New base: London

March 23, 2020

After 10 years in Afghanistan, Ukraine and Russia, I have moved to London where I’ll be based for the foreseeable future.

Long after the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the Taliban's founder, Mullah Omar, was long believed to have fled the country. But in 2019 @bettedam29 discovered that he had never left, and instead lived in Zabul province, even close to US military bases until his death in 2013. With Bette and @margheritamvs , I traveled to the two houses where he lived, in hiding. Picture 1) The Mullah Omar mosque in Kandahar. Construction started when he was the Taliban leader in the 1990s. 2) Cloth patches with Mullah Omar and the current Taliban leader sold in Kandahar. 3) & 4) Men in the mosque in Hajji Ibrahim in Kandahar where Mullah Omar led prayer before becoming the Taliban leader. 5) 30-year-old Shafiullah from Marjah, Helmand, lies in Kandahar’s so-called Arab cemetery, where Al Qaeda fighters are believed to have been buried. Some locals believe visiting the cemetery can bring miracles. 6) The local mullah stands outside the house where Mullah Mohammad Omar lived in Ghoara, Zabul, after the US and NATO invasion of 2001. 7) The shelf that led to his secret room. US forces visited the house several times but didn't find Mullah Omar. 8) Mohammed Asrar stands with 3 of his children in the room where Mullah Omar lived after the US and NATO invasion of 2001. He was a boy when his late brother sheltered the Taliban leader there. 9) Girls stand in the village of Omarzo next to the house where Mullah Omar spent the last years of his life. A small sign pinned to the side of the house (left) warns off the curious, saying that “pilgrimages to the house of Supreme Leader Mullah Mohammad Omar are strictly banned until further notice, even if you are a dignitary.” 10) Men sell mangos, fruit juice and other street food on the main roundabout of Qalat, the capital of Zabul province. #afghanistan For The @wsj

Earlier this month was the last time for now where Afghan parents, together, could take their children to ride carousels in Afghan parks. For the first day of Ramadan the Taliban announced gender segregation for amusement parks as part of a range of recently introduced social restrictions. Link to @suneengel ‘s story for the @wsj in bio. #afghanistan

Yesterday, at a press conference, the Taliban announced (pics 5 & 6) they are banning the cultivation of poppy in Afghanistan, just as they did 22 years ago. It remains to be seen if this will be enforced. According to the ministry of health, almost 3 million Afghans use the drug regularly, but the government has limited capacity to treat people. The largest treatment centre in Kabul has 1000 beds and is housed in the former ISAF-base camp Phoenix on Jalalabad Road (pics 1-4). Many still gather near the infamous Pul-e Sokhta bridge to use drugs (pics 7-10). Twenty-two-year-old Sayed (sitting with a dog) left for Germany in 2014 but developed depression there and started abusing drugs. He has been jailed four times. After his last incarceration, of 11 months, he was deported back to Afghanistan in 2020 and has been using drugs under the bridge since. Another man I encountered there spoke Dutch after living in Holland for 3 years. Follow the link in bio for @suneengel ‘s story for the @wsj #Afghanistan

Sadly there are other conflicts that also deserve our attention, like Yemen. This war hasn’t eased up since it began in the wake of the Arab Spring, and today it is one of the worst humanitarian crises on earth. @dion.nissenbaum and I traveled for the @wsj to Marib, one of the Saudi-backed Yemeni government’s last remaining sanctuaries in the north of the country. On the front line, while taking a break from returning fire to a nearby Houthi position, Fouad said: “Either we win, or we die trying.” (First picture). Please read our full story via the link in bio. With @whalenpj #yemen