 |
||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serving you since 1998 | ||||||||||||
|
|
US dismayed at Afghan release of drug smugglers
15 Jul 2009 16:23:43 GMT
WASHINGTON, July 15 (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai's recent pardon of five convicted heroin smugglers is a disappointing setback to Kabul's U.S.-backed fight against the narcotics trade
Helicopter reported shot down in Afghanistan
By Fisnik Abrashi, Associated Press Writer – Wed Jul 15, 12:25 am ET
KABUL – A civilian helicopter ferrying humanitarian aid was shot down in a southern Afghan province where fighting with the Taliban is raging, killing all six Ukrainian crew members and a child on the ground
Afghan police kill Taliban commander, arrest 2 others
KABUL, July 15 (Xinhua)-- Police during a clash with militants in northern Baghlan province of Afghanistan killed a Taliban commander and captured two of his comrades, provincial police chief Abdul Rahman Syed Khili said Wednesday.
Turkish commander, soldier killed in Afghanistan
Wed Jul 15, 7:57 AM
ANKARA (AFP) - The commander of Turkey's contingent in the NATO force in Afghanistan and another soldier have been killed in a road accident in northern Afghanistan, the foreign ministry said Wednesday.
Vehicle accident leaves 2 NATO soldiers dead in N Afghanistan
KABUL, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Two soldiers of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed in a road accident in northern Afghanistan, a statement of the alliance issued here on Wednesday said.
Civilians among several killed in Afghanistan
GHAZNI, Afghanistan (AFP) – Two civilians and a policeman were killed in Afghanistan on Wednesday, authorities said, as insurgent violence mounts weeks ahead of presidential polls.
Factbox - Security developments in Afghanistan, 15 Jul 2009
July 15 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 1330 GMT on Wednesday:
UK Army chief: More troops needed in Afghanistan
By David Stringer, Associated Press Writer – Wed Jul 15, 6:07 am ET
LONDON – Britain's army chief said Wednesday that more troops are needed in Afghanistan's volatile southern province of Helmand as soldiers pursue a bloody campaign to uproot Taliban fighters ahead of elections next month.
Brown faces questions over Afghanistan equipment
LONDON, England (CNN) -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown defended the military mission in Afghanistan amid tough questions Wednesday from the opposition leader.
Brown says Karzai pledges more Afghan forces
President Hamid Karzai has promised to provide extra Afghan security forces to reinforce British soldiers battling Taliban insurgents, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Wednesday.
10-year Chinook saga grounds Britain in Afghanistan
July 16, 2009, 1:42 am
LONDON (Reuters) - Part of the difficulty British forces face in Afghanistan, where 15 soldiers have been killed in the past two weeks, can be traced back to mistakes made in procuring helicopters more than a decade ago, experts say.
Pride and anger for eight soldiers killed by Taliban in Afghanistan
Robert Booth guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 14 July 2009 21.00 BST
The eight soldiers killed in the most deadly 24 hours of British operations in Afghanistan were repatriated today amid emotional scenes before hundreds of onlookers in a Wiltshire market town.
Karzai opponents hope to beat him in second round
By NANCY A. YOUSSEF McClatchy Newspapers
KABUL, Afghanistan -- In an effort to offset Afghan President Hamid Kazai's deals with various tribal factions, his rival presidential candidates are hoping to deny him a majority in the Aug. 20 election
Afghan presidential contest tightens
KABUL, Afghanistan, July 14 (UPI) -- The main opposition candidates to Afghan President Hamid Karzai are gaining ground with early forecasts predicting a runoff for the August vote.
Obama hopes Netherlands will continue Afghan mission
Wed Jul 15, 9:45 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama said Tuesday he hoped the Netherlands would continue its participation in NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, which are fighting to defeat the resurgent Taliban.
Unsafe housing puts Kabul residents at risk
KABUL, 15 July 2009 (IRIN) - Most people in the Afghan capital Kabul live in illegal, unplanned and sub-standard houses that are prone to natural disasters and lack water and sanitation facilities, according to government officials.
Will history repeat itself in Afghanistan?
Wednesday, 15 July 2009 BBC News
British military intervention in Afghanistan has a chequered history, making it easy to conclude that British forces will fail again. But such a conclusion is a mistake and does a disservice both to troops fighting there and to history itself,
Women's Health at Center of Development, Security Goals in Afghanistan
VOA News By Gabe Joselow July 14, 2009
In Afghanistan, a woman dies every 27 minutes on average from a pregnancy-related condition that is preventable, in most cases, with proper health facilities. Afghan and U.S. officials speaking in Washington Tuesday
Afghanistan's TV 'Election': Better Than the Real Thing
By Aryn Baker time.com Wednesday, Jul. 15, 2009
It is Mujiburahman Poya's youth that makes his face jump out from among the posters of the 41 candidates for Afghanistan's presidential election next month. Surrounded by images of the grizzled faces of older men sporting
Afghan War’s Buried Bombs Put Risk in Every Step
By JAMES DAO July 15, 2009 The New York Times
FORWARD OPERATING BASE ALTIMUR, Afghanistan — The call came just after dinner: a pickup truck carrying Afghan national police officers had hit a buried bomb, and all five officers inside were dead.
Police take pistols for Afghan posting
Brendan Nicholson Foreign Affairs Correspondent Sydney Morning Herald - Jul 15 8:07 AM
AUSTRALIAN Federal Police going to Afghanistan to help train their hard-pressed Afghan counterparts will be armed.
Zawahiri: Pakistanis must fight US
Al Jazeera July 15, 2009
Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's second-in-command, has urged Pakistanis to rise up against US forces, which he said had occupied their country.
Back to Top
US dismayed at Afghan release of drug smugglers
15 Jul 2009 16:23:43 GMT
WASHINGTON, July 15 (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai's recent pardon of five convicted heroin smugglers is a disappointing setback to Kabul's U.S.-backed fight against the narcotics trade, the State Department said on Wednesday.
A spokesman for Karzai said last week the five pardons took place several months ago after the intercession of tribal chiefs, long a tradition in such matters in Afghanistan.
One of those released was a close relative of Deen Mohammad, who is running Karzai's campaign for re-election in the Aug. 20 presidential poll, a source with knowledge of the case said. The man was jailed for more than a decade in 2007 for smuggling more than 220 lbs (100 kg) of heroin.
"It is disappointing ... when successfully prosecuted traffickers are later released, as has occurred recently," the State department said in a statement.
"This undermines the work of the Afghan Ministries of the Interior and Counter Narcotics," it said.
The State Department said the U.S. Department of Justice, had given some $6 million to develop Afghanistan's Criminal Justice Task Force, a body set up in May 2005 to investigate and prosecute leading drug traffickers.
Karzai has been leading Afghanistan since the removal of the Taliban after a U.S.-led invasion in 2001 and won the country's first presidential poll three years later.
He has been under fire from Western leaders over poor governance, endemic corruption and for the booming drugs trade since the Taliban's fall.
Afghanistan is the biggest opium poppy producer in the world, with opium also funding the Taliban-led insurgency.
(Reporting by Paul Eckert, Editing by Sandra Maler)
Back to Top
Back to Top
Helicopter reported shot down in Afghanistan
By Fisnik Abrashi, Associated Press Writer – Wed Jul 15, 12:25 am ET
KABUL – A civilian helicopter ferrying humanitarian aid was shot down in a southern Afghan province where fighting with the Taliban is raging, killing all six Ukrainian crew members and a child on the ground, officials said. Three U.S. service members and an Italian soldier died in the latest clashes.
The transport helicopter crashed in flames Tuesday in the Sangin district of Helmand province, the center of Afghanistan's opium poppy cultivation where thousands of Marines are conducting their biggest offensive since the hardline Islamic movement was ousted from power in 2001.
NATO officials in Kabul said the cause of the crash was under investigation and gave no further details.
But the civil aviation authority of the former Soviet republic of Moldova said a rocket or a missile struck the Mi-26 helicopter, owned by the Moldovan air charter company Pecotox-Airi. The helicopter had been ferrying humanitarian aid when the crash took place, the Moldovans said in a statement.
The Taliban posted a statement on its Web site claiming the helicopter was brought down "by anti-aircraft fire" with 37 British soldiers on board. Moldovan and British authorities said no British troops were on the helicopter. Daud Ahmadi, the spokesman for the Helmand governor, said a 6-year-old child on the ground was also killed.
The crash occurred about a mile from a British base military base, according to Fazel Haq, a senior local official. The helicopter exploded in a ball of flames, generating smoke that could be seen over a wide area.
Last week, two Canadian soldiers and one British trooper were killed in a helicopter crash in Zabul province. Officials said that crash did not appear a result of hostile fire.
Afghanistan's harsh mountainous terrain, the lack of roads and the heavy use by the Taliban of roadside bombs have prompted international military forces to rely heavily on helicopters for transportation and supply missions. A shortage of military helicopters has forced some NATO nations to contract with private companies.
In other violence, an American soldier was killed Tuesday by a roadside bomb in the east and two American Marines were killed Monday in a "hostile incident" in Helmand, according to U.S. military spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias. She released no further details.
Those deaths brought to at least 108 the number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan so far this year, compared with 151 in all of 2008. As of Monday, at least 660 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan since the war began in 2001, according to the Defense Department. Of those, the military says 492 were killed by hostile action.
One Italian soldier was killed and three were wounded Tuesday when a roadside bomb struck their convoy about 30 miles north of the city of Farah in western Afghanistan, the Italian Defense Ministry announced. Italy has about 2,800 soldiers in Afghanistan, mostly in Kabul and the west of the country.
U.S. commanders are trying to turn the tide of the Taliban-led insurgency, which has transformed much of southern and eastern Afghanistan into no-go zones for Afghan authorities.
President Barack Obama has ordered 21,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan this year. There are about 57,000 U.S. troops currently in the country, and the number is expected to rise to at least 68,000 by the end of 2009.
Obama said Tuesday that he hopes military operations in Afghanistan can transition to a different phase after the Afghan presidential election set for Aug. 20. Obama said he is looking for an exit strategy in which the Afghan army, police, courts and government take more responsibility for the country's security.
To that end, about 4,000 U.S. Marines launched their operation July 2 in Helmand province, hoping to prevent Taliban fighters from disrupting the presidential ballot in what has been a longtime Taliban stronghold.
British forces, meanwhile, are facing a tough fight in another area of Helmand. Britain's 9,000-strong force has lost a record 15 soldiers this month — including eight in a 24-hour period, prompting a national debate over whether the conflict is still winnable.
The British Ministry of Defense announced Tuesday it was sending another 140 soldiers to Afghanistan from a British base in Cyprus to bolster the war effort.
___
Associated Press reporters Noor Khan in Kandahar, Maamoun Youssef in Cairo and Lara Jakes in Washington contributed to this report.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan police kill Taliban commander, arrest 2 others
KABUL, July 15 (Xinhua)-- Police during a clash with militants in northern Baghlan province of Afghanistan killed a Taliban commander and captured two of his comrades, provincial police chief Abdul Rahman Syed Khili said Wednesday.
"Mullah Ghayour was killed and two of his armed men were captured Tuesday night," Syed Khili told Xinhua.
He also added that Ghayour was involved in storming Burka district and setting on fire the district headquarters couple of months ago.
Taliban militants have not made comment.
Militants have intensified their activities as the date for Afghan presidential election scheduled for August 20 is drawing closer.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Turkish commander, soldier killed in Afghanistan
Wed Jul 15, 7:57 AM
ANKARA (AFP) - The commander of Turkey's contingent in the NATO force in Afghanistan and another soldier have been killed in a road accident in northern Afghanistan, the foreign ministry said Wednesday.
The crash that killed Colonel Faruk Sungur and his driver happened Tuesday as they were on their way from the northern city of Mazar-i Sharif to Kabul, ministry spokesman Burak Ozugergin told reporters.
Two other Turkish soldiers travelling in the vehicle were injured, he said.
With the accident in Faryab province, the number of foreign military deaths in Afghanistan this year passed the 200 mark.
Turkey has around 730 soldiers in the NATO-led force in Afghanistan.
Military casualties have surged as troops battle their way into Taliban-controlled strongholds mainly in southern Afghanistan.
The independent www.icasualties-org website, which tracks military fatalities in Iraq and Afghanistan, says around 199 foreign soldiers have lost their lives in Afghanistan this year, without counting the latest deaths.
There are about 90,000 foreign troops stationed in Afghanistan to help the Kabul government curb a mounting Taliban-led insurgency now at its deadliest since the 2001 US-led invasion.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Vehicle accident leaves 2 NATO soldiers dead in N Afghanistan
KABUL, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Two soldiers of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed in a road accident in northern Afghanistan, a statement of the alliance issued here on Wednesday said.
"Two ISAF service members were killed in a vehicle accident in northern Afghanistan yesterday, July 14," the statement said.
Two additional ISAF soldiers, who were also in the same car, were injured and are currently treated at the ISAF military field hospital in Mazar-e-Sharif, it added.
The accident occurred while an ISAF troop convoy was traveling in the vicinity of northern Faryab province.
However, it did not identify the nationality of the victims, saying it is ISAF policy not to release the nationality of any casualty prior to the relevant national authority doing so.
But, police chief of Faryab province Khalil Andarabi said that the victims were from Turkey serving with ISAF troops in Afghanistan.
Meantime, a spokesman of NATO-led ISAF forces in east Afghanistan Sabawan Hotak says that three more ISAF soldiers got wounded in clash with insurgents in the eastern Kunar province Wednesday, but he did not provide more details.
American forces are stationed in Kunar province.
Over 80,000 -strong NATO -led ISAF and the U.S.-led Coalition troops have been stationed in Afghanistan to ensure security in the militancy-hit country.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Civilians among several killed in Afghanistan
GHAZNI, Afghanistan (AFP) – Two civilians and a policeman were killed in Afghanistan on Wednesday, authorities said, as insurgent violence mounts weeks ahead of presidential polls.
The civilians died when an improvised bomb placed on an abandoned bicycle was remotely detonated near a convoy of trucks supplying foreign forces in the city of Ghazni, south of Kabul, police said.
A passer-by was injured in the blast, Khyal Baz Sherzai, the provincial police chief, told AFP. He blamed the attack on Taliban insurgents.
A police officer was killed while defusing a roadside bomb in Kandahar, another troubled city in the south, the interior ministry and a local police official said.
"He was trying to defuse the bomb. It was a Taliban bomb," a local police official told AFP at the site of the blast.
Separately, the defence ministry said Afghan troops killed two insurgents in a gunbattle elsewhere in Ghazni. The fighting erupted after the rebels attacked troops patrolling the area.
Violence from a Taliban-led insurgency has surged in recent weeks, claiming the lives of dozens of international soldiers and civilians.
Thousands of US Marines and British troops backed by Afghan security forces have been battling their way into some of the most dangerous Taliban strongholds in a massive push against the rebels.
The operations have been designed to drive Taliban and other insurgents from the southern province of Helmand in the run-up to presidential elections on August 20.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Factbox - Security developments in Afghanistan, 15 Jul 2009
July 15 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 1330 GMT on Wednesday:
EASTERN AFGHANISTAN - A soldier from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was killed by a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the alliance said. It did not release the soldier's nationality or the exact location of the incident.
* FARYAB - Two ISAF soldiers were killed and two wounded in a vehicle accident in northern Faryab province on Tuesday, ISAF said in a statement. Defence officials in Turkey said the two dead soldiers were Turkish.
* GHAZNI - Two civilians were killed and one wounded when a bomb hidden in a bicycle exploded as a convoy of foreign troops went by in the southwestern town of Ghazni, provincial police chief Khial Baz Sherzai said. No soldiers were wounded, he said.
* KUNAR - Afghan security forces killed two Taliban militants and wounded four during a battle in eastern Manogai district on Tuesday, a local official said.
* KANDAHAR - One Afghan policeman was killed when a roadside bomb he was defusing went off in southern Kandahar city, the Interior Ministry said.
* GHAZNI - Afghan soldiers killed two insurgents during a battle in the Qara Bagh district of Ghazni on Tuesday, the Defence Ministry said.
(Compiled by Kabul Bureau; Editing by Paul Tait)
Back to Top
Back to Top
UK Army chief: More troops needed in Afghanistan
By David Stringer, Associated Press Writer – Wed Jul 15, 6:07 am ET
LONDON – Britain's army chief said Wednesday that more troops are needed in Afghanistan's volatile southern province of Helmand as soldiers pursue a bloody campaign to uproot Taliban fighters ahead of elections next month.
Gen. Richard Dannatt, outgoing head of the British army, said larger numbers of soldiers are needed to hold territory won in intense combat and to give ordinary Afghans more confidence in the region's security. It doesn't matter whether the soldiers are British, American or Afghan, he said.
Britain has around 9,000 troops in Helmand and has suffered heavy losses. The deaths of 15 soldiers this month — including eight in a 24-hour period — have prompted debate over whether the conflict is winnable.
About 4,000 U.S. Marines began operations in Helmand this month, seeking to prevent the Taliban from disrupting the country's presidential ballot on August 20.
"I have said before, we can have effect where we have boots on the ground. I don't mind whether the feet in those boots are British, American or Afghan, but we need more, to have the persistent effect to give the people confidence in us," Dannatt told BBC radio from Sangin, in Helmand. "That is the top line and the bottom line."
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday that troops in southern Afghanistan face a difficult summer of intense fighting. He has long called on other NATO allies, and European nations, to play a larger role in combat operations in Afghanistan and insisted that the Afghan army should provide larger numbers of personnel.
Critics accuse Brown's government of failing to provide soldiers with adequate vehicles and aircraft, requiring more journeys by land and making troops more vulnerable to roadside bomb attacks.
Dannatt said efforts to provide British troops with extra helicopters and armored vehicles had been too slow.
"We are trying to broaden and deepen our effect here, which is about people and about equipment, and of course to an extent it is about helicopters as well," he said,
He said eight Chinook helicopters and an unspecified number of Merlin helicopters are due to arrive in Afghanistan soon. Britain's defense ministry would not disclose the total number of aircraft available for British troops in Afghanistan on security grounds.
"We do the absolute maximum we can to protect our people and give them as good equipment as we can, but we are pushing to increase our influence and increase the number of people who are exposed to our influence," Dannatt said. "When we push, inevitably there is a possibility of taking casualties."
Back to Top
Back to Top
Brown faces questions over Afghanistan equipment
LONDON, England (CNN) -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown defended the military mission in Afghanistan amid tough questions Wednesday from the opposition leader.
Speaking the day after eight British soldiers killed in Afghanistan were laid to rest, Brown also defended the volume of equipment -- specifically helicopters -- supplied to troops in Afghanistan.
Conservative Party leader David Cameron said the number of helicopters in Afghanistan is "simply insufficient" and is "the basic problem" facing British troops there.
"He is right to raise issues of equipment so that I can assure him we are doing everything we can," Brown said at his weekly question time in the House of Commons.
The number of helicopters in Afghanistan has gone up by 60 percent over the past two years, Brown said. The British government is also spending £6 billion ($9.87 billion) over the next 10 years to improve military helicopters, he said.
"We have done everything we can to increase the number of helicopters," Brown said.
Cameron said that of the military's 500 helicopters, only 30 are being used in Afghanistan. At the same time, the number of British troops in Afghanistan has increased to 9,000, Brown said.
The eight soldiers laid to rest Tuesday were killed in four separate incidents in a 24-hour period last week. Their deaths bring to 15 the number of British troops killed in Afghanistan so far this month -- a relatively high toll that has raised questions at home about the legitimacy of the war.
Cameron said the government needs a "tighter definition" of the mission there and needs to show "greater urgency and more visible progress" in order to sustain public support.
"The purpose of our mission is very clear," Brown said in response. "It is to prevent terrorism coming to the streets of Britain."
A current operation, Operation Panther's Claw, is designed to flush out the Taliban from certain areas ahead of the Afghan elections next month. Brown said Afghan President Hamid Karzai had promised to provide his own troops and police to that operation.
After the elections, the focus will shift toward mentoring and training Afghan security services, Brown said.
Meanwhile, two NATO service members died in a vehicle accident Tuesday in northern Afghanistan, NATO reported Wednesday.
Two other soldiers, who were in the vehicle, were injured and were being treated at the military field hospital in the city of Mazar-e Sharif, said NATO's International Security Assistance Force.
No civilians were involved. The military did not release the nationalities of the soldiers or any other details of the accident
Back to Top
Back to Top
Brown says Karzai pledges more Afghan forces
President Hamid Karzai has promised to provide extra Afghan security forces to reinforce British soldiers battling Taliban insurgents, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Wednesday.
While Brown said he was keeping the number of British troops in Afghanistan under review, his spokesman said Britain was looking to its NATO allies to make a greater contribution to defeating the Taliban.
The loss of eight British soldiers in 24 hours last week has raised questions at home about whether there are enough troops in Afghanistan, whether they are equipped properly and if Britain should be there at all.
"I've been talking to President Karzai about Afghanistan's own responsibilities and that is that they provide army and police to the operation 'Panther's Claw'. President Karzai has promised he will provide additional resources to that and I believe that is starting now," Brown told parliament.
Under hostile questioning from Conservative leader David Cameron, Brown said it was not a lack of helicopters that caused the British deaths and said a commander had assured him the troops had the equipment they needed.
Britain has temporarily increased its force in Afghanistan to 9,000 during the campaign for an election next month.
"We keep under review the numbers and the equipment that is needed for the future ... We will look again at this after we've seen the Afghan election pass, hopefully, peacefully and democratically," Brown said.
Later in the year, Britain is prepared to do more work training Afghan security forces, Brown said.
Brown's spokesman said Britain's NATO partners, as well as Afghanistan, needed to make a bigger contribution to fighting the Taliban.
"We do need to have more of an effort from other NATO partners and that's what we are working towards and we also need to train up the Afghan army and, again, that's what we are working towards," the spokesman said.
More British soldiers have now died in Afghanistan -- 184 -- than in the campaign in Iraq.
Brown said the operation in Helmand was "making progress ... and gaining ground" and that the purpose of the Afghan mission was to prevent terrorism coming to the streets of Britain.
"We cannot allow the Taliban or al Qaeda-related activities to flourish in Afghanistan, and we cannot allow the Pakistan government to be overrun by people who are operating through al Qaeda and the Pakistan Taliban," he said.
(Reporting by Matt Falloon, Catherine Bosley, Adrian Croft)
Back to Top
Back to Top
10-year Chinook saga grounds Britain in Afghanistan
July 16, 2009, 1:42 am
LONDON (Reuters) - Part of the difficulty British forces face in Afghanistan, where 15 soldiers have been killed in the past two weeks, can be traced back to mistakes made in procuring helicopters more than a decade ago, experts say.
In 1995, Britain ordered 14 U.S.-built Chinooks, hoping the twin-rotor, heavy-lift helicopters would enable troops and equipment to be shuttled around a battlefield like Afghanistan.
The helicopters were delivered by Boeing in 2001, but eight of them could not be used because software source code needed to certify their airworthiness was not supplied. Access to the code had not been specified as part of the contract.
As a result, the helicopters have spent most of the past eight years sitting under wraps in hangars, while the Ministry of Defence and Boeing have engaged in protracted negotiations.
In the meantime, the cost of the helicopters has risen by more than 70 percent to 422 million pounds, and is expected to top 500 million by the time they are finally fit to enter service, probably some time next year.
Parliament's public accounts committee, in a report published in March, called it one of the worst procurement mistakes it had seen, "bordering on irresponsibility," and said it could put the lives of soldiers in Afghanistan at risk.
In the past two weeks, public anger over the rapidly rising death toll has prompted opposition politicians to criticise the government for failing to get enough helicopters to the warzone.
"If you want to move more troops around the battlefield, you need more helicopters," David Cameron, the leader of the Conservatives, told Prime Minister Gordon Brown during a parliamentary question-and-answer session Wednesday.
Brown defended the government's record, while reiterating a promise to get more helicopters to Afghanistan by next year -- a reference to the troubled Chinook program.
"Loss of life is tragic, but it is not to do with helicopters," he said, to jeers from the opposition parties.
MORE HELICOPTERS, MORE CREW?
With at least 10 of the 15 British troops killed this month hit by roadside bombs, public anger has focussed on the increased dangers soldiers face when they have to move by road. U.S. troops moving by road have also faced a heavy toll.
Given the vast distances involved -- Helmand province, where Britain's 9,000 troops are based, is bigger than Switzerland -- heavy-lift helicopters are the best, safest solution.
General Richard Dannatt, the head of the army, acknowledged the need for more air assets as he visited the front line in Helmand Wednesday.
"Air mobility is a key enabler and I know the commanders need a lot of that," he told the BBC, referring to the Chinooks.
"We are reworking a number of Chinook helicopters, eight of which will come on line quite soon," he said.
While the Chinooks may be ready for deployment next year, air defence experts say that may not be sufficient -- training of crews and support staff also has to take place.
"If you gave the air force those eight Chinooks tomorrow, they couldn't do anything because there aren't the crews and maintenance teams to support them," said Andrew Brookes at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
"Unless the money is spent on training extra crews for the Chinooks, and you're going to need 12 or 13 crews to support eight more aircraft, they're not going to be much use. It's a lot more complicated than just increasing the number."
(Editing by Richard Balmforth)
Back to Top
Back to Top
Pride and anger for eight soldiers killed by Taliban in Afghanistan
Robert Booth guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 14 July 2009 21.00 BST
The eight soldiers killed in the most deadly 24 hours of British operations in Afghanistan were repatriated today amid emotional scenes before hundreds of onlookers in a Wiltshire market town.
The bodies of the men, including three 18-year-olds, were driven in a cortege along a packed high street in Wootton Bassett, whose residents have borne witness over the last two years to the increasing bloodshed in Afghanistan.
The bodies were brought home in front of a guard of honour formed by colleagues and veterans as the government announced said 140 troops from the 2nd Battalion Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, currently based in Cyprus, would be deployed to Helmand province to join the Operation Panther's Claw offensive under way against the Taliban. A 700-strong battalion deployed to Afghanistan as reinforcements to bolster security before the presidential elections next month is also expected to remain there longer as part of the government's review of the British military presence in the country.
As the tenor bell of St Bartholomew's church tolled to mark their return, the assembled townspeople fell silent to witness the human cost of the recent hand-to-hand combat in Helmand, which the defence secretary, Bob Ainsworth, has said is unavoidable if the British military are to rout the Taliban.
The eight British soldiers killed in Afghanistan. Top, from left: Private John Brackpool, Rifleman Daniel Hume, Corporal Lee Scott and Rifleman James Backhouse. Bottom from left: Rifleman Joseph Murphy, Rifleman Jonathan Horne, Rifleman Daniel Simpson and Rifleman William Aldridge. Photograph: Ministry of Defence/Crown copy/PA
The hearses passed one by one, each with a coffin tightly bound in a union flag. At one point, the silence was broken by the family of Corporal Jonathan Horne, 28, who was killed by a roadside bomb near Sangin as he tried to rescue his comrades from an earlier blast. Horne's brother, Andy Lowe, 25, ran out with members of his family and friends to the hearse. They threw red roses on top and one said: "Love you, man." "At the back of my mind, I always feared it could be JJ, but I didn't want to think about it," Lowe said. "All I was thinking about was when he was due to come home in a few weeks and going down town for a couple of drinks."
Flowers were tossed from rooftops and the roadside and a football shirt was thrown on to another hearse as a ripple of applause spread through the crowd. When the cortege moved on, the tears came. Group after group were huddled together, eyes filled with tears, saying very little, only to comfort the most grief stricken.
Eight families were grieving and many more friends too.
Rifleman James Backhouse, 18, had been due to return home on leave today to his family in West Yorkshire. The family of Rifleman William Aldridge, 18, who died in a roadside blast, sat beneath homemade bunting carrying his picture and the words "Our lad".
Rifleman Joseph Murphy, 18, was killed carrying Rifleman Daniel Simpson, 20, away from a blast. Corporal Lee Scott, 26, died in an explosion on the same day just north of Nad-e-Ali. Private John Brackpool, 27, was shot at Char-e-Anjir, near Lashkar Gah, while on sentry duty and Rifleman Daniel Hume, 22, was killed in an explosion while on foot patrol.
The day had begun at noon, when the C17 cargo plane bearing the coffins flew low over the cemetery of St Michael and the Angels at Lyneham, home of the RAF base, before banking to complete a flypast above Wiltshire and Oxfordshire, where country pubs flew flags at half-mast.
Waiting in the VIP area of the base were the families. There was time for a moment of private grief in the chapel of rest before a more public repatriation in Wootton Bassett.
The hearses that today crawled down the high street brought to 184 the number of British troops killed, more than the death toll in Iraq. Veterans, uniformed soldiers, leather-clad bikers and the general public were touched by anger and pride. There was anger at the age of the soldiers dying and the absence of a government minister to see them return, and pride at the servicemen's role in a war to tackle terrorism.
David Sinclair, 20, a shopworker from Maidenhead, came to see his schoolfriend, Rifleman Dan Hume, be repatriated.
"The age of the soldiers dying is sickening," he said. "This shouldn't be about money. They have not been given the proper equipment. We shouldn't be in this war in the first place, but now we are there, we have to sort out what we are doing."
"Gordon Brown has never met a coffin off a plane," said John Lawton, 42, a former corporal in the Royal Green Jackets.
"It is his lot that sent us there and he couldn't even be bothered to come to see them back. Bush has met coffins, Obama has met coffins, but this has become an embarrassment for the government."
Helena Tym, 48, the mother of Cyrus Thatcher, a 19-year-old rifleman who was killed by a roadside bomb in Helmand six weeks ago, said she felt pride as well as grief in her loss.
"This turnout shows it's not just us as families that feel that, but also the whole nation," she said.
"As soon as you hear that awful sentence on the TV news 'the family has been informed', you know how they feel. It just hurts all over again."
Thatcher's father, Robin, 49, said he believed in the war, but the increasing numbers of dead should force a rethink of tactics. "It may take these eight deaths for Gordon Brown to think something should be done," he said.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Karzai opponents hope to beat him in second round
By NANCY A. YOUSSEF McClatchy Newspapers
KABUL, Afghanistan -- In an effort to offset Afghan President Hamid Kazai's deals with various tribal factions, his rival presidential candidates are hoping to deny him a majority in the Aug. 20 election, then coalesce around one leading opposition candidate in a runoff.
By announcing their strategy, Karzai's rivals hope to counteract the widespread belief here that the vote inevitably will be rigged in his favor - despite the colorful campaign posters that plaster blast walls, doorways and car windows with pithy slogans.
Whether the runoff plan will work is anything but clear. There are 41 presidential candidates, including two women, a former Taliban commander, several former Karzai Cabinet ministers and an Afghan-American who volunteered for President Barack Obama's election campaign. Political parties here are weak, and the candidates' agendas show little agreement.
Indeed, some candidates already are hinting that they won't throw their support to a rival unconditionally. The coalition "can only happen if they agree with my agenda for change," said Abdullah Abdullah, Karzai's former foreign minister and a leading presidential candidate.
The strategy makes the election a referendum on Karzai's tenure, one that even American officials, who once were among his strongest backers, characterize as ineffective and corrupt.
"We have one competitor, and we are focused on the one competitor," said another leading presidential candidate and potential Karzai rival in a runoff, Ashraf Ghani, a former finance minister.
In the past three months, Karzai has reached deals around the country with a bevy of influential tribal leaders and elders, making various promises in exchange for them pushing for their followers to vote for him. Some think he's also made deals with Taliban leaders.
"Karzai is trying to win in the first round because he knows the risk that comes with the second round," said Wahed Mughzada, a political analyst. "He has a lot of tricks, and he is using them now."
Karzai won election in 2004 in the first round with 56 percent of the vote. One of the few national polls held here, conducted in early May by the German-funded National Centre for Policy Research at Kabul University, found that Karzai has 23 percent support; then Karzai's former Minister of Planning Ramzan Bashardost, with 12 percent; and Abdullah next, with 10 percent. Ghani has the backing of 4 percent.
"The reasons people give for supporting Karzai is that while there are difficulties in Afghanistan there is not a better alternative," said Hamidullah Noor Ehad the center's director.
American officials, tired of what they think is Karzai's unwillingness to crack down on corruption and his criticism of U.S. military actions, feel much the same way.
Candidates are either too close to Iran or Pakistan, too affiliated with Karzai's government, show no promise of ending corruption or don't enjoy enough tribal support. Publicly, American officials stress the U.S. isn't backing any candidate; privately they're resigned to a Karzai victory.
Despite the vast number of candidates, some here think there won't even be a runoff. As Aug. 20 nears, they expect candidates to drop out, leaving the ballot with something like 10 candidates, not 41.
If that happens, voters are likely to vote for Karzai. Even in a runoff, Karzai benefits from a sense of inevitability.
"Everyone will run to who they think will win," said Abdul Hamid Mobarez, a political analyst and president of the Afghanistan National Journalists Union. "Even in the second round."
Most of the candidates are "really only running to make deals" for themselves and their interest groups, said Nasrallah Starikzay, a political science professor at Kabul University. "Only the serious ones will have enough election money to stay until the end. ... And if that happens, Karzai will likely win."
Ironically, a Karzai victory in the first round could create problems, some analysts said. Few people here believe Karzai enjoys enough support to win in the first round. If he does, many will cry fraud.
"If there is no runoff, it could create a crisis, and if there is a runoff, there could be crisis as the Taliban and other people try to influence the election," said Mughzada, the political analyst.
The Independent Electoral Commission has set aside $223 million for next month's election, allotting some of that money for a runoff. They concede, however, that holding the first round alone will be challenging. Some areas are too dangerous for voters and observers to go. Also, there are allegations of voter fraud and strong-arming. So far, voters and politicians alike already are charging that the process isn't legitimate.
"We are limited in what we can do. We will try to do our best to have the best election," said IEC President Azizulah Lodin. "In the end, one person will be happy and 40 will make allegations" of fraud.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan presidential contest tightens
KABUL, Afghanistan, July 14 (UPI) -- The main opposition candidates to Afghan President Hamid Karzai are gaining ground with early forecasts predicting a runoff for the August vote.
Karzai squares off against more than 40 other candidates in the Aug. 20 contest. He leads the pack in the latest polling, but his two main rivals are gaining ground, the Christian Science Monitor reports.
His former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and his former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani are canvassing areas outside their normal spheres of influence in Afghanistan in an effort to unseat Karzai.
Abdullah has waged a legacy campaign, drawing on his ties to the infamous Ahmad Shah Massoud, the so-called Lion of Panjshir who was assassinated two days before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
"I want Afghanistan to stand on its own feet so that in a few years we won't need foreign troops," said Abdullah.
Meanwhile, Ghani hopes to draw on his experience as an analyst for the World Bank and his role in the early development of the current Afghan government. His ties to Washington, however, may undermine his chances at rivaling his two counterparts in the polls.
The Monitor cites May polling results from the International Republican Institute that show Karzai with 31 percent of the vote, Abdullah with 7 percent and Ghani with 2 percent.
Political analysts in Afghanistan say that as the campaign season evolves, support for Karzai's rivals may push the election into a runoff.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Obama hopes Netherlands will continue Afghan mission
Wed Jul 15, 9:45 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama said Tuesday he hoped the Netherlands would continue its participation in NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, which are fighting to defeat the resurgent Taliban.
"I recognize that participation in the coalition in Afghanistan can be controversial in the Netherlands," Obama said after talks at the White House with Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende.
"What I shared with the prime minister was the hope that even after next summer that there is the ability for the Dutch to continue to apply the leadership and the experience that they've been able to accumulate over these past years."
Nearly 2,000 Dutch soldiers are deployed in Afghanistan, mostly in Uruzgan, as part of a NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Their mission is set to expire in 2010.
Nineteen Dutch soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since 2006.
Obama said he and Balkenende "discussed the critical role that the Netherlands has played in Afghanistan as part of the ISAF operation there."
Obama said the US strategy review in Afghanistan that "emphasized the three D's of development, diplomacy, as well our ability to deploy troops effectively -- that really was adopted from some strategies that had already been pursued effectively by the Netherlands.
"The Dutch military has been one of the most outstanding militaries there, has shown extraordinary not only military capacity, but also insight into the local culture and the local politics," he said.
For his part, Balkenende said he and Obama "share the same values" and had discussed human rights, the financial crisis, and the issues of energy and climate change.
"So I'm convinced we have so many things in common, we can work together. You already mentioned our work in Afghanistan, a complicated and dangerous area, but we also think that it's important to work there together," the Dutch premier said.
During the question and answer session, Balkenende mentioned his country's decision to "stop as lead nation" in Uruzgan, where Dutch troops are concentrated.
"But it's also good to underline that the Netherlands will not turn its back on the Afghan people," he added.
"We feel also responsibility. We will go on with ... cooperation, if there are requests we will consider them seriously."
Obama said that after the August presidential election in Afghanistan, "My hope is that we will be able to begin transitioning into a different phase in Afghanistan.
"I think that all of us want to see an effective exit strategy where increasingly the Afghan army, Afghan police, Afghan courts, Afghan government are taking more responsibility for their own security," Obama said.
Obama, who has made the war in Afghanistan a top priority of his administration, said "the issue in Afghanistan is not simply an American issue, it is a worldwide issue."
Obama "knows full well" that the Dutch were leaving Uruzgan in 2010, "and that is something that has been decided a long time ago," said Floris van Hovell, spokesperson at the Dutch embassy in Washington.
However "it has always been our intention, and that's also our will, to stay, and continue investing in Afghanistan, the development of Afghanistan, and also in the security in Afghanistan," van Hovell said.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Unsafe housing puts Kabul residents at risk
KABUL, 15 July 2009 (IRIN) - Most people in the Afghan capital Kabul live in illegal, unplanned and sub-standard houses that are prone to natural disasters and lack water and sanitation facilities, according to government officials.
"Of the [estimated] five million people currently living in Kabul, at least three million are residing in illegal and unplanned houses," Abdul Wahab Sadaat, deputy director of city services at the Kabul Municipality, told IRIN.
"These houses - which make up about 75 percent of the houses in Kabul - are also vulnerable to earthquake, floods and other natural disasters," said Sadaat.
Over the past seven years some militia commanders and powerful groups have seized and sold public property and land, creating a crisis of unregulated urbanization in the capital, officials in the municipality and in the Ministry of Urban Development said.
The rapid and mostly unplanned urbanization in Kabul has brought about serious environmental, health and social problems.
The population of Kabul has grown substantially, from about one million in 2001 to about five million in 2009, exhausting the city's already limited natural resources, particularly underground water reserves, say government and independent specialists.
"Should the use of underground water continue at its current pace, by 2020 the capital will suffer a serious water shortage," said Noor Ahmad Jawad, a meteorologist at Kabul University.
Meanwhile, many of the mushrooming squatter communities lack water, proper sanitation and health facilities, while waste management in Kabul is becoming a major concern.
Rapid population growth and urbanization, coupled with limited resources, have put a heavy burden on Kabul's environment and air quality which, according to health officials, hastens the death of more than 3,000 people annually.
"Greater Kabul"
Officials privately concede they are unable to resolve the crisis of illegal houses in Kabul because of the magnitude of the problem involving millions of people and the involvement of influential individuals who have profited from unregulated urbanization.
Instead, the government and several private companies have drawn up plans for a "Greater Kabul", which is expected to be built on 740 sqkm to the northeast of the city in the next 15-20 years.
"The new, greater Kabul plan addresses all the shortages and problems which we currently have in Kabul city," said Sadaat.
The new city, which will accommodate 1.5 million people initially and three million in the long run, will require US$35.5 billion over 16 years, of which $24 billion should come from the private sector and $11.5 billion from the government and donors, according to officials.
The population in Kabul is predicted to surpass eight million by 2025.
The new city looks good on the map, but specialists question whether the people who have built illegal and sub-standard houses in Kabul will be willing or able to pay for new houses in the greater Kabul.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Will history repeat itself in Afghanistan?
Wednesday, 15 July 2009 BBC News
British military intervention in Afghanistan has a chequered history, making it easy to conclude that British forces will fail again. But such a conclusion is a mistake and does a disservice both to troops fighting there and to history itself, writes military historian Dr Huw Davies.
General comparisons of Britain's first three wars in Afghanistan and the current conflict, are difficult and fraught with pitfalls and traps. However, if one compares the specific experiences of soldiers and officers, there is much to learn from Britain's history in Afghanistan.
Many know that the British tried three times between 1839 and 1919 to subjugate Afghanistan, and each time they failed.
But when dealing with the history of British military involvement in Afghanistan, and in the difficult business of looking for parallels between then and now, it is necessary to separate the general from the specific.
The reasons for the wars in the 19th Century were somewhat different and incomparable with the reasons for the war now. If general comparisons of the conflicts are made, without looking at the specifics, it might be easy to conclude that there is little hope for success in Afghanistan.
The First Anglo-Afghan War broke out when Britain invaded Afghanistan because she feared Russian encroachment into Central Asia. The British were eventually routed and the 16,000 strong army forced to flee Kabul in the winter of 1841. Only one man survived the retreat.
Britain invaded Afghanistan again in 1878 for largely the same reasons. Despite a terrible defeat at Maiwand on 27 July 1880, the British were surprisingly successful elsewhere on the battlefield.
Unlike today, the Afghans showed an inability to adapt their tactics and the British dominated in several battles. Yet the British failed to achieve a political settlement and, as they were unable to occupy the country, chose instead to isolate it, while retaining influence in Afghan foreign affairs.
The third war broke out when Afghanistan declared independence from this quasi-British rule in 1919. However, for Britain, the Bolshevik Revolution had reduced the Russian threat and, with military spending crippled in the wake of the World War I, interest in Afghanistan gradually waned.
General comparisons, then, suggest that Britain has neither the military capability, nor the political will, to complete or attain victory in a conflict in Afghanistan.
Much has changed since 1919, though. The British Army has fought innumerable counter-insurgency campaigns elsewhere, the lessons of which are proving useful now. Technological advancements have also allowed swifter and more reliable analysis of intelligence, a critical aspect of any counter-insurgency campaign.
The Cultural Dimension
It appears that there is also a renewed focus on the importance of understanding the culture, traditions and customs of the Afghan population. It is here that the specific experiences of British officers and soldiers in 19th Century Afghanistan can prove useful.
During the First Anglo-Afghan War, for example, certain British officers spent much of their time learning about the culture of the local populations. In doing so, political, economic and social solutions to violent problems were unearthed.
In 1839, the British military had the difficult task of convincing the Afghan population to accept the new ruler, Shah Shuja, as he was from a different tribe to that of the deposed ruler, Dost Mohammed.
Shah Shuja's ascension to the throne in Kabul inevitably caused a shift in the balance of power, and those who had enjoyed political power under Dost Mohammed were cast aside and replaced with their rivals. This in turn caused widespread political disenfranchisement that manifested itself in violent rebellion.
The instinctive reaction of the British then, as now, was to meet violence with violence. But then, as now, commanders quickly recognised that violence was not necessarily the solution.
Instead, the granting of some reasonable demands might buy off the support of those that were politically disenfranchised. Then, as now, the difficulty for the British lay in identifying and separating those who were die-hard supporters of the rebellion against British authority, from those who simply felt oppressed and whose loyalty could be bought.
Cultural understanding proved critical for the British in reaching these conclusions.
Inevitably, then, as now, there were those whose resistance to and hatred of the West could never be defeated without recourse to violence.
Why, then, did the British fail in Afghanistan in 1841, and will the same thing happen today? In 1841, those in political charge in Afghanistan and British India did not perceive this "cultural solution" as being worthy of any merit. Despite the efforts of a minority of officers and soldiers, the preferred British method was retaliatory violence.
For most, the "cold, hard steel of the bayonet" enforced the authority of the British Empire. Ultimately, this almost indiscriminate use of violence alienated that segment of the population that might otherwise have supported Britain and Shah Shuja.
The difference now is that much more attention is being devoted to understanding the culture of Afghanistan and to finding solutions that do not necessarily involve military action. Efforts are being made, with some success, to incorporate cultural understanding in all military activities, from fighting to reconstruction.
But with a resurgent Taliban, apparently committed to an extremist vision of Islam and harbouring terrorists, it will also be necessary and unavoidable to use military force. Awareness of the cultural dimension will not necessarily guarantee victory, but ignorance of it, history shows us, will guarantee defeat.
Dr Huw Davies is a lecturer in Defence Studies, King's College, London based at the UK Defence Academy
Back to Top
Back to Top
Women's Health at Center of Development, Security Goals in Afghanistan
VOA News By Gabe Joselow July 14, 2009
In Afghanistan, a woman dies every 27 minutes on average from a pregnancy-related condition that is preventable, in most cases, with proper health facilities. Afghan and U.S. officials speaking in Washington Tuesday said providing Afghan women greater access to health care would not only improve quality of life, but the security situation as well.
The health challenges facing women and children in Afghanistan are nothing short of alarming. According to statistics from the U.S. government, Afghanistan has the highest infant mortality rate in the world and the second-highest maternal mortality rate.
At a briefing on Capitol Hill, the U.S. State Department's Ambassador-at-large for Global Women's Issues, Melanne Verveer, said women in Afghanistan are facing formidable obstacles.
"They are dying because medical facilities lack the equipment or the means to provide care under the best circumstances and in other circumstances because they lack electricity," she said.
She also said deeply engrained cultural attitudes toward women in Afghanistan often prevent them from getting the care they need.
The Afghan government has been working to fix these problems. Veveer informed the audience that President Hamid Karzai has recently signed a bill aimed at eliminating violence against women. She said the legislation includes a measure that would make it a crime for a husband to prevent his wife from receiving health care.
Afghanistan's Minister for Public Health, Sayed Mohammed Amin Fatimie, speaking at the event, said improving health care is crucial to his country's development and security goals.
"I do believe that health is at the center of [the] social-economic development of Afghanistan," he said. "Health is a bridge to peace. Health is a corridor for tranquility."
While acknowledging that Afghanistan has a lot of work to do, he says health care services have improved since a U.S.-led military mission overthrew the Taliban government in 2001. He says since then, for example, the number of midwives and female nurses has increased from about 100, to more than 2,400.
He added that improving health facilities is not just about repairing the damage done by the Taliban and other extremists, but can be a key strategy for combating their influence.
"Even the enemies, you know, receive the health services in our facilities," said Fatimie. "That is why our facilities are there and deliver health services. So that is why we can promote peace; we can convince the ones that are confused to take the side of the Afghan government."
Despite the efforts to promote health care, the Group of Eight leading world industrial powers recently expressed concerns about the Afghan government's effectiveness. In a statement issued last week in Italy, G 8 foreign ministers said widespread corruption and insecurity in Afghanistan complicate the delivery of basic services including health and education.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghanistan's TV 'Election': Better Than the Real Thing
By Aryn Baker time.com Wednesday, Jul. 15, 2009
It is Mujiburahman Poya's youth that makes his face jump out from among the posters of the 41 candidates for Afghanistan's presidential election next month. Surrounded by images of the grizzled faces of older men sporting traditional hats or business suits, 18-year-old Poya's poster declares him "The Real Afghanistan" and promises that if elected, he will enrich the country rather than himself. No matter how appealing voters find that message in a country plagued by corruption, though, it will be at least another 22 years before they can tick Poya's name at the polling booths. (Afghanistan's constitution sets the minimum age for a President at 40.) Poya isn't actually running for election; he is a contestant on The Candidate, a reality-TV show that follows six Afghans ages 22 or younger as they compete to develop the policies, campaign and support necessary to win a poll of viewers voting by SMS text messages on their mobile phones.
And in a lackluster presidential race (the outcome — the re-election of President Hamid Karzai — is all but certain), The Candidate may be the only thing getting Afghans to think about the policies they would like to see a President adopt.
There had been some hope for a genuinely competitive election last spring, when several popular politicians announced plans to run for President, but Karzai responded by winning endorsements from key power brokers and making shrewd political alliances with former rivals, giving himself a commanding lead. A recent opinion poll found Karzai enjoying only a 33% approval rate, but that was still miles ahead of all his competitors. That prompted a Western diplomat to lament that Karzai was both "unpopular and unbeatable."
Despite high voter-registration figures, a combination of security fears, the potential for vote-rigging and indifference toward the candidates has many analysts fearing a dangerously low turnout that could undermine the legitimacy of the winning candidate and hand the Taliban a powerful propaganda tool. "I don't see much enthusiasm for the elections," says Haroun Mir, head of the Afghan Center for Research and Policy Studies, a Kabul-based think tank. "There is a feeling that nothing will change, the old power brokers will still be in charge, so why bother?"
Producers of The Candidate, which airs on the privately owned Tolo TV network, are hoping to help by focusing Afghans on what they want from their political leaders. And Tolo has a successful model for its idea of tele-democracy: its wildly popular show Afghan Star, which mimicks American Idol and allows millions of viewers to vote via text message each week for their favorite singer. "One of the key successes of Afghan Star was that it demonstrated the concept of voting. So we started to think, How do we do the same thing in terms of elections?" says Tolo chief Jahid Mohseni. "One of the critical problems we have in Afghanistan is that we have a personality approach to politics — it's all about who the person is, his family or his ethnicity. It's never about policy and it is never about the outcome you want. So we thought a program based on a competition about policies could change that."
Each week, the show's contestants debate a policy topic such as security, education, health care and the economy. Although a rotating panel of judges rate the candidates based on presentation, strategy and persuasiveness, viewers get the final say, voting one candidate off the show each week, starting with the fourth episode and culminating a week before the real election. The show's debates have become part of the country's everyday political discussions, blurring the line between reality TV and political reality. "These six candidates are better than the real candidates because they talk about platforms and have a vision for what needs to be done," says presenter Jawed Jurat. Already, he says, some of the real candidates are copying the platforms of their youthful television counterparts.
The show's contestants are given $1,300 a month to spend on real-world campaigning — posters, rallies and travel to other provinces. For Ahmed Farid Danish, a 20-year-old from Kabul who dresses for TV in a crystal-studded tuxedo jacket and iridescent lavender tie, going out on the campaign trail was the hardest part. The son of a prominent politician, he had always thought about running for higher office. "Now that I am having to meet all these people and talk about the issues in public, I think maybe I don't want to run for President," he confided the week before he was voted off the program. Not so for Ajuba Dadqiq, 19, the only female candidate. Vivacious and stunning, the schoolteacher covers her head in a handmade silk scarf with the bold black, red and green stripes of the Afghan flag. She says she has always wanted to be President. Being on The Candidate, she says, is the first step in a long political career. "By the time I reach the legal age to be President, I hope the people of Afghanistan are ready to accept a female President. If they are not, I will work hard to make the people ready."
Two weeks ago, 18-year-old Poya became the first candidate voted off the show. But instead of making a graceful concession speech, he refused the sixth-place plaque and stormed offstage. Outside the studio, he spluttered his anger and vitriol, hinting darkly that the vote was rigged and elections were useless. "After this, it is clear that I must move ahead by force, not by talent," he shouted. "Afghanistan is not ready for democracy. If people want it, there is hope, but now no one is thinking about their future. They are not thinking about who they choose, so that is why they suffer." The moment was captured by behind-the-scenes cameras, offering a reality-TV moment uncomfortably close to Afghanistan's reality.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan War’s Buried Bombs Put Risk in Every Step
By JAMES DAO July 15, 2009 The New York Times
FORWARD OPERATING BASE ALTIMUR, Afghanistan — The call came just after dinner: a pickup truck carrying Afghan national police officers had hit a buried bomb, and all five officers inside were dead.
When First Lt. James Brown and his team of bomb investigators arrived at the shredded remains of the truck, the grim significance of the attack became clear. One of the dead was a hard-charging commander who, more than any officer in this restive district of Logar Province, had helped fight a shadowy network of local bomb makers.
“If he wasn’t trying so hard, if he was taking bribes, taking naps, he’d be alive right now,” Lieutenant Brown said of the commander, Gul Alam.
This is the war in Afghanistan today, where death is measured less by the accuracy of bullets than by the cleverness of bombs. And though the Afghan insurgency’s improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.’s, are less powerful or complex than those used in Iraq, they are becoming more common and more sophisticated with each week, American military officers say.
This year, bomb attacks on coalition troops in Afghanistan have spiked to an all-time high, with 465 in May alone, more than double the number in the same month two years before. At least 46 American troops have been killed by I.E.D.’s this year, putting 2009 on track to set a record in the eight-year war.
I.E.D.’s have been even more deadly for Afghan police officers and soldiers. At the current rate, I.E.D. attacks on Afghan forces could reach 6,000 this year, up from 81 in 2003, an American military official said. In early July alone, nine Afghan police officers were killed in two bomb attacks in Logar Province, south of Kabul.
With few paved roads, Afghanistan is even more fertile territory for I.E.D.’s. than Iraq, where hard pavement often forced insurgents to leave bombs in the open. Not so in Afghanistan, where it is relatively easy to bury a device in a dirt road and cover the tracks.
Even when I.E.D.’s do not wound or kill troops, the threat restricts and complicates the movements of coalition forces.
American convoys often must wait for bomb-detection teams that move at three miles per hour. Helicopters are limited, and most troops travel in mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles known as MRAPs, which are lumbering and hard to maneuver. Though heavily armored MRAPs are effective in shielding soldiers from explosions, two turret gunners died recently when one flipped over after hitting I.E.D.’s.
Acknowledging that the I.E.D. has become perhaps its central military problem in Afghanistan, the Pentagon is sending thousands of MRAPs to Afghanistan and is developing a lighter, more maneuverable version. It has deployed robots, dogs and drones to detect and dispose of bombs.
It has also begun a campaign to attack the bomb-making networks that operate in small cells around the country.
At the heart of that effort are teams like Lieutenant Brown’s that, with the help of explosives experts and criminal investigators, compile and analyze forensic information on almost every bomb encountered and every suspect detained.
“I’m not interested in the triggerman,” said Lieutenant Brown, whose team is with the Third Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment based here. “He’s usually some poor schlep just trying to feed his family. It’s the networks we’re after.”
American officials say those Taliban-guided networks are surprisingly layered, involving financiers, logistical experts, bomb designers and trainers. At the bottom are the bomb planters, often villagers or nomadic herdsmen paid $10 or less to dig holes and serve as spotters.
The bombs are often made with fertilizer and diesel fuel, but some use mortar shells or old mines that litter the countryside. Some bombs are set off when vehicles pass over pressure plates. Others require remote control, like a cellphone. Still others detonate with a button or a wire touched to a battery.
Though many bombs remain crude, American officers say the insurgents are cunning and relentlessly adaptive. In some cases, I.E.D.’s are used as lures to draw soldiers into booby traps.
“It’s not like Iraq,” said Tech Sgt. Richard Gibbons of the Air Force, the team expert in disarming and disposing of explosives, recalling complex situations involving four or more bombs in Baghdad. “But I do think they are getting better.”
Like a police forensic unit and a bomb squad rolled into one, Lieutenant Brown’s 25-member team not only disarms I.E.D.’s but also scours sites — more than 50 this year — for telltale signatures of a bomb. Soil samples, electrical parts, fingerprints and photographs are sent for analysis, and detailed reports are compiled in a central database.
American officials say the work has helped dismantle at least one network, pinpointed others and improved safety for convoys. But as the death of Mr. Alam underscores, the effort is one step forward, one step back.
The American strategy calls for using the Afghan police to gather intelligence, arrest people suspected of being bombers and project a sense of government competence. So far, many Afghan police units have not risen to the challenge, American officers complain.
Mr. Alam was different. A father in his late 30s, he was known as an ebullient, bold, sometimes reckless fighter. He once tried to dismantle an I.E.D. made from an old mine with his bare hands.
“Not proper procedure, but it showed initiative,” Lieutenant Brown said.
Mr. Alam was the commander of a checkpoint near the border of the Charkh and Baraki Barak districts, a stronghold of Taliban supporters. When more than 1,200 soldiers with the Third Combat Brigade, 10th Mountain Division flowed into the province early this year, there were scattered firefights, but the insurgents mostly melted into the landscape.
And then the I.E.D. attacks multiplied. After seeing two bombs in the area in May, American forces found or exploded 17 I.E.D.’s in June, most along an important connector they call Route New York.
Still, Lieutenant Brown’s team felt it was making headway. In recent weeks, American forces killed two men planting a bomb, detained one suspected of being a triggerman and uncovered a cache of weapons and bomb-making materials.
Mr. Alam helped, and so became a target. Following a weekly routine, he spent a recent Saturday with his family at home north of Kabul and was returning to his checkpoint that afternoon when the bomb exploded under his truck, dead center.
After the explosion, Lieutenant Brown, 31, gathered his team in their office, its plywood walls decorated with handmade farming tools found at bomb sites. Bowing his head, he asked for a moment of silence for Mr. Alam.
“The guy was never in a bad mood,” Lieutenant Brown recalled later. “I don’t know how that is possible given his job.”
Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington, Andrew W. Lehren from New York, and Ruhullah Khapalwak from Kabul, Afghanistan.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Police take pistols for Afghan posting
Brendan Nicholson Foreign Affairs Correspondent Sydney Morning Herald - Jul 15 8:07 AM
AUSTRALIAN Federal Police going to Afghanistan to help train their hard-pressed Afghan counterparts will be armed.
A federal police spokesman confirmed that the 10 members of the police mentoring team would carry service pistols.
They will be stationed with Australian and Dutch troops at Tarin Kowt in Oruzgan Province and if they move out "beyond the wire" of the heavily fortified base they will have a strong military escort.
On some previous deployments in risky situations, including their first operation in East Timor, Australian police have not carried weapons.
This Australian team will be stepping into dangerous territory. Members of the Afghan National Police are being killed or wounded by insurgents at the rate of three a day.
According to European police figures, about 1200 Afghan police were killed by insurgents in 2007. Last year 1196 were killed, 2167 were wounded and 162 were listed as missing.
By June 15 this year, 515 had been killed, 787 wounded and 108 were reported missing.
The police, who are mostly illiterate, often badly trained, poorly armed and sometimes blatantly corrupt, are seen by the Taliban insurgents as easy targets.
A senior coalition military officer in Kabul told the Herald of one Afghan police team dropped off in a remote part of Afghanistan to set up a security post there.
The insurgents saw them arrive and killed them as they slept, the officer said.
They were too inexperienced even to put out sentries at night.
"The best that could be said was that it was an easy death. They were killed in their sleep," the officer said.
Paid badly and rarely, the police commonly stop travellers and demand money from them.
The federal police spokesman said the Australians would not be involved in "in-line policing work" and would not be placed with Afghan police.
The coalition is aiming at a national police force of 85,000, of which 5000 would be women.
In one group of 100 new Afghan police, 12 could read a little and one was a former teacher who has begun literacy classes.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Zawahiri: Pakistanis must fight US
Al Jazeera July 15, 2009
Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's second-in-command, has urged Pakistanis to rise up against US forces, which he said had occupied their country.
The message comes as Pakistani forces continue to battle al-Qaeda-linked fighters in the country's Swat valley, with the army killing six fighters in the latest attack, according to officials.
Al-Zawahiri referred to the conflict in Pakistan as "the American crusader manipulation of Pakistan's destiny" and warned it could break up the nuclear-armed nation.
"The Americans are today occupying Afghanistan and Pakistan, so it is the duty of every Muslim in Pakistan to rise up to fight them," he said in the eight-minute, 49-second recording, posted on the internet.
Al Jazeera's Imran Khan, reporting from Islamabad, said al-Zawahiri was hoping to provoke a reaction to Pakistan's campaign against Taliban fighters in Swat.
"He's talking about the American 'occupation' of Pakistan ... Pakistan isn't occupied by anybody. What he means is the operations against the Pakistani Taliban by the Pakistani army.
"He says that these operations are run by the US - that this is not a Pakistani war, this is a US proxy war. It's that kind of inflammatory language that he's hoping will get people riled up."
Declining influence
The al-Qaeda deputy last addressed a message in English to Pakistanis in August 2008, calling for a "jihad" in the South Asian nation.
But many analysts in Pakistan say al-Qaeda has little influence in the country.
"There is this idea that al-Qaeda is a diminishing force within Pakistani society," our correspondent said.
"But that doesn't stop them from planning, gaining support networks and doing what the Americans say they are doing - which is attacking them abroad."
According to the SITE intelligence group, which monitors material from such sources, al-Zawahiri's audio message was released on Tuesday.
In it, al-Zawahri said: "[If] we stand by passively without offering due support to the mujahidin, we shall not only contribute to the destruction of Pakistan and Afghanistan, but we shall also deserve the painful punishment of almighty Allah."
US influence
Under heavy US pressure to act, Pakistan's army launched a massive offensive in late April in Buner and Lower Dir, before focusing on fighters in Swat, where the Taliban concentrated a two-year campaign to impose its strict interpretation of sharia, or Islamic law.
The conflict has displaced nearly two million people, but officials have said that the pace of returns to the area has grown, though many civilians are fearful about security in the area.
Last week, Yusuf Raza Gilani, Pakistan's prime minister, unveiled plans to start sending home many of those displaced by the conflict and said the military had "eliminated" the fighters.
Elsewhere in North West Frontier Province, two policemen were killed and five wounded in a bomb explosion in the town of Bannu.
Back to Top
Disclaimer:
This news site is mostly a compilation of publicly accessible articles
on the Web in the form of a link or saved news item. The news articles
and commentaries/editorials are protected under international copyright
laws. All credit goes to the original respective source(s).