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Scores of Afghanis Killed in Attacks and Counter-Attacks by Government Forces, Taliban, and Islamic State Fighters,

December 3, 2020

 

An Afghan police officer investigates a car damaged in a bomb attack in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, November 2020.

 

IS attack on Afghan university leaves 22 dead, 22 wounded

By RAHIM FAIEZ and KATHY GANNON

November 2, 2020

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) —

Islamic State militants in Afghanistan stormed Kabul University on Monday as it hosted a book fair attended by the Iranian ambassador, sparking an hours-long gunbattle and leaving at least 22 dead and 22 wounded at the war-torn country’s largest school.

Most of the casualties were students and there were fears the death toll could climb further with some of the wounded said to be in critical condition.

It was the second attack on an educational institution in Kabul in as many weeks.

The Taliban promptly issued a statement denying they took part in the assault, which came as the insurgents continue peace talks with representatives of Kabul’s U.S.-backed government, with the aim to help the United States finally withdraw from Afghanistan. Later in the day, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack.

As the attack unfolded, students and teachers were seen fleeing the part of the campus where law and journalism schools are located, while hand grenades exploded and automatic rifle fire could be heard. Scores of Afghan special forces surrounded the campus, shepherding teachers and students to safety.

The chaos subsided as the sun set over the Afghan capital and the Interior Ministry’s spokesman, Tariq Arian, said all three attackers involved in the assault were killed.

The Islamic State group said it targeted newly graduated “judges and investigators belonging to the apostate Afghan government” gathered at the campus, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors terror online messaging.

The IS statement claimed only two of its fighters were involved, and posted their photographs, which conflicted with the Afghan authorities’ report of three attackers. The claim did not indicate the IS intended to target the Iranian envoy or the book fair.

Last week, IS also claimed a brutal assault on a tutoring center in the Afghan capital’s mostly Shiite neighborhood of Dasht-e-Barchi that killed at least 24 students and wounded more than 100 others on Oct. 24.

The peace negotiations between the Taliban and the Kabul government, known as intra-Afghan talks, were part of a deal Washington signed with the insurgents in February. They are taking place in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, and are seen as Afghanistan’s best chance at peace — though daily bloodshed has continued.

Five hours into the fighting on Monday, sporadic grenade explosions and automatic weapons fire still echoed down the empty streets surrounding the university’s fenced compound. Afghan troops stood guard.

Ahmad Samim, a university student, told journalists he saw militants armed with pistols and Kalashnikov assault rifles firing at the school, the country’s oldest with some 17,000 students. He said the attack happened at the university’s eastern side, where its law and journalism faculty teach.

Afghan media reported that a book exhibition was being held at the university and attended by a number of dignitaries at the time of the shooting. None of the dignitaries were reported hurt.

While Afghan officials declined to discuss the bookfair, Iran’s semiofficial ISNA news agency reported Sunday that Iranian Ambassador Bahador Aminian and cultural attaché Mojtaba Noroozi were to inaugurate the fair, which was hosting some 40 Iranian publishers. Iranian state television reported that the attack occurred, but did not offer information on its officials.

Iranian diplomats have been targeted previously in Afghanistan, incidents that dangerously escalated tensions between the two countries. In 1998, Iran held the Taliban responsible for the deaths of nine Iranian diplomats working in its consulate in northern Afghanistan, and sent reinforcements to the 950-kilometer- (580-mile-) long Iran-Afghan border.

The IS affiliate in Afghanistan has declared war on the country’s minority Shiite Muslims and staged dozens of attacks since emerging in the region in 2014. A horrific attack earlier this year on a Kabul maternity hospital — also in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood — was blamed on the Islamic State group. In that attack, militants killed 25 people, many of them newborn babies and mothers.

Schools have also been targeted in past attacks. Last year, a bomb outside of the Kabul University’s gates killed eight people. In 2016, gunmen attacked the American University in Kabul, killing 13.

Violence has been relentless even as the talks in Qatar to end more than four decades of war in Afghanistan have been painfully slow and despite repeated demands for a reduction in violence.

The U.S.-Taliban deal in February allowed for the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops from Afghanistan and set the stage for the talks underway in Doha.

The architect of Washington’s agreement with the Taliban, Zalmay Khalilzad, returned last week to the region, citing deep disappointment at the escalating violence in Afghanistan. On Monday, Khalilzad was in neighboring Pakistan, where he met with the powerful army chief. Few details of the meeting have been released but it is widely believed Khalilzad was pressing for Pakistan’s help to push the Taliban to agree to a reduction in violence.

Even though their political office is based in Qatar, Taliban leadership councils are located in Pakistan, with Islamabad being critical to pressing the insurgents into peace talks.

Though Khalilzad and the Afghan government have been calling for a cease-fire or at the very least a reduction in violence, the Taliban have refused a truce, saying a permanent end to fighting would be part of the negotiations.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry condemned Monday’s attack in Kabul, calling it an “act of terrorism” that was particularly “despicable as it targeted an institution of learning.” Last week, a suicide bomber attacked a religious school in Pakistan’s northwest on the border with Afghanistan, killing eight students and wounding more than 120.

Also on Monday, a vehicle hit a roadside mine in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province, killing at least seven civilians, most of them women and children, provincial governor spokesman Omer Zwak said.

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Gannon reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi and Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

IS attack on Afghan university leaves 22 dead, 22 wounded (apnews.com) 

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Afghan army kills mastermind of Taliban car bomb attack on military base

AFP, 02/12/2020 - 02:31

Afghan forces have killed the Taliban mastermind of a suicide car bomb attack that left at least 30 security personnel dead, officials said Monday.

Hamza Waziristani was killed in an air strike overnight in the eastern province of Ghazni where the bomber struck an Afghan military base on Sunday.

"The mastermind behind yesterday's terrorist attack on the (Ghazni) base was killed along with seven other terrorists," the defence ministry said in a statement.

Ministry spokesman Fawad Aman told AFP that Waziristani was a Taliban militant from the Pakistani border region of Waziristan.

The attack was one of the deadliest in months targeting government forces in Afghanistan, where violence has surged since the start of peace talks between President Ashraf Ghani's administration and the Taliban in Qatar.

No group has claimed the attack.

The Taliban often do not comment on deadly attacks they are accused of carrying out.

The insurgents have launched near daily attacks against Afghan forces, primarily in rural areas, since signing a deal with Washington in February that paved the way for the withdrawal of foreign troops by May 2021.

Health officials in Ghazni said 30 people died in Sunday's attack, but the defence ministry -- which is known to downplay tolls in attacks against its forces -- said 10 were killed.

Violence has also surged in Kabul in recent weeks, with more than 50 people killed in two assaults on educational centres and a rocket attack. 

The three Kabul attacks were claimed by the Islamic State group, but Afghan officials blamed the Taliban -- who denied any involvement.

(AFP)

Afghan army kills mastermind of Taliban car bomb attack on military base (france24.com)

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Taliban denies targeting media after 50th journalist dies in Afghanistan

Rising violence by militants raises fears for press freedom after US troops withdraw in May

Stefanie Glinski in Kabul

The Guardian, Thu 3 Dec 2020 02.45 EST

The Taliban have denied they are deliberately targeting journalists in attacks amid the surge in violence throughout Afghanistan.

The US watchdog Sigar (Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction) says Taliban violence has risen by 50% since September, with media workers saying they don’t feel safe doing their jobs.

A spokesman for the Taliban told the Guardian they maintain a positive interaction with the media.

“By our policy, we give great importance to the work of journalists,” Muhammad Naeem said, adding that the Taliban have given access to journalists in areas under their control.

“Targeting civilians is not the policy of the Islamic emirate,” he said.

But as talks between the militants and the Afghan government slowly progress, Afghan media are worried for their future.

Last week reporter Elyas Dayee became the 50th journalist killed in the country since 2001, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, when he was hit by a car bomb in Helmand province.

Just days before Dayee’s death, Yama Siawash of Tolo TV, Afghanistan’s biggest news channel, died in a similar attack in Kabul. No group has claimed either attack.

“A series of targeted killings of civilians has recently begun in Kabul, including attacks on mosque imams, university professors and educational institutions,” Naeem acknowledged, though denying Taliban involvement.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Dayee had received numerous death threats, warning him to stop reporting on Taliban military operations.

“This is part of an alarming pattern of increased threats and attacks on the media by the Taliban,” said Patricia Gossman, an HRW director, after Dayee’s murder. “This brutal killing of a journalist is nothing more than a cold-blooded execution and raises serious doubts about the protection of free expression in any peace deal with the Taliban.”

US troops are due to depart by May and Afghan journalists have told the Guardian they increasingly fear for their lives.

“I don’t feel safe in Lashkar Gah any more,” said Mohammad Omar Lemar, a freelance in Helmand. “I can’t live in a place where people are killed for no reason. I want to leave.”

Afghanistan has enjoyed significant press freedom since the US-led invasion in 2001, with newspapers and television channels mushrooming and journalists working freely.

In recent years the Taliban have started engaging with journalists regularly but Rahmatullah Amiri, a political analyst in Kabul, worries that press freedom could quickly be lost.

“There wouldn’t be any free press under the Taliban – they are strict and would heavily regulate media; we can already see this in areas they control,” he said.

Media workers across Afghanistan have received varying levels of security. Many are exposed at home, even if they work in heavily fortified compounds; others have been relocated – even sent overseas – but challenges continue.

“It’s more than a threat,” said Saad Mohseni, CEO of the Moby Group. “This strategy of intimidating, bullying and punishing members of the civil society has had a devastating impact. The Taliban send the message that they are the only ones able to provide safety. It’s a deliberate attempt to undermine the government and bully voices different to theirs.”

With the Taliban gaining momentum and Islamic State staging large-scale attacks, many Afghans have lost faith in their leaders’ ability to protect them. Journalists, too afraid to go public, keep quiet about the warnings they receive.

“All journalists are facing serious threats, but it is difficult – even impossible – for us to ensure safety while reporting,” said Anisa Shaheed of Tolonews, who was recognised for her courageous reporting by Reporters Without Borders this summer.

“We live in a country at war; there is no way out,” she said. “Our families are concerned and ask us to leave our work, but this is our homeland. It’s our responsibility to inform, to work – whether we stay alive or are killed.”

Taliban denies targeting media after 50th journalist dies in Afghanistan | Global development | The Guardian

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