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| Afghanistan |
| Iran Setting Up Shia Militia in Afghanistan |
| 2021-08-07 |
| [StrategyPage] August 6, 2021: Iranian media reports that Iran is establishing explicitly Iran-backed Shia militias in western Afghanistan. Iran wants to protect the Shia minority (about 20 percent of Afghans) from the expanding reach of the Taliban. In the late 1990s the Taliban went after Afghan Shia in a big way and the victims have not forgotten. The new militias are composed of combat experienced Afghan Shia who served as Iranian mercenaries and survived combat in Syria... |
| Posted by:Lord Garth |
| #4 The CIA World Factbook reports their estimates here. Out of Afghanistan’s national population of 37,466,414 as of last month, Hazeras are listed as third among ethnic groups, in non-alphabetical order. Afghan Persian is spoken by 78% of the multilingual Afghan population, being a lingua franca despite only 10-15% of the population being Shiite. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2021-08-07 10:19 |
| #3 According to Wikipedia, which might be right, The Hazaras are a Persian-speaking ethnic group native to, and primarily residing in, the mountainous region of Hazarajat, in central Afghanistan. They are the third largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, and are also a significant minority group in neighboring Pakistan, where there is a population of between 650,000 and 900,000, mostly in Quetta. Wikipedia estimates the world population as more than eight million, half of which is in Afghanistan. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2021-08-07 10:04 |
| #2 The estimate of twenty percent Shia is high. Most official reports give it as 10%. |
| Posted by: Gerthudion Whomoper3485 2021-08-07 08:25 |
| #1 let them eat each other, who really gives a shit |
| Posted by: Chris 2021-08-07 00:24 |