Afghanistan struggles to safeguard stability as fragile state faces abrupt US withdrawal


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Afghan forces at the vast Bagram airbase were shocked to find remaining US troops had suddenly left overnight without informing them of any formal handover.

Set in the imposing mountainous terrain of the country's east, Bagram has become emblematic of the international coalition’s failure in Afghanistan, which went from a small counterterrorism effort to destroy Al Qaeda’s most important base of operations to a multi-decade “nation building effort”.

The site, originally built by the former Soviet Union in the 1950s, is the size of a small town and could accommodate up to 100,000 military personnel at the height of Western involvement in the country.

Now large parts of the base are eerily deserted and many buildings have been looted of what little was left behind by the Americans as they departed last week, with desperate locals finding what they can to sell as scrap.

US forces destroyed vast amounts of non-military material at the site that would have been more expensive to fly out of the country.

“We [heard] some rumour that the Americans had left Bagram … and finally by 7am, we understood that it was confirmed that they had already left Bagram,” Gen Mir Asadullah Kohistani, the field’s new commander said.

“In one night they lost all the goodwill of 20 years by leaving the way they did, in the night, without telling the Afghan soldiers who were outside patrolling the area,” said Afghan troop Naematullah, who asked for his full name not to be used.

On Tuesday, the Pentagon insisted it had co-ordinated with Afghan authorities but did not provide the exact hour of the final US departure from the base for security reasons.

"This wasn’t done in a vacuum," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.

"Afghan leaders – civilian and military – were appropriately co-ordinated with and briefed about the turnover of Bagram Airbase."

While the base is in better condition than when the coalition arrived in 2001, much of the site was destroyed in the Afghan civil war of the 1990s by the time international forces arrived and it is feared the airfield could soon become another warzone as Taliban militants advance relentlessly against the Afghan Army.

Gen Kohistani meanwhile said the nearly 20 years of US and Nato involvement in Afghanistan was appreciated but now it was time for Afghans to step up.

“We have to solve our problem. We have to secure our country and once again build our country with our own hands,” he said.


An Afghan soldier takes a selfie inside Bagram's US airbase, about 70 kilometres north of Kabul, after all American and Nato troops left on Monday. AFP
An Afghan soldier takes a selfie inside Bagram's US airbase, about 70 kilometres north of Kabul, after all American and Nato troops left on Monday. AFP

US embassy on high alert

The completion of the US withdrawal now leaves a crumbling Afghan Army to hold back a surge of Taliban advances, with many provinces on the edge of falling to complete takeover by the militants.

US intelligence assessments about the balance of forces remaining in the country predict the Taliban could gain complete control within six months.

The Long War Journal website, which has tracked the conflict since 2008, says the majority of Afghans now live in areas under Taliban control, with 11.3 million people now living in territory in militant hands and 10.8 million living in government-controlled districts.

Those remaining districts may not simply be contested between the government and the Taliban, but instead an array of local militias and security forces could fragment and ethnic violence could take hold.

“Civil war is certainly a path that can be visualised if it continues on the trajectory it is on,” said Gen Austin Miller, the commander of the US-led mission in Afghanistan, at a press conference on Tuesday. “That should be a concern for the world.”

It is now feared the US diplomatic presence in the country could become untenable.

A US Embassy representative told the Associated Press that security assessments were frequent these days. Speaking on condition of anonymity in line with briefing rules, she said the embassy was currently down to 1,400 US citizens and about 4,000 staff working inside the compound.

The Australian Embassy closed and most other Western embassies reduced their staff.

Most expatriate or foreign staff with international aid organisations in Kabul also left, said Naemat Rohi, deputy director of Akbar, an umbrella organisation representing 167 aid organisations, including 87 international charities.

“They said they were going on R&R, but that was just so as not to create panic among their local staff ... they were leaving for their security reasons,” he said.

The exodus prompted the Taliban to issue multiple statements assuring aid groups and Afghans working for Western organisations they had nothing to fear.

Afghan soldiers and residents flee

A day before, more than 1,000 Afghan troops fled into neighbouring Tajikistan following clashes with the Taliban, as the insurgents gained momentum on the battlefield.

The exodus of troops followed another weekend of fighting across much of the northern countryside where the Taliban have overrun dozens of districts, spurring fears that Afghan forces are in crisis.

"Afghan forces have lost their morale," said analyst Atta Noori in Kabul.

"They are confused – in almost every district that the Taliban capture, they send a team of elders to talk to the soldiers and get them to surrender."

"It is an emergency situation for the Afghan government. They need to step up their counteroffensive as soon as possible."

The Taliban pressed on with their offensive across the north at the weekend, seizing most of Badakhshan and Takhar provinces with government forces holding little more than the provincial capitals.

The speed and ease of the Taliban's effective takeover of the provinces represent a massive psychological blow to the Afghan government.

Both provinces had once served as strongholds for the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance during the gruesome civil war in the 1990s and were never routed by the militants.

On the borders, Tajikistan rushed its own troops to "strengthen" the border, while Moscow said it had temporarily closed one of its consulates in Afghanistan's north as the security situation deteriorated.

The Afghan soldiers "did not want to surrender. They had asked for reinforcements but their call was ignored," said Abdul Basir, a soldier based with a battalion in Badakhshan province that had members flee over the border.

Tens of thousands of Afghan families are fleeing to escape the Taliban’s rapid advance into the country’s northern region, part of a larger refugee crisis that is brewing as the US speeds up its troop withdrawal after two decades of war.

The militants have burnt farmland and forced citizens to leave their towns and villages, Mohammad Amiri, a deputy spokesman for President Ashraf Ghani, said by phone on Monday. “The Taliban prefers violence over talks and has accelerated its violence nationwide in order to achieve its own political agenda,” he said.

Western security officials said insurgent forces have captured more than 100 districts but the Taliban say they have control of more than 200 districts in 34 provinces comprising over half the Central Asian country.

In one night they lost all the goodwill of 20 years by leaving the way they did, in the night, without telling the Afghan soldiers who were outside patrolling the area
Naematullah,
Afghan soldier

Peace talks

While the transfer of Bagram Air Base to the Afghan Army added momentum to a Taliban drive to seize control over new districts, Taliban leaders renewed the long-stalled talks with Afghan government envoys in Qatar's capital Doha last week.

"The peace talks and process will be accelerated in the coming days ... and they are expected to enter an important stage. Naturally it will be about peace plans," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters on Monday.

"Possibly it will take a month to reach that stage when both sides will share their written peace plan," he said. The latest round of talks were at a critical juncture, he said.

"Although we [Taliban] have the upper hand on the battlefield, we are very serious about talks and dialogue."

Responding to a request for comment on Mr Mujahid's remarks, a US State Department representative said a negotiated settlement was the only way to end 40 years of war in Afghanistan.

"We urge the sides to engage in serious negotiations to determine a political roadmap for Afghanistan’s future that leads to a just and durable settlement," the official said.

"The world will not accept the imposition by force of a government in Afghanistan. Legitimacy and assistance for any Afghan government can only be possible if that government has a basic respect for human rights."

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Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts

Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.

The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.

Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.

More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.

The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.

Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:

November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.

May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.

April 2017Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.

February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.

December 2016A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.

July 2016Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.

May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.

New Year's Eve 2011A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.

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New central waste facility on site at expo Dubai South area to  handle estimated 173 tonne of waste generated daily by millions of visitors

Recyclables such as plastic, paper, glass will be collected from bins on the expo site and taken to the new expo Central Waste Facility on site

Organic waste will be processed at the new onsite Central Waste Facility, treated and converted into compost to be re-used to green the expo area

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Recycling at Ras Al Khor unit:

Plastic items to be converted to plastic bags and recycled

Paper pulp moulded products such as cup carriers, egg trays, seed pots, and food packaging trays

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While you're here

'Unrivaled: Why America Will Remain the World’s Sole Superpower'
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Tearful appearance

Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday. 

Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow. 

She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.

A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.

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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
10 tips for entry-level job seekers
  • Have an up-to-date, professional LinkedIn profile. If you don’t have a LinkedIn account, set one up today. Avoid poor-quality profile pictures with distracting backgrounds. Include a professional summary and begin to grow your network.
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  • Double check that you’ve highlighted relevant skills on your resume and LinkedIn profile.
  • For most entry-level jobs, your resume will first be filtered by an applicant tracking system for keywords. Look closely at the description of the job you are applying for and mirror the language as much as possible (while being honest and accurate about your skills and experience).
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  • Go online and look for details on job specifications for your target position. Make a list of skills required and set yourself some learning goals to tick off all the necessary skills one by one.
  • Don’t be afraid to reach outside your immediate friends and family to other acquaintances and let them know you are looking for new opportunities.
  • Make sure you’ve set your LinkedIn profile to signal that you are “open to opportunities”. Also be sure to use LinkedIn to search for people who are still actively hiring by searching for those that have the headline “I’m hiring” or “We’re hiring” in their profile.
  • Prepare for online interviews using mock interview tools. Even before landing interviews, it can be useful to start practising.
  • Be professional and patient. Always be professional with whoever you are interacting with throughout your search process, this will be remembered. You need to be patient, dedicated and not give up on your search. Candidates need to make sure they are following up appropriately for roles they have applied.

Arda Atalay, head of Mena private sector at LinkedIn Talent Solutions, Rudy Bier, managing partner of Kinetic Business Solutions and Ben Kinerman Daltrey, co-founder of KinFitz

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How to join and use Abu Dhabi’s public libraries

• There are six libraries in Abu Dhabi emirate run by the Department of Culture and Tourism, including one in Al Ain and Al Dhafra.

• Libraries are free to visit and visitors can consult books, use online resources and study there. Most are open from 8am to 8pm on weekdays, closed on Fridays and have variable hours on Saturdays, except for Qasr Al Watan which is open from 10am to 8pm every day.

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Updated: July 06, 2021, 7:55 PM`