Pentagon Struggles to Wean Afghan Military Off American Air Support
Afghan commanders are asking for more help from American warplanes, illustrating their dependency on American air power.
Afghan special forces on Thursday during a raid in a Taliban-controlled territory in Helmand Province. Afghan ground commanders are pleading for more help from American warplanes.Credit.Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times
Published May 6, 2021Updated May 14, 2021
KABUL, Afghanistan The United States has continued limited air support to Afghan national security forces in recent days, launching a half-dozen airstrikes as Taliban fighters stepped up an offensive in the country’s south before the full withdrawal of American troops ordered by President Biden.
Three Women Working for a News Outlet Are Gunned Down in Afghanistan
The women, the latest victims in a wave of targeted attacks, were killed on their way home from their jobs at Enikass Radio and TV in Jalalabad.
Hospital workers and relatives moving the body of one of the three media workers killed in two separate attacks in Jalalabad on Tuesday.Credit.Noorullah Shirzada/Agence France-Presse Getty Images
Published March 2, 2021Updated March 4, 2021
JALALABAD, Afghanistan Three women who worked at a local news outlet were gunned down in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, according to local officials, adding to the bloody tally of Afghan media workers and journalists who have been killed at alarming rates in the past year.
The Taliban today undoubtedly has a stronger hold over how the US militarily plans to withdraw from the conflict in Afghanistan. This raises questions about the continuing challenges to security in South Asia in particular, the influence of IS Khorasan (IS-K), the group’s Afghanistan avatar, and its rise both as an ISIS-aligned entity and a big-tent brand for various jihadist groups in the country. As the ‘Khorasan’ project of ISIS gets more attention, and the US and the Taliban stand amidst a winded peace negotiation, this paper looks into how the IS-K is taking advantage of political uncertainty in Afghanistan to expand its footprint not only in the country but in the entire region.
Nangarhar, the large Afghan province where Maiwand lived and worked, has reeled from violence. In recent years, thousands have died and hundreds of thousands have been displaced by attacks and infighting between the Taliban and IS militants in the eastern region bordering Pakistan. The province has also been the scene of large-scale militant operations by Afghan and international troops.
After growing up in the post-Taliban Afghanistan, Maiwand opposed the return of the group’s hard-line regime and occasionally aired her fears about life under a future government following a peace deal between the Taliban and the Afghan government.
In brief comments to Radio Free Afghanistan ahead of the landmark agreement between the Taliban and the United States in February, she termed the harsh regime in the 1990s as a “dark age” for Afghan women. She said Afghans are likely to welcome the Taliban if they follow in Hizb-e Islami’s footsteps of joining the political system after a deal wi