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Taekwondo fighter grabs Afghanistan's first Olympic medal
BEIJING (AFP) - Rohullah Nikpai hoped his Olympic taekwondo bronze medal would help bring life back to Afghanistan through sports after three decades of conflict.
Interview: Hamid Karzai
By ARYN BAKER/KABUL times.com Tue Aug 19, 10:45 PM ET
With Afghanistan reeling from fresh attacks on Western forces, TIME correspondent Aryn Baker spoke to the country's president Hamid Karzai about a range of subjects, including relations with Pakistan now that his testy neighbor Pervez Musharraf is resigning; and charges of corruption against members of his government and against his younger brother Wali Karzai.
Afghans doubt U.S. intentions: report
By Sayed Salahuddin Wed Aug 20, 8:15 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghans believe the United States knows about al Qaeda bases in Pakistan, but does not hit them because it wants an unstable Afghanistan to justify its presence for wider regional goals, a state newspaper said on Wednesday.
Sarkozy visits Kabul after French soldiers killed
By JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - French President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed Wednesday that French troops would stick it out in Afghanistan despite an exceptionally deadly attack and frustration at home about the war.
Sarkozy tells French troops in Afghanistan to keep fighting
by Philippe Alfroy Wed Aug 20, 9:02 AM ET
KABUL, Aug 20, 2008 (AFP) - President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday told French soldiers mourning 10 comrades killed by the Taliban that their work in Afghanistan was essential for the "freedom of the world" and must continue.
NATO To Probe Friendly Fire Report In Afghanistan - Official
BRUSSELS (AFP)--The North Atlantic Treaty Organization will "look into" a report that French soldiers were hit by planes from the alliance that had come to help them escape a Taliban ambush in Afghanistan, an official said Wednesday.
France: No Comment On Report NATO Jets Hit Afghanistan Troops
PARIS (AFP)--The French army refused to comment Tuesday on a report that French soldiers were hit by North Atlantic Treaty Organization planes that had come to help them escape a Taliban ambush in Afghanistan which left 10 of their men dead.
Afghan leader calls for more attention to extremism
Wed Aug 20, 7:13 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai expressed sadness Wednesday over the killing of 10 French soldiers, saying after talks with his French counterpart that the fight against extremists needed more attention.
NATO general says Pakistan chaos emboldens Taliban
By KATHY GANNON, Associated Press Writer Wed Aug 20, 8:26 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - Drawing strength from the chaos in neighboring Pakistan, Afghan insurgents are using their growing control of the border area to plot increasingly brazen attacks against international forces, the NATO commander in Afghanistan said.
Karzai on Musharraf: Good Riddance
By ARYN BAKER / KABUL time.com
The President of Afghanistan remains unrelenting in his criticism of neighboring Pakistan, even as that nation begins a sensitive political transition. In an interview with TIME in Kabul
Afghan, coalition forces kill over 20 Taliban
Wed, Aug 20 03:24 PM
Kabul, Aug 20 (DPA) Afghan and US-led coalition forces killed more than 20 militants, including foreign fighters, in two incidents in southeast Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday.
FACTBOX - Security developments in Afghanistan, Aug 20
August 20 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan reported until 1050 GMT on Wednesday:
AFGHANISTAN: Dust storms cause health problems in west
20 Aug 2008 14:22:50 GMT
HERAT, 20 August 2008 (IRIN) - Unusually strong winds carrying dust from the parched land have increased respiratory and eye diseases in western Afghanistan, according to health and environmental officials.
Green Beret: Leader Shot, Mutilated Afghan Man
Green Beret: Special Forces Team Leader 'grinned' As He Held Ear Of Afghan Man He Had Killed
FORT BRAGG, N.C., Aug. 19, 2008 via CBS News
(AP) The leader of an Army special forces team "grinned" as he held the ear of an Afghan man he suspected of being an insurgent after he shot him and left his body in the desert, a Green Beret testified Tuesday.
Bulgarian troops in Afghanistan fighting fit
19:32 Wed 20 Aug 2008 - Elitsa Savova Sofia Echo, Bulgaria
Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov has sent a letter of condolence to his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy regarding the death of 10 French soldiers, part of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.
US faces up to life without Musharraf
By Syed Saleem Shahzad Asia Times Online / August 20, 2008
KARACHI - Sixty-five-year-old Pervez Musharraf's biggest problem now is to decide where to spend his retirement years; in Pakistan, which he has dominated politically for nearly nine years
Afghanistan: More troops needed to stop Taliban attacks, says think-tank
AKI - Security 20 August, 2008
Rome-This week's violent attacks in Afghanistan underscore the resurgence of the Taliban and the failure of international efforts to prevent their attacks.
Goodbye Musharraf, hello Taliban
Asia Times By Syed Saleem Shahzad Aug 21, 2008
KARACHI - As if on cue, the Taliban launched two of their most daring attacks in Afghanistan on the day that Pervez Musharraf resigned as president of Pakistan, opening up a political vacuum in that country
Afghan War escalates with Taliban raid
By Carlotta Gall and Sangar Rahimi, The New York Times: August 20, 2008
KABUL, Afghanistan: Taliban insurgents mounted their most serious attacks in six years of fighting in Afghanistan over the last two days, including a coordinated assault by at least 10 suicide bombers against
Taleban grow more brazen
By Alastair Leithead in Kabul 08/20/2008 BBC News
Kabul's early morning silence was broken last night first by the crunch of rockets exploding in the city, then by the emergency sirens at Nato headquarters warning the officers and generals to head for the shelters.
Afghans speak out against sexual violence
Courageous families are speaking out about child rape, helped by a media campaign. It's a sign of a nation moving forward
The Guardian Nushin Arbabzadah Wednesday August 20 2008
Please note, this article contains links to video footage which some readers may find distressing.
Neighbors Worry about Pakistan's Stability
India, Afghanistan Concerned Tumult Could Spill Over
By PAUL BECKETT and ALAN CULLISON August 20, 2008; Wall Street Journal Page A6
Officials in India and Afghanistan have realized for months that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf wasn't in charge of their fractious neighbor. But his resignation raises new fears that a rudderless Pakistan
Taliban threats backfire, ambassador says
Ottawa Citizen, Canada Jennifer Campbell Citizen Special Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Afghan Ambassador Omar Samad may have been disappointed to learn that the Taliban has begun threatening Canadians directly, but he wasn't surprised.
Murder of a national employee of the French NGO ACTED in the region of Kunduz (Afghanistan)
Source: Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED) 19 Aug 2008
ACTED is sad to announce the death of one of its Afghani employees, who was found murdered today (August 19th, 2008) in the region of Kundunz (Afghanistan). Sheyesta Gul who worked for ACTED
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Taekwondo fighter grabs Afghanistan's first Olympic medal
BEIJING (AFP) - Rohullah Nikpai hoped his Olympic taekwondo bronze medal would help bring life back to Afghanistan through sports after three decades of conflict.
"After the long-time war at home, I have won this medal. I think it is a good message for the peace and future of Afghanistan," the 21-year-old said after grabbing Afghanistan's first Olympic medal in any sport Wednesday.
He beat world champion Juan Antonio Ramos of Spain 4-1 in a -58kg bronze-medal play-off.
"My training situation is like the situation surrounding my country," said Nikpai, who started training in the Korean-born martial art 11 years ago following his older brother Habib.
The Nikpai brothers usually train in Kabul where he said "sports facilities are not so good." He has trained under a Korean coach in a pre-Olympic training camp in South Korea.
"We've tried hard to get this result, and I hope it will help improve sports in my country," Nikpai said.
One of the four athletes here from Afghanistan, Nikpai knelt and kissed the mat after overwhelming Ramos.
"I hope to try harder and go to the next Olympics to produce a better result," said Nikpai, who grabbed the Asian championship bronze after finishing 33rd at the world championships here last year.
An Olympic sport since Sydney 2000, taekwondo is popular in Afghanistan, where it is by far the most practised combat sport.
Afghanistan's previous best Olympic finish was a fifth place by Mohammed Ebrahimi in the 1964 freestyle wrestling.
Afghanistan's most notable link with the Games is that the 1979 Soviet invasion of the country led to a US-led international boycott of the games in Moscow the following year.
Nikpai was to be rewarded with 50,000 dollars promised by an Afghan mobile phone company to whoever gets on the podium in Beijing.
His teammate, 23-year-old Nesar Ahmad Bahawi, who won a 68kg silver at the World Taekwondo Championships last year, was to compete here on Thursday.
A hero's welcome will await him in Kabul after President Hamid Karzai called Nikpai after his victory, an aide said.
The medal was also cheered on by fellow athletes in Kabul as televisions interrupted normal broadcasting to show images of the athlete's winning match.
"The president called him and congratulated him," Karzai's chief spokesman Homayun Hamidzada told AFP in Kabul. The president "encouraged him and told him he had brought pride to Afghanistan."
Once Nikpai returned home, he would be rewarded "appropriately," he added.
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Interview: Hamid Karzai
By ARYN BAKER/KABUL times.com Tue Aug 19, 10:45 PM ET
With Afghanistan reeling from fresh attacks on Western forces, TIME correspondent Aryn Baker spoke to the country's president Hamid Karzai about a range of subjects, including relations with Pakistan now that his testy neighbor Pervez Musharraf is resigning; and charges of corruption against members of his government and against his younger brother Wali Karzai.
TIME: Last time we met, in September 2006, Kabul's first major suicide attack went off during the middle of our interview. Since then we have had several devastating attacks and an attempted assassination...
Karzai: And the casualties will only get worse, I fear. And then did you see what was happening in Pakistan, why would someone go and blow himself up in a hospital [in Peshawar]? Who are they, what are they? It cannot be justified. The justification is far away. You can fight people anywhere, any place, but you don't kill people in a hospital. So why? It's going crazy. Why?
If they die in suicide attacks, how will their movement survive? What is behind this? It is criminality on the part of those who use them. Criminality is perhaps a light word. Diabolical, worse than that. Someone needs to coin a new term, a new phrase.
What would your phrase be?
Inhuman. It's to no end. It's not a war you can win. They blow people up, and disappear. Without a political cause, without a political objective. With nothing that can bring success, or any symbols of success?
So how do you combat a movement that has only annihilation as its goal?
The way to fix Afghanistan is to fix things with Pakistan. In order to fix terrorism at large, we need to remedy the wrongs of the past 30 years. Remedy means to undo. Did you see what happened in Algeria today? I will call the president of Algeria.
The world pushed us to fight the Soviets. And those who did it walked away. And left all the mess spread around. September 11 is a consequence of this. The bombing in Peshawar today is a consequence. Algeria is a consequence of that.
Afghanistan was a once great place. In perfect harmony with the rest of the world. Families sent their girls to university, wearing whatever style they wanted. And that family lived in perfect harmony with another family who was conservative and traditional. Both lived together and socialized. But in the years of fighting against the Soviets, radicalism was the main thing. Someone like me would be called half a Muslim. And we were actually called half Muslims. Because we were not radical. The more radical you became, the more money you were given. So radicalism became not only an ideological tool against the Soviets, but a way forward economically. The more radical you presented yourself, the more money the West gave you.
It wasn't just the West, it was Saudi Arabia, Pakistan...
Everybody together I call them the West, because they were led by the West. The moderates were undermined, not allowed. Patriotism, Afghan history and nationalism was called atheism. It was undermined. The more you betrayed Afghanistan, the more you spoke of radicalism, the more you went away from Afghan history, the better you were treated. And that's what we are paying for now.
So how do you repair the damage?
By paying proper attention to the hundreds of thousands of disparate lives... these people who have nowhere to go to, who are not being raised in a parent's home, who don't have sisters and brothers to live with. Who don't have dinner with their families every night. Who are taken [in] by these... enemies of Islam, who work in the name of Islam. These places are called madrassahs, but they are not [real] madrassahs. They train and raise these young souls to be ammunition in a political game. That is what happened today in [the hospital in] Dera Ismail Khan [in Pakistan], that is what happens in Afghanistan on a daily basis.
And also, let's focus on Pakistan. The ISI [The Inter-Service Intelligence spy agency of Pakistan]. The organization must stop using radicalism and extremism as an instrument of policy. Once that stops, unless the use of these young men as tools of radicalization, and as weapons to promote whatever agenda they have stops, we will have continued attacks like this.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, your long time foe, stepped down yesterday. What does this mean for Afghanistan?
Arrivals and departures don't matter much. What matters is institutional corrections. Unless we correct the institution, unless we change the mindsets that follow an old policy. For example, if Pakistan is using radicalism as a tool of policy for strategic depth in Afghanistan, well, I wish to tell them that it won't work. The best strategic depth in Afghanistan is friendship, cooperation. Like France and Germany. Now France has the best strategic depth in Germany. And Germany has the best strategic depth in France. [It is a] cooperative environment. Afghanistan is willing to build that kind of relationship. In my opinion that is the best strategic depth to have: cooperation, not weaponry, not sanctuary, not undermining, not seeking a puppet state. That will not happen period.
You have accused the ISI of supporting terrorism in Afghanistan, particularly in the case of the Indian Embassy bombing. Do you think the new civilian government in Pakistan will be able to rein in the ISI when a military leader could not?
[Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza] Gilani is a good man. He has the right intentions. I hope he gets the tools of control. That is for the Pakistani government to decide, and that is for us and the international community to help him with. Afghanistan will go out of its way. Today the army chief of Pakistan was in Afghanistan today at Bagram Airforce base. I called [General Ashfaq Pervez] Kayani on the telephone to welcome him to my country. And to tell him that Afghanistan cannot achieve peace or prosperity without friendly relations with Pakistan. I hope he recognizes that what they are doing [in terms of supporting militancy in Afghanistan] is causing immense damage to Pakistan itself. Someone has to recognize this need for change, and for a modern relationship with Afghanistan, a civilized relationship. I hope it will occur.
Do you think this will happen?
I am always optimistic. There is no other way. we cannot live a life in opposition. And I will continue working , continue and continue forever.
Do you think Pakistan's new civilian government can reign in the militancy?
Not by not changing the concept. In other words, unless the establishment of Pakistan changes its foundation of policy towards the neighbor, there will be trouble. If they think that strategic depth in Afghanistan can only be gained by promoting radicalism, destabilizing Afghanistan, having a weak puppet government, and having Afghanistan in disarray, then they will have to have a staging point, and that staging point cannot be in Afghanistan, it will have to be in Pakistan. And that staging point creates exactly the replication of what is happening in Afghanistan. Therefore the tribal territories will not be peaceful as long as that policy continues. When that changes, yes, the tribal territories will become peaceful.
But is it too late, is the genie out of the bottle?
The genie was out of the bottle a long time back, not this year or last year but many years ago. The genie is not a self-winding one. The genie can be put back into the bottle and the bottle can be destroyed.
What will it take to do that?
A proper analysis of the Pakistani national interest. A proper analysis of the course to be followed into the future. A different thinking about life itself. How do I want to live with my neighbor? Do I want to live a life undermining it or pushing it around, or do I want a neighbor who is prosperous and good and with whom I can work well? Afghanistan wants that life. And Pakistan will benefit from that life too. One day it will come about. Definitely.
Secondly. There is also a job we have to do in Afghanistan. Afghanistan will never be beholden to Pakistan. Afghanistan's progress and stability will only add to Pakistan's progress and stability. Afghanistan will bring prosperity to add to Pakistan. Afghanistan will bring no quarrels to Pakistan. Pakistan has to recognize that Afghanistan has been in this part of the world for a long, long time. It's a good, old, sage man. It will not go away. Empires have tried and failed to conquer this place. And Afghanistan will guard its independence and soverignity and it's right to a relationship with others very jealously. Extreme jealously. I am extremely jealous. I will guard it jealously.
We will have relations with India. We will have relations with Iran. With china. We will have relations with America. Strategic ones, strong ones. Deep ones, and with Russia too. But these are relationships that will not be used against our neighbors. Not against Pakistan, not against Iran. We have been very firm with the Americans about Iran, and we have been very frank with Iran about our relations with America. I went and explained to the Iranian government our relation with the United States. Therefore our relationship with India in the same manner is not counterproductive to Pakistan. It is between Afghanistan and India. India is one of the great economic powers.
[India provided] a good educational environment for Afghans - I was one of them and there are a thousand more like me in India now. Afghanistan wants this relationship, and we hope that Pakistan evolves into a good relationship with India as well. So we are clear. We are not shadowy. We have clarity about our objectives, our way forward, and about what we want to lead into the future. This cannot be undermined by bombs, or suicides or by violence. In other words, we are morally correct. We are not cheating on our neighbors, and we will not cheat. We will be straightforward, as we were in the past. Very straightforward. At some cost for us.
Recently there has been a spate of civilian casualties. The Afghan Senate is trying to bring foreign forces under afghan law so they can be tried for civilian casualties. Is that what you want?
You cannot justify any civilian casualties. Look. Afghanistan is grateful to our allies for having brought us liberation from terrorists, al-Qaeda and the Taliban. And for having given Afghanistan its place back in the international community. Our flag is flying around the world because of what happened. We would be nowhere, we would be a miserable lot under occupation without the U.S. presence and the presence of the international community. Taxpayer money is spent here in Afghanistan. It is not easy money. It is money that the American and European people have worked hard to earn. The sacrifice in life by the men and women of America and our other allies - that is all recognized, highly registered, with immense appreciation by the Afghans.
But the Afghan people have given a lot too in this war against terrorism. Seven years on we still have people dying in our villages. Seven years on, on a daily basis we are losing our lives, whether the police, army, engineers, teachers and even our children. This the Afghan people understand. But they do not understand why for six years the Afghans have been saying to their allies, that the war against terrorism will not be won unless and until we go to the sanctuaries, to the training grounds, to the financiers, to the motivators of hatred that come across the border to kill us all.
And the allies have not heard us. We took the brunt of this war. Even now the Afghan people, even when badly hurt, when entire families have been victims, killed in bombings, they are still with us in this fight against terrorism. But they don't understand why they should be the victims. We asked for this a long time back. The war against terrorism is not in Afghan villages, it is not in the middle of Afghan civilians. It is not on the roads of Kandahar and Kabul where people die from soldiers shooting out of fear. It is correcting the problem at its origins.
I am speaking of doing the right thing. If Afghanistan is using a method, and that method is causing a problem in the rest of the world, then the rest of the world must come to me to stop that method. If Afghanistan is growing poppies, the rest of the world calls me every day on the reduction and eradication and removal of poppies. Every day in all my meetings, I face pressure on this. I know, and the world knows that it is not going to go away. I know and the world knows that if I could do it as the Afghan president, I would do it tomorrow. I know if President Bush could do it he would get rid of it tomorrow. But then a problem has been identified in Afghanistan, and that problem is being discussed with me every day. Have we done this with regard to sanctuaries, with regard to the training grounds, with those who have it? And those who cause it? Have we done enough to reduce the problem? What methods have we used to cut it short, to weaken it? This is my question. We have war here as a consequence of something else.
Even if you go after the problem in Pakistan tomorrow, you are still going to have war here for a long time to come.
For several more months, years, maybe longer, I agree. Or more. We understand. In that case [if the origins of terrorism are addressed], civilian casualties will be acceptable. But you can't have casualties, and no end in sight. As if the whole war in Afghanistan is because we are the ones producing terrorism. While we are not. We are the victims both ways. That is my point.
And the call in the senate to bring foreign forces under Afghan law?
It is a loud cry by the Afghan people, reflected by the Afghan senate, and they are right about that. And I have discussed the issues with our partners early on, many years behind us now. And we have to find a way forward, oh yes, I support the move in the senate.
At the risk of Americans pulling out?
Well, we have to win this war. The United States is here to win this war against terrorism. Are we doing it correctly? Are we winning this war? We defeated terrorism in less than a month-and-a-half in Afghanistan, but we are still suffering from it. The remnants are still there, killing American troops, killing Afghan, killing French, killing everyone else. What is it that we have done, what is it that we must do to bring an end in sight. Do we have a problem with the Afghan people? In that case the definition of what we are doing is very different. Do we have a problem with international terrorism, then what is it we are doing to address it? So far in my view, and in the view of the Afghan people, not much. Now if we see this as an effort aimed at the right target, spoken about with us, with a proper identification of the problem areas, then we can go along, and in that situation if we suffer civilian casualties, alright, we will accept it.
The senate says we must control the foreign forces, we must control and bring harmony and coordination against the forces of terrorism. We have worked on this for the past five years, we have brought about a reduction in casualties, and we have brought about a lot of improvements. Together in cooperation with the international community. They don't want to have casualties. [Head of NATO forces, U.S. General David] McKiernan doesn't want Afghan civilians to die. [Former NATO forces commander General Dan] McNeil didn't' want that, nobody wants casualties because it doesn't help, it isn't right. Therefore, McKiernan, everybody, should adopt the right mechanism where casualties will be down, where we will be targeting the right place with the right weaponry, and with an effect on the spread of terrorism.
Some of your closest aides are suspected of stealing land, drug smuggling and having illegal militias, Your military advisor, General Dostom, has been accused of kidnapping and resisting arrest. Yet you balked at arresting him. Why do you still protect these people?
Ah, Dostom. [Laughs]
He still has a militia, even if he denies it. So do several other former commanders. They just call them security companies.
If you call militias a security company, then we don't have them. it's all the internationals. For the past few years, one of our biggest sources of contention with the international community has been their use of security companies. Private security companies. That still is one of our very serious differences with the international community. We consider them as one of the reasons for insecurity on our highways. So this is something, that not do we not support, but we publicly and officially are very much against. It is something with which I have called on all members of the international community, I have called on all of the ambassadors.
But these security companies are militias run by former commanders.
And funded by the international community.
The commanders are still in your government.
They are not funded by us. They are funded by the international community because there is nothing we can do. We are against it , we are against it, we have been public, we have been officially clear about this, this is something that we must put an end to in Afghanistan. The Ministry of Interior closed down many of them.
But there are still many operating.
This is not our problem. This is unfortunately a consequence of this partnership [between the international community and commanders with militias].
But you do have Dostom as an advisor. He has broken the law. There are witnesses. And yet you have been unable to bring him to justice.
Warlords and their relationship with the international community is nothing I can do anything about. And their contracts, and the security firms.
Why will the international community not listen to you? What is the gain? I just came back from the north where the level of crime has skyrocketed due to the actions of some of these commanders. Rape, kidnapping. And nothing is happening.
I have taken action on some of these cases. I have removed a governor, some police chiefs and I will do more. And yesterday I investigated a matter of very serious importance in another province. Maybe Khunduz. I am very serious about that. there is something that I hope very much that our international backers will see the Afghan point of view, which they have not seen so far.
Which is?
The Afghan point of view is cut relations, stop backing them [the warlords]. Stop giving them contracts, stop arming them, and stop using them as political tools. Absolutely they are using them as political tools.
Why can you not say stop then?
What does stop mean? Stop. Will you stop writing? Stop is not the solution. I have to run this country. I have to take it forward with all the problems that it has. If someone in the international community is backing the warlords, and I say stop, and they don't stop, what is the next option? I tell them to leave this country? Pack up and leave Afghanistan? Take their money away, take their troops away? Then what? Will we be better off? Or will Afghanistan be worse off?
Here it comes a point where as the leader of the country I must judge my distance in action. Will I go the full way? Or will I stop short of doing that? In other words, in order to have a warlord arrested, an offender, not just a warlord, arrested and put for trial, should I go to the extent of causing so much annoyance in an ally, for them to leave, or should I stop short and continue to make the best of the situation?
Are you speaking here about Dostom? Are you saying that he has international support? Do you extend that to mean that he also has local support, in terms of the Uzbek population of Afghanistan of which he is the leader? And can you afford to lose that following?
I am always very considerate. No Afghan people will go with offenders. Law has to be applied, and I have to think of the circumstances to which I can apply the law to the best interests of the Afghan people. that is something that I have to consider, and I have considered, and I have been criticized for, by my fellow Afghans, for being too considerate in these circumstances. And I have been too considerate. I think I was right. I have to judge.
See I came to power in this country when there was no government. No institutions, no laws were applied. There was a time when someone had taken two daughters of a man away - this was in 2002 - and the then chief justice [Fazl Hadi] Shinwari came to me, and said we have no police, we cannot take him [the kidnapper] by the force of the law. So I decided to persuade him. By persuasion we were able to take one of the girls back, and then the other daughter and deliver them back to their house.
There was a time in those years where we didn't even have law to deal with situations like that. Now six years down the line, we come to know of all that happens in Afghanistan. And in a lot of cases, we have the ability to act, for which we are grateful to the international community because of their presence, their backing and their resources, and the help we have been given. Otherwise we could not, unfortunately still, have been able to function the way we should. It will take some more time, and we will have to wait, and work towards that day.
in 2002, U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said "we will not sacrifice security in the name of justice," talking about this very issue of warlords, who had been allied with western forces in defeating the Taliban. But six years on, we still have neither security nor justice.
At that point, that was the right thing.
And now?
Six years on, it is not like that. We have examples of justice sacrificed in the name of security, but the overall situation is not like that. The overall situation is where we act and we defend and we bring offenders to law, and we put them in jail. Even government offenders.
And then they pay a bribe and are freed.
Well, that is a different problem.
That is a big problem.
That is not the problem of the application of law, that is the problem of the system not being ready to handle the situation. That happens in many countries that have been here for a long time.
Ok, let me give you an example. Last week I went to Jowzjan province. I met a 11-year-old girl who had been raped about six months ago. Her family had to pay bribes to pursue the case in courts. And her sister told me, "Under the Taliban time, that man would have been executed. We want the Taliban back because they gave us justice."
The Taliban did provide that sort of justice. They were much better in that way. Yes, that is true.
So you are falling behind in a competition for hearts and minds with a regime that was one of the most horrific in recent history?
Unfortunately, yes.
So how do you rectify this?
By improving, and by having the full backing by some of our allies, which in some cases has not been there. And if you give me the name of the girl who was raped, and her information, I will deal with the situation tomorrow.
General McKiernan has said that the Taliban are resurgent, and this is causing problems for Afghanistan. But one of the reasons they are gaining ground is because people are rapidly losing faith in your government. They see it as ineffective, corrupt and lacking justice. How do you defend your record in power?
I don't think the Afghan people would prefer the Taliban to the current government. They have reduced faith in the government, yes. Definitely. But if you ask them if they have an alternative to this government, they will say "No." The Taliban will never be in the eyes of the Afghan people an alternative to this government. There are areas in which we have done well. Like security. Corruption is a different case. And this government is doing its best on corruption. With the money that is coming in; with the presence of so many international players, with the NGOs, with the security firms, the contractors, the this, the that, it could have been, it should have been much worse.
It could have been much better.
I don't think so. Under the circumstances, no. Take the number of players into account. The Afghan government takes the responsibility for the money that comes through us. Not for the money that has come through the donors, the agencies.
But what about the corruption in the police?
Corruption in the police is not hurting Afghanistan as much as corruption in the contract process from the donors.
I don't see that. The police are the government's first contact with its citizens. That is the reason why the people are losing faith in your government.
I am sure of it. Look, these are the same police that are dying in heavy numbers every day, defending this country. And this police [force] was not paid more than $20 a month [each] until last year. It was an extremely poverty stricken country. On this the Afghan people warned me in 2004, they came to me and said president, we have no police, and I realized it with our partners in the international community right there, on a daily basis. And we didn't get the right answer. We only began to work with our allies on the question of police and its reform, and improvement, and proper payment in 2007. So from 2004 to 2006, our cries went unheard, but we kept talking. We didn't make it public, but we were talking. Therefore the police should not be blamed, they should be praised.
And the Ministry of Interior (MOI)? Another notoriously corrupt institution?
The MOI has done a lot to improve itself. It is a lot better than two years ago.
That's not saying much, look what it was starting from.
It's not their fault. Can we blame Afghanistan for having been so badly destroyed? And then say look where we started from? When we started in 2002 we had no roads, so should we blame Afghanistan for having had no roads?
But the MOI is different, they are your representatives. If the MOI is corrupt, you are perceived to be corrupt.
This is what we have. This is the environment we have. It is not acceptable, but we are systematically trying to improve it. Together with the international community. All of those heavy guys that are sitting now with the MOI have been checked by the United Nations before they were appointed, for the past two years. We have gone through all the steps of reform. I'm not saying all the steps were right. Some things done in the name of reform were not reform. They caused us a lot of troubles. Like throwing too many police away, police that were trained, that were kicked out by the reform process.
That is because they were illiterate.
So what if they were illiterate? Why not? We had in Helmand three years ago a police chief who was illiterate, and another district chief who was illiterate, and a governor that was not educated in a school, but Helmand was much better then.
Two years ago you had a corrupt governor in Helmand accused by the British of smuggling drugs: Sher Muhammad Akhunzada.
Yes, but do we have more drugs now in Helmand? Or then? Oh, come on, that is the problem. This is all western propaganda against him. That is where things have gone wrong in Afghanistan.
He was found with nearly a ton of heroin in his basement.
So what? Now there are hundreds of tons of heroin in basements across Helmand. Not the governor, but the whole system. So, when Akhunzada was there, all the girls were going to school. Schools were open. Shops were open. Reconstructon was going on, and poppies were three times less than what is being produced today.
So you blame pulling Akhunzada out for the increase in violence and poppy cultivation today?
Helmand was entirely in our hand. The whole province was firmly in our hand. What do we have now?
So you are willing to accept a drug smuggler as long as he keeps a firm grip on the province?
So, let's suppose he was that. First of all, we don't know. These days we are wiser, we don't believe everything that our allies tell us now. Akhunzada was the governor. Drugs were three times less than they are today. The province was in our hands. Schools were running; women's associations were running. Clinics were running. Hospitals were running. Girls and boys were going to school; there was peace. And we removed Akhunzada on the allegation of drug running, and we delivered the province to drug runners, the Taliban, to terrorists, to a threefold increase of drugs and poppy cultivation in the country. To the closing of schools, to women being killed in the street. To complete lawlessness, and complete lack of sovereignty in Helmand for Afghanistan. Which condition is better? What would you do in your country in a situation like that? In other words, a British or an American province would be happier with the first situation or with the second? Ismail Khan in Herat was accused of the same things.
So you are going to let these people, these smugglers...
You have to let Afghanistan determine its own ways. The methods and ways that are developed in offices in the West don't work here. That is the problem. Somebody sits there behind a desk, gets a few reports from English-speaking Afghans and they say, well that is what we want to do in Afghanistan. And then things go down the drain. That is what I am changing now.
So you are willing to allow a criminal to run a province as long as he keeps it under control?
No, who says he is a criminal? That is a wrong allegation from the press, motivated by our foreign allies. That is where things have gone wrong. Motivated. We don't even know what the allegations are. We don't' know if those allegations against Sher Muhammad Akhunzada were truth, or if they were made up to turn Helmand into what it is now.
But if we go back to Ismail Khan, the former warlord and governor of Herat, it is very clear that he was siphoning off customs funds from the border with Iran destined for the central government.
He used that money to rebuild Herat, he did a good job then and he is doing a good job now [as minister of power]. It is not that everything we do is wrong. It is not that everything that our allies are doing is right. They have made mistakes. We did not know then, because we didn't know how decisions were made, but we know now. So we are much more assertive today. Much more demanding, that is why we ask more questions. That is why there is more action. It's because of that experience. Especially Helmand.
You recently replaced Asadullah Khalid of Kandahar because of allegations of corruption...
No, not at all. He was there for three-and-a-half years. It was time for a change. He did a very good job.
The Canadian government accused him of corruption.
Well, they were wrong. When he was leaving Kandahar, the Kandaharis gave him a reception that none other has seen. Sometimes our officials are accused of corruption when they stand for their Afghan interests. When they stand up to our allies, they are accused of corruption. That we know now. In other words, unfortunately, our allies don't like a strong-headed Afghan. That is part of the problem in this country as well.
Ok, let's take another character that is facing allegations of corruption and drug smuggling from the International community, but more so, widespread accusation of drug manufacture and smuggling from Afghans in the country.
My brother [Wali Karzai] was accused. In 2004. He came to me and said this is the situation. I called the Americans, I called the British. I said this is a very serious matter. We are a family with 300 years of history. With a very respectable life. We are not rich people. I perhaps will be the poorest Afghan when I am no longer president. The state doesn't pay me. I will either be in the streets begging or trying to find a job as a teacher. And we don't have much property, we have nothing.
My brother was accused precisely after I refused to allow aerial spraying of poppies. After I had a very nice meeting with both the U.S. and British Ambassadors, subsequently the New York Times wrote an article about him. Also, my brother can easily be accused [so as] to put pressure on me. Regardless of that, I took this seriously. I called the Americans, the British and the Europeans, and I repeatedly said, anything you have, let me know. And once, twice, three times, four, five, six times... Nothing.
Equally he came to me and said I want to go to the court, and I said go ahead. He went twice to the DEA at the U.S. embassy, to see the Minister of Counter Narcotics, and he has gone to the judges who have officially written to the U.S. administration to give us in writing any accusation. But for the past five years, allegations have been there, but never have they come to me with proof. Privately they say, "President, we have nothing." Perhaps it was spread by your political opponents, perhaps it was spread by this or that.
Yes, there is a lot of corruption in Afghanistan. But in many cases, the most corrupt are never mentioned, because they are all buddy-buddy with the Western countries. They are given the contracts. They are given the procedures. They are given the money. They are given whatever there is. In our view now, the ones who have an Afghan point of view are accused of corruption.
But it is the perception among the Afghan population that is the problem.
It is created by the press.
But you are harmed by it.
I know I am harmed by it. I have been accused by American writers who I have never met who say I am totally corrupt. This trouble will be here as long as the International community is here.
But it is Afghans who are accusing your brother.
As I said, this problem will be here as long as the international community is here. Any other president of Afghanistan, if he is upright and straight, will be accused of the same, rightly or wrongly. Any Afghan president.
The Bactrian gold exhibit has been a huge success in the world, and has demonstrated the richness of Afghanistan's cultural heritage. Yet in the country rich archaeological sites are being looted on a constant basis. Shouldn't this be stopped?
Yes, there is so much in this country, but we don't have any money to support it. This country has been looted for a long time now, from our neighbors, from rich people around the world, from Afghans, and of course even from International forces going in and looting. We have no proof, but we know it is happening. The Afghans are doing it. Smugglers. We are trying to protect what we can protect. But it is beyond us. It is up to the Afghan population to protect it. There is so much in this country. Yes, we are losing some, but a lot we are keeping.
You are expected to run for a second term in office in 2009.
I have a job to complete.
Why do you think you are the best person to complete this job?
I hope there is someone who can do a better job than me. I very much hope so. One of my duties for Afghanistan is to find the next leadership of this country. So I am not going to be happy to be known as the only man. No, that is no good. That is a shortcoming, not a plus. I hope I can as soon as possible, work on the new leadership. Afghanistan will be a good, strong country if it has leaders. And that is my goal.
Some of the leaders stepping forward now are ethnic leaders, former commanders and warlords who have parties and their own TV stations.
But they are not leaders. They are rich people.
Is that not a problem?
Well, Afghanistan has to go through this. We can't stop people from aspiring to be leaders. Rich men can be leaders. Any one can aspire to be a leader. The country will be wise to decide on them, just like any western democracy. The freedom to vote for people and unvote.
And if they do so along ethnic lines?
That will be a reality in Afghanistan for a long time. That's the practice all over the world. The Afghan people are an extremely united people. There is a very strong sense of history. Of Afghan-ness. There is a lot of depth in this country that does not fade easily. I am not worried about this at all.
But ethnicity tore this country apart during the civil war.
Not at all. It was political parties backed by foreigners. They tried to use... ethnic [differences], but failed.
But won't those same powers try to regain power again?
They are doing it even now. But it won't work. To an extent it will impact us, but not deeply.
So given the situation of security we are seeing today, do you think things are going to get better any time soon?
Look, we must work very hard with the international community, with international forces to bring safe elections to Afghanistan, so Afghan people can come and vote. A month from now we will start the registration process. The elections will take place. The Afghans want to have the right to vote. Things will get better here. We have to make it work, period. View this article on Afghan Corruption a Growing Concern
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Afghans doubt U.S. intentions: report
By Sayed Salahuddin Wed Aug 20, 8:15 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghans believe the United States knows about al Qaeda bases in Pakistan, but does not hit them because it wants an unstable Afghanistan to justify its presence for wider regional goals, a state newspaper said on Wednesday.
While many Afghans have vented such thoughts for some time, it was the first time a state newspaper which generally reflects the government's view has expressed them, and may point to a souring of relations between Afghanistan and its biggest backer.
Ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan, both major U.S. allies in its war against Islamic militants, have hit new lows with the Afghan government accusing Pakistan of funding and training Taliban and al Qaeda fighters for cross-border attacks.
Nearly seven years after U.S.-led and Afghan forces overthrew the Taliban government for refusing to hand over al Qaeda leaders behind the Sept. 11 attacks, the heads of the militant groups are still at large and are thought to be hiding in Pakistan.
With more than 70,000 mainly Western troops based in Afghanistan, many Afghans believe the United States and its allies are deliberately not doing enough to halt the threat.
The United States always said it would attack the militants wherever they were, but in reality it has not done so, the state-run Anis daily said.
"The Afghan people have long doubted such claims of foreigners, especially of Britain and America, and their trust about crushing al Qaeda and terrorism has fallen," Anis said.
"The people have the right to think that there is something in the wind," it said. "No one believes stability and peace will be restored to Afghanistan until the training and equipping sites of the Taliban are closed."
U.S. unmanned aircraft have made a number of air strikes on militant leaders inside Pakistan's border region in recent years, but Western analysts say Washington fears large-scale attacks would anger Pakistanis and weaken the government there.
But Anis said Afghans believe Washington wants to keep Afghanistan unstable in order to justify the presence of its troops due to Afghanistan's geographical location bordering Iran and central Asia's rich oil- and gas-producing nations.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been increasingly critical of his Western backers in recent months, saying air strikes against Taliban insurgents have achieved nothing but the deaths of Afghan civilians.
Many in the West and the international community meanwhile have bemoaned Karzai's lack of action against corrupt and inept state officials who undermine efforts to rebuild the country.
Western leaders have set no timetable for the withdrawal of
troops from Afghanistan, saying an eventual pull-out depends on when Afghan forces are capable of standing on their own feet.
(Editing by Roger Crabb)
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Sarkozy visits Kabul after French soldiers killed
By JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - French President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed Wednesday that French troops would stick it out in Afghanistan despite an exceptionally deadly attack and frustration at home about the war.
"We have to be here," he said while visiting Kabul, adding that he had no regrets about sending 700 reinforcements to the French contingent. "If it had to be done again, I would do it."
Sarkozy spoke to French troops from units who lost some of the 10 soldiers killed in a fierce Taliban ambush and firefight in mountains about 30 miles east of Kabul on Monday. It was the deadliest attack on international troops in Afghanistan since 2005.
Sarkozy spread his message to listeners in Europe whose countries also have troops coping with mounting violence in Afghanistan.
"The work you are doing here is vital. I say that ... to your comrades in Europe because there are soldiers from the whole of Europe here," he said.
"The best way of remaining faithful to your comrades is to continue the work, to lift your heads, to be professional.
"A part of the world's freedom is at stake here. This is where the fight against terrorism is being waged," he said.
Sarkozy visited a military chapel in Kabul on Wednesday where the bodies of 10 French soldiers killed in battle lay before they were to be flown home.
The French president also visited some of the 21 soldiers wounded in the battle. He told a group of about 200 soldiers that France must learn lessons from the attack and change its procedures.
"We're going to make sure that the means are put in place to ensure that this doesn't happen again," he vowed.
Meanwhile, survivors of the ambush criticized France's handling of the attack and the leader of the opposition Socialists raised questions about the French troop presence in Afghanistan.
French survivors of the battle quoted in Le Monde on Wednesday said French soldiers were hit by friendly fire from NATO aircraft trying to free them, and that the troops waited four hours for reinforcements. There was no immediate official reaction to the claims.
U.S. Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said the Pentagon had "no reports of fratricide caused by close air support."
Socialist Party chief Francois Hollande called for an emergency parliamentary meeting to discuss "this presence there in Afghanistan."
He did not call for a pullout of French troops. "We should not make precipitous choices because of this drama. We must redefine the mission and set precise goals," he said on France-Info radio.
The Socialists sought to block Sarkozy's decision earlier this year to boost the French contingent in Afghanistan to about 2,600 troops after the U.S. pressed NATO allies to shoulder more of the combat burden in Afghanistan.
French newspapers Wednesday expressed horror at the attack, and some editorialists criticized Sarkozy for giving in too easily to Washington's pleas for help. Some questioned how the French troops are being utilized.
The center-right Le Figaro asked, "if the aims are just, are the tactics being used to achieve them correct?"
But Le Figaro and other papers generally supported the idea of keeping French troops on the ground. Even the left-leaning Liberation said, "the worst solution obviously would be retreat."
Sarkozy met Wednesday with Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the presidential palace. Karzai attributed the recent rise in violence in his country to the lack of attention that NATO and Afghanistan has paid to militant sanctuaries and training grounds, a clear reference to Pakistan's tribal area.
"Unless we do that (pay more attention) we will continue to suffer," Karzai said.
The French soldiers were on a reconnaissance mission when they were ambushed by a force of about 100 militants in the mountains of Surobi.
French Defense Minister Herve Morin said about 30 militants were killed and 30 wounded. Taliban fighters and militants allied to renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar operate in Surobi.
It was the deadliest attack on international troops in Afghanistan since June 2005, when 16 American soldiers were killed when their helicopter was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade.
Militants are showing greater determination to confront U.S. and NATO troops in their attempt to wrest back the control they lost nearly seven years ago.
In the latest violence, some 19 Taliban fighters were killed in two separate clashes in the eastern provinces of Khost and Paktia, while a U.S.-led coalition soldier was killed by militants while on patrol in the west of the country.
Ten militants were killed in Alisher district of Khost province early Wednesday after they attacked a construction company, said provincial police chief Esmatullah Alizai. He said Afghan police and coalition troops responded, killing the militants.
The Khost governor, Arsallah Jamal, said one construction worker was wounded in the attack.
Another nine militants were killed in clashes in Zormat district of Paktia province on Wednesday, said Abdul Qayum Bakizoy, the provincial police chief. The militants had gathered in an open area when Afghan and foreign troops attacked them, Bakizoy said. There were no casualties among Afghan and foreign troops.
A coalition soldier was killed by small arms fire while on patrol in western Afghanistan, the coalition said in a statement Wednesday without identifying the soldier's nationality.
More than 3,400 people — mostly militants — have been killed in insurgency-related violence this year, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Western and Afghan officials.
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Associated Press writer Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.
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Sarkozy tells French troops in Afghanistan to keep fighting
by Philippe Alfroy Wed Aug 20, 9:02 AM ET
KABUL, Aug 20, 2008 (AFP) - President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday told French soldiers mourning 10 comrades killed by the Taliban that their work in Afghanistan was essential for the "freedom of the world" and must continue.
Sarkozy travelled to Kabul with his Defence Minister Herve Morin and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner for a lightning visit to show support after the 10 were killed and 21 others wounded in a battle with Taliban rebels this week.
It was the deadliest toll in ground fighting for international forces sent to Afghanistan after the Taliban regime was routed in late 2001, and the heaviest for French troops in 25 years.
"I came to tell you that the work that you are doing here is essential," Sarkozy told the troops at their base at Camp Warehouse on the outskirts of Kabul.
"The best way to be loyal to your comrades is to continue your work, is to raise your heads, to be professional."
Sarkozy visited a morgue where the 10 bodies were held before being repatriated, and spoke to survivors of the battle, including some of the wounded being treated in a camp hospital.
He said that even after the shock of Monday's deadly ambush about 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of Kabul, he was convinced French troops needed to be in Afghanistan alongside those of other nations in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
"Why are we here? It is because here we play a part in the freedom of the the world. Here we are fighting against terrorism," he said.
Sarkozy later met Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who expressed his condolences and said a recent surge in extremist attacks in Afghanistan showed that more attention had to paid to the threat of terrorism.
Karzai also reiterated calls for his international partners to focus on extremist sanctuaries he says are based primarily across the border in Pakistan.
"The rise in violence is attributed directly to our lack of attention -- the allies and all of us -- to the sanctuaries, to the training grounds, to the financial resources, of terrorists and the Taliban," Karzai said.
"And unless we do that, we will continue to suffer," he said.
There are nearly 70,000 international soldiers in Afghanistan, most of them in the 40-nation ISAF, to help the government tackle a growing insurgency led by the Taliban who are linked with Al-Qaeda.
France's contribution of 3,000 troops to ISAF is one of the largest, after those of the United States, Britain and Germany.
After just five hours in the country, Sarkozy and his ministers returned to France, with a separate plane due to follow carrying the dead troops and some of the wounded.
A total of 23 French troops have now been killed in action or in accidents in Afghanistan since French soldiers were deployed in 2002.
Sarkozy, who paid a brief visit to Afghanistan in December, has pushed for an expansion in France's military role in the country despite polls showing public opinion does not support such a move.
He announced French reinforcements to Afghanistan at a NATO summit in April -- drawing fierce criticism at home from left-wing opponents who saw the move as a sign of French alignment with US policy.
The French army and ISAF in Kabul meanwhile refused to comment on a report in Le Monde newspaper quoting French soldiers who had survived the ambush saying they came under fire from NATO planes that had come to help them escape.
The soldiers also complained they had to wait for four hours before any backup was sent.
There was also new violence in Afghanistan, with a US-led coalition soldier killed in fighting with insurgents in the west and more than a dozen rebels killed in the east, according to the force.
With the last death, 177 foreign soldiers have died in Afghanistan this year, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Most have died in combat with insurgents.
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NATO To Probe Friendly Fire Report In Afghanistan - Official
BRUSSELS (AFP)--The North Atlantic Treaty Organization will "look into" a report that French soldiers were hit by planes from the alliance that had come to help them escape a Taliban ambush in Afghanistan, an official said Wednesday.
"We are aware of the media reports and therefore we have to look into it," the official told AFP.
"I have nothing substantive to confirm or deny this particular suggestion," he added.
He was responding to a report in France's Le Monde newspaper that quoted French soldiers who had survived the ambush Monday near Kabul.
The soldiers said that once they had fallen into the ambush they had to wait for four hours before any back-up was sent.
When NATO planes finally arrived to help them they sometimes missed their target and hit French troops, the paper quotes the soldiers as saying.
Afghan soldiers sent in as back-up also mistakenly targeted the French soldiers, it said.
The NATO official said that the alliance's International Security Assistance Force "would probably defer in the first instance to the French authorities," in the search for the truth.
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France: No Comment On Report NATO Jets Hit Afghanistan Troops
PARIS (AFP)--The French army refused to comment Tuesday on a report that French soldiers were hit by North Atlantic Treaty Organization planes that had come to help them escape a Taliban ambush in Afghanistan which left 10 of their men dead.
"Each thing in its proper time...there is a time for compassion, for solidarity...we will learn the lessons of this event," said army chief of staff General Elrick Irastorza.
He was responding to a report in France's Le Monde newspaper that quoted French soldiers who had survived the ambush Monday near Kabul. The soldiers said that once they had fallen into the ambush they had to wait for four hours before any backup was sent.
"We had no more ammunition for our other weapons and we were left only with our Famas (assault rifles)," one soldier, who wasn't named, was quoted as saying. When NATO planes finally arrived to help them they sometimes missed their target and hit French troops, the paper quotes the soldiers as saying.
Afghan soldiers sent in as backup also mistakenly targeted the French soldiers, it said.
Junior Defense Minister Jean-Marie Bockel, asked to comment on Le Monde's report, said: "this is not the time for polemics, this is a day of compassion, of national unity around our soldiers."
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Afghan leader calls for more attention to extremism
Wed Aug 20, 7:13 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai expressed sadness Wednesday over the killing of 10 French soldiers, saying after talks with his French counterpart that the fight against extremists needed more attention.
Karzai met President Nicolas Sarkozy in his palace just before the French leader left Afghanistan after a quick visit to support French soldiers following the deadly Taliban ambush and clashes on Monday and Tuesday.
"I want to express ... the condolences and the pain of the Afghan people to the French people for the loss that they suffered," he told reporters after meeting Sarkozy.
"France has been a great friend of Afghanistan and a great supporter of Afghanistan, and we are tremendously saddened and shaken."
The incident 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of Kabul was the deadliest in ground fighting for international forces sent to Afghanistan after the extremist Taliban regime was routed in late 2001.
It comes amid a surge in insurgency-linked violence across the country, with more foreign fighters reported on the battlefield in support of Taliban militants.
Karzai reiterated calls for his international military partners to focus on extremist sanctuaries and support networks he says are based primarily across the border in Pakistan, instead of only fighting rebels in Afghanistan.
"The rise in violence is attributed directly to our lack of attention -- the allies and all of us -- to the sanctuaries, to the training grounds, to the financial resources, of terrorists and the Taliban," Karzai said.
"And unless we do that, we will continue to suffer," he said.
Pakistan says the root of the militant problem is in Afghanistan and points to its ongoing operations in its tribal border regions.
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NATO general says Pakistan chaos emboldens Taliban
By KATHY GANNON, Associated Press Writer Wed Aug 20, 8:26 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - Drawing strength from the chaos in neighboring Pakistan, Afghan insurgents are using their growing control of the border area to plot increasingly brazen attacks against international forces, the NATO commander in Afghanistan said.
U.S. Gen. David D. McKiernan, who took over the NATO command in Afghanistan in June, said attacks have spiked this year. McKiernan said the insurgency is drawing its strength from a "deterioration of conditions across the border in Pakistan."
"Militant sanctuaries are expanding in the tribal areas," McKiernan told The Associated Press on Monday. He said insurgents are mustering larger forces against international troops and carrying out more roadside bombings, suicide attacks and ambushes.
The U.S. and NATO are concerned the weak hold Pakistan's new government has on the tribal region, where they fear cease-fire deals have allowed militants based in the frontier areas to step up attacks across the border in Afghanistan and plot attacks on the West.
McKiernan, who described the insurgency as "resilient," said the most violent attacks come near the Pakistani border and are often connected to Afghanistan's ring road that links the country's major cities.
Earlier this week, militants ambushed a group of French soldiers, killing 10 in a gorge just 20 miles outside the capital, Kabul.
And in a July attack that left nine American troops dead, upwards of 200 insurgents ambushed U.S. soldiers in a mountainous region that borders two Pakistani districts so troublesome that Pakistan was forced to send in troops this month despite the government's attempts at a truce.
Over the past several months McKiernan said NATO has seen an influx of Chechens, Turks and Middle Eastern fighters as well as "sometimes Europeans."
Some are coming through Iran and others are getting off international flights at Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi before heading northwest to training camps in the border regions. Worrying to McKiernan is the increased ease with which insurgents operate in the border areas and their unhindered forays into Afghanistan.
The four-star U.S. general, who commands the 53,000-strong International Security Assistance Force, said soldiers are operating in a complex environment battling a resilient insurgency.
McKiernan said the insurgency has benefited from Pakistani sanctuaries and a deepening sense of insecurity in Afghanistan caused by criminal gangs, drug traffickers, and smugglers often accused of links with government officials.
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Karzai on Musharraf: Good Riddance
By ARYN BAKER / KABUL time.com
The President of Afghanistan remains unrelenting in his criticism of neighboring Pakistan, even as that nation begins a sensitive political transition. In an interview with TIME in Kabul, Hamid Karzai said the way to fix Afghanistan is to fix things in Pakistan. "Arrivals and departures don't matter much," said Karzai, coolly referring to the resignation of his counterpart, Pervez Musharraf, with whom he had particularly testy relations. "What matters is institutional corrections." His government has exchanged increasingly harsh words with Islamabad over the past few months, alleging a Pakistani hand in Afghanistan's security problems. He was particularly pointed about Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency. "If Pakistan is using radicalism as a tool of policy for strategic depth in Afghanistan, well, I wish to tell them that it won't work," Karzai said.
Karzai clearly believes that the growing violence in Afghanistan is the result of ISI support for the resurgent Taliban, a group whose regime was cultivated by the Pakistani spy agency until 9/11. During the past 24 hours, two waves of eight suicide bombers have attacked the U.S. base in Khost; and 10 French soldiers, part of the NATO force, have been killed in an ongoing battle near Kabul. In his interview, Karzai was sympathetic toward Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who has tried in vain to impose civilian control over the ISI. "Mr. Gilani is a good man," said Karzai. "He has the right intentions. I hope he gets the tools of control. That is for the Pakistani government to decide, and that is for us and the international community to help him with."
While wishing Musharraf's successor as head of government well, Karzai also held out an olive branch to General Ashfaq Kayani, Musharraf's successor as head of the Pakistani military - a position that remains a center of power in that country. Kayani visited the U.S. Air Force base at Bagram today, and Karzai said he spoke to the Pakistani general to welcome him. He said he told Kayani that "Afghanistan cannot achieve peace or prosperity without friendly relations with Pakistan." He added, "I hope [Kayani] recognizes that what they are doing [in terms of supporting militancy in Afghanistan] is causing immense damage to Pakistan itself. Someone has to recognize this need for change and for a modern relationship with Afghanistan, a civilized relationship. I hope it will occur."
On that point, Karzai was adamant. If Pakistan does not change "its policy towards its neighbor, there will be trouble," he said. He decried efforts he sees as attempting to restore the Taliban regime that are beholden to the ISI. A destabilized Afghanistan, he said, "having a weak puppet government" will only affect Pakistan's restive border provinces, replicating "what is happening in Afghanistan." It is from those regions of Pakistan, he reiterated, that the terrorism that plagues Afghanistan originates. Said Karzai: "The war against terrorism will not be won unless and until we go to the sanctuaries, to the training grounds, to the financiers, to the motivators of hatred that come across the border to kill us all." Those tribal territories of Pakistan, he said, "will not be peaceful as long as [the ISI's policy] continues. When that changes, yes, the tribal territories will become peaceful." View this article on Time.com
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Afghan, coalition forces kill over 20 Taliban
Wed, Aug 20 03:24 PM
Kabul, Aug 20 (DPA) Afghan and US-led coalition forces killed more than 20 militants, including foreign fighters, in two incidents in southeast Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday.
Taliban militants attacked construction company workers Wednesday in the Alishir district of Khost province, provincial Governor Arsala Jamal said.
'Ten Taliban militants were killed when Afghan and US military forces arrived at the scene and clashed with the attackers,' he said.
The latest bloodshed in Khost came a day after 10 suicide bombers were killed by US and Afghan soldiers after they tried to enter a US military base in the province. In another attack against the same base, 10 Afghan civilians were killed and 13 were wounded Monday in a suicide car bombing.
Meanwhile, more than 10 militants, including foreign fighters, were killed and at least 10 were wounded Tuesday night when a coalition aircraft bombed Taliban positions in Paktia province, said Esmatuallah Alizai, provincial police chief.
'We had intelligence that militants had gathered in a valley in Aleemkhel village in Zormat district,' he said, adding, 'Coalition forces bombed their position and killed more than 10 militants, including Arab and Chechen fighters.
Police recovered the bodies of militants and a rebel commander, named Toofan, was among the dead, Alizai said.
Taliban militants have stepped up their attacks against Afghan and international forces in recent weeks. Ten French soldiers were killed Tuesday in a Taliban attack east of Kabul.
More than 3,000 people - mostly insurgents but also including about 1,000 civilians and more than 170 international soldiers - have been killed so far this year.
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FACTBOX - Security developments in Afghanistan, Aug 20
August 20 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan reported until 1050 GMT on Wednesday:
KHOST - Afghan and foreign troops killed more "than a dozen" insurgents in a clash backed by air support on Wednesday in the southeastern province of Khost, the U.S. military said.
The fighting erupted after the insurgents attacked a group of construction workers, it said, but did not say if there were any casualties among the workers or the troops.
PAKTIA - Foreign troops killed 10 Taliban insurgents in an air raid in neighbouring Paktia, a provincial official said on Wednesday.
WESTERN AFGHANISTAN - A soldier from the U.S.-led coalition force was killed on Wednesday by small arms fire while on combat patrol in western Afghanistan, the military said separately.
KUNDUZ - The body of a local driver for the French aid group ACTED who was kidnapped and then murdered on Tuesday was found in the northern province of Kunduz, the agency said on its Web site.
KANDAHAR - A blast hit a convoy of Canadian soldiers from the NATO-led force in southern Kandahar on Wednesday, but it was not immediately clear if there were any casualties, an official said. (Compiled by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by David Fogarty)
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AFGHANISTAN: Dust storms cause health problems in west
20 Aug 2008 14:22:50 GMT
HERAT, 20 August 2008 (IRIN) - Unusually strong winds carrying dust from the parched land have increased respiratory and eye diseases in western Afghanistan, according to health and environmental officials.
The winds - known locally as "the 120-day winds" - usually begin in early July and go on until late September in Herat Province, the provincial department of agriculture said. This year's winds have been unusually strong, destructive and dust-laden.
"Because of drought, climate change, environmental degradation and lack of vegetation, the wind is extremely strong and dusty this time - unprecedented in several decades," Akhtar Mohammad Mahboob, an official at the provincial department of environmental protection, told IRIN.
"Serious" air pollution has been caused in Herat Province by the swirling dust and there has been a significant increase in reported cases of respiratory and eye diseases, public health officials said.
Reports from eight health centres in Herat city showed 8,338 cases of acute respiratory disorder and 10,609 cases of eye problems over the past two months, compared to 3,416 respiratory and 2,567 ophthalmologic referrals in the same period last year, Mohammad Zarif Akbaryan, an official at Herat's health department, told IRIN.
Akbaryan said that they advised people to use any protective means available when going outdoors. He said that women, children and the elderly were the most vulnerable.
Damage to agricultural land
Herat agricultural officials said the winds were a mixture of gales and whirlwinds and had caused extensive damage to agriculture.
"Usually these winds damage 2-3cm of topsoil, but this year preliminary assessments indicate that damage has been caused up to 12cm down," said Abdullah Khawari, an official in the department of agriculture. He said soil fertility and agricultural production had been affected.
"The wind has also moved piles of sand onto agricultural land, damaging its fertility," Khawari said.
Afghanistan has lost over 70 percent of its forests and vegetation in the past three decades, leading to desertification and environmental degradation particularly in the south, east and west, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock.
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Green Beret: Leader Shot, Mutilated Afghan Man
Green Beret: Special Forces Team Leader 'grinned' As He Held Ear Of Afghan Man He Had Killed
FORT BRAGG, N.C., Aug. 19, 2008 via CBS News
(AP) The leader of an Army special forces team "grinned" as he held the ear of an Afghan man he suspected of being an insurgent after he shot him and left his body in the desert, a Green Beret testified Tuesday.
The testimony by Sgt. 1st Class Ricky Derring came at a military hearing for his team leader, Master Sgt. Joseph D. Newell, who could face court martial on a murder charge in the March 5 killing of the Afghan civilian.
Derring said Newell returned to the spot where he left the man's body and "made a stabbing motion and I could see his arms cutting." Newell then walked back to the team's vehicle with the man's ear in his hand, Derring said.
"He shook the ear and grinned," Derring said.
Under cross examination by Newell's civilian attorney Todd Conormon, Derring said he didn't actually see Newell cut off the man's ear.
The Article 32 hearing that is expected to last two days is similar to a civilian grand jury. It is not used to decide guilt, only whether there's enough evidence to court martial Newell, who was assigned to the Fort Bragg-based 3rd Special Forces Group. The Army has not released details about Newell such as his age, hometown and how long he has served.
Derring said his team was escorting a convoy of supplies in Helmand province, when they spotted two civilian cars in the distance. The soldiers fired a warning shot and went to investigate.
Derring, a 50-caliber machine gunner on the team, said Newell asked the man through an interpreter whether he was an insurgent or had improvised explosive devices. He questioned him about a photo of a weapon on his cell phone.
"Joe was asking him questions: Where did he get the phone, was he placing IEDs, was he Taliban," Derring testified during a hearing at Fort Bragg, a sprawling Army base near Fayetteville.
Derring said the man answered no. But Derring said he, Newell and the interpreter believed the man was an insurgent because Taliban forces often use cell phones to communicate and call in their locations.
Newell drew his gun and shot him, left him in the desert, then returned and cut off his ear, Derring testified. Newell took the body to another place in the desert, "and kicked and over his face a little bit," Derring said.
Derring responded to Conormon's questions about hard feelings between Newell and other team members. Derring said they would argue about tactics and other matters, adding that Newell had to assert himself because he was a newer member of the team.
Derring said he was upset about the shooting and later told another sergeant what had happened.
"He basically said Master Sgt. Newell had a screw loose," Derring said.
Newell later talked to Derring about the killing, during which Derring told Newell he never wanted to be in that kind of situation, Derring said.
"He told me, 'Don't worry, nothing will come of it.' He said, 'if it does, I'll just say I was attacked,'" Derring testified.
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Bulgarian troops in Afghanistan fighting fit
19:32 Wed 20 Aug 2008 - Elitsa Savova Sofia Echo, Bulgaria
Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov has sent a letter of condolence to his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy regarding the death of 10 French soldiers, part of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.
Purvanov expressed his confidence that the loss would not impede France’s active efforts towards the stabilisation of Afghanistan, a goal Bulgaria was also wedded to, the letter read, as quoted by the President’s office.
On August 19, 10 French soldiers were killed and 31 were injured in a Taleban fighters’ ambush east of Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul. The assault was carried out amid warnings that insurgents are closing in on the capital city, BBC said. It was the heaviest loss suffered by the French military since 58 paratroopers were killed in Beirut in 1983. Following the assault, Sarkozy insisted France remained committed to the fight against terrorism, and that the mission in Afghanistan would continue.
Bulgarian troops in Afghanistan were in tip top fighting condition following the ambush, Major-General Galimir Pehlivanov, from the General Staff of Bulgarian Army, told journalists. The troops had received orders to upgrade security measures and were in close communication with rapid reaction forces and the helicopter support, because there were tip-offs regarding assaults linked to the celebration of Afghanistan’s independence from the UK (August 19), Pehlivanov said as quoted by mediapool.bg.
He insisted there was no direct threat for the Bulgarian troops. They continue to patrol in their zones and carried out their everyday tasks, he said.
Currently, there are 490 Bulgarian army personnel in Afghanistan,serving in the capital of Kabul and at Kandahar international airport.
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US faces up to life without Musharraf
By Syed Saleem Shahzad Asia Times Online / August 20, 2008
KARACHI - Sixty-five-year-old Pervez Musharraf's biggest problem now is to decide where to spend his retirement years; in Pakistan, which he has dominated politically for nearly nine years, or in exile, far from the madding crowd he would leave behind him.
For Musharraf's erstwhile supporters in Washington, the search has already begun to find a replacement for the man who in 2001 dramatically reversed his country's alignment to make it a key player in the "war on terror" and made himself an indispensable component of the US's policies in the region.
That usefulness ran its course and, bowing to the inevitable, Musharraf on Monday resigned as president: "I eventually decided to quit without creating a fuss, in the supreme national interest." Indeed, Musharraf had become a part of the problem, rather than the solution, and he had to go: this was the clear message from the US and his political foes in Pakistan, who had begun proceedings this week to have him impeached.
Musharraf seized power in October 1999 in a bloodless coup, and ruled with an iron fist through tumultuous years that saw Pakistan first abandon its traditional Taliban allies in Afghanistan, paving the way for their ouster from power in the US-led invasion of 2001, and then itself become a hotbed of Taliban and al-Qaeda militancy in the tribal areas and beyond.
The seeds for Musharraf's demise were sown in March last year when he suspended Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. Chaudhry's defiance mobilized a lawyers' movement to defend the judiciary and also emboldened Musharraf's political opposition.
In November, Musharraf, as chief of army staff, imposed a state of emergency and sacked the judiciary before the Supreme Court could rule on the legality of his re-election as president.
He then shed his uniform, and under a Washington-brokered deal tried to put the country back on a democratic path by holding general elections in February. His party (Pakistan Muslim League - Qaid) was trounced, leading to the establishment of a coalition government headed by the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), led by another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif.
"Musharraf had lost his utility as a useful asset for the 'war on terror'," retired general Hamid Gul, a security analyst and former director general of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), told Asia Times Online.
"The Americans had been putting pressure on Islamabad since February for him to get its act together against the Taliban and al-Qaeda and Pakistan's foreign minister [Shah Mahmood Qureshi] and Pakistan's ambassador to Washington, Husain Haqqani, always told Washington that the government could not move forward independently because of Musharraf," Gul said.
"Hence, Musharraf was politely told by Washington through various channels to gracefully resign, but he remained defiant and ultimately Washington pulled its support of him and the ruling coalition moved for his impeachment, which forced him to resign," Gul said.
Pakistan's constitution does not provide for a vice president, rather, the chairman of the upper house of parliament, the senate, currently Mohammad Mian Somo, becomes caretaker president until a new one is chosen by an electoral college, a process that could take up to three months.
Steadfast until a few days before his emotional resignation speech, Musharraf was believed to be planning to dismiss the provincial assemblies and dissolve parliament, something he was empowered to do under the constitution.
But Asia Times Online has learned that he was clearly informed by his former subordinate and now army chief of staff, General Asfaq Parvez Kiani, that the military would stay neutral and not intervene in the political process; that is, Musharraf would be hung out to dry by his former constituency.
"The army will play the same role it played from 1996 to 1998," Gul said, without elaborating. What he meant was that the military will maintain an independent and strong policy on Afghanistan in which the political government has no role or its role is restricted to giving political support to the military's operational policies.
"The American role has always been paramount in Pakistan's politics. The late General Zia ul-Haq was defiant of Washington's interests and he faced an accidental death [in a mysterious plane accident in 1988]. Had Musharraf tried to exercise [his constitutional powers to dissolve the assemblies], he would also have been obstructing American interests in the region and would have faced a Zia-like fate," said retired spy master Gul, who was in charge of the ISI at the time of Haq's demise.
"Now the Americans will have to use the two remaining national assets for their interests - the political parties and the army chief [Kiani]. Washington abhors Nawaz Sharif, so they will distance themselves from him and focus on Asif Zardari [the widower of Benazir Bhutto and head of the PPP].
"Zardari, because of corruption cases [that have been leveled against him] can be easily manipulated and therefore he will act obediently on their advice," Gul maintained, adding that the crucial role is that of the army chief, so the Americans will focus on him. "I suspect that Kiani is already part of their game."
Who's for president?
The jockeying for president has begun in earnest. Bilawal Zardari, the son of Benazir Bhutto and PPP chairman, said in the southern port city of Karachi that Musharraf's replacement should come from the PPP.
The PML-N counters that the person will be chosen through mutual consultation, while independent observers say that Asfandyar Wali Khan, the chief of the Awami National Party (ANP), which governs North-West Frontier Province, is the man for the job.
If Musharraf's exit was a part of the American game, the US needs to make sure that its third asset in the country, along with the political parties and the military, is close to Washington.
Asfandyar fulfills this criterion. He is a grandson of "Frontier" Gandhi Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, whose family has always been close to Delhi and Kabul and he would be the best connection in helping shut down the war theater in Afghanistan. As a Pashtun nationalist, he and his party are opposed to the Taliban.
Asfandyar was a flagbearer of the red revolution in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but he switched sides soon after September 11, 2001, after he visited the US under an international visitors' leadership program.
In 2006, he was again invited to the US for talks on the US's anti-terrorism policy and he visited Central Command headquarters for briefings. But the most significant visit was in May this year, after the important February polls that ushered in a civilian government, when Asfandyar spent time with officials at Central Command in Tampa, Florida, as well as a week in Washington meeting top State Department officials.
This is believed to have been in preparation for his new role in the Pashtun lands that span Pakistan and Afghanistan and the Pashtun areas controlled by the Taliban-led insurgency in these countries.
Gul comments, "Yes, he could be the one, but Asfandyar failed to uphold his promised role to control militancy in the tribal areas without [resort to] military operations. During the period his party [ANP] has governed North-West Frontier Province, military operations have been conducted in Khyber Agency, Bajaur [Agency] and South Waziristan.
"In my opinion, Nawab Attaullah Mengal, a Baloch politician, should be the president of the country, given the recent mistreatments done in Balochistan province in the name of military operations," Gul said.
A taste of things to come
The few weeks before Musharraf's exit witnessed a major military operation in Bajaur Agency on the border with Afghanistan's Kunar province to root out al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.
Such operations are not new in the troubled tribal areas, but this one was characterized by heavy aerial bombardment, eventually forcing the Taliban to pull back. They had targeted the agency to disrupt the flow of supplies into Afghanistan to support the Western coalition there.
"There was no reason to use such brute force in a tribal area like Bajaur," said Gul. Compared to North and South Waziristan, where militancy is deep-rooted, the terrain is much more hospitable in Bajaur.
"The only reason for such military action was to destroy the Taliban's approaches to Kunar, where American forces are all-out to get the Taliban. Kunar province lies in the northeast [and connects to Kabul]. Previously, the Taliban were focused only on southeastern provinces," Gul said.
"This is the role Washington wants the Pakistani army to play. The cost is paid by Pakistanis and 250,000 people were displaced during the Bajaur operation," Gul added, pointing to the fact that in terms of security issues, especially those relating to Afghanistan, Pakistan is still joined at the hip with the US, for which it has since 2001 received over US$10 billion in aid and military equipment.
As Musharraf heads in the next few days to Saudi Arabia to perform umra (pilgrimage), and a possible life in exile - he is, after all, a prime al-Qaeda target - he can only contemplate whether his successor will be any better in balancing these US needs with Pakistan's own interests.
Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief.
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Afghanistan: More troops needed to stop Taliban attacks, says think-tank
AKI - Security 20 August, 2008
Rome-This week's violent attacks in Afghanistan underscore the resurgence of the Taliban and the failure of international efforts to prevent their attacks.
That is the view of the Senlis Council, the London-based development think-tank, a day after 10 French soldiers were killed and another 21 were injured in one of the worst attacks on foreign troops in the country.
In an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI), Almas Bawar Zakhilwal, a native Afghan and director of the Senlis Council in Canada, said Western leaders had failed to recognise the strength of the Taliban which was now on the "doorstep" of the capital, Kabul.
"Whatever we are doing in Afghanistan is not working," Zakhilwal told AKI. "We need more troops on the ground to deal with the increased insurgency and to come back at the Taliban."
This week Taliban insurgents mounted their most complicated attacks in six years of fighting - while 100 insurgents targeted the French troops, multiple suicide bombers attempted to attack a US military base in the eastern province of Khost.
"This year - 2008 - has been the deadliest year, there have been more attacks and more sophisticated attacks. This has had a psychological effect on the people of Afghanistan.
"They don't believe international troops can defeat the Taliban and if they think that we will lose their support."
Zakhilwal said Western leaders must urgently increase troop numbers and transfer peacekeepers, including German troops currently based in the north, into combat roles.
"What the Taliban has done is to spread their lines, they are overstretching the military," he said. "Small pockets of insurgents are operating in different areas which makes it harder for NATO troops to fight.
"Tuesday's attacks show that the Taliban is on the steps of Kabul. It looks like the Taliban are attacking Kabul from three sides - south, west and east."
Zakhilwal said apart from increasing troop numbers, more needed to be done to prevent the cross border movement of militants from Pakistan.
"Afghanistan is key in the war on terror," he said. "If we fail it is about global security, global terrorism. Afghanistan is the key to winning the war on terror, not Iraq."
The Senlis Council, an independent security and development policy group, has research offices throughout Afghanistan, has been documenting the Taliban’s activities since 2006.
It has documented a number of violent attacks that have taken place across the country in the past week from Khost in the east to Kandahar in the south.
The council said there had also been heavy fighting in the southern province of Zabul where the government claimed to have killed 32 insurgents early this week.
It has predicted the situation will worsen in Afghanistan without a change of strategy and increasing troop numbers to a total of 80,000.
The French losses were the worst suffered by the French army in a single incident since 58 paratroopers were killed by a suicide bomber in Lebanon in 1983 and the worst in combat with enemy forces since the Algerian war that ended in 1962.
Since the attack on Monday, 183 foreign soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan this year, including 99 Americans.
In 2007, a total of 232 foreign troops were killed, the highest number since the war began in 2001.
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Goodbye Musharraf, hello Taliban
Asia Times By Syed Saleem Shahzad Aug 21, 2008
KARACHI - As if on cue, the Taliban launched two of their most daring attacks in Afghanistan on the day that Pervez Musharraf resigned as president of Pakistan, opening up a political vacuum in that country and throwing into doubt its continued cooperation in the United States' "war on terror".
Over 100 Taliban ambushed French soldiers on patrol with Afghan National Army troops at Sarobi, just 50 kilometers south of the capital, Kabul, killing 10 Frenchmen and injuring 21 in a battle that raged for more than 12 hours. France has 2,600 soldiers in Afghanistan, mostly as part of the International Security
Assistance Force (ISAF), and has lost 24 in action or accidents since sending them there in 2002.
In another incident, several car bombs on the perimeter of Camp Salerno, the US's second-largest base in Afghanistan, in Khost province 20 kilometers from the Pakistan border, killed 10 Afghans and wounded 13. Seven insurgents including six suicide bombers were killed, the ISAF said, denying a report by the Taliban that they had killed 40 American troops.
In Pakistan, the Taliban on Tuesday attacked a fort in Bajaur Agency, killing several security people. There was also a suicide attack in Dera Ismail Khan in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), targeting a Shi'ite gathering. There were several casualties, including some policemen.
These incidents highlight the Taliban-led insurgency's growing clout in Afghanistan and the militants' strength inside Pakistan.
The whole of NWFP, except for the Peshawar Valley, is in the hands of militants and Asia Times Online contacts confirm that al-Qaeda headquarters in the Waziristan tribal areas have developed a plan to step up attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan to stir up the masses and exploit the current difficulties in Islamabad following Musharraf's departure.
Asia Times Online's contacts in Pakistan's strategic quarters maintain the militants' action is a response to a recent meeting of a tripartite commission in Kabul comprising representatives from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Afghan army and the Pakistani army, at which a coordinated plan was drawn up to take on militants across the region. The militants want to step up attacks on Pakistan to force it to reduce its cooperation in this fight against the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
Significantly, the latest surge in violence in Afghanistan, especially in Wardak, 30 kilometers east of Kabul, and in Sarobi, is not the result of Taliban guerrillas alone. Local tribal chiefs, clerics and warlords who previously submitted to the writ of the Kabul government have rallied under the generic name of the Taliban to drive out foreign occupation forces.
The authoritative Senlis Council, an international policy think-tank, said in a statement on Wednesday that international efforts to contain the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan are failing and reinforcements are needed. The latest fighting "sends a clear message that current Western strategy in Afghanistan is failing", it said.
"Until now, Western leaders have been in denial about the true extent of Taliban presence in Afghanistan, and their ability to move swiftly on the Afghan capital." The council said NATO, which has about 53,000 soldiers in the country, should increase its force to 80,000.
A vacuum in Pakistan This is the security situation after nearly nine years of Musharraf acting (some would say not acting) as the US's point man in the "war in terror" - he was president as well as chief of army staff.
The direction Pakistan takes in the immediate post-Musharraf era will have a crucial bearing on the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan and militancy in Pakistan. The new president will not necessarily be integral to this - the position is now largely a ceremonial one. Rather, the military and the civilian government will determine the country's direction.
But within 24 hours of Musharraf's exit from the presidential palace tensions had already resurfaced between the lead parties of the ruling coalition government, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), led by another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif.
The parties had temporarily buried their differences in a drive to impeach Musharraf, but the problems have re-emerged, notably that of the reinstatement of the judiciary, which Musharraf dismissed last year to ensure his re-election as president.
Sharif is obsessed that the judiciary be restored, including deposed chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, as this was one of his main election promises. Asif Zardari, the widower of Benazir Bhutto and head of the PPP, has told Sharif that he does not trust Chaudhry. Zardari is concerned that Chaudhry will revoke the National Reconciliation Ordinance which protects him from corruption cases registered against him in local and international courts.
At the same time, Zardari aims to get indemnity through parliament for Musharraf against any possible charges, but this is the last thing to which Sharif would agree.
The lawyers' movement that emerged when the judiciary was dismissed is threatening more protests, and it has grown into a potent force.
This is clearly a government of disunity, destined to endless feuding and paralysis - a situation militants will exploit to the full, as they have since Musharraf shed his uniform last November.
One of the key tactics of Islamic militants is to exploit political power vacuums, economic crises or any other problems to push a country towards disintegration.
In Pakistan and Afghanistan, this process is underway. In Zardari's case, his presidential pardon through an ordinance could be withdrawn by the courts, and his political career would be over. In Kabul, President Hamid Karzai only survives because of the foreign troops in the country, and his writ barely extends beyond Kabul. If the militants manage to present themselves in an articulate manner to the masses, it would be a catalyst for change, and not the way the West would want.
"All sorts of social, political and economic vacuums are growing in Muslim societies and it is an historical fact that in the Muslim world the reaction to such situations has always emanated from movements led by the religious forces," Pakistani Muslim intellectual Shahnawaz Farooqui, author of three books on the relation of Islam and the West, told Asia Times Online.
The Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan and the militant strongholds in swathes of Pakistan appear to prove the point.
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Afghan War escalates with Taliban raid
By Carlotta Gall and Sangar Rahimi, The New York Times: August 20, 2008
KABUL, Afghanistan: Taliban insurgents mounted their most serious attacks in six years of fighting in Afghanistan over the last two days, including a coordinated assault by at least 10 suicide bombers against one of the largest American military bases in the country, and another by some 100 insurgents that killed 10 elite French paratroopers.
The attack on the French, which took place in a district near Kabul, added to the sense of siege around the capital and was the deadliest single loss for foreign troops in a ground battle since the United States-led invasion chased the Taliban from power in 2001.
Taken together, the attacks were part of a sharp escalation in fighting as insurgents have seized a window of opportunity to press their campaign this summer — taking advantage of a wavering NATO commitment, an outgoing American administration, a flailing Afghan government and a Pakistani government in deep disarray that has given the militants freer rein across the border.
As a result, this year is on pace to be the deadliest in the Afghan war so far, as the insurgent attacks show rising zeal and sophistication. The insurgents are employing not only a growing number of suicide and roadside bombs, but are also waging increasingly well organized and complex operations using multiple attackers with different types of weapons, NATO officials say.
NATO and American military officials blame much of the increased insurgent activity on the greater freedom of movement the militants have in Pakistan's tribal areas on the Afghan border. The turmoil in the Pakistani government, with the resignation of President Pervez Musharraf on Monday, has added to the sense of a vacuum of authority there.
But at least as important, the officials say, is the fact that Pakistan's military has agreed to a series of peace deals with the militants under which it stopped large-scale operations in the tribal areas in February, allowing the insurgents greater freedom to train, recruit and launch attacks into Afghanistan.
More foreign fighters are entering Afghanistan this summer than in previous years, NATO officials say, an indication that Al Qaeda and allied groups have been able to gather more foreigners in their tribal redoubts.
The push by the insurgents has taken a rising toll. Before the attack on Monday, 173 foreign soldiers had been killed in Afghanistan this year, including 99 Americans. In all of 2007, 232 foreign troops were killed, the highest number since the war began in 2001.
The attack with multiple suicide bombers, which struck Camp Salerno in the eastern province of Khost, wounded three American soldiers and six members of the Afghan Special Forces, Afghan officials said. It was one of the most complex attacks yet in Afghanistan, and included a backup fighting force that tried to breach defenses to the airport at the base.
The assault followed a suicide car bombing at the outer entrance to the same base on Monday morning, which killed 12 Afghan workers lining up to enter the base, and another attempted bombing that was thwarted later.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahed, reached by telephone at an unknown location, said Monday evening that the attack was carried out by 15 suicide bombers, each equipped with machine guns and explosives vests, and backed up by 30 more militants.
He also claimed that some of the bombers had breached the walls of the base and had killed a number of American soldiers and destroyed equipment and helicopters. This last claim was denied by General Zaher Azimi of the Afghan military.
The insurgents began attacking with rockets and mortars at 11 p.m. Monday, and a group of militants began to move toward the airport side of the base, the Afghan military said. An Afghan commando unit encircled them, killing 13 militants, including 10 who were wearing suicide vests, Azimi said.
A fierce battle raged through much of the night, until 7 a.m. Tuesday, said Arsala Jamal, the governor of Khost. American helicopter strikes against the militants, who were moving through a cornfield around the base, also struck a house in a village, killing two children and wounding two women and two men, the provincial police chief, Abdul Qayum Baqizoy, said.
The ambush on the French also began late Monday and continued into Tuesday, after they were ambushed by an unusually large insurgent force while on a joint reconnaissance mission with the Afghan Army in the district of Sarobi, 30 miles east of Kabul, according to a NATO statement.
The French troops, part of an elite paratrooper unit, had only recently taken over from American forces in the area as part of the expanded French deployment in Afghanistan under President Nicolas Sarkozy of France.
In addition to the 10 French soldiers killed, 21 were wounded, the NATO statement said. It was the deadliest attack on French troops since a 1983 assault in Beirut killed 58 French paratroopers serving in a United Nations force.
The latest casualties bring to 24 the number of French troops killed in action or in accidents in Afghanistan since French soldiers were first sent there in 2002.
The Taliban have seemingly made it part of their strategy to attack newly arriving forces, as well as those of NATO countries whose commitment to the war has appeared to waver, in an effort to influence public opinion in Europe. NATO countries have been under increasing pressure from the United States to increase their troop commitments to Afghanistan, which many have been hesitant to do.
The Taliban's surge in attacks also comes at a delicate moment in American political life, as the departing Bush administration will have to hand over control of the war to a new president, whose administration will need time to get up to speed.
But Sarkozy, who has been a a strong supporter of the United States, made it clear that the French would be undeterred.
"In its struggle against terrorism, France has just been hard hit," Sarkozy said in a statement. He left for Kabul late Tuesday night, where he said he would reassure French troops serving in the NATO force that "France is at their side."
But Sarkozy said France would not be deterred from its Afghan mission, where 3,000 troops are serving in a NATO force of more than 40,000 soldiers from nearly 40 nations.
"My determination is intact," he said. "France is committed to pursuing the struggle against terrorism, for democracy and for freedom. This is a just cause; it is an honor for France and for its army to defend it."
The Sarobi District has been the scene of a growing number of insurgent attacks in recent months, most thought to be instigated by fighters loyal to the renegade mujahedeen leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is allied with the Taliban but not formally part of the movement.
Hekmatyar, who NATO officials say is based in Pakistan, has increased his militant activity in northeast Afghanistan and around Kabul, while the Taliban, foreign fighters and Al Qaeda have accelerated their attacks in the east, southeast and south.
The increase in insurgent activity just northeast of Kabul is part of an attempt by the insurgents to encircle the capital and put pressure on the Afghan government and the foreign forces, some NATO and Afghan officials say.
Insurgent activity has also increased sharply in recent months in two provinces, Logar and Wardak, south of the capital, sometimes making the main roads impassable and sharpening the sense of violence encroaching on Kabul.
The deployment of elite French troops to the area was intended to reinforce the Afghan Army and help keep the insurgent threat to the capital at bay. Azimi, the Afghan military spokesman, said two companies of Afghan Army soldiers were sent in at dawn to assist the French.
In all, some 27 Taliban were believed to have been killed in the clash in the Sarobi District, around Uzbin, he said. Thirteen insurgents were confirmed dead and later found on the battlefield, including a Pakistani fighter, he said.
Carlotta Gall reported from Bamiyan, Afghanistan, and Sangar Rahimi from Kabul. Steven Erlanger contributed reporting from Paris.
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Taleban grow more brazen
By Alastair Leithead in Kabul 08/20/2008 BBC News
Kabul's early morning silence was broken last night first by the crunch of rockets exploding in the city, then by the emergency sirens at Nato headquarters warning the officers and generals to head for the shelters.
It was a vivid and eerie soundtrack of how close the insurgency is to the capital.
The second rocket attack in Kabul in less than a week will further feed the paranoia of Afghans and also the international community.
But that paranoia may not be misplaced - while the sirens were warning of incoming fire, French forces were fighting for their lives just 50km (31 miles) away.
They had been ambushed on Monday afternoon as they patrolled through Sarobi district in Kabul province, and despite sending in reinforcements, medical teams and attack aircraft they lost 10 soldiers - another 21 were injured.
Significant impact
It is one of the largest losses of life in Nato's Afghan campaign and a huge blow to a French deployment which is already unpopular at home.
There are reports of 100 insurgents attacking the convoy, of troops being captured and then killed.
What happened in that valley could have a significant impact on the French mission, so much so that President Nicolas Sarkozy is flying straight to Kabul to settle nerves and offer support.
And it wasn't the only major operation launched by the Taleban in one night.
In Khost, south eastern Afghanistan, up to 30 militants tried to storm the main American base in the town, just hours after a suicide car bomber had struck at the front gate killing 10 civilians working at Camp Salerno.
Among those insurgents were at least half a dozen suicide bombers, trying to break into the camp and kill as many Nato soldiers as possible.
The attack was repelled and, as in Serobi, many of the Taleban were killed or injured, but there appear to be plenty of others ready to pick up their guns, or strap on explosives vests, and take on a much better equipped and more highly trained army.
The tactics are becoming more advanced and more brazen - it is as if the insurgents are gathering momentum of the growing insecurity and instability.
On Monday, which was Afghanistan's Independence Day, much of Kabul was sealed off by thousands of extra police drafted in when the Taleban announced they were planning a major attack.
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Afghans speak out against sexual violence
Courageous families are speaking out about child rape, helped by a media campaign. It's a sign of a nation moving forward
The Guardian Nushin Arbabzadah Wednesday August 20 2008
Please note, this article contains links to video footage which some readers may find distressing.
"The moment I saw the blood-stained sandal, I knew that my child was dead," said Abdul Khalid. Khalid, from Takhar province in northern Afghanistan, was talking about the day he discovered his eight-year-old daughter's body. The girl had been kidnapped, raped and then killed. It turned out later that she was only one of the many child rape victims in the northern provinces of Afghanistan. There were others, children like the 12-year-old daughter of a man called Nurollah. Nurollah is from Sar-e Pul, also in the north. He says he knows the rapist, the son of an MP, and he wants justice for his child. He went all the way to Kabul in search of justice but they told him at the police station: "No one is going to listen to your story. Go home."
In the past, this would have been the end of the story. Nurollah would have gone home and his story would have remained a private tale of injustice, a family secret disconnected from the wider Afghan society. Bad luck, basically. But we're talking about Afghanistan in 2008. A country with plenty of problems but a media that is both brave and vigilant. The media listens where the government is deaf. The media speaks out where officials say shush. So when Nurollah approached a private TV station, they listened to him. His story was aired, as were the stories of other victims and their families. Like the 12-year-old gang rape victim whose family faced ridicule when they sought justice. The families, mothers, fathers and uncles, spoke out, showing their faces and allowing their names to appear on TV: "My name is Nurollah and I'm the father of a girl who has been raped."
I watched the clips again and again and was stunned. Here were Afghans who spoke about rape in their families. They spoke clearly, publicly and openly. I felt a deep admiration for them. It takes guts to go public about rape in any society, but to do so in Afghanistan requires courage of a special sort, of the sort that entitles people to bravery medals and cheering crowds.
The bravery of Afghans is limitless, but when it comes to honour or "naamoos", the lions of the Hindukush turn into the trembling rabbits of South Asia. Few have the heart to stand up for the victims and their rights. In the words of one editorial: "In our society, it is not the perpetrator of the act of violation who carries the shame of dishonour. It is the victim, who's condemned to an eternally cursed life." The victims know this much. A young boy was raped by a commander but couldn't face going home with his honour "stained". Instead he stayed with the commander, becoming his "mistress". A girl's family killed her as soon as they discovered that she had lost her "naamos". Fearing a similar fate, another rape victim fled to the local police station for protection from her own family.
As the week went by, more and more reports of this nature came to the surface. A group of people had been arrested in Kabul for filming children while they were being abused. It's unclear whether the film was for the market or private use. A family accused an Afghan human rights official of spreading "lies" that the family's toddler had been raped. The toddler's mother said: "The human rights woman keeps coming to our house and taking pictures of my daughter. My daughter has not been raped. She just injured herself when she was out playing." The mother said the official was using her daughter to get funding for her office. The official rejected the accusation, saying the woman had first reported rape and later changed her mind. The human rights group said they believed the mother had been pressured into changing her original complaint.
The media campaign to ensure justice for child rape victims has finally paid off. President Karzai was forced to take action. There were dismissals, arrests and religious scholars told the public that sexual abuse of children is a "grave sin". The president later met the family of a 12-year-old girl who had been gang raped. He embraced her and told her that she was like his very own daughter. To me this is social progress and a sign that Afghans are beginning to use the peaceful pressure tools of civil society. They are learning to create change through civil courage and media pressure, a method that is much more desirable than coups, wars and revolutions.
While I was researching this article, I kept thinking of the nation's self-appointed moral guardians in the government and parliament. Usually they're quick to spot "un-Islamic" behavior and protest against it: Indian soap operas, blue jeans and lipstick. How is it that they miss this gravest of all sins?
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Neighbors Worry about Pakistan's Stability
India, Afghanistan Concerned Tumult Could Spill Over
By PAUL BECKETT and ALAN CULLISON August 20, 2008; Wall Street Journal Page A6
Officials in India and Afghanistan have realized for months that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf wasn't in charge of their fractious neighbor. But his resignation raises new fears that a rudderless Pakistan will exacerbate tensions with its neighbors and increase terrorism.
Those concerns were heightened by reports Tuesday of a Taliban ambush of French parat