Taliban Kills Kabul Airport Bombing Suspect

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the Taliban’s killing of an Islamic State head, China-Ukraine first talks, and an abduction in Nigeria.

On Tuesday, the White House announced that the Taliban had killed the leader of the Islamic State-Khorasan cell responsible for the August 2021 bombing of Kabul’s airport, which killed 13 U.S. service members and some 170 Afghan civilians. U.S. officials said the death likely occurred in early April. The Islamic State leader’s identity has not been released to the public, and it’s unclear whether the leader was targeted specifically or killed during ongoing Taliban-Islamic State clashes.

The airport bombing became a symbol of the United States’ disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan amid the Taliban’s swift takeover. While news of the Islamic State leader’s death is comforting to some victims’ families, frustration over U.S. President Joe Biden’s handling of the withdrawal continues. Just last week, the U.S. House of Representatives conducted the first part of an investigation into the administration’s failures. “[T]he only thing that has been ‘decimated’ in Afghanistan, to borrow Biden’s preferred term, is everything that U.S. service members sacrificed to build,” U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe argued in Foreign Policy last August, calling the withdrawal “disastrous and deadly.”

The Taliban claim to be working to eradicate terrorist groups, including the Islamic State-Khorasan, from Afghanistan. However, FP columnist Lynne O’Donnell argued this month that the Taliban’s counterterrorism efforts are largely a cover for eradicating their enemies, including former security service personnel, while terrorist groups gain power. Meanwhile, Afghans continue to suffer from a debilitating humanitarian situation exacerbated by the Taliban’s rule. According to a new United Nations estimate, Kabul requires $4.62 billion in humanitarian aid from the international community this year to properly assist its nearly 24 million people in need. Women specifically have been targeted by the Taliban regime, subject to gender-based violence and restricted from accessing education, health care, and employment.

• A BRICS Currency Could Shake the Dollar’s Dominance by Joseph W. Sullivan

• America Has Dictated Its Economic Peace Terms to China by Adam Tooze

• Taiwan Isn’t Playing Dollar Diplomacy Anymore by Rocio Fabbro and Robbie Gramer

Dial up. Beijing is finally picking up the phone. On Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky held their first phone call since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Foreign ministry officials from both governments stated that they hope the conversation helps develop stronger bilateral ties. Until now, Beijing has refused to condemn Moscow’s invasion; Russia is China’s most important diplomatic partner, and the two countries often vote in lockstep in the U.N. Security Council, where they are both permanent members with veto power.

Xi has repeatedly stated that he plans to help negotiate a peace deal between the warring nations. In February, Beijing released a 12-point proposal for ending the war, one that Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva endorsed during his April visit to China. But Xi’s road map to peace has ulterior motives, China expert Jo Inge Bekkevold argued in Foreign Policy. “Beijing had nothing to lose by forwarding a rather vague proposal on Ukraine,” he wrote. “On the contrary, it enables Beijing to tap into the disconnect between the West and the global south about the war.”

Abductions in Nigeria. Gunmen kidnapped at least 29 residents of Nigeria’s Yewuti village on Tuesday evening, including multiple children. The residents were targeted in their homes, on a nearby playground, and while attending a local ceremony. The village is about 60 miles from Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, and hours passed before police arrived to search for the victims.

The West African nation has faced violent attacks from armed jihadi groups in recent years, coupled with a tumultuous political situation just now inching toward stabilization. In February, former Lagos State Gov. Bola Tinubu won the presidency in a controversial vote that opposition candidates Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar have called a rigged election. Now, some experts fear Nigeria is facing democratic backsliding.

Sanctions-busting. The U.S. Justice Department is out to collect. British American Tobacco (BAT) and its subsidiary BAT Marketing Singapore were fined more than $629 million by the Justice Department for violating U.S. sanctions on North Korea by using a third-party firm in Singapore to conduct illicit business with Pyongyang. This is the largest penalty issued in the department’s history.

“This illegal conduct and the levied penalties show how serious of an offense it is to assist the North Korean regime,” said Suzanne Turner, the assistant director of the FBI Counterintelligence Division. “To those contemplating similar actions, be forewarned: The full force of the FBI and its federal law enforcement partners will find you.”

Former British Home Secretary Priti Patel unveiled a memorial bench last Friday in honor of four swans killed in January. Police believe the swans were killed with malicious intent by metal ball bearings launched from catapults. “The four mute swans were very much loved by local people, and I am pleased that we have been able to find such a fitting way to commemorate their lives,” Patel said.