Sunday, August 3, 2008

From our correspondent in Kabul.


Wednesday, 30th July.

Clauds: so, how is the situation now?
A: situation is perfect! it’s great! we got absolutely nothing going on… hey! did i tell you i’m at a gathering thrown by the UN? there’s an all-you-can-eat buffet, a nice bar… of course, i’m not drinking… you know!


nothing going on? well...

Friday, 18th July.

The wedding of Khetai. Afghanistan, a wedding party ends in tragedy.
Khetai is a small pashtun village in the Eastern province of Nangarhar, close to the Pakistani border. On Sunday morning 47 women and children have been killed by Nato warplanes during the wara, a traditional procession that accompanies the bride to the home of her future husband. The bride, Ruhmina, has never reached her bridegroom’s house: her corpse has been found by Lal Zareen, her future father-in-law when he arrived on the place of the slaughter after hearing the explosions. (source:
http://www.peacereporter.net/)
Read the article in Italian
here.

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Wednesday, 23rd July.

Afghanistan: Call for Karzai to resign.
More than 10,000 ethnic Hazaras protested in the Afghan capital yesterday, calling for President Hamid Karzai to resign over killings of their kin by rival Kuchi nomads.
The angry marchers sent police fleeing on the outskirts of Kabul, then chased them until hundreds of officers and soldiers blocked one of the main roads into the city, next to Kabul zoo. The marchers then sat down in the middle of the road until one of their leaders, parliamentarian Haji Mohammad Mahaqiq, addressed the crowd and persuaded them to peacefully disperse.
Trouble has been brewing between the two minority groups for around a year due a dispute over grazing rights. (source: 7Days)

A British soldier has been killed in an attack in Southern Afghanistan and two of his colleagues have been wounded. (source: http://kabul.splinder.com/)

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Saturday, 26th July.

Kabul: Nato’s International Security Assistance Force troops opened fire against a vehicle that had not respected a stop sign at a checkpoint in the Southern province of Helmand, killing 4 civilians and wounding 3 more who were traveling on the vehicle. (source: http://kabul.splinder.com/)
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Monday, 28th July.

Afghanistan: Gunships strike at insurgents.
Up to 70 insurgents were killed in Afghanistan early yesterday when helicopter gunships and ground fighting repulsed an attack by about 100 rebels near the Pakistan border, officials said.
It was the latest in a series of major battles as violence linked to a Taliban-led insurgency has picked up in recent weeks with several deadly extremist attacks and military operations under way against the rebels.
About 100 insurgents had tried to capture the Spera district centre, 15 kilometres from the border with Pakistan, opening fire on police at about 2 am with guns and rocket-propelled grenades, the Nato force said.
Police and soldiers from Nato’s International Security Assistance Force surrounded the attackers and called in a series of air strikes.
Some insurgents attempted to take cover in a nearby building that helicopters then struck with missiles.
The provincial governor of Khost, which includes Spera, put the attackers’ death toll at between 50 and 70. (source: 7Days)

A patrol of Nato soldiers opened fire against a car at a checkpoint in the South of Afghanistan. Two children traveling in the vehicle were killed, claims Isaf, clarifying that a man has been seriously wounded in the same event. The soldiers declared they had shot “against a car which was traveling in a menacing way and ignored the warnings”. The incident, which took place in Kandahar province, follows a similar episode. Last Saturday some British soldiers killed four civilians who were traveling on a vehicle in Sangin district, in Helmand province. Also in that case a checkpoint had not been respected. (source: http://kabul.splinder.com/)

A Chinese citizen who had been holding hostage in Afghanistan since one month has been released yesterday.
He had been kidnapped on 29th June in the area of Maydanshahr, in Wardak province. According to the Chinese Embassy, the released occurred under no conditions. (source: http://kabul.splinder.com/)

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Wednesday, 30th July.

An Isaf soldier died in Afghanistan following the injures suffered during an explosion in Helman province. The International Security Assistance Force led by Nato explained in a note that the attack to the military convoy occurred yesterday in Nahri Sarraj district, but it does not specify the nationality of the dead soldier, the second victim in the last three days among soldiers of the coalition. Last Monday a British soldier died in the Nad Ali district. (source: http://kabul.splinder.com/)

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Thursday, 31st July.

Herat: Bombing outside the Pakistani Consulate.
Afghan authorities said a policeman and a woman were wounded when a small bomb attached to a bicycle was remotely detonated near the Pakistani Consulate in the Western city of Herat. (source: Gulf News)

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Friday, 1st August.

A Nato soldier has been killed today by the explosion of a handmade device in Khost province, the command of the international force claims. Particulars of the soldiers are still unknown. 145 Nato soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since the beginning of 2008. Four more soldiers and a civilian were killed today, in Kunar province, in Eastern Afghanistan. The cause is again the explosion of a handmade device. (source: http://kabul.splinder.com/)

Armed men kidnapped the governor of Marawara district, Abdul Ghayas Haqmal, in the Eastern province of Kunar, located at the border with Pakistan’s tribal areas, where Talebans and Al Qaeda fighters are strengthening again. The governor recently offered resistance to a Taleban attack leading the Security Force. A Taleban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahed, claimed the kidnapping through the agency France Presse. (source: http://kabul.splinder.com/)

More Pak fighters in Afghanistan now: US.
Peace moves give rise to militancy: Nato.
Washington: A growing number of Pakistani militants who earlier operated only inside Pakistan and Kashmir are joining the intensifying insurgency against US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, US officials claim.
The fighters, who are taking part in increasingly sophisticated attacks on Western troops, include militants hardened by years of combat against Indian forces and others from outside the Taleban strongholds in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas, or FATA, the officials say.
Meanwhile, the Nato force said in Kabul pakistan’s talks with militants have resulted in a 40 per cent rise in militant activity in Afghanistan. (source: Reuters)

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Saturday, 2nd August.

Kandahar: A bomb exploded while a bus carrying guests to a wedding party was passing through, killing ten people in Kandahar, in the South of Afghanistan. According to the police, the newlyweds and some women and children were among the victims of the bombing, occurred in Spin Boldak district. Six people were wounded by the explosion. (source: http://kabul.splinder.com/)

Paris: Two French volunteers of the NGO “Action contre la Faim” (ACF) who had been kidnapped in Afghanistan have been released. The NGO claims the two volunteers “are apparently in good health conditions… and they will return to France as soon as possible.”
The two volunteers were seized in the night between 17 and 18 July in Dai Kundi province, in the central part of Afghanistan. (source: http://kabul.splinder.com/)



i made up my mind: i want to adopt an Afghan child... first thing i'll do when i'm back to italy.
wanna join? contact Dr. Najib Naimzada!

n.b.: the picture on the top is taken from the website Images of Afghanistan, which exhibit and sells old pictures of Afghanistan in the 1970s.

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