· January, 2008

Stories about Afghanistan from January, 2008

Afghanistan: Suicide Bombing at the Hotel

  16 January 2008

Carpetblogger opines on the suicide attack at the Serena Hotel in downtown Kabul yesterday, saying that in a complete audacity suicide bombers in police uniforms stormed the lobby of the biggest, most prominent hotel in the city.

Afghanistan: Balkh City on Fire

  16 January 2008

Mohammad Fahim reports that the administrative center of Balkh province, Mazar-I-Sharif, faced a terrible day when a largest eight floors market went on fire , and posts some pictures as well.

Afghanistan: Development of media

  16 January 2008

Bipasha Ray reviews an interesting look into the development of news media in post-Taliban Afghanistan, released recently by the U.S. Institute of Peace exploring the rapid rise of local media, especially radio.

Afghanistan: Taliban leaders freed and rejoined

  14 January 2008

Mohammad Fahim Khairy says that since 2002 many Taliban top commanders were freed from jails by assurance of the Afghinistani government and rejoined Al Qaeda or were hired in many different position in the current government.

Afghanistan: More troops

  12 January 2008

Bipasha Ray reports that the Pentagon has asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates for 3,000 more troops to be sent to Afghanistan, to counter a potential Taliban spring offensive.

Aghanistan: People killed “needlessly”

  10 January 2008

Bipasha Ray reports that according to testimony of a former member of the Marines unit at a military court yesterday, a few U.S. Marines shot and killed 19 Afghan civilians “needlessly” after a suicide bomb struck their convoy in March last year.

Afghanistan: Drug Use

  9 January 2008

Nasim Fekratْ focuses this time on the issue of drug abuse in Aghanistan and says that the number of opium addicts in Kabul alone was more than 30,000 in estimation in 2004 but three years after, this number doubled.

Afghanistan: Intrigue of expelled diplomats deepens

  8 January 2008

Bipasha Ray reports that the intrigue surrounding the expulsion of EU acting representative in Afghanistan, Mervyn Patterson, and UN diplomat Michael Semple, is deepening. The Afghanistan's government sources claim that the two were trying to “turn” the brother of the late Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah into an informant.

Afghanistan: Timberlords and the Deforestation

  5 January 2008

Afghanistanica focuses on a problem that has received very little attention is environmental issues. Pollution, overpopulation, depleted resources, health issues, lack of clean water, overgrazing and deforestation are usually put forward as the most pressing of these issues.

Afghanistan: Bhutto assasination echoes in Aghanistan

  3 January 2008

Bipasha Ray says that assassination of Benazir Bhutto last week continues to ring across Afghanistan, as American officials worry that it heralds the rise of a more virulent extremism against the Pakistani government that could undermine the Afghan mission.