December 11, 2022 Current News Articles

Al Jazeera

11 December 2022

At least six civilians killed and 17 others wounded in ‘unprovoked and indiscriminate’ firing by Afghan forces, the Pakistan army says.

At least six civilians have been killed by “unprovoked” firing from Afghan forces near the Chaman border, Pakistan’s military said, in the latest deadly flare-up at the border between the neighbouring countries.

The Pakistani army’s media wing said on Sunday that the fire wounded 17 people, and it blamed the casualties on the “unprovoked and indiscriminate fire” of heavy weapons by Afghan forces on civilians.

The violence hitting Chaman in southwestern Pakistan follows a series of deadly incidents and attacks that have raised tensions with Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers. Chaman is the main border crossing for trade between the two countries.

In Afghanistan, a spokesman for Kandahar’s governor, Attaullah Zaid, appeared to link the clashes between Pakistani and Taliban forces with the construction of new checkpoints on the Afghan side of the border.

Kandahar police spokesman Hafiz Saber said one Afghan soldier was killed and 10 other people, including three civilians, were injured.

Pakistan’s army said troops responded to Afghan fire, but its media wing didn’t give further details. It said Pakistan has approached authorities in the Afghan capital, Kabul, to highlight the severity of the border incident.

Afghan official Noor Ahmad, in Kandahar, told Reuters the situation had returned to normal after the two sides held a meeting.

A doctor with a government-run hospital in Chaman, Akhtar Mohammad, told The Associated Press that live rounds injured 27 people who were brought into the hospital for treatment. Of these, six died and seven were in critical condition.

‘A big explosion’

A resident on Pakistan’s side of the border, Wali Mohammad, took his wounded cousin to the hospital in Chaman. He said there were a number of explosions followed by rapid gunfire.

“We were in the street like any other day off when suddenly a big explosion was heard and debris hit many people, including one of my cousins,” said Mohammad.

Later in the month, Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul came under gunfire days after Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar travelled to Kabul to meet her Afghan counterpart Amir Khan Muttaqi.

Pakistani officials called the incident an “assassination attempt” on its envoy there and blamed Taliban officials for the security breach.

Islamabad also has said that Afghanistan’s rulers are sheltering fighters from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) armed group, which carries out deadly attacks on its soil.

The TTP, also known as the Pakistan Taliban, has been fighting the Pakistani state for more than a decade. The armed group, which is ideologically aligned with the Afghan Taliban, demands the imposition of its readings of Islamic law and the release of its fighters, among other issues.

The TTP has carried out attacks after it ended a months-long ceasefire agreement with Islamabad.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

UNSC Approves Exempting Humanitarian Aid From all UN Sanctions

December 11, 2022 Current News Articles

Bibi Amina Hakimi

TOLOnews’ Reporter

10 Dec 2022

The economists said that the poverty would not be alleviated until the aid is provided in infrastructure areas in Afghanistan.

The UN Security Council passed a resolution that exempts humanitarian assistance from all current and future UN sanctions regimes.

The resolution was hailed worldwide by the humanitarian organization by the US, Norwegian Refugee Council and International Committee of the Red Cross.

“Momentous news: UNSC adopts a resolution exempting all our humanitarian work across all its sanctions regimes,” said Jan Egeland, the Norwegian Refugee Council whose Secretary General. “This will help us to save lives and reach people more effectively in some of the worst conflict areas.”

Speaking to the reporters after the vote, the US ambassador to the UN, Thomas-Greenfield, said all humanitarian situations in which the UN is engaged will benefit from the resolution’s adoption.

“All of the humanitarian situations that were engaged, in Afghanistan, looking at the situation in Syria, looking at the situation in Burma, every single place where we’re working and providing support to– humanitarian workers will benefit,” she said.

This comes as the Ministry of Economy (MoE) said that if the aid is provided in agriculture growth and small business, it will benefit the people in a better way.

“Considering the economic situation in the country, if these (humanitarian) activities are implemented in coordination with the ministries and relevant departments based on the economic priorities, particularly in agriculture, livestock and small business, that can also improve livelihoods and create jobs and reduce poverty, it will be effective,” said Abdul Rahman Habib, a spokesman for the MoE.

“Da Afghanistan as an observer of the financial and banking system welcomes the international community’s aid and calls on the donor countries to provide their aid through the banking sector,” said Haseebullah Noori, a spokesman for the Central Bank.

The economists said that the poverty would not be alleviated until the aid is provided in infrastructure areas in Afghanistan.

“The lack of presence of an organization or an observer for the aid, the high expenses of administrative affairs—if we can control that, I think we would at least provide good humanitarian support to Afghanistan and to other underdevelopment and poor countries,” said Sayed Masoud, an economist.

Earlier, the US Institute of Peace said in a report that the UN has transferred $1.8 billion to Afghanistan over the last year.

By RAHIM FAIEZ

By Jonathan Lehrfeld

United States Special Representative for Afghanistan, Thomas West, said that Washington will place the issue of human rights at the center of its engagement with the Islamic Emirate and all Afghans.

‘A big explosion’

Recent Posts