Afghan Taliban warns US-led troops to leave country as scheduled

A US Marine looks on as Afghan National Army soldiers raise the Afghan National flag on an armed vehicle during a training exercise to deal with IEDs (improvised explosive devices) at the Shorab Military Camp in Lashkar Gah in Helmand province on Aug. 28, 2017. (AFP/File)
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Updated 02 February 2021
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Afghan Taliban warns US-led troops to leave country as scheduled

  • Group said if foreign forces do not withdraw by May as planned by Doha accord, it will exert its ‘legal right to free homeland’
  • NATO has said troops will remain as Taliban breached agreement; Biden administration to review deal brokered by its predecessor

KABUL: The Afghan Taliban warned that it will not tolerate the presence of US-led foreign troops in the country beyond the May deadline previously set for their withdrawal. The group said it is capable of defending its “soil, homeland and rights” if the conflict continues.

Its statement on Monday followed an announcement by NATO the day before that coalition soldiers will remain in Afghanistan because the Taliban has failed to comply with its key obligation under a historic agreement signed with Washington in the Qatari capital, Doha, last year. In return for the withdrawal of foreign troops it called, among other things, for the group to sever ties with Al-Qaeda and reduce levels of violence.

“Unfortunately most countries, including the European Union, are either directly or indirectly involved in the tragedies, destruction, bombings, killings and various other crimes being experienced by our people for the past 20 years,” the Taliban said.

“Some are still exerting efforts to extend the presence of foreign occupation forces in Afghanistan and prolong the ongoing conflict. However, if some discard the Doha accord and keep searching for excuses to continue the war … then history has proven that the Afghan Mujahid nation can valiantly defend its values, soil, homeland and rights.”

The group added that if foreign troops do not leave, it would use its “legal right to free its homeland” through “every lawful means necessary.” It called for the implementation of the Doha agreement, saying: “It will prove beneficial and in the interest of America, along with other involved countries, as well as the Afghans.”

The comments by NATO officials on Sunday followed announcements by US President Joe Biden’s administration that it will review the Doha deal, which was signed by the Trump administration and the Taliban in February last year. In response to the statements by Biden’s team, the Taliban halted talks with Afghan authorities that have been taking place in Doha since last September, with little sign of progress, as part of the agreement.

The government of President Ashraf Ghani, which was not included in the negotiations for the Doha agreement, and which set free thousands of captured Taliban fighters under pressure from the Trump administration last year, welcomed the decision by the new regime in Washington to review the agreement, and the prospect of the prolonged presence of foreign troops.

Authorities in Kabul said the Taliban, emboldened by the planned departure of overseas forces, has escalated and extended the fighting in Afghanistan. Meanwhile the insurgents blame Ghani’s embattled government for derailing peace talks to in an attempt to remain in power.

The intra-Afghan talks were designed to find a political solution after more than four decades of conflict, and to agree a political plan for the future of the country. There have been disagreements among government leaders and politicians over the talks, and the head of the parliament this week joined some other politicians and a few Taliban leaders in demanding the formation of an interim government. Ghani has said he will only transfer power to an elected leader when his second term as president expires in four years.

Some observers fear NATO’s plan to maintain a military presence in Afghanistan could provoke Taliban retaliation, resulting in the further escalation of the conflict and more intervention from neighboring nations through their proxies in the country.

Idris Oz, an analyst, said the situation in Afghanistan has never been so complex and that the prolonged presence of foreign troops “is a clear case of security paradox.”

He added: “The gap has widened between the people and the state — the government has no backing from the people. The security forces fighting are (aimless) and do not know why they are fighting, since they don’t have motivation.

“Every day, statements by high officials on the formation of an interim government makes the situation even worse … and all these things make the Taliban stronger … I feel that this year will witness heavy fighting.”


Kenya lawmaker’s killing ‘targeted and premeditated’ – police

Updated 5 sec ago
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Kenya lawmaker’s killing ‘targeted and premeditated’ – police

  • Charles Were, a member of parliament representing Kasipul constituency in Kenya’s west, was shot dead on Wednesday evening
  • According to witnesses, the shooter was riding as a passenger on a motorcycle that stopped alongside the car
NAIROBI: Kenya’s police have said the fatal shooting of a lawmaker by a gunman aboard a motorcycle in the capital Nairobi on Wednesday evening appeared to be targeted and premeditated.
Charles Were, a member of parliament representing Kasipul constituency in Kenya’s west, was shot dead at around 7:30 p.m. (1630 GMT) when his vehicle was stopped at a traffic light on Ngong Road, police said in a statement released late on Wednesday.
According to witnesses, the shooter was riding as a passenger on a motorcycle that stopped alongside the car, police said.
“The pillion passenger approached the vehicle and fired shots at the passenger side before jumping back onto the motorcycle and speeding away,” police said. “The nature of this crime appears to be both targeted and premeditated.”
Political assassinations are unusual in Kenya, a relatively stable country in a region that has experienced several civil conflicts in recent years.
Were was a member of the opposition ODM party led by veteran politician Raila Odinga, who lost to William Ruto in the last election in 2022.
“Were is no more; mercilessly and in cold blood, gunned down by an assassin in Nairobi this evening,” Odinga wrote on X.
Odinga rejected the 2022 election result, alleging irregularities, but Odinga and some of his allies have since struck agreements to work with Ruto to address Kenya’s economic and political challenges.

Russia may have helped North Korea with new warship, Seoul says

Updated 56 min 25 sec ago
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Russia may have helped North Korea with new warship, Seoul says

  • North Korea has said the destroyer, which it claimed is equipped with the “most powerful weapons,” would “enter into operation early next year”

SEOUL: North Korea’s newly unveiled warship could have involved Russian help, South Korea’s military said on Thursday while cautioning it was still conducting “a more detailed analysis.”
Pyongyang recently unveiled a 5,000-ton destroyer-class vessel named Choe Hyon that some analysts said could be equipped with short-range tactical nuclear missiles.
Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) spokesperson Lee Sung-jun told reporters in South Korea that Russia may have given help with the warship.
“Looking at the weapons and equipment that were revealed, we believe that there is a possibility that they received technology, funds or assistance from Russia,” Lee said.
“We are conducting a more detailed analysis.”
North Korea confirmed on Monday for the first time it had deployed troops to Russia to support Moscow in its war in Ukraine.
The two countries also announced this week that they had started building the first road bridge linking the two neighbors.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the first day of a two-day weapons test of the vessel this week, according to Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency, during which he ordered officials to work on “accelerating the nuclear armament of the navy.”
North Korea has said the destroyer, which it claimed is equipped with the “most powerful weapons,” would “enter into operation early next year.”
During the test, Kim said the North’s ship-based firepower system was “effectively combined” with the “most powerful strike means including supersonic cruise missile, strategic cruise missile and tactical ballistic missile.”
Lee said its deployment is likely to require more time.
“In the case of warships it takes several years to build and even after completion it takes additional time for them to become operational,” the JCS spokesperson said.
“So although the Choe Hyon has been unveiled it seems likely that considerably more time will be needed for its (operational) deployment.”


Russian drone attack kills two, injures 15 in Ukraine’s Odesa

Updated 01 May 2025
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Russian drone attack kills two, injures 15 in Ukraine’s Odesa

  • Ukraine’s state-owned railway Ukrzaliznytsia said the overnight attack also damaged its tracks, the contact network and three freight cars

KYIV: Russian drones attacked Ukraine’s Black Sea port city of Odesa early on Thursday, killing two people and injuring 15 more, in addition to sparking fires and damaging infrastructure, emergency services said.
“The enemy attack damaged residential high-rises, private houses, a supermarket, a school, and cars,” regional governor Oleh Kiper wrote on the Telegram messaging app. “Fires broke out in some places and are being extinguished by our rescuers.”
Ukraine’s state-owned railway Ukrzaliznytsia said the overnight attack also damaged its tracks, the contact network and three freight cars.
“Railway employees are carrying out rapid repair work to ensure that freight trains run to ports without interruption. They are currently following an alternative route.”
Passenger trains were running on schedule, it added on Telegram. One of the people killed in his home during the attack on Odesa was a railway worker, according to the company.
Ukraine’s air force said that Russia launched five ballistic missiles and 170 drones during the overnight attack.
The air force shot down 74 drones while another 68 drones did not reach their targets likely due to electronic warfare countermeasures, it said.
It did not specify what happened to the missiles or remaining 28 drones.
Videos posted by Kiper showed heavily damaged facade of a high-rise building, a storefront with shattered windows and fire-fighters battling flames at one of the sites in the city.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city in the northeast, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said a drone had struck a petrol station in the city center, sparking a fire.


UK local elections test two-party dominance as smaller parties poised to gain

Updated 01 May 2025
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UK local elections test two-party dominance as smaller parties poised to gain

  • The anti-immigrant Reform UK party is expected to make gains, as are the centrist Liberal Democrats and left-wing Greens, confirming a trend that Britain is entering an era of multi-party politics

LONDON: Polls opened in local elections Thursday tipped to inflict losses on the UK’s two main parties and confirm the rise of hard-right populists, portending the splintering of a century-long political duopoly.
The polls in England are the first since Keir Starmer became Labour prime minister and Kemi Badenoch took over at the helm of the struggling opposition Conservatives last year.
The anti-immigrant Reform UK party is expected to make gains, as are the centrist Liberal Democrats and left-wing Greens, confirming a trend that Britain is entering an era of multi-party politics.
“British politics appears to be fragmenting,” political scientist John Curtice wrote in the Telegraph this week, adding that the polls “will likely be the first in which as many as five parties are serious players.”
British politics have been dominated by the center-left Labour party and center-right Tories since the early 20th century. But last year’s general election and recent opinion polls show a shift toward greater pluralism.
Surveys show Britons are disillusioned with the two establishment parties amid anaemic economic growth, high levels of irregular immigration and flagging public services.
Labour won a parliamentary majority in July with just 33.7 percent of the vote, the lowest share for any party winning a general election since World War II.
The Conservatives won just 24 percent of the vote, securing only 121 seats in the 650-seat parliament as the party endured its worst-ever election defeat.
Reform UK, led by Euroskeptic politician Nigel Farage, picked up five seats, an unprecedented haul for a British hard-right party, while the Liberal Democrats won 61 more MPs than at the previous election and the Greens quadrupled their representation to four.
Those results mean “fragmentation is baked in” to Thursday’s council, mayoral, and single parliamentary vote, according to political scientist Rob Ford.
“We will see losses from the Tories and Labour, but not equally,” the University of Manchester politics professor told AFP.
A total of 1,641 seats across local authorities are up for grabs on Thursday — a fraction of England’s 17,000 councillors — as are six mayoral posts and a parliamentary seat in the northwest English area of Runcorn and Helsby.


Farage’s party is the bookmakers’ favorite to win the parliamentary by-election.
Labour has faced criticism over welfare cuts and tax rises during a difficult return to power following 14 years in opposition, while Starmer’s popularity has tanked in opinion polls.
Starmer’s task in Runcorn is made more difficult by the vote being sparked by Labour MP Mike Amesbury quitting after receiving a suspended jail sentence for punching a man.
Labour won the constituency with a 53-percent vote share last year, while Reform got just 18 percent, but Starmer has acknowledged it will be “tough” to win.
On Tuesday, Reform UK topped a YouGov poll of voting intentions in Britain with 26 percent, three points ahead of Labour and six up on the Conservatives.
Victory in Runcorn, winning mayoralties like Greater Lincolnshire and putting hundreds of councillors in place would help Reform UK spread its grassroots activism before the next general election — which is likely in 2029.
Polls opened at 7:00am (0600 GMT) and were due to close at 10:00 pm, with results due to start coming in on Friday morning.
The seats were last contested in May 2021, at the height of ex-Tory PM Boris Johnson’s popularity, meaning the Conservatives are likely to suffer heavy losses that will fuel rumors of a possible future coalition with Reform UK.
The Tories are also being squeezed on the left by the Liberal Democrats, the traditional third party, which hopes for gains in the wealthy south.
As Labour edges rightwards it is facing a growing threat from the Greens on the left.
“For the big parties, it’s like the couple who are having to wrestle with the duvet that’s too small,” said Ford. “Wherever they pull the duvet, they’re going to get exposed somewhere.”


Rubio calls India and Pakistan in effort to defuse crisis over Kashmir attack

Updated 01 May 2025
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Rubio calls India and Pakistan in effort to defuse crisis over Kashmir attack

  • US official urges Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to de-escalate tensions
  • India has vowed to punish Pakistan after accusing it of backing the attack, which Islamabad denies

NEW DELHI: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called senior officials in India and Pakistan in an effort to defuse the crisis that followed last week’s deadly attack in Kashmir, the State Department said.
Rubio urged Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to de-escalate tensions on Wednesday.
India has vowed to punish Pakistan after accusing it of backing the attack, which Islamabad denies. The nuclear-armed rivals have since expelled each other’s diplomats and citizens, ordered the border shut and closed their airspace to each other. New Delhi has suspended a crucial water-sharing treaty with Islamabad.
Soldiers on each side have also exchanged fire along their de facto border, driving tensions between India and Pakistan to their highest point in recent years.
The region of Kashmir is split between India and Pakistan and claimed by both in its entirety. The two countries have fought two wars and one limited conflict over the Himalayan territory.
US State Department’s Spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Rubio in his call with Jaishankar expressed sorrow over last week’s massacre. He also reaffirmed the US’s “commitment to cooperation with India against terrorism,” Bruce said.
Jaishankar on Thursday said he discussed the last week’s massacre in Indian-controlled Kashmir’s Pahalgam, in which 26 tourists, mostly Hindu men, were killed, with Rubio, adding that “perpetrators, backers and planners” of the attack “must be brought to justice.”
Rubio also spoke to Sharif on Wednesday evening and “emphasized the need for both sides to continue working together for peace and stability in South Asia,” according to a Pakistani statement. It said Sharif rejected the Indian allegations and “urged the US to impress upon India to dial down the rhetoric and act responsibly.”
Public anger has swelled in India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed to pursue the attackers “to the ends of the earth.” A Pakistani minister has said that Pakistan has “credible intelligence” that India is planning to attack it within days.
Indian and Pakistani troops have exchange fire over the past six nights, with each side blaming the other for firing first.
The Indian army in a statement on Thursday said it responded to “unprovoked” small arms fire from Pakistan in the Kupwara, Uri and Akhnoor sectors of Indian-controlled Kashmir. The previous day, Pakistan’s state-run media said Indian forces had violated the ceasefire agreement along the Line of Control by initiating fire with heavy weapons on troops in the Mandal sector of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. The incidents could not be independently verified.
In the past, each side has accused the other of starting border skirmishes in the Himalayan region.