Through mud and ice, parents and children from Afghanistan and elsewhere attempt the desperate crossing into Croatia. Few make it. Most are reportedly pushed back, time and again, often brutally. The Guardian followed some migrants on their exhausting journeys
Continue reading...Category Archives: Afghanistan
‘Violence starts at home’: the Afghan women tackling domestic abuse at its source
A new women-led initiative in Afghanistan is working to break down the barriers to help both victims and perpetrators
Nabila felt her diesel-drenched clothes stick to her skin, her lungs filling with fumes, hot panic rising.
It hadn’t been the first time an argument with her husband had escalated: he’d been beating her throughout their 30-year marriage, even tying her to a tree in the garden outside their small home in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, leaving her freezing in the winter cold.
Continue reading...Two female judges shot dead in Kabul as wave of killings continues
Assassination of supreme court judges follows months of increased violence in Afghanistan
Gunmen shot dead two Afghan women judges working for the country’s supreme court in an early-morning ambush in Kabul on Sunday, officials said, as a wave of assassinations continued to rattle the nation.
Violence has surged across Afghanistan in recent months despite continuing peace talks between the Taliban and government, especially in Kabul, where a new trend of targeted killings of high-profile figures has sown fear in the city.
Continue reading...‘Like torture’: Calais police accused of continued migrant rights abuses
Relentless and escalating programme of refugee evictions amounts to a campaign of harassment, say activists
Shortly before sunrise on 9 January, about 40 officers and officials gathered outside Calais police station as temperatures dipped to -3C (26.6F). Shortly after, in a well-drilled procedure, a nine-vehicle convoy started down the road towards the first of five forced evictions of makeshift refugee camps planned for that morning.
When the convoy arrived at the camp, just a few miles from the city centre, masked police in black uniforms chased refugees away from their tents and belongings. Some of the other 150 refugees who had been sheltering at the camp had already packed and fled before authorities arrived. Soon the camp was empty; frost-covered sleeping bags and jackets were all that remained.
Continue reading...Journalist dies in Afghanistan as targeted killings continue
Violence increases amid stalled Taliban peace talks, with Isis claiming it was behind earlier journalist killing
An Afghan journalist and human rights activist has been shot and killed by unidentified gunmen in western Afghanistan, the fifth journalist to be killed in the war-ravaged country in the past two months, a provincial spokesman said.
Bismillah Adil Aimaq was on the road near Feroz Koh, the provincial capital of Ghor, returning home to the city after visiting his family in a village nearby, when gunmen opened fire at the vehicle.
Continue reading...‘I am not afraid to fight’: the female Afghan colonel who survived the Taliban’s assassins
Saba Sahar, who returned fire while protecting her daughter, survived one of a wave of recent assassination attempts that have killed six policewomen
It was just after 7am when the car carrying Colonel Saba Sahar, one of Afghanistan’s most senior female police officers, came under fire from armed insurgents. In the back seat, Sahar’s four-year-old daughter began screaming as bullets shattered the windscreen and ripped into the upholstery. As she pushed her child under the seat in front of her, Sahar saw three men carrying AK-47 assault rifles, firing as they approached the car.
In the front of the car her bodyguard and driver had both been hit and were badly injured and unconscious. Looking down, Sahar saw blood seeping through her clothing. “It took me another moment to realise I’d been shot too,” she says. She knew that she only had minutes to try to save her daughter. “They were five or six metres away, and they were moving closer to the car, still firing. They would have killed my child,” she says. Bleeding heavily from five shots to her stomach, Sahar reached forward, grabbed the gun from her slumped bodyguard and started returning fire.
Continue reading...UK soldiers 12% more likely to die than US troops in ‘war on terror’
Study says poor equipment could be a reason for higher British fatality rate in Iraq and Afghanistan
British soldiers were 12% more likely to have been killed than their American counterparts during the “war on terror” in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a study of casualty figures.
The research – intended as a lessons learned exercise – also concludes that UK forces were 26% more likely to have been killed by improvised explosives, validating longstanding complaints about the poorly armoured Snatch Land Rover.
Continue reading...Taliban denies targeting media as 50th journalist dies in Afghanistan
Rising violence by militants raises fears for press freedom after US troops withdraw in May
The Taliban have denied they are deliberately targeting journalists in attacks amid the surge in violence throughout Afghanistan.
The US watchdog Sigar (Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction) says Taliban violence has risen by 50% since September, with media workers saying they don’t feel safe doing their jobs.
Continue reading...Australian army to investigate soldiers’ use of dead Taliban fighter’s prosthetic leg
Investigation follows revelation of pictures which show soldiers drinking from leg and carrying it on the battlefield
Australia’s defence department says an investigation has been launched into photos showing senior special forces soldiers drinking out of a dead Taliban fighter’s prosthetic limb and carrying it on the battlefield.
The move comes after the Guardian obtained images showing a trooper carrying the leg attached to a backpack with other photos showing soldiers drinking beer from the prosthetic at an unofficial bar – the Fat Lady’s Arms – that was set up at their special forces base in Afghanistan in 2009.
A defence spokesperson said on Thursday: “Army is inquiring into the matter.”
War crimes: former minister reveals why Canada disbanded its special forces after scandal
The drastic step was judged the best way to fix systemic problems after an affair similar to allegations against Australian forces in Afghanistan
A former Canadian defence minister who disbanded his nation’s special forces regiment in the wake of a war crimes scandal similar to that now facing Australia says the drastic step was the only way to fix systemic cultural problems and repair reputational damage.
The parallels between Canada’s so-called Somalia affair and the allegations against Australian troops in Afghanistan are striking.
Continue reading...Photo reveals Australian soldier drinking beer out of dead Taliban fighter’s prosthetic leg
Exclusive: Image obtained by Guardian Australia shows limb being used to down drinks in a special forces bar in Afghanistan
Senior Australian special forces soldiers drank beer out of the prosthetic leg of a dead Taliban soldier at an unauthorised bar in Afghanistan – with a photograph of the act being revealed for the first time by Guardian Australia.
A number of photographs obtained by the Guardian show one senior soldier – who is still serving – sculling from the leg in an unofficial bar known as the Fat Lady’s Arms, which was set up inside Australia’s special forces base in Tarin Kowt, the capital of Uruzgan province, in 2009.
Continue reading...Afghanistan: footage shows aftermath of rocket strikes in Kabul – video
Several rockets hit residential areas of the Afghan capital in the early rush hour on Saturday, killing at least three civilians and wounding a dozen more, police officials said. The explosions, close to the diplomatic quarter, set embassies' warning sirens blaring two days before a major donor conference for Afghanistan in Geneva
Continue reading...In Afghanistan, fears of assassination overshadow hopes of peace
Human rights workers, moderate religious scholars and civil society activists are being killed in wave of targeted attacks
When he wasn’t chasing stories, Elyas Dayee loved tending to his flowers, cooking with his wife and playing with his toddler daughter, the only survivor of triplets, now bereft that her father has stopped coming home, and too young to understand why.
Last week, the 34-year-old became the latest Afghan killed in a nationwide campaign of targeted killings, when a bomb twisted his car into a lethal pile of metal and glass as he drove to work in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province.
Continue reading...The inquiry into alleged war crimes by Australian special forces in Afghanistan is done: what now?
From further investigation to potential prosecutions and compensation, the explosive Brereton report will reverberate for a long time
As the dust begins to settle on the explosive findings of Maj Gen Paul Brereton, a critical question looms.
What comes next?
Continue reading...Australian special forces involved in murder of 39 Afghan civilians, war crimes report alleges
Brereton report finds prisoners were executed to ‘blood’ junior soldiers and unlawful killings were deliberately covered up
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- Warning: this article contains disturbing content
Australian special forces were allegedly involved in the murder of 39 Afghan civilians, in some cases executing prisoners to “blood” junior soldiers before inventing cover stories and planting weapons on corpses, a major report has found.
For more than four years, the Maj Gen Justice Paul Brereton has investigated allegations that a small group within the elite Special Air Services and commandos regiments killed and brutalised Afghan civilians, in some cases allegedly slitting throats, gloating about their actions, keeping kill counts, and photographing bodies with planted phones and weapons to justify their actions.
Continue reading...UN issues $100m emergency funding and calls for global effort to avert famine
Organisation says money pledged is ‘not enough’ and warns of potential for huge number of child deaths
The UN has earmarked $100m (£75m) in emergency funding for seven countries deemed at risk of famine, warning that without immediate action the world could see “huge numbers of children dying on TV screens”.
The climate crisis, Covid-19, conflict and economic decline have created an “acute and grave crisis” in Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen, where millions of people are facing emergency levels of food insecurity, UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock told the Guardian.
Continue reading...Trump withdrawal plan could tip Afghanistan towards more violence
Attacks up since September amid fears Taliban biding their time until US forces leave
Donald Trump’s plan for a swift withdrawal of over half the US troops in Afghanistan comes at a dangerous time for a country officially in peace talks, but grappling with escalating bloodshed and shrinking financial support from foreign donors.
Attacks are up by 50% since negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban began in September, a recent US government report found, above average levels for this time of year.
Continue reading...Father faces criminal charge over son’s death in migrant boat tragedy
Afghan asylum seeker accused of endangering six-year-old’s life after family tried to reach Greek island of Samos from Turkey
The father of a six-year-old who died trying to reach the Greek island of Samos from the Turkish coast has been charged by Greek authorities with endangering his son’s life.
Abdul*, 25, from Afghanistan, faces up to 10 years in prison if found guilty. The cause of his son’s death has not been confirmed.
Continue reading...US poll chaos is a boon for the enemies of democracy the whole world over
While Democrats and Republicans squabble in Washington, injustice and violence reigns from Palestine to Mozambique
Believe it or not, the world did not stop turning on its axis because of the US election and ensuing, self-indulgent disputes in the land of the free-for-all. In the age of Donald Trump, narcissism spreads like the plague.
But the longer the wrangling in Washington continues, the greater the collateral damage to America’s global reputation – and to less fortunate states and peoples who rely on the US and the western allies to fly the flag for democracy and freedom.
Continue reading...Afghanistan vehicle bomb kills former TV presenter
Kabul police investigate death of Yama Siawash after explosion
A bomb attached to the vehicle of a former presenter on Afghanistan’s Tolo TV has exploded, killing the journalist and two other civilians, Kabul police have said.
The death of Yama Siawash is being investigated after the explosion on Saturday, said police spokesman Ferdaws Faramarz. No one has immediately claimed responsibility.
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