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Mohib says troop withdrawal happening ‘sooner than expected’
Afghanistan’s National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib implied this week that the troops’ withdrawal had come sooner than expected.
In an interview with VICE Media, Mohib said: “We weren’t expecting it to come this soon so there hasn’t really been a proper transition,” he said.
Mohib said the looming withdrawal has “put us at risk” in some ways but added that it forced the Afghan government to “expedite self-reliance and self-sufficiency with our security forces at a much faster pace than when what we were preparing for.”
He said the concern was that “the Taliban could see this as an opportunity to attack us like they did and think that they could overrun a couple of provinces and put us in a situation where it may be hard for us to take them back.”
“The capabilities we have built over the last 20 years have equipped us to be able to do the job relatively well. We have always emphasized that it’s not the number of Us troops, it’s the capabilities that they provide us to do what we need to do but nonetheless we’re preparing for that zero troops option.
“There were conditionalities attached to the US Taliban agreement. The Taliban have not met that; one of them was a reduction in violence and we have not yet seen the Taliban to really comply with that and we are seeing an increased number of attacks.
“It seems like they still think they can take power by force in Afghanistan.”
Mohib also said the Taliban should take peace negotiations seriously.
“The Afghan people want an end to this war,” he said.
VICE Media also visited an almost deserted US military base in Helmand. Once a base for thousands of foreign troops, the base is now virtually a ghost town and only the skeleton of the camp remains.
Tents, furniture and brick structures lie discarded or destroyed, with some locals blaming the US military for having destroyed non-military equipment that could have been handed over to the Afghan security forces.
US and Afghan officials said earlier this month that US forces will hand over bases and military equipment, that is not being shipped to the United States, to Afghan forces.
“The war needs equipment; it needs strong management and strong planning,” said Shaoor Gul Pashtoon, a former commander of 203 corps.
On the other hand, Dean Thompson the acting assistant secretary of south & central Asian affairs at the US State Department said in a visit to Kabul that Washington would provide continued assistance to Afghanistan.
This comes as after US-Forces commander in Afghanistan General Austin Scott Miller said Sunday the evacuation of some bases has already started in Afghanistan.
“We will turn over the bases primarily to the Ministry of Defense and other Afghan forces,” Miller told reporters in a press conference in Kabul on Sunday, adding that: “The notification day will be the first of May but at the same time as we start taking local actions, we have already begun that”.
The US is expected to hand over three military bases and one airport to the Afghan forces in the next two weeks as part of the US plan for the full troop withdrawal from Afghanistan by September 11, sources said last week.
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Khalilzad warns Pakistan-Afghanistan tensions likely to worsen after fresh airstrikes
Former U.S. special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad has warned that the latest Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan and recent violence inside Pakistan are part of a wider crisis, saying he sees no indication that the situation is about to change.
In a post on X on Thursday, Khalilzad described the Pakistani airstrikes that have killed Afghan civilians and the increasing use of force against civilians in Pakistan as “interconnected tragedies,” implying both effected by Pakistan’s establishment.
“Unfortunately, I do not see any signs of change,” Khalilzad said, adding that current indicators suggested the use of force against Pakistanis would “likely get worse” in the coming days.
His comments came after Pakistan carried out a new wave of airstrikes inside Afghanistan overnight Thursday, saying it had targeted 10 locations used to launch and store drones.
Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the strikes were conducted in response to drones launched from Afghan territory a day earlier and described them as “deliberate, precise, calibrated and proportionate.”
Afghan officials said the strikes killed four civilians. The attacks reportedly hit locations including Kandahar, Khost and Paktia provinces. Afghanistan’s Islamic Emirate authorities have denied launching the drones cited by Pakistan and have condemned the strikes.
The latest attacks follow Pakistani airstrikes earlier this week in Kunar and Paktika. Pakistan said those operations killed 28 militants, while the United Nations confirmed that three Afghan civilians — a man, a woman and a girl — were killed, with four others injured.
The renewed airstrikes come amid a sharp deterioration in relations between Kabul and Islamabad. Pakistan has accused Afghanistan of allowing militant groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), to operate from its territory and launch attacks inside Pakistan.
Afghan authorities reject the allegations and say militancy inside Pakistan is an internal issue.
Khalilzad has previously called for a change in Pakistan’s strategy toward both its internal security problems and Afghanistan.
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Afghanistan summons Pakistani chargé d’affaires over latest airstrikes
Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Pakistan’s chargé d’affaires to Kabul and lodged a strong protest against the violation of Afghan airspace and Pakistani military airstrikes on several Afghan provinces.
The ministry handed the Pakistani diplomat a formal protest note following the attacks on Kandahar, Paktia and Khost provinces on Wednesday night, which reportedly caused civilian casualties.
The Islamic Emirate strongly condemned the strikes, calling them a violation of Afghanistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and contrary to Islamic, international, humanitarian and good-neighborly principles.
The ministry also rejected what it called baseless claims that Afghan territory was being used as a source of Pakistan’s recent security incidents.
It said using such claims to justify military action was an attempt to distort facts, mislead public opinion and conceal Pakistan’s internal failures.
The Islamic Emirate further accused Pakistan’s military leadership of avoiding commitments made to regional countries and warned that such actions could further escalate tensions in the region.
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Museum dedicated to preserving ‘Jihadi’ artefacts opens in Kandahar
The museum’s collection includes more than 100 items gathered from different locations.
A museum dedicated to preserving what Afghan authorities describe as “Jihadi artefacts” has officially opened in Kandahar, with officials saying more than 100 items have so far been collected for display.
Mufti Mohammad Tahir Ahmad, Director General for the Preservation of Jihadi Artefacts at the Ministry of Information and Culture, attended the inauguration ceremony alongside Qari Ahmadullah Saeed Khosti, Director of Registration for Jihadi Artefacts and Documents.
Mufti Inamullah Samangani, head of the Kandahar Information and Culture Department, and officials from several government departments also attended the ceremony.
According to the official responsible for preserving the artefacts in Kandahar, the museum’s collection includes more than 100 items gathered from different locations.
The collection includes weapons that officials say were captured from British, Soviet and US forces, as well as personal belongings and other items associated with people killed during Afghanistan’s conflicts over the past two decades.
Officials said efforts to collect additional artefacts would continue in order to expand the museum’s collection.
The museum is now open to visitors, according to the officials.
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