KANDAHAR, Afghanistan Off a two-lane highway on this city’s northern edge lies a cemetery for Arab al-Qaida fighters and their families, all killed in the waning days of 2001, when America first unleashed its wrath on Afghanistan.
Their graves earthen mounds and crypts, marked by flags and
As U.S. troops leave Afghanistan, efforts against a diminished Al Qaeda are in flux. Officials say the terrorist group could threaten the U.S. again.
In the last six months, its fighters blitzed into Arghandab, Panjwai, Maiwand and Zhare, districts around Kandahar, as part of a nationwide campaign. Earlier this month, the Islamist insurgent group seized Dahla dam, Afghanistan’s second-biggest and an essential source of irrigation and drinking water. Though the government clawed back some of those gains, the Taliban has tightened its vise around Kandahar city, the one area in Kandahar province still under relatively uncontested government control.
Afghan journalist shot dead in Kandahar
Relatives carry a coffin with the body of television journalist Nemat Rawan he was shot dead by gunmen, in Kandahar province [Javed Tanveer/AFP]
AKIPRESS.COM - An Afghan journalist who worked for Afghanistan s finance ministry was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in the southern city of Kandahar on May 6, provincial officials said, as violence mounted across the country amid a U.S. troop withdrawal, Aljazeera reported.
No group immediately claimed responsibility but government officials and Western powers usually blame Taliban insurgents for such attacks, which they deny.
Nimat Rawan, a former news anchor at ToloNews, Afghanistan s largest private television station, was shot dead on Thursday morning, provincial police spokesman Jamal Naser said. Police were investigating, he said.
RAHIM FAIEZ
KABUL, Afghanistan Gunmen killed a former Afghan TV presenter on Thursday as he was travelling in the southern city of Kandahar, a provincial official said, adding to fears for press freedom in the war-wrecked country.
Nimat Rawan was shot at noon, provincial spokesman Baheer Ahmadi said, by two assailants who were able to escape with his mobile phone. Security officials have told several other journalists in the area that extremists are targeting them as well, he added.
The killing heightens worries over the fate of Afghan journalists as U.S. troops pullout. Many fear violence will spike and reprisals will be taken out against those who worked with foreign forces.
ENGLISH CHANNEL: French patrol boats squared up to Royal Navy warships around Jersey yesterday in the first major dispute between France and Britain over fishing rights post-Brexit.
French fishing boat crews held a flotilla protest in the Channel Island’s main harbour against new licences that they have been told to obtain.
PALESTINE: A Spanish citizen has been charged with funding terrorism by an Israeli military court in the occupied West Bank.
Juana Ruiz Sanchez is accused of funnelling donations from European governments via charities to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which Israel, the EU and US deem a terrorist organisation.