Δευτέρα 24 Ιουνίου 2013
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Afghan Taliban balk at removing flag, official name from 'political office' in Qatar
Posted: 23 Jun 2013 08:31 AM PDT
The spokesman for the Taliban's "political office" in Qatar said the Gulf country had agreed to allow the al Qaeda-linked group to raise the Taliban flag and use the name "Political office of The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" for its, well, political office in Qatar. Dr. Muhammad Naeem, the "spokesman of political office of Islamic Emirate in Qatar" released a statement at Voice of Jihad, the Taliban's official website, claiming as much. The statement is reproduced in full below:
Yesterday on the 21/06/2013, Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper published a report regarding the use of the name and flag of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan on its political office in Qatar. The said report quotes the U.S Secretary of State John Kerry as saying that they had signed an agreement with the leaders of Islamic Emirate regarding the use of flag and name 'Political office of The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan' on their political office while in reality, no such agreement has been signed nor does such an agreement exist although documents have been exchanged between the Islamic Emirate and the Qatari government regarding conditions of the office.
The raising of the flag and the use of the name of Islamic Emirate were done with the agreement of the Qatari government. The statement which states that by using the name and raising the flag, the Islamic Emirate somehow violated an agreement, then this allegation is completely false while the discord which arose due to panic by the Kabul administration is not related to the Islamic Emirate.
The spokesman of political office of Islamic Emirate in Qatar
Dr. Muhammad Naeem
The Taliban has seized on the desire of the US and NATO for a negotiated settlement in Afghanistan and manipulated the negotiations process from the very beginning to achieve the goal of acquiring international legitimacy. While the US and Afghanistan have insisted that the Qatar office be used only as part of negotiations, the Taliban has used the office to serve as its de facto embassy to the world. The raising of the Taliban flag and the designation of the facility as the "Political office of The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan," the same name the Taliban used during its rule of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, show that the Taliban has every intention of presenting itself as the legitimate party in Afghanistan.
The Obama administration is apparently so desperate to achieve a negotiated settlement that it is willing to sideline the Afghan government and hold direct talks, and even release five senior al Qaeda-linked Taliban commanders in exchange for a captive US soldier. All the while, the Taliban has made it very clear it will neither denounce al Qaeda and sever ties with the group nor join an Afghan government. Instead, the Taliban continues to insist on an end to the presence of foreign troops and a return of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, ruled by the Taliban.
The sooner the West recognizes it is being played by the Taliban and wasting precious time and energy on negotiations that serve only to legitimize the Taliban, the better.
Taliban's shadow governor for Nuristan again reported killed in airstrike
Posted: 23 Jun 2013 07:48 AM PDT
Dost Mohammed, the Taliban's shadow governor for Nuristan province, being interviewed by Al Jazeera in November 2009.
Afghan officials are again reporting that Sheikh Dost Mohammed, the Taliban's shadow governor for Nuristan province, has been killed in a US drone strike in Kunar province. The report of Dost Mohammed's death is the second so far this year.
Dost Mohammed and two "guards" were supposedly killed on June 21 in a US airstrike in Kunar's Ghaziabad district, Nuristan governor Tamim Nuristani told Pajhwok Afghan News. Syed Fazlullah Wahidi, the governor of Kunar province, also claimed that Dost Mohammed was killed in an airstrike on June 21.
The International Security Assistance Force did not confirm a strike took place in Kunar, but it is possible that unmanned Predators or Repeaters operated by the CIA carried out a strike.
The Taliban have not commented on the reports of Dost Mohammed's death. An email sent to Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban's spokesman, has gone unanswered.
Dost Mohammed has previously been reported killed numerous times since 2009, and the latest report about his death should be viewed with caution. Most recently, in March, Afghan officials claimed that he was killed in a US drone strike, also in Ghaziabad.
Since abandoning several outposts in the more remote border districts of Nuristan province in October 2009, Afghan and Coalition forces have continued operations against an entrenched Taliban network spanning Kunar and Nuristan provinces. Last May, a Coalition operation killed Sheikh Jamil ur Rahman, the Taliban's deputy shadow governor for Nuristan province, as he and associate Abdul Hakim were traveling through Nuristan's Waygal district.
Background on Dost Mohammed and Nuristan
Dost Mohammed is one of the most wanted Taliban commanders in Afghanistan, and has organized massed assaults on US bases in the province. In one such attack, on Camp Keating in October 2009, Dost's fighters, backed by al Qaeda and other foreign fighters, overran a portion of the base and killed nine US soldiers.
After US forces withdrew from combat outposts in Nuristan, Al Jazeera released a video of the Talibanoccupying one of the abandoned combat outposts in Kamdish district in Nuristan. The Taliban displayed weapons, mines, and ammunition left behind by departing US and Afghan forces. In another video, released by the Taliban, Dost Mohammed, the shadow governor for Nuristan, was seen riding on an exercise bike that was left behind by US forces.
Much of Nuristan is thought to be either under Taliban control or contested. In September 2011, Governor Nuristani said that six of the eight districts in his province were effectively under Taliban control [see LWJreport, Governor: Most of Nuristan under Taliban control].
The province serves as a safe haven for al Qaeda, the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, and other regional terror groups. ISAF has launched three raids against al Qaeda's network in Nuristan so far this year. In one raid, on May 1, ISAF killed Saleh Abd Al-Aziz Hamad al-Luhayb, a Saudi national whose name appeared on Saudi Arabia's list of 47 most wanted terrorists in 2011. He was a known mortar and explosives expert, participated in attacks against security forces, served as a key liaison and trainer to local insurgent commanders, and led efforts to establish a permanent foreign fighter presence in the area, particularly "Arabs," ISAF said.
The Afghan government and the Coalition have stopped waging counterinsurgency operations in Nuristan and neighboring Kunar. The US military has withdrawn from several combat outposts in the rugged, remote provinces. Instead, conventional and special operations forces are launching periodic sweeps to cull the Taliban forces, or "mowing the grass," as a senior US general described it in April 2011.
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