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Snow-capped mountains in Badakhshan province, Afghanistan. Landslides are common in the remote, mountainous area, often caused by heavy rain and snow. Massoud Hossaini/AP hide caption

Snow-capped mountains in Badakhshan province, Afghanistan. Landslides are common in the remote, mountainous area, often caused by heavy rain and snow.

At least 30 workers were killed and several others injured when a gold mine in northeastern Afghanistan collapsed Sunday, local officials said.

Nek Mohammad Nazari, a spokesman for the provincial governor, told Agence France-Presse the victims were illegally searching for gold and had dug deep in a riverbed in the Kohistan district of Badakhshan province when the walls caved in.

Local villagers and the Taliban alike rely heavily on illegal mining for revenue in the region.

"The villagers have been involved in this business for decades with no government control over them," Nazari said. "We have sent a rescue team to the area, but villagers have already started removing bodies from the site."

Sanaullah Rohani, a spokesman for the police chief in Badakhshan, told the Associated Press about 50 people were working in the mine at the time of the collapse and a number of victims are in critical condition. Rohani said the tragedy was caused by a landslide.

Landslides are common in the remote, mountainous area, often caused by heavy rain and snow. In 2014, a pair of huge mudslides killed hundreds of people in Badakhshan province. As many as 2,500 people reportedly may have died in that disaster.

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At least 30 workers killed in Afghanistan gold mine collapse ...

The men and women who fought and bled in the Middle East wars of the past three decades are going to get a welcome home next May at an Omaha landmark that was once synonymous with veteran homecomings in Nebraska.

The party for Purple Heart and valor award recipients of the Iraq, Afghanistan and Gulf Wars will take place May 24 at the Durham Museum, the former railroad station where thousands of their World War II predecessors returned from war zones.

The event will follow a whirlwind 24 hours that will begin with a tribute dinner, continue with a pre-dawn flight to Washington, D.C., like earlier Honor Flights, and culminate in a trolley ride and parade through the Old Market to the Durham.

With it being downtown, we think it will really add to the celebration of welcome home, said Evonne Williams, co-founder with her husband, Bill, of Patriotic Productions, the nonprofit that is putting together the event. We think people will embrace it come on downtown and wave the flags and the signs.

The Williamses said the flight will be open to anyone who was wounded in Operation Desert Storm, the brief 1991 campaign to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait, or in the post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They will also take veterans who earned a Bronze Star with a V device for valor or higher-level valor awards such as a Silver Star or service cross. (No Nebraskan has yet earned the highest award, the Medal of Honor, in any of those conflicts.)

Theyll be joined on the flight by the Gold Star children of Nebraska service members who were killed in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Since 2008, Patriotic Productions has taken 16 planeloads of Nebraska veterans to Washington on the one-day trips. The last flight, in September, carried female veterans ages 27 to 98.

The Williamses are planning a fundraising dinner on March 2 in Blair featuring music by the 60s band Gary Lewis and the Playboys. Lewis, the son of the late comedian Jerry Lewis, is a Vietnam-era Army veteran.

This flight has special meaning because the Williamses four sons have all served in the military since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Two served in war zones. Ben Williams, an Army captain, deployed three times to Iraq. Tom Williams, a Marine captain, deployed once to Afghanistan. Both came home safely.

Weve certainly lived through these wars since the towers fell, Evonne Williams said.

Retired Marine 1st Sgt. Wade Jensen is one of about a dozen veterans who have already signed up for the Purple Heart flight.

A native of Friend, Nebraska, he grew up idolizing the men in his community who had served in World War II. Their example inspired him to join the Marines.

There was a World War II vet on every block in my hometown, said Jensen, who is 47.

Jensen entered boot camp in September 1990. He barely missed serving in the Gulf War early the next year. His first assignment was as a radio operator in a tank unit in Okinawa made up entirely of Gulf War veterans.

Jensen was in Okinawa again when terrorists attacked targets in New York and Washington on 9/11.

Eighteen months later, Jensen was part of the Marine force that invaded Iraq in the spring of 2003. He was wounded on his second deployment, which began in late 2004. He was embedded with a newly trained Iraqi army unit in Mosul.

On Feb. 11, 2005, he and another Marine had been conducting a reconnaissance walk through a residential neighborhood. The occupants of a car jumped out and began firing rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons.

Jensen was briefly blinded by a flash but continued to fight until the men in the car were repelled. He ducked behind a wall and took a knee, feeling short of breath. The other Marine pulled off Jensens flak vest.

He said, Oh (expletive), Gunny, you took one, Jensen recalled.

He was taken to an aid station on the main base in Mosul. Doctors there found that the bullet had penetrated his right shoulder and exited through his neck. It barreled through muscle a Roto-Rooter through injury, as Jensen describes it and missed his spinal cord by just a centimeter.

But not wanting to leave his fellow Marines behind, Jensen refused a medical evacuation to Germany and finished his tour.

Things became so damn painful after I got back, I couldnt stand it, Jensen said. I just continued to suck it up because I was scared to death of getting put out for medical reasons.

He couldnt deploy anymore. But in 2007, he drew an assignment as the enlisted leader of a Marine detachment at Fort Omaha. He served there until he retired in 2011.

Since then, Jensen has earned a business degree at Bellevue University, and still works there at the Military Veteran Services Center. He continues to suffer chronic neck pain and migraines because of his war wounds.

That hasnt stopped him from leading the local chapter of the Military Order of the Purple Heart. Nor has it stopped him from getting up early to see off veterans on Patriotic Productions previous flights to Washington.

Whenever theres an opportunity to recognize these veterans, Ill do it, he said.

The Williamses have said after their past several flights that they planned no more. But so far, they have consistently found a reason for just one more. This time, its to honor the wounded and the valorous men and women from the most recent wars, and their families.

And hopefully, to help them heal. Veterans who have flown on previous flights have said they found the trips therapeutic.

Wed love to err on the side of helping these guys out, Evonne Williams said. Maybe itll save some lives.

Highest rank achieved: Petty officer, 3rd class

Years of service: 1967-1971

Where served: Okinawa, Japan and Rota, Spain

Highest rank achieved: Master sergeant

Where served: Aleutian Islands, Germany, England, Korea, Vietnam

Highest rank achieved: Private first class

Years of service: 2004-2008 active, 2008-2010 Reserves

Highest rank achieved: Sergeant

Years of service: 2014-present

Where served: Afghanistan

Highest rank achieved: Command sergeant major

Years of service: 1997-current

Where served: Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay

Highest rank achieved: Specialist

Where served: Afghanistan

Highest rank achieved: Corporal

Years of service: 2005-2016

Where served: Iraq, Afghanistan

Highest rank achieved: Staff sergeant

Highest rank achieved: Sergeant

Years of service: 1969-1971

Where served: Mediterranean, South China Sea, Philippines

Highest rank achieved: Corporal

Years of service: 1968-1970

Highest rank achieved: Sergeant

Highest rank achieved: Corporal

Years of service: 1943-1946

Where served: South Pacific; Sasebo, Japan

Highest rank achieved: Private first class

Years of service: 1945-1946

Where served: Philippines

Highest rank achieved: Staff sergeant

Years of service: Three years

Highest rank achieved: Chief electrician's mate

Years of service: Six years

Where served: Pearl Harbor, Bikini Atoll, South Pacific

Highest rank achieved: Captain

Years of service: Nine years

Where served: Italy, Liberia

Highest rank achieved: Technical sergeant

Years of service: 1943-1945

Where served: Southern Italy

Highest rank achieved: Chief warrant officer 2

Years of service: 1996-2016

Where served: Kuwait, Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan

Highest rank achieved: Sergeant

Years of service: 10 years

Where served: Afghanistan, Texas

Highest rank achieved: Colonel

Years of service: 30 years

Where served: Vietnam, England, Spain, Labrador

Highest rank achieved: Petty officer

Years of service: Four years

Highest rank achieved: Sergeant

Years of service: 23 years

Highest rank achieved: Radarman 2nd class

Years of service: One and a half years

Highest rank achieved: Petty officer, 3rd class

Years of service: 1951-1955

Highest rank achieved: Staff sergeant

Years of service: Six years

Highest rank achieved: Sergeant

Years of service: 1941-1945

Where served: France, Luxembourg, Germany, Belgium

Highest rank achieved: Corporal

Years of service: Four years

Highest rank achieved: Specialist

Years of service: 1966-1970

Highest rank achieved: Colonel

Where served: Germany, France, Vietnam

Highest rank achieved: 2nd lieutenant

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Iraq, Afghanistan vets will get welcome in Old Market ...

An Afghan fruit vendor pushes his cart along a roadside near the Eid Gah Mosque in Kabul on Jan. 6, 2019. (Credit: Shakib Rahmani/AFP/Getty Images)

An Afghan fruit vendor pushes his cart along a roadside near the Eid Gah Mosque in Kabul on Jan. 6, 2019. (Credit: Shakib Rahmani/AFP/Getty Images)

At least 30 Afghan villagers searching for gold in a riverbed perished on Sunday in a flash flood in northeastern Badakhshan province, provincial officials said.

Along with those killed, dozens were also injured as a landslide and flash flood engulfed the river in the morning in Kohistan district, an area about 110 kilometers (68 miles), from Fayzabad, the capital of Badakhshan.

Nek Mohammad Nazari, the spokesman for the provincial governor, said the villagers had dug deep in the river, which had in the past been mined for gold, when they were caught in the flash flood. The casualty numbers could rise, he said.

The victims were villagers who were mining for gold illegally, according to the official. Rescue teams have been dispatched to the area to help in recovering the bodies, Nazari said.

Sanaullah Rohani, spokesman for the police chief in Badakhshan, said seven of the injured were in critical condition. According to Rohani, there were about 50 people illegally looking for gold at the time of the landslide.

Fawzia Kofi, a lawmaker form Badakhshan, gave a higher death toll for the tragedy, saying that 40 villagers were killed.

Afghanistan is a mountainous, land-locked nation that has huge, largely untouched reserves of copper, iron ore, chromite, mercury, zinc, gems, including rubies and emeralds, as well as gold and silver.

Mines are scattered across different provinces of the country, but still the government has not been able to achieve investments in this important sector or establish a thriving extraction industry.

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At Least 30 Dead in Afghanistan Flash Flood | KTLA

WithMeghna Chakrabarti

Theres been blowback following almost every Western engagement with Afghanistan. What are the lessons of history as the U.S. considers pulling troops out this time?

Thomas Barfield, anthropology professorat Boston University (). He researches systems of local governance and dispute resolution in Afghanistan. Author of "Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History."

Aaron B. O'Connell, professor of history at the University of Texas, Austin. Colonel in the Marine Corps reserve. He served in Afghanistan as special adviser to Gen. David Petraeus and later to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, from 2010 to 2011. Former director of defense policy and strategy on the Obama administration's National Security Council. Editor of "Our Latest Longest War: Losing Hearts and Minds in Afghanistan." ()

Los Angeles Times: "Opinion: The war in Afghanistan isnt a stalemate. The U.S. has lost" "With the sole exception of Vietnam, the ongoing Afghanistan war represents the greatest failure in U.S. military history. Today, all but a few diehards understand that Vietnam was a debacle of epic proportions. With Afghanistan, its different: In both political and military circles, the urge to dodge the truth remains strong.

"This may explain, at least in part, why the present commander in chief has yet to visit the war zone. For a president with an aversion to accepting responsibility, traveling to Afghanistan would call attention to a situation he prefers to ignore. After all, Donald Trump campaigned against the war and vowed if elected to end it forthwith. Once in office, however, he caved in to advisors urging him not only to continue the war but even to dispatch a contingent of reinforcements. Steering clear of Afghanistan allows Trump to sustain the pretense that the war is not actually his.

"If only by default, it becomes incumbent on the military itself to explain whats going on. With the Afghanistan war in its 18th year, Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, characterized the war as a 'stalemate' last month. Other high-ranking officers regularly use the same term."

CNN: "The evolving face of the US mission in Afghanistan" "Lieutenant Colonel Keith Benedict and Private First Class Brennen Bledsoe two different soldiers with very different stories are both fighting America's longest war in Afghanistan.

"'It's a privilege to lead soldiers in combat,' Benedict said on a crystal clear day at Kandahar Airfield. 'I think the fact that we have not had an attack in the United States since 2001 is testament to the fact that what we are doing here is working, and I am committed to doing everything I can while I am on ground here to achieving that.'

"Benedict is on his fifth deployment. He joined the military a month before 9/11 and deployed to Iraq in 2006 and 2007 and then to Haiti in 2010. He is now on his third deployment to Afghanistan.

"Bledsoe is on the same base. He was 3 years old when the 9/11 attacks happened and is on his first deployment.

"'I have a great group of guys that I am with, and I love being with them,' Bledsoe said. 'The training we get, the mission we are on, I feel like I am actually doing something for my country, and I am helping out Afghanistan. I am protecting my country, and it means the world to me.'

"These soldiers represent the evolving face of the US mission in Afghanistan over the 17-year long war from a mission to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden and al Qaeda's leadership to an effort to defeat the Taliban. In 2013, Afghan forces officially took the lead in fighting for the country's security, and the US mission shifted again to counterterrorism as well as advising and training the Afghan forces."

Washington Post: "We gave more than enough sacrifices: Afghans blast Trumps praise of the Soviet invasion" "Afghan officials on Thursday denounced President Trumps praise of the 1979 Soviet invasion and occupation of their country, which he described this week as a fight against terrorism, breaking with decades of Republican anti-communist dogma.

"According to the revisionist historical account Trump delivered during a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, 'the reason Russia was in Afghanistan was because terrorists were going into Russia.' He added: 'They were right to be there. The problem is, it was a tough fight.'

"The comments marked a surprising split with U.S. conservatives dating back to President Ronald Reagan, who saw the invasion as an attempt to spread communism and aided insurgent forces fighting Soviet troops."

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A History Of Western Engagement With Afghanistan And Where ...

Afghanistan,a landlocked Asian country, is experiencing the worst drought in the past five decades. The United Nations has estimated that 2 million people have been affected by the drought and that 1.4 million people are in need of urgent food assistance. Several years of low rainfall and snowfall have led to the seriousness of the drought in Afghanistan.

The drought has affected 20 provinces in the country. Almost 1.5 million people rely on agriculture products for food in these affected regions. It has majorly affected the planting of wheat and livestock pastures. The Famine Early Warning System Network has placed many regions in Afghanistan in a crisis state and some regions are even considered to be in emergency phases. Due to the drought in Afghanistan, the number of households in the crisis to emergency phases are expected to rise even more.

The recent drought in Afghanistan has added more pressure to the refugee and displaced person population in the region. Water levels are so low that, in some areas, dry wells are driving even more people to leave the country.

Continuous conflict and unemployment have been a typical factor of migration in Afghanistan, but now the drought adds to the problem. During the recent refugee crisis, Afghans were the second largest group of refugees. Countries like Iran and Pakistan are no longer welcoming Afghanistan refugees and are even encouraging refugees to return home. Those who are unable to leave the country move into urban cities in order to find work to provide for their family.

The European Union has recently added $22.7 million in emergency aid to the region in response to the severeness of the drought in Afghanistan. The recent funding will help to provide assistance to projects on the ground. These ground projects include food assistance, water, sanitation and health care.

A portion of this help will come from the EUs own Emergency Response Mechanism that provides assistance to vulnerable regions. The Humanitarian Country Team also plans to revise their Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) to ask for $177 million in aid to assist people affected by the drought. The revision of the HRP plans to reach 4.2 million people across the country in various aspects, especially agriculture, sanitation and nutrition. These programs aim to ensure food security in the region as the number of households in need of emergency assistance increases.

There is hope for the region to somewhat sustain itself. The coming of Fall and El Nino,routine climate pattern, are promising to planters in Afghanistan. El Nino is expected to provide more than average precipitation in the coming season. The areas planted for wheat are expected to be higher than average due to the prediction of high precipitation.

This prediction, however, is one of many and there are other outcomes for the spread of rainfall. Hopefully, rainfall will return to the region and provide farmers with the resources to plant and harvest. As long as the people in urgent need of humanitarian aid are assisted, there is hope to ensure food security for those most affected by the drought in Afghanistan.

Olivia HalliburtonPhoto: Flickr

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Drought in Afghanistan | The Borgen Project | Afghanistan