KABUL: The UN on Sunday published its preliminary report on an onslaught by Daesh and Taliban militants in northern Afghanistan, confirming the deaths of civilians but finding no evidence of beheadings or sexual abuse.
Provincial authorities in Sar-i-Pul say Taliban and Daesh fighters jointly attacked Mirza Olang village more than two weeks ago, arresting several hundred civilians and killing more than 50 of them by beheading one group and throwing another off a cliff. Some officials even said the insurgents abducted women for sexual violence.
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) launched a probe into the killings in the predominantly Shiite village.
“UNAMA verified allegations that Taliban and local self-proclaimed Islamic State (Daesh) fighters killed at least 36 persons, including civilians … during the attack on Mirza Olang,” it said in a statement.
“At least half of the killings took place on Saturday 5th of August when Anti-Government Elements stopped families trying to escape the village, separated women and young children, and killed at least 18 people, both civilians and Pro-Government Militia who were hors de combat (out of action) at the time of their killing. Others, including one woman, were reportedly shot while they tried to escape from the village.”
UNAMA said it found no evidence to substantiate claims of beheadings. Via interviews with witnesses and officials, it was also unable to verify claims about abductions of women and sexual violence.
UNAMA said further investigations by competent authorities are required into allegations of sectarian hatred as a factor in the killings.
The Taliban, forming the backbone of the insurgency against the Afghan government and US-led troops, denied involvement in the killing of civilians.
Media reports said Daesh claimed responsibility. Some disaffected Taliban members have joined Daesh in some parts of the country.
While Daesh affiliates have targeted Shiites multiple times in Kabul and in western Herat province over the past year, the massacre in Mirza Olang is the first of its kind in the north.
The attacks against Shiites have been portrayed by locals and government officials as a ploy by the insurgents to fan sectarian violence in Afghanistan, similar to that in Iraq and Syria.
The government faces deep divisions and growing public anger over rising insecurity amid unprecedented ethnic tensions.
UN confirms Afghan civilian deaths in Taliban, Daesh attack
UN confirms Afghan civilian deaths in Taliban, Daesh attack
Afghanistan says it thwarted Pakistani airstrike on Bagram Air Base as fighting enters fourth day
- The fighting has been the most severe between the neighbors for years
- Pakistan accuses Taliban government of harboring militant groups that stage attacks against it
KABUL: Afghanistan thwarted attempted airstrikes on Bagram Air Base, the former US military base north of Kabul, authorities said Sunday, while cross-border fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan stretched into a fourth day.
The fighting has been the most severe between the neighbors for years, with Pakistan declaring that it’s in “open war” with Afghanistan.
The conflict has alarmed the international community, particularly as the area is one where other militant organizations, including Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group, still have a presence and have been trying to resurface.
Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of harboring militant groups that stage attacks against it and also of allying with its archrival India.
Border clashes in October killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants until a Qatari-mediated ceasefire ended the intense fighting. But several rounds of peace talks in Turkiye in November failed to produce a lasting agreement, and the two sides have occasionally traded fire since then.
On Sunday, the police headquarters of Parwan province, where Bagram is located, said in a statement that several Pakistani military jets had entered Afghan airspace “and attempted to bomb Bagram Air Base” at around 5 a.m.
The statement said Afghan forces responded with “anti-aircraft and missile defense systems” and had managed to thwart the attack.
There was no immediate response from Pakistan’s military or government regarding Kabul’s claim of attempted airstrikes on Bagram or the ongoing fighting.
Bagram was the United States’ largest military base in Afghanistan. It was taken over by the Taliban as they swept across the country and took control in the wake of the chaotic US withdrawal from the country in 2021. Last year, US President Donald Trump suggested he wanted to reestablish a US presence at the base.
The current fighting began when Afghanistan launched a broad cross-border attack on Thursday night, saying it was in retaliation for Pakistani airstrikes the previous Sunday.
Pakistan had said its airstrike had targeted the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. Afghanistan had said only civilians were killed.
The TTP militant group, which is separate but closely allied with Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban, operates inside Pakistan, where it has been blamed for hundreds of deaths in bombings and other attacks over the years.
Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of providing a safe haven within Afghanistan for the TTP, an accusation that Afghanistan denies.
After Thursday’s Afghan attack, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif declared that “our patience has now run out. Now it is open war between us.”
In the ongoing fighting, each side claims to have killed hundreds of the other side’s forces — and both governments put their own casualties at drastically lower numbers.
Two Pakistani security officials said that Pakistani ground forces were still in control on Sunday of a key Afghan post and a 32-square-kilometer area in the southern Zhob sector near Kandahar province, after having seized it during fighting Friday. The captured post and surrounding area remain under Pakistani control, they added. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.
In Kabul, the Afghan government rejected Pakistan’s claims. Deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat called the reports “baseless.”
Afghan officials said that fighting had continued overnight and into Sunday in the border areas.
The police command spokesman for Nangarhar province, Said Tayyeb Hammad, said that anti-aircraft missiles were used from the provincial capital, Jalalabad, and surrounding areas on Pakistani fighter jets flying overhead Sunday morning.
Defense Ministry spokesman Enayatulah Khowarazmi said that Afghan forces had launched counterattacks with snipers across the border from Nangarhar, Paktia, Khost and Kandahar provinces overnight. He said that two Pakistani drones had been shot down and dozens of Pakistani soldiers had been killed.
Fitrat said that Pakistani drone attacks hit civilian homes in Nangarhar province late Saturday, killing a woman and a child, while mortar fire killed another civilian when it hit a home in Paktia province.
There was no immediate response to the claims from Pakistani officials.
