indybay afghanistan features
https://www.indybay.org/international/afghanistan
Indybay Afghanistan Featuresen-USSF Bay Area Independent Media Center (Indybay)SF Bay Area Independent Media Center (Indybay)indybay afghanistan featureshttps://www.indybay.org/favicon.ico
https://www.indybay.org/international/afghanistan
Indybay Afghanistan Features
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/11/13/18725623.php
Crosses in Lafayette: The Need to RememberMemorial for Soldiers Killed in Iraq and Afghanistan Continues to Grow2012-11-14T02:51:17Z2012-11-14T02:51:17Zen-USAfghanistanAnti-War and MilitarismArts + ActionEast Bay AreaFront PageIraqimage/jpeg
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/09/15/18658747.php
Ellsberg, Former Gov't Officials Kick Off Campaign to Free Bradley ManningBenefit for PFC Manning, Accused of Leaking Thousands of Documents and Combat Video2010-09-15T17:36:04Z2010-09-15T17:36:04Zen-USAfghanistanAnti-War and MilitarismEast Bay AreaFront PageIndependent MediaInternationalIraqU.S.image/jpeg
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/02/23/18638580.php
As Afghan War Continues, S.F. Vigil Marks 1000 U.S. DeathsVigil in San Francisco Marks the 1000th US Death in Afghanistan2010-02-23T22:42:08Z2010-02-23T22:42:08Zen-USAfghanistanAnti-War and MilitarismCity of San FranciscoFront Pageimage/jpeg
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/02/05/18637059.php
Alexis Hutchinson, a Single Mother from Oakland, Is Facing a Year in Military PrisonOakland Mother Being Tried for Refusing to Leave Son and Go to AfghanistanUpdate 2/11: Hutchinson wins discharge. Alexis Hutchinson, a single mother from Oakland, CA, is facing up to a year in military prison for refusing to leave her son in Georgia foster care while being deployed to Afghanistan. Military objector support group Courage to Resist is raising funds for Hutchinson's defense and circulating a petition on its website to demand that charges be dropped.]]>2010-02-05T10:12:00Z2010-02-05T10:12:00Zen-USAfghanistanAnti-War and MilitarismEast Bay AreaFront PageWomynimage/jpeg
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/12/02/18631187.php
Obama Escalates War In AfghanistanMore War: Obama Unveils Plan to Send 30,000 More Troops to Afghanistan
On December 2nd, several hundred protesters gathered at 5pm at Powell and Market in San Francisco to voice their opposition for Obama's war plans.]]>2009-12-02T17:37:07Z2009-12-02T17:37:07Zen-USAfghanistanAnti-War and MilitarismCity of San FranciscoFront PageInternationalimage/jpeg
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/10/24/18626555.php
Afghan Women Speak Out Against Occupation and FundamentalismZoya to speak in SF: “liberation can only come from within – end the US occupation"2009-10-24T17:07:44Z2009-10-24T17:07:44Zen-USAfghanistanAnti-War and MilitarismCity of San FranciscoFront PageWomynimage/jpeg
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/03/31/18585017.php
SF Action in Response to Escalation of the War in AfghanistanProtesters Decry the Notion of Obama's "Good War" and Call for Withdrawal2009-03-31T20:40:11Z2009-03-31T20:40:11Zen-USAfghanistanAnti-War and MilitarismCity of San FranciscoFront Pageimage/jpeg
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/10/18/18545315.php
Tariq Ali Speaks in FresnoThe Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power2008-10-18T23:02:08Z2008-10-18T23:02:08Zen-USAfghanistanAnti-War and MilitarismCentral ValleyFront Pageimage/jpeg
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/07/28/18520524.php
132 Civilians Killed During Month of July in Afghanistan by U.S. Led ForcesCivilian Death Toll From U.S. Air Strikes in Afghanistan Continues to Rise2008-07-28T19:13:42Z2008-07-28T19:13:42Zen-USAfghanistanFront PageInternationalimage/jpeg
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/07/16/18516595.php
Obama Lays Out Plans for Continued WarObama Proposes More Troops, More Helicopters, and More War2008-07-16T09:34:23Z2008-07-16T09:34:23Zen-USAfghanistanAnti-War and MilitarismFront PageGovernment & ElectionsSanta Cruz / Monterey Bay AreaU.S.image/jpeg
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/12/27/18468988.php
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto AssassinatedBenazir Bhutto, 1953-20072007-12-27T16:25:21Z2007-12-27T16:25:21Zen-USAfghanistanFront PageGovernment & ElectionsInternationalWomynimage/jpeg
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/03/05/18372812.php
Civilian Deaths Spark Anti-US Protests In Afghanistan25 Afghanistan civilians killed in two daysMarch 4th, US troops killed 16 Afghan civilians following a car bomb attack on their convoy. Eyewitnesses to the incident described the US troops firing indiscriminately at civilians in their vehicles and on foot in angry retaliation for the attack.
Hundreds of Afghans protested at the scene of the killings,
blocking the main road between Kabul and the Pakistan border.
Associated Press journalists at the scene said US soldiers forcibly deleted their footage of the aftermath of the attack.
On March 5th, 9 additional Afghan civilians were killed in a NATO bombing raid in Kapisa province.
The nine dead civilians included five women and three children.]]>2007-03-05T15:06:36Z2007-03-05T15:06:36Zen-USAfghanistanInternationalimage/jpeg
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/01/19/18349096.php
An Interview with Fariba Nawa On Afghanistan's FutureFighting for the Future of Afghanistan2007-01-19T19:34:21Z2007-01-19T19:34:21Zen-USAfghanistanimage/jpeg
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/08/26/18301011.php
Rising Violence as NATO takes charge of Southern AfghanistanAfghanistan Updates
In July, a British and Canadian-led NATO force officially took control of the south of Afghanistan.
The US-trained Afghan army is supposed to take over security responsibilities from NATO, but according to the US general in charge of training the army, this will not be able to happen for at least three more years.]]>2006-08-27T00:00:43Z2006-08-27T00:00:43Zen-USAfghanistanimage/jpeg
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/05/26/47052.php
Afghanistan in Turmoil: 330+ Killed in One WeekUS military massacres 80 villagers in AfghanistanMay 29th, 2006:
US forces opened fire on thousands of Afghans protesting a fatal traffic incident involving a US convoy.
The incident sent hundreds of men rampaging through the streets of Kabul, hurling stones at the US convoy and smashing vehicle windows. Afghan police also opened fire when they came to the assistance of the US troops.
Altogether 14 people died and over 100 were wounded.
A law and order vacuum has allowed an increasingly well-organised drugs cartel, a corrupt local government and resurgent Taliban to structure the poppy cultivation of the province as never before. Country-wide it is now clear the poppy harvest will be close to record levels again.
Warlordism and a revived poppy trade are intertwined with the problems in the south. The small Taliban revival is being funded by opium and heroin. Half of Afghanistan's GDP is probably from the drug trade and some of the recent clashes may be in reaction to poppy eradication campaigns, which are deeply unpopular with farmers, who are seldom properly compensated.
Afghan poppy farmers expect record opium crop and the Taliban will reap the rewards
|
Opium wars
|
Between Opium and Taliban
While the US celeberated last years Parliamentary Elections as a success, the new government consists largely of factions tied to warlords from Afghan's previous civil wars.
The official Afghan Army is headed by Abdul Rashid Dostum and much of the recent fighting in the south of the country has been between forces loyal to him and groups he claims to be the Taliban. Dostum fought alongside the Soviet-backed government in the 1980 and later allied himself at various times with Ahmed Shah Massoud, Hekmatyar, and even the Taleban. Dostum has been accused of numerous human rights abuses and human rights groups have demanded that he and others be brought to trial for their actions during the civil war years.
The most radical and powerful of Afghanistan’s Islamic movements, Hezb-e-Islam, is now an officially recognised political party which claims to be one of the largest blocs in parliament. Party leaders say they are poised to sweep to power in future elections now that they are able to campaign openly.
Hezb-e-Islam was founded by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. In early May 2006, Hekmatyar appeared on Al Jazeera, pledging his allegiance to Bin Laden. Back in the 1980s, Hekmatyar was supported strongly by the Reagan administration and received on the order of a billion dollars from the CIA to fight the Soviets. In the 1990s, he became "prime minister" but fell out with "President" Burhan al-Din Rabbani, and the two of them fought a war over Kabul that killed thousands and destroyed much of the city. Hezb-e-Islam now claims to have broken ties with Hekmatyar, but connections may still exist.
The “Miracle” or a Mockery of Afghanistan?
|
Afghanistan's new militant alliances
|
Hekmatyar goes Al-Qaeda
|
Have Hekmatyar’s Radicals Reformed?
|
The General and the Taleban
]]>2006-05-26T13:47:45Z2006-05-26T13:47:45Zen-USAfghanistanimage/jpeg
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/05/03/45562.php
Cinco de Mayo Anti-Immigrant Rallies in Santa ClaraRacists Mark Cinco de Mayo by Protesting "Illegal Immigration"May 5th and 6th were a "National Illegal Immigrant Protest Rally Days." Destroy the Border Coalition called for people to go out and counter the racist message of the rallies, saying , "The people who do the work in a community are entitled to live with dignity and without fear of violence and deportation. Undocumented workers are economic refugees from the countries that the U.S. has been exploiting for hundreds of years."
May 5th, or Cinco de Mayo, is the date on which the Mexican people celebrate the Battle of Puebla, in which the military and local people fought off the French.]]>2006-05-04T04:57:45Z2006-05-04T04:57:45Zen-USAfghanistanimage/jpeg
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2005/09/20/36072.php
Parliamentary ElectionsElectionsAfghans voted in national assembly and provincial elections Sunday, September 18. The ballot resulted in the election of powerful warlords -- several of whom joined President Hamid Karzai's government. Many of these warlords have been condemned for their abuse of power and human rights violations.
Mehmooda Shekiba from RAWA writes:
Different kinds of rigging were so blatant that even pro-government and pro-fundamentalist papers couldn’t help but to hint at them. In many districts no women could participate in the elections due to security problems. Nevertheless thousands of votes of the women were somehow managed to be cast into the ballot boxes.... In Kunduz province, 260,000 votes were cast, but 6,000 of them were excluded in favor of a pro-fundamentalist candidate.
...
It is not difficult to predict what will be the result of the “miracle” election about which you take comfort. A parliament filled with the most cruel, misogynist, anti-democracy, and reactionary fundamentalists headed by such disgusting drug traders as Sayyaf, Qanoni, Rabbani, Mohaqqiq, Pairam Qul, Hazrat Ali, and their likes. These U.S. backed religious fascists will never “spread democracy”, but rather try to “legitimate” and perpetuate their bloody domination on our people by sitting in the legislature as “lawmakers”.
While largely forgotten by the world's media as the US went into Iraq, the war in Afghanistan has been getting more violent.
Even with fewer US troops in the country than in previous years, US casualties in
the first six months of 2005 were greater than the total during any previous year of the war. Tactics such as Roadside bombs and even sectarian suicide
attacks against mosques show that Afghan fighters are learning from the conflict in Iraq.
Even though there have been many reports of the use of Islam during interrogations at Guantanamo and several reports of the desecration of the Koran, Newsweek's "report" has taken most of the flak for the recent violence. Strangely Newsweek never had an article or report and what is at issue is a several word mention in a box to the side of a story merely stating that a government offical told them he saw a mention of the desecration incident in an unreleased document investigating conditions at the US prison camp. The reason for the focus on Newsweek was probably because Pakistani cricket legend turned politician Imran Khan displayed a copy of Newsweek when talking about the incident during a press conference last week. A more likely spark for the protests than an English language magazine was an interview on the BBC Urdu service earlier this month where former Guantanamo inmates reported that some Arab prisoners had still not spoken to their interrogators after three years to protest at the desecration of the Koran by guards at the camp.
Responding to pressure from the White House and Pentagon, Newsweek claims it checked with its source - a senior US official - who confirmed that he had come across references to the mistreatment of the Koran in the results of an US investigation into the mistreatment of prisoners at Guantanamo, but he was no longer certain that they had come from the specific report he had originally named. When Newsweek offered its sympathies "to victims of the violence and to the U.S. soldiers caught in its midst",
the White House and much of the corporate media took this as an admission that the "story" was false and have forced Newsweek to retract its "story".
The head of Pakistan's conservative six-party Islamic alliance, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, told the BBC that Newsweek's clarification held no weight.
"There have been reports by the prisoners who have been released from Guantanamo Bay of desecration of the holy Koran, and different atrocities perpetrated on them. Therefore, the clarification of Newsweek has no meaning."
8/18/2005:
Two U.S. soldiers were killed when a homemade bomb hit an American convoy supporting crews improving a road from the main southern city of Kandahar to outlying mountains. A U.S. Marine was killed during battles with militants in eastern Afghanistan. Read More
7/26/2005:
Nearly 2,000 Afghans protested Tuesday outside the US air base in Bagram, north of the Afghan capital, Kabul. Chanting “Die
America!” the crowd threw stones and tried to break down an outer gate to the base, demanding the release of eight detained villagers.
Read More
5/13/2005:
At least nine more people - five civilians and four policemen - have been killed in a fourth day of anti-US protests in
Afghanistan, officials say. The protests and violence appear to be spreading with reports of disturbances coming from across
the country.
Read More
5/12/2005:
Three protesters will killed as police fired on hundreds of anti-U.S. demonstrators in the town of Khogyani to prevent them
from departing toward Jalalabad.
In Kabul, more than 200 young men marched from a dormitory block near Kabul University chanting "Death to America!" and
carrying banners.
Read More
On May 10th 2005anti-American riots broke out across Afghanistan in
response to reports of US use of religion in the humiliation of Afghan prisoners.
More than 5000 people took to the streets of Jalalabad. Four Afghan protesters were
killed when police opened fire on the crowd and the crowd responded by burning down a governor's office and attacking several
UN buildings. There were also protests in the south-eastern city of Khost, and in Laghman province.
The immediate cause of the riots was an article in Newsweek
magazine that said investigators probing abuses at Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba had discovered that interrogators
"had placed Korans on toilets, and in at least one case flushed a holy book down the toilet".
Over the past few months reports have revealed a pattern of sexual humiliation and torture of Afghan prisoners.
In his new book "Inside the
Wire",
Army Sergeant Erik Saar (NPR interview) reveals
details of what he saw while he was working at the Guantanamo camp.
"One of the most disturbing interrogations Sgt Saar says
he saw in his six months at the prison concerned a female interrogator ...
He tells how she began peeling off her clothes, taunting the man sexually in an attempt to shame him and stop him relying on
his faith for support ... When the interrogator wiped what he thought was menstrual blood on his face, the prisoner raged,
almost breaking free from his handcuffs. [the interrogator] taunted him further ... asking whether Allah would be pleased
with him and telling him to have fun trying to pray. Finally the detainee was returned to his cell without water, leaving him
unable to cleanse himself."
Democracy Now: Afghanistan 3 1/2 Years After the U.S. Invasion
|
UN Human Rights Investigator in Afghanistan Ousted Under U.S. Pressure
|
Afghanistan: When Cops Become Robbers]]>2005-05-11T22:59:11Z2005-05-11T22:59:11Zen-USAfghanistanimage/jpeg
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2005/03/01/29562.php
Torture And Abuse By US Soldiers Continues In AfghanistanTorture in Afghanistan3/19/2005
"What has been glimpsed in Afghanistan is a radical plan to replace Guantánamo Bay. When that detention centre was set up in January 2002, it was essentially an offshore gulag - beyond the reach of the US constitution and even the Geneva conventions. That all changed in July 2004. The US supreme court ruled that the federal court in Washington had jurisdiction to hear a case that would decide if the Cuban detentions were in violation of the US constitution, its laws or treaties. The military commissions, which had been intended to dispense justice to the prisoners, were in disarray, too. No prosecution cases had been prepared and no defence cases would be readily offered as the US National Association of Criminal Defence Lawyers had described the commissions as unethical, a decision backed by a federal judge who ruled in January that they were "illegal". Guantánamo was suddenly bogged down in domestic lawsuits. It had lost its practicality. So a global prison network built up over the previous three years, beyond the reach of American and European judicial process, immediately began to pick up the slack. The process became explicit last week when the Pentagon announced that half of the 540 or so inmates at Guantánamo are to be transferred to prisons in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia."
Read More
|
Taliban Country: Afghanistan 3 1/2 Years After the U.S. Invasion
2/17/2005Evidence has emerged that "US forces in Afghanistan engaged in widespread Abu Ghraib-style abuse, taking 'trophy photographs' of detainees and carrying out rape and sexual humiliation" The UK's Guardian newspaper has obtained documents that "contain evidence that such abuses took place in the main detention centre at Bagram, near the capital Kabul, as well as at a smaller US installation near the southern city of Kandahar." Photographs taken in southern Afghanistan "show US soldiers from the 22nd Infantry Battalion posing in mock executions of blindfolded and bound detainees."
In addition, several American soldiers are under investigation in the shooting deaths of two Afghan villagers outside a U.S. base in western Afghanistan. Witnesses and local officials said the on the afternoon of February 11th, two villagers were shot while they fled across a field. Two witnesses said in an interview that two American soldiers then approached one of the Afghans, who was wounded, and shot him dead at close range.
The US is also accused of spraying toxic chemicals on Afghan fields causing serious health problems for the population. Afghanistan has become the world's largest opium producer (producing 90% of the heroin sold in Britain) and its likely the spayings were part of a US attempt to destroy opium fields.
WHile the US has denied carrying out such sprayings, “They are the ones with the planes,” said Abdul Ahmad who lost, together with his brother Abdullah, 200 animals from symptoms that suggested poisoning.
Abdullah told an American daily that one night in early February he was watching over his animals when suddenly a plane flew overhead three time. In the morning, the animals “went mad, their eyes went blue and they could not eat,” said his brother Abdul Ahmad.
“Water was coming from their mouths, they were trying to eat their droppings and they were shivering,” he added. The February 3 incident also left villagers, particularly children, complaining of fevers, skin rashes and bloody diarrhea.
UK attempt to eradicate Afghan opium fails
|
US Troops Slaughter Afghan villagers
|
Abu Ghraib-style abuse by the US in Afghanistan]]>2005-03-02T02:02:02Z2005-03-02T02:02:02Zen-USAfghanistanimage/jpeg
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2004/10/09/25092.php
Karzai Becomes President Despite Election IrregularitiesAfghan election ends in controversyDecember 7th 2004, Hamid Karzai was sworn into office as President of Afghanistan despite clear evidence of stuffed ballot boxes and irregularities at many polling places. While Afghanistan has dropped out of the news and is virtually ignored by the Western press, things are not very different from how they were a few years ago when it was the top story in every US newspaper. Bin Laden is still reported to be hiding in the North, Mulla Omar and Hekmatyar continues to make threats, the Taliban continues to engage in attacks on both Afghan and US forces, warlords continue to control most of the country (with Karzai ruling mainly over Kabul) and opium sales continue to rise keeping Afghanistan the word's largest producer of heroin.
Afghan Recovery Report: Daughters Sold to Settle Debts
|
Detritus of War Keeps Claiming New Victims
The Afghanistan government's problems are not restricted to former warlords from the Northern Alliance. While the US government says the "spring offensive by Taliban and al Qaeda guerrillas in Afghanistan's restive south is the weakest in two years", a look the attacks in just the past few days reveals the extent of Afghanistan's problems.
On Thursday April 22th, fighting between US forces and Taliban fighters resulted in the death of former football star Pat Tillman. Also on Thursday, a bomb targeting the provincial governor exploded in Kandahar province.
On Friday April 23rd, "Suspected Taliban rebels fired rockets and machine-guns at a checkpoint in a remote southwestern region, killing eight Afghan soldiers in a nighttime attack." Also on the 23rd, a US Patrol was ambushed in Khost province sparking a one-hour firefight and "a group of 50 armed men attacked aid workers" in Kandahar, "setting fire to eight vehicles."
Taliban leader Mulla Dadullah claims that his fighters are now in control of 26 rural districts in southern and south-western Afghanistan and even Mullah Omar is now talking to the media, giving one of his first interviews since he was forced out of power in 2001.
In January, retired Army Colonel Hy Rothstein
concluded in a Pentagon commissioned report that
the US has failed to adapt to new conditions created by the Taliban's collapse and created
conditions that have given "warlordism, banditry and opium production a new lease on life."
The New Yorker: The Other
War
|
A Look At the Role of Women in Post-9/11 Afghanistan]]>2004-04-24T07:00:00Z2004-04-24T07:00:00Zen-USAfghanistanimage/jpeg
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2001/09/07/20422.php
September 11th and The Buildup To The Afghan War911September 11th 2001 two planes flew into the
World Trade Center in New York and one plane flew into the Pentagon in Washington DC. Within days the US government and media were blaming Osama Bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network.
Bin Laden was thought to have moved to Afghanistan in May 1996 after being expelled from Sudan.
When two US embassies in Africa were blown
up on August 7th 1998.
Clinton had responded on August 20th by launching missles
at Sudan and supposed terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.
Immediately after 9/11, ">international aid agencies in Afghanistan feared feared a massive US attack and left the country.
On September 17th, a Pakistani delegation
arrived in Afghanistan to try to persuade the Taliban to hand over Osama Bin Laden, but the Taliban denied that
Bin Laden took part in the WTC attacks.
Afghanistan's neighbors all feared for the
worst
as the US "dismissed as inadequate a ruling by Afghanistan's senior clerics that Bin Laden would be asked to leave the country".
On September 24th
the Taliban claimed to have mobilized 300,000 troops in preparation for U.S. strikes on the country and in response the
Pakistan foreign ministry pulled out all of its diplomatic staff from Kabul.
On September 25thSaudi Arabia cut off diplomatic ties with the Taliban.
As the world waited for the US attacks to begin, US Special forces had already deployed in Afghanistan.
The official US line on September 29th
was that the US would offer aid to opponents of the Taliban, but wouldn't try to choose the countries next rulers.
On October 5th US Troops deployed to Uzbekistan.
On October 6th, the Taliban claimed that its forces shot anti-aircraft fire at an American plane and on October 7th the US air war had begun.
US Governments Official Timeline
|
Center
for Cooperative Research Timeline
|
AP Post-Sept. 11 Chronology]]>2001-09-07T07:00:00Z2001-09-07T07:00:00Zen-USAfghanistan
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2003/11/12/20152.php
Northern Alliance takes Mazar and then Kabulground warNorthern Alliance who fought long and bloody battles over a period of two months to capture the major cities.
The first major ground battle started in November 9th 2001 when the Northern Alliance started their seige of Mazar-I-Sharif.
When the Taliban tried to take Mazar in 1997, 2,000 Taliban fighters who were captured were later sumarilly executed. In revenge when the Taliban finally took the city in 1998, they engaged in what Human Rights Watch has described as "the single worst examples of killings of civilians in Afghanistan’s twenty-year war", with thousands of ethnic Hazaras rounded up and summarilly executed. While its not known how many were killed in the US backed siege, reports from soon after the Northern Alliance entered the city showed a level of factional killings that resembled the previous times that the city fell. RAWA has ducumented the mass slaughter of Pakistani nationals who were trapped in the city. 10 UNICEF trucks were also captured by the Northern Alliance and some of the drivers were executed.
The seige of Kabul started almost immediately after the fall of Mazar and by
November 12th, Kabul had fallen to the Northern Alliance.
The corporate media showed glowing pictures of Afghan men now free to
shave their beards and Afghan women no longer required to wear burkas.
Many Afghans worried about the past human rights abuses of the Northern Alliance forces which now controlled the city. Farooq Tariq of the Pakistan Labour Party wrote that
"in order to force the Taliban out of Kabul, Washington had to rely on supporting one group of Afghan religious fundamentalists against another. The NA might make some changes in its outlook initially, but it will not change its fundamental aim of maintaining an Islamic state in Afghanistan."]]>2003-11-12T08:00:00Z2003-11-12T08:00:00Zen-USAfghanistan
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2002/12/15/20122.php
Hundreds of Afghan Prisoners Suffocated in Shipping ContainersMassacre at MazarNovember 26 2001, the Northern Alliance, backed by US
airpower captured the city of
Kunduz from the Taliban.
The mainstream press gloated at the fall of the last Taliban stronghold in Northern Afghanistan.
But, soon reports came in of possible widespread killing of prisoners who surrendered when the city fell.
In December, the UK Guardian reported that following the capture of Kunduz, "dozens of Taliban prisoners died after surrendering to Northern Alliance forces, asphyxiated in the shipping containers used to transport them to prison".
In 2001 the ICRC found a mass grave near Mazar-e-Sharif containing over 600 bodies thought to be of prisoners from Konduz.
The UN briefly attempted to investigate reports of mass graves, but in August 2002 the U.N. special representative in Afghanistan stated that "the weakness of the Afghan government and the risk to investigators or witnesses make it almost impossible to investigate reports
that there are mass graves in northern Afghanistan."
In November 2002, the UN found evidence that General Abdul Rashid Dostum, a leading Afghan warlord and strong US ally, "tortured witnesses to stop them from testifying against him in a war crimes inquiry" surrounding the mass graves.
Scottish filmmaker Jamie Doran released a movie in late 2002 titled "Massacre at Mazar" offering eyewitness testimony and footage of the US backed war crimes in Afghanistan.]]>2002-12-15T08:00:00Z2002-12-15T08:00:00Zen-USAfghanistan
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2003/06/14/20112.php
Human Rights and Afghan Women Since the "Regime-Change"womens rights after regime change6/14/2003: Women continue to fight for basic human rights in Afghanistan. IMC NYC Sound working group interviewed RAWA member Tahmeena F. and Anne Brodsky, author of "With All Our Strength: RAWA" in late May.
More On Indymedia.org]]>2003-06-14T07:00:00Z2003-06-14T07:00:00Zen-USAfghanistan
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2004/04/01/19892.php
Casualties in Afghanistan Since October 2001
(Last Updated 8/19/2010)
US: 1230 ( 155 in 2008, 317 in 2009, 283 in 2010)
| Coalition: 775 (139 in 2008, 187 in 2009, 154 in 2010) Afghan Civilians (During Air War):3000-3400(In Past Few Years):2000+ a year
Sources: icasualties, Cursor
]]>2004-04-01T08:00:00Z2004-04-01T08:00:00Zen-USAfghanistan
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2001/11/27/19872.php
U.S. Bombs Al-Jazeeraaljazeera11/13/2001, the US dropped two 500lb bombs on the offices of Al-Jazeera news network, which in turn accused the US of deliberately targeting the building after being told of its exact location. Al-Jazeera had been criticized by the US government for its coverage of the war, since unlike the US media it was willing to show pictures of civilian victims of the US bombing. On Oct 14, New York Daily News columnist Zev Chafets wrote: "dealing with Al Jazeera is a job for the military. Shutting it down should be an immediate priority." Protesters gathered at the Federal Bldg in SF on 11/14 to oppose the US attacks. Al-Jazeera in English]]>2001-11-27T08:00:00Z2001-11-27T08:00:00Zen-USAfghanistanimage/jpeg