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Biden administration considering a 6-month extension for US forces in Afghanistan

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(Last Updated On: March 19, 2021)

Washington is considering a six-month extension for US forces in Afghanistan, media outlets reported on Friday.

No final decision has been made, the official emphasized. NBC News first reported that a six-month extension is under consideration.

The official noted that the US will want to get the Taliban to agree to the extension. Other options are still on the table, including a full withdrawal by May 1, but a sign of President Joe Biden’s current thinking came this week when he told ABC News he didn’t think it would “take a lot longer,” and said a full withdrawal by May 1 “could happen, but it is tough.”

“I’m in the process of making that decision now as to when they’ll leave. The fact is, that was not a very solidly negotiated deal that the President — the former President — worked out. So, we’re in consultation with our allies as well as the government, and that decision’s — it’s in process now,” Biden told ABC.

This comes after a report from an influential Afghanistan study group co-chaired by former Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford recommended a more flexible timeline based on conditions such as reduced violence.

One critical problem is the current agreement with the Taliban does not acknowledge potentially hundreds of US special operations forces in the country that are not part of the current group of 2,500 US troops there. If they stay to help with counter-terrorism missions beyond a drawdown, the US may have to broadly acknowledge that presence.

Several defense officials previously told CNN that the US-led NATO alliance would like to see decisions taken no later than April 1 because of the challenges of removing US weaponry and equipment, amid concerns about some of it falling into the hands of the Taliban.

A Pentagon report said the full withdrawal could be devastating to “the survival of the Afghan state as we know it.”

But as Biden weighs his options, the US military continues its operations in the country, having conducted airstrikes there this week targeting the Taliban in Kandahar.

US airstrikes in recent days targeted “Taliban fighters actively attacking and maneuvering on (Afghan National Security Forces) positions” in Kandahar, US Forces Afghanistan spokesman Col. Sonny Leggett said in a tweet on Wednesday.

The Taliban “strongly condemned” the US airstrikes on Kandahar, with spokesman Qari Mohammad Yusuf Ahmadi affirming that Taliban members were killed and injured, but not specifying how many.

Ahmadi called the attacks “a clear violation of the Doha Agreement, which cannot be justified in any way.”

The “Doha Agreement,” signed by the US and the Taliban just more than a year ago in Doha, Qatar, set out a series of commitments by both sides relating to troop levels, counterterrorism and the intra-Afghan dialogue aimed at bringing about “a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire.”

Currently Washington official reports there are 2,500 US troops in the country but last week New York Times reported there are at least 3,500 US soldiers in Afghanistan.
That’s 1,000 more than Washington has disclosed.

The NYT reported the “cloudy accounting” around troops numbers results from some Special Forces units having been put “off the books”.

According to a senior US official, the presence of some temporary and transitioning units also accounted for the additional troops.

A second official told NYT that these troops include Joint Special Operations Command units, some of them elite Army Rangers, who work under both the Pentagon and the CIA while deployed to Afghanistan.

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Floods leave 50 dead in Baghlan

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(Last Updated On: May 10, 2024)

Hedayatullah Hamdard, head of the Natural Disaster Department in Baghlan, says at least 50 were killed on Friday afternoon due to floods in several districts of the province.

Hamdard added the figure is not total and that the death toll may increase.

Over the past two days, floods have also caused huge financial losses in Chaharsada and Murghab districts of Ghor province and two people including a child and an old man have disappeared.

Hundreds of acres of agricultural land were destroyed in Chaharsada district and about 50 livestock were also lost.

According to local officials in Ghor, around 50 residential houses in Chaharsada district are under floods.

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Iran says work underway to block eastern border with Afghanistan

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(Last Updated On: May 10, 2024)

Iranian officials say work is intensely underway on the implementation of plan to block the country’s eastern border with Afghanistan.

According to Iranian media, the commander of the Ground Forces of Iran spoke on Thursday at a ceremony in the city of Mashhad about the sealing of the country’s borders with Afghanistan.

Kioumars Heydari added: “According to the measures contemplated by the Islamic Republic, we are in the process of sealing the borders.”

He did not specify the exact timing for the completion of the border sealing plan between Iran and Afghanistan, but added: “Our estimate is that the sealing of the eastern border of the country will be completed as soon as possible.”

Afghanistan and Iran share more than 900 kilometers of common border.

Experts, meanwhile, believe that this will cause a change in dealings with Afghan immigrants.

The Islamic Emirate, however, says fencing on the borders of Iran and Afghanistan will proceed in coordination with the Afghan government.

According to experts, Iran is seeking to solve its security concerns and will spend a lot of money in the process of blocking the border but this border wall will be finished for the benefit of both countries, and drug trafficking and movement of terrorist groups will be at least under control.

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Pakistan rejects IEA’s allegations of Daesh using its territory against Afghanistan

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(Last Updated On: May 10, 2024)

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan on Thursday rejected the statements of the Islamic Emirate regarding the use of Pakistan’s soil against Afghanistan by Daesh, calling the remarks as “unwarranted and irresponsible.”

Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, spokesperson of Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a press conference that instead of such statements, the Afghan authorities should take effective action against all terror groups, based in Afghanistan.

Earlier, the Pakistan Army claimed that last month’s suicide attack that killed five Chinese nationals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had been planned in Afghanistan and had been carried out by an Afghan.

In reaction, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense of Afghanistan, Inayatullah Khwarazmi, said that in an area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which is under the security of the Pakistan Army, the killing of Chinese nationals is either the weakness of the security institutions or their cooperation with the attackers.

He also said: “We have cases where the Daesh entered Afghanistan from Pakistan, and Pakistani soil was used against our soil, and the attacks are planned in that country.”

Pakistan has repeatedly claimed that Afghan soil is being used in attacks against Pakistan, but this was the first time the Islamic Emirate accused Pakistan of not preventing Daesh from entering Afghanistan.

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