Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna has some funny ideas about the national debt.
Like, for starters, that “tax cuts” and just two wars out of a dozen are to blame. In other words, It’s all Republicans’ fault!
The Democrat said that “Reagan’s tax cuts,” “Bush’s tax cuts,” “Trump’s tax cuts,” and “Bush’s overseas wars” were the primary causes of the national debt.
“We don’t need a fiscal commission to study it. Everyone knows Johnson’s fiscal commission will recommend cuts in Social Security & Medicare. Instead, we need to end the tax breaks for the ultra-rich and make a moonshot investment in American industry,” Khanna claimed.
The U.S. national debt is currently over $33 trillion dollars. Members of Congress in both parties have voted for massive spending for decades under numerous presidents. And as Americans have had to learn all over again, the War Party is bipartisan.
Entitlements are also a big contributor to America’s debt.
Or as Republican Victoria Spartz replied to Khanna:
Rep. @RoKhanna is not correct: the national debt was caused by reckless spending, cronyism and spinelessness of politicians in Washington D.C.
We must save promised programs for seniors and middle class from destruction by looming disastrous tax increase leading to socialism. https://t.co/kMxBoashsv
Obviously, tax cuts aren’t to blame for debt. First, because the federal government has continued to take in even more revenue after tax cuts, but more importantly, because spending causes debt. This is self-evident to most people, but not Democrats.
Even if it were the case that tax cuts ended up bringing in less revenue, that’s not what causes debt. Spending more than the revenue you do bring in causes debt. And that’s a choice.
Of course, Khanna is partially correct about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They cost astronomical amounts of money, of which the United States did not have. But why did he leave out all the Democrat wars?
Congress’ top priority this fall will be passing legislation funding the government and avoiding a “shutdown.” As of this writing, it appears unlikely that the Republican-controlled House will be able to make a deal with President Biden and the Senate Democrats on a long-term spending bill. Instead, they will likely pass a short-term funding bill to give themselves more time to reach agreement on a longer-term bill.
Any bipartisan agreement is unlikely to reduce government spending or begin to pay down, or stop the growth of, the over $32 trillion national debt, which the Congressional Budget Office projects will grow by at least $115 trillion over the next thirty years. Instead, Congress and the administration will continue to pretend they are addressing the spending problem by “reducing in the projected rate of spending growth,” and other gimmicks.
The sad fact is both parties, along with a majority of the American people, are addicted to welfare-warfare spending.
The Democrats are the party who have no problem with endless spending.
The Republicans are the party who pretend they are opposed to endless spending, yet still participate in endless spending even if they give us a tiny tax cut here and there.
Democrat Ro Khanna trying to blame the national debt primarily on tax cuts and just two out of a dozen wars is laughable.
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The French president and Germany’s foreign affairs minister condemned Saturday’s knife attack in Paris that injured two and left a German national dead. Anti-terrorism prosecutors have opened an investigation into the assault.
Police arrested a 26-year-old Frenchman, who had been on the security services watchlist, soon after the attack Saturday night near the Eiffel Tower. Officials said the victim was with his wife when he was attacked and fatally stabbed on Quai de Grenelle.
“I send all my condolences to the family and loved ones of the German national who died this evening during the terrorist attack in Paris,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on X. “The national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office … will be responsible for shedding light on this matter so that justice can be done in the name of the French people,” he said.
Emergency services treated the two injured, a French national and a foreign tourist, whose wounds are not life-threatening.
Following his arrest, the assailant told police he was distressed over how “many Muslims are dying in Afghanistan and in Palestine,” France’s interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, told reporters late Saturday. The suspect had served four years in jail for planning another attack in 2016.
“Shocking news from Paris,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock posted online. “My thoughts are with the friends and family of the young German who was killed in the suspected Islamist attack. Almost his entire life lay ahead of him,” she said. “Hate and terror have no place in Europe,” Baerbock said.
The two people injured in the incident were a Frenchman aged around 60 and a British tourist, the BBC reported. Neither was found to be in a life-threatening condition, it said.
Saturday’s incident comes less than two months after a similar incident in the northern French city of Arras. A teacher was slain and two people woundedin a knife attack at a school in Arras in mid-October.
A former boyband singer who was injured in Afghanistan after becoming an army officer has grown a £5million company by selling the formula that eased his pain.
Farard Darver, a Green Beret Commando, suffered a leg injury after his vehicle hit a Taliban trap and though he carried on serving, he was permanently affected.
The 45-year-old tried everything for his aching leg and finally happened upon CBD oil that helped him manage the pain.
He was so impressed with the healing effects that he gave up a promotional opportunity to colonel and a full army pension so he could leave the military and invest everything he had into his start-up.
Healthcare International Research Ltd was launched in 2019 – just prior to the Covid pandemic – selling two brands; HEMPE for health and wellness and MotherSage, for beauty and skincare.
Farard Darver has grown a £5million company by selling the formula that eased pain
Darver was commissioned into the Royal Logistic Corps and ultimately became a Green Beret Commando
Farard Darver in Afghanistan – he suffered a leg injury after his vehicle hit a Taliban trap
Darver (centre) in boyband Men2B – after school he became a boyband member
Darver (left) in boyband Area 4 – as a boyband member he hit the charts
He now sells two brands; HEMPE for health and wellness and MotherSage, for beauty and skincare
Farard has already turned down eye-watering offers for the company and has gained investment from…
Kevin said of the moment he hugged wife Kelly, who had been campaigning for his release: “It was probably the best moment I have had in my life besides seeing my children being born. I couldn’t speak for a couple of minutes. I didn’t have the words.”
The former soldier, from Middlesbrough, was working for the UN Refugee Agency when he was arrested for possessing a gun, even though he had a certificate for the pistol which was in his safe for emergency use.
While in captivity, he suffered bouts of sepsis and developed kidney stones.
Kevin — who served in the military for almost 25 years, including 12 years in the Royal Army Medical Corps — was finally released last month along with extreme tourist Miles Routledge, 23, of Birmingham, and two other men who were also being held.
His wife thanked the Press for helping her increase pressure on the UK Government and Taliban to release him.
Kelly said: “I don’t think he would be home now if that pressure hadn’t been added and if I hadn’t taken it to the Press in the first place.”
Kevin added: “I won’t be going back to Afghanistan.”
East Java, Indonesia – Umar Patek was released from prison last December after serving just over half of a 20-year jail sentence for the Bali holiday island bombings in 2002, which killed 202 people. He was also convicted for a series of bomb attacks on Christian churches on Christmas Eve, 2000, that left 18 dead.
Patek’s early prison release for good behaviour in 2022 was sharply criticised by Australian officials and the relatives of the hundreds of victims of the Bali bombing.
Al Jazeera recently interviewed Patek at his home in East Java where he spoke about his role in Bali and revealed that the horrific bomb attack two decades ago was an act of revenge for the violence inflicted on Palestinian people by Israeli forces.
Umar Patek at his home in East Java, Indonesia, on October 14, 2023 [Al Jazeera]
Al Jazeera: How did you become involved with Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the armed group behind the Bali Bombings?
Umar Patek: In 1991, I was working in Malaysia and met Mukhlas [a senior JI figure who was sentenced to death and executed in 2008 for masterminding the Bali bombings] in Johor Bahru at the Lukman Hakim Islamic Boarding School.
I worked on a plantation in Malaysia, and would go to religious classes in the evening at the school. Then Mukhlas asked me to work at the school, so I moved in. After three months at the school, he offered me the chance to go to Pakistan. I wanted to study and he said I could study religion there.
I first went to Peshawar and then to Sadda, a tribal area in Pakistan which is close to the border with Afghanistan, where there was a military academy that trained people to be mujahideen [Islamic fighters]. From there I moved to a military academy in Torkham in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, I was in the same class as [Bali bomber] Ali Imron. In total, I was away for five years from 1991 to 1995.
We learned everything at the military academy to train us to be mujahideen, such as how to use weapons, map reading and bomb making. We practised blowing up bombs in areas where there were no people, like in caves or on hillsides, so that there would not be any fatalities.
We also wanted to make sure that no goats were accidentally killed because lots of people tend goats in Afghanistan.
When I finished my military training in 1995, I went to the Philippines to join the Moro Islamic Liberation Front because I supported their cause as a Muslim.
From 1995 to 2000, I lived at Camp Abubakar in the Bangsamoro region in the Philippines, but the camp was captured by the Philippine Army in July 2000 and I was told to leave because I looked like I came from the Middle East.
My family is originally from Yemen, although I am the fourth generation of my family to be born in Indonesia. My face didn’t look like the people in Moro.
In December 2000, I went back to Indonesia and stayed with Dulmatin [a JI member and one of the most wanted men in Southeast Asia who was nicknamed “the Genius” because of his expertise in electronics for bombs]. Dulmatin asked me to go to Jakarta for work. He had a job selling cars and he said I could also look for work there, which is how I became involved in the Christmas Eve church bombings.
Indonesian police officers provide security outside Jakarta’s main cathedral during morning mass on Christmas Day, December 25, 2000, following a spate of deadly Christmas Eve bomb attacks against Christian churches [File: Reuters]
AJ: You admitted to mixing the chemicals for the bombs used in the Bali bombing in 2002 and the Christmas Eve church bombings in 2000. But you also said you didn’t know what the bombs would be used for. Where did you think the bombs would be planted?
Patek: I did not mix the bombs for the church bombings, I only knew about the bombs at the time of delivery. It was Eid al-Fitr [the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan] and Dulmatin said, “Let’s go home to Pemalang for the holiday and drop off some things along the way.”
We kept stopping at churches, although I did not get out of the car. Every time we stopped at a church, I grew more suspicious that we were dropping off bombs because the packages were packed in laptop bags.
I was sentenced for the bombings even though I did not make the bombs or get out of the car because I was there and I didn’t do anything to stop it. Dulmatin then asked me to go on a trip to Bali in October 2002. We went into a house which was already full of bomb making equipment.
A general view of the scene of a bomb blast at Kuta, on the Indonesian island of Bali, in this October 17, 2002 photo, taken five days after explosions in a popular night spot killed 202 people [File: Reuters]
I met with [JI members] Imam Samudra, Mukhlas, Idris and Dr Azahari. Imam Samudra said that they wanted revenge for the occupation of Palestine and the attack on Jenin [by Israeli forces in 2002 which killed more than 50 Palestinians as well as 23 Israeli soldiers], so they wanted to bomb Westerners in nightclubs in Bali. He ushered me into one of the rooms in the house where all the ingredients to make the bombs had been prepared.
I told them, if we wanted to get revenge for the atrocities committed against Muslims in Palestine, we should go to Palestine and not kill Westerners in Indonesia. I asked them, “What is the relationship between these people who will be victims and your motive of revenge for Muslims in Palestine?”
I told them that if they wanted to kill Westerners in large numbers using a one-tonne bomb, it would not just kill the people in front of it. It would explode everywhere. I told them that it would kill lots of other people who were not their target.
A Palestinian woman gestures on top of her house in the destroyed Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, following what became known as the Battle of Jenin in April 2002 [File: Reuters]
I said that a bomb would also likely cause Muslim casualties. I asked them, “Who will take responsibility in the next world [paradise] if there are Muslim victims because of this bomb?”
Imam Samudra said that, on the day of judgement, everyone would be judged individually for their actions based on their intentions.
I felt that there was no way I could refuse. Imam Samudra had locked the front door of the house so that no one could leave.
So I did it, and made the last 50kg [110lbs] of the bomb.
AJ: More than 200 people died in Bali as a result of the bomb you helped to make. How do you feel about killing so many people?
Patek: I felt guilty when I mixed the materials for the bomb and I felt I was sinning. I felt I was breaking Indonesian law but, more than that, I felt it was a sin against God.
A Balinese mother and son mourn in front of the Bali Bombing Memorial during commemorative services in Kuta, Bali, Indonesia in 2004 [File: Bea Beawiharta/CP/Reuters]
AJ: Do you consider yourself to be a mass murderer?
Patek: Yes. I feel that I am a murderer and a sinner.
I have apologised to the victims of the Bali bombing several times and met with the families of the victims of the bombing, too. I told them I was sorry. Everyone who has met with me in person has forgiven me. When I meet victims, I say, “I am Umar Patek and I was involved in the Bali bombing,” then I explain why I was there, and apologise.
Some people don’t want to meet me and don’t want to forgive me, like people from Australia. That is their right, but my responsibility as a Muslim, and someone who has done wrong, is to apologise. I don’t know if I will be forgiven, only God knows that.
I did not say sorry to get out of prison early, but everything is always wrong in other people’s eyes. If I say sorry, people say I am pretending and it is a strategic choice. If I didn’t apologise, people would say I was arrogant.
AJ: Did you agree with the 20-year prison sentence that you were given?
Patek: I accepted it at the time. There is nothing fair in this life on Earth, justice will only come in the hereafter.
Umar Patek sits in the courtroom during his trial in Jakarta in February 2012 [File: Enny Nuraheni/Reuters]
AJ: Your release from prison was highly controversial, particularly in Australia, as you only served 11 years of your 20-year sentence. Should you have been freed?
Patek: I fulfilled all the criteria according to Indonesian law to qualify for release in 2022. I had also been very opposed to the idea of the Bali bombing from the beginning. The witnesses at my trial all said the same, which is why I was sentenced to 20 years in prison [only]. The central people in the Bali bombing were sentenced to death or died in other ways like Dulmatin, who was shot by the police.
From left to right: Convicted Bali bombers Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Mukhlas, also known as Ali Ghufron, as seen in Nusakambangan prison in October 2008. The three were executed on November 9, 2008, for their role in the bombings [File: Reuters]
I last saw him in June 2009, when I came home from the Philippines to Jakarta. He asked me to go to a JI military academy in Aceh, but I said I didn’t want to. I had had enough. I told him I was just transiting in Indonesia to get my passport and visa to go to Afghanistan. I wanted to live there for the rest of my life and I asked him to come with me, but he refused.
He [Dulmatin] was shot in Pemulang in Tangerang [a city on the outskirts of Jakarta]. I wondered if he had repented for his sins before he died. I never heard him say he felt remorse or sadness about the victims of the Bali bombing and about people who were not the target of the bombing. He never said anything about that and never asked for forgiveness.
So I was sad for him.
The four sons of accused Bali bombing mastermind Dulmatin, alias Joko Pitono, mourn during his funeral in Petarukan village in Indonesia’s central Java province in 2010 [File: Reuters]
AJ: Is the killing of civilians ever justified?
Patek: When I was in the Philippines with the [Moro front], I lived with [the chairman] Salamat Hashim and he would often preach to us. He strongly forbade mujahideen from attacking civilians, not just Muslims but also Christians. He said that that was not allowed, and that only members of the army, or civilians who were fighting with the army, and who were also carrying weapons, were allowed to be attacked.
He once said to me, “Why do you want to wage jihad in Indonesia, who do you want to fight there? The president is Muslim, the government is Muslim, the People’s Representative Council is mainly Muslim, lots of police are Muslim, the army is full of Muslims. It is haram [forbidden] to attack them because attacking Muslims is not allowed.”
He felt that it was not right to attack people in Indonesia, and I said that at the time of the Bali bombing, but no one wanted to listen to me.
AJ: What are your thoughts on the Israel-Gaza war?
Patek: In the opening section of the 1945 Indonesian Constitution, it says that “all colonialism must be abolished in this world”.
Occupation anywhere, not just in Palestine, is not allowed.
It is Hamas’s right to take back their land. The news that they are killing babies and children is a hoax perpetrated by the Western media. Indonesia used to be occupied by the Dutch colonialists. Would you call Indonesian heroes, who fought for their independence, terrorists? The Dutch would call them terrorists, but they were just taking back their land.
A man holds a poster during a rally in support of the Palestinians in Gaza, at the National Monument in Jakarta, Indonesia, on November 5, 2023 [Dita Alangkara/AP Photo]
AJ: Are you deradicalised now?
Patek: What is radicalised? If a Christian wants to follow their religion according to the teachings of the Bible, would we call them radicalised?
I feel that the media has a false image of me as someone who is frightening and cruel. They always paint me as someone who is dangerous.
People often ask me why I don’t want to be a terrorist any more and why I am so cooperative. I also say that it is from my family. They are the ones who melted my heart and set me back to the right path.
I am the oldest of three brothers. All my family members are moderate Muslims, none of them have ever followed the same ideology I used to follow, and they have often confronted me about it over the years.
If my family had said they did not want to have anything more to do with me because of my old ideology, perhaps I would still be radical in my thinking, but fortunately they embraced me and that allowed me to change.
AJ: How do you feel about non-Muslims?
Patek: When I was a child growing up, all my neighbours were Chinese Christians. I always used to play with them. Since I was young, I have always been around non-Muslims.
I don’t hate Christians. My wife’s extended family are Christians and, when we got married, we had no problems and took photos together on our wedding day.
When I married my wife, I invited all of her family to the wedding at Camp Abubakar. In the beginning, they didn’t want to come because they were worried we would cut their heads off. I told them that the mujahideen did not harm civilians, and that we only attacked the police and the army. I said that I guaranteed their safety.
In the Moro tradition, when someone got married, mujahideen would shoot their weapons in the air to celebrate. But because my wife’s Christian family was there, I told my fellow mujahideen, “Don’t do the traditional celebration because we have Christians coming and it will scare them.
Pakistan has begun mass deportation of undocumented Afghans residing in the country illegally, including thousands of people who escaped the Taliban’s rule and who are at risk of persecution at home after the country fell to the Taliban two years ago following the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan.
In October, the Pakistani government gave 1.7 million Afghan refugees living in the country until Nov. 1 to leave voluntarily or face arrest and forced deportation. Police also warned landlords to avoid renting homes for undocumented refugees.
Trucks transporting Afghan refugees with their belongings are seen along a road towards the Pakistan-Afghanistan Torkham border on Nov. 3, 2023, following Pakistan’s government decision to expel people illegally staying in the country.
ABDUL MAJEED/AFP via Getty Images
“Today, we said goodbye to 64 Afghan nationals as they began their journey back home.” Pakistan’s interior minister tweeted, along with a video of a group of Afghans boarding a bus, adding, “This action is a testament to Pakistan’s determination to repatriate any individuals residing in the country without proper documentation.”
Videos shared on social media show bulldozers leveling to the ground mud-made houses of Afghan refugees while women, men, and children watch in despair. Many were born, raised, got married and had their children in the same village that was now being destroyed.
On Thursday, thousands of poor and exhausted refugees and their families flocked to the borders, fearing the Pakistani government’s detention and forced deportation as the Nov. 1 deadline passed. A photo of an Afghan child tied with a rope behind a moving truck while waving went viral, showing the tragedy of a refugee’s life.
An Afghan girl waves from the bus window as she is being repatriated to Afghanistan, along with her family, who according to police were undocumented, in Karachi, Pakistan, on Nov. 2, 2023.
AKHTAR SOOMRO / REUTERS
Alongside the refugee aid agencies in Afghanistan, the Taliban authorities have also established a commission to provide essential services to the returnees, including temporary accommodation, food, health services, and transportation to their destinations. Taliban army trucks were loaded with refugees heading to their home provinces from the border.
Islamabad announced the deportation of Afghan refugees after the militant group known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, stepped up attacks in Pakistan in the last two years. Islamabad has long accused the Afghan Taliban — now Afghanistan’s de facto government — of supporting the TTP, an accusation the Afghan Taliban denies.
Deportation “is a death sentence”
Those who received deportation notices included some of the most vulnerable people, including women’s rights activists, musicians, and people who worked for the U.S.-backed government in Kabul before the Taliban takeover in 2021.
The deportation order “is a death sentence for them,” Lanny Cordola, an American musician, told CBS News in a phone interview from Pakistan. “It feels like we’re living this nightmare again — (a) variation of it.”
A 62-year-old guitarist, songwriter and producer from Los Angeles, Cordola is a teacher and self-appointed guardian of nearly 30 street girls from Afghanistan. The girls, aged between 6 and 19, come from the most poverty-stricken families, and some lost their parents at a young age. In 2014, he started teaching the girls to play guitar as they sold clean tissues, books and other items on the streets of Kabul to support their families.
When Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in 2021, he managed to move the girls to Pakistan. Many of them were without a visa.
The girls, now known as the Miraculous Love Kids, have become famous for playing at ambassadors’ residences in Islamabad and are known among the music community through their songs.
A group of Afghan girls who perform as musicians in Pakistan, known as the Miraculous Love Kids.
Lanny Cordola
“There are some locals that are running around that have come to two of the girl’s houses, threaten them and harass them, and insulted them, calling them dirty Afghans,” Cordola told CBS News. “It’s quite alarming, and I have them in hiding right now as I’m trying to scramble through all this.”
“If Taliban find out that these girls have been with an American learning music and playing music with westerners, they have no problem killing musicians. They have no problem killing girls or marrying them off to Taliban. it would be an utter disaster for them.” said Cordola.
The Taliban has banned music in Afghanistan, including in wedding halls, and punished anyone playing or singing.
Lanny Cordola with a group of Afghan girls he helped train as musicians.
Lanny Cordola
Nilab (not her real name) is a women’s rights and girls’ education activist who’s been living in hiding with her underage son in the suburbs of Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, for over a year now. She came to Pakistan in 2022 with a medical visa that has now expired. She is renting a room and lives with a family with legal documentation.
“I hid in a Pakistani neighbor’s house when the police searched our home for people without a visa,” she told CBS News. “I sent my son for grocery and when police find out he is Afghan, they harass him, and he come back with tearful eyes.”
Nilab was among the activists who protested the Taliban’s draconian policies targeting women and girls. She was arrested and imprisoned with her son and other female activists for several weeks at a Taliban jail in Kabul.
“I escaped the Taliban and took refuge in Pakistan,” she told CBS News over the phone. “Now they are sending me back to the Taliban. The Taliban will kill me because we protested their rules and called on the international community not to recognize them.”
The United Nations officials said they were “extremely alarmed” by Pakistan’s collective punishment of nearly 2 million Afghan refugees as winter approaches, and expressed concerns over rights violations of those at risk.
“We believe many of those facing deportation will be at grave risk of human rights violations if returned to Afghanistan, including arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, cruel and other inhuman treatment,” Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement.
“Those at particular risk are: civil society activists, journalists, human rights defenders, former government officials and security force members, and of course women and girls as a whole, who, as a result of the abhorrent policies currently in place in Afghanistan, are banned from secondary and tertiary education, working in many sectors and other aspects of daily and public life.”
“It shouldn’t hurt to be a refugee,” reads a sign held by Miraculous Love Kids. “Afghan girls’ lives matter.”
A group of Afghan girls who perform as musicians in Pakistan, known as the Miraculous Love Kids, hold signs saying “It shouldn’t hurt to be a refugee” and “Afghan girls’ lives matter.”
Zaher walks calmly across what used to be his village, now reduced to piles of rubble. Standing on top of a mound of sand, he locates his home – or rather, what little is left of it.
“We used to live here and now you can see what state it has reached,” he said, his voice shaking. “Obviously our current situation is visible.”
He reveals that the deadly earthquake which struck Afghanistan on October 7 had taken more than his family home away from him.
“Thirteen people in my family died,” he said. “Boys, girls, young and old, including three daughters of mine, two sons, my two granddaughters and two grandsons as well as a grandchild who was visiting, and my niece and her daughter and son.”
“You are witnessing our situation… we are left with nothing. These ruins used to be our lives, our carpets, food and everything. I now stand on stones and hard ground, where I also sleep.”
“There are no words,” he adds. “The situation speaks for itself.”
It has now been more than a week since Afghanistan was hit by a powerful 6.3 magnitude earthquake on October 7, which devastated its western Herat province and Herat city, its third largest.
It is one of the deadliest quakes to hit Afghanistan in years. Regular aftershocks have continued over the last week, renewing fears for survivors that already damaged homes could collapse at any minute.
On Sunday morning another powerful quake struck, once again measuring 6.3 magnitude, the epicentre northwest of Herat, according to readings recorded by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC).
The new quake hit at a depth of 6.2 miles (10 kilometeres), EMSC added, a relatively shallow tremor that could increase its destructive power.
With the region already reeling from recent seismic activity, global aid groups and rescue teams say that the country is now facing an escalating humanitarian crisis, following on top of war and a collapsed economy. Even more troubling, they add, will be the human recovery. Entire villages like Zaher’s have been destroyed and reduced to debris, but there is inadequate funding to help and little global awareness.
“The situation in Afghanistan was already extremely dire,” said Mawlawi Mutiul Haq Khales of the Afghan Red Crescent Society. “People were just starting to recover when another series of massive earthquakes hits us, all within less than a week. On top of that, winter is coming and there’s an urgent need for shelter, food and healthcare.”
“Early observations underscore the full extent of the damage, yet to be realized. (Our) efforts in this catastrophic situation cannot be overstated.”
Taliban government officials estimate that more than 2,000 people across Herat province have been killed and more than 90% were women and children, according to UN agencies and officials on the ground.
US Charity Too Young To Wed, part of the humanitarian relief effort on the ground, says there is a clear reason for this staggering statistic.
It’s because women and girls are forced to stay at home under Taliban rule, denied their basic rights, banned from education, work and being part of society.
“They have been systematically stripped of their rights over the last 2 years. So instead of being at school and at work on a Saturday, they were home, confined to their homes, imprisoned in their homes. It’s a country where half the population is under house arrest,” founder Stephanie Sinclair, told CNN.
International aid agencies have said their efforts had been hampered by the Taliban’s takeover and described serious challenges in being able to respond to emergency calls. Teams on the ground have also highlighted difficulties in reaching survivors trapped in remote villages.
“We are powerless… displaced and homeless,” said Zaher. “I have not received any help until now except for (a) water bottle. How can we survive sitting and sleeping on these stones and hard ground?”
“We need the help of the government and the international community – this is our only message, as you can see, we are left with nothing.”
Those who survived are badly injured and shaken, officials say. Many are reeling from serious trauma.
One survivor, a 35-year-old woman named Fatima from the Zindeh Jan district in Herat province was rescued from beneath debris and is now recovering in hospital.
Her seven children were killed in the earthquake.
So traumatized was Fatima that she could not speak about her children without having a panic attack, according to doctors.
“I got trapped under debris twice – the first time I was rescued by family members. The second time was when I returned home to save my children and the house collapsed on me again,” she said.
“I lost consciousness. I don’t remember anything after that. I have experienced a great deal of pain and sorrow… we’ve lost everything in our life, nothing remains.”
From the same district is a 32-year-old mother of three daughters named Rana.
Her 6-year-old girl died. Her surviving daughters, aged 8 and 10, suffered serious head injuries after a roof collapsed on them.
The family is now in desperate need of shelter and has nowhere to go.
“I was sitting at home when the earthquake struck… and I dragged my children out of the house,” Rana said.
“(One of my) children has lost her eyesight. (Another) daughter is also injured in her leg,” she added. “Please, let someone help with a piece of land or some place for us to stay.”
International aid agencies are reiterating calls for countries not to forget about the situation in Afghanistan.
“Afghanistan is home to one of the world’s worst humanitarian and child rights crises. This is by far the worst earthquake it has endured in many years,” Siddig Ibrahim, UNICEF Afghanistan’s Chief of Field Office, told CNN in an interview on Friday.
“Things happening (elsewhere) in the world are not going to stop,” Ibrahim added. The children of Afghanistan deserve equally as all children in the world.”
As helicopters flew overhead in the skies, heading to other villages, Shah Bibi’s children remained buried in the ground. “I was sewing at home and my children were sleeping,” recalled the 32-year-old mother.
“The ground started to shake and I jumped into the air. It fell.”
“Before I lost consciousness, I shouted so that someone could find my children and take them out.”
“Eventually other villagers came but many were killed because it was too far away.”
Two of Shah Bibi’s daughters along with her two nephews were killed on October 7.
“We have nowhere to go. Our place of living was there,” she said in between tears.
“I don’t know what our future will be but we have lost everything in our lives.”
The United States is providing $12 million in “immediate humanitarian assistance” for Afghanistan following multiple devastating earthquakes that killed nearly 1,200 people and leveled villages in the western Herat province.
Over 2,000 people were injured, according to the U.N. and disaster management officials. Twelve villages with over 1,000 homes were completely destroyed.
Two 6.3 magnitude earthquakes, followed by several strong aftershocks, struck on Saturday, followed by another 6.3 magnitude earthquake that struck the same province on Wednesday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The U.S. Agency for International Development said in a statement Thursday it would provide the “$12 million in immediate humanitarian assistance to meet the urgent needs of the affected people.”
The earthquake hit with Afghanistan’s economy in a free fall as the country struggles with the world’s worst humanitarian crisis following the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, which caused massive cutoffs in Afghan aid.
A boy cries as he sits next to debris in the aftermath of an earthquake in Zinda Jan, Afghanistan, Oct. 8, 2023.
Reuters/Stringer
The devastating earthquakes “come at a time of immense humanitarian needs when 15 million people do not know where the next meal will come from,” said Anamaria Salhuana, the World Food Programme’s deputy country director in Afghanistan. “WFP urgently needs $400 million to help 7 million of the most vulnerable people survive the coming months.”
The U.S. had frozen $7 billion in central bank assets when the government dissolved following the withdrawal of U.S. forces and the Taliban taking over the country by force. Half of that money was moved to a Swiss account in 2022 to benefit the people of Afghanistan.
Analysts argue it’s time for the funds to be released to address the unfolding humanitarian crisis.
“This might be the right time to unlock a small portion of this fund as an emergency measure to finance rebuilding the victims’ homes,” Torek Farhadi, a veteran regional analyst, told CBS News. “A safe mechanism should be possible to be worked out to satisfy all audit requirements and a small trust fund can be established for that purpose.”
Bibi, an older woman who survived the earthquakes, doubts she would survive the harsh winter as she lost her house and livelihood.
“I became … miserable, I lost everything I had built in my life, I have no place to sleep, I have no bread to eat,” she told CBS News.
Meanwhile, an explosion inside a Shiite mosque Friday killed several worshippers in northern Baghlan province, according to Mustafa Hashimi, head of the province’s Information and Culture Department. A statement from Baghlan police said at least seven people were killed and 15 were wounded.
Western governments are urging Israel to show restraint in its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, as fears grow that the conflict could spiral out of control.
On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and French President Emmanuel Macron combined their support for Israel’s right to retaliate with a warning: That response must be fair.
“Israel has the right to defend itself by eliminating terrorist groups such as Hamas through targeted action, but preserving civilian populations is the duty of democracies,” Macron said on Thursday night. “The only response to terrorism is always a strong and fair one. Strong because fair.”
On Thursday, for the first time the United States hinted at Israel’s responsibilities. Speaking alongside Benjamin Netanyahu at a press conference, Blinken said that while “Israel has the right to defend itself … how Israel does this matters.”
In a call with Netanyahu late Thursday evening, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak “reiterated that the UK stands side by side with Israel in fighting terror and agreed that Hamas can never again be able to perpetrate atrocities against the Israeli people,” according to a Downing Street readout. But the readout also added: “Noting that Hamas has enmeshed itself in the civilian population in Gaza, the Prime Minister said it was important to take all possible measures to protect ordinary Palestinians and facilitate humanitarian aid.”
These concerns were privately echoed by other Western officials, who warned that the world is facing a precarious moment.
As Israel scales up its powerful counteroffensive in Gaza, the fear in some European governments is that a full-blown regional war could erupt.
“Whatever Israel and the Palestinians do now risks contributing to the increasing bipolarization over the conflict,” one French diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly. “One big worry is the risk that the conflict spreads to the region.”
Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, already called the Hamas attacks and the subsequent kidnapping of civilians “Israel’s 9/11.”
But the 2001 attacks on the U.S. also led Washington to launch a global “War on Terror,” with American-led military involvement in Afghanistan and, two years later, Iraq, with the loss of many lives. The unified international support the U.S. enjoyed in the days and weeks immediately following 9/11 splintered over President George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003.
“Israel clearly sees this as a casus belli [an act that provokes or justifies war],” one EU official said. “There is a real danger Israel simply uses this for a major ground offensive and wipes out the whole of Gaza.”
Shock and fury
Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis even publicly warned about making the same mistake.
“The shock and fury in Israel are reminiscent of the emotions in the US after 9/11,” he said on X. “That provoked a display of American unity and power. It also led to a misconceived and self-destructive war on terror. Israel may be heading down the same dangerous path.”
Hamas’ attacks against Israel last weekend, which left more than 1,200 dead, led to an incomparable wave of sympathy and outrage across the West. The Israeli flag was projected across the European Commission’s headquarters and Berlin’s Brandenburger Tor.
But already, Israel’s retribution against Hamas is being scrutinized. Its counteroffensive has killed more than 1, 500 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, and put the coastal strip of land under “complete siege.”
The United Nations has already sounded the alarm. Just two days after the attacks, Secretary-General António Guterres said he was “deeply distressed” at Israel’s announcement of a siege on Gaza. He also warned Israel that “military operations must be conducted in strict accordance with international humanitarian law.” This was echoed by the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
NGOs and Western governments now fear a humanitarian crisis, with the Red Cross warning that Gaza hospitals could turn into “morgues” without electricity.
So far, Israel seems to be doubling down.
On Thursday, Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz said there would be no humanitarian exception until all hostages were freed and that nobody should moralize.
Talking about Israel’s retaliatory measures in the Gaza Strip, Prosor said Israel decided to move “from containment to eradication” of Islamic jihadists. “This is civilization against barbarity. This is good against bad.”
Haim Regev, the Israeli ambassador to the EU, acknowledged on Tuesday that there were few critical voices so far. “But I feel the more we will go ahead with our response we might see more.”
Abdalrahim Alfarra, the head of the Palestinian Mission to the EU, told POLITICO on Thursday that a change in atmosphere is already underway. “It’s starting, since [Wednesday] there are several voices in the European Union itself that have started to ask Israel and Netanyahu’s government to at the least open up a passage for food aid to stop the Israeli aggression and war against the Gaza strip,” he said.
Gordian knot
Just like the U.S. response to 9/11, the escalation of the conflict risks destabilizing the entire region, Western diplomats fear.
“This whole conflict is a Gordian knot,” said one EU diplomat, describing the risk of escalation toward other countries in the region. The diplomat said the focus should now be on stabilizing the situation and to getting the parties back to the negotiating table.
“The Middle East conflict has the danger of escalating and bringing in other Arab countries under the pressure of their public opinion,” former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger warned, while pointing to the lessons learned from the 1973 Yom Kippur War, during which an Arab coalition led by Egypt and Syria attacked Israel.
Despite the historical peace efforts of the U.S. in the region, Washington is far from a neutral broker, as it has been traditionally a strong supporter of Israel. In previous crises in the region, Washington appeared to give Israel carte blanche in its response, but over time ramped up pressure to compel the Israeli government to agree to a cease fire.
The EU official cited above doubted whether Washington will follow that playbook this time. “Biden has no more room for maneuvering domestically after the Hamas attacks,” the EU official said. “He has to support Netanyahu all the way.”
Eddy Wax, Suzanne Lynch, Sarah Wheaton, Elisa Braun, Jacopo Barigazzi and Laura Hülsemann contributed reporting.
This article has been updated with a readout from U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s call with BenjaminNetanyahu, and to reflect the Palestinian death toll.
General Mark Milley completed a four-year term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation’s highest ranking military officer, on September 30th. He told us he spent most of his time working to avoid a direct conflict with Russia and China while the country watched him have a very public falling out with former President Trump, the man who picked him for the job.
General Milley’s time serving President Joe Biden had its own challenges, including America’s calamitous withdrawal from Afghanistan as well as providing Ukraine with billions of dollars worth of American military equipment.
A few hours before we sat down with the general at the Pentagon, he’d had his final phone call with the commander of Ukraine’s armed forces.
General Mark Milley: The counteroffensive that the Ukrainians are running is still ongoing. The progress, as many, many people have noted, is slow, but it is steady. And they are making progress on a day-to-day basis.
Norah O’Donnell: But expelling 200,000 Russian soldiers–
General Mark Milley: Very difficult.
Norah O’Donnell: No easy task.
General Mark Milley: Very hard, very hard.
Norah O’Donnell: How long is this gonna look like this? A year? Five years?
General Mark Milley: Well, you can’t put a time on it. But it’ll be a considerable length of time. And it’s gonna be long and hard and very bloody.
Russia occupies 41,000 square miles of Ukraine. The frontline extends about the distance from Atlanta to Washington, DC.
In Congress this past week, Republicans ended Kevin McCarthy’s speakership and for now, more aid to Ukraine. According to the White House, of the $113 billion already committed, there’s only enough left to last a few more months.
Norah O’Donnell: With all of the issues facing Americans at home, why is this worth it?
General Mark Milley: If Ukraine loses and Putin wins, I think you would be– certainly increasing if not doubling your defense budget in the years ahead. And you will increase the probability of a great power war in the next 10 to 15 years. I think it would be a very dangerous situation if– if Putin’s allowed to win.
Gen. Mark Milley
60 Minutes
General Mark Milley: Ukraine-Russia obviously is what drives this meeting today.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs is the commander in chief’s principal military advisor, but commands no troops in battle.
General Mark Milley: I am obligated, regardless of consequences, to give my advice to the president. But no president is obligated to follow that advice.
This past August, General Milley invited us aboard the USS Constitution in Boston Harbor, not far from where he grew up.
General Mark Milley: We’re the only military in the world that swears an oath– not to a king, a queen, a tyrant, a would-be tyrant, or a dictator. We swear an oath to an idea, the idea that is America. And it’s– and it’s embodied in that document, the Constitution, which sets up our form of government.
In 2021, General Milley had counseled President Biden to keep 2,500 troops in and around Kabul. Instead, Mr. Biden ordered a complete withdrawal to end America’s longest war after 10 years. The disaster that followed will be part of both of their legacies.
General Mark Milley: I go through the entire withdrawal from Afghanistan– chapter and verse all the time. That was a strategic failure for the United States. The enemy occupied the capital city of the country that you were supporting. So, to me, that hurts. It hurts a big way. But no matter what pain I feel or anyone else feels– nothing comes even close to the pain of those that were killed.
Norah O’Donnell: To those who served in Afghanistan for two decades and lost family members and friends and wonder, “Was it worth it?”
General Mark Milley: Well, that’s always the question. Right? So, 2,461 killed in action by the enemy in Afghanistan over 20 years. Was it worth it? Lookit, I can’t answer that for other people. This is a tough business that we’re in. This military business. It’s unforgiving. The crucible of combat’s unforgiving. People die. They lose their arms. They lose their legs. It’s an incredibly difficult– life. But is it worth it? Look around you. Lo– ask yourself th– the question. For me, I’ve answered it many times over and that’s why I stay in uniform and that’s why I maintain my oath.
His commitment to that oath would be both tested and questioned by Donald Trump. while their relationship began with kind words…
…after the January 6th insurrection, the two men would not speak again.
Their public estrangement started in the spring of 2020 when protests for racial justice, some violent, spread across the country, including to Washington, DC.
Norah O’Donnell: Perhaps more than any other chairman in the role, you have become ensnarled in politics and, arguably, threats to the Constitution. What have you learned from that?
General Mark Milley: Well, I think it’s important to– to keep your North Star, which is the Constitution. We, the military– are not only apolitical, we are nonpartisan. You can’t pick sides.
Norah O’Donnell: June 1st, 2020. Was that a turning point for you as chairman?
General Mark Milley: I think it was. Yeah. I realized that I stepped into a political minefield and I shouldn’t have.
He’s talking about the day when President Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy the U.S. Army to put down the unrest on America’s streets.
On the evening of June 1st, after demonstrators near the White House were removed by force, Chairman Milley, dressed in battle fatigues, joined President Trump and members of his Cabinet in a march across Lafayette Square to St. John’s Church, where Mr. Trump posed for photographs.
Ten days later General Milley apologized in a speech to graduates of the National Defense University.
Milley (during his speech): My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics. As a commissioned uniformed officer, it was a mistake that I have learned from…
Norah O’Donnell: It’s rare for a chairman to apologize publicly.
General Mark Milley: Well, you know, I grew up here in Boston. I’m Irish Catholic and my mother and father taught me that when you make a mistake, you admit it. You go to confession. You say 10 Hail Marys and an Our Father. Everybody makes mistakes. And– and the key is– how you deal with the mistake.
Norah O’Donnell: After you apologized, former President Trump said you choked like a dog.
General Mark Milley: Yeah, I’m not gonna comment on anything the former president has said or not said.
General Milley did tell us he was so disillusioned with the former president’s actions he nearly resigned. Instead, according to former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, he and the general made a pact to protect the military from becoming politicized or misused.
Norah O’Donnell and Gen. Mark Milley
60 Minutes
Norah O’Donnell: It’s also been reported that you spent several days, several drafts of resignation letters.
General Mark Milley: That’s right.
Norah O’Donnell: I was s– very struck by the one that was published in which you said to the president: “It is my deeply held belief that you are ruining the international order, causing significant damage to our country overseas that was fought so hard by the greatest generation in 1945. That generation, has fought against fascism, has fought against Nazism, has fought against extremism. It’s now obvious to me that you don’t understand that world order.” You don’t think Donald Trump understood what World War II was fought over?
General Mark Milley: I don’t know what– president– former President Trump– understood about World War II or– or– or– or anything else. I can tell you that– from 1914– to 1945– 150 million people or th– thereabouts were slaughtered in the conduct of great power war.
And in 1945, the United States took the initiative and drafted up a set of rules– that govern the world to this day– Those rules are under stress internationally, President Putin is a direct frontal assault on those rules. China is trying to revise those rules to their own benefit.
Norah O’Donnell: But that’s one thing to say that China is threatening that world order and Russia is threatening that world order. To say that the commander in chief, Donald Trump was “ruining the international order” and “causing significant damage,” what did you see that caused you to write that?
General Mark Milley: I th– I would say that–
Norah O’Donnell: It’s gotta be more than Walking into Lafayette Square in uniform.
General Mark Milley: There was– a wide variety of initiatives that were ongoing, one of them f– of course, was withdrawing troops out of NATO– those were initiatives that placed at risk– you know, I think, America’s role in the world. Now that is the opposite of– what– my parents and– and– 18 million others wore the uniform for World War II to defeat.
General milley doesn’t just revere the greatest generation. He was raised by it. His father was a Navy medic who served in the Pacific Campaign, including at the Battle of Iwo Jima. His mother joined the Naval Reserve to work as a nurse.
After the war they settled in Winchester, a small town north of Boston.
General Mark Milley: Almost every single– male and female– parent that was here, they’re all World War II veterans of one kind or another.
Norah O’Donnell: The whole block, really, a lot of people had–
General Mark Milley: All– everybody. Yeah, 100%.
General Mark Milley: And interesting, no officers. These were 100% (laughs) enlisted. And– and they had their own opinions of officers, too. And–
Gen. Mark Milley
60 Minutes
Norah O’Donnell: Including your parents, right?
General Mark Milley: Of c– oh, yeah, yeah.
During high school, he was recruited to play ice hockey at Princeton University and decided to join the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, or ROTC. After graduating in 1980, he went on to become a paratrooper and serve in Special Forces. He did one combat tour in Iraq and three in Afghanistan.
This past May he returned to Princeton, to commission the graduating ROTC class…and took a particular interest in a few of the young officers, whose language skills are currently in high demand.
Marine cadet: I speak Chinese sir.
General Mark Milley: Chinese is really, really important to us.
Anybody else speak Chinese? Whoa, one, two, three, four, five. If you speak Chinese, if you don’t mind, I’d like to get your names. And we’ll see where life takes you guys.
We, the United States– need to take the challenge, the military challenge of China extraordinarily seriously.
Norah O’Donnell: How concerned are you that military-to-military communications are not happening right now with China?
General Mark Milley: Yeah, I think we need to get that established. We had them for a period of time and then they’ve dropped off. So channels of communication are important in order to deescalate in time of crisis.
General Milley says he held a total of five calls with his Chinese military counterparts during the Trump and Biden administrations. But it was his last two calls during the final months of the Trump presidency that got the attention of the press, Congress, and the former president himself.
Norah O’Donnell: Why did you think it was so important to call your Chinese military counterpart in the aftermath of the January 6th attacks?
General Mark Milley: That’s an example of deescalation. So– there was clear indications– that the Chinese were very concerned about what they were observing– here in the United States.
Norah O’Donnell: Did you see some movement of Chinese military equipment–
General Mark Milley: I won’t go over anything classified. So I won’t discuss exactly what we saw or didn’t see, or what we heard or didn’t hear, I will just say that– there was clear indications that the Chinese were very concerned.
Gen. Mark Milley and Norah O’Donnell
60 Minutes
Norah O’Donnell: President Trump recently said that your “dealings” with China were “so egregious that in times gone by, the punishment would have been death.”
General Mark Milley: That’s right. He said that.
Norah O’Donnell: But for the record, was there anything inappropriate or treasonous about the calls you made to China–
General Mark Milley: Absolutely not. Zero. None. And not only that, they were authorized. They’re coordinated. Congress knows that. We’ve answered these questions– several different times in writing
Norah O’Donnell: Were you giving the Chinese information about thinking of the president of the United States?
General Mark Milley: The specific conversation was– I think in accordance with– the intent of the secretary of defense, which was to make sure the Chinese knew that we were not going to attack them.
Norah O’Donnell: Why did the Chinese think that the U.S. under then-president Trump was going to attack them–
General Mark Milley: The Chinese were concerned about– what– what is commonly referred to in– in– in the English language like an October surprise, wag the dog sort of thing. They were wrong. They were not reading us right. Lookit, President Trump was not going to attack China. And they needed to know that.
China, Russia and the war in Ukraine are now the problem of his successor, Air Force General Charles Q. Brown, Jr.
There are also areas of concern closer to home. Last year, the Army missed its recruiting numbers by 15,000 soldiers, the worst shortfall in decades.
Norah O’Donnell: Confidence in the U.S. military is at its lowest in two decades, do you bear any personal responsibility for that?
General Mark Milley: Absolutely. I think as the leader of the military, the uniformed military, I think that I am part of that for sure. I think that the walk from the White House to the St. John’s Church, I think that– helped create some of that.
I think the withdrawal from Afghanistan– helped create some of that. But I would also say, the United States military is still one of the most respected institutions in the United States by a long shot– by a huge margin. You know, I think we’ve– taken a slip back a little bit–and I think we need to improve on that.
Produced by Keith Sharman. Associate producer, Roxanne Feitel. Broadcast associate, Eliza Costas. Edited by April Wilson.
The death toll is expected to rise as search and rescue efforts continue after the magnitude 6.3 earthquake.
A powerful earthquake followed by strong aftershocks has killed more than 100 people in western Afghanistan, local officials said, as the United Nations warned that the death toll could rise as search and rescue efforts continue.
The 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck 40km (24 miles) west of the city of Herat at about 11am on Saturday (06:30 GMT), with strong aftershocks felt in the neighbouring Badghis and Farah provinces.
The Afghan Ministry of Defence in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, said the tremors killed more than 100 people and injured more than 500.
A situation report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs added that there were unconfirmed estimates that as many as 320 people had died.
“Partners and local authorities anticipate the number of casualties to increase as search and rescue efforts continue amid reports that some people may be trapped under collapsed buildings,” the OCHA said.
At least 100 people were killed and a further 500 injured in today’s 6.3 magnitude #earthquake in Herat Province. Read more here about ongoing humanitarian response efforts in our latest Flash Update:👇https://t.co/bPOPyh75WO
In Herat city, resident Abdul Shakor Samadi said the quake was followed by at least five strong tremors at about noon on Saturday (07:30 GMT).
“All people are out of their homes,” Samadi said. “Houses, offices and shops are all empty and there are fears of more earthquakes. My family and I were inside our home, I felt the quake.”
His family began shouting and ran outside, afraid to return indoors.
The United States Geological Survey said the quake’s epicentre was about 40km northwest of Herat city. It was followed by three very strong aftershocks, measuring magnitude 6.3, 5.9 and 5.5 as well as lesser shocks.
Afghan children rest under a blanket beside damaged houses after an earthquake in Sarbuland village of Zendeh Jan, district of Herat province, on October 7, 2023 [Mohsen Karimi/ AFP]
Disaster authority spokesperson Mohammad Abdullah Jan said that the quake and aftershocks damaged homes in four villages in the Zenda Jan district in Herat province. There were also reports of widespread damage to houses in the Farah and Badges provinces.
The World Health Organization in Afghanistan said it dispatched 12 ambulances to Zenda Jan to evacuate casualties to hospitals.
“As deaths & casualties from the earthquake continue to be reported, teams are in hospitals assisting treatment of wounded & assessing additional needs,” the UN agency said on X. “WHO-supported ambulances are transporting those affected, most of them women and children.”
Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban-appointed deputy prime minister for economic affairs, expressed his condolences to the dead and injured in Herat and Badghis.
The Taliban urged local organisations to reach earthquake-hit areas as soon as possible to help take the injured to hospital, provide shelter for the homeless and deliver food to survivors. They said security agencies should use all their resources and facilities to rescue people trapped under debris.
“We ask our wealthy compatriots to give any possible cooperation and help to our afflicted brothers,” the Taliban said on X.
In June 2022, a powerful earthquake struck a rugged, mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan, flattening stone and mud-brick homes. The quake was Afghanistan’s deadliest in two decades, killing at least 1,000 people and injuring about 1,500.
Islamabad has reported an increase in cross-border attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.
Pakistan’s provinces along the Afghanistan border have come under repeated attack by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, also known as the TTP or the Pakistan Taliban.
Islamabad accuses the Taliban government in Afghanistan of allowing these fighters to use its territory to launch attacks. The Afghans deny the allegation.
What’s behind this surge? And is the Taliban government really doing enough to stop it?
Presenter: Mohammed Jamjoom
Guests:
Waqar Khan – Defence analyst and retired brigadier in the Pakistan Army
Obaidullah Baheer – Lecturer in transitional justice at the American University of Afghanistan
Zeeshan Salahuddin – Director of the Centre for Regional and Global Connectivity at Tabadlab, a geopolitical think-tank and advisory service
What César really wanted was to get out of Cuba. A bartender struggling to make ends meet in Havana, he tried last year to reach Miami in a rickety boat but was forced to abandon the attempt when he was intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard.
He’s now preparing a second escape attempt: with a direct flight to Moscow. His ticket has been paid for by a Russian recruiter but it comes with a hefty price tag nonetheless: As part of the deal, he will have to join the Russian army and fight in Ukraine.
“If this is the sacrifice I have to make for my family to get ahead, I’ll do it,” said César, who turned 19 this year and whose name has been changed to protect his identity.
“You can be a nuclear physicist and still die of hunger here,” he said. “With my current salary I can barely buy basic things like toilet paper or milk.” He said he hoped he would be allowed to work as a paramedic.
The news of Cuban fighters in Ukraine splashed across global headlines earlier this month when Havana announced it had arrested 17 people for involvement in a human trafficking ring recruiting young men to fight for Russia.
The news raised questions about the extent of cooperation between the two Cold War allies, and whether cracks were beginning to show in Havana’s support for Russia’s invasion.
Conversations with Cubans in Cuba and Russia reveal a different side of the story: of desperate young men who see enlistment in the Russian army as their best shot at a better life — even if not all of them seem to know what they were getting themselves into.
One recruit in his late 40s in the Russian city of Tula, whom we will call Pedro, said he was promised a job as a driver “for workers and construction material” but on arrival in Russia was being prepared for combat, weapon in hand.
“We signed a contract with the devil,” he said, recalling the moment he enlisted. “And the devil does not hand out sweets.”
Cold-war allies
Until recently, Havana — though formally neutral on Ukraine — made no secret of siding with Moscow in what it called its clash with the “Yankee empire.” The Castro regime is dependent on Russia for cheap fuel and other aid. But unlike, say, North Korea, it has little to offer in return other than diplomatic loyalty.
Since the Kremlin launched its full-scale assault last year, the countries have exchanged visits by top brass.
Critics have warned that, keeping with Soviet tradition, Cuba could send troops to help fight Moscow’s cause. They point to a May visit to Belarus by Cuba’s military attaché, where the “training of Cuban military personnel” was top of the agenda, and a trip to Moscow by Cuba’s defense minister several weeks later to discuss “a number of technical military projects.” But there has been no evidence of direct involvement.
Havana’s crackdown on the recruitment network followed the publication of an interview on YouTube in late August, in which two 19-year-old Cubans claimed they had been lured to Russia for lucrative construction jobs, only to be sent to the trenches in Ukraine. They said they had suffered beatings, been scammed out of their money and were being kept captive.
Cuba’s foreign ministry vowed to act “energetically” against efforts to entice Cubans to join Russia’s war effort, adding: “Cuba is not part of the conflict in Ukraine.”
The change in tone in Havana suggests that the recruitment of Cubans through informal backchannels has “hit a nerve,” said Christopher Sabatini, a senior fellow for Latin America at Chatham House.
“Cuba and the Soviet Union fought side by side in Angola and other places, but for ideological reasons,” he said. “Now it’s boiled down to the ugliest, most mercenary terms, giving it a transactional quality that goes against decades of friendship.”
In November 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree offering fast-tracked naturalization to foreigners who signed up as contract soldiers. “We are all getting Russian citizenship,” one recruit texted this reporter. That week, he and others told POLITICO, some 15 recruits, some of whom had been in Russia for only a couple of months, had been personally handed their passports by the local governor.
With heavy losses in Ukraine, Russia “needs the cannon fodder,” said Pavel Luzin, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). He added most foreign recruits come from Central Asian and African countries, Syria and Afghanistan.
It is unclear exactly how many foreign citizens have joined Russia’s ranks. But Luzin says their limited numbers mainly serve to boost Russia’s narrative that it has international support for its war.
“Without speaking the language, knowing the local terrain, or the right training for modern warfare, they’ll be swiftly killed and that’s it,” he said.
Joining the 106th
For most of the Cubans with whom POLITICO spoke, their involvement with the Russian army began in late 2022, when somebody using the name Elena Shuvalova began posting on social media pages targeting Cubans looking to go abroad or already in Russia.
One post showed a woman in a long skirt in front of a car decorated with a Cuban flag and a “Z,” Russia’s pro-war symbol. In the accompanying text, Shuvalova offered a one-year contract with the Russian army, “help” with the required language exams and medical tests, and “express legalization within two days.”
Pay consisted of a one-off handout of 195,000 rubles (about $2,000) followed by a monthly salary of 204,000 rubles ($2,100). By comparison, Cuba’s average GDP per capita in 2020 was $9,500 per year.
Of the four recruits currently in Russia who shared their stories with POLITICO, three said they had been flown in from Cuba this summer. At home, they worked in hospitality, teaching and construction. One said he had a professional military background. Two others had completed two years of standard compulsory military service.
While they knew they would be employed by Russia’s military, they were reassured that they would be working far from the front line as drivers or construction workers. “To dig fortifications or help rebuild cities,” one recruit’s exasperated wife told POLITICO.
Because they could face charges of joining a mercenary group in Cuba or of treason or espionage in Russia for talking to a reporter, POLITICO changed the names of the recruits quoted in this story.
Each of them said they were flown in from Varadero along with several dozen other men. They said their passports were not stamped on departure, and that upon entering Russia their migration cards were marked “tourism” as their purpose of stay.
On landing at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, the recruits were met by a woman who introduced herself as Diana, who said she was a Cuban with Russian ties. They were then loaded onto a bus and brought to what one recruit described as “an empty school building” near Ryazan, a city in western Russia 200 kilometers southeast of Moscow.
There, they underwent a cursory medical check and were subject to a mountain of red tape, including the signing of a contract with the Russian defense ministry. One recruit said a Spanish version of the text was made available to those who specifically requested it, but others said that a translator simply summarized its content verbally.
The recruits said that some of the new arrivals remained behind at a military unit in Ryazan. But most were transferred to the 106th Guards Airborne, a division based in the city of Tula near Moscow that has been deployed into some of the fiercest fighting in Ukraine.
Kyiv claims the 106th was largely “reduced to fertilizer” in the early days of the invasion when it tried to capture Kyiv. In recent months, it has been stationed around Soledar and Bakhmut, hotspots in eastern Ukraine.
“When they handed us the uniform and told us to go train I realized this was not about construction at all,” one recruit said. By then, however, he was locked in.
A legal adviser who is well-known within Russia’s Cuban community told POLITICO he has delivered the same tough message to scores of Cuban recruits who have appealed to him for help: “Once you’ve signed the contract, defecting is tantamount to treason.”
When POLITICO spoke to Pedro in Tula, he said he felt trapped by his decision.
“I came here to give my children a better life, not to kill,” he said, breaking down into tears. “I won’t fire a single bullet.”
He added he had considered trying to escape. “But where do I go?”
On landing at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, the recruits were met by a woman who introduced herself as Diana, who said she was a Cuban with Russian ties | Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images
Willing participants
POLITICO could not determine whether Shuvalova or Diana were working for Russian or Cuban authorities. Neither woman responded to requests for comment — though Shuvalova told journalists at the Russian-language Moscow Times that she worked pro-bono.
While the Cuban Embassy in Moscow did not respond to multiple requests for comment, the government itself has sent mixed messages. Shortly after Cuba’s announcement that it had broken up the human trafficking ring, Havana’s ambassador to Moscow told the state-run RIA agency that “we have nothing against Cubans who just want to sign a contract and legally take part in this operation.”
Russia’s defense ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
It’s not easy to tell just how many Cuban citizens have joined the Russian military.
In conversations with POLITICO, the recruits said roughly 140 Cubans were currently in Tula. And a caller to a Miami-based Spanish-language television channel in early September said that he had some 90 Cubans under his command in Ryazan.
A trove of 198 hacked documents, allegedly belonging to recent Cuban recruits and published online by the Ukrainian website Informnapalm, showed the ages of those who joined the Russian army ranged between 19 to 69 years old. More than 50 of the passports were issued in June and July this year.
Not all Cubans POLITICO spoke to said they had been tricked into joining the war. In photos shared online and in messenger apps, many pose proudly in military gear, some carrying weapons.
“No one put a gun to their heads,” Yoenni Vega Gonzalez, 36, a Cuban migrant in Russia, said of his acquaintances in Ukraine. “The contract makes it clear that you’re going to war, not to play ball or camping.”
He said he had been refused the opportunity to join because he does not speak Russian. “Otherwise, I would have gone [to the front] with pride and my head held high.”
During the reporting of this article, several Cubans still on the island reached out saying they wanted to enlist. All cited economic, and not political, reasons as their core motivation.
Accounts of daily life behind the fences of the training sites differed greatly.
Some recruits described their interaction with the Russians as friendly and the atmosphere as relaxed. In their free time they smoked cigarettes and sipped on Coca-Cola (officially not available in either Cuba or Russia). On the weekends they went sightseeing and reveled in the city’s bars.
But those who say they were tricked into service, seemingly a minority, complain about payment delays and said they are threatened with incarceration for resisting orders.
When asked about the moral implications of his decision, one recruit in Tula said it wasn’t his primary concern.
“This is the way we found to get out of Cuba,” he said. “No one here wants to kill anyone. But neither do we want to die ourselves.”
As a result, Peter van Agtmael’s photos on these pages, showing recent exercises by the 101st Airborne’s Second Brigade Combat Team, don’t just document training for air assaults and ambushes (a tactic once memorably defined by Lieutenant Colonel Charles Armstrong as an “act of premeditated murder and terrorism against strangers”). At Fort Campbell, Kentucky (and later at Fort Johnson, Louisiana—formerly Fort Polk—which van Agtmael also documented), soldiers of the brigade learned to fight at night against electronic warfare jamming, against unmanned aerial systems and counterfire radars. They learned to breach complex mine and wire obstacles, to defeat enemy motorized counterattacks. “Even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we oriented on high-end combat against a peer threat,” explained Colonel Ed Matthaidess, the brigade’s commander. Peers, of course, are America’s fellow superpowers.
In practice, that means thousands of soldiers operating in synchronicity to deliver overwhelming firepower. And in an era of drones and other high-tech surveillance assets to help adversaries deliver fire at long range, soldiers can’t expect to operate out of combat outposts or forward operating bases as they did in Iraq, where they could count on a warm bed and hot food more often than not. In contrast, soldiers can expect extended periods in the field, living out of a rucksack, dispersed and camouflaged in dug-in fighting positions before massing to attack.
The Taliban has welcomed Zhao Sheng as China’s new ambassador to Afghanistan during a lavish ceremony held at the presidential palace in Kabul on Wednesday.
China is among a handful of countries, including Pakistan, Iran and Russia that have maintained a diplomatic presence in Afghanistan since the Taliban retook control of the country in 2021.
In the palace ceremony, Taliban Prime Minister Mohammad Hasan Akhund shook hands with Zhao and “accepted the credentials of the new Chinese Ambassador,” the prime minister’s office said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“The Honorable Prime Minister of the Islamic Emirate thanked the leadership of China for the appointment of Mr Zhao Sheng as ambassador and expressed hope that this appointment would elevate the diplomatic relations between the two countries to a higher level and the beginning of a new chapter,” Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in the statement
According to the prime minister’s office, Zhao said that China was “a good neighbor of Afghanistan” and “fully respects Afghanistan’s independence, territorial integrity and independence in decision-making.”
Zhao added that China does not have a policy of interference in Afghanistan’s internal affairs, and it does not want Afghanistan “to become its area of influence.”
The Taliban prime minister said relations between the two countries had “been on a good level” and “expressed his hope for taking more steps to further strengthen the bilateral relations,” according to Mujahid.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement the appointment was the “normal rotation of China’s ambassador to Afghanistan” and was “intended to continue advancing dialogue and cooperation” between the two countries.
The ministry said, “China’s policy toward Afghanistan is clear and consistent.”
China, a neighbor of Afghanistan with substantial investment in the region, was cautious about the potential security challenges posed by the abrupt return of the Taliban following the US withdrawal in August 2021.
Since then, Chinese officials have stressed increasing cooperation with Afghanistan, along with other regional neighbors, on issues such as anti-terrorism cooperation, “economic collaboration” and boosting “regional stability and development.”
In May, China, Afghanistan and Pakistan vowed to strengthen trilateral ties on security and counterterrorism at a meeting of the three country’s foreign ministers in Islamabad.
Speaking at that meeting, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang said China attached “great importance to the friendship with Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
Notably from the meeting, the three sides agreed to cooperate on China’s Belt and Road trade and infrastructure program, through which China has heavily invested in the region.
They also agreed to forge closer economic ties by extending the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to Afghanistan “so as to promote connectivity, improve cross-border trading, enhance the economic integration of the three countries and achieve sustainable development.”
CPEC is a $60 billion Belt and Road flagship project that links China’s western Xinjiang region to Pakistan’s strategic Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea with a network of roads, railways, pipelines and power plants.
Prince Harry is opening up about the difficulties of coming home.
In Netflix’s new documentary series “Heart of Invictus”, the Duke of Sussex shares how his return from military service in Afghanistan triggered “trauma” related to his mom’s death.
“From my personal experience, my tour of Afghanistan in 2012, flying Apaches, somewhere after that there was an unravelling,” he recalls in the series’ second episode. “And the trigger to me was returning to Afghanistan, but the stuff that was coming up was from the age of from 1992 from the age of 12.”
Princess Diana was killed in a car accident in Paris in 1997.
He continues, “Losing my mum at such a young age, the trauma that I had I was never really aware of. It was never discussed. I never really talked about it and I suppressed it like most youngsters would have done.”
Harry goes on to talk about what that unravelling felt like, and how it helped him realize he needed to seek help.
“But when it all came fizzing out I was bouncing off the walls. Like what is going on here, I’m now feeling everything as opposed to being numb,” he says. “The biggest struggle for me was no one around me really could help. I didn’t have that support structure, that network, or that expert advice to identify what was actually going on with me.”
The royal adds, “Unfortunately like most of us the first time you really consider therapy is when you’re lying on the floor in the fetal position probably wishing you had dealt with some of this stuff previously. That’s what I really want to change.”
Referring to founding the Invictus Games, the sporting event for wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women, Harry says, “I’ve always wanted the Invictus Games and the support that comes with that all year round to be a net to catch those individuals.”
Harry first started his military career by entering the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 2004.
In 2007, he was secretly deployed on a tour of duty in Afghanistan, though after it was reportedly publicly, he pulled out for the safety of himself and his fellow soldiers, given his status as a high value target.
The Duke of Sussex was the first member of the British Royal Family to serve in a war zone since his uncle, Prince Andrew, flew helicopters during the Falklands War.
In 2008, Harry began training to flew helicopters himself, and in 2012 served a second tour of duty in Afghanistan. He returned home early the following year.
It has now been two years since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. The Biden administration defends the move while Republicans say it was chaotic and a failure. Texas Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, joins “America Decides” to give an update on the investigation into what happened leading up to the deadly bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members.
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United Nations – After two years of attempted talks with the Taliban aimed at lifting its bans on secondary and university education and work for women in Afghanistan, the U.N. is proposing a plan to pressure Afghanistan and incentivize the Taliban to reverse course.
Over 2.5 million girls and young women are denied secondary education, a number that will increase to 3 million in a few months.
Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the U.N.’s envoy for global education, announced a five-point plan on Tuesday that includes bringing the issue to the attention of the International Criminal Court.
Brown said that he has submitted a legal opinion to ICC prosecutor Karim Khan asking him to open an investigation into the denial of education to girls. Brown also asked the court to consider the Taliban’s repression of women’s rights to education and employment as a crime against humanity.
Deena Rahimi, a twelfth-grade student, reads a book at her residence in Kabul on March 21, 2023. Afghanistan’s schools reopened in March, but hundreds of thousands of girls remain barred from attending class.
AHMAD SAHEL ARMAN/AFP via Getty Images
“The denial of education to Afghan girls and the restrictions on employment of Afghan women is gender discrimination, which should count as a crime against humanity and should be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court,” Brown said.
“The international community must show that education can get through to the people of Afghanistan in spite of the Afghan government’s bans, and thus, we will sponsor and fund internet learning,” Brown said, adding, “We will support underground schools, as well as support education for girls who are forced to leave Afghanistan and need our help to go to school.”
The five-point plan includes the mobilization of Education Cannot Wait, a U.N. emergency education fund, which on Tuesday launched a campaign called “Afghan Girls’ Voices,” in collaboration with Somaya Faruqi, former captain of the Afghan Girls’ Robotic Team.
Male students arrive at Balkh University after the universities were reopened in Mazar-i-Sharif on March 6, 2023.
ATIF ARYAN/AFP via Getty Images
The plan also asks for visits by delegations from Muslim-majority countries to Kandahar, and to offer the Taliban-led government funding to finance girls’ return to school, which would match funding provided between 2011 and 2021 as long as girls’ rights would be upheld and the education would not be indoctrination.
“We have to think about the safety of girls,” Brown said, adding that there is a split among Taliban leadership about lifting the bans and that the U.N. has detected “some possibility of progress.”
“But until we can persuade not just the government itself, but the clerics, that something must change, we will still have this terrible situation where this is the worst example of the abuse of human rights against girls and women around the world.”
On the border with Pakistan, thousands of Afghans are waiting in line to get their passports stamped so they can leave Afghanistan behind and never return.
On this hot and humid day, as they cram between two fences like livestock, the sight of desperate travelers passing out is all too common, with waiting times averaging from three hours to a whole day during the busiest periods.
The only relief from the heat is the bottled water sold by children as young as 5 who run up and down the fence shouting prices at thirsty travelers.
Beyond the chaotic crossing, a former contractor sighed in relief.
“I’m happy because I feel like I have been bailed out of jail” said 45-year-old Yousafkhel Jabar Khan. He plans to secure his asylum case through an embassy.
“I hope that I do not see their (Taliban) faces again,” he said.
Taliban fighters stand guard at the scene of a deadly explosion near the Foreign Ministry in Kabul, Afghanistan, March 27, 2023.
Ebrahim Noroozi/AP
Khan’s story is echoed by countless others who want to put the Taliban’s Afghanistan in their past. Two years since the Taliban took over again, Afghanistan is in the hands of Hibatullah Akhundzada, known as the Amir Al Mu’mineen, or “Commander of the Faithful.”
But despite the prominence of his role, Hibatullah maintains anonymity for the most part. Since the Taliban declared victory following the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan, their leader has not yet been seen in public.
Even among his ranks, it’s extremely difficult to speak to any Taliban official on the record about their supreme leader.
Clandestine-like meetings
A deputy minister in the Taliban’s government described having to travel more than 300 miles to the ancient city of Kandahar to meet with the country’s leader.
Once there, he waited for around three days before getting a call confirming that the meeting would go ahead. In a scene akin to a clandestine meeting, he was taken to two separate locations and had his belongings confiscated before finally being taken to Hibatullah.
“He was sitting on the floors despite the room having couches. He came across very humble yet impressive, his knowledge regarding Islamic law and its jurisdiction has to be acknowledged,” the deputy minister said.
The Afghan Taliban’s supreme leader, Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada, in a 2021 file photo.
Rob Welham/Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty
Another high-ranking Taliban member told CBS News the leader is ruling the country like a ghost from his own capital.
He described similar levels of secrecy and security preceding his meeting with Hibatullah, going so far as to be given passwords to memorize in order to verify his identity before being transported to the meeting location.
Afghanistan’s leader maintains this extraordinarily low profile due to the looming threat from US drone strikes and the ISKP — an Islamic State affiliate group — according to a source within the Taliban leadership.
Within his circle, every staff member is under 24-hour surveillance and smartphones are banned.
Iron fist rule
But from behind the veil of secrecy and protection, Hibatullah rules with an iron fist. Since climbing to power, he has been responsible for stopping girls and women from attending high school or universities, banning them from parks, gyms and public baths, and ordering them to cover up when leaving home.
From early adulthood, he was against modern-day education for boys and girls and referred to schooling as a source of evil and degenerating of morality.
Afghan political analyst and critic Asmat Qani recalled meeting Hibatullah when he was just a young judge.
In an image shared with CBS News, Afghan women stage a protest in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 29, 2023, calling on the U.N. to deny the country’s Taliban rulers any formal recognition ahead of a U.N.-hosted conference in Doha, Qatar, on how the international community should “engage” with the group.
CBS News
“[He] lives in his own world,” Qani told CBS News. “The majority of the Taliban agree on the importance of women’s education and want to allow girls to attend schools and universities. He alone is mostly responsible for the ban.”
“Such violent and narrow-minded interpretation of Islam has made Afghanistan a living hell for women,” a former Taliban minister told CBS News.
The source also blamed the supreme leader’s actions for the international sanctions Afghanistan has been living under.
Mullah Basir is a former classmate of Hibatullah and, despite criticizing him as a hardliner and extreme conservative, described him as a “kind, devout and intelligent person.”
He told CBS News that after the killing of the Taliban leader who preceded him, Hibatullah was taken away and he never saw him again.
Supreme authority
His appointment as supreme leader was explained to CBS News by a source among the Taliban leadership as a way to stabilize the problems at the top. Hibatullah was seen as a neutral and respectable figure among Taliban seniors
“Hibatullah has gradually learned and felt that he is the final level of authority, a man at the top of the hierarchy of a group that is fiercely loyal to him,” Qani told CBS. “He can do pretty much whatever he wishes.”
Today, Hibatullah surrounds himself with around 2,500 suicide bombers who are prepared to sacrifice themselves for his safety. They live in a camp that used to host Taliban founder Mullah Omar and was later used as a compound by the CIA in Kandahar.
One member of the Supreme Leader’s Guard Corps told CBS News they are paid a salary of $170 a month and are not allowed to have smartphones, watch TV or access social media.
In June, Hibatullah said in a rare public message that the measures he took regarding women’s rights in Afghanistan have provided a “comfortable and prosperous life according to Islamic Sharia.”
The senior US general for the Middle East has ordered additional interviews be conducted regarding the 2021 Abbey Gate bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, which killed 13 US service members during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the US military announced Friday.
The additional interviews are the result of an internal review ordered by the commander of US Central Command Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, who directed US Army Central commander Lt. Gen. Pat Frank in June to review public testimony about the bombing for any new information not included in CENTCOM’s previous report.
“The purpose of these interviews is to ensure we do our due diligence with the new information that has come to light, that the relevant voices are fully heard and that we take those accounts and examine them seriously and thoroughly so the facts are laid to bare,” said a statement from CENTCOM spokesman Michael Lawhorn.
Though the interviews don’t constitute a formal reopening of the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the attack, this represents an effort by the military to re-examine testimony after members of those killed have expressed anger and dissatisfaction with the original review.
It’s unclear if the new interviews will include Afghans who witnessed the blast, which killed more than 170 Afghan civilians.
When pressed on whether the interviews would include Afghans, Lawhorn said it would be “up to the Supplementary Review Team to decide who to interview.”
“I cannot be explicit about anything that the Supplementary Review Team may or may not decide to review in the future,” Lawhorn said.
CENTCOM released a lengthy after-action review last year that included statements from more than 100 witnesses. Many service members interviewed gave conflicting recollections about the person they were on the look-out for – some said no description seemed to fit clearly, or that they didn’t see anyone fitting the description they’d been given before the blast, while others said they believed they saw the person in question in the crowd.
Among the differing recollections of what happened on August 26, 2021, is testimony from Marine Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews, who was seriously injured in the blast and who has said he was not interviewed in CENTCOM’s original investigation.
Vargas-Andrews testified before Congress in March that Marines had requested permission to shoot who they believed to be the suicide bomber, but never got permission.
“Plain and simple, we were ignored. Our expertise was disregarded. No one was held accountable for our safety,” Vargas-Andrews said.
Lawhorn’s statement said that Vargas-Andrews’ public comments “made statements about his experience that contained new information not previously shared by any other witness.” Frank’s review also found that additional service members were not interviewed due to “their immediate medical evacuation in the aftermath of the attack.”
“These interviews will seek to determine whether those not previously interviewed due to their immediate medical evacuation possess new information not previously considered, and whether such new information, if any, would affect the results of the investigation, and to ensure their personal accounts are captured for historical documentation,” he added.
The news comes just weeks after Gold Star family members of some of the 13 US troops who were killed in the Abbey Gate bombing demanded answers before Congress, saying they did not feel that they’d been given the full truth about what happened to their loved ones.
Lawhorn’s statement said that the next of kin of the 13 service members who were killed “are currently being informed of the supplementary interviews.”
The process for the interviews will begin “in the coming days,” Lawhorn said. Kurilla has requested an update on those interviews within 90 days, but has directed Frank to “take whatever time is necessary to ensure each of the witnesses not interviewed as part of the investigation have an opportunity to share their experience and perspective.”
