Archive for the ‘Afghanistan’ Category
As the Taliban doles out lashings, what have Afghan women and girls …
Afghanistan's Taliban rulers said over the weekend that 10 women and 11 men were lashed for crimes of theft, adultery and running away from their homes. The country's Supreme Court said each of those convicted was "lashed 39 times," in beatings meted out at the main mosque in the city of Taloqan, in the northern Takhar province, after Friday prayers last week. Local elders, scholars and residents watched.
A man and woman were also publicly lashed in a sports stadium last week in central Bamyan province, in what appeared to be the first official lashing implemented in the country since the Taliban retook power 15 months ago.
While the Taliban's harsh interpretation of Islamic "Shariah" law has had an undeniable impact on all Afghans, the country's women and girls have lost the most.
Below is a look at some of the most dramatic steps taken by the Taliban to systematically erase women from public life since August 2021, when the last U.S. soldier left the country.
During the 20 years of war that started with the U.S. and its allies invading to topple the Taliban from power in 2001, Afghanistan produced an educated class of women. Girls got formal education and went on to become journalists, parliamentarians, musicians, entrepreneurs and athletes. Some held positions in the government cabinet.
After retaking the country, however, the Taliban quickly abolished the Afghan Ministry of Women's Affairs and replaced it with the Ministry of Vice and Virtue.
Afghanistan is now the only country where girls are not permitted to attend school, with a ban on formal education once they reach the age of 12.
The hardliner's edict quickly drew scorn from the international community, and some brave Afghan women and girls repeatedly took to the streets to protest and demand their rights, but they faced a brutal Taliban response every time. Some still manage to learn in unofficial schools, but access is extremely limited.
"This is an internal matter of Afghanistan," Qahar Balkhi, a spokesman for the Taliban's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, insisted in an August interview with CBS News. "It is a mix of issues that has led to the suspension. There is the cultural aspect, and there is the financial aspect, lack of infrastructure and lack of books."
In October, the Taliban blocked young women about to sit their college entrance exams from choosing a range of subjects. Students told CBS News they were not allowed to choose majors such as journalism, engineering, economics, veterinary medicine, agriculture or geology.
The Taliban has barred women from working in most government institutions, forcing many to leave their jobs. In some cases, women have even been told to select a male relative to replace them.
In May, Taliban authorities ordered all female presenters and reporters on the country's TV channels to cover their faces on air. The edict was handed down by the Ministry of Vice and Virtue, which oversees and implements orders from the Taliban's supreme leader.
"This is me, Yalda Ali, a woman being erased on orders from the Ministry of Vice and Virtue," a female presenter on the TOLO network protested on her Instagram page at the time.
Women can no longer serve in any political office.
Some women have retained their jobs in the public sector, including in the fields of education and health, and they also continue to work in the private sector.
"150,000 females were working in the Ministry of Public Health, hospitals and clinics all over Afghanistan," senior Taliban political official Shuhail Shaheen said in a tweet.
But getting to work has also become harder for Afghan women lucky enough to still have jobs.
Under the Taliban's rules, women must be accompanied by at least one male relative if they wish to travel more than about 45 miles. The Ministry of Vice and Virtue has also called on taxi drivers not to provide long-distance rides to women who are not wearing headscarves.
"The decision is taken to bring ease for women," Akef Mohajir, a Vice and Virtue Ministry spokesman, claimed to CBS News in August.
Shamsia Mahjabin, 29, lives in Kabul with her two children. She lost her husband in a suicide bombing in Kabul about four years ago. Since then, she had supported not only her family, but also her elderly in-laws.
"You killed my husband, leaving us without a breadwinner," she said of the Taliban. "Now you are forcing me to sit at home. How can I feed my children?"
In May, the Taliban's supreme leader published a ruling making the hijab, a traditional Muslim garment that covers a woman's hair, compulsory in all public settings. The decree also outlined "fair punishment" for violators of the decree.
"Not leaving home unnecessarily is the best way to observe hijab," said the order. "The house of a woman that does not observe hijab should be identified and her male guardian should be advised."
In the second step, a male guardian should be summoned, and in the third step, the guardian should be imprisoned for three days. If the woman is still determined to be in violation of the rule, "her guardian should be introduced to the court so that he could be sentenced to a fair punishment."
Even before the Taliban came back to power, many women in Afghanistan's deploy conservative society wore the hijab in public. Now they have no choice.
The Taliban's Ministry of Vice and Virtue issued an edict in November banning women from going to parks, gyms and public baths. The order also prohibits women from going to restaurants "without a male chaperon."
Ministry spokesman Akef Mohajer told reporters the new restrictions were issued because people were ignoring public gender segregation boundaries and women were not wearing the hijab properly.
Before the mandate, the Taliban had designated separate days of the week for men and women to visit parks. Gyms have always been gender-segregated in Afghanistan.
Taliban security forces have arrested dozens of Afghan women who have defied a ban on protests to take to the streets and demand their freedoms back. Security forces have responded to protesters' chants of, "Bread, work, freedom!" by firing live ammunition into the air to disperse the crowds.
In January, Taliban intelligence officers raided the house of Tamana Zaryab Paryani and arrested her and her two sisters. She streamed the encounter live on social media, screaming as the Taliban entered her home.
"I knew I had to speak out despite how dangerous the situation was. I did so that I could show the world what the Taliban are really like and what kind of group they are and how they seek to forcefully silence women," Paryani told CBS News months later. She spent almost a month behind bars.
Just last week, women's rights activists Zarifa Yaghubi and Farhat Popalzai were detained in Kabul.
"I'm the voice of the women who never been able to speak to anyone," Poplzai said in a video posted to social media. "I come outside to talk with Taliban and to help women who didn't go to work and go to school and I want to be the voice of them."
"The rights of @YaghubiZarifa & other activists must be respected. Reasons for their continued detention should be made public," the United Nations' mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in a tweet, demanding access to the detained women and "clarity" on the whereabouts of others.
The Taliban has not responded to questions about the women detained last week.
Go here to see the original:
As the Taliban doles out lashings, what have Afghan women and girls ...
War in Afghanistan (20012021) – Wikipedia
Tactical overviewEdit
The War contained two main factions: the Coalition, which included the US and its allies (eventually supporting the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan); fighting against the Taliban, its allies, and its militias. Complicating the fight was Taliban splinter groups and other more radical religious groups such as al-Qaeda and later the Islamic State. These radical groups sometimes fought for the Taliban, sometimes fought for their own goals, and sometimes fought against both the Taliban and the Government.
Afghanistan is a rural country. In 2020, some 80% of its 33 million people lived in the countryside.[114]:12 This predisposes warfare to rural areas, and provides ample hiding spots for guerrilla fighters. The country also has harsh winters, which favors spring or summertime military offensives after winter lulls in fighting.[121][122] 99.7% of Afghanistan is Muslim,[123] which affected the ideology of both the Taliban and the Afghan government. Islam has historically allowed Afghan leaders to overcome tribal differences and conflict, and provided a sense of unity, especially against foreigners and non-believers. Centuries of foreign invasion by non-Muslims cemented the religious nature of resisting outsiders and the Afghan identity.[114]:1719 The impact of local religious leaders (mullahs) is important in Afghanistan, and they could influence the population as much as the government. Mullahs have traditionally been important in prescribing resistance to outsiders through calls for holy war or jihad.[114]:2324
Afghanistan is a largely tribal society, and this significantly influences Afghan society and politics. Tribalism is largely a source of division, unlike Islam. Pashtuns are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, comprising between 38% and 50% of the population.[124] Pashtunwali, the traditional way of life for the Pashtuns, guided most tribal decision making. Tribal unity was often weak as well due to Pashtunwali's method of dealing with feuds. Traditionally, Afghan leaders have depended on tribes to keep order in rural areas because without their cooperation the state was often ineffective and weak. Afghans were more loyal to their own community and tribe, not the state, which meant that tribes would align with either the Taliban or the Government as was most beneficial.[114]:1922
The significant difference in power between high-tech Coalition militaries and the guerrilla Taliban led to asymmetric warfare. Owing to their roots in the anti-Soviet Mujahideen, the Taliban carried on the guerrilla tactics developed in the 1980s. The Mujihdeen operated in small cadres of 10 to 50 men, armed with a combination of outdated and (usually looted) modern weapons.[114]:31 The Taliban increasingly used guerrilla tactics such as suicide, car and roadside bombs (IEDs), and targeted assassinations.[125] By 2009, IEDs had become the Taliban's weapon of choice.[126] The Taliban also used insider attacks as the war drew on, by planting personnel in the Afghan military and police forces.[127]
Though the US officially invaded on 7 October 2001 by launching Operation Enduring Freedom, covert operations had begun several weeks earlier. Fifteen days after the 9/11 attack, the US covertly inserted members of the CIA's Special Activities Division into Afghanistan, forming the Northern Afghanistan Liaison Team.[128] They linked up with the Northern Alliance in the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul.[129] In October, 12-man Special Forces teams began arriving in Afghanistan to work with the CIA and Northern Alliance.[129] Within a few weeks the Northern Alliance, with assistance from the US ground and air forces, captured several key cities from the Taliban.[130][131] The Taliban retreated throughout the country, holding steady only in Kunduz Province, outmatched by US air support. By November, the Taliban had lost control of most of the country.[114]:7075
The US did not invade alone: it began with assistance from the UK, and eventually over a dozen more countries.[132][133][134] The US and its allies drove the Taliban from power and built military bases near major cities across the country. Most al-Qaeda and Taliban were not captured, escaping to neighboring Pakistan or retreating to rural or remote mountainous regions.[135] On 20 December 2001, the United Nations authorized an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), with a mandate to help the Afghans maintain security in Kabul and surrounding areas.[136] Its mandate did not extend beyond the Kabul area for the first few years.[137] Eighteen countries were contributing to the force in February 2002.
Who would lead the country became an acute political question. At the Bonn Conference in December 2001, Hamid Karzai was selected to head the Afghan Interim Administration, which after a 2002 loya jirga (grand assembly) in Kabul became the Afghan Transitional Administration. The agreement provided steps that would lead to democracy for the country.[138]
Shortly after the elevation of Karzai to the president on 5 December, the Taliban may have tried to seek a conditional surrender to Karzai. There are two conflicting accounts. The first is that an agreement, possibly signed by Mullah Omar, leader of the Taliban, was reached wherein the Taliban would surrender in exchange for immunity. The second is that the agreement was more narrowly focused on surrendering Kandahar. Taliban sources, on the other hand, say that Omar was not part of the deal and was not going to surrender Kandahar. Whatever the case, the US vetoed any sort of negotiation, in what historian Malkasian calls "one of the greatest mistakes" of the war. Omar disappeared, leaving either for another part of Afghanistan or Pakistan. The Taliban subsequently went into hiding, or fled to Pakistan, though many gave up arms as well. Most leaders and thousands of fighters went to Pakistan. Whether the Taliban had decided on an insurgency at this time is unknown.[114]:7484 Taliban fighters remained in hiding in the rural regions of four southern provinces: Kandahar, Zabul, Helmand and Uruzgan.[139]
By late November, bin Laden was at a fortified training camp in Tora Bora. The battle of Tora Bora began on 6 December. CIA teams working with tribal militias followed bin Laden there and began to call in airstrikes to clear out the mountainous camp, with special forces soon arriving in support. While the tribal militia numbered 1,000, it was not fighting eagerly during Ramadan. While the CIA requested that United States Army Rangers be sent and Marines were ready to deploy, they were declined. Bin Laden was eventually able to escape at some point in December to Pakistan.[114]:8487
The invasion was a striking military success for the Coalition. Fewer than 12 US soldiers died between October and March, compared to some 15,000 Taliban killed or taken prisoner. Special forces teams and their Afghan allies had done most of the work and relatively few soldiers had been required. Karzai was a respected, legitimate, and charismatic leader. Still, according to Malkasian, the failure to capture bin Laden or negotiate with the Taliban, or include them in any way in the new government, set the course for the long war that bin Laden had dreamed of getting the US into.[114]:8688
After initial success, the US lacked an obvious goal in Afghanistan beyond the counter-terrorism objectives of finding senior Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders. Nation-building was initially opposed by the Bush administration, but as the US stayed, it slowly crept into the rationale for staying. In April 2002, Bush made a speech expressing a desire to rebuild Afghanistan. The US also sought to instill democracy and women's rights as a moral matter. The international community contributed to the development effort in Afghanistan, which focused on aid and creating institutions to run the country. US reconstruction efforts also focused on improving education, health care, and community development. The US also supported and funded the creation of an Afghan army in early 2002. However, the army was built slowly due to competing interests and a US belief that the Taliban were no longer a strong threat. Some in the Bush administration preferred to use the Northern Alliance and warlords as the military instead of creating a new military. The army became an afterthought and was poorly trained and equipped, which further enabled the Taliban.[114]:89105
Some members of the Taliban reached out to Karzai to open negotiations several times between 2002 and 2004, but the US was adamantly against this and ensured that all top Taliban leaders were blacklisted, such that the Afghan Government could not negotiate with them. Historian Malkasian argues that negotiations with the Taliban would have been low cost but highly effective at this stage and chocks it up to US overconfidence and hubris, and notes that all the information that the Taliban could resurge was available but ignored.[114]:106111 Some Taliban leaders considered joining the political process, with meetings on the issue until 2004, though these did not result in a decision to do so.[140]:19
The first attempt at a larger organization of Taliban groups after the invasion occurred in April 2002 in the country's south. A shura was established by former mid-level Taliban officials in Gardi Jangal a refugee camp near the Helmand border. It operated in the core southern provinces of Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul, and Uruzgan. It was composed of 23 groups of about 50 individuals each, for a total of around 1,200. In the North Waziristan District of Pakistan, Jalaluddin Haqqani had started organizing the Haqqani network after exiling there in 2001. In early 2002 their manpower was estimated at 1,400 and had a presence in Paktia Province and Khost Province in the second half of 2002 with limited activity. They were joined by members of Al-Qaeda. Operation Jacana & Operation Condor, among others, tried to flush out the Taliban with varying results.[140]:2529
From 2002 to 2005, the Taliban reorganized and planned a resurgence. Pressure on Coalition forces to hunt down terrorists led to excesses and generated some popular support for the Taliban. Coalition troops would go on missions with questionable intelligence, at one point falling prey to a false tip provided by a target's political opponents. Few high-level Taliban or al-Qaeda leaders were caught. Those captured were predominantly low-level Taliban operatives who had little information on al-Qaeda. Numerous civilians were killed in operations, including a wedding which was misinterpreted as a Taliban gathering. Repeated errors by Coalition forces drove Taliban recruitment. Many Taliban leaders who had given up arms to leave peacefully, especially after being promised amnesty by President Karzai, were increasingly harassed by the US and elements of the Afghan government. By 2004, most Taliban leaders in Afghanistan had fled back to Pakistan, where the remnants of the Taliban were hiding. Malkasian argues that the US provided significant momentum to the Taliban by its own missteps, especially by focusing on aggressive counter-terrorism and vengeance for 9/11. He further argues that these actions alone did not restart the conflict because the Taliban would have re-emerged regardless because of leaders like Mullah Omar and Jalaluddin Haqqani who had never put down arms.[114]:119123
The Taliban undertook relatively few actions until 2005. Pamphlets by Taliban and other groups turned up strewn in towns and the countryside in early 2003, urging Islamic faithful to rise up against US forces and other foreign soldiers in a holy war.[141] On 27 January 2003, during Operation Mongoose, US forces cleared out the Adi Ghar cave complex 25km (15mi) north of Spin Boldak.[142] In May 2003, the Taliban Supreme Court's chief justice, Abdul Salam, proclaimed that the Taliban were back, regrouped, rearmed, and ready for guerrilla war to expel US forces from Afghanistan.[143] Meanwhile, American attention was diverted from Afghanistan when US forces invaded Iraq in March 2003.[144]
Privately, the Taliban were preparing a grand offensive against the Coalition. It was to be several years in the making so that enough strength could be gathered. Mullah Dadullah was put in charge of the offensive. Dadullah was effective but cruel. He was responsible for introducing suicide bombing into wide use around 2004, as previously the Taliban had not been enamored by suicide or taking civilian lives; that had been an al-Qaeda tactic. A network of madrassas in Pakistan catering to Afghan refugees provided a steady stream of extremist recruits willing to die.[114]:125127
As the summer of 2003 continued, Taliban attacks gradually increased in frequency. Dozens of Afghan government soldiers, NGO humanitarian workers, and several US soldiers died in the raids, ambushes, and rocket attacks. Besides guerrilla attacks, Taliban fighters began building up forces in the district of Dey Chopan District in Zabul Province. The Taliban decided to make a stand there. Over the course of the summer, up to 1,000 guerrillas moved there. Over 220 people, including several dozen Afghan police, were killed in August 2003.[145] On 11 August 2003, NATO assumed control of ISAF.[146]
Taliban leader Mullah Omar reorganized the movement, and in 2003 launched an insurgency against the government and ISAF.[147][148] From the second half of 2003 and through 2004 operations started intensifying, with night letters followed by kidnappings and assassinations of government officials and collaborating village elders by 2005, with the former leaving villages in fear. Government schools and clinics were also burned down.[140]:34
Operation Asbury Park cleared out Taliban forces in the Dey Chopan District during the summer of 2004.[149] In late 2004, the then hidden Taliban leader Mohammed Omar announced an insurgency against "America and its puppets" (referring to transitional Afghan government forces) to "regain the sovereignty of our country."[150] The 2004 Afghan presidential election was a major target of Taliban, though only 20 districts and 200 villages elsewhere were claimed to have been successfully prevented from voting. Karzai was elected president of the country, now named the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.[140]:40
From late June through mid-July 2005, United States Navy Seals carried out Operation Red Wings as a joint military operation in Kunar Province. The mission intended to disrupt local Taliban led by Ahmad Shah, hopefully bringing stability and facilitating the Afghan Parliament elections scheduled for September 2005. The operation was a pyrrhic victory for the Coalition, with only one survivor (dramatized in the 2013 film Lone Survivor) and 19 dead.[151][152][153] Operation Whalers would finish the job several weeks later. Taliban activity dropped significantly and Shah was seriously wounded. Shah was not able to undertake any significant operations subsequent to Operation Whalers in Kunar or neighboring provinces.[152][154]
The Taliban regained control over several villages in the south by the end of 2005, mostly because the villages were fed up with the lack of help from the government and hoped life would be better under the Taliban. Years of planning were coming to fruition for the Taliban. By comparison, the Government was in a very weak position. The police were deeply underfunded, and the average district had only 50 officers. Some districts had no Government presence at all. Most of the country's militias (with a strength of ~100,000) had been demobilized due to international pressure to create an army. But the army was still woefully understrength. Combined with an increase in tribal feuding, the conditions were perfect for a Taliban comeback.[114]:134136
As insurgent attacks in the country reportedly grew fourfold between 2002 and 2006,[155] by late 2007 Afghanistan was said to be in "serious danger" of falling into Taliban control despite the presence of 40,000 ISAF troops.[156]
From January 2006, a multinational ISAF contingent started to replace US troops in southern Afghanistan. The UK formed the core of the force, along with Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, and Estonia.[157][158][159][160][161] In January 2006, NATO's focus in southern Afghanistan was to form Provincial Reconstruction Teams. Local Taliban figures pledged to resist.[162] Since Canada wanted to deploy in Kandahar, the UK got Helmand province. Helmand was a center of poppy production, so it seemed a good region for the anti-narcotic focused UK. In hindsight, the UK were a poor choice. Pashtun Helmandis had never forgotten the 1880 Battle of Maiwand near Helmand province; a popular rumour was that the British sought to avenge their loss in that battle. The British had long since forgotten the war, but it proved a source of significant resistance from the Afghan population.[114]:138142
Local intelligence suggested that the Taliban were going to wage a brutal campaign in the summer of 2006. Coalition generals sent this info up the chain of command, but decision-makers ignored warnings. The US was distracted in Iraq, and Secretary of State Rumsfeld was more interested in making the Afghan army affordable than effective. Of the 70,000 soldiers the Afghan army was supposed to have, only 26,000 had been trained and retained.[114]:138142
Spring and summer action in 2006 by the Coalition included Operation Mountain Thrust, Operation Medusa, a Dutch/Australian offensive, the Battle of Panjwaii, Operation Mountain Fury and Operation Falcon Summit. The Coalition achieved tactical victories and area denial, but the Taliban were not completely defeated.
On 29 May 2006, a US military truck that was part of a convoy in Kabul lost control and plowed into civilian vehicles, killing one person and injuring six. The surrounding crowd got angry and a riot arose, lasting all day ending with 20 dead and 160 injured. When stone-throwing and gunfire had come from a crowd of some 400 men, the US troops had used their weapons "to defend themselves" while leaving the scene, a US military spokesman said. A correspondent for the Financial Times in Kabul suggested that this was the outbreak of "a ground swell of resentment" and "growing hostility to foreigners" that had been growing and building since 2004.[163][164]
UK actions in early 2007 included Operation Volcano, Operation Achilles, and Operation Lastay Kulang. The UK Ministry of Defence also announced its intention to bring British troop levels in the country up to 7,700.[165]
On 4 March 2007, US Marines killed at least 12 civilians and injured 33 in Shinwar district, Nangarhar,[166] in a response to a bomb ambush. The event became known as the "Shinwar massacre".[167] The 120 member Marine unit responsible for the attack were ordered to leave the country because the incident damaged the unit's relations with the local population.[168]
During the summer, NATO forces achieved tactical victories at the Battle of Chora in Orzgn, where Dutch and Australian ISAF forces were deployed.
The Battle of Musa Qala took place in December. Afghan units were the principal fighting force, supported by British forces.[169] Taliban forces were forced out of the town.
On 13 June 2008, Taliban fighters demonstrated their ongoing strength, liberating all prisoners in Kandahar jail. The operation freed 1200 prisoners, 400 of whom were Taliban, causing a major embarrassment for NATO.[170] By the end of 2008, the Taliban apparently had severed remaining ties with al-Qaeda.[171] According to senior US military intelligence officials, perhaps fewer than 100 members of al-Qaeda remained in Afghanistan.[172]
June 2009 brought Operation Strike of the Sword in Helmand.[173] It followed a British-led operation named Operation Panther's Claw in the same region, which was aimed to secure various canal and river crossings to establish a long-term ISAF presence.[174]
On 4 September 2009, during the Kunduz Province Campaign a devastating NATO air raid was conducted 7 kilometers southwest of Kunduz where Taliban fighters had hijacked civilian supply trucks, killing up to 179 people, including over 100 civilians.[175]
In December 2009, an attack on Forward Operating Base Chapman, used by the CIA to gather information and to coordinate drone attacks against Taliban leaders, killed eight working for the CIA.[176]
In March 2007, the US deployed some 3,500 more troops, though the pace of deployment was slow due to American priorities in Iraq.[177][178] In the first five months of 2008, the number of US troops in Afghanistan increased by over 80% with a surge of 21,643 more troops, bringing the total from 26,607 in January to 48,250 in June.[179] In September 2008, President Bush announced the withdrawal of over 8,000 from Iraq and a further increase of up to 4,500 in Afghanistan.[180] The same month, the UK lost its 100th serviceperson.[181]
January 2009 brought a change in American leadership, with the election of President Barack Obama. That month US soldiers, alongside Afghan Federal Guards, moved into the provinces of Logar, Wardak, and Kunar. The troops were the first wave of an expected surge of reinforcements originally ordered by President Bush and increased by President Obama.[182] In mid-February 2009, it was announced that 17,000 additional troops would be deployed in two brigades and support troops; the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade of about 3,500 and the 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, a Stryker Brigade with about 4,000.[183] ISAF commander General David McKiernan had called for as many as 30,000 additional troops, effectively doubling the number of troops.[184] On 23 September, a classified assessment by General McChrystal included his conclusion that a successful counterinsurgency strategy would require 500,000 troops and five years.[185]
On 1 December 2009, Obama announced that the US would send 30,000 more troops.[186] Antiwar organizations in the US responded quickly, and cities throughout the US saw protests on 2 December.[187] Many protesters compared the decision to deploy more troops in Afghanistan to the expansion of the Vietnam War under the Johnson administration.[188]
In the early years of the war, Pakistan had been seen as a firm ally, and little concern had been given to its support of the Taliban. Pakistan had also helped capture numerous top al-Qaeda leaders, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. But internally, Pakistan was providing significant funding, access to safe houses, and political support to the Taliban. Public opinion in Pakistan heavily favored the Taliban, and the US invasion was viewed very negatively. The government was in no position to expel the Taliban, lest it starts a conflict within its already fragile country. Thus the Taliban continued to use Pakistan as a base of operations and a safe haven to rebuild their strength.[114]:129132
The US had been using drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004, starting along the Federal Tribal Areas against Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants.[189][190]
In the summer of 2008, President Bush issued an order authorizing raids against militants in Pakistan. Pakistan said it would not allow foreign forces onto its territory and that it would vigorously protect its sovereignty.[191] In September, the Pakistan military stated that it had issued orders to "open fire" on US soldiers who crossed the border in pursuit of militant forces.[192]
On 3 September 2008, US commandos landed by helicopter and attacked three houses close to a known enemy stronghold in Pakistan. Pakistan condemned the attack, calling the incursion "a gross violation of Pakistan's territory".[193][194] On 6 September, in an apparent reaction, Pakistan announced an indefinite disconnection of supply lines to NATO forces.[195] A further split occurred when Pakistani soldiers fired on Nato aircraft which had crossed the border on 25 September.[196] However, despite tensions, the US increased the use of remotely piloted drone aircraft in Pakistan's border regions, in particular the Federal Tribal Areas and Balochistan; by 2009, drone attacks were up 183% since 2006.[197]
Pakistani drone strikes against Taliban and al-Qaeda militants increased substantially under President Obama.[198] Some in the media have referred to the attacks as a "drone war".[199][200] In August 2009, Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan was killed in a drone strike.[201]
After Karzai's alleged win of 54 percent, which would prevent a runoff, over 400,000 Karzai votes had to be disallowed after accusations of fraud. Some nations criticized the elections as "free but not fair".[202][203]
The Taliban's claim that the over 135 violent incidents disrupted elections was largely disputed. However, the media was asked to not report any violent incidents.[204] In southern Afghanistan where the Taliban held the most power, voter turnout was low and sporadic violence was directed at voters and security personnel.[205] The Taliban released a video days after the elections, filming on the road between Kabul and Kandahar, stopping vehicles and asking to see their fingers (voters were marked by dipping their fingers in ink so they could not double vote). The video went showed ten men who had voted, listening to a Taliban militant. The Taliban pardoned the voters because of Ramadan.[206] The Taliban attacked towns with rockets and other indirect fire. Amid claims of widespread fraud, both top contenders, Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, claimed victory. Reports suggested that turnout was lower than in the prior election.[203]
On 26 November 2009, Karzai made a public plea for direct negotiations with the Taliban leadership. Karzai said there is an "urgent need" for negotiations and made it clear that the Obama administration had opposed such talks. There was no formal US response.[207][208]
In 2007, after more than 5 years of war, Western officials and analysts estimated the strength of Taliban forces at about 10,000 fighters fielded at any given time. Of that number, only 2,000 to 3,000 were highly motivated, full-time insurgents.[209] The rest were volunteer units, made up of young Afghans, angered by deaths of Afghan civilians in military airstrikes and American detention of Muslim prisoners who had been held for years without being charged.[210] In 2007, more foreign fighters came into Afghanistan than ever before, according to officials. Approximately 100 to 300 full-time combatants were foreigners, many from Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Chechnya, various Arab countries and perhaps even Turkey and western China. They were reportedly more violent, uncontrollable and extreme, often bringing superior video-production or bomb making expertise.[211] By 2010 the Taliban had as many as 25,000 dedicated soldiers, almost as many as before 9/11.[212]
General McChrystal, newly appointed as US commander in Afghanistan, said that the Taliban had gained the upper hand. In a continuation of the Taliban's usual strategy of summer offensives,[213] the militants aggressively spread their influence into north and west Afghanistan and stepped up their attack in an attempt to disrupt presidential polls.[214] Calling the Taliban a "very aggressive enemy", he added that the US strategy was to stop their momentum and focus on protecting and safeguarding Afghan civilians, calling it "hard work".[215]
Deployment of additional US troops continued in early 2010, with 9,000 of the planned 30,000 in place before the end of March and another 18,000 expected by June.[216] The surge in troops supported a sixfold increase in Special Forces operations.[217] The surge of American personnel that began in late 2009 ended by September 2012.[218] 700 airstrikes occurred in September 2010 alone versus 257 in all of 2009.[219]
Due to increased use of IEDs by insurgents, the number of injured Coalition soldiers, mainly Americans, significantly increased.[220] Beginning in May 2010 NATO special forces began to concentrate on operations to capture or kill specific Taliban leaders. As of March 2011, the US military claimed that the effort had resulted in the capture or killing of more than 900 low- to mid-level Taliban commanders.[221][222] Overall, 2010 saw the most insurgent attacks of any year since the war began, peaking in September at more than 1,500.[223]
The CIA created Counter-terrorism Pursuit Teams staffed by Afghans at the war's beginning.[224][225] This force grew to over 3,000 by 2010 and was considered one of the "best Afghan fighting forces".[225] These units were not only effective in operations against the Taliban and al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan, but also expanded their operations into Pakistan.
In February 2010, Coalition and Afghan forces began highly visible plans for an offensive, codenamed Operation Moshtarak, on the Taliban stronghold near the village of Marjah. It was the first operation where Afghan forces led the coalition. The offensive involved 15,000 Coalition and Afghan troops.[228]
The Battle of Kandahar (2011) was part of an offensive that followed a 30 April announcement that the Taliban would launch their spring offensive.[229] On 7 May the Taliban launched a major offensive on government buildings in Kandahar. The Taliban said their goal was to take control of the city. At least eight locations were attacked: the governor's compound, the mayor's office, the NDS headquarters, three police stations and two high schools.[230] The battle continued onto a second day. The BBC called it "the worst attack in Kandahar province since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001, and an embarrassment for the Western-backed Afghan government."[231]
By 2009 there was broad agreement in Afghanistan that the war should end, but how it should happen was a major issue for the candidates of the 2009 Afghan presidential election that re-elected Karzai.[232] In a televised speech after being elected, Karzai called on "our Taliban brothers to come home and embrace their land"[233] and laid plans to launch a loya jirga. Efforts were undermined by the Obama administration's increase of American troops in the country.[234] Karzai reiterated at a London conference in January 2010 that he wanted to reach out to the Taliban to lay down arms.[235] US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cautiously supported the proposal.[236] The "Peace Jirga" was held in Kabul, attended by 1,600 delegates, in June 2010. However, the Taliban and the Hezb-i Islami Gulbuddin, who were both invited by Karzai as a gesture of goodwill did not attend the conference.[237]
The Taliban's co-founder and then-second-in-command, Abdul Ghani Baradar, was one of the leading Taliban members who favored talks with the US and Afghan governments. Karzai's administration reportedly held talks with Baradar in February 2010; however, later that month, Baradar was captured in a joint US-Pakistani raid in the city of Karachi in Pakistan. The arrest infuriated Karzai and invoked suspicions that he was seized because the Pakistani intelligence community was opposed to Afghan peace talks.[238][239] Karzai started peace talks with Haqqani network groups in March 2010.[240]
A mindset change and strategy occurred within the Obama administration in 2010 to allow possible political negotiations to solve the war.[241] The Taliban themselves had refused to speak to the Afghan government, portraying them as an American "puppet". Sporadic efforts for peace talks between the US and the Taliban occurred afterward, and it was reported in October 2010 that Taliban leadership commanders (the "Quetta Shura") had left their haven in Pakistan and been safely escorted to Kabul by NATO aircraft for talks, with the assurance that NATO staff would not apprehend them.[242] After the talks concluded, it emerged that the leader of this delegation, who claimed to be Akhtar Mansour, the second-in-command of the Taliban, was actually an imposter who had duped NATO officials.[243]
Karzai confirmed in June 2011 that secret talks were taking place between the US and the Taliban,[244] but these collapsed by August 2011.[245] Further attempts to resume talks were canceled in March 2012,[246] and June 2013 following a dispute between the Afghan government and the Taliban regarding the latter's opening of a political office in Qatar. President Karzai accused the Taliban of portraying themselves as a government in exile.[247] In July 2015, Pakistan hosted the first official peace talks between Taliban representatives and the Afghan government. U.S. and China attended the talks brokered by Pakistan in Murree as two observers.[248] In January 2016, Pakistan hosted a round of four-way talks with Afghan, Chinese and American officials, but the Taliban did not attend.[249] The Taliban did hold informal talks with the Afghan government in 2016.[250]
On 25 July 2010, the release of 91,731 classified documents from the WikiLeaks organization was made public. The documents cover US military incident and intelligence reports from January 2004 to December 2009.[251] Some of these documents included sanitized, and "covered up", accounts of civilian casualties caused by Coalition Forces. The reports included many references to other incidents involving civilian casualties like the Kunduz airstrike and Nangar Khel incident.[252] The leaked documents also contain reports of Pakistan collusion with the Taliban. According to Der Spiegel, "the documents clearly show that the Pakistani intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (usually known as the ISI) is the most important accomplice the Taliban has outside of Afghanistan."[253]
Beginning in January 2012, incidents involving US troops[254][255][256][257][258][259] occurred that were described by The Sydney Morning Herald as "a series of damaging incidents and disclosures involving US troops in Afghanistan."[254] These incidents created fractures in the partnership between Afghanistan and ISAF,[260] raised the question whether discipline within US troops was breaking down,[261] undermined "the image of foreign forces in a country where there is already deep resentment owing to civilian deaths and a perception among many Afghans that US troops lack respect for Afghan culture and people"[262] and strained the relations between Afghanistan and the United States.[255][256] Besides an incident involving US troops who posed with body parts of dead insurgents and a video apparently showing a US helicopter crew singing "bye-bye Miss American Pie" before blasting a group of Afghan men with a Hellfire missile[262][263] these "high-profile US military incidents in Afghanistan"[258] also included the 2012 Afghanistan Quran burning protests and the Panjwai shooting spree.
Tensions between Pakistan and the US were heightened in late September after several Pakistan Frontier Corps soldiers were killed and wounded. The troops were attacked by a US piloted aircraft that was pursuing Taliban forces near the Afghan-Pakistan border, but for unknown reasons opened fire on two Pakistan border posts. In retaliation for the strike, Pakistan closed the Torkham ground border crossing to NATO supply convoys for an unspecified period. This incident followed the release of a video allegedly showing uniformed Pakistan soldiers executing unarmed civilians.[264] After the Torkham border closing, Pakistani Taliban attacked NATO convoys, killing several drivers and destroying around 100 tankers.[265]
ISAF forces skirmished Pakistan's armed forces on 26 November, killing 24 Pakistani soldiers. Each side claimed the other shot first. Pakistan blocked NATO supply lines and ordered Americans to leave Shamsi Airfield.[266][267]
On 2 May 2011, US officials announced that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had been killed in Operation Neptune Spear, conducted by the US Navy SEALs, in Abbottabad, Pakistan.[268] Pakistan came under intense international scrutiny after the raid. The Pakistani government denied that it had sheltered bin Laden, and said it had shared information with the CIA and other intelligence agencies about the compound since 2009.[269]
On 22 June President Obama announced that 10,000 troops would be withdrawn by the end of 2011 and an additional 23,000 troops would return by the summer of 2012. After the withdrawal of 10,000 US troops, only 80,000 remained.[270] In July 2011 Canada withdrew its combat troops, transitioning to a training role. Following suit, other NATO countries announced troop reductions.
Taliban attacks continued at the same rate as they did in 2011, around 28,000 in 2013.[271]
In January 2012, the National Front of Afghanistan (NFA) raised concerns about the possibility of a secret deal between the US, Pakistan and the Taliban during a widely publicized meeting in Berlin.
Karzai visited the US in January 2012. At the time the US Government stated its openness to withdrawing all of its troops by the end of 2014.[272] On 11 January 2012 Karzai and Obama agreed to transfer combat operations from NATO to Afghan forces by spring 2013 rather than summer 2013.[273][274] "What's going to happen this spring is that Afghans will be in the lead throughout the country", Obama said. "They [ISAF forces] will still be fighting alongside Afghan troops...we will be in a training, assisting, advising role."[274] He also stated the reason of the withdrawals that "We achieved our central goal, or have come very close...which is to de-capacitate al-Qaeda, to dismantle them, to make sure that they can't attack us again."[275] He added that any US mission beyond 2014 would focus solely on counterterrorism operations and training.[275][276]
On 2 May 2012, Presidents Karzai and Obama signed a strategic partnership agreement between the two countries, after the US president had arrived unannounced in Kabul.[277] On 7 July, as part of the agreement, the US designated Afghanistan a major non-NATO ally after Karzai and Clinton met in Kabul.[278] Both leaders agreed that the United States would transfer Afghan prisoners and prisons to the Afghan government[274][279] and withdraw troops from Afghan villages in spring 2013.[279][280]
In 2012 the leaders of NATO-member countries endorsed an exit strategy during the NATO Summit.[138] ISAF Forces would transfer command of all combat missions to Afghan forces by the middle of 2013,[281] while shifting from combat to advising, training and assisting Afghan security forces.[282][283] Most of the 130,000 ISAF troops would depart by the end of December 2014.[281] A new NATO mission would then assume the support role.[282][284]
On 18 June 2013 the transfer of security responsibilities from NATO to Afghan forces was completed.[285] ISAF remained slated to end its mission by the end of 2014.[286] Some 100,000 ISAF forces remained in the country.[287]
After 13 years Britain and the United States officially ended their combat operation in Afghanistan on 26 October 2014. On that day Britain handed over its last base in Afghanistan, Camp Bastion, while the United States handed over its last base, Camp Leatherneck, to Afghan forces.[288] Around 500 UK troops remained in "non-combat" roles.[289][290] On 28 December 2014 NATO officially ended combat operations in a ceremony held in Kabul.[291] Continued operations by United States forces within Afghanistan were under Operation Freedom's Sentinel;[292] this was joined by a new NATO mission under the name of Operation Resolute Support.[293]
The withdrawal of troops did not mean the withdrawal of military presence. As US troops withdrew from Afghanistan, they were replaced by private security companies hired by the United States government and the United Nations. Many of these private security companies (also termed military contractors) consisted of ex-Coalition military personnel. This allowed the US and British to continue to be involved in ground actions without the requirement to station their own forces.[294]
The Taliban began a resurgence due to several factors. At the end of 2014, the US and NATO combat mission ended and the withdrawal of most foreign forces from Afghanistan reduced the risk the Taliban faced of being bombed and raided. In June 2014, the Pakistani military's Operation Zarb-e-Azb, launched in the North Waziristan tribal area in June 2014, dislodged thousands of mainly Uzbek, Arab and Pakistani militants, who flooded into Afghanistan and swelled the Taliban's ranks. The group was further emboldened by the comparative lack of interest from the international community and the diversion of its attention to crisis in other parts of the world, such as Syria, Iraq or Ukraine. Afghan security forces also lack certain capabilities and equipment, especially air power and reconnaissance. The political infighting in the central government in Kabul and the apparent weakness in governance at different levels are also exploited by the Taliban.[295]
On 22 June 2015, the Taliban detonated a car bomb outside the National Assembly in Kabul, and Taliban fighters attacked the building with assault rifles and RPGs.[296][297]
On 12 April 2016, the Taliban announced that they would launch an offensive called Operation Omari.[298][299]
As of July 2016, Time magazine estimated that at least 20% of Afghanistan was under Taliban control with southernmost Helmand Province as major stronghold,[300] while General Nicholson stated that Afghan official armed forces' casualties had risen 20 percent compared to 2015.[301]
On 22 September 2016, the Afghan government signed a draft peace deal with Hezb-i-Islami. According to the draft agreement, Hezb-i-Islami agreed to cease hostilities, cut ties to extremist groups and respect the Afghan Constitution, in exchange for government recognition of the group and support for the removal of United Nations and American sanctions against its leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who was also promised an honorary post in the government.[302][303] It was the first peace treaty since the war in Afghanistan started in 2001. Government officials praised the deal as a step towards peace and potentially a deal with the Taliban too.[304] However others shared concern due to controversial leader Hekmatyar's alleged war crimes; some parts of Afghan society protested the peace treaty due to his past actions.[305]
In early January 2017, the Marine Corps Times reported that Afghan forces seek to rebuild, following an exhausting 2016 fighting season; 33 districts, spread across 16 Afghan provinces, were under insurgent control whilst 258 are under government control and nearly 120 districts remained "contested".[306] According to an inspector general, the Afghan army comprises about 169,000 soldiers, but in 2016 they suffered a 33 percent attrition ratea 7 percent increase from 2015.[306] On 9 February 2017, General John Nicholson told Congress that NATO and allied forces in Afghanistan are facing a "stalemate" and that he needed a few thousand additional troops to more effectively train and advise Afghan soldiers. He also asserted that Russia was trying to "legitimize" the Taliban by creating the "false narrative" that the militant organization has been fighting the Islamic State and that Afghan forces have not, he asserted Russia's goal, was "to undermine the United States and NATO" in Afghanistan. However, he said that the area in which Islamic State fighters operate in Afghanistan had been greatly reduced.[307]
On 21 April 2017, the Taliban attacked Camp Shaheen near Mazar-e-Sharif, killing over 140256 Afghan soldiers.[308][309][310]
The bloody 2017 Taliban spring offensive was named Operation Mansouri.[311]
The Washington Post reported that on 20 November 2017, General John Nicholson announced that US aircraft were targeting drug production facilities in Afghanistan under a new strategy aimed at cutting off Taliban funding, saying that the Taliban was "becoming a criminal organization" that was earning about $200 million a year from drug-related activities. President Ashraf Ghani strongly endorsed the new campaign of US and Afghan airstrikes against the Taliban-run narcotic centers.[312]
Heavy fighting occurred in the Kunduz province,[313][314] which was the site of clashes from 2009 onwards. In May 2015, flights into the Northern city of Kunduz were suspended due to weeks of clashes between the Afghan security forces and the Taliban outside the city.[315] The intensifying conflict in the Northern Char Dara District within the Kunduz province led the Afghan government to enlist local militia fighters to bolster opposition to the Taliban insurgency.[316] In June, the Taliban intensified attacks around the Northern city of Kunduz as part of a major offensive in an attempt to capture the city.[317][318][319] Tens of thousands of inhabitants were displaced internally by the fighting. The government recaptured the Char Dara district after roughly a month of fighting.[320]
In late September, Taliban forces launched an attack on Kunduz, seizing several outlying villages and entering the city. The Taliban stormed the regional hospital and clashed with security forces at the nearby university. The fighting saw the Taliban attack from four different districts: Char Dara to the West, Aliabad to the Southwest, Khanabad to the East and Imam Saheb to the North.[321][322] The Taliban took the Zakhel and Ali Khel villages on the highway leading south, which connects the city to Kabul and Mazar-e Sharif through Aliabad district, and reportedly made their largest gains in the Southwest of Kunduz, where some local communities had picked up weapons and supported the Taliban.[321] Taliban fighters had allegedly blocked the route to the Airport to prevent civilians fleeing the city.[323] One witness reported that the headquarters of the National Directorate of Security was set on fire.[324] Kunduz was recaptured by Afghan and American forces on 14 October 2015.
China attempted to negotiate with the Taliban in 2016, as the Afghan security situation affects its own separatist groups, and economic activity with Pakistan. The Taliban declined.[325][326]
The bombing of the Kabul parliament has highlighted differences within the Taliban in their approach to peace talks.[327][328] In April 2016, President Ashraf Ghani "pulled the plug" on the Afghan governments failing effort to start peace talks with the Taliban.[329] Additionally, due to the integration of Haqqani Networks into the Taliban leadership, it would become harder for peace talks to take place.[330][331] Although leader of the Taliban, Haibatullah Akhundzada, said a peace agreement was possible if the government in Kabul renounced its foreign allies.[332]
On 11 November 2015, it was reported that infighting had broken out between different Taliban factions in Zabul Province. Fighters loyal to the new Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor fought a pro-ISIL splinter faction led by Mullah Mansoor Dadullah. Even though Dadullah's faction enjoyed the support of foreign ISIL fighters, including Uzbeks and Chechens, it was reported that Mansoor's Taliban loyalists had the upper hand. According to Ghulam Jilani Farahi, provincial director of security in Zabul, more than 100 militants from both sides were killed since the fighting broke out.[333] The infighting has continued into 2016; on 10 March 2016, officials said that the Taliban clashed with the Taliban splinter group (led by Muhammad Rasul) in the Shindand district of Herat with up to 100 militants killed; the infighting has also stifled peace talks.[334][335]
As a result of the infighting, which has resulted in Mansour being consumed with a campaign to quell dissent against his leadership; Sirajuddin Haqqani, chief of the Haqqani Network was selected to become the deputy leader of the Taliban in the summer of 2015, during a leadership struggle within the Taliban. Sirajuddin and other Haqqani leaders increasingly ran the day-to-day military operations for the Taliban, in particular; refining urban terrorist attacks and cultivating a sophisticated international fund-raising network, they also appointed Taliban governors and began uniting the Taliban. As a result, the Haqqani Network is now closely integrated with the Taliban at a leadership level, and is growing in influence within the insurgency, whereas the network was largely autonomous before, and there are concerns that the fighting is going to be deadlier. Tensions with the Pakistani military have also been raised because American and Afghan officials accuse them of sheltering the Haqqanis as a proxy group.[330][331]
In 2015 the Taliban began an offensive in Helmand Province, taking over parts of the Province. By June 2015, they had seized control of Dishu and Baghran killing 5,588 Afghan government security forces (3,720 of them were police officers).[336] By the end of July, the Taliban had overrun Nawzad District[337] and on 26 August, the Taliban took control of Musa Qala.[338] In October 2015, Taliban forces had attempted to take Lashkar Gah; the capital of Helmand province, the Afghan's 215th Corps and special operations forces launched a counteroffensive against the Taliban in November,[339] Whilst the assault was repelled, Taliban forces remained dug into the city's suburbs as of December 2015.[340]December 2015 saw a renewed Taliban offensive in Helmand focused on the town of Sangin. The Sangin district fell to the Taliban on 21 December after fierce clashes that killed more than 90 soldiers in two days.[341] It was reported that 30 members of the SAS alongside 60 US special forces operators joined the Afghan Army in the Battle to retake parts of Sangin from Taliban insurgents,[342] in addition, about 300 US troops and a small number of British remained in Helmand to advise Afghan commanders at the corps level.[343][344] Senior American commanders said that the Afghan troops in the province have lacked effective leaders as well as the necessary weapons and ammunition to hold off persistent Taliban attacks. Some Afghan soldiers in Helmand have been fighting in tough conditions for years without a break to see their family, leading to poor morale and high desertion rates.[343]
In early February 2016, Taliban insurgents renewed their assault on Sangin, after previously being repulsed in December 2015, launching a string of ferocious attacks on Afghan government forces earlier in the month. As a result, the United States decided to send troops from the 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division, in order to prop up the Afghan 215th Corps in Helmand province, particularly around Sangin, joining US special operations forces already in the area.[345][346][347][348][349] On 14 March 2016, Khanneshin District in Helmand Province fell to the Taliban; and district by district, Afghan troops were retreating back to urban centers in Helmand.[326][349] In early April 2016, 600 Afghan troops launched a major offensive to retake Taliban-occupied areas of Sangin and the area around it,[350] an Afghan army offensive to retake the town of Khanisheen was repelled by the Taliban, desertions from the army in the area are rife.[351]
Despite US airstrikes, militants besieged Lashkar Gah, reportedly controlling all roads leading to the city and areas a few kilometres away. The US stepped up airstrikes in support of Afghan ground forces. Afghan forces in Lashkar Gah were reported as "exhausted" whilst police checkpoints around the capital were falling one by one; whilst the Taliban sent a new elite commando force into Helmand called "Sara Khitta" in Pashto.[352][353][354] Afghan security forces beat back attacks by Taliban fighters encroaching on Chah-e-Anjir, just 10km from Lashkar Gah; Afghan special forces backed by US airstrikes battled increasingly well-armed and disciplined Taliban militants. An Afghan special forces commander said "The Taliban have heavily armed, uniformed units that are equipped with night vision and modern weapons."[355] On 22 August 2016, the US announced that 100 US troops were sent to Lashkar Gah to help prevent the Taliban from overrunning it, in what Brigadier General Charles Cleveland called a "temporary effort" to advise the Afghan police.[356]
On 31 December 2016, the Taliban continued their assault on the province with attacks on Sangin and Marjah districts.[357] Some estimated suggest the Taliban had retaken more than 80% of Helmand province.[306] During the early hours of 23 March 2017 Sangin district was captured by the Taliban as they had overrun the district center, the town of Sangin. During the earlier phase of the war, almost a quarter of British casualties were caused by fighting for the town, while more recently hundreds of Afghan troops died defending it.[358][359] On 29 April 2017, the US deployed an additional 5,000 Marines to the Southern Helmand Province.[360]
In mid-January 2015, the Islamic State caliphate established a branch in Afghanistan called Khorasan (ISKP, or ISIS-K) and began recruiting fighters[361] and clashing with the Taliban.[362][363] It was created after pledging allegiance to the self-assumed worldwide caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.[364] On 18 March, Hafiz Wahidi, ISIL's replacement deputy Emir in Afghanistan, was killed by the Afghan Armed Forces, along with 9 other ISIL militants accompanying him.[365] In January 2016, the US government sent a directive to the Pentagon which granted new legal authority for the US military to go on the offensive against Militants affiliated with the ISIL-KP, after the State Department announced the designation of ISIS in Afghanistan and Pakistan as a foreign terrorist organization. The number of militants started with around 60 or 70, with most of them coming over the border with Pakistan but eventually[when?] ranged between 1,000 and 3,000 militants,[366] mainly defectors from the Afghan and the Pakistani Taliban, and is generally confined to Nangarhar Province but also has/had a presence in Kunar province.[366][367]
On 23 July 2016, Afghan and US forces began an offensive to clear Nangarhar province of Islamic State militants hours after the Kabul bombing, the operation was dubbed "Wrath of the Storm" involving both Afghan regular army and special forces and is the Afghan army's first major strategic offensive of the summer. The estimated size of the ISIL-KP in January 2016 was around 3,000, but by July 2016 the number had been reduced to closely 1,000 to 1,500, with 70% of its fighters come from the TTP.[301][368][369]
The Army Times reported that in early March 2017, American and Afghan forces launched Operation Hamza to "flush" ISIS-K from its stronghold in eastern Afghanistan, engaging in regular ground battles.[370] In April 2017, the Washington Post reported that Captain Bill Salvin, a spokesman for NATO's mission to Afghanistan, said that Afghan and international forces had reduced ISIS-K controlled territory in Afghanistan by two-thirds and had killed around half their fighters in the previous two years. Since the beginning of 2017, 460 airstrikes against terrorists (with drone strikes alone killing more than 200 IS militants); he added that the affiliate has an estimated 600800 fighters in two eastern Afghan provinces.[371]
On 15 September 2017, the New York Times reported that the CIA was seeking authority to conduct its own drone strikes in Afghanistan and other war zones, according to current and former intelligence and military officials, and that the change in authority was being considered by the White House as part of the new strategy despite concerns by the Pentagon.[372] On 19 September 2017, the Trump Administration deployed another 3,000 US troops to Afghanistan. They would add to the approximately 11,000 US troops already serving in Afghanistan, bringing the total to at least 14,000 US troops stationed in Afghanistan.[373] On 4 October 2017, Fox News reported that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis approved a change in rules of engagement as part of the new strategy so that there is no longer a requirement for US troops to be in contact with enemy forces in Afghanistan before opening fire.[374]
In January 2018, the Taliban were openly active in 70% of the country (being in full control of 14 districts and have an active and open physical presence in a further 263) and the Islamic State was more active in the country than ever before. Following attacks by the Taliban (including the Kabul ambulance bombing on 27 January which killed over 100 people) and Islamic State that killed scores of civilians, President Trump and Afghan officials decided to rule out any talks with the Taliban.[375] However, on 27 February 2018, following an increase in violence, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani proposed unconditional peace talks with the Taliban, offering them recognition as a legal political party and the release of the Taliban prisoners. The offer was the most favorable to the Taliban since the war started. It was preceded by months of national consensus building, which found that Afghans overwhelmingly supported a negotiated end to the war.[376][377] Two days earlier, the Taliban had called for talks with the US, saying "It must now be established by America and her allies that the Afghan issue cannot be solved militarily. America must henceforth focus on a peaceful strategy for Afghanistan instead of war."[378] On 27 March 2018, a conference of 20 countries in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, backed the Afghan government's peace offer.[379] The Taliban did not publicly respond to Ghani's offer.[citation needed]
In July 2018 the Taliban carried out the Darzab offensive and captured Darzab District following the surrender of ISIL-K to the Afghan Government. In August the Taliban launched a series of offensives, the largest being the Ghazni offensive. During the Ghazni offensive, the Taliban seized Ghazni, Afghanistan's sixth-largest city for several days but eventually retreated.[380][381]
On 25 January 2019, Afghanistan's president Ashraf Ghani said that more than 45,000 members of the Afghan security forces had been killed since he became president in 2014. He also said that there had been fewer than 72 international casualties during the same period.[382] A January 2019 report by the US government estimated that 53.8% of Afghanistan's districts were controlled or influenced by the government, with 33.9% contested and 12.3% under insurgent control or influence.[383]
On 30 April 2019, Afghan government forces undertook clearing operations directed against both ISIS-K and the Taliban in eastern Nangarhar Province, after the two groups fought for over a week over a group of villages in an area of illegal talc mining. The National Directorate of Security claimed 22 ISIS-K fighters were killed and two weapons caches destroyed, while the Taliban claimed US-backed Afghan forces killed seven civilians; a provincial official said over 9,000 families had been displaced by the fighting.[384] On 28 July 2019, President Ashraf Ghani's running mate Amrullah Saleh's office was attacked by a suicide bomber and a few militants. At least 20 people were killed and 50 injured, with Saleh also amongst the injured ones. During the six-hour-long operation, more than 150 civilians were rescued and three militants were killed.[385]
By August, the Taliban controlled more territory than at any point since 2001.[386] The Washington Post reported that the US was close to reaching a peace deal with the Taliban and was preparing to withdraw 5,000 troops from Afghanistan.[387] In September, the US canceled the negotiations.[388]
Following Ghani's offer of unconditional peace talks with the Taliban, a growing peace movement arose in Afghanistan during 2018, particularly following a peace march by the People's Peace Movement,[389] which the Afghan media dubbed the "Helmand Peace Convoy".[390][391] The marchers walked several hundred kilometers from Lashkar Gah in Helmand Province, through Taliban-held territory,[392] to Kabul. There they met Ghani and held sit-in protests outside the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and nearby embassies.[393] Their efforts inspired further movements in other parts of Afghanistan.[394]
The rest is here:
War in Afghanistan (20012021) - Wikipedia
Afghanistan: Taliban leader orders Sharia law punishments
Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada has ordered Afghan judges to impose punishments for certain crimes that may include public amputations and stoning.
His spokesman said offences such as robbery, kidnapping and sedition must be punished in line with the group's interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.
When in power in the 1990s, the Taliban were condemned for such punishments, which included public executions.
They promised to rule more moderately when they retook power last year.
But since then the militant Islamist group has steadily cracked down on freedoms. Women's rights in particular have been severely restricted.
The Taliban's supreme leader said judges must punish criminals according to Sharia, if the crime committed is a violation of those laws.
The Taliban's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted late on Sunday that the "obligatory" command came after Mullah Akhundzada met a group of judges.
"Carefully examine the files of thieves, kidnappers and seditionists," Mujahid quoted Akhundzada as saying.
The exact crimes and punishments have not been defined by the Taliban, but one religious leader in Afghanistan told the BBC that under Sharia law, penalties could include amputations, public lashings and stoning.
The order is the latest evidence the Taliban are taking a tougher line on rights and freedoms.
Women were barred from all parks and funfairs in Kabul last week
Last week they banned women from visiting all parks in Kabul, excluding them still further from public life. It has since emerged the ban extends to women in the capital visiting public baths and gyms, although the latter attracted relatively few women.
Entry to parks, baths and gyms was already segregated under Taliban rules on segregating people by gender. The group claims Islamic laws were not being followed.
Levels of violence have fallen across Afghanistan since foreign troops pulled out after 20 years of war, in the face of the Taliban advance in the summer of 2021.
Story continues
But the group has faced numerous allegations that it is abusing human rights, including of opponents, women and journalists.
It has vowed there will be no brutal repression of women as there was when it was in power from 1996-2001, but half the population face severe curbs on what they can do.
Women are barred from going on longer distance journeys without a male chaperone. Teenage girls have still not returned to school in most of the country, despite Taliban promises to allow them to do so.
While some women still work in sectors such as healthcare and education, most were told not to go to work after the Taliban swept back to power.
In May women were ordered to wear the Islamic face veil in public. A number of women have been beaten for demanding their rights.
Billions of dollars in Afghan assets held abroad are frozen as the international community waits for the Taliban to honour promises still to be met on security, governance and human rights.
Visit link:
Afghanistan: Taliban leader orders Sharia law punishments