By a commentator for Tjen Folket Media.
A bombing attack against an election campaign meeting for Afghanistan’s presidency killed more than 30 people and received a great deal of coverage in Western media. This is the eighteenth year since US imperialism and its allies, among them Norway, invaded the country. In August, more than 70 people were killed each day on average.
They also report that the negotiations regarding US withdrawal from the country are falling apart. TFM has earlier written about how the US is now negotiating with the Taliban about a possible coalition government that includes them. Even today, the Taliban refuses to speak with authorities in Afghanistan. They are considered to be a Quisling government installed by the US.
A few weeks ago, Trump canceled further talks with the Taliban, but these will probably resume in the near future.
Media reports claim that most of the killed were resistance fighters, primarily Taliban. Earlier reports and figures on death tolls have earlier been unreliable.
In regards to the bombing attack against the president, NRK writes:
Other sources report a suicide attack directed against the defense department in Kabul, near the US embassy in the country.
BBC writes the following:
The Taliban have never been more powerful since 2001, but their fighters account for nearly half of all deaths confirmed by the BBC for August – a huge number, which comes as a surprise.
There may be a number of factors for this, including the fact the Taliban have been on the offensive during peace talks, and US-led forces have increased air strikes and night raids in response, killing many Taliban as well as civilians.
How many fighters the Taliban has lost in recent years is not known. It’s thought they may have about 60,000 men under arms.
In a statement the Taliban said it strongly rejected «the baseless allegations» of the killing of 1,000 fighters in the past month, adding that there was no document that could prove «casualties to that scale».
It described the BBC’s report as «based on the daily propaganda of interior and defence ministries of Kabul administration».
Afghan security force casualties are top secret – so our own confirmed counts for August may still be lower than reality. In January Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said 45,000 members of the security forces had been killed since late 2014.
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