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35 Taliban, three police killed in Afghanistan attack: police
Wed Oct 22, 3:24 am ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) – About 35 Taliban militants and three police were killed after about 100 insurgents attacked a district centre in southern Afghanistan, a provincial police chief said Wednesday.
Air strike kills nine Afghan soldiers: ministry
Wed Oct 22, 3:49 am ET
KABUL (AFP) – An air strike by international forces killed nine Afghan soldiers early Wednesday, the defence ministry said, in the latest deadly military error to hit Afghanistan's fight against Taliban militants.
FACTBOX-Security developments in Afghanistan, Oct 22
22 Oct 2008 11:15:07 GMT
Oct 22 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan reported at 1100 GMT on Wednesday:
Coalition airstrike kills Taliban commander
KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A coalition airstrike has killed a commander of Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said Wednesday.
Al-Qaida-linked Web site backs McCain as president
By PAMELA HESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Al-Qaida supporters suggested in a Web site message this week they would welcome a pre-election terror attack on the U.S. as a way to usher in a McCain presidency.
Afghanistan, Pakistan agree on co-op in fighting terrorism
October 22, 2008 People's Daily
Pakistan and Afghanistan on Wednesday agreed to enhance their cooperation in fighting terrorism and bring peace to the region, saying they would only hold talks with those who lay down arms.
Afghanistan: Rights body accuses Taliban
KABUL, 22 October 2008 (IRIN) - The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) has accused Taliban insurgents of systematic and widespread attacks on civilians.
Saudi says Afghan mediation depends on peace desire
RIYADH, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia confirmed on Tuesday it had hosted a meeting between the Afghan government and Taliban insurgents but said any future mediation would depend on the Afghans showing a desire for peace.
Will next US president rethink Afghanistan?
Tuesday, 21 October 2008 BBC News
Ravaged by war and in the grip of a terrible drought, the people of Afghanistan are in desperate need of foreign help. The BBC's Damian Grammaticas travels to the central highlands to assess the situation
Afghan journalist gets 20 years jail for blasphemy
October 21, 2008
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan's appeal court sentenced an Afghan journalist to 20 years in jail, commuting an earlier death sentence, for distributing an Internet article that said the Prophet Mohammad had ignored the rights of women.
Tom Blackwell in Afghanistan: The bubble has burst
October 22, 2008, 6:10 AM by Tom Blackwell National Post, Canada
When I was last on assignment in Afghanistan, in May 2007, my few days in Kabul seemed in retrospect like a bit of an escape. They used to call the capital city a bubble: not immune from the terror that beset the country's south
Japan backs Afghan naval mission
Tuesday, 21 October 2008 BBC News
Japan's lower house of parliament has voted to extend a controversial mission backing US operations in Afghanistan.
France to host regional Afghan meeting by year-end
October 21, 2008
PARIS (Reuters) – France will host an informal meeting between Afghanistan and its neighbors before year's end in hopes of stabilizing the violence-wracked country, the French foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
Teen feigns death to escape massacre
[AFP] - October 21, 2008
[KABUL] A 17-year-old boy has survived a Taliban massacre of bus passengers by pretending to dead while he lay among the corpses of shot men.
Pakistan muzzles its guns
By Syed Saleem Shahzad Asia Times Online October 21, 2008
KARACHI - Cash-strapped Pakistan, after the failure of operations against militants in Bajaur Agency and the Swat Valley, has had to call off an offensive in the North Waziristan tribal area, and instead negotiate ceasefire deals.
AFGHANISTAN: THE CHALLENGES FACING THE NEXT US PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATION
10/21/08 A EurasiaNet commentary by Aunohita Mojumdar
During the US presidential campaign, both candidates have endorsed the idea of deploying more troops to Afghanistan to help the embattled country surmount its present stabilization challenges.
Rescuing Afghanistan remains a noble ambition
The shooting of a Western aid worker should not weaken our resolve to stay and improve the lives of ordinary people
Magnus Linklater The Times (UK) October 22, 2008
The shooting of Gayle Williams in Kabul - cruel, clinical and cowardly - reminds us why we are in Afghanistan, and should bolster our resolve to stay. It is one thing for the commander of the British
EU condemns terrorist attacks in Afghanistan
People's Daily - Oct 21 7:27 PM
European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Javier Solana condemned in a statement released on Tuesday the suicide attacks in Kunduz and Kabul, Afghanistan.
Hit and miss with Afghan air strikes
Asia Times Online, Hong Kong By Gareth Porter Oct 22, 2008
WASHINGTON - The present United States policy in Afghanistan of using air strikes to target local Taliban leaders was rejected by the top US commander in Afghanistan in early 2004 as certain
The US vs. Pakistan: With Allies Like These
By Simon Robinson Islamabad Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2008 time.com
For one 34-year-old Pakistani soldier, it is a simple matter of respect. The soldier, a Major in the Frontier Corps in the mountainous badlands along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, says recent U.S.
Kabul will test Rudd's alliance skills
The Australian, Australia By Paul Kelly October 22, 2008
WATCH for Afghanistan to become the test of Kevin Rudd's security policy and Australia-US relations with a newly elected president Barack Obama pledged to boost US troop levels and seek greater contributions from allies.
Canada to fund job retraining for ex-Taliban
THE CANADIAN PRESS By Murray Brewster Oct 21, 2008
OTTAWA - Canada is taking a more active role in persuading Taliban fighters to lay down arms, but seasoned diplomats say there's still no comprehensive strategy to peacefully dismantle the insurgency in Afghanistan.
Mujahideen council backs Herat workers strike
www.quqnoos.com Written by M Reza Sher Mohammadi Wednesday, 22 October 2008
Ex-fighters say they should be given power to end soaring violence
Ministry to create anti-abduction taskforce
Written by www.Quqnoos.com Wednesday, 22 October 2008
Deputy interior minister annouces plans to cut down on number of kidnappings
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35 Taliban, three police killed in Afghanistan attack: police
Wed Oct 22, 3:24 am ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) – About 35 Taliban militants and three police were killed after about 100 insurgents attacked a district centre in southern Afghanistan, a provincial police chief said Wednesday.
Heavy fighting started late Tuesday and lasted into early Wednesday after the rebels launched the attack in troubled Uruzgan province, police chief Juma Gul Hemat told AFP.
"More than 100 Taliban launched an attack to capture the district of Dih Rahwud. Our police bravely resisted and killed 35 Taliban whose bodies are left in the area," Hemat said.
"Three of our policemen were also martyred and nine others were injured in the fighting," he said.
International military war planes were called in to help the Afghan forces, he said. US and NATO forces in Afghanistan could not immediately confirm their involvement.
The Taliban were in government between 1996 and 2001 and are fighting to take back power from the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.
The insurgency has picked up pace in the past three years, despite the presence of about 60,000 international troops helping Afghan forces to face a rebellion that Afghan officials say is now supported by militants arriving from Iraq.
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Air strike kills nine Afghan soldiers: ministry
Wed Oct 22, 3:49 am ET
KABUL (AFP) – An air strike by international forces killed nine Afghan soldiers early Wednesday, the defence ministry said, in the latest deadly military error to hit Afghanistan's fight against Taliban militants.
Foreign helicopters accidentally targeted the soldiers in the troubled eastern province of Khost as they worked to provide security for voters registering for elections, officials said.
"In an international military air strike at 2:00 am ... nine members of the Afghan National Army were martyred and three others were injured," a defence ministry statement said. The condition of one of the wounded was serious.
In southern Afghanistan Tuesday, about 35 Taliban militants and three police were killed after about 100 insurgents attacked a district centre, a provincial police chief said Wednesday.
Heavy fighting started late Tuesday and lasted into early Wednesday after the rebels launched the attack in troubled Uruzgan province, police chief Juma Gul Hemat told AFP.
"More than 100 Taliban launched an attack to capture the district of Dih Rahwud. Our police bravely resisted and killed 35 Taliban whose bodies are left in the area," Hemat said.
"Three of our policemen were also martyred and nine others were injured in the fighting," he said.
International military war planes were called in to help the Afghan forces, he said. US and NATO forces in Afghanistan could not immediately confirm their involvement.
A spokesman for the US Forces in Afghanistan, Colonel Greg Julian, announced a joint investigation into the air strike in Khost.
"We are getting together with Ministry of Defence officials to sort out exactly what happened. A joint investigation will be conducted to get to the truth," he told AFP.
Colonel Mohammad Gul, a spokesman for the Afghan army deployment in the region, said the soldiers were helping foreign forces provide security for the registration of voters for next year's presidential polls.
"Foreign forces' military helicopters mistakenly targeted our soldiers. Nine soldiers were killed and three others were injured," Gul told AFP.
There are about 60,000 international soldiers deployed under NATO and a separate coalition led by the United States in Afghanistan to help defeat an insurgency waged by Taliban and other militants.
The ministry did not specify which deployment was responsible for the strike.
Most of the foreign troops operating in Khost, near the Pakistani border, are US forces operating under NATO and most air strikes are carried out by US aircraft.
The soldiers' deaths are the latest in a series of wayward air attacks which have also killed civilians and police and infuriated public opinion.
In July nine Afghan policemen were killed in strikes called in after troops clashed with police in the southwestern province of Farah, with both side mistaking the other for Taliban fighters.
The US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai has complained that the international forces do not properly coordinate their operations with their Afghan counterparts, sometimes resulting in mistakes.
In August, Karzai called for a review of regulations for international forces in the war-torn country after 90 civilians were killed in US strikes in a western village, according Afghan officials and residents.
A US military investigation concluded that at least 33 civilians, including a dozen children, were killed in the strike along with 22 fighters.
There have also been incidents in which Afghan troops have killed their international counterparts.
In the most recent, an Afghan policemen shot dead a US soldier in Paktika province, which neighbours Khost, on October 16. In September, another Afghan police officer killed a NATO soldier after an argument in the same region.
Violence linked to an insurgency led by the Taliban, which was in government between 1996 and 2001, is at its highest this year.
Meanwhile, troops killed and wounded dozens of "enemies of the people" Tuesday in the southern province of Helmand, the Afghan defence ministry said in a separate statement.
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FACTBOX-Security developments in Afghanistan, Oct 22
22 Oct 2008 11:15:07 GMT
Oct 22 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan reported at 1100 GMT on Wednesday:
KHOST - Nine Afghan soldiers were killed when a U.S.-led coalition aircraft pounded their post in the Dowa Manda district of Khost province, some 150 (95) miles southeast of Kabul, on Tuesday, Afghan Defence Ministry spokesman, Zaher Azimi said.
The U.S. military confirmed Afghan soldiers may have been killed or wounded in a case of mistaken identity in overnight airstrike but said it did not have any casualty figures.
URUZGAN - Thirty-five Taliban insurgents and three Afghan soldiers were killed in a battle with Afghan and foreign troops in Deh Rawood district, some 400 km (250) miles southwest of Kabul, on Tuesday, provincial police chief Juma Gul Hemat said.
Hemat said a group of 100 militants attacked the district centre and the battle lasted several hours.
HELMAND - Afghan and international forces killed or wounded tens of Taliban fighters in air strikes in the Nawa district of Helmand province, some 590 km (365) miles southwest of Kabul on Tuesday, the Afghan Defence Ministry said in a statement.
HERAT - Taliban fighters captured five Afghan policemen in an attack on their post in the Salma district of Herat province, some 645 km (400) miles west of Kabul on Tuesday, district chief Sayed Gul Chishti said.
KHOST - U.S.-led coalition troops killed six insurgents in ground and air strikes targeting Taliban allies in the Shamal district of Khost province, some 150 (95) miles southeast of Kabul on Wednesday, a U.S. military statement said.
FARAH - U.S.-led coalition troops detained 12 people in the Bala Boluk district of Farah province, some 635 km (395) miles west of Kabul, on Tuesday's night, deputy provincial governor, Mohammad Younus Rasooli said.
There was no way to independently verify any of the casualty figures. (Compiled by Hamid Shalizi; Editing Alex Richardson)
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Coalition airstrike kills Taliban commander
KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A coalition airstrike has killed a commander of Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said Wednesday.
In a separate incident, U.S.-led coalition forces killed and wounded Afghan National Army soldiers in eastern Afghanistan early Wednesday, Afghan and U.S. authorities said.
Taliban commander Mullah Ghafar was killed in a strike in Helmand province Monday. The military blamed him for ambushes and attacks on coalition checkpoints and convoys in Helmand and the neighboring provinces of Farah and Nimruz. There were no other casualties.
Ghafar was reportedly one of five Taliban militants released in March 2007 in exchange for kidnapped Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo.
But the deal -- negotiated between then Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi and Afghan President Hamid Karzai -- was criticized by the United States for putting coalition troops in the region at risk.
Earlier this year, Ghafar was reportedly wounded in clashes in Kandahar that killed fellow Taliban commander Mullah Janan.
Meanwhile nine Afghan soldiers were killed and three others wounded in an aerial attack in the Sayed Kheil district of Khost province Wednesday, said the Afghan Defense Ministry.
Coalition troops were on their way back from an operation when they were involved in "multiple engagements" in Khost province, the U.S. military said. Afghan soldiers were wounded and killed in the incidents, the military added, without providing an exact figure.
"Initial reports from troops on the ground indicate that this may be a case of mistaken identity on both sides," a U.S. military statement said.
The strike hit a fixed checkpoint Wednesday in Sayed Kheil area of Khost province, said provincial governor Arsallah Jamal, in a report from The Associated Press.
U.S.-led coalition forces have been battling a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan, and they have stepped up airstrikes on suspected insurgent strongholds -- sometimes resulting in unintended casualties.
In August, a U.S. military operation last killed as many as 90 civilians -- mostly women and children -- in Herat province in western Afghanistan, according to a United Nations report. A U.S. military probe found that the airstrike killed 33 civilians, in sharp contrast to the five to seven civilian deaths the military initially reported.
That case sharpened tensions between the Afghan government and the United States over rising civilian casualties, with some Afghan ministers demanding a review of international troops within its borders.
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Al-Qaida-linked Web site backs McCain as president
By PAMELA HESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Al-Qaida supporters suggested in a Web site message this week they would welcome a pre-election terror attack on the U.S. as a way to usher in a McCain presidency.
The message, posted Monday on the password-protected al-Hesbah Web site, said if al-Qaida wants to exhaust the United States militarily and economically, "impetuous" Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain is the better choice because he is more likely to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"This requires presence of an impetuous American leader such as McCain, who pledged to continue the war till the last American soldier," the message said. "Then, al-Qaida will have to support McCain in the coming elections so that he continues the failing march of his predecessor, Bush."
SITE Intelligence Group, based in Bethesda, Md., monitors the Web site and translated the message.
"If al-Qaida carries out a big operation against American interests," the message said, "this act will be support of McCain because it will push the Americans deliberately to vote for McCain so that he takes revenge for them against al-Qaida. Al-Qaida then will succeed in exhausting America till its last year in it."
Mark Salter, a senior McCain adviser, said he had heard about the Web site chatter but had no immediate comment.
The message is credited to a frequent and apparently respected contributor named Muhammad Haafid. However, Haafid is not believed to have a direct affiliation with al-Qaida plans or knowledge of its operations, according to SITE.
SITE senior analyst Adam Raisman said this message caught SITE's attention because there has been little other chatter on the forums about the U.S. election.
SITE was struck by the message's detailed analysis — and apparent jubilation — about American financial woes.
"What we try to do is get the pulse of the jihadist community," Raisman said. "And it's about the financial crisis."
Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden issued a videotape just four days before the 2004 U.S. presidential election directly addressing the American people.
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Afghanistan, Pakistan agree on co-op in fighting terrorism
October 22, 2008 People's Daily
Pakistan and Afghanistan on Wednesday agreed to enhance their cooperation in fighting terrorism and bring peace to the region, saying they would only hold talks with those who lay down arms.
"We have been able to overcome the hiccups of the past," said Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi at a joint press conference with visiting Afghan counterpart Rangin Dadfar Spanta.
"Now we have excellent coordination and understanding," Qureshisaid.
The relations between the two countries, who share a 2,400-km-long border, have been strained recently as Afghanistan accused Pakistan's intelligence agencies of involvement in a series of terrorist attacks in Afghanistan.
But the two countries agreed to maintain engagement and dialogue after the leaders of the two countries met on the sideline of a South Asian summit in August in Colombo.
Qureshi said Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is scheduled to pay a visit to Afghanistan within this year, and Pakistan has also decided to send a parliamentary delegation to Kabul soon.
Spanta, who had visited Pakistan for several times this year, said there was agreement between the two countries on increasing cooperation in addressing the menace of terrorism.
In reference to recent cross-border missile attacks in Pakistan by the U.S.-led forces from Afghanistan, Spanta said his country will not allow any country to misuse its territory against Pakistan.
Regarding talks with Taliban, Spanta said Afghanistan supports all initiatives to bring the people together for peace, but it will only hold dialogue with those who believe in peace and will lay down their weapons.
Source:Xinhua
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Afghanistan: Rights body accuses Taliban
KABUL, 22 October 2008 (IRIN) - The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) has accused Taliban insurgents of systematic and widespread attacks on civilians.
It called the killing of 27 passengers on a bus in southern Afghanistan on 16 October "a crime against humanity".
Gunmen associated with Taliban insurgents reportedly pulled 50 passengers off the bus on the Kandahar-Herat highway, beheading six and shooting dead 21 of them. Through their purported spokesmen, the insurgents dubbed those killed as "soldiers of the Afghan National Army and police".
However, the defence and interior ministries have denied the victims were working for them.
"The killing of these people - regardless of whether they were working for the government - is unjustifiable. It is a crime against humanity," Ahmad Nadir Nadiry, a spokesman for the AIHRC, told IRIN in Kabul.
Anthony Dworkin, executive director of Crimes of War - a Washington-based project overseeing the laws of war in conflicts around the world - said the identity of the victims will determine the legal characteristics of the incident.
"It is always a war crime for fighters to deliberately kill civilians, but the laws of war generally permit fighters to kill members of enemy forces unless they are wounded, surrendering or have been taken prisoner," Dworkin told IRIN.
"It would not be a war crime to kill soldiers, even if they were dressed in civilian clothes," he said.
According to Dworkin, crimes against humanity occur when attacks on civilians are "systematic and widespread" in nature.
The AIHRC said the insurgents had long adopted a policy of systematic attacks on civilians and have thus committed crimes against humanity.
Impunity
The AIHRC said warring parties had repeatedly violated international humanitarian law, the Geneva Conventions and Afghan laws over the past few years.
Little has been done to prevent further violations and/or provide compensation for past violations, rights activists said.
Despite numerous cases of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed over the past three decades, no formal, independent investigation has been conducted which could identify perpetrators and victims.
Nadiry said the security situation had not been conducive to an independent international investigation into alleged cases and that the government had also been unsupportive of such efforts.
As a result there has been a lack of accountability among all parties. "There is a total state of impunity, particularly on the insurgents' side," said Nadiry, adding that the Taliban were brazenly disregarding all Afghan and international laws.
Civilians bearing brunt of conflict
Civilians have borne the brunt of the conflict.
At least 1,400 civilians died in insurgency-and-counterinsurgency-related violence from January to August, according to a report by the UN Secretary-General.
Many civilians have died as a result of "asymmetric" tactics such as the use of suicide attacks, landmines and improvised explosive devices.
Over 50 people, mostly civilians, died in a suicide blast in front of the Indian embassy in Kabul on 7 July.
The insurgents have also been accused of deliberate, indiscriminate and direct attacks on aid workers, teachers and other civilians.
Hundreds of non-combatants have also been killed by Afghan government and international forces, particularly during aerial strikes. Up to 90 civilians were killed when US forces bombed a village in Herat Province on 21 August, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said in a statement.
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Saudi says Afghan mediation depends on peace desire
RIYADH, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia confirmed on Tuesday it had hosted a meeting between the Afghan government and Taliban insurgents but said any future mediation would depend on the Afghans showing a desire for peace.
Taliban and Afghan officials attended an iftar, or breaking of the fast during the holy month of Ramadan, in the holy city of Mecca last month in the presence of King Abdullah.
Both Afghan parties have denied the meeting amounted to reconciliation talks, but Riyadh-based diplomats and Saudi analysts say Riyadh is hoping to break the Taliban's link to al Qaeda for fear of Pakistan's future. "The kingdom's effort was the result of an official request by President Hamid Karzai," Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told a news conference.
"We can only try because we are concerned about security and peace in that country ... but it's up to the Afghans themselves," he said.
"If we feel there is a desire on their part to solve the problems politically and end violence ... then that's what we hope for and there will be an attempt (at mediation) in that framework. But if we don't feel there is a response then it would be difficult to find a way to intervene."
Analysts say Saudi Arabia is worried that Islamist forces including the Taliban and their al Qaeda allies are succeeding in destabilising neighbouring Pakistan, a crucial U.S. and Saudi ally where the Islamist militant groups are also present.
Prince Saud was speaking after talks with the European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana, which he said covered deteriorating security in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Saudi Arabia was one of only three countries to recognise Afghanistan's Taliban government before it was toppled by a U.S.-led invasion in 2001 following the Sept. 11 attacks which were carried out by the Taliban's al Qaeda allies.
It is also a traditional ally of Pakistan but has seen its preferred political leaders sidelined, while militants allied to the Taliban and al Qaeda have gained strength in the unruly border region with Afghanistan. (Reporting by Andrew Hammond; Editing by Sami Aboudi)
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Will next US president rethink Afghanistan?
Tuesday, 21 October 2008 BBC News
Ravaged by war and in the grip of a terrible drought, the people of Afghanistan are in desperate need of foreign help. The BBC's Damian Grammaticas travels to the central highlands to assess the situation and asks whether the next US president will need to rethink America's strategy against al-Qaeda and the Taleban.
In the hospital in Bamiyan a nurse is examining Mohammed Hakim. He is almost two years old, but his tiny figure is shrivelled and weak, little more than skin and bone.
Every month, 20 severely malnourished children are being admitted to this hospital. Their wasted figures are a warning.
After decades of war and neglect and now the worst drought in a generation, one in three Afghans - 11 million people - needs aid.
Sitting on a bed in the hospital's therapeutic feeding ward and cradling her listless son on her lap, Fatima told me her family only has enough food to last a month.
"Everyone in my village needs oil, needs flour, needs everything," she said. "When the winter snow comes we will be cut off."
"How will your son survive?" I asked Fatima. "I will pray to God to help him," was her answer.
Dr Ghulam Nadir, acting director of the hospital, says: "Here in Bamiyan around 8-10% of children are suffering severe malnutrition, but we cannot admit all of them because of a lack of space in our hospital."
He says he needs three wards to deal with the malnutrition cases he is seeing, but he has just the one ward, so all but the most severe cases are turned away.
Bamiyan's hospital gets no money from Afghanistan's central government. It has to rely on aid agencies and the Aga Khan Foundation for funding.
The hospital has a generator for electricity, but can't even pay for the fuel to run it 24 hours a day.
It is all evidence of a glaring discrepancy in the foreign investment that has been put into Afghanistan.
Currently nearly $100m a day is being spent on the war, yet since 2001 just $7m a day has been spent on Afghans themselves, according to the Agency Co-ordinating Body for Afghan Relief, an umbrella organisation representing 100 aid agencies working in Afghanistan.
'Afghan tsar'
Across the country a food crisis is looming just as the insurgency is spreading.
And Afghanistan is now the top foreign policy priority for the next US president; both candidates promising to bring a new focus to the campaign here.
John McCain wants an "Afghan tsar" in the White House co-ordinating policy, who will be a national security expert.
Barack Obama wants to spend an extra $1bn a year on non-military spending. But improving security is the main issue for both men.
"As president, I will make the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taleban the top priority that it should be," Barack Obama told his audience during a recent speech on his foreign policy.
"This is a war that we have to win. I will send at least two additional combat brigades to Afghanistan," he said.
And John McCain wants to send even more US soldiers, three more combat brigades is what he is promising.
"I know how to win wars. If I am elected president I will turn around the war in Afghanistan just as we have turned around the war in Iraq, with a comprehensive strategy for victory."
Moonscape
US commanders on the ground say they need more troops. But is the focus on security what Afghanistan really needs?
To reach one of the parts of Bamiyan worst affected by drought we drove for two and a half hours deep into the central highlands.
The province is home to 380,000 people spread across 14,000 sq km of mountains, but it has just 3km of tarred road.
Ours was a bone-shaking drive over a high mountain pass. For some of the way a dry riverbed doubled as a rough track.
The Saighan valley should have a river flowing through it. It is barren and parched. The earth is rock-solid and dry. The hills all around are like a moonscape, eroded away so you can see the layers of rock in browns and oranges, and greys and pinks.
Syed Shah, who is 80, and his brother Abdul Mukim showed me their fields. The two men say they have never seen it so bad.
They have 30 members of their family to feed, and they have lost three-quarters of their wheat crop.
"We have seen a little foreign aid here, but nothing very much," Abdul told me. "Now, because of the drought everyone is just thinking about how they can survive the winter."
One hand pump to supply water is the only outside help their village has had out of all the billions of dollars spent on Afghanistan. And now the brothers told me the Taleban are back and active in the neighbouring district.
Just last week they tried to blow up a vehicle using a roadside bomb.
Heading for failure
From 2001 to 2004 Ashraf Ghani was finance minister overseeing efforts to reconstruct Afghanistan.
He says his country's current predicament is a product of a lack of investment, compounded by corruption and inefficiency. So Mr Ghani believes the US needs a new strategy.
"You need to win the people over if you want to break the back of an insurgency. That approach is yet to be embraced and practically applied in Afghanistan," he said.
"So what would you say to the next US president?" I asked him.
"I would say Mr President if we win the people, we will win this conflict.
"If we focus on the wrong objective, body count, number of insurgents who are killed, bombardment, kinetic action, it is not going to be the answer," he said.
In Bamiyan the warehouse that the provincial government has ready to stockpile grain for the winter lies empty.
Bamiyan's governor has been told by the central government she will receive only half the 10,000 tonnes of food the province requires.
It's no wonder that after seven years many Afghans believe the international involvement here is heading for failure.
Unless ordinary Afghans start to see more benefits from the foreign presence in their country the next US president may find the war here can't be won.
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Afghan journalist gets 20 years jail for blasphemy
October 21, 2008
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan's appeal court sentenced an Afghan journalist to 20 years in jail, commuting an earlier death sentence, for distributing an Internet article that said the Prophet Mohammad had ignored the rights of women.
Perwiz Kambakhsh, 23, a reporter with the Jahan-e Now daily, was sentenced to death in January by a court in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
The arrest and sentencing of Kambakhsh, also a university student, drew criticism from a number of Western nations, the Afghan media and rights groups. Kambakhsh downloaded an Iranian article from the Internet and distributed it to friends.
"The court has sentenced Mr. Perwiz Kambakhsh to 20 years jail for the crime he has committed. But this is not the final hearing, he has the right to appeal," judge Abdul Salaam Qazizada told the court.
Under Islamic law -- stipulated in Afghanistan's constitution -- blasphemy is punishable by death.
(Reporting by Samar Zwak; Writing by Jon Hemming; editing by Alex Richardson)
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Tom Blackwell in Afghanistan: The bubble has burst
October 22, 2008, 6:10 AM by Tom Blackwell National Post, Canada
When I was last on assignment in Afghanistan, in May 2007, my few days in Kabul seemed in retrospect like a bit of an escape. They used to call the capital city a bubble: not immune from the terror that beset the country's south, but relatively safe and fairly welcoming to foreigners. In Kandahar city, reporters have always had to be cautious, never lingering anywhere in public for long, being as inconspicuous as possible in traditional clothing. In Kabul last year, I walked the streets on my own without fear and did my job, with a translator, relatively freely. I recall buying Afghan naan bread and delicous pastries from street-front vendors, and found almost everyone curious and friendly. We would eat in restaurants catering chiefly to locals and not think twice about it. Well, 18 months later, the bubble has burst.
I arrived in Kabul from Kandahar last Saturday with some eagerness, realizing security throughout the country was deteriorating but expecting to enjoy a freer-wheeling time during my three-day visit. My translator - or fixer as we say - delivered the bad news before we even left the airport. I could no longer leave my well-barricaded guest house without escort, I should probably wear a shalwar kameez - the typical Afghan male dress - when we ventured into public places, and must keep the car doors locked at all times, he said. A spate of kidnappings and assassinations, more brazen bombings and an insurgency creeping ever closer to the city gates had made Kabul a very different place.
Much as I would like to publicly recognize my brave and resourceful fixer, I cannot name him. He is afraid that if his connection to Western media becomes known to the Taliban, his days would be numbered. Before we drove into a neighbourhood that was a little less safe than the city centre, he removed all the contact numbers from his cell phone for foreigners and government officials. The Taliban are known to check phones for such links, which amount to an offence that, in their world, is punishable by death. The city itself seemed more dominated than ever by concrete walls and barriers. Kalishnikov-toting security was everywhere.
All this was before Monday morning. As we drove to an interview, my fixer pointed to the radio, which was broadcasting the news in Dari. Just an hour or so earlier, a foreign aid worker had been shot dead in the street, walking to work. She was later identified as Gayle Williams, a 33-year-old Brit. The Taliban said she had been killed because she worked for a Christian-based organization and was prosletyzing. Her job, though, involved helping disabled Afghans.
Hope is not lost in Kabul, or Afghanistan. In fact, people remain remarkably hopeful. But they appear deeply depressed about the current reality, and for good reason it would seem. The capital city, with its billions in foreign money and its legions of foreign troops, is under a siege of sorts. Already, I was told, many business people - and their desperately needed investment dollars - have left for safer havens. What is needed now is for countries like Canada to publicly, bluntly acknowledge the direness of the situation, and focus like never before on somehow fixing it. Yet as the embassy and UN and NGO staff - all dedicated people, I know - speed by the roadblocks in their armoured, bullet-proofed Toyota Land Cruisers, one wonders if the reality has sunk in.
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Japan backs Afghan naval mission
Tuesday, 21 October 2008 BBC News
Japan's lower house of parliament has voted to extend a controversial mission backing US operations in Afghanistan.
Prime Minister Taro Aso had campaigned to keep the mission going, saying Japan should contribute to global security.
But many opposition members are against the proposal, saying it breaches the country's pacifist constitution.
The bill is likely to be rejected in the opposition-controlled upper house, before the more powerful lower house passes it into law.
Emotive issue
Japan's constitution forbids it from fighting other nations, but in recent years the government has tried to revise the rules to allow for a more robust defence policy.
But the issue is an emotive one, and many MPs have argued that Japan should not be involved in military operations at all, however tangentially.
Japan has refuelled coalition warships in the Indian Ocean for several years, but the mission was temporarily halted last November because the opposition-dominated upper house refused to vote on the issue.
This time round, though, it has other priorities in mind.
Correspondents say that the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) hopes that by letting the bill pass, there is now no excuse for Mr Aso to postpone calling a snap general election.
Mr Aso's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has dominated Japanese politics for more than 50 years, but polls show the DPJ is now in a strong position to gain seats if an election is called soon.
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France to host regional Afghan meeting by year-end
October 21, 2008
PARIS (Reuters) – France will host an informal meeting between Afghanistan and its neighbors before year's end in hopes of stabilizing the violence-wracked country, the French foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
Attacks on Afghan government forces and NATO troops supporting them have been on the upswing this year, as have been fighting in neighboring Pakistan between government troops and insurgents who operate on both sides of the border.
Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier told a weekly news briefing that the meeting will "explore cooperation between Afghanistan and its immediate neighbors on several subjects, including political, economic, trade... and also security."
It would focus on countries bordering Afghanistan, but others may also participate.
"We'll see if, in a broader way, other actors can be included and associated, at a different level and with different modalities -- for example members of the P5 or other actors," he said, referring to the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council known as the P5.
Afghanistan borders on China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Leaders from NATO, Britain and the United States have said that military means alone are not enough to win the war in Afghanistan, where the 26-member NATO alliance has about 50,000 troops but where commanders say they need at least 12,000 more.
The land-locked country produced 93 percent of the world's opium in 2007, and the cross-border drug trade has helped fund the Taliban's insurgency.
An Afghan donor conference held in Paris in June highlighted the need for regional cooperation and called on Afghanistan's neighbors to support efforts to stabilize the country and secure its borders. Chevallier said the regional meeting would help further these objectives.
A French official said on condition of anonymity that the meeting would resemble a gathering of Lebanese political leaders held outside Paris last year.
Chevallier said the meeting will "probably be held at ministerial level," adding that it would take place "before the end of the French presidency" of the European Union in January.
(Reporting by Brian Rohan; editing by Michael Roddy)
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Teen feigns death to escape massacre
[AFP] - October 21, 2008
[KABUL] A 17-year-old boy has survived a Taliban massacre of bus passengers by pretending to dead while he lay among the corpses of shot men.
In a hospital in the southern town of Gereshk in Afghanistan's Helmand province, the Afghan teenager described how he had hidden wounded among the corpses of five men shot dead by Taliban after they were accused of being police recruits.
The youngster, known as Shukrullah, said he was among about 40 men pulled off a bus travelling through southern Afghanistan last week and split into smaller groups.
"Taliban made us kneel in a ditch and fired at us. Five other people who were with me died and I survived," he said.
Police confirmed they had found five bodies after six others were discovered Sunday in Helmand. They believe around 30 men were killed.
The Taliban has claimed to have killed 27.
The US condemned the reported Taliban attack on the bus.
"This is a heinous act. It just goes to show that the Taliban are ruthless killers who would do anything they can to stop progress in Afghanistan," State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood said.
Yesterday was a day of bloodshed in the toubled country with a British aid worker, two German soldiers and five Afghan children were killed.
President Hamid Karzai condemned the killing of aid worker Gayle Williams, who was shot dead in Kabul, as well as the deaths of the German troops and children in a suicide attack in the north.
He said the murder of Ms Williams, 34, who also had South African nationality, was cowardly and unforgivable.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon also condemned the killing of Ms Williams, and aid workers in Somalia, urging respect for the neutral and impartial status of humanitarian personnel.
Ms Williams was gunned down as she walked to work at SERVE Afghanistan, a British-based Christian charity that helps disabled people.
"Two armed men sitting on a motorbike shot her dead. Some bullets hit her body and some hit her leg and when police got there she was dead," interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said.
The attackers had fled and their motive was unknown, he said.
The Taliban, which has carried out similar assassinations in the southern city of Kandahar, said it was responsible.
"We killed her because she was working for an organisation which was preaching Christianity in Afghanistan," spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said by telephone.
SERVE Afghanistan rejected the charge of preaching. "We have a specific policy against proselytising," said the London-based chairman of the board, Mike Lyth.
Mr Karzai also expressed condolences for the deaths of five Afghan children and two German soldiers killed in a suicide attack in the northern province of Kunduz for which the Taliban claimed responsibility.
German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung confirmed the deaths of two German soldiers, saying it was a "cowardly ambush" that showed the "Taliban contempt for human life."
Germany has about 3300 soldiers in a 40-nation NATO-led force helping Afghan forces tackle the Taliban insurgency.
This year 232 international soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, more than in the whole of 2007, most of them in insurgent bomb attacks.
Attacks in the post-Taliban era are agreed to be at an all-time high this year with the UN special envoy to Afghanistan Kai Eide saying last week that July and August recorded the most incidents since 2002.
A security watchdog, Afghanistan NGO Safety Group, said last week that insurgent attacks on aid workers were at the highest level in six years. In other incidents, 10 Taliban were reported killed in clashes, one near the town of Lashkar Gah which has come under repeated attack in the past week.
The Helmand government claimed 34 had been killed but the defence ministry said only six bodies were found.
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Pakistan muzzles its guns
By Syed Saleem Shahzad Asia Times Online October 21, 2008
KARACHI - Cash-strapped Pakistan, after the failure of operations against militants in Bajaur Agency and the Swat Valley, has had to call off an offensive in the North Waziristan tribal area, and instead negotiate ceasefire deals.
Nevertheless, relentless pressure from the United States will not allow Islamabad to remain inactive for too long. This would have been the message relayed by US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, who made an unscheduled visit to Pakistan at the weekend. The US is all too aware how militant strongholds in Pakistan's tribal areas fuel the Taliban-led insurgency across the border in Afghanistan.
Pakistan is in a deep financial hole, however, and the best it can do is buy time with the militants until the crisis eases.
Both China and the United States appear reluctant to bail out Pakistan, which is in danger of defaulting on debt worth US$3 billion in the next few months. Saudi Arabia, too, has not offered deferred payment on oil or any cash relief and at the weekend Pakistan said it might have to seek assistance from the unpopular International Monetary Fund.
Troops stop in their tracks Last week, Pakistan mobilized troops for an offensive in North Waziristan, forcing hundreds of residents to flee to the city of Bannu as they feared a mass ground and air onslaught of the kind that had earlier forced thousands to flee from Bajaur.
But Pakistan suddenly approached the militants and urged a ceasefire. Two militants leaders - Hafiz Gul Bahadur from North Waziristan and Moulvi Nazir of neighboring South Waziristan, both rivals of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud - agreed to implement ceasefire agreements.
Bahadur issued a statement in which he said that fighting against Pakistani forces damaged the cause for support of the Afghan national resistance and hence it had been decided that if the Pakistani security forces did not advance, the tribes would observe a ceasefire.
For militants elsewhere, though, the ceasefire agreements play into their hands as they can consolidate their bases in Pakistan in preparation for more action in Afghanistan, where they have already achieved unprecedented success in their seven-year battle against foreign forces. Indeed, the Taliban are as resilient as ever in the Pakistani tribal areas, where they have reinforced their positions.
Qari Ziaur Rahman, who recently emerged as the regional commander-in-chief of all pro-Taliban groups in Kunar and Nooristan provinces in Afghanistan and the Pakistani Bajaur and Mohmmand Agency areas, spoke to Asia Times Online in a telephone interview.
"The mujahideen have completely gained control on the ground [in Bajaur]. The American agenda to destroy the mujahideen and all the [Pakistan] government options have failed to defeat us."
Rahman spoke on a land line from Bajaur, which makes a mockery of the government claim that he had been forced to flee to Afghanistan after being injured.
Rahman is an Afghan national, first introduced by Asia Times Online as the most important regional commander of the future (see A fighter and a financier May 23, 2008). He is leading all local, foreign and Afghan Taliban fighting against Pakistani troops in Bajaur.
"I am completely healthy and in Bajaur. I never retreated into Afghanistan nor sustained any injury. It is the propaganda of the Pakistan army to demoralize the mujahideen," Rahman said.
"Initially, Pakistan succeeded in instigating the local tribes against us and there were a few incidents of setting the property of the Taliban on fire, but now all the tribes have pulled out from the government-led militias and except for a few areas like Khar, the Taliban command complete ground control.
"The Pakistan army does not have any option but to send gunship helicopters three to four times a day to fire shells, or send aircraft once a day for indiscriminate bombing for half an hour. In such operations, the mujahideen sustain no losses," Rahman said.
Rahman maintained that the Taliban are now in a position to put up resistance to the Pakistani security forces as well as to initiate successful attacks against US forces in the Kunar Valley.
"We have started our operations in the Kunar Valley and, except for interruptions of a few weeks, these are as normal as they were before the Bajaur operations [began two months ago]," Rahman said.
He was adamant that the ceasefire agreements in North Waziristan would not create any rifts. "It was a strategic decision by the Taliban in North Waziristan. At the end of the day we will all be one in our broader strategies.”
Pakistan may have bought itself some time with the ceasefires, but the battle - let alone the war - is a long way from over, even as US unmanned Predator drones begin sorties in the skies of North Waziristan.
Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief.
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AFGHANISTAN: THE CHALLENGES FACING THE NEXT US PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATION
10/21/08 A EurasiaNet commentary by Aunohita Mojumdar
During the US presidential campaign, both candidates have endorsed the idea of deploying more troops to Afghanistan to help the embattled country surmount its present stabilization challenges. While the candidates may think they are being generous with this offer, they would do well to take a hard look at the nature and details of the deployment, as well as how it would dovetail with a larger Afghan strategy that includes humanitarian relief, reconstruction programs and civil society development.
In Afghanistan there is no public demand for more troops, but rather growing scrutiny of military conduct. Indeed, an increasing number of Afghans seems to want the Afghan government to exert greater control over foreign troops in the country. Such a desire, of course, is not likely to be met. But it reflects building resentment among Afghans.
A major cause for the shifting attitudes is civilian casualties resulting from ongoing military operations. Foreign forces appear to be increasingly resorting to air strikes, resulting in a growing number of civilian deaths and injuries. Of the 1,500 civilian killed in 2007, the UN estimates that 629 were killed by pro-government elements, while 700 were attributed to anti-government elements. (The remainder could not be attributed conclusively to either side). Human Rights Watch noted in a September report that the number of civilian deaths "nearly tripled from 2006 to 2007, with recent deadly airstrikes exacerbating the problem and fuelling a public backlash." Most airstrike casualties were connected to missions carried out under the auspices of Operation Enduring Freedom -- the codename for the campaign carried out by US-led coalition forces -- rather than the NATO-led International Security and Assistance Force, the rights group found.
The Afghan parliament and government have echoed increasing public anger at civilian deaths. The anger has been exacerbated by the seeming reluctance of US forces to grapple with the issue.
Seven years into the reconstruction of the country, Afghans are less tolerant of the presence of the international community and less forgiving about the inefficiencies of aid delivery. Despite figures of double-digit growth, the percentage of the population living below the poverty line is rising. So is food insecurity. While internationals may lament the corruption in Afghanistan, a survey by Integrity Watch Afghanistan showed that 92 percent of Afghans would like international aid to be funnelled through their own government, warts and all.
To many Afghans it is inconceivable that the petty corruption of local officials is considered a greater crime than the hundreds of thousands of dollars paid in salary and expenses to expatriates -- not all of whom demonstrate a commensurate skill and capacity -- or when millions of dollars are absorbed by the sub-contracting process.
Afghans are growing increasingly disenchanted with their perceived second-class status in their own country. Afghans are paid a fraction of the salaries given to international experts, and it is disgruntling for well-educated locals to see foreign aid workers frequenting restaurants and shops that they themselves cannot afford. The Taliban have skilfully exploited this rising discontent as a force multiplier in their favor, a fact documented effectively by the International Crisis Group in its July report on Taliban propaganda.
As Afghanistan prepares for its own election cycle -- presidential elections are scheduled for 2009, with parliamentary elections to follow in 2010 -- it is likely that this resentment will become a rallying point for politicians and administrators alike. Anti-foreigner jingoism stands to increase in the coming months, and politicians will likely pander to the conservative sensibilities of many Afghans. There have been growing indications of this from President Hamid Karzai’s administration. But the international community’s response remains unclear. Increasing talk of "Afghan-led" projects or "Afghan culture" suggest that many members of the Western coalition, tiring of the long slog, are willing to abandon quietly their limited support to basic human rights and rule of law issues.
Indeed, the last few years have seen increasing compromises on issues related to women’s rights, human rights and rule of law, while the international community pursues the chimera of "stability first."
The United States needs to undertake a hard-headed reassessment of the political realities in Afghanistan and address local concerns. Otherwise the incoming administration may find that its changes in strategy may be quickly overtaken by shifting realities on the ground.
Editor's Note: Aunohita Mojumdar is an Indian freelance journalist based in Kabul. She has reported on the South Asian region for the past 18 years.
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Rescuing Afghanistan remains a noble ambition
The shooting of a Western aid worker should not weaken our resolve to stay and improve the lives of ordinary people
Magnus Linklater The Times (UK) October 22, 2008
The shooting of Gayle Williams in Kabul - cruel, clinical and cowardly - reminds us why we are in Afghanistan, and should bolster our resolve to stay. It is one thing for the commander of the British Forces to say that this is an unwinnable war. It is quite another to claim that, as a consequence, the 2,000 or so aid workers like Ms Williams who risk their lives daily to improve the lives of ordinary Afghans should consider pulling out.
There are, of course, those who argue persuasively that, however well-intentioned their operations are, these people can do little to alter the course of Afghanistan's implacable history - that sooner or later, when Nato forces either give up the struggle or negotiate with the Taleban, or both, any landmarks left behind by Western agencies will be swept aside, and with them the projects that have been so expensively fostered and funded.
A school for girls, a training programme for women, a small village court for ironing out disputes, or, perhaps the work that Ms Williams was involved in - helping disabled people; all will be seen as symbols of a liberal democracy that the Taleban are sworn to eliminate. They will be first on the list for elimination when the reckoning comes, so why continue to risk the lives of the civilians who work for them? More to the point, why endanger the thousands of Afghans who draw Western wages, but cannot, like them, escape retribution?
That, however, is to ignore the moral dimension. Stated simply it is this: whose values best represent the interests of ordinary Afghans - those of the Western aid agencies working to shore up the country's infrastructure by building dams and opening up roads, or the violent extremists who shot Gayle Williams?
No one knows for certain if her killers were Taleban or not. But that there is a fudamentalist wing within that movement, backed by jihadists who stream into Afghanistan across the Pakistan border with their own agenda of intolerance, is undoubted.
My brief and limited knowledge of the country - confined to Helmand province - suggests that in those few areas where security could be guaranteed what most villagers want is restoration of the commercial life that is their life-blood. The reopening of a market brought with it a resurgence of morale, self-confidence and civic pride, always dependent on whether the conflict could be kept at arm's length. In Musa Qala, something of a frontline town, the slow and painful progress towards re-establishing basic services, such as a school, a hospital, the mosque and a decent water supply, were welcomed by the local population, not because that indicated approval of the occupying forces, but because they represented normal life.
And normal life, rather than the officious imposition of Western liberal standards, seemed to be the ambition of most of the organisations that I encountered. Those who worked for the UK Department for International Development (DfID) seemed almost over-anxious to emphasise that they were intent on “working with the grain” of Afghan life rather than attempting to change its direction.
The bearded British representative of the stabilisation unit in Musa Qala, who twice daily donned body armour and helmet to walk up the dusty road to sit and negotiate with the Governor over some small improvement in civic amenities, could not have been further removed from the imperial image of his 19th-century predecessors.
He wanted a better standard of local justice; he thought that those who worked for the Governor should be paid wages, rather than a cut of the opium trade; he had negotiated a system of justice that was open to all; he had persuaded the Governor that women deserved an education; he was attempting, very slowly, to eliminate corruption. It was an uphill task, one that might possibly, he admitted, take years to achieve. But it was, he felt, the most worthwhile job he had undertaken.
I thought of him when I heard a very different story - of what had happened in another Afghan village, where the Americans, perhaps precipitately, had established a school for Afghan girls. A brave local teacher had agreed to take it on, and, from the start, it was well attended. But the Taleban militia were watching, and when their moment came, they struck. The teacher was seized and publicly executed in a brutal and revolting manner.
I know from friends and experts that these extremists are not representative of the Taleban as a whole, and that those who represent the moderates deplore such violence. But between these random acts of savagery and the dogged commitment of Western aid workers to improving the lives of the Afghans, I know on which side I stand.
Yesterday, in Kabul, in the aftermath of Gayle Williams's death, the mood of those civilian workers for whom daily life is a constant risk, was one of anger and defiance - angry that such a devoted person had been killed because her organisation was a Christian one; defiant because they believe in what they are doing, and know how much it means to those Afghans who have been helped - the 100,000 teachers paid by the West, the hundreds of Afghan women given grants to start their own businesses, the rural development programme that has allowed farmers to market their produce across the country.
I spoke by telephone to one DfID employee who put it this way: “Why am I in this country, where the views and culture of the people are so radically different from ours? My answer lies in the Afghan staff I see working here and their families. They are Muslims and moderates, and I want to see their lives improving. And it is for the sake of people like that, that I know I can't give up.”
Those, I suspect, were precisely the sentiments that drove Gayle Williams to risk her life as she walked to work along the dusty streets of Kabul. It was, and remains, a great and worthy ambition.
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EU condemns terrorist attacks in Afghanistan
People's Daily - Oct 21 7:27 PM
European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Javier Solana condemned in a statement released on Tuesday the suicide attacks in Kunduz and Kabul, Afghanistan.
"I condemn in the strongest possible terms the despicable terrorist attack perpetrated in Kunduz" on Monday, which killed five Afghan children and two German soldiers and wounded a number of others, Solana said in the statement.
"I also condemn the appalling attack against a British woman aid worker who was killed by gunmen in Kabul" on Monday morning, he said. "I extend my deepest condolences to her family."
Solana voiced his hope that those behind the attacks would be brought to justice without delay, reiterating the EU's full commitment to the long-term support of the people and government of Afghanistan "in their efforts to build a stable and democratic future."
Source:Xinhua
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Hit and miss with Afghan air strikes
Asia Times Online, Hong Kong By Gareth Porter Oct 22, 2008
WASHINGTON - The present United States policy in Afghanistan of using air strikes to target local Taliban leaders was rejected by the top US commander in Afghanistan in early 2004 as certain to turn the broader population against the US presence.
Lieutenant General David Barno, the three-star general who commanded the Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan, the overall US and coalition command for Afghanistan from October 2003 to mid-2005, recalled in an interview that he had ordered that such air strikes be halted in Afghanistan in early 2004. He said the decision did not prohibit air strikes for close support of US troops in contact with the Taliban.
Barno, now retired from the army and director of the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense
University, said he decided to stop the use of pre-targeted air strikes in early 2004 because the civilian casualties they caused were eroding the tolerance of the Afghan population for US military presence in the country.
"I felt that civilian casualties were strategically decoupling us from our objective," said Barno. "It caused blowback that undermined our cause."
But Barno said he had viewed the Afghan population's willingness to accept US troops in the country as a "bag of capital", which US forces were "spending too rapidly every time we caused civilian casualties with air power or knocked down doors or detained someone in front of their family".
After Barno left Afghanistan in 2005, air strikes aimed at killing local Taliban or al-Qaeda leaders resumed, and air strikes have come to be used routinely in military encounters with Taliban troops. The same tactic has also been used to target local al Qaeda leaders in northwest Pakistan.
US planes flew just 86 bombing missions in Afghanistan in all of 2004, but in 2007, the number of such air strikes had risen to nearly 3,000, according to US Air Forces Central Command figures.
The exponential rise in bombing continued in 2008. In the two months of June and July 2008 alone, the United States dropped nearly 600,000 pounds (272,727 kilograms) of bombs in Afghanistan - roughly equivalent to the total tonnage dropped in all of 2006 - according to statistics collected by Marc Gerlasco of Human Rights Watch.
US air strikes have generated a rapidly rising rate of civilian casualties, creating a political climate marked by increased anger toward the US and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military presence, according to many Afghan and foreign observers.
The worst case of civilian casualties was the killing by a C-130 gunship of as many as 95 civilians, including 50 children and 19 women, according to local tribal elders and Afghan government officials in the village of Azizabad in Herat province on August 22. The air attack came after US special forces had received intelligence that a Taliban commander was in Azizabad and had been unable to suppress it.
That incident followed two different air strikes in eastern Afghanistan in early July, in which 69 civilians were killed, including 47 people walking to a wedding party, according to Afghan officials.
Barno's successors have justified the vastly increased use of air strikes as necessary because of the small number of ground combat troops available in Afghanistan. In May 2007, a US military official told Carlotta Gall of the New York Times, "[W]ithout air, we'd need hundreds of thousands of troops."
One of the key considerations in convincing him to stop the use of pre-targeted air strikes, Barno recalled, was the tribal nature of Afghan society. "Whenever you cause civilian casualties, you are killing members of a tribe and spreading a widening circle of revenge-seeking."
Barno said that in his view, the use of air power was not an effective means of weakening the Taliban political-military organization in any case. The intelligence on Taliban targets, he said, "often turned out to be flat wrong".
The unreliability of human intelligence on Taliban targets was underlined by the killing of 95 civilians in Azizabad. Gall reported that tribal elders who had buried the dead said the US had received its intelligence on the target from a tribesman who had killed a rival tribal leader in Azizabad eight months earlier. Most of the civilians killed had traveled to Azizabad for a memorial ceremony to honor the dead tribal leader, according to Gall's story.
The tribal elders, as well as Afghan police and intelligence agency, said that not a single Taliban had been killed in the air strike.
Barno pointed out that even if local leaders had been killed in air strikes, it might not have significantly reduced the Taliban's capabilities. The Taliban organization was "like a starfish, not like a spider", Barno said. "Even if you killed the leadership - except for the very top guys - they would be quickly replaced."
"During my tenure, I was very concerned that if killing local Taliban leaders with air strikes produced civilian casualties, the tactical benefit would not offset the strategic damage it did to our cause," said Barno.
Although Barno said he believed the same principle would probably still apply in the present situation of dramatically increased Taliban strength, he refused to "second guess" US commanders who have adopted a different policy.
Barno believes, however, that US and NATO forces should focus more clearly on protecting the Afghan population, which he characterized as the "center of gravity" of the effort. In an article in Military Review last autumn, Barno observed that NATO and US military tactics "seem to convey the belief that the center of gravity is no longer the Afghan population and their security but the enemy".
Those changes from his strategic approach, he wrote, "in all likelihood do not augur well for the future of our policy goals in Afghanistan".
The retired general said he supported an increase in troops in Afghanistan, but he acknowledged that more troops may not bring about major reductions in air strikes, at least in the near term. "When you've got that tool in the tool box, there is a tendency to use it, even though at times it may put your strategic interest at risk."
According to John Burns, writing in Sunday's New York Times, senior US and British officers in Kabul briefed reporters last week on a new directive from the top US commander, General David McKiernan, to field commanders applying the more restrictive NATO policy on air strikes previously to US forces under his command. The NATO policy imposes tighter conditions on air strikes but does not rule out either pre-targeted or tactical combat strikes.
The US and British officers acknowledged that the directive would not apply to American special operations forces in Afghanistan, which are not under McKiernan's command. As Gall reported in May 2003 on an earlier incident in the same district, many of the worst cases of civilian deaths from pre-targeted strikes involved special operations forces.
Even as the briefing on the new directive was taking place, according to Burns, yet another US air strike - this time in Helmand province, killed larger numbers of civilians. The air strike destroyed three houses, killing between 25 and 30 civilians, mostly women and children, according to Afghan accounts reported by Burns. The NATO command confirmed the strike and said it would investigate.
Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist specializing in US national security policy. The paperback edition of his latest book, Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam, was published in 2006.
(Inter Press Service)
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The US vs. Pakistan: With Allies Like These
By Simon Robinson Islamabad Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2008 time.com
For one 34-year-old Pakistani soldier, it is a simple matter of respect. The soldier, a Major in the Frontier Corps in the mountainous badlands along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, says recent U.S. military incursions into Pakistan not only breach an agreement between the two countries, but call into question the very spirit of the alliance President Bush says is the most important in the war on terror. "As a Pakistani, nobody likes someone to enter their home. It raises doubts about American credibility and the sincerity of their alliance with Pakistan," says the Major, who asked not to be named because military rules discourage soldiers from speaking to the media. "We have clear territorial limits and when you cross them, it is humiliating for us. The Americans are pushing us against the wall." Far from helping in the fight against terrorist groups, the incursions hurt it, says the Major. Under the circumstances, he adds, "I have to ask myself: 'Why am I doing this?'"
How Pakistan answers that question could help determine the fate of the war on terror. U.S. military leaders have long grumbled that Islamabad's commitment to fighting extremism was ambiguous at best — and duplicitous at worst. The new post-Musharraf government says it is serious about the fight, and offers as proof its two-month long military offensive in Bajaur, the northernmost chunk of the tribal belt. But, say Pakistani officials, U.S. incursions over the past two months, including an incident on Sept. 25 in which two U.S. helicopters and Pakistani soldiers in a border post engaged each other in a five-minute-long firefight, are alienating the Pakistani people and cramping Pakistan's ability to move.
The tensions come as the militants have stepped up their campaign inside Pakistan, strengthening their hold over huge swathes of the country and launching ever more deadly strikes in its cities, including a Sept. 20 truck bombing that killed more than 50 people at Islamabad's Marriott Hotel. U.S. Army General David McKiernan, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, believes the militants are now so strong that they pose an "existential threat to the future of Pakistan." Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told reporters at the Pentagon on September 26 that the terrorist safe haven in Pakistan "has gotten safer this year. The insurgency has gotten more sophisticated."
Pakistan's leaders say their own response to the terrorist threat has likewise stepped up a notch. They point to the Bajaur offensive as exhibit A: The operation, which began in early August, was initially a defensive action to stop militants overrunning the regional headquarters of Khaar. Over the past few weeks, Pakistani troops have gone on the offensive, using aerial attacks and ground troops supported by tanks and artillery in one of the fiercest battles inside Pakistan since 9/11. Pakistan's army bosses say they have killed more than 1,200 militants, including foreign fighters from the Middle East and Central Asia. The militants, who are armed with Kalashnikovs, sniper rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, and who have built sophisticated defenses from which to fight, have destroyed at least one Pakistani tank and killed dozens. Pakistani soldiers. Local tribesmen, who have long resented the presence of foreign militants in the region, have formed their own militias to take up the fight. "This is a war which we are fighting," says Rehman Malik, the advisor to Pakistan's prime minister on interior affairs. "As far as recognition, I think our allies are now realizing what we are doing."
Though initially skeptical about the offensive, U.S. military officials now believe the battle in Bajaur is having an impact, not least because it is sucking in militants from around the region. Pakistani officials say the number of attacks in Afghanistan's Kunar Province, across the border from Bajaur, has gone down in the past few weeks, as militants head to Pakistan to help their brothers there. (Coalition officials in Afghanistan say they have noticed no change in activity in Kunar.)
Pakistani officials see Bajaur as a turning point. On President Pervez Musharraf's watch, they say, military offensives were repeatedly cut short to allow deals to be struck with the militants, and the deals invariably failed. This time, says advisor Malik, the militants asked for a ceasefire "which we have declined." The army will fight on, he promises, "until the operation is done to its full conclusion."
But U.S. incursions hurt that fight, Pakistani officials say. Opinion polls routinely show that an overwhelming majority of ordinary Pakistanis oppose U.S. actions inside their country. The government has to respond to public sentiment, leading to harsh, uncompromising language from political and military leaders. General Ashfaq Kayani, Musharraf's successor as military chief, has publicly railed against U.S. operations on Pakistani soil, saying they help the cause of the militancy; he has promised to protect the borders from such incursions. After the September 25 incursion, chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told TIME that Pakistani troops would hereafter shoot at any force "seen as hostile or in an offensive posture," coming across the border. Any Americans making the crossing, he warned, should not expect Pakistani soldiers to ask questions before shooting. "At the level of a [border] post [Pakistani troops] are not to be given shades of an order... they're supposed to engage."
All the same, U.S. officials privately say that air strikes into Pakistan will continue, as will "hot pursuits" across the border, when appropriate. After all, The Bajaur operation is a long way from over, and there is still no guarantee that it won't end in the kind of messy compromise that has marked previous actions. The offensive has already forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes; 20,000 families have fled across the border into Afghanistan to avoid the fighting, taking their stories and grievances with them. If history is any judge, a new generation of militants — as anti-Pakistani as they are anti-American — will emerge from these camps. If Bajaur is a crucial front for the Pakistani military, the terrorists know not to get cornered into any last stands; they are striking across the country. Al-Qaeda and Taliban bombers are now able to strike Karachi and Islamabad; following the Marriott bombing, militants have targeted political leaders across the country. Their reach also imperils the U.S. military's supply lines into Afghanistan — 80% of dry cargo and 40% of the fuel used by U.S. forces in Afghanistan goes through Pakistan.
U.S. military officials plainly want to keep their supply lines running through Pakistan, but are preparing alternate routes if Islamabad orders them shut down. "We're working our way through to understand rail, pipelines, customs, what it would take, are they there in a sufficient scale to allowus to do this?" Marine General James Cartwright, vice-chairman of the JointChiefs told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Sept. 23. Under the circumstances, say U.S. officials, it makes little sense to give up the option of cross-border operations — the Pakistanis have not yet demonstrated that they can fight this on their own.
Many Pakistanis agree, but argue that the assistance they require doesn't include American boots on Pakistani soil. The Frontier Corps Major says Pakistan needs more help with equipment, not to be marginalized as an ally. "We want to fight this war with such conviction that no one can accuse us offighting this war incompetently," he says.
— With reporting by Mark Thompson/Washington and Omar Waraich/Islamabad
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Kabul will test Rudd's alliance skills
The Australian, Australia By Paul Kelly October 22, 2008
WATCH for Afghanistan to become the test of Kevin Rudd's security policy and Australia-US relations with a newly elected president Barack Obama pledged to boost US troop levels and seek greater contributions from allies.
Former defence minister and ALP leader Kim Beazley told a United States Studies Centre forum last week that any judgments about Australia by president Obama would be heavily influenced by the Prime Minister's stance on Afghanistan.
Beazley told The Australian yesterday: "Obama would be a new president not steeped in Cold War history and not steeped in Australia's long role in that history. His attitude towards Australia is likely to be `What are you going to do for me?"'
Yet Rudd told the National Press Club last week that "we have no plans whatsoever to provide any additional troops to Afghanistan". It was a comprehensive rejection. This is a message not just to the Australian public but to the US: it is code for "don't ask".
Rudd is sending the message: don't embarrass your Australian ally that is already committed to Afghanistan and is there for the long haul. Yet this cannot be more than a holding position.
There are persistent military to military soundings for Australia to do more in Afghanistan. On September 20, Patrick Walters reported in this paper that NATO commander David McKiernan wanted a bigger Australian effort "whether it's combat arms, combat support, logistics or aviation." The message is unequivocal. This is also the view of the new US Central Command chief, David Petraeus, now responsible for Afghanistan.
Presumably, the US would only make a formal political request if Australia changed its mind. But this is destined to become an exacting test of Australia-US ties under two new leaders, Rudd and Obama.
Remember that Rudd's most important immediate foreign policy goal is to forge a trusting and collaborative relationship with Obama. Afghanistan must be seen in this broader negotiating context.
To this point Rudd sees no political sign on his radar of Australia being asked to send more troops. This is not Beazley's assessment. It is clearly at odds with the view of the allied militaries.
"I don't expect any pressure from the US immediately," Beazley said. "But I think Afghanistan will be seen in the context of the Rudd Government's attitude towards the US and the alliance.
Afghanistan is a test of the ANZUS alliance.
"I don't know why Australian correspondents don't write this up but we invoked the ANZUS treaty - for the first time in our history - to go to Afghanistan in 2001.
"If the alliance has any meaning then we are basically committed while that struggle continues." Obama's intent is manifest. His entire security strategy pivots on the rejection of Iraq as the major theatre of operations against Islamist terrorism and shifting the focus to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border regions. He will arrive in office absolutely determined to make a difference in Afghanistan and halt the deterioration now apparent and alarming.
"I will send at least two additional combat brigades to Afghanistan and use this commitment to seek greater contributions - with few restrictions - from NATO allies," Obama said recently. "The Afghan people must know that our commitment to their security is enduring because the security of Afghanistan and the United States is shared."
Obama says "the greatest threat" to security lies in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border areas. He says he will not tolerate terrorist sanctuaries in Pakistan. He wants a stronger partnership between the US and NATO.
Beazley said: "Obama will require a Western presence in Afghanistan greater than what is there now. He may not get this from his NATO partners. Our presence in Oruzgan province is dependent upon the Dutch task force. If the Dutch leave, the US may seek an Australian replacement force." The Dutch will finish their overall security responsibility in Oruzgan in two years' time. This will put serious pressure on Australia, its deployment and its overall Afghanistan strategy.
Afghanistan is now Australia's major combat commitment with almost 1100 troops deployed. In his speech last week to the C.E.W. Bean Foundation Dinner, Rudd said Australia's interest in Afghanistan was "critical". Australia's commitment was driven by two motives: to halt the spread of terrorism, and "doing our fair share" with the US and our allies.
Rudd said that Australia was in Afghanistan "for the long haul". This means, presumably, that unlike some NATO allies Australia will not withdraw due to domestic political pressure. But, Rudd said, "success is not guaranteed" and Australia offered "no blank cheque". He said the architects of the Bali bombing that killed 88 Australians were trained in Afghanistan. He stressed that 40 nations were involved in resisting the Taliban and the goal was endorsed by the UN Security Council.
The paradox in Rudd's stance is that Australia has been openly agitating for more allied forces but resolutely refuses to increase its own, a stance that must strike other nations as provocative precisely because it is provocative.
Drawing a fascinating distinction between Obama and Republican candidate John McCain, Beazley said: "McCain carries the Cold War history in his head. He understands all the commitments Australia has made over the years and this is in his brain cells. Obama has none of this in his head. He will be learning on the job. He is likely to judge Australia not by the historical record but by what we do now."
The Australian people perceive Afghanistan, as distinct from Iraq, as the right war. But it is not a popular war and the more fatalities Australia takes the less popular it will become. In his Bean speech Rudd stressed that military means alone cannot defeat an insurgency. Afghanistan must be rebuilt and his emphasis on this civil reconstruction theme may point to the future nature of Australian contributions.
In political terms Rudd has inherited Afghanistan. But he is desperate to ensure that it does not become Rudd's war or Labor's war. This is the risk if Rudd makes a concerted increase in Australia's deployment. No Australian PM wants to be tied to a war that is unlikely to end in apparent victory.
At present Rudd is waiting on Washington. But negotiating over Afghanistan is about to become a test of his judgment and skill.
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Canada to fund job retraining for ex-Taliban
THE CANADIAN PRESS By Murray Brewster Oct 21, 2008
OTTAWA - Canada is taking a more active role in persuading Taliban fighters to lay down arms, but seasoned diplomats say there's still no comprehensive strategy to peacefully dismantle the insurgency in Afghanistan.
Ottawa is ready to fund an Afghan-supervised program that would give former militants job retraining and relocate them to other parts of the war-torn country.
The former insurgents would also be granted immunity from prosecution in return for giving up the fight in Kandahar and elsewhere.
Ron Hoffman, Canada's ambassador in Kabul, said the plan is part of broad Afghan government-led initiative that has yet to be made final.
"These are early days in the reconciliation process," Hoffman said in a telephone interview.
The Conservative government has already indicated to Parliament that it intends to support the demobilization effort and has set aside $14 million for the project, he added.
But Louis Delvoie, a senior fellow at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., and Canada's former high commissioner to Pakistan, said there are other things Ottawa can be doing to take the bite out of the violent movement.
"A purely military approach was never going to work, but detaching some of the foot soldiers from the Taliban – the Afghan ones – could be one way forward," Delvoie said in an interview.
"One shouldn't place too high hopes purely on this. It is just one component in what should be an overall approach.
"It isn't going to do much to change the (Taliban) leadership. And one must remember that the Taliban are being fed a steady stream of recruits from Pakistani madrasas (religious schools) and they are not particularly keen on settling down quietly in Afghanistan."
Delvoie said Canada should be encouraging Afghan President Hamid Karzai to broker some kind of power-sharing arrangement with moderate elements of the Taliban movement.
It should also take a long-term approach to helping stamp out extremism, he added.
Karzai recently opened the door to high-level talks with the Taliban through a meeting brokered by Saudi Arabia, an initiative NATO allies greeted with mostly silence.
The hard-line Islamic movement, which ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 and traces its roots to rural Kandahar, is a complex patchwork of religious fanatics, drug smugglers and mercenary gunslingers.
The efforts to lure the hired guns – many of them unemployed farm hands and itinerant labourers – away from the clutches of militants has been done in fits and starts.
The Canadian military and development agencies have organized seasonal construction jobs building roads and clearing irrigation ditches, but they employ only a few hundred people at a time.
Ottawa has also contributed funds toward the provincial Peace and Reconciliation Office in Kandahar, which has persuaded 512 former Taliban to come in from the cold.
But the $1,000 contribution is less than pocket change when compared with the tens of millions of dollars being poured into other reconstruction programs, the office director, Haji Aga Lalai, complained in an interview with The Canadian Press last summer.
Hoffman defended the cautious approach by saying Ottawa looks to Karzai's government to tell it what it wants to do.
"This is a very delicate subject and a very sensitive issue for the government of Afghanistan," Hoffman, who was appointed to the post in August.
"They've demonstrated in the past they consider independent action by other players not to be particularly helpful. We've always, always felt that this should be an Afghan-led process."
British diplomats angered Karzai several months ago by apparently engaging in discussions with local Taliban commanders in Helmand province.
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Mujahideen council backs Herat workers strike
www.quqnoos.com Written by M Reza Sher Mohammadi Wednesday, 22 October 2008
Ex-fighters say they should be given power to end soaring violence
A COUNCIL of former mujahideen fighters has come out in support of a strike led by artisans, traders and political groups over growing violence in the province.
The council said the government could end the violence if it gave the mujahideen group more power to combat criminality.
They blamed inept officials for the deteriorating security situation in Herat, the province with one of the highest number of kidnappings in the country.
In the past week, workers have gone on strike in protest what they say is a break down of law and order in the province.
Herat MPs threatened to resign from their posts if the government failed to end the violence.
The governor of Herat, Said Hussain Anwari, said the government was ready to hold talks with the mujahideen council in a bid to end the strikes, but he criticised political groups in the province for stoking public anger ahead of next year’s elections.
Head of the mujahideen’s council in Herat, Basir Ahmad Ghoriani, said more than 65 people had been murdered and many others abducted in Herat over the past year
Governor Said Hussain Anwari said: "Some Jihadi leaders participate in the military meetings in the province now, and we accept their ideas for maintaining security in the province, but putting the Mujahiddin in the government posts in the province is out of my authority. It is the government’s decision."
The government plans to send a delegation to Herat to investigate the security situation in the province before reporting back to the government.
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Ministry to create anti-abduction taskforce
Written by www.Quqnoos.com Wednesday, 22 October 2008
Deputy interior minister annouces plans to cut down on number of kidnappings
THE INTERIOR Ministry has announced plans to create a new police department tasked with preventing kidnappings.
The deputy head of the ministry, Muneer Mangal, said on Tuesday that the size of the new police taskforce will depend on the level of threat posed by kidnappers operating in the country.
The news was announced the day after a female aid worker was gunned down by two men on a motorcycle as she walked to work in the capital Kabul.
In Herat, large-scale demonstrations have been triggered by soaring levels of crime in the province, whcih suffers one of the highest levels of kidnapping in the country.
It is unclear if the ministry has approved the creation of the anti-abduction taskforce.
In Parliament on Tuesday, the newly appointed interior minster, Hanif Atmar, said security, law enforcement in the main cities, the eradication of criminal gangs and the appointment of skilled officials to key posts within the ministry were among his top priorities.
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