Afghanistan defends move to arm people against Taliban territorial gains

Afghan militiamen join Afghan defense and security forces during a gathering in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, June 23, 2021. (AP)
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Updated 27 June 2021
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Afghanistan defends move to arm people against Taliban territorial gains

  • ‘Spontaneous local uprising forces’ will operate under scrutiny of security sectors, says Interior Ministry spokesman

KABUL: Afghanistan on Sunday defended its controversial decision to arm nearly 30,000 people to help troops limit the Taliban from making more territorial gains, which began with the phased withdrawal of US-led forces from the country on May 1.

“These are spontaneous local uprising forces to help national security and defense forces against the Taliban because these terrorists have committed brutalities in captured areas,” Tariq Arian, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, told Arab News on Sunday.

He said these armed groups were not militia forces and would operate “under the scrutiny” of security sectors.

“We are not concerned that they will change into a threat but, if they act against the spirit of security forces, we will prevent that.”

Government resources for those wishing to join the “national mobilization” initiative are being channeled through factional and ethnic leaders, some of whom are accused of heinous crimes.

Factional militia bosses have repeatedly challenged past governments, including the administration led by President Ashraf Ghani, who pushed for the establishment of a “united front” and supporting local forces to strengthen peace and “safeguard the republic system" during a meeting with former anti-Soviet and anti-Taliban figures last week.

Arian added that 30,000 locals had either “unearthed their arms” or been given weapons and resources by Kabul. They belong to various regions where the predominantly ethnic Pashtun Taliban have captured several dozen districts from troops in recent weeks.

Defense Ministry spokesman Fawad Aman said that most “volunteers” were from the north, where ethnic Hazara and Uzbek loyalists of warlords blocked the Taliban from capturing the area over two decades ago.

Thousands of militants were massacred, and an equal number of Taliban were reportedly left to suffocate in shipping containers after surrendering to the militias during a US-led invasion in 2001.

“The number of these people keeps rising,” Aman told Arab News.  “These are educated people who have picked up arms against the Taliban, and we can call them volunteers.”

Both officials said that the process of providing arms and resources to the locals “was not unchecked” and would not lead to another era of civil war similar to the 1990s after Soviet forces withdrew from Afghanistan.

The Taliban were unavailable for comment when contacted by Arab News on Sunday.

They have intensified their attacks in recent months, taking advantage of the reduced number of foreign forces amid an ongoing drawdown process which ends on Sept. 11.

The Taliban have overrun some strategic districts in the north, including in Kunduz where nearly 5,000 Afghan families fled their homes after days of fighting between the Taliban and government forces, according to media reports. There were also reports of an escalation in attacks in the provinces of Kandahar and Baghlan.

Ghani replaced his security chiefs last week amid increased Taliban gains, with newly appointed Defense Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi calling on “patriots and people everywhere to stand alongside their security and defense forces,” while assuring of the government's support to “provide all equipment and resources.”

Some parliamentarians backed the move to arm locals, while others expressed concern about providing them with resources through militia bosses.

Mohammad Ibrahim Gheshtelai, an MP from southeastern Paktia province, explained why the initiative was a win-win for all.

“The nation had the desire to defend the country,” he told Arab News. “That is why they picked up arms by welcoming the government’s proposal. The government found a good source for defending the system. This is good for the survival of the system. Majority in the parliament support this, and there is no serious concern about it.”

However Ghulam Wali Afghan, a legislator from southern Helmand province, told Arab News that Kabul needed to make sure that the resources were not “misused by thieves, human rights abusers and criminals” as, otherwise, it would be civilians who suffered the most.

Some critics warned that relying on former ethnic militia leaders and informal local fighting groups could further weaken Kabul’s control over the military's effort and risk a revival of “abusive and predatory behavior by warlords” against whose narrative Ghani came to power in 2014.

“It is solidly clear that the immediate and long-term threat that militias will pose is for sure,” Zabihullah Pakteen, a political affairs analyst based in northern Afghanistan, told Arab News. “However, the government has no option but to opt for militias to stand against the Taliban. Genuine public uprising and militias are two different things, yet we do not see a mass public movement to counter the Taliban.”

Others pointed to the “dangerous” precedent being set by the government including ethnic leaders.

“The uprising movement, or making of militias, is very dangerous for now and the future of Afghanistan,” said Nasratullah Haqpal, a Kabul-based expert in political affairs, as several ethnic leaders had committed brutalities during the civil war in the past. “The public is concerned about this. Leaders benefit from this process, and it may stoke ethnic tension, and this has to stop,” he added.

In recent weeks, the Taliban have fiercely criticized the deployment of local groups by the government, referring to them as “arbakis” or former local militias who were notoriously abusive, and accusing them of “fanning the flames of war” to maintain a grip on power.

They also warned that such groups would receive “stern” treatment from Islamic authorities.


PM: Ethiopia’s mega dam on the Nile ‘now complete’

Updated 57 min 20 sec ago
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PM: Ethiopia’s mega dam on the Nile ‘now complete’

  • Prime Minister Abiy said the dam has been a source of tension with neighbors, notably Egypt

ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Thursday said that a contentious multi-billion-dollar mega-dam on the Blue Nile is now complete and set to be officially inaugurated in September.

“The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is now complete, and we are preparing for its official inauguration,” Abiy told parliament of the dam that has been a source of tension with neighbors, notably Egypt.


China denies military base ambitions in Pacific Islands

Updated 03 July 2025
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China denies military base ambitions in Pacific Islands

  • China has established a police presence in Solomon Islands, Kiribati and Vanuatu
  • Former US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell urged the Trump administration to keep its focus on the region because China wanted to build bases in the Pacific Islands

SYDNEY: China’s embassy in Fiji denied on Thursday that Beijing wanted a military base or sphere of influence in the Pacific Islands, after Fiji’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka said islands were trying to cope with a powerful China seeking to spread its influence.

“The claims about China setting up a military base in the Pacific are false narratives,” an embassy spokesperson said in a statement.

“China’s presence in the Pacific is focused on building roads and bridges to improve people’s livelihoods, not on stationing troops or setting up military bases.”

Rabuka said on Wednesday his country had development cooperation with China, but was opposed to Beijing establishing a military base in the region. In any case, China did not need a base to project power in the region, he added.

China tested an intercontinental ballistic missile in September that flew over Fiji to land 11,000 km (6,800 miles) from China in the international waters of the Pacific Ocean.

“If they can very well target an empty space they can very well target occupied space,” Rabuka told the National Press Club in Canberra. Washington became concerned about China’s ambition to gain a military foothold in the

Pacific Islands in 2018 when Beijing sought to redevelop a naval base in Papua New Guinea and a military base in Fiji. China was outbid by Australia for both projects. The concern resurfaced in 2022 when China signed a security pact with Solomon Islands, prompting Washington to warn it would respond if Beijing established a permanent military presence. In November, the outgoing US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell urged the Trump administration to keep its focus on the region because China wanted to build bases in the Pacific Islands.

The Chinese embassy spokesperson said Fiji and China respect each other’s sovereignty.

“China has no interest in geopolitical competition, or seeking the so-called ‘sphere of influence’,” the statement added.

China has established a police presence in Solomon Islands, Kiribati and Vanuatu.


Afghan refugees stuck in Pakistan as Germany halts entry program

Updated 03 July 2025
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Afghan refugees stuck in Pakistan as Germany halts entry program

  • Around 2,400 Afghans are waiting to travel to Germany
  • NGOs say 17,000 more are in the early stages of selection and application under the now dormant scheme

BERLIN/ISLAMABAD: In a cramped guesthouse in Pakistan’s capital, 25-year-old Kimia spends her days sketching women — dancing, playing, resisting — in a notebook that holds what’s left of her hopes.

A visual artist and women’s rights advocate, she fled Afghanistan in 2024 after being accepted on to a German humanitarian admission program aimed at Afghans considered at risk under the Taliban.

A year later, Kimia is stuck in limbo.

Thousands of kilometers away in Germany, an election in February where migration dominated public debate and a change of government in May resulted in the gradual suspension of the program.

Now the new center-right coalition intends to close it.

The situation echoes that of nearly 1,660 Afghans cleared to settle in the United States, but who then found themselves in limbo in January after US President Donald Trump took office and suspended refugee programs.

Kimia’s interview at the German embassy which she hoped would result in a flight to the country and the right to live there, was abruptly canceled in April. Meanwhile, Germany pays for her room, meals and medical care in Islamabad.

“All my life comes down to this interview,” she told Reuters. She gave only her artist name for fear of reprisal.

“We just want to find a place that is calm and safe,” she said of herself and the other women at the guesthouse.

The admission program began in October 2022, intending to bring up to 1,000 Afghans per month to Germany who were deemed at risk because of their work in human rights, justice, politics or education, or due to their gender, religion or sexual orientation.

However, fewer than 1,600 arrived in over two years due to holdups and the cancelation of flights.

Today, around 2,400 Afghans are waiting to travel to Germany, the German foreign ministry said. Whether they will is unclear. NGOs say 17,000 more are in the early stages of selection and application under the now dormant scheme.

The foreign ministry said entry to Germany through the program was suspended pending a government review, and the government will continue to care for and house those already in the program.

It did not answer Reuters’ questions on the number of canceled interviews, or how long the suspension would last.

Reuters spoke with eight Afghans living in Pakistan and Germany, migration lawyers and advocacy groups, who described the fate of the program as part of a broader curb on Afghan asylum claims in Germany and an assumption that Sunni men in particular are not at risk under the Taliban.

The German government says there is no specific policy of reducing the number of Afghan migrants. However, approval rates for Afghan asylum applicants dropped to 52 percent in early 2025, down from 74 percent in 2024, according to the Federal Migration Office (BAMF).

POLITICAL SHIFT

Kabul fell to the Taliban in August 2021. Since May 2021 Germany has admitted about 36,500 vulnerable Afghans by various pathways including former local staff, the government said.

Thorsten Frei, chief of staff to Germany’s new chancellor Friedrich Merz, said humanitarian migration has now reached levels that “exceed the integration capacity of society.”

“As long as we have irregular and illegal migration to Germany, we simply cannot implement voluntary admission programs.”

The interior ministry said programs like the one for Afghans will be phased out and they are reviewing how to do so.

Several Afghans are suing the government over the suspension. Matthias Lehnert, a lawyer representing them, said

Germany could not simply suspend their admissions without certain conditions such as the person no longer being at risk.

Since former chancellor Angela Merkel opened Germany’s borders in 2015 to over a million refugees, public sentiment has shifted, partly as a result of several deadly attacks by asylum seekers. The far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD), capitalizing on the anti-migrant sentiment, surged to a historic second-place finish in February’s election.

Afghans Reuters spoke with said they feared they were being unfairly associated with the perpetrators, and this was putting their own lives at risk if they had to return to Afghanistan.

“I’m so sorry about those people who are injured or killed ... but it’s not our fault,” Kimia said.

Afghan Mohammad Mojib Razayee, 30, flew to Germany from Cyprus in March under a European Union voluntary solidarity mechanism, after a year of waiting with 100 other refugees. He said he was at risk after criticizing the Taliban. Two weeks after seeking asylum in Berlin, his application was rejected.

He was shocked at the ruling. BAMF found no special protection needs in his case, a spokesperson said.

“It’s absurd — but not surprising. The decision-making process is simply about luck, good or bad,” said Nicolas Chevreux, a legal adviser with AWO counseling center in Berlin.

Chevreux said he believes Afghan asylum cases have been handled differently since mid-2024, after a mass stabbing at a rally in the city of Mannheim, in which six people were injured and a police officer was killed. An Afghan asylum seeker was charged and is awaiting trial.

’YOU DON’T LIVE’

Spending most days in her room, surrounded by English and German textbooks, Kimia says returning to Afghanistan is unthinkable. Her art could make her a target.

“If I go back, I can’t follow my dreams — I can’t work, I can’t study. It’s like you just breathe, but you don’t live.”

Under Taliban rule, women are banned from most public life, face harassment by morality police if unaccompanied by a male guardian, and must follow strict dress codes, including face coverings. When security forces raided homes, Kimia said, she would frantically hide her artwork.

The Taliban say they respect women’s rights in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic law and local culture and that they are not targeting former foes.

Hasseina, is a 35-year-old journalist and women’s rights activist from Kabul who fled to Pakistan and was accepted as an applicant on to the German program.

Divorced and under threat from both the Taliban and her ex-husband’s family, who she says have threatened to kill her and take her daughter, she said returning is not an option.

The women are particularly alarmed as Pakistan is intensifying efforts to forcibly return Afghans. The country says its crackdown targets all undocumented foreigners for security reasons. Pakistan’s foreign ministry did not respond to request for comment on how this affects Afghans awaiting German approval.

The German foreign ministry has said it is aware of two families promised admission to Germany who were detained for deportation, and it was working with Pakistan authorities to stop this.

Marina, 25, fled Afghanistan after being separated from her family. Her mother, a human rights lawyer, was able to get to Germany. Marina has been waiting in Pakistan to follow her for nearly two years with her baby.

“My life is stuck, I want to go to Germany, I want to work, I want to contribute. Here I am feeling so useless,” she said.


Four pro-Palestinian activists charged over UK military base break-in

Updated 03 July 2025
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Four pro-Palestinian activists charged over UK military base break-in

  • British lawmakers voted on Wednesday to ban Palestine Action as a terrorist organization

Four pro-Palestinian activists have been charged after breaking into a military air base in central England last month and damaging two planes in protest against Britain’s support for Israel.

Counter-terrorism police said the charges were for conspiracy to enter a prohibited place knowingly for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the UK, and conspiracy to commit criminal damage.

The four, aged between 22 and 35, remain in custody and are due to appear in a London court on Thursday. Police said they will present evidence to court linking the offenses to terrorism.

The campaign group Palestine Action has said it was behind the incident on June 20, when the air base in Oxfordshire in central England was broken into and red paint was sprayed over two planes used for refueling and transport.

British lawmakers voted on Wednesday to ban Palestine Action as a terrorist organization. The group has condemned the decision as an “abuse of power” and announced plans to challenge it in court.

The police statement said those charged had caused 7 million pounds ($9.55 million) worth of damage to the two aircraft at the Brize Norton Royal Air Force base.

Palestine Action has routinely targeted companies in Britain with links to Israel, including Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems. 2


Hotels and homes evacuated on Greek island of Crete as wildfire burns out of control

Updated 03 July 2025
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Hotels and homes evacuated on Greek island of Crete as wildfire burns out of control

  • Homes were reported damaged as flames swept through hillside forests, fanned by strong winds
  • As fires crested ridgelines and edged toward residential areas, the blaze sent clouds of ash into the night sky

ATHENS, Greece: A fast-moving wildfire whipped by gale-force winds burned through the night and into Thursday on Greece’s southern island of Crete, prompting the evacuation of more than 1,500 people from hotels and homes.

The fire department said 230 firefighters backed up by 10 water-dropping aircraft were battling the flames, which have burned through forest and farmland in Crete’s Ierapetra area on the island’s southern coast. Two people were evacuated by boat overnight, while six private boats were on standby in case further evacuations by sea became necessary, the coast guard said.

Homes were reported damaged as flames swept through hillside forests, fanned by strong winds.

“It’s a very difficult situation. The fire is very hard to contain. Right now, they cannot contain it,” Nektarios Papadakis, a civil protection official at the regional authority, told The Associated Press overnight.

“The tourists who were moved out are all okay. They have been taken to an indoor basketball arena and hotels in other regions of the island,” he said.

The Fire Service and a civil protection agency issued mobile phone alerts for the evacuations and appealed to residents not to return to try to save their property.

As fires crested ridgelines and edged toward residential areas, the blaze sent clouds of ash into the night sky, illuminated by the headlights of emergency vehicles and water trucks that lined the coastal road near the resorts of Ferma and Achlia on the southeast of Crete.

Several residents were treated for breathing difficulties, officials said, but there were no immediate reports of serious injuries.

Crete is one of Greece’s most popular destinations for both foreign and domestic tourists.

The risk of wildfires remained very high across Crete and parts of southern Greece Thursday, according to a daily bulletin issued by the Fire Service.

Wildfires are frequent in the country during its hot, dry summers, and the fire department has already tackled dozens across Greece so far this year.

In 2018, a massive fire swept through the seaside town of Mati, east of Athens, trapping people in their homes and on roads as they tried to flee. More than 100 died, including some who drowned while trying to swim away from the flames.