Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Posts tagged: militias

militias

CIA’s plan to retrench in Afghanistan worries U.S. military

AAN •

Los Angeles Times, 8 May 2014 “The CIA is planning to close its satellite bases in Afghanistan and pull all its personnel back to Kabul by early summer, an unexpectedly abrupt withdrawal that the U.S. military fears will deprive it of vital intelligence while thousands of American troops remain in the country, U.S. officials said. […]

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The Ghost Polls of Afghanistan: Election Day in Afghanistan’s hinterlands

AAN •

Harper's Magazine (blog), 7 April 2014 Repiortage from Matt Aikins and Anand Gopal's courageous E-Day trip into Wardak. "At the far limit of Afghan government control", they found a ghost polling station, at the village school of Ambu Khak, protected by a "US-backed" militia.  "A supervisor of the Wardak branch of an independent election-monitoring organization […]

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Changing of the Guards: Is the APPF program coming to an end?

Fabrizio Foschini •

In 2014, the performance of the Afghan National Army (ANA) will be under intense scrutiny. However, it is also high time for another key element of the Afghan security set up to be evaluated: the Afghan Public Protection Force (APPF). The 20,000 men strong, state run security program in the past two years has – with […]

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Afghan Forces Accused of Helmand Civilian Casualties

AAN •

IWPR, 10 February 2014 Now the ANSF are running into a major problem that dogged the interrnational forces and undermined their support in Afghanistan: civilian casualties. IWPR has cases from Helmand, involving the national army, police and the notorious Afghan Local Police.

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The End of a Police Chief: Factional rivalries and pre-election power struggles in Kunduz

Lola Cecchinel •

In the beginning, it looked like good news: had Kunduz police chief, Khalil Andarabi, been sacked because he had led Afghan Local Police (ALP) and militia units on a looting rampage against civilians? If this were the case, it would have meant that the bad track record of the Local Police and illegal militias was […]

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Armed, disarmed, rearmed: How Nahr-e Seraj in Helmand became one of the deadliest districts in Afghanistan

Deedee Derksen •

On a visit to Helmand in mid-December, UK Prime Minister David Cameron stated that when British troops withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of next year, they will have accomplished their main aim – leaving behind a basic level of security. But a new report by the Pentagon (1) tells a different story. On its […]

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Kundus nach Abzug der Bundeswehr: Deutschland stärkte die Warlords

AAN Team •

Tageszeitung (Berlin), 12 November 2013 The Berlin-based daily reviews AAN’s report of today, Philipp Münch’s “Local Afghan Power Structures and the International Military Intervention”, what it calls “the first analysis after the withdrawal of the Bundeswehr troops” from the Afghan northeast. Germany has tried to stay neutral, author Sven Hansen concludes about the “sobering study”, which […]

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Pluralistic within Limits, but Not Democratic: Afghanistan’s political landscape before the 2014 elections

Thomas Ruttig •

A look at the broad variety of (potential) presidential candidates seems to indicate some political pluralism. This is an illusion, however. Afghan analysts have recently argued that President Karzai’s political approach has hampered democratic party-based politics. This is only one side of the coin, argues AAN’s senior analyst Thomas Ruttig. He explains that the other […]

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Bundeswehrabzug aus Afghanistan: Alle Macht den Terror-Milizen?

AAN Team •

ARD (German TV), 17 October 2013 The WDR’s investigative TV magazine “Monitor” looks into the German withdrawal from Kunduz and the ALP militias left behind. It gets the official statement of defence minister de Maiziere that Germany “neither participated in the establishment, equipment nor training of the ALP” while ALP leader Nabi Gechi confirms that Germans […]

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“You Must Have a Gun to Stay Alive”: Ghor, a province with three governments

Obaid Ali •

For many, Ghor is a blank spot on the map. Not much is reported from this large, mountainous province in the west of Afghanistan, but that does not mean it is a quiet place. Thousands of armed men led by criminals and “freelance” commanders, as well as a growing number of Taleban, roam Ghor’s districts. […]

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Beheaded by the Taleban? No, this time it was about sex

Bette Dam •

In Afghanistan, things are often more complicated than they look like at the first glance. Some armed fighting, for example, is motivated by local conflicts. But there are always people who are interested to present this as ‘Taleban’-driven. Our guest author Bette Dam*, a Dutch journalist, pleads for more accuracy in reporting such incidents. On […]

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