Afghanistan Taliban Crisis Today Highlights: Taliban unlawfully killed 13 ethnic Hazaras, says rights group

[oovvuu-embed id=”883dc74f-ed78-48ea-bc46-4a4d71444b35″]

Meanwhile, the Taliban have announced a third round of Afghanistan government appointments that encompassed a host of men named to deputy positions. Among the new appointments was a political deputy for the prime minister, deputy ministers, and deputy head of the Afghan Red Crescent Society. Most of the positions consisted of army and defense ministry commanders and deputies across Afghanistan’s provinces including Kabul, Helmand, Herat and Kandahar.

Here are more updates:

Taliban unlawfully killed 13 ethnic Hazaras, says rights group

Taliban forces unlawfully killed 13 ethnic Hazaras, most of them Afghan soldiers who had surrendered to the insurgents, a prominent rights group said Tuesday. The killings took place in the village of Kahor in Daykundi province in central Afghanistan on Aug. 30, according to an investigation by Amnesty International. Eleven of the victims were members of the Afghan national security forces and two were civilians, among them a 17-year-old girl.

An internally displaced Afghan woman stands with her daughters in front a makeshift tent in a camp on a rocky patch of land after fleeing fighting between the Taliban. (AP/File)

The reported killings took place about two weeks after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in a blitz campaign, culminating in their takeover of Kabul. At the time, Taliban leaders sought to reassure Afghans that they had changed from their previous harsh rule of the country in the late 1990s.

Taliban appointments add to all-male Afghan government team

The Taliban doubled down on their hard-line trajectory Monday in a third round of Afghanistan government appointments that encompassed a host of men named to deputy positions, a spokesman said. None of the 38 new appointments announced by chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid included women. They were comprised of members drawn entirely from the Taliban with little representation of minority groups. Also included were postings to humanitarian organisations.

G20 must send Taliban clear message on price of recognition, says Macron

France’s President Emmanuel Macron said the forthcoming G20 summit must send a clear message to Afghanistan’s Taliban on the conditions for international recognition.

French President Emmanuel Macron.

In an interview with France Inter radio station broadcast on Tuesday, Macron said those conditions must include equality for women, access for foreign humanitarian operations and non-cooperation with Islamist terror groups. “I believe international recognition should have a price, and the dignity of Afghan women, equality between men and women, should be one of the points on which we insist, and should be a condition for us,” Macron said.

Referring to the G20 summit due to take place in Rome later this month, Macron said: “We will talk about Afghanistan. We absolutely must, that’s to say us, the Europeans, the Americans, China, Russia, the big powers of Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and Latin America all together, we must have a very clear message that we will set conditions for recognition of the Taliban.”

US resumes Afghan refugee flights after measles shots

Afghan refugees will soon be arriving again in the US after a massive campaign to vaccinate them against measles following a small outbreak that caused a three-week pause in evacuations, officials said Monday. The measles outbreak, detected in 24 people, had put on hold one of the largest refugee resettlement efforts in US history, dubbed Operation Allies Welcome. It also stranded about 15,000 at overseas transit points.