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The key clause in the United States peace deal with Afghanistans Taliban is a commitment to disallow any militant group from using Afghan soil to plot against America and its allies.

But is the Taliban merely pretending that its long-time ally al-Qaeda no longer maintains bases and fighters in the areas it controls in Afghanistan just to appease the US and withdraw its troops from the country?

As part of a historic deal brokered in February, the Taliban agreed, among other things, not to shelter terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and to cut all ties with the transnational terrorist group best known for orchestrating the 9-11 attacks on US soil.

With that commitment, the US has promised a complete withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan, a departure that some speculate could pave the way for the Talibans eventual return to power. There are now around 5,000 US troops in the country, a number that will fall to 2,500 by early 2021.

The US is also helping to facilitate a political settlement between the Taliban and President Ashraf Ghanis incumbent government. While peace talks underway in Doha, Qatar, have not yet achieved any substantial breakthroughs, a deal would restore the Talibans international legitimacy as a political actor.

Yet key questions remain. Has the three-decade-long history of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan truly come to an end? Is the world safe from an al-Qaeda threat that has long emanated from Afghanistans remote and rocky reaches?

Two narratives offer different answers to these key questions.

The adherents of one line claim plain and simple that al-Qaeda no longer exists in Afghanistan. Opponents of this narrative, however, believe that al-Qaedas recent silence is an agreed strategy to conceal its presence to facilitate the Talibans peace deal with the US.

This could mean Afghanistan is still a willing, clandestine hub for Islamist militant groups, posing as ever severe threats to regional and global security.

All of those who want the quickest withdrawal possible of US forces from Afghanistan and those who want the Taliban back into power are fully supporting the success of the US-Taliban peace deal, signed in Doha on February 29, 2020.

They sense and fear that if any new evidence emerges about al-Qaedas continued threat in Afghanistan, it will potentially scupper a final US-Taliban peace deal. They therefore insist that al-Qaeda no longer exists in the country.

Those most strongly perpetuating this narrative line are the Taliban, their Afghan sympathizers and certain external powers.

This list also includes many Afghan critics of the Taliban who do not support the Islamist group but believe that Afghanistans conflict is rooted in the presence of foreign troops and thus want them to leave their country as soon as possible.

Those who oppose the notion that al-Qaeda has left the premises are against any political deal with the Taliban. Many of them believe that a US withdrawal will restore the Taliban to power and revert the country into a hub of Islamist militancy.

This narratives adherents include the current Afghan government, anti-Taliban political forces and certain political and security analysts who closely monitor al-Qaeda and global terror trends. They believe that both al-Qaeda and the Taliban are concealing the formers presence.

The Taliban and its supporters have resorted to labeling anyone who considers al-Qaedas current existence in Afghanistan a possibility as anti-peace.

Yet the most credible claims about al-Qaedas continued existence in Afghanistan come from reports of the United Nations Security Councils sanction committee team monitoring al-Qaeda, Islamic State (ISIS) and the Taliban.

These reports have repeatedly and consistently claimed that the Taliban maintains close ties with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, even after the US-Taliban deal announced on February 29, 2020.

The latest such claim came from the coordinator of the UNs monitoring team, Edmund Fitton-Brown, who stated in a recent online seminar about Afghanistans future that the Taliban keeps close contact with al-Qaedas leadership in Afghanistan, including Ayman al-Zawahiri, the terror groups Egyptian leader.

Fitton-Brown has claimed that the Taliban regularly consulted al-Qaeda during their negotiations with the US. He even claimed that the Taliban offered informal guarantees to al-Qaeda to honor their close historical ties. The Taliban and its sympathizers have gainsaid such claims, saying they are a conspiracy to sabotage the US-Taliban deal.

Al-Qaeda has openly acknowledged its cordial relations with the Taliban in the past. Its past and present leadership, including deceased founder Osama Bin Laden and Zawahiri, has frequently made tributes to the Taliban, even naming one of its special brigades after Taliban founder Mullah Mohammed Omar.

Al-Qaeda-Taliban ties were open and evident in Zawahiris public statement after al-Qaedas early 2015 withdrawal from Waziristan, Pakistan, which remained its stronghold for more than a decade since 2004. The group was driven out of the region by a massive US drone strike campaign followed by a large-scale Pakistani army operation.

Zawahiri acknowledged in the statement that it was a difficult period in al-Qaedas history, similar to when the US first invaded Afghanistan in 2001. He credited the Taliban for rescuing al-Qaeda from Waziristan during those tough times, moving their members into strongholds inside Afghanistan.

The Talibans protection, however, was limited. Credible evidence shows that al-Qaedas senior central leaders, including Hamza Bin Laden and Shaikh Abu Khalil al-Madni, were killed by US drone strikes in Taliban strongholds after al-Qaedas withdrawal from Waziristan.

For years, al-Qaeda was grooming Hamza as a future leader. Al-Madni was the senior-most leader of al-Qaeda in the region after Zawahiri, who he appointed as his deputy. The recent killing of Hussam Abdul Rauf, al-Qaedas media head, also showed how senior al-Qaeda members are cosseted by the Afghan Taliban.

Moreover, the senior leadership of al-Qaedas regional branch for South Asia, known as al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, or AQIS, have also recently been killed in US counterterrorism operations in Taliban strongholds in Afghanistan.

They include AQIS chief Maulana Asim Umar, its military head, commander Khattab Mansur, As-Sahab, AQISs media head, and Engr Osama Ibrahim Ghouri. All their killings show that they were hosted by the Talibans local leadership, who were killed with them in most cases.

Although Afghan and US sources claim these killings, al-Qaeda and the Taliban have been surprisingly reticent about them. Many Afghan and Western analysts consider the silence as a part of a strategy to conceal the two sides enduring ties.

Although al-Qaeda violated Taliban leader Mullah Omars strict orders in launching the 9/11 attacks, including planning from Afghan soil, the Taliban never blamed or criticized al-Qaeda for the massive costs they paid for the attacks.

On the contrary, the Taliban has termed the collapse of their regime and the losses and problems they faced due to al-Qaeda as a tremendous religious sacrifice they would repeat if necessary.

Mullah Dad Ullah, Mullah Hassan Rohani, Ustad Yasir, Khalifa Sirajuddin Haqqani and Mullah Sangeen Zadran are a few of the senior Taliban leaders who have repeated this admiration for al-Qaeda on different occasions.

Declassified documents seized from Osama bin Ladens hideout a window into the secret world of al-Qaeda confirm that al-Qaeda and Taliban ties were not limited to public statements. The leaderships of both groups had intimate close working relations, regularly consulting on important matters, according to the documents.

These documents reveal that al-Qaeda continued to provide economic support to the Taliban, much as the group did before 9/11. There is also reams of video evidence released by al-Qaedas official media outlets showing its men fighting under the Talibans command in many Afghanistan provinces.

The Taliban apparently kept al-Qaeda informed from the beginning about its secret negotiations with the US. Tayyab Agha, the Talibans political office head who had established communications with the US government, was previously in direct contact with Osama bin Laden. Agha even sent letters to Bin Laden two weeks before his killing.

A Bin Laden letter addressed to his deputy in Waziristan at the time also reveals he was afraid that some Taliban leaders would not stand up against US demands on al-Qaeda. Bin Laden had even suggested a Plan B to help the Taliban in case of any such pressures whereby al-Qaeda leaders would hide outside of Afghanistan, including in Pakistan, and later covertly re-enter and scatter inside the country.

But Zawahiris statement about Taliban support for al-Qaedas withdrawal from Waziristan and later the killings of its leadership in Afghanistan indicates the group never needed to exercise Bin Ladens plan B.

The establishment of AQIS, the regional South Asian branch of al-Qaida, can also be seen as part of al-Qaedas wider strategy for driving Americas withdrawal from Afghanistan. Analysis of AQISs media outlets shows that the group is mainly involved in fighting against the US and Afghan state forces in Afghanistan and not globally.

AQIS has never attempted or showed any transnational terrorism ambitions against US allies outside of Afghanistan and Pakistan, as al-Qaedas core based in Waziristan did during 2004-2011. AQISs leadership has, however, shown militant interest in Pakistans Kashmir conflict with India.

Tellingly, the group formally announced directly after the signing of the US-Taliban accord on February 29, 2020, that it would disengage from Afghanistan and focus instead on the decades-long India-Kashmir conflict.

As al-Qaedas history shows, the terror group was never seriously involved in the Kashmir conflict, although it did have pre-9/11 close ties with certain Kashmir-based jihadist groups.

Instead, it absorbed Kashmiri jihadists into its ranks, utilizing them for its global goals.

Al-Qaedas attempt to establish an indirect symbolic presence in Kashmir likely really aims to divert attention away from its enduring presence in Afghanistan, contrary to the terms of the Talibans deal with the US.

It also suggests that one of the primary purposes of al-Qaedas establishment of AQIS was to show it was not a threat to the USs global interests and was focused only on local issues, similar to the state-sponsored Pakistani Kashmiri jihadist groups.

As al-Qaeda has fully supported the Taliban in its two-decade-long insurgency against US and Afghan government forces, it likely also supports the Talibans tentative peace deal with the US and its underly aim of drive American troops out of the country.

The Taliban is still clearly al-Qaedas most vital strategic partner in the region. And its still unclear if al-Qaeda will seek to use Afghanistan to secretly shelter its leaders and monitor its global franchises, or will again plan terror operations against the US and its allies from Afghan territory, including if the Taliban is restored to power.

Either way, al-Qaedas silence in Afghanistan is deafening and as always potentially deadly.

Abdul Sayed has a masters degree in political science from Lund University, Sweden, and is now an independent researcher focused on jihadism and the Af-Pak region. Hes on Twitter at:@abdsayedd

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The truth behind Al-Qaedas silence in Afghanistan - Asia Times

A four-year-long investigation into "extremely serious" and "deeply troubling" actions by Australian troops during the Afghanistan war has ended, with the formal findings handed to Defence Chief General Angus Campbell and Defence Minister Linda Reynolds.

"I intend to speak about the key findings once I have read and reflected on the report," General Campbell said in a statement.

"Welfare and other support services are available to those affected by the Afghanistan Inquiry."

Sources have told the ABC the final report recommends further action, such as criminal prosecutions or military sanctions, for around 10 incidents involving between 15 and 20 people.

In 2016 the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF) began examining allegations of unlawful killings and other possible breaches of the law of armed conflict committed mainly by elite soldiers during their lengthy military engagement.

The ABC's Afghan Files stories in 2017 gave an unprecedented insight into the operations of Australia's elite special forces, detailing incidents of troops killing unarmed men and children and concerns about a "warrior culture" among soldiers.

Since that time, New South Wales Justice Paul Brereton, a Major General in the Army Reserve, has interviewed hundreds of witnesses behind closed doors and his secretive inquiry has even gathered evidence overseas.

Earlier this year the IGADF revealed 55 separate potential breaches of the laws of armed conflict by Australia's Special Operations Task Group (SOTG) had been identified between 2005 and 2016.

The IGADF noted its inquiry was not focused on decisions made during the "heat of battle" but rather the treatment of individuals who were clearly non-combatants or who were no longer combatants.

Senior Army figures estimate that during the 12-year Afghanistan deployment, Australian personnel are believed to have killed over 5,000 individuals who were mainly suspected Taliban fighters, but also numerous innocent civilians.

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Last month, Chief of Army Lieutenant General Rick Burr wrote to members of the force warning that allegations contained in the IGADF report were "extremely serious and deeply troubling".

"They do not reflect who we aspire to be. We will act on the findings when they are presented to the Chief of the Defence Force," he wrote.

Sweeping changes to Australia's Special Forces, particularly the SASR, are now being considered by Army and the Government, following the completion of the Brereton inquiry.

Defence insiders believe the changes are aimed at breaking down systemic cultural issues within the special forces teams.

At the same time as the IGADF has conducted its closed-door inquiry, a series of explosive reports about the conduct of troops have made very public the extent of the allegations against Australian soldiers.

Earlier this year the ABC's Four Corners program broadcast video showing a Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) soldier shooting an unarmed Afghan man three times in the chest and head while he cowered on the ground in 2012.

Just days after the "serious and disturbing" revelations the SAS member known as "Soldier C" was suspended from duty, and the Defence Minister referred the matter to the AFP Commissioner.

In 2016, Commando Kevin Frost became the first Special Forces soldier to go public with allegations of Australian war crimes in Afghanistan, including his own involvement in the unlawful execution of a prisoner of war.

Sergeant Frost, who had encouraged other members of the ADF to come forward to the IGADF inquiry, was found dead in Western Australia last year.

In September this year the Federal Court was told of a separate war crime investigation involving Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith, who was decorated for his service with the SAS in Afghanistan.

For years, the secrets about what the SAS did in the valleys, fields and mud villages of Afghanistan have remained hidden. Until now.

Central to the allegations against the former soldier is a claim that while in Uruzgan Province in September 2012, he was involved in the murder of a handcuffed Afghan civilian named Ali Jan, who he kicked off a cliff.

Mr Roberts-Smith strenuously denies the allegations and is pursuing a defamation claim against various news outlets who published the claims in 2018.

Hundreds of secret ADF documents leaked to the ABC in 2017 detailed the clandestine operations of Australia's elite special forces in Afghanistan, including incidents of troops killing unarmed men and children.

Two years later AFP officers raided the ABC's Sydney headquarters over the stories known as the Afghan Files, but eventually decided that journalists Dan Oakes and Sam Clarke would not be prosecuted for their reporting.

In 2015, then special operations commander Major General Jeff Sengleman had become concerned about rumours and persistent allegations within the notoriously secretive Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) and 2nd Commando Regiment.

He commissioned Canberra-based sociologist Dr Samantha Crompvoets to write a report on Special Operations Command Culture Interactions, which then uncovered allegations of "unsanctioned and illegal application of violence on operations" by elite soldiers.

Major General Sengleman reported the findings to then-chief of army Lieutenant General Angus Campbell, who agreed in 2016 to approach the IGADF to conduct a scoping inquiry.

Speaking at a Defence conference that year, Major General Sengleman gave an indication of the high level of operational tempo for Australia's Special Forces during their 12 years in Afghanistan.

"Thousands of combat missions, almost half of the combat deaths, 13 per cent of my deployed force sustained physical combat injuries".

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'Deeply troubling' Afghanistan war crimes report handed to Defence Chief as Government prepares response - ABC News

It's a bright, warm afternoon in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Oliver Percovich is standing by a fountain.

Local children in shorts and sandals line up around its concrete edge, waiting for their turn.

Light from the sinking sun filters through the fingers of the pine trees that ring the area, dancing across the faces of the children who have already slid in.

A group of young boys is getting impatient; arms crossed over their chests, kneeling and whispering and pointing.

Below them, half a dozen girls from the nearby apartment complexes -- pale, brutalist blocks built by the Russians in the 1990s -- glide around, laughing and learning each other's names.

But there's no water to be found.

Instead, the sounds of trickles and splashes are replaced by the soft rattle and scraping of skateboards. Percovich watches on as the children take turns slipping into the empty, grey bowl and roll around on the boards he's provided them.

It's 2008, a year after Percovich arrived in Afghanistan. Having quit his job as a researcher in emergency management at Melbourne's RMIT university, the Aussie followed his partner to Kabul and set about looking for work. In the interim, broke and unemployed, he decided to get to know his new home a little better by riding his skateboard through the local streets.

This is where the idea for Skateistan began.

"The interactions with kids on the streets of Kabul was really interesting," Percovich told ESPN. "A lot of them were there because their parents worked out that kids could earn more money begging than anyone else in the family, so any time there's a foreigner on the streets of Kabul, you have a whole lot of kids that come up and ask them for money.

"I was the wrong person to ask for money because I didn't have any. I just had a skateboard.

"What was interesting was girls were also asking for money. I would turn it around and say, 'well, do you want to try my skateboard?' in my extremely broken Dari. That sparked something in me because I didn't see girls playing soccer or flying kites or playing cricket or doing the things that the boys were doing.

"Women are not riding bicycles, women aren't driving cars, there's no women serving you in a shop. It was a shock to me. As much as I'd read about Afghanistan before going there -- and I kind of knew the situation -- but the reality [was still a shock]. And then, all of a sudden, these little girls are trying out my skateboard. That was the first light-bulb moment."

Percovich began to run small skateboarding activities for local children, finding any space he could in parks or schools where they could learn to ride safely. But it was in the empty fountain where he realised that his sessions were having a more profound impact on its participants than he had ever imagined.

"The real 'eureka' moment for me was just noticing the interactions between the children," he said.

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"The girls were incredible in terms of making friends across these ethnicities and across these socio-economic divisions. One day, they all held hands and started to dance around in the fountain and sing songs and I was just like, 'wow.' Through skateboarding, these kids have come together that wouldn't normally come together. They're interacting with each other. They don't care what background they come from.

"It was incredibly powerful. I basically saw the Afghanistan of the future."

Twelve years on, Skateistan has become one of the biggest international non-profit organisations in the sporting space. From that small fountain in Kabul, the award-winning NGO now boasts four indoor skate schools -- with a fifth soon to be built in Bamyan, a rural area of Afghanistan -- across three different countries, with their global headquarters in Berlin.

Over 2,500 children between the ages of five and 17 attend the facilities each week, half of whom are girls, due to a quota system. To quell the anxieties of families sending their girls to schools in dangerous areas, Skateistan organises home visits and offers free transport and security for all female students.

It costs more, Percovich says, but it's a necessary sacrifice the organisation makes to redress the historical inequalities that disproportionately affect women and girls.

"At the start, we had space for 360 students, so we made half of those spaces available just for girls. We were able to register about 160 girls, so we still had 20 spaces left, but there was something like 300 boys on the waiting list. I just capped it at whatever the girls' numbers were.

"I'm a very clear quota person. I said, right at the start, 'there aren't equal opportunities for girls to do sports in Afghanistan, so I'm going to give the girls three times as much time on the skateboard than the boys.'

"That's what has to happen to create that change, to shift the scales. If it takes 80% of our resources to get 50% girls into the program, that's what has to happen."

More than just learning to ride skateboards, though, Skateistan has become a space that also provides more formal educational opportunities for children whose formative years were interrupted by war, poverty, and dislocation. Importantly, this aspect of the organisation evolved after listening to and addressing the needs of the children themselves.

"What was missing was those first years of education," Percovich said, "so we came up with our 'Back To School' program, which was an accelerated learning program that covered three years of regular primary school in one year. Then we had a Memorandum of Understanding with the education department to recognise those studies and allow the children straight into the fourth grade.

"But our ideas around education were about what the potential of creativity in education is. That whole region of the world really utilises rote learning; simple repetition of what the teacher is saying, a lot of memorisation, and not a lot of creative or critical thinking.

"So it was really about developing the voices as loud as possible, as well as possible - especially for the girls. The focus was 'Skate and Create'; we did one hour of skateboarding and one hour of creativity-based activities in the classroom.

"That creativity part is very much embedded in skateboarding as well: there's no right or wrong way to ride a skateboard. There are no rules; you can do it any which way you want. And I think that's very much at the heart of what we do: we want to teach the children to think for themselves, to make mistakes, to fall down and be okay with it and get back up again. To open their minds to what they could actually do.

"It's so interesting to see young girls -- especially in Kabul -- enter the program, walking into the facility with their head down, looking at their feet, not being able to interact with other people or the environment. You can tell that they're extremely subservient at home; they literally don't have a voice.

"To see that growth through skateboarding ... they drop in on a ramp after a couple of weeks and they've done something they never thought would be possible. And then, straight away in the classroom, they're putting up their hands, ready to ask questions. There's a confidence-building part and there's a no-rules part as well."

Navigating the gender, class, and cultural barriers facing girls in Afghanistan was difficult for a white Western man. But Percovich's background in development meant he understood the importance of engaging with local communities and ensuring they played a central role in decision-making.

"It was very much me being in the background as much as possible, then pulling out foreigners as fast as possible from the overall set-up once we felt like we had the stability that was necessary," he explained.

"It was listening instead of prescribing, 'what I think is best for you.' It's more, 'you know the context, you know the problems, how can we be here to help?'

"So it's more of a scaffold; it's more, 'here is a support network, what would you like to do with it?'"

That handing over of administrative responsibilities has also allowed more women to become involved in the higher levels of Skateistan. Women now make up over half of the organisation's global workforce, and occupy the majority of higher-ranking roles. This includes Zainab Hussaini, who's now the country manager for Afghanistan's three skate schools in Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif and, soon, Bamyan - where she's from and which she recommended as the fifth school.

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"When I first joined Skateistan, I found that [it] was a safe place," Hussaini told ESPN from her office in Mazar-e-Sharif. "Safer than the public schools, because Skateistan was providing free transport for girls and connecting to the family directly. It was trying to speak with fathers and mothers to convince them that what we are teaching the students here and how our lessons will affect their children [is okay].

"Most of the families are not allowing their girls to be, for example, part of the football federation or a football team in Afghanistan, travelling outside to practice in a ground or a court that the boys are [using]. So Skateistan is making an opportunity for the girls, for women, to participate in sport activities in a very safe way.

"The boys and girls are coming in separate days. The coaches are female for female students and male for male students. We are following Afghanistan's rules -- the government's rules -- in our lessons, even in our sports sessions, to make sure the parents are confident that this is a good place for your child.

"Everything is free, they have a safe space, and when they feel there is nothing threatening them, they can learn better. There's something here for everyone."

Now a mother herself, Hussaini reflects on how much Afghanistan has changed in the last 20 years, and how important women and girls are to the future of the country.

"There were lots of issues, especially with girls in public schools," she said. "Most girls were not allowed to go to school because of the traditional way of the male of the family's thinking, and sometimes the traditional way of their mothers and grandmothers as well.

"The other problem was, when a girl graduated from high school, she was not allowed to go to university because boys and girls are sitting together and learning. It was taboo during the Taliban regime. It was right after the Taliban regime that the girls got this chance to go to universities and sit together with men in a room and learn the same subjects the men are learning.

"But people are changing their minds. The people today found that we have to change; the ways that we were following many years ago was not the right way. A country can be developed by improving girls and women. We cannot say that women and girls are not part of our community; developing them, improving them, we will be seeing the improvement [of Afghanistan] faster."

Hussaini herself recognises the role that sport and physical activity plays in empowering women and girls in this part of the world. In 2015, with the help of Skateistan, Hussaini became the first Afghan woman to run a marathon in the country. At the start, she was the only one. The following year, over 100 girls were running beside her.

"I strongly believe that sport is an important part of peace," Hussaini said. "Sport can bring peace. In the past, the people were talking about the next generation, and we were the next generation. Today, you can see that the next generation is bringing change.

"Sometimes limitations let people grow and find the right way. We don't have to just sit and say, 'yes, we're a poor country, we're insecure'; we have to use these opportunities, even if it's not for everyone. We can use the opportunity and spread it to other girls and women. We need to be ready to help others; you need to grow other people beside [you].

"Sport is a tool for bringing change. I hope, in the future, a day comes that we do not speak about women and girls in sport as a taboo; that, 'oh, wow, this woman is very strong because she's running a marathon in Afghanistan.'

"It should be something common and it should be something normal that a woman is running beside a man or that a team of females playing soccer is respected like a boy who is playing soccer. I hope for that future and I'm sure that it will come."

Skateboarding has now become one of the most popular sports in Afghanistan for women and girls. Some of its graduates have gone on to become leaders within Skateistan itself, passing on their own knowledge and experiences to those frightened young girls who, like them, shuffled into its facilities with their heads down and voices silent.

Emerging from the wreckage of the War On Terror, Skateistan is proof of the role sport can and should play in helping rebuild a society - namely, by empowering its people and giving them the resources to rebuild it themselves.

As global sport reckons with its new capabilities and responsibilities in a post-COVID-19 world, Skateistan offers a model of how sport can be used to create genuine, generational change in the lives of its participants.

It is not the thing in itself that makes sport valuable; rather, it's what sport leads to -- self-confidence, community, education, and the broadening of one's horizons -- that makes it a springboard from which a more equal, inclusive world can be created. Sometimes, as Skateistan shows, all it takes is a skateboard, an empty fountain, and an idea.

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Skateistan - The non-profit using skateboarding to empower women in Afghanistan - ESPN.co.uk

NEW YORK, 24 October 2020 This has been a deadly weekend for schoolchildren in Afghanistan and Cameroon.

Earlier today, an attack outside an educational center in Kabuls Dasht-e-Barchi area left 16 people dead and 45 people injured, many of them women and children.

Thousands of miles away, an attack on a confessional bilingual college in Kumba, in south-west Cameroon, killed 8 children and injured another 12.

I am shocked and outraged at these abominable attacks and condemn them in the strongest possible terms.

Attacks on education are a grave violation of childrens rights. Schools must be places of safety and learning, not death traps.

Our thoughts are with the families and friends of the victims.

Parties to the conflicts in Afghanistan and Cameroon must abide by the rules of war and protect children at all times. The perpetrators of these acts must be held accountable.

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Statement by UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore on school attacks in Afghanistan and Cameroon - UNICEF

Despite ongoing peace talks, civilians continue to pay the price for the conflict in Afghanistan, said Amnesty International, following a spate of bloody attacks that have killed at least 50 people in the past week alone.

On Thursday 22 October, four people were killed and around 10 injured in the Shareen Tagab district of Faryab Province, after Taliban forces fired a rocket into a market. Later the same day, 12 children died and at least 18 people were injured after an airstrike by the Afghan military hit a school in the province of Takhar.

The world must sit up and take notice. Afghan civilians are being slaughtered on a daily basis

These latest casualties join the 180 civilians killed and 375 wounded in the month preceding 20 October, according to figures from the Afghanistan Ministry of Interior (MoI) this week.

While the parties talk peace, weve seen a marked escalation in violence this month, with Afghan civilians as ever paying the heaviest price, said Omar Waraich, Head of South Asia at Amnesty International.

The world must sit up and take notice. Afghan civilians are being slaughtered on a daily basis. We urge all parties to the conflict to take all measures necessary to protect civilians and respect international humanitarian law. The international community must make the protection of civilians a core demand for their ongoing support of the peace process.

The deaths this week are the latest in a bloody month for civilians in Afghanistan. On 17 October, seven civilians were killed in Ghor province by a roadside bomb. The following day, a car bomb explosion outside a police station in Ghors capital Feroz Koh killed 16 and injured 125 others. Then, on 20 October, roadside bombs in Jalriz district and Maidan Wardak province killed 11 people and injured 4 more.

Intense fighting between Afghan government and Taliban forces over the past fortnight in the Helmand province capital Lashkar Gah is still ongoing, and, according to local media reports, has so far forced at least 40,000 people to flee their homes.

According to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), during the first half of 2020, 1,282 civilians had been killed and 2,176 were injured in the conflict.

Trampled to death

Amnesty International is also calling on the Afghan and Pakistani authorities to cooperate to urgently establish a safe and efficient procedure for Afghan nationals wishing to apply for visas to travel across the border, following a stampede in Jalalabad on 21 October that killed at least 15 Afghans trying to secure medical visas to enter Pakistan.

This is a heart-breaking loss of people who were simply trying to access medical care, which has become an even more precious commodity in the middle of a pandemic

The 15 confirmed dead, including 11 women and 4 men, were part of a crowd of more than 3,000 who had gathered after the Pakistani authorities resumed issuing visas last week, following a seven-month pause caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is a heart-breaking loss of people who were simply trying to access medical care, which has become an even more precious commodity in the middle of a pandemic, said Omar Waraich.

With thousands more seeking to cross the border to receive what could be life-saving treatment, its vital that the Afghan and Pakistani authorities work together to quickly establish an efficient and safe visa application process.

Background

On 14 October, Amnesty International issued this press release calling for trapped civilians to be allowed safe passage out of Lashkar Gah.

Excerpt from:
Afghanistan: Mounting casualties as parties to peace talks fail to protect civilians - Amnesty International