ConflictBarometer_2015
ConflictBarometer_2015
ConflictBarometer_2015
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MIDDLE EAST AND MAGHREB<br />
AFGHANISTAN (KUCHI NOMADS HAZARA)<br />
Intensity: 3 | Change: | Start: 2007<br />
Conflict parties:<br />
Conflict items:<br />
The conflict over subnational predominance and resources<br />
between Kuchi nomads and Hazara tribes escalated to a violent<br />
crisis. The mainly Pashtun and Sunni Kuchi nomads<br />
claimed access to pastures in the Hazajarat area, where Shiite<br />
Hazara tribes had settled.<br />
Between March and July, violent clashes repeatedly erupted<br />
between both groups, with Kuchi tribesmen allegedly being<br />
supported by Taliban militants on several occasions [→<br />
Afghanistan (Taliban et al.)].<br />
On March 15, local officials reported that armed Kuchi nomads<br />
had set up their own posts and blocked roads in<br />
the Baraki Barak district, Logar province, thereby violating a<br />
ceasefire agreement from January. On April 5, hundreds of<br />
members of the Kuchi tribe rallied against government plans<br />
to reallocate some of their pastures situated in the Bihsud<br />
district in eastern Nangarhar province to local infrastructure<br />
projects. On June 20, clashes between Kuchi and Hazara<br />
tribesmen in the Behsud-1 district, Wardak province, left one<br />
person dead and one injured on both sides. Three days<br />
later, members of the Hazara armed group Faqiri abducted<br />
at least five Kuchi tribesmen, thereby breaking a ceasefire<br />
the groups had signed after the previous clashes. Following<br />
the June clashes, a presidential commission for resolving the<br />
crisis resumed work on June 29. On July 2, members of<br />
the Kuchi tribe torched six Hazara houses in the Aimerdad<br />
district, Wardak province.<br />
Throughout the year, Islamist militants repeatedly targeted<br />
members of the Hazara tribe. Most notably on February 23,<br />
when 25 to 31 Hazaras were abducted by Taliban militants<br />
on a highway between Herat province and the capital Kabul,<br />
and in November, when IS militants beheaded at least seven<br />
Hazaras in the Khak-i-Afghan district of Zabul province. [→<br />
Iraq, Syria et al. (IS)]. twt<br />
Conflict parties:<br />
Conflict items:<br />
Kuchi Nomads vs. Hazara<br />
subnational predominance,<br />
sources<br />
AFGHANISTAN (TALIBAN ET AL.)<br />
Intensity: 5 | Change: | Start: 1994<br />
Taliban, Haqqani Network, Hezb-i-<br />
Islami et al. vs. government<br />
system/ideology, national power<br />
re-<br />
The war over national power and the orientation of the<br />
political system between the Taliban, the Haqqani network,<br />
and various other militant groups, on the one hand, and the<br />
government supported by the NATO-led Resolute Support<br />
Mission (RSM) and US forces, on the other hand, continued.<br />
After the end of the ISAF mission on 12/31/14, NATO<br />
launched RSM as a non-combat follow-on mission with approx.<br />
13,000 personnel on January 1. The main objectives<br />
were to provide training, advice, and support to the Afghan<br />
National Security Forces (ANSF). The same day, the Bilateral<br />
Security Agreement between the US and Afghanistan came<br />
into force, allowing an additional 9,800 US troops to remain<br />
deployed. In March, the UNSC extended UNAMA's mandate<br />
until March 2016 to support the transition process. According<br />
to UN figures, 3,545 civilians were killed and 7,457 injured<br />
throughout the year, exceeding the number of casualties of<br />
2014. Furthermore, the UN estimated that the conflict left<br />
around 335,400 people internally displaced.<br />
Following the elections in 2014, cabinet members were<br />
sworn in on April 21, seven months after President Ashraf<br />
Ghani and Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah had<br />
agreed on a unity government. On July 7, Taliban members<br />
and the newly formed government opened a first round of<br />
peace talks in Murree, Pakistan. Representatives from China,<br />
the US, and Pakistan attended the meeting. Negotiations<br />
stopped after the public announcement of Mullah Omar's<br />
death on July 29.<br />
Since the end of ISAF, ANSF increasingly conducted operations<br />
against militants without support of international<br />
forces. On February 15, Afghan forces started a week-long<br />
operation in various districts of Helmand province. According<br />
to the government, at least 300 Taliban were killed and 114<br />
injured, while 42 Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers were<br />
killed during the operation. Between May 15 and 16, ANSF<br />
carried out a series of strikes against the Taliban in eight<br />
provinces, killing at least 138 militants and wounding over<br />
80. Additionally, security forces confiscated ammunition for<br />
light and heavy weapons. During a similar crackdown on<br />
Taliban militants on October 13 and 14, ANSF killed at least<br />
125 fighters in separate operations in ten provinces.<br />
NATO continued to provide military support to Afghan forces.<br />
In a joint operation on October 8, Afghan Border Police<br />
and NATO killed about 100 Taliban militants and wounded<br />
another 50 in Shorabak, Kandahar province. On November<br />
23, at least 45 militants died in a joint ANSF-NATO operation<br />
in Sangin district, Helmand. The US carried out a drone strike<br />
against Taliban forces in Khost province on November 26,<br />
killing twelve fighters and wounding another 20. Among<br />
those killed was Khan Saeed Sajna, a senior Pakistani Taliban<br />
leader [→ Pakistan (Islamist groups)].<br />
As in previous years, militants frequently attacked the ANSF<br />
and international troops. For instance, on February 26 one<br />
Turkish soldier and one Afghan civilian were killed and<br />
another Turkish citizen was wounded by a suicide bomber<br />
targeting a Turkish military convoy in the capital Kabul. On<br />
April 10, a Taliban suicide attack on a NATO convoy in Kabul<br />
left three civilians and one soldier injured. Starting their<br />
annual spring offensive, Taliban militants fired rockets at a<br />
US air base outside Kabul on April 24. No fatalities were<br />
reported. In another attack against a NATO convoy in Kabul on<br />
June 30, a Taliban suicide bomber killed one civilian, another<br />
22 were injured. On July 8, Taliban militants beheaded three<br />
policemen in Qaiser district, Faryab province. In early August,<br />
Taliban targeted several security compounds in central Kabul.<br />
On August 7, four suicide bombers killed 25 police cadets in<br />
an attack on the Kabul Police Academy, leaving another 25<br />
wounded. Later that day, a suicide attacker blew himself up<br />
at the gates of an American base in northern Kabul, while<br />
other militants engaged in firefights with US military. One<br />
soldier and nine contractors were killed. During fights in<br />
the airport area of Kandahar that started on December 8<br />
and lasted approx. 26 hours, Taliban killed 39 civilians and<br />
15 ANSF personnel while wounding at least 42 people. On<br />
169