Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: March 2017

Insiders aided Kabul hospital attack, survivors say

AAN •

AFP, 12 March 2017 This AFP story about the attack on Kabul’s military Sardar Daud Khan hospital, claimed by Daesh, picks up reports about inside support for the assailants – and on growing doubt that it was really the IS, namely on “indications that the (Taliban-allied) Haqqani network was behind it.”

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I Had Dinner With the Afghan Ambassador. What He Said About the Differences Between Trump, Obama Is Stunning

AAN •

Independent Journal Review, 11 March 2017 An American journalist was invited to a dinner with the Afghan ambassador in the US and widows of US soldiers killed in Afghanistan – and had the chance to listen to a eulogy of the Trump administration’s stand on Afghanistan and a dress-down of the “fatigued”, “hesitant” and too […]

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IS Taking New Strategy in Afghanistan

Martine van Bijlert •

Voice of America, 10 March 2017 Voice America article quotes two AAN dispatches on how ISKP operates, messages and recruits. First it quotes Borhan Osman’s dispatch on the ISKP’s cells in Kabul: The Kabul-based Afghanistan Analysts Network, in a dispatch published on its website last year, claimed to have some evidence of at least three […]

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Afghan capital plagued by kidnapping and extortion of locals

AAN •

AFP/The National, 10 March 2017 Underreported, underrated – a phenomenon that undermines the security of Kabulis probably as much as terrorism. One shortcoming: the too short sentence about the political connections and protection of the abduction syndicates: The government’s inability to curb kidnappings has led many like Mr Ghulam to suspect that some criminals are […]

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Unheiliger Wettbewerb: Islamistische Anschläge in Afghanistan

Thomas Ruttig •

Tageszeitung, 8 March 2017 Op-ed summary in the Berlin based-daily by AAN’s Thomas Ruttig of the IS-claimed attack on the Kabul military hospital (in German).

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Afghanistan-Experte: Taliban bitten um Hilfe – Tür zum Dialog[?]

Thomas Ruttig •

Katholische Nachrichtenagentur, 6 March 2017 (not online) The news agency of the German catholic church quotes AAN’s Thomas Ruttig about the Taleban’s invitation to NGOs and assurance to them of protection (in German): Kabul (KNA) Der deutsche Afghanistan-Experte Thomas Ruttig sieht eine wachsende Dialogbereitschaft der radikalislamischen Taliban mit internationalen Nichtregierungsorganisationen (NGOs). Er bestätigte am Montag […]

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Police post in Kandahar, 2005. Photo: Thomas Ruttig

The Leahy Law and Human Rights Accountability in Afghanistan: Too little, too late or a model for the future?

Erica Gaston •

The Leahy Amendment, or Leahy law, is a little known piece of United States legislation that bans US assistance to units of foreign security forces where there is credible information that a member has committed gross violations of human rights. The Leahy law has accomplished far less than its champions hoped for, but far more […]

International Engagement Read more

Blanke Verzweiflung in Afghanistan

Thomas Ruttig •

Publik-Forum (online), 5 March 2017 Interview with AAN’s Thomas Ruttig (in German) about the security situation in Afghanistan and on which support rejected and deported Afghan asylum seekers can rely in Afghanistan on the website of the German protestant church’s grassroots movement’s weekly.

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Rückkehr afghanischer Flüchtlinge: Heimkehr ins Elend

AAN •

Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 3 March 2017 Author Volker Pabst of the leading Swiss daily writes about the situation of Afghan – forced or ‘voluntary’ – returnees mainly from Pakistan, but also from Europe and used AAN data for his graph on the return figures.

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Abschiebungen nach Afghanistan: Weniger sicher geht nicht

Thomas Ruttig •

Tageszeitung, 2 February 2017 Op-ed commentary by AAN’s Thomas Ruttig on the latest attempt of the German federal government to bring state governments in line of its deportation policy of failed Afghan asylum seekers (in German). Main argument: the German government continues to fail to tell the public where the allaged “secure” or “relatively secure” […]

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Streit zwischen Afghanistan und Pakistan: Nicht einmal Lust auf Reden

Thomas Ruttig •

Tageszeitung (online), 2 February 2017 Op-ed by AAN’s Thomas Ruttig about the new crisis in Afghan-Pakistani relations, playing out after Pakistani accusations of a wave of terrorist attacks being organised from Afghan territory – and counter-accusations and an Afghan quasi-boycott of the latest ECO regional organisation summit in Islamabad (in German).

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A Reaper drone flies a combat mission over southern Afghanistan (US Air Force/Lt. Col. Leslie Pratt: 2008)

Drone Warfare 2: Targeted Killings – a future model for Afghanistan?

Kate Clark •

Armed drones came of age, by chance, at the onset of the United State’s ‘war on terror’. Washington has used them ever since to provide close air support to troops on the ground and to carry out targeted killings. In Afghanistan, they have been relatively uncontroversial, but in other countries, their legality, effectiveness and potential […]

War and Peace Read more

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