Afghanistan
Two journalists shot in Pakistan
An Afghan journalist and a Japanese journalist were shot in the Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan city of Peshawar today. Motoki Yodsukura 四倉幹木さん, a reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, was shot in the foot and is said to be in a stable condition. However the condition of Abdul Sami Yousafzai, the Afghan journalist, is said to […]
Massive explosion in Kandahar
Frontline blogger Alex was in Kandahar when a “huge explosion near Kandahar stadium” went off. I caught up on this a bit late as I’ve been training all day, but Alex had the wherewithall to poke his head on to the balcony, snap some shots, send a series of messages to Twitter, upload a picture […]
Mellissa Fung swapped for prisoners?
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper denied Mellissa Fung, the CBC journalist kidanpped by the Taliban a month ago, was released in exchange for Taliban leaders at the weekend, “There have been continual reports about ransoms or money being paid. That was not done in this case,” he told reporters in Ottawa following a first ministers […]
Mellissa Fung free
[video:youtube:goSQuxkfKwU] Mellissa Fung, a 35 year old journalist with CBC, who was kidnapped in Kabul four weeks ago was released today. She says she was kept in a cave for the first three weeks, “They kept me blindfolded, but not the whole time,” she said. “They chained me. . . . Just my hands and […]
Daniel Bennett on the Nick Meo brouhaha
Frontline blogger Dan is doing a great job trying to get to the bottom of a rather confused story relating to Nick Meo’s report on a bomb explosion just outside Kandahar recently. I recommend you go and read through both Dan’s posts on this. Start with the summary of the debate that continues to rage […]
Dutch journalist freed
An unnamed Dutch journalist who was kidnapped by suspected Taliban in Afghanistan last week has been freed, The woman, whose name was not released, was captured on Saturday last week while she was en route to do a story about a group of Taliban who had killed 10 French soldiers in August, an editor at […]
More on Meo and the US milbloggers
I’ve been doing some further work into ‘Nick Meo vs the milbloggers‘ to try to work out exactly what is going on. The Telegraph journalist has got in touch with me and I have also had email contact with 1Lt Amy Bonanno, the ARSIC Public Affairs Officer. I’d like to start by setting up what […]
More from the Shah Wali Kot wedding bombing
Photographs from the women’s section of the hospital in Kandahar today. Click the image above to scroll through the pictures. I am writing for the Globe and Mail newspaper in Canada for this story. In interviews at Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar city, where at least 16 male victims and dozens of female victims were being […]
Shah Wali Kot Wedding Bombing
Reports started to come in earlier today of a bombing of a wedding party in Kandahar province’s north-western district of Shah Wali Kot. I visited the hospital just now to visit and interview survivors. Abdul Zahir, 24, is the bride’s brother. He was in Shah Wali Kot yesterday for the wedding when the bombing started. […]
Telegraph journalist, Nick Meo vs Milbloggers: a summary
One of the ways in which bloggers have acquitted themselves in the media space is by acting as a ‘fifth estate’ – scrutinising what the fourth estate – the mainstream media – do, challenging facts and publishing corrections, clarifications, and rebuttals. A while ago, I collected some links on the way bloggers appeared to influence […]
Craig Swan on cold nights in Helmand
Craig Swan talks about life working in Helmand province in Afghanistan. The former BBC foreign correspondent now lives in the Spey Valley in Scotland and still hankers for the life overseas, although he admits it isn’t all rosy, “As the producer in charge, it was my job to negotiate with the Ministry of Defence to […]
David Loyn talks 200 years in Afghanistan
[video:brightcove:1847310960] David Loyn talked about the 200 years of intervention in Afghanistan at the club last week. If you missed the talk, click the video above it’s well worth watching or listen to the event in iTunes. In The Independent Kim Sengupta follows up with a discussion on engaging with the Taliban, The war this […]
Working in Kabul
Kitty Dimbleby describes the quite ridiculous reality of working as a foreign correspondent in Kabul. It makes you wonder just what the value of the old parachuted in foreign correspondent really is – and what great expense it costs – when they can’t even get to the people to get a story beyond visiting a […]
Nick Meo hits back
Nick Meo, who reported from outside Kandahar moments after an IED attack one week ago, has been coming in for a bit of stick since the report. He hit back earlier this week in the Telegraph with his side of this argument from the frontline, For writing about this, the bloggers have called me a […]
Life for Pervez Kambaksh
Kim Sengupta, Independent journalist and Frontline Club regular, follows up on the court case of Pervez Kambaksh in Kabul. Kambaksh was originally sentenced to death for downloading information about women’s rights from the Internet. This week he was sentenced to life imprisonment, “I was, of course, hoping to be freed, but the fact that they […]
Working as a female journalist in Afghanistan
Farida Nekzad, who earlier this week received the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Courage in Journalism award, talked to US News and World Report about her work as a journalist in Afghanistan, Was there ever a time when you reconsidered your decision to stay and report in Afghanistan? There was a female reporter—actually, she owned a […]
US Milblogs from Iraq
After the closure of Kaboom: A Soldier’s War Journal, what’s been filling my milblogging void? Well here are some of the ones from Iraq that I’ve been reading recently. Fobbits Need Ice Cream Too. A National Guard Infantry soldier describes life running convoys into Iraq from Kuwait in the best of irreverent styles. “Our battalion […]
Nick Meo in Kandahar IED incident
[video:youtube:1GegGPTSAqg] Nick Meo, Telegraph foreign correspondent, reports from Afghanistan a few seconds after an IED exploded a truck he was travelling in just outside Kandahar launching it into the air and turning it upside down. Nick filmed the aftermath of the attack in the clip above, The Cougar was meant to clear a way along […]
Cool down in Kabul
In Kabul, blazing hot, need to cool down, head to the local ice cream parlour and order yourself a Shir Yakh. No idea if it tastes any good, but SBS reporter Yalda Hakim got to try one as she returns to her birthplace, Kabul and blogs in words, pictures and video what she finds there, […]
Tablighi Jamaat
The yearly general and regional ‘conferences’ of the Tablighi Jamaat are perhaps the most undercovered big events that go on in Afghanistan. Last year I went to the general meeting in Kabul, a 4-day event that over 10,000 people attended. Not a single report was written, be it foreign media or Afghan media. Now to […]
“4-nil and it’s started to rain”
Not much has happened in Kandahar since I last wrote – not on a grand scale, anyway. It seems the dead need to line up in the dozens for international media to take note. Today an attack on a USPI convoy killed several, but it will undoubtedly not be deemed newsworthy enough for anything more […]
A winnable war?
“There’s no such thing as a winnable war; It’s a lie that we don’t believe anymore” Music is not my specialist subject but these lyrics have been popping into my head over the past couple of days. Sting, of course, was singing in the context of the Cold War, but after these comments made by […]
Bad Voodoo’s War @ The Frontline Club
Friday night I made my first visit(!) to the Frontline Club. I was going to watch a screening of a film called Bad Voodoo’s War directed by Deborah Scranton. Deborah, who’d never met me before, very kindly agreed to put me on her guest list for the event. So I’ve got to say nice things […]
In search of the Taliban
John D. McHugh’s latest multimedia report for the Guardian finds him in Logar province with the US-Afghan mission in search of the Taliban. A US army captain, with a price on his red head, gives his views on the challenges they face. John also has an audio slideshow up on The Guardian, The Seray combat […]
Following The Parachute Regiment in Afghanistan
Michael Yon is an independent journalist who has undertaken a number of embeds with British and American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. In September, he spent some time with the Parachute Regiment in Helmand Province and his three blog posts are well worth a read. Part One gives you an insight into 2 Para’s life […]
LIVE event: David Loyn – 200 years of intervention
You can now watch the event here. Afghanistan is the subject for tonight’s discussion at the Frontline Club. As usual, if you can’t make it to the club in person, please come and join us on the Frontline Club live channel. We start at the slightly earlier time than usual at 7pm UK time, Thurs […]
Far From the City
In case you were wondering what’s happening outside the city in the districts, here’s a story and a half. Ghorak district is north-west of the city, and not especially important in itself. Off the top of my head, it was the first district that the Soviets abandoned during the 1980s when they started their slow […]
Ben Anderson on 24 hours in Helmand
[video:liveleak:89a_1223425254] Ben Anderson talks about his BBC reports from Helmand province in Afghanistan with VBS TV. Part 1 is above and here’s more on the series, “This series is about 24 hours in Helmand, Afghanistan’s most violent province. More..I was with the Queen’s Company, British soldiers who normally guard Buckingham Palace. Their job was to […]
Back in Kandahar
Amniat kharab day. Hokumat kharab day. Taliban kharab day. Security is messed up. The government’s messed up. The Taliban are messed up. I was trying to have a conversation with old colleague of mine from Kabul on the plane down to Kandahar. He’s originally from there, of course, but now lived and worked in the […]
Chris Wattie talks Afghanistan
Chris Wattie, National Post senior national reporter and author of Contact Charlie: The Canadian Army, The Taliban and the Battle that Saved Afghanistan, talks about time in Kandahar with Canadian soldiers, In an enlightening interview, Wattie describes his experience in combat with Canadian soldiers, and tells the stories that most Canadians haven’t heard. He discusses […]