Focus on the capital: Kabul City

[Security 2022, 4.1]

According to ACLED, Kabul City was the most conflict-affected area of Afghanistan. During the reference period, ACLED recorded 247 security incidents (average of 4 incidents per week), of which 113 were cases of violence against civilians, 95 remote violence, and 39 battles.

Most incidents were attributed to Taliban forces, ISKP and to unidentified armed group(s), with some incidents also attributed to NRF.According to UCDP, in the period between 16 August 2021 and 1 June 2022, Kabul City had the highest numbers of civilian fatalities (297 of overall 778 civilian fatalities in Afghanistan).

Examples of incidents attributed to the ISKP included attacks leading to high number of casualties, such as the attack at Kabul airport on 26 August 2021, resulting in 141-175 civilian fatalities and the suicide blast and gunfire at Kabul’s main military hospital on 2 November 2021, resulting in at least 25 deaths and dozen more injuries. Attacks targeting Shia mosques and Taliban security forces were also reported. ISKP also claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on a Sunni Mosque targeting Taliban leadership resulting in civilian casualties in October 2021, and an open fire attack on a Sikh Gurdwara half an hour before morning prayer time in mid-June 2022.

Battles between NRF and military and police Taliban forces, as well as NRF explosions/remote violence involving Taliban forces were reported.

The attacks by unknown perpetrators included bomb explosions or the throwing of grenades. Some of the attacks by unknown armed groups targeted mosques and Shia and/or Hazara neighbourhoods. On 29 April 2022, an explosion at the Khalifa Sahib Mosque frequented by Sufi worshippers on the last Friday of the Islamic month of Ramadan, resulted in 50 fatalities according to ACLED or in 66 civilian deaths according to UCDP. There were reports on targeting Hazara Shia community in western Kabul City, including bomb blasts into a High School and an Education center reportedly caused by IEDs, targeting civilian passenger vehicles, and reports on three attacks mainly targeting the Taliban, but also resulting in civilian casualties.

There were also reports on targeted violence by Taliban forces soon after the takeover, including revenge attacks, large-scale house-to-house raids of Taliban fighters looking for interpreters, foreign troops, embassy personnel, former government authorities, humanitarian workers, people holding a US special immigrant visa. On 19 January 2022, Taliban forces in Kabul reportedly carried out raids in houses of several women’s rights activists who had participated in demonstrations, some of whom were detained or became victims of enforced disappearance. Incidents of violence against journalists by unidentified armed groups were also reported.

Security concerns in Kabul City also include a rise in criminality, including gang robbing on a regular basis, extortion either directly or indirectly through Taliban fighters, abductions/forced disappearances, and kidnappings that occur on a daily basis.

The attack on Kabul airport resulted in serious damages ‘crucial for bringing in humanitarian supplies and for enabling post-airlift departures for Afghans vulnerable to Taliban reprisals’. In the beginning of September 2021, the airport reportedly reopened for domestic flights and the reception of international aid. During the reference period, attacks targeted schools and mosques in Kabul City.

115 persons were displaced due to conflict from Kabul District to Herat Province in August and September 2021. No displacement has been registered from January to the beginning of May 2022. According to IOM, out of a total of 93 631 IDPs arriving in Kabul Province since August 2021, 74 169 IDPs reached Kabul District. Kabul District was identified as the district with the highest number of IDPs who had fled the province, amounting to 9 987 persons who had left the district since August 2021.