Daily Evacuation Brief | August 15, 2023

Aug 15, 2023

BLAST TARGETS HOTEL FREQUENTED BY TTP MEMBERS IN KHOST – Significant confusion is swirling around a blast that took place yesterday in Khost Province. Initial reports suggested that the hotel had been struck by an aerial bomb or rocket but follow-up reporting has claimed that a bomb was detonated inside the hotel. Additional information is required before a determination of what method was employed to cause the destruction. As of publication, 3 people were confirmed to have been killed and 7 others were wounded. There are local eyewitness reports that claim the roof of the hotel collapsed and people are trapped in the rubble but this has yet to be confirmed. The Taliban cordoned off the area almost immediately and only emergency personnel have been allowed past the roadblocks. The Qari Zadran hotel in Khost is located in the downtown section and local sources say it is commonly frequented by people from Northern Waziristan and that TTP members often stay there.
POSSIBLE CLASHES REPORTED IN BADAKHSHAN – Reports from early yesterday morning indicated that a military situation was developing in the Shahada District. At the time of the reports, there was no active confrontation and details remain sparse. Footage of helicopters patrolling over the Province spread on social media and there is an unverified report that one of the helicopters had either crashed or been shot down. There was another report that stated people had been killed in the main hospital of Faizabad after some sort of dispute erupted between two unknown groups. Finally, the main roads into Faizabad are reportedly blocked by Taliban security vehicles at this time. The situation remains confused and it is not clear what has transpired in the Province.
IRANIAN WATER INSPECTION TEAM’S REPORT RAISES SIGNIFICANT QUESTIONS – The team of hydrologists who visited Afghanistan to check on water levels returned to Tehran with a perplexing report. The team, after many delays, was allowed to visit a single measuring station situated upstream from the Kajaki Dam. The team took the recordings directly from the instruments but were then denied a visit to the Dam itself. Several satellite photos have previously been shown as evidence that Afghanistan was holding reserves in the Dam’s reservoir for domestic use. Obviously, the friction between the two countries over the issue has not been resolved and will continue to cause issues between the neighbors.
UN HUMAN RIGHTS EXPERTS SAY THE TALIBAN 2.0 IS FAR FROM ‘REFORMED’ – Richard Bennett, the UN’s Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Afghanistan co-signed a statement that was released on Monday which casts doubt on the few existing claims that the Taliban have adopted a new ethos. The statement listed numerous human rights abuses that were the mainstays of the Taliban’s rule in the 1990s. The statement concluded with calls for the Taliban to reverse many of the discriminatory policies it had implemented and recommended several strategies the international community could use to change the situation.

NEXT 24 HOURS

KHOST WILL SEE A FLURRY OF SECURITY ACTIVITY AND WHATEVER IS GOING ON IN BADAKHSHAN COULD ESCALATE – Obviously, Khost will continue to see a large number of security forces in and around the Province. Active searches for both ISIS-K and TTP are expected. Until the situation in Badakhshan becomes clearer, we recommend that at-risk Afghans planning travel to/from the city of Faizabad consider delaying their plans.

REGIONAL ROUNDUP

IRAN

Iranian authorities have arrested 8 foreigners who were implicated in the attack on the Shah Cheragh mausoleum in Shiraz that killed 2 Iranians. The leader of the group has been identified as a Tajik national and all are thought to be affiliated with ISIS.
The US President is facing backlash from both conservatives and moderates who say the prisoner swap deal sets another bad precedent for international relations and expectations with other countries who are holding US citizens will be raised.

PAKISTAN

Independence Day celebrations took place across the country with few issues. One attack was reported in South Waziristan against an Army column of vehicles which injured 4 soldiers but the day passed peacefully for most.
New caretaker Prime Minister sworn in. He will spend the next few days selecting his cabinet to oversee elections.
Journalist Jan Mohammad Mahar, from Sindh Province, was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen yesterday while driving home from work in Islamabad. An investigation is underway but officials have been tight-lipped so far.

SPOTLIGHT ANALYSIS

An Ambassador Without a Country

By Steve Coll - The New Yorker

King Amanullah Khan of Afghanistan, who reigned after his country gained independence from Great Britain, in 1919, collected automobiles and tried to modernize Afghan society through reforms such as compulsory education. In 1925, his government purchased a new Embassy in London, a four-story mid-Victorian edifice at Princes Gate, across Kensington Road from Hyde Park, near the Royal Albert Hall. The King’s change agenda provoked a violent revolt, however, and in 1929 Amanullah fled Kabul, reportedly in a Rolls-Royce. (He died in Switzerland in 1960.) Yet the London Embassy remained—a graceful and rapidly appreciating possession of an isolated, often vulnerable nation.

AFGHAN NEWS

Three Killed in Afghanistan Hotel Blast: Police

By The Defense Post

Three people were killed and another seven were wounded in an explosion on Monday at a hotel in the eastern Afghan city of Khost, near the border with…

UN human rights experts denounce notion of ‘reformed’ Taliban in Afghanistan

By AMU TV

Two years following their rise to power in Afghanistan, the Taliban continues to egregiously violate human rights, perpetuating a system of discrimination, exclusion, and subjugation against…

Afghanistan’s next generation must rise above the Taliban’s ‘reality’

By Nasir Andisha - The Atlantic Council

For the majority of Afghanistan’s new generation—those who worked, fought, and aspired for a free, democratic, and prosperous country—it has been a…

REGIONAL NEWS

"Afghanistan did not allow Iran to visit Kajaki Dam"

By MEHR News Agency

Raecting to the media reports about the Iranian delegation's visit to Helmand River, he said, with the help of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, permission was…