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IEA condemns ongoing military attacks by Israel against Palestine

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) on Monday condemned the ongoing attacks by Israel on Gaza and occupied Palestine and called for an end to the ongoing “genocide”.
In a statement issued by the IEA’s foreign ministry on Monday morning, the Islamic Emirate said it “strongly condemns the ongoing atrocities of the Zionists and calls for an immediate end to them.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan calls upon international and regional effective governments, Islamic countries and human rights organizations to stop the ongoing genocide in Gaza and occupied Palestine and lead to a fundamental solution to this case.
“continuation of genocide in Gaza has brought serious questions to the ruling international order and its values, and this genocide of the century will further destroy the weak credibility of international organizations and humanitarian conventions,” the foreign ministry said.
The IEA’s statement came after Israel freed two Israeli-Argentinian hostages in Rafah on Monday under the cover of airstrikes which local health officials said killed 67 Palestinians and wounded dozens in the southern Gaza city that is the last refuge of about a million displaced civilians, Reuters reported.
A joint operation by the Israeli military, the domestic Shin Bet security service and the Special Police Unit in Rafah freed Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Louis Hare, 70, the military said.
The two men were kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, the military said, among some 250 people who Israel says were seized during the militant raid that triggered its war on Gaza.
Israel's military said its air strikes had coincided with the raid to allow its forces to be extracted.
The Gaza health ministry said 67 people had been killed and the number could rise as rescue operations were under way. A photograph from the scene showed a vast area of rubble where buildings had been destroyed.
Palestinians in Rafah said two mosques and several houses were hit in more than an hour of strikes by Israeli warplanes, tanks and ships, causing widespread panic among people who had been asleep.
"It was the worst night since we arrived in Rafah last month. Death was so near as shells and missiles landed 200 meters from our tent camp," Emad, a father of six, told Reuters.
Some feared Israel had begun a long-feared ground offensive in the city, where more than a million people displaced by Israel's war on Hamas are sheltering with nowhere else to go.
Hamas said the attack on Rafah was a continuation of a "genocidal war" and forced displacement attempts Israel has waged against the Palestinian people.
Hamas militants killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and abducted at least 250 in their Oct. 7 incursion, according to Israeli tallies. Israel has responded with a military assault on the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 28,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the enclave.
The IEA meanwhile said the attacks on Rafah city “will cause another big disaster and deepen the current crisis.
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Trump says it was ‘stupid’ for Biden administration to abandon arms in Afghanistan

US President Donald Trump said on Friday it was "stupid" for the Biden administration to abandon military equipment worth billions of dollars in Afghanistan.
Trump said at a joint press conference with the Japanese prime minister at the White House on Friday that there was no reason to leave military equipment in Afghanistan.
“I want our military to be the strongest. I also don’t mind spending so much money on the military because we build it here, made in the USA. All made in the USA. I rebuilt our military during my first term, did a great job. We left some of it behind in Afghanistan stupidly. There was no reason for that,” Trump said.
Trump has repeatedly criticized the abandonment of military equipment in Afghanistan.
Trump said before his inauguration last month that future financial aid to Afghanistan would be contingent upon the return of US military equipment.
The Islamic Emirate, however, has said the equipment now belongs to Afghanistan and would not be handed over to the US.
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US Defense Secretary pledges accountability over Afghan war failures

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday promised that there would be accountability for war in Afghanistan, which ended dramatically in 2021 with a chaotic withdrawal after a faster-than-expected collapse of the US-backed government in Kabul.
"We are going to look back at what happened in Afghanistan and hold people accountable -- not to be retrospective, not for retribution, but to understand what went wrong and why there was no accountability for it," Hegseth said addressing an audience at the Pentagon.
He pointed the failed war in Afghanistan, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Hamas' surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 as events that have eroded the global view of American strength. That, he said, increases risks to global stability.
"Unfortunately, over the last couple of years, we've seen events that have occurred that created the perception, reality or perception, but I would argue more perception, of American weakness," Hegseth said.
"Chaos happens when the perception of American strength is not complete. And so we aim to reestablish that deterrence."
Hegseth said he would travel next week to a NATO gathering of defense ministers in Brussels to deliver a message for them to "step up in their industrial base, in spending."
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Management of Kabul Serena Hotel handed over to German firm

A German company, "Cinderella International Group," has assumed management of the Kabul Serena Hotel as of February 1, AFP reports.
The company has renamed the hotel to "Grand Kabul Hotel" and officially began overseeing its operations at the start of February.
Aaron Azim, CEO of the German firm, confirmed that a 10-year management contract has been signed with the Islamic Emirate for the hotel’s administration.
Azim, who holds dual Afghan-German citizenship, did not disclose the financial value of the contract.
He further shared that his company has been active in Afghanistan for 20 years, focusing primarily on road construction and mining projects.
Previously, the Islamic Emirate announced that the hotel’s management had been handed over to an international firm with substantial expertise in hotel management but withheld the company’s identity.
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