Six civilians are reported killed in a series of bombings of New Year gatherings in Kabul.
A string of bombs exploded near a Shiite shrine and cemetery in the Afghan capital on Thursday as people gathered to mark Nowruz, the Persian new year, leaving six people dead and as many as 20 wounded, Afghan officials said.
The police’s initial investigation indicated that three explosive devices had been remotely detonated, according to Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, but a local Islamic State affiliate has repeatedly targeted the country’s minority Shiite Muslims. The Sunni militant group considers Shiite Muslims to be apostates deserving of death.
Bombs target Afghan Shiites marking new year, killing 6, Associated Press
One Afghan government soldier and two Americans have been killed in combat in Gul Tepa, a rural district on the northwest outskirts of the city of Kunduz.
Because an Afghan soldier has been killed, newspapers are able to relay at least minimal detail on the deaths, such as the general location, sourcing Afghan officials.
Here is some newspaper reporting.
Two U.S. troops were killed in Afghanistan on Friday while carrying out an operation, the U.S.-led NATO coalition said, bringing the total number of American combat deaths in the country to four this year.
Their deaths, which the Taliban and an Afghan security official said occurred in the northern Kunduz province, come as the U.S. plans to withdraw its 14,000-troop advisory mission in Afghanistan.
Two U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan, NATO coalition says, Amie Ferris-Rotman and Sayed Salahuddin, Washington Post
Qayum Nuristani, a spokesman for the Afghan special forces, said that the operation was in northern Kunduz Province. One Afghan commando was killed and three others were wounded, he said, adding that many Taliban had also been killed in the fighting.
Amruddin Wali, a member of provincial council in Kunduz, said that the Afghan and American forces were conducting a military operation against the Taliban in Gul Tepa District.
“Both Afghan and U.S. forces suffered casualties in the operation,” he said, without providing an exact figure. “The district is completely in the Taliban control.”
Two U.S. Service Members Killed in Northern Afghanistan, Fahim Abed, New York Times
An Afghan lawmaker from Kunduz province, Abdul Wodood Payman, said there was heavy fighting overnight in the Kunduz neighborhood of Taluka, where jet fighters roared overhead and bombings could be heard. He had no additional information.
The above story is a good illustration of the difficulties of factually blogging about Afghanistan.
I state the location of Gul Tepa district in Kunduz province, using an authoritative tone. But if you go to the Wikipedia entry for Kunduz, you will see no Gul Tepa district listed there.
If you go to the page for Gur Tepa district in Kunduz province, at the helpful but mysteriously produced Afghan Biographies website , you will find that president Ashraf Ghani had created the new district in late 2015, and that the district is on the southern not northern outskirts of the city.
My source for the location is Obaid Ali, at Afghanistan Analysts Network, in an analysis of the temporary taking of Kunduz, by the Taliban, in late 2015. His report about 2015 provides some background context about the fighting in Gul Tepa district now.
Local residents are also concerned that the city might fall again to the insurgency. The reason: The Taleban retain control of certain outlying areas of the municipality from where they continue to pose a serious challenge to government employees attempting to travel even just a few kilometres beyond the city’s fringes. According to locals, the Taleban control several villages on the capital’s immediate periphery –including Alikhel to the south, Hazrat Sultan in the northeast and Gor Tepa in the northwest. The latter was a crucial launch pad for the September 2015 attack.
...
Instead of addressing security concerns in two key districts, Chahrdara and Dasht-e Archi, where the ANSF are struggling to repel the Taleban even from the district centres, the president announced the formation of three new districts (read the palace statement here). The areas that the president mentioned – Gulbad (currently part of Imam Saheb district), Aqtash (in Khanabad district) and Gortepa (on the rural periphery of Kunduz city) – are far from district centre government offices, and local elders have repeatedly suggested that the government upgrade these large areas to district-level status. But, these areas are entirely under Taleban control at the moment.
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(10) There are two Gor Tepa areas in Kunduz province: one is located in the northwest of Kunduz city, the other in the northeast of Archi district.
The 2016 Insurgency in the North: Beyond Kunduz city – lessons (not taken) from the Taleban takeover, Obaid Ali, Afghanistan Analysts Network
There is a stark contrast here. I can quote ultra-detailed reporting from Afghanistan Analysts Network, about the political and military control of villages and districts surrounding Kunduz.
There is helpful context about the present U.S. military deaths: that rural Gul Tepa was far from any government offices, that some people in the area had long wanted district status with government offices, that the district had in fact been created, but that the area has been under Taliban control at any rate.
But, relaying such basic information, as what the administrative units in an area are, sometimes takes work, and sometimes simply cannot be done.
The Afghanistan Analysts Network report discusses more insurgent groups in the area than just the Taliban and the Islamic State in Afghanistan.
Here is a line from the Washington Post reporting today:
It was not immediately clear whether the Taliban, which contests or controls nearly half of the country’s districts, was engaged in the fighting.
In fighting between the United States and the Taliban, bringing two U.S. combat deaths, we do not know for sure if the Taliban was there.
Mullah Omar’s story should serve as a warning for those who seek to impose simple narratives on the complex realities of Afghanistan.
The Secret Life of Mullah Omar, Bette Dam, Zomia
The Dutch journalist Bette Dam has pieced together the story of Mullah Omar’s location after the U.S. invasion. She has published a book-length account, in Dutch. She also provides a 15-page summary in English.
The United States claimed Mullah Omar to be living in Pakistan and plotting and controlling the war from there. The Afghan government’s claims further stressed control of him by Pakistan. The Taliban claimed Mullah Omar to be living in Afghanistan, and to be providing direct spiritual guidance to his organization.
The story presented by all sides was in some major way, untrue.
Mullah Omar, apparently, was living in Zabul province, hidden in homes close to U.S. forward operating bases, and had almost no involvement in the war.
At least up to the point, in 2013, where the U.S. was claiming he was in Pakistan and controlling the war, the Taliban was claiming he was in Afghanistan and controlling the war, but he was, in fact, dead.
I’ve read through the discussion of Mullah Omar, here at Daily Kos, prior to the disclosure of his death. The false U.S. version of him was accepted here entirely without question. My opinion is that this fact should cause us some discomfort, and some reassessment of how we convey information.