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At the White House, President Donald Trump gathered a group of US service members in the Roosevelt Room to talk about the Afghanistan War.

And less than a mile away a group of teens, most of whom have never lived in an Afghanistan without Americans serving at war in it, symbolized another view of life on the ground: the young generation that has grown up with an international presence in the country and that wants and works to be connected to the world well beyond its borders.

"For this new generation, things are different," Mahboob told me. "They want to be leaders in science and technology. They are very proud, they have full confidence. When we asked them to compete, if they could represent Afghanistan in this competition, they all said, 'Yes we can.' "

"I was surprised," Mahboob says.

Mahboob was only the start. These girls are now surprising Washington and the world as they travel far from home and offer those they meet a glimpse of a new Afghanistan, one whose fate is not yet clear, but whose stakes most certainly are.

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All-girl robotics team symbolizes a new Afghanistan - CNN International

Fans enjoy the Afghanistan Premier League match between De Maiwand Atalan and Simorgh Alborz in Kabul. Photograph: Wakil Kohsar/AFP

The last time Afghan football attracted the attention of the global media, it was all down to a plastic bag, a young boy and his idol. Lionel Messi met Murtaza Ahmadi in December after a picture of the five-year old in his homemade blue-and-white striped replica shirt had captured the worlds sympathy.

After Ahmadi was tracked down to the Ghazni province in eastern Afghanistan, the UNs child refugee agency arranged a meeting with Messi in Doha, before a friendly between Barcelona and Al-Ahli, where he was also the official mascot. The unfortunate and telling consequence of this moment of fame was that the Murtaza family had to move to Pakistan shortly afterwards because of fears the boy would be kidnapped, an all too common occurrence in his own country.

Such an incident highlights the problems in a country that remains fiercely divided after decades of violent infighting and tempestuous conflict. This troubled history is the backdrop to the impressive work that has gone into establishing the Afghan Premier League over the last five years. There are only eight teams competing in the league, the season only lasts for three months from August to October and all 18 matches are played in one city, but the fact that this league exists at all is an affirmation of the good football can sometimes bring under the most difficult circumstances.

Although there had been organised competitions before the Afghan Premier League began in 2012 the same year that NATO officially announced its planned withdrawal of troops the establishment of this competition, the first professional league in Afghanistan, represented a big step up for the countrys football fans.

Football has always been popular in Afghanistan. The sports governing body, the Afghanistan Football Federation (AFF), was set up in 1933, became a Fifa member in 1948 (when they played their first official game at the London 1948 Olympics and lost 6-0 to Luxembourg) and has been part of the Asian Football Confederation since 1954.

Under the Taliban regime from 1996 until 2001, football was barely tolerated and there were tales of raids on matches or even games being postponed because of fighting, which created an atmosphere of intimidation and intervention. Occasionally there were brutal punishments meted out, including public executions carried out in stadiums at half-time. Despite the attempts to return Afghan life to some sort of normality over the last few years, the Taliban remain a force in the country. So, for security reasons, the leagues matches are restricted to two stadiums in Kabul, the capital city.

As befits a country that has grown accustomed to the influence of external forces and assistance, a range of international partners have underpinned the game financially. Fifa has invested $1.5m since 2005 mainly in improving pitches and building the headquarters of the AFF. Both the German Football Association and the English Premier League have been involved, with the Premier League funding coaching schemes through its Premier Skills initiative in conjunction with the British Council. Even the British government have been active. David Cameron and Michael Owen shared a military bunk bed when they flew to Camp Bastion in December 2013 to announce an FA scheme to bring talented young Afghan players to St Georges Park. And the Japanese government has paid for floodlights so games can be played in the evening and fans can watch them on primetime TV when the new season kicks off in a few weeks.

The eight teams that participate in the Premier League represent the countrys eight main regions. In last years final, De Maiwand Atalan, the club from the south west region, an area that remains a Taliban stronghold and a centre of insurgency, met Shaheen Asmayee from Kabul, the very heart of the government. That two football teams from opposite ends of the political spectrum were able to meet and play out an entertaining final in front of a full house was an encouraging sign for the country.

As with any football league, television is the crucial medium. Every game is broadcast live on two national television channels, TOLO and Lemar TV, but the importance of television to the league is even more fundamental than that. When the league was established, a few players from each squad were selected through a reality television show called Green Field. Although a rather gimmicky ploy, it did succeed in drawing attention to the fledgling league. The 2016 final was watched by an estimated 57% of the potential audience, which suggests the league is succeeding in its bid to unite the country through football. As APL co-founder Chris McDonald told the BBC: Football is becoming a passion here, it brings a lot of joy and happiness, and is something that we are going to keep doing.

However impressive those viewing figures might seem, they do not translate into riches for the players. Ticket prices are set at $0.5 (with VIP seats costing up to $1.5) and players are given a daily allowance of around $12, which they can supplement with sponsorship deals and other jobs.

The league has coincided with an exponential rise in participation. There were just under 20,000 registered players in 2006 but this figure shot up to 54,000 in 2015. Encouragingly, more than 1,000 of those registered are women players and they have formed their own league, something that could never have been even contemplated in the recent past. There is still some resistance to the concept of women playing football from the most conservative in society but on International Womens Day last March, Danish sportswear firm Hummel launched a specially designed kit for the national team with an inbuilt hijab.

There is now a solid base from which to grow mens and womens football in Afghanistan. Earlier this year the current league champions Shaheen Asmayee became the first Afghan club to take part in the AFC Cup, the regional equivalent of the Europa League. They lost their qualifying play-off against Tajikistan club Khosilot Farkhor 1-0 over two legs, suggesting they are not too far off making it further in the competition in future years, which would be another significant milestone for Afghan football.

The national team has already enjoyed some success on the continent. They won the South Asian Football Championship in 2013 the year after the APL was set up by beating India 2-0 in the final, and their next aim is to qualify for the AFC Asian Football Cup, which will be hosted by the UAE in 2019. Some of the national team play in the APL but many have moved abroad. Milad Salem, a forward born in Kabul, has made his living in the German leagues and Noor Husin is now following suit in England.

Husin escaped war-torn Mazar-i-Sharif aged five and moved to England, where he joined Readings academy. Earlier this year he became the first Afghan to play a professional game in England when he scored on his debut for Accrington Stanley in a 2-0 win against Notts County. Husin is on the books at Crystal Palace, where he has featured in match-day squads but not yet made an appearance on the pitch. If things go well for him in the Premier League perhaps youngsters in Afghanistan will be writing his name on the back of their shirts in the near future. Hopefully they will not have to customise a plastic bag to do so or be forced to emigrate as a result.

This article is from the author of The Agony and the Ecstasy Follow Richard Foster on Twitter

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Afghanistan's unlikely football league: eight teams, 18 matches and one city - The Guardian

In sidelining justice for peace, Afghanistan has wound up enjoying neither.

By Neha Dwivedi for The Diplomat

July 20, 2017

Earlier this month, former warlord and Afghanistans first vice president Abdul Rashid Dostum met with the leaders of two Afghan mainstream political parties to discuss the need to reform the government. Another warlord and Balkhs governor Atta Mohammad Noor accused President Ashraf Ghani of monopolizing power and political autocracy.

Against the the backdrop of a bloody offensive by the Taliban and a political crisis unfolding in Kabul, the key issue of justice has once again come under question. With the warlords now threatening the stability of the government, the Afghan governments approach usingamnestyto achieve peace has come to haunt Afghanistans transition toward democracy.

Limitless Amnesty

Amnesty has been a long-accepted strategy to end hostility and forge peace agreements. Providing amnesty for certain crimesis one of the elements of the disarmament process, meant for achieving peace and stability. The importance of amnesty is reflected in Article 6(5) of Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions, which talks about granting the broadest possible amnesty to persons who have participated in hostilities. The article, however, doesnt specify what crimes are entitled tothe provision of amnesty.

To avoid confusion, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in its reinterpretation of the article, asserted that the article encouraged amnesty only for wartime crimes of hostility that are consistent with international humanitarian obligations and not for war crimes that would violate them. The hostility here may refer to acts of mere hostility such as treason, sedition, and rebellion. While amnesty remains an important aspect of the peace-building process, there is increasing recognition that limitless amnesty may hurt the process of state building. Internationally, there are growing demands for statesto prosecute certain crimes such as genocide, torture, and selected war crimes.

The failure of former Afghan President Hamid Karzai to document past war crimes and the decision of Ghani to continue with the Amnesty Law, which provides blanket amnesty to those involved in the past and present conflicts, brought into light the need for transitional justice in Afghanistan. There has been a growing demand among Afghan civil society activists that the International Criminal Court (ICC) must open investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan. One member of the Afghanistan Transitional Justice Coordination Group, Horia Mosadiq, while calling upon the ICC to initiate a full investigation into the situation in Afghanistan, said:

We have witnessed the adoption of six peace agreements in the last 40 years, each accompanied by blanket amnesties for perpetrators of the most heinous crimes in the name of peace. Today we have neither peace nor justice for the thousands of victims still suffering from the waves of repression and violence in Afghanistan. It is time for accountability for these crimes.

According to the 2016 report by the ICC Office of the Prosecutor (OTP), since the Afghan government signed the Rome statute on May 1, 2003, war crimes and crimes against humanity have occurred in Afghanistan butno one had been prosecuted for such crimes in this period so far. As the OTP deliberated its decision to ask the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber to open an investigation, the Afghan government requested a delay, as such an act could derail the peace deal with Hezb-i-Islami and its leader, GulbuddinHekmatyar. According to a Human Rights Watch report, at the height of fighting in July and August 2002, Hekmatyars forces destroyed hundreds of homes in Kabul and raped women during offensive operations.

As part of the peace deal between the Afghan government and Hezb-i-Islami, Hekmatyars name was removed from the UN sanctions list. This was done in the hope that the Taliban would follow suit and join a similar peace process. But, this appears far from happening, considering Talibans growing offensive in the region.

In his speech at the Presidential Palace in May 2017, Hekmatyar stressed the importanceof forgetting the past. He added thatthere is no court in Afghanistan to prosecute warlords. The government is not strong enough to do so. Personally, I am not interested in the prosecution. This appears to be true in the case of Dostum who allegedly ordered the torture and rape of a former politician and ex-governor of Jawzjan province, Ahmed Ishchi. Even as Ghanis attorney general opened a criminal case against Dostum and his nine bodyguards, Dostum flew to Turkey with no charges filed against him. He had done so previously in 2008 over allegations that his personal militia had abducted, beaten, and sexually assaulted a political rival in Kabul. The failure of the Afghan government to prosecute Dostum reflects the shortcomings of Afghan judicial institutions.

The lack of clarity to address certain crimes remains a concern for the credibility and legitimacy of the Afghan government. Although the Cabinet approved a new draft penal code to criminalize war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity, and aggression on March 2, 2017, it is yet to approved by the Parliament.

In the last three decades, no party in Afghanistan has shown interest in demanding justice for past crimes. The politics of accommodation and short-term measures for achieving stability have further delayed the progress to bring forth the truth. In a country that is still in the conflict phase, transitional justice remains a young field. As often argued by proponents of justice-based transitions, the failure of governments to hold perpetrators of grave crime responsible could lead to retributive violence, and a descent back into civil war. As the same warlords, some of whom have now become politicians, threaten to overturn the government, it remains to be seen if Ghanis gambit for peace over justice pays off or costs the people of Afghanistan a stable government.

Neha Dwivedi is a postgraduate research scholar at the Department of Geopolitics and International Relations, Manipal University.

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Afghanistan: Choosing Peace Over Justice - The Diplomat

The United States Department of State on Wednesday listed Pakistan among the nations and regions providing "safe havens" to terrorists.

The Afghan Ministry of Defense on Thursday welcomed the United States decision to list Pakistan among the nations and regions providing "safe havens" to terrorists.

The Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanish said Afghanistan wants terrorists safe havens eliminated in Pakistan.

Pakistan must be pressurized in order to fight against terrorism and oust them (terrorists) from that country, Radmanish stated.

On Wednesday, the United States Department of State listed Pakistan among the nations and regions providing "safe havens" to terrorists, saying terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed continue to operate, train, organise and fundraise inside the country in 2016.

In its annual 'Country Report on Terrorism', as mandated by the Congress, the U.S. State Department said that Pakistani military and security forces undertook operations against groups that conducted attacks within Pakistan such as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.

"Pakistan did not take substantial action against the Afghan Taliban or Haqqani, or substantially limit their ability to threaten U.S. interests in Afghanistan, although Pakistan supported efforts to bring both groups into an Afghan-led peace process," the State Department said.

"Pakistan did not take sufficient action against other externally focused groups, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) in 2016, which continued to operate, train, organize, and fundraise in Pakistan," the report said.

In a separate chapter, the State Department listed Pakistan as one of the safe havens of terrorism.

The State Department said that numerous terrorist groups, including the Haqqani Network (HQN), the LeT and JeM continued to operate from Pakistani soil in 2016.

"Although LeT is banned in Pakistan, LeT's wings Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FiF) were able to openly engage in fundraising, including in the capital," it said.

"LeT's chief Hafiz Saeed (a UN-designated terrorist) continued to address large rallies, although in February 2017, Pakistan proscribed him under relevant provisions of Schedule Four of the Anti-Terrorism Act, thus severely restricting his freedom of movement," it noted.

The 2015 ban on media coverage of Saeed, JuD, and FiF continued and was generally followed by broadcast and print media, it said.

According to the State Department, the Pakistani government did not publicly reverse its December 2015 declaration that neither JuD nor FiF is banned in Pakistan, despite their listing under UN sanctions regimes, although in January 2017, Pakistan placed both organizations "under observation" pursuant to Schedule Two of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Meanwhile, a number of Afghan analysts said they welcome the Afghan governments efforts to convince the international community to put more pressure on Pakistan.

Afghanistan should conduct its lobbying activities smartly in this situation in order to sideline Pakistan, said Nasrullah Stanekzai, university lecturer.

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Afghanistan Welcomes US Move Against Pakistan - TOLOnews

The U.S. Air Force data indicates that 1,634 munitions had been drooped in Afghanistan as of June and majority of the airstrikes had targeted the Taliban.

Newly released U.S. Air Force figures indicate that Donald Trump's administration has ramped up the American air war in Afghanistan, dropping 1,634 bombs on terrorists so far this year.

The figures shows an increase of more than 65 percent from the 545 airstrikes launched during the same period in 2016, military data shows.

According to the U.S. Air Force figures, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) had dropped 1,634 munitions in Afghanistan as of June 30, marking a dramatic increase from the same period in 2015 (298) and the following year (545).

CENTCOM oversees U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and the Middle East.

The data shows that the number of munitions dropped in Afghanistan this year has already exceeded the total 947 and 1,337 during all of 2015 and 2016, respectively.

According to a report by the Washington Post, U.S. Navy Capt. Bill Salvin, a spokesman for the U.S.-led mission in Afghanistan, indicated that majority of the airstrikes launched this year have targeted the Taliban.

The report added that the U.S. military also attacked the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) also known as Daesh, but to a lesser extent.

By the time U.S. President Dolan Trump took office, the Taliban had gained control of more territory than during any other time since the U.S. military removed it from power in 2001.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama declared the U.S. combat mission over in Afghanistan at the end of 2014.

The U.S. Air Force figures show that the number of airstrikes decreased nearly every full year after 2014, which covers American airstrikes between 2012 and the end of June of this year.

The number of bombs launched so far this year is on track to come close to the 4,083 dropped in 2012, the figures show. American military pilots dropped more bombs in 2012 than during any other year covered by the U.S. Air Force data.

By the end of 2012, the Obama surge troops had returned home, and his withdrawal plans were underway.

U.S. president has granted the military broader authority to target jihadists in Afghanistan, allowing the Pentagon to set the number for the expected increase in the U.S. military's footprint in the war-ravaged country.

On Tuesday, Trump had lunch with a group of senior service members in a bid to come up with ideas on fighting the war in Afghanistan.

Trump said before the lunch that he wants "to find out why we've been there for 17 years, how it's going and what we should do in terms of additional ideas."

He said: "We have plenty of ideas from a lot of people, but I want to hear it from people on the ground." This comes as Trumps aides search for an improved strategy in tackling the war a war that has been ongoing for 17 years.

It was widely expected that Trumps new strategy would be unveiled by mid-July, however this has not happened.

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Report Shows US Has Ramped Up Its Airstrikes In Afghanistan - TOLOnews