Archiv: Kriegsfürsten / warlords


13.11.2024 - 18:41 [ United Nations ]

Sudan: Allies of warring generals ‘enabling the slaughter,’ Security Council hears

Ms. DiCarlo condemned not only the RSF attacks but also the indiscriminate airstrikes by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in civilian-populated areas such as the capital Khartoum and El Fasher, a major city in North Darfur hosting thousands of internally displaced which has been besieged for months by the RSF.

“Both warring parties bear responsibility for this violence,” she stressed.

She added that as the rainy season nears its end, both sides continue to escalate their military operations, recruit new fighters and intensify their attacks, fuelled by “considerable” external support and a steady flow of arms.

“To put it bluntly, certain purported allies of the parties are enabling the slaughter in Sudan. This is unconscionable, it is illegal, and it must end.”

(…)

The situation in Sudan has been in a freefall since the war erupted last April.

It is now the world’s worst displacement crisis, with more than 11 million people driven from their homes – nearly three million among them into neighbouring countries as refugees, according to the UN relief coordinating office, OCHA.

The war has also unleashed a severe hunger crisis, affecting millions.

10.11.2024 - 13:35 [ New York Times ]

When Did Liberals Become So Comfortable With War?

First, history has shown that governments and bureaucracies tend to become addicted to a war footing, with failure sucking them in further — think of America’s war on terror, or Vietnam. War encourages a perverse cycle of escalation in which huge financial and political gains accrue for governments and the military-industrial complex while the costs tend to be borne by weaker parties — before they start to come home in some shape or form.

We’ve called this bipartisan pattern “wreckonomics” and have found it especially present in wars or conflicts with costs that Western politicians can largely outsource — from fighting terrorism, drugs and smugglers to quasi-colonial interventions during the Cold War.

09.11.2024 - 15:49 [ CNN ]

Biden administration to allow American military contractors to deploy to Ukraine for first time since Russia’s invasion

(November 8, 2024)

The Biden administration has lifted a de facto ban on American military contractors deploying to Ukraine to help the country’s military maintain and repair US-provided weapons systems, particularly F16 fighter jets and Patriot air defense systems, an official with direct knowledge of the plan told CNN.
(,,,)
It is not clear whether Donald Trump will keep the policy in place when he takes office in January. Trump has said he hopes to end the war between Ukraine and Russia “within 24 hours” of returning to power.

01.05.2023 - 18:50 [ World Peace Foundation / Tufts University ]

Oil, Guns and Gold: The Violent Politics of Sudan’s Resource Booms

Sudan lost three-quarters of its oil resources after South Sudan’s separation in 2011. This paper explores the consequences of Sudan’s experience with traumatic decarbonization and how this informs thinking on the durability of systems of monetized political governance: political marketplaces. First, the lasting power of Sudan’s leftover oil shows that even in exceptional cases, where the loss of oil is so abrupt and deep, ruling regimes can cling onto power and maintain their position in the political marketplace. By exploiting the remaining oil resources and tapping into alternative resources, regimes can – at least temporarily – plug gaps in political budgets to maintain the patronage networks that ensure their political survival. Second, new resources, gold in Sudan’s case, do not necessarily change existing <strong>political marketplaces. Sudan demonstrates that even with new political figures at the top, political marketplaces often hold the same attributes as former ones. What new resources do influence, however, is who rises and who falls within a political marketplace. Finally, the paper shows how the fluidity and diversity of regional and international relations and commerce also allow domestic actors to maintain political marketplaces.

01.05.2023 - 18:12 [ Nation.africa ]

UN says Sudan collapsing as fighting enters third week

„There is no right to go on fighting for power when the country is falling apart,“ UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television.

The latest three-day ceasefire — due to expire at midnight (2200 GMT) Sunday — was agreed Thursday after mediation led by the United States, Saudi Arabia, the African Union and the United Nations.

„We woke up once again to the sound of fighter jets and anti-aircraft weapons blasting all over our neighbourhood,“ a witness in southern Khartoum told AFP.

01.05.2023 - 10:01 [ theGuardian.com ]

A war for our age: how the battle for Sudan is being fuelled by forces far beyond its borders

In this conflict frontiers have no significance, control of resources is the primary prize, with forces arising in borderlands seeking their revenge on once contemptuous metropolitan elites. Trafficking networks across swathes of desert are extensions of the “battlespace”, and almost innumerable actors with an axe to grind or an agenda to pursue vastly outnumber those who seek to stop the fighting.

All of this happens in a shadowy penumbra defined by backroom deals, obscure alignments of interests, brutal realpolitik and disinformation. The poor and the weak and the unarmed suffer most, as ever.

21.10.2021 - 06:12 [ LibyaObserver.ly ]

International delegations taking part in the Libya Stability Conference begin to arrive in Tripoli

Other delegations who are set to participate in the conference began to arrive from Monday, where the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, Rose Marie Di Carlo, accompanied by the head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), Jan Kubis arrived.

21.10.2021 - 03:29 [ LibyaObserver.ly ]

Libyan parties express rejection of Paris conference next month

A French-staged international conference proposed for next November to discuss the Libyan crisis is losing momentum before even starting, as wider circles of Libyan politicians are voicing their rejection to the event.

22.09.2021 - 20:03 [ France24 ]

‚Historic night‘ as Somalia screens first film in 30 years

„This is going to be a historic night for the Somali people, it shows how hopes have been revived… after so many years of challenges,“ said theatre director Abdikadir Abdi Yusuf.

21.08.2021 - 12:20 [ Radio Utopie ]

McChrystal raus, Petraeus degradiert: Die „Warlord AG“ Afghanistan bekommt einen neuen Geschäftsführer

(23. Juni 2010)

Am Montag, den 22.Juni, veröffentlichte die Washington Post auf ihrer Webseite den neunundsiebzig Seiten langen Bericht des „Unterausschusses für Nationale Sicherheit und Auswärtige Angelegenheiten“ mit dem Titel „Warlord, Inc.: Extortion and Corruption Along the U.S. Supply Chain in Afghanistan“, für den der Leiter des Ausschusses, der Republikaner John F. Tierney (D-Mass.), verantwortlich zeichnete (1, 2).

Der „Unterausschuss für Nationale Sicherheit und Auswärtige Angelegenheiten“ ist ständiger Teil des „Ausschuss für Aufsicht und Reform der Regierung“ des Repräsentantenhauses.

Die Veröffentlichung des Berichts fällt mit den Machtkämpfen um die Kompetenzen der CIA, der Geheimdienste des US-Verteidigungsministeriums und den eigenmächtigen Spionagediensten des US-Militärs (wie diejenigen des General Petraeus) um die Kontrolle der Oberhoheit in den besetzten Gebieten zusammen, in denen sich Geschäfte mit Hilfe korrupter Politiker in mehrfacher Milliardenhöhe abwickeln lassen – die Möglichkeiten zum Geldverdienen reichen von der Opiumproduktion, den Rüstungsgeschäften und Waffenhandel, Lizenzen für die Ausbeutung der Rohstoffe, Aufträge für die Bauunternehmen bis hin in alle Bereiche des öffentlichen Lebens einer Gesellschaft. Es geht um die reine Ausbeutung eines Landes.

18.08.2021 - 18:43 [ HindustanTimes.com ]

Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai holds talks with senior Taliban leader

A Taliban commander and senior leader of the Haqqani Network militant group, Anas Haqqani, met for talks with former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a Taliban official told Reuters on Wednesday. Karzai was accompanied by Abdullah Abdullah, the head of the Afghan National Reconciliation Council.

17.08.2021 - 15:00 [ associated press - apnews.com ]

Billions spent on Afghan army ultimately benefited Taliban

(today)

The Taliban captured an array of modern military equipment when they overran Afghan forces who failed to defend district centers. Bigger gains followed, including combat aircraft, when the Taliban rolled up provincial capitals and military bases with stunning speed, topped by capturing the biggest prize, Kabul, over the weekend.

A U.S. defense official on Monday confirmed the Taliban’s sudden accumulation of U.S.-supplied Afghan equipment is enormous.

17.08.2021 - 14:54 [ TaskAndPurpose.com ]

The US still can’t effectively track weapons and vehicles given to Afghan security forces

(Jul 14, 2020)

In the meantime, a 2016 analysis found that the Pentagon funneled some 1.45 million firearms to various security forces in Afghanistan and Iraq since the start of the Global War on Terror. It is not known how many of those ended up in local weapons armories — and how many have simply gone missing since.

17.08.2021 - 13:16 [ Radio Utopie ]

McChrystal raus, Petraeus degradiert: Die „Warlord AG“ Afghanistan bekommt einen neuen Geschäftsführer

(23. Juni 2010)

Am Montag, den 22.Juni, veröffentlichte die Washington Post auf ihrer Webseite den neunundsiebzig Seiten langen Bericht des „Unterausschusses für Nationale Sicherheit und Auswärtige Angelegenheiten“ mit dem Titel „Warlord, Inc.: Extortion and Corruption Along the U.S. Supply Chain in Afghanistan“, für den der Leiter des Ausschusses, der Republikaner John F. Tierney (D-Mass.), verantwortlich zeichnete (1, 2).

Der „Unterausschuss für Nationale Sicherheit und Auswärtige Angelegenheiten“ ist ständiger Teil des „Ausschuss für Aufsicht und Reform der Regierung“ des Repräsentantenhauses.

Die Veröffentlichung des Berichts fällt mit den Machtkämpfen um die Kompetenzen der CIA, der Geheimdienste des US-Verteidigungsministeriums und den eigenmächtigen Spionagediensten des US-Militärs (wie diejenigen des General Petraeus) um die Kontrolle der Oberhoheit in den besetzten Gebieten zusammen, in denen sich Geschäfte mit Hilfe korrupter Politiker in mehrfacher Milliardenhöhe abwickeln lassen – die Möglichkeiten zum Geldverdienen reichen von der Opiumproduktion, den Rüstungsgeschäften und Waffenhandel, Lizenzen für die Ausbeutung der Rohstoffe, Aufträge für die Bauunternehmen bis hin in alle Bereiche des öffentlichen Lebens einer Gesellschaft. Es geht um die reine Ausbeutung eines Landes.

17.08.2021 - 13:08 [ Sueddeutsche.de ]

Krieg in Afghanistan: Warlord Inc. – freies Geleit gegen Geld

(23. Juni 2010)

Die USA verteilen in Afghanistan Milliarden Dollar an Firmen, damit schwerbewaffnete Söldner für Sicherheit sorgen. Die Dienstleister verdienen prächtig – und bestechen mit dem Steuergeld zwielichtige Kriegsfürsten und möglicherweise auch Taliban.

17.08.2021 - 12:53 [ Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform / Homeland Security Digital Library at NPS ]

Warlord, Inc.: Extortion and Corruption Along the U.S. Supply Chain in Afghanistan

(June 22, 2010)

To the Members of the Subcommittee:

Today I present to you a report entitled, Warlord, Inc.: Extortion and Corruption Along the U.S. Supply Chain in Afghanistan, which has been prepared by the Majority staff of the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
After a six-month investigation, the report exposes the circumstances surrounding the Department of Defense’s outsourcing of security on the supply chain in Afghanistan to questionable providers, including warlords.

The findings of this report range from sobering to shocking. In short, the Department of Defense designed a contract that put responsibility for the security of vital U.S. supplies on contractors and their unaccountable security providers. This arrangement has fueled a vast protection racket run by a shadowy network of warlords, strongmen, commanders, corrupt Afghan officials, and perhaps others.

Not only does the system run afoul of the Department’s own rules and regulations mandated by Congress, it also appears to risk undermining the U.S. strategy for achieving its goals in Afghanistan.

17.08.2021 - 12:28 [ Radio Utopie ]

Afghanische Warlords stehen jährlich mit Hunderten von Millionen-Dollar-Margen auf NATO-Gehaltslisten

(4. November 2009)

Denn so lange die Warlords, Gebietsfürsten und Distriktgouverneure mit jährlichen Millionenbeträgen auf der Gehaltsliste der CIA und der NATO stehen, haben sie noch weniger Interesse an friedlichen Verhältnissen in der Region. Je mehr Krieg und Terror, umso besser – ansonsten würden diese hohen Einnahmen für sie wegfallen. Das Geld bekommen diese Führer dafür, dass sie private Sicherheitstruppen mieten, um die jeweiligen Basen der westlichen Allierten sowie die Transportwege vor terroristischen Überfällen zu schützen. Diese Kuh gilt es mit allen Mitteln zu melken.

Somit ist durchaus der Beweis erbracht, dass die NATO den Krieg in Afghanistan doppelt finanziert – nicht nur die eigenen Truppen sondern auch die der Gegenseite gleich mit.

17.08.2021 - 12:10 [ Center on International Cooperation (CIC) at New York University ]

The Public Cost of Private Security in Afghanistan

(Sept 9, 2009)

The private security industry in Afghanistan has grown apace with demand. As of August 2009, the total number of private security personnel employed by the US Department of Defense – the largest employer of private security in the country – increased 19 percent (from 4,373 to 5,198) in response to the deployment of additional military forces. Since 2001, a range of private security providers (PSPs) has emerged, including international and national PSCs operating with or without the required Afghan licensing permits, as well as militias hired as “armed support groups” (ASG) by international military forces. Many PSPs are controlled by prominent Afghan families, including Hashmat and Ahmed Wali Karzai, brothers of President Hamid Karzai; Hamid Wardak, the son of Defense Minister Rahim Wardak; Gul Agha Shirzai, the governor of Nangarhar province; and Hajji Jan Mohammad Khan, the former governor of Uruzgan.

The use of unregistered PSCs and militia groups by the NATO International Security Assistance Force and US military contingents is widespread. Many of these PSPs serve as ready-made militias that compete with state authority and are frequently run by former military com-manders responsible for human rights abuses or involved in the illegal narcotics and black market economies. Financing armed, alternative power structures fulfills security needs in the short-term at the cost of consolidating government authority in the long-term.

(…)

Drug trafficking and other criminal activities in which commanders may be involved – and for which their militias provide security – is a lucrative source of illegal revenue that can then be used to bribe government officials and strengthen shadow structures of authority. Illicit taxation of PSPs escorting convoys and other scams on private transport and security are also an important source of funding for corrupt police and insurgents. The Kandak Amnianti Uruzgan, for example, secures protection “by paying a hefty toll to the policeman in charge of the road.” Although it is transportation and construction companies, both international and national, who are the main source of “protection” revenue, private security escorts also pay Taliban not to be attacked. According to an Afghan intelligence official, there are examples of PSPs paying as much as 60 percent of their gross profits for convoy security to the Taliban and other insurgent-cum-criminal groups for “protection.”

17.08.2021 - 11:42 [ Radio Utopie ]

Verbleib jeder dritter US-Waffe in Afghanistan rätselhaft

(12. Februar 2009)

Unsere Bundestagsabgeordneten sollten ihren Beschluss zum Afghanistaneinsatz auch unter diesen Aspekt noch einmal überprüfen und diesen endlich beenden, wenn sie ein Gewissen besitzen.

17.08.2021 - 11:31 [ CNN ]

Thousands of guns U.S. sent to Afghanistan are missing

(February 12, 2009)

The U.S. military failed to „maintain complete inventory records for an estimated 87,000 weapons — or about 36 percent — of the 242,000 weapons that the United States procured and shipped to Afghanistan from December 2004 through June 2008,“ a U.S. Government Accountability Office report states. (…)

The military also failed to properly account for an additional 135,000 weapons it obtained for the Afghan forces from 21 other countries. (…)

The military is unable to provide serial numbers for 46,000 of the missing 87,000 weapons, the report concludes. No records have been maintained for the location or disposition for the other 41,000 weapons.

17.08.2021 - 10:04 [ Radio Utopie ]

Afghanistan: Kriegstagebuch eines Bundeswehr-Offiziers

(4.August 2012)

Vorbemerkung der Redaktion: Dieser Artikel wurde bereits am 28. Februar 2007 von Radio Utopie veröffentlicht. Leider verschwand dieser irgendwann aus unserer Datenbank. Wir veröffentlichen diesen somit erneut im Original, mit dem damaligen Vorwort.

(…)

„Es scheint mir ohnehin eine ganz wesentliche Frage zu sein wie man sich am besten, ohne Gesichtsverlust, aus dem Land verabschieden kann. Natürlich werden wir weiterhin die ANA, also die neue Afghanische Armee und die Afghanische Polizei aufbauen, bis dann am Ende insgesamt über hunderttausend ausgebildete Uniformierte dastehen. Übrigens unter Federführung der Amerikaner.

Aber wer glaube daran, dass diese Kräfte sich so verhalten werden wie wir uns das wünschen? Schon heute ist allerorten zu sehen wie die Straßenpolizeikräfte willkürlich abkassieren und die haben eine westliche Ausbildung genossen.“

17.08.2021 - 09:51 [ Tagesschau.de ]

Machtwechsel in Afghanistan: „Totalversagen der Bundesregierung“

Ruttig: Man hat von Anfang an auf einen verengten und falschen Kreis von Leuten gesetzt, und damit meine ich nicht in erster Linie die Präsidenten und ihre Kabinette und Berater. Sondern ich meine die Warlords, auf die man als Hauptkraft im Kampf gegen die Taliban gesetzt hat. Man hat ihnen dafür große Teile des politischen Systems überlassen und die Augen vor ihrer Korruption, Verwicklung in den Drogenhandel, Kriegsverbrechen und schlimmsten Menschenrechtsverletzungen verschlossen. Das hat das untergraben, was eine entstehende afghanische Demokratie hätte sein können.

16.08.2021 - 10:59 [ Husain Haqqani / Twitter ]

According to this report, Taliban bought out local Afghan army commanders. Where did the massive cash come from & how did U.S. intel miss info about its flows?

16.08.2021 - 10:50 [ Washington Post ]

Afghanistan’s military collapse: Illicit deals and mass desertions

(15.08.2021)

The deals, initially offered early last year, were often described by Afghan officials as cease-fires, but Taliban leaders were in fact offering money in exchange for government forces to hand over their weapons, according to an Afghan officer and a U.S. official.

Over the next year and a half, the meetings advanced to the district level and then rapidly on to provincial capitals, culminating in a breathtaking series of negotiated surrenders by government forces, according to interviews with more than a dozen Afghan officers, police, special operations troops and other soldiers.

15.08.2021 - 20:30 [ Thomas Langkabel (he/him) / Twitter ]

Am Rande: was macht der Bundesnachrichtendienst eigentlich beruflich?

15.08.2021 - 19:58 [ BBC ]

Live: Taliban enter Kabul as Afghan government collapses

– A Taliban spokesman says their fighters have been ordered to enter the city to prevent looting
– Reports from Kabul say the Taliban have seized the presidential palace
– Earlier they were told to refrain from violence and allow safe passage for anyone wanting to leave
– Eyewitnesses say the militants met little resistance along the way to the capital

15.08.2021 - 19:50 [ Washington Post ]

Afghan president flees country after Taliban enters Kabul, a sign the government has collapsed

In a sign that the government had collapsed, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, Abdullah Abdullah, the head of the Afghan High Council for National Reconciliation, confirmed in a video shared online.

15.08.2021 - 19:47 [ Fahim Abed / Twitter ]

Mazar-e-Sharif collapsed to the Taliban, fighters leaded by Atta Mohammad Noor and General Dostum fled to Hayratan Border Pass with Uzbekistan. The picture shows the bridge on the river in the crossing point.

15.08.2021 - 19:40 [ Independent.co.uk ]

Afghanistan: Taliban capture Mazar-e-Sharif, government’s last northern stronghold

The fall of Mazar-e-Sharif, the country‘s fourth-largest city, which Afghan forces and two powerful former warlords had pledged to defend, hands the insurgents control over all of northern Afghanistan, confining the Western-backed government to the centre and east.

14.08.2021 - 15:45 [ Bloomberg ]

Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered Sued Over Afghanistan Dead

(05.08.2021(

The banks and two money transmitters functioned as “laundromats,” allowing terrorist financiers to secretly move money and evade detection, according to the lawsuit. Transactions involving syndicate agents, operatives and fronts in countries including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia and the United Arab Emirates raised red flags that they were dealing with terrorist money, the suit claims.

14.08.2021 - 15:07 [ Hindustan Times ]

Taliban seizes Logar province near Kabul, launch attack on Mazar-e-Sharif

(today)

The Taliban seized a province just south of Afghanistan‘s capital and launched a multi-pronged assault early Saturday on a major city in the north defended by powerful former warlords, Afghan officials said.

The insurgents have captured much of northern, western, and southern Afghanistan in a breakneck offensive less than three weeks before the United States is set to withdraw its last troops,

14.08.2021 - 15:04 [ Hadees Pardes / Twitter ]

President Ghani arrived in #MazareSharifcity, Balkh province, this morning where he will meet officials to discuss the security situation in the north, an official said. #Afghanistan

(11.08.2021)

14.08.2021 - 15:03 [ lokmat.com ]

Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum leaves for Mazar-e-Sharif

(11.08.2021)

Marshal (Afghan National Army) Abdul Rashid Dostum on Tuesday left Kabul for Mazar-e-Sharif after the fall of the eighth province Baghlan to the Taliban. Ehsan Nairo, Dostum´s spokesman, confirmed the news and said that the trip to Mazar-e-Sharif was coordinated with the help of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

14.08.2021 - 09:57 [ RadioExe.co.uk ]

Afghanistan: First British troops begin deploying to help evacuate remaining UK nationals

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: „Protecting British nationals and ensuring their safety as they leave Afghanistan is our top priority.

„Over the next few weeks, we shall all do our very best to support the Afghan government and those that have worked with us over 20 years.“

14.08.2021 - 09:37 [ USA Today ]

Reports: US Embassy in Kabul directs staff to destroy sensitive documents as many diplomats prepare for evacuation

The memo to U.S. Embassy staff urged diplomats to destroy computers and other sensitive documents before they leave, as well as items featuring the American flag, embassy logos and other articles that „could be misused in propaganda efforts,“ according to CNN.

A State Department spokesperson said the notice was part of its „standard operating procedure“ for embassy drawdowns.

14.08.2021 - 09:17 [ theHill,com ]

US pushing to relocate thousands of Afghans in Qatar: report

“We are evaluating all available options. We have no announcements to make on third country relocation sites for Afghan SIV applicants,” a State Department spokesperson told The Hill in a statement, referring to special immigrant visas.

The Biden administration said Thursday there would be 1,000 U.S. troops going to Qatar to help process applications from Afghans already in the country. The Afghans are seeking visas to the U.S. for assisting the U.S. during the war.

14.08.2021 - 08:53 [ Pentagon - Defense.gov ]

Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby Holds a Press Briefing on Afghanistan

MR. KIRBY: What I‘d say, Mike — what I‘d say to that, Mike, is what I‘ve been saying for the last few days, that the Afghan forces have advantages, they have capability to protect their territory and their people, they have the capacity to do that.

What — what I think the Afghan people want to see and what they deserve to see is the leadership and the will to use those advantages to their benefit.

Thanks, everybody, going to have to go now.

(CROSSTALK)

Q: … can you clarify the numbers one more time, so I have no mistakes? 3,000 going into the airport, 1,000 first going to Qatar and then to Afghanistan to help with SIVs, or staying in Qatar?

MR. KIRBY: No — no, I said the — the 1,000 enablers will go to Qatar for right now. I can‘t predict whether there‘ll be onward movement from there. Right now, they‘re going to Qatar …

Q: And the 3,500 …

MR. KIRBY: … again, for helping process, and then 3,000 to the airport in the next few days and then there‘ll be a reserve force out of Bragg that will — that will stage out of Kuwait, and that‘s roughly 3,500 to 4,000.

Q: And all of that‘s in addition to the 650 who are there …

MR. KIRBY: That is correct.

14.08.2021 - 08:44 [ Washington Post ]

Mass Afghan government surrenders as Taliban fighters overrun three key cities in sweeping territorial gains

(13.08.2021)

In the western city of Herat, an entire Afghan army corps crumbled, with hundreds of troops handing over their weapons to the Taliban and others fleeing, according to local officials. The surrender deal was brokered, they said, by a group of Taliban leaders who met with Afghan government and security forces at the military base where they were holed up after the city was overrun Thursday.

14.08.2021 - 08:39 [ New York Times ]

A Wave of Afghan Surrenders to the Taliban Picks Up Speed

(May 27, 2021
Updated July 7, 2021)

Since May 1, at least 26 outposts and bases in just four provinces — Laghman, Baghlan, Wardak and Ghazni — have surrendered after such negotiations, according to village elders and government officials.