Cincunri Sakia

Sabtu, 07 Agustus 2021

Kabul blast claimed by Taliban kills Afghan air force pilot - Al Jazeera English

Officials said Afghan air force pilot Hamidullah Azimi died when a sticky bomb attached to his vehicle detonated.

An Afghan air force pilot has been killed in a bomb blast in Kabul, claimed by the Taliban, officials said.

The pilot, Hamidullah Azimi, died on Saturday when a sticky bomb attached to his vehicle detonated, officials said, adding that five civilians were wounded in the explosion.

Azimi was trained to fly US-made UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and had served with the Afghan air force for almost four years, the forces’ commander, Abdul Fatah Eshaqzai, told the Reuters news agency.

He had moved to Kabul with his family a year ago due to security threats, Eshaqzai added.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed the attack in a statement.

Reuters was first to detail a Taliban campaign to assassinate pilots off-base that Afghan officials say killed at least seven Afghan pilots before Saturday’s killing.

The Taliban has confirmed a programme that would see US-trained Afghan pilots “targeted and eliminated”.

US and Afghan officials believe it is a deliberate effort to destroy Afghanistan’s corps of US- and NATO-trained military pilots as fighting escalates across the country.

The Taliban – which has no air force – wants to level the playing field as they press major ground offensives that have seen them swiftly seize territory since May.

Emboldened by Washington’s announcement that it was ending its military mission by the end of August, the Taliban has launched a military blitz across the country which has gained momentum in recent days.

On Friday, the Taliban captured its first provincial capital in years when it took control of Zaranj, on the border with Iran in Afghanistan’s southern Nimruz province.

On Saturday the Taliban captured the city of Sheberghan, the city’s deputy governor told the AFP news agency.

Qader Malia, the deputy governor of Sheberghan in Jawzjan province that government forces and officials had retreated to the airport on the outskirts of the northern Afghan city, where they were preparing to defend themselves.

As the Taliban eyes other cities, the Afghan air force has played a crucial role in holding it back.

Azimi’s death came just days after the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR), in a report to the US Congress, said the targeting of pilots detailed by Reuters was another “worrisome development” for the Afghan air force as it reels from a surge in fighting.

In its quarterly report covering the quarter through June, SIGAR described an air force increasingly under strain and becoming less ready to fight.

Its fleet of UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters had a 39 percent readiness rate in June, about half the level of April and May.

“All aircraft platforms are overtaxed due to increased requests for close air support, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance missions and aerial resupply now that the [Afghan military] largely lacks US air support,” the report said.

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2021-08-07 20:06:24Z
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Taliban fighters in Afghanistan enter second provincial capital in as many days - Sky News

Taliban fighters have entered the capital of Afghanistan's Jawzjan province, a politician has said, as they seek to capture their second provincial capital in as many days.

Mohammad Karim Jawzjani said the militants had reached the city of Sheberghan but the Afghan government, while not denying this, insisted the city had not yet fallen.

Sheberghan is particularly important because it is the stronghold of Uzbek warlord Rashid Dostum, whose militias were resurrected to help the Afghan government forces.

Mr Dostum, a former army paratrooper, returned to the province last week after months in Turkey, where he is believed to have been receiving medical treatment.

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His spokesman Ehsan Nero told the AFP news agency that he was meeting senior officials to talk about security in Sheberghan.

Residents of the city said there had been heavy airstrikes and that the Taliban had freed prisoners from the jail.

The militants have taken advantage of the departure of foreign forces from the country, quickly taking control of vulnerable districts and now turning their attention to provincial capitals.

On Friday, the Taliban took control of Zaranj, capital of the southwestern province of Nimroz, and the government said its forces were still fighting inside the city.

More than half of the country's 421 districts and district centres are in Taliban hands and several of the provincial capitals are under threat.

The worsening situation prompted a warning from the UK government on Friday evening, advising Britons to leave the country immediately.

Many of the places under threat are remote but some are strategically important and would give the Taliban control of lucrative border crossings with Iran, Tajikistan and Pakistan.

Also on Friday, the Taliban fighters closed the border crossing with Pakistan at Spin Boldak, protesting against Pakistan's demand that all Afghans crossing the border must have Afghan passports and Pakistani visas.

The crossing is important because it is one of the main routes for goods to be driven to land-locked Afghanistan from the Pakistani port city of Karachi.

By Saturday, more than 600 trucks, many carrying perishable food, were backed up in both countries.

Meanwhile, the US has said the withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan is more than 95% complete and will be finished by the end of this month, but the US Air Force continues to help Afghan forces defend Helmand and Kandahar in the south, in an effort to prevent a Taliban takeover.

In Helmand, provincial council member Nafeeza Faiez said Taliban troops are in control of nine of the 10 police districts in the capital city of Lashkar Gah.

Afghan commando forces and regular troops are trying to get the fighters out of the city but with little success, she said, adding that conditions for civilians are desperate.

Many are trapped in the city, unable to get supplies and unable to get to hospitals for medical help.

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2021-08-07 16:29:04Z
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Greece wildfires: British firefighters sent to help out - as footage shows boat escape while island burns - Sky News

British firefighters are being deployed to tackle the raging wildfires in Greece - as new footage shows people escaping by boat as flames fill the sky.

It comes after the death of a volunteer firefighter and the evacuation of thousands of people from an island near Athens, as well as towns north of the capital.

The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) said teams from Merseyside, Lancashire, South Wales, London and West Midlands fire services will fly to Athens this weekend to battle the blazes alongside Greek firefighters.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said: "I've seen first-hand this week the devastating wildfires ripping through Greece and the UK stands shoulder to shoulder with our Greek friends at this difficult time.

"I've asked the National Fire Chiefs Council to send out a specialist team to provide support in responding to this emergency. I am immensely grateful to the brave firefighters for stepping forward and volunteering to help, and their expertise will be invaluable in supporting the Greek emergency services."

The wildfires broke out amid the country's most severe heatwave in 30 years, with temperatures soaring to more than 40C (104F) in some areas.

Fires burned through Greece for a fifth day on Saturday as flames swept through a town near Athens overnight and thousands of residents and tourists were evacuated by ferry from the island of Evia, east of the capital, in apocalyptic scenes shown in new footage.

The blaze on Mount Parnitha has seen crews grappling with winds and high temperatures in a bid to contain it.

"We're talking about the apocalypse, I don't know how to describe it," Sotiris Danikas, head of the coastguard in the town of Aidipsos, Evia, told state broadcaster ERT.

Civil Protection chief Nikos Hardalias said firefighters faced "exceptionally dangerous, unprecedented conditions" as they battled 154 wildfires on Friday, with 64 still burning into the night.

"Over the past few days we have been facing a situation without precedent in our country, in the intensity and wide distribution of the wildfires, and the new outbreaks all over (Greece)," he said.

While the flames appeared to die down later on Saturday, winds were forecast to strengthen - meaning there was still a high threat they would flare again.

During an emergency briefing, Mr Hardalias said: "Under no circumstances can we be complacent. We are fighting a very big battle."

Homes and businesses have been left blackened and destroyed, although authorities have been unable yet to provide detailed figures for how widespread the damage is.

Shifting winds and new flashpoints on Friday afternoon caused the blazes outside Athens and Evia to repeatedly change direction, in some cases returning to threaten areas that had narrowly escaped destruction earlier in the week.

In the last 24 hours, more than 400 wildfires have broken out across Greece, with the biggest still burning in Evia and areas in the Peloponnese including Ancient Olympia, the site of the first Olympic Games.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis described it as a "nightmarish summer", adding the government's priority "has been, first and foremost, to protect human lives".

At least 20 people have needed hospital treatment across Greece and the causes of the fires are under investigation.

In neighbouring Turkey, authorities evacuated six more neighbourhoods near the Mugla province town of Milas as a wildfire burned some 5 kilometres (3 miles) from a power plant.

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said they were the worst wildfires in the country's history and six fires were still burning in on Saturday.

So far, eight people have died in the fires that have burned through Turkey's Aegean and Mediterranean coastal regions for 11 days, forcing thousands of residents and tourists to leave homes and hotels.

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2021-08-07 16:04:53Z
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Afghanistan war: Sheberghan falls to Taliban, militants say - BBC News

Afghan security officials patrol after they took back control of parts of Herat city

The Taliban say they have taken control of the city of Sheberghan in the northern Afghan province of Jawzjan.

An Afghan defence ministry spokesman told the BBC government forces were still in the city and would clear out the Taliban "soon".

This is the second regional capital to fall to the militants, after Zaranj in the south-western province of Nimroz fell on Friday.

It is a major blow to security forces, with battles raging across the country.

There are also reports of heavy fighting in Kunduz in the north and Lashkar Gah in the south.

Violence has escalated across Afghanistan after US and other international forces began to withdraw their troops from the country, following 20 years of military operations.

Taliban militants have made rapid advances in recent weeks, capturing large swathes of the countryside, and are now targeting key towns and cities.

Sheberghan is a stronghold of the former Afghan vice-president and warlord, Abdul Rashid Dostum, whose supporters have been leading the fight against the insurgents.

Local media reports that 150 people travelled to the city to help Afghan forces.

The Taliban first took control of the governor's compound on Friday during intense fighting, before it was retaken by Afghan security forces.

However, the region's council chief, Babur Eshchi, told the BBC the militants were now in control of the whole city, except an army base, where fighting was still going on.

Afghan defence ministry spokesman Fawaad Aman told the BBC's Newshour programme government forces were still in "the majority" of the city, including the airport, and insisted Sheberghan would be "clear of terrorists soon".

But he conceded the Taliban had captured parts of the city, and that government troops had retreated "to prevent civilian casualties".

Taliban officials also said they had captured a prison in Sheberghan. Video on social media shows hundreds of inmates leaving the city jail.

Other provincial capitals under pressure include Herat in the west, and the southern cities of Kandahar and Lashkar Gah.

The Afghan military says dozens of Islamist fighters, including senior commanders, have been killed in Lashkar Gah. The Taliban however have denied the military's version of events.

And in the Afghan capital Kabul this week, the Taliban shot dead President Ashraf Ghani's former spokesman and carried out a bomb attack on the house of the acting defence minister.

A map showing who's in control of Afghanistan

Taliban fighters have also captured key border crossings with neighbouring countries in recent weeks.

The militant group has closed the border with Pakistan, and pictures show dozens of Afghans stranded on the Pakistani side, unable to return to their families.

"We came [to Pakistan] to attend a funeral three days ago. Now the border is closed. We're sitting here. We have no food and no money," a man trying to get home to Kandahar told Reuters news agency.

The US and UK governments have urged its citizens to leave the country immediately because of the worsening security situation.

On Friday, the British Foreign Office warned that militants were very likely to carry out attacks in Afghanistan. The US said citizens can receive a repatriation loan if they cannot afford to pay for a commercial flight themselves.

PROFILE: Who are the Taliban?
ANALYSIS: How the Taliban retook half of Afghanistan
ON THE GROUND: Bodies on the streets as fighting traps Afghans

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2021-08-07 13:38:57Z
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Afghanistan war: Sheberghan falls to Taliban, militants say - BBC News

The Taliban say they have taken control of the city of Sheberghan in the northern Afghan province of Jawzjan.

It is the second regional capital to fall to the militants, after Zaranj in the south-western province of Nimroz fell on Friday.

It is a major blow to security forces, with battles raging across the country as the Taliban make rapid advances.

There are also reports of heavy fighting in Kunduz in the north and Lashkar Gah in the south.

Sheberghan is a stronghold of the former Afghan vice-president and warlord, Abdul Rashid Dostum, whose supporters have been leading the fight against the insurgents.

Local media reports that 150 people travelled to the city to help Afghan forces.

The Taliban first took control of the governor's compound on Friday during intense fighting, before it was retaken by Afghan security forces.

However, the region's council chief, Babur Eshchi, told the BBC the militants were now in control of the whole city, except an army base, where fighting was still going on.

The region's deputy governor told AFP news agency that government officials had retreated to the airport.