Collision between a passenger bus and fuel tanker leaves at least 36 dead in Afghanistan

It was a collision between a passenger bus and a fuel tanker in southern Afghanistan that left at least 36 people dead with another 25 injured. The bus was on its way from Kandahar to Kabul when the accident took place in the Jildak area of Zabul province.
This has been reported in bbc.com dated 4 September 2016.

The dead included many women and children who were charred beyond recognition in the inferno. Afghanistan has a bad traffic accident record because of poorly maintained roads and vehicles. Moreover, the Kabul-Kandahar road is prone to militant activity and drivers, at times, increase speed to avoid involvement.
Spokesman for the provincial governor in Zabul has accused the drivers of both vehicles of recklessness.
It may be recalled that in May, 73 people were killed when two buses and a fuel tanker collided on a highway in Ghazni province. Earlier, at least 30 people died in a similar accident in Kandahar province in April 2013.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org


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Bus and oil tanker collision near Kabul in Afghanistan kills more than 70

In one of the worst road accidents in Afghanistan, two buses and an oil tanker collided and burst into flames leaving more than 70 people dead - the dead included women and children and many of the victims were charred and burnt beyond recognition in the head-on crash that occurred near the capital Kabul.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 8 May 2016.

Many persons suffered serious injuries on the highway that links the two largest cities in the conflict-hit country. The vehicles involved in the accident were completely gutted in the eastern Ghazni province. A ministry spokesman has indicated that the death toll has soared to 73 and there are fears of still more casualties.
The area is one of the worst affected by the Taliban insurgency and insecurity is on the rise around Afghanistan as the militants continue with their 15-year insurgency against the Western-backed Kabul government. Moreover, most of the roads in Afghanistan are dangerous roads and in dilapidated condition and traffic rules are rarely enforced.
Road accidents are not new. At least 18 people were killed in May last year when a mini-van overturned in the western province of Badghis. And, before that, in April 2013 a bus hit a fuel tanker in the southern province of Kandahar and 45 people died.


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7.5 magnitude quake strikes Pakistan, Afghanistan and North India – leaves at least 260 dead

A massive earthquake of 7.5 magnitude on the Richter scale struck the remote Afghan northeast and killed at least 63 people in Afghanistan and 223 in Pakistan and has left hundreds injured. Its shock waves were felt in parts of North India and damaged properties in Jammu and Kashmir. Recue operations are on and the toll could rise.
This has been reported in zeenews.india.com dated 27 October 2015.

The US Geological Survey has identified the epicenter of the earthquake as near Jurm in the Hindu Kush Mountains. It is in the sparsely populated province of Badakhshan, which borders Pakistan, Tajikistan and China. It said the epicenter was 213-Km deep and 73-Km south of the provincial capital, Fayzabad.
The duration of the massive earthquake was nearly one minute and it was followed by at least two aftershocks of magnitudes 4.8 and 4.7 respectively, according to the USGS.
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Flop show in Afghanistan as forces unable to retake Kunduz from the Taliban

It turned out to be a flop show as the counterattack promised by Afghan forces to retake the strategic city of Kunduz was unsuccessful. Kunduz is a city of 300,000 in northern Afghanistan and the region is one of the main bread baskets of Afghanistan – it also boasts of rich mining assets and lies on a strategic crossroads connecting Afghanistan to Pakistan, China and Central Asia.
This has been reported in foxnews.com dated 30 September 2015.

The efforts to retake Kunduz from the Taliban militants collapsed when hundreds of soldiers and civilians reportedly fled to the city's airport, where they were surrounded by insurgent forces. The Taliban fighters had fanned out across Kunduz and had closed the roads. They had also thrown up checkpoints and torched government buildings as fearful residents huddled indoors.
Obviously, the Afghan forces who tried to retake the city were stalled by roadblocks and ambushes and were not able to move closer than about a mile toward their target.
The US carried out air strikes but, fearing civilian casualties, they reverted to retake the city by painstaking street-by-street fighting.
The fall of Kunduz, the first urban area taken by the Taliban since the U.S.-led invasion ousted their regime 14 years ago, is perceived as a major setback to President Ashraf Ghani. He wants to bring peace to Afghanistan and wants to draw the Taliban to peace talks.
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With 13000 migrants arriving at Munich in a single day, Germany plans to introduce controls

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This has been reported in bbc.com dated 13 September 2015.

However, specific measures proposed to be introduced have not yet been spelt out. As per information released by Germany's Bild newspaper and Austria's Kronen Zeitung, there would probably be controls in place on the Bavaria-Austria border.
Kronen Zeitung hints that Bavarian police could begin to check "to determine immediately who is entitled to asylum" – details have yet to be made public.
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Suicide blast outside a bank in Jalalabad kills 33 and injures another 100

#jalalabadattack #afghanistan #taliban #suicidebomber #nangarhar At least 33 persons have been killed and over 100 injured when a suicide bomber attacked outside a bank in Jalalabad, a city in eastern Afghanistan, where people had gathered to withdraw money. This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 18 April 2015.

The suicide bomber on a motorcycle had targeted a crowd of military personnel and civilians and detonated an explosive-laden motorcycle in the heart of a crowded commercial district. The head of the Nangarhar's provincial hospital has confirmed 33 dead bodies and over 100 wounded were brought to the hospital.
Taliban insurgents have denied being involved in this attack even though they have admitted to being behind earlier attacks that coincided with the sharp drop in number of foreign troops. A spokesman of the group has said that it was an evil act and that they condemn it.
It may be recalled that NATO, at one time, had 130,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and, now, has only a skeleton staff of a few thousand left who are involved mainly in training and special operations.

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Suspected case of poisoning in Herat – 100 school children fall sick after eating boiled beans

#Herat #Afghanistan #foodpoisioning #streetvendor #taliban In a suspected case of mass scale food poisoning, over 100 Afghan schoolchildren aged between 7 and 12, had to be hospitalized after they fell ill from eating beans that they had bought from a street vendor.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 11 April 2015.

All the children are students of the Fatiha School in Afghanistan's Herat province. As revealed by Abdul Jabar Rozi, the police chief of Herat, the children had been told by a street vendor selling the beans that he would ask their teachers to give them good marks in their exams if they ate the beans.
The vendor has, since, been arrested and an investigation has been launched into whether the food was deliberately tainted, he said.
In the opinion of the police chief, enemies might be behind this. His conclusion is based on the fact that, in the past, Taliban insurgents have poisoned Afghan police and army soldiers. There have been periodic reports of poison attacks on schools but those have mostly turned out to be due to accidental food poisoning or to effects of mass hysteria.
Incidentally, food poisoning and waterborne diseases are prevalent in Afghanistan, which has suffered through decades of war and has limited public infrastructure. But, this appears to be a case of intentional harm to children.

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US troops to remain in Afghanistan into 2016

#ISIS #alqaeda #ustroops #afghanistan #counterterrorism The Obama administration had planned to cut the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to 5,500 by the end of the year but, this is being reversed so as to appease the military leaders who want to keep more troops into 2016. This has been reported in foxnews.com dated 15 March 2015.
As per the officials, the administration would go slow on the withdrawal of forces and, in all probability, would allow most of the 9,800 American troops to remain there v- a final decision has not yet been made.
Moreover, there are talks also to retain counterterrorism troops into 2015 and keep some in the country or be near Afghanistan in 2016. At present there are nearly 2,000 U.S. troops who conduct counterterrorism missions. The argument of military leaders is that they will be needed to carry on their efforts to pursue the remnants of al-Qaeda and to monitor the Islamic State.
It is a sensitive issue because Pentagon leaders, including Defense Secretary Ash Carter, have acknowledged the discussions about slowing the pace of troop withdrawal. However, they are of the opinion that the military will get its way and keep a robust force in Afghanistan beyond year's end.
In any case, the administration would not like to go beyond 2016 because President Obama had promised to remove all troops out of Afghanistan before the end of his presidency so as to end America’s longest war.
Of course, Afghan leaders have made it clear that they want U.S. troops to be in Afghanistan for as long as possible in view of the concerns raised by the growing threat of ISIS in Afghanistan.

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Afghanistan avalanche leaves more than 100 dead, dozens missing

#Afghanistan #Panjshir #avalanche #salangpass #Kabul Termed as the worst avalanche in Afghanistan in the last 30 years, the latest reports of two avalanches in the Panjshir province has killed more than 100 and dozens of people are missing. This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 25 February 2015.
The disaster was a result of avalanches triggered by two days of heavy snowfall in Afghanistan and the rescue teams are battling treacherous weather conditions as they try to reach those who may still be buried underneath the snow. The majority of the victims belonged to the northern Panjshir province. Snow has blocked main roads leading up to the affected villages and dozens of people continue to remain unaccounted for.
Provincial governor Abdul Rahman Kabiri has revealed that a 300-strong team of emergency workers had been sent to help, but lack of adequate tools was causing difficulties and hampering the operation because proper equipment is not available.
It is strange that in spite of so much international aid flowing to Afghanistan after the collapse of the Taliban, the country is still one of the poorest countries in the world and rescue operations get delayed due to lack of funding and infrastructure.
Apart from the deaths, at least 100 homes have also been destroyed and the blizzard has left parts of Kabul without electricity since power cables along the Salang Pass have been damaged.

United States finally leaves Afghanistan after 13-years

#Afghanistan #Taliban #Kabul #expats As per the agreement with Afghanistan authorities, the US and its allies would be officially ending their 13-year war on December 31. But, Afghanistan appears to be in the grip of worsening violence and the remaining foreign workers have retreated further inside fortified compounds.
The life of people will not be the same anymore because, as an expat restaurant manager has confided - he once had 28 employees on his rolls, today he has only eight. He is married to an Afghan and he will stay on in Afghanistan.
The scene is the same everywhere. The US-led war in Afghanistan had brought in plenty of international aid workers, diplomats and security contractors and, as a result, a frenetic social scene was created in Kabul - that is now a distant memory because a number of Taliban attacks on expat hang-outs shattered any illusions that foreign civilians were safe in the city.
The places are still open but, on view are bored waiters and empty tables. The tennis club is also deserted, the pool-side French restaurant is closed and picnic trips no longer happen.
The atmosphere in Kabul is much subdued. The number of expats have dwindled as compared to 2008and 2010. Those who remain are always in fear of their lives because last January there was a Taliban attack on the popular Taverna du Liban restaurant. A total of 21 people were killed, including 13 foreigners.

US is sending military equipment ex-Afghanistan to Iraq to fight the ISIS

#USMilitary #ISIS #Kuwait #Afghanistan With the possibilities of a war with the ISIS imminent, the US Military has been moving military equipment to Kuwait so that these can be shipped across the border into Iraq for possible use in a coordinated offensive against the terrorist group Islamic State, according.
It is reported that the gear is being housed near a busy commercial port and consists of nearly 3100 vehicles – most of these are ambush-protected vehicles known as MRAPs, Apart from these, there are electronic equipment and other supplies. The gear, which is primarily from the U.S. Army, will be repaired and assessed for use depending on where these are to be deployed.
The war is against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.
The equipment is being progressively moved to prepare for a major offensive in order to help Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters take back territory from Islamic State. No time frame has been declared.
A large portion of this stockpile is from Afghanistan - the original plan of destroying, selling or giving away as much as $7 billion worth of equipment in Afghanistan to aid the war effort there, had been scrapped due to the rise of ISIS. And – those equipment are now being diverted to Iraq.
It seems nearly 140,000 people and 333,000 tons of cargo shipments of thousands of vehicles and 20-foot shipping containers have been moved out of Afghanistan so far this year.