(WASHINGTON) — The attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport last August that killed 13 U.S. service members and at least 170 Afghans was the result of a single explosive device detonated by an ISIS-K terrorist, a months-long military investigation has found, it was announced Friday.
The Pentagon had originally described the attack as “complex,” with multiple ISIS-K fighters firing on the crowd as well after the explosion.
The top U.S. commander for the Middle East said the evidence gathered in the investigation — including analysis by medical examiners and explosive experts, as well as interviews with more than 130 people — shows his initial assessment was wrong.
“The fact that this investigation has contradicted our first impression demonstrates to me that the team would enter this investigation with an open mind in search of the truth,” said Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command.
During the briefing defense officials narrated what they called “the only known footage of the blast itself,” which they said appears to show a “single individual dressed in all black” stepping forward from the crowd.
The blast seems to emanate from this individual, they said.
The investigators found that several misapprehensions on the day of the attack led to the error.
For instance, witnesses heard gunfire, and saw what appeared to be gunshot wounds on victims.
But investigators found warning shots fired by friendly forces to disperse crowds after the explosion echoed and created the illusion of a firefight, and the apparent gunshot wounds were caused by five-millimeter ball bearings that were propelled from the suicide bomb by 20 pounds of military-grade explosives, tearing through the densely-packed crowd at the airport’s Abbey Gate.
Adding to the confusion, Marines helping process Afghan civilians at the gate close to the explosion were disoriented by the large blast, and some were tear gassed when the ball bearings from the bomb punctured CS canisters worn on their own equipment, officials said.
“The battlefield is a confusing and contradictory place, and it gets more confusing the closer you are to the actual action,” McKenzie said.
(CAIRO) — Rescuers intensified their efforts on Friday to recover a five-year-old boy trapped in a 32-meter-deep well in a Northern Moroccan province for almost three days in a relief operation that kept people in the Arab world on tenterhooks.
The boy, identified by Moroccan media as Rayan, reportedly fell through a narrow opening of the well while playing in the village of Ighran in Morocco’s Chefchaouen province on Tuesday evening.
A “Save Rayan” Arabic hashtag trended in several Arab countries, including in neighboring Algeria as well as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan as thousands of users took to social media to offer their prayers.
Many likened his story to that of Prophet Yunis, commonly referred to as Jonah in the Bible, who was swallowed up by a whale for three days before the giant fish spat him out.
“Please God, protect him just like you protected Yunis in the belly of the whale,” read a caption on a widely shared drawing of a boy playing with toys while being trapped in a deep well.
Several Moroccan media outlets live-streamed the rescue operation to hundreds of thousands of users, leading to an outpouring of sympathy. A CCTV camera lowered into the well to track Rayan showed him alive on Thursday, albeit he appeared to be suffering from head injuries. Oxygen, food and water were also sent down.
“Still can’t sleep Till he is free fully I’m literally been depressed all day, I’m lying on my bed and I feel so exhausted imagine this little poor baby what he feels,” one Twitter user said.
Moroccan state news agency MAP said parallel digging carried out by bulldozers had reached a depth of 28 meters, reviving hopes that the rescue efforts can bear fruit soon. Horizontal drilling will start once a depth of 32 meters is reached, an informed source told MAP.
However, the source urged caution in fear of possible landslides. Footage showed parts of the soil collapsing during the digging work.
“The excavation work stopped from time to time, in order to take the necessary measures, as the rescue operation has reached a complex stage, and perform the necessary interventions to avoid a ground collapse,” the source told MAP.
(LONDON) — Queen Elizabeth will set yet another milestone on Feb. 6, when she becomes the first British monarch to reach a Platinum Jubilee — 70 years on the throne.
The 95-year-old queen ascended to the throne 70 years ago following the death of her father, King George VI, on Feb. 6, 1952.
Queen Elizabeth will spend the anniversary of her father’s death at her Norfolk estate, Sandringham, where King George died in his sleep.
While there, the queen will be staying at Wood Farm, where her late husband, Prince Philip, who died last April, spent much of his time after retirement.
Queen Elizabeth, who marks Feb. 6 as a day of remembrance for her father, will celebrate her Platinum Jubilee in June with a series of public celebrations.
Here is a look back at seven of the queen’s most memorable moments from 70 years on the throne.
1. A history-making coronation
Queen Elizabeth’s coronation on June 2, 1953, was the first to be televised.
The nearly three-hour service in Westminster Abbey was watched on TV by 27 million people in the United Kingdom alone, according to the royal family.
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s oldest child, Prince Charles, attended the coronation, becoming the first child to witness his mother’s coronation.
Following the service, the queen and Prince Philip joined a 16,000-person strong procession from Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace.
Among the thousands of journalists covering the queen’s coronation was Jacqueline Bouvier, who at the time worked for the Washington Times-Herald and would go on to become first lady of the United States alongside her husband, President John F. Kennedy, according to the royal family.
2. The first royal ‘walkabout’ to greet fans
While royal watchers are used to seeing royals including Prince William and Duchess Kate greet fans at each stop they make, a practice called the “walkabout,” that was not the case before Queen Elizabeth.
The queen upended royal tradition while on a tour of Australia and New Zealand with Prince Philip in 1970. Instead of waving to crowds from a protected distance, Queen Elizabeth walked out and greeted people in-person, the first royal “walkabout.”
3. Meeting 13 sitting U.S. presidents
Queen Elizabeth has met with every U.S. president during her 70 years on the throne, except for Lyndon B. Johnson.
She met with President Joe Biden last June at Windsor Castle, marking her 13th meeting with a sitting U.S. president.
Queen Elizabeth has hosted just three presidents for an official state visit — Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump.
4. Celebrating jubilees in a history-making reign as queen
In 1977, Queen Elizabeth celebrated her Silver Jubilee, 25 years on the throne, with a service at St. Paul’s Cathedral, where she repeated her pledge to a life of service.
More than two decades later, in 2002 — the same year both her mother and sister passed away — Queen Elizabeth celebrated 50 years on the throne, her Golden Jubilee.
The queen was escorted through the streets of London in a four-ton golden coach, previously used only when she was crowned and at her Silver Jubilee. In a ceremony that dates back almost 800 years, she touched a sword handed to her by the Lord Mayor of London, symbolizing the supreme power of the monarch.
In June 2012, Queen Elizabeth celebrated 60 years on the throne, her Diamond Jubilee, with a parade down the Thames and a concert outside Buckingham Palace.
Three years later, in 2015, Queen Elizabeth made history, becoming Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, at 63 years.
5. ‘Parachuting’ into the London Olympics with James Bond
The same year as her Diamond Jubilee, in 2012, Queen Elizabeth memorably starred alongside actor Daniel Craig in a clip that aired during the opening ceremony for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
The queen portrayed herself in the clip, which featured Craig, as James Bond, picking her up at Buckingham Palace. Stunt actors then portrayed the two helicoptering across London and parachuting into the Olympics venue, while Queen Elizabeth herself arrived at her seat, accompanied by Prince Philip.
6. Serving as matriarch of a growing royal family
Queen Elizabeth has been an omnipresent force not just on the world stage, but also within her own family.
The queen, a mother of four, is the matriarch of an ever-growing family, which now includes eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
She has been present for weddings, as well as divorces that made headlines.
She has also guided her family through scandal and discord, most recently amid a lawsuit against her son Prince Andrew, as well as the exit of her grandson Prince Harry and his wife, Duchess Meghan, from their senior royal roles.
7. Saying goodbye to her husband of 73 years
Queen Elizabeth faced a deeply personal and sad moment in her reign last April when she said goodbye to her husband , Prince Philip, following his death at age 99.
Due to restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic, the queen sat alone during the April 17, 2021, funeral service for Philip, her husband of 73 years.
Known as one of the hardest-working members of the royal family, Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, was also a stalwart supporter of his wife.
“He is someone who doesn’t take easily to compliments, but he has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years,” Queen Elizabeth said in 1997, paying tribute to her husband on their golden wedding anniversary. “And I, and his whole family, and this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim, or we shall ever know.”
(WASHINGTON) — Human rights groups and U.S. officials are concerned about the safety of Olympic athletes in China if they speak out on political issues at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing following a warning from a Chinese official about “punishment” for competitors should they do so.
Yang Shu, the deputy director of international relations for the Beijing organizing committee, said any speech against the Olympic spirit or Chinese laws would be “subject to certain punishment” during a press conference on Jan. 18. Shu did nothing to ease concerns at a press conference on Tuesday, saying that International Olympic Committee Rule 50 does include some speech regulations.
“At the medal ceremonies, they cannot make their opinions but in press conferences or interviews, athletes are free to express their opinions,” Shu said Tuesday. “But athletes need to be responsible for what they say.”
Shu’s comments spurred human rights organizations like Human Rights Watch and U.S. officials to warn athletes about speaking out and to call on the IOC to guarantee freedom of speech at the Games.
“Athletes are also being obliged to compete in this environment by an International Olympic Committee, that … seems completely unwilling or unable to actually follow through on those obligations,” Sophie Richardson, the China director at Human Rights Watch, said in an interview with ABC News.
In response to the comments during Yang’s press conference, a group of representatives from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, led by Chairman Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., released a statement calling on the IOC to “immediately clarify that free speech by athletes is absolutely guaranteed at the Olympics.”
When reached for comment about free speech at the Olympics, the IOC told ABC News Thursday that “the Games are governed by the IOC Rules. They will be applied at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 like at any other edition of the Games before.”
Despite the concern expressed by some about possible repercussions if athletes speak out, Carl Minzner, a senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations, doesn’t see a high chance of the Chinese government taking strong action.
“It’s hard for me to imagine Beijing doing something really extreme, such as actually detaining or imprisoning a foreign athlete … Doing so would likely just generate more unwanted attention,” Minzner said in an interview with ABC News.
Some lawmakers in the U.S. aren’t counting on the Chinese to hang back. The Congressional-Executive Commission on China held a hearing Thursday on the Beijing Olympics with panelists who work to address human rights issues in China and protect those affected.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass., members of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, released a letter on Jan. 31 asking the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee what their plans were for protecting athletes, highlighting freedom of expression concerns and data privacy worries.
“We write with urgency about the safety and protection of U.S. athletes who are headed to Beijing, China, especially given the recent statement by a Chinese official about ‘punishment’ of athletes who exercise freedom of expression,” their letter said. “We share with you our concerns on the risks to freedom of expression, data privacy and exposure to products made by forced labor.”
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., held a press conference on Jan. 24 to discuss human rights abuses in China and the need for increased security measures for American athletes.
“I can’t tell you how worried I am about the athletes competing in Beijing. Look at what communist China did to silence and disappear, silence and disappear, Peng Shuai,” Scott said.
Enes (Kanter) Freedom, the NBA player who has called for athletes to boycott the Olympics in recent weeks, joined the Senator by phone.
Peng Shuai, a Chinese tennis player, went absent from public view last November after accusing former Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli of coercing her into having sex in a since-deleted post on the Chinese social media app, Weibo.
Two weeks later, Peng appeared in a video where she denied having been sexually assaulted, a move the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) called “insufficient” in verifying Peng’s safety. Following the incident, the WTA announced a suspension on all events in China, citing “serious doubts that she [Peng] is free, safe and not subject to censorship, coercion and intimidation.”
In a press conference on Feb. 3, IOC President Thomas Bach indicated that a meeting with Peng would occur when COVID protocols allow it to happen.
“I am very happy and very grateful to Peng Shuai. She will enter the closed-loop to have the meeting that she also wants,” he said.
Although there were no known incidents of athletes facing repercussions from the Chinese government when the Olympics took place in the same host city 14 years ago, the role athletes play in the broader political discussion and how they use their platform has changed significantly since 2008, according to Richardson.
“We didn’t have Colin Kaepernick, we didn’t have, you know, [tennis star] Andy Murray saying he’s not gonna go compete in Saudi, it’s a different ballgame,” Richardson said.
Free speech has been a subject of controversy in China in recent years as freedom of expression and press have come into question. Article 35 in the Chinese Constitution states that “Citizens of the People’s Republic of China shall enjoy freedom of speech, the press, assembly, association, procession and demonstration.”
Regardless, political comments deemed inappropriate have been addressed inconsistently, experts said.
“If people say or publish views or otherwise express views that authorities don’t like, they are subject to prosecution under a variety of broad laws that are often arbitrarily interpreted, “said Richardson.
The Biden administration announced a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Olympics in December over China’s record on human rights, particularly its treatment of ethnic Uyghurs, which the United States has previously declared a genocide. The decision will prevent United States government officials from attending any events in Beijing, but will not impact the participation of any American athletes.
The 2022 Winter Olympics will take place from Feb. 4 – 20. The American Olympic team has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment.
(BEIJING) — With the Beijing Olympics set to begin, a group of international scientists is once more calling for a “comprehensive international investigation” into the origins of COVID-19.
It’s the latest in a series of strongly worded letters demanding more transparency from the Chinese government, once again stoking a contentious debate that’s been ongoing throughout the pandemic’s many months.
The letter — signed by 20 scientists from the U.S., U.K., Germany, New Zealand, France, Australia, India and Japan — echoes what have become broad international calls for a more thorough examination, unfettered by geopolitics, into where COVID-19 came from. It also underscores continued criticism from both the U.S. and international bodies over the Chinese government’s lack of cooperation.
“The Olympic Charter states that ‘The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity,'” wrote the scientist group, co-organized by Jamie Metzl, a former WHO adviser and senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. “Unfortunately, as athletes from across the globe gather together today for the start of the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games, this noble aspiration is being undermined through the ongoing efforts of the host government to prevent a comprehensive international investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Increased and united scrutiny into COVID-19’s origins is “a true representation of the ideals underlying the Olympic movement,” the letter said, and would “promote openness and mutual trust,” especially at a time when the world’s athletes convene upon Beijing.
Failing to understand how the virus — which is now responsible for claiming the lives of more than 5.7 million people worldwide — leaves “everyone on earth and future generations … at heightened and unnecessary risk of future pandemics,” the letter said.
No firm conclusion has yet been made as to where COVID-19 came from, with international health and U.S. intelligence bodies stalled between two theories: whether the virus emerged from natural animal spillover, or whether it came from an accidental lab experiment leak in Wuhan, China.
Following President Joe Biden’s 90-day push this summer for his intel agencies to “redouble their efforts” in uncovering a more definitive conclusion on COVID-19’s origins, the intelligence community has remained “divided” on its most likely origins. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, in its report, underscored the barriers to finding any concrete answers — namely, unhelpful noncooperation from the Chinese government, which is “likely to impede investigation.”
A World Health Organization-led team also emphasized that there must be more sharing of records, samples and raw data for any real progress to take place.
The WHO’s first phase study into COVID-19’s origins, which deemed a lab leak “extremely unlikely,” faced a barrage of questions on issues of access and transparency. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there was more work to be done and the assessment had not been “extensive enough.”
Months later, Tedros acknowledged it had been “premature” to rule out the lab leak theory so soon and stressed that they needed China’s cooperation with raw data from their labs to help rule out the lab leak theory.
The UN health agency has formed a new team of scientists for a new phase of investigation that included lab audits — which the Chinese government rejected, saying they could not accept needless “repetitive research” when “clear conclusions” had already been reached.
Without a fresh flow of that robust information, the debate over COVID-19’s origins has remained shrouded in a haze of circumstantial evidence.
“The fact is that they’re just not, they’re just not being transparent,” Biden said of China at his news conference earlier this month, adding that he “made it clear” to President Xi Jinping during their November summit that “China had an obligation to be more forthcoming on exactly what the source of the virus was.”
Meanwhile, Beijing has vehemently denied the virus could have come from one of its labs, pressing for the investigation to look outside China. Chinese authorities have suggested, without evidence, that the virus was already spreading in the United States prior to late 2019 — attempting to move the sharp focus on Wuhan’s early viral clusters to a conspiracy theory that COVID-19 came from a U.S. Army lab.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian tweeted in March 2020 that “it might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan,” claiming that American military athletes who attended the World Military Games in Wuhan in October 2019 could have been responsible for bringing COVID-19 into China.
U.S. Department of Defense officials pushed firmly back on the accusation, calling it “misinformation and disinformation,” and Chad Sbragia, the then-Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for China, called claims that the virus began with a U.S. Army service member “patently false and, frankly, unhelpful.”
Experts say it could take years to find COVID-19’s origins, even with full international cooperation and an intact trail of scientific evidence. It took scientists more than a decade to identify the bat population that was the home of a 2002 SARS epidemic.
Even so, they also underscore that understanding where and how this pandemic started may be crucial to preventing the next one.
“Understanding how this terrible crisis began is essential to preventing future pandemics,” the letter said, “and building a safer future for all.”
ABC News’ Sony Salzman contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The United States said Thursday it had intelligence that showed Russia is planning to create a video depicting a fake Ukrainian attack, that it could release in order to justify its own invasion of Ukraine.
One of a number of options Russia has been allegedly planning, U.S. officials said, was to “stage a fake attack” against Russia or Russian-speaking people.
“As part of this fake attack, we believe that Russia would produce a very graphic propaganda video, which would include corpses, and actors that would be depicting mourners, and images of destroyed locations as well as military equipment,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.
The United States took the rare step of making this intelligence public in order to dissuade Russia from moving forward or, if it did move forward, to make it more difficult for it to spread disinformation after the fact, according to Jon Finer, the principal deputy U.S. national security adviser.
“We don’t know definitively that this is the route they’re going to take,” Finer said in an interview with MSNBC.
“But we know that this is an option under consideration,” he continued, “that would involve, you know, actors playing mourners for people who are killed in an event that they would have created themselves, that would involve the deployment of corpses to represent bodies purportedly killed in — people reportedly killed in an incident like this.”
The U.K. said later Wednesday that it had conducted its “own analysis of the intelligence,” and that it had “high confidence that Russia is planning to engineer a pretext blaming Ukraine in order to justify a Russian incursion.”
“This is clear and shocking evidence of Russia’s unprovoked aggression and underhand activity to destabilize Ukraine,” Britain’s foreign secretary, Liz Truss, said.
It is not the first time in recent weeks that the United States had accused Russia of “fabricating a pretext” to justify invading Ukraine.
The Kremlin on Wednesday denied the new allegations.
“This is not the first such promise,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to the Russian state news agency TASS “Earlier, similar things were also voiced. But nothing ever occurs.”
Last month, the White House said the U.S. had intelligence that Russia had prepositioned a group of operatives in eastern Ukraine in order to create a “false-flag operation” there. The administration said the group was trained in urban warfare and the use of explosives.
A spokesperson for the White House’s National Security Council declined to say whether those the United States is accusing of being involved in creating a fake video were part of this same group.
The U.S. believes Russia has already recruited the people who’d be involved with the fake “attack” video and that “Russian intelligence is intimately involved in this effort,” according to the senior administration official.
The U.S. thinks that “the military equipment used in this fabricated attack will be made to look like it is Ukrainian or from allied nations” – and that it was “possible” that Bayraktar drones, which Ukraine has, would be used to make it look like Ukraine carried out the attack, according to the official.
U.S. officials have repeatedly said, as recently as Wednesday, that they do not believe Russia’s President Vladimir Putin had yet decided whether to invade Ukraine.
But if he did want to move forward, the senior administration official said, one trigger could be Russia recognizing separatist regions in Ukraine as independent, rather than as part of Ukraine. Russia’s parliament is advancing legislation that would do so.
The U.S. believes that if Russia formally recognized the regions as independent, Russia could then release the video showing a fake Ukrainian “attack” – that it could portray as in response to the independence recognition – or Russia could just invade without releasing the video, according to another administration official.
“In line with its previous interventions, Russia would portray its actions as defending ethnic Russians and coming at the request of a sovereign government for assistance,” the senior administration official said.
ABC News’ Matt Seyler, Patrick Reevell and Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Thursday, in remarks from the White House, gave details to the nation about a dramatic U.S. raid overnight in Syria he said had killed the leader of ISIS.
“Last night, operating on my orders, the United States military forces successfully removed in a major terrorist threat to the world, the global leader of ISIS, known as Haji Abdullah. He took over as leader of ISIS in 2019 after the United States counterterrorism operation killed Al Bhaghdadi,” Biden said from the Roosevelt Room. “Thanks to the bravery of our troops, this horrible terrorist leader is no more.”
Amid reports of women and children killed, Biden said he directed the Department of Defense “to take every precaution possible to minimize civilian casualties.”
“Knowing that this terrorist had chosen to surround himself with families, including children, we made a choice to pursue a Special Forces raid at a much greater risk than our to our own people rather than targeting him with an airstrike,” Biden said. “We made this choice to minimize civilian casualties.”
“We do know that as our troops approached to capture the terrorist — in a final act of desperate cowardice he, with no regard to the lives of his own family or others in the building, he chose to blow himself up — not just in the vest but the blow-up that third floor, rather than face justice for the crimes he has committed, taking several members of his family with him. Just as his predecessor did,” Biden said, describing the raid.
Earlier in the day, the White House tweeted a photo it said showed Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in the Situation Room watching as the raid took place.
The Pentagon also confirmed U.S. special operations forces carried out a what it called a “successful” counterterrorism mission in northwest Syria Wednesday, but provided few other details.
“U.S. Special Operations forces under the control of U.S. Central Command conducted a counterterrorism mission this evening in northwest Syria. The mission was successful. There were no U.S. casualties,” said John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, in a statement. “More information will be provided as it becomes available.”
One of the helicopters used in the mission experienced a mechanical problem and then had to be blown up on the ground by U.S. forces, according to a U.S. official.
No details were provided on whether the operation involved ground troops and helicopters, as was claimed in a flurry of social media reports emerging from Syria on Wednesday night.
Social media posts reported possible U.S. military activity in Idlib province, a town in far western Syria, close to the border with Turkey. Some posts included videos that seemed to show night scenes where the sounds of gunfire and low-flying helicopters could be heard near the towns of Atmeh and Dar Ballout.
The opposition-run Syrian Civil Defense, first responders also known as the White Helmets, said 13 civilians were killed as a result of the fighting and blasts that occurred at the raid site, including six children and four women.
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war watchdog group based in the United Kingdom, said in a press statement that nine people, including at least two children and a woman, were killed during Wednesday’s mission. The group cited local sources.
A U.S. official, meanwhile, told ABC News that the reported civilian casualties were not the result of U.S. military fire, but occurred when the target of the raid detonated an explosive device at the beginning of the operation.
There are approximately 1,000 U.S. military troops operating in eastern Syria to support the mission against ISIS.
American troops do not operate in government-controlled areas in northwestern Syria, especially in Idlib province, which was an extremist safe haven for much of the last decade. But they have sporadically carried out counterterrorism missions in Idlib, targeting various Islamic extremist groups with drone strikes.
The highest profile mission was a ground raid that killed ISIS’ top leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, who was hiding out in a house close to the border with Turkey, on Oct. 27, 2019.
Ana Fernandez/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — With the open ceremony of the Beijing Olympic games Friday, the movement to boycott the event has been intensifying with a rising number of protests in recent weeks, as seen lately in Indonesia, Taiwan, Germany, Austria, and Belgium.
Citizens protested to denounce Chinese President Xi Jinping and his government’s propaganda, labor conditions, its treatment of ethnic and religious minorities, as well as its actions to squash freedom of expression and press, among a long list of issues. However, activists and human rights organizations said diplomatic boycotts can only go so far and that so much more needs to be done to improve conditions in China.
Sophie Richardson, the China director at Human Rights Watch, told ABC News that human rights-related commitments made by the Chinese government in the past have mostly fallen short despite what it’s said publicly.
“From greater latitude for journalists, to more open internet access, to at least a little bit of room for Chinese people in China to demonstrate … it really failed on all those counts,” Richard said. And “nobody really imposed any consequences and response to that failure.”
The Chinese government often dismisses or denies these claims, as its Commerce Ministry did last year about allegations of forced labor, before saying that the country will “take necessary measures to firmly safeguard Chinese companies’ legitimate rights and interests,” after the U.S. blacklisted 14 Chinese companies.
Though Human Rights Watch, one of the 243 global groups to call for action against China, is in favor of a diplomatic boycott, Richardson said that “in the grand scheme of things, it’s much more important that the governments push ahead with the idea of a U.N.-backed investigation into” possible prosecutions “for crimes against humanity for the Chinese government officials who are credibly alleged to be complicit in these crimes.”
Diplomatic boycotts are “simply not enough,” Mabel Tung, Chair of the NGO Vancouver Society in Support of Democratic Movement (VSSDM), told ABC News.
Tung’s group, along with fellow NGO, the Vancouverites Concerned About Hong Kong, united last week in front of the Canadian Olympics broadcaster, CBC, to encourage people not to watch the Olympics on TV or social media platforms.
By boycotting the Olympics, the group said it’s attacking China’s economy, which can be a more efficient tool than a diplomatic boycott.
The French government is among those who are not boycotting the Olympics and will send two representatives at the games. However, the French National Assembly recently voted to recognize the Uyghur genocide.
These decisions are a “total shame,” Centre-leftist Eurodeputy, and one of the leading voices on the Uyghur’s plight in France, Raphaël Glucksmann, told ABC News.
“If finally in the European institutions, we have been speaking of the torture of the Uyghurs and the crimes of the Chinese Communist Party, it is thanks to these young people,” Glucksmann said.
Activists, like 22-year-old Hongkongese-American and policy advisor of U.K.-based charity Hong Kong Watch Joey Siu, are further proof that the youth has been a driving force in this fight as seen in the many protests worldwide.
“When we’re talking about a genocide, there has to be a red line,” Siu told ABC News.
Siu said a diplomatic boycott is “only the most basic” first step and that “in the long term, what’s more important is that countries should really be formulating policies to tackle the genocide, to tackle China and hold China accountable for its human rights abuses.” She pointed to the U.S. and the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act the country passed weeks ago as a good example of holding China accountable.
Human Rights Watch estimates that “as many as a million Uyghurs and others” have been arbitrarily detained in Xinjiang over the last several years.
Zumretay Arkin, an Uyghur-Canadian human rights advocate and program manager at the World Uyghur Congress, an international organization that represents the collective interest of the Uyghur people in East Turkistan and abroad, shared Siu’s enthusiasm for actions beyond boycotts.
Speaking of the “genocide” in East Turkistan, the 28-year-old Arkin called the situation “extremely dire.”
Her organization launched a boycott campaign a year and a half ago, and also reached out to multiple Olympic sponsors but “none of them really responded.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden said Thursday that a U.S. raid in Syria killed the leader of ISIS.
“Last night at my direction, U.S. military forces in northwest Syria successfully undertook a counterterrorism operation to protect the American people and our Allies, and make the world a safer place,” he said in a statement. “Thanks to the skill and bravery of our Armed Forces, we have taken off the battlefield Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi—the leader of ISIS. All Americans have returned safely from the operation. I will deliver remarks to the American people later this morning. May God protect our troops.”
The White House tweeted a photo it said showed Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in the Situation Room watching as the raid took place.
Earlier, the Pentagon has confirmed U.S. special operations forces carried out a what it called a “successful” counterterrorism mission in northwest Syria Wednesday, but provided few other details.
“U.S. Special Operations forces under the control of U.S. Central Command conducted a counterterrorism mission this evening in northwest Syria. The mission was successful. There were no U.S. casualties,” said John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, in a statement. “More information will be provided as it becomes available.”
One of the helicopters used in the mission experienced a mechanical problem and then had to be blown up on the ground by U.S. forces, according to a U.S. official.
No details were provided on whether it involved ground troops and helicopters as was claimed in a flurry of social media reports emerging from Syria on Wednesday night.
ABC Senior White House Correspondent Mary Bruce reported that a source familiar with the situation said any reported civilian casualties resulted from the target or a family member detonating an explosive device at the beginning of the operation, not from U.S. forces.
The social media posts reported possible U.S. military activity in Idlib province, a town in far western Syria, close to the border with Turkey. Some posts included videos that seemed to show night scenes where the sounds of gunfire and low-flying helicopters could be heard near the towns of Atimah and Dar Ballout.
The approximately 1,000 U.S. military troops in Syria operate in eastern Syria supporting the mission against ISIS.
American troops do not operate in government-controlled areas in northwestern Syria, especially in Idlib province, which was an extremist safe haven for much of the last decade. But they have sporadically carried out counterterrorism missions in Idlib, targeting various Islamic extremist groups with drone strikes.
The highest profile mission was a ground raid that killed ISIS’ top leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, who was hiding out in a house close to the border with Turkey, on Oct. 27, 2019.
(LONDON) — “Pick up the phone right now, call Kabul and ask the girls to be released immediately,” Hoda Khamosh, an Afghanistan woman’s rights activist shouted at the Taliban’s acting foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, in Oslo, Norway, last week.
Khamosh demanded the release of Tamana Zaryabi Paryani and Parawana Ibrahimkhel, two female activists who disappeared after their houses were raided on Jan. 20. They had attended a series of protests against the Taliban over the past few months.
Khamosh was one of six Afghan women who were invited to sit with Taliban officials as they made their first invited visit to a Western country since taking control of Afghanistan in August. The talks were to discuss the humanitarian and economic situation in Afghanistan.
The invitation led to different reactions from Afghanistan’s various women’s rights activists, with some welcoming it as a chance for Afghan-to-Afghan negotiations. Others felt that Taliban rule should not be normalized by holding such meetings and casted doubts on the trustworthiness of their promises.
“It was important to us that Norway stressed the invitation did not mean recognition of the Taliban,” Khamosh told ABC News, explaining how the “horrible humanitarian situation” in Afghanistan compelled her to sit face-to-face with the Taliban, pushing for a way to get as many concessions from them as possible.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, around 10 million children across Afghanistan are in “urgent” need to humanitarian assistance to survive.
“Without urgent action, almost one million children could be severely malnourished in the coming weeks. That is half of all children under the age of 5,” UNICEF says.
“We were discussing how the money can come to Afghanistan and help with opening schools, opening offices, creating jobs and making the economy wheels turn,” Khamosh said.
However, the Taliban’s track record of female suppression has left many women’s rights activists with almost no reason to trust their promises.
“It is why my first request in the beginning of the meeting with the Taliban was to release our fellow activists they had arrested,” Khamosh said.
In the statement released by the governments of the U.S. and Norway about the Oslo meeting, the Taliban was “urged” to do more to stop the alarming increase of human rights violations, “including arbitrary detentions (to include recent detentions of women’s rights activists), forced disappearances, media crackdowns, extra-judicial killings, torture and prohibitions on women and girls’ education, employment and freedom to travel without a male escort.”
However, the acting foreign minister Muttaqi denied the arrests of the activists for whom Khamosh demanded freedom, saying that the Taliban had not arrested or tortured those women.
“I do not trust him,” Khamosh said, reacting to Mottaqi’s denial. She said she’d been handed documents by one of the women’s mothers that showed the women had been taken by the Taliban.
“This is why the west should not give all the money the Taliban wants in one go and not to give it directly to them,” she said. “We have to wait and see the Taliban’s next move and real intention to fulfil their promises first.”
Former Afghan parliamentarian Shinkai Karokhail, who shared the same concerns as Khamosh, said the Taliban must end its hostilities against women and take a moderate approach towards human rights, as many things have changed since the last time they had the control of the country.
Karokhail advocated for women’s rights during her term, but had to flee Afghanistan when the country fell into the Taliban’s hands.
“Two decades has passed and lots of changes happened in the life of Afghans,” she said, adding that the Taliban has no way but to end isolating women from their social an economic life of Afghanistan.
The Taliban did not respond to ABC News’ inquiry about the Oslo talks and the topics discussed.
Karokhail said she feels the West must ask the Taliban to prove themselves before entering into talks, telling ABC News: “We have to use this Oslo event like a ticket. A ticket that must not be used so much.”
