Taliban widen offensive as Nato special forces join fight for Kunduz

[Disir]

Nato special forces have joined Afghan troops in the increasingly desperate battle for Kunduz, as one of the last two government outposts in the strategic northern city surrendered to the Taliban.

The heavily besieged airport, which sits on a hilltop a few miles outside Kunduz, is now the only place held by the Afghan army. The nearby Bala Hisar fort fell when soldiers there ran out of ammunition, deputy provincial governor Hamdullah Daneshi said.

...“Our message to government officials and security personnel who are thinking about resistance or are hiding in fear of retribution is that they should abandon all negative thoughts spread about Mujahideen due to enemy propaganda,” said the Taliban’s new leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, in a statement posted online. “Mujahideen are not thinking about retribution but have come with a message of peace.”
Taliban widen offensive as Nato special forces join fight for Kunduz

Looks like peace to me. Afghans are still fleeing the country.

 

[waltky]

Afghans retake Kunduz...

Afghan forces have retaken main areas of Kunduz: officials
Wed Sep 30, 2015 - Afghan government forces recaptured main areas of the northern city of Kunduz from the Taliban in a large offensive in the early hours of Thursday morning, two government officials said.

Details of the operation and which areas were under government control were not immediately clear. "Afghan security forces got control of Kunduz city from Taliban overnight after heavy fighting," Hamdullah Danishi, acting governor of Kunduz, told Reuters by telephone. "After we got reinforcement and started a massive operation inside Kunduz city Taliban could not resist and escaped. ... We will give a full report soon," he added.

Afghan special forces arrive for a battle with the Taliban in Kunduz city, northern Afghanistan

Interior Minister spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said on Twitter: "It is retaken and being cleared from terrorists, heavy casualty to the enemy."

The Taliban captured Kunduz, the first provincial capital to fall to the insurgents since they were driven from power in 2001, on Monday. Afghan forces, backed by U.S. air strikes, had been struggling for two days to retake the city.

Afghan forces have retaken main areas of Kunduz: officials

 

[IsaacNewton]

Good, Nato needs to land in Iraq and get rid of Isil as well. At some point you have to bite the bullet and get to it.

 

[waltky]

Kunduz airstrike goes horribly wrong...

Doctors Without Borders: 19 dead in Afghan clinic airstrike
Oct 3,`15 -- Confusion reigned in the wake of the deadly bombing Saturday of a hospital compound in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz run by the international medical charity Doctors Without Borders, which killed at least 19 people and wounded dozens more. It remains unclear exactly who bombed the hospital and the charity has demanded an investigation into the incident.

Doctors Without Borders said that "all indications" pointed to the international military coalition as responsible for the bombing and called for an independent investigation. The U.S. Defense Secretary, Ash Carter said an inquiry is underway into whether the carnage at the clinic was caused by an airstrike from an American fighter jet, while Afghan officials said helicopter gunships had returned fire from Taliban fighters hiding in the compound. The medical group, also known by the French acronym MSF, said its trauma center "was hit several times during sustained bombing and was very badly damaged." At the time, the hospital had 105 patients and their caretakers, and more than 80 international and Afghan staff, it said. The charity did not say whether insurgents were present, and it was not immediately clear whether the staffers were killed by the Taliban, government or U.S. forces. The group said another 30 people were still missing after the incident.

The dead included 12 staffers and seven patients from the intensive care unit, among them three children, it said. A total of 37 people were injured, including 19 staff members, and 18 patients and caretakers. Five of the injured staff members were in critical condition, it said. President Ashraf Ghani expressed his sorrow and said he and the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, U.S. Army Gen. John Campbell had "agreed to launch a joint and thorough investigation." U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "strongly" condemned the airstrikes in Kunduz and said hospitals and medical personnel are "explicitly protected" under international humanitarian law, his spokesman's office said in a statement Saturday. AP video of the compound showed burning buildings with firearms - automatic rifles and at least one Russian-made machine gun - on the windowsills pointed outward.

Doctors Without Borders did not comment on the identities of the 30 missing people, but said all of its international staffers were alive and accounted for. It said it regularly updated its GPS coordinates with all parties to the conflict. It said that from 2:08 a.m. to 3:15 a.m. Saturday, the hospital was hit by bombs at 15-minute intervals. It quoted Kunduz-based doctor Heman Nagarathnam saying that planes repeatedly circled overhead during that time. "There was a pause, and then more bombs hit. This happened again and again. When I made it out from the office, the main hospital building was engulfed in flames," Nagarathnam said according to the MSF statement. "Those people that could, had moved quickly to the building's two bunkers to seek safety. But patients who were unable to escape burned to death as they lay in their beds."

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See also:

The Latest: Moon condemns deadly Kunduz hospital bombing
Oct 3,`15 -- The latest developments from Afghanistan, where the international charity Doctors Without Borders says that at least 19 people were killed when its clinic came under "sustained bombing" as government and international forces continue to battle Taliban fighters in the northern city of Kunduz (all times local):

11:45 p.m.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "strongly" condemned the airstrikes in Kunduz and said hospitals and medical personnel are "explicitly protected" under international humanitarian law, his spokesman's office said in a statement Saturday.

11 p.m.

The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan says the military is opening an investigation into the deadly bombing of a Doctors Without Borders facility in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz. "While we work to thoroughly examine the incident and determine what happened, my thoughts and prayers are with those affected," said Gen. John F. Campbell in a statement. U.S. forces conducted an airstrike "in the vicinity" of the hospital around 2:15 a.m. local time, targeting insurgents who were firing upon U.S. service members "advising and assisting" Afghan security forces, the statement said. The charity reports that the hospital was repeatedly bombed at approximately 15-minute intervals between 2:08 a.m. and 3:15 a.m. Saturday morning. "We continue to advise and assist our Afghan partners as they clear the city of Kunduz and surrounding areas of insurgents. As always, we will take all reasonable steps to protect civilians from harm."

10:15 p.m.

Doctors Without Borders has raised the total number of the number of people killed when its Kunduz trauma center was bombed to at least 19. It says 12 staff members and at least seven patients, including three children, died in the incident. The medical charity, also known by the French acronym MSF, adds that 37 people were injured including 19 staff members.

9:10 p.m.

 

[waltky]

A FUBAR wrapped up in a SNAFU...

US air strike on Afghan hospital ‘inexcusable’, ‘possibly criminal’, UN rights chief says
Oct 3, 2015: A suspected US air strike on a hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz that killed nine MSF staff on Saturday was "inexcusable" and "possibly criminal", UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said. Zeid called for a full and transparent investigation, noting that, "if established as deliberate in a court of law, an air strike on a hospital may amount to a war crime."

Doctors Without Borders — known by its French acronym MSF — said the bombardment continued for more than 30 minutes after Washington was informed and that both Afghan and US officials were given the precise location of MSF facilities. "This event is utterly tragic, inexcusable and possibly even criminal," Zeid said in a statement. The Afghan defence ministry said militants were targeting troops from the hospital building.

Nato conceded US forces may have been behind the strike but has not so far commented on the specific claims of MSF, which has long treated the war-wounded from all sides of the conflict. "International and Afghan military planners have an obligation to respect and protect civilians at all times, and medical facilities and personnel are the object of a special protection," Zeid said. "These obligations apply no matter whose air force is involved, and irrespective of the location."

MSF said that dozens of people were confirmed to have been injured and that many patients and staff of the hospital remained unaccounted for. Saturday's bombing came after Taliban insurgents overran the northern Afghan city on Monday. It was the first major city to be captured by militants since 2001.

US air strike on Afghan hospital ‘inexcusable’, ‘possibly criminal’, UN rights chief says - The Times of India

See also:

Air strike on Afghan hospital under investigation, US says
Oct 3, 2015 | WASHINGTON: US defence secretary Ash Carter said the United States still was trying to determine how an air strike hit a hospital run by Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) in the Afghan city of Kunduz on Saturday.

"A full investigation into the tragic incident is under way in coordination with the Afghan government," Carter said in a statement. He said the area around the hospital had been the scene of intense fighting in recent days with US forces supporting Afghan security forces against Taliban fighters. Sixteen people have been killed in the hospital as a result of the bombing.

MSF phoned Nato, US officials as bombs hit hospital

MSF said frantic staff phoned military officials at Nato in Kabul and Washington as bombs rained on their hospital in the Afghan city on Kunduz for nearly an hour, the aid group said. The first bomb landed at 2.10am and MSF staff called Nato in officials in Kabul at 2.19am and military officials in Washington a few minutes later, and the bombing continued until 3.13am, an MSF official said, asking not to be identified saying that a statement will be released shortly.

Air strike on Afghan hospital under investigation, US says - The Times of India

 

[waltky]

Doctors Without Borders leaves Kunduz...

Doctors Without Borders leaves Afghan city after airstrike
Oct 4,`15 -- The U.S. and Afghan governments vowed Sunday to jointly investigate the attack on a hospital in Kunduz that killed 22 people, as street-by street battles continued between government forces and Taliban fighters and officials warned of a looming humanitarian crisis for civilians trapped in the city

Amid accusations that U.S. jet fighters were responsible for what Doctors Without Borders said was a "sustained bombing" of their trauma center in Kunduz, President Barack Obama and Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani promised investigations. Obama said he expected a full accounting of the circumstances surrounding the bombing, and that he would wait for those results before making a judgment. He said the U.S. would continue working with Afghanistan's government and its overseas partners to promote security in Afghanistan. Some top U.S. officials said the circumstances surrounding the incident remain murky, but others indicated the U.S. may have been responsible. Army Col. Brian Tribus, a spokesman for American forces in Afghanistan, said Saturday that a U.S. airstrike "in the Kunduz vicinity" around 2:15 a.m. Saturday morning "may have resulted in collateral damage to a nearby medical facility."

U.S. officials speaking on condition of anonymity said American special operations forces advising Afghan commandos in the vicinity of the hospital requested the air support when they came under fire in Kunduz. The officials said the AC-130 gunship responded and fired on the area, but U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said it's not certain yet whether that was what destroyed the hospital. The officials were not authorized to discuss the incident publicly. They also said the senior U.S. military investigator is in Kunduz but hasn't yet been able to get to the site because it continues to be a contested area between the Afghans and the Taliban militants.

Carter, speaking to reporters traveling with him on a trip to Spain, said, "The situation there is confused and complicated, so it may take some time to get the facts, but we will get the facts." Carter said he believes the U.S. will have better information in the coming days, once U.S. and international investigators get access to the hospital site. Doctors Without Borders issued a statement Sunday expressing its "clear assumption that a war crime has been committed," after earlier saying that "all indications" were that the international coalition was responsible for the early Saturday morning bombing. While NATO maintains a significant military role in Afghanistan, airstrikes are conducted by U.S. forces

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See also:

US defence secretary promises accountability for Kunduz attack
Oct 5, 2015 | WASHINGTON: US defence secretary Ashton Carter has promised "accountability" for the death of innocent civilians in an American air strike on a hospital in Afghanistan's Kunduz city, saying a transparent investigation has been launched into the incident.

"There will be accountability as always with these incidents, if that is required," Carter told reporters travelling with him to Spain. The situation in Kunduz is confused and complicated, so it may take some time to get the facts, he noted. "But we will get the facts, and we will be full and transparent about sharing them with the American people, but also with the people of Afghanistan, and for that matter, the entire world, to include the essential non-profit factor, the non-governmental organisation community, which is so critical," he asserted.

Carter praised the work of Doctors Without Borders, saying they are a "very important part of the world's work today, and of making a better world and keeping people safe." "Their medical work in Afghanistan and elsewhere is vital and is appreciated by certainly all of us in the US, but I think everyone around the world," he said, adding that his office has been in contact with Doctors Without Borders over this weekend to emphasize that a full and transparent investigation will be conducted. Carter said he has also issued instruction to ensure that the US makes available, and the coalition in Afghanistan, makes available medical care as possible, and as asked for, for folks in Kunduz.

Doctors Without Borders/Medecines Sans Frontieres, whose hospital was bombed later this week, in a statement called for an independent investigation. MSF general director Christopher Stokes strongly refuted claims from Afghan officials that MSF's hospital in Kunduz was used by the Taliban for military purposes. "MSF is disgusted by the recent statements coming from some Afghanistan government authorities justifying the attack on its hospital in Kunduz," he said. "These statements imply that Afghan and US forces working together decided to raze to the ground a fully functioning hospital - with more than 180 staff and patients inside - because they claim that members of the Taliban were present. This amounts to an admission of a war crime," Stokes alleged.

US defence secretary promises accountability for Kunduz attack - The Times of India

 

[waltky]

AC-130 Gunships have indiscriminate license to kill...

The U.S. Gunship that Slaughtered Doctors and Patients in Kunduz
10.05.15 - The crews of the AC-130, a low, slow plane bristling with guns, don't have to follow the same rules as those in other U.S. warplanes.

The American warplane that apparently struck a Doctors Without Borders clinic in the embattled city of Kunduz in northern Afghanistan on October 3, killing 22 people, was probably an AC-130 gunship — a lumbering, four-engine transport modified to carry a powerful arsenal of side-firing guns. Maybe the gunship’s crew knew exactly where the clinic was in Kunduz, maybe it didn’t. Maybe there were Taliban fighters nearby, maybe there weren’t. Regardless, the AC-130 blasted the vicinity of the clinic for more than an hour, repeatedly striking the medical facility. And the U.S. military’s lax rules allowed it to happen.

Packed floor to ceiling with high-tech sensors and radios and boasting a wide range of weaponry including 25-millimeter and 40-millimeter cannons plus a 105-millimeter howitzer, the AC-130 is supposed to be more accurate than other warplanes—and thus safer for innocent civilians in the line of fire. But the Pentagon's rules for using the gunships actually make them less safe. Eager to take advantage of the AC-130’s firepower, the military actually requires relatively little scrutiny of the target area before a gunship crews opens fire, compared to the much greater restrictions the Defense Department imposes on the pilots of other aircraft types.

Owing to these loose procedures, the AC-130 could actually be one of the most dangerous U.S. warplanes for civilians caught in the crossfire. And yet it’s also the plane that American commanders sent into the chaotic combat in densely populated Kunduz, where U.S.-backed Afghan forces were locked in battle with Taliban fighters who captured the city in late September. And where Doctors Without Border was working to save people, including children, who’d been injured in the fighting—unaware that their clinic was about to become a slaughterhouse. Hundreds of Taliban fighters attacked Kunduz in the last week of September, quickly routing a much larger but poorly led Afghan National Army force. Encouraged by their American advisers and backed by U.S. warplanes, Afghan soldiers counter-attacked. Kunduz’s 300,000 residents were caught in the middle without adequate medical care.

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See also:

Was Kunduz Attack A War Crime? Legal Analysts Say It's Difficult To Prove
October 06, 2015 - The international aid group Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) is calling for an international investigation into what it calls a war crime in Afghanistan — Saturday's U.S. airstrikes that killed 22 people, including medical staff and patients at the organization's hospital in Kunduz.

"We're under the clear presumption that a war crime has been committed," Jason Cone, Doctors Without Borders's executive director, told NPR's Michel Martin on Sunday. "And we're demanding that a full and transparent investigation into the event be conducted by an independent, international body." The U.S. now says that Afghan forces were fighting Taliban in the area and called in the airstrikes. Legal experts say it will be difficult to prove that a war crime occurred. John Bellinger, a former legal advisor to the State Department, says the bombing of the hospital was a terrible tragedy, but he believes it would be a rush to judgment to call it a war crime. "The mere fact that civilians are killed, that a hospital is damaged, doesn't automatically mean that there has been a war crime," he says. "It only becomes a war crime if it is shown that the target was intentionally attacked."

The burned Doctors Without Borders hospital is seen after explosions in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz on Saturday. Doctors Without Borders says 12 staff members and 10 patients were killed in the attack and 37 others were wounded.​

MSF says the hospital was struck repeatedly on Saturday, even though everyone in the area knew it was a working medical facility. "We had made clear the exact GPS coordinates of our health facilities in the Kunduz compound to coalition forces, to Afghan forces, to Taliban and to U.S. officials, both in Washington and Kabul and in both the civilian and military leadership," Cone told NPR on Sunday. "The hospital was full of patients. That was widely known. We had close to 200 staff and patients that were at the hospital at the time of the attack. I want to reiterate that the main hospital building where medical personnel were caring for patients was repeatedly and very precisely hit during each aerial raid while the rest of the compound was left mostly untouched. So we see this as a targeted event."

John Sifton of Human Rights Watch says the U.S. needs to carry out a transparent investigation into what went wrong. "For almost 15 years now, humanitarian groups have been giving information about the coordinates of protected sites like hospitals, orphanages, schools to the U.S. military," he says. "The U.S. military asks for this information so that they can avoid these instances. When something like this happens, it suggests a major failure in their own systemic efforts to avoid civilian casualties." Theoretically, there are cases in which hospitals could become legitimate military targets if combatants are misusing the facility. But even then, Sifton says, the military response has to be proportionate. "You can't kill 22 people, including lifesaving medical staff in one of the only medical treatment centers in the region, just to get a couple Taliban," he says. "Or even 10."

MORE

 

[waltky]

Uh-oh, a damning statement...

US Troops Weren't Under Fire in Afghan Hospital Airstrike: General
Oct 05, 2015 | Army Gen. John Campbell contradicted previous reports by his own Afghanistan command Monday and said that U.S. troops weren't under fire when they called for airstrikes that hit a hospital in Kunduz and killed 22 in response to urgent requests for air support from the Afghan forces.

"The Afghans asked for air support from a Special Forces team that we have on the ground providing train, advise and assist in Kunduz," Campbell said. "The initial statement that went out was that U.S. forces were under direct-fire contact. What I'm doing is correcting that statement here." "We have now learned on that on Oct. 3, Afghan forces advised that they were taking fire from enemy positions and asked for air support from the U.S. forces. An airstrike was then called to eliminate the Taliban threat and several civilians were accidentally struck" in the attack that hit a Doctors Without Borders hospital compound, Campbell said. "This is different from the initial reports which indicated that U.S. forces were threatened and that the airstrike was called on their behalf," Campbell said.

In his hastily-arranged Pentagon news conference, Campbell didn't clarify whether the hospital was targeted in error or whether U.S. forces made mistake in calling in the airstrikes. Those matters will be the subjects of investigations, he said, and preliminary findings are expected within a few days. "Again, I want to offer my deepest condolences to those innocent civilians who were harmed and killed on Saturday," Campbell said during a 10-minute Pentagon briefing in which he stopped short of an apology. In statements, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and President Barack Obama have also offered condolences for what they called a "tragic incident" but not an apology as yet.

The initial reports from Campbell's command said, "U.S. forces conducted an airstrike in Kunduz city at 2:15am (local) Oct. 3 against insurgents who were directly firing upon U.S. servicemembers advising and assisting Afghan Security Forces in the city of Kunduz. The strike was conducted in the vicinity of a Doctors Without Borders medical facility." Campbell, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, also confirmed that it was an Air Force Special Operations Command AC-130 gunship that carried out the airstrike that Doctors Without Borders said killed 22, including 12 staffers and three children, and wounded more than 30. "I think it's been reported that it was an AC-130 gunship. That, in fact, is what it was," the general said. "If errors were committed, we'll acknowledge them," he said. "We'll hold those responsible accountable, and we will take steps to ensure mistakes are not repeated."

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Granny says, "Dat's right - Afghans couldn't fight dey's own battle...

Afghan request initiated U.S. airstrike on Kunduz hospital
Oct. 5, 2015 WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- U.S. forces in Afghanistan Commander Gen. John Campbell confirmed Monday that the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz was struck by a U.S. airstrike after Afghan forces called for air support.

"We have now learned that on Oct. 3, Afghan forces advised that they were taking fire from enemy positions and asked for air support from U.S. forces," Campbell said at a press conference. "An airstrike was then called to eliminate the Taliban threat and several civilians were accidentally struck. This is different from the initial reports which indicated that U.S. forces were threatened and that the airstrike was called on their behalf." Staff for Doctors Without Borders, known officially as Médecins Sans Frontières, left the bombed hospital on Sunday. At least 10 patients and 12 MSF staff died in the airstrikes conducted by an AC-130 gunship. There were more than 80 MSF staff and 105 patients and their caretakers in the hospital at the time of the attack.

The hospital was bombed at approximately 15 minute intervals between 2:08 a.m. and 3:15 a.m. local time, the organization said. The airstrikes destroyed part of the hospital and sparked fires that burned for hours. "If errors were committed we will acknowledge them," Campbell added. "As has been reported, I've ordered a thorough investigation into this tragic incident and the investigation is ongoing. The Afghans have ordered the same. We'll hold those responsible accountable and we will take steps to ensure mistakes are not repeated." Campbell offered his "deepest condolences" to victims. MSF said that "we cannot accept that this horrific loss of life will simply be dismissed as collateral damage." "Under the clear presumption that a war crime has been committed, a transparent investigation must be conducted by an independent international body," MSF added.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières released the following statement from Christopher Stokes, MSF General Director, in reaction to Campbell's announcement: "Today the U.S. government has admitted that it was their airstrike that hit our hospital in Kunduz and killed 22 patients and MSF staff. Their description of the attack keeps changing -- from collateral damage, to a tragic incident, to now attempting to pass responsibility to the Afghanistan government. The reality is the U.S. dropped those bombs. The U.S. hit a huge hospital full of wounded patients and MSF staff. The U.S. military remains responsible for the targets it hits, even though it is part of a coalition. There can be no justification for this horrible attack. With such constant discrepancies in the U.S. and Afghan accounts of what happened, the need for a full transparent independent investigation is ever more critical."

Afghan request initiated U.S. airstrike on Kunduz hospital

 

[waltky]

Sounds like some general's gonna be onna hot seat...

Afghan president orders investigation into fall of Kunduz
Oct 10,`15 -- Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has appointed a team of investigators to look into the circumstances leading to the Taliban's brief capture of the northern city of Kunduz as well as a U.S. airstrike that destroyed a hospital and killed at least 22 people there, his office said Saturday.

The five-man delegation appointed by presidential decree will leave soon for Kunduz to conduct a province-wide probe into how the insurgents were able to overrun the city on Sept. 28 and hold it for three days before government troops launched a counter offensive, Ghani's office said. Part of the team's mandate would include looking into the Oct. 3 airstrike on a trauma center run by the international charity Doctors Without Borders. The team would be led by the former head of the national intelligence agency, Amrullah Saleh, and would report to the president. The "fact-finding team" will deliver a "comprehensive report so that we know what happened in Kunduz, what kind of reforms should be brought and what are the lessons learned for the future," the president was quoted as saying.

Ten days after government troops entered Kunduz, they are still fighting to clear out pockets of Taliban insurgents, officials and residents said. Sarwar Hussaini, spokesman for the provincial police chief, said three areas of the city had been retaken overnight, though a gas station in Seh Darak was hit by a rocket and destroyed. Hussaini said he did not know which side was responsible. Kunduz resident Abdullah said that people were still leaving the city for safety. He said he had seen grocers emptying their shops of food to take home, fearing scarcities. He would only give his first name because of security concerns. The World Food Program said it was feeding thousands of people who had left Kunduz and were now living in camps in other cities in the north, and that "additional wheat is being milled in anticipation of increased needs in the coming days."

Food and water were still not getting through in adequate quantities, and the city remained without electricity, residents said. "The whole city is empty of people," Abdullah said. "Residents are still not feeling safe." Representatives of Doctors Without Borders met with Ghani and his national security adviser Mohammad Hanif Atmar on Friday, his office said in a statement. Ghani told them he had ordered Afghan security forces to ensure the protection of humanitarian organizations. The statement quoted him as saying investigations were needed "so that we know what happened in the incident, how information was collected, and how the incident happened based on that information."

MORE

See also:

Portraits of some of the victims in Kunduz hospital bombing
Oct 10,`15 -- On Oct. 3, a U.S. AC-130 gunship - at the request of Afghan ground forces fighting the Taliban, according to the American commander in Afghanistan Gen. John F. Campbell - mistakenly bombed a trauma hospital run by Doctors Without Borders in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, killing at least 10 patients and a dozen Afghan staffers. Many more were wounded, and many remain missing in the wreckage of the now-abandoned hospital. The aid group's international staff members have been accounted for. President Barack Obama apologized and the U.S. military is investigating. Family and friends of some of the victims spoke with The Associated Press. Here are their stories:

Muhibullah Waheedi

Waheedi, known as Dr. Muhibullah, 35, grew up in the Pakistani city of Quetta, where his family took refuge during the 1980s invasion of Afghanistan by the former Soviet Union. He graduated in medicine from Kunduz University before returning to Quetta, where he worked for two years with Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF. His was married with five children - three girls and two boys, the youngest aged three. He also had four brothers, three of them doctors. "When Kunduz was overrun by the Taliban, we brothers were living together in a house close to the MSF hospital, but as things got worse, the others decided to leave for safer places - except Muhibullah. He stayed because he believed MSF was safe, as all sides in the war respected its neutrality," said his brother Abdul Rahman.

"On the night of the bombing, he went to the hospital around 9 p.m., and we were in touch until about 11 p.m. when I went to bed. Around 1 p.m. on the following day, one of his friends called me and said Muhibullah's body had been found and he was dreadfully burned. I tried to get to the hospital, but there was shooting and it took me some time. "When I got there, I started looking for my brother among all the charred bodies but I couldn't recognize him. Finally, I had to ask the man who had called me to show me where Muhibullah was. I could hardly tell it was him. It was inhuman. I will never forget that moment. "I keep asking, why my innocent brother, who did nothing but help people no matter what side of the war they were on, was killed in this way?"

Aminullah Salarzai

Dr. Salarzai, 34, had worked in the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz for more than three years, after running a Comprehensive Health Center in Dasht-e-Archi district. He graduated from medical school at Balkh University, and was married with three children, the oldest a boy aged three, his cousin Hamdullah said. When the Taliban seized Kunduz on Sept. 28, Salarzai took his wife and children to Chahar Dara, where he'd been born and where he believed they would be safe. With his family secure, Salarzai worked around the clock at the hospital, said Hamdullah, who worked at the hospital as a cleaner. "We didn't get any sleep for three days because more and more patients kept coming in," he said. "The doctors didn't get a wink."

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[Bleipriester]

Once the Taliban honored Obama with the Nobel Violence Prize and it is doubtful which group should have the upper hand in Aghanisten: The Taliban or the local allies of the West whose dicks stick in little boys while the Taliban takes over Kunduz.

 

[irosie91]

The Taliban or the local allies of the West whose dicks stick in little boys while the Taliban takes over Kunduz.

who are the "local allies of the west"? the Pashtuns are-----culturally Iranian----
----it is from Persia that they have both their language and their "social customs"---
learn some history

 

[IsaacNewton]

In WW2 the Russians were our allies. Sometimes you pick the lesser of two evils until the worst is gone, then you work on the other. It has always been and always will be an imperfect world.

 

[irosie91]

In WW2 the Russians were our allies. Sometimes you pick the lesser of two evils until the worst is gone, then you work on the other. It has always been and always will be an imperfect world.

your point?? Captain blei has claimed that the US has allies in Afghanistan characterized by people who "stick their dicks in boys" as opposed to THE TALIBAN who-----it is clear, he considers to be morally superior to the local
"dick stickers" ----I am seeking clarification of that statement

 

[shadow355]

Nato special forces have joined Afghan troops in the increasingly desperate battle for Kunduz, as one of the last two government outposts in the strategic northern city surrendered to the Taliban.

The heavily besieged airport, which sits on a hilltop a few miles outside Kunduz, is now the only place held by the Afghan army. The nearby Bala Hisar fort fell when soldiers there ran out of ammunition, deputy provincial governor Hamdullah Daneshi said.

...“Our message to government officials and security personnel who are thinking about resistance or are hiding in fear of retribution is that they should abandon all negative thoughts spread about Mujahideen due to enemy propaganda,” said the Taliban’s new leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, in a statement posted online. “Mujahideen are not thinking about retribution but have come with a message of peace.”
Taliban widen offensive as Nato special forces join fight for Kunduz

Looks like peace to me. Afghans are still fleeing the country.

Looks like I have been misinformed.

I read the news about four or five years ago, that said the Taliban was destroyed and without leadership. It was dust in the wind and no longer an organized force.


Shadow 355

 

[waltky]

Tank commander got some `splainin' to do...

US tank forced its way into bombed Afghan hospital: MSF
Oct 15, 2015: A medical charity whose hospital in Afghanistan was bombed by the US military says an American tank forced its way onto the compound, contravening agreements they would be informed.

Doctors Without Borders said the "intrusion" Thursday was by a joint US-Nato-Afghan team investigating the October 3 bombing. The group says the incident violated an agreement that they "would be given notice before each step of the procedure involving the organization's personnel and assets."

"Their unannounced and forced entry damaged property, destroyed potential evidence and caused stress and fear," it said in a statement. The strike in Kunduz killed 10 patients and 12 staff. US President Barack Obama apologized for the bombing, which the commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan called a "mistake".

US tank forced its way into bombed Afghan hospital: MSF - The Times of India

 

[waltky]

Women targeted in Taliban takeover of Afghan city...

Taliban to women in Kunduz: Don't come back or we will kill you
Oct 17, 2015: Hiding in her basement, a Kunduz radio presenter was paralysed with fear when the Taliban came looking for her as they conducted house-to-house searches for working women after storming the northern Afghan city.

Long condemned as misogynistic zealots, the Taliban have sought to project a softened stance on female rights, but the insurgents' three-day occupation of Kunduz offers an ominous blueprint of what could happen should they ever return to power. Harrowing testimonies have emerged of death squads methodically targeting a host of female rights workers and journalists just hours after the city fell on September 28. When they knocked on the radio host's door, her uncle answered, she said, requesting anonymity due to safety concerns. "We know a woman in your house works in an office," she said they told him. "When my uncle denied it, he was taken outside and shot dead. His body lay in the streets for days — no one dared to go out and get it."

Such testimonies hark back to the Taliban's 1996-2001 rule of Afghanistan, when women were relegated to the shadows. Rights groups say female prisoners in Kunduz were raped and midwives were targeted for providing reproductive health services to women. Rampaging insurgents destroyed three radio stations run by women, looted a girls' school and ransacked offices working for female empowerment, stealing their computers and smashing their equipment, according to several sources including activists and local residents. One of their main targets were women's shelters, which give refuge countrywide to runaway girls, domestic abuse victims and those at the risk of "honour killings" by their relatives.

The Taliban have often denounced the shelters as dens of "immorality" and labelled the women who seek shelter there as "sluts". "Where are you hiding those women from the shelter?" Haseena Sarwari recalled being asked in an abrupt phone call from the head of the Taliban's vice and virtue department soon after they took the city. "They are safely in Kabul," Sarwari, the Kunduz director of Women for Afghan Women, a NGO which ran a shelter housing 13 women, said she told the insurgent. "He laughed and said: 'It's good for them they managed to get away'." That shelter has since been burned down.

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'Jihadi John made me tango dance with him and then beat me': Freed ISIS hostage describes torture
Oct 17, 2015 - A former ISIS hostage held with Alan Henning and James Foley has described how their murderer, "Jihadi John", forced him to dance the tango as part of a regime of torture and humiliation.

Daniel Rye Ottosen, a 26-year-old freelance photographer from Denmark, was freed in June last year after his family paid the extremist group a large ransom for his life. He was the last western hostage to be released before ISIS started beheading his fellow captives, starting with Foley before killing Steven Sotloff, David Haines, Henning and Adbul-Rahman (Peter) Kassig. They were all decapitated by the British militant named by authorities as Mohammed Emwazi, known as "Jihadi John" for his part in the UK terror cell dubbed "The Beatles".

Giving his first public interview to Danish national broadcaster DR on Sunday, Ottosen described the brutal and sometimes bizarre torture inflicted upon him. "Do you want to dance?" he remembers Emwazi asking. "He pulled me up, and then we had to dance the tango together. "At that point I just kept looking at the ground, I did not want to look at them because then you would get even more beatings. "He led me around the prison, and all of a sudden it changed and he pushed down and they kicked and beat me. "They ended by giving me a ride when then threatened to cut my nose off with wire cutters."

Ottosen was held with a changing group of hostages including 19 men and five women from 13 different countries, DR reported. He and the other captives were forbidden from communicating with the outside world during their captivity but he memorized the last message left by Foley and passed it on to the journalist's family.

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Hospital was used by insurgents...

Afghan Defense Minister: Taliban Hid in Bombed Hospital
October 19, 2015 — Afghanistan's acting defense minister says the hospital that was bombed by U.S. forces was being used by insurgents who were fighting government forces.

Masoom Stanekzai said on Monday that Taliban insurgents and possibly Pakistani operatives had used the Doctors Without Borders facility in the city of Kunduz as a “safe place.”

The hospital in Kunduz after an alleged U.S. airstrike Saturday killed at least 19 people, including three children, according to officials with the international medical charity Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF.​

The hospital was bombed by a U.S. AC-130 gunship in the early hours of Oct. 3, killing at least 22 people and injuring many more. The main building was destroyed and the hospital has closed.

The medical charity has repeatedly denied the presence of Taliban fighters at the time. Stanekzai said a Taliban flag had been hoisted on the walls around the hospital compound. He added that Afghanistan will not support an independent investigation, as the charity has demanded.

Afghan Defense Minister: Taliban Hid in Bombed Hospital

 

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Kunduz - again...

Taliban Launches Attack on Kunduz
October 03, 2016 - Officials in northern Afghanistan say the Taliban has launched a coordinated attack on Kunduz and insurgents have entered the city.

Authorities say the Monday morning attack was launched from several directions and security forces are pushing back the insurgents. A Taliban spokesman said the militants have captured several checkpoints in the city. The Taliban offensive on the city comes one day ahead of a major donor conference in Brussels where Afghan President Ashraf Ghani will meet with world powers in a bid to secure money to rebuild his war-ravaged country.

Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers stand next to an outpost where 12 soldiers were killed by their comrades in the northern city of Kunduz, Afghanistan​

In September 2015, the Taliban seized Kunduz and held it for several days before withdrawing. Afghan forces, assisted by the U.S. and advisors from NATO’s Resolute Support mission, have mostly focused their efforts this year on defending urban centers in several northern provinces, including Kunduz, as well as Helmand in the south. But the Islamist insurgency has recently opened new war fronts in parts of eastern, southeastern and central Afghanistan, putting pressure on already stretched out Afghan security forces.

The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, recently revealed that in July alone more than 900 Afghan soldiers and policemen were killed while battling the Taliban insurgency. In the wake of intensified conflict and mounting pressures on Afghan refugees in neighboring Pakistan, more than one million people in Afghanistan are anticipated to be on the move by the end of this year, according to the United Nations. This population will add to an estimated 1.2 million people already displaced from their homes.

Taliban Launches Attack on Kunduz

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US Says Afghan Aid ‘Is Not a Blank Check’
October 01, 2016 - The international community is looking for signs of progress on key issues ahead of an international conference on Afghanistan in Brussels next week, said Ambassador Richard Olson, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The European Union and the National Unity government of Afghanistan will co-host the Brussels Conference on Afghanistan starting Tuesday. Representatives from more than 70 countries and dozens of international organizations and agencies are expected to attend. After nearly 15 years of war and billions of dollars in international aid, the Afghan government still needs international support. But Olson said that support should not be taken for granted.

“U.S. and international support for Afghanistan is not a blank check. Our support is conditioned and conditional on Afghan progress,” said Olson at an event organized by the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at John Hopkins University on Thursday. “Our collective ability to continue providing significant levels of support to Afghanistan is dependent on the Afghan government’s performance and ability to work with us as an effective partner.” Olson told VOA there are four areas of concern in the international community. “First of all, further commitments on anti-corruption, electoral reforms, reforms on fiscal sustainability and on human rights, including rights of women,” he said.

Program of reforms

The Brussels Conference is aimed at endorsing a realistic program of reforms by the Afghan government to ensure continued international political and financial support for the country’s political and economic stability, state building and development over the next four years. The meeting will be the second international conference on Afghanistan this year. It follows NATO’s Warsaw Summit in July, where U.S. and other NATO member countries pledged to continue to deliver training, advice and assistance to Afghan security institutions.They also agreed to fund the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) until 2020 by providing up to $5 billion a year to the Afghan government, a big chunk of which would be paid by the United States.

At the Brussels Conference, which is an extension of the 2012 Tokyo International Conference on Afghanistan, it remains to be seen whether the Afghan leaders will be able to convince the international community that they are on the right path to reforms and have delivered on promises they made in earlier conferences. If its government convinces the international community, Afghanistan will receive a pledge of more than $3 billion a year in development support until 2020, Olson added.

Endemic corruption

 

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Afghan security forces drive Taliban fighters out of Kunduz city center...

Kunduz assault: Afghan forces 'in control of city'
Mon, 03 Oct 2016 - Afghan security forces drive Taliban fighters out of Kunduz city centre after a day of fierce fighting, Nato and local authorities say.

Taliban fighters earlier appeared to have breached the city, reportedly raising their flag in a central square. In a major victory, Kunduz was briefly captured by the Taliban in September 2015 but government forces, backed by Nato, recaptured it within days. Special forces have been flown in from Kabul to help repel the latest assault. "The city centre is now in our hands and not in their hands. We are launching an attack to clean up the area," Kunduz police chief Kassim Jangal Bagh told the AFP news agency. The Nato-led Resolute Support mission said Afghan security forces were in control of the city and its main square "with additional troops coming".

Afghan policemen keep watch in central Kunduz, Afghanistan​

Fighting is continuing near the city's police headquarters, governor's compound and National Directorate of Security headquarters, Reuters news agency reports, citing officials. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said via his official Twitter account: "A massive operation started on Kunduz capital from four directions early this morning." The Taliban later said they had seized the roundabout and several checkpoints, but did not claim to have captured the city. The Pentagon has suggested the assault was less serious than it may have appeared. "We see the Taliban go into these city centres, do a Western-movie style shoot-them-up, do some raiding, do some looting, raise a flag, and just as quickly as they do that, they are beaten right back out again," spokesman Jeff Davis said. According to Afghanistan's interior ministry, at least one policeman was killed and four wounded in Monday's fighting, AP reports.

The fighting comes a day before a major donors' conference in Brussels and highlights the precarious security situation after Nato pulled out combat forces. In southern Helmand province, militants also took a strategically important district to the south of Lashkar Gah, killing the local police chief, officials said earlier on Monday. A number of other police casualties were also reported. The capture of Kunduz by the Taliban last September was a huge blow to the country's Western-backed government. The militants abandoned the city after four days but they had proved their growing capability by taking their first major city. The group raided Tarin Kot, the provincial capital of Uruzgan, last month. Afghan government forces are estimated to have control over no more than two-thirds of Afghanistan.

Kunduz assault: Afghan forces 'in control of city' - BBC News

 

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Taliban holdin' out against Afghan forces...

Taliban resist Afghan forces' counterattack in northern city of Kunduz
Tue Oct 4, 2016 | Pockets of Taliban fighters held out overnight against Afghan government forces in the northern city of Kunduz, a police official said on Tuesday, a day after the militants pushed deep into the city center.

Taliban militants slipped past government defenses early on Monday and occupied or attacked central areas of Kunduz, almost exactly a year after they briefly captured the city in one of their biggest successes of the 15-year war. The attack in Kunduz, as well as Taliban gains in areas of Helmand and Uruzgan where they also threaten provincial capitals, has underlined the insurgents' growing strength and exposed weaknesses in the government, which is meeting international donors in Brussels this week to try to secure billions of dollars in additional aid.

Afghan security forces keep watch in front of their armoured vehicle in Kunduz city, Afghanistan​

Backed by U.S. special forces and air support as well as warplanes of their own, Afghan soldiers and police sought to clear the city overnight, said Kunduz police chief Qasim Jangalbagh. Taliban fighters, seeking to reimpose Islamic law after their 2001 ouster, remained in several areas of the city but Afghan forces had made progress, he said. "We have received reinforcement and have air support," Jangalbagh said. "More then 25 enemies are killed so far and we have retaken several places. We are committed to clear the city."

Afghan security forces keep watch in front of their armoured vehicle in Kunduz city, Afghanistan​

Three members of the government security forces had been killed, with another eight wounded, he reported. As of late Monday night, the U.S. military command in Kabul said it had yet to conduct air strikes in Kunduz against what the Pentagon called a "Western-movie style shoot-them-up" raid by the Taliban. American special forces as well as aircraft were positioned near the city to provide support if needed, officials said.

Taliban resist Afghan forces' counterattack in northern city of Kunduz

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Afghanistan Appeals for Aid to Keep Afghan Migrants at Home
October 03, 2016 - Afghanistan is appealing to European donors to open their wallets at an international donors' conference Wednesday, arguing that jobs created through development projects will help stem the tide of migrants that is destabilizing the European continent.

High unemployment combined with growing insecurity drove nearly 200,000 Afghans to Europe last year, exacerbating the global migrant crisis. European nations have struggled to cope with the flood of young Afghan asylum seekers, and exerted pressure on Afghanistan to roll back the human exodus. "If we hesitate to address the migration issue, public opinion in European countries will change, and this could impact aid," Eklil Hakimi, Afghanistan's finance minister, told Afghan lawmakers Sunday.

Refugees and migrants, mostly from Afghanistan, walk toward the transit center for refugees near the northern Macedonian village of Tabanovce, after being returned from Serbia​

Salahuddin Rabbani, the Afghan foreign minister, added that European nations have warned Afghanistan that it risked a reduction in aid if it did not act on migration. "The migrant crisis has changed politics in the host countries," Rabbani told members of Afghanistan's lower house of Parliament. "They have put forward strict immigration laws and repeatedly asked Afghanistan to take responsibility for its asylum seekers." Afghan officials say they can stop the migration to Europe, but they need international support to create jobs that will keep the youth in the country.

Support for Afghanistan

The two officials are accompanying President Ashraf Ghani and CEO Dr. Abdullah Abdullah to the Brussels conference where Afghanistan will present its new national peace and development framework — a five-year reform, governance and economic development plan. Afghanistan and the European Union are co-hosting the conference, which will be attended by representatives from more than 70 countries and 20 international organizations and agencies. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry are among conference speakers. The development framework, which aims to "achieve self-reliance and increase the welfare of [the Afghan] people," requires billions of dollars in funding. Hakimi estimated that donors will pledge $3.5 billion toward financing the development plan.

Afghan migrants on an overcrowded inflatable boat approach the Greek island of Lesbos in bad weather after crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey​

Among major donors, Britain said this week it would provide almost $1 billion in development aid to Afghanistan over the next five years. A State Department spokesman declined to say how much the U.S. planned to commit and referred questions to the conference organizers. James Cunningham, who served as U.S. ambassador to Kabul from 2012 to 2014, said there is wide support for continued commitment to Afghanistan. "Another cause for optimism is it's pretty unprecedented to have that degree of international agreement on almost anything," Cunningham said Monday, speaking on a panel about Afghanistan at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

Creating jobs