AFP: An avalanche struck a remote mountain area of northern Afganistan two weeks ago, killing at least 35 people and burying houses beneath the snow, a local official said Tuesday. The disaster struck in Badakhshan province in the far north, but harsh weather and the remoteness of the province bordering China, Pakistan and Tajikistan...
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Archive for July, 2010
At least 35 killed in Afghan avalanche: official
AFGHANISTAN: Taliban IEDs take toll on civilians
IRIN: Hidden on roadsides, behind boulders or on cultivated land, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are killing or maiming dozens of civilians every month, according to rights groups and government officials. IEDs killed 773 civilians in 2009 – over 32 percent of the total 2,412 civilian deaths – according to the UN Assistance Mission in...
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Iranian weapons seized in Afghanistan
The Telegraph: Border officials have reported that a wide range of material made in Iran – including mortars, plastic explosives, propaganda materials and mobile phones – is ending up in insurgents’ hands. A Taliban commander admitted that the insurgents had grown more dependent on Iran as Pakistan stepped up operations against the group on...
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Afghan children face world’s worst conditions – U.N.
Reuters: Afganistan is the hardest place in the world to be a child, the South Asia regional director for UNICEF said, with high child mortality rates, poor levels of nutrition and rampant sexual abuse. “The situation in Afganistan as a whole is one of the most dramatic in South Asia and also in the...
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Reports of Sexual Assault Involving Military Servicemembers Rose in 2009
ABC News: Reports of sexual assault involving military servicemembers rose by 11 percent last year, but Pentagon officials said that was just what they were hoping would happen. There were 3,230 reports of sexual assault filed in Fiscal Year 2009, the Pentagon announced today. However, Pentagon officials see the rising numbers in a positive...
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Who’s stealing Afghan cultural treasures?
RT.com: Afganistan’s unique location has made it home to the world’s most complex civilizations that left a rich cultural heritage. But the war-torn country has now fallen victim to looters, stealing the nation’s artifacts. Ever since Afganistan was invaded by Alexander the Great, nearly 2,500 years ago, the country has seen one foreign army...
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Survivors of family killed in Afghanistan raid threaten suicide attacks
The Times: A family whose members were killed in a botched night raid in eastern Afganistan have rejected “blood money” from the Government and vowed to carry out suicide attacks unless the perpetrators are brought to justice. Two pregnant women, a teenage girl, a policeman and his brother were shot dead on February...
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Nato ‘covered up’ botched night raid in Afghanistan that killed five
The Times: A night raid carried out by US and Afgan gunmen led to the deaths of two pregnant women, a teenage girl and two local officials in an atrocity which Nato then tried to cover up, survivors have told The Times. In a statement after the raid titled “Joint force operating in Gardez...
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Afghanistan’s Kandahar hit by suicide bombers, 30 dead
BBC News: At least 30 people have been killed and 46 wounded in four suicide bombings in the southern Afgan city of Kandahar, hospital officials say. The first blast happened at about 2000 (1530 GMT). Officials said the biggest attack was aimed at the city’s main prison. The Taliban said they carried out the...
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