Afghanistan - The Taliban

[robert99]

Afghan Taliban capture key district of Khanabad in Kunduz - BBC News
Taliban militants have captured a key district in Afghanistan's northern province of Kunduz, officials say.

The fighters attacked from several directions and government troops were forced to retreat to Kunduz city, which briefly fell to the Taliban last year.

A lack of ammunition and reinforcements contributed to the fall of Khanabad district, the local authorities said.

The Taliban have made gains since international troops officially ended their active fighting role in 2014.
(Yep, after all the dead soldiers and civilians, and all the money .... the Taliban are still in Afghanistan)

 

[robert99]

PressTV-Taliban advance on Afghan provincial capital
The capital of Afghanistan's central province of Uruzgan is on the brink of falling into militants’ hands in the wake of an advance by Taliban, who have taken position within a few kilometers of the city.

Abdul Karim, the head of Uruzgan provincial council, on Wednesday warned of the collapse of the city unless authorities in Kabul provide air support and ground reinforcements.

"If there is no significant air support and ground reinforcement, Tarin Kot will collapse," Karim said.

Local Afghan officials say many of the embattled police and soldiers around Tarin Kot are fighting with minimal reinforcements and often with insufficient food and ammunition.

Afghan security forces have halted Taliban's advance about two kilometers (1.2 miles) from the volatile city's prison. The militants seek to free inmates from the jail.

 

[robert99]

Taliban's assault on Afghan provincial capital met with airstrikes
Afghan officials deployed reinforcements to Tarin Kot, in Uruzgan province, and Afghan and U.S.-led NATO warplanes were carrying out airstrikes in an attempt to deter the latest Taliban advance against a strategic city.

One security official in Uruzgan said provincial officials had sought shelter at the local airport, home to an Afghan army brigade, in a sign that the battle was not going the government’s way.

“Afghan forces have lost overall control of the whole city,” said the official, requesting anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media.
Afghanistan: Taliban pushes into Uruzgan's Tarinkot
The Taliban, for its part, said Afghan security forces had sustained losses and that its fighters were advancing on Tarinkot.

"Mujahidin enter Uruzgan capital Tarin Kowt city," Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban spokesman, said in a statement.

Tarinkot is the third Afghan provincial capital to come under Taliban threat in recent months, along with the city of Kunduz in the north and Lashkar Gah in Helmand province.

The surge in Taliban attacks against Afghan security forces has prompted the US to send additional troops to Helmand, whose capital, Lashkar Gah, is under heavy pressure from the fighters.

 

[robert99]

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/New...-attempted-hostage-rescue-in-Afghanistan.html
US forces in Afghanistan last month attempted to rescue two hostages, the Pentagon said Thursday, as US media reported the captives were two American University of Afghanistan professors.

“President Obama authorized US forces to conduct a mission in Afghanistan, aimed at recovering two civilian hostages,” Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said in a statement.

“Unfortunately, the hostages were not at the location we suspected. During the mission, US forces engaged and killed a number of hostile forces. No US personnel or civilians were harmed.”

Two professors -- one American, the other Australian -- were seized from their vehicle August 7 in Kabul, as gunmen wearing police uniforms smashed the passenger window and hauled them away.

 

[robert99]

Not only the Taliban - PressTV-Beware of Daesh in Afghanistan: Russia
The Daesh terrorist group’s progression in Afghanistan is a severe security threat for Russia, says a Russian Foreign Ministry official.

Moscow is extremely worried about “the rise of Daesh in Afghanistan because it has far-reaching geopolitical consequences for Russian safety,” said the Russian Foreign Ministry's director of the Second Asian Department in Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov.

“They continue to recruit people and enhance their combat capabilities. If they are not restrained then the chances are that we will have to face an even more powerful force," he added.

 

[robert99]

Afghanistan: Who controls what
Since the Taliban was ousted from power following the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the armed group's control over parts of Afghanistan has fluctuated widely.

According to a recent report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the Western-backed Afghan government has lost control of nearly 5 percent of its territory to the Taliban since the beginning of this year.

The report says the area under Afghan government "control or influence" decreased to 65.6 percent by the end of May from 70.5 percent last year, based on data provided by US forces in Afghanistan.

That amounts to a loss of 19 of the country's approximately 400 governing districts.

However, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, Army General John Nicholson, said the Taliban presence is mostly in rural areas.

Afghan officials, on the other hand, say an exact figure on areas controlled cannot be measured as the fight against the Taliban and other armed groups is still ongoing.

 

[robert99]

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/New...an-security-forces-Taliban-reach-impasse.html
Afghan security forces have reached something of an impasse with the Taliban, which has been unable to expand its grip on Afghanistan but still holds large parts of the country, a US general said Friday.

Army General John Nicholson, the US commander in Afghanistan, said local forces during the summer fighting season had thwarted a Taliban attempt to take over Kunduz province, and had improved security in Helmand, western Kandahar and Uruzgan.

Afghan forces currently control or “heavily influence” 65 to 70 percent of the population, the Taliban controls about 10 percent in mainly rural areas, and the rest is contested, Nicholson told reporters.

The top US military officer, General Joe Dunford, told lawmakers Thursday that the situation in Afghanistan was “roughly a stalemate.”

More than 5,000 Afghan police and troops died last year alone, and they have confronted multiple challenges apart from just the Taliban -- including attacks from ISIS and Al-Qaeda.

The Taliban even managed to briefly capture the major city of Kunduz last year, jolting confidence Afghan government forces could hold their own.

The Taliban threat forced President Barack Obama to slow plans to draw down US troop numbers at the end of this year. Some 8,400 will remain in the war-torn country in 2017, compared with 5,500 initially planned.

Most US forces in Afghanistan operate under the NATO banner and work as trainers or advisers to Afghan forces.

Around 40 NATO members and partner countries currently contribute to the overall force of nearly 13,000.

(So since October 7 2001 . nearly 15 years ago - the US and allies in Afghanistan have fought a "stalemate". Think what all those billions of dollars could have done instead ... )

 

[robert99]

Taliban launches attack on Afghanistan's Kunduz
The Taliban has launched a coordinated assault on the city of Kunduz in Afghanistan, attacking from four directions and entering the city itself, officials said.

Sheer Ali Kamal, commander of the 808 Tandar police zone in Kunduz, said on Monday that the attack began at around midnight (1930 GMT Sunday) and fighting was still going on in and around the city.

"We are putting all our efforts together to push them back," he said.

Military helicopters were flying overhead and gunfire could be heard in the city.

Al Jazeera's Jennifer Glasse, reporting from the capital, Kabul, said: "It will be difficult to dislodge them as we understand that the Taliban have taken positions inside civilian homes. Police and security forces are having difficulty distinguishing where exactly the fire is coming from."

 

[robert99]

Kunduz assault: Afghan forces 'in control of city' - BBC News
Afghan security forces are back in control of the strategic northern city of Kunduz, Nato forces and local police say.

Taliban fighters earlier appeared to have breached the city, reportedly raising their flag in a central square.

Special forces have been flown in from Kabul to help repel the latest assault.

"The city centre is now in our hands and not in their hands. We are launching an attack to clean up the area," Kunduz police chief Kassim Jangal Bagh told the AFP news agency.

The Nato-led Resolute Support mission said Afghan security forces were in control of the city and its main square "with additional troops coming".

Fighting is continuing near the city's police headquarters, governor's compound and National Directorate of Security headquarters, Reuters news agency reports, citing officials.

 

[robert99]

Unocal's pipeline - Taliban Oil
The little-known story of secret negotiations between the Taliban and the US to a build a pipeline through Afghanistan.

 

[robert99]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/13/world/asia/afghanistan-kabul-taliban-massacre.html
The Taliban insurgents have opened simultaneous fronts across the country in recent months, overrunning districts and besieging major urban centers. The insurgents managed to easily capture parts of Kunduz for a second time on Oct. 3, and hold them until finally forced to retreat on Wednesday after a week of devastating urban battles that displaced tens of thousands of people.

From March to August, about 4,500 Afghan soldiers and police were killed and more than 8,000 wounded, according to information provided by a senior Afghan official who had seen the tallies, but like others spoke on condition of anonymity to share sensitive information. In August, the police and the army sustained about 2,800 casualties, more than a third of them fatal.

Beyond that, the inability to replace the fallen has raised particular alarm among the top ranks of the Afghan government as well as its Western backers, including the United States.

 

[robert99]

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/New...-pitched-battles-in-Afghanistan-s-Kunduz.html
The number of war-displaced civilians in Kunduz has more than doubled to 24,000, the UN said Sunday, as street battles persisted a week after the Taliban stormed into the northern Afghan city. Terrified residents facing a growing humanitarian crisis have been fleeing explosions and gunfights to neighboring provinces of Balkh, Takhar, Baghlan and the capital Kabul.

“Initial reports indicate that around 24,000 internally displaced persons” have fled Kunduz, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement. “As assessments are ongoing and families are still on the move, this figure will almost certainly change.”

The UN had earlier said up to 10,000 people had fled the city, which briefly fell last year to the Taliban in a similar assault. Kunduz residents have faced crippling shortages of food and medicine after the Taliban launched an all-out assault last Monday, capturing parts of the city.

Afghan forces have struggled to flush them out of residential neighborhoods, with the government saying the clearance operation was being carefully conducted to prevent civilian casualties. At least three civilians have been killed and more than 290 wounded, according to the Kunduz general hospital, but local residents say the actual toll is much higher.