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Afghan National Security Advisor Mohammad Hanif Atmar requested support from NATO and its partners in the alliance's Resolute Support training mission during a special meeting with the North Atlantic Council at NATO headquarters in Brussels Feb. 7.

Atmar said after the meeting with allied ambassadors that it had discussed improvements in the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) and that he had requested support for the four-year roadmap to improve these forces.

The desired support includes not only trainingbut also close air support, which Atmar described as a "key gap" in the ANDSF's capabilities. He requested close air support from the United States until the ANDSF is able to provide it in the longer term. Developing these capabilities "requires time", Atmar pointed out.

Atmar said the ANDSF's requirements include weapons, communications and logistics.

He blamed the increase in Afghan military and civilian casualties in 2016 on the greater number of Afghan and Pakistani terrorists, as well as those from elsewhere in the region and from international networks.

He said Afghanistan had "expressed strong concern" to Russia and Iran over their support of the Taliban.

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Afghanistan Requests Close Air Support - Aviation Week (blog)

New information has emerged showing that counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway has repeatedly made false claims about a nonexistent terrorist attack which she called the Bowling Green massacre. Conways comments first sparked controversy after a February 2 interview with MSNBCs Chris Matthews in which she attempted to justify President Trumps Muslim ban by citing a terrorist attack in Bowling Green, Kentucky, which never happened.

Kellyanne Conway: "I bet its brand-new information to people that President Obama had a six-month ban on the Iraqi refugee program after two Iraqis came here to this country, were radicalized, and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre. Most people dont know that, because it didnt get covered."

After widespread criticism, Conway said she misspoke when she said "massacre," and that she intended to refer to the case of two Iraqi men living in Bowling Green who were arrested in 2011 on charges of having attempted to send money and weapons to al-Qaeda in Iraq. Their arrests led the Obama administration to implement a more extensive screening process for Iraqi refugees, but not to impose a ban on Iraqi resettlement. However, its now clear that Conway did not misspeak at all, as video and quotes of her making the same claims in two previous interviews have surfaced. In an interview with Cosmopolitan.com on January 29, she falsely claimed: "Two Iraqi nationals came to this country, joined Isis, traveled back to the Middle East to get trained and refine their terrorism skills, and come back here, and were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre of taking innocent soldiers lives away." This is not true. On that same day, Conway did an interview with TMZ in which she made the same false claim.

Kellyanne Conway: "The fact is that it was President Obama and the Congress who identified these seven countries, so President Trump is just following on. President Obama suspended the Iraq refugee program for six months in 2011, and no one certainly coveredI think nobody noticed. He did that becauseI assume because there were two Iraqis who came here, got radicalized, joined ISIS, and then were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green attack on our brave soldiers."

Senior adviser to the Democratic National Committee Zac Petkanas said in response, "The Trump administration was so desperate to sell their increasingly unpopular and likely illegal anti-Muslim ban that they actually made up a terrorist attack to scare people into acceptance." Media watchdogs have called on cable networks to stop booking Kellyanne Conway for interviews because of these lies.

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Afghanistan: More Than a Dozen Dead in Suicide Blast in Kabul - Democracy Now!

In this photograph taken on January 18, 2017, Afghan children warm themselves with a blanket inside a mud house at a refugee camp on the outskirts of Laghman. Marooned in a tent billowing in the winter wind, Gul Paris family is among thousands of war-displaced Afghans crammed into settlements alongside a flood of returning refugees, in a double-pronged humanitarian crisis engulfing the country. Conflict-torn Afghanistan is struggling to reabsorb large masses of refugees and failed asylum seekers being sent back from Pakistan, Europe and Iran, joining more than half a million others uprooted by war. Photo from AFP.

JALALABAD, Afghanistan Marooned in a tent billowing in the winter wind, Gul Paris family is among thousands of war-displaced Afghans crammed into settlements alongside a flood of returning refugees, in a double-pronged humanitarian crisis engulfing the country.

Conflict-torn Afghanistan is struggling to reabsorb large masses of refugees and failed asylum seekers being sent back from Pakistan, Europe and Iran, joining more than half a million others uprooted by war.

Clutching meagre household possessions, often with small children in tow, unprecedented numbers like Gul Pari seek refuge in crowded cities such as eastern Jalalabad, straining public resources that are already near breaking point.

We are praying our tent does not fall down in the winter rain, the mother-of-four said, as her children huddled around a kettle inside the fragile shelter cobbled together from rags.

Gul Paris family was forced to flee the badlands of Pachiragram district in Nangarhar, bordering Pakistan, where the Islamic State group has ushered in a new age of barbarity with beheadings, arson attacks, and by blowing up some enemies with explosives buried beneath them.

More horrifying, Gul Pari said, was their diktat in some areas to families with unmarried daughters or widows to raise white flags over their houses, marking the women as wives for new IS recruits.

It is better to live in misery like this than to become a victim of Daesh, Gul Pari said, using the Arabic acronym for IS which is common in the area.

Officials say IS is on the retreat owing to a sustained campaign of US airstrikes, but the UN has documented an alarming increase in attacks by the groups on civilians, perhaps evident in the steady number of people fleeing areas with their presence.

Returnees becoming IDPs

As violence spiked last year across Afghanistan, about 1,700 people were displaced every day from their homes, hitting a record annual figure of more than 600,000, according to the United Nations.

Hundreds of thousands of refugees separately have returned from Iran and, particularly, Pakistan, a regional nemesis cracking down on undocumented Afghan refugees. Many of them are stuck in limbo as their home districts are torn by insecurity.

In a perfect storm, the European Union last year signed an agreement with Kabul to return Afghans whose asylum appeals are rejected, which could result in tens of thousands of repatriations.

2016 was a record year for both displacement and returns, and together these challenges are having a serious impact on the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, said Matt Graydon, spokesman of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

In addition, there is the compounded challenge of returnees becoming IDPs (internally displaced persons) because they are unable to go back to their area of origin due to fighting.

The numbers are expected to rise this year, forcing the UN to appeal for $550 million in emergency aid, though after decades of war and the competing crisis in Syria, donor fatigue has set in.

A staggering 9.3 million people, or a third of the population, will need humanitarian assistance this year, a 13 percent increase from 2016.

The Afghan government, heavily reliant on foreign aid, has promised refugees parcels of land and cash grants, but is struggling to deliver.

No dignity

The growing influx of people has sent living costs soaring and daily wages falling in many areas.

Laurence Hart, IOMs chief in Afghanistan, told AFP there was evidence returnees were moving to unsafe provinces such as Laghman, Kunar and Kunduz in search of a more affordable refuge.

Safe options are decreasing as the government is steadily losing territory to insurgents. Only slightly more than half of the countrys districts are under government control or influence, according to US watchdog SIGAR.

As such, said Swedish ambassador to Afghanistan Anders Sjoberg, humanitarian aid is no longer a short-term solution but a band-aid for the unresolved conflict.

Abdul Qadir, 38, returned to his homeland with a sense of foreboding after 27 years in Pakistan.

Living in a mud-brick home on a barren desert plot near Jalalabad, with hundreds of other returnees, frequent clashes have erupted with local residents who accuse them of usurping their land.

My children are sick from the untreated water from the village pond. There are no schools here, no hospitals, no mosques, no dignity, Qadir told AFP.

We went to Pakistan to flee war and we have come back to war.

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Repatriation and displacement overwhelms war-torn Afghanistan - Inquirer.net

The smuggling of minerals continues to supply millions of dollars to armed groups in Afghanistan, said an anti-corruption group this week.

The Afghanistan Anti-Corruption Network said in a report that militant groups received at least $46 million by illegally exporting minerals and precious stones to Pakistan.

The report said up to 750,000 tons of marble and talc were smuggled from various parts of Nangarhar province. Some areas of this province have active Taliban and Islamic State fighters.

Marble is a kind of stone that is often polished and used in buildings and statues. Talc is used in the manufacturing of products, including plastics, paints and cosmetics.

Zaman Khan Amarkhail is the President of the Anti-Corruption Network. He told Radio Liberty's Afghanistan service that every day, 500 trucks carrying stones pass through government-controlled roads and arrive in Pakistan. Each truck, he added, carries about 45 tons of stone.

From there, he says, the stones are sent to European countries.

The Afghan mines ministry says the government has banned mineral exports to Pakistan. It says it has also encouraged local businesses to invest in the sector and legally export processed material to foreign countries.

Smugglers thrive

Pakistan is not the only destination for smuggled minerals.

The anti-corruption network says precious stones are being illegally mined from at least 2,000 mines in Afghanistan's northeast. These stones travel across Afghanistan's border with China.

Zabiullah Wardak, a member of the anti-corruption group, said that

"Last year, $300 million worth of precious stones were smuggled from the province [Badakhshan] to China."

The Afghan government says fighting between Afghan forces and militant groups has led to an increase in illegal mining. Experts say the mineral smuggling occurs through a strong network of militants, criminal groups, and some civil servants and military officials.

Haroon Rashid Sherzad is a civil society activist and former deputy minister of anti-narcotics. He told VOA that mineral smuggling is "a huge business for the involved parties who are thriving under weak government surveillance."

Conflict and development

Afghanistan has a long history of smuggling. In the early 1970s, as much as 20 to 25 percent of Afghanistan's foreign trade came from smuggling. This information comes from a paper written by Jagdish Bhagwati and Bent Hansen in 1971.

A report from West Point's counterterrorism center says small-scale mining and drug-smuggling played an important role in financing conflicts throughout the 1990s and 2000s.

Despite Afghanistan's wealth in minerals, the country has had a difficult time developing significant industries in some parts of the country. A 2010 report in the New York Times says Afghanistan may have over $1 trillion dollars' worth of mineral reserves.

"The ongoing insurgency and instability in the province [Nangarhar] has not allowed businesses to establish factories," an official at the ministry of mines told VOA. The official did not want to be identified.

Experts say that continued smuggling and border corruption are not only fueling conflict, but costing Afghanistan millions of dollars.

Customs revenue collections have increased in the past year, says the country's finance ministry. However, the country still loses large amounts of tax revenues due to smuggling.

"Surveillance is weak at the borders. An individual with a license to export 100 tons of stones would be able to export 1,000 tons instead," Sherzad, the civil society activist, said. "Corrupt officials turn a blind eye to illegal exports and, in return, they too benefit from it."

I'm John Russell.

John Russell wrote this story for Learning English based on reporting by VOA's Noor Zahid. Hai Do was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.

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smuggle v. to move (someone or something) from one country into another illegally and secretly

precious adj. rare and worth a lot of money

cosmetic n. a substance (such as a cream, lotion, or powder) that you put on your face or body to improve your appearance

thrive v. to flourish or succeed

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Militant Groups in Afghanistan Make Money Smuggling Minerals - Voice of America

A woman and her children carry containers of water on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Monday. Avalanches have killed more than 100 people in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Rahmat Gul/AP hide caption

A woman and her children carry containers of water on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Monday. Avalanches have killed more than 100 people in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Afghan officials say more than 100 people died in avalanches over the weekend, after nearly 10 feet of snow buried some parts of the country around Kabul and east to the Pakistan border.

Dozens of houses were destroyed and "people were reported to have frozen to death, trapped in cars," according to the BBC.

Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul was closed on Sunday, after nearly 2 feet of snow covered the runways, according to Afghanistan's TOLO News, and north of the capital, the Salang pass into the Hindu Kush mountains was reportedly buried under 7 feet of snow.

At least one helicopter was shuttling supplies and people to the province of Nuristan, on the border with Pakistan northeast of Kabul, where provincial Gov. Hafiz Abdul Qayyom told Agence France-Presse that at least 64 people were killed. Most of the deaths occurred in one devastated village, he said.

"Most affected are women and children," he told Al Jazeera on Sunday. "The area is completely blocked because of snow so it is very difficult for us to send support, but we are trying our best."

CNN reported that people also died in an avalanche on the other side of the border, in Pakistan. The BBC said at least 13 people there died, nine of them in the town of Chitral.

Al Jazeera reported that parts of the mountainous region received more than 5 feet of snow over the weekend, and that "scattered snowfall" was forecast for Monday in the Chitral valley.

The AFP reported that some hard-hit areas in Afghanistan were still not accessible on Monday:

"There had been no word yet from some villages in Nuristan, which Qayyom said had received nearly [10 feet] of snow, with blocked roads and mountainous terrain hampering the rescue effort.

" 'We will evacuate wounded victims to the city of Jalalabad for treatment,' [Qayyom] said, adding that skies were clear on Monday."

Jalalabad is the capital of Nangarhar province, also on the Pakistan border. The U.S. says most Islamic State fighters in Afghanistan are located in Nangarhar, and that it has been attacking the region with drones, as The Two-Way has reported.

NATO has more than 13,000 international troops on the ground in Afghanistan as part of a so-called train, advise and assist mission to the country. The mission, named Resolute Support, did not announce any plans to assist directly in the rescue or cleanup effort following the avalanches, but did share a photo on Twitter of soldiers playing in the snow at Bagram Airfield.

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More Than 100 People Killed In Afghanistan Avalanches - NPR