Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

War and Peace

This thematic category brings together AAN’s reporting on the conflict in Afghanistan, its underlying causes and drivers, the various armed actors and how it affects Afghans in their everyday lives.

The Taleban in Qatar (1): Head of office Tayyeb Agha

Anand Gopal •

The opening of the Taleban’s political office in Doha brought the slither of a clandestine insurgent movement into the public eye. But just who is in the office, about to negotiate with the US and the Afghan government – if, that is, all sides can sort out protocols and procedures? The first of three pieces […]

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The Opening of the Taleban Office in Qatar: A propaganda coup and an angry government

Kate Clark •

The long awaited Taleban office in Qatar has opened on 18 June 2013 with a press conference in which two spokesmen presented their movement as a government in waiting. With the old Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan flag behind them, Sohail Shaheen, in English and Mullah Naeem, in Pashto managed to portray an insurgency, whose main […]

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Transition in Uruzgan (2): Power at the centre

Deedee Derksen •

“Only the dead see the end of war”. The encryption on the monument for fallen foreign soldiers in Camp Holland, the main international military base in Uruzgan, might end up a sad prediction for many inhabitants of this southern province. As foreign forces prepare to leave, Uruzganis are ever more worried about the future. Deedee […]

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Transition in Uruzgan (1): The fights that don’t get mentioned

Martine van Bijlert •

The daily news in Afghanistan is dotted with reports of small-scale attacks, mostly on police posts, district centres and government convoys. These reports illustrate what is going on, but do not provide a full picture: a large proportion of attacks and incidents go unreported. Although the strategic importance of the individual scuffles tends to be […]

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Spring Offensive 2: Civilian casualties

Kate Clark •

At least fifteen children have been killed in the war in Afghanistan in the last 36 hours. All were ‘collateral damage’ from insurgent attacks – victims of two IEDs in Laghman and Farah and a suicide bomber’s blast in Paktia. The surge in the insurgency this year has been intense and civilians, generally, are being […]

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After the ‘operational pause’: How big is the insurgents’ 2013 spring offensive?

Thomas Ruttig •

With two high-profile attacks in Kabul and one in Jalalabad in the two last weeks, Afghanistan’s insurgents seem to have made true on their promise of a ‘monumental’ spring offensive. In terms of propaganda, the three attacks were successful: the media in Afghanistan and abroad gave the incidents wide coverage. AAN Co-Director Thomas Ruttig has […]

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Attack on the ICRC 2: Taleban denial

Kate Clark •

The Taleban have issued a rare public denial, saying they were not behind the suicide attack on the compound of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Jalalabad on 30 May, which left one Afghan, Abdul Bashir, the father of eight children, dead and the ICRC’s humanitarian work in Jalalabad suspended. The Taleban […]

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Baghlan on the Brink: ANSF weaknesses and Taleban resilience

AAN Team •

Is Baghlan province in the north of Afghanistan on the way to becoming a new stronghold of the insurgents? Two incidents symbolise this trend. On 20 May, one of the most powerful anti-Taleban commanders in the north, Mohammad Rasul Mohseni, died in a suicide attack. On 4 May, three Afghan police and one German soldier […]

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Attack on the ICRC: Crossing a Red Line

Kate Clark •

Today (29 May 2013), suicide bombers attacked the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Jalalabad, killing an unarmed guard and wounding a delegate before the attack was suppressed by Afghan security forces. No-one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. Nevertheless, the insurgency has crossed a red line. It is […]

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The evolving Taleban: Changes in the insurgency’s DNA

Claudio Franco •

Understanding the dynamics and complexity of the Taleban insurgency has generally proved difficult for outsiders, but it is now becoming clearer how fast the Taleban has evolved in recent years. The movement’s command structure has seen profound change – partly in response to the US wiping out whole layers of the old, mid-level insurgent leadership […]

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Moving East in the North: Transitioned Faryab and the Taleban

Obaid Ali •

It took little more than seven months to turn Faryab from a province with a worrisome security situation into a province under constant attack. Since the Norwegian Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Faryab closed in September 2012, the security situation has quickly deteriorated. These days, Faryab is one of the main targets of the Taleban’s […]

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What exactly is the CIA doing in Afghanistan? Proxy militias and two airstrikes in Kunar

Kate Clark •

AAN has discovered that the NATO airstrike on Kunar on 13 April 2013 which killed as many as 17 civilians was the second strike on almost the same location to have been requested by the same mixed Afghan/CIA force. President Karzai’s spokesman has reported the president’s assertion – and anger – that the Afghan unit […]

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