Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Christoph Reuter

Murad and Sayyed in their neon-lit basement prison in Aleppo, Syria. They are being held by Syrian rebels who want to exchange them, but find no one interested in their prisoners. Photo: screenshot from a video taken by Christoph Reuter

Murad’s War: An Afghan face to the Syrian conflict

Christoph Reuter

In Syria, the Assad regime is running out of soldiers and is increasingly relying on mercenaries. Many are Shiites – Lebanese Hezbollah militiamen, Iranians, Iraqis, Pakistanis and Yemenis. But no group is represented to the degree that the Afghan Hazara are. AAN guest author Christoph Reuter (*) has met two of them – recruited in […]

War and Peace Read more

The Insurgents of the Afghan North

Antonio Giustozzi Christoph Reuter

In this report Antonio Giustozzi and Christoph Reuter describe the rise of the Taleban in northern Afghanistan. They discuss their recruitment and shadow administration, the conduct of the Afghan government, the effects of ISAF’s ‘capture-and-kill campaign’ and how all of this together contributes to a very unstable status quo. Until recently, the belief was widespread […]

Special Reports Read more

AAN Election Guest Blog 1: Logar – any voters out there?

Christoph Reuter

For various reasons Logar seemed to be an interesting area to develop an understanding about the insurgency, the elections – and electoral fraud. The province, just south of Kabul, has the reputation to be at least partly controlled by Taleban. US forces conducted numerous raids in spring and had clashes with armed opponents. Only recently […]

Political Landscape Read more