Serving you since 1998
May 2007 :   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

May 26, 2007 

Afghan insecurity disrupts vital aid: U.N.
By Sayed Salahuddin May 26, 2007
KABUL (Reuters) - Rising insecurity in Afghanistan has disrupted the delivery of vital aid to about one million people, the U.N. World Food Program said on Saturday.

Violence has surged in Afghanistan in recent months following a traditional winter lull. Last year was the bloodiest since U.S.-led coalition forces overthrew the Taliban's government in 2001.

The WFP said attacks by armed groups and looting of WFP trucks had increased sharply since last month, mostly in southern and eastern areas, where Taliban insurgents are most active.

Drivers had been shot and wounded trying to resist looters, it said.

In the latest incident, 52 tonnes of food was looted on Thursday, said Ebadullah Ebadi, a WFP press officer in Kabul.

"The poorest of the poor people are hurt by this," he said.

The government has said it will provide security for convoys, he said.

The WFP is helping to supply nearly two million impoverished Afghans with food.

"Those carrying out the attacks should be held accountable, if not by law, then at least by those communities for whom they are depriving food," Rick Corsino, the WFP's representative for Afghanistan, said in a statement.

"Whatever their motives, they are contributing to the already considerable hardship of the poorest Afghans who need assistance more than ever," he said.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Suicide attack hits Afghan city, three police wounded
Sat May 26, 6:25 AM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - A suicide attacker struck a police patrol close to the governor's office in Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar, wounding at least three policemen, an officer said.

Remains of the bomber, who had been on foot, were scattered across the road, which was immediately cordoned off by police, an AFP reporter said.

"At this moment I can confirm only three police wounded in the suicide blast here minutes ago," a police officer, Asif Khan, told AFP as ambulances arrived at the site.

The patrol came under attack on a main road in the city about 50 metres (yards) from the office of provincial governor Assadullah Khalid.

On May 17 the governor's armoured vehicle was the target of another suicide bombing, but he was not in it at the time.

The blast wounded the information minister, Abdul Karim Khoram, who was in the convoy.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for that attack, as it has for a rash of bombings over the past weeks including a suicide blast which killed three German soldiers a week ago.

Kandahar, the birthplace of the ultra-Islamic Taliban movement, has been hard hit by increasing Taliban militancy which has claimed the lives of about 1,500 people so far this year, with most of the dead rebel fighters.
Back to Top
Back to Top
U.S. show of force in Gulf alarming: Afghan paper
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL (Reuters) - A U.S. navy show of force on Iran's doorstep is "greatly alarming" for the region and the United States risked a bloody quagmire if it invaded  Iran, a state-run Afghan newspaper said on Saturday.

A large flotilla of U.S. ships entered the Gulf on Wednesday in a dramatic show of military muscle, adding to pressure on Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions, which the West says are an attempt to develop atomic weapons.

Afghan officials say privately a U.S. attack on neighboring Iran would further destabilize  Afghanistan where U.S. and  NATO troops are fighting a resurgent Taliban.

The English-language Kabul Times, which reflects the U.S.-backed government's thinking, said Iran should drop its nuclear ambition and not be so stubborn.

"This is ... greatly alarming news for the whole region lest American invaded Iran and create a blood bath of its people and another quagmire for itself," the newspaper said in an editorial.

The U.S. show of force comes less than two weeks after Vice President  Dick Cheney, speaking aboard a warship during a tour of the Gulf, said Washington would stand with others to prevent Iran gaining nuclear weapons and "dominating the region."

The Kabul Times said Iran should not confront the United States.

"Diplomacy required that it should have abandoned its nuclear ambition ... It is not a good policy for a relatively small country to be stubborn and militant against a super power," it said.

Iran says it nuclear ambitions are for energy purposes only and its leaders have made clear they would not yield to pressure. Iran has also said it would resist any threat and give a "powerful answer" to its enemies.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Soldier dies in Afghan operations
Saturday, 26 May 2007 BBC News
A British soldier has been killed and four others injured in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.

The five soldiers were from the 1st Battalion the Grenadier Guards. Their next of kin have been informed, said the MoD.

The five were hit by an explosion after clashes with Taleban forces during offensive operations in Garmsir in Helmand Province, overnight.

A total of 56 UK troops have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001.

BBC correspondent Alastair Leithead, reporting from Kabul, said British forces had launched an operation in Garmsir a "notoriously bad area" which was "pretty much all controlled by the Taleban".

He said soldiers from the regiment, which is based in Aldershot, Hampshire, were involved in the operation and had been involved in clashes with Taleban fighters using mortar, small arms fire and artillery.

There was then an explosion and five soldiers were hit by the blast.

They were taken away under fire and one was pronounced dead at the scene. Three were seriously injured and one suffered minor injuries.

The three seriously wounded were taken to the Camp Bastion, the main base, to receive medical treatment.

Of the 56 personnel killed in Afghanistan since 2001, 33 soldiers have died in combat, while others have died from accidents, illness, or non-combat injuries, according to the MoD.
Back to Top
Back to Top
NATO: Taliban leader detained
via USA Today / May 26, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A NATO soldier was killed and four wounded during an operation in southern Afghanistan early Saturday, while U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces detained a Taliban commander and two suspected al-Qaeda militants in the east, officials said.

The soldier from NATO's International Security Assistance Force died during an operation "to remove Taliban from their positions," ISAF said in a statement. Four soldiers were wounded during the battle.

The nationalities of the soldiers weren't released, nor was the location of the battle.

On Friday, a roadside bomb explosion killed a Canadian soldier during a joint Canadian-Afghan patrol in the Zhari district of Kandahar province. Another Canadian soldier and an Afghan interpreter were injured.

The deaths Friday and Saturday brought to 56 the number of U.S. and NATO troops killed in Afghanistan this year. It also brought to at least 55 the number of Canadian troops who have died during the country's military mission in Afghanistan.

The Taliban commander, detained in Nangarhar province by coalition forces and Afghan border police, headed a roadside bomb cell responsible for killing and injuring Afghans, the coalition said in a statement.

The suspect, Sayed Gulab, had "extensive connections" with other senior Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders in Nangarhar and Pakistan, it said. He was detained on Thursday and was being held in a coalition facility.

"The detention of Sayed Gulab will lead to information on Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders, including their operations within Nangarhar and neighboring provinces," said Maj. Chris Belcher, a coalition spokesman.

The two suspected al-Qaeda militants were seized in a raid Saturday in Khost province that also discovered two fragmentation grenades and an anti-personnel mine, the coalition said.

"We are continuing to identify and destroy pockets of al-Qaeda militants throughout the country," Belcher said.

More than 1,800 people have died as insurgency-related violence in Afghanistan has spiked this year, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from U.S., NATO and Afghan officials.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Bush Says Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan Are Promoting Freedom
By Holly Rosenkrantz
May 26 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush, in a Memorial Day weekend radio address, said the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are aimed at promoting in those countries the freedom people enjoy in the U.S.

``Our troops are helping them build democracies that respect the rights of their people, uphold the rule of law and fight extremists alongside America in the war on terror,'' Bush said.

As the U.S. began a three-day holiday weekend, Bush yesterday paid his seventh visit to wounded troops at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, outside Washington.

Congress this week approved almost $100 billion for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through Sept. 30. The package, stripped of a troop-withdrawal timeline Democrats sought and Bush opposed, handed the president a victory in the continuing debate over war policy.

The U.S. celebrates Memorial Day on May 28, a national holiday commemorating war dead. This will be the sixth straight Memorial Day with the nation at war.

Since the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, 3,433 U.S. personnel have died and more than 25,500 have been wounded, Pentagon figures show. In Afghanistan, 387 U.S. troops have been killed and 1,250 wounded since October 2001, when the U.S. opened the war on terrorism.

After the hospital visit, the president left for Camp David for the weekend. He'll return to the White House tomorrow. On May 28, he lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns and makes a speech at Arlington National Cemetery.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Karzai, Ahmadinejad discuss Afghan refugee crisis
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)
May 25, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai has spoken with his Iranian counterpart, Mahmud Ahmadinejad, about the plight of Afghan refugees expelled from Iran, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan reported.

Speaking at a meeting with representatives of aid agencies on May 24, Karzai said he had asked Ahmadinejad in a recent phone conversation to consider a gradual repatriation of Afghan refugees from Iran.

Some 70,000 Afghan refugees have recently been expelled by Iranian authorities.

The repatriations have prompted complaints from the Afghan Foreign Ministry.

Earlier this month, Afghanistan's parliament voted to dismiss Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta for fail for failing to convince Iran to rethink the forced repatriation of refugees.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Unsuitable, unsustainable
When Afghan children are forced to eat mud, it is clear we have squandered billions of dollars of aid
Matt Waldman Saturday May 26, 2007 The Guardian
The international community is in danger of repeating in Afghanistan the mistakes made in Iraq. Millions of Afghans have seen little material improvement in their lives since 2001, and most still live in desperate poverty. From the start, the damage inflicted by a quarter-century of war was underestimated; this is not about repairing the state but building it from scratch. Rural communities have seen some improvements, but essential services are scarce or inadequate. In provinces where Oxfam works such as Daikundi, there is no mains water or electricity, and virtually no paved roads. Average life expectancy in Daikundi is 42 and one in five children dies before the age of five. Afghan children chew on mud they scratch from the walls of their homes to stave off hunger.

Most reconstruction work has focused on urban centres and national institutions and structures. It has been supply-driven, not needs-driven. Development urgently needs to go local, but there is confusion among state institutions about their roles, and district councils provided for by the constitution have yet to be elected. For ordinary Afghans, the local or tribal council of elders - the shura or jirga - constitutes the central authority. Yet these bodies have been largely neglected in the state-building process. Four things need to be done: building the capacity of local government to deliver essential services at ground level; achieving a coherent system of sub-national governance; directing resources to communities to help them help themselves; and supporting economic regeneration, especially in rural trades and non-opium agriculture.

America is bankrolling Afghanistan. It is responsible for more than half of all aid to the country (aid that accounts for about a third of GDP), and it plans to provide $10.6bn in the next two years. But as in Iraq, a vast proportion of aid is wasted. Political pressure in donor countries for rapid results has led to projects that are unsuitable and unsustainable. Most aid money goes to programmes in the opium-intensive, insecure provinces in the south. To neglect secure provinces is to invite the insurgency to spread.

Close to half of US development assistance goes to the five biggest US contractors in the country. Too much money is lost to high salaries and living costs, non-Afghan resources and corporate profits. The overall cost of one expatriate consultant is about half a million dollars a year. International contractors are indispensable, but there needs to be rigorous scrutiny, with targets for increased use of Afghan resources. An aid ombudsman could monitor complaints and make recommendations.

There is rising anger about civilian casualties, particularly at the hands of US units outside Nato command - a recent assault in western Afghanistan left 50 civilians dead, and in the past six weeks coalition forces have killed up to 100 civilians, compared with about 230 for the whole of 2006. If international forces lose the support of the people, militants and insecurity will spread.

A third of Afghans think democracy is incompatible with Islamic values, and many resent the massive foreign presence. If rapid steps are not taken to improve the delivery of aid and to control the excessive use of force, there could be devastating consequences. At the same time, action is required at regional level to crack down on insurgents, control narcotics, manage refugees and promote trade and investment.
Achieving peace in Afghanistan is not an impossible task. But the mistakes of Iraq are being repeated; without a change of course the consequences are too awful to imagine.
• Matt Waldman is Oxfam's head of policy for Afghanistan MWaldman@oxfam.org.uk 
Back to Top
Back to Top
Albania to send more troops to Afghanistan
May 26, 2007 People's Daily
Albania is going to send an extra company of troops to Afghanistan to join the international peacekeeping forces on the ground, the country's prime minister said on Friday.

"The last meeting of the NATO countries' foreign ministers considered it indispensable to add more forces to Afghanistan, therefore we decide to send a supplementary company of our troops there," Sali Berisha told his cabinet.

He said the Albanian troops will join the International Security Assistance Forces, under the command of Italian forces serving there.

For years, Albania has longed to join the NATO, hoping to get the signal to join the club by 2008. Berisha has said earlier that Albania is determined "to undertake any reforms and pay whatever price" to the join the NATO.

US President George W. Bush has signed into law the US Senate legislation to endorse the enlargement of the NATO to include Albania, along with Croatia, Macedonia Ukraine and George, into the group.
Albania has at present 22 peacekeeping troops in Afghanistan, serving under Turkish command. It has also sent 70 troops to Bosnia and 120 troops to Iraq.
Source: Xinhua
Back to Top
Back to Top
Several Pakistani Baluchs taken refuge in Kandahar, claims governor
Online - International News Network (Pakistan) May 26, 2007
CHAMAN: Governor of Kandahar province of Afghanistan has claimed that several Baluch nationalists have taken refuge in Kandahar and offered to act for reconciliation between the government of Pakistan and Baluch people.

Governor Asadullah Khalid expressed these views in an exclusive interview with a private TV channel at Governor House of Kandahar.

He said that Baluch nationalists have migrated to Kandahar from Baluchistan province of Pakistan due to alleged excesses by the government. He however didn’t divulge the number of refugees in the Afghan province.

The governor said that the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan is insignificant, as the same nation has been settled on both sides of the border. He said when Europe can get united, why not these two countries.

Governor Khalid said that Afghanistan has been victim of terrorism for last 30 years and law and order deterioration in the country also spilled out to Pakistan. Afghanistan doesn’t want lawlessness in Pakistan, he maintained.

Afghanistan is a sovereign country having right to establish ties with India, said Kandahar governor adding that no country including India can interfere and use the Afghan territory against Pakistan.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghanistan: Pakistani Balochi Rebels In Kandahar
Stratfor / May 24, 2007 15 43 GMT
A number of Pakistan's Balochi rebel elements have taken refuge in Afghanistan's Kandahar province, Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid told GEO news May 24. Khalid added that the Afghan government is ready to play the role of mediator between Balochi nationalists and the Pakistani government, saying the Afghan-Pakistani border has little real significance because the same people live on either side. Khalid suggested that if the European states can come together in the form of a regional bloc, there can be a similar unity between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Residents stage protest demo against governor
KABUL, May 24 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Hundreds of Badghis people staged a protest demonstration demanding removal of the provincial Governor Muhammad Nasim Tokhi.

The protestors alleged the governor was involved in corruption and misuse of authority. They say the pace of reconstruction has also slowed down since his appointment as governor of the province. 

Tokhi was accused of corruption by the Attorney General's office about a month back and case against him was referred to the central government; however, no action has so far been initiated against him, said the protestors.

Fazal Akbar, resident of the provincial capital of Qala-i-Naw, told Pajhwok Afghan News the governor had promoted corruption and nepotism since his taking charge of office in the province.

"We are supporting the government and we want them to accept our just and valid demands," said Akbar, who warned of violent protests if the governor was not removed.

Akbar, who was one of the participants of the protest demo in Bala Murghab district, said a similar demonstration was held in Qala-i-Naw a day earlier.

Member of the provincial council Qari Daulat Khan said some 600 people participated in the anti-governor protest demonstration on Thursday.

Speaking to this news agency, member of Wolesi Jirga from Badghis Azita Rifaat supported the protestors. "Unfortunately, the governor is involved in misuse of authority," said the female MP.

A delegation of the Attorney General's office, during its visit to the province about a month back, had said they had found clue to involvement of the governor in embezzlement.

A member of the AG office accompanying the team to that province, said they had got solid proofs of the governor's involvement in corruption.

The official, who did not want to be named, told Pajhwok proofs regarding embezzlement of three million afghanis had already been sent to President Hamid Karzai for further action.
Zubair Babakarkhail
Back to Top
Back to Top
Don't teach us, learn from us, Pakistani president tells West
KABUL, May 23 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Rejecting involvement of his country's intelligence agencies in the formation of Taliban, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has suggested talks with the militants and other dissidents to bring stability to Afghanistan.

In an interview to Canadian national daily The Globe and Mail, the Pakistani president said only military strategy was followed in Afghanistan at the moment when the country needed a multi-pronged strategy.

The military backed president, who is also Chief of the Armed Staff, said peace could not come from the barrel of a gun. He asked for inclusion of political element in current strategy to bring peace to Afghanistan.

Regarding his country's role in the fight against terrorism, Musharraf said they (western leaders) should come and learn from his government how to deal with the militants.

"I would tell everyone: Come and learn from us. We are sitting here knowing exactly what is happening on ground. You sitting in the West don't know anything," said Musharraf who is under perpetual pressure from the western countries to do more in the anti-terror war.

"So, don't teach me, come and learn from us. Come and understand the environment. And then decide on what has to be done and what doesn't have to be done. We are doing more than any other country in the world," said the Pakistani president.

He insisted Pakistani intelligence agencies played no role in the creation of the Taliban, although he acknowledged Pakistan gave the extremists legitimacy by being among the only countries to establish diplomatic relations when Taliban took over power in Afghanistan.

"I know for sure - 200 per cent - that they (Taliban) were not a creation of Pakistan. They were a creation of circumstances in Afghanistan," he said.
PAN Monitor
Back to Top

 Back to News Archirves of 2007
 
Disclaimer: This news site is mostly a compilation of publicly accessible articles on the Web in the form of a link or saved news item. The news articles and commentaries/editorials are protected under international copyright laws. All credit goes to the original respective source(s).