March of the
Taliban: 'Our Government is Inept, Divided' (Afghanistan Times, Afghanistan)
"Kunduz is
crying. Helmand is burning. Nangarhar is bleeding. Paktia, Paktika and Ghazni are moaning. Yet what is the government doing about
it? How long will it play the role of silent onlooker? This time it's a city.
Is the government thinking about what will come next? Will it be a province? …
After this catastrophic security failure, will our leaders [Ashraf
Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah] remain at loggerheads
over appointing a defense minister? The problem of Afghanistan is that now
there is no opposition party to press for reform. While a handful of powerful
individuals from time to time give vent to their displeasure - that doesn’t
suffice. There must be a powerful political party to remind the government of
its mistakes."
The bloodthirsty Taliban are out to unleash terror. They are
out to spill the blood of innocent Afghans. Sometimes they do so in Badakhshan
by capturing various districts. Sometimes they do the same in other parts of
the country. Where before they stormed and captured villages
and districts, now they take a provincial capital. Even Kabul is
bleeding at their hands.
Kunduz is crying. Helmand is burning. Nangarhar
is bleeding. Paktia, Paktika
and Ghazni are moaning. Yet what is the government
doing about it? How long will it play the role of silent onlooker? This time
it's a city. Is the government thinking about what will come next? Will it be a
province?
The Taliban stormed the capital of Northern Kunduz Province.
They took shelter in civilian homes. They captured many parts of the city. They
stormed its only hospital which interfered with medical personnel tending to the
injured. In addition to the hospital they reportedly captured three strategic
buildings including police headquarters, the office of the High Peace Council
and Governor’s Office. They closed the entrances to the city, making it hard
for civilians to flee.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
A fierce battle is underway. This is the first provincial
capital city to fall to the Taliban since their ouster in 2001 - and it
happened on the first anniversary of the National Unity Government of Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah
(NUG). At least 21 people were killed in the
immediate aftermath of the Taliban siege.
Given the divisions in the halls of power [between loyalists
of Prime Minister Ashraf Ghani and Afghanistan CEO Abdullah Abdullah], the performance of government and the security
situation is likely to become even more worrisome.
What Kunduz Province MP Abdul WadoodPaiman may have described is quite a different picture
than that painted by Interior Ministry Spokesman SeddiqSeddiqi. Paiman says Kunduz
city fell to the Taliban after being stormed from a number of differed points simultaneiously, after which government buildings were
captured. Kunduz police spokesman SarwarHussain confirmed that the city had fallen to the
militants. He said the Taliban police headquarters and the Governor's Office. According
to him, the Taliban stormed the city just as the governor of the troubled
province was in Tajikistan and its police chief in Kabul. Though the Taliban are
unlikely to be in a position to maintain the siege much longer, their attack has
succeeded in sowing terror among civilians and convincing people that the
government no longer is capable of protecting their lives and maintaining
security.
Is 13 years of war, death, anguish, and trillions of dollars, about to come to nothing? This editorial from the Saudi...
This attack comes hard on the heels of a deadly attack in Paktika
Province that left 12 people dead and over 40 injured. After the government
cancelled peace talks with the Taliban, why didn't it come up with new security
mechanisms and plan offensives? Do government officials still believe in the
effectiveness of its appeals for peace?
After this catastrophic security failure, will our leaders [Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah]
remain at loggerheads over appointing a defense minister? The problem of
Afghanistan is that now there is no opposition party to press for reform. While
a handful of powerful individuals from time to time give vent to their
displeasure - that doesn’t suffice. There must be a powerful political party to
remind the government of its mistakes.
