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Ministry of defense
PAO
Media Analysis section
Media Analysis Executive Summary for
28 May – 2015
Suicide Bombers After 6 Hours Clashes
Killed In Kabul City .
Kabul (BNA) 4 suicide attackers attacked on Heetal guesthouse in Wazir
Akbar Khan area, Kabul city last night and clashes continued for 6 hours.
The attack started at local time 11:00 PM last night, while a suicide bomber
exploded his explosive materials close to the guesthouse gate and opened
the gate for 3 other bombers, after entering the attackers on the
guesthouse clashes started between the militants and Afghan security
forces.
Ministry of Interior spokesman Sadiq Sadiqi said BNA reporter, after 6
hours clashes all the bombers were killed and there were no casualties
among Afghan security forces and civilians.
It has been said, most of the hotel guests were Australian citizens that
there were no harms and casualties to them.
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Kabul Diplomatic Quarter Attack Ends With
Four Attackers Dead.
bernama.com
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN, May 27 (BERNAMA-NNN-Agencies) -- Afghan
security forces killed four attackers after hours of fierce clashes in the
capital's diplomatic district overnight Tuesday, an Afghan official said.
He added the assailants have failed to inflect casualties on civilians or
security forces.
The attack began late on Tuesday night after four attackers tried to take
control of a guest house and a nearby hotel laying at the site of a hill in
heavily guarded Wazir Akbar Khan in central Kabul.
"In an attack in Wazir Akbar Khan, four attackers were killed, one Rocket
Propelled Grenade, three AK-47 and one rocket launcher were seized, and
no civilian or military casualties took place," deputy Interior Minister inCharge of Security, General Ayoub Salangi, said in his twitter account.
The Taliban insurgent group claimed the responsibility for the clash which
lasted for more than five hours, according to local media reports.
On Wednesdaym gunfire and explosions rang out in the diplomatic district
of Kabul as security forces battled militants who tried to storm a
guesthouse owned by a prominent political family, police said, in the latest
attack in the Afghan capital.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which comes
as the Taliban intensify their annual spring offensive despite Kabul's
repeated overtures to reopen peace talks.
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The manager of the Heetal Hotel, owned by the family of Foreign Minister
Salahuddin Rabbani and known for housing foreigners, said all guests
were in safe rooms and no one was hurt.
"Heetal is very well fortified. After one or two initial explosions, our guards
started firing on attackers who were unable to get inside," manager
Beizhan said by telephone from inside the guesthouse.
The guest house was damaged in 2009 when a suicide bomber blew
himself up outside the gate, killing eight people and wounding another 40.
The Taliban, waging a 13-year war against the US-backed Afghan
government, earlier Tuesday killed 26 Afghan police in multiple attacks in
the volatile south.
The militants have launched a series of attacks in the capital and around
the country as NATO forces have pulled back from the frontlines.
A blast triggered by a Taliban car bomber ripped through the parking lot of
the Justice ministry in Kabul on May 19, killing four people and wounding
dozens of others.
Also this month 14 people -- mostly foreigners -- were killed in a Taliban
attack on a guesthouse in the capital that trapped dozens attending a
concert.
Official efforts to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table have so far
borne little fruit.
The surge in attacks has taken a heavy toll on civilians, according to the
United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan. In the first four months
of 2015, civilian casualties jumped 16 percent from the same period last
year, it said.
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The Afghan government has drawn public criticism for failing to end
insurgent attacks, which critics blame on political infighting and a lengthy
delay in finalising a cabinet.
President Ashraf Ghani last Thursday nominated Mohammad Masoom
Stanekzai, a top official in the government body overseeing the country's
peace process, for the crucial position of defence minister.
The post had been left vacant for months due to disagreements between
Ghani and his chief executive officer and former presidential election rival,
Abdullah Abdullah.
Public criticism over the failure to appoint a defence minister has been
especially fierce.
Afghan forces are now solely responsible for security after NATO's combat
mission formally ended in December, with a small follow-up force staying
on to train and support local personnel.
Earlier this month NATO formally announced plans to retain a small
military presence in Afghanistan after 2016 to help strengthen local
security forces.
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Pakistan reaffirms support for peace in
Afghanistan.
economictimes.indiatimes.com/news
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan today said it fully supports peace and stability in
Afghanistan, as the two sides agreed to work closely for the security and
socio-economic development of the region.
"Pakistan has firm resolve to fully support Afghanistan's efforts for peace
and stability, including through facilitating an Afghan-owned and Afghanled peace and reconciliation process," said Tariq Fatemi, Special Assistant
to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Foreign Affairs.
Fatemi, who met Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai
yesterday, expressed satisfaction that the two nations were constructively
engaged in improving bilateral ties in all fields, including trade, defence
and security, return of Afghan refugees and energy connectivity.
According to a Foreign Office statement, the two sides have agreed to
work closely for peace, stability and security for the socio-economic
Pakistan's contribution for Afghanistan's reconstruction, rehabilitation,
peace and security was appreciated during Fatemi-Karzai meet.
Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have improved in recent
months.
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Lebanon’s Hezbollah acknowledges battling the
Islamic State in Iraq.
Washington post
BEIRUT — The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement acknowledged
for the first time Monday that the Shiite militia has sent fighters to Iraq, and
he urged Arab states throughout the region to set aside sectarian rivalries
to confront the threat posed by the Islamic State.
In a videotaped speech delivered to followers in Beirut’s southern suburbs,
Hasan Nasrallah called on the region’s traditional American allies to
abandon their reliance on the United States and instead align with
Hezbollah — and by implication with its sponsor Iran — to defeat the Sunni
extremists.
“He who relies on the Americans relies on an illusion. You rely on
someone who is stealing from you and conniving against you,” he said.
The speech was unusual in its scope, even for Nasrallah, who regularly
delivers addresses in which he articulates his thoughts, typically with a
focus on Lebanon and Hezbollah’s arch-enemy, Israel. In this instance, he
portrayed the Islamic State as the most serious immediate threat to the
region’s stability, although he also repeated the common charge that the
Islamic State is working on Israel’s behalf.
He cited Iraq and Syria as evidence that Hezbollah and its allies are the
only ones who are effectively fighting the Islamic State, and he described
the U.S. response as too slow and insufficient.
Hezbollah supporters stand in front of a portrait of Iran's late leader
Ayatollah Khomeini, background, and wave flags as they watch the video
address from Hasan Nasrallah. (Hussein Malla/AP)
“We won’t wait for the Americans, nor will we wait for NATO. In Iraq, they
didn’t wait,” he said, describing how local tribes and militias, which refer to
themselves as popular mobilization forces, had taken up arms there to
hold back the Islamic State advance.
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“Until now, the Americans aren’t giving them arms,” he said. “All of the
arms are coming from Iran.”
At a time when Iran-backed Shiite militias are leading the fight in Iraq
against the Islamic State, as well as against the rebels in Syria, he
appeared to be trying to cajole the Sunni Arab world into recognizing their
ascendant role.
The plea also, however, appeared to be an acknowledgment that Hezbollah
and its Iranian and Shiite allies can’t win the fight against the Islamic State
unaided, said Nicholas Noe, a Beirut-based political analyst.
“He was acknowledging Hezbollah’s fundamental weakness right now,
which is that ‘we can’t resolve this on our own,’ ” he said. “He was very
much making it clear that if they stand alone, the region is never going to
settle down.”
It has been known since late last year that Hezbollah sent fighters to Iraq
after a Hezbollah commander was killed north of Baghdad, but this was the
first time Nasrallah has publicly admitted the group’s role there. He
described Hezbollah’s presence as small and “in its earliest stages.”
He also said new volunteers are welcome.
“To those who call for Hezbollah’s withdrawal from Syria, I invite you to
come with us to Syria . . . and I invite you to come with us to Iraq,” he said.
He opened his speech by condemning the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic
Christians in Libya by the Islamic State, as shown in a video released
Sunday by the extremist group.
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Foundation stones of two public utility projects
laid in Laghman.
Khaama press
Foundation stones of two public utility projects have been laid in eastern
Laghman province.
Both projects are valued 24 plus million Afghanis, the cost of one project
which is building a protection wall in Tir Gar area to prevent the water of
Alishang river is being paid by the embassy of Japan and the second
project of building new compound for the office of the National Solidarity
Program is being paid by the government.
11 million Afghanis will be spent on the protection wall which will rescue
300 hectares of agriculture land, 400 homes, Mehtarlam-Surkhakan road
and a bridge in Tir Gar area from damaging. The project is scheduled to be
completed in coming six months.
The new compound for the National Solidarity Program in Laghman
province will be built by 14 plus million dollars in a period of one year.
The compound will have a three story building with 18 rooms.
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