Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Thomas Ruttig

Taliban defiant over delay to U.S. troop reduction in Afghanistan

Thomas Ruttig

Reuters, 16 October 2015 After the US decision to keep the current number of troops in Afghanistan beyond 2016, a quote in which AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is trying to answer what this can contribute to security in Afghanistan: Thomas Ruttig, co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, said Afghan troops needed more support, but he added: […]

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Time for a rethink – and time waits for none!

Thomas Ruttig

Pakistan Today, 16 October 2015 In an op-ed for the Pakistani website, a participantof the Pakistan-Afghanistan Bilateral Dialogue from the Regional Peace Institute (RPI) in Herat earlier this month organised by the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies (AISS) mentions “informed and credible inputs from three experts from the Carnegie, Atlantic Council and the Afghan[istan] Analysts Network”.    

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Un empujón moral para los afganos y un mensaje a Pakistán

Thomas Ruttig

El País, 16 October 2015 In an article about current Taleban military successes, a dispatch by AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is quoted here, saying that – apart from district   taken by the Taleban – around 150 others are vulnerable: “Al menos otras 150 son vulnerables a sus ataques”, aseguraba recientemente a este diario Thomas Ruttig, […]

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The rising costs of water: dire consequences for Afghans in battle with Iranians

AAN

The Guardian, 15 October 2015 On the Afghan-Iran border, a village is caught up in a deadly, regional struggle for the most precious resource: “Residents of Kohsan district in Afghanistan’s Herat province say that when they try to collect precious potable water on the barren eastern bank, the Iranian guards open fire. While the provincial […]

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US tank enters ruined Afghan hospital putting ‘war crime’ evidence at risk

AAN

The Guardian, 15 October 2015 MSF says ‘forced entry’ by military vehicle – later said to be carrying investigators into the US airstrike that killed 22 patients and staff – caused stress and fear.

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Afghanistan nach dem Taliban-Angriff auf Kundus: “Hier gibt es nichts mehr, was mich hält”

Thomas Ruttig

Qantara, 12 October 2015 In this article by Emran Feroz on this blog, a project of Deutsche Welle, in which the author discusses reasons for Afghans to flee their country in the current situation,  AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is quoted (In German) about the US air attack on the MSF clinic in Kunduz, saying that there […]

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The Fall of Kunduz to The Taliban Is a Sign of Things to Come

Thomas Ruttig

Newsweek, 12 October 2015 Two short quotes – one of AAN’s Thomas Ruttig and one from an earlier AAN dispatch: The amount of territory the Taliban control in Afghanistan tends to ebb and flow as they launch frequent fresh offensives, but Thomas Ruttig, co-director and co-founder of the research organization the Afghanistan Analysts Network, notes […]

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Svetlana Alexievich, during the 2015 Ryszard Kapuściński prize ceremony, Warsaw. Photo: Charta97.org.

Literature Nobel Prize for Svetlana Alexievich, author of 1990 Afghanistan book Zinky Boys

Thomas Ruttig

Svetlana Alexievich has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Among her many breath-taking and deeply unsettling books is one about Afghanistan. Published in 1990, Zinky Boys is based on interviews with former Soviet soldiers and their relatives in her Belorussian home country in the second half of the 1980s, then still a Soviet republic. […]

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Kunduz debacle: time for soul-searching

AAN

Express Tribune, 6 October The author of an op-ed for the Pakistani daily quotes from AAN dispatches about Kunduz and its militias:  The Afghan Analysts Network (AAN), an independent not-for-profit research organisation, reported that the operation initiated with the help of illegal militias was “originally aimed at routing out the Taliban, but became more of […]

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Kommentar Bomben auf Klinik in Kundus: Möglicherweise ein Kriegsverbrechen

Thomas Ruttig

Tageszeitung, 6 October 2015 An op-ed commentary by AAN’s Thomas Ruttig on the US airstrike on the MSF clinic in Kunduz, drawing parallels to a 2009 German-ordered airstrike killing scores of civilians, also in Kunduz: the intelligence failure (Afghan sources claiming there were [only] Taleban in the target area and the justification, namely force protection. […]

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Bomben auf Krankenhaus in Kundus: [US-Militär:] Afghanen forderten Luftangriff an

Thomas Ruttig

Tageszeitung, 6 October 2015 AAN’s Thomas Ruttig reports, for the Berlin-based daily, the latest developments after the US strike on a MSF clinic in Kunduz, including the US military’s claim that the Afghan government had asked for the strike (in German).

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