More than 100 former Afghan security forces have been killed by the Taliban or have disappeared since the militants seized control, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch.

A Taliban spokesman recently denied any revenge killings were taking place.

The group seized control of Afghanistan in August as the US withdrew its last troops after 20 years of war, deposing the government of Ashraf Ghani.

The Taliban assured former government staff that they would be safe under a general amnesty towards those who had worked for the police, army, or other branches of the state.

The Islamic State (IS) attacked Kurdistan Region security forces in northern Iraq again today.

The assault occurred north of Kifri in the Diyala province. There were casualties among the Kurdistan Region’s peshmerga forces, the Erbil-based news outlet Kurdistan 24 reported.

The attack was the third in as many days by IS against the peshmerga, who are the official military force of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)

IRAN is forcing thousands of gay people to undergo gender reassignment surgeries in a sick bid to “cleanse” the country of homosexuality.

The Islamic Republic legalised transsexuality in 1987 and is second only to Thailand in its number of trans surgeries.

The Iranian government believes that if you are a gay man your soul is that of a woman and you should change your body.

Reuters reported this week: “The United Nations on Monday pushed for urgent action to prop up Afghanistan’s banks, warning that a spike in people unable to repay loans, lower deposits and a cash liquidity crunch could cause the financial system to collapse within months.”

Despite the fact that the West…

In a report presented at the University of Michigan last Wednesday, “The epidemic of birth defects in Iraq and the duty of public health researchers,” Dr. Muhsin Al Sabbak, a gynecologist from Basra Maternity Hospital, and Dr. …

Omar Radi, an investigative journalist in Morocco, was denied a fair trial and sentenced to six years in prison on espionage and rape charges, Human Rights Watch said today, after an extensive review of the case. An appeals session in his case is scheduled for November 25, 2021.

Radi, an award-winning investigative reporter and human rights activist, has published articles about land grabs by speculators and broke the so-called “servants of the State” corruption scandal, which exposed about 100 people, including high-level officials, who allegedly acquired state land at a fraction of market value. In a talk show in 2018, Radi lambasted a top security official by name and said that the Interior Ministry had harbored Morocco’s “biggest corruption scheme ever” and “should be dissolved.”

Germany and France have become the latest countries to advise their citizens to leave Ethiopia, amid an escalation in the country’s civil war.

The US and UK have also recently issued advisories, and the UN has begun what it describes as a temporary relocation of some staff.

Reports from the front line are hard to verify but the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) says its fighters are in control of a town just over 200km from Addis Ababa.

The Ethiopian government has previously denied reports of rebel advances.

The African Union is leading efforts to find a negotiated end to the fighting, but neither side has committed to talks.

Ankara has slammed the top Greek diplomat’s provocative statements against Turkey at a four-way summit that included French, Egyptian and Greek Cypriot colleagues.

“We call on Greece — which, on the one the one hand, calls for dialogue but, on the other, makes hostile and provocative statements against Turkey — for common sense, honesty and sincerity,” Tanju Bilgic, the spokesman of the Foreign Ministry said.