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Seven NATO soldiers killed in Afghanistan
by Eltaf Najafizada – Mon Jul 6, 1:30 pm ET
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (AFP) – Seven ISAF soldiers were killed in insurgent attacks in Afghanistan Monday as the Taliban announced it would resist a US Marine assault on its strongholds with a guerrilla campaign.
Obama wins Russian support on Afghanistan
by Alexander Osipovich – Mon Jul 6, 1:30 pm ET
MOSCOW (AFP) – US President Barack Obama on Monday won Russian support for the war in Afghanistan with a breakthrough agreement allowing a dozen flights a day to transit US troops and weapons over Russian territory.
List of new US military guidelines in Afghanistan
By The Associated Press – Mon Jul 6, 12:46 pm ET
The U.S. military made public new guidelines Monday for international forces in Afghanistan in an effort to reduce civilian deaths:
Fighting a stubborn poliovirus
KABUL, 6 July 2009 (IRIN) - Despite efforts to eliminate polio in Afghanistan since 1980, the disease is still prevalent: At least 10 children have caught the virus in the past six months, according to health officials.
Kidnappers free 16 Afghan demining workers - agency
GARDEZ, Afghanistan, July 6 (Reuters) - Sixteen Afghans working for a United Nations-sponsored demining agency who were kidnapped at the weekend have been freed unharmed, an agency official said on Monday.
Afghanistan donor spending practices "shameful": UN
By Jonathon Burch
KABUL, July 6 (Reuters) - The United Nations in Afghanistan urged international donors on Monday to improve aid coordination by channelling more money through the Afghan government and sharply criticised donors who do not declare their spending.
Afghan heat complicates soldiers' lives
Troops carry up to 70 lbs of gear in hot weather
Canwest News Service Craig Pearson Monday, July 06, 2009
For cool-weather Canadians fighting a war in the south of this arid country, tackling the heat is sometimes half the battle.
Malaysia To Monitor MAEPA Progress In Afghanistan
KUALA LUMPUR, July 6 (Bernama) -- The Education Ministry will send two supervisors to Afghanistan to ensure that the Malaysia-Australia Education Project for Afghanistan (MAEPA) is being fully implemented in the country.
Taliban launch 'operation' against Marines
by Nasrat Shoaib July 6, 2009
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) – Afghanistan's insurgent Taliban movement said Monday they had launched a guerrilla operation to thwart a major assault by newly deployed US Marines on their Helmand strongholds.
4 NATO soldiers killed in Afghanistan
July 6, 2009 Associated Press
KABUL – A NATO spokesman says four of the alliance's soldiers have been killed in a roadside bombing in northern Afghanistan.
Security developments in Afghanistan
July 6 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 1030 GMT on Monday.
ADF quizzes its own on Afghan civilian casualties
Joe Kelly The Australian July 6, 2009
THE Australian Defence Force is conducting three separate investigations into civilian casualties linked to its operations in Afghanistan amid allegations that Australian troops have lost the goodwill of the Afghan people.
Afghanistan army chief arrives in India
[IANS] New Delhi, July 6 : Afghanistan National Army chief General Bismillah Khan Mohammadi arrived on a four day official visit to India Monday. He will be meeting senior military and defence officials and is likely to discuss issues like training of Afghan army officers.
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Seven NATO soldiers killed in Afghanistan
by Eltaf Najafizada – Mon Jul 6, 1:30 pm ET
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (AFP) – Seven ISAF soldiers were killed in insurgent attacks in Afghanistan Monday as the Taliban announced it would resist a US Marine assault on its strongholds with a guerrilla campaign.
Four US soldiers, serving in NATO's International Security Assistance Force, were killed when a bomb blew up their vehicle as they drove over a bridge in the northern province of Kunduz, international and Afghan officials said.
"I can confirm that four ISAF soldiers were killed," an ISAF officer said on condition of anonymity. They died "due to an improvised bomb explosion in northern Afghanistan".
He would not comment on their nationalities but Afghan officials and the defence ministry of Germany, which is in charge of ISAF in the north, said they were US nationals.
"We have learnt today that four US soldiers were killed in the Kunduz region by an IED (improvised explosive device)," ministry spokesman Thomas Raabe told a press conference in Berlin.
The men were training the Afghan police, Kunduz intelligence chief General Abdul Majid Azimi told AFP.
Kunduz police chief Abdul Razaq Yaqoubi said two elderly Afghan men who were passing by were also killed and two children were wounded.
A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahed, said his militia was responsible. The radical Islamist Hezb-i-Islami faction is also active in Kunduz, which has recently seen a spike in attacks by insurgents.
ISAF announced separately that another two of its soldiers were killed by an bomb in southern Afghanistan, but it gave no further details, including their nationalities.
However, the attack was not in Helmand province where thousands of US and British troops have moved into insurgent strongholds in the past weeks, a spokesman said.
Another ISAF soldier "died of injuries sustained as a result of an insurgent attack" in eastern Afghanistan, ISAF said separately, giving no details.
Early Monday, a suicide attacker blew up an explosives-filled minivan outside a massive ISAF base outside the southern city of Kandahar.
It killed two Afghan truck drivers and wounded 11 other Afghans, including two soldiers, army corps commander General Shair Mohammad Zazai told AFP.
The blast was about 30 metres (100 feet) from an outer entrance to Kandahar Air Field and among vehicles queued up at a checkpoint on a road into Kandahar, about 10 kilometres (six miles) outside the city.
The base is a vast complex that houses thousands of foreign troops including some of the reinforcements sent by US President Barack Obama as part of a sweeping new war strategy.
Another Taliban spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, said his militia was responsible.
The hardline Islamists have carried out a wave of suicide bombings in the last four years in a growing campaign seeking to bring down the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai and kick out foreign troops.
Last week, about 4,000 Marines were airlifted into Taliban areas in Kandahar's adjacent Helmand province in one of the biggest operations over the past eight years and part of Washington's new strategy against the insurgency.
Thousands of British troops meanwhile are carrying out a similar operation around the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.
Their aim is to drive out the insurgents and establish security so Afghans can vote in presidential and provincial council elections on August 20, a key test of a push towards democracy.
Ahmadi, the Taliban spokesman, announced Monday a new Taliban counter-offensive in the opium-producing province which officials say contributes to the costs of running the insurgency.
Operation Foladi Jal, Pashtu for "iron net," would teach the Marines a lesson "so they will never again dare to come into our areas", he told AFP by telephone from an unknown location, threatening "mines and guerrilla attacks".
The Marines and about 650 Afghan forces in Operation Khanjar (dagger) have reported little resistance, except in one area where officers have reported days of heavy fighting with one Marine killed.
Five British soldiers have been killed in Helmand in the past week, four of them by bombs.
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Obama wins Russian support on Afghanistan
by Alexander Osipovich – Mon Jul 6, 1:30 pm ET
MOSCOW (AFP) – US President Barack Obama on Monday won Russian support for the war in Afghanistan with a breakthrough agreement allowing a dozen flights a day to transit US troops and weapons over Russian territory.
"This is a substantial contribution by Russia to our international effort," Obama said at a joint press conference at the Kremlin with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Underscoring the deal's strategic value for Russia, Medvedev said: "We value the efforts by the United States and other countries to deal with the terrorist threat that came from and continues to come from Afghan soil."
The deal marks a victory for Obama as he seeks to intensify the faltering campaign against the Taliban and "reset" US-Russian relations that were badly strained under his predecessor, George W. Bush.
It allows the use of Russian airspace for the transit of US troops and weapons. Previously Russia had only allowed the United States to ship non-lethal military supplies across its territory by train.
The need to diversify transit routes into Afghanistan has become more acute in recent months because of instability in Pakistan, which currently serves as the main transit route into the war-torn country.
The agreement was signed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Undersecretary of State William Burns, who was standing in for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as she recuperated from an elbow injury.
A senior US official said that the deal permits up to 4,500 military flights per year -- or about 12 per day -- which can be loaded with troops, firearms, ammunition, military vehicles and spare parts.
The US official said the military flights would not be charged overflight fees and that they would not stop on Russian territory.
The agreement takes effect 60 days from its signing and is good for one year and then may be renewed automatically by mutual consent, the official said.
The official added that the agreement would bring Washington annual savings of 133 million dollars (95 million euros) thanks to quicker transit.
Cooperation on Afghanistan proves that Russia and the United States can get along on some issues despite bitter disputes in recent years, said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the journal Russia in Global Affairs.
"This is an issue with which the Americans and the Russians have found a way to improve their relations. It is one of the rare problem where their interests are very close -- indeed, identical," Lukyanov said.
Moscow, which has grim memories of its own war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, views the US military presence there as protecting its southern flank, said independent Russian defence analyst Pavel Felgenhauer.
"Russia is not really a friend of the Taliban. It already has problems with the Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus, and the big risk is that the Islamist menace will infect Central Asia as well," Felgenhauer said.
"There is a consensus in Russia on the fact that the US operation in Afghanistan is lost already, but the longer the Americans stay there, the more they will put off the danger to our borders," he added.
Tens of thousands of international troops are in Afghanistan struggling to put down a tenacious Taliban insurgency.
Since his inauguration in January, Obama has sent thousands more US troops to the country in a bid to crush the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, making the campaign there a central element of his administration's foreign policy.
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List of new US military guidelines in Afghanistan
By The Associated Press – Mon Jul 6, 12:46 pm ET
The U.S. military made public new guidelines Monday for international forces in Afghanistan in an effort to reduce civilian deaths:
• Airstrikes must be very limited and authorized but can be used in self-defense if troops' lives are at risk.
• Troops must be accompanied by Afghan forces before they enter residences.
• Troops cannot go into or fire upon mosques or other religious sites. This is already U.S. policy.
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Fighting a stubborn poliovirus
KABUL, 6 July 2009 (IRIN) - Despite efforts to eliminate polio in Afghanistan since 1980, the disease is still prevalent: At least 10 children have caught the virus in the past six months, according to health officials.
Immunization coverage has increased in the past seven years from 32 percent in 2001 to over 80 percent in 2007, according to UN World Health Organization (WHO) statistics, and no polio case was reported in northern and central parts of the country in 2008, prompting the Health Ministry and WHO to say the poliovirus had been restricted to only a few conflict-affected provinces in the south and southeast.
However, there has been a recent confirmed case in the northern province of Kapisa, and nine other cases have been reported in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand, and in Nooristan (in the east).
In 2008 WHO reported 31 polio cases in Afghanistan.
The immunization of over seven million under-five children requires about US$18 million a year, most of which comes from international donors.
Access problematical
Access to children in insecure areas has long been a major obstacle for polio immunization drives. Health workers have often been attacked, harassed and kidnapped by insurgents or criminals, according to media reports.
Only 13 percent of children in the southern provinces routinely received oral poliovirus vaccine compared to 47 percent in the southeast, 66 percent in the east and 69 percent in central areas, according to a WHO weekly epidemiological record in March 2009.
About 200,000 children miss out on polio drops every time the vaccinators conduct a nationwide immunization drive, it said.
“Three things impede polio immunization in Helmand Province: First the insecurity, second a lack of public awareness, and very low payments to vaccinators,” said Jan Agha, a local health worker.
“The Taliban often oppose vaccinations. They threaten and beat vaccinators and break their vaccination kits… so people don’t want to risk their lives for 150 Afghanis [US$3] a day,” said a vaccinator in Kandahar Province who declined to be named.
Also, the return of Afghan refugees from Pakistan and unregulated cross border movements between the two countries have contributed to the movement of the poliovirus, health officials say.
Ambitious goal
Poliovirus is endemic in four countries in the world: Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nigeria.
But the Afghan government has an ambitious goal: “We aim to eradicate polio by the end of 2010,” Aqa Gul Dost, head of the Health Ministry’s immunization department, told IRIN.
“Technically it’s very possible to finish the job in this period if vaccinators have access to every child for 5-6 rounds of immunization,” said Tahir Pervaiz Mir, WHO’s polio medical officer in Kabul.
“We call on all warring parties to allow access to children and also call on parents to immunize their children,” said Dost.
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Kidnappers free 16 Afghan demining workers - agency
GARDEZ, Afghanistan, July 6 (Reuters) - Sixteen Afghans working for a United Nations-sponsored demining agency who were kidnapped at the weekend have been freed unharmed, an agency official said on Monday.
The Mine Detection and Dog Centre (MDC) personnel were seized by gunmen on a highway in eastern Paktia province on Saturday. The MDC is part of the overall U.N. mine clearing agency in Afghanistan known as UNMACA.
Sherin Agha Ahmad Shah, head of the MDC in Paktia, said tribal chiefs in the province made contact with the kidnappers and were able to secure the release of the men late on Sunday.
"The kidnappers were thieves and the tribal chiefs negotiated the release of the workers without any ransom or any deal," he told reporters, without giving further details.
The Interior Ministry said in a statement police were also involved in securing their release.
Kidnapping of Afghans and foreigners has become a lucrative business both for Taliban insurgents and criminal gangs in recent years. Some captives have been killed while others have been released after ransoms were apparently paid.
Separately, no further information has emerged about two Afghan employees working for Dutch aid agency HealthNet TPO (HNI) who the Afghan Health Ministry said were abducted in neighbouring Khost province on Saturday.
HNI is a Netherlands-based aid agency specializing in rehabilitating healthcare systems in war zones and disaster areas. No one has claimed responsibility for their abductions.
In Paktia last year, 13 deminers working for another agency were kidnapped by a criminal gang but were freed a month later after mediation by tribal chiefs.
With insurgent violence at its worst since the Taliban were ousted from power in late 2001, thousands of U.S. Marines launched a major new offensive last week in southern Helmand province, long a Taliban stronghold and opium growing hub.
(Reporting by Kamal Sadat; Writing by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing Paul Tait)
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Afghanistan donor spending practices "shameful": UN
By Jonathon Burch
KABUL, July 6 (Reuters) - The United Nations in Afghanistan urged international donors on Monday to improve aid coordination by channelling more money through the Afghan government and sharply criticised donors who do not declare their spending.
Afghanistan relies on international aid for 90 percent of its spending as it tries to rebuild state institutions shattered by nearly 30 years of war and at the same time fight off a renewed Taliban insurgency.
Many Afghans are growing increasingly frustrated at the slow pace of development, endemic corruption and the inability of Afghan and international security forces to stop the violence.
"All of us ... have a long way to go on donor coordination," Mark Ward, U.N. special adviser on development in Afghanistan, told a news conference in Kabul.
"The donors are spending 2 out of every 3 dollars outside the government's budget, which makes it much harder to ensure that their programmes are supporting the government's priorities."
An estimated one third of all aid money spent outside the government budget, Ward said, was not even submitted into a finance ministry database set up by the donors themselves.
"Believe it or not, some donors don't even tell the government what they're spending," he said.
Ward said the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan regarded this as "shameful" and applauded the government for publicly identifying donors who do not report their spending.
The U.S. military will have more than doubled the number of its troops in Afghanistan in a year to about 68,000 by the end of 2009. Washington is also boosting the number of civilian experts it sends as part of an effort to implement President Barack Obama's counter-insurgency strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Ward said the Afghan government will present a new technical assistance plan to international donors in Kabul this week aimed at changing the way foreign experts are used in the country.
According to the plan, foreign experts would fill positions requested by the Afghan government and would be answerable to an Afghan official.
"They will be far more effective in Afghanistan because they will speak the language. They will understand the culture. They will not need a lot of security and they will stay longer," Ward said, without giving details of where they would come from.
Ward urged donors to support the government's new plan and said some had already indicated they would fund it. He also urged them to stop bringing in foreign companies and contractors and choose Afghans instead.
(Editing by Paul Tait)
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Afghan heat complicates soldiers' lives
Troops carry up to 70 lbs of gear in hot weather
Canwest News Service Craig Pearson Monday, July 06, 2009
For cool-weather Canadians fighting a war in the south of this arid country, tackling the heat is sometimes half the battle.
The Afghan sun beats heavily on soldiers kitted up with gear, especially in battles or on patrol.
"It's like being in a sauna, all dressed up, with 60 or 70 pounds on your shoulders and you just keep throwing water on the rocks," Private Benoit Ainsley, 27, from Tracadie-Sheila, N. B., said Sunday, after spending two days on patrol through villages and grape fields in 45 C-plus heat.
"It depends on what soldiers have to carry, but let's say I have about 50 pounds on my shoulders . . . it doesn't take long until you get wet, mostly from wearing the frag vest.
"At some point, your body gets used to the heat. But your kit really starts to get heavier, and dealing with the mud walls that we have to climb, and other difficult ground, you obviously get more tired."
On patrol, every speck of shade is an oasis -- every wall to rest against, a respite.
As you walk, sweat drips from underneath your helmet and down your torso. Your heart pumps harder, your shoulders ache.
Mud walls become harder to scale. Your body temperature seems to climb with each obstacle.
And the Afghan heat is only gaining strength, creeping forward day by day like lava from a volcano, as midsummer approaches. July temperatures can climb above 50 C in the shade.
A relentless sun can cause headaches and dizziness, as well as stroke, shock and even cardiac arrest. At its worst, heat illness kills.
No Canadians have died from heat in Afghanistan, although the sun still presents a considerable danger, according to the doctor in charge of Canadian primary care at Kandahar Airfield.
"Heat illnesses are absolutely a major problem," Maj. Annie Bouchard said. "It's quite dangerous for soldiers, though anybody in the field is at risk."
Perhaps a dozen soldiers have been evacuated by helicopter in the last several months because of heat-related illness. Every day, several receive on-site treatment -- such as intravenous hydration -- somewhere in Afghanistan.
Besides walking patrols for hours under the broiling Afghan sun, soldiers must wear boots, long shirts and pants, a helmet and a frag vest, and must carry water, equipment and weapons that can weigh
75 pounds or more. Every hour soldiers must
guzzle one or two litres of water -- or three individual bottles -- when dealing with extreme heat.
Tank crew and field engineers in bomb suits sometimes wear cooling suits underneath.
But near-equatorial sun threatens not just the soldiers. At a Canadian airbase in southwest Asia, where the temperature climbs even higher than in Afghanistan, technicians have been working on tarmac airstrips hot enough to melt the soles of their boots.
"You can burn yourself very, very easily," said Master Cpl. Rob Smith, an aircraft mechanic, who once experienced
70 C in the sun. "The skin on the aircraft is extremely hot. During the day we can't even touch it.
"I've often burned my hand just on tools that you leave on the ground in the scorching heat."
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Malaysia To Monitor MAEPA Progress In Afghanistan
KUALA LUMPUR, July 6 (Bernama) -- The Education Ministry will send two supervisors to Afghanistan to ensure that the Malaysia-Australia Education Project for Afghanistan (MAEPA) is being fully implemented in the country.
Deputy Education Minister, Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong said the two supervisors would monitor the programme for one month to ensure that MAEPA participants could undergo their training without hassle and be able to share their experience with their colleagues.
"They will leave for Afghanistan together with 30 Afghan teachers who are currently attending a three-month teachers training programme here," he told reporters after accompanying Australian Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith on a visit to the Teachers Training Institute in Lembah Pantai, here Monday.
The three-month teachers training programme which kicked off on June 29, was aimed at enabling the teachers to master English and Islamic teachings.
Wee said the cooperation between the education ministries of Malaysia, Australia and Afghanistan had also proved that the Islamic teachings in Malaysia were recognised by other countries.
"Prior to this, our educational expertise had also been recognised by Thailand and they had translated most of our syllabus into Thai language," he added.
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Taliban launch 'operation' against Marines
by Nasrat Shoaib July 6, 2009
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) – Afghanistan's insurgent Taliban movement said Monday they had launched a guerrilla operation to thwart a major assault by newly deployed US Marines on their Helmand strongholds.
Operation Foladi Jal, Pashtu for "iron net", would teach the Marines "a lesson". Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP by telephone from an unknown location.
About 4,000 Marines poured into the southern province on the border with Pakistan on Thursday in an operation called Khanjar (dagger) that is the first test of a beefed-up US strategy to tackle extremist militants in the region.
"In response to Operation Khanjar by the invading forces, we have launched Operation Foladi Jal," Ahmadi said.
"Their Khanjar will get stuck in our Foladi Jal," the rebel spokesman said.
"In this operation we'll teach them a lesson so they will never again dare to come into our areas," he said.
Helmand is one of the most intense battlefields in Afghanistan, with the Taliban controlling several areas and using funds from a lucrative trade in opium and heroin to rearm for their fight against the fragile government.
The operation would include improvised bomb explosions and "hit-and-run guerrilla attacks", Ahmadi said.
"We will not engage them in front battles. We would rather hit them by mines and guerrilla attacks," he said.
The assault by Marines, along with about 600 Afghan forces, has pushed into several key towns in southern Helmand and aims to hold the areas to allow Afghans to vote in August 20 presidential elections.
One Marine has been killed but officials have not released casualty figures for the insurgents, adding that many seem to have gone to ground.
Five British soldiers have been killed in less than a week in a similar operation underway north of the Helmand capital, Lashkar Gah. Four were killed in explosions and the other by a rocket-propelled grenade.
The Marines and Afghan forces working alongside them have reported few obstacles, except in one area south of the town of Garmsir where officers have said there had been days of heavy fighting.
The commander of the army's southern corps, General Shair Mohammad Zazai, told AFP Monday that troops were advancing with no major resistance.
"The operations by the combined forces continue in Helmand. They have not faced any major resistance from the enemy, they have perhaps chosen to not resist us," the general said.
"In most areas we go into, there's no enemy. The only threat that exists is the roadside bombs that we try to remove from the roads," he said.
Ahmadi, the rebel spokesman, admitted that Taliban fighters had left some areas.
"But we're always there, our fighters are from the people and are among the people. We look for our chances. Each time there's a chance to hit the enemy, we'll hit them and go back among the people," he said.
The general said the troops were meanwhile holding shuras (councils) with the local people to encourage them to work with them and deny the insurgents refuge.
"We listen to their concerns and problems, then we try to address their problems. This is important to have the people with us," he said.
The Taliban were in government between 1996 and 2001, until they were ousted by a US-led invasion for sheltering Al-Qaeda.
They were able to group to launch an insurgency that eight years later has seen a record number of attacks, prompting the United States to this year review its strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan, boosting troops numbers and aid.
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4 NATO soldiers killed in Afghanistan
July 6, 2009 Associated Press
KABUL – A NATO spokesman says four of the alliance's soldiers have been killed in a roadside bombing in northern Afghanistan.
Lt. Commander Chris Hall says the incident happened on Monday. He did not identify the victims' nationalities.
The governor of northern Kunduz province says the attack targeted American soldiers traveling in two armored vehicles.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide car bomber struck early Monday outside the main NATO base in southern Afghanistan, killing two civilians and wounding 14 other people, as U.S. Marines pressed a major anti-Taliban offensive in a neighboring province.
The bomber blew himself up near the gates of Kandahar Airfield, said Gen. Sher Mohammad Zazai, the top military commander for southern Afghanistan. Those wounded included 12 civilians and two Afghan soldiers, Zazai said. Initially police said four soldiers were wounded.
A NATO helicopter, meanwhile, made an emergency landing in neighboring Zabul province, a spokesman for the military alliance said. There were casualties among those onboard but Lt. Commander Chris Hall did not have further details.
The incident was not caused by insurgent fire, Hall said.
The incidents came as thousands of U.S. Marines in Helmand province mounted a major offensive against the Taliban. Over the weekend, insurgent attacks killed three British soldiers in the province, a militant stronghold and hub of the vast Afghan drug trade.
It wasn't clear if the British casualties had been involved in the Marine operation. A total of 174 British personnel have died in Afghanistan since 2001, when U.S.-led forces first entered the country to oust the hard-line Taliban regime.
The Islamist militia has bounced back and now has effective control of large chunks of the volatile south and east of the country, undermining Afghanistan's fledgling democracy. Afghanistan will hold its second presidential elections this August since the Taliban's ouster.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Helmand offensive is "the first significant one" since President Barack Obama ordered 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan to try to reverse the militant gains.
"We've made some advances early. But I suspect it's going to be tough for a while," Mullen told CBS News' "Face the Nation" on Sunday.
The admiral described the goal of the Marines' push as not just driving out the Taliban from areas they control, but securing the area to allow the Afghan government to operate.
"We've got to move to a point where there's security ... so that the Afghan people can get goods and services consistently from their government," Mullen said.
Obama's administration expects the total number of U.S. forces there to reach 68,000 by year's end. That is double the number of troops in Afghanistan in 2008 but still half as many as are now in Iraq.
In the country's east, 16 Afghan mine clearers were freed late Sunday a day after being kidnapped by unknown gunmen as they traveled between Paktia and Khost provinces, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Police were searching for about 10 people responsible for the kidnapping but no arrests have been made so far, the statement said.
Afghanistan is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world, and the increase in violence amid a thriving Taliban insurgency has slowed clearance work. Some 50 people are killed and maimed by mines every month.
___
Associated Press writers Fisnik Abrashi and Amir Shah in Kabul contributed to this report.
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Security developments in Afghanistan
July 6 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 1030 GMT on Monday.
* denotes new or updated items.
* URUZGAN - Afghan forces killed seven Taliban insurgents in a clash in southern Uruzgan province on Monday, a provincial police chief said. Two police officers were wounded. The Taliban could not be reached immediately for comment.
* HELMAND - A British soldier was killed in an explosion near Gereshk in southern Helmand province on Sunday during the latest phase of a major British military operation in the area, Britain's Ministry of Defence said in a statement.
KANDAHAR - Two Afghan truck drivers were killed when a suicide car bomber blew himself up outside Kandahar Air Field, a major foreign military base in southern Kandahar province, Afghan army General Sher Mohammad Zazai said. At least 10 were wounded, he said.
GARDEZ - Sixteen Afghans working for a United Nations-sponsored demining agency who were kidnapped in eastern Paktia province on Saturday have been freed unharmed, an official for the Mine Detection and Dog Centre said. Police and local tribal chiefs were involved in securing their release. Separately, no new information was available about two Afghans working for a Dutch aid agency who were also kidnapped in neighbouring Khost province on Saturday.
* PAKTIA - Two Afghan soldiers were killed and seven wounded in a landmine blast in Paktia on Sunday, the Defence Ministry said.
(Compiled by Kabul bureau; Editing by Paul Tait)
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ADF quizzes its own on Afghan civilian casualties
Joe Kelly The Australian July 6, 2009
THE Australian Defence Force is conducting three separate investigations into civilian casualties linked to its operations in Afghanistan amid allegations that Australian troops have lost the goodwill of the Afghan people.
Defence Minister John Faulkner confirmed last night that six civilians had died in incidents involving "ADF elements" and stressed that "extremely dangerous" conditions prevailed in the southern province of Oruzgan.
However, questions have emerged over the appropriateness of Defence conducting its own investigations into civilian casualties in Afghanistan linked to ADF operations.
Legal expert Donald Rothwell, who teaches military law at the Australian National University, told the SBS Dateline program it was a case of the "Australian Defence Force, Department of Defence, investigating itself and clearly, that can't be appropriate for the purposes of pure independence in these types of matters".
Senator Faulkner, speaking to The Australian before the program aired last night, said "the Australian government and certainly myself as Defence Minister (take) the issue of civilian casualties very seriously indeed".
He stressed that Defence strived to ensure credible allegations were investigated.
One of Australia's harshest critics in Afghanistan, Hajii Abdul Khaliq, one of three members from Oruzgan to be elected to Afghanistan's national parliament, told Dateline popular opinion was turning against the Australian soldiers.
"The Australian troops don't have a good reputation in Afghanistan. People hate the Australian troops," he said.
In one incident, the Afghanistan MP said he was convinced Australian troops were responsible for firing on his relatives' car on July 5, 2006, killing his brother-in-law, blinding his wife and maiming Mr Khaliq's daughter.
"Their tanks were standing right on the hill ridge ... The Governor recognised them and so did the chief of police. They enquired if they were Australians or Americans. No Dutch there on those days. They established they were Australians."
The ADF said there was no evidence Australian troops were involved. Senator Faulkner said it was often difficult to establish the facts surrounding the incidents in which civilians were killed or injured.
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Afghanistan army chief arrives in India
[IANS] New Delhi, July 6 : Afghanistan National Army chief General Bismillah Khan Mohammadi arrived on a four day official visit to India Monday. He will be meeting senior military and defence officials and is likely to discuss issues like training of Afghan army officers.
Mohammadi, who took over the Afghanistan army in 2002, was given a guard of honour at South Block lawns on his arrival. He will be visiting military installations in Pune, Mumbai and Hyderabad.
"The Afghan army chief will be meeting senior defence and military officials during his visit," said a senior official of the Indian Army.
The issues likely to be discussed during these meetings are training of Afghan army officers in India and exchange of officers at various levels.
India has repeatedly denied any kind of military involvement in Afghanistan and the only presence of the Indian Army in the war-torn nation is at a children's hospital in Kabul and some Indian officers teaching English.
Mohammadi is also planning a visit to the Taj Mahal.
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