Thousands turn out in Kabul to cheer on Afghanistan's traditional buzkashi equestrian games

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Through the dust kicked up by the pounding hooves of a scrum of horses and riders, a winner emerges. The victorious team gallops around the playing field, holding a flag aloft.

The final of Afghanistan’s hugely popular annual tournament of buzkashi, a traditional equestrian sport with few formal rules that is known for its often violent scrums, was played Monday.

Traditionally, riders from two opposing teams would compete to score goals using a goat carcass as a ball. A fake carcass is now used, made of leather and rope and stuffed with straw and weights to simulate the size and weight of a dead animal.

The players — 12 riders on each team — hang out of the saddle at impossible angles, swooping down to grab the fake carcass and gallop ahead of the rest of the riders toward the goal.

The game was banned during the Taliban’s first rule of Afghanistan in the late 1990s but reemerged after their ouster, and they have allowed it to continue since seizing power again in 2021, with government officials attending the matches.

Monday’s final, in which the northern province of Sar-e-Pul crushed the northeastern province of Badakhshan 7-0, was the 11th day of the national league tournament. The province of Baghlan came third and Kunduz fourth out of the 11 teams that participated.

Eight foreign players from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan also joined the teams, said Atal Mashwani, the spokesman of Afghanistan’s General Directorate of Physical Education and Sports.

A corporate sponsor — a gasoline company — ensures funding for the tournament, and there is a prize of a car for each of the first four teams, as well as cups, medals and certificates.

The tournament is wildly popular, with thousands of men and boys packing the spectator stands in the playing field in central Kabul. Some scrambled up trees or electricity pylons for a better view.

Restrictions placed on women and girls in Afghanistan mean they are not allowed to attend as spectators — although in the country’s conservative society, women attending such matches was frowned upon even when there were no formal restrictions on their movements.

Afghan men cheer as they attend the final of Afghanistan's annual buzkashi tournament, a traditional equestrian sport in which riders compete to score points using a fake goat carcass, on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025. (AP Photo)

Riders from the Sar-e-Pul and Badakhshan teams enter the field to compete in the final of Afghanistan's annual buzkashi tournament, a traditional equestrian sport in which riders score points using a fake goat carcass, on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025. (AP Photo)

Taliban authorities attend the final match of Afghanistan's annual buzkashi tournament, a traditional equestrian sport in which riders compete to score points using a fake goat carcass, on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025. (AP Photo)

Riders from the Sar-e-Pul and Badakhshan teams compete in the final of Afghanistan's annual buzkashi tournament, a traditional equestrian sport in which riders score points using a fake goat carcass, on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025. (AP Photo)

Riders from the Sar-e-Pul and Badakhshan teams compete in the final of Afghanistan's annual buzkashi tournament, a traditional equestrian sport in which riders score points using a fake goat carcass, on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025. (AP Photo)

JERUSALEM (AP) — A former close aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that immediately following the October 2023 Hamas attack that triggered Israel’s two-year war in Gaza, the Israeli leader instructed him to figure out how the premier could evade responsibility for the security breach.

Former Netanyahu spokesperson Eli Feldstein, who faces trial for allegedly leaking classified information to the press, made the explosive accusation during an extensive interview with Israel’s Kan news channel Monday night.

Critics have repeatedly accused Netanyahu of refusing to accept blame for the deadliest attack in Israel’s history. But little is known about Netanyahu’s behavior in the days immediately following the attack, while the premier has consistently resisted an independent state inquiry.

Speaking to Kan, Feldstein said “the first task” he received from Netanyahu after Oct. 7, 2023, was to stifle calls for accountability.

“He asked me, ‘What are they talking about in the news? Are they still talking about responsibility?’” Feldstein said. “He wanted me to think of something that could be said that would offset the media storm surrounding the question of whether the prime minister had taken responsibility or not.”

He added that Netanyahu looked “panicked” when he made the request. Feldstein said he was later told by people in Netanyahu's close circle to omit the word “responsibility” from all statements.

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 251 hostages back to Gaza. Israel then launched a devastating war in Gaza that has killed nearly 71,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants but says around half the deaths were women and children.

Netanyahu’s office called the interview a “long series of mendacious and recycled allegations made by a man with clear personal interests who is trying to deflect responsibility from himself,” Hebrew media reported.

Feldstein’s statements come after his indictment in a case where he is accused of leaking classified military information to a German tabloid to improve public perception of the prime minister following the killing of six hostages in Gaza in August of last year.

Feldstein is also a suspect in the “Qatargate” scandal, one of two close aides to Netanyahu accused of accepting money from Qatar while also working for the prime minister.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a joint press conference after a trilateral meeting with Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the Citadel of David Hotel in Jerusalem, Monday Dec. 22, 2025. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP)