Afghanistan latest: US volunteer claims Taliban ‘cut off heads’ of boys aged 9 and 10
A former US Army officer evacuating American allies says almost 250 Afghan Christians have been killed, as reports emerge the Taliban is threatening the religious minority with beheadings.
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A former officer in the US Army working to evacuate stranded Americans and Afghan allies says the Taliban ‘beheaded’ two young boys following its takeover of the country.
Jean Marie Thrower, who served in the 82nd Airborne Division, has helped free hundreds of vulnerable Afghans since the US left the battlefield, according to the National Review.
She told the outlet the volunteer group of Army veterans called Afghan Rescue Crew were working to save America’s allies left behind, describing the Taliban’s reign of terror as people are going “missing and getting killed every day.”
“We have had people shot, beheaded. They’re taking the kids. If you’re on the run, and they find your family, they’ll hurt your family and put the word out in the neighbourhood that ‘we’ve got your brother or son or daughter’,” she said.
“They cut off the heads of two boys that were nine and ten.”
The claims have not been independently verified by separate sources on the ground in Afghanistan, which remains in a state of turmoil as separate factions of the Taliban vie for power within the new government.
While Thrower’s claims of beheadings are yet to be corroborated, it follows a video of the Taliban fighters cutting the head off an Afghan soldier and holding it by the hair as the group praised their leader Mullah Haybat Uallah Akhunzad.
The 36-second video was obtained from a private Taliban chat room by The Washington Examiner, which reports six Taliban surrounding the dead soldier with his head on his chest.
Afghan Christians have reported receiving calls and texts from Taliban soldiers warning they would be beheaded, while a member of the UK parliament said Afghan refugees were forced to watch family members beheaded, the National Review reports.
Thrower said the Taliban has rapidly killed Christians in the country since coming to power in August.
“We started out with 300 three weeks ago, and we’re down to 55. They’ve been killed … We had two young girls that were with this Christian family, the Christians had found them after their parents had been killed,” Thrower said.
“They were hiding together, and then went to the market to try to get some food. The Taliban found them, raped them, and beat them. We did manage to get them to a hospital,” she added.
TALIBAN THANKS WORLD, URGES US TO SHOW ‘HEART’
While reportedly beheading in the streets, the Taliban is asking the for the US to show “heart” to the impoverished country, which just received hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency aid.
A donor conference in Geneva on Monday ended with pledges of $1.2 billion ($A1.6 billion) in aid for Afghanistan, which was taken over by the hardline Islamist group last month in a lightning offensive that took retreating US troops by surprise.
Afghanistan, already heavily dependent on aid, is facing an economic crisis, with the new authorities unable to pay salaries and food prices soaring.
Amir Khan Muttaqi, the regime’s acting foreign minister, told a press conference on Tuesday (local time) the Taliban would spend donor money wisely and use it to alleviate poverty.
“We thank and welcome the world’s pledge for about one billion dollars in aid and ask them to continue their assistance to Afghanistan,” Mr Muttaqi said.
“The Islamic Emirate will try its best to deliver this aid to the needy people in a completely transparent manner.”
He also asked Washington to show appreciation for the Taliban allowing the US military to complete its troop withdrawal and evacuation of more than 120,000 people last month.
“America is a big country — they need to have a big heart,” he said.
Afghanistan, which is also facing a drought, had already received aid from countries such as Pakistan, Qatar and Uzbekistan, but did not give further details.
He said he had held discussions with China’s ambassador on the coronavirus vaccine and other humanitarian causes, with Beijing pledging $15 million ($A20.5 million) that will be available “soon”.
Since the Taliban takeover, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have halted Afghanistan’s access to funding, while the United States has also frozen cash held in its reserves for Kabul.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said Monday he believed aid could be used as leverage with the Islamist hardliners to exact improvements on human rights, amid fears of a return to the brutal rule that characterised the first Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001.
“It is impossible to provide humanitarian assistance inside Afghanistan without engaging with the de facto authorities,” the UN secretary-general told ministers attending the Geneva talks.
“It is very important to engage with the Taliban at the present moment.” The Taliban have promised a milder form of rule this time around, but have moved swiftly to crush dissent, including firing in the air to disperse recent protests by women calling for the right to education and work.
UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said she was “dismayed by the lack of inclusivity of the so-called caretaker cabinet, which includes no women and few non-Pashtuns”.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has repeatedly warned that the Taliban would have to earn legitimacy and support, after talks with allies on how to present a united front.
The caretaker cabinet, he said, would be judged “by its actions”.
Meanwhile, Afghans are resorting to selling their household goods to raise money to pay for essentials, and bustling second-hand goods markets have mushroomed in most urban centres.
Ajmal Ahmady, former acting governor of the Afghan central bank, tweeted last week that the country no longer had access to around $9 billion ($A12.29 billion) in aid, loans and assets.
On Tuesday, hundreds of protesters in the southern city of Kandahar — the Taliban’s spiritual birthplace — protested the new rulers’ plan to evict people from their homes.
The demonstrators were from a neighbourhood populated by former Afghan army servicemen — many were widows of servicemen killed in action against the Taliban over the last 20 years, or wives of wounded soldiers.
The residents said they had been ordered to leave by the Taliban but had nowhere to go.
A crowd mainly made up of men and youths, along with some women — many burqa-clad — took to the streets despite the Taliban ban on unauthorised protests.
Kandahar’s governor has temporarily stayed any eviction until the matter can be discussed with community elders.
Some reporters covering the march said they were harassed and beaten by Taliban guards along the route
TALIBAN DENIES TOP TWO LEADERS KILLED
The Taliban has denied that two of its most senior officials have been killed or injured after their prolonged absence from public view just weeks after seizing control of Afghanistan.
The group’s spokesman, Sulail Shaheen, said on Twitter that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was named deputy prime minister last week, was alive despite reports he had been killed in a clash with rival factions.
Supreme leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, meanwhile, has been absent from public and private view since August 15 after the group seized control of Kabul, according to the Afghanistan Analysts Network.
The Taliban’s effort to deny the reports drew comparisons with the group’s cover-up of the death of its founder, Mullah Omar, who was dead for two years before it was publicly confirmed.
Their spokesman said that Baradar sent a voice message denying reports he had been killed or injured in a “clash” with internal rivals.
“He [Baradar] says it is lies and totally baseless,” Shaheen said in a tweet.
“Baradar the Butcher” is one of the Taliban’s most recognisable faces and was the head of its political office before being named as deputy leader of the group’s new government.
He has not been seen for days and was not part of the delegation that met Qatar’s Foreign Minister in Kabul on Sunday.
The Taliban, however, claimed a handwritten note from Baradar’s office showed he was in Kandahar, while an unverified audio message played over old photos purported to place him at meetings in the city.
“There had been news in the media about my death. Over the past few nights I have been away on trips. Wherever I am at the moment, we are all fine, all my brothers and friends,” a voice purporting to belong to Baradar said in the audio clip.
“Media always publish fake propaganda. Therefore, reject bravely all those lies, and I one hundred per cent confirm to you there is no issue and we have no problem.”
The denial came amid mounting speculation of conflict between supporters of Baradar, from the Taliban’s political wing based in Qatar, and the supporters of Sirajuddin Haqqani, based near the border with Pakistan.
Baradar’s political wing led negotiations for the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, while the Haqqani network is known for suicide bombings throughout the conflict. The Federal Bureau of Investigations has a $US10 billion bounty on Sirajuddin Haqqani.
Baradar was one of the only major players not to secure a ministry, while the leader of the Haqqani network was named as the head of the interior ministry.
The speculation that Baradar, who was considered to have lost an internal dispute over the government’s formation, had been killed or injured in a fight with Taliban rivals was started by unverified Twitter account Panjshir Observer.
It claimed Baradar was being treated in Pakistan after a gunfight in Kabul on September 3 between forces loyal to the Haqqani network over a disagreement on how to resolve the resistance in Panjshir.
TALIBAN SHOVES YOUNG MEN IN CAR BOOT
New video appears to show Taliban fighters shoving men into car boots in Afghanistan’s capital.
The chilling footage was shared online by international correspondent Tajuden Soroush.
He said the video, sent to him, shows four young men being detained by the Taliban in Salang Wat, a Kabul area populated by Panjshiris.
The ethnic group, from a mountainous province northeast of Kabul, has long fought the Taliban and are one of several minority groups persecuted by the extremist regime.
Afghan journalist Bilal Sarwary also shared the video and asked: “In Kabul city, Salang Watt. Their fate unknown. Hands tied and thrown into the trunk. How do Taliban officials answer for these unlawful detentions?”
It comes after UN chief Antonio Guterres on Monday, local time, urged developed countries to dig deep and provide desperately needed aid to Afghans, and to support women and others whose rights appear threatened by the Taliban.
Speaking to ministers gathered for a donor conference for the violence-torn country, Mr Guterres insisted that “the people of Afghanistan need a lifeline”.
“After decades of war, suffering and insecurity, they face perhaps their most perilous hour,” he said at the UN’s European headquarters in Geneva.
“Let us be clear: This conference is not simply about what we will give to the people of Afghanistan. It is about what we owe.”
The UN Secretary General’s comments came just under a month after the Taliban swept into power in Afghanistan, sparking a chaotic exit for the United States and its allies after 20 years in the country.
The half-day conference is seeking to raise the $606 million ($A822m) which humanitarian agencies say is urgently needed to provide lifesaving aid to millions of Afghans over the four final months of the year.
Among other things, the money is needed for critical food and livelihood assistance for nearly 11 million people and essential health services for 3.4 million.
DROUGHT, STARVATION, COLLAPSING HEALTH CARE
Mr Guterres stressed that Afghans were experiencing “one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world” even before the Taliban takeover on August 15.
Some 40 per cent of the country’s GDP was already drawn from foreign funding, and half of the population was already dependent on humanitarian aid, according to the UN.
Afghanistan is also facing a devastating drought and mass displacement in addition to the impact of Covid-19.
Fears now abound that other countries’ reluctance to deal with the Taliban could push Afghanistan over the edge.
Mr Guterres announced that the UN would release $20 million ($A27m) from its Central Emergency Response Fund to support the humanitarian operation in Afghanistan.
But he stressed that more money is needed, quickly.
A number of UN agency and other aid chiefs echoed that sentiment. “We could have mass-migration, destabilisation in the region, and for certain starvation among millions of Afghan people,” David Beasley, head of the World Food Programme, warned, urging countries to “please step up, step up now so that we can do our job.”
Head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer, just back from Afghanistan, and said “the magnitude of need is evident”, and warned that “the risk of destabilising the entire region is real.”
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