Afghanistan News January 26, 2006

January 26, 2006

Militants kill two Afghan soldiers, tanker blown up
KABUL (AFP) - Suspected Taliban fighters ambushed an army post in southeastern Afghanistan and killed two local soldiers, while a bomb destroyed a tanker supplying fuel to US-led troops, defence officials said.

The army post was attacked late Tuesday in troubled Paktika province. The army blamed "the enemies of Afghanistan", a term commonly used to refer to guerrillas from the Taliban regime which was ousted four years ago.

"Two soldiers were martyred and two were wounded. We have no information of casualties on the enemy side," said General Akram Sami, commander of the army's southeastern corps.

In the volatile southern province of Kandahar -- a focus for attacks blamed on the Taliban -- a bomb attached to a fuel tanker supplying the main base for US-led coalition troops caused the vehicle to explode near the provincial capital on Wednesday, a defence ministry spokesman said. No one was hurt.

Another bomb was discovered and defused on a second tanker just outside Kandahar city, General Mohammad Zahir Azimi said on Thursday.

"The owners of both tankers have been arrested and handed over to police," he said.

In another incident on Wednesday six mortars were fired at an Afghan army base in neighbouring Uruzgan province but caused no casualties, Azimi said.

Security forces in the usually calm western province of Herat discovered and defused 10 rockets rigged up to be fired at the main provincial airport the same day.

Four Pakistani nationals were meanwhile arrested Wednesday at an Afghan army checkpoint in Kandahar, adjoining Pakistan, for lacking travel documents and were handed over to police, Azimi said.

There are allegations that Pakistanis are involved in a growing insurgency by militants linked to the Taliban, who were ousted after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States for not surrending Osama bin Laden.

Since the fall of the extremist regime there have been about 20,000 US-led troops based mainly in the insurgency-hit south and east of Afghanistan to hunt down Taliban militants and their allies.

Two US troops wounded in Afghan blast
KABUL (Reuters) - Two American servicmen were wounded when their vehicle was hit by a bomb blast while on patrol in a restive eastern province of Afghanistan, the U.S. military said on Thursday.

The U.S patrol came under rocket-propelled grenade and mortar fire after the blast on a road in Kunar province on Wednesday, and they called in Apache helicopters and A-10 aircraft for support, the military said in a statement.

The wounded men were evacuated to a nearby base.

"Afghan and coalition forces will continue aggressive combat patrols in the area, denying the enemy sanctuary and extending the reach of Afghanistan's elected government," the U.S. military said.

Kunar is one of the southern and eastern provinces where Taliban fighters and their Islamist allies have been most active.

An American and an Afghan soldier were killed by a roadside bomb there in late December.

Last June, an MH-47 -- a special forces version of the CH-47 Chinook helicopter -- was shot down during a combat mission in Kunar, killing all 16 U.S. troops on board.

It was the worst loss U.S. forces have suffered in a single day since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001.

A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the Wednesday blast and said Taliban fighters had also attacked U.S. military convoys in Uruzgan and Kandahar provinces.

A U.S military spokesman said he had no information about any attacks in the central province of Uruzgan or in Kandahar in the south.

About 20,000 U.S.-led troops, most of them Americans, are involved in counter-insurgency operations in southern and eastern Afghanistan, while there are close to 10,000 NATO-led peacekeepers stationed in other parts of the country.

A U.S. missile attack killed 18 civilians and four al Qaeda members in a Pakistani town opposite Kunar on January 13, sparking angry anti-U.S. protests across Afghanistan's eastern neighbor.

Afghan President Attends World Economic Forum
Thursday January 26, 11:52 AM
KABUL, Jan 26 Asia Pulse - Afghan President Hamid Karzai left Kabul Wednesday afternoon for Davos, the capital of Switzerland, to participate in an annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

President Karzai and other Afghan officials accompanying him would later fly to Denmark and then to the United Kingdom.

The WEF is held annually in Davos, where world leaders and representatives of world companies discuss different political, economical and social issues.

According to the presidential statement, Karzai would meet German Prime Minister Angela Merkel, his Pakistani counterpart General Pervez Musharaf, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, Mark Adams executive director of the World Economic Forum and officials of many world business companies.

President Karzai would take part in another conference entitled US Democracy and Freedom Agenda to be held in Zurich on the 28th of January, the statement added.

After the four-day Swiss visit, Hamid Karzai would leave for Denmark.

Following discussions with high officials in Switzerland and Denmark, the Afghan president would leave for the UK on 29th January to take part in the London Conference.

The two day London Conference would be held on January 31st and February 1st, where over 70 leaders and representatives of world non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are continuing the reconstruction process in Afghanistan.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah Afghan president Hamid Karzai is accompanied by his Security Advisor Dr Zalmy Rasool, Finance Minister Anwarul-Haq Ahadi, President's Advisor on International Affairs Dr Rangin Dadfar Spanta, Javeed Lodin and Wali Munawar audit head of the president's house.
(Pajhwok Afghan News)

No end in sight to Afghanistan's years of violence
By Mirwais Afghan Thu Jan 26, 12:29 AM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The violence that has blighted     Afghanistan for so many long years has shattered baker Abdul Sallam's life.

Sallam's 33-year-old son was killed in a suicide bomb attack in the southern city of Kandahar last week.

"He was the only one working at the bakery to support the family but now he's dead. I don't know what to do," the old man said while visiting his son's grave.

Sallam's son was standing outside his bakery when a suicide bomber attacked a Canadian military convoy on Jan 15.

He and another bystander were killed. A senior Canadian diplomat was also killed and three Canadian soldiers were seriously wounded. Suicide bombers killed 26 people in two attacks the next day.

Afghanistan has not seen the extremes violence that     Iraq has had to endure but parts of the south and east are still plagued by bloodshed, more than four years after U.S. forces invaded to drive the Taliban from power.

Security will be a central issue at an international conference on Afghanistan in London on Jan 31-February 1.

Afghanistan is seeking a firm commitment of international military help until its fledgling security forces can do the job.

Spreading fear and anger, the Taliban and their militant allies have begun copying the tactics of insurgents in Iraq, unleashing a wave of suicide bombings -- 13 since November.

"When we go to the market our families worry about us. We don't know if we'll get home alive," said Kandahar resident Gulali.

Attacks by militants surged last Spring, along with major clashes with U.S. and Afghan government forces.

About 1,500 people were killed in violence last year, most of them insurgents but including about 60 U.S. troops. But the violence, largely confined to the south and east, did not disrupt landmark legislative elections in September.

Unable to defeat the security forces, the militants are increasingly turning to bomb attacks on military and civilian targets, the U.S. military says.

"VERY DISTURBING"
"When you have teachers being beheaded and schools being closed in parts of the country, when you have suicide bombers killing Afghan civilians and Canadian diplomats, that is a very disturbing trend," said Richard Norland, deputy chief of the U.S. embassy in Kabul.

"What we need to do collectively is work toward some solutions to try to contain these tactics," he said.

Many angry Afghans, including the governor of Kandahar province, have accused Pakistan of involvement in the bombings. Pakistan, which is battling militants on its side of the border, denies the accusations.

The latest wave of violence comes as the United States hopes to cut its troop numbers to 16,000, from more than 18,000, with     NATO due to fill the gap by increasing its peacekeeping force to 15,000 from 9,000.

British, Dutch and Canadian NATO troops are due to lead an expansion into the south but the plan has been thrown into question by Dutch doubts about sending 1,200 soldiers to a region far more dangerous than the areas NATO now operates in.

The stubborn insurgency, which President Hamid Karzai says is fueled by drug money, is disastrous for efforts to attract investment. It also disrupts development work. About 30 aid workers, most of them Afghans, were killed last year.

"There are no areas where no NGOs are going but there are vast areas where very few NGOs are going," Anja de Beer, director of an agency coordinating non-governmental organizations (NGOs), said of the south.

Some Afghans say the violence will continue as long as foreign forces remain but most say only international troops can secure peace.

"We need coalition forces because we don't have a strong, self-sufficient army and police," said Kandahar resident Saifullah.

Commission Formed to Plan Afghan Reconstruction Projects
Thursday January 26, 9:22 AM
KANDAHAR CITY, Jan 26 Asia Pulse - The Afghan Ministry of Economy has opened a new department in the southern province of Kandahar to plan reconstruction projects and coordinate donors.

Planning Manager Haji Mohammad Rahim Rahimi told Pajhwok Afghan News, the new office, called the Provincial Development Commission, was opened on Wednesday on a special recommendation from President Hamid Karzai.

"The Provincial Development Commission will prepare plans for all projects, which will be launched after getting approval from the ministry," said Rahimi.

The commission would also point out which projects should be given priority.

It is pertinent to mention here that the erstwhile planning ministry was merged into the Ministry of Economy after completion of the transitional rule of President Hamid Karzai in December 2004.
(Pajhwok Afghan News)

81 political parties registered in Afghanistan
www.chinaview.cn 2006-01-26 15:13:56
KABUL, Jan. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- With the collapse of hardliner Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the mushroom growth of free media and political parties got momentum as over 80 political groups have come into being in the post-conflict country, a local newspaper said Thursday.

So far, 81 political groups and parties with different manifesto have been formed and registered with the Justice Ministry, daily Cheragh reported quoting Abdul Ghias Alyasi, an official of the Ministry.

Islamic principals or western democracy had inspired the manifestation of majority of these groups.

However, Alyasi added that the Justice Ministry had refused to register those parties linked with armed groups or those owning private militias.

Since the collapse of Taliban fundamentalist regime by a U.S.-led military in late 2001, around 100 political outfits and over 270 newspapers, magazines and four private televisions have been established in the war-shattered nation.

The former radical regime, besides banning television and closing down girls' schools, also outlawed political forces during its six-year reign in the country.

Finnish peacekeepers fired upon in Afghanistan
Newsroom Finland, Finland 25.1.2006 at 16:03
Finnish peacekeepers were fired upon in Afghanistan on Wednesday.

According to information received by the Finnish defence administration, the seven-man patrol is unhurt.

The event occurred north of Maimana in the Kunda Sang region at around noon local time.

The Finns were conducting a joint mission with a platoon of the Afghanistan National Army (ANA) when an estimated 10-15 unidentified people attacked them. The ANA platoon included three US instructors.

The 27 Finnish peacekeepers in the region and other Finnish peacekeepers in Afghanistan are to continue operations as normal, the statement added.

The Finns form part of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf).

Pakistan PM Discussed Airstrike With Bush
Washington (AFP) - Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Tuesday he expressed concerns to President Bush about a deadly U.S. missile attack that has increased tensions between the two countries.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Aziz said he and Bush agreed that better communication between the allies was necessary, though they didn't agree on specifics.

"We leave it to our officials," he said, adding that representatives of the United States, Afghanistan and Pakistan would meet to discuss the attack in the next few days. "That's the appropriate forum to discuss those issues."

Aziz said that at their nearly two-hour meeting the leaders agreed they should improve their coordination "because our objectives are common ... to fight terrorism and build a peaceful environment around us."

Earlier Tuesday, Bush said the United States and Pakistan are working closely to defeat terrorism, but he did not comment on the Jan. 13 American airstrikes near the Pakistani-Afghan border.

Bush met in the Oval Office with Aziz, a visit that comes as many in the Islamic nation are criticizing the U.S. for a Jan. 13 airstrike that was aimed at an al-Qaida leader but instead killed at least 13 civilians, including women and children.

"The relationship with Pakistan is a vital relationship for the United States," Bush said. "I want to thank the prime minister and thank the president for working closely with us on a variety of issues. We're working closely to defeat the terrorists that would likely to harm America and harm Pakistan."

Bush announced that he would visit Pakistan and India in March. Bush has not said anything about the missile strike in a remote area near the Afghan border, which the Americans say was aimed at Osama bin Laden's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri.

He did not take questions when appearing before reporters at the end of their private meeting and ignored shouted inquiries about whether they had discussed the attack.

As he was leaving the White House, Aziz also would not talk about their discussions on the airstrike. All he would say is that they discussed every issue between the two countries.

Aziz thanked Bush for assistance that the United States gave to Pakistan after October's earthquake that killed over 80,000 people. He said the area around Pakistan has a lot of challenges, and the country is pursuing peace with its neighbors. "We want to see a strong stable Afghanistan," he said.

Aziz has condemned the strike near the Afghan-Pakistani border, saying the United States failed to notify Islamabad beforehand. But during a speech Monday at the Heritage Foundation, Aziz played down deteriorating relations, calling America "our friend and ally."

"Whenever our relations have declined, both countries have paid a price," he told an audience at the conservative think tank. "The stability of the region demands a ... constructive, long-term relationship between our two countries."

The missile strike has infuriated many Pakistanis. It appears to have stoked support in some areas for the al-Qaida terror group, the leaders of which, including bin Laden, are thought to be hunkered down along the Pakistani-Afghan frontier.

Although the attack failed to get al-Zawahri, Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Tuesday there were indications that al-Qaida members were killed. Bin Laden issued a new threat of attacks in the United States in a videotaped message released last week.

Analysts have said the airstrike also undermined the goodwill cultivated in Pakistan by U.S. relief in the wake of October's earthquake that killed over 80,000 people. Anti-American rallies in Pakistan are entering their second week.

Two awarded Soldier’s Medals for rescuing Afghan men
Army Times - Jan 25 8:34 AM
FORT EUSTIS, Va. — Two Fort Eustis soldiers who rescued a group of Afghan men from a burning building have received Soldier’s Medals — one of the highest recognitions a soldier can receive for heroism outside combat.

Army Specialists Aaron Wittrock and Andrew Roe received the honors Tuesday for their actions at the Kandahar airport in April 2005.

Authorities said the men were completing a training exercise when they saw flames burst from a nearby building.

The men — at least one carrying a loaded weapon — ran inside the burning building and pulled six local men out to safety. Officials later determined the fire had been started by a blowtorch on the roof where repairs were being made.

Roe, 20, a native of Newkirk, Okla., and Wittrock, 22, from Savage, Minn., were overseas on a yearlong deployment set to end in December.

Tuesday, the effort earned the men golden medallions accented with red, white and blue ribbon. It also got them a pat on the back from Brig. Gen. Mark Scheid, Fort Eustis’ commanding officer. He reminded the men of the importance of the award.

“Put that thing in a prominent place,” he said. “They aren’t given freely.”

AFGHANISTAN: POLICE TRIAL NEW FAMILY UNIT
Kabul, 26 Jan. (AKI) - A new family centre has opened in Kabul to help Afghan police counter growing violence against women and children, with the help of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The agency has given the Afghan National Police a fully furnished container office to run the Family Response Unit. The first of its kind in Afghanistan, the unit is attached to Kabul’s District 10 police station and seeks to allow the most vulnerable citizens to receive the confidentiality they need when reporting crimes.

The unit is staffed by Afghan policewomen and organised so complainants can enter without having to pass by the policemen at the station’s entrance.

The Afghan policewomen – who will deal with violence against women, family violence, children in trouble and kidnappings - received training from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

“Traditional thinking dictates that most women, children and other vulnerable groups within the family accept physical and emotional violence as a normal part of life,” said David Saunders, UNFPA Representative in Afghanistan. “It is not normal. It is a matter of power and a lack of accountability. This Family Response Unit should become a symbol of hope in the community.”

Attacks Strain Efforts On Terror
By Griff Witte and Kamran Khan - Washington Post, January 23, 2006
KABUL, Afghanistan, Jan. 22 -- Events along the ever-volatile Afghanistan-Pakistan border this month have exposed deep fault lines in the anti-terrorism alliance among the United States, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and officials on all sides say their joint efforts against militants in the region are now highly precarious.

The heightened tension comes as militant extremists and the United States have both become more aggressive in their tactics, with the Pakistani government caught in between. Two incidents in particular, which each killed more than a dozen people, have revealed just how tenuous relations among the countries have become.

In the first, U.S. missiles struck a house in the Pakistani village of Damadola where Ayman Zawahiri, the deputy leader of al Qaeda, was thought to be having dinner. In the second, three days later in the Afghan town of Spin Boldak, a man drove a motorbike into a crowd gathered to watch a wrestling match and blew himself up.

Because the incidents took place on opposite sides of the border, they elicited responses with vastly different focuses. After the U.S. missile strike, thousands of Pakistanis took to the streets to condemn the United States. After the suicide bombing, thousands of Afghans took to the streets to condemn Pakistan.

The United States -- long frustrated because its soldiers are in Afghanistan while most of the militants they are hunting are believed to be in Pakistan -- has begun using unmanned aircraft known as Predators armed with Hellfire missiles to reach across the border.

Pakistani officials are apparently notified in advance of such missions, and assist with intelligence. But the angry public response there to this month's attack raised questions about whether the government of Gen. Pervez Musharraf -- which has sought to cultivate ties to the West without alienating radical Islamic groups at home -- can handle the domestic political fallout.

Afghanistan, for its part, has applauded the more aggressive U.S. stance. Afghan officials say they want the United States to go even further to stop Pakistan-based militants, who are hitting hard at a time when international commitments to securing Afghanistan have come into doubt.

Meanwhile, along the border, tensions continue to rise. "We have a lot of grief in our hearts," said Abdul Hakim Jan, an Afghan tribal leader who helped organize a protest beside a border crossing Wednesday following the deadliest suicide bombing in Afghanistan in the four years since the fall of Taliban rule. "All the terrorists and the enemies of Afghanistan are because of Pakistan. They are receiving their training there and they are being sent to Afghanistan for attacks."

Pakistani tribal leaders, for their part, look a few miles west for the source of their troubles: the American military presence in Afghanistan. Throughout the past week and continuing Sunday, tens of thousands of Pakistanis have participated in boisterous rallies at which protesters burned effigies of President Bush, chanted "Long live Osama!" and denounced the Pakistani government for cooperating with the United States.

"People are so angry that this could become a major movement against the American slaves who are ruling Pakistan these days," said Liaquat Baluch, a leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, the country's largest Islamic party.

Volatility in the border region is nothing new. For centuries, the rugged, mountainous area has been largely beyond the control of any government. Both sides of the border are populated by religiously conservative Pashtuns, who in recent decades have freely transported money, drugs and weapons back and forth across the porous boundary.

But since the United States invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the border has taken on special significance. On the Afghan side, the United States has 19,000 troops who provide crucial support for the government and who enjoy a relative degree of popularity.

On the Pakistani side, U.S. troops are officially forbidden from pursuing terrorists. As a consequence, many Islamic militants who found sanctuary in Afghanistan before Sept. 11 reportedly have taken refuge in the semiautonomous tribal areas where sympathies for al Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden, run high.

Until recently, the United States had been dependent on raids by Pakistani security forces to catch the fugitives, with mixed results. But in the predawn hours of Jan. 13, the United States used a different tactic, firing Hellfire missiles from drones in a bid to kill Zawahiri. Pakistani and U.S. intelligence sources have said they expected him to show up for dinner at a house in Damadola, but they now believe he was not there.

The missiles killed at least 13 others. After the attack, local officials said that only villagers were killed, among them women and children, who were buried nearby. But Pakistani intelligence sources have since asserted, without offering proof, that a handful of foreign al Qaeda militants also died, possibly including its chief explosives expert, a son-in-law of Zawahiri and an operational leader in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Pakistani government's response has been as conflicted as the reports. Some officials joined with the protesters in vehemently denouncing the attack, while others acknowledged that militants operate in the area. Even as the Foreign Ministry lodged a formal objection with the U.S. Embassy, Musharraf stayed silent in public, except to warn his countrymen not to harbor terrorists.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri acknowledged in an interview that the strike has put stress on the government, which since 2001 has walked a fine line of assisting the U.S. anti-terrorism campaign -- and receiving billions of dollars in aid in return -- while also trying to appease radical Islamic constituencies at home.

"Such an action creates immense internal problems for us as the perception grows that the U.S. has no respect for our sovereignty," Kasuri said.

U.S. officials, however, say Pakistan's objections amount to posturing. According to American military and intelligence sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, Pakistan had signed off on this month's strike beforehand and had even assisted with gathering pre-attack intelligence.

The use of Predator drones to strike targets in Pakistan is relatively new, and several security officials said it could not happen without the consent of the Pakistani government. There have been at least three such attacks since last May; one in December reportedly succeeded in killing a senior al Qaeda commander, Hamza Rabia.

But now, it remains unclear whether Predator attacks will be allowed to continue. On Saturday, in a meeting with U.S. Undersecretary of State R. Nicholas Burns, Musharraf said attacks such as the one aimed at Zawahiri "should not be repeated," according to Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasneem Aslam.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who on Sunday denied that Pakistan had received prior notice of this month's attack, is expected to raise the issue with Bush when they meet at the White House this week.

A senior Pakistani intelligence official, however, said nothing was likely to change in terms of actual U.S. and Pakistani efforts at hunting militants. "Proper protest has been made, but this will not alter the ground rules and intelligence cooperation with the U.S. It will continue as usual," the official said.

The latest U.S. missile strike came as suicide attacks by militants have been on the rise in Afghanistan, particularly in southern and eastern areas bordering Pakistan. In a country where such attacks have traditionally been rare, Afghan officials blame foreigners. "It is difficult for me to imagine how it can happen without some kind of support from outside Afghanistan," said Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah.

Others direct blame squarely at Pakistan, which they believe is trying to gain more influence in Afghanistan by sowing instability. "We were using Pakistan as a base during the resistance times," said Hakim Taniwal, governor of Paktia province, referring to the U.S.-funded guerrilla war against Soviet occupation troops during the 1980s. "Now al Qaeda and Taliban are also using the Pakistani side to attack in Afghanistan."

Afghan government officials are feeling especially vulnerable now because the United States announced late last year that it would reduce its troop strength from 19,000 to 16,500. NATO soldiers are supposed to fill the gap by taking over some operations in the south, but the Netherlands, seen as pivotal to that transition, has wavered over whether it will send troops.

Meanwhile, the Taliban, al Qaeda and other groups that are trying to destabilize the nascent Afghan government appear to be taking advantage of the uncertainty.

"At the strategic level of war, this is a defensive insurgency," said Chris Mason, a retired U.S. diplomat who served in Afghanistan and is now a senior fellow at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies in Washington. "They're inserting just enough insurgents to shut down meaningful reconstruction in the south and keep the population on the fence." Khan reported from Karachi, Pakistan.