Month: August 2021

Vertrauliches Treffen in Doha: Bundesregierung führt Gespräche mit Taliban

ZDF, 6 August 2021 AAN’s Thomas Rutig commenting about the role of former Guantanamo and other Taleban ex-prisoners in Doha, after between German government and Taleban representatives: Die wenigen Taliban-Führer, die aus Gefängnissen in Guantanamo oder Pakistan entlassen wurden, gehören für Afghanistan-Experte Ruttig zu den Schlüsselfiguren des Konflikts. “Sie haben überlebt und sind bei ihren […]

6 Aug 2021

Vormarsch der Taliban in Afghanistan: Unheilvolle Vorahnung

Tageszeitung, 4 August 2021 A round-up of the current security situation (Taleban advances and attack on defence minister’s residence in Kabul), but also a discussion of which reports on Taleban atrocities are real and which are possibly made up.

4 Aug 2021

Afghan forces face intense Taliban test as foreign troops leave

AFP/France24, 4 August 2021 AAN’s Kate Clark is quoted here on the dropping morale in the Afghan government forces: “Even if the government had intended to let some districts fall… the damage to morale of the security forces and of the nation of seeing districts toppling like dominoes cannot be underestimated,” Kate Clark of the […]

4 Aug 2021

Taleban Victory or Government Failure? A security update on Laghman province 

Ali Mohammad Sabawoon •

Laghman province saw four of its six districts fall to the Taleban between late May and mid-July, part of the countrywide territorial advance by the Taleban that coincided with the final phase of the United States withdrawal from 1 May onwards. Laghman has long been contested, with a strong Taleban presence in some rural areas, […]

4 Aug 2021

Afghanistan: “Le pays est profondément divisé”

ARTE, 4 August 2021 In this video in French/German TV channel’s main news bulletin, quotes from AAN’s Thomas Ruttig (in French) about Afghanistan’s split political elite as one factor for the government’s weakness vis-à-vis advancing Taleban.

4 Aug 2021

Afghan soldiers offered higher wages to halt Taliban advance

Financial Times, 2 August 2021 AAN country director Ali Yawar Adili is quoted in this article about the general security situation in Afghanistan: “There has been a stronger push from the Taliban side into at least two major cities, Herat and Lashkar Gah, and there is still fighting going on,” said Ali Yawar Adili, country […]

2 Aug 2021