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Karzai says no to first Afghan presidential debate
By Jason Straziuso, Associated Press Writer
KABUL – President Hamid Karzai said Wednesday he will not take part in Afghanistan's first major televised presidential debate, leaving his top two challengers to talk among themselves.
Deadly violence spreads to Afghan north: officials
KABUL (AFP) – Clashes and a militant attack killed up to two dozen people in northern Afghanistan, a once peaceful region where insurgent violence is spreading ahead of elections, officials said Wednesday.
Taliban attack presidential candidate, killing civilian in North
KABUL, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Taliban militants on Wednesday attacked a gathering of their former friend Mullah Abdul Salam Rocketi, who is also a presidential candidate, killing one person and injuring another in Baghlan province north of Afghanistan, police said.
Unknown armed men abduct 13 employees of construction firm in E Afghanistan
KABUL, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Unknown armed men abducted about 13 employees of a local road construction firm in Paktia province, in east Afghanistan, a local official said Wednesday.
Attack on mosque kills 11 in N Afghanistan: newspaper
KABUL, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Eleven people were killed as Taliban insurgents entered a mosque in Kunduz province in the north of Afghanistan, a local newspaper reported Wednesday.
Afghanistan moves troops to south, clashes in north
By Sayed Salahuddin And Hamid Shalizi
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan is repositioning forces to the south after complaints too few are involved in major U.S. and British offensives against the Taliban, officials said on Wednesday, even as clashes erupted in the north.
Afghanistan: The perils of mine clearance
KABUL, 22 July 2009 (IRIN) - Mohammad Aman has defused hundreds of anti-personnel landmines in various parts of Afghanistan in more than 13 years as a de-miner with the Mine Detection Center (MDC), a local NGO.
U.S. special envoy rules out U.S. army action in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, July 22 (Xinhua) -- U.S. special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke on Wednesday ruled out interference by U.S. forces in Pakistan, saying there is no U.S. army present in Pakistan
Bombers in burqas shot during Afghan attack
14 die as Taliban militants attack three government buildings and U.S. base
July 21, 2009 Associated Press via MSNBC
KHOST, Afghanistan - Suspected Taliban militants launched near-simultaneous assaults Tuesday on Afghan and U.S. facilities in two eastern cities in attacks that killed six Afghan police and intelligence officers as well as eight insurgents.
Millions of Afghan children forced to work - survey
Hamid Shalizi Reuters via Yahoo! UK & Ireland News
Almost 30 years of conflict have forced millions of Afghan children to go without education and work to help feed their families, U.N. and Afghan government figures released Wednesday showed. Skip related content
Thwarted Taliban attacks a positive mark in Afghan police’s spotty record
By Aunohita Mojumdar The Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo! News - Jul 21 2:00 AM
Kabul, Afghanistan – Afghan security forces thwarted a series of coordinated suicide attacks on government installations in Gardez Tuesday, preventing the higher casualties that similar attacks have
Tajikistan to tighten security ahead of Afghan vote
22 Jul 2009 15:59:53 GMT By Roman Kozhevnikov
DUSHANBE, July 22 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's northern neighbour Tajikistan will tighten security in the run-up to the Afghan presidential election next month, Tajik Interior Ministry said on Wednesday after detaining three Islamist militants.
U.S. Deaths Hit A Record High In Afghanistan
Toll of 31 So Far in July Makes For Deadliest Month of the War
By Ann Scott Tyson and Greg Jaffe Washington Post Staff Writers Wednesday, July 22, 2009
GARMSIR, Afghanistan, July 21 -- U.S. deaths in Afghanistan have surged to a record high this month and are likely to remain elevated as American and NATO forces settle into outposts in southern Afghan villages
Brown dismisses criticism over Afghanistan
by Alice Ritchie
LONDON (AFP) – Prime Minister Gordon Brown dismissed remarks by one of his ministers Wednesday that Britain does not have enough helicopters in Afghanistan, as he sought to move past a damaging row over resources.
Mongolia to send troops to Afghanistan
Tue Jul 21, 2009 8:44am EDT By William Kennedy
ULAN BATOR, July 21 (Reuters) - Mongolian military officers said the country plans to send troops to Afghanistan, in a cooperation that stems from its "third neighbour" policy to reach out to allies other than China and Russia.
US looks for progress in Afghanistan
By Adam Brookes BBC News, Washington 21 July 2009 23:04 UK
The news from eastern Afghanistan is, on examination, mixed.
In Gardez and Jalalabad, at least six Afghan security personnel were killed in a series of coordinated attacks by suicide bombers and gunmen on Tuesday.
How Afghanistan's War Is Spilling into Central Asia
By John Wendle / Moscow Wednesday, Jul. 22, 2009 time.com
When five militants, all Russian citizens, were shot and killed in a gun battle at a remote military checkpoint near Tajikistan's border with Afghanistan, the Tajik government was quick to label the dead as "members of an organized terrorist group.
Marines, Afghan security forces meet with hundreds of village elders in Helmand
U.S. Marine Corps
NAWA DISTRICT, Afghanistan — Key leaders with 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 3, participated in a tribal shura July 19 at the Afghan police compound next to Patrol Base Jaker here.
Market catches fire devours to ashes in Afghan capital
People's Daily - Jul 22 1:27 AM
A timber market caught fire in the Afghan capital Kabul early Wednesday causing huge damage to the shopkeepers.
Germany, Holland sign southern Afghanistan reconstruction agreement
Deutsche Welle
Germany and the Netherlands have signed an agreement to begin an extensive reconstruction collaboration in southern Afghanistan.
British army Captain killed in Afghanistan
A British army Captain has died while trying to defuse a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.
By Nick Britten Daily Telegraph (UK) - Jul 22 5:14 AM
Cpt Dan Shepherd, 28, was part of a team clearing a road of mines to allow fellow troops to safely reach locals when one exploded.
Afghanistan-Iran: Sharp rise in deportations from Iran
KABUL, 21 July 2009 (IRIN) - More than 200,000 Afghans have been expelled from Iran in the past six months, marking a 25 percent increase on the same period in 2008, according to officials.
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Karzai says no to first Afghan presidential debate
By Jason Straziuso, Associated Press Writer
KABUL – President Hamid Karzai said Wednesday he will not take part in Afghanistan's first major televised presidential debate, leaving his top two challengers to talk among themselves.
A debate was scheduled to take place Thursday on the most-watched TV network between Karzai, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani.
But after Karzai pulled out with barely 24 hours to go, an aide to Abdullah said the former foreign minister might not participate either.
Ghani, a former top World Bank official, has repeatedly needled Karzai to debate him. Karzai has pledged to take part in debates.
"It is the Afghan public that will suffer another broken promise, not any presidential candidate, if the future plans of each candidate is not made clear standing side-by-side his/her rival," Ghani said on his Web site this week.
Karzai's campaign said the president wouldn't take part because more of the country's 41 presidential candidates weren't invited. The campaign also said it had received an official invitation only one day before the debate.
Jahid Mohseni, the chief executive of Moby Group, which owns Tolo TV, said the station hoped to hold a series of three debates, and that Karzai was welcome to join the remaining two.
Mohseni said negotiations over Thursday's debate began more than three weeks ago. He noted that Thursday is exactly four weeks before the Aug. 20 election, and there hadn't yet been any debates.
"Afghanistan's obviously a new democracy and we've got a lot of limitations in terms of communication and road structure," Mohseni said. "We saw a TV debate as useful because it crosses barriers in terms of literacy, and candidates can talk to voters in their own homes."
Without Karzai present, Abdullah was also considering pulling out of the debate, said aide Ali Farhad Howaida. But Ghani still planned to take part, said Ajmal Habidy, a Ghani aide.
"If President Karzai is not participating in the debates, it shows his weakness," Habidy said.
Though Karzai's popularity has slipped in recent years, none of his challengers is expected to be able to defeat him unless they combine their campaigns and back a single candidate.
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Deadly violence spreads to Afghan north: officials
KABUL (AFP) – Clashes and a militant attack killed up to two dozen people in northern Afghanistan, a once peaceful region where insurgent violence is spreading ahead of elections, officials said Wednesday.
Fourteen civilians were "killed and injured" in an insurgent attack Tuesday in the province of Kunduz, where Afghan forces have launched an offensive to root out Taliban-linked rebels, the local governor said.
Mohammad Omar, Kunduz provincial governor, could not give an exact number of civilians killed when insurgents fired a rocket or mortar into a house where students were gathering, but said: "Most of them are dead."
Local media reported that 11 civilians were killed in the attack, which was aimed at security forces but veered off target.
"Security has deteriorated in Kunduz and the reason is the terrorists are trying to expand violence in the northern regions," he told AFP.
On Tuesday, 13 militants, including two foreigners, were killed while fighting against Afghan forces in the province's Chahar Dara district and 14 rebels were arrested in the same district on Wednesday, Omar added.
Citing intelligence reports, the governor claimed that about 20 Al-Qaeda-linked foreign militants and 300 Taliban fighters had flooded into his province, a strategic region bordering Tajikistan.
"This is definitely a threat to the stability of the northern provinces," Omar said. "If this is not taken care of, things will go even worse."
German troops serving in a NATO-led force are stationed in Kunduz, helping local forces battle the Taliban-led insurgency.
Most of the violence is focused in southern and eastern Afghanistan, regions along the Afghan-Pakistani border where insurgents enjoy some local support.
General Mohammad Zahir Azimi, Afghan defence ministry spokesman, told reporters that insurgents were infiltrating the north potentially to disrupt supply convoys crossing into Afghanistan from central Asia.
"The agreement between NATO and Russia to transit supplies through Russia could be one of the reasons; that might have attracted the focus of the enemy to attack supply convoys," he told a press conference in Kabul.
The United States and its NATO partners have searched for supply routes into Afghanistan since the Kyrgyz government said it would evict them from a key airbase in February and with routes through Pakistan frequently attacked.
Kyrgyzstan later said it would allow supplies to transit through the country, but foreign forces continue to search for alternative transit lines.
The Taliban were in power between 1996 and 2001 and, since being ousted in a US-led invasion, remnants of the militia have been waging an insurgency against the new, Western-backed government and foreign forces.
About 90,000 foreign troops are in Afghanistan, with thousands more deployed ahead of presidential elections on August 20.
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Taliban attack presidential candidate, killing civilian in North
KABUL, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Taliban militants on Wednesday attacked a gathering of their former friend Mullah Abdul Salam Rocketi, who is also a presidential candidate, killing one person and injuring another in Baghlan province north of Afghanistan, police said.
"The militants opened fire on people who gathered to announce their support for Mullah Rocketi in the coming presidential election, killing one civilian and injuring two others," a seniorpolice officer Zalmai Mangal told Xinhua.
The incident, the police official added, took place in Parchawaat 03:00 p.m. local time (1030 GMT).
However, he did not say if Rocketi was present among supporters at the time of the attack.
Rocketi, a former Taliban high ranking commander and sitting lawmaker in the Afghan parliament, is among 41 candidates contesting the upcoming presidential polls.
Meanwhile, Taliban purported spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid in talks with media via telephone from undisclosed location claimed responsibly for the attack, saying the insurgents disrupted the meeting held as part of election campaign.
Afghanistan's second presidential election in the post-Talibannation is going to be held amid tight security on Aug. 20, as Taliban insurgents have vowed to disrupt it.
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Unknown armed men abduct 13 employees of construction firm in E Afghanistan
KABUL, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Unknown armed men abducted about 13 employees of a local road construction firm in Paktia province, in east Afghanistan, a local official said Wednesday.
"A group of armed men raided one base of the workers in Wazi Zadran district late Tuesday night and took away 13 employees including two engineers," governor of the district Abdul Wali Zadran told Xinhua.
Two more employees of the company got wounded when they resisted, he said.
The company, the official said, was busy in surveying a road between Paktia and Paktiak provinces when the company staff were attacked.
Zadran did not point finger to any group or individuals, but Taliban insurgents often targeted road construction companies and government institutions.
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Attack on mosque kills 11 in N Afghanistan: newspaper
KABUL, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Eleven people were killed as Taliban insurgents entered a mosque in Kunduz province in the north of Afghanistan, a local newspaper reported Wednesday.
"A group of armed Taliban entered a mosque in Kunduz city, the capital of Kunduz province, when a mine suddenly went off leaving 11 people dead including four children," daily Arman-e-Millie quoting locals reported.
However, security officials in the province rejected the claim, saying seven persons including five Taliban fighters were killed in the incident.
The incident took place while a military offensive has been going on against militants in Chardara district of Kunduz provincesince last weekend.
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Afghanistan moves troops to south, clashes in north
By Sayed Salahuddin And Hamid Shalizi
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan is repositioning forces to the south after complaints too few are involved in major U.S. and British offensives against the Taliban, officials said on Wednesday, even as clashes erupted in the north.
Afghan troops battled a group of Taliban fighters dug into a valley in northern Kunduz on Wednesday, Defense Ministry spokesman Zaher Azimi said. He said fighters loyal to a wanted al Qaeda-linked Uzbek leader had entered the north recently.
With violence this year hitting its highest levels since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, thousands of U.S. Marines and British troops launched assaults in the southern Taliban stronghold of Helmand this month.
The new offensives are the first major operations under U.S. President Barack Obama's new regional strategy to defeat the Taliban and its militant Islamist allies and stabilize Afghanistan, which holds a presidential election on August 20.
A convoy belonging to a minor presidential candidate, former Taliban commander Mullah Salam Rocketi, was ambushed as he returned to Kabul after campaigning in northern Baghlan and one of his campaign officials was killed, Rocketi told Reuters.
Rocketi, an army commander during Taliban rule who renounced the militants after their overthrow to become a minister of parliament, was unhurt. He took his name because he often fired rocket-propelled grenades at occupying Soviet troops.
WEAKNESSES
The aim of the operations in Helmand is to clear the vast province of insurgents and hold the ground it wins, something overstretched NATO forces have so far been unable to do.
But the offensives underscored weaknesses in the Afghan security forces, with only about 650 fighting alongside some 4,000 U.S. Marines and a similar number of British troops in Helmand, a major opium producing center.
Brigadier General Lawrence Nicholson, commander of U.S. Marines in Afghanistan, complained about a week after Operation Strike of the Sword began in Helmand that there were not enough Afghan troops involved. "You can do the math," he said.
He said many more were needed to build relations with local leaders, a major part of a new counter-insurgency strategy under General Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, and identify Taliban members hiding among residents.
Azimi blamed the media for complaints about the paucity of Afghan troops fighting in Helmand and said security forces were stretched to their limit combating insurgents across the country.
He said an extra battalion of about 700 troops was being sent to join the fight in Helmand. Afghanistan already has more than 5,000 troops in the province, he said.
"We are sending an extra battalion to Helmand, it is en route and, with its arrival, the number of Afghan forces will exceed 6,000 in Helmand," Azimi told a media conference.
Afghanistan's army totals about 95,000 troops, with the number to increase by about 5,000 by year's end.
The United States has about 58,000 troops in Afghanistan, with another 39,000 from NATO and other non-U.S. coalition members bringing the total of foreign forces to about 97,000.
Washington plans to increase its troop levels to 68,000 by year's end, more than double the 32,000 at the end of 2008.
Nicholson has said there were also problems with the quality of Afghan police units. Under Obama's new strategy, 4,000 more troops are also being sent to train Afghan security forces.
Violence has spiked across the country since the operations in Helmand began.
U.S. and British troops in Helmand and elsewhere have so far borne the brunt of the Taliban backlash. Record death tolls have prompted questions in London and Washington about strategies in Afghanistan and how long troops should remain.
In Berlin, German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung said about 300 German soldiers had joined a week-long offensive against the Taliban around Kunduz, their biggest operation to date, in a bid to improve security before the election.
Azimi said Afghan troops had besieged a group of insurgents entrenched in Char Dara, a valley in Kunduz, on Wednesday, part of wider operations against militants. He said 13 Taliban fighters and four soldiers had been killed.
Azimi said a recent increase in Taliban attacks in the north was partly in response to an agreement reached in Moscow this month to allow Washington to fly troops and supplies for Afghanistan across its territory.
It also followed the announcement a month ago of an escalation of operations by Pakistan's army against insurgents in the tribal areas of Waziristan, he said.
Azimi said fighters loyal to Tahir Yuldash and other insurgents had also moved into the north to disrupt the August presidential poll. Yuldash and his Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan fighters were given shelter by the Taliban before 2001.
(Additional reporting by Erik Kirschbaum in BERLIN; Editing by Paul Tait and Sugita Katyal)
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Afghanistan: The perils of mine clearance
KABUL, 22 July 2009 (IRIN) - Mohammad Aman has defused hundreds of anti-personnel landmines in various parts of Afghanistan in more than 13 years as a de-miner with the Mine Detection Center (MDC), a local NGO.
"If each mine were to kill, maim or injure at least one person then I have saved more than 1,000 people and I am proud of that," he told IRIN in Kabul.
Mine clearance often requires working in very remote areas where de-miners are exposed to greater security risks and attacks by various armed and criminal groups.
"We not only face risks of hidden mines and ERWs [explosive remnants of war], but also those of abduction and death by criminal gangs and the armed opposition groups," Aman said.
On 14 July, Aman and 15 other de-miners were kidnapped by unknown armed men while working in a remote location in Paktia Province, southeastern Afghanistan.
Their captors kept them hungry and blindfolded for more than two days before they were set free at the request of local elders.
"They threatened us to abandon our work, saying next time they will kill us," said Aman, adding that his kidnappers did not listen to his repeated pleas regarding the impartial nature of their work.
Eleven de-miners were killed and 19 others wounded in non-mine security incidents in 2008, while nine deaths and 10 injuries were reported in 2007, the UN Mine Action Coordination Center of Afghanistan (UNMACCA) said.
Attacks on de-miners have often resulted in the loss of precious assets and equipment vital for their work. All the belongings of Aman and his colleagues - personal and official - were seized by the kidnappers after their release.
Aman risks his life for about $170 a month, working in the scorching heat, and sees his family for 10 days once every two months in central Wardak Province.
Despite all the odds he continues to work in insecure rural parts of Paktia - more than 200km from home - and hopes he will not face his captors again.
Negotiation
"Armed escorts cannot protect us from them [insurgents and criminal groups]," Aman said. Instead he suggests security negotiations to be conducted with the insurgents, which he believes can yield security guarantees for de-miners and other independent humanitarian actors.
Zabiullah Mujahid, a purported Taliban spokesman, told IRIN from an unidentified location that the insurgents did not attack "independent de-miners" but he conceded some rank-and-file fighters could have been involved in a few security incidents.
Scope of the de-mining challenge
Despite two decades of mine clearance by several NGOs, Afghanistan is still replete with landmines and ERWs, and every month 55-60 people fall victim to them, according to UNMACCA.
Landmines were planted across the country during the Soviet invasion between 1979 and 1989 and the subsequent civil war in the 1990s. Mines have killed and/or maimed about 150,000 Afghans since 1989, according to UNMACCA.
Since the 1980s, hundreds of de-miners have been working to rid the country of landmines and ERWs. Afghanistan joined the Mine Ban treaty in 2003 and the 10-year mine clearance deadline expires on 1 March 2013. To meet that deadline, de-mining operations in the country will need US$500 million from donors, according to UNMACCA.
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U.S. special envoy rules out U.S. army action in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, July 22 (Xinhua) -- U.S. special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke on Wednesday ruled out interference by U.S. forces in Pakistan, saying there is no U.S. army present in Pakistan nor does his country want any U.S. military action here, the official Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported.
While talking to a delegation of the welfare organizations and veterans hailing from northwestern Pakistan's Malakand and Swat districts, Holbrooke said the government and people of Pakistan are to play more vital and real role in the rehabilitation of the affectees, and the U.S. role is limited to the extent of giving assistance, which would be performed to the core.
The delegation apprised the U.S. special envoy of their grievances in connection with problems involved in the rehabilitation of Malakand affectees.
Holbrooke also said that power crisis in Pakistan has posed a grave situation and the U.S. wants to assist Pakistan for overcoming this crisis.
"It is very necessary for Pakistan to implement the International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditions to get rid of power crisis. The electricity rates should be increased by 17 percent gradually," sources quoted the U.S. envoy as saying, who made the remarks after reaching Islamabad late Tuesday night.
Holbrooke said the U.S. is sensing the situation which Pakistanis facing from a long time.
About the ongoing terror war, he said his country is committed to assist the internally displaced persons (IDPs) who fled their areas due to militancy.
He said the U.S. was concerned about the civilian casualties in Pakistan as well as Afghanistan and its force did not shot any bullet any where in the world but unfortunately such incidents occurs when terrorist take refuge in the civilians areas.
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Bombers in burqas shot during Afghan attack
14 die as Taliban militants attack three government buildings and U.S. base
July 21, 2009 Associated Press via MSNBC
KHOST, Afghanistan - Suspected Taliban militants launched near-simultaneous assaults Tuesday on Afghan and U.S. facilities in two eastern cities in attacks that killed six Afghan police and intelligence officers as well as eight insurgents.
The attacks in Gardez and Jalalabad may have been aimed at relieving pressure on Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan — the focus of U.S. and British operations against the hardline Islamic militants.
A quick response by Afghan police and soldiers prevented higher casualties.
Nevertheless, the Tuesday assaults clearly showed that the Taliban are capable of mounting complex attacks in different parts of the country, stretching the capabilities of U.S. and allied forces locked in the bloodiest fighting of the Afghan war.
Militants, some of them wearing explosive belts and disguised in women's burqa robes, launched the attacks in late morning, storming the governor's compound, the intelligence department and the police department in Gardez and the U.S.-run airfield in Jalalabad about 90 miles (150 kilometers) to the northeast.
In Gardez, three intelligence officials were killed when a rocket exploded inside the intelligence department building. Three policemen were killed when one of the attackers blew himself up in front of a Gardez police station, according to deputy provincial police chief Ghulam Dastagir.
Four attackers shot and killed
A total of four attackers were shot and killed at the police station and the governor's compound, Dastagir said. At least two bombers were wearing burqas, presumably to conceal the explosives, officials said. Bits of the blue burqas could be seen on the bloodstained sidewalk and hanging from nearby trees hours after the attack.
At nearly the same time, three militants tried to attack the U.S. base at Jalalabad. U.S. and Afghan troops killed two of the attackers and captured a third, according to U.S. and Afghan officials.
In western Afghanistan, police in Nimroz province Tuesday detained five Afghans suspected of planning suicide attacks, according to provincial Gov. Ghulam Dastagir Azad. All had come from neighboring Iran, Azad said.
The attack in Gardez began just as tribal elders and government officials finished a meeting at the governor's compound to discuss security measures planned for the Aug. 20 presidential election, deputy Gov. Abdul Rahman Mangal said. It was unclear if the attack were timed to kill those who attended the meeting.
Attackers fired a rocket at the governor's headquarters but there were no casualties.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility for the attacks. He said 15 militants — all in suicide vests — took part in the Gardez attacks, but officials said they believed all of the assailants were killed.
Several recent complex attacks
Taliban fighters have launched several complex attacks during the past year in Kabul and Kandahar, usually involving multiple suicide bombers and gunmen armed with AK-47 rifles and rocket propelled grenades. Analysts believe al-Qaida fighters provide the training that help Afghan extremists carry out such attacks.
In May, Taliban fighters launched a complex attack in the eastern city of Khost 40 miles (70 kilometers) east of Gardez. Twenty people died in the attacks and three American troops were wounded.
The Tuesday attacks could have been aimed at diverting resources from the southern province of Helmand, where U.S. Marines and British soldiers are battling the Taliban for control of the center of the country's lucrative opium poppy trade. Opium is a major source of funding for the Taliban.
British military officials announced Tuesday that a British soldier was killed the day before in Helmand as he tried to defuse a roadside bomb — the weapon that has accounted for more than two-thirds of allied casualties suffered in recent fighting. He was the 18th British soldier killed in Afghanistan in July — the deadliest month of the war for both U.S. and NATO forces.
U.S. death toll hits 32 in July
Also Tuesday, the U.S. military said an American soldier was killed in a vehicle accident, raising the U.S. death toll in July to 32.
Elsewhere, provinicial police said 10 Taliban were killed and three others wounded when a bomb they were making exploded accidentally Monday in a house in Ghazni province.
The U.S.-led invasion of 2001 drove the Taliban from power. But the militants regrouped as the U.S. diverted military resources to Iraq and have stepped up attacks over the last three years. They now control wide swaths of countryside in the south and east and have been making inroads in the north.
A record 68,000 U.S. troops will be in the country by fall as President Barack Obama's administration increases its forces in Afghanistan while preparing to draw down its military presence in Iraq.
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Millions of Afghan children forced to work - survey
Hamid Shalizi Reuters via Yahoo! UK & Ireland News
Almost 30 years of conflict have forced millions of Afghan children to go without education and work to help feed their families, U.N. and Afghan government figures released Wednesday showed. Skip related content
Of Afghanistan's 8.4 million children -- more than a third of the population of 28 million -- 1.2 million are the main breadwinners for their families and many more supplement family incomes, according to a survey conducted by the Afghan government, UNICEF and the independent Afghanistan Research And Evaluation Unit (AREU) from 2008 to 2009.
"There are some 6.5 million children at risk in Afghanistan who are deprived of education," Wasel Noor Momand, Afghanistan's deputy minister of public work and social affairs, told a news conference in Kabul.
"Child labour is one of the major issues in Afghanistan that we have to eliminate," he said.
Momand said poverty, poor security, lack of education and an influx of refugees returning to Afghanistan from neighbouring countries are the main factors that compel families to force their children to work.
The survey was conducted in three of Afghanistan's most populated provinces: Kabul, Badakhshan and Herat.
It showed children were employed in a range of light and heavy jobs from washing cars in the street to working in shops and restaurants as well as in mechanical workshops and factories.
About a quarter of child labourers are girls who usually work as housekeepers to support their families, the survey said.
Afghanistan is one of the poorest and most underdeveloped countries in the world. Most Afghans live on an estimated $2 a day and unemployment is at 40 percent.
Afghan employment law stipulates that children can work from the age of 15 but their working hours must not exceed 35 hours a week.
Momand said some children under 15 are employed in heavy labour for more than 40 hours a week.
AREU's Afghanistan director, Paula Kantor, said education and public awareness about children's rights play an important role in preventing families and communities from using their children in the workforce.
Security in Afghanistan has deteriorated since Taliban insurgents made a strong comeback in 2006, with attacks across the country making it difficult for many to work freely and even forcing some in remote areas to join the Taliban for income.
(Editing by Paul Tait and Sugita Katyal)
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Thwarted Taliban attacks a positive mark in Afghan police’s spotty record
By Aunohita Mojumdar The Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo! News - Jul 21 2:00 AM
Kabul, Afghanistan – Afghan security forces thwarted a series of coordinated suicide attacks on government installations in Gardez Tuesday, preventing the higher casualties that similar attacks have caused and showing potential progress in their antiterror capabilities.
According to initial reports, at least eight suicide bombers launched attacks in two eastern cities: six targeted three government compounds in Gardez, and two attempted to hit a military outpost near Jalalabad.
Though two of the militants detonated their explosives, at least five were killed. At least four Afghan security forces were killed. No civilian casualties were reported.
The Taliban, which claimed responsibility for the attack, said it had sent 15 suicide bombers to Gardez.
"The good news from my end is that the execution of these attacks were so poorly done and decisively defeated in the early stages that the Afghans have a right to be proud," says Tim Lynch, a security expert now contracting for USAID, with offices in Gardez and Jalalabad.
"Does this give me hope for the future? Yeah," he continues, though he notes that the police's overall performance is still "spotty."
'Only two blew themselves up'
The familiar pattern of attack, which militants had adopted more successfully on previous occasions, involves firing on the security personnel at the gates, then storming inside and detonating explosives to kill the maximum number of people. A similar attack in the eastern city of Khost in May, involving 11 suicide bombers, killed 20 people and wounded three American troops.
In Gardez, the insurgents assaulted the governor's compound, a police station, and the National Security Directorate (the intelligence department) with gunfire and rocket attacks. Only two of the attackers were able to detonate their explosives, however, one at the NSD and another at the police station, according to Ministry of Interior spokesman Zemarai Bashary.
There were conflicting reports on the number of casualties, but according to Mr. Bashary, four insurgents were shot dead by intelligence officials and the Afghan police. Two intelligence officials and two police officials were also killed and six wounded, he says.
At least two of the attackers wore burqas, which help hide the explosives. "Picking something like [the burqa-disguised attacker] out of the normal daily clutter: That's not bad," says Mr. Lynch.
In Jalalabad, locals informed the police of the suspicious movement of two men on a motorcycle. Police chased the men up to the gates of the one of the United States forward operating bases, where one of the insurgents was killed.
There were conflicting reports on the second man, though NATO and US forces said he had been captured. A NATO spokesperson said NATO had worked to "assist the ANSF [Afghan National Security Forces] in preventing and stopping the attack in Jalalabad."
Tuesday's attacks were "a terrible thing, but the good thing is that out of the eight bombers, only two blew themselves up," says Bashary. "This represents enhanced capacity on the part of the Afghan National Security Forces."
Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, a spokesperson for the US military, says the success in thwarting the attacks and preventing high casualties was "a step forward."
"I don't want to draw conclusions from a single incident," she says, but "we are seeing more and more capability and more and more operations led by ANSF."
Attacks come amid surge in violence
The attack on the governor's compound in Gardez took place as senior officials there were wrapping up a meeting to discuss security. Violence has spiked ahead of the Aug. 20 presidential election, as more US troops pour into the country.
The European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, who was in Kabul Tuesday, acknowledged that "elections are going to take place in a difficult environment."
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Tajikistan to tighten security ahead of Afghan vote
22 Jul 2009 15:59:53 GMT By Roman Kozhevnikov
DUSHANBE, July 22 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's northern neighbour Tajikistan will tighten security in the run-up to the Afghan presidential election next month, Tajik Interior Ministry said on Wednesday after detaining three Islamist militants.
The Aug. 20 presidential poll, the second in Afghanistan's short history as a democracy, will take place at a time when violence in Afghanistan is at its worst since the Taliban were forced from power in 2001.
"The situation at the Afghan border may deteriorate ahead of the elections as coalition forces and Afghanistan's own security forces will seek to keep the whole country under control and different criminal groups may try to seek temporary refuge in neighbouring countries including ours," Interior Minister Abdurakhim Qahorov said.
Speaking to journalists in the capital Dushanbe, he said Tajik police and border guards in the area would be reinforced.
"We will not allow any infiltration or breaching of our state border," Qahorov said.
The ex-Soviet republic has been engaged in a series of gunfights this month which it described as clashes with drug trafficking gangs of the Taliban-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).
Separately, a Tajik security source said Tajik forces had detained three IMU militants on the Afghan border on suspicion of planning acts of terrorism.
"On Monday July 20 a group of three men was detained and they, according to our information, were planning several acts of terrorism in Tajikistan," said the source.
"All three of them are active members of the IMU who took part in fights against coalition forces in Afghanistan and arrived in Tajikistan on an order of IMU head Takhir Yuldashev."
As part of the operation police seized guns, explosives and communication devices in an apartment rented by the suspects in the capital Dushanbe, the source said.
Tajikistan's Central Asian neighbours Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan have also blamed several attacks and gunfights within the last few months on the IMU, a group founded in the 1990s.
Western security analysts say the IMU was largely wiped out during U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan but some have pointed to a possible rise in its activity alongside a parallel resurgence in Taliban operations. (Reporting by Roman Kozhevnikov; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov)
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U.S. Deaths Hit A Record High In Afghanistan
Toll of 31 So Far in July Makes For Deadliest Month of the War
By Ann Scott Tyson and Greg Jaffe Washington Post Staff Writers Wednesday, July 22, 2009
GARMSIR, Afghanistan, July 21 -- U.S. deaths in Afghanistan have surged to a record high this month and are likely to remain elevated as American and NATO forces settle into outposts in southern Afghan villages and cities where Taliban forces have traditionally been the strongest.
The rising death toll comes as the country prepares for a presidential election next month, and could erode U.S. public support for a war that is already among the longest in U.S. history.
"This is probably the new normal," said Seth G. Jones, an analyst for the Rand Corp. and author of a new book on the U.S. military's nearly eight-year-old war in Afghanistan. "I'd actually be shocked if casualties didn't continue to increase."
A confluence of factors has contributed to July's toll, which is the highest for U.S. troops in Afghanistan in any month since the war began in late 2001. Among them: President Obama's new strategy ordering tens of thousands more U.S. troops to Afghanistan this year, a surge in offensive operations by both U.S. forces and the Taliban, and an increase in insurgents' use of powerful roadside bombs.
So far this month, 31 U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan, surpassing the record of 28 deaths in June 2008. Losses for the entire NATO-led coalition, including British, Canadian, Dutch and other forces, have also spiked this month, feeding growing unease over the war in those countries.
Americans still approve of the Obama administration's handling of the war by a ratio of about 2-1, with 62 percent approving and 30 percent disapproving, according to a new Washington Post-ABC poll. But there has been no movement on whether the United States is making significant progress toward winning the war. The public remains closely divided on that question, with 46 percent saying the United States is making progress. Nearly half of Americans, 45 percent, say the war was not worth fighting.
Senior Pentagon officials, including Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, have said that the U.S., NATO and Afghan forces must start to show progress in Afghanistan by next summer or risk losing support for the conflict in Washington and NATO capitals. In the near term, U.S. commanders are focused on trying to secure as much of the country as possible before Afghanistan's Aug. 20 presidential and provincial elections, which are being touted as a milestone in the country's development.
Although U.S. Marines are in the midst of a major offensive in the south, American troops have suffered the heaviest losses in the east, where 16 U.S. soldiers have been killed this month. The vast majority of those fatalities have been caused by roadside bombs, which have grown increasingly sophisticated. As the Marines in southern Afghanistan move into more established bases in cities, military analysts said, it is likely casualties will continue to rise.
"Our initial attack into the south has probably thrown the enemy off balance," said John A. Nagl, president of the Center for a New American Security, a Washington-based think tank. "I am afraid that when the Taliban regain their balance in the south, casualties will increase there as well."
In the weeks before U.S. troops began pushing into the country as part of the Obama administration's new strategy, senior U.S. commanders were predicting a long and bloody summer and fall for American soldiers and Marines. "Even a successful counterinsurgency campaign looks bad in the early going," Stephen Biddle, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in the most recent issue of the American Interest, a foreign policy journal.
Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, has ordered his troops to push into Afghan villages and cities and focus on protecting the residents from insurgent intimidation and violence. He has also placed strict limits on the use of airstrikes in an effort to lower Afghan civilian casualties, which have infuriated the population in recent years.
A similar spike in U.S. military fatalities occurred in Iraq in the summer of 2007 after President George W. Bush dispatched about 30,000 additional troops to the country in an effort to quell sectarian violence and insurgent attacks. U.S. troop levels will roughly double this year in Afghanistan -- rising far more sharply than they did in Iraq during the "surge" ordered by Bush. The reinforcements are allowing U.S. forces to push aggressively into Taliban-held areas in the east and south, as part of a counterinsurgency strategy that initially involves heavier combat as U.S. troops seek to drive the Taliban out of population centers.
The Taliban typically fights more during the warmer months, especially in eastern Afghanistan, where the winter is harsher. On Tuesday, insurgents in eastern Afghanistan launched complex, nearly simultaneous attacks on Afghan government and U.S. military compounds in the cities of Gardez and Jalalabad. The attacks killed six Afghan police and intelligence officers, while eight insurgents were killed, news agencies reported.
The insurgents, armed with explosives and rocket-propelled grenades, stormed the governor's compound, the intelligence department and the police department in Gardez as well as the U.S.-run airfield in Jalalabad, about 90 miles to the northeast. Three fighters tried to attack the U.S. base at Jalalabad. American and Afghan troops killed two of the attackers and captured a third, according to U.S. and Afghan officials.
The number of roadside bombs, known as improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, has increased 55 percent this year compared with the same period last year, according to military data. That includes a 34 percent rise in eastern Afghanistan, where the number went from 604 to 811, and a 78 percent increase in southern Afghanistan, where the number grew from 683 to 1,217. So far this year, 36 percent of the increase in such devices nationwide has occurred in the east, and 55 percent in the south.
"With the volume they are putting out right now, they don't have to be sophisticated," said Col. Mark Lee, the Counter IED Branch chief for Regional Command South, which covers southern Afghanistan. Afghanistan's dirt roads make it more difficult to spot the bombs, Lee said.
"The challenge is in Helmand province. It's all dirt roads, so they could be buried anywhere," Lee said of a province where 4,500 U.S. Marines are engaged in a major offensive.
Gunnery Sgt. Denis Desmarais of the 2nd Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company said that in addition to being difficult for his crew to find, the bombs are large -- usually 40 to 50 pounds. Many roads in Helmand are now impassable because of the bombs, he said.
The work of the disposal crews is as dangerous as it is critical. This month, two Marines from Desmarais's unit were killed when they inadvertently stepped on a pressure-plate bomb in a portion of road that had not been inspected. Their bodies were recovered from a nearby canal.
The Post previously reported that a military official said the two Marines were killed when investigating an IED wire that ran into a house. Desmarais, who was at the scene of the bombing, said that was incorrect.
Jaffe reported from Washington. Staff researcher Julie Tate and polling analyst Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.
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Brown dismisses criticism over Afghanistan
by Alice Ritchie
LONDON (AFP) – Prime Minister Gordon Brown dismissed remarks by one of his ministers Wednesday that Britain does not have enough helicopters in Afghanistan, as he sought to move past a damaging row over resources.
Brown said the remarks to a newspaper by outgoing junior Foreign Office minister Lord Mark Malloch-Brown had been misrepresented and repeated his insistence that British troops had everything they need.
"I am satisfied that Operation Panther's Claw has the resources it needs to be successful," he said, referring to a major assault on Taliban insurgents in the southern Afghan province of Helmand which British troops began in June.
"I think the fact that it is making progress at the moment and yielding results already shows that that is the case.... For the operation we are doing at the moment we have the helicopters we need."
Brown has been forced to defend his strategy in Afghanistan following a surge in troops deaths there, in a row that has piled the pressure on a government already struggling with the recession and an expenses scandal.
The intervention of Malloch-Brown is an embarrassing addition to calls from military chiefs and the main opposition Conservatives -- who are leading Brown's Labour party in the polls -- for more troops and equipment.
"We definitely don?t have enough helicopters. When you have these modern operations and insurgent strikes what you need, above all else, is mobility," Malloch-Brown told the Daily Telegraph.
The minister, whose Foreign Office brief includes responsibility for Afghanistan and who is due to step down this week for personal reasons, later sought to clarify his remarks.
In a statement, he said he had meant that "while there are without doubt sufficient resources in place for current operations, we should always do what we can to make more available on the frontline."
In his monthly press conference, Brown said the way the newspaper had interpreted Malloch-Brown's interview remarks was a "misrepresentation," which had been corrected.
Asked whether more helicopters would have saved troops' lives in Afghanistan, he said: "More helicopters in general, yes... But in the operations we are having at the moment it is completely wrong to say that the loss of lives has been caused by the absence of helicopters."
Michael Clarke, director of defence think tank the Royal United Services Institute, said Malloch-Brown's intervention was "astonishing".
"He seems to be throwing down a challenge, which is to say 'we have to rethink our strategic priorities over Afghanistan and what we are trying to achieve there'," Clarke told the BBC.
Malloch-Brown also told the Telegraph that the British public had not been properly warned about the Afghan offensive before the death toll began rising.
Britain suffered its blackest day in Afghanistan earlier this month, with eight troops dying within 24 hours. The toll since operations began in 2001 now stands at 187, more than in Iraq.
A new poll in The Times newspaper suggests the government is losing the public debate about resources, with 67 of respondents saying they believe British soldiers have died or been hurt because of inadequate equipment.
Army chief General Richard Dannatt is among those who have called for more troops and equipment for the seven-year-old conflict.
However, finance minister Alistair Darling insisted that the Treasury had not turned down requests from army commanders for more funding.
"The army has said this is what we want in terms of troops and equipment and we have provided that and financed it," he said in an interview with left-wing weekly Tribune magazine.
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Mongolia to send troops to Afghanistan
Tue Jul 21, 2009 8:44am EDT By William Kennedy
ULAN BATOR, July 21 (Reuters) - Mongolian military officers said the country plans to send troops to Afghanistan, in a cooperation that stems from its "third neighbour" policy to reach out to allies other than China and Russia.
The landlocked nation has previously operated artillery training teams in Afghanistan and sent troops to serve with the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.
"It is one of the best ways to show that Mongolia is not only thinking about itself," said Major General Y. Choijamts, deputy chief of the general staff. "It will show we're contributing to regional stability."
Some 130 Mongolian soldiers will arrive in Kabul in August to help protect Camp Eggers, while 23 others on training missions with the Afghan National Army should deploy by late September.
Additional Mongolian troops could participate in a NATO operation to protect a German-led reconstruction team in northern Afghanistan at the end of this year.
The Mongolian army, which has not seen major combat since assisting the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in 1945, will acquire vital, on-the-ground experience, Choijamts added.
Mongolia's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan has helped cement its alliance with the United States and secure grants and aid.
Military officers hope additional deployments will bring in funds to modernise the nation's antiquated combat systems.
Most of Mongolia's arsenal was manufactured during the 1960s and 1970s in the Soviet Union, giving Mongolian trainers an edge when training Afghan counterparts in the use and maintenance of their larger weapons.
"[The Afghans] have Russian equipment; we have Russian equipment," said Major Dahjivaa Ariunbold, a veteran of the Iraq campaign. "It's a lot easier for them to work with us."
Deteriorating security in Afghanistan hindered Mongolia's previous training teams, which operated there from 2003 to 2008.
"Initially we conducted operations on our own, but after 2006 we had to use escorts," said battery officer Lieutenant Colonel D. Munkhsaikhan said. "Things have gotten worse."
Mongolia's deployment will mark its largest military presence in Afghanistan since the age of Genghis Khan, when Mongol forces stormed through the area on their way to Persia.
(Editing by Lucy Hornby and Sugita Katyal)
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US looks for progress in Afghanistan
By Adam Brookes BBC News, Washington 21 July 2009 23:04 UK
The news from eastern Afghanistan is, on examination, mixed.
In Gardez and Jalalabad, at least six Afghan security personnel were killed in a series of coordinated attacks by suicide bombers and gunmen on Tuesday.
The bombers strapped explosives to their chests and then tried to run into government offices. One blew himself up, killing three members of the Afghan security forces. Two others were shot by police.
One tried to get into the office of the provincial governor, but was shot. Another attacked a police station. He was shot, too.
The attacks suggest a high degree of organisation and co-ordination, and a degree of fanaticism. But the police response suggests the authorities are far from helpless when under attack.
Stripped mountains
News of these incidents in Gardez caught my eye.
I remember reporting on heavy fighting between Afghan and US forces near Gardez. I remember the US gunships swooping low over the plains and rocketing the mountainsides. American bombing stripped the trees in mountain villages of all their leaves.
I was reminded of those spectral images of denuded forests from World War I. The bodies of young Taliban fighters lay amid the rubble, stiffening in the dry, crisp air.
That was seven years ago.
Yet here we are in 2009, and the same war is being fought in the same place by the same people.
In the course of those seven years, nothing conclusive has happened in Afghanistan.
The Obama administration is now trying to act conclusively - or at least in a fashion which will tip this conflict towards a conclusion.
By the end of this summer more than 90,000 US and Nato troops will be deployed. That is not as many as are in Iraq, but it is starting to be a military effort of comparable dimensions.
The president's strategy review - which he announced in March - reworked some of the war's basic assumptions.
We are now in the middle of another review - this time conducted by the new commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal.
Resigned
We expect General McChrystal will find that, without an even greater expansion in the number of Afghan security forces, the success of the overall military effort will remain in the balance.
The current plan is to expand Afghan troop numbers from 85,000 to 134,000 in the next two years or so. General McChrystal may well seek more than that - with the funding to match.
And that will prompt a further round of political soul-searching in Washington.
The increase in coalition troop numbers have a clearly stated purpose: to provide security for the Afghan people and to open up a space in which development and governance can start to take root.
Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was in Afghanistan last week. He said his troops were "the finest counter-insurgency force in the world".
"We know what we need to do," he said. "I think we know how to do it. It's now a matter of resourcing it and executing it."
Some officials, though, remain concerned that Afghan capacity in development and governance will never rise to American expectations - even reduced expectations.
Even if US and Nato troops succeed in bringing a measure of security, "where is this Afghan official who will step in?", asked one.
American and British officials seem resigned to the idea that Hamid Karzai will retain the presidency in next month's elections, and they will have to put up with what they often describe as his corrupt and ineffectual administration.
One source close to Afghan policy-making says the hope is no longer for a "single writ of government country-wide". Rather, he says, "local arrangements are the key".
In practice, that may mean shoring up local power structures based on tribes or mayors or governors, rather than hoping for a central government whose power flows through the entire country; a patchwork of politics, rather than a pattern.
This intensification of the war by the Obama administration in part explains why coalition casualties are rising.
July has seen more US, British and Nato troops die than in any other month since the invasion; 56 fatalities. Two-thirds of them were from roadside bombs.
The number of attacks on coalition forces has risen precipitately. In the first five months of this year the number of attacks by "improvised explosive devices" - mainly roadside bombs - were up 64% over the previous year.
Attacks using "direct fire" - that means mainly automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades - were up 61%.
These are frightening numbers for a war-weary American public - though popular support for the Afghan war seems to remain relatively solid. In a recent Gallup poll, 54% of respondents said things were going well in Afghanistan.
So is the Obama plan for Afghanistan working? It is too early to say.
"Check back in a year. Or two," said one military officer.
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How Afghanistan's War Is Spilling into Central Asia
By John Wendle / Moscow Wednesday, Jul. 22, 2009 time.com
When five militants, all Russian citizens, were shot and killed in a gun battle at a remote military checkpoint near Tajikistan's border with Afghanistan, the Tajik government was quick to label the dead as "members of an organized terrorist group." The group has not been named, but the shootings highlight the grim irony of the struggle against terrorism in Afghanistan. With the U.S. increasing military pressure in Afghanistan and Pakistan mounting security operations along its border with the country, fighters from Russia and the ex-Soviet republics of the Caucasus and Central Asia are returning home. And while that trend decreases the number of foreigners fighting American soldiers in Afghanistan, authorities fear it could export the violence into Central Asia, upsetting the fragile peace in the region's poorest republics.
The July 16 battle was just another recent example of the growing instability along Tajikistan's 830-mile (1,335 km) border with Afghanistan. Two weeks ago, members of a narcotics-smuggling ring — which included a former Tajik government minister and rebel commander — were killed after a skirmish with security forces in the Tavildara Valley, a strategic east-west transit route through Tajikistan and an Islamic stronghold opposed to the government. "The group included several Russian citizens ... aiming to transport large amounts of money through Tajikistan to support terrorist groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan," the government told the press, claiming that the ring was part of an "international terrorist" network with links to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which the U.S. government has designated a terrorist organization.
The spate of bombings, mass arrests and gunfights in Tajikistan over the past few months connected to militants fleeing the increased fighting in Afghanistan and Pakistan has caught the attention of the international community. "The European Union is highly concerned about the situation in Pakistan and its reflection on Tajikistan," said Ambassador Pierre Morel, the E.U.'s special representative in Central Asia, at a news conference in the Tajik capital Dushanbe on July 14. "We support the current politics of [Tajikistan] directed towards the eradication of armed terrorist groups and drug traffic to [the country]."
Earlier this year, the Tajik military launched the Poppy-2009 operation, which the government says is aimed at combating the smuggling of drugs from Afghanistan across Tajikistan's porous, mountainous borders into the Rasht Valley and Badakhshan regions. Some believe that Poppy-2009 is actually a front for operations against Tajik opposition leaders. The government has publicly denied the charge, but observers say that if Dushanbe is indeed trying to put down suspected opposition forces under the cover of an anti-drug-smuggling operation, it only confirms that Central Asian militants are leaving Afghanistan and returning home, since many of the fighters are former opposition commanders or soldiers who fled Tajikistan after losing in the civil war between 1992 and 1997.
In an attempt to bring calm back to the border, Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari, Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, Russian President Dimitri Medvedev and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon will meet in Dushanbe on July 28 to discuss plans to increase regional cooperation on trade and counterterrorism. Russia, which sees Central Asia as its backyard, is especially worried about the uptick in violence along its borders. In the meantime, the Russian government announced early in July that it would be basing rapid-deployment forces in the south of Kyrgyzstan. From there, the forces would be able to respond quickly to any unrest in the entire region, including along Tajikistan's border with Afghanistan.
But Central Asia faces a complex and potent mix of religious conflict, political corruption, ideological violence and increasing poverty — not to mention factionalism within the governments of the region and the countries' distrust of one another. Add to all that fighters returning home to escape the war in Afghanistan, and it's unlikely that declarations of concern from Western diplomats or the presence of the Russian military will soon slow the rising tide of violence.
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Marines, Afghan security forces meet with hundreds of village elders in Helmand
U.S. Marine Corps
NAWA DISTRICT, Afghanistan — Key leaders with 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 3, participated in a tribal shura July 19 at the Afghan police compound next to Patrol Base Jaker here.
There were about 300 local elders representing the seven tribes in the Nawa District present at the shura. The Nawa District Chief of Police, Haji Mohammed Nafez Khan, and the Afghan National Army commander for the Nawa District, Captain Saki Dad, were also in attendance.
Lt. Col. William McCollough, commanding officer of 1/5, said, “This was the first time in over a year that this many elders felt safe enough to travel to the district center and make their concerns known.”
Many of the local Afghans used the shura to speak about the need to understand the difference between good and bad Taliban, which was a common topic from the locals who spoke.
Abdul Bari, a local national who spoke at the shura, stated that “Talib” means “student” and went on to say, being a religious student is not a bad thing.
The local nationals also expressed concern about the locations of check points, perceived unauthorized entry into local compounds and homes, respect for their religion and culture as well as the presence and intentions of the International Security Assistance Force personnel.
McCollough used the shura to reassure the elders, and everyone else in attendance, that the Marines are not enemies of Islam and that they also share the same security concerns.
Capt. Saki Dad also spoke at the meeting and stressed the importance of the joint effort between the ANA, the Afghan National Police and the Marines. He went on to voice the need for the local residents to trust and support them, while encouraging them to feel comfortable discussing any issues with them.
Khan spoke next, praising the fact that such a large group came to the Shura and noting that there were members of all the tribes present.
He also asked the locals to report any known improvised explosive devises to the ANA, ANP or ISAF personnel, appealing to their sense of Islamic principles in asking for their cooperation.
Capt. Frank Biggio, 1/5 civil affairs team leader, said, “it was reassuring to hear so many local leaders express confidence in the ANA and ANP partners to improve the security in Nawa.”
McCollough informed the group of elders that the Marines have been asked to introduce themselves to whoever they meet throughout Nawa, so they should expect the Marines to approach them in a friendly manner.
He added that the Marines are not acting alone, but rather in partnership with the ANA and the ANP. The battalion commander reassured the Afghan leaders that they would stay and assist their people until the Afghan forces are able to provide complete security on their own.
He said that the Marines will never prevent anyone from teaching religion and will always try to stop people from teaching bomb-making and other violent practices. McCollough added that people who say the Marines do not respect Islam are not being truthful.
He went on to say that the Marines understand it will take time to earn their trust, and he hopes that, given time, their actions will earn it.
After the shura came to a close, Ian Purves, the stability advisor for Nawa District, expressed his thoughts saying, “The fact that the chief of police could bring together over 300 elders, from seven tribal groups, to represent their communities on such issues as security and working with the Afghan national security forces and Marines, is a big step forward and another indicator of the progress being made in Nawa.”
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Market catches fire devours to ashes in Afghan capital
People's Daily - Jul 22 1:27 AM
A timber market caught fire in the Afghan capital Kabul early Wednesday causing huge damage to the shopkeepers.
The incident, according to the shop owners occurred at 03:00 a.m. local time and devoured dozens of shops.
"Goods over 2 million U.S. dollars have turned to ashes," a shopkeeper Hajji Ghulam Ali told Xinhua, adding that inside the market there were several shops of liquid gas and oxygen.
No one knows the exact reason for the incident at the moment but some shopkeepers believed that shot circuit caused the disaster.
However, the fire was extinguished at 08:00 a.m. local time after hectic efforts of fire fighters and locals.
Source: Xinhua
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Germany, Holland sign southern Afghanistan reconstruction agreement
Deutsche Welle
Germany and the Netherlands have signed an agreement to begin an extensive reconstruction collaboration in southern Afghanistan.
The two EU countries signed an agreement on the 23.3 million-euro ($33 million) plan in Berlin on Wednesday. The aim is to provide projects in the provinces Uruzgan and Kandahar with the necessary funds to develop the civilian airport in Tarin Kowt, the Uruzgan provincial capital, as well as the building of vocational schools.
The majority of the funds – approximately 17.6 million euros – will come from the Netherlands' national budget. The airport, which will provide a daily connection between Tarin Kowt and the capital Kabul will cost an estimated 15 million euros.
The airport development should be completed by the end of 2010.
The Netherlands currently holds the NATO-led International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) command in Uruzgan.
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British army Captain killed in Afghanistan
A British army Captain has died while trying to defuse a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.
By Nick Britten Daily Telegraph (UK) - Jul 22 5:14 AM
Cpt Dan Shepherd, 28, was part of a team clearing a road of mines to allow fellow troops to safely reach locals when one exploded.
Colleagues said the bomb disposal expert was "unflappable" in the face of danger and "the man you would want with you in a difficult situation".
Capt Shepherd, from Lincoln, from 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment, The Royal Logistic Corps, died in a blast in Helmand province on Monday.
He became the 18th British soldier to die in Afghanistan this month and the 187th service personnel to die there since the start of operations in 2001.
His wife, Kerry, said: "He was doing what he loved. I was so proud of him. I have not lost just a husband but a best friend and he will be missed by everyone."
His parents, David and Judith, added: "We are very proud of our youngest son. He lived life to the full. Daniel worked hard to achieve all he set out to do in his career in the Army. He has left a huge hole in our family and our lives and will be sadly missed. He is in our thoughts, always."
Capt Shepherd joined the Royal Logistic Corps on Commissioning from Sandhurst in August 2003. In Afghanistan, he commanded a bomb disposal team whose job was to ensure roads were safe for locals and troops from the International Security Assistance Force, the NATO-led security and development mission in Afghanistan. He had dealt with more than 50 devices while in Afghanistan and was due to take a job at the armed forces' Permanent Joint Headquarters in Northwood, Middlesex, aimed at counteracting the threat from Taliban ambush bombs.
Major Eldon Millar, Officer Commanding the Joint Force Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group, said: "Captain Dan Shepherd was a man of extraordinary talent; robust, determined and unbelievably courageous.
"His relaxed, amiable and honest character made him one of the most popular and respected men in our very tight-knit group.
"His boundless energy, love of the outdoors, devotion to his family and pride in the City of Lincoln were the hallmarks of a remarkably self assured man.
"He was devoted to his team, all of whom adored him for both his professional ability and generosity of spirit. On task he was the epitome of cool, calm and collected - he was utterly unflappable, a trait which inspired enormous confidence in all who served alongside him."
Lt Col Roger Lewis, Joint Force Engineer, Task Force Helmand, and Commanding Officer of the Joint Force Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group said: "Dan understood fully the dangerous nature of his job yet every day was the first to put his own life on the line.
"To have the honour to serve alongside him was a humbling experience; he was an inspiration to all.
"He was incredibly courageous yet immensely modest about his own stunning achievements.
"Dan lived each and every moment of his life at a frenetic pace and whether through his climbing, his family or his work he invested his energy completely. As a consequence his soldiers adored him and he reciprocated their loyalty tenfold.
"The only thing that could steal him away from them was his devotion to his wife, Kerry, and his wider family."
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Afghanistan-Iran: Sharp rise in deportations from Iran
KABUL, 21 July 2009 (IRIN) - More than 200,000 Afghans have been expelled from Iran in the past six months, marking a 25 percent increase on the same period in 2008, according to officials.
Most of the deportees are single males who had gone to Iran for employment opportunities. Hosting some 900,000 registered Afghan refugees, Iran has deported about one million Afghans considered "illegal migrants" over the past three years, according to aid agencies and government officials.
Some deportees alleged they were beaten up, incarcerated for weeks or insulted by the Iranian security forces before their expulsion.
"I was working on a construction site when the police arrested me... they beat me up with bats and then put me in a cell for three days, after which they sent me back to Afghanistan without allowing me to collect my salary and settle debts in Iran," alleged one.
Nobody at the Iranian embassy in Kabul was immediately available for comment. In the past the Iranian government has rejected allegations of violence against Afghan labour migrants.
The Afghan government, UN and other aid agencies have repeatedly called on Iran to ensure deportations take place in a humane and gradual manner. A large-scale deportation from Iran left thousands in urgent need of aid and two ministers were sacked for their failure to handle the issue in mid-2007.
"We call on Iran and other host countries not to deport Afghan migrants," Noor Mohammad Haidari, a senior adviser at the Ministry of Refugees and Returnees Affairs (MoRRA), told IRIN, adding that the situation in Afghanistan was not conducive for their reintegration.
Young men take serious risks to pay US$400-$600 to smuggling networks to travel to Iran where they seek informal jobs, often with construction companies, according to a 2008 field survey report by the International Organization for Migration.
The annual flow of remittances from Iran is estimated at $500 million, representing about 6 percent of Afghanistan's gross domestic product, according to a UN study in December 2008.
Fighting trafficking
In addition, Afghanistan is a source, destination and transit route for human trafficking in South Asia, according to the Trafficking in Persons Report 2008 by the US State Department.
Women, children and men are trafficked within and outside the country for commercial sexual exploitation, forced marriage to settle debts or disputes, forced begging, debt bondage, service as child soldiers and other forms of forced labour, the report said.
Afghanistan shares a 936km-long border with Iran, a transit route for human and drug traffickers.
"The Interior Ministry must improve border control and should also do more to tackle human trafficking groups inside the country