Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Thomas Ruttig

The Taliban is trying to win over Afghanistan’s Shiites with a 33-year-old Hazara emissary

Washington Post, 1 November 2021 The Post quotes AAN analyst Ali Adili on one of the most high-ranking Hazaras in the new Taleban administration, the intelligence chief for Bamian province: “He’s not the kind of national figure that could appeal to the Hazara community,” said Ali Adili, an Afghan researcher focusing on the Hazara community […]

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In Afghanistan, a girls’ school is the story of a village

AP, 29 October 2021 An interesting reportage from a village in Wardak province, where many people welcomed and even celebrated the Taleban victory in Kabul but still insist that girls should attend school. It only goes up to grade 6 but “The school [when it] opened two months ago, [it] mark[ed] the first time in […]

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Sirajuddin Haqqani: Pakistan’s ‘Sword Arm’ And ‘Strategic Asset’ In Afghanistan – Analysis

Jamestown Foundation, 18 October 2021 A short reference to AAN research published in 2016 about Serajuddin Haqqani’s late father, Jalalauddin.

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A Taxing Narrative: Miscalculating Revenues and Misunderstanding the Conflict in Afghanistan

AREU, 15 October 2021 One of those reports about Afghanistan you should not miss, as its author – David Mansfield, the authority on this fild – deconstructs one of the widest-believed misconceptions on the Taleban – wildly inflated figures of how much they earn from the drug economy. Here a short abstract of the report: […]

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Taliban play down ISIS-K threat despite spate of attacks

The National (Dubai), 12 October 2021 AAN’s Ali Adili is quoted here on the Taleban-IS relationship: As for Afghans who have already endured more than four decades of war, ISKP has become “a new spectre haunting the people”, independent Afghanistan analyst Ali Adili said. “The Taliban as a militant group has poor-to-zero accountability when it […]

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Strange Quiet Arrives in [southern] Afghanistan After Decades of War

Wall Street Journal, 11 October 2021 Reportage by Sune Engel Rasmussen from Helmand, Zabul and Kandahar, showing the other side of the war, local populations driven to support the Taleban because of western forces-caused destruction. He tweetd about his journey: I didn’t fully understand the scale of destruction in Sangin until I went there. In […]

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Mindestens 43 Tote bei Anschlag auf Moschee in Kundus

dpa/Süddeutsche Zeitung, 8 October 2021 In this article in on eof the leading German dailies, dpa material with quotes from AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is used (In German) on ISs strength in Afghanistan: Dem Afghanistan-Experten Thomas Ruttig von der Denkfabrik Afghanistan Analysts Network zufolge bedeuten die Anschläge des IS nicht, dass die Gruppe stärker geworden ist. […]

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Die schwierige Aufarbeitung des Afghanistan-Einsatzes

Augsburger Allgemeine, 8 October 2021 AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is quoted (in German) in this aricle in the southern Germany-based daily about the German defence ministry’s first round of an attempted appraisal of the German mission in Afghanistan. Thomas calls the attempt an ‘introspection’ missing ‘a sufficient number of independent voices’: Für Thomas Ruttig, Direktor des […]

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The Taliban’s Campaign to Rob Villagers of Their Land [in Daikundi]

Spiegel, 6 October 2021 A reportage in the leading German news magazine about Taleban displacing Hazara settlers in a Daikundi valley, based on contradictory land tenure documents and their control over the local court.

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Afghans join Syrians as Turkey’s unwelcome migrants

Ahval, 1 October 2021 Here, an earlier AAN report about Afghan migrants in Turkey is quoted: In Turkey, refugees are left to fend for themselves,  according to a bitter conclusion that the Afghanistan Analysts Network published in a report at the end of last year.

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Taliban Evict Hazara Shiite Muslims From Villages, Rewarding Loyalists

Wall Street Journal, 30 September 2021 The US daily reports about Taleban land seizures in Daikundi province, about which German magazine Der Spiegel reported in more detail (see AAN recommended reads), and quotes AAN’s Ehsan Qaane: Regardless of the merits of the land dispute, “the way the Taliban force locals to leave their houses and […]

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How the Taliban governs itself

TRT World, 27 September 2021 AAN’s Obaid li is quoted in this piece on the Turkish broadcaster’s website on the structures of the Taleban, on their Rahbari Shura: “In some cases, the Shura is a consultation body. In some other cases, the Shura has different responsibilities and also some authority,” says Obaid Ali, an Afghan […]

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