Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Kate Clark

Flash From the Past: Afghanistan Independence Day 2001, 2000

Kate Clark •

In 2000, the Taleban celebrated Afghan Independence Day with military parades and cultural events. A year later, they were focussing heavily on the military. As AAN senior analyst, Kate Clark, (then the BBC Kabul correspondent), reported at the time, during those 12 months, hardliners in the movement had come even more strongly into the ascendant, […]

Political Landscape Read more

Ten Killed in Badakhshan: One year on

Kate Clark •

A year ago today, in one of the worst attacks on humanitarian workers of the war, ten medical workers and their support staff were murdered in Badakhshan. They had just trekked across 5000m passes to one of the remotest areas of the country: the Parun valley of Nuristan to give out free eye care, dental […]

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Killings keep leaders at home

Kate Clark •

The goal of the attack on Tirinkot on 31 July, said the Taleban spokesman, Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, was ‘to make the government collapse.’ Those actually killed by the Taleban were not ‘the government’ but mainly civilians, including three women and the BBC/Pajhwok journalist, Ahmed Omaid Khpalwak. But the attack could easily have resulted in the […]

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Civilian Casualties 2: Taleban claims to protect civilians laid bare

Kate Clark •

Accusations against the Taleban are becoming more pointed: their indiscriminate use of IEDs is a war crime, said UNAMA in its most recent mid-year report on civilian casualties, as well as violating a ban on land-mines made by Mulla Omar in 1998. The Taleban continues to insist its hands are clean, but, as AAN Senior […]

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Civilian Casualties 1: Progress in the war or a ‘perpetually escalating stalemate’?

Kate Clark •

General Petraeus has handed over command of ISAF and US forces in Afghanistan, with talk of progress – albeit fragile and with ‘tough times’ ahead. His confidence was belied by reports or statements on the human cost of the war from three respected international institutions working in Afghanistan over the past week: ICRC said, ‘insecurity […]

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Ahmad Wali Karzai, the node of the southern networks, killed

Kate Clark •

In the long line of assassinations carried out by all sides in the war since 2001, Ahmad Wali Karzai is surely the most powerful man yet to be killed. Formally, his powers were limited to being the head of Kandahar’s provincial council, an elected body. Informally, he was the most powerful man in southern Afghanistan, […]

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The Layha: Calling the Taleban to Account

Kate Clark •

This latest report by Kate Clark, Senior Analyst with the Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN), discusses the Taleban Code of Conduct or the Layha. The latest Layha was issued a year ago, and the two previous in 2006 and 2009. Each new version of the Code has been longer, more detailed and more polished. The Layha […]

Special Reports Read more

Kill or Capture 3: When the International Military Says ‘Sorry’

Kate Clark •

President Karzai has said he will no longer allow NATO airstrikes on houses because they are causing too many civilian casualties. The president’s ultimatum follows the pictures shown on Afghan TV on 29 May of distraught villagers in Helmand carrying the bruised and dusty corpses of their small children who had been killed in an […]

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Walking the Kabul Wall, Looking into History

Kate Clark •

From the roof of one of the newest buildings in Kabul, the AAN office, you can see the oldest surviving, above-ground structure in the Afghan capital, the Kabul Wall. It snakes along the Sher Darwaza mountain, now green after the spring rains. AAN Senior Analyst, Kate Clark tells some stories from the Wall: of spring […]

Context and Culture Read more

Kill or Capture 2: Another Takhar Night Raid Fans Ethnic Discontent

Kate Clark •

The repercussions of a night raid by US Special Forces and Afghan police, which left two men, a woman and a girl dead in Takhar a week ago (whether they were civilians or insurgents, depends on whose version of events you believe) are still being played out. The provincial council has gone on strike in […]

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Killing Civilians: Taleban and International Law

Kate Clark •

When the Taleban attacked the 400-bed military hospital in Kabul on 21 May 2011, they committed a gross violation of the international law that protects medical personnel during conflict. The Taleban spokesman heaped praise on those who attacked the hospital, even though, a few days earlier, he had been condemning the international military’s ‘crime against […]

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Kill or Capture 1: Owning up to civilian casualties

Kate Clark •

US Special Forces carry out the vast majority of night raids and targeted killings in Afghanistan, but it is ISAF – through its media office – which deals with any news or fall-out arising from them. In responses to questions by journalists about AAN’s latest report about a case of intelligence failures and targeted killing […]

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