Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Posts tagged: Kabul

Kabul

Sal-e Naw Mubarak! Neway kal-mu mubarak!

Kate Clark •

AAN would like to wish all our beloved readers and contributors a peaceful and happy new year. The signs of spring are all about us here in Kabul – blossom on the almond trees, cats a-courting and sunshine, warm and pleasant, is mixed with thunder showers. The mud underfoot is drying to dust in the […]

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In Kabul’s ‘Car Guantánamo,’ Autos Languish and Trust Dies

admin •

New York Times, 17 February 2013 Just a brilliant reportage: ‘Residents here call it Car Guantánamo. Behind these walls are thousands of cars, trucks, vans, motorcycles and even bicycles, lined up in vehicular purgatory after falling afoul of the Kabul traffic police. Things that have landed cars in the slammer: illegal left turns, parking violations, […]

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Welcome to Kabul: Here are some brass knuckles

admin •

Global Post, 6 February 2013 A bit over-dramatised headline, but good report about a part of Kabul that is ‘slipping into lawlessness’, highlighting not a new, bit largely overlooked problem and concentrates on a multi-layered neighbourhood, the Company area..

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Watching ‘The Patience Stone’ in Kabul

admin •

Afghanistan Analysis blog, 28 January 2013 Young Afghans watch the movie after a novel by Atiq Rahimi (of ‘Earth and Ashes’ fame) and discuss what can/should be shown in movies and what not, with interesting insight from a young mulla.

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The Growth of Neo-radicalism: Neo-Salafism and Sectarianism

Abbas Daiyar •

There are indications about the involvement of neo-radical – both neo-Salafist and Iranian-inspired Shia – groups in the Ashura clashes that occurred last November at Kabul University. AAN has recently reported about the events. In a follow-up article, our guest blogger Abbas Daiyar(*) argues that an increase of the activities comes in the wake of […]

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Kabul und die Sicherheitslücken

Other AAN •

Deutsche Welle (online), 22 January 2013 Article on the Taleban’s recent attack on the Traffic Police HQ in Kabul, with extensive quotes from AAN’s Thomas Ruttig, warning not to ‘over-interpret such operations’ as a ‘deterioration of the security situation’ which has peaks and does not develop linearly. Such attacks also ‘have more propagandistic than military […]

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Striking at Kabul, in 2013: the attack on the traffic police HQ

Fabrizio Foschini •

Just before dawn, the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) premises on the Deh Mazang roundabout in West Kabul came under attack. After a massive car bomb detonated in front of the building, an insurgent commando of five men tried to enter the traffic police headquarters. Two of them eventually made their way inside, and holed […]

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Despite a Whiff of Unpleasant Exaggeration, a City’s Pollution Is Real

admin •

New York Times, 21 January 2013 A report about pollution and air quality in Kabul, with the Kabul mayor Mohammad Yunus Nawandish saying: ‘Kabul air is not as polluted with human feces as they say.’

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Black & Veatch, with history of problems in Afghanistan, now has another

admin •

McClatchy newspapers, 19 January 2013 Another (failed and USAID-financed) US contractor story, featuring the ‘White Elephant of Kabul’, the Tarakhel Power Plant, a USD 300 million project.

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Where Many Streets Have No Name: One for the Freedom of Speech?

Thomas Ruttig •

Afghan journalists want to rename a street in central Kabul ‘Freedom of Speech Street’ to honour the many colleagues who have sacrificed their lives in this cause over the past ten years. Their initiative has met some resistance – not because of the content but because the street already bears the name of an independence […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more

AAN Reportage: What Sparked the Ashura Day Riots and Murder in Kabul University?

Borhan Osman •

Last November, on the day of Ashura, a Muslim religious day with particular importance for Shias who mourn the martyrdom of the Prophet’s grandson Hussain, clashes erupted between Sunni and Shia students in the dormitory of the Kabul University. The campus was literally turned into a battlefield. One student was killed and more than a […]

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Former United States Envoy Returns To Kabul Politics

admin •

Wall Street Journal, 8 December 2012 Zalmay Khalilzad, Afghanistan-born former US ambassador to Kabul and, in 2009, rumoured to have considered a presidential candidacy himself is currently in Kabul: ‘I am here to facilitate an agreement among key personalities and forces on a possible consensus on key issues confronting the country, and the formation of […]

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