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Afghanistan has the misfortune of sitting in a strategic position at the crossroads of Central Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and the Middle East. Despite its mountainous terrain and fiercely independent inhabitants, the country has been invaded time after time throughout its history.

Today, Afghanistan is once more embroiled in war, pitting NATO troops and the current government against the ousted Taliban and its allies.

Afghanistan is a fascinating but violence-wracked country, where East meets West.

Capital:Kabul, population 3,475,000 (2013 estimate)

Afghanistan is an Islamic Republic, headed by the President. Afghan presidents may serve a maximum of two 5-year terms.Ashraf Ghani was elected in 2014. Hamid Karzaiserved two terms as president before him.

The National Assembly is a bicameral legislature, with a 249-member House of the People (Wolesi Jirga), and a 102-member House of the Elders (Meshrano Jirga).

The nine justices of the Supreme Court (Stera Mahkama) are appointed to terms of 10 years by the President. These appointments are subject to approval by the Wolesi Jirga.

The population of Afghanistan is estimated at 32.6 million.

Afghanistan is home to a number of ethnic groups. The largest is the Pashtun, 42 percent of the population. Tajiks make up 27 percent, Hazaras8 percent, and Uzbeks 9 percent, Aimaks 4 percent, Turkmen 3 percent and Baluchi 2 percent. The remaining 13 percent are tiny populations of Nuristanis, Kizibashis, and other groups.

Life expectancy for both men and women within Afghanistan is 60 years. The infant mortality rate is 115 per 1,000 live births, the worst in the world. It also has one of the highest maternal mortality rates.

Afghanistan's official languages are Dari and Pashto, both of which are Indo-European languages in the Iranian sub-family. Written Dari and Pashto both use a modified Arabic script.Other Afghan languages include Hazaragi, Uzbek and Turkmen.

Dari is the Afghan dialect of the Persian language. It is quite similar to Iranian Dari, with slight differences in pronunciation and accent. The two are mutually intelligible. Around 33 percent of Afghanis speak Dari as their first language.

About 40 percent of the people of Afghanistan speak Pashto, the language of the Pashtun tribe. It is also spoken in the Pashtun areas of western Pakistan.

The overwhelming majority of Afghanistan's people are Muslim, around 99 percent. About 80 percent are Sunni, and 19 percent Shia.

The final one percent includes about 20,000 Baha'is, 3,000-5,000 Christians. Only one Bukharan Jewish man, Zablon Simintov, remained by 2005. All of the other members of the Jewish community fled when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979.

Until the mid-1980s, Afghanistan also had a population of 30,000 to 150,000 Hindus and Sikhs. During the Taliban regime, the Hindu minority was forced to wear yellow badges when they went out in public, and Hindu women had to wear the Islamic-style hijab. Today, only a few Hindus remain.

Afghanistan is a land-locked country bordering on Iran to the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan to the north, a tiny border with China at the northeast, and Pakistan to the east and south.

Its total area is 647,500 square kilometers (almost 250,000 square miles).

Most of Afghanistan is in the Hindu Kush Mountains, with some lower-lying desert areas. The highest point is Nowshak, at 7,486 meters (24,560 feet). The lowest is the Amu Darya River Basin, at 258 meters (846 feet).

An arid and mountainous country, Afghanistan has little cropland; a scant 12 percent is arable, and only 0.2 percent is under permanent crop-cover.

The climate of Afghanistan is very dry and seasonal, with temperatures varying by altitude. Kabul's average January temperature is 0 degrees Celsius (32 Fahrenheit), while noon temperatures in July often reach 38 Celsius (100 Fahrenheit). Jalalabad can hit 46 Celsius (115 Fahrenheit) in the summer.

Most of the precipitation that falls in Afghanistan comes in the form of winter snow. The nation-wide annual average is only 25-30 centimeters (10 to 12 inches), but snow drifts in the mountain valleys can reach depths of over 2 meters.

The desert experiences sandstorms, carried on winds moving at up to 177 kph (110 mph).

Afghanistan is among the poorest countries on Earth. The per capita GDP is $1,900 US, and about 36 percent of the population live under the poverty line.

The economy of Afghanistan receives large infusions of foreign aid, totaling billions of U.S. dollars annually. It has been undergoing a recovery, in part by the return of over five million expatriates and new construction projects.

The country's most valuable export is opium; eradication efforts have had mixed success. Other export goods include wheat, cotton, wool, handwoven rugs, and precious stones. Afghanistan imports much of its food and energy.

Agriculture employs 80 percent of the labor force, industry and services 10 percent each. The unemployment rate is 35 percent.

The currency is the afghani. As of 2016, $1 US = 69 afghani.

Afghanistan was settled at least 50,000 years ago. Early cities such as Mundigak and Balkh sprang up around 5,000 years ago; they likely were affiliated with the Aryan culture of India.

Around 700 B.C., the Median Empire expanded its rule to Afghanistan. The Medes were an Iranian people, rivals of the Persians. By 550 B.C., the Persians had displaced the Medians, establishing the Achaemenid Dynasty.

Alexander the Great of Macedonia invaded Afghanistan in 328 B.C., founding a Hellenistic empire with its capital at Bactria (Balkh). The Greeks were displaced around 150 B.C.

by the Kushans and later the Parthians, nomadic Iranians. The Parthians ruled until about 300 A.D., when the Sassanians took control.

Most Afghans were Hindu, Buddhist or Zoroastrian at that time, but an Arab invasion in 642 A.D. introduced Islam. The Arabs defeated the Sassanians and ruled until 870, at which time they were driven out again by the Persians.

In 1220, Mongol warriors under Genghis Khan conquered Afghanistan, and descendants of the Mongols would rule much of the region until 1747.

In 1747, the Durrani Dynasty was founded by Ahmad Shah Durrani, an ethnic Pashtun. This marked the origin of modern Afghanistan.

The nineteenth century witnessed increasing Russian and British competition for influence in Central Asia, in "The Great Game." Britain fought two wars with the Afghans, in 1839-1842 and 1878-1880. The British were routed in the first Anglo-Afghan War but took control of Afghanistan's foreign relations after the second.

Afghanistan was neutral in World War I, but Crown Prince Habibullah was assassinated for purported pro-British ideas in 1919. Later that year, Afghanistan attacked India, prompting the British to relinquish control over Afghan foreign affairs.

Habibullah's younger brother Amanullah reigned from 1919 until his abdication in 1929. His cousin, Nadir Khan, became king but lasted only four years before he was assassinated.

Nadir Khan's son, Mohammad Zahir Shah, then took the throne, ruling from 1933 to 1973. He was ousted in a coup by his cousin Sardar Daoud, who declared the country a republic. Daoud was ousted in turn in 1978 by the Soviet-backed PDPA, which instituted Marxist rule. The Soviets took advantage of the political instability to invade in 1979; they would remain for ten years.

Warlords ruled from 1989 until the extremist Taliban took power in 1996. The Taliban regime was ousted by U.S.-led forces in 2001 for its support of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. A new Afghan government was formed, supported by the International Security Force of the United Nations Security Council. The new government continued to receive help from US-led NATO troops to battle Taliban insurgencies and shadow governments. The US war in Afghanistan was officially ended December 28, 2014.

Read this article:
Afghanistan Country Facts and History

From Afghanistan to Libya, US Pentagon officials are increasingly concerned by mounting Russian military and diplomatic activity they believed is aimed at undermining the US and NATO.

Some of the actions Moscow is accused of participating in include sending operatives to support an armed faction in Libya and providing political legitimacy -- and maybe even supplies -- to the Taliban in Afghanistan. These moves come on top of their overt dispatching of warplanes and ships to target the political opponents of its ally in Syria.

"It is my view that they are trying to increase their influence in this critical part of the globe," Gen. Joseph Votel, who oversees US forces in the region, told the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this month.

Military commanders and analysts see Moscow's efforts as aimed at taking advantage of the geopolitical turbulence in the Middle East to re-establish Russia as a major player in the region and by extension the world stage.

The Soviet Union maintained a substantial military presence there during the Cold War, propping up an array of anti-Western regimes to counterbalance American partners and extend its geopolitical sphere of influence.

But shifting alliances, including a rapprochement between the US and Egypt, as well as the collapse of the USSR in 1991 caused Russian troops to mostly depart the Middle East.

"Russia is certainly expanding its influence and trying to reestablish itself as a superpower," Bill Roggio of the Washington-based Foundation for the Defense of Democracies told CNN.

Roggio, managing editor of The Long War Journal, said the efforts were a new form of "growing Russian imperialism" that were also intended to "undermine the US and NATO."

"What all these Kremlin actions show is that Putin cares more about dividing and undermining the West than anything else," Anna Borshchevskaya of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy told CNN.

In Afghanistan, US intelligence agencies once backed an insurgency aimed at ejecting Soviet troops in order to weaken an overextended Moscow. The Soviet Union's costly 1979 invasion of Afghanistan involved tens of thousands of ground troops and resulted in a damaging withdrawal in 1989 that many historians view as precipitating the fall of the USSR.

Now American military officers see a growing Russian effort to bolster the Taliban's legitimacy and undercut NATO's military effort there, seemingly disregarding the harsh lessons of its previous invasion -- or perhaps seeing a chance at ironic form of revenge for America's Cold War efforts.

America's top military officer in Europe, Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, said Thursday that Russia had increased its support to the Afghan Taliban, including potentially the provision of supplies.

"I've seen the influence of Russia of late, increased influence in terms of association and perhaps even supply to the Taliban," Scaparrotti told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Scaparrotti, who is also NATO's top military commander, did not specify what kind of war materiel the Russians might be supplying to the Taliban.

Moscow denied the accusation Friday.

Zamir Kabulov, a Russian Foreign Ministry official, told Russian state media Ria Novosti, "It is an absolutely false claim, we have reacted to this multiple times. It doesn't deserve any reaction as these announcements are inventions, designed to justify the failure of the American political and military campaigns. We cannot find any other explanation."

Votel and the commander of international forces in Afghanistan, Gen. John Nicholson, have both previously said that Moscow is trying to undermine the government in Kabul and provide political legitimacy to the Taliban by saying the insurgent group was fighting ISIS, a notion that experts and NATO military officials reject.

Roggio said that while there had been reports of Russia arming the Taliban in the past, he called Scaparrotti's comments the "first significant" official remarks on the issue.

Of particular concern to US officials was a series of meetings held in Moscow in December concerning Afghanistan's future, which included neighboring countries with Taliban representatives reportedly on the sidelines but no representation from the internationally recognized government in Kabul.

Moscow's actions in Afghanistan in particular are seen as part of a bid to undermine NATO and to better their position in the case of a Taliban victory should the US withdraw from the country.

In Libya, US military intelligence has detected Russian forces at an airbase in far western Egypt close to the Libyan border, a deployment that US officials see as part growing Russian interference in that civil war-torn nation.

While the US would like to see the UN-backed Government of National Accord in the country's west prevail over, Russia has been reaching out to Gen. Khalifa Haftar, a military commander who exercises control over the country's east as well.

Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, the commander of US troops in Africa, called Russian activities in Libya "very concerning" while appearing on Capitol Hill alongside Votel earlier in March.

"They are on the ground, they are trying to influence the action, we watch what they do with great concern," Waldhauser elaborated while speaking to reporters at the Pentagon Friday.

"In addition to the military side of this, we have seen some recent activities in business ventures, whether its oil, whether its weapons sales," he added.

It's a concern recently echoed by the NATO Deputy Secretary General, Rose Gottemoeller, who drew attention to Moscow's presence in Libya.

"I am very concerned about Russian forces seemingly gathering to influence the situation there. It troubles me very, very much," she told an audience in Brussels on Saturday.

Russia has engaged repeatedly with Haftar, even going so far as to fly him out to a Russian air craft carrier for a formal visit. But the Kremlin also recently hosted the Prime Minister from the rival Government of National Accord.

"Russia is trying to exert influence on the ultimate decision of who becomes and what entity becomes in charge of the government inside Libya," Waldhauser said earlier this month, saying that Moscow was trying to replicate what it had achieved in Syria, where it has amassed considerable influence by being the military savior of the embattled regime.

Analysts see Moscow's support of secular strongmen in Syria and Libya while simultaneously offering some support to the Taliban in Afghanistan and working with Iran in Syria as indicative of Russia's willingness to forgo ideology as it seeks to expand its influence.

Borshchevskaya of the Washington Institute, who focuses on Russia's role in the Middle East, added that Moscow appears particularly interested in the Mediterranean, and through its diplomatic efforts and stationing of military assets, is seeking to boost its presence there, as it's traditionally been a stronghold of NATO.

But faced with an economy battered by low oil prices and international sanctions over its actions in Ukraine, Russia interventions are being waged largely on the cheap.

Outside of Syria, Moscow has largely avoided a robust military intervention, preferring clandestine aid and diplomatic maneuvers.

"Putin appears quite cognizant of his limitations and is avoiding a second Afghanistan scenario for Russia," Borshchevskaya said.

The less ambitious involvement, according to Roggo, means that, "For now it appears to be costs they can absorb."

And experts see Moscow's actions as taking advantage of what Putin viewed as a US pull back from the region following Washington's decision to not intervene in the Libyan or Syrian civil wars and its drawdowns in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Broadly speaking, Putin has been stepping into vacuums wherever the West retreated," Borshchevskaya, said.

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Resurgent Russian military expanding into Afghanistan, Libya

Economic Times

4 missiles fired into Pakistan from Afghanistan The Hindu Four missiles fired from Afghanistan on Sunday landed in northwest Pakistan's restive tribal region bordering Afghanistan, officials said. One of the missiles hit a shop and other landed near a mosque in Shungak area in the remote Parachinar in Kurram ... Four missiles fired into Pakistan from AfghanistanEconomic Times 4 missiles fired into Kurram Agency from Afghanistan: political admin ...Geo News, Pakistan Missiles fired into Pakistan from Afghanistan, no casualties | SAMAA ...SAMAA TV Daily Times -The Nation -ARY NEWS all 12 news articles »

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4 missiles fired into Pakistan from Afghanistan - The Hindu

Dr Mohammad Ashraf Ghani will become the first Afghan President to visit Australia when he arrives in the country on Sunday.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Afghanistan and Australia shared a solid connection which has been forged over more than a century.

"During this visit, discussions will focus on our ongoing security and development co-operation to help Afghanistan in its efforts to become more prosperous, secure and self-reliant," Mr Turnbull said.

"In particular, we will seek to enhance partnership between our nations in a number of fields including women's and girls' empowerment, public sector capacity building and agricultural productivity."

Dr Ghani's visit to Australia is due to wrap up on Wednesday.

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Originally posted here:
President of Afghanistan visits Australia - 9news.com.au

By Shadi Khan Saif

KABUL, Afghanistan

Kabul confirmed on Sunday its participation in the upcoming international conference on Afghanistan in Moscow later this month.

Russia is poised to host Afghanistan, China, India, Pakistan, Iran and a number of Central Asian states for its third round of talks to explore prospects for peace in the country in mid-April.

The U.S. has declined to attend the conference, saying it was not consulted in advance.

Shah Hussain Murtazwi, presidential spokesman, told the media in Kabul Sunday the Afghan government would attend it.

Murtazwi indicated the deputy foreign minister or one of the directors at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would fly to Moscow to join representatives of other participating countries.

Afghanistan does not want to be turned into a battlefield for the interests of other countries. Our effort is to converge interests, the fight against terrorism should be a collective struggle.

The level of destruction Afghanistan is witnessing due to terrorism can also be seen by the U.S. and Russia, as well as the countries of the region, he said.

Murtazawi said Afghanistan should be part of all conferences that discuss its fate.

In December 2016, Moscow hosted Pakistan and China to discuss the emerging threat of Daesh in Afghanistan. Kabul lamented the exclusion of Afghanistan in this session.

In February, however, Russia hosted officials from Afghanistan as well as Pakistan, China, Iran and India in another round of talks on the war-ravaged country.

The string of such diplomatic endeavors emerge at a time when reports suggest Russian contacts with the Afghan Taliban militant.

Several Afghan officials accuse Iran and Russia of supporting and even equipping the militants who wage war on the U.S.-led foreign troops in an ongoing campaign that entered its 16th year.

On Saturday, a former Taliban commander in northern province of Balk bordering Uzbekistan levelled a similar allegation against Tehran and Moscow.

Khan Mohammad Cherik addressed a public gathering after surrendering along with up to 200 of his fighters to the Afghan government.

We left the Taliban because Mullah Hebatullah Akhund [Talibans current leader] has struck a deal with the Russians that has allowed them [Russians] to support and equip all groups including the Taliban, the Daesh, the Uzbekistanis [Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan IMU] and others to keep fighting against the government of Afghanistan, Cherik said.

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Kabul to attend conference on Afghanistan in Moscow - Anadolu Agency