...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
fighters in a district heavily populated by minority Hazara
...a grouping of Dari-speaking people of Sino-Tibetan descent inhabiting Afghanistan and Pakistain. They are predominantly Shia Moslems and not particularly warlike, which makes them favored targets...s, that has raised fears of ethnic and sectarian violence.
The flare up in fighting in Afghanistan's restive southeast comes as the resurgent Taliban ratchet up attacks against Afghan cops, which are suffering record-high casualties.
Heavy fighting
... as opposed to the more usual name-calling or slapsy...
in the Jaghori district of Ghazni province has been ongoing since the Taliban launched a pre-dawn attack on two checkpoints manned by local pro-government forces on Wednesday.
"The Taliban fighters have burned civilian houses, but we don't have precise information about the number of dead and maimed," provincial deputy police chief Ramazan Ali Mohsini told AFP.
Most Hazaras belong to the Shiite branch of Islam. The Taliban, which are Sunni and largely ethnic Pashtuns, have been accused of committing human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal
liberty...
violations against the group during their oppressive 1996-2001 rule.
Members of Afghanistan's elite special forces flew into the Jaghori district centre on Thursday and were "on their way to the frontline", President Ashraf Ghani
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. ..'s deputy front man said on Facebook.