A community gathering in Afghanistan\u2019s Logar Province has awarded U.S. President Donald Trump a \u201cbravery\u201d medal, thanking him for his tough stance against Pakistan.<\/p>\n
Said Farhad Akbari, a community leader in the province, told RFE\/RL\u2019s Radio Free Afghanistan on January 14 that more than 300 people at an informal \u201cjirga,\u201d or council, of concerned citizens, agreed to award the medal to the U.S. president.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a handmade medal from available gold,\u201d Akbari said.<\/p>\n
He said the handwritten message on the award states: \u201cThis Bravery Medal is from the Afghan people to Donald Trump, president of the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n
Akbari said the cost of the medal was about 45,000 afghanis ($645), considered a large sum for many in the region, about 60 kilometers outside of the capital, Kabul.<\/p>\n
He said those supporting the award paid from their own funds and that he personally presented the medal to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul on January 13.<\/p>\n
Akbari, who said he fought against Taliban extremists in southeastern Logar Province in recent years, now is head of the Saadat tribe in the region and operates a construction company.<\/p>\n
Akbari told RFE\/RL that members of the community have \u201cwaited 16 years\u201d for someone in the U.S. administration to make comments of the sort that Trump has made in recent weeks concerning Pakistan.<\/p>\n
The government in Kabul has long accused Pakistan of backing and sheltering militants who carry out attacks on their soil. Islamabad denies the allegations.<\/p>\n
Trump and other U.S. officials have also accused Pakistan of providing a safe haven for the insurgents, who often attack Afghan government, civilian, and religious sites, along with U.S. coalition forces.<\/p>\n
In a Twitter posting on New Year\u2019s Day, Trump accused Islamabad of taking $33 billion in aid over the past 15 years while offering back “nothing but lies & deceit.”<\/p>\n
The White House later announced it was suspending some $2 billion in assistance to Pakistan\u2019s military until it did more to fight terrorism.<\/p>\n
Pakistan military chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa on January 12 said his entire nation feels \u201cbetrayed over U.S. recent statements despite decades of cooperation.”<\/p>\n
The United States has been in Afghanistan since 2001, when it led an invasion to drive the Taliban from power after it said the group’s leaders were sheltering Al-Qaeda militants responsible for the September 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States.<\/p>\n
U.S. forces have remained as part of a NATO-led coalition ever since, although active combat operations were turned over to Afghan forces in 2014, and international troop levels have fallen from a peak of more than 100,000 to about 16,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A community gathering in Afghanistan\u2019s Logar Province has awarded U.S. President Donald Trump a \u201cbravery\u201d medal, thanking him<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[318],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-2"],"yoast_head":"\n