KABUL — In a remote area of Afghanistan, where thousands of years of hardscrabble tribal culture increasingly mixes with a resurgent Taliban militancy, this is how Fazl Ahmad allegedly died. Local officials in Ghor province said one of Ahmad’s distant relatives was suspected ofkilling a former Taliban commander. In December, militants dragged Ahmad from his house and cut out his eyes in retaliation. Ahmad was still alive and screaming when the attackers began carving the…
Posts published in “Day: June 13, 2016”
WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama has approved giving the US military greater ability to accompany and enable Afghan forces battling a resilient Taliban insurgency, in a move to assist them more proactively on the battlefield, a US official told Reuters. The senior US defence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the decision would also allow greater use of US air power, particularly close air support. However, the official cautioned: “This is not a blanket…
LAHORE: The Difa-iPakistan Council held on Friday a demonstration against alleged anti-Pakistan US-India agreements, drone attacks and conspiracies to damage the Pakistan`s nuclear programme. Protesters gathered at Chauburji Chowk after Friday prayers and raised slogans against Washington and New Delhi. Hafiz Abdur Rehman Makki said the Panama Leaks were being raised under a conspiracy to keep the people away from real issues. He said the realissue was Modi-Obama connivance and warned that if New Delhi…
BEIJING — Cheng Nan has spent years trying to ensure that her 16-year-old daughter gets into a college near their home in Nanjing, an affluent city in eastern China. She wakes her at 5:30 a.m. to study math and Chinese poetry and packs her schedule so tightly that she has only 20 days of summer vacation. So when officials announced a plan to admit more students from impoverished regions and fewer from Nanjing to local…
Saudi Arabia wants Bangladesh to stand by it for backing the 34-nation Islamic military coalition and Saudi measures against Iran. The country also expects Bangladesh to send troops to the Kingdom if its sovereignty and security of the two holy mosques was threatened. Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud pledged to boost cooperation with Bangladesh in trade, investment, manpower recruitment and assistance for economic development. The KSA is keen to invest in Bangladesh’s infrastructure,…
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and the United States blamed each other for strains in bilateral ties, yet both sides managed to show their conciliatory side during high-level meetings here on Friday. While Pakistani officials accused the US of violating the country`s sovereignty by carrying out a drone attack in Nushki last month, disregarding their security interests and undermining the Afghan peace process, a visiting American delegation pointed to the continued presence of Taliban and H aqqani network…
CAIRO: Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, in an online audio message, pledged allegiance to the new head of the Afghan Taliban, who was appointed last month after his predecessor was killed in a US drone strike. The veteran militant became al Qaeda’s leader after US Navy Seals killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011, and he is thought to be hiding in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, having been based there since the late 1990s.…