Escalation comes after Pakistani airstrike in Kabul, with Taliban launching reprisals against military posts
Intense clashes erupted along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border on Saturday night after an attack by the Taliban on Pakistani military posts.
This escalation comes after a Pakistani airstrike in Kabul this week, as reported by security officials from both nations.
Continue reading...Tehran considers move as part of multi-pronged offensive after bombing of nuclear sites and restoration of sanctions
Iran is considering releasing hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees across its western borders with Iraq and Turkey. It would be part of what officials describe as a necessarily more offensive and unpredictable strategy in the wake of the bombing of its nuclear sites and the European reimposition of UN sanctions.
The multi-pronged offensive includes expansion of its missile programme, strengthening air defences, suspending cooperation with the UN weapons inspectorate and on 18 October blocking the establishment of a UN committee to oversee the administration of the reimposed sanctions. Officials remain opposed to reopening talks with the US, believing the talks would fail.
Continue reading...Taliban authorities cut fibre-optic network in nationwide shutdown of communications to prevent ‘vice’
Afghans are living under a near-complete communications blackout after Taliban authorities cut internet and mobile phone services for a second day as part of an unprecedented country-wide crackdown.
The former insurgents, who retook control of Afghanistan in 2021, began gradual restrictions on internet access earlier this month. The measures also affect telephone lines, as they are often routed over the internet.
Continue reading...Secretary of state Marco Rubio welcomes release as ‘important step forward’ as Taliban seek to normalise relations with US
The Taliban on Sunday freed a US citizen from an Afghan prison, weeks after they said they had reached an agreement with US envoys on a prisoner exchange as part of an effort to normalise relations.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio welcomed the release of Amir Amiry, saying it marked the administration’s determination, reinforced by Donald Trump’s recent executive order, to protect American nationals from wrongful detention abroad.
Continue reading...Secretary of state Marco Rubio welcomes release as ‘important step forward’ as Taliban seek to normalise relations with US
The Taliban on Sunday freed a US citizen from an Afghan prison, weeks after they said they had reached an agreement with US envoys on a prisoner exchange as part of an effort to normalise relations.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio welcomed the release of Amir Amiry, saying it marked the administration’s determination, reinforced by Donald Trump’s recent executive order, to protect American nationals from wrongful detention abroad.
Continue reading...Barbie Reynolds, 76, and husband Peter, 80, said it was never explained to them why they were imprisoned
A British couple who were reunited with their family in the UK after being released from almost eight months in detention in Afghanistan have said they feared being executed by the Taliban.
Peter Reynolds, 80, and his wife, Barbie, 76, who arrived at Heathrow on Saturday, said it was never explained to them why they were imprisoned in Afghanistan after their arrest in February.
Continue reading...Barbie Reynolds, 76, and husband Peter, 80, were released after being held without charge for nearly eight months
A British couple who were detained without charge for nearly eight months by the Taliban in Afghanistan have arrived in the UK.
Barbie Reynolds, 76, and her husband Peter, 80, were released on Friday, having been arrested as they travelled to their home in Bamyan province, central Afghanistan, in February.
Continue reading...South-east of country rocked as rescuers struggle to find survivors of first quake
A magnitude 6.2 earthquake has shaken Afghanistan as the death toll from the devastating quake on Sunday rose to more than 2,200.
It struck south-eastern regions on Thursday night, according to the Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences in Germany. It was not immediately clear how much damage there was.
Continue reading...Aid agencies plead for funds as rough terrain hinders relief effort and 98% of buildings in one province are damaged
The death toll from a major earthquake in Afghanistan this week has jumped to more than 2,200, just as another magnitude 6.2 earthquake hit the southeastern region of the country on Thursday night.
On Thursday, Taliban spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat confirmed that the death toll from Sunday’s earthquake had risen to 2,205 – up from previous estimates of 1,400 – making it one of the deadliest natural disasters to hit the country in decades.
Continue reading...Watchdog’s report says government is unable to calculate exact cost of response to data breach, raising doubt over £850m estimate
More than 7,300 Afghans are expected to be resettled in the UK as a result of a major government data breach, according to a National Audit Office report that raises doubts over officials’ claims of a £850m cost.
The accidental leak by an MoD official in 2022 of 18,700 Afghans’ details who had worked with or for the British government led to the opening of a new route by which those endangered could seek relocation to the UK from their home country.
Continue reading...At least 25 people were injured in the quake that hit at a depth of just 8km near the Pakistan border
A magnitude 6.0 earthquake shook eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border leaving nine people dead and many more injured.
The quake struck at 11:47pm on Sunday and was centred 27km northeast of the city of Jalalabad in Nangarhar province, the US Geological Survey said. It was just 8km deep. Shallower quakes tend to cause more damage.
Continue reading...Thousands gather for Kabul ‘flower showers’ while women stage protests
Thousands of men gathered across Kabul on Friday to watch flowers being scattered from helicopters to mark the fourth anniversary of the Taliban’s return to power – a celebration that women were barred from attending.
Three of the six “flower shower” locations were already off-limits to women, who have been prohibited from entering parks and recreational areas since November 2022.
Continue reading...Barbie Reynolds, 76, and husband Peter, 80, have been held for five-and-a-half months without charge
The children of an elderly couple imprisoned by the Taliban in Afghanistan have urged the group to release the pair before they “die in custody”.
They said the UN would be making a statement on Monday calling for the immediate release of Barbie Reynolds, 76, and her husband Peter, 80, who were arrested as they travelled to their home in Bamyan province, central Afghanistan, in February.
Continue reading...Shapps, defence secretary when the superinjunction was imposed, said its use was ‘entirely justified’ to save lives
The former defence secretary Grant Shapps has defended the use of an unprecedented superinjunction to suppress a data breach that led to the UK government relocating 15,000 Afghans.
The Afghanistan Response Route (ARR) was created in haste after it emerged that personal information about 18,700 Afghans who had applied to come to the UK had been leaked in error by a British defence official in early 2022.
Continue reading...Johnny Mercer, former veterans minister, sharply critical of how Afghan resettlement programme handled
In an interview with LBC Ben Wallace, the former Tory defence secretary, hit back at his former ministerial colleague Johnny Mercer rather more forcefully than he did on the Today programme (see 8.09am) over Mercer’s comments about the Afghan resettlement programme.
Tom Swarbrick, the presenter, quoted what Mercer said about how this “whole farcical process has been the most hapless display of ineptitude by successive ministers and officials that I saw in my time in government”.
No, I don’t agree with it. I think my record would show the opposite. It was me and Priti Patel, before the collapse of Kabul, who decided we were going to accelerate bringing people back who were under threat …
People hadn’t come out before. And we made sure that we did this. I think what Johnny, you know, fails to grasp, is quite the massive scale of collapse that happened very quickly in Afghanistan, leaving people at risk, and we had to do our very best.
Continue reading...Defence secretary says it was ‘never the plan to bring everyone’ on dataset to UK, while Ben Wallace denies Tories sought superinjunction
The defence secretary, John Healey, has said there is no automatic right to resettlement for Afghans named in a leaked Ministry of Defence database, as the former Conservative ministers Ben Wallace and Johnny Mercer clashed over whether “thousands of people with little or tenuous links” had been admitted to Britain.
The controversy revolves around a dataset containing the personal information of nearly 19,000 people who applied for the Afghan relocations and assistance policy (Arap) that was released “in error” in February 2022 by a British defence official.
Continue reading...Conservative government used superinjuction to hide error that put Afghans at risk and led to £2bn mitigation scheme
Conservative ministers used an unprecedented superinjunction to suppress a data breach that required the UK to offer relocation to 15,000 Afghans in a secret scheme with a potential cost of more than £2bn.
The Afghan Response Route (ARR) was created in haste after it emerged that personal information about 18,700 Afghans who had applied to come to the UK had been leaked in error by a British defence official in early 2022.
Continue reading...Law firm representing thousands says some already killed and others in hiding as a result of government ‘blunder’
When Abdullah received an email from the British government saying his details had been included in the military data leak, it became “the worst day in all time”.
Speaking from Afghanistan, where he is in hiding, Abdullah fears he will be tortured and killed.
Continue reading...Leaked details are just another example of how the UK let down Afghans who believed in what Britain promised their country
This week’s revelations about the UK’s dangerously cavalier treatment of Afghans who worked with British forces are shocking but not surprising.
The carelessness with which Britain went to war in Afghanistan was matched by the carelessness with which it left the country and its people to Taliban rule two decades later.
Continue reading...President had cued up ban in January order and, despite exemptions, policy will separate families and harm people fleeing crises
Donald Trump’s first travel ban in 2017 had an immediate, explosive impact – spawning chaos at airports nationwide.
This time around, the panic and chaos was already widespread by the time the president signed his proclamation Wednesday to fully or partially restrict foreign nationals from 19 countries from entering the United States.
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