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Shama Ashna ~ Wran Wejar Afghanistan Jorawo
Nizar Yousafzai.

By: Nizar Yousafzai

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Shama Ashna ~ Wran Wejar Afghanistan Jorawo - Video

Smelling blood, the Taliban are increasing their attacks on a wavering government

In this photo, Afghan security officials secure the scene of a suicide bomb blast at a foreign logistic compound in Kabul, Afghanistan, November 18, 2014. Jawad Jalali/EPA

KABUL, Afghanistan Upbeat western assessments of the situation in Afghanistan are unrealistic at best and duplicitous at worst. At least 19 people, including two NATO soldiers, have died in the past week in attacks carried out by the emboldened Afghan Taliban. A number of people were injured, leaving a big question mark on the ability of the US or Afghan National Forces to contain or reverse the Talibans reach.

Another Taliban attack in Kabul killed at least 7 policemen, leaving several injured. It is quite evident that as the date of withdrawal approaches, the war is intensifying, threatening to destroy everything the US and its allies have accomplished in 13 years of war. Over the past several months, as attacks have steadily escalated, international aid groups are pulling out their staff in huge numbers after a wave of bombings and assaults on foreigners compounds.

Educated and affluent Afghans who had returned from exile to invest in the country are leaving again. Their hopes, they say, have been dashed because the situation has not changed on the ground.

Apart from the Talibans resurgence, political lethargy is adding fuel to the fire. Despite the fact that the two main contending parties did compromise to form the government, President Ashraf Ghani is still struggling to form a cabinet that can sustain the agreement.

That the Taliban are getting stronger than ever is evident from December 13 attacks in which killed 19 people and more on December 19 that killed two NATO soldiers. The Afghan national army is sinking badly. More than 5,000 army and police have been killed in this year alone more than the total US and NATO soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2001.

Continue reading "Afghanistan: From bad to worse" in Asia Sentinel.

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Afghanistan: From bad to worse

By Paul Newman for the Daily Mail

Published: 16:44 EST, 22 December 2014 | Updated: 03:36 EST, 23 December 2014

Few cricketers have been advised not to take a particular coaching job by the British government for safety reasons. Not to mention by their own brother. But then not many have a position quite like that taken on by Andy Moles.

Moles, a yeoman county cricketer with Warwickshire in the late 80s and early 90s, will coach Afghanistan in the World Cup, which starts in February, against a backdrop of concerns about the wisdom of being a westerner in a volatile part of the eastern world.

My brother is an anti-terrorism expert and hes not happy about this, Moles told Sportsmail. He sends me lots of advice. And when I arrived in Kabul the British Embassy contacted me and said I shouldnt be here. I just said too late.

Coach Andy Moles talks to Afghanistan bowler Dawlat Khan

Not that Moles takes lightly the risks of plying his trade in a volatile country. His first move after being offered the job in September was to check that cricket is approved of by the Taliban it is the only sport in Afghanistan that is and ever since he has taken a pragmatic approach to his presence at the helm of one of best emerging nations in the world game.

Moles, 53, has spent the past 17 years in various coaching roles since the end of a solid but unspectacular career as a Warwickshire opener good enough to score more than 15,000 first-class runs. He said: Twelve years ago there was barely any cricket played in Afghanistan and now theyre at the World Cup.

Thats a real fairy-tale and its great to be part of Afghanistan cricket at this exciting time. The whole country loves their cricket and I went into this with my eyes open. No-one forced me to take the job and I had no reservations about accepting when it was offered to me.

Im not a particularly brave or reckless person and I spend more of my time on the road with the team than I actually do in the country. Ive calculated that I will only be in Kabul for seven weeks from the time I took this job to the end of the World Cup.

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