Capital Region: Timeline (Terrorist Activities) -2023

On January 1, a blast killed 10 people and left several injured, which took place at 8 am near the gate of the Military Airport in Kabul, reports Tolo News. Read less...

Islamic State (IS) on January 2, claimed responsibility for series of terror attacks that occurred lately in Afghanistan, reports voanews.com. It’s Afghanistan-based affiliate- Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) was behind January 1, suicide bomb attack outside the military airport in the country’s capital, Kabul. ISKP also claimed that the attacker had participated and survived December 12, raid on a downtown Kabul hotel where Chinese nationals were staying, among other guests. ISKP further claimed a December 2, assassination attempt on Ubaid ur Rehman Nizamani, head of Pakistan’s Embassy in the Afghan capital. Nizamani escaped unharmed in the shooting incident, but his Pakistani security guard was injured. In late December, a car bomb in Badakhshan Province killed the Taliban regional Police Chief and his two guards, ISKP took responsibility for plotting that attack in the provincial capital of Fayzabad. Read less...

On January 3, four Taliban fighters, identified as Abdul Majeed (an employee of the General Directorate of Combating Serious Crimes of the Taliban’s Ministry of Internal Affairs), Mawlawi Najibullah Hanifi (Director of planning and operation of Mirbacha Kot District, Kabul), Abdul Basit Atal (a soldier of the Taliban’s Border Protection Battalion), and Ehsan Ahmad (an employee of the Department of Combating Administrative Corruption of the Taliban’s Ministry of Interior) involved in Kidnapping of a businessman were killed in a gunfight in Kabul Province, reports Hast-e Subh. Read less...

On January 3, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid stated that "Afghanistan seeks good diplomatic relations with all neighbours, including Pakistan", he added that good diplomatic ties were crucial to development, reports tribune.com.pk. He further stated "Islamabad's statements over Afghanistan are undesirable, the Islamic Emirate would not allow its land to be used to spread militancy and disability against a neighbouring country. We demand that Islamabad take measures to control unrest, militancy and the law and order situation". Read less...

On January 4, Afghanistan’s Journalists Center (AFJC) announced that Taliban released a journalist, identified as Faizullah Faizbakhsh from prison, who was earlier arrested while filming the site where the leader of the Al-Qaeda network was killed in Kabul, reports Hasht-e Subh. Read less...

On January 4, multiple blasts occurred in 8th District of Kabul city, reports Khaama Press. Hitherto, no killing and injury are reported. Read less...

On January 5, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) raised concerns over the impacts of Taliban’s ban on women working in Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), which noted that the restriction "comes at a dangerous moment as winter conditions set in on a population already devastated by decades of conflict and an unprecedented economic collapse”, reports Tolo News. According to the IRC, 82 per cent of female-headed households in Afghanistan are food insecure, which is 32 per cent points more than male-headed households. The World Food Program (WFP) of the UN in Afghanistan has likewise announced a three-week suspension of activities in the country. This suspension comes at a critical time when “28.3 million of the population in Afghanistan will need humanitarian assistance in 2023”, a spokesperson of the WFP said. Read less...

Taliban killed eight Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants, including foreign nationals and arrested seven others in a series of raids targeting key figures in a spate of attacks in Kabul, Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid said on January 5, reports Al Jazeera. Read less...

Sheikh Mohammad Khalid, Minister of Taliban Vice and Virtue, met with Markus Potzel, United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) envoy for Afghanistan, reports bakhtarnews.af on January 10. Markus Potzel said that there should be a working environment for women in the organizations, so that the lives of those people who are at risk can be saved and said that current situations concerned those organizations. Minister Sheikh Mohammad Khalid responded, “despite the fact that the past system was recognized by all the countries of the world, but there is no commitment to the cultures aspects of the countries, he reminded saying that now there are many positive aspects based on cultural values, and with the creation of the environment, everything will be better.” Read less...

On January 11, five people died in a suicide blast, which occurred outside the Taliban’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs building in Kabul, the capital city of Kabul Province, reports Hasht-e Subh. Amaq News Agency, a news outlet linked to the Islamic State-Khorasan Province (IS-KP), issued a newsletter on January 11, claiming responsibility for this attack. By publishing a picture of a masked person, IS-KP claimed that this attack was carried out by a member of this group, named Khaibar al-Kunduzi. Some other reports claimed that more than 20 people were killed in the attack. Later on January 16, a Taliban official confirmed that 20 people were killed and a nearby hospital confirmed that they received over 40 injured civilians following the attack, reports Actions On Armed Violence. Read less...

On January 14, Mursal Nabizada, a member National Assembly during the former republic regime, was killed by unidentified gunmen in her own house at Arzan Qimat in the 12th Police District of Kabul, the capital city, reports Hasht-e Sub. Mursal Nabizada’s brother was also injured in the attack. Read less...

On January 18, a member of the erstwhile Afghanistan’s National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), identified as Mehrullah, was arrested by the Taliban in Shahr-e Naw neighborhood of Kabul, reports Hasht-E Subh Daily. Since then, no details are available on his condition and whereabouts. He was an inhabitant of Koklami valley’s Deh Yak village of Salang District. Read less...

The United Nations (UN) delegation, after its end of the four-day field visit to Afghanistan, called on the Taliban “to end confinement, deprivation, and abuse of women’s rights and to put the good of the country first, reports Tolo News on 21 January. “Afghanistan is isolating itself, in the midst of a terrible humanitarian crisis and one of the most vulnerable nations on earth to climate change,” stated Amina Mohammad, Deputy Chief of the UN. “These restrictions present Afghan women and girls with a future that confines them in their own homes, violating their rights and depriving the communities of their services”, she added. Sima Bahous, the head of the UN Women, stressed that the ‘organization stands with all Afghan women and girls and will continue to amplify their voices to regain all their rights’. Read less...

Taliban members started conducting house-to-house search operations in Makrorian neighborhood of Kabul on January 25, reports Hasht-E-Subh. The Taliban dispatched their special forces armed with heavy weaponry to different vicinities of Makrorian to search residential complexes one by one. It is not immediately known for what purpose these search operations were initiated. Two weeks ago, door-to-door searches were launched in Dehmzang, Karta-e 4 and Central Silo neighbourhoods in Kabul city. Read less...

Taliban Ministry of Counter Narcotics officials arrested 24 people in charges of dealing drugs in separate operations from across Kabul Province, reports Bakhtar News Agency on January 29. Officials recovered a large amount of weed, drugs tablets, cash, two car accessories and a rifle. Read less...

On January 31, Taliban vandalized a gate decorated with painted image of former Hazara leader, Abdul Ali Mazari Abdul Ali Mazari, in Pul-e-Sukhta area in Kota-e-Sangi of District 5 in Kabul, reports Hasht-e Subh. Abdul Ali Mazari, the former leader of Afghanistan’s Islamic Unity Party, was captured and killed by the Taliban in the 1990s. He was given the title ‘Martyr of National Unity’ in 2016 by Ashraf Ghani government. Read less...

Zakaria Osuli, a university lecturer, researcher and author, was arrested by the Taliban from Police District 11 of Kabul on January 31, reports Hasht-e Subh. No specifics were immediately available on the situation and whereabouts of Osuli. He recently published a book on Ahmad Shah Massoud, a prominent anti-Taliban commander of the Northern Alliance who was assassinated by two al-Qaeda operatives in north Afghanistan on September 9, 2001. Read less...