 |
||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serving you since 1998 | ||||||||||||
|
|
U.S., Afghan forces kill, wound more than 30 Taliban
By Sharafuddin Sharafyar Tue Jul 22, 7:41 AM ET
HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces backed by airpower have killed or wounded more than 30 Taliban insurgents in fighting in the west of Afghanistan, a senior police official said on Tuesday.
Thousands march over Afghan land dispute
by Thibauld Malterre Tue Jul 22, 5:01 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Thousands of ethnic Hazaras marched Tuesday in the Afghan capital and the central town of Bamiyan in a protest over a land dispute with nomads in which several people are said to have been killed.
Militants kill four Afghan police brothers
KABUL (AFP) - Militants killed four brothers, all police officers, and captured their father in an attack on their home in Afghanistan while a bomb left four civilians dead separately, authorities said Tuesday.
Afghan commander says kidnapped two French nationals
Tue Jul 22, 3:00 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - Two French aid workers kidnapped in central Afghanistan last week are being held by a commander of a former armed faction, a Western radio broadcaster said on Tuesday.
Suicide bomb in Afghan capital wounds 3
By RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - A suicide bomber on foot detonated himself Tuesday in the Afghan capital, wounding three civilians, while clashes in the country's west prompted U.S.-led forces to use airstrikes on Taliban militants, officials said.
Taliban kill Afghan provincial govt spokesman: official
Tue Jul 22, 2:04 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Suspected Taliban militants killed a provincial government spokesman in eastern Afghanistan overnight, during an attack on his house that also injured his wife and two relatives, an official said.
Obama calls situation in Afghanistan 'urgent'
KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama said Sunday that United States needs to focus on Afghanistan in its battle against terrorism.
Germans Urge Obama Not to Call for More Troops in Afghanistan
Deutsche Welle - Jul 22 5:39 AM
German politicians Tuesday urged Barack Obama not to call for greater troop contributions from Europeans in Afghanistan when he outlines his plans for US foreign policy in a major speech in Berlin on Thursday.
Obama says Afghanistan situation "perilous"
22 Jul 2008 15:17:46 GMT
AMMAN, July 22 (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Tuesday described the situation in Afghanistan as "perilous and urgent" and said al Qaeda and the Taliban were planning more attacks on the United States.
Pakistani Network Broadcasts Rare Interview of Al-Qaida Commander in Afghanistan
By Barry Newhouse Voice of America 22 July 2008
A Pakistani television network has broadcast a rare interview with the top al-Qaida commander in Afghanistan. From Islamabad, Barry Newhouse reports Geo News says its interview with Mustafa Abu Yazid, an Egyptian
Afghanistan: Increasing attacks on aid workers could provoke "humanitarian crisis" - NGOs
KABUL, 22 July 2008 (IRIN) - The increasing number of attacks on aid agencies is reducing their ability to deliver life-saving assistance to vulnerable communities; the consequences are "serious" and could lead to a "humanitarian crisis",
Canada's once-lofty Afghan goals downgraded, defence files show
STEVEN CHASE With a report from Graeme Smith in Kandahar July 22, 2008 Globe and Mail, Canada
OTTAWA -- Just 17 months ago, Canada's war planners had far more ambitious goals in mind for Afghanistan, an internal document from National Defence shows, including significantly reducing the capability of Taliban insurgents
Ex-prosecutors accuse Jabar Sabet of corruption
www.quqnoos.com Written by PAN Monday, 21 July 2008
Up to 50 ex-governmental staff accuse sacked Attorney-General of corruption and want to stop him fleeing jurisdiction
A number of former government workers who were dismissed from their jobs during the reign of Abdul Jabar Sabit, the former Attorney General, made several accusations against him in a conference on Sunday.
Afghanistan moves back to centre-stage
Financial Times, UK By Aunohita Mojumdar and Andrew Ward July 21 2008
After a brief stopover in Kuwait on Saturday, Barack Obama could have been in Baghdad within two hours. Instead, he chose to make Afghanistan the first big destination of his week-long international tour.
The itinerary highlighted the increasing focus
Afghan police progress in baby steps
Canadian troops have been training Afghani officers to be honest, professional, survivors
canada.com Graham Thomson Canwest News Service Monday, July 21, 2008
BAZAR-I-PANJWAII, Afghanistan -To get an idea of the daunting task facing Canadian troops who are trying to improve the notoriously inept and often corrupt Afghan police forces you need only look a recent patrol in the Panjwaii district
UNHCR lauds Iran for hosting Afghan refugees Tehran
July 22, IRNA
Representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Iran Carlos Zaccagnini on Tuesday appreciated Iran's sincere contribution to the Afghan refugees.
Assist us to fight US, in Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda asks Pakistanis
Tuesday , July 22, 2008 at 05:27:50
Islamabad, July 22: A top al-Qaeda leader on Tuesday asked Pakistanis to help fight US-led forces in Afghanistan and slammed the government in Islamabad for arresting Arab fighters and handing them over to Washington.
Afghanistan Doesn't Need a 'Surge'
By ANN MARLOWE Wall Street Journal July 22, 2008; Page A17
Afghanistan needs many things, but two more brigades of U.S. troops are not among them.
Reservists to train Afghanistan drill instructors
Monday, July 21, 2008 10:56 AM CDT
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A group of U.S. Army Reserve soldiers will train Afghanistan army drill sergeants.
Generator power increase costs by 20%
www.quqnoos.com Written by Anwar Hashimi Monday, 21 July 2008
Many Afghan businesses are facing increased costs as they have to generate their own power
Many Afghan businesses are forced to us generators for the provision of power in industrial factories of the country resulting in increased costs of up to 20% for end customers, according to leading businessmen.
Georgia to send 400 troops to Afghanistan
Jul 22, 2008, 13:44 GMT Monsters and Critics.com
Moscow - Georgia is to send 400 troops to Afghanistan to help NATO-led forces in the fight against insurgents loyal to the country's former Taliban rulers, reports said Tuesday.
Kabul gears up for ‘cleanliness day’
www.quqnoos.com Written by PAN Tuesday, 22 July 2008
NGO starts campaign for ‘cleanliness day’ on 25 July to clean up fast growing city
Officials of a local non-governmental organization on Monday urged the citizens of Kabul to join them on ‘cleanliness day’ on July 25th.
Five Afghans held with explosive-laden vehicle in Quetta
PakTribune.Com - Tribune Corner Tuesday July 22, 2008
QUETTA-The police claimed to have arrested five alleged Afghan terrorists and impounded an explosive-laden vehicle from a house during a search operation conducted in the Kashmirabad area on the Sariab Road.
Education in Nangarhar- future at stake
Izzatullah Zawab & Abdul Hadi Dariz - Jul 19, 2008 - 16:01
JALALABAD (PAN) Forgery in educational documents and preparing fake degrees have become so much a routine in the eastern Nangarhar province, bordering Pakistan that some students don't have to attend even at least 6 to 9 years
Back to Top
U.S., Afghan forces kill, wound more than 30 Taliban
By Sharafuddin Sharafyar Tue Jul 22, 7:41 AM ET
HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces backed by airpower have killed or wounded more than 30 Taliban insurgents in fighting in the west of Afghanistan, a senior police official said on Tuesday.
There has been a sharp rise in violence in Afghanistan in the past two months as the summer fighting season gets into full swing. Security analysts predict July could be the worst month of violence since the Taliban relaunched their insurgency in 2005.
Fighting broke out in the Bala Boluk district of Farah province on Tuesday, regional police chief Ikramuddin Yawar said.
"So far more than 30 Taliban insurgents have been killed or wounded in the operation," Yawar told Reuters. "The toll might be more than 30 because the operation is ongoing."
A U.S.-led convoy was engaged with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades on Tuesday morning in Bala Boluk, a U.S. military spokesman said.
Air strikes were called in but no munitions were dropped. The U.S. military could not confirm if there were any Taliban dead, the U.S. spokesman said. International forces do not usually give casualty figures for insurgents.
In the capital, Kabul, a Taliban suicide bomber wounded five civilians, two of them lightly, when he blew himself up as he was challenged by police on Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said.
BOMB ATTACK
Taliban militants have launched some 100 suicide attacks so far this year, mostly targeting Afghan and international security forces, but as much as 80 percent of their victims are civilians, security experts say.
The bomber struck early in the morning in the Gozargah area of the capital, next to the walls of the historic tomb of Babur, the 16th century founder of India's Mughal dynasty. Only a leg of the bomber remained, lying on the ground, Reuters witnesses said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and said it targeted an Afghan army bus, but there were no buses in the area at the time.
Bomb attacks in Kabul are comparatively rare compared with cities in the south and east, where the Taliban insurgency is concentrated.
The Taliban have carried out about the same number of suicide attacks in Afghanistan so far this year compared with the same period last year. Security forces have prevented a much greater number of potential attacks, indicating a degree of success on their part, but also that the militants are attempting many more suicide bombings, security experts say.
Afghan forces beefed up security in Kabul early this year in an attempt to clamp down on suicide bombings, but some militants have still managed to get through the cordon.
A suicide car bomber killed 58 people and wounded well over 100 in an attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul on July 7, the most deadly incident in the capital to date.
(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi and Yousuf Azimy; Writing by Jon Hemming; Editing by Paul Tait)
Back to Top
Back to Top
Thousands march over Afghan land dispute
by Thibauld Malterre Tue Jul 22, 5:01 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Thousands of ethnic Hazaras marched Tuesday in the Afghan capital and the central town of Bamiyan in a protest over a land dispute with nomads in which several people are said to have been killed.
In Kabul, hundreds of riot police were out to control an angry and chanting crowd and a Hazara security team also tried to calm the protesters, an AFP reporter said.
The Kabul police official tasked with maintaining public order, Ghulam Rasoul, said 3,000 to 4,000 people took to the streets, but an AFP reporter said the crowd was likely three times larger.
In Afghanistan's main Hazara town of Bamiyan, up to 1,000 people marched on the same issue and handed a written complaint to United Nations representatives, officials said.
The dispute erupted when Kuchi nomads, who are ethnic Pashtuns, moved into Wardak province's Behsud area, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of Kabul, in recent months in search of grazing land for their animals.
Hazaras allege that the nomads forced their way in and killed several people, and destroyed houses and crops.
There have been weeks of clashes in the area, with media reports of deaths, but interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said it was not clear how many people had been killed.
"Our fact-finding team is working and investigating to determine exactly what number of people were killed," Bashary told AFP.
Ethnicity is a flashpoint issue in Afghanistan, which is still scarred by the 1992-1996 civil war in which different groups massacred, raped and tortured each other. The violence left around 80,000 people dead in Kabul alone.
Rural Afghanistan sees regular land disputes often resulting in casualties but most go unreported. Disputes involving ethnicity are however often politicised.
Hazara leader and parliamentarian Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq is reported to be on hunger strike over the dispute which he has warned could re-ignite civil war.
"The demonstration is to protest against the Kuchi invasion," said Akram Gizabi, spokesman for one of the groups involved in the Kabul protest.
"Kuchi people attacked Hazarajat (Hazara land). They killed our people and destroyed our land and the government does not do anything because the government supports such people," said another protester, Massoom Ali, 16.
The demonstrators carried posters of nine people including four children they alleged were killed by Kuchis.
Kuchi nomads, whose numbers are not known, move up from the south and east every summer in search of land for grazing.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Militants kill four Afghan police brothers
KABUL (AFP) - Militants killed four brothers, all police officers, and captured their father in an attack on their home in Afghanistan while a bomb left four civilians dead separately, authorities said Tuesday.
The attack in the central province of Ghazni late Monday came as extremist Taliban rebels have stepped up action in an insurgency against the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.
The rebels, "attacking the house of a man whose four sons served in the national police, killed his four sons and took him to an unknown place," the interior ministry said in a statement.
Police launched a hunt for the militants to rescue the father of those "brave brothers," the statement said.
The ministry blamed the attack on the "opposition," a reference to Taliban and other insurgents trying to destabilise the government.
In their campaign rebels have particularly targeted police, who are seen as weaker than the better armed and better trained Afghan army and international troops also fighting insurgents.
In Khost province on the border with Pakistan a remote-controlled bomb exploded underneath a pick-up truck and killed four people, including a woman and a child, Colonel Mohammad Yaqoub Mondozai said.
Three more people were wounded, the deputy provincial police chief said.
In the capital Kabul meanwhile a suicide bomber blew himself up near the landmark and ancient Babur's Gardens early Tuesday, wounding five civilians, the interior ministry said.
There was no claim of responsibility for the attack.
In other violence, suspected Taliban militants killed a government spokesman in the eastern province of Paktia late Monday, police said.
Ghamai Khan Mohammadyar, the spokesman for the governor of Paktia, was killed after rebels raided his house, another provincial official said. The rebels abducted his brother.
Mohammadyar told an AFP reporter in May that Taliban were threatening to kill him because of his work.
The Taliban were in government until 2001 when they were ousted in a US-led attack launched when they did not hand over Al-Qaeda fighters for the September 11 attacks on the United States.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan commander says kidnapped two French nationals
Tue Jul 22, 3:00 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - Two French aid workers kidnapped in central Afghanistan last week are being held by a commander of a former armed faction, a Western radio broadcaster said on Tuesday.
The pair were working for the humanitarian agency of Action Against Hunger in the central province of Dai Kundi and were kidnapped while sleeping in their house on Friday, the organization said.
Commander Sedaqat phoned Radio Liberty to claim responsibility for seizing and holding the two, said the U.S.-sponsored station which broadcasts in Afghanistan's main languages, Pashtu and Dari.
Sedaqat said he had kidnapped them due to differences with provincial authorities he said had sidelined him from power, the network said. Sedaqat said he wanted to settle the issue peacefully, but made no demand for freeing the pair.
Sedaqat belonged to an ethnic Hazara armed faction and briefly joined the Taliban when the group was in power from 1996 till 2001, the radio said. He then sided with the Afghan government after U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban following the September 11 attacks in 2001.
As violence rises, kidnapping has become a lucrative business in Afghanistan and scores of Afghans and foreigners have been abducted by criminals or Taliban militants in recent years.
Two Turkish employees of a road project, seized last week in the western town of Islam Qala, bordering Iran, were freed on Sunday. The pair were released following possible ransom, according to the police chief for the western zone.
Ousted from power in 2001, Taliban insurgents have been behind a number of kidnappings in Afghanistan. Some hostages have been killed, but most have been released unharmed.
The insurgents kidnapped 23 South Koreans last year, killing two and releasing the rest more than a month later.
(Reporting by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by Jerry Norton)
Back to Top
Back to Top
Suicide bomb in Afghan capital wounds 3
By RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - A suicide bomber on foot detonated himself Tuesday in the Afghan capital, wounding three civilians, while clashes in the country's west prompted U.S.-led forces to use airstrikes on Taliban militants, officials said.
The violence is the latest sign of Afghanistan's deepening troubles as it battles a resurgent Taliban nearly seven years after the U.S.-led invasion ousted the militant movement from power.
In Kabul, the bomber struck next to the walls of the city's historic Babur Gardens, a popular public park, wounding three civilians, said police official Ali Shah Paktiawal. The victims were riding on a minibus at the time of the explosion, Paktiawal said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility.
Regional police spokesman Rauf Ahmadi said coalition and Afghan troops called in the airstrikes Tuesday on Taliban militants in the Bala Buluk district of western Farah province. The joint force has been battling militants there since Monday afternoon, he said.
Two police officers died and three were wounded, while some 25 militants were wounded or killed, he said.
1st Lt. Nathan Perry, a coalition spokesman, declined to provide any details on the ongoing clash in Bala Buluk because of operational security reasons.
However, he confirmed that a suicide bomber on a bike had aimed for a coalition patrol in Bakwa district in Farah, while a roadside bomb hit a separate coalition patrol in neighboring Gulistan district in Farah on Monday. Militants also fired small arms and rocket-propelled grenades to attack a coalition convoy on Tuesday, also in Bala Baluk, Perry said.
Perry would not say if any troops have been wounded but said none were killed.
Across the country in eastern Afghanistan, gunmen early Tuesday killed the spokesman for the governor of Paktika province, Ghamai Khan Mohammadyar, and wounded his wife, his brother and his mother.
Hashmatullah Yusufi, the spokesman for the governor in neighboring Paktia province, confirmed the incident. Mohammadyar lived in Paktia but worked in Paktika, Yusufi said.
On Monday night, militants killed four brothers — all policemen — and kidnapped their father from Qarabagh district in central Ghazni province, said a statement from the Ministry of Interior. Police are searching for the father.
More than 2,500 people have died in insurgency-related violence this year in Afghanistan, according to an Associated Press tally of official figures.
The Taliban insurgency is primarily concentrated in the south and east, but significant fighting is occurring in the west and central parts of the country.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Taliban kill Afghan provincial govt spokesman: official
Tue Jul 22, 2:04 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Suspected Taliban militants killed a provincial government spokesman in eastern Afghanistan overnight, during an attack on his house that also injured his wife and two relatives, an official said.
Ghamai Khan Mohammadyar, spokesman for the governor of the eastern province of Paktika, was killed in his home in the neighbouring province of Paktia, the official told AFP.
His wife, a nephew and a niece were wounded in a gunfight at the house and his brother was captured by the gunmen, provincial information and culture chief Din Mohammad Darwish said, blaming the attack on Taliban militants.
"Mohammadyar was martyred at his home by Taliban last night," Darwish said late Monday.
Malik Tanai, an official in Paktika's provincial administration, confirmed the incident.
Mohammadyar told an AFP reporter in May that Taliban were threatening to kill him because of his work. The spokesman regularly spoke to the media about attacks carried out by Taliban militants waging an anti-government insurgency.
Insurgents, from the Taliban and other Islamist factions, have killed several government officials, including parliamentarians and a provincial governor, and have tried to assassinate President Hamid Karzai.
They kidnapped a senator two weeks ago and are demanding the release of Taliban prisoners for his freedom.
The insurgency was launched after the Taliban were removed from government in a US-led invasion in late 2001.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Obama calls situation in Afghanistan 'urgent'
KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama said Sunday that United States needs to focus on Afghanistan in its battle against terrorism.
"The Afghan government needs to do more. But we have to understand that the situation is precarious and urgent here in Afghanistan. And I believe this has to be our central focus, the central front, on our battle against terrorism," Obama said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation."
"I think one of the biggest mistakes we've made strategically after 9/11 was to fail to finish the job here, focus our attention here. We got distracted by Iraq," he said.
Obama said troop levels must increase in Afghanistan.
"For at least a year now, I have called for two additional brigades, perhaps three," he told CBS. "I think it's very important that we unify command more effectively to coordinate our military activities. But military alone is not going to be enough."
Obama met Sunday with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a leader the Democratic senator has criticized for not doing enough to rebuild the war-torn nation.
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee met with Karzai in Kabul, the capital city, during Obama's first visit to the Asian nation.
Karzai's spokesman characterized the senator's message as pleasant.
"They're happy to be in Afghanistan. They reassured the support of U.S. people to Afghanistan," Humayoon Hamidzada said.
Karzai met with the congressional delegation that includes Obama, and they discussed the achievements of the Afghan government as well as challenges such as terrorism, corruption and illegal drugs. See a map with photos of Obama's trip »
McCain's senior foreign policy adviser criticized Obama on Sunday for "stubbornly adhering to an unconditional withdrawal that places politics above the advice of our military commanders, the success of our troops and the security of the American people."
"Barack Obama is wrong to advocate withdrawal at any cost just as he was wrong to oppose the surge that has put victory within reach. It is a strategy for defeat, and it is the only strategy Barack Obama has ever supported," Randy Scheunemann said in a statement.
Obama traveled to eastern Afghanistan on Saturday to visit American forces under NATO's Regional Command East, the coalition's Combined Joint Task Force said. Obama is joined by Sen. Charles Hagel, a Republican from Nebraska, and Sen. Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island.
In a joint statement released Sunday, the three senators expressed confidence that progress would be made in Afghanistan.
"We need a sense of urgency and determination. We need urgency because the threat from the Taliban and al Qaeda is growing and we must act; we need determination because it will take time to prevail. But with the right strategy and the resources to back it up, we will get the job done," they said in the statement.
Shortly after meeting with Karzai, Obama left Afghanistan to continue a trip that will take him to the Middle East and Europe.
Obama will travel to Jordan, then visit Israel, Germany, France and England.
Although Obama is making the trip as a senator from Illinois and not a presidential candidate, it is aimed at boosting Obama's foreign policy credentials.
Obama has made Afghanistan a key focus of his foreign policy, saying he would make it the central front in the "war on terror" if elected.
Earlier in the day, Obama dined with U.S. troops at an American base in the Afghan capital.
"This is my favorite thing to do," Obama said as he sat with about two dozen soldiers, sailors and airmen in a military mess hall.
Ahead of the trip to Afghanistan, Obama, Reed and Hagel stopped in Kuwait to visit U.S. troops, Obama campaign spokesman Robert Gibbs said. They left Washington on Thursday.
In Kuwait, the senators visited Camp Arifjan for about two hours to meet with U.S. Army Central leadership, take a brief tour of the base and talk with soldiers, U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Bill Nutter said.
The senators also met with about 1,000 military members at a gymnasium, who cheered jubilantly at their arrival. Later, Obama played basketball with some soldiers, drawing cheers from his successful shots.
Asked whether he would have tough talk for the leaders of Afghanistan and Iraq, Obama said he was "more interested in listening than doing a lot of talking."
"I think it is very important to recognize that I'm going over there as a U.S. senator. We have one president at a time, so it's the president's job to deliver those messages," Obama said.
The fight in Afghanistan has become a more pressing issue on the political radar. Three times as many coalition soldiers and other military personnel have died in July in Afghanistan, compared with Iraq. July's death toll for coalition troops reached 22 after the Friday death of a Canadian soldier was announced.
Nine U.S. soldiers were killed July 13 in a fight with about 200 Taliban militants in eastern Afghanistan. It was the deadliest attack on U.S. troops in Afghanistan in three years.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Germans Urge Obama Not to Call for More Troops in Afghanistan
Deutsche Welle - Jul 22 5:39 AM
German politicians Tuesday urged Barack Obama not to call for greater troop contributions from Europeans in Afghanistan when he outlines his plans for US foreign policy in a major speech in Berlin on Thursday.
"It makes no sense to make demands that partners cannot fulfil," Rainer Arnold, a parliamentary defense spokesman for the Social Democrats (SPD), told the online edition of Der Spiegel news magazine.
The SPD, the junior partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel's broad coalition, has made clear that the additional 1,000 troops to be made available for Afghanistan, taking the deployment to a maximum 4,500, is as far as they are prepared to go.
Obama is widely expected to call for a greater European contribution to the NATO military effort in Afghanistan when he speaks on Thursday on how US foreign policy will look if he is elected president.
Eckart von Klaeden, foreign policy spokesman for Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), noted that the Illinois senator had made several calls for US allies to make a greater military contribution.
"There will be questions in the US if he says nothing on Iraq and Afghanistan during his most important speech on the continent, especially as he has just visited both countries," von Klaeden said.
Berlin getting ready
Berlin was gearing up for the Obama visit, with city authorities preparing a large open-air venue on the boulevard running from the city's Victory Column to the Brandenburg Gate.
Officials said they were expecting anywhere between from 10,000 to one million people to turn out to hear him speak.
A recent poll found that more than 70 percent of Germans would back Obama to be the next Democratic Party president.
Large screens were to be set up along the route, which is also used as Germany's fan zone in major soccer contests.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Obama says Afghanistan situation "perilous"
22 Jul 2008 15:17:46 GMT
AMMAN, July 22 (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Tuesday described the situation in Afghanistan as "perilous and urgent" and said al Qaeda and the Taliban were planning more attacks on the United States.
"In Afghanistan and the border region of Pakistan, al Qaeda and the Taliban are mounting a growing offensive against the security of the Afghan people and increasingly the Pakistani people, while plotting new attacks against the United States," he said during a stop in Amman, Jordan.
Obama is on a foreign fact-finding trip and visited Afghanistan over the weekend. He described Afghanistan as "the central front in the war against terrorism".
"I'm glad there's a growing consensus back home that we need more resources in Afghanistan. We should not wait any longer to provide them," he said. (Writing by Tom Perry)
Back to Top
Back to Top
Pakistani Network Broadcasts Rare Interview of Al-Qaida Commander in Afghanistan
By Barry Newhouse Voice of America 22 July 2008
A Pakistani television network has broadcast a rare interview with the top al-Qaida commander in Afghanistan. From Islamabad, Barry Newhouse reports Geo News says its interview with Mustafa Abu Yazid, an Egyptian, took place a few days ago in Afghanistan's eastern Khost Province.
Abu Mustafa al-Yazid is believed to be al-Qaida's third highest ranking leader, behind Ayman al-Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden. The official U.S. government investigation of the September 11 terrorist attacks named Yazid as the terrorist group's chief financial manager at the time of the attacks.
Last year, he was named head of al-Qaida's operations in Afghanistan and since then has claimed credit for a wave of deadly attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In an exclusive interview with a Geo reporter that was broadcast late Monday, al-Yazid said the group gets support from tribal areas of Pakistan. His remarks in Arabic were dubbed into Urdu in the broadcast.
He gave thanks that the group is receiving assistance from the tribal areas. He then urged all Pakistanis to support the effort as part of their religious duty.
Afghan officials and U.S. commanders have long argued that Pakistan's tribal areas along the Afghan border are a haven for al-Qaida and Taliban militants as well as a support base for the insurgency in Afghanistan.
Afghan officials have also accused parts of Pakistan's army and intelligence agencies of secretly supporting the insurgency in Afghanistan. Al-Yazid says no country supports the group and in fact the Pakistani government has caused more damage to al-Qaida than any other.
He said the government of Pervez Musharraf betrayed the Islamist fighters in Afghanistan when it sided with the United States.
Al-Yazid also repeated claims that al-Qaida was behind the June bombing of the Danish Embassy in Islamabad. He claimed the bomber was from Mecca and originally wanted to fight in Afghanistan or Kashmir, but later decided to attack the Danish Embassy to retaliate for Danish cartoons satirizing the Prophet Muhammed.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghanistan: Increasing attacks on aid workers could provoke "humanitarian crisis" - NGOs
KABUL, 22 July 2008 (IRIN) - The increasing number of attacks on aid agencies is reducing their ability to deliver life-saving assistance to vulnerable communities; the consequences are "serious" and could lead to a "humanitarian crisis", aid workers have warned.
The warning comes as millions have been affected by severe drought [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79295] and high food prices, and are in need of urgent humanitarian aid. Aid agencies said a substantial response was urgently needed.
"If insecurity continues to hamper NGO [non-governmental organisation] access, and needs remain unmet, we worry that the humanitarian situation will deteriorate into a crisis," Anja de Beer, the director of ACBAR, a network of 100 local and international NGOs operating in Afghanistan, told IRIN on 21 July in Kabul.
Beer's concerns were echoed by Matt Waldman, Oxfam's policy and advocacy adviser in Kabul: "Increasing attacks and threats against aid agencies hinder their ability to provide much needed relief, and if this continues it could have serious humanitarian consequences".
Concerns about NGOs' security rose after two French aid workers working for Action contre la Faim (ACF), a French NGO, were abducted by unidentified gunmen in Nili, the capital of Daykundi Province in central Afghanistan, on 18 July.
ACF has temporarily suspended its operations across the country for security reasons, the organisation said in a statement [http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MUMA-7GP4R5?OpenDocument&rc=3&cc=afg]. Up to 130,000 people who were facing risks of acute malnutrition benefited from ACF's relief operations in 2007, it said.
There are no available data on the number of people employed by local and international NGOs in Afghanistan, but it is believed thousands of Afghans and hundreds of international staff are thus engaged.
Attacks not confined to south
Conflict-related violence has reached unprecedented levels in 2008, with at least 700 civilian deaths in the first half of the year alone, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Organisation [http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/RMOI-7G3LHU?OpenDocument].
Aid workers have increasingly been targeted by Taliban insurgents, other militants and criminal groups - and the attacks are not confined to the volatile southern provinces but have spread more and more to northern and central areas, the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office (ANSO) said.
Only 12.16 percent of NGO security incidents reportedly took place in the south (in part due to the fact that fewer NGOs operate there) compared to 20.28 in central provinces, including Kabul, and 19.26 percent in the north from 1 January to 15 July, according to ANSO.
Eleven NGO workers have died in over 68 security incidents involving aid agencies in 24 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces so far this year, ANSO said. There has been a sharp rise in the number of attacks on NGOs by criminal gangs - mostly for financial gain, and primarily in the central and northern provinces.
In the south and southeast, aid agencies have been targeted by armed groups "primarily due to the perception that their activities are furthering government of Afghanistan goals", ANSO said.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Canada's once-lofty Afghan goals downgraded, defence files show
STEVEN CHASE With a report from Graeme Smith in Kandahar July 22, 2008 Globe and Mail, Canada
OTTAWA -- Just 17 months ago, Canada's war planners had far more ambitious goals in mind for Afghanistan, an internal document from National Defence shows, including significantly reducing the capability of Taliban insurgents and substantially cutting poppy growing and drug trafficking.
Today, Ottawa's published goals are more modest. For instance, the Harper government's June release of refocused goals for Afghanistan sets no targets for the strength of insurgents - who are making a comeback in 2008 - or combatting drugs.
Critics say the contrast shows how much the Harper government has ratcheted down ambitions for Afghanistan, lowering expectations so that it can't be accused of failure when Canada withdraws from Kandahar in 2011.
The 2007 goals are in a directive from former chief of the defence staff Rick Hillier's office - labelled "secret" - that was released under the Access to Information Act.
The Feb. 16, 2007, memo says "Canada's whole-of-government strategy ... is focused on an end state" that includes these goals:
"Taliban and al-Qaeda capabilities have been dramatically reduced."
"Narcotics cultivation and trafficking have been substantially reduced."
Last month, however, the Harper government laid out public, three-year goals.
The government was starting to plan for a combat pullout in 2011 from Kandahar, the Afghan province under Canada's responsibility.
The revamped strategy contains no mention of targets for ratcheting back Taliban strength or reducing the illegal drug industry in Kandahar.
Those problems have only grown worse since the earlier strategy was written. Afghanistan's opium crop has increased every year for the plast six years, UN estimates say. Available data also show deteriorating security in Afghanistan, including Kandahar, in recent years. Figures compiled by Sami Kovanen, a respected security consultant at Vigilant Strategic Services Afghanistan, show this year's total insurgent attacks as of July 20 are greater in Kandahar than any other province.
Now, a key focus of the Harper government's strategy in Kandahar is turning over responsibilities for maintaining order and fighting insurgents to local army and police. The Tories said in their June statement of priorities that they plan to "maintain a more secure environment and establish law and order by building the capacity of the Afghan National Army and Police."
NDP defence critic Dawn Black said Ottawa has lowered the bar for Afghanistan because it cannot accomplish what it originally planned. "They're setting the markers lower so they can say they achieved some of their objectives," Ms. Black said.
A Conservative government spokeswoman said a lot of time has passed since the chief of the defence staff's 2007 directive, but she rejected the suggestion that Canada's goals have shrunk. "This is an assessment from the Department of National Defence from February, 2007. It is now July, 2008," said Anne Howland, spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs Minister David Emerson.
She said the current direction in Afghanistan was influenced by the Manley report on Canada's future role there, as well as the March, 2008, vote in Parliament to extend the mission and refocus it. MPs voted at the time to put more emphasis on development.
"These overall goals are not more modest - but concentrated on areas in which we can make the most impact until our military mission ends in 2011," Ms. Howland said.
Retired colonel Alain Pellerin of the Conference of Defence Associations said it's tough to persuade poppy farmers in Kandahar - Taliban territory - to grow alternate crops. "The drug lords and the Taliban at night would go to the farmer and say, 'Listen, either you grow opium for us or we will chop off your head.' "
He said it's proven better to hold off on this for now and instead focus on building things that could help commerce, such as roads - efforts that employ local Afghans.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Ex-prosecutors accuse Jabar Sabet of corruption
www.quqnoos.com Written by PAN Monday, 21 July 2008
Up to 50 ex-governmental staff accuse sacked Attorney-General of corruption and want to stop him fleeing jurisdiction
A number of former government workers who were dismissed from their jobs during the reign of Abdul Jabar Sabit, the former Attorney General, made several accusations against him in a conference on Sunday.
The group included a number of ex-prosecutors from the Attorney-General’s department.
The group has alleged that Abdul Jabar Sabet has been involved in corrupt activities and that legal action must be taken against him.
Abdul Jabar Sabit was removed from his job last week, when he announced that he intends to nominate himself for the presidential elections of 2009.
The group of former workers, who numbered around 50, accused Sabet of administrative corruption, and requested from the president to appoint a special commission to investigate these claims against Sabet.
They have demanded that this commission must assess all of the current assets of Sabet and confiscate any assets which were obtained illegally using his position at the Attorney-General.
Specific accusations leveled against Sabet by a former prosecutor from the Attorney-General’s office, Mr Faqiree, include corruption and fraud.
The former prosecutor also said that Sabet obtained land in the Green Zone of Wazir Akbar Khan using his position, and constructed a house on that land.
The former chief of staff of Sabet, Saeer Samimi, speaking as Sabet’s representative, rejected all the accusations of Mr. Faqiree, and said that Sabet had not committed any illegal acts. Wakil Amini, the former Chief of the Documentation Department of the Attorney-General’s Office, who also removed from his position during Sabit’s era, accused Sabet of removing him from his position without a valid reason.
He claimed that Sabet removed about 250 professional staff from their various positions at the Attorney-General’s office and appointed in their stead persons with little experience or knowledge.
Another former governmental worker, General Aminullah Amarkhil , who was responsible for Airport Customs, accused Sabet of removing him from his position for personal reasons.
General Amarkhail and Sabet formerly worked together under Ahmad Jalali, former Minister of Interior.
Previously Jalali had endorsed General Amarkhail as a competent and trusted member of his team, but he had not provided the same endorsement in respect of Sabet.
However, Sabet’s representative, Samimi, said that General Amarkhail was accused of different crimes and after reviewing allegations against him, he was suspended by Sabet.
He said Amarkhail then escaped to England at that time, in order to avoid prosecution. Amarkhail returned to Afghanistan some time ago and has been in Kabul.
The government had not taken any legal action against him to date. Participants of the conference said on Sunday that the government should bring Abdul Jabar Sabet to justice and immediately seek orders to stop him fleeing the jurisdiction.
Samir Samimi accused all the participants of the news conference on Sunday of being involved in various activities including corruption, bribery, and fraud, and said that they were removed by order of Abdul Jabar Sabet from their duties for these reasons.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghanistan moves back to centre-stage
Financial Times, UK By Aunohita Mojumdar and Andrew Ward July 21 2008
After a brief stopover in Kuwait on Saturday, Barack Obama could have been in Baghdad within two hours. Instead, he chose to make Afghanistan the first big destination of his week-long international tour.
The itinerary highlighted the increasing focus on Afghanistan in the US presidential campaign as it becomes clear that, while conditions in Iraq are improving, the original battleground in the "war on terror" has taken a sharp turn for the worse. Mr Obama is expected in Iraq today. But the fact he spent the first two days of a tour designed to bolster his foreign policy credentials in Afghanistan illustrates how the conflict has returned to the centre of the US political debate.
"We have to understand that the situation is precarious and urgent, and I believe this has to be the central focus, the central front, in the battle against terrorism," he told CBS News.
Coalition deaths in Afghanistan have exceeded US fatalities in Iraq for the past two months, culminating in the death of nine soldiers last week in the deadliest insurgent attack for three years.
The deteriorating situation has left Mr Obama and John McCain, his Republican rival, scrambling to refocus attention on a conflict once dubbed the "forgotten war".
Both candidates pledged last week to send two or three additional combat brigades - between 7,000 and 10,000 troops - to Afghanistan if elected.
But while there is growing consensus on the need for reinforcements, the candidates are sharply at odds over what lessons should be drawn from the resurgence by al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
For Mr Obama, it underscores his argument that the US must extricate itself from an unnecessary war in Iraq and refocus on the original battleground in the "war on terror".
For Mr McCain, it highlights the importance of having a resolute and experienced leader in the Oval Office who can turn around Afghanistan just as the "surge" strategy has reduced violence in Iraq.
David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, said over the weekend that the diverging levels of violence in the two war zones could signal a shift in focus by al-Qaeda back to its original home base in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
He said there were signs that foreign fighters recruited by al-Qaeda to do battle in Iraq were being diverted to the largely ungoverned areas in Pakistan from which fighters can cross into Afghanistan. Attacks by militant groups against the US-led coalition in Afghanistan have risen by 40 per cent this year, compared with 2007, according to the US military.
The worsening outlook in Afghanistan is increasing pressure on the US to accelerate its troop drawdown in Iraq to free up more forces for Afghanistan. The administration agreed on Friday to set a "time horizon" for withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, marking a break from its refusal to consider timelines for ending the war.
The White House insists the target dates will be "aspirational" and that it remains committed to gradual withdrawal subject to continued security improvements - in contrast to Mr Obama's plan to bring home all combat troops within 16 months of taking office.
But the Bush administration and the McCain campaign faced embarrassment over the weekend from reports that Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, had voiced support for Mr Obama's proposal.
According to an interview in Der Spiegel, the German magazine, Mr Maliki said US troops should leave Iraq "as soon as possible", and called Mr Obama's 16-month plan "the right timeframe for a withdrawal".
A spokesman for Mr Maliki yesterday said his views were "not conveyed accurately" by the magazine.
Mr Obama visited two US military bases and met President Hamid Karzai during his two-day stop in Afghanistan, accompanied by Senate colleagues Jack Reed, a Democrat, and Chuck Hagel, a moderate Republican and fierce critic of the war in Iraq.
Before leaving Washington, Mr Obama stressed that he was travelling to Afghanistan and Iraq as a senator before switching back to campaign mode during his planned visits to Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and the UK later this week.
"I'm more interested in listening than doing a lot of talking," he said.
Few details of his meeting with Mr Karzai were provided.
The latter's spokesman said the pair agreed on a wide range of issues although Mr Obama has previously criticised Mr Karzai and his government for failing to "get out of the bunker" to battle insurgents.
His visit came amid mounting public anger in Afghanistan about recent civilian deaths in US and coalition military operations.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan police progress in baby steps
Canadian troops have been training Afghani officers to be honest, professional, survivors
canada.com Graham Thomson Canwest News Service Monday, July 21, 2008
BAZAR-I-PANJWAII, Afghanistan -To get an idea of the daunting task facing Canadian troops who are trying to improve the notoriously inept and often corrupt Afghan police forces you need only look a recent patrol in the Panjwaii district, one of the most violent areas of Afghanistan.
A few days ago, Canadian soldiers and an RCMP officer mentoring the police were ready to head out on foot patrol through the streets of Bazar-i-Panjwaii at the crack of dawn.
However, the Afghan police officers never showed up.
The official explanation was the Afghans were suddenly called away by their commanding officer to conduct a raid in Kandahar City, 40 kilometres away. An unofficial reason that leaked out later was they set off for one of the few banks in the city to see if they were getting paid.
Either way, the Canadians were caught by surprise, about to get all dressed up in their battle gear with nowhere to go.
Making a bad situation look even worse was the fact the local Afghan police officers here are supposed to be among the cream of the crop, having recently graduated from a special U.S.-led eight-week training program to improve their skills and weed out corruption.
However, in the bizarre world of policing in Afghanistan, this is actually evidence that things are improving.
For one, the police officers were not out shaking down local Afghans for bribes as they have done for years. For another, they are finally getting paid on a semi-regular basis through a bank in Kandahar City instead of being shortchanged by their government officials who routinely skimmed money off the top. That they even have bank accounts is evidence of progress.
And the officers returned to work later that day, heading off on the next patrol as if nothing had happened.
"People forget in Canada whether it's the Afghan National Army or the police or the justice system or anything, we are building things from nothing, absolute nothing," said Capt. Sheldon Maerz, an infantry officer with 3 Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry based in Wainwright, Alta. "This is an incredibly complex task. It's not like you're trying to build a police force in Saskatoon, Sask., with a bunch of people that don't know anything about policing but at least they can read and write. Here we can't even assume that."
Up until recently most men wearing an Afghan National Police (ANP) uniform were assumed to be cowardly when dealing with insurgents and crooked when dealing with the public.
"It was largely accepted they were junk, they were corrupt," said Maerz. "They were poorly trained, poorly led, poorly equipped. A lot of times they were nothing better than a private militia or a bunch of thugs or thieves with guns and they couldn't be counted on."
That's starting to slowly change, according to RCMP Cpl. Dave Strachan of Surrey, B.C., who is wrapping up a 12-month tour in the Panjwaii district helping train and equip the local police.
"I've seen the bad old days," said Strachan. "People say, 'Look at the ANP now,' but they never saw what it was like last year. They've still got a lot of work to do, don't get me wrong, but they've improved since last year."
Realizing that the police force's dismal reputation was undermining the Afghan government's credibility with the public, Canadians here have focused on the police this year, copying their existing program widely praised for successfully mentoring the Afghan National Army.
Locals, though, remain skeptical. At a shura, or gathering of leaders, last week between Canadian soldiers and Afghans, an elder complained a police officer had robbed him of money while on an operation. Canadians were suspicious of the accusation, not only because the elder kept inflating the amount of money as he retold the story, but because Canadians had been part of the operation at the time. The Afghan officers had immediately volunteered to be searched and the Canadians found no evidence of theft.
The local district leader, despite being a major supporter of the Canadian soldiers, has demanded a further investigation.
As a way to signal to the public that the widely despised ANP is indeed changing, the force is now being called the Afghan Uniformed Police (AUP) to reflect the new eight-week training program an increasing number of officers are receiving. That might not seem like much by Canadian standards but it's a quantum leap by Afghanistan's.
Coupled with a boost in pay - from the equivalent of $75 a month for an untrained officer to $110 for the new upgraded officers - the police force in Bazar-i-Panjwaii is slowly becoming more professional.
The progress might look like baby steps in the grand march toward Afghanistan's modernization but they are part of what the chief of the defence staff, Gen. Walter Natynczyk, recently classified as "localized fragile signs of success."
However, in the same interview, Natynczyk told CTV's Question Period there is a "worsening security situation across the country" particularly in the east where U.S forces are based and in the south where Canadians are stationed.
Consequently, Canadians are training local police in the basics of combat survival so the Afghan officers can stay alive long enough to one day practice the basics of police work.
"Because this is Panjwaii, we have to be realistic," said Maerz. "This isn't a benign policing environment. Someday maybe they could be a police officer in the true sense but they're not going to be if we just fling them out there and they walk around there like the Keystone Kops and they all get slaughtered."
Adding to the risk to the fledgling police force is the treat from even the officers' allies. On the weekend, nine Afghan police were killed when U.S.-led troops mistook them for militants and called in air strikes during a battle that lasted four hours.
Back to Top
Back to Top
UNHCR lauds Iran for hosting Afghan refugees Tehran
July 22, IRNA
Representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Iran Carlos Zaccagnini on Tuesday appreciated Iran's sincere contribution to the Afghan refugees.
He made the remarks while addressing inaugural ceremony of an exhibition on achievements of the Afghan refugees residing in Iran.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has provided the Afghan refugees living in the country with all its facilities while it has been enjoying the minimum support from the international community, he added.
The international community has always been grateful to the Iranian government and nation for their contribution to the Afghan refugees, he said expressing the hope that the Afghan nationals would materialize their experiences in developing their own country when they return home.
Also addressing the ceremony, Afghan Ambassador to Tehran Muhammad Yahya Maroufi lauded the Islamic Republic of Iran for the great efforts to host Afghan refugees in the past three decades.
He also appreciated Iran's assistance to the Afghan nation during the occupation of Afghanistan by the former Soviet Union and the invasion of the Taliban.
The skilled Afghan refugees who have undergone vocational training in Iran are currently playing key role in reconstruction of their homeland, the Afghan ambassador added.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Assist us to fight US, in Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda asks Pakistanis
Tuesday , July 22, 2008 at 05:27:50
Islamabad, July 22: A top al-Qaeda leader on Tuesday asked Pakistanis to help fight US-led forces in Afghanistan and slammed the government in Islamabad for arresting Arab fighters and handing them over to Washington.
Mustafa Abu al-Yazid alias Sheikh Saeed, an Egyptian identified as al-Qaeda’s third highest-ranking leader by US intelligence agencies, also claimed responsibility for the suicide attack on Danish embassy here in June that killed eight people.
In a rare on-camera interview to Pakistan’s Geo TV, he said the Danish embassy bombing was carried out by a man from the “holy land” of Mecca who had originally come to fight in Kashmir or Afghanistan.
Al-Yazid spoke to the private Pakistani channel at Khost in eastern Afghanistan and Terrorism experts said this was the first time since 2002 that any top al-Qaeda leader has given an interview.
Al-Yazid, in the interview, sought for the destruction of Pakistan’s government, which he said had “betrayed” the ‘jihadis’.
He accused President Pervez Musharraf and his government of committing crimes by arresting foreign fighters.
Pakistani agencies had arrested “Arab mujahideen and handed them over to American infidels” and Pakistan, out of all the Islamic states, has done the “most harm” to Islam, he said.
Al-Yazid praised the people of Pakistan’s northwestern tribal areas, a stronghold of the Taliban, for helping in the fighting in Afghanistan.
He called for more Pakistanis to join the fighting in Afghanistan, saying it was a responsibility imposed by Islam and “obligatory for them to render this help”.
Al-Yazid vowed to recapture Afghanistan and stated al-Qaeda’s stand that “all Americans and not just the American government” were its enemies.
Referring to the June 2 suicide car bombing of the Danish embassy that also damaged the nearby Indian High Commissioner’s residence, Al-Yazid said the attack was carried out by a man who had come from Mecca in retaliation for the publication of blasphemous cartoons of Prophet Mohammed in Danish newspapers.
Al-Qaeda had earlier also claimed responsibility for the attack on the Danish embassy.
Unlike most Taliban leaders who grant interviews to the Pakistani media, Al-Yazid made no effort to hide his face from the camera. The bearded terrorist leader appeared in the interview wearing a white turban and a brown jacket.
The Geo News reporter, who arranged the interview through a Palestinian intermediary, travelled to Afghanistan via the North West Frontier Province capital of Peshawar to meet Al-Yazid.
Al-Yazid, who is al-Qaeda commander of operations in Afghanistan, was once imprisoned for three years for involvement in the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1982. He later fought against the Soviet forces that invaded Afghanistan in the late 1980s and played a role in establishing al-Qaeda.
US officials have said Al-Yazid rose to his current position within the past year. Before that, he was al-Qaeda’s “chief financial manager” and reportedly played a role in financing the terrorists who carried out the 9/11 attacks.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghanistan Doesn't Need a 'Surge'
By ANN MARLOWE Wall Street Journal July 22, 2008; Page A17
Afghanistan needs many things, but two more brigades of U.S. troops are not among them.
Barack Obama said: "We need more troops, more helicopters, better intelligence-gathering and more nonmilitary assistance to accomplish the mission there." Mr. Obama should have supported the surge in Iraq, but that doesn't mean that advocating one in Afghanistan makes sense.
Afghanistan's problems are not the same as Iraq's. Its people aren't recovering from a brutal, all-controlling tyranny, but from decades of chaos and centuries of bad government. Afghanistan, unlike Iraq, is largely illiterate and has a relatively undeveloped civil society. Afghan society still centers around the family and, for men, the mosque. Its society and traditions are still largely intact, in contrast to Iraq's fractured, urbanized and half-modernized population.
The Afghan insurgency has no broad popular base and doesn't mirror an obvious religious or ethnic fault line. It is also far more linked with Pakistani support than the Iraqi insurgency or militias were with Iran. Afghanistan needs a better president, judiciary and police force -- and a Pakistani government that is not playing footsie with the Taliban.
In Afghanistan, the situation can differ radically in provinces just a half-hour helicopter ride away. There has been much recent hysteria about an incident on July 13 when nine American soldiers were killed in an insurgent assault on a combat outpost in Want, in Nuristan (mistakenly reported as taking place in Wanat in neighboring Kunar Province). This was the deadliest attack on American soldiers since 16 troops were killed in Kunar in 2005. It was a tragic event, but does not demonstrate that the American effort in Afghanistan is on the brink of disaster, as some commentators have risibly argued.
"RC-East has pushed up to new areas and the bad guys are pushing back there," a serving U.S. government official who requested anonymity told me. Regional Command East has been applying a standard formula in 14 Afghan provinces, usually with great success. Even privates can tell you that it's about living among the people, building projects for them, and, in the Pashtun belt, getting the tribes on your side. This won't do the trick unless the governor and sub-governors are decent and respected by the tribal leaders, and the tribes themselves are cohesive.
"But there is no such thing as tribe in Nuristan," the official continued. "There is no unit above the corporate community." The last governor was fired, but it's not clear how much even a brilliant, honest governor could do in a place so unaccustomed to authority above the village level.
Nuristanis -- who were converted from paganism to Islam only about 100 years ago -- live in isolated villages in terrain that is rugged even by Afghan standards. There are no paved roads in the province, and helicopters can be shot down from above in the narrow valleys, as two U.S. military helicopters were in the last year.
So how do we bring security to Nuristan? Is bringing in thousands of American troops the answer?
"No!" the official said. "It's using Special Forces to get the bad guys who are infiltrating from Pakistan. Our enemy only attacks when they expect to win. If we have to go after them, we need the capacity to hunt them with stealth over trackless mountainsides for which our infantry, cavalry and airborne soldiers are not trained or equipped to operate." Defeating the enemy is best accomplished by highly trained fighters who travel light.
Counterinsurgency is not one-size-fits-all. While there are best practices, they must be applied in a nuanced way. In poorly governed countries where insurgencies are likely to arise, the solution may vary from valley to valley.
It shouldn't be hard to see that adding men, helicopters or projects is not always the solution. But then, a would-be commander in chief who announces his prescription for Afghanistan before setting foot there has a lot to learn about America's top job.
Ms. Marlowe is a New York-based writer. This year she completed her 10th trip to Afghanistan and her third embed with U.S. forces there.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Reservists to train Afghanistan drill instructors
Monday, July 21, 2008 10:56 AM CDT
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A group of U.S. Army Reserve soldiers will train Afghanistan army drill sergeants.
Thirty-six soldiers of Detachment 53 of the 95th Division left for Afghanistan Sunday.
They will relieve soldiers currently serving the post.
“The overall encompassing mission is that we want to give the Afghanistan people a national identity ... just like we have,” Lt. Col. Bradley Perrier said.
Sunday was Staff Sgt. Paul Barboa’s third deployment. He is looking forward to the experience.
“Really, it’s America coming together to make this happen,” said Barboa, a San Diego resident.
The soldiers come from 13 states, including six from Oklahoma, Capt. Dale McCurdy said.
Gen. James Archer, 95th Division commander, told soldiers and family members during a farewell ceremony that he’s seen how important the mission is to the future of Afghanistan during the farewell ceremony at the U.S. Army Reserve Center in Oklahoma City.
“I can assure you from my experience that your mission is absolutely critical to the independence of that nation,” Archer said.
Sgt. 1st Class Brandon Wallace of Moore had his new in-laws among the family members saying goodbye to him Sunday.
“We’ll take care of the home front, and he’ll take care of the Army, our country,” said Dorothy Hudspeth, Wallace’s grandmother-in-law. “We’re really proud of him.”
His mother-in-law, Karen LeGate, said they weren’t sure how they would deal with his absence.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Generator power increase costs by 20%
www.quqnoos.com Written by Anwar Hashimi Monday, 21 July 2008
Many Afghan businesses are facing increased costs as they have to generate their own power
Many Afghan businesses are forced to us generators for the provision of power in industrial factories of the country resulting in increased costs of up to 20% for end customers, according to leading businessmen.
Some investors have suggested lack of access to clean electricity and proper markets for their products, as the main reasons for the low base of investment in production facilities in Afghanistan.
The Ministry of Commerce and Industries and the Organization for the Support of Investors has promised to provide permanent electricity for all factories in Kabul at a price of 6 Afs per kilowatt hour.
This is a significant reduction on current costs of up to 20 Afs per kilowatt hour.
The Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Commerce and Industries told Quqnoos.com on Sunday, that in the industrial park of Juma Mohammad Mohammadi, currently generators are used to provide electricity to the factories but by the end of current year hydro-electric power will be allotted to them.
In other factories located in the industrial parks of Puli-Charkhi, government electricity is provided at a cost of 6 Afs per kilowatt, but this electricity is not regular and will only be reliable once imported electricity reaches Kabul.
Use of generators to provide electricity and the increase in expenditure such as fuel are the principle reasons that Afghan products are unable to compete with similar foreign products.
Produced power also increases the costs of communicational companies and television networks significantly resulting in increased costs to end customers.
Mohammad Qurban Haqjo, Head of the Executive Commission of the Chamber of Commerce told Quqnoos.com that “if cheap and sufficient electricity is provided to existing factories, naturally they will be able to compete with foreign products, and will be able to satisfy internal needs”.
At the same time Dr Omar Zakhilwal, CEO of Afghanistan Investor’s Support Agency and advisor to the President of Afghanistan said that “electricity from generators will cost the consumers 20 Afs per kilowatt, therefore the cost of expenses from point of view of electricity is four times higher [than it could be].”
Out of the 34 factories who were supposed to start operations in the industrial park of Juma Mohammad Mohammadi, only 10 factories have commenced operations to date, and they all use diesel generators to provide them with power.
Work on 20 other factories is in progress and about 80% completed, and the Organization of Support of Investors promised to provide cheap electricity to them, when they are completed.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Georgia to send 400 troops to Afghanistan
Jul 22, 2008, 13:44 GMT Monsters and Critics.com
Moscow - Georgia is to send 400 troops to Afghanistan to help NATO-led forces in the fight against insurgents loyal to the country's former Taliban rulers, reports said Tuesday.
The troops will be deployed in the volatile south of Afghanistan by year's end, where they will be under French and Dutch command, the news agency Interfax reported, quoting the Georgian Defence Ministry.
A defence ministry spokesman in the former Soviet Republic said Georgia had no immediate plans to withdraw any of its 2,000 troops serving with US-led coalition forces in Iraq.
Georgia is seeking to join NATO, but has been hindered from doing so by the conflicts over its breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Kabul gears up for ‘cleanliness day’
www.quqnoos.com Written by PAN Tuesday, 22 July 2008
NGO starts campaign for ‘cleanliness day’ on 25 July to clean up fast growing city
Officials of a local non-governmental organization on Monday urged the citizens of Kabul to join them on ‘cleanliness day’ on July 25th.
Aimed to clean Kabul city, the scheme will be conducted by close collaboration of local citizens, governmental and none governmental workers and the private sector.
The commission which serves Kabul city residents, a non-governmental and non-political commission which was formed by Kabul citizens, began its operation a month back.
Engineer Habiburahman Habib, the head of the commission, while addressing a news conference here on Monday said they had attracted supports from local elders and officials in all city districts of this capital as well as private sector representative and governmental institutions.
The scheme works by Kabul residents collecting rubbish and filth from their houses and streets and placing these inside plastic bags to be provided to them before hand. These bags would then be placed in designated spots in the streets of Kabul for collection.
The bags would be collected by Kabul municipality utilizing some 500 transport vehicles that would be provided by governmental and none governmental institutions according to Engineer Habib.
People would also be given hand gloves, masks, spades, wheelbarrows and other required materials, he added, hoping the scheme would be a successful one.
Mr Jarullah, head of the National Environmental Protection Agency, views this project as a positive one.
With a population close to 5 million, Kabul city produces some 1500 tonnes of rubbish every day.
Jarullah worries that Kabul municipality can only cope with disposing of 400 tonnes every day.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Five Afghans held with explosive-laden vehicle in Quetta
PakTribune.Com - Tribune Corner Tuesday July 22, 2008
QUETTA-The police claimed to have arrested five alleged Afghan terrorists and impounded an explosive-laden vehicle from a house during a search operation conducted in the Kashmirabad area on the Sariab Road. The Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Quetta, Muhammad Akbar, said this while addressing a news conference here on Monday. DIG Police Operations Wazir Khan Nasser and DIG Investigations Rahmatullah Khan Niazi were also present.
The CCPO said a police party, on a secret tip, raided a suspected house in the Kashmirabad area late on Sunday night. The police rounded up Muhammad Rasool Asmatullah, Roohullah, Muhammad Usman and Muhammad Dawood from there. Asmatullah, Roohullah, Usman, Dawood are Afghan nationals and real brothers.
The police also recovered a car in which explosive material weighing around 25 kilogrammes had been fitted in 48 different pieces. The police party also recovered 10 mobile phones, 13 detonators and two radio sets, he said.
The CCPO believed that the explosive-laden car was to be used for subversive act in Quetta. On their information, the police recovered another car parked in an abandoned motor garage in Kuchlak area with no engine installed in it. It was learnt that the terrorists intended to fit the explosive material after their Kashmirabad plan, he added.
The CCPO said: “We had information about four such vehicles, while two of them have been recovered, the search is on for the remaining two.”
Back to Top
Back to Top
Education in Nangarhar- future at stake
Izzatullah Zawab & Abdul Hadi Dariz - Jul 19, 2008 - 16:01
JALALABAD (PAN) Forgery in educational documents and preparing fake degrees have become so much a routine in the eastern Nangarhar province, bordering Pakistan that some students don't have to attend even at least 6 to 9 years school and yet are able to get certificates of grade 12.
There are many students in this bordering province who have got admitted in higher classes through fake documents.
Some teachers and education officials consider the numbers of such students very high. The vast job opportunities in the civil service, especially in the education department itself lure these students to jump up to higher qualifications through unfair means to grab these opportunities.
Noor Mhammad, Principal of Kot High School told Pajhwok Afghan News if the documents of all the teachers working in the province were thoroughly scrutinized, half of them might turn out to be forged.
The Head Master of Dor Baba Middle School, Rahmanullah Amin is very concerned about the situation; he even witnessed students in Nangarhar province who studied for two to three months in grade 12 and after receiving the graduation documents have been recruited in education department as teachers.
"If the classes are purchased on money, it will cause to crumble our whole education system and the dream of building an enlightened nation would be lost", he worried.
Khaksar, 21, resident of Guldara village in Chaparhar district, who studied until grade 6 in a religious seminary was able to get admission with fake documents in Chaparhar High School and now is studying at grade 11.
Khaksar says three years back he made fake documents in just less than an hour time with the help of an Afghan refugee by less than 50 USD.
"I then just greased the palms of the education officials in the province by only 10 USD and they after verifying my documents as real admitted me in grade 11", he added.
Ahmad Shirzad, a student of Nangarhar High School wanted his brother Mehan to graduate faster and find a job; he paid 100 USD and pushed his brother from grade five to 9. He said a friend helped him to make fake documents for his brother.
Access to those who make fake documents in Nangarhar is not difficult, even Pajhwok Afghan News was easily able to interview them.
Zalmay, residence of Behsod district graduated from grade 12 of Chakanori High School three years back (2005) is one among those who earn their livelihood through this illegal business.
He operates his forgery business from a rented room in Jalalabad city.
"I have the soft copy the certificate of every high school of Peshawar city in Pakistan and if I lack any document I just go to Peshawar and make a fresh one in Qissa Khwani Bazaar," he remarked.
He added one certificate cost him less than 10 USD and one stamp 10 USD.
Zalmay disclosed his business was not limited only to preparing fake documents and stamps, he confessed that he has contacts with school principals in Peshawar and they also prepare and maintain the record of their forged documents. So in case of verification no forgery is proved.
Eighty percent of the educational officials interviewed by Pajhwok Afghan News termed Peshawar as the center of all this illegal business.
Located 130 km east of Nangarhar, Peshawar is the gateway to Pakistan and south Asia where hundreds of Afghans without any passport or permit can cross the border and residents of Nangarhar can go in the morning to Peshawar and in the afternoon can come back to Nangarhar.
Though the price of these forged documents varies because it is an agreement between two parties but generally the low price and easy access to this illegal business is also a reason for the fostering of this business.
To find about the various prices of the documents and more detail about forgery the reporters of Pajhwok Afghan News went to Peshawar city of Pakistan and with several days in Peshawar they were able to visit the centers of these documents.
Qissa Khwani, a historic bazaar in Peshawar city is the center of all kind of forged documents. It is really the place where one can find anything under the sun real as well as fake including the educational documents. Business here mostly owned by the Afghans. One can see the various streets of the Bazaar including Jangi Mahallah and Daki Nalbandi humming with business activities. Dozens of samples of Afghan government documents are openly sold and bought in shops of both sides of the road and most of the buyers are Afghans even Meena reporter was able to buy some forged documents in the Bazaar. People from all over Afghanistan come here and order various stamps of Afghan government (metal, wood, plastic) and pay them money, then take the stamps to Afghanistan for fakery activities.
The stamps are prepared with such skills that it was difficult to differentiate it with the original documents of Afghanistan government stamps. Nasimullah, manager of a private course Yawan in the first street of Naser Bagh in Peshawar who has a lot of information about this business in Peshawar said it cost just 20 to 40 USD to get counterfeit documents.
Nasimullah adds: "I made a certificate with 25 USD, but now there is no record of the certificate at any school or ministry" Afghan diplomats in Peshawar also confirmed the thriving illegal business in Peshawar and considered it as a serious challenge to the administration.
After several attempt and long waiting Pajhwok Afghan News was able to discuss the issue with the Afghan consulate in Peshawar who finally accepted it as a big challenge after documents and evidence were presented by the reporter to the consulate.
Abdul Khaliq Farahi, Afghan Consul General in Peshawar said even though forgery in Peshawar is serious, the consulate was able to identify fake documents and arrest many counterfeiters with the help of Pakistani police.
Farahi said: "We have raided many such centers in Peshawar and have handed over the owners to Pakistani police."
He however was unable to provide any proof in support of his claims and blamed the former officials in the consulate responsible for all this mess.
Farahi avoided giving details about the number of Afghans imprisoned in Pakistan jail in connection with fake documents; he also did not want to give information about how much the Pakistani authority helping Afghans in this regard.
The back door entry of students and workers into the education system through this would have serious long term repercussions on our society. A teacher of Aalya High School in Nangarhar province Lina Afghan said they have recovered fake documents many times; such students could easily be identified by their poor study.
Lina said: "Some students getting admission in grade seven or eight are mostly unable to read or write"
Education officials in Nangarhar accepting the existence of this illegal business expressed concern over it and blamed the Afghan consulate in Peshawar as the root cause of the problem. Iqbal Azizi, education department head of Nangarhar said most of these fake transformation documents and certificates are prepared in Peshawar and are verified in Afghan consulate in Peshawar, which makes it difficult for Nangarhar education department to identify its authenticity.
Iqbal Azizi said not only students but many teachers have also been recruited to Nangarhar schools through these documents. Azizi named 12 people who brought fake documents from Al- Taqwa High School based in Peshawar and have been recruited as teachers in schools. But Azizi did not name the teachers and the schools where they teach.
Edited by Abid Jan Razarwal
Back to Top
Disclaimer:
This news site is mostly a compilation of publicly accessible articles
on the Web in the form of a link or saved news item. The news articles
and commentaries/editorials are protected under international copyright
laws. All credit goes to the original respective source(s).