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Though Taliban tactics vary from region to region, the outcomes are usually the same: increased taxation on highways, plummeting morale among the Afghan security forces with dwindling U.S. support and growing fear among those living in once-secure areas.

The Talibans aim is to force the Afghan government into complying with their terms of peace. In Qatar, Taliban leaders have demanded the release of around 7,000 more prisoners and the establishment of an interim government, two requests that Ashraf Ghani, Afghanistans president, has so far refused.

The Taliban seem to believe that applying this pressure, staging their fighters to potentially strike Kandahar and other urban centers, will pressure the U.S. to withdraw, or else, Mr. Watkins said. The strategic logic might have the opposite effect.

To prepare for a possible multipronged attack should the United States stay beyond the May 1 deadline, the Pentagon has requested additional military options including an increase of U.S. troops or a commitment of more air support from U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in the Middle East and Afghanistan, according to two U.S. officials. Whether these requests will be granted depends on the Biden administrations next move, which is expected to be announced in coming weeks upon completing a review of the current agreement in place with the Taliban.

The unrest has already delayed the handover of Kandahar Airfield, a sprawling American base east of the capital, to Afghan forces in recent months. For now, a small detachment of U.S. and NATO troops remain to support the struggling Afghan forces, according to a U.S. military official.

With the police force mostly in ruin, the Afghan army and commandos have moved into Kandahar, beginning operations in November to retake territory that was then retaken by the Taliban. Commando officers said their forces had been exhausted by frequent orders to fill in for their police counterparts.

In nearby Arghandab District, the site of the Talibans northern offensive on Kandahar city, army leaders and police officers say theyre severely understaffed and their pleas for support have gone unheeded by officials in Kabul.

Originally posted here:
The Taliban Close In on Afghanistan, Pushing the Country to the Brink - The New York Times

President Joe Bidens day-one decision to halt construction of the Canada-to-Nebraska Keystone XL oil pipeline has sparked criticism, including false claims of conspiracies.

A post widely shared on Facebook takes a different tack, suggesting Bidens actions are contradictory. The lower-case post reads: "biden cancels our pipeline but helps build afghanistans pipeline? help me understand"

The post was flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

The allusion is to the long-planned Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline, which has received verbal support from the U.S. but, according to experts, no tangible assistance.

"The TAPI pipeline has been supported by the Clinton, Bush, Obama and Trump administrations, but the U.S. has not spent any money on it," said Barnett Rubin, senior fellow at New York Universitys Center on International Cooperation and former director of the centers Afghanistan Pakistan Regional Program. He is also a former senior adviser to the U.S. State Departments special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Claims about Keystone XL

The Keystone XL pipeline was to have transported crude oil from Canada to Nebraska, where it would connect with another leg stretching to Gulf Coast refineries. Biden said with a Jan. 20 executive order that he was revoking the pipelines construction permit for economic and environmental reasons.

The post were checking appeared several days after a Feb. 6 article suggested, without evidence, that under Biden, the U.S. had brokered a Feb. 6 meeting in Turkmenistan in support of TAPI, which would carry natural gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan and India.

Two other articles citing that article connected TAPI to Bidens cancellation of the Keystone XL.

We asked the State Department if the Biden administration has helped build the pipeline or has taken a position on the pipeline. A State Department spokesperson said the U.S. "has long supported efforts by Afghanistan and its Central Asian neighbors to strengthen their connectivity, boost economic coordination and improve regional transportation infrastructure, including energy infrastructure."

On. Oct. 9, weeks before Bidens election, the U.S., Turkmenistan and Afghanistan issued a statement regarding a videoconference that representatives of the three governments held the previous day to discuss a variety of issues. The statement said the nations intend to "work together to identify and implement infrastructure projects," including TAPI.

We interviewed two other experts on Afghanistan: Marvin Weinbaum, director of Afghanistan and Pakistan Studies at the nonpartisan Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C., and a former Afghanistan specialist at the State Department; and Jason Campbell, a RAND Corp. international security policy researcher and former country director for Afghanistan in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy.

Both said they are not aware of any money or other tangible assistance given by the U.S. for construction of the pipeline.

They said progress on construction has been slow for a variety of reasons, including concerns about security in the region.

"The joke goes, its just a pipe dream," said Weinbaum. "But its one that should be taken seriously, in terms of its potential."

Our ruling

A widely shared Facebook post claimed Biden "helps build Afghanistans pipeline."

The U.S. has long supported the long-planned Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India natural gas pipeline, which would traverse Afghanistan.

Asked about the claim, the State Department said only that the U.S. has long supported regional cooperation in the area, including on energy infrastructure.

Experts said no administration, including Bidens, has provided tangible assistance on construction of the pipeline.

We rate the statement False.

Read more:
No, Biden administration is not helping build a pipeline in Afghanistan - PolitiFact

In testimony to the European Parliament about efforts to end the war in Afghanistan, Crisis Group expert Andrew Watkins describes the current scale of fighting, Taliban policies and how outside actors can support the peace process.

Crisis Groups Senior Analyst for Afghanistan, Andrew Watkins, testified to the European Parliaments Delegation for relations with Afghanistan on 12 February 2021 about how to judge the current state of the conflict, what he sees as the Talibans perspectives on peace efforts and how this should inform how the international community can best support the process.

Watkins notes that Afghanistans war has seen measurable changes in the intensity of the conflict, which have led to some drop in casualties, but it remains one of the most violent in the world. Taliban use of suicide vehicle bombings halted for a time, but was gradually resumed, and the groups traditional assaults on provincial centres were replaced by a campaign of targeted individual killings. He explains dynamics among the Taliban that shape their views on reducing violence and ending the war, a far cry from the ceasefire that the world expected after the 2020 deal between the U.S. and the Taliban. He says that the group are the aggressors in the conflict today, and that current levels of violence are no foundation for a lasting peace process.

Read more:
Testimony on Afghanistan to the European Parliament - Afghanistan - ReliefWeb

For nearly two decades, the U.S. government has sought to advance Afghan womens rights and opportunities. Since the 2001 removal of the Taliban regime, Afghan women and girls have made substantial gains, especially in access to education and health care, and participation in the public sphere. Yet this progress has been fragile and uneven, and it is unclear whether peace negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban will protect womens rights and access to services. Today, U.S. policymakers face a critical question: How can the United States best promote gender equality in Afghanistan in the midst of conflict, poverty, a global pandemic, and the prospect of an Afghan government in which the Taliban exerts considerable influence?

On February 17, the Foreign Policy program at Brookings hosted Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John F. Sopko for a keynote address on the release of the new SIGAR report, Support for Gender Equality: Lessons from the U.S. Experience in Afghanistan. A discussion facilitated by Brookings President John R. Allen and a panel conversation with distinguished analysts and practitioners followed Mr. Sopkos remarks.

After their remarks, panelists took questions from the audience. Viewers submitted questions via email to events@brookings.edu or Twitter using #AfghanWomen.

See the article here:
Women in Afghanistan and the role of US support - Brookings Institution

When the number of severe cases of COVID-19 began to rise late last year, Doctors Without Borders/Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF) reopened its COVID-19 treatment center in Gazer Ga, in Herat province, Afghanistan. The facility, which supports the Ministry of Public Healths COVID-19 referral structure in Shaidayee hospital, resumed activities on December 2, 2020. Two-and-a-half months later, the average number of new hospital admissions for severe COVID-19 has dropped to around four patients a day.

The treatment centeroriginally open from June 28 to the end of September to support the response to the pandemics first wavehas 20 beds, including a 10-bed unit for patients who need oxygen but do not require intensive care. Its capacity can be increased to 32 or even 48 beds depending on the evolution of the pandemic.

MSF is continuing to follow the COVID-19 situation closely in Herat with the Ministry of Public Health and other partners in order to adapt our activity to the needs, said MSFs head COVID-19 nurse in the Melusi Mabhena region.

The first case of COVID-19 in Afghanistan was recorded in late February 2020 in Herat. The virus then quickly spread to the whole province and neighboring ones in March as tens of thousands of migrant workers passed through Herat on their way back from Iran. According to official data from the Ministry of Public Health, Herat remains the second-most affected province in Afghanistan after Kabul, with more than 9,143 confirmed cases and around 424 reported deaths.

Continued here:
Afghanistan: Caring for COVID-19 patients in Herat - Doctors Without Borders