Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Posts tagged: Kandahar

Kandahar

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, […]

War and Peace Read more

Kandahar Prison Escape: the Taliban’s Tale

admin •

Alex’ Blog, 15 May 2011 Alex Strcik van Linschoten publishes the translation of two articles from the Taleban magazine al-Somood describing their version of the Big Kandahar prison break.

Recommended Reads Read more

Was Afghanistan’s ‘Great Escape’ actually a great big sham?

admin •

Global Post, 5 May 2011 Jean MacKenzie has an Afghan ‘Deep Throat’ in the Kabul government who told her that the big Kandahar prison escape throught the tunnel was a sham and the 500 or so prisoners actually released by the Afghan government. She has a high-ranking wirness, Afghanistan’s Minister of Justice – who said […]

Recommended Reads Read more

Inside the Taliban’s jailbreak tunnel

admin •

CNN, 5 May 2011 On the same day as the Global Post (see there under ‘recommended reading’) put some doubt on the story, CNN had a reporter ‘inside’ the escape tunnel and takes the story at face value.

Recommended Reads Read more

Kandahar in Revolt: The Quran demos in the light of history

Felix Kuehn •

The sort of violent demonstrations which took place in Kandahar in the first week of April against the burning of a Qur’an in the United States, with large gatherings of people and clashes with Afghan security forces, have not been seen since the late 1950s and early 1980s. Usually, says our guest blogger, the freelance […]

Context and Culture Read more

Adams Krieg (Adam’s War, in German)

admin •

Spiegel 12/2011 (21 March 2011) The story about twelve US soldiers who created what they called a ‘Kill Team’ at FOB Ramrod, Kandahar – a stroy from a war that – as the magazine summarises – ‘has lost view ar its initial cause’ and in which soldiers have developed ‘pure hatred for all Afghans’. The […]

Recommended Reads Read more

Kriegsverbrechen in Afghanistan (War Crimes in Afghanistan)

admin •

N24 (German TV), 20 March 2011 Next week, the process against twelve US soldiers who run what they called a ‘kill team’ at FOB Ramrod in Kandahar province will start in the US. They apparently shot Afghan innocent civilians, manipulated the crime scene, took photos and collected body parts as trophies. Although under arrest, the […]

Recommended Reads Read more

Is This What Population-centric Counterinsurgency Looks Like?

admin •

Afghanistan Study Group blog, 10 March 2011 In the farmland west of Kandahar City the US Army is building what it calls a “Security and Commerce Wall” as part of its strategy to protect the Afghan people…. err…. the military convoys.

Recommended Reads Read more

Figure of the Day: US$ 100 m. (in destroyed orchards)

Thomas Ruttig •

An Afghan government delegation has reported that ‘Afghan and foreign forces have caused more than US$ 100 million damage to fruit crops and homes during security operations in southern Kandahar province’. AAN’s senior analyst Thomas Ruttig remembers an episode last summer. When a young Afghan visited our office last summer and told us about US […]

War and Peace Read more

Crossfire in Kandahar

admin •

Columbia Journalism Review, January/February 2011 Excellent article by Vanessa Gezari on arrested journalists in Kandahar; the confusing mix of counter-insurgency, journalism, intelligence, story-telling and the “shifting layers of half- and quarter-truth” (“I was used to it. Afghanistan had schooled me in the limits of certainty”).

Recommended Reads Read more

Gains in Kandahar Came with More Brutal U.S. Tactics

admin •

IPS News, 17 December 2010 The acclaimed successes in three districts in Kandahar come at a high price. Gareth Porter pulls together some of the recent reports of the large scale demolishment of houses and fields and how ISAF hopes that this will be ‘connecting government to the people’ when they come and ask for […]

Recommended Reads Read more

Subscribe to receive updates from the Afghanistan Analysts Network

Sign up