The United Nations said Sunday that last week’s U.S. airstrikes in southern Afghanistan could have killed at least 18 civilians.

The strikes targeted insurgent positions on Thursday and Friday in Sangin, an embattled district in the province of Helmand, according to a statement by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA.

“UNAMA’s initial enquiries suggest that the airstrikes killed at least 18 civilians, nearly all women and children,” it said and noted the U.S. military has initiated an investigation into the incident. 

On Friday, a U.S. military spokesman confirmed the U.S. carried out air raids against Taliban positions in the area, and it was looking into allegations of civilian casualties in the strikes. 

“We are aware of the allegations of civilian casualties, and take every allegation very seriously,” a statement quoted the spokesman as saying. 

Helmand governor and military commanders have denied allegations of civilian casualties in Sangin, insisting the airstrikes targeted insurgent positions and killed nearly 60 Taliban fighters.

The Islamist insurgency launched a major offensive against Sangin two weeks ago and captured areas in and around the district center.

Afghan security forces, backed by U.S. air support, have since been trying to evict the insurgents and both sides have suffered heavy casualties. 

Helmand, the country’s largest province and poppy-growing region, is mostly controlled by the Taliban. The Afghan government fully controls only its capital city of Lashkar Gah and few district centers. 

On Saturday, a Taliban suicide bomber detonated his explosives-packed car just outside a bank in they city, killing at least seven people and wounding 20 others, including women and children. 

The attack was aimed at Afghan security forces and several soldiers were among the dead. UNAMA has expressed its grave concern at the escalation of violence in Helmand. 

“The people of Helmand have suffered greatly due to the armed conflict in Afghanistan, with 891 civilians killed or injured during 2016. This figure was the highest in the country in 2016 outside of Kabul,” said the mission’s statement. 

It reiterated the need for all parties to the conflict to strictly adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian law to take all feasible measures to protect civilians from harm.

UNAMA documented a record more than 11,400 civilian casualties in Afghanistan last year, including nearly 3,500 deaths. The figures showed a three percent rise in overall casualties compared to the year before while child casualties rose by 24 percent
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Afghan troops, backed by American air support, Sunday launched a major offensive against Islamic State, or IS, bases in the eastern Nangarhar province.

A regional military spokesman, Shirin Aqa, told reporters in the provincial capital of Jalalabad that security forces have been tasked to clear Kot and Haska districts of IS militants before extending the action to other districts. Afghans refer to IS by its Arabic acronym of Daesh.

He said that both military and police forces have been involved in the counter-IS operation and they will be provided with air support by US forces if needed. The army spokesman explained that the offensive will continue until the threat is eliminated in the area.

“We can confirm that the United States is providing combat enabling support, to include air support, to our Afghan partners,” said U.S. military spokesman Brigadier General Charles Cleveland in a written statement sent to VOA.

IS affiliate, Islamic State Khorasan Province or ISK-P, has been trying to establish a foothold in Afghanistan since the beginning of 2015.

But U.S. counterterrorism airstrikes and repeated ground offensives by Afghan forces have prevented the loyalists of the terrorist group from extending their extremist activities beyond a few districts of Nangarhar.

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, told a congressional hearing in Washington this past Thursday that the Afghan government along with U.S. counterterrorism forces have achieved significant successes against IS in within the last year.

The general said that initially the group was active in 11 districts in Nangahar but it has now been confined to a only few districts.

“We have reduced their fighters by half, their territory by two-thirds, we have killed their leader, in fact their top 12 leaders and continue to disrupt their operations,” said Nicholson.

WATCH: Video report

IS militants have also come under attack from the rival Taliban insurgency in parts of the country.

The eastern Afghan province borders Pakistan and General Nicholson says that fighters from the anti-state Pakistani Taliban as well as outlawed Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan mostly fill IS ranks in Afghanistan.
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Executive members of Cambodia’s beleaguered opposition party on Sunday accepted the resignation of Sam Rainsy, its charismatic leader, and named his deputy, Kem Sokha, acting chief until a party congress can be held.

The action came a day after Sam Rainsy, who has been in self-imposed exile since late 2015, resigned his membership in the Cambodia National Rescue Party in response to plans by the government to change election laws so that political parties could be dissolved if their leaders have criminal convictions. He explained his decision in a video call to the meeting from Paris.

Sam Rainsy has stayed abroad to avoid a two-year prison term on a defamation conviction he had believed was covered by a pardon. Several other cases against him are pending. The opposition charges that Prime Minister Hun Sen and his ruling Cambodian People’s Party use spurious legal cases to weaken their opponents, relying on politically compliant courts. Kem Sokha has also been a target, as have political and social activists.

Cambodia will hold nationwide local elections this June and a general election in 2018. The opposition CNRP hopes to building on its surprisingly strong showing in the 2013 general election. Hun Sen has previously said he intends to extend his three decades in power.

“The resignation of Sam Rainsy from the party presidency and membership came after discussion with the leaders of the party, and he did so for the sake of the party, the nation and with great honor,” Kem Sokha said in a posting on his Facebook page.

Sam Rainsy already had been barred by the government from returning to Cambodia, so he had not been in a position to campaign ahead of this year’s polls. However, as the party’s dominant figure, his absence could spur infighting among his colleagues, weakening the party ahead of the more cr
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Four militants and two Indian soldiers were among seven people killed in a gun battle in Kashmir Sunday, a police spokesman said. It is the latest sign of increasing tension in the Himalayan region disputed by nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan.

Militants opened fire on army troops in the village of Prisal south of Srinagar, the summer capital of India’s state of Jammu and Kashmir, S.P. Pani, the deputy inspector general of police, told Reuters.

“Two army men, four militants, and a civilian, the house owner, were killed in the gun battle,” Pani added, referring to the building where the militants had holed up.

Three soldiers were injured in the exchange of fire. The army seized four weapons from the site of the encounter in the village, which security forces had cordoned off, army spokesman Rajesh Kalia said.

India has blamed Pakistan for stoking violence in Kashmir by supplying fighters and material across the border, but Pakistan has denied these charges.

The violence peaked last year after Burhan Wani, a 22-year-old separatist leader who enjoyed widespread support in the Muslim-majority region, was shot dead by Indian security forces in July.

Last month, three road-building workers were killed after unidentified militants attacked a camp housing them, police said.
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A 36-year-old Egyptian woman, believed to be the world’s heaviest woman at 500 kilograms, has been brought to an Indian hospital to undergo surgical procedures aimed at drastically reducing her weight and giving her a chance of a normal life.

For Eman Ahmed, the journey to Mumbai was her first outside her home in Alexandria in 25 years. And it involved complex logistics on many fronts: The Indian foreign minister’s intervention to get her a visa, an Airbus modified to equip it with a special bed, a truck at the Indian airport to whisk her to the hospital where a crane lifted her bed into a special unit for her treatment.

Born a heavy baby at 5 kgs, her family has said she began putting on weight by the age of 11 and stopped going to school by fifth grade when it became difficult for her to move.

Stroke worsened her condition

Her condition worsened two years ago when Ahmed suffered a stroke, which not only left her bedridden, but also affected her speech.

The reason for her abnormal weight is not clear. Her family has said she was diagnosed with elephantiasis, in which limbs swell because of a parasitic infection. In Mumbai, she will undergo a series of tests to identify her ailment.

Last October, a Mumbai doctor, Muffazal Lakdawala, who specializes in weight reduction surgeries, responded to a plea for help from the woman’s sister.

Travel, arrangements difficult

But the going was not smooth. Initially the Indian embassy in Cairo turned down her visa request because she could not travel to the city for the interview.

However, a tweet by Lakdawala in December to Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, who was herself in the hospital at the time, drew an immediate response and a visa was promptly granted.

After that, preparations to get her to Mumbai got into full swing. But it took time to arrange her travel because no airline was willing to carry her because of her health complications and the special arrangements that would have to be made. Eventually she took the seven-hour flight on an Egypt Air plane.

Before she arrived in Mumbai Saturday, Indian doctors prepared her for the journey. 

“A team of doctors has been in Egypt for the last 10 days to optimize the conditions for her travel,” a statement by her doctor said.

Egyptian Consul General in Mumbai Ahmad Khalil, who met her briefly at the airport, said she was happy to be in Mumbai and expressed hope her suffering would be over.

Her treatment in Mumbai could take two to three months. She will undergo bariatric, or weight loss surgery, which is a stomach-shrinking procedure.

At the moment, the Guinness Book of Records lists Pauline Potter from the United States, who weighs 291.6 kg as the world’s heaviest woman. If Ahmed’s family has her weight correct, she is much heavier at 500 kgs.
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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says North Korea’s firing of an unidentified ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan is “absolutely intolerable.”

Abe spoke late Saturday alongside U.S. President Donald Trump at a hastily called news conference in an ornate room in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida where Abe has been visiting with Trump this weekend.

“North Korea must fully comply with the relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions,” the Japanese leader said. “During the summit meeting that I had with President Trump, he assured me that the United States will always (be with) Japan 100 percent, and to demonstrate his determination as well as commitment, he is here with me at his joint press conference.”

Trump said in his terse comments at the news conference, “I just want everybody to understand and fully know that the United States stands behind Japan, its great ally, 100 percent.”The North Korean test is widely interpreted as a challenge to the Trump administration.

North Korea fired the missile into the Sea of Japan early Sunday.

The U.S. Defense Department said late Saturday, “The launch of a medium- or intermediate-range ballistic missile occurred near the northwestern city of Kusong,” noting it was tracked into the Sea of Japan and “never posed a threat to North America.”

Pyongyang issued no statement about the launch, but experts said the rocket was most likely a model capable of reaching targets in Japan, but not the U.S.

North Korea detonated two unauthorized nuclear test explosions last year and launched nearly two dozen rockets in continuing efforts to expand its nuclear weapons and missile programs. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared in a speech on New Year’s Day that his country has “reached the final stage” in its program to build ICBMs (Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile), but Western experts have been skeptical about his forecast.

At the time, Trump answered Kim’s ICBM boast with one of his trademark Twitter messages: “It won’t happen!”

Harry Kazianis, the director of Defense Studies at the Center for the National Interest in Washington said North Korea wanted to provoke Trump with Sunday’s missile launch, but did not want to risk an ICBM test that might fail.

“I think the North Koreans would be a little bit afraid that if (an ICBM) test failed that would obviously not make them look very good,” he said.

Trump briefed on launch, monitoring situation

When he welcomed Abe to Washington Friday, Trump emphasized that the United States is committed to the security of its key Asian ally.

“We will work together to promote our shared interests,” the president said at the White House, including “defending against the North Korean missile and nuclear threat.”

During the 2016 presidential election Trump raised concerns about U.S. military spending overseas, but since taking office, President Trump and his Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis have emphasized America’s commitment to support its allies in Asia against the growing North Korean nuclear threat. Mattis’ first trip abroad was to Asia.

The United States has repeatedly vowed it will never accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed nation.

Same launch site used 4 months ago

South Korean military officials said the missile was launched at 7:55 a.m. local time (2255 Saturday UTC) from a military site at Banghyeon — the same place where the North test-launched powerful Musudan rockets twice last October. Such missiles are estimated to have an effective range of about 3,000 kilometers (1,865 miles).

Officials said the rocket crossed the Korean Peninsula from the launch site in western North Korea and headed east over the Sea of Japan, after a flight path of about 500 kilometers, (300 miles).

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga denounced the North Korean missile launch as an “as act of provocation to Japan and the region” and noted that it was purposely timed to disrupt the prime minster’s summit with Trump.

South Korea convened a national security meeting Sunday in response to the missile launch. South Korea’s Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn said Seoul will work with the international community “to punish the North (for its missile launch).”

“North Korea’s repeated provocations show the Kim Jong Un regime’s nature of irrationality, maniacally obsessed in its nuclear and missile development,” the South’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

North Korea-watchers reported late in January that the North Korean military had loaded missiles aboard two mobile launchers, a sign that test-firings could be imminent. They noted at the time, however, that the missiles appeared to be no more than 15 meters long, which would tend to rule out the possibility that a long-range weapon was involved.

Analysts are divided over how close Pyongyang is to realizing its full military ambitions, especially since it has never successfully test-fired an ICBM. However, most experts agree that the North has made considerable progress since Kim took over absolute power in the country following the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, in December 2011.

Talks broke down in 2009

For more than a decade, Washington and a vast majority of world governments have demanded that North Korea denuclearize the Korean peninsula. However, Western leaders have yet to devise a plan that would either compel the North to cooperate or create incentives for it to do so.

China-sponsored talks between Pyongyang and a six-nation panel have been stalled since 2009, when the communist North pulled out of the negotiations. The North had carried out its first underground nuclear test explosion three years before the talks broke down.

Washington has since said the six-party talks could not resume until Kim’s regime in Pyongyang would recommit itself to halting all nuclear tests and scrapping its nuclear development program. That policy was agreed to during the administration of former President Barack Obama, and Trump’s government has reaffirmed it.

Pyongyang has so far rejected Western overtures and continues to resist world leaders’ attempts to bring it into compliance with a string of United Nations resolutions.

VOA’s Brian Padden in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report. 
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The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan says Russia, Pakistan and Iran are pursuing their own agendas with regard to the fragile country, complicating the fight against terrorism and extremism.

“We’re concerned about outside actors,” General John Nicholson told VOA’s Afghan service in an interview.

Russia, which had an ill-fated intervention into Afghanistan that started in 1979 and ended nearly a decade later, has been trying to exert influence in the region again and has set up six-country peace talks next week that are excluding the United States. Nicholson worries about Russia’s links with the Taliban.

“Russia has been legitimizing the Taliban and supporting the Taliban,” he said. “Meanwhile, the Taliban supports terrorists. I’m very sorry to see Russia supporting the Taliban and narcoterrorism.”

Moscow denies that it provides aid to the Taliban and says its contacts with the group are aimed at encouraging them to enter peace talks.  

Taliban role in peace efforts

Despite the Taliban’s history of violence and extremism, Nicholson didn’t rule out a role for the Taliban in the peace process, saying there were elements in the group that appeared to be more pragmatic about the country’s prospects for peace.

“Many of its leaders see a better life for all Afghans,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said Iran appeared to be supporting extremists in western Afghanistan.

“But the situation is more complex than with Russia,” Nicholson said. “There needs to be a relationship” between Afghanistan and Iran, which have seen a resurgence in trade that has partially compensated for a decline in Afghan economic activity with Pakistan.

President Donald Trump’s new administration has made a flurry of contacts with top Afghan and Pakistani officials in recent days as it formulates a new policy in the region. That clearly involves pressure on Islamabad to do more to crack down on terrorist groups that hide out near the Afghan border in Pakistan’s volatile tribal areas.

“We want cooperation from Pakistan against all terrorists,” Nicholson said. “We must have pressure on external sanctuaries in Pakistan.”

Rooting out terrorists would help ease Pakistan’s concerns about further attacks on its turf that are seen by many as a penalty for the country’s support for the U.S. war on terrorism, he said.

“We all hope for a change in Pakistani behavior,” Nicholson said. “This is in Pakistan’s interest.”

Congressional appearance

The general spoke shortly after appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, where he said he needed “a few thousand” more soldiers to bolster the 8,400 U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Nicholson told VOA that the extra troops would serve as advisers, extending that role from the core of the Afghan military down to the brigade level to help the country’s troops in what he called a “very, very tough fight” to foster peace.

“The enemy is trying to seize cities,” he said. “It’s a new dimension to the fight.”

The Afghan military has suffered heavy losses as a result. More than 6,700 of its soldiers were killed last year through November 12, according to a quarterly report from the U.S. government’s Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, up from 6,600 for all of 2015.

Nicholson discounted recent figures that indicated the Taliban has gained more territory this year and now holds about 15 percent of the land, saying it was the result of a revised Afghan government strategy to focus on protecting urban areas.

“This was a wise decision by the government,” he said, adding that it had provided greater protection for most of the people. “There’s a difference between territory and population. Many areas are sparsely populated.”

Propaganda war

U.S.-led forces also have been losing ground in the propaganda war waged by the Taliban and the 20 terrorist groups that operate in Afghanistan, who aggressively use social media, often with false reports that put the international mission in a bad light, Nicholson said.

He sought advice from VOA journalists on the best ways to counter the extremists’ message and recruitment efforts, saying “the enemy” was doing a better job than the government and its allies at reaching the Afghan people. “We’re trying to be more proactive in communications,” he said.

The U.S. has been in Afghanistan for more than 15 years and has committed to at least four more years. But Nicholson said even though the internal fight is currently at a “stalemate,” the battle is worthwhile. He added that he did see a peaceful future for the country.

“I believe it will end well for the Afghan people,” he said. “Our Afghan brothers and sisters are worth our support.”
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