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Obama backs support in meeting with Afghan leaders
By NAHAL TOOSI Associated Press / July 19, 2008
KABUL, Afghanistan - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama met Saturday with officials of a region of Afghanistan that has been a hotbed of Taliban and al-Qaida activity, offering his support for reconstruction and security there and throughout
US troops wound ‘Pakistani suicide bomber’ caught in Afghanistan
Daily Times (Pakistan) July 19, 2008
KABUL/GHAZNI: US soldiers shot and wounded a suspected female bomber as they took over custody of her from Afghan police, Ghazni police chief alleged on Friday.
Two French aid workers taken hostage in Afghanistan: NGO
Fri Jul 18, 6:28 PM ET
PARIS (AFP) - Two French aid workers have been kidnapped in Afghanistan, Action Against Hunger (Action Contre la Faim - ACF) said Friday in a statement.
Afghans free journalist who took execution pics
By NAHAL TOOSI Associated Press Fri Jul 18, 7:15 PM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - An Afghan journalist who contributes to The Associated Press was freed Friday after his pictures and video footage of two women brazenly executed by the Taliban led intelligence officials to hold him for questioning for two days.
Pakistan's uneasy alliance with US
Saturday, 19 July 2008BBC News
The US and Pakistan remain allies in the international fight against terrorism but relations have been worsening. The US is accusing Pakistan of failing to rein in Taleban and al-Qaeda militants that take refuge in its border region and, as Barbara Plett reports
Taliban damage trailers carrying NATO supplies
Sudhir Ahmad Afridi Daily Times (Pakistan) July 19, 2008
LANDIKOTAL: Local Taliban on Friday broke windows and punctured the tyres of 22-wheeler trucks loaded with goods for NATO forces in Afghanistan, witnesses said.
Taliban threaten to strike provincial government in Pakistan
SAEED SHAH - From Friday's Globe and Mail July 17, 2008
PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN — Taliban militants in Pakistan threatened Thursday to attack the provincial government in the troubled North West unless it quit within five days, deepening the security crisis.
Baitullah Mehsud, a warlord based in the tribal area
Raid on Afghan militant cell frees 15 hostages
The Associated Press – 17 July 08
U.S. special forces and Afghan troops called in airstrikes during a raid on a militant cell in western Afghanistan on Thursday, killing 15 insurgents while freeing 15 hostages, officials said.
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Obama backs support in meeting with Afghan leaders
By NAHAL TOOSI Associated Press / July 19, 2008
KABUL, Afghanistan - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama met Saturday with officials of a region of Afghanistan that has been a hotbed of Taliban and al-Qaida activity, offering his support for reconstruction and security there and throughout the country, an official said.
The Illinois senator, undertaking a campaign-season tour of combat zones and foreign capitals, began his first-ever visit to Afghanistan as part of an official congressional delegation that landed in Kabul.
Obama and other members of Congress visited Bagram Air Field, the main U.S. military base in the country, to meet with top U.S. military leaders and troops, according to a U.S. military statement.
The delegation also met with troops at Jalalabad Air Field, in Nangarhar province. Jalalabad lies near the Tora Bora mountains where al-Qaida leaders fled and faced a U.S. bombardment during the U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban regime in late 2001 after the Sept. 11 attacks. Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden escaped U.S. troops at that time and is believed to be in the region.
The Taliban and al-Qaida-linked militants have continued to caused problems in Afghanistan's east, especially near the border with Pakistan. Nangarhar's governor, Gul Agha Sherzai, a no-nonsense, bullish former warlord, briefed Obama and other members of the delegation, according to Sherzai's chief of staff.
"Barack Obama expressed support for Afghanistan and especially for Nangarhar province," Massoud Ahmad Azizi said. "He said he will support reconstruction, development and security all over the country, especially in Nangarhar. He thanked Sherzai for good leadership and good administration of the province."
In the presidential campaign against Republican rival John McCain, Obama has argued that the war in Afghanistan deserves more attention as well as troops. McCain has criticized Obama for his lack of time in the region, and Obama is also expected to stop in Iraq at some point during his tour.
En route to Afghanistan, Obama stopped Friday at Camp Arifjan, the main U.S. military base in Kuwait and a major gateway for U.S. soldiers moving into and out of Iraq.
Lt. Col. Bill Nutter, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Kuwait, said, "He talked to soldiers and constituents and met with senior military leadership."
During the two-hour visit, Nutter said, the officers gave him an overview of operations. Obama shook hands, answered questions, posed for photos and played a little basketball during the visit.
Sultan Ahmad Baheen, spokesman for Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry, said Saturday that Obama would meet with President Hamid Karzai during his visit.
"I look forward to seeing what the situation on the ground is," Obama told a pair of reporters who accompanied him to his departure from Andrews Air Force Base on Thursday. "I want to, obviously, talk to the commanders and get a sense both in Afghanistan and in Baghdad of, you know, what the most, their biggest concerns are, and I want to thank our troops for the heroic work that they've been doing."
Underscoring the challenges in Afghanistan, authorities reported Saturday that a roadside bomb killed four policemen in the volatile south of the country where the Taliban-led insurgency is intensifying nearly seven years after a U.S.-led invasion ousted the militant movement from power.
Obama advocates ending the U.S. combat role in Iraq by withdrawing troops at the rate of one to two combat brigades a month. But he supports increasing the military commitment to Afghanistan, where the Taliban has been resurgent and Osama bin laden is believed to be hiding.
Obama recently chided Karzai and his government, saying it had "not gotten out of the bunker" and helped to organize the country or its political and security institutions.
Also on his itinerary later in the trip is a meeting with Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi leader. On the campaign trail, Obama has said one benefit of withdrawing U.S. troops is that it would pressure al-Maliki to shore up his government as well.
Nonetheless, he said he did not plan to reiterate those messages in person.
"I'm more interested in listening than doing a lot of talking, and I think it's very important to recognize that I'm going over there as a U.S. senator," he said. "We have one president at a time."
The duration and details of Obama's stay in Afghanistan have not been formally disclosed, and media access was limited.
Traveling with Obama were Sens. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican and Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island. The senators, both military veterans, have been mentioned as potential Obama vice presidential running mates, but Reed has said he's not interested in the job.
In a speech this week, Obama said the war in Iraq was a distraction, unlike the fighting in Afghanistan.
"This is a war that we have to win," he said. "I will send at least two additional combat brigades to Afghanistan, and use this commitment to seek greater contributions — with fewer restrictions — from NATO allies.
"I will focus on training Afghan security forces and supporting an Afghan judiciary, with more resources and incentives for American officers who perform these missions."
By contrast, his opposition to the war in Iraq — and call for an end to the U.S. combat role — helped him overcome his rivals in the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Lately, his efforts to explain how he will use what he learns from U.S. commanders to refine his proposals have brought charges from Republicans and complaints from Democratic liberals that he seems to be shifting his Iraq policy toward the political center. But Obama maintains his basic goal of ending the U.S. combat role soon remains unchanged and that he's always said the U.S. withdrawal must be done carefully.
Obama also arranged to visit Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and England, traveling aboard a jet chartered by his presidential campaign, before his return to the United States. The weeklong trip marks his only foreign excursion as a presidential candidate; McCain has visited Canada, Colombia and Mexico, in part to highlight Obama's opposition to trade deals with those allies.
Few citizens in impoverished Afghanistan were aware of Obama's unannounced visit, and few have been following the U.S. presidential race, being too busy eking out an existence amid soaring violence and with limited access to news media.
But some interviewed Saturday said they would welcome an Obama presidency if he could help their country end the fighting, corruption and poverty that have crippled it for so long.
"Obama is a good person," said Abdul Basir, 40, a former army officer. "During his campaign I heard he was saying that if I become president I will withdraw the U.S. troops from Iraq and bring them to Afghanistan and I will attack on the terror center on other side of border (in Pakistan). It is very important and I appreciated that."
___
Associated Press writers Glen Johnson in Washington and Amir Shah in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.
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US troops wound ‘Pakistani suicide bomber’ caught in Afghanistan
Daily Times (Pakistan) July 19, 2008
KABUL/GHAZNI: US soldiers shot and wounded a suspected female bomber as they took over custody of her from Afghan police, Ghazni police chief alleged on Friday.
Police had arrested the woman and a 13-year-old child they alleged were suicide bombers planning to kill a provincial governor in central Afghanistan, officials said on Friday.
The police chief initially said the police argued with the Americans over giving up custody. But he later said there was no argument and that the woman lunged at one of the US soldiers, sparking the gunshot.
US military officials had no immediate comment.
The pair were arrested late on Thursday as they were fixing explosives to themselves behind the governor’s residence in Ghazni, provincial government spokesman Ismail Jahangir told AFP.
Jahangir said the woman and the child could not speak either of Afghanistan’s main languages, Dari and Pashtu, but spoke Urdu and Arabic. The pair were presented to the media several hours after their arrest.
The deputy police chief of Ghazni, Abdul Ghani, told reporters that the woman had allegedly confessed she was from Multan, Pakistan, and had come to the city to carry out a suicide attack.
She claimed to have entered the country with three associates who had not been arrested, Ghani said. The police chief did not confirm whether the boy was also meant to be involved in the bombing. agencies
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Two French aid workers taken hostage in Afghanistan: NGO
Fri Jul 18, 6:28 PM ET
PARIS (AFP) - Two French aid workers have been kidnapped in Afghanistan, Action Against Hunger (Action Contre la Faim - ACF) said Friday in a statement.
The pair -- whose identities were not revealed -- were kidnapped in the early hours of the morning as they slept in the NGO's guest house in Nili, in Day Kundi Province, the Paris-based organisation said.
"According to ACF knowledge, the two expatriates are alive," it stated.
The two aid workers were seized after gunmen overpowered security guards, the NGO said.
"Some gunmen trussed (up) the ACF guards in front of the guest house and then went into the house. They kidnapped the two expatriates present in the house at that time, and ran away with several vehicles," it said.
It said it was doing its utmost "to (secure) their release as rapidly as possible and in the best conditions" adding that a crisis group has been set up in Kabul and Paris to help win their release.
The French Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it was "mobilising, in Paris as well as Kabul, to obtain their release as quickly as possible."
It said that the "targeting of humanitarian personnel is totally unacceptable" while promising "discretion" in its efforts to free the duo.
The governor of Day Kundi, about 300 kilometres (190 miles) west of Kabul, said the pair were snatched in unclear circumstances.
"The two aid workers working for Action Against Hunger were kidnapped by the enemies of Afghan government," governor Sultan Ali Uruzgani told AFP.
The government uses the label "enemies of Afghanistan" to refer to insurgents, including from the extremist Taliban who were in government between 1996 and 2001 and are trying to overthrow the new administration.
The Taliban could not immediately be reached to comment on the kidnapping. The hardliners have been involved in a series of kidnappings in Afghanistan but so have criminal gangs seeking ransom.
A French businessman was abducted in southern Afghanistan in May and freed nearly a month later after a ransom was paid, according to Afghan officials.
ACF said it had suspended all its relief operations in Afghanistan and condemned the kidnapping, saying it affected the integrity of humanitarian organisations and threatened assistance to civilians.
France has 1,600 troops serving in a NATO-led force in Afghanistan that is fighting the Taliban insurgency and is planning to deploy more troops in the coming months.
Last year, two French humanitarian workers for the Terre D'Enfance (A World For Our Children) relief group were released, several weeks after their abduction amid much speculation that a ransom had been paid.
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Afghans free journalist who took execution pics
By NAHAL TOOSI Associated Press Fri Jul 18, 7:15 PM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - An Afghan journalist who contributes to The Associated Press was freed Friday after his pictures and video footage of two women brazenly executed by the Taliban led intelligence officials to hold him for questioning for two days.
Rahmatullah Naikzad confirmed that authorities had released him, saying he was "fine," and that he'd been let go in time to attend a family funeral.
Naikzad's pictures and footage of the slain women in central Ghazni province, a few hours outside of the capital, were aired internationally and in Afghanistan, prompting widespread anger in Afghanistan over the killings.
President Hamid Karzai personally condemned the crime and, on Wednesday, Afghan intelligence authorities requested Naikzad visit their offices in Ghazni and answer questions about what he knew about the killings.
Prior to covering the executions of the women, whom the Taliban accused of working as prostitutes on a U.S. base in Ghazni city, Naikzad said the Taliban contacted him and asked him to attend the trial of a man and several women accused of various crimes. He said he did not know if the Saturday, July 12, trial would result in an execution.
Naikzad's pictures included one of the two burqa-clad women sitting next to each other a few minutes before their executions. Another photo showed their bodies the following morning, when Naikzad returned to the scene.
His video footage and photos did not show the actual execution, but the audio track did record the women's screams. He told the AP that the Taliban would not allow him to record images of the killings.
Naikzad, a native of the town of Ghazni in the Afghan province of the same name, has worked for AP Television News and AP Photos since July 2007. He also works with a local radio station and is known to government officials in the region, including Kazim Allayar, the deputy governor of Ghazni, who described Naikzad as a good person.
In Afghanistan, it is common for journalists from both local and foreign news organizations to communicate with Taliban. Spokesmen for the hardline militia frequently issue statements and can be reached by phone, text message and e-mail. On occasion, elements of the Taliban also communicate directly with local government officials.
Militants hold sway in sizeable tracts of the country, particularly in the south and east. Much of Ghazni also has come under Taliban control.
In addition to being an armed militia, the Taliban increasingly seek to impose harsh dictates through an application of what they consider to be Shariah law in areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan they control.
Their use of punishments such as summary executions hark back to the time when they controlled all of the country before being routed by combined U.S.-Afghan forces in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
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Pakistan's uneasy alliance with US
Saturday, 19 July 2008BBC News
The US and Pakistan remain allies in the international fight against terrorism but relations have been worsening. The US is accusing Pakistan of failing to rein in Taleban and al-Qaeda militants that take refuge in its border region and, as Barbara Plett reports, there is growing anger among Pakistanis towards the US.
About a thousand soldiers have died since Pakistan joined America's so-called "war on terror".
So the funerals of 11 more, killed last month along the Afghan-Pakistan border, should not have been anything unusual.
But those who attended the services described a feeling that had been absent in the past.
Many of the family members were clearly proud. They considered their sons martyrs who had died for the homeland.
Pakistani soldiers who were supposed to be fighting hand-in-hand with US forces against the Taleban had, in fact, been killed by US missiles.
The Americans said they had been aiming at militants. Pakistan called it an unprovoked act of aggression.
When soldiers here die fighting the pro-Taleban tribesmen in their border region, there is a debate about whether or not they are martyrs. Some religious scholars say that honour belongs to the Taleban, not to troops fighting their own people.
This time, according to those at the funerals, there was no such ambivalence.
These soldiers were killed by Americans... non-Muslims, said the Imams, bent on harming Islamic countries. "May God destroy the alien forces," they prayed.
'Busharraf'
During my time here, there has always been antipathy to American foreign policy, as in other Muslim countries where the "war on terror" is seen as little more than a war against Islam.
Lately though, the anti-Americanism has swelled to a tide, not only in the border region but in the more Westernised urban centres as well.
Even the usually cloistered American ambassador, Anne Patterson, felt the chill.
"I'm surprised at the depth of anti-Americanism," she admitted in a recent meeting with Pakistani businessmen, "especially in the middle classes."
She reminded her audience of how Pakistan benefits from US economic assistance and that it shares the same long-term interests. "It is the prosperous middle class that would be the first to suffer should the extremists win," she said.
A few weeks later she was snubbed by a member of that prosperous middle class while handing out awards for academic excellence. A Pakistani university student brushed past her, strode to the podium and made a 20-second protest speech.
The young man, who is studying at Harvard, became a celebrity. He was praised by the media and inundated with thousands of messages of support.
His moment of defiance was endlessly replayed on YouTube.
In his speech he told the ambassador he was protesting against "repeated US air strikes that kill many innocent Pakistanis," and what he said was US tacit support for an unconstitutional president.
He was referring to George Bush's support for Pakistan's erstwhile military leader Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in a coup.
The US president called the general Washington's most "allied ally" in the international fight against terrorism. Pakistanis called him "Busharraf".
But cynicism turned to anger when Mr Bush continued to back his friend, despite a popular movement against Mr Musharraf for illegally purging the judiciary and despite the defeat of the president's supporters in February's general elections.
Military involvement
America's key relationship in Pakistan has been with the army, especially since 9/11.
Put simply, the US pays the Pakistani army billions of dollars to fight the "war on terror".
US legislators refer to this relationship as transactional but many Pakistanis say it is mercenary.
In recent trips with the army to the border region, I got the feeling the tag is beginning to hurt.
The military's high profile cooperation with the Americans has triggered waves of revenge attacks within the country, many targeting the army.
There is a growing sense that Pakistan has been sucked into an unwinnable war.
"The only way we can guarantee peace is to kill every last tribesman," one Pakistani general said to us. He was only half joking.
America's war
The US also accuses Pakistan of failing to stop the movement of Taleban fighters to Afghanistan from sanctuaries in Pakistan.
But it is true that policing a mountainous border 2,400 km (1,500 miles) long is an enormous challenge, especially when the Afghan government refuses to recognise the frontier.
"We can't do it," the same general told us. "The only way is to put up a sophisticated fencing system, and that's an international responsibility."
Pakistan does face a serious threat from Islamist militancy. But as long as it is the army that is leading the way, with little apparent support from the people, many Pakistanis will continue to see this as America's war.
That is why the army itself is advocating a debate in parliament, so the country can evolve its own policy.
Some (the real pessimists) say the only way to win crucial public backing for the battle against Islamist violence, is to de-link it from America's war in Afghanistan.
That seems impossible.
No matter how much the people here oppose America's Afghan policies, no Pakistani government or army can scupper the relationship with Washington. They depend too much on US assistance.
It is a fundamental contradiction that is fuelling tensions and explains why families feel proud that their soldier sons were martyred by Pakistan's most important ally.
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Taliban damage trailers carrying NATO supplies
Sudhir Ahmad Afridi Daily Times (Pakistan) July 19, 2008
LANDIKOTAL: Local Taliban on Friday broke windows and punctured the tyres of 22-wheeler trucks loaded with goods for NATO forces in Afghanistan, witnesses said.
According to details, armed squads of the local Taliban stopped a convoy of trailers carrying goods for NATO forces at the Landikotal bypass and smashed their windows using guns and punctured their tyres with iron bars.
The incident scared the truck drivers and some of them drove their vehicles toward the Torkham border while some took shelter in the nearby hujras (outhouse/compound) of the local tribesmen.
The local administration has not taken action against the militants so far. Unknown militants had earlier distributed pamphlets warning transporters against taking any goods to NATO forces in Afghanistan. The transporters were threatened that they would be killed and their villages and vehicles set on fire if they ignored the warning.
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Taliban threaten to strike provincial government in Pakistan
SAEED SHAH - From Friday's Globe and Mail July 17, 2008
PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN — Taliban militants in Pakistan threatened Thursday to attack the provincial government in the troubled North West unless it quit within five days, deepening the security crisis.
Baitullah Mehsud, a warlord based in the tribal area of Waziristan and the leader of Pakistan's Taliban movement, demanded the military cease its sporadic operations against Taliban groups. The showdown came as the Taliban across the border in Afghanistan have stepped up their campaign against NATO and Afghan forces, exacting greater casualties and launching more daring assaults.
The North West Frontier Province government is led by the secular Awami National Party, which has tried to promote peace talks with militant groups. But in two parts of the province, Swat Valley and Hangu district, it has been forced to call on the army and paramilitary forces to combat local insurgent groups allied to Mr. Mehsud's Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan movement.
“We will attack the provincial government and the ANP leaders after five days if they do not quit,” said Maulvi Omar, a spokesman for Mr. Mehsud.
The ANP, which has pacifist roots, was elected in February on an agenda of negotiating a settlement with extremists and has pursued dialogue with Taliban groups. But talk of peace has come up against the hard reality of militants who are willing to give up very little and who demand Islamic law and the retreat of the Pakistani army from their territory as the price for ending hostilities. Mr. Omar accused the provincial government of being “insincere” in the peace talks.
The ANP-led government, which came in with a thumping mandate that rejected the previous administration of hard-line religious parties, made clear that it had no intention of resigning.
“We will not step down [based] on a threat from some individual,” said NWFP government spokesman Iftikhar Hussain. “They are threatening to follow the path of violence, while we believe in peace.”
Separately, the army announced that it would continue operations in Hangu until the militants were driven out.
“This is open war,” predicted Hassan Abbas, a research fellow at Harvard University. “This [ultimatum] will help the provincial government to see things more clearly. They can now take direct action against Baitullah Mehsud because there is a direct threat.”
Mr. Mehsud was reacting to very limited Pakistani army actions. In Hangu, the Pakistani army was forced to step in last week after the Taliban surrounded a police station and later killed 16 paramilitary troops – eight of whom were reportedly executed after capture. In Swat, the army was deployed late last year to tackle a band of extremists who had taken over the scenic valley. And around the provincial capital of Peshawar, the army is flushing out Islamist militants – this time not allied to the Taliban – who were encroaching on the city limits.
There is little doubt about Mr. Mehsud's violent capabilities. His organization is thought to be behind most of the suicide bomb attacks seen in Pakistan over the last year, while his warriors have assumed control of most of the tribal area, the sliver of Pakistani land that lies between NWFP and Afghanistan. For the most part, the Pakistani army and the local paramilitary have not intervened.
It had been thought that Mr. Mehsud was keen to forge a peace deal in Pakistan, to concentrate on fighting in Afghanistan. He is reportedly under pressure from the Afghan Taliban to end his fight with the Pakistani state, which it sees as a distraction from the war in Afghanistan. But Thursday's threat from Mr. Mehsud showed that Pakistan remains in his sights.
“He [Mehsud] believes that now he is strong enough to destabilize a sitting government through violence,” said Khalid Aziz, a former senior bureaucrat in NWFP. “The situation is very explosive.”
Special to The Globe and Mail
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Raid on Afghan militant cell frees 15 hostages
The Associated Press – 17 July 08
U.S. special forces and Afghan troops called in airstrikes during a raid on a militant cell in western Afghanistan on Thursday, killing 15 insurgents while freeing 15 hostages, officials said.
Humayun Azizi, head of the provincial council in Herat, said the raid had targeted a militant cell that was involved in kidnappings, roadside bombings and other attacks. NATO said in statement, "During the operation a number of men were discovered handcuffed and imprisoned in appalling conditions in one of the insurgent compounds; they are now receiving medical care."
Separately, NATO said its troops had killed Bismullah Akhund, an insurgent leader in the southern province of Helmand.
The raid Thursday came amid concerns that the Taliban-led insurgency is gaining momentum seven years after the hard-line Islamic regime was ousted from Afghanistan by a U.S.-led invasion. Violence has been on the rise in the country, and just this week militants penetrated an American outpost in the east, killing nine U.S. soldiers.
In response to the increased bloodshed, Pentagon leaders have said they are looking for ways to send additional troops to Afghanistan this year, and announced Thursday they would send close to 800 more bomb-resistant vehicles.
The vehicles are used to protect troops from the powerful roadside bombs, which are the leading cause of combat deaths and injuries. There are already nearly 700 such vehicles in Afghanistan. Azimi said the raid Thursday in Shindand had freed 15 hostages held by the group.
"During the operation a number of men were discovered handcuffed and imprisoned in appalling conditions in one of the insurgent compounds; they are now receiving medical care," NATO said in a statement.
Four civilians were wounded during the operation and were brought to the hospital in Herat for treatment, Azizi said.
Abdul Shukur, the Shindand police chief, said three houses were destroyed. He said two local militant commanders and two of their sons were among the dead.
Also on Thursday, NATO said its troops have killed Bismullah Akhund, an insurgent leader in the southern province of Helmand. Akhund was killed on Saturday in the Naw Zad district, the alliance said in a statement.
NATO accused Akhund of supplying weapons and roadside bombs that killed Afghan and foreign forces in the area, a hub of the insurgency raging in Afghanistan.
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