On August 15, 2021, forces of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Afghan Taliban) advanced on the outskirts of the country’s capital of Kabul after conquering most of Afghanistan in the space of a week. Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopters landed atop the U.S. Embassy in the capital to evacuate personnel …
Read More »Yearly Archives: 2021
Russian Afghanistan Expert Asatryan: Experiment In Conciliating The Taliban Is Doomed, Russia Will Revert To ‘Natural Policy’ Of Aiding The Taliban’s Enemies
Georgy Asatryan, an expert on Afghanistan, at the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as a member of Russian International Affairs Council gave an interview to Hayk Khalatyan of the Eurasia Daily on developments in Afghanistan. He called the Taliban victory “an extremely harmful and dangerous example for the international …
Read More »Desperate Afghans Fall From Sky After Clinging to Plane Leaving Kabul
At least seven people die in the chaos, officials say, after Taliban takes over Afghanistan Seven people died during the chaos at the Kabul airport, some of which were seen on a video shared on social media showing people falling from a departing U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane. Another …
Read More »Afghan conflict: Taliban control all key cities except Kabul
The Taliban have moved closer to retaking full control of Afghanistan, with the capital Kabul now the only major city left in government hands. On Sunday the militants took control of Jalalabad, a key eastern city, without a fight. It means they now control all roads to neighbouring Pakistan. Correspondents …
Read More »‘If the Taliban find me, they will kill me and my family,’ says abandoned Afghan interpreter
It’s been years since Haji and his wife have had a good night’s sleep. “All night, my wife wakes up,” says Haji. “She’s scared. If [she hears] somebody is coming, she calls me, ‘Haji, someone is coming!'” His wife says the first thing she does is hide the children. “Then …
Read More »Four More Provincial Capitals Fall to Taliban in Last 24 Hours
The centers of Logar, Paktika, Kunar and Paktia provinces and 10 districts fell to the Taliban in the last 24 hours, according to sources as the group’s advances continue. Sources said the Taliban has released all prisoners in these provinces while local officials have relocated to the army bases in …
Read More »A Viable – And Perhaps The Only – Path To Lasting Peace In Afghanistan – OpEd
As each day goes by, the Taliban’s forces edge closer to controlling all of Afghanistan. In the first week of August, the Taliban swept through the northern provinces of the country—Jawzjan, Kunduz, and Sar-e Pul—which form an arc alongside the borders of the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and …
Read More »Iraq In Turmoil – OpEd
Iraq’s next parliamentary elections are scheduled for October 10, 2021. The Iraqi people will vote into office the 328 members of the Council of Representatives who, in turn, will elect Iraq’s president and prime minister. The present PM, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, was confirmed in post in May 2020, aware that elections …
Read More »US troops return to Afghanistan as regime disintegrates
The first of some 3,000 US soldiers and Marines ordered by the Biden administration back into Afghanistan began arriving at Kabul’s international airport Friday as six more of Afghanistan’s provincial capitals were overrun by the Taliban, bringing the total to 18 that have fallen to the insurgency. Another 4,000 US …
Read More »US Empire’s Afghan Ponzi Scheme Comes to Ignoble End
The United States lost the Afghanistan War a long time ago, as is quickly becoming apparent as the Taliban take city after city. After 2002, it was never clear what the US war aim was. You can’t win a war if you don’t have a clear objective. The war is …
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