ConflictBarometer_2015

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