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☆ Water shortages are likely brewing future wars — with several flashpoints across the globe
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-05 | by ( Sam Meredith | In Samuelmeredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

The Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), a non-profit with expertise in water governance, has said that even amid a possible rise in social conflicts and violence, "water can be a bridge to peaceful negotiations rather than a trigger or weapon of war." The severity of the global water crisis has been further underlined by an alarming rise in the number of security incidents. Egypt-Ethiopia tensionsVillanova University's Galgano identified nine international river basins as flashpoints in which conflict is either already taking place or the potential for armed conflict is high. These included the Nile Basin in Africa, the Tigris-Euphrates River Basins of southwestern Asia and the Helmand and Harirud Rivers along the border of Afghanistan and Iran. Major international river basins in conflict.

Persons: Hamed, Francis Galgano, You've, you've, Galgano, Idrees Mohammed, Villanova University's Galgano, Harirud Rivers, GERD, They've, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Hussein Faleh Organizations: Afp, Getty, Villanova University in, CNBC, Department, Environment, Villanova University, Stockholm International Water Institute, World Resources Institute, Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP, Control, Villanova Locations: Lake Urmia, Iran, Villanova University in Pennsylvania, transboundary, Stockholm, Bengaluru, Mexico's, Tehran, India, Egypt, Ethiopia, Africa, Asia, Helmand, Harirud, Afghanistan, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iraq's, Basra

☆ Afghanistan opium poppy supply plummets 95% after Taliban ban, U.N. says
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-05 | by ( Charlotte Greenfield | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] An Afghan man walks through a poppy field in the Gereshk district of Helmand province, Afghanistan April 8, 2016. REUTERS/Abdul Malik/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsNov 5 (Reuters) - Opium poppy production in Afghanistan, previously the world's top supplier, has plummeted since the Taliban administration banned the cultivation of narcotics last year, a United Nations report said on Sunday. During their previous rule, the Taliban in 2000 banned poppy cultivation as they sought international legitimacy but faced popular a backlash, according to experts. Many of the provinces where the Taliban has historically had high levels of support, such as southern Helmand, have a large concentration of opium poppy cultivation. The UNODC said many farmers had switched to growing wheat but that this earned significantly less than poppy.

Persons: Abdul Malik, UNODC, Charlotte Greenfield, William Mallard Organizations: REUTERS, United, Drugs, Thomson Locations: Afghan, Gereshk, Helmand province, Afghanistan, United Nations, Helmand

☆ Pakistan speeds up Afghans' repatriation after deadline expires
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-03 | by ( Mushtaq Ali | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Those arriving in Afghanistan complained of hardships they had to face to move out of Pakistan and uncertainty over their future. We had very bad situation," said Mohammad Ismael Rafi, 55, who said he lived for 22 years in the southwestern Pakistani border town of Chaman where he had a retail business. Pakistani authorities started rounding up foreigners, most of them Afghans, hours before the deadline. Khan, the official, said 19,744 Afghans had crossed the Torkham border on Thursday, 147,949 in total since the government announced the deadline. More than 35,000 undocumented Afghans have left through another southwestern Pakistani border crossing at Chaman.

Persons: Abdul Nasir Khan, Mohammad Ismael Rafi, Rafi, Sarfraz, Khan, Asif Shahzad, Ariba Shahid, Mohammad Yunus Yawar, Kim Coghill, Nick Macfie Organizations: United Nations, Refugees, Kabul, Reuters, Authorities, Norwegian Refugee Council, Danish Refugee Council, International, Thomson Locations: burqa, Pakistan, UNHCR, Azakhel, Nowshera, PESHAWAR, Afghanistan, Torkham, Khyber, Pakistani, Chaman, Kandahar, Helmand province, Peshawar, U.S, Karachi, Kabul

☆ Water wars: Afghanistan and Iran's deadly border flare-up spotlights scarcity crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-19 | by ( Natasha Turak | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Kajaki Hydroelectric Dam in Kajaki, Afghanistan in the Helmand province on June 4, 2018 in Kajaki, Afghanistan. Iranian and Afghan border guards clashed on May 27, exchanging heavy gunfire that killed two Iranian guards and one Taliban soldier and wounded several others. A dangerous borderThe 580-mile border between Afghanistan and Iran is porous and crawling with crime, predominantly coming from the Afghan side into Iran. "Iran's Afghan border has always been its most vulnerable," said Kamal Alam, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's South Asia Center. In the 1950s, Afghanistan built two major dams that limited the flow of water from the Helmand river into Iran.

Persons: Maplecroft, Wakil Kohsar, Soltvedt, Kamal Alam, Alam, Ryan Bohl, Rane, Ebrahim Raisi, Yamil Lage Organizations: Orbital, Copernicus Sentinel, Getty Images, CNBC, Taliban, Afp, Getty, Asia Center, East Locations: Kajaki, Afghanistan, Helmand, Getty Images Iran, Iran, Tehran, destabilization, East, North Africa, Afghan, Zaranj, Iran's, Khuzestan, Nimruz, Helmand Province, Sistan, Baluchistan, Havana, Cuba

☆ At Least Three Are Killed in Clashes on Iranian-Afghan Border
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( Christina Goldbaum | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At least three people were killed and several others injured after clashes broke out along the Iranian-Afghan border on Saturday night, according to Iranian state media and an Afghan official, escalating tensions between the two countries amid a heated dispute over water rights in recent weeks. At least two Iranian border guards were killed in the fighting, which began around noon on Saturday and ended after six hours along the southwestern border of Afghanistan, according to Iranian state media and Afghan news reports. One soldier with the Taliban administration in Afghanistan was also killed, the Afghan Ministry of Interior said. An official in southeastern Iran said that calm had returned to the border area on Saturday night, according to Iranian state media. The mouth of the river is along the border in southwestern Afghanistan and southeastern Iran, where the clashes took place.

☆ At least three killed in clash on Iran-Afghan border
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

DUBAI, May 27 (Reuters) - Two Iranian border guards and one Taliban fighter were killed after shooting broke out near a border post between Iran and Afghanistan, a Taliban spokesman and Iran's state media said on Saturday. "Today, in Nimroz province, Iranian border forces fired toward Afghanistan, which was met with a counter-reaction," spokesman for the Taliban-run interior ministry, Abdul Nafi Takor, said in a statement. He said one person had been killed on each side and several injured, though Iran's official IRNA news agency later said two Iranian border guards had been killed and two Iranian civilians injured. Following the clash, Iranian authorities closed the Milak – Zaranj border post, a major commercial crossing - and not the site of the clash - until further notice, IRNA said. Iran's border guards said in a statement they had "used their superior heavy fire to inflict casualties and serious damage", IRNA reported, without giving details.

☆ ‘America and the Taliban’ Part 1 Review: The Afghanistan Disaster on PBS
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Correspondent Martin Smith speaks with Taliban officials and the governor of Helmand province in AfghanistanThere’s no shortage of pathos in “America and the Taliban,” a three-part “Frontline” presentation about the painfully long involvement of the U.S. with the radical Islamist movement currently in control of Afghanistan. The waste, the futility, the misjudgments and the loss of life portrayed are profound, troubling and presented with such an abundance of bewildering evidence that it is all but overwhelming. Adding to the poignancy is the presence of reporter and producer Martin Smith , who has covered the Taliban as long as there has been a Taliban (est. 1994) and whose younger self pops up here and there among the archival footage. His present-day face reveals an even wearier resignation about the fate of Afghanistan and the honesty of its leadership.

☆ The 3 best tanks on earth
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( Brent M. Eastwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The three best tanks on Earth, let the debate begin: Are tanks still useful in the 21st century? I can offer three tanks that deserve clear recognition as the three best tanks on Earth, although I will admit, there is room for debate. Here are all of the reasons why:3 best tanks on earth: Meet the M1 AbramsAn M1A2 Abrams fires a sabot round. 3 best tanks on earth: Meet the K2 Black PantherA South Korean K-2 tank in June 2012. 3 best tanks on earth: the German LeopardGerman army Leopard 2 tanks in Munster in October 2015.

However, in the age of Apaches and laptops, everything I did in the course of two tours of duty was recorded and time-stamped,” Harry writes. The disagreement came at a planned reconciliatory tea at Kensington Palace in June 2018, Harry writes. According to the book, Kate told Meghan: “You talked about my hormones. We are not close enough for you to talk about my hormones!”According to Harry, Meghan recalled the conversation but was perplexed at Kate's reaction. Harry writes: "What I do remember with stunning clarity is that I did not cry.

☆ Taliban leader hits out at Prince Harry for calling his Afghanistan kills 'chess pieces' in new tell-all book
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Natasha Turak | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The early release of Prince Harry's tell-all memoir "Spare" is triggering anger from plenty of different sources, from loyal monarchy supporters to television pundits and ordinary Brits — and most recently, the Taliban. Among the many controversial revelations in the memoir is Harry's disclosure that he killed 25 Taliban fighters while on deployment in Afghanistan with the British Army. The ones you killed were not chess pieces, they were humans; they had families who were waiting for their return. Haqqani added, "Our innocent people were chess pieces to your soldiers, military and political leaders. The Taliban returned to full power over Afghanistan when the U.S. withdrew its last troops from the country in August of 2021.

☆ They were on the run from the Taliban, abandoned by their US allies — until a Wall Street banker decided to smuggle them out of Afghanistan
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-23 | by ( Nina Burleigh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +29 min

His daughter worked for the US-backed government in Kabul, prosecuting the Taliban and their followers for acts of violence against women. The war in Afghanistan effectively began on 9/11, with the attacks on Wall Street and the Pentagon. Last summer, when the Taliban overran Kabul, Calbos was in Greece visiting his father. "I see kind of a mirror image to mine in his history and his family," Calbos says. With the clock ticking on the family's temporary visas, Calbos scrambled to arrange a flight out of Pakistan.

☆ Afghanistan is being overrun by crystal meth
▼ + stars: | 2021-05-07 | by ( Ali Latifi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

The US is leaving behind a flourishing, violent trade in heroin and crystal meth in Afghanistan. HERAT, Afghanistan — For weeks, Afghan police had been staking out a single-family house they believed was being used as a meth lab. Afghanistan's drug trade generates an estimated $35 million a month for the Taliban and drug gangs. A mysterious grassIn 2017, rumors circulated in western Afghanistan that a mysterious form of grass had been found to contain the key ingredient in crystal meth. "So long as this war continues, the drug trade will continue to grow bigger and bigger.

☆ Afganistan: Talibanii au lansat un puternic atac la câteva zile după ce trupele NATO și-au început retragerea
▼ + stars: | 2021-05-05 | by ( ) www.jurnal.md time to read: +1 min

Sursa foto: AFPAfganistan: Talibanii au lansat un puternic atac la câteva zile după ce trupele NATO și-au început retragereaTalibanii au provocat luni un atac puternic în sudul provinciei Helmand, în apropierea graniței cu Pakistan, un loc în care armata britanică și cea americană au suferit cele mai mari pierderi, pe parcursul războiului de 20 de ani cu talibanii. Sute de familii din regiune și-au părăsit deja locuințele. Acesta precizează că peste 100 de talibani au fost uciși în atacul de la Helmand, deși nu a menționat numărul pierderilor suferite de forțele de securitate. Pe 1 mai a început retragerea trupelor americane și NATO din Afganistan, operațiune care urmează să se încheie pe 11 septembrie, după cum a anunțat președintele american Joe Biden. În ziua începerii retragerii, au fost intensificate măsurile de securitate în capitala Kabul, în așteptarea unor reacții din partea talibanilor.

Persons: commando, Joe Biden Organizations: NATO, Apărării Locations: Afganistan, Helmand, Pakistan, Kabul

☆ Talibanii au lansat o ofensivă masivă în Afganistan înainte de retragerea trupelor SUA și NATO
▼ + stars: | 2021-05-04 | by ( ) www.jurnal.md time to read: +2 min

Sursa foto: Profimedia ImagesTalibanii au lansat o ofensivă masivă în Afganistan înainte de retragerea trupelor SUA și NATOForțele de securitate afgane au oprit o ofensivă majoră a talibanilor în sudul provinciei Helmand, în ultimele 24 de ore, conform oficialilor și locuitorilor din zonă. „A fost o furtună de explozii și sunete de foc de armă”, spune Mulah Jan, locuitor al unei suburbii din Lashkar Gah. Attaulah Aghan, șeful consiliului provinciei Helmand a declarat că Talibanii și-au lansat ofensiva masivă chiar de luni, din mai multe direcții, atacând puncte de control de la marginea Lashkar Gah, pe unele chiar luându-le cu asalt. Deși Statele Unite au ratat termenul limită de retragere a trupelor stabilit la 1 mai, termen care fusese stabilit printr-un acord cu reprezentanții Talibanilor, președintele Joe Biden a anunțat o retragere completă din Afganistan până în 11 septembrie. Ca parte a retragerii trupelor americane din Afganistan, SUA a predat baza din Helmand către trupele afgane în urmă cu două zile.

Persons: Joe Biden, Biden Organizations: NATO, afgan Locations: Afganistan, SUA, Helmand, Statele Unite, anglo, Logar

☆ O jurnalistă şi şoferul ei, împuşcaţi în mașină, în orașul Jalalabad
▼ + stars: | 2020-12-10 | by ( Publika.Md - Aici Sunt Știrile | ) www.publika.md time to read: +1 min

În 2017, mai multe persoane, între care un şofer al postului de televiziune au fost ucise într-o explozie în apropiere de sediul acestuia. În 2018, directorul canalului a fost răpit de necunoscuţi înarmaţi, dar a fost eliberat mai târziu. Atacul de joi nu a fost deocamdată revendicat. În 2019, cel puţin 10 jurnalişti şi membri de personal din media au fost ucişi pe teritoriul acestei ţări. Anul precedent a fost însă şi mai sângeros, cu 20 de reporteri şi lucrători din media ucişi în diferite atacuri violente.

Persons: afgani Locations: Jalalabad, Nangarhar, Afganistanului, Kabul, afgană, Helmand

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