Afghanistan

Muttaqi speaks with Lavrov after explosion at Russian Embassy in Kabul

Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi spoke with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov late Monday after an explosion outside the Russian Embassy in Kabul killed two embassy staff members earlier in the day. In a phone call, Muttaqi assured Lavrov a thorough investigation would be carried out. He also said …

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Afghanistan’s Women Are on Their Own

How the International Community Turned Its Back Life under the Taliban is the worst women’s rights crisis on the planet. When the Taliban returned to power last August, they imposed immediate and brutal restrictions, the harshest of which were reserved for women. They quickly imposed a ban on girls’ secondary …

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As Millions Suffer, the US Needs to End the Collective Punishment of the Afghan People

A year has now passed since the tumultuous U.S. withdrawal from decades of war and occupation in Afghanistan. With the Taliban functionally in charge, the country faces a deteriorating humanitarian crisis and economic collapse. But instead of taking action to promote stability and reinvigorate the economy, the U.S. has made …

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The Assassination Of Al-Zawahiri May Not Have Been A Good Idea – Analysis

The recent assassination of Al-Qaeda’s Ayman Al-Zawahiri is likely to create a number of ramifications. Al-Zawahiri was assassinated by two Hellfire R9-X missiles from an MQ9 Reaper drone, that had flown over or originated in a third country, in the heart of Kabul, which the US evacuated from in August …

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The Global Jihadist Movement in a Post-Zawahiri Era

The killing of longtime al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri could accelerate a trend that has been consistently emerging in recent years—the factionalization and regionalization of the global jihadist movement. To survive, al-Qaeda adopted a franchising strategy which led it to expand worldwide and establish regional branches in the Levant, North Africa, …

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Zawahri’s Kabul death raises questions about al Qaeda presence in Afghanistan after US left it to the Taliban

Al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahri’s death in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan is raising questions about whether the country is being used as a base of operations for the terrorist group. “What unnerves me is that Al Zawahri felt comfortable enough being out in the open in the Kabul area after the …

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Afghanistan-Pakistan: HGB Violent Reassertion – Analysis

On July 28, 2022, Security Forces (SFs) killed two Hafiz Gul Bahadur (HGB) militants in the Manzer Khel area of the North Waziristan District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. The Hafiz Gul Bahadur faction is a breakaway of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. On July 23, 2022, three HGB militants were killed in …

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Skirmish Erupts At Iran-Afghanistan Border

The Iranian Border Police units and the Taliban forces exchanged fire at a border region in east of Iran on Sunday. Reports suggest that the armed clashes broke out on Sunday noon in Hirmand border region, near the Iranian city of Doost Mohammad, which is located 30 km northeast of …

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NATO and a War Foretold

As NATO holds its Summit in Madrid on June 28-30, the war in Ukraine is taking center stage. During a pre-Summit June 22 talk with Politico, NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg bragged about how well-prepared NATO was for this fight because, he said: “This was an invasion that was predicted, …

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