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Afghan president reshuffles cabinet
By Hamid Shalizi
KABUL, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai reshuffled his cabinet on Saturday, moving the education minister to take over the Interior Ministry which administers the police force and which has been criticised for corruption.
Afghan intel says attack on Afghan prison thwarted
By RAHIM FAEIZ Associated Press Sat Oct 11, 6:04 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan's intelligence service said Saturday it broke up a Taliban plot to attack the country's most notorious prison with a wave of suicide bombers
Afghanistan Welcomes NATO Crackdown on Narcotics Infrastructure
By Steve Herman Voice of America 11 October 2008
Afghanistan's government is welcoming the NATO decision to have foreign troops in the country go after the narcotics infrastructure. That is a change from previous tactics when opium farmers were
U.S.-led forces kill 9 militants in Afghanistan
Sat Oct 11, 6:45 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition and Afghan troops killed nine militants in overnight clashes in southern and central Afghanistan, the U.S. military said on Saturday.
Suspected US strike kills four in Pakistan: officials
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) - A missile strike by a suspected US spy drone late Saturday killed four people in a Pakistani tribal area seen as a safe haven for Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants near the Afghan border.
No end to Afghanistan fight: top military chief
Sat Oct 11, 4:52 AM ET
LONDON (AFP) - The international military mission in Afghanistan has "no end point", the head of Britain's armed forces told a newspaper on Saturday.
Pakistanis shelter in Afghanistan as battles rage
October 11, 2008
SHULTAN, Afghanistan (AFP) - Things are bad back home, says school director Said Nabi Said, one of thousands of Pakistanis who have fled into Afghanistan to escape an offensive against Al-Qaeda-linked militants.
Pakistan tribes raze Taliban houses after bombing
Sat Oct 11, 2008 4:58am EDT By Mohammad Hashim
KOHAT, Pakistan (Reuters) - Angry Pakistani tribesmen traded fire with Taliban militants and demolished their houses in a northwestern tribal region after a car suicide attack killed at least 40 people, residents and officials said on Saturday.
Officials: 3 killed in missile strike in Pakistan
The Associated Press Saturday, October 11, 2008
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan: A suspected U.S. missile strike killed three people late Saturday in a town near the Afghan border, the latest in a series of attacks in a region where top al-Qaida leaders
Cost of Afghan war to Germany: Three billion euros and rising
Berlin, Oct 11, IRNA
With no end in sight to the Afghan war, German tax payers have paid almost three billion euros for their country's controversial NATO-led military mission in Afghanistan since late 2001, the weekly Der Spiegel
U.S. plans to train Afghanistan tribal militias
Los Angeles Times, CA By Julian E. Barnes, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer October 10, 2008
WASHINGTON -Confronting the prospect of failure after seven years in Afghanistan, the U.S. military is crafting a new strategy that is likely to expand the power and reach of that country's tribal militias
A big morale booster' in Afghanistan
National Post By Tom Blackwell Friday, October 10, 2008
Afghanistan - The Afghan soldier rustled vigorously about in the grape vines, then jumped back and jubilantly held up his find. "Alahu Akbar!" -- God is great! -- he cried, as cheers erupted from fellow troops scattered throughout the vineyard.
Perfect Afghanistan clinch another promotion
October 10, 2008
DAR ES SALAAM (AFP) — Afghanistan crushed Italy by 93 runs on Friday to secure a fifth win in five matches and secure promotion to the Division Three of the World Cricket League.
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Afghan president reshuffles cabinet
By Hamid Shalizi
KABUL, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai reshuffled his cabinet on Saturday, moving the education minister to take over the Interior Ministry which administers the police force and which has been criticised for corruption.
As the war against the Taliban enters its eighth year, violence in Afghanistan has reached record levels and Western allies have pointed to a lack of good governance and endemic corruption as factors feeding the insurgency.
The appointment of Hanif Atmar to the Interior Ministry is likely to be praised by Karzai's Western backers as he is seen as a capable administrator who has made great improvements in education and is seen as being free from any taint of corruption.
Karzai made the new appointments "in order to bring positive changes in good governance", said the spokesman for the office of state minister for parliamentary affairs, Asif Nang.
The United States has poured more than $3 billion into training and expanding the Afghan National Police in the last two years, seeing the force as key to the fight against the Taliban insurgency as, unlike the army, it has bases in every town.
But the programme to reform the police has been hampered by corruption at the interior ministry, diplomatic sources say, where officials demand large bribes for the appointment of top officers who then recoup the money from lower ranks and ultimately the Afghan public.
The outgoing Interior Minister Zarar Ahmad Moqbel would become minister for refugees, while Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Farooq Wardak would become education minister, Nang said.
Other new appointments included the former governor of the southern troubled province of Kandahar, Asadullah Khaled, to the ministry of parliamentary affairs and Asef Rahimi to the agriculture ministry.
All the cabinet appointments must be approved by parliament which is dominated by former warlords anxious to maintain Afghanistan's delicate ethnic balance in the government. (Writing by Jon Hemming; Editing by Matthew Jones)
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Afghan intel says attack on Afghan prison thwarted
By RAHIM FAEIZ Associated Press Sat Oct 11, 6:04 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan's intelligence service said Saturday it broke up a Taliban plot to attack the country's most notorious prison with a wave of suicide bombers, while the government named a new interior minister to lead the country's fledgling police.
The thwarted attack on the Policharki prison on the outskirts of the capital, Kabul, was meant to free Taliban and criminal prisoners, the Afghan intelligence service said in a statement.
The attack would have mirrored a massive assault in June on a prison in Kandahar — the country's second largest city and the spiritual home of the Taliban — that freed almost 900 prisoners, including about 400 Taliban fighters.
The Interior Ministry is widely accused of being the most corrupt government organization in the country. Individual police officers are known to force Afghan truck drivers, businessmen and ordinary civilians to pay bribes to avoid arrest. Higher-ranking officials are believed to help facilitate the country's billion-dollar opium poppy trade.
The new minister, Hanif Atmar, is widely viewed by Western embassies in Kabul as a capable leader. The former interior minister, Zarar Ahmad Muqbal, was named the head of the Refugee and Repatriation Ministry.
Three police who worked at Policharki were arrested as accomplices in the Taliban breakout plot, the intelligence service said. They were allegedly paid off by militants to help carry out the attack.
The three officers smuggled explosives and mobile phone batteries and chargers into the prison so two Taliban prisoners could make suicide vests, it said, adding the officers confessed their roles in the plot.
The intelligence service did not say when the arrests took place or when the attack was to be carried out. The commander of the prison, Maj. Gen. Abdul Baqi Basody, said the three were arrested about two weeks ago.
Elsewhere, the U.S.-led coalition said it killed nine militants in two operations, including an al-Qaida commander.
The coalition said four militants killed in Friday's operation in Ghazni province were involved in attacks against Afghan and NATO troops. An Afghan and coalition operation killed five militants in Kandahar province on Friday, it said.
The Afghan army said its troops killed five militants in Helmand province on Friday.
More than 4,700 people — mostly militants — have died in insurgency-related violence so far this year, according to an Associated Press count of figures provided by Afghan and Western officials.
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Afghanistan Welcomes NATO Crackdown on Narcotics Infrastructure
By Steve Herman Voice of America 11 October 2008
Afghanistan's government is welcoming the NATO decision to have foreign troops in the country go after the narcotics infrastructure. That is a change from previous tactics when opium farmers were primarily targeted. VOA correspondent Steve Herman has details from Kabul.
The strategic decision by NATO to attack heroin manufacturing labs and drug dealers is being welcomed by Afghanistan's government.
Presidential spokesman Humayun Hamdizada tells VOA News the government is pleased NATO defense ministers decided to allow international forces here to target the illicit drugs infrastructure, including major smugglers and traffickers.
"In the past the entire counter-narcotics strategies were focused on punishing the farmers to which the Afghan government never agreed," he said.
Hamidzada adds Afghanistan will cooperate with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, known as ISAF, in the crackdown.
The effort is expected to focus on seven southwestern provinces where nearly all of Afghanistan's opium is produced. American, British, Canadian and Danish forces comprise the bulk of NATO troops operating in that part of the country.
An ISAF spokesman in Kabul says it is still unclear when such operations will commence.
Meanwhile, President Hamid Karzai on Saturday shuffled his Cabinet. He placed Hanif Atmar, a veteran minister with a clean reputation, as head of the corruption-riddled Interior Ministry.
The ministry oversees the poorly-regarded police and some of the ministry's ranking officials are alleged to be facilitating the lucrative narcotics trade.
The opium industry provides tens of millions of dollars of funding annually for the Taliban fighters, who oppose Afghanistan's democratic government.
U.S. military officials say American-led coalition and Afghan soldiers killed nine insurgents during overnight operations in Ghazni and Kandahar provinces. They say two of those who were killed were Taliban and al-Qaida commanders.
Here in Kabul, the country's intelligence service released a statement Saturday saying it recently thwarted a plot to use suicide bombers to free Taliban prisoners from a notorious jail on the outskirts of the capital. Authorities say three policemen were arrested for their alleged involvement. Officials believe the jailbreak would have resembled the assault four months ago on a Kanadahar prison which freed 900 prisoners, nearly half of them Taliban.
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U.S.-led forces kill 9 militants in Afghanistan
Sat Oct 11, 6:45 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition and Afghan troops killed nine militants in overnight clashes in southern and central Afghanistan, the U.S. military said on Saturday.
Violence has surged in Afghanistan with some 3,800 people, a third of them civilians, killed by the end of July this year.
In the latest fighting, U.S.-led coalition troops killed four militants including two al Qaeda and Taliban commanders in Ghazni province on Friday, about 200 km (125) miles southwest of Kabul. Two other suspects were detained.
"The al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders were known weapons and foreign fighter facilitators," the U.S. military said.
Five Taliban insurgents were killed in an operation in the southern province of Kandahar, the U.S. military said in another statement.
The escalating violence has prompted some in the Afghan government and its allies to consider talks with the Taliban insurgents to end the war.
(Reporting by Hamid Shalizi, Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
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Suspected US strike kills four in Pakistan: officials
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) - A missile strike by a suspected US spy drone late Saturday killed four people in a Pakistani tribal area seen as a safe haven for Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants near the Afghan border.
The incident in the lawless district of North Waziristan was the latest in a string of attacks on Pakistani soil that have raised tensions between Islamabad and Washington.
"Two missiles struck a compound just outside Miranshah. Four people were killed, but their identities are not known," a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The targeted compound was the residence of Taliban militant Omar Daraz, the official said.
There was no immediate confirmation of the strike from the Pakistani military or from the US-led coalition in Afghanistan.
A similar suspected US missile strike on a house in the same district on Thursday killed nine people including six Arab militants, according to security officials.
Two weeks ago around 20 Al-Qaeda-linked militants, mostly foreign nationals, were killed in another suspected US missile strike in Mohammad Khel village in North Waziristan, Pakistani security officials said.
Missile strikes targeting militants in Pakistan in recent weeks have been blamed on US-led coalition forces or CIA drones based in Afghanistan. Pakistan does not have missile-equipped drones.
The United States has stepped up attacks on militants in Pakistani territory since a new civilian government came to power in Islamabad in March, and the incidents have become an issue in the US presidential election.
Relations have also been strained by a raid by US special operations forces into Pakistan on September 3 which killed several Pakistanis.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has vowed zero tolerance against violations of his country's sovereignty amid the strikes, which have stoked anti-US sentiment in Pakistan.
US and Afghan officials say Pakistan's tribal areas are a known haunt of Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who fled into the rugged terrain after the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001.
Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, are widely believed to be hiding in the mountainous region.
Earlier on Saturday tribesmen in northwest Pakistan buried their dead after a suicide attack killed at least 40 at a mass meeting called to tackle Taliban militancy.
More than 2,000 tribesmen had gathered on open ground in the town of Ghaljo in Orakzai district Friday to discuss the creation of a lashkar (tribal force) to fight the Taliban rebels when the blast occurred.
The bombing was a setback to the Pakistan government's attempts to enlist fiercely independent ethnic Pashtun tribesmen in support of its military operations against Al-Qaeda and Taliban extremists in the region.
Taliban militants in the areas close to Afghanistan have killed dozens of tribal elders who they accuse of backing the government using roadside bombs, executions and suicide bombings.
The bodies of four pro-government tribal elders were founded beheaded on Saturday in the Bajaur tribal region where the army is fighting Al-Qaeda and extremist militants.
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No end to Afghanistan fight: top military chief
Sat Oct 11, 4:52 AM ET
LONDON (AFP) - The international military mission in Afghanistan has "no end point", the head of Britain's armed forces told a newspaper on Saturday.
Sir Jock Stirrup's comments come a week after Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, the nation's top military commander in Afghanistan, said the public should not expect a "decisive military victory" in the war-torn country.
Stirrup, chief of the defence staff, told The Times that in both Iraq and Afghanistan, British troops were on a "journey that never finishes".
The 58-year-old air chief marshal said the mission in Afghanistan, where Britain has 7,800 troops fighting Taliban insurgents, was not a win or lose battle.
Britain's 4,100 troops in Iraq are likely to leave within a year, Stirrup said, with Iraqi forces "very close" to being able to handle the security situation alone.
However, Afghanistan would be a longer operation, he warned.
"Afghanistan is a very backward country... (militarily) it's going to be some years before we finish that project," he said.
Stirrup believes people should change their expectations of what can be achieved in Afghanistan.
"We should avoid the use of words like 'win' and 'lose' in the context of Afghanistan. It's not that sort of enterprise," he said.
"It's about helping the Afghans make progress in bringing their country towards the modern world. That's a very, very long journey where success is measured in each year looking a bit better than the one before."
Stirrup does not believe a military victory could be declared in Iraq either.
He said: "These things are more complicated... In both cases it's a journey. If you're talking about the development of a country, it's a journey that never finishes. There's no end point."
The aim of the mission in Afghanistan, as in Iraq, is to "help the government there extend governance to their people and to improve their lot.
"This is a very complex issue. It has to do with administrative capacity. It has to do with executive capacity, it has to do with the criminal justice system, with police and infrastructure.
"The armed forces are only there to create space within which political and other solutions can be delivered. They are a means to an end."
Asked if the war in Iraq has been successful, he replied: "We need to leave those judgements to historians."
Stirrup repeated his call for greater funding for the armed forces, despite the credit crunch.
"The pre-requisite of a sound defence is a sound economy," he said.
"But you have to continue protecting your interests. You can't take a holiday from doing that."
He also said Princes William and Harry -- both army officers -- should be allowed to fight on the front line where possible.
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Pakistanis shelter in Afghanistan as battles rage
October 11, 2008
SHULTAN, Afghanistan (AFP) - Things are bad back home, says school director Said Nabi Said, one of thousands of Pakistanis who have fled into Afghanistan to escape an offensive against Al-Qaeda-linked militants.
"The Pakistani government bombed us with airplanes and artillery strikes to punish the people of Bajaur for having good relations with the militants," said the 27-year-old just across the border in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province.
"Since the start of the fighting two months ago, the situation is critical: thousands of houses have been destroyed and hundreds of civilian people, mostly women and children, were killed," he claimed.
Around him in the village of Shultan, about 10 kilometres (six miles) from Pakistan, several hundred people -- not a woman among them -- gathered for food handouts from the International Committee of the Red Cross.
They are among about 20,000 people whom the United Nations refugee agency says have fled the Pakistan military operation against Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked Islamic militants in the Bajaur tribal region.
The exodus marks a reversal of history: about eight million Afghans fled mostly to Pakistan over the 30 years of conflict that destroyed their country, from Soviet invasion to civil war.
Among this new batch of refugees are Afghans who lived in exile in Pakistan for more than 20 years. Islamabad has ordered all 60,000 Afghans in Bajaur to leave, saying they may be involved in militant activities.
"I had a house and land in Afghanistan but I left for Pakistan in 1980," said 45-year-old Mohammad Hachem. "Now the house is destroyed, the land is not cultivated ... so I stayed in Pakistan."
Like the others, he is staying with relatives, in his case his parents. Whichever side of the border they come from, these people all belong to same Pashtun tribe, the Mamound.
Kunar and Bajaur are separated only by two hours of twisting road through imposing mountains.
In one Kunar district, Shigal, about two-thirds of the 11,000 newcomers are Pakistanis and one-third Afghans, according to Patrick Schwaerzler of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
"We belong to the same nation, the same tribe," said Said.
"Look at him," he said, pointing to another man. "He's Afghan, I'm Pakistani, he's my cousin. We have land both in Pakistan and Afghanistan. You want to separate us? It's like splitting a body in two."
Hachem said many of the homes here were occupied by four to five families.
"They share their food with us, but of course it is not much. They do their best... but what we have is not our own," he said.
The refugees had asked the government to give them their own camp but there had been no reply, he said.
All say they miss the much higher standard of living in Pakistan with modern roads, 24-hour power, schools and cheaper food.
"In Bajaur, we were running shops, doing good business. Here we are helpless, we have no job, no money, no regular income," said 25-year-old shopkeeper Ghafoor, sporting an impressive beard like most men around him.
But returning home is not possible while the fighting continues, with artillery fire heard the previous night.
The Pakistani authorities, supported by the United States, say Bajaur is a base for Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants fighting troops across the border in Afghanistan and supported by various tribes and insurgent groups.
The refugees agree that the Taliban hold sway in Bajaur but say they do not mind because they enforce the law.
"Militants wanted to enforce Islamic Sharia law, which provides order and security. Ninety-five percent of the people are in favour of Sharia in Bajaur -- we are very strict Muslims," said Said.
"But now everybody is against militants, fighting is not a solution to the problem, it is destroying the region. Before, the militants didn't want to fight Pakistani soldiers. They went to Afghanistan to fight foreign soldiers."
Further along, refugees collect parcels of about 70 kilograms (154 pounds) of rice, beans, oil, sugar, salt and tea after showing their registration cards.
The distribution goes smoothly, unlike the day before when people scrambled to get on Red Cross lists, said the head of this mission, Abdul Karim Azizi.
"They try to take advantage on us, some trying to be registered several times, even sending kids (to sign up)," he said.
To calm the tensions in a situation in which it is difficult to tell refugee from resident, the relief agency divided the rations so they could feed 4,400 families instead of the 2,200 initially on the list.
But schoolboy Zia-ul-Hak, who is sharing a house with 40 other people, has other worries. "I haven't been in school for two months," he said sadly.
And doctor Shamroz Khan, himself a refugee from Pakistan, said he was concerned the overcrowding could could breed other problems.
"They are mainly treated for infections, diarrhoea, dysentery," he said in a shack that serves as a consulting room.
"People are living in crowded place and I fear an epidemic. They are also affected by chemicals from artillery rounds and bombs."
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Pakistan tribes raze Taliban houses after bombing
Sat Oct 11, 2008 4:58am EDT By Mohammad Hashim
KOHAT, Pakistan (Reuters) - Angry Pakistani tribesmen traded fire with Taliban militants and demolished their houses in a northwestern tribal region after a car suicide attack killed at least 40 people, residents and officials said on Saturday.
Television channels put the death toll at as high as 70.
The bomber drove his explosive-laden car into the middle of a tribal council meeting in Orakzai tribal region on Friday where hundreds of tribesmen were discussing a government-backed plan to raise a lashkar or tribal militia to evict militants.
Pakistan's tribal areas on the Afghan border are regarded as safe havens for al Qaeda and Taliban militants, and the government is under tremendous pressure from the United States to take stern action to stem the flow of insurgents to Afghanistan.
"Everyone is angry and upset here. The tribesmen attacked houses of the Taliban in Khadizai after the bombing. Two houses have been demolished," Noorzad Orakzai, a resident of the Khadizai area where attack took place, told Reuters by telephone.
"There have been exchanges of fire throughout the night. It's still going on," he added.
Jehanzeb Siddique, a senior government official dealing with tribal areas, told Reuters that they had confirmation of 40 deaths from the car bombing.
Other officials said the death toll could rise further as many of the nearly 100 wounded people were in critical condition while several bodies were still unidentified.
The attack in Orakzai came a day after a suicide blast inside the heavily guarded police headquarters in the capital Islamabad in which eight policemen were wounded.
Orakzai has been the most peaceful of Pakistan's seven semi-autonomous tribal regions. Unlike most of the others, Orakzai does not border Afghanistan.
Militants have unleashed a wave of violence in Pakistan in recent months after the military launched major offensives against them in the rugged northwest including Bajaur and Swat regions.
JOINT SESSION
The mounting militant threat prompted the government to convene a closed joint session of the two-chambered parliament for a briefing by intelligence officials on internal security.
The parliamentarians are due to begin debate on the situation after Pakistan's newly appointed intelligence chief briefed them this week on the militant threat.
But a Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman criticized U.S. missile attacks into Pakistan, saying it will stoke public anger.
Since the start of September the United States has carried out at least nine missile attacks, the latest on Thursday night, and a commando raid on militant targets in Pakistan's tribal areas.
"Such strikes will fuel anti-American sentiments which will neither beneficial for us nor for the United States," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Sadiq said.
(Writing by Zeeshan Haider; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
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Officials: 3 killed in missile strike in Pakistan
The Associated Press Saturday, October 11, 2008
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan: A suspected U.S. missile strike killed three people late Saturday in a town near the Afghan border, the latest in a series of attacks in a region where top al-Qaida leaders are believed to be living, two intelligence officials said.
Two unmanned drones were seen above Miran Shah in north Waziristan minutes before missiles hit a factory in the town, they said, based on reports from informants in the town.
The pair said three people were killed, but no other information was immediately available. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. U.S. officials were not immediately available for comment.
Al-Qaida and Taliban fighters have established bases throughout Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal regions, where they are said to plan attacks on U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan as well as violence in Pakistan.
Under U.S. pressure, Pakistan has carried out military offensives against insurgents while also trying to woo various tribes to turn against extremists. But in recent weeks, the U.S. has signaled its impatience with Pakistani efforts.
The U.S. is suspected in at least 11 missile strikes on the Pakistan side of the Afghan border since mid-August, killing more than 100 people, most of them alleged militants, according to an Associated Press count based on Pakistan intelligence numbers.
The United States rarely confirms or denies the attacks, which provoke anger among many Pakistanis.
Pakistan's military and civilian leaders have criticized the strikes as violations of their country's sovereignty. But they have not forcefully demanded Washington stop them, leading to criticism from Muslim conservatives.
On Saturday, Pakistan's Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik accused the U.S. and Afghanistan of not doing enough to stop Islamist militants from crossing into its territory.
Malik said his country had arrested scores of Afghan militants on its side of the border, and that insurgents were using rocket launchers and missiles against its troops.
Also Saturday, mourners buried victims of a suicide bombing near the border that targeted anti-Taliban tribesmen who were moving to evict militants from their region.
Government official Asghar Khan said authorities had tallied at least 34 bodies, but as many as 25 other bodies may have been taken away by relatives. Some media reports said the death toll from Friday's attack was much higher.
___
Associated Press writers Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Habib Khan in Khar and Munir Ahmad and Asif Shahzad in Islamabad contributed to this report.
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Cost of Afghan war to Germany: Three billion euros and rising
Berlin, Oct 11, IRNA
With no end in sight to the Afghan war, German tax payers have paid almost three billion euros for their country's controversial NATO-led military mission in Afghanistan since late 2001, the weekly Der Spiegel news magazine said in a report to hit the newsstands on Sunday.
Replying to an inquiry by a female radical leftist legislator, Gesine Loetsch of the Left (Linke) party, the German Finance Ministry presented the cost figures for Berlin's Afghan military operations from December 2001 through October 13, 2008.
If the German Parliament approves the 14-month extension of the Afghan mandate this week, this would add 688 million euros to the overall cost so far.
Germany's military expenditures in Afghanistan are nearly four times as high as its civilian aid.
Berlin has spent around 830 million euros in non-military assistance for the war-stricken country.
The German cabinet gave green light Tuesday to a 14-month extension of German troop deployment in Afghanistan.
It also agreed to raise the number of Afghanistan-based German soldiers from 3,500 to 4,500 soldiers as part of a bill to be discussed by the parliament later in the day.
The German Parliament is expected to approve the bill once it comes up for vote in mid October.
Germany has deployed around 3,500 soldiers in northern Afghanistan and Kabul as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in addition to police instructors and civilian reconstruction workers.
Some 28 German soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since January 2002, according to official statistics.
Most Germans oppose their country's participation in the war in Afghanistan.
Germany has also been the scene of popular mass protests against extending the Afghan military mission.
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U.S. plans to train Afghanistan tribal militias
Los Angeles Times, CA By Julian E. Barnes, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer October 10, 2008
WASHINGTON -Confronting the prospect of failure after seven years in Afghanistan, the U.S. military is crafting a new strategy that is likely to expand the power and reach of that country's tribal militias while relying less on the increasingly troubled central government.
Under that approach, U.S. forces would scale back combat operations to focus more on training Afghan government forces and tribal militias. The plan is controversial because it could extend the influence of warlords while undermining the government of President Hamid Karzai in Kabul, the capital.
The strategy also could set up a hair-trigger rivalry between national security units and the improved tribal forces, proponents acknowledge.
The U.S. military's willingness to consider such risks reflects the growing worry about worsening conditions in Afghanistan. Until recently, the military would not have considered a move to bolster tribal militias, but, with relatively few troops available, military leaders believe only a new approach to the war can stanch the spreading violence.
"There has been very, very tough fighting this year, and it will be tougher next year unless we adjust," Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Thursday.
Supporters contend that the dangers are offset by the prospect that well-trained tribal forces could help improve local security, undercut the insurgency and strengthen ties between rural areas and the central government.
"My bottom line is that this is clearly something we should do," said a senior military officer, who was one of several who requested anonymity in describing strategy reviews because they were still underway.
By focusing on tribal militias and local security, the approach resembles the U.S. campaign in Iraq, where former Sunni insurgents are paid to guard their neighborhoods. But American officers emphasize that they are not planning to rely on a troop buildup similar to the one used in Iraq -- a topic of debate and commentary during the intensifying U.S. presidential campaign -- in Afghanistan.
Frustrated with Kabul
The new approach also reflects increasing frustration among U.S. and allied commanders with Afghanistan's central government, which they believe has proved too weak to exert any meaningful influence outside the capital, especially in the country's mountainous reaches.
Although Karzai several years ago declared that the era of warlordism was over and offered several warlords influential posts in the central government, they remain extremely powerful forces in the country. Many enjoy great influence in their home provinces, with some fielding private militias or gaining wealth from the opium trade.
Any broad effort to train tribal militias probably would have U.S. military forces working with Taliban sympathizers. But Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who is in Budapest, Hungary, to discuss the Afghanistan war with North Atlantic Treaty Organization defense ministers, said Thursday that the U.S. would be open to reconciling with the Taliban.
"There has to be ultimately, and I'll underscore ultimately, reconciliation as part of a political outcome to this," Gates said. "That's ultimately the exit strategy for all of us."
The new Afghanistan strategy is being crafted as new intelligence assessments conclude that the nation is spiraling downward in part because of the government's shortcomings and widespread corruption. Those findings, contained in an upcoming U.S. National Intelligence Estimate, pose new concerns for American forces in Afghanistan, which have reported record casualties in 2007 and 2008.
The impending strategy shift is emerging from reviews set in motion this year and now nearing completion. The Pentagon and the White House are conducting such reviews, and U.S. Central Command, the military headquarters in charge of U.S. forces in the Middle East, is crafting its own recommendations.
Results of the White House review, conducted under Army Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute, deputy national security advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan, are weeks away, an administration official said.
The military reviews, one ordered by Mullen and the other by Gen. David H. Petraeus, the incoming head of Central Command, may be more significant because they could guide options presented to the next administration.
"My whole focus is on how to get this right," Mullen said, "not just for the next few months, but for the foreseeable future."
There are more than 30,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, far fewer than the 146,000 in Iraq. Military officials hope to send as many as 15,000 new troops in 2009, but some members of the Joint Chiefs have insisted that no additional forces should be deployed until a new strategy is in place.
A particularly acute need is for new military trainers for regular Afghan forces and the militias, as part of the U.S. push to improve local security.
The new Pentagon plan would expand the number of military trainers in Afghanistan by giving combat troops added responsibilities. Currently, most units are assigned either to a combat or training role. Mullen has advocated a hybrid role for most units.
The shift would have the effect of de-emphasizing combat operations against militant targets. Some experts have said those offensives amount to a fruitless game of whack-a-mole and distract from the more crucial training mission.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff has approved the hybrid proposal, officers said. But supporters of the local approach in Afghanistan said the task is likely to be far more complicated there than it was in Iraq.
Part of the reason the hyper-local strategy in Iraq was successful in decreasing violence was because the U.S. was able to offer employment and a measure of local power to tribal minorities alienated from the Shiite Muslim-led government.
In Afghanistan, however, tribes in the restless south and east are mostly Pashtun, the same ethnicity as President Karzai.
"The Sunnis in Iraq were disenfranchised, so we knew what motivated them," a military official said. "The Pashtuns in Afghanistan are not disenfranchised, so the same tools won't work."
'A hybrid mission'
In part the proposed shift reflects the new reality in Afghanistan. Units sent there this year and charged with training have found themselves fighting militants. The 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, went to southern Afghanistan to train security forces but regularly ended up in combat.
"No one is looking at this as a schoolhouse job," the military official said. "They have to do combat as well. It is almost a hybrid mission."
The change in direction would also help shift the military's focus to working with village and district leaders. In the Pentagon, growing numbers of officers have come to the conclusion that the military is too reliant on the relatively weak central government.
"There is a local level that we really have to work hard on," the senior official said.
Counterinsurgency experts said focusing more units on training and working with a wider variety of forces, including militias, represent a needed shift.
Current operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan are focused too much on disrupting militants, said Andrew Krepinevich, executive director for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington think tank.
Krepinevich said some special operation forces in Afghanistan have trained local militias, to good effect.
julian.barnes@latimes.com
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A big morale booster' in Afghanistan
National Post By Tom Blackwell Friday, October 10, 2008
Afghanistan - The Afghan soldier rustled vigorously about in the grape vines, then jumped back and jubilantly held up his find. "Alahu Akbar!" -- God is great! -- he cried, as cheers erupted from fellow troops scattered throughout the vineyard.
In the soldier's hands was an 82-millimetre recoilless rifle: an anti-tank rocket launcher that is one of the Taliban's most fearsome weapons. It was the pinnacle of a major find by Canadian and Afghan troops of insurgent arms, ammunition and bomb-making supplies hidden innocuously in a farmer's field.
"That's a big morale booster," said a Canadian soldier watching the scene.
"That's f---ing glorious," added another.
The cache also included a treasure trove of sophisticated, Western-made medical products ideal for treating combat casualties. One Canadian medic estimated the drugs, intravenous bags, dressings and even surgical instruments were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"Whoever they've got doing their medical stuff knows what they're doing," he said. "They're as well trained or better than we are."
The discoveries were the high point of a massive, week-long operation by the Canadian and Afghan armies that failed to flush out and eliminate any actual
Taliban.
As proof the insurgents remained active after the impressive show of force, the huge convoy transporting the soldiers back to base was hit by two improvised explosive devices (IEDs), leading to a dramatic counter-attack on the bomb's suspected trigger man.
It can be frustrating not to be able to confront the insurgents in larger numbers, admitted Major Rob McBride, commander of November company, part of
the Royal Canadian Regiment's third battalion and the core of the current battle group.
Aside from unearthing the supplies cache, the mission was able to generate important intelligence about the Taliban and its relationship to residents in an area that has been largely overlooked by NATO forces, he said.
"It's the nature of counter-insurgency warfare, where gains are small, and sometimes it doesn't seem like you're making progress, but you actually are."
The mission's objective was a corner of the eastern part of Kandahar province's Panjwaii district, the region where Canadian soldiers fought their bloodiest battles of the Afghan conflict in 2006, and declared a sort of victory last year, though they continue to fight to this day.
The operation focused on the area around Nakoney village, believed to be a transit point for insurgents coming up from Pakistan across the vast, empty
Registan desert -- the edge of which can be seen from the settlement - to other parts of the province and Kandahar city itself.
The force included infantry, tanks, anti-explosive vehicles, supply trucks and dog teams. There was also a unit of the Afghan National Army (ANA) mentored by Canadians, and a company of Royal Marines conducting a parallel operation not far away.
The potent display, though, seems to have convinced the insurgents to stay out of sight, as they failed to mount any kind of attack against the Canadians in four days of operations.
Troops patrolled one of those days through Nakoney itself -- a typical expanse of low, mud-walled compounds and homes -- guided by three of the village elders.
As villagers offered tea and biscuits to the troops, the men insisted the Taliban only passed through occasionally and said they knew nothing of the neighbouring compound.
Did the insurgents tell them to be especially hospitable in an attempt to convince the foreign forces the area was harmless? It is possible, Maj. McBride said.
"I'm certain the villagers themselves don't want destruction, they don't want any kind of conflict," he said. "The easiest way for them to do that in some cases is to play both sides.
The next day, soldiers from November company set out to check on a nearby compound -- more or less on a whim.
The Afghan troops with them soon uncovered what looked like a homemade bomb factory, with jugs of chemicals, fuses and pressure plates. A bomb-sniffing
dog attached to the Canadians then found the first cache in the adjacent grape fields: a bag of five anti-personnel mines.
Afghan troops rushed headlong into the fields and, along with more cautious Canadian military engineers, began finding more and more weapons and military supplies tucked among the vines. They included 26 RPG rounds, two RPG launchers, seven of the 107-millimetre rockets fired into NATO bases regularly, a half dozen walkie-talkies of the sort used to trigger IEDs, a heavy machine gun and even Afghan National Army uniforms.
The key discovery, though, was the recoilless rifle, a relatively light weapon that can nevertheless fire an artillery-like projectile designed to stop armoured vehicles.
The medical supplies found were almost as eye-opening, including 129 bags of intravenous fluid, more than 300 vials of intravenous antibiotic, several bottles of burn-treating Flamazine and 300 hypodermic needles.
Some boxes of IV fluid were marked ICRC (International Committee for the Red Cross). Other products were made in Britain, France, Italy and Canada. It
was enough to treat hundreds of injured fighters, estimated the medic. "It asks a lot more questions than people have answers for, like ‘Where does
all this stuff come from?' and ‘How do we stop that?' " said Major Steve Nolan, the Canadian mentoring commander for the ANA troops.
Meanwhile, some of the Canadian soldiers left mid-week, only to hit an IED on a nearby road, causing the driver of the targeted vehicle slight injuries. Then, as the entire force wound its way slowly back to base, two more vehicles were struck, though no one was hurt. Soldiers spotted a suspicious man by the road with a cellphone in his hand and figured he had set off the bombs.
For the first time all week, the enemy had made an appearance. A light armoured vehicle opened fire with its 25-millimetre cannon. "Break, break, break," came an urgent voice over the radio.
"We have engaged and destroyed the trigger man."
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Perfect Afghanistan clinch another promotion
October 10, 2008
DAR ES SALAAM (AFP) — Afghanistan crushed Italy by 93 runs on Friday to secure a fifth win in five matches and secure promotion to the Division Three of the World Cricket League.
The victory represented Afghanistan's second successive promotion and their next aim will be to finish in the top two of the six-team Division 3 tournament in Argentina in January, which would mean they join 10 other sides at the qualifier for the 2011 World Cup in Asia.
Hong Kong defeated Jersey by 100 runs to seal second place, while Fiji's dramatic two-run win over Tanzania means that Jersey and Fiji will be relegated to Division 5 on net run-rate, as all three teams were tied on two points.
Afghanistan posted an imposing target of 235 for Italy to chase.
Rais Ahmadzai led the way with 68 while Ahmad Shah (52) also played an important role.
In reply, Italy lost Thushara Kurukulasuriya to his first ball, before the Northcote brothers added 61 for the second wicket. But Italy's hopes suffered a blow when Andy Northcote (29) was run out by Ahmadzai.
"There was a little bit of tension amongst the guys last night, but the coach said we should go and play positive cricket," Ahmadzai told www.cricinfo.com.
"I was just concentrating on reading the wicket when I came into bat and then hitting the bad balls. The boys have done very well with the bowling, batting and fielding.
"We will try our best to win the final - we've already beaten Hong Kong in this tournament and we will try our best to do it again."
Meanwhile, Butt Hussain was run out on 99 but his innings was instrumental in securing Hong Kong's passage to Division 3 with victory over Jersey
After some excellent opening bowling from Ryan Driver and Anthony Kay, Hong Kong stuttered their way through the early overs. But a 119-run partnership between Hussain and Skhawat (47) transformed the game as Hong Kong's experience and class began to show as it made a challenging 234.
Jersey needed a good start, but a fine bowling display, particularly from Irfan Ahmed (3 for 10), ended any hopes as they were reduced to 134 all out.
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