Meanwhile, Afghan girls are calling for the opportunity to continue their education and make decisions about their futures.
Today, October 11, marks the International Day of the Girl, a day dedicated to promoting girls’ rights and equal opportunities in education, employment, and life.
The day comes as education for girls above sixth grade remains suspended in Afghanistan.
Education experts say that girls’ access to education is essential not only for their future but also for the country’s economic and social development.
Sohaila Rustamzada, an education expert, said: “Depriving girls of education never has positive consequences. This issue must be taken seriously because, if the situation continues, they will be deprived of opportunities for personal growth and progress.”
Meanwhile, Afghan girls are calling for the opportunity to continue their education and make decisions about their futures.
Nabila, a student deprived of education, said: “Knowledge and education are essential for every segment of society. It is knowledge that leads us toward progress.”
These girls are urging the authorities to reopen schools and universities so they can resume their studies.
Another girl said that continued educational restrictions have disrupted her plans for the future.
Kubra, a student deprived of education, said: “When girls are deprived of education, many of them become depressed and develop mental and psychological problems.”
Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai also marked the International Day of the Girl Child by once again calling for schools and universities to reopen to girls, emphasizing that their empowerment is essential for Afghanistan’s development.
Karzai wrote on X: “Everyone is urged not to neglect the empowerment of girls alongside boys. To achieve growth and development, Afghanistan must prioritize the empowerment of girls. Girls should have access to all educational opportunities. I hope that the doors of schools and universities will reopen to them as soon as possible.”
On this occasion, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said that every girl has the right to learn, grow, and build her own future.
UNAMA added that Afghan girls have been deprived of education beyond primary school for five years and called for concrete action to ensure their rights to education, employment, and the freedom to choose their futures.
Meanwhile, Saif-ul-Islam Khyber, spokesperson for the Ministry of Vice and Virtue, outlined the ministry’s efforts over the past five years to address the rights of women and girls.
He said: “Over the past five years, the ministry has secured inheritance rights for 100,000 people and dowry rights for another 100,000, while preventing more than 10,000 forced marriages.”
In Afghanistan, more than five years have passed since education for girls above sixth grade was suspended.
Nearly four years have also passed since women were banned from attending universities, while restrictions on women working for United Nations agencies remain in place.
Despite these restrictions, Afghan girls continue to call for the reopening of schools and universities and greater access to educational and employment opportunities.
Afghan Girls Call for Reopening of Schools on International Day of the Girl
The report states that 1,415 children were killed or maimed during this period.
The UN Secretary-General, in his latest report, has examined grave violations of children’s rights in Afghanistan between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2025.
According to the report, 1,993 of the 4,582 recorded violations involved children, representing a 38 percent decrease compared with the previous three-year reporting period.
The report states that 1,415 children were killed or maimed during this period. Explosive devices and remnants of war were responsible for 1,128 of these casualties, while 159 cases were attributed to cross-border shelling and airstrikes by Pakistan.
Yousuf Amin Zazai, a military affairs analyst, said: “The United Nations reports how many children have been killed or injured here as a result of Pakistani bombardments. So what is the role of the United Nations? What is the role of the Security Council in addressing such crimes?”
In the report, the UN Secretary-General called on the Islamic Emirate to end violations of children’s rights, release children from its ranks, and lift restrictions on girls’ education and the work of female humanitarian aid workers.
He also urged the international community to increase financial assistance for humanitarian services, education, healthcare, mine clearance, and support for victims.
Aziz Maarij, a former diplomat, said: “The United Nations must take action and provide assistance. It has the resources to clear mines across the country and address the poverty and suffering of these people.”
According to the UN Secretary-General’s latest report on children and armed conflict, the Islamic Emirate recruited and used 557 boys during the reporting period, including children as young as 12.
The number of child recruitment cases increased by 81 percent compared with the previous reporting period, with all cases attributed to the Islamic Emirate.
Fazlur Rahman Orya, a political analyst, said: “We believe that the process of removing ineligible individuals from the ranks has already taken place. If there are still underage individuals among military personnel, it is naturally the government’s responsibility to remove them.”
The process of screening security forces began in September 2021, with the aim of identifying individuals abusing their positions, removing those under the age of 18 from the security forces, and preventing the recruitment of children into military structures.
UN Reports 1,415 Child Casualties in Afghanistan Over Three Years
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Dr. Nigar Nangrahari was on a night shift in a Kabul hospital when the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan began 25 years ago — an event that would shape her and her country’s future for decades to come.
As she walked home the next morning, Nangrahari saw Kabul residents taking revenge on members of the Taliban, whose harsh, repressive rule had seen public stonings, limb amputations of alleged criminals and women obliterated from public life.
“Along the way, I saw ordinary people killing anyone they caught who was a Taliban member. I witnessed with my own eyes the people of Kabul capturing and killing Taliban fighters. Some had climbed trees to hide,” she said.
Afraid of what was to come, Nangrahari and her family stayed home for about a month. Eventually, she was called back to the hospital and returned to work as an obstetrician-gynecologist. She no longer had to wear a burqa in the street.
“They granted us freedom — but not the kind that Afghans could truly benefit from,” said Nangrahari, 58.
Afghanistan is a deeply conservative Muslim society, and the U.S. culture that came with the American presence in the country often rankled some segments of society.
“Afghans should neither be completely unrestricted nor subjected to the kind of severe constraints imposed by the Taliban,” she said. “There needs to be a moderate balance.”
A bitter legacy
Under U.S. President George W. Bush, the American-led coalition launched Operation Enduring Freedom with the stated goal of dismantling al-Qaida, the terrorist organization whose leader, Osama bin Laden, had orchestrated the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States from his base in Afghanistan.
The invasion was to mark the start of a 20-year war that cost tens of thousands of Afghan lives, along with thousands of coalition service members, U.S. contractors, aid workers and journalists.
The legacy of that war, and of the successive U.S.-supported Afghan governments during that time, endures today.
“Their stated goals were to bring good governance to Afghanistan and to combat narcotics and terrorism,” said Muin Gul Chamkanai, a former doctor who now heads a humanitarian organization, the Shkula Charitable Foundation, and also works as a political analyst. “The reality turned out to be the exact opposite.”
At a massive cost, both financial and in lives, the American presence brought certain freedoms, particularly for the media and in women’s education and employment opportunities. But pervasive corruption and often heavy-handed military tactics soon bred deep resentment.
Sitting at home on Oct. 7, 2001, Chamkanai switched on his television. The sight of his country being invaded enraged him.
“Had I been struck by their bombs, I would have considered martyrdom far preferable. I was not afraid,” he said. “I wanted to fight against them in Afghanistan using both the pen and the gun.”
The return of the Taliban
Now, 25 years after the invasion and five years after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from the country, the Taliban are firmly back in control of Afghanistan. Although not quite as extreme as their previous government, when they ruled the country from 1996-2001, they have reinstated many draconian restrictions, particularly on women and girls.
Security has improved without question since the Taliban seized power in August 2021. Gone are the endless devastating bombings and attacks, the vast majority of them carried out by the Taliban themselves during the two-decade-long war.
“After a long and arduous struggle, jihad and great sacrifices, Afghans succeeded in liberating their country,” deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said in a statement on the 25th anniversary of the invasion. “This struggle demonstrated that Afghans will never submit to foreign occupation or external coercion.”
He said that Oct. 7, 2001, was “a dark day in the country’s history that resulted in thousands of Afghans being martyred, wounded, imprisoned, displaced and left homeless.”
But for a generation who grew up under U.S.-supported governments, the loss of personal freedoms, especially for women, who face restrictions on everything from what they wear to where they can go, has been a brutal blow.
After the Taliban took over, “gradually … restrictions were imposed, and the normal life we had known was taken away. Things became very difficult for us,” said Tahmina Mangal, a 33-year-old woman who saw her hopes of continuing her studies dashed by the shuttering of high schools and universities for girls and women.
“The burden is immense. It weighs heavily on my own spirits and psyche,” she said.
A perilous future
Now, Tahmina owns and runs a store selling traditional Afghan clothing for women. Although women face multiple restrictions and are barred from most jobs, the Ministry of Commerce does issue business licenses to women, she said. She viewed that as the only avenue open to her.
But with women barred from education and participation in any form of governance, she worries deeply about the future.
“If this situation persists, Afghanistan’s future is perilous,” Tahmina said. “Without women pursuing their studies or receiving an education, we will lack doctors, teachers and literate women, including mothers capable of raising healthy children for society. I view Afghanistan’s future as bleak and dire if this trend continues.”
For Nangrahari, although the Taliban government’s emphasis on improving infrastructure in the country is welcome, its emphasis on religious education for boys, and its ban on higher education for girls, “sets Afghanistan back by a century.” Afghanistan already is among the world’s poorest countries.
“Roads have been improved and high-rise buildings constructed. Indeed, infrastructure is the foundation of the economy, and we acknowledge all of this,” Nangrahari said. “But a society lacking education is zero.”
Still, sitting in her clothing shop in Kabul, Tahmina said that women shouldn’t give up hope, and should continue pursuing their studies, even if it is only online.
“Governments inevitably come and go, collapses happen, and no government lasts forever,” she said. “I always say: ‘Remain hopeful for the future. Study, pursue professional training alongside your regular schooling, and seek higher education.’”
Taliban firmly in control in Afghanistan 25 years after US-led invasion to oust them
Security forces killed 12 Khwarij and Afghan Taliban personnel while thwarting an infiltration attempt along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Kurram district on October 10, 2026, according to a security statement.
The statement said troops detected a group of Khwarij attempting to enter Pakistan from Afghanistan across the international border. Security personnel successfully blocked the infiltration, while Afghan Taliban posts opened fire in support of those attempting to cross.
Troops responded with precise fire, killing 12 Khwarij and Afghan Taliban personnel, the statement said. During the intense exchange, Naib Subedar Hidayat Aman, 40, from Ghizer district, fought bravely and embraced martyrdom.
The statement said the incident reinforced Pakistan’s position that the Afghan Taliban regime had failed to stop terrorist groups from operating on Afghan soil and had instead facilitated and patronised cross-border terrorism. It added that the regime had repeatedly failed to meet its international counterterrorism obligations.
Security forces remain determined to protect the country’s borders, the statement said, adding that a sanitisation operation was under way to eliminate any other Indian-sponsored Khwarij present in the area.
It further stated that the counterterrorism campaign under the vision of “Azm-e-Istehkam”, approved by the Federal Apex Committee on the National Action Plan, would continue at full pace to eliminate foreign-sponsored and supported terrorism from Pakistan.
The statement added that the sacrifices of security personnel had further strengthened the country’s resolve to defend the nation and safeguard its borders.
PM pays tribute to martyred soldier
Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif praised security forces for foiling the infiltration attempt along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Kurram district and killing 12 Khawarij and Afghan Taliban personnel.
Expressing deep sorrow over the martyrdom of Naib Subedar Hidayat Aman during the clash, the prime minister paid tribute to the soldier for laying down his life in defence of the homeland.
Shehbaz said the soldier had set an outstanding example of courage and professional dedication while protecting Pakistan’s borders.
According to a press release issued by the PM Office Media Wing, the prime minister extended his heartfelt condolences and sympathies to the bereaved family. He also prayed for eternal peace for the martyr and for his elevated ranks in Jannah.
Reaffirming the government’s firm stance against terrorism, Shehbaz said Pakistan had the full capability to defend its borders and completely eliminate the threat of terrorism.
He stressed that there would be no compromise on the country’s national security and sovereignty, adding that the entire nation stood united with its security forces in the ongoing fight against terrorism.
12 Khwarij, Afghan Taliban personnel killed as Pakistan foils border infiltration attempt in Kurram
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said Thursday that Taliban authorities detained or arrested at least 52 women and one girl in Kabul and Herat between July and September, warning that the actual number of cases could be significantly higher.
UNAMA said it had verified the cases and expressed grave concern over recent arrests, detentions and threats targeting women and girls in several parts of Afghanistan. The mission said underreporting, driven by security concerns and social stigma, may mean that many additional cases have not been documented.
According to UNAMA, the detentions were linked to alleged violations of Taliban-imposed dress requirements. Women were detained for reasons including not wearing a chador, having their hair visible, wearing colorful scarves or makeup, or appearing in public without a mahram, or male guardian. UNAMA said those detained were released after several hours.
The UN mission also raised concerns over reports of verbal abuse, beatings and threats against women, including female shopkeepers. It said such measures restrict women’s rights to freedom of movement, freedom of expression and personal autonomy, while detention and the threat of detention can expose women and girls to severe social stigma and further marginalization.
The latest UNAMA findings follow a broader pattern of enforcement against women in Afghanistan. In June, the UN mission said at least 30 women were arrested in Herat over alleged dress-code violations. Dozens of other women reportedly received verbal warnings. The arrests were followed by protests in Herat’s Jibreil area, where UNAMA said at least one boy was killed by gunfire and several other people were injured.
UNAMA urged Taliban authorities to end what it described as discriminatory enforcement practices against women and girls, respect the human rights and dignity of all Afghans, and uphold Afghanistan’s obligations under international human rights law.
The Taliban have not immediately responded to UNAMA’s latest statement. The group has previously maintained that women’s rights are protected under its interpretation of Islamic law, while continuing to impose extensive restrictions on women’s education, employment, movement and participation in public life.
52 Women and One Girl Detained in Kabul and Herat, UNAMA Says
Afghanistan’s capital is facing a deepening water crisis, with groundwater levels falling sharply and nearly half of the city’s boreholes already dry, raising fears that Kabul could become the first modern capital to run out of water by 2030, according to a recent Prosper Global report cited by CNN.
Groundwater levels in Kabul have fallen by about 25 to 30 metres over the past decade, while water is being extracted far faster than natural sources can replenish it. The city faces an estimated annual groundwater shortfall of more than 44 million cubic metres, while groundwater supplies about 80 percent of residents’ water needs. Only about one-fifth of Kabul’s population has access to piped water.
For many residents, the projected “day zero” is already becoming a reality. Families without running water are spending hours collecting water from public pumps or paying increasingly high prices to private tanker companies. Some poorer households are estimated to spend as much as 30 percent of their income on water, far above the roughly 3 percent level considered affordable by the United Nations.
The crisis is being driven by rapid population growth, uncontrolled groundwater extraction, prolonged drought and declining snowfall. Kabul’s population has grown from less than one million in 2001 to about six million today, while Afghanistan has endured six consecutive years of drought. Snowfall also reached a 25-year low at the end of last year, according to UN data cited by CNN.
Water quality is another major concern. Prosper Global estimates that large parts of Kabul’s groundwater are contaminated by sewage, arsenic and salinity, leaving many families dependent on costly tanker water or unsafe sources. Experts have described the situation as approaching “water bankruptcy,” warning that the depleted groundwater cannot easily be restored.
Authorities and development partners have proposed projects including the Shah Tout Dam and a pipeline to bring water from the Panjshir River to Kabul. However, the projects face delays, funding constraints and political obstacles, while experts warn that major infrastructure would take years to complete.
The worsening shortage is therefore not only an environmental problem but also a growing humanitarian and economic threat. UN reporting has previously warned that acute groundwater depletion and limited access to water are already severely affecting Kabul residents, particularly women and children.
Kabul Faces Water Crisis as Groundwater Could Run Dry by 2030
The meeting will discuss expanding cooperation among the three organizations in areas of mutual interest and security.
The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) has announced that a joint meeting with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) on Afghanistan will be held in Moscow on October 15 and 16.
The meeting will discuss expanding cooperation among the three organizations in areas of mutual interest, including security issues related to Central Asia and Afghanistan.
A statement from the CSTO reads: “On October 15 and 16, a joint meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will be held in Moscow to discuss security issues in Central Asia and Afghanistan.”
Although Afghanistan is not a formal member of any of these three organizations, the Islamic Emirate has previously called for Afghanistan’s full membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
The spokesperson for the Islamic Emirate had also emphasized that an Afghan representative should be present at meetings where issues concerning Afghanistan are discussed.
Yousuf Amin Zazai, Political Analyst, said: “Regional countries and organizations can play a role, to some extent, in resolving Afghanistan’s problems, and it is good for them to engage in these matters. Unfortunately, however, they mostly focus on issues that are not priorities and pay greater attention to peripheral matters.”
The joint meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, and the Commonwealth of Independent States on Afghanistan is scheduled to take place in Moscow as Russia’s foreign minister emphasized cooperation with Afghanistan in combating terrorism during the eighth Moscow Format meeting earlier this week.
CSTO, SCO and CIS to Hold Joint Meeting on Afghanistan in Moscow
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities have arrested or detained dozens of women in recent months for alleged violations of dress codes and restrictions on appearing in public without a male guardian, the United Nations mission in the country said Thursday.
At least 52 women and one girl were arrested or detained in Kabul and the western city of Herat between July and September, the mission, known as UNAMA, said. Alleged violations included wearing colorful scarves or makeup, leaving hair visible or not wearing a chador, an all-enveloping cloak-like garment.
UNAMA said it was “gravely concerned” about the arrests, detentions and threats of arrest.
“The number of cases may be significantly higher due to underreporting linked to protection concerns and stigma,” it said, adding it was “also alarmed by incidents involving verbal abuse, beatings and threats against women, including female shopkeepers.”
The Taliban government did not immediately respond to the statement.
In June, Afghan authorities opened fire on a rare protest in Herat over arrests and detentions of women for alleged dress code violations. At least one person was killed and several were wounded at the time, according to witnesses and the U.N. mission.
Since seizing power in 2021 as U.S.-led forces withdrew from Afghanistan, the Taliban government has imposed rules based on a strict interpretation of Islamic, or Shariah, law. Dissent is not tolerated, and protests against government decisions are illegal.
Women must wear full hijab in public, including a headscarf, a long robe covering the body and a face covering. The Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice enforces the rules.
Afghan women facing arrest for wearing makeup and alleged dress code violations, UN says
He Confessed to an Afghanistan War Murder. The U.S. Military Promptly Closed the Case.
In the spring of 2023, on a partly sunny day where the temperature flirted with 70 degrees, an Army veteran of the Afghanistan War walked into the unique Prairie-style police headquarters in Banning, California. In a private room in the detective bureau, the former specialist, who served with the storied 82nd Airborne Division, sat down with a special agent from the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division — better known as CID — to make a confession.
The veteran had served with roughly 20 mortarmen and scouts from a platoon in the 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment assigned to Combat Outpost Ware in Afghanistan’s Arghandab River Valley in 2010. A lush land of grape groves and pomegranate orchards, towering sunflowers and marijuana plants, the Arghandab was crisscrossed by canals and was a flashpoint in Kandahar Province, the spiritual homeland of Afghanistan’s once and future rulers, the Taliban.
The soldiers from the 82nd Airborne played a cat-and-mouse game with the Taliban. America’s official policy was counterinsurgency, or COIN: a re-tread of a failed strategy of the Vietnam War that promised a kinder, gentler brand of warfare aimed at winning Afghan hearts and minds. But in the Arghandab Valley, the COIN of the realm was kinetic.
The Taliban seeded the orchards with improvised explosive devices set off by a foot on a pressure plate, a boot on a tripwire, or Taliban hands gripping a remote control. The Americans countered with overwhelming firepower: attack helicopters, armored gun trucks, and infantrymen toting M4 carbines. It was a “rough time for the unit,” another veteran of the platoon remembered. They saw a great deal of “contact,” engaging the Taliban more times than another unit member could recall.
But the former mortarman in Banning had come to talk about one particular incident that, more than a decade later, he could not forget.
The CID agent gave the veteran a “cleansing waiver of rights” to read and sign. It advised the veteran that he had the right to remain silent, that any statement he made could be used against him at trial, and that he was providing testimony “freely and voluntarily.” The veteran waived his rights and signed the document on March 28, 2023 at 1:31 p.m. He acknowledged, according to exclusive criminal investigation documents obtained by The Intercept, that he killed an unarmed man and wounded a woman. More than that, he said that he “needed to be held accountable for his actions.” He told CID that he had “committed a war crime.”
Twenty-five years ago, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, an angry America went to war in Afghanistan. The conflict would become, by some counts, the longest in U.S. history, stretching across four presidential administrations. It ended where it started, with the Taliban in control of the country after a crushing 2021 defeat for the U.S. and the Afghan allies it propped up for two decades.
The U.S. lost around 2,400 troops in Afghanistan at a staggering cost of around $2.3 trillion. Afghans suffered far worse. In October 2001, President George W. Bush announced that “the oppressed people of Afghanistan will know the generosity of America.” But from almost the opening American salvo, they began dying at U.S. hands.
During just the first five months of the conflict, there were no fewer than 136 media reports of U.S. attacks that killed between 1,200 and 3,155 civilians. Year after year, U.S. and coalition airstrikes killed Afghans – sometimes scores of civilians, sometimes hundreds. The deaths continued to the war’s final moments when an August 2021 drone strike targeting a suspected terrorist in the country’s capital, Kabul, instead killed 10 civilians, seven of them children. More than 70,000 Afghan and Pakistani civilians are estimated to have died as a direct result of the war, according to Brown University’s Costs of War project.
While the carnage of the American air war garnered the biggest headlines, Afghans were also gunned down, again and again, by U.S. ground troops. Following a 2007 ambush, Marines killed 19 civilians and wounded 50. An initial investigation found the Marines used excessive force when they killed civilians after a suicide bombing. Later, the Americans were recast as victims. In 2010, a “kill team” from the Army’s 5th Stryker Brigade slew at least three civilians over four months and mutilated the dead for war trophies. Eleven of the 12 soldiers charged were convicted of crimes, but most were released from prison by the mid-2010s. Staff Sgt. Robert Bales massacred 16 Afghan civilians in 2012. A Special Forces A-Team was accused of killing close to 20 civilians in 2012 and 2013. The remains of 10 victims were later found buried outside their base. A U.S. investigation exonerated the Americans of any wrongdoing. Only one man was punished: Zikria Kandahari, the unit’s Afghan interpreter.
Pete Hegseth, now the self-styled Secretary of War, served with the Army National Guard in Afghanistan during that era. In Trump’s first term, when he was a Fox News personality, Hegseth lobbied on behalf of three men who were convicted or facing charges related to war crimes committed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Trump intervened in all three cases, granting two pardons and reversing a demotion.
During his confirmation hearing last year, Hegseth complained that “restrictive” rules of engagement had made it “difficult to actually do your job on the battlefield,” repeatedly recalling his own service. “I was the senior counter-insurgency instructor in Afghanistan. My job was to understand how the Taliban and Al Qaeda operated,” he explained. “They knew our rules of engagement, and when they were more restrictive, they took advantage of them.” He continued: “We don’t need burdensome rules of engagement that make it impossible for us to win these wars.”
But what the veteran in Banning described to CID agents was anything but burdensome.
In April or May — he couldn’t recall which — of 2010, that veteran said he was carrying an M4 carbine as his unit moved about 3 kilometers into the Arghandab and occupied an abandoned building at the edge of a village. When the Americans were attacked, they returned fire, killing a couple Taliban members.
The unit readied themselves, expecting the Taliban to regroup and mount another assault. The Americans intercepted a radio transmission. A translator told them that a single male militant on a motorcycle, transporting rocket-propelled grenades, was headed toward them, according to the documents. The unit’s chain of command authorized the use of force.
When a motorcycle rider came into view, a sniper took aim and fired off one round. He missed.
The respite for the motorcycle man was short-lived, however. About 500 feet away, close to 20 Americans raised their rifles.
An M4 carbine — a magazine-fed, gas-operated, air-cooled, shoulder-fired weapon — shoots lightweight bullets at extremely high speeds. In the spring of 2010, M855 5.56-mm bullets were de rigueur for U.S. forces. Fast with low mass, the rounds produce a tremendous amount of kinetic energy. When they slam into a human body, that energy is transmitted to the soft tissue of the victim creating a “wound channel” that causes massive blood loss.
The Banning mortarman fired off one round. Others from the unit opened up, too.
The motorcycle man never reached his destination. If someone was waiting for him to arrive on that spring day in 2010, they still are.
The Banning veteran and others walked up to the Afghan man and “witnessed a military aged male deceased with multiple gunshot wounds to the face and other areas of his body,” wrote the CID special agent, transcribing the mortarman’s testimony. “No RPG’s were present.”
Nobody knew how many rounds hit him, but the damage to the Afghan man’s body was so extensive that he was “unidentifiable,” according to another witness. The mutilation was so devastating that the Americans were unable to even collect his “biometrics”: fingerprints, iris scans, facial images.
The dead man, said the veteran, wasn’t alone. There was a wounded woman, too. He told the CID agent that the “woman was crawling on the ground.” There may also have been a baby or child present as well — CID’s redactions make it impossible to know for certain.
After the veteran made his confession, in late March 2023, Army criminal investigators started consulting U.S. sources. Despite detailed unit records for more than 100 notable incidents in April and May 2010, an Army historian could locate none for the killing of the motorcycle man.
When CID began interviewing unit members, the company commander — by then a lieutenant colonel — said the incident did not sound familiar to him. The unit’s first sergeant told CID that while he saw most “troops in contact” reports, he didn’t recollect the incident. He acknowledged that the details “sounded plausible.”
Others recalled the incident in detail but excused it. One soldier who never saw the motorcycle man before he was killed said, for example, that it “sounded like” the man handed off the RPG to someone before he was shot. Another former specialist — who by 2023 was a warrant officer — told CID that unit members “fired on the military age male on the motorcycle.” He also recalled that “a woman was on the motorcycle,” too. He told the Army investigators that it was “unfortunate that no RPGs were present” but believed “the incident was handled properly” since “they were authorized to fire from their command team.”
Having never even attempted to identify the Afghan man, the woman on the scene, or the possible child; having never sought out any evidence beyond the testimony of members of the unit; and despite a signed, sworn confession by one of the shooters, Army CID concluded — within six weeks — that there was not “probable cause to believe that any soldier committed the offense of murder.”
CID refused to make the special agent in charge of the case available for an interview. “Unfortunately, we are unable to support your request to interview DACID personnel involved,” Special Agent Mark Lunardi told The Intercept, before leaving his job. More than a year ago, after multiple follow-up requests for information, Thomas Hamilton of CID’s press office wrote: “I will get back to you as soon as I can.” He has, despite repeated follow-ups, failed to respond.
A 2020 study of post-9/11 civilian casualty incidents found most have gone uninvestigated. When they did come under official scrutiny, the “military too often relies solely on its internal records and sources —which can be flawed and incomplete — to assess civilian harm,” the Center for Civilians in Conflict and Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute reported.
“There were probably hundreds of incidents that were just like it that we’ll never know about.”
These findings were bolstered by the groundbreaking work of the podcast “In the Dark.” Their 2024 investigation — a corollary to a reexamination of the 2005 killings of civilians in Haditha, Iraq — found U.S. troops had committed 781 possible war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq that the U.S. military actually investigated. In at least 65 percent of cases analyzed by “In The Dark,” investigators didn’t believe that a crime had taken place — even in cases where perpetrators had, like the Banning veteran, confessed. The 2010 killing of the Afghan motorcycle man is, however, not one of the cases in their database.
In the 151 cases in which investigators found probable cause that a crime had occurred, that the rules of engagement had been violated, or that a use of force hadn’t been justified, true accountability was rare. While 572 alleged perpetrators were involved in these cases, only 130 were convicted; the records show they rarely received significant prison terms. Much more often, their cases were dealt with by commanders with broad discretion to punish their troops with extra duty, demotions, or reprimands, in lieu of formal prosecutions. Fewer than 1 in 5 perpetrators, investigators found, appeared to have been sentenced to any type of confinement. The median sentence was just eight months.
Todd Huntley, an active-duty Judge Advocate for more than 23 years who deployed to Afghanistan twice with a Joint Special Operations Task Force, believes killings like the one described by the Banning veteran were a common occurrence. “There were probably hundreds of incidents that were just like it that we’ll never know about,” he told The Intercept. A current government official, who was involved in the wars in the Greater Middle East, said the total could reach into the thousands.
Since taking the helm of the Pentagon last year, Hegseth has launched overlapping efforts to weaken transparency, scuttle accountability, hobble military justice, and undercut protections for civilians in conflict zones — from replacing the Pentagon press corps with pro-administration sycophants, and firing the top legal authorities of the Army and the Air Force, to pursuing changes that would encourage lawyers to approve more aggressive tactics and take a more lenient approach to those who violate the laws of war.
The Intercept has previously reported on Hegseth’s gutting of civilian harm mitigation and response efforts. In late April, Hegseth repeatedly dismissed congressional concerns about civilian harm and respect for the laws of war in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee. “The Department of War fights to win,” Hegseth replied when asked if he stood by his statement that the U.S. would afford enemies “no quarter” — a war crime. A recent report by the Pentagon’s top watchdog says cuts to civilian harm mitigation and response efforts have been so severe under Hegseth that the United States cannot adequately protect civilians in conflict zones. This was driven home at the outset of the Iran war when the U.S. attacked the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school, killing more than 150 people, most of them children.
The CID records of the motorcycle man investigation are redacted in ways that make it impossible to ascertain key facts about additional civilian harm. “An [REDACTED] woman was on the motorcycle with the military aged male and [REDACTED] from the engagement,” according to the summary of a statement by one unit member. The Banning veteran also “stated he [REDACTED] an unarmed [REDACTED] woman during his deployment.”
The redactions also prevented The Intercept from identifying the veteran and fellow unit members to gather additional information. “If it wasn’t for the soldier involved coming forward, this incident would never have come to light,” Huntley, now the director of the National Security Law Program at Georgetown University Law Center, told The Intercept. “The 13-year delay in reporting made any investigation difficult as others involved couldn’t remember details and the redactions in the report make it impossible to learn anything else about the incident.”
Only one member of the unit contacted by The Intercept agreed to speak about the incident. The veteran acknowledged, on background, that the incident occurred, but would not say if he was one of those interviewed by CID.
Still, the case of the motorcycle man offers a stark counter-narrative to Hegseth’s assertions about the war on terror — and the basis for his efforts to undermine protections for civilians today.
The rules of engagement in Afghanistan in 2010 were so lax that a man was killed for no reason and with no repercussions.
It was so unremarkable that no record of the engagement could be located. It was so commonplace that senior unit members couldn’t recall it.
It was so typical that only one man even thought to report it — and he waited 13 years.
It was so characteristic of U.S. military policy that no inquiry was conducted into the rules of engagement in force at the time.
And the incident was so in keeping with U.S. military tradition that, despite a murder confession and little question that an unarmed man was gunned down, Army CID and the 82nd Airborne’s chief of military justice quickly concluded there was no probable cause for charges, and the investigation was closed.
Rabab Fatima, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), has called for continued support from Khalilur Rahman, president of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly, for the mission’s work in Afghanistan.
Fatima said on Tuesday that she met with Rahman and appreciated his commitment to supporting “the world’s most vulnerable countries” and addressing their priorities during the 81st session of the General Assembly.
During the meeting, Fatima also sought Rahman’s continued support for UNAMA’s mandate. She said she was counting on his backing for the mission, including in his new role as president of the General Assembly.
Rahman, a Bangladeshi diplomat and former foreign minister, assumed the presidency of the 81st General Assembly session in September. He was elected to the position in June, succeeding Germany’s Annalena Baerbock.
The appeal comes as UNAMA enters a period of strategic review. The UN Security Council unanimously extended the mission’s mandate in June until June 17, 2027, while requesting the Secretary-General to conduct a strategic review and submit a report by March 31, 2027.
UNAMA has continued to play a central role in political engagement, humanitarian coordination and human rights monitoring in Afghanistan. The mission has also remained a key channel between the United Nations and Afghanistan’s de facto authorities amid continuing concerns over human rights and restrictions on women and girls.
Fatima, a Bangladeshi diplomat with more than three decades of experience in national and international public service, became UNAMA’s new head in July 2026. She is the third woman to lead the UN mission since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021.
UN Afghanistan Envoy Seeks Continued Support for UNAMA from General Assembly President
The United Nations says aid workers are still in a “race against time” to remove rubble and rebuild after the devastating earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan last month, killing at least 2,200 people and cutting off remote areas.
The 6.0-magnitude quake on Aug. 31 was shallow, destroying or causing extensive damage to low-rise buildings in the mountainous region. It hit late at night, and homes — mostly made of mud, wood, or rocks — collapsed instantly, becoming death traps.
Satellite data shows that about 40,500 truckloads of debris still needs to be cleared from affected areas in several provinces, the United Nations Development Program said Wednesday. Entire communities have been upended and families are sleeping in the open, it added.
The quake’s epicenter was in remote and rugged Kunar province, challenging rescue and relief efforts by the Taliban government and humanitarian groups. Authorities deployed helicopters or airdropped army commandos to evacuate survivors. Aid workers walked for hours on foot to reach isolated communities.
“This is a race against time,” said Devanand Ramiah, from the UNDP’s Crisis Bureau. “Debris removal and reconstruction operations must start safely and swiftly.”
People’s main demands were the reconstruction of houses and water supplies, according to a spokesman for a Taliban government committee tasked with helping survivors, Zia ur Rahman Speenghar.
People were getting assistance in cash, food, tents, beds, and other necessities, Speenghar said Thursday. Three new roads were under construction in the Dewagal Valley, and roads would be built to areas where there previously were none.
“Various countries and organizations have offered assistance in the construction of houses but that takes time. After the second round of assistance, work will begin on the third round, which is considering what kind of houses can be built here,” the spokesman said.
Afghanistan is facing a “perfect storm” of crises, including natural disasters like the recent earthquake, said Roza Otunbayeva, who leads the U.N. mission to the country.
Afghanistan Peace Campaign
