Author: M Barbu

Covid-19 as Bioweapon?

The modern era is increasingly defined by a pandemic of conspiracy and misinformation. It is unsurprising that this misinformation coincides with a literal pandemic, when so little is still known about an evolving killer virus with mutating variants, and when humanity doesn’t know the full story of Covid-19’s origin. In this highly volatile environment, various narratives have emerged surrounding the pandemic, with terms like “lab leak,” “gain-of-function,” and even “bioweapon” entering the lexicon as related to Covid-19.

The Balkan Project Washington Wants to Derail

As work nears completion in the first phase of an ambitious project in Montenegro to develop a highway that will connect the Adriatic port of Bar with Serbia, Western officials and mainstream media are ramping up attacks on the endeavor. Western commentators are united in condemnation, ranging from fear-mongering over China’s role to disparaging the plan’s viability. Consistently, they dismiss it as “the highway to nowhere,” implying foolishness on the part of Montenegro and presenting it as a cautionary tale on the dangers of doing business with China. The theme fits neatly within the framework of Washington’s campaign to economically isolate and cripple China, its main competitor in the global economy.

Afghan Crisis Must End America’s Empire of War, Corruption and Poverty

Americans have been shocked by videos of thousands of Afghans risking their lives to flee the Taliban’s return to power in their country – and then by an Islamic State suicide bombing and ensuing massacre by U.S. forces that together killed at least 170 people, including 13 U.S. troops.

Even as UN agencies warn of an impending humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, the U.S. Treasury has frozen nearly all of the Afghan Central Bank’s $9.4 billion in foreign currency reserves, depriving the new government of funds that it will desperately need in the coming months to feed its people and provide basic services.

Afghanistan: Medics respond to the overwhelming health needs

In the wake of intense fighting and the rapid transfer of power to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (also known as the Taliban), people are facing widespread instability, mass displacement, and the disruption of basic services, including health care. Despite the challenges, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams continue to provide essential medical care across all five of our projects in Afghanistan—in Herat, Helmand, Kandahar, Khost, and Kunduz provinces. Here, two medical staff members working in Lashkar Gah (Helmand province) and Khost city describe the recent changes they have witnessed, and how they have affected patients and health care providers alike.

Turkey most reliable country for Kabul airport mission: Hekmatyar

Afghanistan does not have the necessary means to ensure the security of Kabul Hamid Karzai International Airport and requires the support of a foreign country in this regard, Afghanistan’s former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar said Tuesday, underlining that Turkey is the best and most reliable candidate for the mission, considering the deep relations between the two countries.

In an exclusive interview in Kabul, the veteran Afghan leader said that he and his party, the Hezb-e-Islami party, discussed the security and management of the Kabul airport with the Taliban.

Former warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar says Americans ‘do not care’ about Afghans

The calamitous scenes at Kabul’s airport, where thousands of people are scrambling to escape the Taliban before an August 31 deadline, prove the US is not concerned with the fate of ordinary Afghans, Islamist leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar told The National.

With days before the US ends its 20-year presence in Afghanistan and with tens of thousands of Afghans soon to be left stranded, Mr Hekmatyer said the facts speak for themselves.

Taliban and Afghan rebels claim heavy casualties in Panjshir fighting

Taliban forces and fighters loyal to local leader Ahmad Massoud fought in Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley on Thursday, with each side saying it had inflicted heavy casualties in the last province resisting Taliban rule.

After the fall of Kabul on August 15, several thousand fighters from local militias and the remnants of army and special forces units have massed in Panjshir.

Panjshir commander Ahmad Massoud readies for war while negotiating with Taliban

The leader of Afghanistan’s only region not to have fallen to the Taliban has said he would be willing to join a Taliban government, but only if the group proved itself to be inclusive and respect the rights of all Afghans.

Ahmad Massoud, 32, leads forces in the Panjshir Valley and said that war was on the cards if the group attempted an attack on his region.

In his first interview since the fall of Kabul last week, he told The National he had seen little evidence the group had changed over the past two decades.

Three ISIS Members Tell Asharq al-Awsat About the Organization’s Expansion, Decline

Three former ISIS fighters share their stories about how they joined the organization and their stay in Syria to Asharq al-Awsat.

The security authorities of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria granted Asharq Al-Awsat permission to interview three former ISIS members, at the anti-terror headquarters of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in al-Hassakeh.

The three were young men when they decided to join the organization in Syria. They got married and had children in combat. Today, after their surrender and detention, they know nothing about the fate of their wives and children.

The Afghan Experience

A.N. is a German young man, born in 1987. He said he came from a small family, an older brother of two siblings, who had all completed their university studies. His parents, who are still alive, found out about his orientation during his university studies, due to his continuous talk about the “Afghan experience” and the Taliban movement, which fought the U.S. army and the international coalition for years, saying: “I was impressed by the defeat of the Soviet Union, but their project was not as clear as ISIS, who took control of areas.”

The young German man tells that while following the news bulletin in the summer of 2012 and the explosion of the Syrian radio and television building, he heard about the al-Nusra Front, only to know later that it was the Syrian arm of ISIS.

At the end of 2012, he flew to Egypt, from which he completed the trip towards Turkey, and entered the city of Idleb, western Syria, under fake names, to undergo a combat course, and remained there for nearly a year. After the separation of al-Nusra – currently known as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham – from ISIS, he joined the ranks of the latter and went to the city of Raqqa, which at that time was the organization’s administrative capital.

When asked about the organization’s expansionist wars during 2014 and 2015, he replied: “The biggest enemy was Bashar al-Assad, who was a war criminal, but the conditions of the war dictated a change in tactics and objectives at the time.”

After the battles intensified in Raqqa in the summer of 2017, and the geographic area under ISIS control receded, he went to the city of al-Mayadin in the eastern countryside of Deir-ez-Zor. In the spring of 2019, he surrendered to the International Coalition Forces.

A Tunisian Recruited By His Neighbor

Mustapha (H.A.), was born in 1989 in the city of Sfax in Tunisia but lived in Sousse, which overlooks the sea. He revealed that the famous 3-D game “Counter-Strike” changed the course of his life.

The game featured two teams – a terrorist group and a counter army – while players used to exchange roles.

He recounted that one day, as he was sitting before his computer, and saw pictures and clips showing the Syrian regime’s suppression of peaceful protesters, he said: “My neighbor was sitting next to me, and I asked him: What is happening there? He told me secretly that he intended to travel to rid the Syrians of the tyrant.”

Without the knowledge of his family, the young man traveled with his neighbor by land to Libya and from there by air to Turkey. Then, at the end of 2012, they entered the countryside of Lattakia, western Syria, where the al-Nusra Front had spread. He later went to Aleppo, where he joined ISIS.

Mustapha refused to comment on the killing scenes, but he spoke about his wife, saying: “I love my wife, and I have children with her…and this is a positive thing in my life, as for the rest, I am not content with it.”

He remained in the ranks of the organization until it was defeated in Baghouz. He tried to escape with his wife and children, but they were arrested on February 15, 2019.

A Syrian Man Joining “Work”

For Malik (37 years old), who comes from al-Bab in the countryside of Aleppo, the year 2014 was nothing but a date. That year, ISIS launched more than 100 suicide attacks on his hometown.

He recounted that after the militants of the organization tightened their control over the region, Malik was forced to join the ranks of ISIS to get work.

He worked first in the Court of Justice, then in the local police and combat. He said: “The marriage office offered me to marry a Syrian woman from Aleppo, and indeed I decided to marry her, and I did not marry a second woman.”

He said that he engaged in many battles and witnessed the organization’s losses from Aleppo to Raqqa and Deir Ezzor. He added: “I tried to escape when they were expelled from Manbij, and then I tried in Tabqa and Raqqa, but I did not succeed. I stayed until the battle of Baghouz, and surrendered to the coalition.”

Car Bomb Hits Border Town of Azaz, Seven Wounded

Seven people in the town of Azaz were wounded after a car bomb attack, which the YPG is accused of, according to Zaman al-Wasl.

A car bomb wounded at least seven people in the Turkish-held northern town of Azaz on Monday, the rescue Civil Defence group said. The YPG-suspected attack has occurred in the town centre.