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NATO kills a civilian in Afghanistan
Associated Press September 19, 2008
KABUL, Afghanistan - NATO says its troops have killed a civilian in southern Afghanistan who did not heed their warnings to stop.
FACTBOX - Security developments in Afghanistan, Sept 19
Sept 19 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 1300 GMT on Friday:
WESTERN AFGHANISTAN - A soldier from the U.S.-led coalition force was killed in western Afghanistan when his vehicle hit an improvised explosive device, the U.S. military said. It did not release the nationality of the soldier.
Rockets hit NATO base, killing 4 civilians in E. Afghanistan
KABUL, Sep 19, 2008 (Xinhua via COMTEX News Network) -- Rockets targeted a base of the NATO- led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) on Friday, killing four civilians in eastern Afghan province of Paktika, said an ISAF statement.
Arming the Taleban
By Kate Clark BBC News, Afghanistan Thursday, 18 September 2008
"We sometimes seize arms and ammunition," said a Taleban commander in south-eastern Afghanistan.
War and Drought Threaten Afghan Food Supply
New York Times, United States By CARLOTTA GALL September 18, 2008
YAKOWLANG, Afghanistan - A pitiable harvest this year has left small farmers all over central and northern Afghanistan facing hunger, and aid officials are warning of an acute food shortage this winter
US wants $20bn to fund Afghanistan effort
• Thousands more soldiers will head for country
• Allies who do not send troops should give money
guardian.co.uk, UK Richard Norton-Taylor and Ian Black Friday September 19 2008
The US is seeking $20bn from its allies to help stabilise Afghanistan as it plans to send thousands more of its own troops to confront the growing insurgency in the country, American officials disclosed yesterday.
Taliban opens new front in Pakistan
The Taliban has laid down the gauntlet to Pakistan's overstretched security forces by opening up a new front in the north of the country.
By Isambard Wilkinson in Maidan The Telegraph (UK) / September 19, 2008
Militants have used fear and intimidation to clear a swathe of territory in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) to establish training camps and for taking sanctuary, and have set up their headquarters in Maidan
Bush to meet Pakistan's Zardari as ties strain
by Laurent Lozano Fri Sep 19, 1:33 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - President George W. Bush will meet Tuesday for the first time with his new Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari as ties between the two allies strain over Afghanistan and US strikes on Islamic militants.
Pakistan's Zardari could face threat from army: IISS
LONDON (AFP) — Pakistan's new president, Ali Asif Zardari, must make fighting Islamist militancy in the border regions with Afghanistan his top priority, a leading thinktank said Thursday.
US defends more strikes in Pakistan
Press TV (Iran) Fri, 19 Sep 2008 07:34:17 GMT
US Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, has said that US forces have the right to strike militants in the tribal belt inside Pakistan.
SAS may have shot Afghan governor
The Age AUSTRALIAN 19 September 2008
special forces in Afghanistan have been involved in a disastrous incident in which a district governor, war hero and close ally of President Hamid Karzai has been shot dead.
Hameed's 5 wickets haul steers Afghanistan to 3 runs victory
Associated Press of Pakistan
PESHAWAR, Sept. 19 (APP): Right-arm medium fast bowler Hameed Gul's five wickets haul steered Afghanistan to upset Islamia Cricket Academy (ICA) by 3 runs in their third match of the Tour being played here at Arbab Niaz Cricket Stadium on Friday.
Insurgents in Afghanistan show strength, sophistication
This summer, foreign troop deaths have exceeded those of U.S. forces in Iraq. 'We feel that things are going very, very well for us,' one Taliban fighter says.
By Laura King Los Angeles Times Staff Writer September 18, 2008
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — A summer of heavy fighting during which Western military leaders had hoped to seize the initiative from Islamic militants has instead revealed an insurgency capable of employing
Pakistan to donate kidney centre to Afghanistan
The News International (Pakistan) Friday, September 19, 2008
Islamabad: The government of Pakistan has proposed to donate a kidney centre to Afghanistan to serve the poor and underprivileged Afghans, suffering from kidney diseases.
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NATO kills a civilian in Afghanistan
Associated Press September 19, 2008
KABUL, Afghanistan - NATO says its troops have killed a civilian in southern Afghanistan who did not heed their warnings to stop.
A NATO statement says the civilian was riding in a truck that was heading directly for a NATO patrol in Kandahar province.
The statement says the truck failed to stop Thursday after several warnings were issued. The troops fired two shots into the vehicle, killing the civilian inside. The statement did not say whether the civilian was driving.
Civilian deaths at the hands of foreign troops in Afghanistan are controversial and routinely worsen relations among the people, the government and the foreign troops in the country.
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FACTBOX - Security developments in Afghanistan, Sept 19
Sept 19 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 1300 GMT on Friday:
WESTERN AFGHANISTAN - A soldier from the U.S.-led coalition force was killed in western Afghanistan when his vehicle hit an improvised explosive device, the U.S. military said. It did not release the nationality of the soldier.
KANDAHAR - Soldiers from the NATO-led force shot dead one Afghan civilian after the vehicle he was in failed to stop as it approached a military convoy on Thursday in the southern province of Kandahar, the alliance said.
SOUTHERN AFGHANISTAN - The U.S. military has deployed 800 additional troops to southern Afghanistan to support Afghan and foreign forces already in the region, the U.S. military said.
(Compiled by Jonathon Burch; editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
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Rockets hit NATO base, killing 4 civilians in E. Afghanistan
KABUL, Sep 19, 2008 (Xinhua via COMTEX News Network) -- Rockets targeted a base of the NATO- led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) on Friday, killing four civilians in eastern Afghan province of Paktika, said an ISAF statement.
Insurgents fired rockets targeting an ISAF base in Zirok district of Paktika province. But the rockets landed in a field where local women and children were working, the statement said.
"The attack killed four, including a child," it said.
"Following the attack, ISAF responded with artillery fire directed at the enemy firing position," it added, "an investigation into the incident is ongoing."
However, it did not disclose if there is any casualty on ISAF.
Taliban insurgents who fighting against Afghan government and international troops have yet to make any comments.
Conflicts and spiraling insurgency have claimed the lives of over 38,00 people with around 1,445 civilians so far this year in the war-torn country.
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Arming the Taleban
By Kate Clark BBC News, Afghanistan Thursday, 18 September 2008
"We sometimes seize arms and ammunition," said a Taleban commander in south-eastern Afghanistan.
"We're using whatever weapons are left over from Russian times and we buy from different sources - Pakistan, Iran, Russia - wherever we can get them."
I met the Taleban commander, a veteran of 30 years of war, in a safe house - one of the typical mud-built, fortress-like houses of the south-east where a six-metre (six-yard) high wall protects an extended family all living in the same compound.
The night before, I had been woken by the noise of small arms and rocket-propelled grenades. A nearby government office was being attacked.
The Taleban are targeting main roads and towns.
Their tactics differ from the mujahedeen who, fighting the Soviet occupation 30 years ago, started by taking villages and building up "liberated" territory.
The Taleban's aim, said the commander, was to force the American army to leave.
"We're ambushing the Americans, planting roadside bombs. We never let them relax," he said.
Iranian arms
He said their favourite weapons were Iranian:
"There's a kind of mine called the Dragon. Iran is sending it and we have got it. It's directional and very powerful."
The Dragon appears to be a local name for what is internationally called an Explosively Formed Penetrator.
As the commander testified, it can penetrate the armour of Humvees and even tanks.
He said it was only available to special groups and you had to have "good relations" with the Iranians to get it.
Former mujahedeen fighter Shahir - which is not his real name - said Iranian weapons commanded a premium price:
"The beauty of the Iranian-made AK47, for example, is that it can also fire grenades. It costs $200-$300 dollars more than a Kalashnikov made elsewhere."
Shahir said there were two routes for Iranian weapons to reach the Taleban.
"There are people inside the state in Iran who donate weapons. There are also Iranian businessmen who sell them."
Britain and America have also alleged that elements in the Iranian state are helping to fund the Taleban, but it is rare to get confirmation from the Taleban side.
The Iranian Embassy in Kabul denied the allegations, saying Tehran supported the government of Afghanistan.
Open border
The most common route for getting weapons is from Pakistan.
Extensive arms markets and a local industry grew up in the Tribal Areas in the 1980s when there was Pakistani, American and Saudi support for the anti-Soviet Jihad.
"Buying arms there is as easy as buying a couple of bags of sugar," said Shahir.
"You'll see one or two Kalashnikov rifles hanging up outside a shop to show it's selling arms. Inside there's everything that money can buy - grenade-launchers, guns, even missiles and mines."
The Pakistani border is open to arms and fighters.
This summer, al-Qaeda fighters, who have found a safe haven in the Tribal Areas, have streamed across.
"There are Chechens here," said the Taleban commander.
"Uzbeks, Iranians, Arabs, Iraqis, Pakistanis, Indians, Bangladeshis, even some Germans and British fighting with us."
Mujahadeen dealers
He also spoke about another, even murkier route for arms:
"Often, Russian and Iranian weaponry comes from the north. The northern arms dealers are well-known men, some of them have links and connections with Iran and Russia from Jihad times. And yes, they are the ones who used to be fighting the Taleban. "
I travelled to the north of Afghanistan to find out more about this extraordinary allegation - that commanders who fought the Soviet occupation and later the Taleban were now arms dealers who were selling weapons to their old enemy, the Taleban.
The insurgency has been good for business, two arms dealers, interviewed separately, admitted. Demand was up, not just from insurgents, but also locally in the north.
Fear of a strengthening Taleban had created a burgeoning northern market for weapons.
One dealer said the big arms dealers were selling to the Taleban:
"Most are former mujahadeen commanders. They've grown rich from the opium poppy trade and they're well connected. They actually use police convoys to transport the weapons."
'Balance of power'
But the question remains - why would Northern Alliance commanders, however corrupt, want to sell weapons to their old enemies?
Why play such a dangerous game? Profits are good, dealers said, but were not the only reason.
"The big dealers are war criminals," said one dealer.
"They've killed people and stolen their land. They know that if the government in Kabul became strong and stable, people would be able to demand justice."
"And if the Taleban took over, there would be also consequences. So they want to keep the current balance of power. And meanwhile, they're feathering their nests."
Government officials in Kabul were candid about the problems they face.
Arms from Pakistan were the main source for the insurgency, said the Deputy Interior Minister, Gen Daoud.
He said that in the past authorities had seized weapons and ammunition being smuggled from the north to the south.
He admitted there was police corruption, but denied former mujahedeen or Northern Alliance commanders could be involved.
"Mujahedeen is a very holy name - you should not mention it in the same breath as the word criminal," he said.
However, Gen Farahai, head of counter-terrorism for the Afghan police, said commanders were involved:
"From the north, sometimes they're selling ammunition and weapons to the Taliban and other illegally armed groups. And from the south, drugs are coming."
Afghanistan has endured a bloody summer.
With the Taleban armed to the hilt and the insurgency sucking in weapons from every quarter, there is a sharp sense of fear in the air.
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War and Drought Threaten Afghan Food Supply
New York Times, United States By CARLOTTA GALL September 18, 2008
YAKOWLANG, Afghanistan - A pitiable harvest this year has left small farmers all over central and northern Afghanistan facing hunger, and aid officials are warning of an acute food shortage this winter for nine million Afghans, more than a quarter of the population.
The crisis has been generated by the harshest winter in memory, followed by a drought across much of the country, which come on top of the broader problems of deteriorating security, the accumulated pressure of returning refugees and the effects of rising world food prices.
The failure of the Afghan government and foreign donors to develop the country’s main economic sector, agriculture, has compounded the problems, the officials say. They warn that the food crisis could make an already bad security situation worse.
The British charity Oxfam, which conducted a provisional assessment of conditions in the province of Daykondi, one of the most remote areas of central Afghanistan, has appealed for international assistance before winter sets in. “Time is running out to avert a humanitarian crisis,” it said.
That assessment is echoed by villagers across the broader region, including in Bamian Province. “In all these 30 years of war, we have not had it as bad as this,” said Said Muhammad, a 60-year-old farmer who lives in Yakowlang, in Bamian. “We don’t have enough food for the winter. We will have to go to the towns to look for work.”
Underlying the warnings are growing fears of civil unrest. The mood in the country is darkening amid increasing economic hardship, worsening disorder and a growing disaffection with the government and its foreign backers, particularly over the issue of government corruption.
Returning refugees are already converging on the cities because they cannot manage in the countryside, and they make easy recruits for the Taliban or other groups that want to create instability, said Ashmat Ghani, an opposition politician and tribal leader from Logar Province, south of Kabul, the nation’s capital.
“The lower part of society, when facing hunger, will not wait,” he said. “We could have riots.”
The Afghan government, together with United Nations organizations, was quick to mount an appeal at the beginning of the year to prevent a food shortage as world food prices soared and neighboring countries stopped wheat exports.
The World Food Program, which was assisting 4.5 million of the most vulnerable Afghans with food aid in recent years, widened its program to include an additional 1.5 million Afghans and extended it further because of the drought to reach a total of nine million people until the end of next year’s harvest.
Several weeks ago, Oxfam warned in a letter to ministers responsible for development in some countries assisting Afghanistan that the $404 million appeal by the government and the United Nations was substantially underfinanced.
“If the response is slow or insufficient, there could be serious public health implications, including higher rates of mortality and morbidity, which are already some of the highest in the world,” the letter said.
It also warned of internal displacement of families who had no work or food, and even of civil disturbances. “The impact as a whole could further undermine the security situation,” Oxfam said.
The United States government announced this week that it would supply nearly half the emergency food aid requested in the appeal.
Susana Rico, the director of the World Food Program in Afghanistan, said last-minute contributions had come in to cover the immediate emergency. But there is still a rush to get supplies to the countryside before the first winter snows arrive next month, she said.
Development officials say that deteriorating security has made it harder to do that job in the countryside. Aid workers have become the targets of an increasing number of attacks from insurgents and criminals.
The dangers have restricted the scale and scope of aid operations, said the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief, an umbrella group of nongovernmental organizations.
Those dangers, the agency says, have even spread to areas previously considered relatively secure. In the first seven months of the year, it reported, 19 workers for nongovernmental organizations were killed, more than the number in all of 2007.
The agency appealed for governments to take a broad range of measures, beyond the military, to combat the escalating insurgency.
“The conflict will not be brought to an end through military means,” the agency said in a statement. “A range of measures is required to achieve a sustainable peace, including strong and effective support for rural development.”
Neglecting a lifeline as vital as agriculture has been dangerous for stability in Afghanistan, as people are unable to feed themselves, several provincial governors said in interviews.
The governor of Bamian, Habiba Sarabi, has repeatedly complained that because her province has been one of the most law-abiding and trouble-free, it has been forgotten in the big distribution of resources from international donors.
Donors, and in particular the United States government, have spent far larger amounts in the provinces in the south and southeast to help combat the dual problems of the insurgency and narcotics, she said.
Hasan Samadi, 23, the deputy administrator of Yakowlang District in Bamian Province, said, “The economic situation of the people here is very bad and the government is not focused to help.
“They focus on other provinces and unfortunately not on Bamian, and not on remote districts of Bamian,” he said.
Daykondi, adjacent to Bamian, is one of the most underfinanced provinces in the country. It receives half the budget of its neighbor to the south, Oruzgan, which has two-thirds the population and a poor record on combating insurgency and the cultivation of the opium poppy, said Matt Waldman, a spokesman for Oxfam in Kabul.
In Daykondi, 90 percent of the population relies on subsistence farming, yet the provincial Department of Agriculture has a budget of only $2,400 for the whole year, he added.
The imbalance in aid to the provinces is being corrected now, Governor Sarabi said, but in the meantime it has put great strain on the people in her province.
She estimated that a quarter of Bamian’s population would need food aid this winter because of the drought. There have already been local conflicts over water supplies in two regions, she said.
Development officials warn that neglecting the poorest provinces can add to instability by pushing people to commit crimes or even to join the insurgency, which often pays its recruits.
While the severe drought contributed to the decline of poppy cultivation in the central and northern provinces, it also pushed farmers into debt. If they do not get help now, they could turn back to poppy-growing and lose their faith in the government, said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Mr. Costa called for urgent assistance for farmers and regions that have abandoned poppy cultivation. He and others have also criticized the inefficiency of international aid.
Of $15 billion of reconstruction assistance given to Afghanistan since 2001, “a staggering 40 percent has returned to donor countries in corporate profits and consultant salaries,” the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief said in a March report.
“Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world,” Mr. Costa said during a recent visit to Kabul. “I insist on the importance of increasing development assistance, making it more effective. Too much of it is eaten up by various bureaucracies and contractors.”
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US wants $20bn to fund Afghanistan effort
• Thousands more soldiers will head for country
• Allies who do not send troops should give money
guardian.co.uk, UK Richard Norton-Taylor and Ian Black Friday September 19 2008
The US is seeking $20bn from its allies to help stabilise Afghanistan as it plans to send thousands more of its own troops to confront the growing insurgency in the country, American officials disclosed yesterday.
Robert Gates, the American defence secretary, said the US was considering a fundamental review of its strategy. But his message was clear - the US expected countries which did not contribute troops to Afghanistan to contribute money instead.
"Lessons had been learned from Iraq ...that means more forces," Gates told journalists in London.
General David McKiernan, the US commander in Afghanistan, has asked the Pentagon for three more American brigades in addition to the extra one already announced by President Bush and due to be deployed in January.
This would increase the number of US troops in Afghanistan, at present numbering 30,000, to nearly 44,000.
It remains unclear, however, whether Britain will increase its military presence in the country after the bulk of the 4,000-strong garrison now stationed at Basra airport leaves Iraq, as expected, in the first half of next year.
There are now about 7,800 British troops in Afghanistan. Gates, in London for a meeting of Nato defence ministers, said that "the UK may increase the size of its force [in Afghanistan]".
However, the Ministry of Defence was quick to deny there were any new plans to increase the number of British troops there. An MoD spokesman said: "Force levels are kept under continual review and an uplift of approximately 230 personnel was announced ... on June 16."
The British government's priority is to get better and more equipment, notably helicopters and armoured vehicles for its troops in Afghanistan, defence officials say.
Gates said he expected "substantial commitments" from other allies for other purposes. "One of the issues I will be raising at the [Nato] meeting is that we need as an alliance and with our partners to figure out a way to help pay for [doubling] the size of the Afghan army," he said. "The capability of the Afghan army ultimately is the exit strategy."
A US official said yesterday that the plan was to double the size of the Afghan army from the present 65,000 in five years. That would cost an estimated $20bn. "We can see what those countries which are not contributing troops can contribute financially," he said.
That plan, which could include countries outside Nato, such as Japan, "makes sense", he said.
Admiral Michael Mullen told the US congress last week he was "not convinced we're winning it in Afghanistan".
Gates yesterday distanced himself from the comment, referring instead to "increasing challenges" and a more complex conflict. It was not just a fight between foreign forces and the Taliban, he said. He referred to "a kind of syndicate working together" consisting of the Taliban, foreign fighters, and supporters of Gulbertin Hekmatiyar, an Islamist militia leader.
"Syndicates of different players [present] a different kind of challenge," Gates said. He added: "Clearly a piece of the problem is governance and corruption fuelled by the narcotics trade."
In common with Des Browne, the British defence secretary, Gates said Afghanistan would remain a "long-term" problem.
He addressed two other sensitive and difficult issues - relations with Pakistan and the number of civilian deaths caused by US bombing raids in Afghanistan.
He said US military chiefs, including Mullen, were in close contact with the new Pakistani leadership leaders. The "most productive path" in dealing with al-Qaida, Taliban and other insurgents based in Pakistan's north-west tribal areas was "in cooperation with Pakistan", Gates said. However, he did not comment on the role of US special forces - which do not come under the command of US generals in Afghanistan - in cross-border raids.
Gates disclosed he had issued new orders to US commanders in Afghanistan, instructing them to consider carefully the risks of civilian casualties. He added that the US had been "on the wrong side of strategic communications" - in future the US would apologise and compensate families first - and investigate afterwards.
"The issue of civilian casualties is very important to us. We try to make sure they do not occur and we work cooperatively with the Afghans and others like the UN should incidents occur."
Meanwhile, Richard Boucher, the US assistant secretary of state for South Asia, was in London consulting British Foreign Office officials about developments in Afghanistan and Pakistan in advance of next week's UN general assembly session, which Pakistan president Hamid Karzai will be attending.
Boucher told the Guardian. "The loss of life is a tragedy but it also has a political impact.
"It's very hard because we are dealing with an enemy that intentionally goes out and blows up civilians in markets and on buses, that hides in villages and farmhouses to shoot at us, though we recognise we have to be extra careful."
McKiernan has warned that the chronic shortage of US troops is forcing commanders to rely more on airstrikes, that can kill innocent civilians. The US admits that the Taliban have become more organised and are working more closely with al-Qaida.
At a glance • Call for $20bn to be contributed by allies so as to double size of Afghan army in five years to 122,000 troops
• US army to send three more brigades, raising its total to 50,000 soldiers
• Cooperate with Pakistan over insurgents in frontier areas
• Directive to US commanders to avoid civilian casualties and accept responsibility when they occur
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Taliban opens new front in Pakistan
The Taliban has laid down the gauntlet to Pakistan's overstretched security forces by opening up a new front in the north of the country.
By Isambard Wilkinson in Maidan The Telegraph (UK) / September 19, 2008
Militants have used fear and intimidation to clear a swathe of territory in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) to establish training camps and for taking sanctuary, and have set up their headquarters in Maidan, in the rugged, green hills of the Upper Dir valley.
"We know the local militants but we don't know the foreigners and outsiders who have arrived here. They are the mostly hardline, well-trained fighters," said Hussain Shah, a local leader from the NWFP's ruling Awami National Party (ANP).
The Taliban encroachment has seeped from Pakistan's seven tribal areas into adjacent areas nominally under full government control. In Maidan The Daily Telegraph witnessed armed Taliban fighters in fields surrounding the town.
Last week 20 more locals were killed and 30 wounded when militants hurled grenades and fired indiscriminately into a Dir mosque.
At a funeral service held two weeks ago in Maidan fear had silenced the mourners. Prayers were said for Mehmud Jan, the right-hand man of Sufi Mohammed, a former leader of a rival militant group, Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e- Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM).
A friend said that Jan had been "courageous to talk against the Taliban". Militants riddled Jan with bullets in front of his house as he set out to pray in a nearby mosque.
"Nobody knows who to trust. Fear is everywhere. We do not look anybody in the eye," said Jan's friend.
The arrival of militants better known for fighting in Afghanistan comes at a watershed moment for Pakistan's counter-insurgency operations.
Washington and London are frustrated that Pakistan has failed to formulate a comprehensive counter insurgency strategy or a plan for governing its lawless, border tribal areas.
America is forging a new, more aggressive military strategy to tackle terrorist sanctuaries in Pakistan. Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said last week that "time is running out" in the battle against the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Tensions between the two allies escalated this week after Pakistani forces reportedly opened fire on American soldiers heading from Afghanistan towards Pakistan's border.
An ongoing campaign of firing American missiles into the tribal areas and a botched US commando ground assault conducted on Pakistani soil two weeks ago has prompted a barrage of protest from Pakistan's newly elected government.
America views Pakistan's policy of engaging militants in limited battles and then striking peace agreements with them as inadequate. Pakistan views its role as one of "containment" and has been loath to sever its links with its old Afghan Taliban and jihadi proxies.
The dispute has flared as Pakistan is embroiled in two intensive operations against militants in areas neighbouring Dir.
In Bajaur the army has pounded militant positions with artillery, helicopter gunships and F-16 aircraft and claimed to have killed over 700 militants in the past month.
The army has met stiff resistance and militants have dug themselves into bunkers and tunnels. This week the army sent reinforcements preparing the ground for further fighting.
In Swat the army claimed to have killed 130 militants as it has bombed militant positions around the district's main city, Mingora.
In Swat Cobra helicopters dipped and clattered above the city, and fired high explosive rounds into militant positions in the surrounding hills.
The city is exposed. Police stations at its edges have faced numerous attacks and locals have fled from villages on the outskirts to escape militant harassment and the military's artillery.
The atmosphere in Swat and Dir is one of fear and confusion. Locals believe Pakistan's intelligence agencies spent several years building up a stooge, Mullah Fazlullah, who was a former ski-lift operator with no previous local backing. He now commands the TNSM.
Mingora's government buildings are pocked by suicide blasts and rocket attacks. The militants have targeted the security forces and have bombed 130 government-run schools. Similar to a campaign that wiped out 120 tribal leaders in Waziristan militants have begun to methodically assassinate Swat's politicians from the ANP.
Locals, who said they wished to have neither the military nor militants in the area, have began to stand up the to the Taliban.
Two suspected militants from Swat entered a nearby town in Upper Dir on Thursday but people from the area chased them away. They tried to take refuge in a forest where an exchange of gunfire took place, and later they blew themselves up by detonating explosives strapped to their body.
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Bush to meet Pakistan's Zardari as ties strain
by Laurent Lozano Fri Sep 19, 1:33 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - President George W. Bush will meet Tuesday for the first time with his new Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari as ties between the two allies strain over Afghanistan and US strikes on Islamic militants.
Bush and Zardari, who was sworn into office on September 9 to take over from Pervez Musharraf, will meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly to be held at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
The talks will come just three days before Bush meets Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and as drones apparently operated by US troops from Afghanistan almost daily strike targets in the tribal border areas of northwest Pakistan.
The Bush administration has accused Taliban Islamic militants and Al-Qaeda followers of using the unruly border areas as bases from which to direct a growing deadly insurgency in Afghanistan.
In private, US officials say that Pakistani leaders are not doing enough to flush out the militants and help stop the insurgency which has become the administration's main military headache.
But strikes against Pakistani territory, the tally of civilian casualties as well as reports that the US forces even conducted a ground raid into Pakistan on September 3 have fueled anti-American feeling in the country.
Islamabad has already protested the strikes and Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Kayani has pledged to safeguard the country's "territorial integrity."
The talks between Bush and Zardari "are expected to focus on cooperation in combating terrorism, strengthening the economy and fostering democracy in Pakistan," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
Zardari is the widow of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto who was assassinated in an attack in December as she was campaigning for the country's parliamentary elections.
The US administration had pushed for Bhutto's return from exile, and had worked to put in place a power-sharing accord with Musharraf, a staunch US ally in the "war on terror" since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
But Bhutto's assassination has plunged the nuclear power into political and economic instability for the past months, and Musharraf, an army general, resigned on August 18.
Despite rumors of past corruption, Zardari will probably get a favorable reception from the US as it bids to continue the war on terror.
Bush told Zardari by phone after he was sworn in that he had Washington's support in the fight against terrorism in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
"I pledged the full support of America's government as Pakistan takes the fight to the terrorists and extremists in the border regions," Bush said.
But two days later, The New York Times wrote that Bush had secretly approved land operations in Pakistan without Islamabad's agreement.
The chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, arrived on a surprise visit to Islamabad on Tuesday for talks with Pakistani army chiefs and reiterated US commitment to respecting Pakistan's sovereignty.
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Pakistan's Zardari could face threat from army: IISS
LONDON (AFP) — Pakistan's new president, Ali Asif Zardari, must make fighting Islamist militancy in the border regions with Afghanistan his top priority, a leading thinktank said Thursday.
But he faces a tough job to gain the trust of the army, which could ultimately threaten his government, said the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in its annual review of global geopolitical security.
"Zardari's top priority is to fight terrorism and Islamist militancy in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan," said John Chipman, head of the prestigious London thinktank, launching the Strategic Survey 2008 report.
"But the Pakistani army remains unable or unwilling to counter effectively the resurgent Taliban with over 110,000 troops deployed in the area."
US and Afghan officials say Pakistan's tribal areas are a safe haven for Al-Qaeda and Taliban rebels who took sanctuary there after the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in late 2001.
But Islamabad has vowed to defend itself against violations of its air space and incursions by US forces from Afghanistan, straining the relationship between the "war on terror" allies.
"Zardari's major challenge will be to gain the trust of the army and build a consensus against terrorism and Islamist extremism among the political establishment," Chipman told reporters.
"To pursue the campaign on terror, he will need to balance the conflicting interests of growing US pressure for military strikes in the tribal areas with the Pakistani army's decreasing tolerance for such attacks."
He added: "In order to reduce public opposition to such a policy, he needs to build bridges with the major opposition political parties.
"Most importantly, president Zardari will need to ensure that the ensuing domestic political turbulence, heightened by the growing economic crisis, does not place his own government at risk from the army."
Zardari, the widower of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was sworn in as president last week.
On Wednesday, at least five people were killed when four missiles fired by suspected US drones struck a compound in a northwestern Pakistani tribal area near the Afghan border, according to officials in nearby Peshawar.
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US defends more strikes in Pakistan
Press TV (Iran) Fri, 19 Sep 2008 07:34:17 GMT
US Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, has said that US forces have the right to strike militants in the tribal belt inside Pakistan.
Speaking to media, Gates said that the US would prefer Pakistan to tackle militants itself, but he insisted that Washington would take "whatever actions necessary" in self-defense.
Asked if former Pakistani government had authorized US air strikes on its soil, Gates replied "I wouldn't go in that direction," adding: "I would just say that we will take whatever action necessary to protect our troops."
He also noticed that increasing militant violence there might prompt a change in US strategy, 'Whatever necessary', but gave no details.
However, Pentagon officials had earlier called for a new strategy to cover both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
He also welcomed the Pakistani army's "much more aggressive" approach to militants along the border in recent weeks.
Gates, fresh from a visit to Afghanistan, is in London for talks with other NATO ministers.
In recent weeks, Pakistan's tribal areas have been the scene of US-led missile strikes. The United States claims that the strikes have been directed at militants, but the attacks have killed scores of civilians this year, sparking outrage in Pakistan.
The latest strike on Wednesday happened only hours after Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, claimed that Washington fully respects the sovereignty of Pakistan.
Recent cross-border US raids on militants have been condemned by Pakistani government, which insists it will not allow foreign forces onto its territory.
Pakistani tribal leaders are also among those who have threatened to target US-led troops in Afghanistan if the cross-border attacks continue. A jirga of Pakistani tribal leaders have vowed to take sever action against the US if it launches any further incursion into the tribal belt.
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SAS may have shot Afghan governor
The Age AUSTRALIAN 19 September 2008
special forces in Afghanistan have been involved in a disastrous incident in which a district governor, war hero and close ally of President Hamid Karzai has been shot dead.
The Australian Defence Force confirmed yesterday that Chora district governor and tribal leader Rozi Khan was one of several Afghans shot dead on Wednesday night. It said it was investigating whether he had been killed by the Australians' gunfire.
President Karzai expressed his deep sorrow over the governor's death, which he said appeared to be the result of a misunderstanding.
The ADF said in a statement that its soldiers had returned fire in self defence after being shot at from several locations during an operation in Oruzgan province.
Oruzgan police chief Gulab Khan said it appeared that the governor was killed when he went to the home of a friend who had called him to say he feared Taliban forces had surrounded his home.
But it is understood that the men outside the home were Australians, and when they were fired on they assumed the attackers were Taliban.
Mr Khan was elected governor in June in a poll monitored by Dutch troops who share the base at Tarin Kowt with the Australians.
He was considered a hero after leading 500 of his tribesmen to support hard-pressed Dutch troops under attack by the Taliban in the nearby Chora Valley last year.
The Dutch media was last night mourning the loss of one the Netherlands' "bravest allies".
NATO said five people were killed in a "possible friendly fire incident" including three members of the Afghan National Police.
The incident will worsen tensions between the Afghan Government and foreign troops over the high number of civilians being killed in the war. Nearly 1500 have died so far this year.
This week in Canberra, Australian Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon and his French counterpart, Herve Morin, stressed that avoiding civilian casualties would be crucial to winning over the Afghan population.
The ADF said it was working closely with international security forces and Afghan investigators and would carry out a full investigation of its own.
Its initial understanding was that a patrol from the Special Operations Task Group, which is made up of SAS troops and commandos, was on foot when the soldiers were fired on from a number of locations by unknown attackers.
The patrol returned fire, the ADF said. It appeared that the Australians acted in accordance with their rules of engagement and that their actions were appropriate and proportionate in a complex and lethal environment, a statement said.
"The ADF can confirm that Chora district governor and tribal leader Rozi Khan was among those killed. It is not possible at this time to determine that he was killed by ADF fire."
The ADF said a number of groups, including Afghan National Police personnel, were in the vicinity of the incident.
No ADF personnel were wounded but it appeared that a number of local nationals were killed or wounded in the exchange of fire and their identities would be determined as part of the investigations. "Australian forces make every effort to minimise the risk of any damage, injury or loss of life to non-combatants," it said.
With AGENCIES
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Hameed's 5 wickets haul steers Afghanistan to 3 runs victory
Associated Press of Pakistan
PESHAWAR, Sept. 19 (APP): Right-arm medium fast bowler Hameed Gul's five wickets haul steered Afghanistan to upset Islamia Cricket Academy (ICA) by 3 runs in their third match of the Tour being played here at Arbab Niaz Cricket Stadium on Friday.
Hameed Gul grabbed five wickets for 42 runs in his 6.4 overs spell and played a key role in the success of his team against strong ICA led by Test cricketer Yasir Hameed and World Cupper opener Wajahatullah Wasti.
Afghanistan skipper Nawros Mangalzai won the toss and elected to bat first by setting up 230 runs for the all out after playing 38.2 overs. The Afghanistan top order also fumbled against tight bowling attack by the ICA bowlers.
Only the middle order of Asghar Ali and Raees Ahmadzai contributed a vital 103 runs partnership for the fifth wickets with Asghar made 53 runs off 44 balls with four boundaries and two sixes and Raees made 50 runs off 40 balls with seven boundaries and one six.
Ahmad Shah (34) off 50 balls with four boundaries, Noor Ali (25) off 35 balls with five boundaries, Shafiq Ahmad (17) and Noroz Khan and Muhammad Nabi 12 runs each were the other leading runs contributors.
For ICA, which is recently established by Test cricketer Arshad Khan, Muhammad Shafiq took three wickets for 43 runs in his eight overs spell, Jan Nisar and Muhammad Shah took two wickets each while Wali Khan and Fahad Riaz took one wicket each.
The ICA team took a brilliant start when the two openers Yasir Hameed and Wajahatullah Wasti provided a solid stand of 167 runs opening wicket stand. Yasir smashed 67 runs off 60 balls with 11 boundaries and Wajahatullah Wasti while staying for 140 minute on the wicket made 100 runs off 92 balls with 15 boundaries and a six.
After the departure of the two openers, the other batsmen were failed to stand in front of excellent bowling by the Afghans bowlers. Jan Nisar (12), Ramiz (11) were the only high runs contributors and none of the other batsmen could cross the double figures.
Thus ICA bowled out for 227 runs after playing 39.4 overs after a close contest.
For Afghanistan Hameed Gul took five wickets, Muhammad Nabi, Noor Ali, Samiullah took one wicket each. Sajid Afridi and Hakim Shah supervised the match while Noor Muhammad acted as scorer. Afghanistan will now play its last match against Charsadda Youth at the same venue.
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Insurgents in Afghanistan show strength, sophistication
This summer, foreign troop deaths have exceeded those of U.S. forces in Iraq. 'We feel that things are going very, very well for us,' one Taliban fighter says.
By Laura King Los Angeles Times Staff Writer September 18, 2008
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — A summer of heavy fighting during which Western military leaders had hoped to seize the initiative from Islamic militants has instead revealed an insurgency capable of employing complex new tactics and fighting across a broad swath of Afghanistan.
Over the last three months, insurgents have exacted the most punishing casualty tolls on Western forces since the Afghan war began nearly seven years ago. Numbers of foreign troops killed have exceeded U.S. military deaths in Iraq.
As Washington prepares to increase troop levels and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates paid a visit, militants have created a palpable sense of encirclement in Kabul with a series of small but highly symbolic attacks near the capital. They have reaped a propaganda bonanza from accidental killings of civilians by foreign forces and undercut reconstruction efforts by targeting aid workers.
Meanwhile, the vast narcotics empire presided over by the Taliban has continued to flourish, its profits helping to ensure a flow of cash and weaponry.
"In all, we feel that things are going very, very well for us," said a Taliban field commander in Kandahar province whose men fought hit-and-run battles with Canadian and British forces during the summer, the season when fighting is most intense. "And what is more, time is on our side."
Militants have suffered losses of their own. NATO- and U.S.-led forces, which total nearly 65,000 troops, say they have killed hundreds of insurgents over the summer. Dozens of veteran mid-level commanders have been arrested or killed, depriving insurgents of "what could best be described as their bank of institutional expertise," a U.S. military official said.
At the same time, though, militants have demonstrated new strength, sophistication and ambition, particularly in eastern Afghanistan. A roadside blast there Wednesday killed four foreign soldiers and an Afghan. The victims were not identified, but most of the international troops there are Americans.
"When you have six years of combat experience, you get steadily better," said Anthony Cordesman, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Western field commanders readily acknowledge that the Taliban and loosely allied militants learn from failures as well as successes. When Taliban fighters noticed that Western forces were jamming the signals insurgents used to detonate roadside bombs, they switched back to pressure plates that would be set off by the weight of a passing convoy.
Through the careful choice of targets, tactics and technology, the militants appeared to frequently catch Western commanders and their Afghan allies by surprise. They have defied expectations that they would avoid full assaults on major Western bases.
That has led to some jarring setbacks.
In June, the Taliban orchestrated a spectacular prison break here that set hundreds of insurgents free. A multi-pronged assault on a remote, just-established U.S. outpost killed nine Americans in July. In August, an ambush killed 10 French troops -- and set off impassioned debate in yet another NATO country over the efficacy of the Afghan mission.
In large swaths of the countryside, insurgents have been able to intimidate local officials into cooperating, in part because President Hamid Karzai's government is perceived to be corrupt and inefficient.
"Once, people would look to the government for justice," said Abdul Qadoos, a businessman and tribal leader in Kandahar province. "Now they go to the Taliban."
Like their counterparts in Iraq, Western military officials speak in frustration of achieving success in one area, only to see the militants pop up in another. Marines claim credit for choking off an infiltration route from Pakistan in Afghanistan's south over the summer. But during that period, the east, where long-time insurgency leaders are joined by Islamic militants focused on a global conflict with the West, became a caldron of violence. U.S. and NATO officials say fighters can move freely across the frontier from Pakistan's tribal areas.
American forces have stepped up strikes, mostly airborne, against militant targets in Pakistan. However, military officials and analysts say the insurgents may become less reliant on rear bases in Pakistan because they have been improving their infrastructure in Afghanistan. For example, they have created large networks of safe houses close to Kabul.
Western troops face the conundrum that any conventional army confronts in a guerrilla war: Insurgents appear victorious merely by staying in the fight.
"The kinds of strikes they make are useful in providing a perception of insecurity, and in getting some NATO countries to change their cost-benefit analysis of the conflict," said Seth Jones, a counterinsurgency expert at Rand Corp.
Even senior U.S. military commanders acknowledge the insurgents' resourcefulness and resilience.
"I'm not convinced we're winning in Afghanistan," Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told members of Congress this month. However, he quickly added: "I'm convinced we can."
In contrast to the insurgents' freedom of movement, Western forces must expend great effort and large numbers of troops to dominate even a sliver of territory. The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, now ending an eight-month deployment in southern Afghanistan, spent nearly its entire tenure taking and holding Garmsir, a small but strategic district in Helmand province.
The unit's commander, Col. Peter Petronzio, expressed confidence that Afghan troops, backed by British forces, would be able to hold that ground. But local officials, and a person familiar with the Marines' own intelligence assessments, suggested that the district could slip back into insurgent hands.
"You see that everywhere," said Qadoos, the tribal leader in Kandahar province. "The foreigners come, and stay for a week or a month, and then they leave. And a few days later, the Taliban are back.
"And then everyone who cooperated with the foreigners -- tribal leaders, any prominent person in the community -- is in immediate danger of being killed," he said.
Among the most corrosive issues afflicting Western forces' relations with Afghans and their government is civilian casualties. Groups such as Human Rights Watch link large-scale civilian deaths to what they say is an excessive reliance on air power.
An apparently misdirected airstrike July 6 in the eastern province of Nangarhar hit a group traveling to a wedding party. At least 47 people were reported killed, including the bride-to-be. Even more damaging was the Aug. 22 bombardment of a village in Herat province. American military officials have acknowledged killing seven civilians in the raid; Afghan officials, backed by the United Nations, say 90 people died, many of them children. Amid a sustained outcry, the U.S. military has reopened its investigation.
Gates apologized Wednesday for the deaths. But Western officials point out that insurgents kill more civilians than do foreign troops -- and do so deliberately. A U.N. report issued Tuesday says that 1,445 civilians were killed in the first eight months of this year, 800 of them by insurgents.
"They hide behind civilians, they disguise themselves as civilians, they kill civilians," said Capt. Mark Windsor, a spokesman for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led force in Afghanistan.
Western troops sometimes take extraordinary risks seeking rapport with Afghan civilians. Always vigilant for suicide bombers, Canadian troops nevertheless have been carrying out foot patrols in Kandahar instead of moving about only in armored vehicles.
On a recent patrol with Afghan police, they were rattled when a car careened toward them, speeding up when they signaled it to stop. They prepared to fire warning shots, but a child was in the line of fire. The driver, it turned out, had been distracted by something he spotted in a nearby field -- and Sgt. John Dawson was nearly limp with relief that Canadian troops hadn't made a split-second decision to open fire and risk injuring either the motorist or the child.
A short time later, the patrol had to hastily return to base after receiving an urgent warning that they were under surveillance by suspected Taliban fighters.
Analysts and military officials debate whether the proposed addition of a U.S. Army brigade early next year will be enough to turn the tide. Gen. David D. McKiernan, commander of foreign forces in Afghanistan, said Tuesday that he would need three additional brigades.
Cordesman, the analyst, said it probably would be three to five years before the war's outcome would be clear.
"But in the meantime, will we have enough forces to take the initiative away from the Taliban?" he said. "The answer is probably no."
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Pakistan to donate kidney centre to Afghanistan
The News International (Pakistan) Friday, September 19, 2008
Islamabad: The government of Pakistan has proposed to donate a kidney centre to Afghanistan to serve the poor and underprivileged Afghans, suffering from kidney diseases.
Incidents of kidney ailments are very high in Afghanistan and treatment facilities are not available. In such a scenario, this is a welcome proposal by the Pakistani government to help the neighbours.
The government of Pakistan has set up an Afghan trade and development cell in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to establish a kidney centre at Jalalabad, the Nishtar Kidney Centre. It would include the construction of the centre and rehabilitation facility, and training of doctors, paramedical staff and bio-medical engineers.
The government requested the SIUT for the training of an 18-member team of doctors, paramedical staff and bio-medical engineers. The SIUT agreed to train the team for six months at its own expense without charging the government as a gesture of good will to the poor people of Afghanistan.
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