KABUL: Taliban militants attacked a border outpost in western Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing 20 government soldiers in the latest assault likely to compound fears that the security forces are facing an unsustainable casualty toll.
Sparsely populated Farah, on the border with Iran, has seen months of heavy fighting, with hundreds police and soldiers killed. The Taliban threatened to seize the provincial capital in May.
In the latest violence in the province, the insurgents assaulted the border post manned by about 50 Afghan government soldiers before dawn, officials in the area said.
At least 20 soldiers were known to have been killed, several wounded and the others were missing, said a senior military officer who declined to be identified as he is not authorized to speak to media.
“Hours after the attack, we lost contact with the base and we still do not know the whereabouts of the remaining soldiers,” the officer said.
The Taliban, fighting to oust foreign forces and overthrow the Western-backed Kabul government, claimed responsibility saying they had captured the base, killed 30 soldiers and seized weapons and ammunition.
Some officials in Farah have accused Iran, which the United States says is trying to extend its influence in western Afghanistan, of providing the insurgents with money and weapons. Iran denies the accusation.
The attack underlined the struggle Afghan security forces face in confronting the insurgents, who have steadily extended their control in the countryside, even though the government holds all provincial centers.
On Monday, the militants captured an important security post outside the central city of Ghazni, killing 13 members of government forces and underscoring their vulnerability even in areas where defenses have been bolstered.
More than 17 years after US-led forces toppled the Taliban regime, Afghan forces are dying in record numbers with Afghan and US officials warning that the casualty rate is not sustainable.
In September alone, more than 500 Afghan soldiers were killed and hundreds wounded, the Defense Ministry said.
Tentative steps toward peace talks between the Taliban and the United States have had no impact on the level of attacks.
The US special envoy for peace in Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, met Taliban leaders in Qatar last month. The Taliban will also join multilateral peace talks hosted by Russia this week.
Taliban attack Afghan government post near Iran border, killing 20 troops
Taliban attack Afghan government post near Iran border, killing 20 troops
- At least 20 soldiers were known to have been killed, several wounded and the others were missing
- Afghan forces are dying in record numbers with Afghan and US officials warning that the casualty rate is not sustainable
Regular flights between Ashgabat and Moscow suspended for a month from Dec. 30, says TASS
MOSCOW: Regular flights between Ashgabat and Moscow are to be suspended for a month from Dec. 30 after an Azerbaijan Airlines jet crashed in Kazakhstan, the state-run TASS news agency reported on Saturday citing Turkmenistan's national air carrier.
A passenger jet operated by Azerbaijan Airlines crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, after diverting from an area of southern Russia where Moscow has repeatedly used air defence systems against Ukrainian attack drones.
Turkiye’s pro-Kurd party to meet jailed PKK leader Saturday
ISTANBUL: A delegation from Turkiye’s main pro-Kurdish DEM party is due on Saturday to visit jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is serving life on a prison island off Istanbul, a party source said.
“The delegation left in the morning,” the source told AFP, without elaborating how they would travel to the island for security reasons.
The visit would be the party’s first in almost 10 years.
DEM’s predecessor, the HDP party, last met Ocalan in April 2015.
On Friday, the government approved DEM’s request to visit Ocalan, who founded the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) nearly half a century ago and has languished in solitary confinement since 1999.
The PKK is regarded as a “terror” organization by Turkiye and most of its Western allies, including the United States and European Union.
Detained 25 years ago in a Hollywood-style operation by Turkish security forces in Kenya after years on the run, Ocalan was sentenced to death.
He escaped the gallows when Turkiye abolished capital punishment in 2004 and is spending his remaining years in an isolation cell on the Imrali prison island south of Istanbul.
Saturday’s rare visit became possible after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s nationalist ally, MHP party leader Devlet Bahceli, invited Ocalan to come to parliament to renounce “terror,” and to disband the militant group.
Erdogan backed the appeal as a “historic window of opportunity.”
Afghan Taliban forces target ‘several points’ in Pakistan in retaliation for airstrikes – Afghan defense ministry
KABUL: Afghan Taliban forces targeted “several points” in neighboring Pakistan, Afghanistan’s defense ministry said on Saturday, days after Pakistani aircraft carried out aerial bombardment inside Afghanistan.
The statement from the Defense Ministry did not specify Pakistan but said the strikes were conducted “beyond the ‘hypothetical line’” – an expression used by Afghan authorities to refer to a border with Pakistan that they have long disputed.
“Several points beyond the hypothetical line, serving as centers and hideouts for malicious elements and their supporters who organized and coordinated attacks in Afghanistan, were targeted in retaliation from the southeastern direction of the country,” the ministry said.
Asked whether the statement referred to Pakistan, ministry spokesman Enayatullah Khowarazmi said: “We do not consider it to be the territory of Pakistan, therefore, we cannot confirm the territory, but it was on the other side of the hypothetical line.”
Afghanistan has for decades rejected the border, known as the Durand Line, drawn by British colonial authorities in the 19th century through the mountainous and often lawless tribal belt between what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan.
No details of casualties or specific areas targeted were provided. The Pakistani military’s public relations wing and a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Afghan authorities warned on Wednesday they would retaliate after the Pakistani bombardment, which they said had killed civilians. Islamabad said it had targeted hideouts of Islamist militants along the border.
The neighbors have a strained relationship, with Pakistan saying that several militant attacks that have occurred in its country have been launched from Afghan soil – a charge the Afghan Taliban denies.
Indian state funeral for former PM Manmohan Singh
- Manmohan Singh, who held office from 2004 to 2014, died at the age of 92 on Thursday
- Former PM was an understated technocrat who was hailed for overseeing an economic boom in his first term
NEW DELHI: India on Saturday accorded former premier Manmohan Singh, one of the architects of the country’s economic liberalization in the early 1990s, a state funeral with full military honors, complete with a gun salute.
Singh, who held office from 2004 to 2014, died at the age of 92 on Thursday, after which seven days of state mourning were declared.
The honors were led by President Draupadi Murmu with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in attendance, along with the country’s top civilian and military officials. Bhutan’s King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck also attended the ceremony.
Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, who called the former prime minister his mentor and guide, joined Singh’s family as they prayed before his cremation.
Earlier, mourners gathered to pay their respects to Singh. His coffin, draped in garlands of flowers, was flanked by a guard of honor and carried to his Congress Party headquarters in New Delhi.
It was then taken through the capital to the cremation grounds, accompanied by guards of soldiers and accorded full state honors.
Modi called Singh one of India’s “most distinguished leaders.”
US President Joe Biden called Singh a “true statesman,” saying that he “charted pathbreaking progress that will continue to strengthen our nations — and the world — for generations to come.”
The former prime minister was an understated technocrat who was hailed for overseeing an economic boom in his first term.
Singh’s second stint ended with a series of major corruption scandals, slowing growth and high inflation.
Singh’s unpopularity in his second term, and lackluster leadership by Nehru-Gandhi scion Rahul Gandhi, the current opposition leader in the lower house, led to Modi’s first landslide victory in 2014.
Born in 1932 in the mud-house village of Gah in what is now Pakistan and was then British-ruled India, Singh studied economics to find a way to eradicate poverty in the vast nation.
He won scholarships to attend both Cambridge, where he obtained a first in economics, and Oxford, where he completed his doctorate.
Singh worked in a string of senior civil service posts, served as a central bank governor and also held various jobs with global agencies including the United Nations.
He was tapped in 1991 by then Congress prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao to serve as finance minister and reel India back from the worst financial crisis in its modern history.
Though he had never held an elected post, he was declared the National Congress’s candidate for the highest office in 2004.
In his first term, Singh steered the economy through a period of nine percent growth, lending India the international clout it had long sought.
He also sealed a landmark nuclear deal with the United States that he said would help India meet its growing energy needs.
President Murmu said Singh would “always be remembered for his service to the nation, his unblemished political life and his utmost humility.”
Rival protests planned in South Korea after second leader impeached
- Vast protests both for and against suspended president Yoon Suk Yeol have rocked South Korea
- Yoon sought to impose martial law in early December, plunging the country into its worst political crisis in decades
SEOUL: Protests were planned across South Korea on Saturday, as supporters and opponents of suspended president Yoon Suk Yeol prepared to hold rival rallies two weeks after he was impeached.
Vast protests both for and against Yoon have rocked South Korea since he sought to impose martial law in early December, plunging the country into its worst political crisis in decades.
Lawmakers on Friday impeached Yoon’s replacement, acting president Han Duck-soo, after he refused demands to complete Yoon’s impeachment process and to bring him to justice.
It is up to the Constitutional Court to decide Yoon’s, and now Han’s fate, but demonstrators from both camps have vowed to keep up pressure in the meantime.
“Nearly two million people will come together to protect president Yoon,” said Rhee kang-san, a supporter of Yoon who is one of the rally organizers in Seoul.
“The rally continues our efforts to amplify the people’s voice against impeachment.”
An organizer of a rival anti-Yoon rally said the anger of those who supported his impeachment was “burning even more intensely.”
“The people are now strongly demanding Yoon’s immediate dismissal and punishment,” she added.
At the heart of the backlash against Han was his refusal to appoint additional judges to the Constitutional Court, which has three vacant seats.
While the six current judges can decide whether to uphold parliament’s decision to impeach Yoon, a single dissenting vote would reinstate him.
The opposition wanted Han to approve three more nominees to fill the nine-member bench, which he had refused to do, leaving both sides in deadlock.
The second impeachment on Friday thrust Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok into the roles of acting president and prime minister.
It also took the country into uncharted territory.
“We’ve had an acting president before,” said Lee Jun-han, a professor at Incheon National University. “But this is the first time we’ve had a substitute for a substitute.”
Choi said in a statement after the impeachment that “minimizing governmental turmoil is of utmost importance at this moment,” adding that “the government will also dedicate all its efforts to overcoming this period of turmoil.”
Like Han, Choi will face pressure from the opposition to accept the appointment of new judges.
If he refuses, he could face his own impeachment vote.
