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.

Death of Rabbani (5): Where is the evidence?

Kate Clark •

Three weeks after the killing of Burhanuddin Rabbani, the Afghan authorities appear to have found out astonishingly little about who ordered and carried out this plot. As part of a new tranche of documents and testimony from the investigation, the Afghan intelligence agency, the NDS, has released videoed testimony from Hamidullah, the go-between who introduced […]

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Thinking out loud about peace, talks and tensions

Martine van Bijlert •

In the weeks after Rabbani’s death by deceit and in the days after President Karzai’s oblique announcement of a new peace strategy, Afghans are trying to make sense of a complicated and murky situation. They are thinking out loud and what they say illustrates the complexity and the confusion, the diverging view points and the […]

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Ten Years After – or: My Former Cleaner’s Beard

Thomas Ruttig •

Ten years ago today, the first bombs were dropped over Afghanistan. Most Kabulis welcomed them and even applauded when houses of certain Taleban ‘guests’ were hit. They were really tired of living as international pariahs and under a leader who’s face was unknown and who only recommended prayer to overcome social problems, leaving the real […]

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The government’s new peace strategy: Who to talk to?

Martine van Bijlert •

After the Rabbani assassination, the Afghan government has made it clear that it intends to revise its peace strategy. It has however been very short on the details of what this might look like, other than that it needs to revolve around ‘talking to Pakistan’. The change comes in the midst of deteriorating relations with […]

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Death of Rabbani (4): Former Taleban Director of Ariana Airlines was the key go-between

Kate Clark •

Details of the identities of two of the men involved in the plot to kill former president, Burhanuddin Rabbani, have been given to AAN by a person close to the Afghan government. These fresh details ultimately came from Rahmatullah Wahidyar, the member of the High Peace Council who was the conduit for the killer to […]

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The Death of Rabbani (3): Emerging details

Kate Clark •

Details about the assassination of Burhannudin Rabbani are trickling in, raising many questions. It is still unclear whether this was a Taleban authorised hit, a Taleban ‘rogue operation’ or the work of another group. At the funeral, President Karzai said ‘the blood of the martyr and other martyrs of freedom requires us to continue our […]

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A Message for Peace in the Middle of War

Sari Kouvo •

While the killing of the Head of the High Peace Council on Tuesday certainly sent a strong message that peace will not be easily attained in Afghanistan, Afghan civil society organizations have used the week around World Peace Day celebrated on 21 September to campaign for peace, sending messages that peace has to be attained […]

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The Death of Rabbani (2): Taleban silence

Kate Clark •

The killing of Burhannudin Rabbani was a treacherous act. Pretending to be a peace emissary, his assassin gained entry to his home and killed him while the two men were greeting each other, presumably while saying salaam alekum. It is not yet clear if this was the work of the Taleban. They have yet to […]

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The Death of Rabbani

Kate Clark •

One of the most senior Afghan leaders has been killed in a suicide bombing at his home in Kabul. Burhanuddin Rabbani was a founder and leading activist in the Afghan Islamist movement in the 1960s and 1970s, one of the seven leaders of the (Sunni) mujahedin parties in the 1980s and – at least formally […]

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Another Longest Day in Kabul

Fabrizio Foschini •

As the sound of automatic weapons and rockets died down, hopefully not to resume soon in Kabul, the city went into the night without knowing the final outcome of today’s battles. Earlier during the day, Fabrizio Foschini and others at AAN could only listen to the sound of it coming through the wind, and hope […]

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The Enteqal Seven (7): Opportunities and Concerns in the North

Fabrizio Foschini •

More than one month has passed since Mazar-e Sharif was officially transitioned to the responsibility of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), along with the cities of Herat, Lashkargah and Mehtarlam, the provinces of Bamian and Panjshir, and most of Kabul. In the last of this series of blogs, AAN’s Fabrizio Foschini, with the help […]

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The Death of an Uruzgan Journalist: Omaid Never Stood a Chance

Susanne Schmeidl •

42 agonizing days after the death of a friend, the young and gifted Uruzgan journalist, Omaid Khpulwak, during a complex attack on 28 July 2011 in Tirin Kot, NATO has finally finished its investigation and admitted to what his friends and family had said all along, that Omaid was shot dead by US forces. It […]

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