Donnerstag, 1. Oktober 2015

Taliban assault Kunduz: what truth?

After Taliban began their assault on Kunduz in the night to Monday, Sept. 28th, holding the city yesterday, governmental sources claim that the city is back into their hands and that people should not worry any longer. This very reapidly has proven to be propaganda, which one can observe on either side of the parties in conflict. I've listed up here today's record of the (neutrally operating) doctors without borders, who hold the only operating trauma hospital in town and who have received hundreds of heavily wounded civilians. In contrast to the doctor's statement, I've added a) the Afghan Presidency's statement and b) what you find on the website of the Taliban on their Kunduz advance, as to get an sense of the battle on the public opinion. Even if the Taliban might withdraw in the coming days, the difficulty for any civilian in Kunduz now resides in regaining trust in each and every person he or she encounters, for the worst seeds of war and conflict is mistrust and uncertainty that follow the military battle. ___________________________________________ P.S., October 3rd: While fighting is still going on in the city of Kunduz, a US air strike has obviously badly damaged the trauma hospital run by Doctors Without Borders, killing a large number of doctors, patients and staff, and wounding dozens. To many observers, local and foreign, this comes as a reminder of a pattern that played out again and again in the past years as US-American aircraft trying to strike the Taliban mistakenly hit civilians. See here doctors without borders' statement. Pictures courtesy of doctors without borders. Dr. Masood Nasim, Chief of the medial team of doctors without borders in the Kunduz trauma hospital Kunduz, Afghanistan: “By midday our hospital was on the frontline, with fighting right outside the gate” Dr Masood Nasim is leading the medical team at Médecins Sans Frontières’ trauma hospital in Kunduz, northern Afghanistan. He describes the first 72 hours in the hospital after fighting engulfed Kunduz city on Monday. “Early on Monday morning, I came to MSF’s hospital here in Kunduz after hearing increasing shouting and the sound of shells falling. By midday our hospital was on the frontline, with fighting right outside the gate. You could hear the sound of shelling, rockets and airplanes. Some bullets have come into the hospital, some even through the roof of the intensive care unit. But despite being in the middle of the fighting, our hospital and staff have been respected and we’ve been able to carry on our work. Since Monday morning, we’ve received 296 wounded patients, including 64 children. Seventy-four of our patients arrived in a critical condition. Most have gunshot wounds from being caught in the crossfire. Our surgeons have been treating very severe abdominal wounds and limb and head injuries. The hospital has been completely full of patients. We normally have a capacity of 92 beds, but we expanded immediately and increased the number of beds to 150. There have been patients in the offices, in the examination rooms, and being stabilised on mattresses on the floor. We are trying to treat as many people as possible, and our team is working non-stop to provide life-saving care. We have carried out 90 surgeries over the past two days. We have 400 Afghan staff and ten international staff. They’ve worked for two days in a row without any sleep, and are completely exhausted. We are trying to give them the space to regain their energy and also trying to bring in more staff. Since we opened the hospital in August 2011, we have been receiving large numbers of patients injured in fighting, so our staff is very experienced and efficient at dealing with multiple casualties. But what makes this different is that instead of receiving an influx of wounded over a short period, we have been receiving a huge number of patients constantly, all in a very critical condition. It is very difficult to manage as there is no time to recuperate or restock supplies. We’re trying to get a new team in and to bring in more medical supplies, but it’s a huge struggle because of the active fighting. As this situation carries on for longer and longer, it becomes increasingly challenging. We are really very worried about how we will continue to cope with the number of patients. For days this has been the only functioning hospital in the area, and we are receiving wounded from across the city. We treat women, men, children; civilians and combatants. We treat everyone, regardless of their ethnicity or political affiliations and as long as they leave their weapons at the door. I’m very proud that we have this specialist trauma hospital, the only one of its kind in the whole north-east of Afghanistan. From time to time the fighting calms, and I’ve been outside the hospital briefly. But all of my energy has been focused on the medical activities here. I’m Afghan, and I’ve grown up with fighting, shelling and bullets, as has most of our team. No one looks scared. But whether or not you are used to it, when there is violence going on around you, of course you are worried. It interferes with your normal activities and thinking. You don’t see it, but in your body you feel it.” President Ghani spoke with military leadership of Kunduz province via video teleconference Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, spoke this morning via video teleconference from the Tawheed National Center in ARG with the military leadership of Kunduz province about the security situation of Kunduz city and the latest developments in that province. In this video teleconference in which members of the National Security Council were also present, General Murad Ali Murad, Deputy National Army Chief of Staff, briefed the President on retaking of Kunduz City, and assured that the situation in Kunduz city is calm, and has returned to normalcy. The Deputy Chief of Staff said that a commission made up of all security entities run all the affairs in an orderly manner, and would not allow irresponsible and powerful groups to enter the city. He reassured the President that civilians have not been harmed during the clearance operations, and all the government offices will start their operations soon, and the people will resume their routine and normal lives as well. After listening to the briefings by the defense officials, the President directed the military leadership of Kunduz city not to allow anybody to harm or harass people, and reassure people that they are safe and secure. President Ghani urged the security and defense authorities and military leadership of Kunduz city to continue the military operations and said that the districts of Kunduz, the region as well as the entire northeastern zone must be cleared of the enemy’s presence. The President said that he will soon send a delegation to assess the Kunduz incident. He added that in light of the delegation’s assessment, those who have neglected their duties will be punished and those officers and personnel of the defense and security forces who have shown bravery in retaking Kunduz city will be commended. Taliban Kunduz briefing: Spokesman of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Imam Sahib district captured, 233 vehicles seized A day after the heroic Mujahideen of Islamic Emirate managed to liberate Kunduz city from the invaders and their hireling troops, clearance operations were launched today to uproot and wrestle control of the remaining pockets of enemy resistance. Amid these operations, one of the most important districts of the province, Imam Sahib, was completely captured 08:00 pm at night with Mujahideen taking control over the administration buildings, police HQ building, 12 check posts as well as Tashgozar and Dahqan Qushlaq bases. Tens of enemy soldiers were killed and wounded in these attacks on top of which tens of vehicles and APCs, hundreds of heavy and small arms and other military equipment seized. 2 more important bases and 5 check posts were also captured in Dasht Abdan area, capital peripheries, around dusk time today causing tens of enemy casualties as well as Mujahideen getting their hands of 104 APCs, 100 Ford Ranger pickup trucks and a large amount of arms, ammunition and military equipment. Ghulam Ali base in Chahr Dara district (which was captured by Mujahideen Tuesday) also fell to Mujahideen early night hours today in which 33 hirelings were detained, 3 APCs and 3 pickup trucks along with a large amount of arms and ammunition seized. On the other hand, 50 hireling troops were taken into custody as Bala Hisar strategic hill was taken over by Mujahideen earlier today where 23 military vehicles and a sizable amount of arms and ammunition was also seized. Similarly 21 hireling troops were detained in Aliabad district to the south of the city as 6 enemy check posts were stormed during the course of the day while the large enemy reinforcement convoy arriving from Kabul and Balkh and headed towards Kunduz is still trapped by Mujahideen IEDs and ambushes in the neighboring Baghlan province with 4 APCs destroyed during today’s battles along with dozens of enemy killed and wounded. The above mentioned reports were collected from Kunduz province today. The enemy is facing a humiliating collapse in this province and are looking for a way out and all rumors about counter attacks are absolutely baseless and mere propaganda ploys. These huge conquests is the divine help of Allah Almighty which He has promised his Mujahideen and it carries a message of further victories by the grace of Allah Almighty which shall break the back of the invaders and their stooges and will finally cleanse the country from their filthy presence and replace it with divine Shariah Law which is the aspiration of the entire Mujahid nation, and nothing is hard for Allah. Zabihullah Mujahid 16/12/1436 Hijri Lunar 08/07/1394 Hijri Solar 30/09/2015 Gregorian