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Concern over Afghan civilian death toll
By Martin Patience BBC News, Kabul Friday, 11 July 2008
Civilian casualties are once again on the agenda in Afghanistan.
U.S. air strike kills 47 civilians: official
By Mohammad Rafiq Fri Jul 11, 9:22 AM ET
JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A U.S. coalition force air strike on Sunday killed 47 civilians, including 39 women and children, in the eastern province of Nangarhar, an Afghan official said on Friday.
US military in Pakistan warning
Friday, 11 July 2008 BBC News
More foreign fighters, including al-Qaeda militants, are operating in Pakistan's tribal region than before, America's top soldier has said.
Afghanistan: Taliban drug trade linked to senior officials, say experts
Karachi, 11 July (AKI) - (by Syed Saleem Shahzad) - Opium cultivation is the prime source of income for the Taliban and enables the militants to buy arms for their insurgency against the Afghan government.
Afghanistan: Tracking Taliban funding key to their defeat, say journalists
Kabul, 11 July (AKI) - Tracking the funding that the Taliban receives either through the drug trade or through private donations from abroad, particularly Arab sources, is essential to defeating the militant movement.
The Taliban's Rising Tide
The New York Times - Editorials & Opinion Editorial July 11, 2008
The swelling forces of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters in Pakistan’s border region pose a grave threat to American and NATO troops in Afghanistan. They also pose a grave threat to the Pakistani people. Pakistan’s Taliban militias
U.S. Blames Pakistan as Afghanistan Incursions Rise
Border-Area Refuge Threatens to Harm Political Relations
Wall Street Journal By YOCHI J. DREAZEN July 11, 2008
KABUL, Afghanistan -U.S. officials have begun blaming Pakistan for Afghanistan's increasing violence, an escalation in rhetoric that suggests American patience with Pakistan's new government is rapidly running out.
Browne focuses on Afghan challenge
Fri Jul 11, 2008 8:17am BST
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Afghanistan poses a greater challenge than Iraq for the United States and its allies and will require a commitment from the international community for a generation, Defence Secretary Des Browne said on Thursday.
Commentary: Afghanistan, another Vietnam?
By ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE, UPI Editor at Large
WASHINGTON, July 11 (UPI) -- It was an ultimatum of sorts by a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee to Pakistan's new civilian government: Either the government gets serious about flushing out al-Qaida and Taliban fighters
2 Taliban killed by group of Afghan villagers
AMIR SHAH Associated Press / July 10, 2008
A group of villagers in northwestern Afghanistan used a machine gun, sticks and stones to kill two Taliban militants and chase 10 others away, a provincial police chief said Thursday.
Afghan forces kill Taliban "governor"
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan, July 10 (Reuters) - Afghan security forces killed a Taliban member who the insurgents had recently appointed "governor" of the northwestern province of Faryab, police said on Thursday.
Nine Pakistanis hurt in fire from Afghanistan
July 11, 2008
WANA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Seven Pakistani soldiers and two civilians have been wounded by firing from inside Afghanistan in the latest incident along the border between the uneasy U.S. allies.
Gilani rejects reports linking ISI to Indian embassy bombing
July 10, 2008
Dubai (PTI): Pakistan Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani has rejected as "baseless" reports linking his country's intelligence agency ISI to the suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Afghanistan.
Dangerous Ground
TIME By ARYN BAKER Thursday, Jul. 10, 2008
ISLAMABAD-In recent weeks, Pakistan, one of the world's most dangerous countries, has been further shaken by, of all people, a bus driver, a ski-lift operator and a gym rat. On June 28 Pakistani paramilitary forces chased militants
US Senate approves Petraeus role
Friday, 11 July 2008BBC News
The US Senate has approved the appointment of General David Petraeus as head of US Central Command.
Afghanistan runner is missing from training camp
By Stephen Wilson Associated Press Friday, July 11, 2008
LONDON — The only female athlete on Afghanistan's team for the Beijing Olympics has gone missing from a training camp in Italy and apparently is seeking political asylum in Norway.
Kuchi nomads kill four Hazaras - MP
Written by www.quqnoos.com Thursday, 10 July 2008
Land dispute flares again - nomads claim residents stole animals
KUCHI nomads have killed four Hazaras and taken another four hostage in Maydan Wardak, a province bordering Kabul, according to a Member of Parliament.
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Concern over Afghan civilian death toll
By Martin Patience BBC News, Kabul Friday, 11 July 2008
Civilian casualties are once again on the agenda in Afghanistan.
An Afghan parliamentary investigation has found that a US airstrike on Sunday in the eastern province of Nangarhar killed 47 civilians.
Regional officials said the casualties were attending a wedding party and that the bride had been killed. The US military has said it has launched an investigation into the incident.
On Monday, more than 40 civilians were killed by a suicide car bomb targeting the Indian embassy in Kabul.
The UN said last month that nearly 700 Afghan civilians had lost their lives in Afghanistan this year, about two-thirds in attacks by militants and about 255 in military operations.
Cause for concern
In recent days, international humanitarian organisations have voiced concern about the high number of civilian casualties.
Franz Rauchenstein, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in Kabul, said: "We call on all parties to the conflict, in the conduct of their military operations, to distinguish at all times between civilians and fighters and to take constant care to spare civilians.
"Civilians must never be the target of an attack, unless they take a direct part in the fighting."
The inquiry into Sunday's incident in Nangarhar, however, raises tensions between the Afghan government and foreign troops based in the country, whose mandate is to support the Afghan authorities.
In the past, President Hamid Karzai has said that no civilian casualties are acceptable.
Some local politicians have demanded that charges be brought against those responsible for Sunday's air strike.
"The Americans say they can't miss a target of four inches," said Burhanullah Shinwari, the head of the investigating team, who is also deputy speaker of the Afghan senate.
"With all their technological advances, how can they not differentiate between a wedding party, women, children and the Taleban and al-Qaeda?"
They are also calling for the families to receive compensation, or blood money, which is common in Afghanistan.
While international forces do sometimes pay compensation, critics say that the process is not transparent, and more often than not families are left with no answers to why the victims were killed and no money.
Civilian casualties are caused by three main players in Afghanistan - the Taleban, international forces, and the Afghan army and police.
According to the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), more than 350 civilians have been killed and 800 wounded in Taleban attacks this year, with most victims caught in suicide bombings often aimed at foreign troops.
Figures disputed
An Isaf spokesman would only say that the number of civilians killed in Isaf operations were in the "low double figures".
But a number of local organisations say the true number is far higher.
Public perception matters greatly to the international forces, particularly as they say they are waging a "hearts and minds" campaign.
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (Unama) posed this question on its website: "Who do you think causes the most civilian deaths in the country?"
Of the 149 votes cast so far, 70% said the Taleban and other insurgents, 24% said international military forces, while 6% said Afghan security forces.
Military officials say that while extremely regrettable, civilian casualties are inevitable in war zones and that many parts of Afghanistan are either regularly attacked by suicide bombers or gripped by an insurgency.
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U.S. air strike kills 47 civilians: official
By Mohammad Rafiq Fri Jul 11, 9:22 AM ET
JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A U.S. coalition force air strike on Sunday killed 47 civilians, including 39 women and children, in the eastern province of Nangarhar, an Afghan official said on Friday.
The issue of civilian casualties is an emotive one in Afghanistan, feeding a common perception international forces do not take enough care when launching air strikes, and undermining support for their continued presence in the country.
Residents and officials had earlier told reporters that 23 people were killed, when aircraft bombed a convoy bringing a bride to her new husband's village in Nangarhar.
The U.S. military released a statement after the incident saying there were no civilians in the area and that they had been targeting a large group of militants.
"I reject the coalition statement saying that all those killed were militants," Burhanullah Shinwari, deputy speaker of the upper house, who is heading an investigation into Sunday's incident told Reuters on Friday. "There aren't any Taliban or Al Qaeda even several kilometers near to where the air strike took place. Fourty-seven people were killed; 39 of them were women and children," he said shortly after attending prayer ceremonies for the victims in the provincial capital Jalalabad.
An investigation has also been launched into another U.S. air strike carried out two days before Sunday's incident in which local officials say 15 civilians were killed. The U.S. military is conducting its own investigation into Sunday's incident.
"We are still investigating it and we haven't completed our investigation so I can't speak about specifics at this time," a spokesman for the U.S. military said on Friday.
"All I can say is that any loss of innocent life is tragic. I can assure you that civilians are never targeted in operations and that our forces go to great lengths in avoiding civilian casualties," he said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Wednesday called on all sides in the conflict to take more care to avoid harming civilians.
Nearly 700 Afghan civilians were killed in the first six months of this year, 255 of them by Afghan government and international troops, the rest by Taliban militants.
Civilian deaths at the hands of foreign troops have in the past sparked violent protests in Afghanistan.
"By carrying out such attacks, the Americans are creating a gap between the (Afghan) government and the people," said Shinwari.
(Writing by Jonathon Burch; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
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US military in Pakistan warning
Friday, 11 July 2008 BBC News
More foreign fighters, including al-Qaeda militants, are operating in Pakistan's tribal region than before, America's top soldier has said.
Adm Mike Mullen also said Pakistan was not doing enough to stop militants from crossing over into Afghanistan.
Attacks on the US forces in eastern Afghanistan, on Pakistan's border, have grown rapidly in the last few months.
Adm Mullen, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, visited Pakistan twice this year for anti-terror talks.
'Clear problem'
"There are clearly more foreign fighters in the Fata (Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas) than have been there in the past," Adm Mullen was quoted by news agency Associated Press as saying.
"There's a clear problem on the border," he added.
The chief of the US military made the comments on Thursday in Kabul. He is on a six-day visit to the region.
Adm Mullen said the new government in Pakistan was working its way through figuring out how to deal with the extremist challenge.
"There's clearly not enough pressure being brought to bear, particularly on the Pakistan side of the border. There's more freedom there," AP quoted him as saying.
Attacks on US troops fighting in eastern Afghanistan have grown in the past few months.
Many senior US officials have in the past been critical of the Pakistani government's attempts to work out peace deals with the local Taleban in the western tribal areas.
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Afghanistan: Taliban drug trade linked to senior officials, say experts
Karachi, 11 July (AKI) - (by Syed Saleem Shahzad) - Opium cultivation is the prime source of income for the Taliban and enables the militants to buy arms for their insurgency against the Afghan government.
But they rely on an efficient distribution system and regional experts believe that senior Afghan officials are colluding with the Taliban for their own gain.
Zaid Hamid, security expert and head of the Pakistani think-tank, BrassTacks, told Adnkronos International (AKI) that several players were involved in the game of drug trafficking and the collusion of Afghan officials was crucial.
"The total drug economy of Afghanistan is estimated to be 150 billion dollars out of which only one billion dollars returns to Afghanistan," Zaid Hamid told AKI.
"The rest is laundered through the international banking system which indicates that several other players are involved in the game of drug trafficking and the receipts to the Afghan insurgency are very small."
Hamid said that Russian and Chinese anti-narcotics forces had recently told their colleagues in Pakistan that the flow of drugs from Afghanistan into their respective countries had reached a crisis.
"They are facing a crisis-like situation," he told AKI. "The figures provided to Pakistan suggested the majority of the drug smuggling is taking place through northern corridors (a non Taliban area)".
"These routes linked Afghanistan to Central Asian states, Afghanistan to Russia and from the Afghan province of Badakshan to Tajikistan and to China. The third route is coming from Afghanistan to Pakistan to the UAE (United Arab Emirates) through the Arabian Sea.
"With this course, the receipts of money coming back to Afghanistan is very small, according to notes given by the Russians to Pakistan."
Former Pakistani spy chief, Ret. Gen. Hamid Gul, told AKI the drug trade had been one source for fuelling the Afghan resistance against Soviet Russia.
Gul, former head of Pakistan's Inter-Services-Intelligence, was the spymaster and the main architect of the Mujahadeen's resistance to the Soviets during the late 1980s.
"The real component in this economy has always been the external factors, not the local farmers and the warlords," he said.
"This account is fully documented on how the CIA was involved in the 1980s to raise the money for the Afghan resistance against the Soviets through the smuggling of drugs and of course CIA officials also raised money for themselves."
Gul was head of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence service between 1987 and 1989 and worked closely with the CIA during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
He reportedly became disillusioned with the US when it failed to follow through on Afghanistan after the Soviet withdrawal and called on Muslims to unite and confront the US in its war on terror after the September 11 attacks.
Various statistics confirmed the claim that several players are involved in the game of drug trafficking beside the Taliban.
Gul endorsed British media reports that Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the current Afghan president was involved in the drug trade.
"Everybody in Afghanistan and Pakistan knows that the powerful person in the distribution of drugs is Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of Hamid Karzai," Gul told AKI.
Hamid Gul's claims can be substantiated through many accounts that the Taliban is the base of this trade but the cartel is far complex.
Nevertheless, the real issue is still not the local farmers whose fields are in remote villages only but the distribution networks in which a strong cartel involving the Afghan government is involved.
A senior official working for the British Government's office in the province of Helmand, seconded to the anti-narcotics mission, told AKI that the poppies are cultivated mostly in the districts controlled by the Taliban like Bagran, Musa Qala, Nawzad and Sangeen.
He said from Laskhar Gah, the capital of Helmand, the crops are transported with the collaboration of the police and the local administration and then goes deep inside to the Garmser district from where it reaches to Pakistan and then through Arabian Sea it is distributed through various markets.
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Afghanistan: Tracking Taliban funding key to their defeat, say journalists
Kabul, 11 July (AKI) - Tracking the funding that the Taliban receives either through the drug trade or through private donations from abroad, particularly Arab sources, is essential to defeating the militant movement.
This is the view of Afghan journalists interviewed by Adnkronos International (AKI).
The reporters were responding to a call made by several members of the European Parliament to do more to stop the Taliban from trafficking drugs and drawing funds from outside the country.
"This is an essential and vital issue to be addressed," Barry Salaam, chief editor of Good Morning Afghanistan radio programme told AKI.
"Without addressing the poppy issue and the funding issue, we cannot beat and defeat the Taliban."
However Salaam noted that while Taliban funding was addressed in the past, it has not really been discussed in recent years.
Saheem Dashty, publisher and chief editor of the Kabul Weekly newspaper, said that while the debate sparked by the Euro-MPs on the Taliban is a good initiative, he doubts if it can stop the process of financing the Taliban.
"The process of financing is illegal and a very secret process and it is not easy to find it and stop it," Dashty told AKI.
Dashty explained that besides the drug trade, the Taliban has drawn funds from outside Afghanistan, particularly from Arab countries and often the funds enter the country through "unofficial transfers".
He said that for example a company in Dubai receives the money and it is transfered to that company's office in Afghanistan or in Pakistan. As long as the person in Afghanistan or Pakistan has the number of the money transferred, they can then easily collect the funds on behalf of the Taliban.
Dashty said that he has heard about such transfers "through word of mouth" from people who had travelled to these countries and then returned.
"Another issue is that most of the Afghans who have businesses in Dubai are from south and south-east of Afghanistan, the area where the Taliban is very popular," said Dashty.
"I think these people are the key people involved in the transfer," he said.
Dashty said that Afghans knew about these transfers for a long time but they did not have enough support from other countries to do something about it.
Before the hardline Taliban regime was ousted from power in a US-led invasion in 2001, their government in Afghanistan was recognised by only three countries in the world: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
"These three countries had been supporting the Taliban financially and morally since 1996 [when the Taliban came to power] and they are still involved in some way or another," said Salaam who also said that he believed that Pakistan had not given up on the Taliban as a political project.
Kabul has repeatedly accused elements within Pakistan of supporting the Taliban and other extremists for strategic interests. Pakistan denies the accusation.
Salaam said that although the issue of foreign funds for the Taliban is a major concern, many Afghans are more worried about the internal drug trade.
"It's a shame to talk of outside funding if we can't control internally the drug issue," he said.
According to a report released last month by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Afghanistan remains the drug war's biggest problem because it now accounts for more than 90 percent of global opium production.
"Most of this money goes to funding the Taliban," said Salaam.
"Over the past several years, Afghanistan has moved backward on the drug issue.
"Despite the millions of dollars invested, there have been no positive results in reducing the amount of drugs," he said.
Salaam believes that if there is a serious intiative to deal with the drug trade, this will have "a major impact on the overall strategy and security of the country."
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The Taliban's Rising Tide
The New York Times - Editorials & Opinion Editorial July 11, 2008
The swelling forces of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters in Pakistan’s border region pose a grave threat to American and NATO troops in Afghanistan. They also pose a grave threat to the Pakistani people. Pakistan’s Taliban militias, like their Afghan counterparts, are trying to impose their harsh medieval version of Islamic law. More than a thousand Pakistanis have been killed in terrorist attacks in the past year, mostly in the border areas where radical Islamic fighters are strongest.
Pakistan’s new military and civilian leaders, caught up in their own power struggles, have been dangerously derelict in acknowledging and confronting the threat. Instead, they have deluded themselves that they can negotiate a separate peace with fanatic Taliban leaders. Bitter experience has proved that will not work.
Sending United States troops into Pakistan’s border regions to try to clean out Taliban and Al Qaeda forces is also not the answer — and would provoke even fiercer anti-American furies across Pakistan. The poorly paid, ill-trained and uncertainly loyal Frontier Corps in Pakistan is not up to the job.
Pakistan’s civilian leaders and the new military commander, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, will need to commit to fighting the extremists — for the sake of their own country’s stability — and to sending in elite units specifically trained in counterinsurgency techniques. Local tribal leaders also need to be weaned away from the Taliban. That would only happen if Islamabad and Washington back their exhortations with substantial economic assistance.
The United States has showered Pakistan with more than $7 billion in military aid over the past six years, with little of it actually being used for counterinsurgency purposes. Over the same period, Washington has provided less than $3 billion in all other forms of assistance.
This month, Senators Joseph Biden and Richard Lugar plan to introduce sensible legislation that would provide up to $15 billion in aid to Pakistan over the next 10 years for economic development, health and education. Congress should move quickly to approve the aid.
The United States also needs to work with Pakistan’s new government to establish spending priorities and to ensure that any future aid is channeled in ways that would strengthen the civilian government and allow it to regain control over a military that has too often been a law unto itself and intelligence services that seem far more loyal to the extremists than their own government.
When Pakistan’s prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, visits Washington later this month, President Bush should offer him strong political and economic backing in exchange for a firm commitment to support Afghanistan’s embattled government and fight Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorism in Pakistan.
Washington has made a lot of policy mistakes in Pakistan — most notably supporting Pervez Musharraf for far too long. It has forfeited most of its credibility with the Pakistani people and reinforced their belief that the fight against extremism is “Washington’s war” and not also their own.
Both countries have a common and increasingly urgent interest in rolling back the power of Al Qaeda and the Taliban and working together to promote democracy and development in Pakistan. President Bush needs to persuade Pakistan’s leaders of that — and he needs to do it now, before Al Qaeda and the Taliban get any stronger.
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U.S. Blames Pakistan as Afghanistan Incursions Rise
Border-Area Refuge Threatens to Harm Political Relations
Wall Street Journal By YOCHI J. DREAZEN July 11, 2008
KABUL, Afghanistan -U.S. officials have begun blaming Pakistan for Afghanistan's increasing violence, an escalation in rhetoric that suggests American patience with Pakistan's new government is rapidly running out.
Senior American military officials say that the number of militants crossing into Afghanistan from Pakistan has increased sharply in recent weeks because of Pakistan's failure to crack down on the Islamic militants operating freely in its lawless tribal areas.
"I link the increased incidents of violence in Afghanistan in part to those sanctuaries across the border and the ability to send militant groups and fighters into Afghanistan," said Gen. David McKiernan, the American officer commanding 52,700 North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops across Afghanistan.
The insurgent infiltration has contributed to a sudden spike in violence across Afghanistan, particularly in Kabul. This week, a massive truck bomb demolished the Indian Embassy here, killing at least 41 people in the bloodiest attack in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion.
The U.S. military death toll has also been growing rapidly, and more American military personnel have been killed in Afghanistan than in Iraq in recent months. The 45 military personnel killed in June were the highest monthly death toll since the start of the Afghanistan war.
American anger over Pakistan's perceived unwillingness to move against the militants is clouding the Bush administration's relationship with the newly elected government in Islamabad. The new government has talked openly about seeking a political accommodation with the extremists.
It is also likely to complicate the relationship between Afghanistan and its neighbor. The recent wave of insurgent activity inside Afghanistan -- including a high-profile attempt to assassinate President Hamid Karzai and a Taliban-led jailbreak that freed nearly 1,000 militants -- has sparked a war of words between Afghan and Pakistani leaders.
Last month, Mr. Karzai surprised U.S. officials by threatening to send his troops into Pakistan to hit Taliban and other insurgent targets there.
U.S. officials appear to be taking the side of the Afghans. "The government of Pakistan and the military of Pakistan [are] not bringing enough pressure on the insurgents that reside on that side of the border," Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Thursday.
Adm. Mullen, the top U.S. uniformed military officer, said militants were able to easily move around Pakistan's tribal areas and cross back and forth between Pakistan and Afghanistan. He described Pakistan as a "safe haven" for al Qaeda and a variety of other militants.
"I worry a lot about the increased numbers of insurgents that are coming across the border," he said in a separate interview. "I'm more concerned about the trends in Afghanistan than I have been in the past."
Gen. McKiernan, the top U.S. officer in Afghanistan, said sanctuaries in Pakistan enabled insurgents to communicate, resupply and recruit and train fighters "that can come across the border into Afghanistan as part of our insurgency problem here."
U.S. officials say that the vast majority of fighters crossing into Afghanistan are ethnic Pashtuns, though they believe that some foreign fighters have also begun launching attacks from Pakistani territory. Gen. McKiernan said the foreign militants included Chechens, Uzbeks and Arabs.
Gen. McKiernan said that he needed at least three additional American combat brigades, or roughly 10,500 more troops, but warned that even additional troops would be no guarantee of victory here.
"I don't want anybody to be misled that if three brigades come from the U.S. then all of a sudden Afghanistan is secure," he said.
Adm. Mullen said it would be difficult to find more troops for Afghanistan until more American forces are withdrawn from Iraq.
Iraq is the "first priority," while Afghanistan remains "an economy of force mission," he said.
Write to Yochi J. Dreazen at yochi.dreazen@wsj.com
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Browne focuses on Afghan challenge
Fri Jul 11, 2008 8:17am BST
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Afghanistan poses a greater challenge than Iraq for the United States and its allies and will require a commitment from the international community for a generation, Defence Secretary Des Browne said on Thursday.
Browne, in the United States to mark the 50th anniversary of a U.S.-British mutual defence agreement, also said the next U.S. administration will need to make NATO's transformation from a Cold War organization a priority to help ensure long-term success in Afghanistan.
"I have no doubt that it will be a longer haul in Afghanistan," Browne said in a speech at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank.
"The nature and complexity of the challenge there is greater even than the nature and complexity of the challenge in ... Iraq," he said. "It will take a generation to rebuild."
Afghanistan, with a society and infrastructure that has suffered three decades of armed conflict, faces rising violence nearly seven years after U.S.-led forces ousted the country's former Taliban rulers.
Browne said NATO troops have forced the Taliban to abandon its former insurgency methods to adopt new tactics, such as headline-grabbing suicide bomb attacks.
"What this means is that the campaign in Afghanistan can no longer be won by the Taliban," he said.
"However, it can still be lost by the international community if we fail to maintain our cohesion as an alliance and rapidly and sustainably fill the reconstruction and development security space that we have created."
Much of the counterinsurgency burden confronting a 50,000-strong NATO contingent has been shouldered by the American, British, Canadian and Dutch troops, while other NATO members have resisted pressure to operate outside the relatively safe north.
Browne said that experience has made Afghanistan a catalyst for fundamental change in NATO by underlining the need to refocus the organization and its members on new threats, such as Islamist extremism.
"What we need to address this issue more strategically and at the highest possible political level, and what I ask an incoming (U.S.) administration to do, is to support those of us in the NATO alliance who think the transformation of that alliance is its greatest challenge," he said.
(Reporting by David Morgan, editing by Philip Barbara)
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Commentary: Afghanistan, another Vietnam?
By ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE, UPI Editor at Large
WASHINGTON, July 11 (UPI) -- It was an ultimatum of sorts by a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee to Pakistan's new civilian government: Either the government gets serious about flushing out al-Qaida and Taliban fighters from their safe havens in Pakistan's tribal border areas, or aid to Pakistan's military will have to be reassessed.
Pakistan cannot reduce -- let alone end -- the Taliban's cross-border raids into Afghanistan without sending its regular army back into action. Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt, say Pakistan's military commanders, and the T-shirt read, "Don't come back and stop taking American orders."
The Bush administration, in its remaining six months, should not expect a presently rudderless government in Pakistan to help out in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. It has troubles enough on the home front, where a 400-strong Taliban force laid siege to a police station in Hangu in the North-West Frontier province -- in Pakistan proper. Taliban rockets also smashed into the army's Armored Corps Center between Islamabad and its twin city of Rawalpindi.
Some 100,000 troops -- mostly Punjabis who are loath to kill tribal kinsmen -- were assigned to the seven FATA agencies under U.S. pressure. They lost 1,400 soldiers killed and three times that number wounded. Some Pakistani units were ambushed and surrendered without firing a shot. Why should they kill their fellow countrymen, they asked their officers.
Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Pa., in a breakfast talk to the Asia Society, said if the army can't stamp out cross-border flows of "militants, weapons and other illicit trade," then the Frontier Corps of militarized local tribesmen under Pakistani army officers will have to do the job. The Bush administration recently notified Congress it planned to use $74.5 million for a Security Development Plan to train and equip the Frontier Corps to conduct counterinsurgency activities within FATA and the North-West Frontier province and put an end to the Taliban's incursions into Afghanistan.
The FC is made up of locals who surrendered in large numbers to Taliban fighters last year. The Taliban's current advantage is that their guerrillas are paid $8 a day against the FC's $2 a day, and their opium poppy-purchased weapons are often better than the FC's.
Casey conceded that Gen. Dan McNeill, who until recently commanded NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, declined to endorse U.S. plans to train and equip the Frontier Corps, "questioning the effectiveness and loyalty of the tribally recruited guards."
Shuja Nawaz is a Pakistani journalist/scholar and authority on the Pakistani army whose recent book, "Crossed Swords," is on the international best-seller list. He says that to put benchmarks on Pakistan "without addressing the basic Trust Deficit between the U.S. and Pakistan and specifically the army ... will only convince Pakistanis that the U.S. is ready to pull the rug again and decamp," much the way it first did when the last Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan on Feb. 15, 1989.
That was when the United States began punishing Pakistan with all manner of diplomatic, economic and military sanctions for what was then the country's clandestine nuclear weapons program.
The United States did not endear itself to the Pakistani army when it withheld visas for some of the Pakistani colonels who had been invited by the Pentagon to attend a confidence-building exercise with their Afghan counterparts. But the Afghans got their visas. Shuja added, "Guess what's Topic A in army messes throughout Pakistan now? The Americans do not trust us, they are saying, so why should we trust them?"
Gen. David Petraeus, who is leaving his Iraq command post later this month to take over the U.S. Central Command the first week of September, says his principal concern as he looks at his entire area of responsibility -- which is larger than the continental United States, including 25 mostly Muslim nations in the Persian Gulf, Horn of Africa, Caspian Sea Basin -- is FATA. Because FATA, where only 3 percent of the women can read, will determine the success or failure of the Afghan Taliban insurgency's comeback, and because the future of NATO now hinges on success or failure in FATA.
NATO's first out of area (out of Europe) operation in its 60-year history is Afghanistan. Failure in Afghanistan would leave NATO toothless without a mission. Milton Bearden, the legendary hero of the guerrilla war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, said this week at a Business Executives for National Security luncheon meeting that the Afghan theater was "spinning out of control."
Domestic opinion among America's NATO allies whose soldiers are doing the fighting -- the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Canada -- along with 37,000 U.S. troops indicates a desire to be out by 2011 at the latest. A British Defense Ministry survey showed half of all British soldiers wanting out of the service.
French, German, Spanish, Italian, Belgian and other forces are not participating in combat operations because of political opposition at home. Even supplying them to stay put is proving beyond the capabilities of slimmed-down, post-Cold War defense budgets. Most Afghan experts cannot see any chance of success without an open-ended commitment of at least five and possibly 10 years.
Bearden advocates turning operations back to the Special Forces and the CIA -- a total of 410 men, including some on horseback, liberated Afghanistan in October 2001, less than a month after Sept. 11 -- who would be highly mobile countrywide. President Hamid Karzai's ratings have never been lower, says Bearden, "and he should temper his own embrace of India, which only makes matters worse with Pakistan."
After saying U.S. troops should exit Iraq prudently, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois makes the point Afghanistan is where the only war on terror is taking place. And he says he is prepared to shift a large number of U.S. soldiers and assets to the guerrilla war against the Taliban in Afghanistan -- which leads some intelligence experts to ask, somewhat anxiously, whether Afghanistan could become Obama's Vietnam, as it was Russia's Vietnam before.
Bearden reminds his audience that in 1838 a British expeditionary force captured Kandahar and then moved on to Kabul to complete the conquest of Afghanistan. But when the winter of 1841-42 began, Afghans rose up with the guns they were born with. A British retreat to India was hastily assembled. As the long 15,000-strong caravan entered the first gorge on its way back to India, the British were attacked from all sides. Only one man was spared so he could escape to tell the story.
How to convince Afghans that NATO is there to stay is part of Petraeus's challenge. The average Afghan knows NATO will be gone one day. But ordinary Afghans know the Taliban is there to stay.
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2 Taliban killed by group of Afghan villagers
AMIR SHAH Associated Press / July 10, 2008
A group of villagers in northwestern Afghanistan used a machine gun, sticks and stones to kill two Taliban militants and chase 10 others away, a provincial police chief said Thursday.
The militants had tried to abduct local aid workers who were building a well in the Qayar district of Faryab province on Wednesday, said the police chief, Khalil Andarabi.
The villagers confronted the militants, and after a brief altercation, shot at them, killing two and forcing the rest to flee, he said.
The bodies of the dead militants, which included the Taliban-appointed shadow governor for the province, were still with the villagers, Andarabi said.
In areas where there is a Taliban presence, the militants appoint representatives to carry out administrative jobs such as tax collection and resolving disputes using traditional methods.
Cases of villagers attacking the Taliban are rare in the region and the authorities have moved additional troops in to prevent any Taliban retaliation, Andarabi said.
"According to our culture, when the people invited the aid workers to dig a well they cannot allow the Taliban to kidnap and behead them," Andarabi said. "They were guests, and we never give up our guests."
Separately, a roadside bomb in the eastern province of Paktika killed two NATO soldiers and wounded a third. NATO did not release the nationalities of the soldiers, but most troops in Paktika are American.
Also, NATO-led forces said troops in central Logar province killed a Taliban militant involved with suicide bombing networks. The alliance accused the militant, Mohammed Daud Rahimi, of identifying targets for suicide bombers in Kabul and helping the bombers into the city.
A woman and a man were wounded during the Wednesday raid, NATO said. The woman was released after being treated. Two men were also detained for questioning.
More than 2,100 people — mostly militants — have been killed in insurgency-related violence in Afghanistan this year. More than 8,000 people died in attacks last year, according to the United Nations, the most since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.
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Afghan forces kill Taliban "governor"
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan, July 10 (Reuters) - Afghan security forces killed a Taliban member who the insurgents had recently appointed "governor" of the northwestern province of Faryab, police said on Thursday.
The Taliban have recently been expanding their influence and stepping up attacks beyond their traditional support bases in ethnic Pashtun lands along the border with Pakistan, in the Afghan south and east.
The Taliban member, Abdul Hamid Akhundzada, was killed in a raid by security forces after a tip-off late on Wednesday, said provincial police chief General Khalilullah Andarabi.
Another insurgent and a child were also killed, he said.
Akhundzada had recently returned to Afghanistan from Pakistan where the militants have sanctuaries in lawless Pashtun areas along the border.
Ousted from power in 2001, the Taliban are fighting to oust foreign troops and the Western-backed government. Taliban spokesman could not be reached for comment.
(Reporting by Tahir Qadiry, Writing by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by David Fox)
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Nine Pakistanis hurt in fire from Afghanistan
July 11, 2008
WANA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Seven Pakistani soldiers and two civilians have been wounded by firing from inside Afghanistan in the latest incident along the border between the uneasy U.S. allies.
Last month, Pakistan was outraged when 11 of its border soldiers were killed in a U.S. air strike as U.S. forces battled Taliban militants.
Days later, Afghan President Hamid Karazi, increasingly frustrated with Taliban attacks into Afghanistan from Pakistani sanctuaries, threatened to send troops into Pakistan to fight the insurgents.
A Pakistani intelligence official said it was not clear who had fired dozens of mortar bombs across the border into Pakistan's South Waziristan region on Thursday night.
"About 60 rounds fell in Angoor Adda," said the official, referring to a Pakistani village on the border. "Some of them hit our post and wounded seven soldiers," said the official, who declined to be identified.
The firing began after Taliban had attacked a foreign troop base on the Afghan side of the border, he said.
Two rounds landed in the village's main market, wounding two people, a district government official said.
Pakistani military spokesmen were not available for comment.
(Reporting by Alamgir Bitani and Hafiz Wazir; Writing by Zeeshan Haider; Editing by Robert Birsel)
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Gilani rejects reports linking ISI to Indian embassy bombing
July 10, 2008
Dubai (PTI): Pakistan Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani has rejected as "baseless" reports linking his country's intelligence agency ISI to the suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Afghanistan.
The allegations about Pakistan's involvement in the attack on the Indian mission in Kabul on Monday were "baseless" and "malicious," Gilani, who arrived here on his way home from Malaysia, said.
He said the US has also clarified that there was no involvement of Pakistan in the incident in which 41 people, including four Indians, were killed.
His comments follow US Defence Secretary Robert Gates' remarks that there was no evidence suggesting involvement of foreign agents in the suicide bombing on the Indian embassy.
"I haven't seen any evidence or proof that foreign agents were involved," Gates said at Pentagon.
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Dangerous Ground
TIME By ARYN BAKER Thursday, Jul. 10, 2008
ISLAMABAD-In recent weeks, Pakistan, one of the world's most dangerous countries, has been further shaken by, of all people, a bus driver, a ski-lift operator and a gym rat. On June 28 Pakistani paramilitary forces chased militants led by Mangal Bagh, who used to drive a bus, from the fringes of Peshawar, a key transit point for supplies for U.S. and NATO forces fighting the Taliban insurgency in neighboring Afghanistan. While the operation was nominally successful — Bagh and his men were driven from the area and his compound was blown up — the militant leader was back on his pirate radio station a few hours later, vowing to continue his fight for an Islamic state. In Swat, once a tourist haven 100 miles (160 km) from the national capital Islamabad, militants burned down the country's only ski resort and torched 21 girls' schools. A spokesman for Mullah Fazlullah, the local Taliban leader who used to work the resort's chairlift, said their group was forced to act because government security forces were using some of the schools as bunkers. In the forbidding tribal zone of Waziristan, followers of Baitullah Mehsud, the physical-education teacher turned assassin (both the CIA and Pakistan's intelligence agencies say he is behind the attack that killed former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in December), slaughtered 22 government negotiators seeking to cement a cease-fire accord. And on July 6 a suicide bomber blew himself up near Islamabad's Red Mosque, killing 19. While no one has claimed responsibility, it's assumed that the attack was in revenge for the death of some 100 Islamic militants who died in clashes with security forces at the mosque exactly a year ago. "Radicalism is on the rise," says political analyst Talat Masood. "The government has not been able to take control of the situation."
Five months after elections brought a civilian government back to power, Pakistan is reeling. It's not just the attacks by militants. The economy, which had been growing steadily, has been hit hard by spiking fuel and food costs. The parliamentary coalition that eclipsed the former military leader, Pervez Musharraf, promised to bring peace and progress. Instead, the new leaders are preoccupied with wrangling over who is in charge. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, a stalwart of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), bows to Asif Zardari, Bhutto's widower, who is co-chair of the party but does not hold government office. The government is an unwieldy coalition between bitter enemies: the PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League-N, led by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif; the two parties traded power three times in eight years before Musharraf put an end to their bickering by overthrowing Sharif in a 1999 coup. Their power-sharing agreement, formed out of a common desire to oust Musharraf, is now riven over how to accomplish that. Musharraf, meanwhile, has been reduced to a largely ceremonial role as President. Says Masood: "The people are disappointed with the leadership and they are losing faith in democracy."
In order to fix Pakistan, the new government must move simultaneously on several fronts: besides tackling militancy, also the slowing economy, skyrocketing inflation, a nationwide electricity shortage and the integration of the troubled tribal areas that operate under colonial-era laws separating them from the rest of the country. But first the coalition partners need to figure out how to cooperate. "Nobody is minding the store," says Shaukat Qadir, a retired brigadier. "If they don't start paying attention, we will be in trouble."
A Failing State The most immediate casualty of the political shenanigans in Islamabad is the global war on terror. According to a report released by the Pentagon on June 27, Taliban militants in Afghanistan have regrouped after their fall from power and "coalesced into a resilient insurgency." That resilience, say Western military officials in Afghanistan, has a lot to do with their ability to find sanctuary in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas along the border. The day before the report's release, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in a press briefing that he had "real concern" that Pakistan was contributing to Afghanistan's instability by failing to prevent militants from crossing into Afghanistan to carry out attacks on coalition forces. Cross-border attacks on U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan have gone up some 40% in recent months. Gates attributes the increase to cease-fire accords between Pakistani authorities and Islamic militants, under which Islamabad agreed to pull its military out of areas controlled by the radicals in exchange for their promise not to attack government institutions. The deals meant that "the pressure was taken off" the militants, who are now "free to be able to cross the border and create problems for us," said Gates. Not that Americans are the only target — on July 7 a suicide bombing outside the Indian embassy in Kabul killed at least 40 people — an attack Afghan authorities blamed on Pakistani elements.
To be fair, Pakistan's new government came into power after the military, at the behest of Musharraf, decided to negotiate with militants. The administration embraced the peace effort in the hope that diplomacy would succeed where force had failed. Perhaps over time the accords would have worked. Says Ayaz Wazir, a former Pakistani ambassador who hails from Waziristan: "We have a saying in Pashto [the local language], that if you fight for 100 years, on the last day you will again sit around the table and find a solution. So why not just start it now?"
But negotiations require effort, attention and political will — all of which the current government, embroiled in power plays in the capital, has not been able to muster. Though the government has granted the army full authority in the tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, the army has refrained from retaliation. "We are awaiting the results of the jirga [the peace meeting between tribal heads and government negotiators]," says Lieut. Colonel Baseer Haider, a military spokesman. "Then we will decide the next course of action." A Western military official compares the government's approach to that of a man seeking to buy a house without deciding ahead of time how much he is willing to spend, for how long he is willing to pay a mortgage and what conditions would not be acceptable. "[The government is] going into these talks unprepared and that's why a lot of people don't have confidence in the results."
It's the Economy, Stupid The economy needs attention, too. During Musharraf's eight-year tenure, first as General, then as President, foreign direct investment rose, the Karachi stock exchange outperformed regional neighbors and GDP grew on average 7% a year. The lifting of international economic sanctions, imposed in 1998 when Pakistan tested its first nuclear bomb, was partially responsible for the boost, but Musharraf also privatized key industries and opened up the banking sector. The rapid growth, however, exposed cracks in infrastructure that was failing to keep up. "The economy has been good for big business, good for the per capita averages and good for GDP," says Tasneem Noorani, who served as Secretary of the Interior under Musharraf. "But it has not been good for the common man. We are all waiting for the trickle-down effect."
While Musharraf's government brought electricity to remote villages — a popular vote earner — it failed to increase energy production. "Sure, we saw incredible growth over the past five years," says industrialist Mirza Ikhtiar Baig, "but the previous government failed to generate a single additional megawatt. If you have that kind of growth but do not generate the power to go with it then the system will collapse." Load-shedding — as much as 18 hours a day in some areas — has brought production lines in key employment sectors such as textile-manufacturing to a standstill. Rising oil prices had been mitigated by government subsidies during much of Musharraf's tenure, but such subsidies can no longer be sustained. The cost of fuel — used for both transportation and energy production — jumped 17.7% in March, echoed by a 20.6% leap in food-price inflation. The price of bread has nearly doubled. So has the cost of a haircut and a shave on the streets of Karachi. "What can we do?" says barber Shoaib Ahmed, a bachelor who eats all of his meals at a nearby hostel. "If the hotel raises the cost of a roti [a small, flat bread], there is no way then but to raise the haircut prices."
The new government points out that it is not responsible for the country's current economic difficulties. "How many of Pakistan's problems have been created solely during the last 100 days [that the coalition government has been in power] and how much is the cumulative effect of constitutional deviations and patchwork policies over several years?" says Farahnaz Ispahani, a PPP parliamentarian and spokesperson. "Food-price inflation and high oil prices are now a global phenomenon. Bringing prices down may be beyond the capacity of any Pakistani government." But Gilani's administration cannot just wring its hands. It could start by encouraging foreign investment and privatization — moves that have been anathema to his socialist-leaning PPP. The pro-business Muslim League may prove useful. "At this point in time, given the state of the economic crisis, it actually makes sense to have a coalition between these two parties," says Samina Ahmed, South Asia project director of the International Crisis Group. "The workers have a voice in government as much as the industrialists, traders and the business community." If they can work together, she says, they may be able to form a compromise that pushes the economy forward.
Most urgently the government will have to address Pakistan's pressing energy needs. It has already installed barge-based power generators that run on diesel, but that is a temporary, and expensive, solution. The building of dams and coal-based generators is stymied by political disputes. The Indus River, a potential source of hydropower, runs through two provinces whose governments cannot agree on water-sharing rights. Development in Baluchistan, which has rich reserves of coal, has been held hostage to a local insurgency rooted in long-simmering resentments over what it considers to be the central government's exploitative approach to the province. "Baluchistan is central to Pakistan's economy," says the Crisis Group's Ahmed. "It is incredibly rich in not just the resources that are being exploited, but in the resources that are yet to be exploited. Bringing the alienated Baluch back into the fold by stopping military operations and by releasing political prisoners means that the riches of Baluchistan will work to benefit not just the federation but also the Baluch people."
Riots over power shortages, usually a standard summer feature when demand is at its highest, are rocking Pakistan's major cities. In the industrial town of Multan, a recent protest over power outages saw 58 gravely injured and hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to government buildings, factories, utilities and vehicles. If the problems continue it could lead to political instability. "The economy is more urgent than extremism," says an American diplomat in Islamabad.
A Terrorist Sanctuary The federally administered tribal Areas, which include Mehsud's South Waziristan base but not Swat, have always been Pakistan's Wild West, a lawless frontier land notorious for smugglers, thieves, guns and drugs. The FATA, as the area is called, is a legacy of a 19th century agreement between the British rulers of undivided India and the Pashtun tribes inhabiting the mountainous fringes of the Empire. In exchange for autonomy and the freedom to run their affairs in accordance with their Islamic faith and customs, the tribal leaders promised to guard the border with Afghanistan and keep peace in the region. At independence in 1947, Pakistan kept the agreement. The army stayed out. In place of government, Pakistan adopted a set of administrative and legal measures called the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) that forces the tribes to take collective responsibility for the actions of their members. Justice follows the tribal code and is meted out by clan elders who consult in public gatherings called jirgas. It was an imperfect solution to a difficult problem. But when al-Qaeda leaders fled Afghanistan in the wake of the 2001 war on their Taliban hosts and took refuge in the tribal areas, it became downright dangerous.
In May CIA Director Michael Hayden called the FATA an al-Qaeda "safe haven" that presents a "clear and present danger to Afghanistan, to Pakistan and to the West in general, and to the United States in particular." Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, says, "If I were going to pick the next attack to hit the United States, it would come out of FATA." Intelligence officials in the region, and abroad, say that al-Qaeda operatives, taking advantage of the limited reach of government, have been able to set up sophisticated communications systems, financial networks and training facilities. Al-Qaeda "has hundreds of training camps" scattered throughout the FATA, says a Western official in Pakistan with access to intelligence reports. "Most are less than an acre in size, so they are difficult to detect."
To Khalid Aziz, a onetime political agent appointed by Islamabad to administer to the tribal areas, the militancy is an obvious outcome of the antiquated agreement. Development that brought schools, jobs, roads, health care and electricity to the rest of Pakistan largely bypassed the tribal areas. Unemployment among the population of 3.5 million hovers around 70%. Two-thirds live below the poverty line. Only 6% of inhabitants can read. For women it's less than 1%. "Given that kind of environment; it's not likely that you will see a Leonardo da Vinci come up," says Aziz, who now heads the Regional Institute of Policy Research and Training in Peshawar. "You'll get an Osama or one of his clones instead." Aziz welcomes the U.S. Administration's promise of $750 million to provide economic development in the area but says it is not enough. "What we need are jobs."
Most FATA people want development, but not at the expense of their traditional ways. Shari'a law is the foundation of their justice system and few will willingly give it up. Rather than a wholesale elimination of the FCR, there should be a gradual transition, says Haider Mullick, a former Brookings analyst. "It's not rocket science. It's sitting down with them and saying, O.K., here are 100 things that are different from how we operate in Islamabad. We will concede on some of these issues. But there are going to be some no-nos on our side, and some on yours. For example, no public stoning of women — that's out of the question. In turn we will ensure that no soldier can walk in and search your house and strip you naked and beat you up.' There needs to be a give and take on each side."
A Helping Hand Democrats in the U.S. senate have proposed a $7 billion aid package to Pakistan, including a "democracy dividend" of $1 billion, over the next four years to help the civilian government with education reform, health care and infrastructure. It's a welcome move, but opening up the U.S. market to Pakistani products such as textiles would provide a longer-term — and taint-free — solution. The chorus among businessmen and analysts across the country is "trade, not aid." The U.S. presence in Pakistan, particularly in the FATA, is viewed with suspicion. American Predator drone attacks on apparent al-Qaeda targets have claimed scores of civilian lives, and the Pakistani military presence in the FATA is seen to be at the behest of the U.S. "There is so much resentment in our blood now that even if you give us candy, we will think it is poison," says Malik Sherzada, a school principal in Bajaur, which has been the site of one such Predator attack.
If Washington really wants to help Pakistan, its policies must move beyond Musharraf and the military and give the people a higher priority. Seth Jones, a terrorism expert at the Rand Corp., says that Pakistan has become the neglected stepchild, only third or fourth in a list of U.S. strategic interests that start with Iraq and Afghanistan. "Pakistan should be No. 1," says Jones. "The most serious homeland threat to the United States from abroad comes from militant groups operating in Pakistan."
This is Pakistan's war to win, and the best way the U.S. can help is by letting it fight on its own terms. But the new government can only do that if the two parties in the coalition work together. They must remember that the true enemy is not Musharraf or the military or their political opponents, but poverty, extremism and injustice.
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US Senate approves Petraeus role
Friday, 11 July 2008BBC News
The US Senate has approved the appointment of General David Petraeus as head of US Central Command.
When he takes up the post in September he will have responsibility for US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as dealing with Iran and Pakistan.
As the US general currently in charge of Iraq, he has been credited with helping restore security to some parts of the country.
He takes over from Adm William Fallon, who stood down in March.
The resignation followed reports that Adm Fallon opposed the White House policy towards Iran.
In April the administration recommended that he should be succeeded by Gen Petraeus. The nomination needed approval by the Senate.
'Eminently qualified'
The BBC's Jane O'Brien in Washington says Gen Petraeus is a safe and trusted pair of hands for an administration trying to cope with new tensions across the Middle East.
Our correspondent adds that rising violence in Afghanistan is of major concern to Congress and lawmakers want that to be a top priority for the commander.
Sen John Warner, a Virginia Republican, said on Thursday: "We all share a concern about the worsening situation in Afghanistan."
"We're fortunate that [Gen Petraeus] is eminently qualified, having studied the culture of the region, having understood the complexity, the geopolitical situation with regard to Pakistan and Iran," he added.
The 55-year-old has overseen since last year the "surge" of an additional 30,000 US troops in Iraq, which has been credited widely with improving security and helping reduce violence.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said the general would not leave Iraq immediately, in order to ensure he had enough time for a proper handover.
Gen Petraeus will be replaced in Iraq by Lt-Gen Raymond Odierno, whose appointment was also overwhelmingly approved by the Senate.
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Afghanistan runner is missing from training camp
By Stephen Wilson Associated Press Friday, July 11, 2008
LONDON — The only female athlete on Afghanistan's team for the Beijing Olympics has gone missing from a training camp in Italy and apparently is seeking political asylum in Norway.
Mehboba Ahdyar, a 19-year-old runner who competes in the 800 meters and 1,500 meters, hasn't been heard from since leaving the training center in Formia last week. Her luggage and passport also were gone.
"The IOC accepts that athletes sometimes feel they have to make hard choices to improve their lives," International Olympic Committee spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau said Thursday. "It would appear this is what has happened in this case."
Ahdyar, part of Afghanistan's four-member Olympic team, had been training for the Aug. 8-24 games on an IOC scholarship program that assists athletes from smaller and less developed nations.
She began training in April at a center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and moved in early June to the facility in Formia, south of Rome, where she was supposed to stay until July 7.
"She's gone missing," Moreau said. "We don't have any official information. We only know that she might be seeking asylum in Norway."
The IOC has had no word from Ahdyar and is in contact with Afghanistan's national Olympic committee and the International Association of Athletics Federations.
"On July 4, she left with her bags and passports, and we have not heard from her since," IAAF spokesman Nick Davies said.
In Kabul, the deputy chairman of the Afghan Olympic body, Sayed Mahmoud Zia Dashti, said Ahdyar had a leg injury and was receiving treatment in Italy.
"I can confirm that she has injured her leg and that she will not participate in the Beijing Olympics and that her family in Italy is taking care of her," he said.
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Kuchi nomads kill four Hazaras - MP
Written by www.quqnoos.com Thursday, 10 July 2008
Land dispute flares again - nomads claim residents stole animals
KUCHI nomads have killed four Hazaras and taken another four hostage in Maydan Wardak, a province bordering Kabul, according to a Member of Parliament.
The Hazara MP, Mohammad Muhaqiq, said the attack was launched on Tuesday in the Behsud district, talking the Hazrara death-toll in the area since the beginning of the year to 11.
Muhaqiq also said three nomads were killed in the fighting.
The head of the Kuchi’s parliamentary commission, Mullah Tarakhel, said the clashes were sparked when residents stole the nomad’s animals.
The allegations are the latest in a string of disputes between Hazaras and Kuchis.
Tensions between the two ethnic groups have flared in recent months with both sides claiming the right to land ownership in the central Hazarajat region, a traditional Hazara strong-hold.
In April, Human rights workers expressed fears that Hazaras were planning to take up arms against Kuchis who settled on their land. The Shia Hazaras, who make up 9% of the country’s population, accuse Kuchis of "land-grabbing".
"Given that both parties lack confidence in the government's ability to solve their disputes they may try to defeat each other by violent means," Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission said.
Kuchis, who are predominantly Pashtuns, traditionally move all over the country in search of green pastures for their livestock and, at the start of each spring, many travel to the central provinces, where most of Afghanistan’s Hazaras live.
Kuchi elders complain that Hazaras have enjoyed strong international support since the Taliban’s fall, while Kuchis have been perceived as collaborators of the mainly Pashtun Taliban.
In July 2007, after several people were reportedly killed in clashes between Kuchi herders and Hazara settlers in Behsud district, President Karzai set up a commission to come up with a solution. Then commission has yet to report its finding.
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