Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: December 2011

Pakistan Taliban shift focus to Afghanistan

admin •

Asia Times online, 12 December 2012 Pakistani analyst Amir Mir looks at the background of Lashkar-e Jhangvi and says that LeJ Al(a)mi is ‘is largely believed to be the international wing’ of the former organisation. he also looks at the reports about negotiations between Pakistan’s Taleban and the Islamabad government but does not show links […]

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Reporting Problems in Southeast Afghanistan

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IWPR, 12 December 2011 The Afghanistan-based reporters of IWPR report about the low standard of Afghan journalism, taking media in Nangarhar province as an example (putting the province into the southeast, instead of the east).

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Bargaining over US bases: Will they stay or will they go?

Kate Clark •

US intentions – what it wants or plans or thinks it might possibly do in Afghanistan after 2014 – are again in the news. Will Washington want bases? Will US soldiers ‘just’ be training Afghan troops or participate in fighting? And how many soldiers might remain in Afghanistan? On the Afghan side, both President Karzai […]

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‘Tough way to do business’

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The Friday Times, 9-15 December 2011 Shashank Joshi takes a closer look at the implications of Pakistan’s decision to close its transit route for NATO supplies. The move forces NATO to make even greater use of the more expensive alternatives: the NDN (twice the cost) and air lifts (ten times the cost). On the other […]

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Guest Blog: Andkhoi between Drought and Insurgency

Marga Flader •

The sale of government jobs, unexplained killings, abductions by the Taleban and a severe drought that has resulted in a nearly complete crop failure this year. It is difficult to say what is worse for the people in Andkhoi, the security situation or economic crisis, our guest blogger Marga Flader who works for a German […]

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Berlin, 8 December 2011: After Bonn2 – podium with AAN participation

AAN • admin •

‘Wie weiter am Hindukusch? Zehn Jahre danach: Afghanistan nach der Bonner Außenministerkonferenz’: AAN’s Thomas Ruttig and Bente Scheller, the Boell Foundation’s outgoing head of office in Kabul, will discuss the outcome of the 5 December international conference on Afghanistan in Bonn, the role of Afghan civil society and perspectives for Afghanistan (in German). Time: Thursday, […]

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Guest Blog: Bonn 2 – Summit of Two Media Realities (with links to official docs)

Martin Gerner •

The Bonn 2 Afghanistan Conference was not only revealing in what was said in the non-binding final statement* of the meeting, but also on how differently journalists worked and observed the event for much of the day. Our guest blogger Martin Gerner, a freelance German author and correspondent who also had organized an international seminar […]

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Ashura Attacks (3): A new type of violence in Afghanistan

Fabrizio Foschini •

One of the last taboos of violence in Afghanistan was broken by yesterday’s suicide attacks on the Ashura commemoration in Kabul and Mazar-e Sharif. Historically, sectarian tensions or conflicts have occasionally been seen in Afghanistan, but they have usually been stirred up and leveraged by politics or war. Sectarian hatred has never enjoyed public recognition […]

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Entropy and insurgent radicalisation: an ISAF goal?

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alexstrick.com, 7 December 2011 Alex argues that the attacks against Shia places of worship in Afghanistan, if really committed by a Lakhkar-i Jhangvi splinter group, might be another indication that ‘the Taliban’s central leadership (based, for the most part, in Karachi) have been steadily losing control over the violence in Afghanistan. This is not to […]

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Kabul attacks: who is behind the suicide bombing?

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Guardian, 7 December 2011 In the Guardian’s ‘Comment is free’ section, Abbas Daiyar – who has also written blogs for AAN – draws the genealogical tree of Pakistan-based secterian splinter group Lashkar-i Jhangvi al-Al(a)mi that took responsibility for the Ashura attacks in Kabul and Mazar back to mainstream JUI party and also points to the […]

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Ashura Attacks 2: Flash from the Past, Ashura 2002 (amended)

Kate Clark •

The bombs which ripped through Ashura processions in Kabul and Mazar-e Sharif and likely targeted – futilely – a ceremony in Kandahar killed dozens, raising the spectre of sectarianism in Afghanistan. Every year since 2001, says Kate Clark, the Ashura ceremonies have become larger and more public as the Afghanistan’s Shi’a communities have grown in […]

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Ashura Attacks (1): Playing with Fire

Kate Clark •

Attacks have targeted Shi’as in two of Afghanistan’s major cities as they gathered for Ashura, to lament the martyrdom of Imam Hussein and members of his family in Iraq in 680 AD. The attack in Kabul was particularly serious and left dozens dead. Such violence is a new phenomenon, says Kate Clark, deeply troubling and […]

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