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Karzai admits failure in securing Afghanistan
KABUL (AFP) – President Hamid Karzai said Wednesday violence had surged in Afghanistan, admitting his government's internationally backed efforts to secure the country had failed.
Afghanistan troop buildup could more than double
By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON – Military planners now think they may need to send more than double the number of extra troops initially believed needed to help fight the war in Afghanistan.
In strikes on US in Afghanistan, Taliban reveals new potency
By David Montero – The Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo! News - Oct 29 1:00 AM
In a sign of the Taliban's growing military vigor in Afghanistan, militants downed a US military helicopter near the Afghan capital Monday, while a suicide bomber struck and killed two Americans in northern Afghanistan.
AFGHANISTAN: Urgent need to pre-position food aid
29 Oct 2008 11:18:56 GMT
KABUL, 29 October 2008 (IRIN) - The Afghan government and aid agencies have not so far pre-positioned adequate relief supplies in some of the most vulnerable areas, increasing the risk
Little help for civilians repeatedly displaced by conflict
LASHKARGAH, 28 October 2008 (IRIN) - Fighting between Taliban insurgents and Afghan government and international forces in Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, has displaced Abdul Hadi's
America's unlikely Afghan allies
BBC News Tuesday, 28 October 2008
The BBC Urdu service's Haroon Rashid meets Afghans who once fought against invading Soviet forces but now support the presence of US troops.
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Karzai admits failure in securing Afghanistan
KABUL (AFP) – President Hamid Karzai said Wednesday violence had surged in Afghanistan, admitting his government's internationally backed efforts to secure the country had failed.
Security had even deteriorated since the Taliban regime was ousted in 2001, the US-backed leader said in an address to hundreds of women gathered from all over Afghanistan for a meeting in Kabul.
Since his government took power after the fall of the Taliban, "we have achieved major success", Karzai told the gathering.
"But one of the nation's biggest wishes was full security ... which we have not brought. It has even dropped," Karzai said.
"Our roads are not safe, you can't go to Kandahar, to Herat. You can't take the road from Kabul to Paktia," he said, referring to key provinces outside of the capital.
Road travel outside of the capital, notably to the south, is risky with Taliban insurgents and bandits regularly attacking and sometimes kidnapping or killing travellers.
"When we came, life was good, but now it's not," Karzai said. "We are still a nation deeply in pain and misery."
Karzai was installed by US and other Western allies after the US-led invasion that drove the Taliban from government. He became Afghanistan's first democratically elected leader in a 2004 poll.
A Taliban insurgency to topple Karzai and take back power has grown steadily since then with attacks at record levels this year despite the efforts of 60-70,000 international troops helping the Afghan security forces.
Crime has increased with wealthy Afghans or their relatives, as well as expatriates, being kidnapped most often for ransom.
The intelligence agency this week released video and pictures of hostages being tortured that were made by kidnappers to send to their families with ransom demands.
One showed a hostage being brutally beaten and another victim appeared to have part of his ear cut off.
Some of the women in Karzai's audience called for kidnappers to be publicly hanged. The president responded that he is supporting the death penalty but would not allow public executions.
The 1996-2001 Taliban government had executed people publicly, including by stoning, and cut off their limbs for certain crimes.
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Afghanistan troop buildup could more than double
By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON – Military planners now think they may need to send more than double the number of extra troops initially believed needed to help fight the war in Afghanistan.
The buildup in the increasingly violent campaign could amount to more than 20,000 troops rather than the originally planned 10,000, two senior defense officials said Wednesday on condition of anonymity because no new figures have been approved.
The newest calculations reflect growing requests from field commanders in recent weeks for aviation units, engineers and other skills to support the fighting units, the officials said.
Officials had been saying for months that they needed more people to train Afghan security forces and two more combat brigades — a total of some 10,000 people.
Commanders later increased that to the trainers and three combat brigades — or some 15,000, when extra support is included.
Now, military planners say that the number may have to grow yet again by another 5,000 to 10,000 support troops. They would be helicopter units, intelligence teams, engineers to build more bases, medical teams and others to support the fight in the undeveloped nation, where forces have to work around rugged terrain and a lack of infrastructure.
The growing numbers being quoted for the buildup in Afghanistan are not unusual.
President Bush announced in January 2007 that he would send up to 20,000 additional troops to Iraq for what since has become known as the "surge." But the number eventually grew to 30,000 by the time commanders added requests for all the military police, additional aviation needs and other support they wanted.
In Afghanistan, it is far more difficult for troops to operate in the undeveloped nation, which lacks roads, runways and facilities to support troops. And commanders in Afghanistan do not consider this a short-term surge in troops but rather the number that will be needed over a longer period, one official said.
It is unclear whether the number will win approval. Some officials believe it's unwise to build too large a force in Afghanistan, where there is long-held hostility to the presence of foreign forces.
If that large a force is approved, it's also unclear where the Pentagon would get that many extra troops for the Afghan campaign — and how quickly they could be sent.
The Defense Department already has approved the deployment of about 4,000 people — one additional Marine combat battalion and one Army brigade to be sent by January.
But with some 150,000 forces committed in Iraq, the U.S. has not had the available troops to send to Afghanistan. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has often noted that in Afghanistan "we do what we can, in Iraq we do what we must."
The military shortfall in Afghanistan has been a common complaint from commanders. The number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan has grown from fewer than 21,000 two years ago to more than 31,000 today.
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On the Net: Defense Department http://www.defenselink.mil
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In strikes on US in Afghanistan, Taliban reveals new potency
By David Montero – The Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo! News - Oct 29 1:00 AM
In a sign of the Taliban's growing military vigor in Afghanistan, militants downed a US military helicopter near the Afghan capital Monday, while a suicide bomber struck and killed two Americans in northern Afghanistan.
The twin attacks come at a time of deepening divide between the US military and its allies: Pakistan and Afghanistan are increasingly calling for dialogue with Taliban militants, while Washington has resolved to unilaterally strike Taliban militants based in Pakistan.
In Warduk, near Kabul, militants fired on a Black Hawk helicopter as it was patrolling, forcing it to land, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
The crew members of the helicopter, forced down in a province neighboring Kabul, were rescued and troops were "in the process of recovering" the aircraft, said Lt. Cmdr. Walter Matthews, a US military spokesman.
At least four insurgents were killed in the exchange, said Fazel Karim Muslim, the chief of Sayed Abad district.
The Los Angeles Times points the significance of the attack:
In more than seven years of fighting, insurgents have only rarely managed to down Western helicopters. Choppers are a crucial mode of transport for troops and supplies, because many of Afghanistan's roads are poorly maintained and dangerous, and Western bases are widely scattered amid extremely rough terrain.
Also Monday, a suicide bomber struck American police trainers who were meeting with Afghan police officials, Pakistan's Dawn newspaper reports.
The bomber entered the police station while Afghan officials were meeting US troops advising a police training programme, provincial police chief Gen Abdul Rahman Sayed Kheil said. The blast killed two American soldiers who were beside a Humvee, news footage of the scene showed.
US forces in Afghanistan confirmed that two "service members" from the US-led coalition were killed and three were wounded.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility for the blast.
Currently 60,000 US-led NATO troops serve in Afghanistan. Attacks like these have made 2008 the deadliest year for them, theAP notes.
More U.S. and NATO troops have died this year in Afghanistan than any other year since the 2001 U.S. invasion, in part because Taliban militants are launching increasingly complex and deadly attacks.
Icasualties.org, an independent website that tracks coalition deaths in Afghanistan, adds that 254 foreign soldiers have been killed this year, up from 232 last year, of whom 150 have been American. Since 2001, when the US began its military campaign in Afghanistan, 1,003 foreign soldiers have been killed, of whom 625 were American.
Those deadly attacks continue despite a concerted – and controversial – effort by the US military to target Taliban strongholds in Pakistan. US officials say many of the Taliban's leaders and foot soldiers are based inside Pakistan's rugged tribal belt, where neither Pakistani nor American forces can penetrate.
The New York Times reported this week that Washington has stepped up a program to eliminate those strongholds through airstrikes.
According to American and Pakistani officials, attacks by remotely piloted Predator aircraft have increased sharply in frequency and scope in the past three months.
Through Sunday, there were at least 18 Predator strikes since the beginning of August, some deep inside Pakistan's tribal areas, compared with 5 strikes during the first seven months of 2008....
The decision to focus on an intensified Predator campaign using Hellfire missiles appears to reflect dwindling options on the part of the White House for striking a blow against Al Qaeda in the Bush administration's waning days.
The paper adds, however, that airstrikes alone cannot solve the problem:
At the same time, however, officials said that relying on airstrikes alone, the United States would be unable to weaken Al Qaeda's grip in the tribal areas permanently. Within the government, advocates of the ground raids have argued that only by sending Special Operations forces into Pakistan can the United States successfully capture suspected operatives and interrogate them for information about top Qaeda leaders.
As the American attacks continue, and as violence rises on both sides of the border, Pakistan and Afghanistan are scrambling to devise a strategy for joint cooperation. On Tuesday, officials from both sides met in Islamabad in the first of what are planned to be several joint jirgas, or congresses, to discuss counterterrorism, reports Pakistan's Daily Times.
"This is the gravest threat to both countries and they need to co-operate closely to effectively counter and completely eliminate this curse," [Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi] said while addressing the inaugural session of the Pak-Afghan mini jirga (jirga gai).
"The mini-jirga, which is called jirgagai, comprises 25 notables each from Pakistan and Afghanistan," according to Dawn.
Dawn adds that both Pakistan and Afghanistan reiterated the need for dialogue with militant elements, a move that is increasingly seen on both sides as an important option but that many in Washington have opposed.
Advocating a dialogue for sustainable peace, [Qureshi] said that there was an increasing realisation among those involved in the conflict that the use of force alone could not produce desired results."
"For lasting success, negotiations and reconciliation must be an essential part of the process."
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AFGHANISTAN: Urgent need to pre-position food aid
29 Oct 2008 11:18:56 GMT
KABUL, 29 October 2008 (IRIN) - The Afghan government and aid agencies have not so far pre-positioned adequate relief supplies in some of the most vulnerable areas, increasing the risk of a humanitarian disaster this winter, the Afghanistan National Disasters Management Authority (ANDMA) has said.
"Snowfall is imminent… aid has not reached the most needy regions," ANDMA director Abdul Matin Edrak told IRIN on 27 October.
Millions of Afghans have been pushed into high-risk food-insecurity by high food prices, drought and conflict-related problems, say aid experts.
Wheat production is 36 percent down on what it was in 2007 due to a severe drought, according to aid agencies. The country is facing a deficit of two million tonnes of mixed food items over the next six months, the Agriculture Ministry has said.
On 9 July UN agencies and the government launched an emergency appeal for US$404 million to curb the adverse impact of higher food prices and drought on millions of the most vulnerable people.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, only 16 percent of the appeal had been covered by 8 October. The UN has repeatedly called on donors to respond quickly to the appeal.
More vulnerable this winter
Heavy snowfall, extremely cold weather, diseases and lack of access to adequate food killed over 2,000 mostly elderly people and children last winter, according to ANDMA.
Aid agencies such as the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Oxfam International have warned that large parts of the country have become far more vulnerable this winter than last.
"This year problems have been compounded by crop failure and high food prices," Fatema Gillani, president of ARCS, told IRIN.
"While the need for aid has increased significantly, the response capacity looks weaker than last year," ANDMA's Edrak said, partly due to the worsening security situation which has further reduced the access of aid workers to volatile areas.
Dozens of aid workers have been killed and/or kidnapped by criminal and insurgent groups in the past 10 months, according to the Afghanistan NGOs Safety Office.
Lack of coordination within the aid community was also a major challenge, ANDMA said.
Provincial officials in Balkh, Herat, Faryab, Sar-I-Pul, Ghor and Daykundi have reported small-scale displacements of people due to food-insecurity and lack of access to drinking water over the past few months.
As winter approaches more and more vulnerable families will opt to go to other areas unless aid is made available to them, ANDMA said.
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Little help for civilians repeatedly displaced by conflict
LASHKARGAH, 28 October 2008 (IRIN) - Fighting between Taliban insurgents and Afghan government and international forces in Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, has displaced Abdul Hadi's family four times in less than two years but he has received no help.
"Two years ago we abandoned our home in Nawzad District because of the war and moved to Garmsir [District]. This summer the conflict broke out in Garmsir and we sought refugee in Marja [District]. The war followed us into Marja and we moved to Bodam desert and from there we came to Lashkargah," Hadi told IRIN.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of families in volatile areas have experienced similar hardship over the past three years. At the same time the access of aid agencies has been restricted by insecurity.
"Those who have had to flee violence, intimidation and conflict across Afghanistan, and who are estimated to number in the tens of thousands, have not been properly profiled in terms of determining who they are, where they are from, and what their immediate protection and assistance needs are," Ingrid Macdonald, protection and advocacy manager of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in Kabul, told IRIN.
New report
Currently there are about 235,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) officially recognised by a joint task group of aid agencies and the government. But this figure does not include people displaced by conflict since 2006, according to a 28 October report by the NRC's Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).
Over one million people were internally displaced in 2002. Most of these have returned to their homes but 185,000 still live in camps in the south, west and southwest of the country, the report said.
The predominant understanding is that conflict displaces people for a short while and once a military operation is over, civilians return to their homes and resume a normal life, and thus there is no need for relief and protection services.
However, many displaced families and the IDMC report say the opposite.
"These internally displaced persons are believed to have urgent humanitarian and protection needs," said the report.
Abdul Hadi said repeated displacements had made his family destitute: "We have lost everything… we need everything - food, medicine, shelter, water, clothes and even matches to light a candle," he said.
Avoiding "pull factors"
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) ended its assistance to IDPs in the three main camps in Kandahar, Helmand and Herat provinces in March 2006, while aid to people displaced by conflict and disasters since 2007 has been delivered on an ad hoc basis.
The NRC said it was very concerned about the lack of attention being paid to IDP needs. The reluctance to assist IDPs has been driven by a desire to avoid "pull factors" that could encourage further displacement which, in turn, could create "an entrenched humanitarian crisis", NRC aid workers said.
The NRC supports the prevention of "pull factors", but says the critical needs of most IDPs must be addressed.
Coordinated strategy needed
The spread of the conflict into previously secure areas, natural disasters, food-insecurity and the deportation of Afghans from neighbouring countries are exacerbating the IDP situation.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has warned that hundreds of thousands of people could be internally displaced in northern areas largely due to food-insecurity.
"Given that displacement is occurring and in potentially such high numbers, Afghanistan urgently requires a coordinated response strategy - and plan between the Afghan authorities and international community - for meeting the immediate assistance and protection needs of conflict-affected IDPs," the NRC's Ingrid Macdonald told IRIN.
The NRC also suggests a re-profiling of IDPs to identify their needs and thus aid response planning.
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America's unlikely Afghan allies
BBC News Tuesday, 28 October 2008
The BBC Urdu service's Haroon Rashid meets Afghans who once fought against invading Soviet forces but now support the presence of US troops.
Afghanistan's history is full of changing loyalties that have shaped its history.
In the beautiful green valley of Naray, close to the border with Pakistan, I met Afghans who once waged war against the invading Soviet forces, denouncing them as foreigners, who are now actively supporting American forces.
Many believe this is what counts in this war - to win the hearts and minds of Afghans and so make US forces more acceptable to ordinary people.
A glimpse of this policy is visible at the US forces' Bostick forward operation base in northeast Kunar province.
Teaching girls
Thirty-five-year-old Sher Ali handled lethal surface-to-air Stinger missile operations against the Soviet forces in the mid-1980s.
Losses inflicted by Stinger missiles were one of the main factors leading to the eventual withdrawal of the Soviet Union from Afghanistan.
Sher Ali now teaches at a girls' school in Shamser village near the US base. The school was built with American aid.
He says that at the age of 16 he headed a team of 10 fighters that downed four Soviet fighter jets with the Stingers.
He was then supporting the party of the former Afghan Prime Minister and mujahideen commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
Hekmatyar has now joined hands with the Taleban in his drive against foreign forces and is believed to still be active in Kunar and Nooristan provinces.
But Sher Ali says he has lost contact with his former bosses.
He defends his decision to take up arms against the Soviets, but not against the Americans.
"The Soviets were brought by a handful of Afghans to occupy Afghanistan. The Americans have come on the request of the majority of Afghans. Those now fighting the coalition forces are a small minority."
However, Sher Ali warns that one day he could oppose the Americans and fight them.
"That time has not yet arrived. They have not adopted the ways of the Russians. They are building schools and roads. They have our support at the moment."
Another former mujahideen fighter who supports the Americans is 48-year-old Ghulam Rahim who has run an FM radio station at the US base in Naray district for the last four years.
"The Soviets came to occupy Afghanistan illegally, while the Americans came under Bonn agreement on the request of the Afghans. The other difference is the Americans are here to help develop Afghanistan.
"It's now question of economics. Whoever will help Afghanistan financially will win."
'Safe from US influences'
Sometimes people's motives are not obvious. Take the case of one former Taleban official rubbing shoulders with the Americans at their base.
Thirty five-year-old Inayatur Rehman now serves in the Afghan National Army, but his heart and mind is still very much influenced by the Taleban.
"I joined the army and came here to make sure Afghan soldiers are kept safe from American influences. I wish to see the soldiers develop with strong Islamic beliefs and emerge as an Islamic army."
He even is hopeful that an Islamic government will soon emerge in Afghanistan. "All these sacrifices and blood will not go to waste," he says.
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