Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: May 2017

Hekmatyar’s Return to Kabul: Background reading by AAN

AAN •

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the notorious leader of Hezb-e Islami, returned to Kabul today. After several years of on-and-off talks, between the Afghan government and envoys of the party’s leader-in-hiding, a deal allowing his return was finally signed in September 2016. Several months of negotiations on the finer details of the deal’s implementation followed. An overview of AAN’s past […]

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Fear and doubt as notorious ‘butcher of Kabul’ returns with talk of peace

Martine van Bijlert •

The Guardian, 4 May 2017 AAN’s Kate Clark weighs in on the ceremonial return of Hezb-e Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar to Kabul, calling it a “rehabilitation of his political career.” “Hekmatyar comes home on a red carpet. He is a failed figure, whose people are dwindling on the battlefield,” she said. “The fact that the […]

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Posters celebrating the return of Gulbuddin Hetkmatyar have been put up in Kabul. Within hours, they were defaced. “I have always wanted my country free and independent,” this one says. "I think of nothing else.” (Photo: Ehsan Qaane)

Charismatic, Absolutist, Divisive: Hekmatyar and the impact of his return

Borhan Osman •

One of the anti-Soviet mujahedin leaders, Mawlawi Yunus Khales, famously likened Gulbuddin Hekmatyar to a pair of trousers that had caught fire: get rid of them and be naked or keep them on and burn. Hekmatyar, Khales appeared to be saying, is too necessary to throw away and too problematic to keep close. So, what […]

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Afghanistan: Pentagon will Truppen um bis zu 8.000 “Berater” aufstocken

Martine van Bijlert •

Telepolis, 3 May 2017 Article discusses AAN’s dispatch in response to the Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, dropped by the US on ISKP positions in Achin, at great length. It notes: Eine Riesenbombe und nichts ist passiert? Das Fazit zum Abwurf der größten konventionellen US-Bombe Mitte April auf Nangarhar steht sinnbildlich für die Kriegszone Afghanistan : Es […]

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