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A10 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 3 February 2018

Militant hideout found in Afghan capital shows security woes

By KATHY GANNON “One of them asked me
Associated Press if I liked cricket and said
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — he would buy me a new
The discovery of an Islamic cricket ball and bat,” said
State hideout filled with ex- Zikarullah, who like many
plosives and suicide vests Afghans uses only one
in a poor Kabul neighbor- name. The occupants were
hood reflects the failure of young, and the woman al-
Afghanistan’s corruption- ways wore an all-envelop-
wracked government to ing burqa.
protect the capital, ana- Another neighbor, 16-year-
lysts and residents said Fri- old Samsor, said the wom-
day. an carried the explosives
This week’s revelation that and weapons under her
militants were operating burqa.
in Kabul’s western Qala- “The police told us this af-
e-Wahid district follows a ter they arrested them and
recent series of horrific at- they told us they were from
tacks in the heavily guard- Nangarhar,” Samsor said.
ed city that killed nearly Afghan security forces,
200 people and wounded aided by the U.S.-led coali-
hundreds more, including tion, have been targeting
foreigners. Residents walk pass the house in which Islamic State insurgents were hidden, in a street of Qala- suspected IS hideouts in
Security forces were led to e-Walid neighborhood in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Feb. 2, 2018. Afghanistan’s eastern Nan-
the safe house by an insur- Associated Press garhar province, where the
gent who was captured people of Qala-e-Wahid the utter failure of the se- runs the length of the lanes, militants are believed to
during an attack Monday that Daesh was here, but curity services. It is the utter clogged with garbage have established their most
by IS militants on a military they came here because failure of every institution,” bags, mounds of trash and extensive bases. There are
academy in Kabul in which it is an insecure area,” Mo- Mir said. human waste. an estimated 5,000 IS fight-
11 soldiers died, according hammed said, using the “You can’t blame it on lack Foreigners are eyed with ers in northern Afghanistan
to an intelligence official. Arabic acronym for the ex- of resources or lack of inter- suspicion by some residents between Sar-e-Pul prov-
From behind the 10-foot tremist group. national support,” he said, who refused to identify the ince and eastern Badakh-
green metal doors, the in- “For Daesh, this was the adding that billions of dol- IS safe house. There are shan province, said Brian
surgents were plotting to perfect area because you lars in international money whispers of possible IS sym- Glyn Williams, the author of
use the explosives, weap- can bring everything here flowing into Afghanistan in pathizers in the neighbor- “Counter Jihad, The Ameri-
ons and suicide vests in from anywhere,” added the past 16 years has been hood. can Military Experience
three more large attacks Mohammed, whose home siphoned off by those in po- Other residents who are in Afghanistan, Iraq and
in Kabul, the official said. is across the lane from the sitions of power. willing to talk say the dan- Syria.” He cited Afghani-
He spoke on condition of IS hideout. That has left most Afghans gerous men in their neigh- stan Vice President Rashid
anonymity in line with his Political analyst Haroon feeling vulnerable. borhood come from many Dostum for the statistic.
agency’s rules and did not Mir blamed widespread “There is no security in this places because the securi- President Ashraf Ghani,
elaborate on the plans. corruption throughout the country,” said Mohammad ty services are nonexistent. who faces pressure over
Khan Mohammed, a resi- government and the se- Hajan, an elderly man in- Zikarullah, a 15-year-old the security lapses, went
dent of Qala-e-Wahid, told curity forces for their inabil- terviewed near the IS safe who lives in a sunbaked on national television Fri-
the AP that locals rarely see ity to prevent the recent house. “In the morning, I mud-and-straw home op- day to blame neighboring
a police patrol in the neigh- deadly attacks in Kabul, wake up and I don’t know posite the IS hideout, said Pakistan for harboring Tal-
borhood and stay at home which included a siege at if I will be alive in the eve- the three men and one iban militants. Pakistan rou-
after dark because of ma- a luxury hotel and a car ning.” woman who occupied the tinely denies it is a hub for
rauding gangs of thieves. bomb packed inside an The streets that weave safe house had moved in the Taliban. Ghani also said
They say the government ambulance. through Qala-e-Wahid are about 25 days earlier. They he has called for a review
can’t provide security. “It is the utter failure of the rutted and ankle deep in had engaged freely with of security arrangements in
“It is dangerous for all the intelligence services. It is mud. A wide open sewer the neighbors, he said. Kabul.q

UN: 90 migrants feared drowned after boat capsizes off Libya

By JAMEY KEATEN Olivia Headon, citing in- out found no signs of a Libya’s coastal area to they were the third-largest
Associated Press formation from its partner capsized boat, survivors, or collect more details and contingent in January.
GENEVA (AP) — About agencies. “We are told drowned migrants. begin the process of repa- Headon said the reason
90 people are feared that two survivors swam to But late at night, it cited a triating the bodies of the for the increasing flow of
drowned after a smug- shore, and one person was statement from officials in deceased. Pakistanis wasn’t immedi-
gler’s boat carrying mostly rescued by a fishing boat,” Zuwara who said that 13 Headon said Pakistani ately clear, nor whether the
Pakistani migrants capsized Headon said by phone bodies had been found, nationals are increasing greater influx is likely to con-
off Libya’s coast early Fri- from Tunisia’s capital to all Pakistani except for one among the number of mi- tinue, but added: “We’re
day, the U.N.’s migration reporters at the U.N. in Ge- Libyan woman. grants attempting to cross looking into it.”
agency said. Ten bodies neva. “We are working to Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry the Mediterranean to Italy IOM says 6,624 people
have washed ashore near get more details on the said 11 of its citizens had and Europe via Libya. crossed the Mediterra-
the Libyan town of Zuwara (capsizing) and where the drowned in the incident. By nationality, Pakistanis nean in January — about
following the tragedy in the survivors are so that we can Ministry spokesman Mo- last year made up the 13th two-thirds of them to
early morning, said Inter- assist them better.” hammad Faisal told The largest nationality repre- Italy — about a 10-per-
national Organization for Initially, the Libyan coast Associated Press that Paki- sented among migrants cent increase from a year
Migration spokeswoman guard said a patrol it sent stani diplomats reached making the crossing, but earlier.q