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February 7, 2008 

Rice, Miliband in Afghanistan, urge more troops
By Sue Pleming
KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband met the Afghan president and NATO commanders in Afghanistan on Thursday, in a joint visit to press reluctant allies

Rice insists Afghanistan strategy is working despite warnings
by Lachlan Carmichael
KABUL (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denied here Thursday the allied strategy to stabilise Afghanistan was failing, saying it was incomplete and needed innovation to crush "determined enemies."

Rice: Afghanistan has come long way
By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday she has seen progress in Afghanistan during the past few years, despite a determined Taliban insurgency that has disrupted security and prompted

Karzai denies tensions with West
Thursday, 7 February 2008 BBC News
President Hamid Karzai has played down tensions over the role of foreign countries operating in Afghanistan.

World effort in Afghanistan under strain
By Lyse Doucet BBC News, Kabul Thursday, 7 February 2008
In 2001 when world leaders promised Afghans they would "be with you for the long run", no-one realised then just how long this run would be - or where it would take them.

Afghanistan says NATO pull out would be 'catastrophic'
Thu Feb 7, 7:13 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - The Afghan government warned Thursday of "catastrophe" if NATO abandoned its mission as US Secretarary of State Condoleezza Rice and her British counterpart flew into the heart of the Taliban insurgency.

Afghanistan spawns tensions with allies
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer Thu Feb 7, 6:32 AM ET
VILNIUS, Lithuania - As the stakes in Afghanistan grow, so do tensions between the United States and the European allies the U.S. empowered more than a year ago to take the lead on the battlefield.

No agreement on Afghanistan ahead of NATO meeting
by Pascal Mallet Thu Feb 7, 12:41 AM ET
VILNIUS (AFP) - There was little sign of agreement between NATO member states over who was pulling their weight in Afghanistan, ahead of a meeting of defence ministers in Vilnius.

Canada's demand for extra troops in Afghanistan 'non-negotiable'
Thu Feb 7, 9:19 AM ET
VILNIUS (AFP) - Canada's Defence Minister Peter MacKay Thursday in Vilnius said Ottawa's demand for an extra 1,000 troops alongside Canadian forces in southern Afghanistan was not a matter for negotiations.

Afghan gov't urged to support sentence
By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer Thu Feb 7, 2:21 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - Conservative clerics and elders demanded Thursday that the Afghan government not interfere with a controversial death sentence handed down to a young journalist convicted of insulting Islam

Al-Qaida in Afghanistan releases video
Wed Feb 6, 11:42 PM ET
CAIRO, Egypt - The leader of al-Qaida in Afghanistan praised a top commander who was killed last month by a U.S. missile strike and vowed to avenge his death, according to a video released Wednesday.

Iran backs peace in Afghanistan
Press TV (Iran) Thu, 07 Feb 2008 09:22:45
An Iranian Foreign Ministry official says the Islamic Republic has always backed the establishment of peace and security in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan: ICG report calls on donors to "make decisive change"
KABUL, 7 February 2008 (IRIN) - The international community must "accept mistakes" it has made in the past six years or more in rebuilding and developing Afghanistan, and should now "summon the means and resolve

Secret talks led to Pakistan cease-fire
By ISHTIAQ MAHSUD, Associated Press Writer Thu Feb 7, 7:47 AM ET
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - Two Pakistani officials said Thursday that their government held secret talks with Taliban fighters and tribal elders near the Afghan border before a cease-fire just announced by the militants.

Afghan Wireless Launches GPRS Services
Cellular-News.com - Feb 07 3:03 AM
Afghan Wireless has launched its GPRS upgrade, with coverage completion in 34 Provinces across Afghanistan along with the lowest denomination Af. 50/- Top Up card for its over 1.7 million subscribers.
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Rice, Miliband in Afghanistan, urge more troops
By Sue Pleming
KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband met the Afghan president and NATO commanders in Afghanistan on Thursday, in a joint visit to press reluctant allies to share the combat burden.

More than six years after U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban, the Islamist militia's resurgence and spiraling violence has led Washington to call on its allies to send more troops to Afghanistan, a country bigger in size and population than Iraq, but with only a third the number of foreign soldiers.

The Taliban fought back strongly last year. More than 6,000 people died in fighting in 2007, nearly 2,000 of them civilians.

Suicide and roadside bombings now occur on an almost daily basis targeting foreign and Afghan forces. Until 2005, suicide bombings were rare in Afghanistan.

"Frankly, I hope there will be more troop contributions and there needs to be more Afghan forces," Rice told reporters.

Rice, speaking against the backdrop of a NATO defense ministers' meeting in Lithuania, said alliance members needed to "come together to give enough military power to do what needs to be done on the front end of the counter-insurgency effort."

Rice and Miliband traveled to a sprawling base in the southern city of Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban and the main city in Afghanistan's most volatile region.

Rice and Miliband met NATO commanders on the frontline of the fight against the Taliban and afterwards addressed troops. Rice gave a rousing speech praising soldiers' bravery and sacrifice.

"This is a fight which will transform history," she said.

The pair then traveled to the Afghan capital to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai and aid workers.

The United States and Britain are urging other NATO members to share more of the combat burden in southern Afghanistan where the Taliban insurgency is strongest.

Some NATO countries have bristled at public criticism from Washington over the refusal of a number of alliance members to position their forces in the more dangerous south.

Germany, for example, under its parliamentary mandate can send only 3,500 soldiers to the less dangerous north as part of the 42,000-strong NATO mission.

That means most of the fighting against the Taliban is shouldered by Canada, Britain, the United States and the Netherlands. They all want others to contribute more.

Canada has threatened to pull its troops out unless other allies come forward, and Poland's foreign minister has warned against "free-riding" in the alliance.

FIGHT BACK

"We want to spotlight the fact that we and several other allies are standing up and doing the tough job," said a senior U.S. official, who declined to be identified.

Few NATO officials expect major new contributions to be announced during the two-day meeting in Lithuania's capital Vilnius, but Washington wants to extract promises over coming weeks for reinforcements in the south by year-end.

Specifically, the United States wants assurances that allies will fill the gap when 3,200 U.S. Marines leave the south after a temporary deployment there later this year.

The Taliban have suffered heavy casualties whenever they have fought NATO forces, but have dramatically undermined the sense of security with a wave of suicide bombings across the country.

A Taliban suicide bomber wounded an Afghan civilian in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday in a failed attack on a foreign troop convoy and two other suicide bombers died in the western province of Farah when their explosive vests blew up as they were preparing for an attack, officials said.

NATO commanders believe the tactic is aimed at sapping the will of European governments to keep troops in the country in the face of popular disquiet over the mission.

More than 200 NATO troops died last year in Afghanistan.

Some analysts see the NATO force as far too small.

"There are no clear indicators that the NATO countries, including the United States, are willing to invest a level of combat forces that would lead to success in southern Afghanistan," said Sean Kay, chair of International Studies at Ohio Wesleyan University.

(Editing by David Fogarty)
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Rice insists Afghanistan strategy is working despite warnings
by Lachlan Carmichael
KABUL (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denied here Thursday the allied strategy to stabilise Afghanistan was failing, saying it was incomplete and needed innovation to crush "determined enemies."

Rice made her case during a press conference in Kabul with President Hamid Karzai and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband who accompanied her on a surprise visit here amid growing fears for Afghanistan's future.

"You have determined enemies. We know that. The Taliban and Al-Qaeda continue to make life difficult" for ordinary Afghans, the top US diplomat told Karzai in the highly fortified and snow-covered presidential palace.

She said the NATO-led force and Afghan security forces had to focus much more on fighting new Taliban tactics such as suicide bombings and kidnappings after large-scale offensives mounted by the militants had failed.

"They've tried to adopt other tactics, like going after innocent people. We'll have to adapt too. The Afghan government, the Afghan forces will have to adapt," Rice said.

"But to say it's not working, I think, I would say it's not complete, but the strategy is one, I believe, that is having a good effect," she said.

Miliband said the response of key allies to the new Taliban tactics amounted to a "new phase" in the six-year war.

Rice and Karzai hailed the building of road networks since US-led forces toppled the Taliban and its Al-Qaeda allies at the end of 2001 -- something the US diplomat said helped boost the economy as well as find the militants.

They also cited improvements in health and education, other signs Rice said showed the country had made a "remarkable difference for the better" over the many decades it had spent as a failed state.

Rice and Miliband were also here as part of a joint bid to urge NATO allies to share the burden in Afghanistan by sending more combat troops, helicopters and other military equipment to defeat a resurgent Taliban in its southern strongholds.

Germany rebuffed US appeals last week to send such troops in a public tiff that fuelled fears voiced in Washington and London that the international community may fragment and abandon Afghanistan.

Canada has meanwhile threatened not to extend its mission beyond next year unless it gets more support.

Domestic support among some NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) nations for the mission has plummeted as more troops are killed and as the violence has escalated along with the country's opium production.

Karzai said, however, he was confident that NATO would remain united in its commitment to helping Afghanistan.

"Different views among donor countries to Afghanistan and on how to provide assistance to Afghanistan and military and financial issues is pretty natural," he said at the media briefing.

"But these different views will not make them separate or lessen their assistance to Afghanistan."

While en route to Afghanistan with Miliband, Rice was also confident NATO would eventually pass "the test" of finding adequate troops to do the job.

Rice and Miliband met around 200 soldiers at a major NATO airbase in southern Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taliban movement, before their talks with Karzai.

"As the debate hots up in our countries about what you're doing and the difference you're making, we'll be defending you heart and soul," Miliband told troops at Kandahar Air Field.

US forces led the invasion of Afghanistan that removed the hardline Taliban from government weeks after the September 11, 2001, attacks by the Al-Qaeda network, which then had bases in the country.

Despite the efforts of nearly 60,000 international troops in ISAF and the separate US-led coalition working alongside Afghan forces, the Taliban's insurgency was its most deadly last year, with more than 6,000 people killed, including nearly 220 international soldiers.

ISAF commanders have been calling for around 7,500 extra troops to fight the Taliban threat.
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Rice: Afghanistan has come long way
By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday she has seen progress in Afghanistan during the past few years, despite a determined Taliban insurgency that has disrupted security and prompted concerns that the NATO-led military campaign is faltering.

And Defense Secretary Robert Gates, seeking more military contributions from NATO members, said he's disappointed that some countries haven't sent combat troops to Afghanistan. But he also said he doesn't think the alliance is at a point of risking failure in the country.

"I don't think that there's a crisis, that there's a risk of failure," Gates said during a news conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, after meeting with NATO defense ministers. He said, however, that strengthening the fighting force there would help speed the defeat of the Taliban militants. "My view is that it represents potentially the opportunity to make further progress faster in Afghanistan if we had more forces there."

Gates noted that despite security setbacks, the country has made gains on the civil side of things, improving the daily lives of Afghans.

Rice made the same point from Afghanistan, saying it's tough to fight militants who have waged a battle for control for many years.

"If you look at the Afghanistan of 2001 and the Afghanistan of now there is a remarkable difference for the better," she said.

Rice said it would be unfair to say the NATO and Afghan government efforts aren't working.

"Can we all expect the security situation will still be difficult - yes, because Afghanistan has determined enemies who laid waste to this country over a period of a decade," said, adding, "The strategy is one that I believe is having a good effect."

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, standing beside Rice at a news conference, defended his leadership, saying the economy and education systems have improved under his watch and there are more democratic freedoms under a new constitution.

"Afghanistan, if given more attention, would be very, very glad and thankful but it is not right that Afghanistan has been forgotten," said Karzai, who was responding to a recent independent report that said the country is in danger of becoming a failed state.

In a show of unity, the secretary made the trip to Kabul and Kandahar - a former Taliban stronghold - with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband so they could get a firsthand look at the front lines of the NATO-led fight as they lead an effort to boost the number of NATO combat forces in the country.

Kandahar was the seat of the Taliban regime that ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001. Taliban insurgents remain active in the surrounding province, which lies in a southern block of the country where the Islamist militia draws its strongest support.

All 26 NATO nations have soldiers in Afghanistan and all agree the mission is their top priority. But the refusal of European allies to send more combat troops is forcing an already stretched U.S. military — focused on the Iraq war — to fill the gap, and it is straining the Western alliance.

The U.S. contributes one-third of NATO's 42,000-member International Security Assistance Force mission, making it the largest participant, ahead of Britain with about 7,700 soldiers in Afghanistan. The U.S. has another 12,000 to 13,000 troops there involved in counterterrorism operations.

The high-level U.S.-British visit comes in the bloodiest year in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led toppling of the Taliban in 2001. More than 6,500 people — mostly insurgents — died in violence in 2007, according to an Associated Press count of figures provided by local and international officials.

The Taliban and al-Qaida-linked militants have turned to suicide bombings and other tactics that make it more challenging to fight, she said.

"It's not work that's going to be completed overnight," Rice said of the efforts to rebuild the country and fight insurgents at the same time.

Earlier Thursday, Rice said the Afghan government must meet its responsibilities in fighting the Taliban.

"This is a two-way street, and I think everybody has to step back and concern ourselves with the Taliban," she told reporters.

Said Miliband: "We've got responsibilities that we're determined to live up to and obligations that we're determined to live up to and ditto for the Afghan authorities. That's something we want to follow through and at the heart of both our strategies is the belief this has to be done with the Afghan government and in fact led by the Afghan government, with our support."

The stop in Kandahar was a rare side trip outside the Afghan capital by the top U.S. and British diplomats to meet with international forces facing a resurgent Taliban on what was once the movement's home ground.

Rice said the brief unannounced visit was not an attempt to show up European nations that have refused to send fighting troops to Kandahar and other southern regions.

"It's just the rationale of being able to get outside of Kabul and see one of the areas that's been very active," she said.

In London on Wednesday, Gates scolded NATO countries who haven't committed combat troops "willing to fight and die" to defeat a resurgent Taliban.
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Karzai denies tensions with West
Thursday, 7 February 2008 BBC News
President Hamid Karzai has played down tensions over the role of foreign countries operating in Afghanistan.

Speaking at a news conference in Kabul, Mr Karzai expressed gratitude to Nato members that had contributed troops.

At his side, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice insisted progress was being made fighting insurgents but admitted the work was "not complete".

Her unannounced visit, with UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband, comes amid differences in Nato over Afghanistan.

The US and UK have been urging other countries to share more of the combat burden in the south of the country, but many are reluctant.

Speaking at a meeting of Nato defence ministers in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said some progress had been made.

"We are making progress... but we're not there yet and we have to do better," he said.

He cited Belgium's recent offer of four F-16 fighter planes and Poland's increase in its troop presence.

French officials have also said President Nicolas Sarkozy was considering sending more troops, but refused to confirm plans to send 700 paratroops to the south.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said he was disappointed with some countries' responses and that strengthening the force would hasten the Taleban's defeat.

"My view is that it represents potentially the opportunity to make further progress faster in Afghanistan if we had more forces there," he said.

But Taleban spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, told the BBC any increase in troops would be ineffective, and it would simply increase the determination of the Taleban to succeed.

'Misquoted'

Relations between the Afghan government and Nato allies had been strained by Mr Karzai's assertion that despite British efforts, the situation had worsened in southern Helmand province where most UK forces are based.

He also recently blocked the appointment of the UK's Paddy Ashdown as a UN envoy.

But at the news conference he played down his criticism, saying it was a "personal matter of sadness" that the appointment of Lord Ashdown "did not work out".

He said his remarks about the situation in Helmand province had been "misquoted", adding: "We appreciate the British role in Afghanistan and the contribution they have made."

Afghanistan "hasn't been forgotten" by the international community, he said.

The BBC's Alistair Leithead in Kabul says that despite the handshakes and camera flashes at his meeting with Ms Rice and Mr Miliband, there is a lot more to do be done behind the scenes to repair relations and get the international community's efforts properly co-ordinated.

'Terror threat'

Correspondents say Mr Karzai's remarks accorded with the display of unity by all three participants at the conference, with neither Ms Rice nor Mr Miliband making explicit reference to the current differences in Nato over troop commitments to the country.

But earlier, Mr de Hoop Scheffer said he would be spelling out to the Nato ministers that member nations had to do more to train and equip the Afghan army.

Nato's mission in the country was one of necessity, not choice, he added.

"This is the front line in the fight against terrorism, and what is happening in the Hindu Kush matters, because if terrorism is not dealt with in Afghanistan, the consequences will be felt not just in Afghanistan and the region, but also in London, Brussels and Amsterdam," he told the BBC.

Speaking earlier to frontline forces in Kandahar, Ms Rice echoed the theme, saying their fight was necessary to prevent "the attacks against our cities and against our people that originated here".

Despite the recent squabbles over burden-sharing in Afghanistan, says the BBC's Caroline Wyatt in Vilnius, it is unlikely, however, that more combat troops will be offered at the two-day Lithuanian meeting.

But officials are hoping it will pave the way for further contributions to be made at Nato's summit in Bucharest in April, she says.

Most of the fighting in the volatile southern provinces is being done by troops from the US, UK, Canada and the Netherlands.

Many US allies, including Germany, Spain, Turkey and Italy, have refused to send significant numbers of combat forces there.
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World effort in Afghanistan under strain
By Lyse Doucet BBC News, Kabul Thursday, 7 February 2008
In 2001 when world leaders promised Afghans they would "be with you for the long run", no-one realised then just how long this run would be - or where it would take them.

More than six years on, this demanding marathon is testing the resources, although not yet the will, of the runners.

"A few bridges have been blown," said one foreign diplomat. "It will take some time to build them again."

All the relationships are under strain.

Tensions mounted between President Hamid Karzai and some Western governments over his last-minute reversal on the choice of a new "super envoy" to co-ordinate the aid and military effort with his Afghan government.

Britain's well-regarded Lord Paddy Ashdown was suddenly seen as someone coming to "sort out" the Afghan government.

Those Nato countries whose armies are taking growing casualties on the front line are very publicly accusing other member countries, deployed in quieter provinces, of not fully sharing the burden.

And Afghans who welcomed their country's return to the international fold after the fall of the Taleban, are asking where the billions of dollars have gone and why the rebels' reach is growing.

New deal

The Taleban now control swathes of land across south-west Afghanistan and mounted about 140 suicide attacks last year, including some in the capital Kabul.

"Afghans want a good relationship with the international community," insists Afghan Member of Parliament Shukria Barakzai.

"But the assistance isn't going to the right address because we aren't the decision makers. We're a very young government but we're a sovereign government."

"The bargain must be struck anew," underlines Chris Alexander, the Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary General.

"The problem is not our commitment. But the Afghans now have a larger 'footprint' and so do we, so there's a need to restructure this relationship."

The size of the 'footprint' has been shorthand for an approach meant to put Afghans in the driving seat, not outsiders.

Afghan leaders, including President Karzai, now bristle when Western envoys suggest changes to discredited provincial governors and police chiefs

But there is also criticism the president has not always made effective choices and there is frustration his government has at times been unable, and sometimes unwilling, to keep its promises.

"We know we have to make changes in our own house," the president told me in a recent interview.

'Help tsunami'

But he is also under growing pressure from his Afghan allies and adversaries as he heads towards a presidential election set for next year.

"The international community also has to get its house in order," says Joanna Nathan, a Kabul-based analyst for the International Crisis Group, a think tank.

"We need to speak with one voice, not multiple voices that sometimes contradict each other."

Mechanisms are in place to achieve better co-ordination, including the "Afghanistan Compact" signed two years ago in London between the government and major donors, kept on track by a Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board which has been meeting this week in Tokyo.

But as one foreign consultant put it, there has been a "tsunami of well paid retired professionals", and little coherence, and sometimes contradictions, in the programmes of aid agencies.

One hundred different organisations are each spending more than $100m in Afghanistan every year.

Fatalistic

A wave of recent independent reports has highlighted the urgency of getting a grip on the situation.

The US Afghanistan Study Group, headed by Ambassador Thomas Pickering and General James Jones, pointed to the serious threat of resurgent violence and the real prospect of a "failed or failing state".

And Afghans, who pride themselves on their resilience, are starting to express doubt.

"There is a sense of fear," said Ahmed, a young Afghan professional who returned to his country after the fall of the Taleban.

"Afghans with money are starting to look for ways out. Those who can't feel trapped or they're just fatalistic."

Others have not lost hope.

"I am staying," declared Asif Rahimi, who ended his exile in Canada in 2005 and is now the deputy minister of rural development, regarded as one of the most effective ministries. "There is work to be done."

There is much talk of an early "euphoria" that's now swung to "doom and gloom".

Challenges

Afghan expectations, born of the pain of a quarter century of war and the promises of the world, may have been unreasonably high at the start.

Their country remains one of the world's poorest and its biggest producer of opium poppies.

Three-quarters of the population are illiterate, and even the capital has only a few hours of electricity a day.

But a vast amount has changed in the six years since the end of the Taleban.

Six million children are in school; there is an elected president and Parliament; and thousands of kilometres of roads have been built across the country.

"I can tell you Afghans will eventually build their country, once they unite, and there's a focus on the right priorities," said Nasrullah, a very earnest 20-year-old who expressed hope he would one day work in the finance ministry.

The priority is to improve the quality of the aid effort and the effectiveness of the battle against the Taleban and other groups - both criminal and political - opposed to the new order.

That demands a more coherent approach by foreign and Afghan forces that also more effectively draws in neighbouring Pakistan to tackle what is now, more than ever before, a cross-border problem.

That means that, in this long run, everyone has to pull in the same direction.
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Afghanistan says NATO pull out would be 'catastrophic'
Thu Feb 7, 7:13 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - The Afghan government warned Thursday of "catastrophe" if NATO abandoned its mission as US Secretarary of State Condoleezza Rice and her British counterpart flew into the heart of the Taliban insurgency.

"The consequences of not finishing the job here, and we have seen them first-hand in the events of September 11, will be catastrophic for the region and the world," President Hamid Karzai's spokesman Homayun Hamidzada told AFP.

There has been rising debate among NATO allies about the fight against radical Taliban insurgents, with calls for more help from those in the thick of the fight in the volatile south and some threats to pull out.

"It is natural that partners within the mission will have differences of opinion on tactical issues but at the end of the day they are committed to Afghanistan," said Hamidzada.

The spokesman said the discord among some ISAF nations was "worrying" but the government had been assured during meetings with individual countries and the NATO leadership that they would stay the course.

Rice and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband flew to the major NATO air base in Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taliban movement, shortly after arriving in the country with calls for NATO nations to boost support for the fight against the extremists.

They were due to meet military commanders who are based at the Kandahar Air Field and address soldiers who are on the frontline of efforts to tackle the Al-Qaeda-linked insurgent movement.

Rice said she and Miliband had come to Kandahar because the "rationale is to get out of Kabul" and see an area where NATO forces are doing a good job. It was her first visit to the southern Afghan city.

Miliband said Kandahar had an "iconic status in the history and position of Afghanistan." The religious Taliban movement rose from Kandahar in the early 1990s to sweep to power in 1996, with the help of Pakistan.

The United States led a 2001 invasion of Afghanistan that ousted the Taliban government weeks after the 9/11 attacks by Al-Qaeda, which at the time had bases in this country.

ISAF commanders in Afghanistan have been calling for around 7,500 extra troops. The force already comprises some 42,000 troops from 39 countries although many of these are support staff who do no fighting.

Foreign ministry spokesman Sultan Ahmad Baheen said he did not think it would be difficult for ISAF nations to meet the shortfall of troops.

International troops were needed until extremism was eliminated, Baheen told AFP, reiterating an often-voiced call by Karzai for the fight to be taken to militant bases outside the country, some said to be in Pakistan.

"With no doubt unless the roots of terrorism are eliminated, there is a threat of the return of terrorism -- which is a threat not only for the region but for the world," he said.
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Afghanistan spawns tensions with allies
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer Thu Feb 7, 6:32 AM ET
VILNIUS, Lithuania - As the stakes in Afghanistan grow, so do tensions between the United States and the European allies the U.S. empowered more than a year ago to take the lead on the battlefield.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates makes no secret of his frustration that repeated appeals to the allies to contribute more troops — and to allow commanders to use them with fewer restrictions — fall flat.

NATO, through its International Security Assistance Force, is in charge of the war, although the top commander is an American, Army Gen. Daniel McNeill, and the United States is the biggest provider of troops. Of the 42,000 total troops, about 14,000 are American, plus the United States has another 13,000 operating separately in eastern Afghanistan hunting terrorists and training Afghan forces.

The problem is that McNeill says he needs even more troops, in particular in southern Afghanistan where the fight against Taliban resistance has been increasingly deadly, and the Europeans have balked. Gates has written sharply worded letters to his European counterparts urging them to send more troops, to no avail.

Gates told a Senate panel Wednesday before flying from Washington to Vilnius that in meetings here with NATO defense ministers Thursday and Friday he "once again will become a nag on the issue."

Nagging NATO is nothing new for Washington, which led the founding of the alliance 59 years ago. But when it comes to Afghanistan, the problem of persuading allies to do more is of historic importance. At risk is the possibility of failing to transform Afghanistan into a functioning state, and thus losing ground in a global effort to defeat the Islamic extremist movement that led to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Also at stake is the future of NATO itself. One of the underpinnings of the alliance is a commitment to sharing the burdens of defense, not just of defending the borders of Europe, as during the Cold War, but now also defending against the less defined threat of Islamic extremism and terrorism.

Gates said Wednesday he fears NATO may become a "two-tiered alliance," with "some allies willing to fight and die to protect people's security, and others who are not" — in other words, an alliance in name only.

Gates is not alone in that view.

In a study published last week titled, "Saving Afghanistan," the Atlantic Council, led by former NATO commander Gen. James Jones, said it is critical that NATO provide fresh forces in southern Afghanistan — in part to replace 2,200 Marines that Gates is sending there for a one-time reinforcement.

"If NATO cannot provide new forces to fight in the south, its credibility will be dealt a powerful blow," the Jones study concluded, "throwing into doubts its future cohesion and hence viability." The opening sentence of the Jones study underscored the reason why NATO's dilemma is so important.

"Make no mistake, NATO is not winning in Afghanistan," it said.

In his Senate testimony Wednesday, Gates said there is no doubt that al-Qaida, which used Afghanistan as a haven in which to train and to execute the plan to attack New York and Washington with hijacked jetliners, is still intent on hitting the United States again. And he said Europe also is a target.

At the same time Gates said some European governments simply are not able to overcome domestic opposition to fighting in Afghanistan. He urged members of the Senate to meet face-to-face with their European counterparts in an effort to persuade them that changing public opinion on the war is vital.

"They have to be more courageous" in insisting on the importance of winning in Afghanistan, Gates said, referring to European parliamentarians. Many in Europe believe the Bush administration has put too much emphasis on the military aspects of stabilizing Afghanistan and not enough on reconstruction and humanitarian aid. Gates, however, insists that more military muscle is part of the solution.

It's a theme he has repeated virtually from the start of his tenure at the Pentagon.

In February 2007, speaking to defense officials and experts at a conference in Munich, Germany, Gates said all allies agree on the need to pursue a "comprehensive strategy" combining military effort with help in economics, governance and counter-drug operations. But he stressed that NATO needs to put up more money and more troops. "Our failure to do so would be a mark of shame," he said.

In Heidelberg, Germany, last October at a gathering of European army chiefs Gates adopted an even tougher tone. He questioned the commitment of some NATO allies to winning in Afghanistan, saying the outcome there was at "real risk" because some were unwilling to provide enough troops and resources to the mission. "In Afghanistan a handful of allies are paying the price and bearing the burdens," he said.

"The failure to meet commitments puts the Afghan mission — and with it, the credibility of NATO — at real risk," he added.
___

EDITOR'S NOTE — Robert Burns has covered national security affairs for The Associated Press from Washington since 1990.
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No agreement on Afghanistan ahead of NATO meeting
by Pascal Mallet Thu Feb 7, 12:41 AM ET
VILNIUS (AFP) - There was little sign of agreement between NATO member states over who was pulling their weight in Afghanistan, ahead of a meeting of defence ministers in Vilnius.

Speaking in London Wednesday US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said NATO was "facing a real test" over troop deployments in Afghanistan.

Washington is hoping she will be able to bring its European allies round to their way of thinking and persuade them, ahead of a NATO summit in Bucharest on April 2-4, that they need to send more troops. So far however, the results have been mixed.

With 1,600 troops stationed mainly in Kabul, France has offered several dozen military instructors to train Afghan national army forces in south Afghanistan where it carries out bombing missions against Taliban positions.

Paris did however hint that President Nicolas Sarkozy might announce further contributions at the Bucharest summit.

On Wednesday, German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung confirmed his country would provide some 200 troops to replace a Norwegian contingent acting as a reserve rapid reaction force in north Afghanistan.

But Berlin is unlikely to go any further in beefing up its existing 3,100-strong Afghan troop presence, despite a recent request by NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

Jung has ruled out stationing soldiers in southern Afghanistan, saying the German mandate did not allow for sending troops into the turbulent region.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates stoked the troop numbers row last month when he unleashed rare public criticism of the NATO forces deployed in southern Afghanistan.

"Most of the European forces, NATO forces, are not trained in counter-insurgency," he said bluntly.

Diplomats at NATO headquarters in Brussels attributed the outburst to a need for Gates to justify the announcement that more than 3,000 additional US troops were being sent to Afghanistan -- with 2,200 to be deployed in the flashpoint southern Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has repeatedly warned that Ottawa will pull its 2,500 soldiers out of restive southern Afghanistan if it does not get reinforcements from other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation nations.

However European allies whose forces are already stretched by engagements elsewhere -- including Iraq, the Balkans and Africa -- say they do not have much more to give.

Last week Gates upped the ante by writing letters to all NATO allies asking for troops and equipment, especially helicopters, for Afghanistan.

The message was aimed particularly at well-resourced European nations Germany, France, Italy and Spain with troops stationed in the capital Kabul or in the north and west of the country where they aren't greatly exposed to Taliban attacks.

A senior US official at NATO said Tuesday that the real problem was "that the letter hit the press".

A spokesman for the NATO secretary general has said Scheffer wants an end to the "very public calls" for more troops and hopes to bring the force generation process back behind closed doors during the two-day meeting in Lithuania.

While many others would also like to see the troop demands made discreetly, successive bouts of mainly US calls have had their effect.

In less than two years numbers in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have gone from 16,000 to 42,000, including around 18,000 US troops and 7,000 British.

There are another 20,000 with the US-led coalition, a separate military structure.
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Canada's demand for extra troops in Afghanistan 'non-negotiable'
Thu Feb 7, 9:19 AM ET
VILNIUS (AFP) - Canada's Defence Minister Peter MacKay Thursday in Vilnius said Ottawa's demand for an extra 1,000 troops alongside Canadian forces in southern Afghanistan was not a matter for negotiations.

"It's not a negotiable item," MacKay said upon arriving at an informal two-day NATO defence ministers' meeting in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, dominated by the issue of burden-sharing among alliance members in Afghanistan.

Canada, Great Britain and The Netherlands have the largest troop numbers in Afghanistan's volatile south, dotted with Taliban strongholds.

"We have to deliver on that commitment," MacKay said, insisting "one manoeuvre battalion is required" to support 2,500 Canadian troops stationed in the southern Kandahar province. "It's a reasonable request," he said.

"What Canada is looking for is a single partner in the south to do the necessary work," MacKay said, insisting his country wanted one partner-nation for close cooperation. "Our preference would be a single commitment," he said.

Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper is keen to extend Canada's troop deployment in Afghanistan, but insisted on an extra NATO deployment of 1,000 troops and helicopters on the heels of recent expert reports on security developments in Afghanistan.

Canada's parliament will vote next month on whether to prolong its combat mission in Afghanistan beyond February 2009 in a ballot that could trigger a snap general election.

Arguments over Afghanistan dominated a meeting among 26 NATO defence ministers in Vilnius Thursday, with the United States pressing hard for allies to deploy more troops to tackle the Taliban in the restive south.
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Afghan gov't urged to support sentence
By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer Thu Feb 7, 2:21 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - Conservative clerics and elders demanded Thursday that the Afghan government not interfere with a controversial death sentence handed down to a young journalist convicted of insulting Islam for distributing a report questioning polygamy.

Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh, 23, was sentenced to death on Jan. 22 by a three-judge panel in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif for handing out a report he printed off the Internet to fellow journalism students at Balkh University.

The article questioned why men can have four wives but women cannot have multiple husbands.

Kaambakhsh has appealed his conviction.

More than 100 tribal and religious leaders convened Wednesday in Gardez, the capital of the conservative eastern province of Paktia, and demanded that the government support the sentence.

"Kaambakhsh made the Afghan people very upset. It was against the clerics and Islam. He has humiliated Islam," Khaliq Daad, head of the Islamic council of Paktia, said Thursday. "We want the Afghan president to support the court's decision."

Kaambakhsh's case sparked a protest in Kabul last week and an international outcry, with a number of organizations demanding the case be annulled and Kaambakhsh set free.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice planned to raise the case with President Hamid Karzai in talks here Thursday. Rice flew to the Afghan capital along with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband to deliver a joint message of support and to prod Afghan officials as the United Sates continues a drive to recruit more NATO troops for Afghanistan.

A government spokesman said this week that Karzai was concerned about the death sentence, but would not intervene until the courts have their final say.

Daad criticized the government and various organizations that have come out in Kaambakhsh's defense, accusing them of interfering with the judicial process.

He said the clerics and elders worried that Kaambakhsh would be let off the hook like Abdul Rahman, a Christian convert imprisoned in 2006 on charges of apostasy who was whisked off to Italy, where he had been granted asylum.

The Committee to Protect Journalists reiterated its call for Karzai "to have the case transferred immediately to Kabul and expedited through the appeals process so that he can be officially exculpated."

Reporters Without Borders, another press rights group, also pressed the Afghan government to transfer the case and the conviction "quashed."
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Al-Qaida in Afghanistan releases video
Wed Feb 6, 11:42 PM ET
CAIRO, Egypt - The leader of al-Qaida in Afghanistan praised a top commander who was killed last month by a U.S. missile strike and vowed to avenge his death, according to a video released Wednesday.

Mustafa Abu al-Yazeed, the self-proclaimed leader of the terror network's Afghanistan branch, said in the 12-minute video that the killing of Abu Laith al-Libi and other top al-Qaida leaders in recent years strengthens the fight against infidels.

"So, the killing of these heroic chiefs doesn't — and won't — end the march of jihad (holy war) or extinguish its torch or put out its light as the enemies imagine. Rather, their killing, in fact, pushes the march forward and strengthens, stabilizes, sharpens and stimulates it," al-Yazeed said in the video.

In the statement, al-Yazid threatens revenge, saying al-Libi's fighters "will not rest until they avenge him and realize his aspirations and hopes."

The video, which had English subtitles, could not immediately be independently verified, but it appeared on a militant Web site commonly used by al-Qaida. It also bore the logo of al-Qaida's media wing, Al-Sahab.

U.S. officials have said a missile from a U.S. Predator drone struck a terrorist safehouse in Pakistan late last month, killing al-Libi, who was believed to be responsible for the bombing during a visit last year by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney to Afghanistan. His death was first reported by postings on two Islamist Web sites.

In the video, al-Yazeed said al-Libi was killed by the weapon of "despicable cowards."

"The enemies of Allah were incapable of confronting (al-Libi) on the battlefield, nor were they able to compete with him as equals, for they are too cowardly and despicable for that. No, they used the weapon of treachery and betrayal," said al-Yazeed.

Al-Libi, whom Pakistani intelligence described as the operational commander of al-Qaida in the border region, was among the most high-profile figures in the militant group after its leader, Osama bin Laden, and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri.
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Iran backs peace in Afghanistan
Press TV (Iran) Thu, 07 Feb 2008 09:22:45
An Iranian Foreign Ministry official says the Islamic Republic has always backed the establishment of peace and security in Afghanistan.

Mohammad-Ebrahim Taherian, director of the Afghanistan Affairs Office at Foreign Ministry, said Tehran believes that establishing security in Afghanistan is in the interest of its neighbors and the international community.

Speaking in Tokyo on the second day of a meeting of the Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board - a committee working to implement Afghanistan's five-year reconstruction plan - Taherian also said Iran has taken the responsibility of granting a $560m gratuitous loan to Afghanistan over a five-year period.

Iran has assisted Afghanistan in infrastructure installations, technical and educational services and cash aid, he said, adding, “Iran's major assistance to Afghanistan has been the construction of infrastructure such as bridges, roads and electricity supplies.”

He also voiced the Islamic Republic's deep concern over the increasing production of narcotics in Afghanistan. He blamed drugs for security woes and an expansion of terrorism in Afghanistan.
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Afghanistan: ICG report calls on donors to "make decisive change"
KABUL, 7 February 2008 (IRIN) - The international community must "accept mistakes" it has made in the past six years or more in rebuilding and developing Afghanistan, and should now "summon the means and resolve to make a decisive change", the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a report.

The report "Afghanistan: The need for international resolve", released on 6 February, comes amidst growing calls for a dramatic change in the way international donors have engaged militarily and politically, and spent over US$15 billion on reconstruction, development and humanitarian activities in Afghanistan since late 2001.

Oxfam International and some other aid agencies have also called for an "overhaul" of international aid policy towards Afghanistan.

"Afghanistan is not lost but the signs are not good," warns the ICG. "The international community would do better to accept that mistakes have been made and rectify them," it said.

According to the ICG, although international actors have never maintained executive authority in Afghanistan they still control most of the military and financial resources available to the war-torn country.

Poor coordination

Poor coordination mechanisms among about 60 donors, and between donors and the Afghan government, have increasingly been highlighted as the fault-line of rebuilding and development efforts in Afghanistan.

Major donors and international actors in Afghanistan such as the USA, the UK, the European Union, NATO and the UN have managed large resources and identified priorities through separate and mostly uncoordinated structures, the ICG, Oxfam and other aid organisations say.

The ICG report said: "Despite growing calls for 'coordination', international efforts are marred by inability to agree on priorities and plans, even with regard to counter-insurgency."

The Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board (JCMB) - which has 23 international and seven Afghan members and is tasked with overseeing progress according to the Afghanistan Compact - has failed to work effectively at home and has only become a "travelling jamboree", attending meetings around the world, the report said.

There is a need for the establishment of a "Contact Group" of key international players who should regularly meet in Kabul, New York and other capitals to "steer strategic planning of the international engagement", and enable the JCMB to concentrate on work inside the country, the ICG recommended.

Strengthen UN's role

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) - which was established in March 2002 and whose mandate has been endorsed by the UN Security Council annually - played a leading role in implementing the December 2001 Bonn Provisional Arrangements on Afghanistan.

However, in recent years UNAMA has lost "much of its policy leadership role" due to a lack of coordination among multiple actors and the way international involvement has been designed, the ICG report said.

"The UN has failed to seize the initiative and perform the function of coordinator and driver of international efforts set out in its mandate," it said.

Dan Mcnorton, a UNAMA spokesman in Kabul, said the ICG report highlighted some of the key challenges facing Afghanistan, and which need to be addressed by the Afghan government, donors and other players, but he rejected ICG's statement that UNAMA's leadership role had diminished.

"The situation now is different to what it was two or three years ago, but UNAMA is not weak," he said.

UNAMA has over 200 international and about 800 national staff in 17 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces.

The UN Security Council has tasked UNAMA with promoting humanitarian coordination, in addition to its critical role of harmonising the promotion of reconstruction, development and human rights in post-Taliban Afghanistan.

The ICG has called on the UN Secretary-General to ensure that UNAMA receive sufficient resources to fulfil its mandate. It also calls on UNAMA to improve coordination with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force and other major players.

"Afghanistan is a multilateral effort. it is a test not just in itself or of nation-building and conflict management, but of 21st century multilateralism," the ICG report said.
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Secret talks led to Pakistan cease-fire
By ISHTIAQ MAHSUD, Associated Press Writer Thu Feb 7, 7:47 AM ET
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - Two Pakistani officials said Thursday that their government held secret talks with Taliban fighters and tribal elders near the Afghan border before a cease-fire just announced by the militants.

The officials familiar with the talks said they took place at an undisclosed location in South Waziristan, a semiautonomous region that is home to scores of al-Qaida and Taliban fighters, many of whom fled there from neighboring Afghanistan after the U.S-led invasion in 2001. The officials would not say who represented the government or how long the dialogue had been going on.

Militant representatives included Siraj Haqqani, a prominent Afghan militant blamed for attacks against coalition forces in Afghanistan, one official said. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Few other details have emerged about terms of the cease-fire, announced Wednesday by a spokesman for Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, a militant umbrella group, after weeks of heavy fighting.

The government of President Pervez Musharraf did not confirm a truce but Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz said the national leadership was ready for a dialogue with the Taliban.

Tehrik-e-Taliban is led by Baitullah Mehsud, an al-Qaida-linked commander based in South Waziristan whom Musharraf's government has blamed for a series of suicide attacks across Pakistan, including the Dec. 27 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Bhutto's party condemned any dialogue between the government and Taliban militants.

"The government is holding talks with the man blamed by it for the killing of Benazir Bhutto. We condemn it," spokeswoman Sherry Rehman said.

Ismail Khan, a journalist who reports on the border area for the newspaper Dawn, said both sides appeared to be respecting the truce. But he said the military's apparent decision to halt its operation against militants in South Waziristan raised questions about whether Pakistan was committed to crushing the Taliban.

In Washington, the State Department signaled it would oppose any agreement that resembled the last truce.A cease-fire in North Waziristan in September 2006, which collapsed in July, was widely seen as a setback in the war against terror, giving the Taliban and al-Qaida a freer hand to stage cross-border attacks into Afghanistan and extend their control of areas within Pakistan.

The Pakistani government has repeatedly tried to strike peace deals with local pro-Taliban militants, urging them to expel foreign al-Qaida militants the U.S. has warned may use their sanctuary inside Pakistan's tribal regions to plot terror attacks around the globe.

Militant spokesman Maulvi Mohammed Umar said the truce would include the tribal belt along the Afghan border and the restive Swat region to the east where the army has also battled pro-Taliban fighters.

Rehman spoke in the southern province of Sindh, where an estimated 10,000 of Bhutto's followers gathered to mark the end of the 40-day mourning period. After Thursday's religious ceremonies, Bhutto's party, now led by her widowed husband Asif Ali Zardari, is set resume campaigning for crucial Feb. 18 parliamentary elections, which were delayed six weeks after her death.

A three-member team of British investigators from Scotland Yard arrived in the capital Islamabad early Thursday to share with Pakistan the findings of its probe into exactly how Bhutto died — amid confusion over whether she was killed by gunshot or the impact of the suicide bombing that followed as she left an election rally by her Pakistan Peoples Party in Rawalpindi..

Aidan Liddle, spokesman for the British High Commission, said it would release an executive summary of the report on Friday.

Bhutto's violent death has put a damper on public campaigning for the upcoming election, aimed at restoring civilian government after eight years of military rule. Musharraf was re-elected last October but needs a strong majority in parliament to fend off demands for his impeachment.

White House officials have lauded Musharraf as an indispensable ally in the war on terror. But the former general has seen his support among Pakistanis steadily erode. Even retired generals have joined lawyers and other professionals in demanding that he step down.

On Thursday, a private TV news station accused the government of blocking its transmissions after it aired a program featuring a critic of Musharraf. The satellite transmission of Aaj television was blocked late Wednesday after commentator Nusrat Javed appeared on-screen, said Aslam Dogar, an assignment editor at the station.

Aaj television had been banned in November when Musharraf declared a state of emergency and put curbs on the media.

A truce with the Taliban may help the government maintain order during the Feb. 18 balloting, although numerous other extremist groups throughout the country may not consider themselves bound by the truce.

Two men were killed and 10 others were wounded when a bomb exploded Thursday in southwestern Baluchistan province. The blast, which authorities said may have been a suicide attack, occurred in the town of Dera Murad Jamali in front of shops owned by Hindus, police said.
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Afghan Wireless Launches GPRS Services
Cellular-News.com - Feb 07 3:03 AM
Afghan Wireless has launched its GPRS upgrade, with coverage completion in 34 Provinces across Afghanistan along with the lowest denomination Af. 50/- Top Up card for its over 1.7 million subscribers.

In a press briefing at its headquarters, Afghan Wireless Managing Director, Mr. Amin Ramin said "We at Afghan Wireless believe in offering strong value propositions to our customers. We have always tried hard to give them more than their expectation. We have ensured Microwave connectivity, amazing call quality with no satellite delays, superb connectivity even on highways, and today we are announcing the completion of our coverage in 34 provinces with GPRS across Afghanistan and lowest ever denomination Top Up Card for the entire Afghan Wireless family, A family of over 1.7 million people, a family which believes in investing together in the country, a family which loves the motherland with a pride. This spirit of Afghan customers is shown in our fastest growing customer base in the country."

Mr. Amin also said, "When Afghan Wireless offers something new, it is much more value addition compared to our competition and always has more benefits to the customers as we are driven by the vision of our Chairman Mr. Ehsanullah Bayat to give more value for money to our customers."

Statistics from the Mobile World show that Afghan Wireless ended last September as the second largest operator in the country, but only a shade behind number one, Roshan.

Posted to the site on 7th February 2008
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