Afghanistan

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Afghanistan marks 1 year since Taliban seizure as woes mount

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban on Monday marked a year since they seized the Afghan capital of Kabul, a rapid takeover that triggered a hasty escape of the nation’s Western-backed leaders, sent the economy into a tailspin and fundamentally transformed the country.

https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-poverty-economy-kabul-taliban-cc5a327e607fd5fa1f64eae0e152e973?

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EXPLAINER: Dueling views remain a year after Afghan pullout

WASHINGTON (AP) — A year after America’s tumultuous and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan, assessments of its impact are divided — and largely along partisan lines.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-afghanistan-al-qaida-ayman-zawahri-f00d745cb7cf00e3ada60017401f6784?

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Taliban bar women from university education in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers on Tuesday banned female students from attending universities effective immediately in the latest edict cracking down on women’s rights and freedoms.

https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-3cea615c4d5d6d5d7da68b593a7546f2?

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Taliban kill mastermind of suicide bombing at Kabul airport

WASHINGTON (AP) — A ground assault by the Taliban killed the Islamic State militant who spearheaded the August 2021 suicide bombing at the Kabul airport that left 13 U.S. troops and about 170 Afghans dead during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

https://apnews.com/article/taliban-isis-abbey-gate-afghanistan-bombing-9a9cb492bb1352a615af8815e715b17a

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A baby was found in the rubble of a US raid in Afghanistan. But who exactly was killed and why?

The Afghan villager was afraid the American soldiers might come. And one cool night in fall, as his children lay asleep, helicopters roared overhead.

https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-raid-marine-orphan-custody-1e73bba608994a53fca37b904dfd9a81?

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As the Taliban Hunts Prosecutors, Afghan and U.S. Lawyers Team Up to Bring Their Colleagues to Safety

Targeted for years, Afghan prosecutors were left behind when the Taliban returned to power. Twenty-nine have been killed since then.

https://theintercept.com/2023/08/08/afghan-prosecutors-taliban/?

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Two years after fall of Kabul, tens of thousands of Afghans languish in limbo waiting for US visas

ISLAMABAD (AP) — When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, Shukria Sediqi knew her days in safety were numbered. As a journalist who advocated for women’s rights, she’d visited shelters and safe houses to talk to women who had fled abusive husbands. She went with them to court when they asked for a divorce.

https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-refugee-pakistan-us-visa-a89918dfda998dce8d8d26568f4feca1?

Why this matters: The American airflift in August 2021 allowed for many Afghans to gain entry to the U.S. under a provision known as humanitarian parole -- but many more are still waiting. An Association of Wartime Allies report said at the current rate it would take 31 years to process them all.   Many of the applicants who fled Afghanistan have destroyed documents during the Taliban takeover because they worried about reprisals. Now they need them to prove their case. In the meantime, they are running through personal savings, living in limbo and in exile.

Related coverage ➤ Two-year timeline of events in Afghanistan since 2021 Taliban takeover The Taliban are entrenched in Afghanistan after 2 years of rule. Women and girls pay the price Pakistan urges the Afghan Taliban to prevent militants from crossing the border and staging attacks

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US says Marine’s adoption of Afghan orphan seen as abduction, must be undone The U.S. government has warned a Virginia judge that allowing an American Marine to keep an Afghan war orphan risks violating international law and could be viewed around the world as “endorsing an act of international child abduction,” according to secret court records reviewed by The Associated Press. Read more.

Why this matters: It is rare for the federal government to step into a local custody case, but concern about the child’s fate has stretched across the Trump and Biden administrations.   Failing to return the child, now 4, to Afghan relatives in the U.S. could jeopardize American efforts to resettle Afghan refugees, threaten international security pacts and might be used as propaganda by Islamic extremists, Justice Department attorneys warned in court filings.   Marine Joshua Mast’s attorneys have written that the Marine and his wife acted in good faith and worked at “great personal expense and sacrifice” to protect the baby.

Related coverage ➤ A baby was found in the rubble of a US raid in Afghanistan. But who exactly was killed and why? Afghan couple accuse US Marine of abducting their baby

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US military orders new interviews on the deadly 2021 Afghan airport attack as criticism persists

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon’s Central Command has ordered interviews of roughly two dozen more service members who were at the Kabul airport when suicide bombers attacked during U.S. forces’ chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal, as criticism persists that the deadly assault could have been stopped.

https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-pentagon-abbey-gate-withdrawal-bombing-fb5725ccf8ba641f79dc7976e7b9db79?

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Afghanistan: In a New Light In the years after the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and the ouster of the Taliban regime, Associated Press photographer Rodrigo Abd spent months on assignment there and learned how to use a traditional Afghan “box camera,” a handmade street camera and darkroom in one. He returned this year with an idea: employ the nearly disappeared art form to document how Afghan life has changed in peacetime, for better and worse, since U.S. troops left and the Taliban returned to power. Read more.

Why this matters: Afghanistan has been globally isolated since the Taliban resumed power in 2021 and reimposed its strict interpretation of Islam, including banning the depiction of faces in billboards, posters and shop windows. Abd found using the old camera to take portraits disarmed his subjects, including foot soldiers and even some government officials.   The economy was crippled when international donors withdrew funding and governments froze Afghan assets abroad, isolated its financial sector and imposed sanctions. Nearly half of Afghanistan’s 40 million people now face acute food insecurity, the U.N.’s World Food Program says, with malnutrition above emergency thresholds in 25 of 34 provinces.   Since banning girls from school beyond sixth grade, Afghanistan is the world’s only country with female education restrictions. The ban triggered global condemnation and remains the Taliban’s biggest obstacle to recognition as a legitimate government. But the Taliban defied the backlash and went further, virtually erasing women from public life by excluding them from higher education, outdoor spaces and most jobs.

Related coverage ➤  WATCH: Afghanistan: In a New Light 2 years ago, the Taliban banned girls from school. It’s a worsening crisis for all Afghans

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American Intervention And Its Blowback

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by Brendan James and Noah Kulwin, producers and hosts of the wildly popular historical narrative podcast Blowback. Their new season covers the history of foreign intervention in Afghanistan and both the intentional and unintentional blowback from those efforts.

https://www.levernews.com/lever-time-american-intervention-and-its-blowback/

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Desperate people dig out dead and injured from Afghanistan earthquakes that killed at least 2,000

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Men dug through rubble with their bare hands and shovels in western Afghanistan Sunday in desperate attempts to pull victims from the wreckage left by powerful earthquakes that killed at least 2,000 people.

https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-herat-earthquake-155c12cd085d7aa8ee1fef5882e120f4?

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Republicans and Democrats agree that the Afghanistan war wasn’t worth it, an AP-NORC poll shows

WASHINGTON (AP) — At a time when Americans are deeply divided along party lines, a new poll shows considerable agreement on at least one issue: The United States’ two-decade-long war in Afghanistan was not worth fighting.

https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-911-terrorism-taliban-women-rights-268ebebb40beea7be3b1528ed6ae5808?

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Taliban arrest women for ‘bad hijab’ in the first dress code crackdown since their return to power

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban have arrested women in the Afghan capital for wearing “bad hijab,” a spokesman at the country’s Vice and Virtue Ministry said Thursday.

https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-bad-hijab-women-09d5301ca830f1bdef26696add37fd02?

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Taliban hold public execution for 2 men, who are killed by gunfire in a stadium as thousands watch

GHAZNI, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban carried out a double public execution Thursday at a stadium in the country’s southeast, where relatives of the victims of stabbing deaths fired guns at two convicted men while thousands of people watched.

https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-public-execution-stadium-73a175aef085f26bd6b574465be34c6f?

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U.N. Has Flown More Than $2.9 Billion in Cash to Afghanistan Since the Taliban Seized Power, Diverting U.S. Funds

The U.S. State Department has previously said that no U.S. funds went to the militant group, but a new federal report indicates that some taxpayer money has ended up in the Taliban-controlled central bank of Afghanistan.

https://www.propublica.org/article/united-nations-cash-afghanistan-following-taliban-takeover?

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The Taliban are working to woo tourists to Afghanistan Afghanistan’s rulers are pariahs on the global stage, largely because of their restrictions on women and girls. The economy is struggling, infrastructure is poor, and poverty is rife. And yet, foreigners are visiting the country, encouraged by the sharp drop in violence, increased flight connections with hubs like Dubai, and the bragging rights that come with vacationing in an unusual destination. Read more.

Why this matters: The numbers aren’t huge — they never were — but there’s a buzz around Afghan tourism. In 2021, there were 691 foreign tourists. In 2022, that figure rose to 2,300. And last year, there were 7,000. Mohammad Saeed, the head of the Tourism Directorate in Kabul, said the biggest foreign visitor market is China because of its proximity and large population.   A topic of question is how to interact with foreign women and how their behavior or habits could clash with local customs and edicts. The restrictions on Afghan women and girls weigh on overseas travel companies, who say they try to focus on the positive aspect of cultural interactions by making donations, supporting local projects or only visiting family-run businesses.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ A gunman kills 6 worshippers inside a Shiite mosque in western Afghanistan, the Taliban say   Family of American man believed to be held by Taliban asks the UN torture investigator for help   As international travel grows, so does US use of technology. A look at how it’s used at airports

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The Taliban publish vice laws that ban women’s voices and bare faces in public

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have issued a ban on women’s voices and bare faces in public under new laws approved by the supreme leader in efforts to combat vice and promote virtue.

https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-vice-virtue-laws-women-9626c24d8d5450d52d36356ebff20c83?

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The Taliban ban women's bare faces and the sound of their voices in public In the first formal declaration of vice and virtue laws in Afghanistan after returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban says it is mandatory for Afghan women to conceal their voices and faces in public. Read more.

Why this matters: The bans fall under new laws approved by the supreme leader in efforts to combat vice and promote virtue. The 114-page, 35-article document of laws, seen by The Associated Press, covers aspects of everyday life like public transportation, music, shaving and celebrations.   The new laws empower the ministry to be at the front line of regulating personal conduct and administering punishments if enforcers allege that Afghans have broken the laws.    The U.N. has previously said that official recognition of the Taliban as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan is nearly impossible while restrictions on women and girls remain. Although no country recognizes the Taliban, many in the region have ties with them.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ The new vice and virtue laws provide ‘distressing vision’ for Afghanistan, warns UN envoy   Trump will address National Guard soldiers on the third anniversary of suicide bombing at Kabul Airport   The Taliban have ruled Afghanistan for 3 years. Here are 5 things to know

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The United States' war in Afghanistan is over. But not for everyone Three years ago, the U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan. But for some Americans, that wasn't the end of the story. In the three years since, some volunteers in the United States have worked to get some of the nation's Afghan allies out of the Taliban-controlled country and into new lives abroad. They see it as a duty for those left behind who helped Americans at great risk to their own safety. And, they say, they need to fill in where the U.S. government hasn't. Read more.

Why this matters: By the time President Joe Biden decided to pull the U.S. military from Afghanistan in August 2021, the American mission there was riddled with failures. The Biden administration scrambled to evacuate staff, American citizens and at-risk Afghans. One Biden administration official recently described the chaos of those three weeks to The Associated Press, saying that it felt like nobody in the U.S. government was able to steer the ship.   The informal network of volunteers was born after past and current members of the U.S. military, the State Department and intelligence services were all being besieged with messages begging for help from Afghans they’d worked with. Americans horrified by what they were seeing and reading on the news reached out as well. Veterans who’d served multiple tours in Afghanistan and civilians who’d never set foot there all spent sleepless weeks working their telephones, fighting to get out every Afghan they could and to help those still trapped.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Germany deports Afghan nationals for first time since Taliban takeover in 2021   An Afghan woman who sings outdoors to protest the Taliban’s morality laws says she won’t be silenced   Taliban have deliberately deprived 1.4 million Afghan girls of schooling through bans, says UNESCO

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An Afghan province bans all media from showing images of living things to comply with Taliban laws

ISLAMABAD (AP) — An Afghan province has banned all media from showing images of living things to ensure compliance with the Taliban’s morality laws.

https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-media-morality-laws-living-things-b39d42fdceb5317f62a145b7092c9384?

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Taliban deputy tells leader there is no excuse for education bans on Afghan women and girls

A senior Taliban figure has urged the group’s leader to scrap education bans on Afghan women and girls, saying there is no excuse for them, in a rare public rebuke of government policy. The government has barred females from education after sixth grade. Read more.

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White House cheers release of two Americans freed in a swap with Taliban brokered by Biden, Qatar

WASHINGTON (AP) — A prisoner swap between the United States and Afghanistan’s Taliban freed two Americans in exchange for a Taliban figure imprisoned for life in California on drug trafficking and terrorism charges, officials said Tuesday.

https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-american-detainee-prisoner-exchange-e201170029067fbd8c9ef5861af0930e?

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Taliban frees an American man who was abducted while traveling in Afghanistan more than 2 years ago

An American man who was abducted more than two years ago while traveling through Afghanistan as a tourist has been released by the Taliban in a deal with the Trump administration that Qatari negotiators helped broker, the State Department said Thursday. Read More.

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Tourists are trickling into Afghanistan and the Taliban government is eager to welcome them

By plane, motorbike, camper van and even on bicycles, tourists are beginning to discover Afghanistan, with solo travelers and tour groups gradually venturing into a country that until recently was wracked by war. And the country’s Taliban government, which seized power more than three years ago but has yet to be formally recognized by any other nation, is more than happy to welcome them. Read more.