A combat-hardened Green Beret has unleashed a barrage of indictments against the command in Afghanistan and policymakers in Washington, saying the 14-year-old war effort suffers from a "profound lack of strategy" and that special operations overseers show "moral cowardice." – Washington Times
The Taliban claims they shot down a U.S. drone earlier this week in Afghanistan, and U.S. officials have acknowledged that one of their unmanned aerial vehicles is indeed missing. – Military Times
According to Afghan government officials, the Pakistan-based and al Qaeda-affiliated Haqqani network has taken over command of the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan (VOA). Sediq Seddiqi, a spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry, said, “The Taliban are currently being commanded by [the] Haqqani [network]. We believe Haqqani and al Qaeda are two different names for the same terrorist organization.” U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Charles Cleveland, deputy chief of staff for communications for NATO’s Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan, noted, “Siraj Haqqani, has been named the number two for the Taliban. And we think that he is increasing really, his day-to-day role in terms of conducting Taliban military operations.” The Haqqani network has allegedly had ties with Pakistan’s military-intelligence community and been provided safe haven in Pakistan – a claim the Pakistani government denies.
Bonus Read: “Haqqanis Steering Deadlier Taliban in Afghanistan, Officials Say,” by Mujib Mashal (NYT)
Buses, fuel truck collision kills 73 in Ghazni
A collision and subsequent explosion of two buses and a fuel truck in Ghazni province on the main highway that connects Kabul to Kandahar killed 73 people and wounded 50 others on Sunday (BBC, AP,NYT, Al Jazeera). The Associated Press reports that the director of the provincial traffic department, Mohammadullah Ahmadi, blamed the crash on reckless driving. Reports from Afghan officials cite a passenger count of 125-140 passengers on the two buses. An Al Jazeera reporter notes that the drivers of the two buses and fuel tanker may have been speeding to avoid attacks from the Taliban, who maintain checkpoints along the road the buses and tanker were travelling. He said, “It looks like the bus driver was trying to avoid any Taliban checkpoints, and the tanker driver was trying not to be ambushed by the Taliban.”
Afghan government executes six Taliban prisoners
The Afghan government hanged six Taliban prisoners, convicted of terror-related crimes, in the Pul-e-Charkhi Prison in Kabul on Sunday (NYT, Al Jazeera, Post, Reuters). These were the first executions of President Ashraf Ghani’s tenure, and come in the aftermath of the April 19 truck bombing at Kabul’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) that was carried out by the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network and killed 64 people. Executions had been stopped during former president Hamid Karzai’s administration as a way to get the Taliban to the negotiating table for peace negotiations. Before the executions occurred, the Taliban warned of “serious repercussions” if they were to be carried out.
Two Romanian soldiers killed in inside attack in Kandahar
On Saturday, two men wearing Afghan security forces uniforms opened fire on and killed two Romanian coalition troops at an Afghan compound in Kandahar (Post, Long War Journal, Telegraph/AFP). Another coalition service member was wounded. The Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs acknowledged the deaths via their Twitter page. The military coalition released a statement saying, “Two Resolute Support (Nato) service members died this morning when two individuals wearing Afghan uniforms opened fire... in southern Afghanistan. Resolute Support members returned fire and killed the shooters.” This “green-on-blue” attack – when Afghan forces kill international operators – is the first in more than a year. The Taliban nor other insurgent groups have yet claimed responsibility.
Pakistan
Khurram Zaki, a prominent blogger and rights activist who actively opposed the Taliban and other Islamist groups, was shot and killed in Karachi on Saturday night by four unidentified gunmen on motorbikes (NYT, Reuters). He was 40 years old. The Hakeemullah group, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call to Reuters and said it was carried out due to Zaki’s campaigning against Maulana Abdul Aziz, a prominent Sunni cleric of Islamabad’s Red Mosque. A statement on the website that Zaki helped run said he had been “a target of a systematic hate campaign” by an Islamist political leader and another Pakistani Taliban-affiliated group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Asad Iqbal Butt, a member of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said, “Being an activist in Pakistan is highly risky, as the state has yet to eliminate the sectarian militias that kill with impunity.”
Pakistani economy is growing but remains restrictive
According to the Express Tribune, Pakistani’s economic growth outlook is at 4.5 percent for the current financial period, up from 4.2 percent at the current time last year (ET). This is due in part to the energy-starved country’s easier access to oil due to low prices, and Islamabad’s subscription to the International Monetary Fund’s program giving easier access to credit in exchange for more fiscal discipline. However, according to the World Bank’s Overall Trade Restrictiveness Index, Pakistan remains the world’s seventh-most restrictive and protective economy due to high tariffs on imported goods.
Son of Pakistani immigrants elected London’s first Muslim mayor
Sadiq Khan, the son of two Pakistani immigrants, was elected London’s first Muslim mayor and sworn in on Saturday (NYT, Intercept). Khan, a member of the Labour Party, received wide praise for an election that saw him win 1.3 million votes in his defeat of the Conservatives’ Zac Goldsmith. On Twitter, Khan received congratulations from British Conservatives like business secretary Sajid Javid, also a son of a bus driver and a second-generation Pakistani.
The closer integration of the feared Haqqani militant network into the leadership of the Taliban is changing the flow of the Afghan insurgency this year, with the Haqqanis’ senior leader increasingly calling the shots in the Taliban’s offensive, Afghan and American officials say. – New York Times
Mr. Obama has portrayed that combat role as over. But as the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Islamic State in Iraq have threatened the delicate stability he hoped to leave behind, American forces are increasingly being called on to fight. – New York Times
Several times in the hours leading up to the disastrous U.S. airstrike on a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, American military operators came tantalizingly close to making the right decision that could have averted the deaths of 42 patients and staff. But each time, haste or a broken communication system or a crew member's failure to follow through with conviction brought the AC-130U "Spooky" gunship's crosshairs back to the Doctors Without Borders hospital instead of the intended Taliban-infested building 480 yards away. – Washington Times
Afghan officials hanged six Taliban prisoners Sunday, a resumption of executions in the war that makes good on President Ashraf Ghani’s recent promise to deal harshly with insurgents, now that hopes for peace negotiations have evaporated. – Washington Post
Taliban insurgents publicly executed two women, one of them in an apparent honor killing, in northern Afghanistan recently, according to Afghan officials, members of the victims’ families and a video posted online. – New York Times
Two Afghan army recruits opened fire on international coalition soldiers in Kandahar province on Saturday, killing two Romanians and wounding another, according to an Afghan official and a coalition statement. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Afghan special operations forces freed 60 prisoners from a Taliban prison in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, according to a statement from the U.S.-led mission there – Washington Post's Checkpoint
During the past 10 months, about 300 Afghan journalists have fled the country for safer ground, many of them to Europe, according to a new survey released by Nai, a group in Kabul that promotes an independent news media in the country. – Washington Post’s World Views
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul is warning Americans in the country to use extra caution after an attempted kidnapping of several expatriates. – The Hill
A shadowy, Pakistan-based militant faction is on the rise within the Taliban after its leader was appointed deputy and played a key role in unifying the fractured insurgency. – Associated Press
Amid fierce fighting after the Taliban captured the northern Afghan city of Kunduz last year, U.S. special forces advisers repeatedly asked their commanders how far they were allowed to go to help local troops retake the city. They got no answer, according to witnesses interviewed in a recently declassified, heavily redacted Pentagon report that lays bare the confusion over rules of engagement governing the mission in Afghanistan. - Reuters
Unidentified gunmen have killed a Pakistani rights activist known for campaigning against both religious extremism and the head cleric of a radical Sunni mosque, police officials said. – New York Times
[A]nalysts say there has been no clampdown on what Pakistan's security establishment regards as "good" militant organizations — those that don't attack Pakistan and whose ranks include fighters willing to carry out operations in India or Afghanistan. – Los Angeles Times
A local Sufi Muslim leader in northern Bangladesh was found hacked to death in a secluded mango grove, the police said on Saturday. – New York Times
Power-delivery project for AfPak launched in Tajikistan
On Thursday, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, and Kyrgyz Prime Minister Sooronbai Jeenbekov attended the unveiling ceremony in Dushanbe, Tajikistan for the $1.17 billion CASA-1000 power project that will carry roughly 1,300 megawatts of electricity from hydropower plants in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan into Afghanistan (300 MW) and Pakistan (1,000 MW) through a 759 mile-long power-transmission line (RFE/RL, ET, VOA). According to PM Nawaz, “CASA project will help mitigate (the) electricity deficit of Pakistan and Afghanistan. It will provide new employment opportunities to the people.” The project, scheduled to be completed by 2018, is financed by the United States, Great Britain, the World Bank, the European Investment Bank, and the Islamic Development Bank.
Pakistan to receive additional $510 million from IMF
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced on Thursday that it is providing an additional $510 million in aid to Pakistan as part of the country’s three-year, $6.7 billion financial assistance program (Dawn). According to Harald Finger, the IMF mission chief for Pakistan, “After productive discussions, the mission and the Pakistani authorities have reached staff- level agreement on the completion of the eleventh review under the EFF arrangement.” The money will not be officially provided until the deal is approved by the IMF’s management and executive board. The IMF statement cited Pakistan’s strong economic growth, with projected GDP growth of 4.5 percent in FY 2015/16 and 4.7 percent in FY 2016/17.
“Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Exiled Afghan Insurgent, Nears a Comeback,” by Mujib Mashal Jawad Sukhanyar (NYT)
“The Taliban resurge in Afghanistan – and ISIS also moves in,” by Hari Sreenivasan and Jennifer Glasse (PBS)
Afghan Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abudllah will visit China from Sunday, May 15 through Wednesday, May 18 (Xinhua). According to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang, this is Abdullah’s first official visit to China since taking office. Speaking of the visit, Lu said, “We hope the visit will further advance bilateral cooperation in areas of economy and trade, security, culture, international and regional affairs, and push China-Afghanistan strategic partnership of cooperation to a higher level.” China and Afghanistan share a border via the Wakhan Corridor.