Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: April 2015

Appeal by Kunduz airstrike victims’ families fails

Thomas Ruttig •

Deutsche Welle, 30 April 2015 Also in German, here. Reporting that the next level of jurisdiction in Germany has rejected compensation claims of family members of Afghans killed during an air strike in Kunduz in September 2009, maintaining that the German commander responsible had not neglected duty (as, as the court says, he could not […]

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Phantom Troops, Taliban Fighting, and Wasted Money — It’s Springtime in Afghanistan

AAN •

Vice, 29 April 2015 Gary Owen, aka El Snarkistani, gives a nice written summary of the latest SIGAR reports, regarding the US (and Afghan) inability to say how many soldiers and policemen there exactly are – belonging to the many “failed attempts at reconstruction.” He asks “how many millions of dollars have been spent on troops […]

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Taliban Onslaught: What is Happening in Afghanistan?

AAN •

The Diplomat, 29 April 2015 The IS issue also comes up in today’s article debating the Taleban spring offensive: again, an AAN dispatch is quoted: “… the Afghan[istan] Analysts Network cautions that IS “has been prominent in Afghanistan largely on social media and in reports by the media and Afghan officials.”  

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The Killing of Farkhunda (2): Mullahs, feminists and a gap in the debate

Borhan Osman •

From ultra-conservative Salafis to secular-minded feminists, an astonishingly diverse range of voices have found their heroine in Farkhunda, the young woman who was lynched by a mob in Kabul on 19 March 2015. She has become the rare victim of violence to be almost unanimously called a shahid, a martyr. The consensus on her status, however, […]

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The Killing of Farkhunda (1): The physical environment and the social types party to her murder

Fabrizio Foschini • Naheed Esar Malikzay •

40 days after the violent killing of Farkhunda, supporters gathered on Monday, 27 April 2015, to mourn and protest her death. Afghan public opinion has now reached a broad consensus over the unprecedented gravity of this murder. Yet, many questions remain as to what triggered the killing and how it was possible for such a […]

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Geklappt hat nur der Abzug: Taleban-Offensive und deutsche Fehler in Kundus

Thomas Ruttig •

Tageszeitung, 29 April 2015 Op-ed commentary by AAN’s Thomas Ruttig, accompanying the Kunduz fighting article. He argues that Germany, at least indirectly, has contributed to the mistakes that have led to the Taleban’s latest advances: first by rejecting, over many years, that there was a war ongoing in Kunduz and Afghanistan which allowed the Taleban, […]

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Frühjahrsoffensive der Taliban: Kampf um Kundus

Thomas Ruttig •

Tageszeitung, 29 April 2015 Guest article by AAN’s Thomas Ruttig, summarising the Taleban attacks in Kabul (and fighting elsewhere) following their recent announcement of their spring offensive. He writes that the government forces were apparently taken by surprise – which surprises itself, as they should have been warned, nit only by the offensive’s announcement, but […]

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Узбекистан усилил охрану границы с Афганистаном из-за активизации боевиков

AAN •

CA-News, 28 April 2015 The Russian-language Central Asian news website based in Kyrghyzstan, in an article about Uzbekistan strengthening its border defences, quotes AAN on a fact which doesn’t originate with us – that Uzbekistan has the longest Afghan  border of all-post-Soviet countries in Central Asia: По данным независимой некоммерческой организации «Сеть аналитиков Афганистана» (Afghanistan […]

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Violence in Afghanistan Delays Ghani on Trip to India

AAN •

The Diplomat, 28 April 2015 Discussing, among other points, the role of IS in Afghanistan, this article says: Not all, however, are as convinced of the ISIS threat in Afghanistan. Last week Kate Clark of the Afghan[istan] Analysts Network published an excellent in-depth examination of the Jalalabad attacks — which the Taliban denied and the […]

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Defence contractor run by Colonel Tim Collins OBE under investigation for fraud in Afghanistan

AAN •

The Independent, 27 April 2015 A British-run security company, New Century Consulting, came under criminal investigation in the US over “$130m ‘unsupported‘ and ‘questioned‘ costs” from a $176m contract to train Afghan security forces in counterinsurgency,

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Источник: Узбекистан усилил охрану границы с Афганистаном

AAN •

RIA Novosti, 28 April 2015 Now also the official Russian news agency quotes AAN on the length of the Afghan-Uzbek border, as if we are the only source for this. But thanks anyway…

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Judge blocks deportation flight for rejected Afghan asylum-seekers


AAN •

The Guardian, 22 April 2015 A british judge has cancelled a flight on board of which rejected Afghan asylum seekers were supposed to be deported after warning by Afghan minister for refugees and repatriation that 80% of country is not safe to return to.

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