# Taliban widen offensive as Nato special forces join fight for Kunduz



## Disir (Sep 30, 2015)

Nato special forces have joined Afghan troops in the increasingly desperate battle for Kunduz, as one of the last two government outposts in the strategic northern city surrendered to the Taliban.

The heavily besieged airport, which sits on a hilltop a few miles outside Kunduz, is now the only place held by the Afghan army. The nearby Bala Hisar fort fell when soldiers there ran out of ammunition, deputy provincial governor Hamdullah Daneshi said.

...“Our message to government officials and security personnel who are thinking about resistance or are hiding in fear of retribution is that they should abandon all negative thoughts spread about Mujahideen due to enemy propaganda,” said the Taliban’s new leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, in a statement posted online. “Mujahideen are not thinking about retribution but have come with a message of peace.”
Taliban widen offensive as Nato special forces join fight for Kunduz

Looks like peace to me. Afghans are still fleeing the country.


----------



## waltky (Sep 30, 2015)

Afghans retake Kunduz...

*Afghan forces have retaken main areas of Kunduz: officials*
_Wed Sep 30, 2015 - Afghan government forces recaptured main areas of the northern city of Kunduz from the Taliban in a large offensive in the early hours of Thursday morning, two government officials said._


> Details of the operation and which areas were under government control were not immediately clear.  "Afghan security forces got control of Kunduz city from Taliban overnight after heavy fighting," Hamdullah Danishi, acting governor of Kunduz, told Reuters by telephone.  "After we got reinforcement and started a massive operation inside Kunduz city Taliban could not resist and escaped. ... We will give a full report soon," he added.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


----------



## IsaacNewton (Sep 30, 2015)

Good, Nato needs to land in Iraq and get rid of Isil as well. At some point you have to bite the bullet and get to it.


----------



## waltky (Oct 3, 2015)

Kunduz airstrike goes horribly wrong...

*Doctors Without Borders: 19 dead in Afghan clinic airstrike*
_Oct 3,`15 -- Confusion reigned in the wake of the deadly bombing Saturday of a hospital compound in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz run by the international medical charity Doctors Without Borders, which killed at least 19 people and wounded dozens more. It remains unclear exactly who bombed the hospital and the charity has demanded an investigation into the incident._


> Doctors Without Borders said that "all indications" pointed to the international military coalition as responsible for the bombing and called for an independent investigation. The U.S. Defense Secretary, Ash Carter said an inquiry is underway into whether the carnage at the clinic was caused by an airstrike from an American fighter jet, while Afghan officials said helicopter gunships had returned fire from Taliban fighters hiding in the compound.  The medical group, also known by the French acronym MSF, said its trauma center "was hit several times during sustained bombing and was very badly damaged." At the time, the hospital had 105 patients and their caretakers, and more than 80 international and Afghan staff, it said. The charity did not say whether insurgents were present, and it was not immediately clear whether the staffers were killed by the Taliban, government or U.S. forces. The group said another 30 people were still missing after the incident.
> 
> The dead included 12 staffers and seven patients from the intensive care unit, among them three children, it said. A total of 37 people were injured, including 19 staff members, and 18 patients and caretakers. Five of the injured staff members were in critical condition, it said.  President Ashraf Ghani expressed his sorrow and said he and the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, U.S. Army Gen. John Campbell had "agreed to launch a joint and thorough investigation."  U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "strongly" condemned the airstrikes in Kunduz and said hospitals and medical personnel are "explicitly protected" under international humanitarian law, his spokesman's office said in a statement Saturday.  AP video of the compound showed burning buildings with firearms - automatic rifles and at least one Russian-made machine gun - on the windowsills pointed outward.
> 
> ...



See also:

*The Latest: Moon condemns deadly Kunduz hospital bombing*
_Oct 3,`15  -- The latest developments from Afghanistan, where the international charity Doctors Without Borders says that at least 19 people were killed when its clinic came under "sustained bombing" as government and international forces continue to battle Taliban fighters in the northern city of Kunduz (all times local):_


> 11:45 p.m.
> 
> U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "strongly" condemned the airstrikes in Kunduz and said hospitals and medical personnel are "explicitly protected" under international humanitarian law, his spokesman's office said in a statement Saturday.
> 
> ...


----------



## waltky (Oct 3, 2015)

A FUBAR wrapped up in a SNAFU...

*US air strike on Afghan hospital ‘inexcusable’, ‘possibly criminal’, UN rights chief says*
_Oct 3, 2015: A suspected US air strike on a hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz that killed nine MSF staff on Saturday was "inexcusable" and "possibly criminal", UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said.  Zeid called for a full and transparent investigation, noting that, "if established as deliberate in a court of law, an air strike on a hospital may amount to a war crime."_


> Doctors Without Borders — known by its French acronym MSF — said the bombardment continued for more than 30 minutes after Washington was informed and that both Afghan and US officials were given the precise location of MSF facilities.  "This event is utterly tragic, inexcusable and possibly even criminal," Zeid said in a statement.  The Afghan defence ministry said militants were targeting troops from the hospital building.
> 
> Nato conceded US forces may have been behind the strike but has not so far commented on the specific claims of MSF, which has long treated the war-wounded from all sides of the conflict.  "International and Afghan military planners have an obligation to respect and protect civilians at all times, and medical facilities and personnel are the object of a special protection," Zeid said.  "These obligations apply no matter whose air force is involved, and irrespective of the location."
> 
> ...



See also:

*Air strike on Afghan hospital under investigation, US says*
_Oct 3, 2015 | WASHINGTON: US defence secretary Ash Carter said the United States still was trying to determine how an air strike hit a hospital run by Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) in the Afghan city of Kunduz on Saturday._


> "A full investigation into the tragic incident is under way in coordination with the Afghan government," Carter said in a statement.  He said the area around the hospital had been the scene of intense fighting in recent days with US forces supporting Afghan security forces against Taliban fighters.  Sixteen people have been killed in the hospital as a result of the bombing.
> 
> MSF phoned Nato, US officials as bombs hit hospital
> 
> ...


----------



## waltky (Oct 4, 2015)

Doctors Without Borders leaves Kunduz...

*Doctors Without Borders leaves Afghan city after airstrike*
_Oct 4,`15 -- The U.S. and Afghan governments vowed Sunday to jointly investigate the attack on a hospital in Kunduz that killed 22 people, as street-by street battles continued between government forces and Taliban fighters and officials warned of a looming humanitarian crisis for civilians trapped in the city_


> Amid accusations that U.S. jet fighters were responsible for what Doctors Without Borders said was a "sustained bombing" of their trauma center in Kunduz, President Barack Obama and Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani promised investigations. Obama said he expected a full accounting of the circumstances surrounding the bombing, and that he would wait for those results before making a judgment. He said the U.S. would continue working with Afghanistan's government and its overseas partners to promote security in Afghanistan.  Some top U.S. officials said the circumstances surrounding the incident remain murky, but others indicated the U.S. may have been responsible. Army Col. Brian Tribus, a spokesman for American forces in Afghanistan, said Saturday that a U.S. airstrike "in the Kunduz vicinity" around 2:15 a.m. Saturday morning "may have resulted in collateral damage to a nearby medical facility."
> 
> U.S. officials speaking on condition of anonymity said American special operations forces advising Afghan commandos in the vicinity of the hospital requested the air support when they came under fire in Kunduz. The officials said the AC-130 gunship responded and fired on the area, but U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said it's not certain yet whether that was what destroyed the hospital.  The officials were not authorized to discuss the incident publicly. They also said the senior U.S. military investigator is in Kunduz but hasn't yet been able to get to the site because it continues to be a contested area between the Afghans and the Taliban militants.
> 
> ...



See also:

*US defence secretary promises accountability for Kunduz attack*
_Oct 5, 2015 | WASHINGTON: US defence secretary Ashton Carter has promised "accountability" for the death of innocent civilians in an American air strike on a hospital in Afghanistan's Kunduz city, saying a transparent investigation has been launched into the incident._


> "There will be accountability as always with these incidents, if that is required," Carter told reporters travelling with him to Spain.  The situation in Kunduz is confused and complicated, so it may take some time to get the facts, he noted.  "But we will get the facts, and we will be full and transparent about sharing them with the American people, but also with the people of Afghanistan, and for that matter, the entire world, to include the essential non-profit factor, the non-governmental organisation community, which is so critical," he asserted.
> 
> Carter praised the work of Doctors Without Borders, saying they are a "very important part of the world's work today, and of making a better world and keeping people safe."  "Their medical work in Afghanistan and elsewhere is vital and is appreciated by certainly all of us in the US, but I think everyone around the world," he said, adding that his office has been in contact with Doctors Without Borders over this weekend to emphasize that a full and transparent investigation will be conducted.  Carter said he has also issued instruction to ensure that the US makes available, and the coalition in Afghanistan, makes available medical care as possible, and as asked for, for folks in Kunduz.
> 
> ...


----------



## waltky (Oct 6, 2015)

AC-130 Gunships have indiscriminate license to kill...

*The U.S. Gunship that Slaughtered Doctors and Patients in Kunduz*
_10.05.15 - The crews of the AC-130, a low, slow plane bristling with guns, don't have to follow the same rules as those in other U.S. warplanes._


> The American warplane that apparently struck a Doctors Without Borders clinic in the embattled city of Kunduz in northern Afghanistan on October 3, killing 22 people, was probably an AC-130 gunship — a lumbering, four-engine transport modified to carry a powerful arsenal of side-firing guns.  Maybe the gunship’s crew knew exactly where the clinic was in Kunduz, maybe it didn’t. Maybe there were Taliban fighters nearby, maybe there weren’t.  Regardless, the AC-130 blasted the vicinity of the clinic for more than an hour, repeatedly striking the medical facility. And the U.S. military’s lax rules allowed it to happen.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



See also:

*Was Kunduz Attack A War Crime? Legal Analysts Say It's Difficult To Prove*
_October 06, 2015 - The international aid group Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) is calling for an international investigation into what it calls a war crime in Afghanistan — Saturday's U.S. airstrikes that killed 22 people, including medical staff and patients at the organization's hospital in Kunduz._


> "We're under the clear presumption that a war crime has been committed," Jason Cone, Doctors Without Borders's executive director, told NPR's Michel Martin on Sunday. "And we're demanding that a full and transparent investigation into the event be conducted by an independent, international body."  The U.S. now says that Afghan forces were fighting Taliban in the area and called in the airstrikes. Legal experts say it will be difficult to prove that a war crime occurred.  John Bellinger, a former legal advisor to the State Department, says the bombing of the hospital was a terrible tragedy, but he believes it would be a rush to judgment to call it a war crime.  "The mere fact that civilians are killed, that a hospital is damaged, doesn't automatically mean that there has been a war crime," he says. "It only becomes a war crime if it is shown that the target was intentionally attacked."
> 
> 
> 
> ...


----------



## waltky (Oct 6, 2015)

Uh-oh, a damning statement...

*US Troops Weren't Under Fire in Afghan Hospital Airstrike: General*
_Oct 05, 2015 | Army Gen. John Campbell contradicted previous reports by his own Afghanistan command Monday and said that U.S. troops weren't under fire when they called for airstrikes that hit a hospital in Kunduz and killed 22 in response to urgent requests for air support from the Afghan forces._


> "The Afghans asked for air support from a Special Forces team that we have on the ground providing train, advise and assist in Kunduz," Campbell said. "The initial statement that went out was that U.S. forces were under direct-fire contact. What I'm doing is correcting that statement here."  "We have now learned on that on Oct. 3, Afghan forces advised that they were taking fire from enemy positions and asked for air support from the U.S. forces. An airstrike was then called to eliminate the Taliban threat and several civilians were accidentally struck" in the attack that hit a Doctors Without Borders hospital compound, Campbell said.  "This is different from the initial reports which indicated that U.S. forces were threatened and that the airstrike was called on their behalf," Campbell said.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Granny says, "Dat's right - Afghans couldn't fight dey's own battle...

*Afghan request initiated U.S. airstrike on Kunduz hospital*
_Oct. 5, 2015 WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- U.S. forces in Afghanistan Commander Gen. John Campbell confirmed Monday that the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz was struck by a U.S. airstrike after Afghan forces called for air support._


> "We have now learned that on Oct. 3, Afghan forces advised that they were taking fire from enemy positions and asked for air support from U.S. forces," Campbell said at a press conference. "An airstrike was then called to eliminate the Taliban threat and several civilians were accidentally struck. This is different from the initial reports which indicated that U.S. forces were threatened and that the airstrike was called on their behalf."  Staff for Doctors Without Borders, known officially as Médecins Sans Frontières, left the bombed hospital on Sunday. At least 10 patients and 12 MSF staff died in the airstrikes conducted by an AC-130 gunship. There were more than 80 MSF staff and 105 patients and their caretakers in the hospital at the time of the attack.
> 
> The hospital was bombed at approximately 15 minute intervals between 2:08 a.m. and 3:15 a.m. local time, the organization said. The airstrikes destroyed part of the hospital and sparked fires that burned for hours.  "If errors were committed we will acknowledge them," Campbell added. "As has been reported, I've ordered a thorough investigation into this tragic incident and the investigation is ongoing. The Afghans have ordered the same. We'll hold those responsible accountable and we will take steps to ensure mistakes are not repeated."  Campbell offered his "deepest condolences" to victims.  MSF said that "we cannot accept that this horrific loss of life will simply be dismissed as collateral damage."  "Under the clear presumption that a war crime has been committed, a transparent investigation must be conducted by an independent international body," MSF added.
> 
> ...


----------



## waltky (Oct 11, 2015)

Sounds like some general's gonna be onna hot seat...

*Afghan president orders investigation into fall of Kunduz*
_Oct 10,`15  -- Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has appointed a team of investigators to look into the circumstances leading to the Taliban's brief capture of the northern city of Kunduz as well as a U.S. airstrike that destroyed a hospital and killed at least 22 people there, his office said Saturday._


> The five-man delegation appointed by presidential decree will leave soon for Kunduz to conduct a province-wide probe into how the insurgents were able to overrun the city on Sept. 28 and hold it for three days before government troops launched a counter offensive, Ghani's office said.  Part of the team's mandate would include looking into the Oct. 3 airstrike on a trauma center run by the international charity Doctors Without Borders. The team would be led by the former head of the national intelligence agency, Amrullah Saleh, and would report to the president.  The "fact-finding team" will deliver a "comprehensive report so that we know what happened in Kunduz, what kind of reforms should be brought and what are the lessons learned for the future," the president was quoted as saying.
> 
> Ten days after government troops entered Kunduz, they are still fighting to clear out pockets of Taliban insurgents, officials and residents said.  Sarwar Hussaini, spokesman for the provincial police chief, said three areas of the city had been retaken overnight, though a gas station in Seh Darak was hit by a rocket and destroyed. Hussaini said he did not know which side was responsible.  Kunduz resident Abdullah said that people were still leaving the city for safety. He said he had seen grocers emptying their shops of food to take home, fearing scarcities. He would only give his first name because of security concerns.  The World Food Program said it was feeding thousands of people who had left Kunduz and were now living in camps in other cities in the north, and that "additional wheat is being milled in anticipation of increased needs in the coming days."
> 
> ...



See also:

*Portraits of some of the victims in Kunduz hospital bombing*
_Oct 10,`15  -- On Oct. 3, a U.S. AC-130 gunship - at the request of Afghan ground forces fighting the Taliban, according to the American commander in Afghanistan Gen. John F. Campbell - mistakenly bombed a trauma hospital run by Doctors Without Borders in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, killing at least 10 patients and a dozen Afghan staffers. Many more were wounded, and many remain missing in the wreckage of the now-abandoned hospital. The aid group's international staff members have been accounted for. President Barack Obama apologized and the U.S. military is investigating.  Family and friends of some of the victims spoke with The Associated Press. Here are their stories:_


> Muhibullah Waheedi
> 
> Waheedi, known as Dr. Muhibullah, 35, grew up in the Pakistani city of Quetta, where his family took refuge during the 1980s invasion of Afghanistan by the former Soviet Union. He graduated in medicine from Kunduz University before returning to Quetta, where he worked for two years with Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF. His was married with five children - three girls and two boys, the youngest aged three. He also had four brothers, three of them doctors.  "When Kunduz was overrun by the Taliban, we brothers were living together in a house close to the MSF hospital, but as things got worse, the others decided to leave for safer places - except Muhibullah. He stayed because he believed MSF was safe, as all sides in the war respected its neutrality," said his brother Abdul Rahman.
> 
> ...


----------



## Bleipriester (Oct 12, 2015)

Once the Taliban honored Obama with the Nobel  Violence Prize and it is doubtful which group should have the upper hand in Aghanisten: The Taliban or the local allies of the West whose dicks stick in little boys while the Taliban takes over Kunduz.


----------



## irosie91 (Oct 12, 2015)

Bleipriester said:


> The Taliban or the local allies of the West whose dicks stick in little boys while the Taliban takes over Kunduz.



who are the   "local allies of the west"?     the Pashtuns are-----culturally Iranian----
----it is from Persia that they have both their language and their  "social customs"---
learn some history


----------



## IsaacNewton (Oct 12, 2015)

In WW2 the Russians were our allies. Sometimes you pick the lesser of two evils until the worst is gone, then you work on the other. It has always been and always will be an imperfect world.


----------



## irosie91 (Oct 12, 2015)

IsaacNewton said:


> In WW2 the Russians were our allies. Sometimes you pick the lesser of two evils until the worst is gone, then you work on the other. It has always been and always will be an imperfect world.



your point??      Captain blei has claimed that the  US  has allies in Afghanistan characterized by people who  "stick their dicks in boys"   as opposed to THE TALIBAN   who-----it is clear,   he considers to be morally superior to the local
"dick stickers"     ----I am seeking clarification of that statement


----------



## shadow355 (Oct 12, 2015)

Disir said:


> Nato special forces have joined Afghan troops in the increasingly desperate battle for Kunduz, as one of the last two government outposts in the strategic northern city surrendered to the Taliban.
> 
> The heavily besieged airport, which sits on a hilltop a few miles outside Kunduz, is now the only place held by the Afghan army. The nearby Bala Hisar fort fell when soldiers there ran out of ammunition, deputy provincial governor Hamdullah Daneshi said.
> 
> ...


 
 Looks like I have been misinformed.

 I read the news about four or five years ago, that said the Taliban was destroyed and without leadership. It was dust in the wind and no longer an organized force.


 Shadow 355


----------



## waltky (Oct 15, 2015)

Tank commander got some `splainin' to do...

*US tank forced its way into bombed Afghan hospital: MSF*
_Oct 15, 2015: A medical charity whose hospital in Afghanistan was bombed by the US military says an American tank forced its way onto the compound, contravening agreements they would be informed._


> Doctors Without Borders said the "intrusion" Thursday was by a joint US-Nato-Afghan team investigating the October 3 bombing.  The group says the incident violated an agreement that they "would be given notice before each step of the procedure involving the organization's personnel and assets."
> 
> "Their unannounced and forced entry damaged property, destroyed potential evidence and caused stress and fear," it said in a statement.  The strike in Kunduz killed 10 patients and 12 staff. US President Barack Obama apologized for the bombing, which the commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan called a "mistake".
> 
> US tank forced its way into bombed Afghan hospital: MSF - The Times of India


----------



## waltky (Oct 17, 2015)

Women targeted in Taliban takeover of Afghan city...

*Taliban to women in Kunduz: Don't come back or we will kill you*
_Oct 17, 2015: Hiding in her basement, a Kunduz radio presenter was paralysed with fear when the Taliban came looking for her as they conducted house-to-house searches for working women after storming the northern Afghan city._


> Long condemned as misogynistic zealots, the Taliban have sought to project a softened stance on female rights, but the insurgents' three-day occupation of Kunduz offers an ominous blueprint of what could happen should they ever return to power.  Harrowing testimonies have emerged of death squads methodically targeting a host of female rights workers and journalists just hours after the city fell on September 28.  When they knocked on the radio host's door, her uncle answered, she said, requesting anonymity due to safety concerns.  "We know a woman in your house works in an office," she said they told him.  "When my uncle denied it, he was taken outside and shot dead. His body lay in the streets for days — no one dared to go out and get it."
> 
> Such testimonies hark back to the Taliban's 1996-2001 rule of Afghanistan, when women were relegated to the shadows.  Rights groups say female prisoners in Kunduz were raped and midwives were targeted for providing reproductive health services to women.  Rampaging insurgents destroyed three radio stations run by women, looted a girls' school and ransacked offices working for female empowerment, stealing their computers and smashing their equipment, according to several sources including activists and local residents.  One of their main targets were women's shelters, which give refuge countrywide to runaway girls, domestic abuse victims and those at the risk of "honour killings" by their relatives.
> 
> ...



See also:

*'Jihadi John made me tango dance with him and then beat me': Freed ISIS hostage describes torture*
_Oct 17, 2015 - A former ISIS hostage held with Alan Henning and James Foley has described how their murderer, "Jihadi John", forced him to dance the tango as part of a regime of torture and humiliation._


> Daniel Rye Ottosen, a 26-year-old freelance photographer from Denmark, was freed in June last year after his family paid the extremist group a large ransom for his life.  He was the last western hostage to be released before ISIS started beheading his fellow captives, starting with Foley before killing Steven Sotloff, David Haines, Henning and Adbul-Rahman (Peter) Kassig.  They were all decapitated by the British militant named by authorities as Mohammed Emwazi, known as "Jihadi John" for his part in the UK terror cell dubbed "The Beatles".
> 
> Giving his first public interview to Danish national broadcaster DR on Sunday, Ottosen described the brutal and sometimes bizarre torture inflicted upon him.  "Do you want to dance?" he remembers Emwazi asking. "He pulled me up, and then we had to dance the tango together.  "At that point I just kept looking at the ground, I did not want to look at them because then you would get even more beatings.  "He led me around the prison, and all of a sudden it changed and he pushed down and they kicked and beat me.  "They ended by giving me a ride when then threatened to cut my nose off with wire cutters."
> 
> ...


----------



## waltky (Oct 19, 2015)

Hospital was used by insurgents...

*Afghan Defense Minister: Taliban Hid in Bombed Hospital*
_ October 19, 2015 —  Afghanistan's acting defense minister says the hospital that was bombed by U.S. forces was being used by insurgents who were fighting government forces._


> Masoom Stanekzai said on Monday that Taliban insurgents and possibly Pakistani operatives had used the Doctors Without Borders facility in the city of Kunduz as a “safe place.”
> 
> 
> 
> ...


----------



## waltky (Oct 3, 2016)

Kunduz - again...




*Taliban Launches Attack on Kunduz*
_October 03, 2016 - Officials in northern Afghanistan say the Taliban has launched a coordinated attack on Kunduz and insurgents have entered the city._


> Authorities say the Monday morning attack was launched from several directions and security forces are pushing back the insurgents.  A Taliban spokesman said the militants have captured several checkpoints in the city.  The Taliban offensive on the city comes one day ahead of a major donor conference in Brussels where Afghan President Ashraf Ghani will meet with world powers in a bid to secure money to rebuild his war-ravaged country.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



See also:

*US Says Afghan Aid ‘Is Not a Blank Check’*
_October 01, 2016 - The international community is looking for signs of progress on key issues ahead of an international conference on Afghanistan in Brussels next week, said Ambassador Richard Olson, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan._


> The European Union and the National Unity government of Afghanistan will co-host the Brussels Conference on Afghanistan starting Tuesday. Representatives from more than 70 countries and dozens of international organizations and agencies are expected to attend.  After nearly 15 years of war and billions of dollars in international aid, the Afghan government still needs international support. But Olson said that support should not be taken for granted.
> 
> “U.S. and international support for Afghanistan is not a blank check. Our support is conditioned and conditional on Afghan progress,” said Olson at an event organized by the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at John Hopkins University on Thursday. “Our collective ability to continue providing significant levels of support to Afghanistan is dependent on the Afghan government’s performance and ability to work with us as an effective partner.”  Olson told VOA there are four areas of concern in the international community.  “First of all, further commitments on anti-corruption, electoral reforms, reforms on fiscal sustainability and on human rights, including rights of women,” he said.
> 
> ...


----------



## waltky (Oct 3, 2016)

Afghan security forces drive Taliban fighters out of Kunduz city center...




*Kunduz assault: Afghan forces 'in control of city'*
_Mon, 03 Oct 2016 - Afghan security forces drive Taliban fighters out of Kunduz city centre after a day of fierce fighting, Nato and local authorities say._


> Taliban fighters earlier appeared to have breached the city, reportedly raising their flag in a central square.  In a major victory, Kunduz was briefly captured by the Taliban in September 2015 but government forces, backed by Nato, recaptured it within days.  Special forces have been flown in from Kabul to help repel the latest assault.  "The city centre is now in our hands and not in their hands. We are launching an attack to clean up the area," Kunduz police chief Kassim Jangal Bagh told the AFP news agency.  The Nato-led Resolute Support mission said Afghan security forces were in control of the city and its main square "with additional troops coming".
> 
> 
> 
> ...


----------



## waltky (Oct 4, 2016)

Taliban holdin' out against Afghan forces...




*Taliban resist Afghan forces' counterattack in northern city of Kunduz*
_ Tue Oct 4, 2016 | Pockets of Taliban fighters held out overnight against Afghan government forces in the northern city of Kunduz, a police official said on Tuesday, a day after the militants pushed deep into the city center._


> Taliban militants slipped past government defenses early on Monday and occupied or attacked central areas of Kunduz, almost exactly a year after they briefly captured the city in one of their biggest successes of the 15-year war.  The attack in Kunduz, as well as Taliban gains in areas of Helmand and Uruzgan where they also threaten provincial capitals, has underlined the insurgents' growing strength and exposed weaknesses in the government, which is meeting international donors in Brussels this week to try to secure billions of dollars in additional aid.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



See also:

*Afghanistan Appeals for Aid to Keep Afghan Migrants at Home*
_October 03, 2016 - Afghanistan is appealing to European donors to open their wallets at an international donors' conference Wednesday, arguing that jobs created through development projects will help stem the tide of migrants that is destabilizing the European continent._


> High unemployment combined with growing insecurity drove nearly 200,000 Afghans to Europe last year, exacerbating the global migrant crisis.  European nations have struggled to cope with the flood of young Afghan asylum seekers, and exerted pressure on Afghanistan to roll back the human exodus.  "If we hesitate to address the migration issue, public opinion in European countries will change, and this could impact aid," Eklil Hakimi, Afghanistan's finance minister, told Afghan lawmakers Sunday.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


----------



## Bleipriester (Oct 5, 2016)

irosie91 said:


> IsaacNewton said:
> 
> 
> > In WW2 the Russians were our allies. Sometimes you pick the lesser of two evils until the worst is gone, then you work on the other. It has always been and always will be an imperfect world.
> ...


Abuse of boys as a tradition by allied commanders. The US army is ordered to look away.


----------



## Bleipriester (Oct 5, 2016)

waltky said:


> Afghan security forces drive Taliban fighters out of Kunduz city center...



If that was in Syria, the monkey would have written:

Assad regime troops drive rebels out of Aleppo city center.


You will see, he is just about to write this


----------

