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Top Afghan official threatens to quit after attack
By Rahim Faiez, Associated Press Writer – Sun Sep 27, 9:16 pm ET
KABUL – A powerful member of President Hamid Karzai's Cabinet threatened to quit after a suicide car bomb attack targeted him Sunday, killing five people, in the latest Taliban attempt to destabilize Afghanistan's
U.S., Allies Vow Support for Karzai
NATO Countries Pledge to Help Turn Insurgents Against Taliban
By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, September 28, 2009
The United States and NATO countries fighting in Afghanistan have told President Hamid Karzai's government that they expect him to remain in office for another five-year term and will work with him on an expanded campaign
Abdullah to monitor Afghan fraud probe 'to the end'
Sun Sep 27, 12:57 pm ET
KABUL (AFP) – The main rival of Afghan President Hamid Karzai in last month's election, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, vowed on Sunday to monitor investigations into alleged electoral fraud "to the end."
Afghanistan Government too corrupt to consolidate US military's efforts
New Kerala - Sep 28 4:01 AM
Kabul, Sep 28 : Though the US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, has urged the US to repeat an Iraq-style surge in Afghanistan, the Obama administration thinks all the efforts will come
CBS: Sec. Clinton on Afghanistan Strategy
From "Face the Nation" The Washington Post CQ Transcriptswire Sunday, September 27, 2009 12:30 PM
HARRY SMITH (Host): All right. Let's talk about Afghanistan for a couple of minutes.
Top US senator pleads for patience on Afghanistan
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Democratic US Senator John Kerry said Monday that President Barack Obama and the Congress should not automatically grant the top US military commander in Afghanistan's request for more troops.
Gates: Mistake to set Afghan withdrawal timelines
By JIM KUHNHENN (AP)
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert Gates says it's a mistake to set a deadline to end American military action in Afghanistan, as some liberals have sought, adding that a defeat would be disastrous for the U.S.
U.S. commander offers options for Afghanistan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan planned to offer options for policymakers to try to stem Taliban gains, including sending up to 30,000 to 40,000 additional
NATO chief on Afghanistan: We're not running from the fight
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen aims to halt criticism that US allies are not doing their share during a speech in Washington this afternoon.
By Ben Hancock September 28, 2009 at 9:15 am EST The Christian Science Monitor
The new head of NATO is set to argue today that the multilateral force is not running from the fight in Afghanistan. In his first major US speech as NATO's secretary-general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen will be addressing
New NATO Chief Says America's Allies Stand Firm Against Taliban
By Elaine Cobbe VOA News Paris 28 September 2009
In his first major speech in the United States, the new head of NATO is expected to respond Monday, to President Obama's concerns that the United States is doing the lion's share of the fighting in Afghanistan.
Australian troops should take lead in Afghanistan: ADA
CANBERRA, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Australia should replace the Netherlands as senior coalition partner in Oruzgan province of Afghanistan when Dutch forces leave in August next year, the Australia Defense Association (ADA) said on Monday.
Obama can't downsize to success in Afghanistan
Los Angeles Times By Max Boot September 28, 2009
The president appears to be dragging his feet on more troops for the struggle, but that's what an effective counterinsurgency strategy requires.
Little power for Afghans elected to local councils
Boston Globe 28 Sept 2009
WASHINGTON - They campaigned in the farthest corners of Afghanistan. They spent thousands of their own dollars on posters. They braved death threats from the Taliban. At least two were murdered.
Taliban to Germany: Leave Afghanistan or lose Oktoberfest
The insurgents' threat to bomb the famous festival is apparently meant to weaken Germany's resolve for the fight in Afghanistan. It follows similar warnings issued by the Taliban and Al Qaeda ahead of Sunday's elections.
By Christian Science Monitor - David Montero | Correspondent 09.28.09
The Taliban have a new target: beer and bratwurst.
Security developments in Afghanistan
(Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 2:30 p.m. British time on Monday: Skip related content
U.N. report finds 2009 deadliest year in terms of civilian casualties in Afghanistan
By Hadi Mayar
KABUL, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- A U.N. report has describes 2009 as the deadliest year in terms of civilian casualties in Afghanistan ever since the commencement of U.S.-led war against Taliban and al-Qaida militants in the country.
Afghan police shot dead 2 suspected suicide bombers in West
KABUL, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Police in Nimroz province, west of Afghanistan, shot dead two would-be suicide bombers before attacking any targets, provincial police chief said Monday.
Afghan president congratulates Merkel on wining election
KABUL, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Afghan sitting president Hamid Karzai on Monday congratulated German Chancellor Angela Merkel on her victory in Germany's parliamentary election, a press release issued by Karzai's office said.
Al-Qaida No. 2 calls Obama a 'fraud'
By SARAH EL DEEB (AP)
CAIRO — Al-Qaida's deputy leader on Monday seized upon President Barack Obama's failure to bring about a freeze in Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and called him a "fraud" in a new audio message.
Afghan female activist nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
KABUL, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- An Afghan human rights activist and sitting president of Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) Mrs. Seema Samar has been nominated for Nobel Peace Prize, a local newspaper reported Monday.
NATO's security balloon shot down in N Afghan province
KABUL, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The security balloon set by NATO-led forces on the space of Kunduz province in north Afghanistan was shot down, a local newspaper reported Monday.
Mass migration in Pakistani tribal area as operation looms
ISLAMABAD, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Tribesmen are migrating from various areas of northwest Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal agency in fear of an upcoming military operation, local TV channels reported Monday.
Mass migration in Pakistani tribal area as operation looms
ISLAMABAD, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Tribesmen are migrating from various areas of northwest Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal agency in fear of an upcoming military operation, local TV channels reported Monday.
Tribal elder killed in Pakistan
Monday, 28 September 2009 08:19 UK BBC News
An anti-Taliban tribal elder has been killed in a suicide bomb attack in the Bakakhel area of north-west Pakistan, police officials say.
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Top Afghan official threatens to quit after attack
By Rahim Faiez, Associated Press Writer – Sun Sep 27, 9:16 pm ET
KABUL – A powerful member of President Hamid Karzai's Cabinet threatened to quit after a suicide car bomb attack targeted him Sunday, killing five people, in the latest Taliban attempt to destabilize Afghanistan's struggling government. Two Americans were among six NATO troop deaths elsewhere.
Shortly after the bombing in the western city of Herat, Energy Minister Ismail Khan railed against the dramatic rise in violence in Afghanistan, saying that thousands of new refugees are seeking shelter in Herat because of militant attacks in outlying districts. Five civilians died in the failed assassination attempt, police said.
Two days ago, Khan said, a young man was hanged by militants only a couple miles (kilometers) outside a NATO base and Afghan government center. Kidnappings of wealthy family members are on the rise, including the abduction of girls, he said.
Khan said government security agents had warned him that insurgents planned to target him. Two earlier assassination attempts had been foiled, he said.
"Very clearly I want to say that if the government does not form a clear strategy to bring peace and security, and the situation continues like this, I will not participate in the Cabinet anymore," Khan said.
Taliban assassination attempts against Afghan officials have intensified this year, with more than 100 officials and pro-government tribal elders attacked — half of them fatally. Echoing a strategy of insurgents in Iraq, the targeted violence undermines the weak government and drives educated and competent Afghans away from official posts.
The convoy carrying Khan, a powerbroker in Herat and former governor of that western province, was headed to the airport when a suicide car bomb exploded outside a high school, said Raouf Ahmadi, a police spokesman. Khan said five civilians died and 17 people were wounded, including four of Khan's bodyguards.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility and said the target was Khan.
The Taliban assassination campaign is a strong sign of deteriorating security in the country, where a record number of U.S. and NATO troops have also died this year. The Obama administration is now debating whether to send more American troops to Afghanistan as its government faces allegations of widespread fraud from the disputed Aug. 20 presidential election.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates issued a stern warning to critics of a continued troop presence in Afghanistan Sunday, saying the Islamic extremist Taliban and al-Qaida would perceive an early pullout as a victory similar to the Soviet Union's humiliating withdrawal in 1989 after a 10-year war.
"Taliban and al-Qaida, as far as they're concerned, defeated one superpower. For them to be seen to defeat a second, I think, would have catastrophic consequences in terms of energizing the extremist movement, al-Qaida recruitment, operations, fundraising, and so on. I think it would be a huge setback for the United States," Gates said in an interview broadcast Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."
But many Americans are skeptical of sending more troops to support a government in the midst of recounting votes from a tainted presidential election. Karzai currently has about 54 percent of the vote. If enough questionable ballots get thrown out he could drop below the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff.
Karzai's main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, said Sunday he was satisfied so far with the recount, which is using a sampling of votes to speed the process and meet a narrowing timeframe to hold a possible runoff before winter snows block much of the country.
"We will follow up that process step by step till, God willing, a government acceptable to you comes to power," he told a crowd in Kabul.
Two U.S. service members died Saturday in the country's south — one from a roadside bomb explosion and the other from an insurgent attack, the NATO-led force said Sunday. A British soldier died Sunday from a bomb explosion while patrolling in southern Afghanistan, Britain's Defense Ministry said.
Elsewhere, three French soldiers died in a violent storm in northeastern Afghanistan late Saturday. One soldier was struck by lightning, while two were swept away by a rain-swollen river during an operation in Kapisa province, said military spokesman Christophe Prazuck.
This year has been the deadliest of the eight-year war for U.S. and NATO troops. The six latest deaths bring to 64 the number of NATO troops killed this month.
An airstrike Saturday by international forces in Wardak province, bordering Kabul, killed three Afghan civilians, said Shahidullah Shahid, spokesman for the provincial governor. Civilian deaths in airstrikes have infuriated Afghans, and the top NATO commander, U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has made protecting innocent Afghans a top priority.
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U.S., Allies Vow Support for Karzai
NATO Countries Pledge to Help Turn Insurgents Against Taliban
By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, September 28, 2009
The United States and NATO countries fighting in Afghanistan have told President Hamid Karzai's government that they expect him to remain in office for another five-year term and will work with him on an expanded campaign to turn insurgent fighters against the Taliban and other militant groups.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other NATO foreign ministers, meeting Friday in New York with their Afghan counterpart, reached "consensus" that Karzai would probably "continue to be president," whether through a runoff or as the legitimate winner of more than 50 percent of votes cast in disputed Aug. 20 elections, an Obama administration official said.
What Karzai has called "reconciliation" with insurgents who agree to lay down their arms is emerging as a major factor in administration deliberations about a way forward in Afghanistan, officials said. Along with plans to increase the size of the Afghan security forces, the U.S. military is developing programs to offer monetary and other inducements to insurgents it thinks are only loosely tied to the Taliban and other militant groups.
"I think that success in Afghanistan looks a great deal like success in Iraq," Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Sunday. The situation in Iraq began to improve after Sunni tribes turned against al-Qaeda insurgents and accepted a security alliance with U.S. forces.
Success in Iraq, however, also depended on a significant increase in U.S. troop deployments, a question that remains unanswered in Afghanistan. Gates said that he expects in "a matter of weeks" a White House decision on a revised strategy, and whether to supply U.S. commander Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal some or all of the additional troops he has requested.
"I don't expect this to be a protracted process," Gates said on ABC's "This Week." On Tuesday, the White House will host the first of a series of National Security Council meetings to review the strategy President Obama laid out in March, along with McChrystal's recommendations for a stepped-up counterinsurgency effort. McChrystal, in an assessment sent to Washington late last month, said the current strategy will fail without more troops.
The U.S. force in Afghanistan is scheduled to reach 68,000 by year's end. The number of troops McChrystal has requested remains unknown, although Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who said he spoke with Obama on Saturday, called it "one of the worst-kept secrets in Washington. It's 30,000 to 40,000 troops." McCain also spoke on ABC.
Gates has said he is still thinking about his position on a troop increase. But he appeared to disagree with the view of a number of senior administration officials, led by Vice President Biden, that the U.S. effort should move away from full-fledged counterinsurgency toward a greater emphasis on targeted attacks on insurgents in Afghanistan and Pakistan with drone-fired missiles and other standoff weaponry.
That strategy, Gates said, "is only possible if you have the kind of intelligence that allows you to target the terrorists. And the only way you get that intelligence is by being on the ground. . . . You can't do this from a distance or remotely."
The imposition of a timeline for withdrawing troops, as some Democrats have proposed, "would be a strategic mistake" with "catastrophic consequences in terms of energizing the extremist movement, al-Qaeda recruitment, operations, fundraising, and so on," Gates said.
Afghanistan's unsettled politics have been a major concern as the administration begins its deliberations. In addition to McChrystal's report, Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry has submitted assessments of the political scene; they have reinforced longstanding U.S. judgments that elements of Karzai's government, including the president himself -- are incompetent and corrupt.
The major elements of counterinsurgency, including economic development and building the Afghan national force, require an Afghan partner seen as legitimate by its citizens. Deciding that they will have to deal with Karzai enables the administration and its allies to factor his limitations into their decision-making, officials said.
Although Afghanistan's electoral commission has declared Karzai won more than 54 percent of the vote, a U.N. panel is investigating fraud charges. It is conceivable that invalidated ballots could bring Karzai below the halfway mark, requiring a runoff with his main challenger, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.
At the Friday meeting in New York, chaired by Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon and attended by Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Spanta, participants disagreed about the latest date a second presidential round could be held. Some said it could be as late as the first week in November before severe winter weather makes it impossible, but all agreed that delaying the election until spring would "only benefit the Taliban," an administration official said.
U.N. Special Representative Kai Eide gave the group, called the "Friends of Afghanistan," a 25-minute update on the political situation. All the foreign ministers spoke, including Spanta, Clinton, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.
While the consensus among them, agreed in Spanta's presence, was that Karzai would prevail even in a runoff, Eide emphasized that "the way he gets there is very important," an official said, advising that the president must let the fraud investigation run its course and accept its results.
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Abdullah to monitor Afghan fraud probe 'to the end'
Sun Sep 27, 12:57 pm ET
KABUL (AFP) – The main rival of Afghan President Hamid Karzai in last month's election, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, vowed on Sunday to monitor investigations into alleged electoral fraud "to the end."
"We will monitor the entire process, every moment, until the end," he told a meeting of thousands of supporters at a Kabul hotel.
"I want to assure you of one thing... if we are not completely satisfied with the transparency of the process, this process will not be supported by us," he said.
Based on preliminary results from the August 20 poll, incumbent president Karzai is ahead, with 54.6 percent of the votes declared valid, against 27.8 percent for Abdullah.
The result will not be finalised until the outcome of a number of investigations into charges of electoral fraud.
If a significant number of votes are invalidated, Karzai's score could edge below 50 percent, forcing him into a second round run-off with Abdullah.
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Afghanistan Government too corrupt to consolidate US military's efforts
New Kerala - Sep 28 4:01 AM
Kabul, Sep 28 : Though the US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, has urged the US to repeat an Iraq-style surge in Afghanistan, the Obama administration thinks all the efforts will come to nought as the Hamid Karzai Government is too corrupt.
General McChrystal has reportedly asked for another 40,000 troops, over the 21,000 troops that Obama has already sent. But, it has not garnered enough support from the Obama administration yet.
Although, the US is confident that its military has the intelligence and adaptability to fight a successful counterinsurgency in Afghanistan, it is concerned that the Afghanistan government has become so corrupt that it cannot consolidate the gains the US military makes, Csmonitor.com reports.
Even, General McCrystal had made fighting corruption a top priority, and said in an assessment: “Some of these major power brokers hold positions in the ANSF (Afghan National Security Forces), particularly the ANP (Afghan National Police), and have been major agents of corruption and illicit opium trafficking.”
He had also released a statement demonstrating the depth of the problem, in which he said: “There are no clear lines separating insurgent groups, criminal networks (including the narcotics networks), and corrupt government officials.”
Another issue that is being underlined is that the US will never be able to leave Afghanistan unless there’s at least a minimally effective government to help in the near term and then take over in the future, the report said.
The doubts are well-founded, as analysts have struggled to invent terms to describe the depth of corruption in Afghanistan. Earlier, the US Drug Enforcement Administration had accused Karzai’s brother, Ahmed Wali, of running the opium trade in Kandahar, the report adds.
It is also said that law and order in the country has collapsed as many police use their posts primarily as a platform for bribe-taking. And before the general election, Karzai had lost broad public support in the country due to his government’s inability to stifle corruption.
--ANI
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CBS: Sec. Clinton on Afghanistan Strategy
From "Face the Nation" The Washington Post CQ Transcriptswire Sunday, September 27, 2009 12:30 PM
HARRY SMITH (Host): All right. Let's talk about Afghanistan for a couple of minutes.
General McChrystal made his report to President Obama. One of the things he says is there's a year window in which the United States has to act in order to ensure that the insurgency doesn't basically take over the country.
Do you agree with that assessment?
SEC. OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON: Well, let me just put General McChrystal's report into the broader context because it doesn't stand alone. It is part of a process. And let's look at what we've done during the last nine months under President Obama's leadership.
We inherited a situation. We didn't reject it out of hand. We didn't accept it out of hand. We engaged in a very thorough review. We reached some critical decisions, including looking at both Afghanistan and Pakistan together because, of course, the threat goes back and forth across the borders.
We also reaffirmed our commitment to going after Al Qaida, to dismantling, defeating them. We believe, and we've seen just this week here in New York; we believe that Al Qaida poses a direct threat to the United States, to friends and allies throughout the world.
So we are very clear about our mission. Our mission is to protect the United States and protect our friends and allies, and to go after the scourge of Al Qaida and related extremist groups.
Now, the decision that was made to add troops in the spring has not even been fully implemented yet. You know, you don't get up and just deploy the 82nd Airborne and they get there the next day. We are only now reaching the end of the deployment cycle.
We also know that, going hand in hand with our military strategy was our civilian strategy, a much more focused effort, a much more accountable one, dealing with the government of Afghanistan. So we not only saw the change of commanders in the military, we saw a change in our ambassador and a beefing up of the embassy in Kabul.
At the same time, Afghanistan is going through an election. This is not like an election, you know, in Western Europe or in the United States. To carry out an election under these circumstances was going to be difficult under any conditions.
It's not over yet. We have to wait until it is resolved -- hopefully, very soon, then make a new commitment about how we're going to meet our strategic goals. And it's going to be up to the president to determine how best to achieve that.
So, you know, General McChrystal, the new commander, was asked for his assessment. There's other input that's coming throughout the government that the president will take on board. But I think we ought to look at it in context.
SMITH: There's growing, sort of, discontent with sending more troops into Afghanistan. And one of the issues is the Karzai government, which is corrupt, at least, and may, in fact, have tried to steal this most recent election.
Is it worth American blood and treasure to help support a regime like that?
CLINTON: Well, with all respect, we're doing this for the United States. We're doing this because we think that a return to a safe haven in Afghanistan with Al Qaida, with Taliban elements associated with Al Qaida, with the same purpose, to basically run a syndicate of terror out of either Afghanistan or the border region, is something we cannot tolerate.
And, you know, we have to recognize that this was always going to be a challenge.
Now, having said that, does the Karzai government or whoever is the next president have to do more to fulfill the needs of the Afghan people to understand what is expected from the rule of law, transparency and accountability? Absolutely.
But, again, we inherited a situation with a set of expectations and behaviors that we have gone about attempting to influence and change. And one of my highest priorities is, once this election is finalized, to work with our entire civilian team, with Special Representative Holbrooke, with Ambassador Eikenberry and everyone else, to really impress upon the new government what is expected of them.
But let's not forget, Harry, this is about us sitting right here in New York. This is about making sure that we've got the intelligence and the capacity to interrupt potential attacks, that we try to continue our effort to destroy and defeat Al Qaida, which are unfortunately still, to this day, attempting to kill and destroy Americans and others.
SMITH: Najibullah Zazi went to Pakistan...
CLINTON: That's right.
SMITH: ... to the border areas, in order to get bomb training. Is Pakistan doing enough to clean up its own house?
CLINTON: Well, look at -- again, what has happened in the last nine months? Pakistan has increased its commitment in the fight against the Taliban.
SMITH: They were successful in the Swat Valley.
CLINTON: Absolutely successful. A lot of people thought that would never happen. I believe that, if we engaged very intensively with our Pakistani friends -- and we did, through meetings in Washington and in Islamabad -- if we shared information, we listened to each other, that there would be a decision by the civilian and military leadership that the threat was directed at them, that it could undermine their government, in fact, you know, would lead to very dangerous consequences in terms of the survivability of the state in many parts of the country. So, yes, have they taken action? Absolutely.
SMITH: "Have they done enough?" was the question.
CLINTON: Well, you know, we are always working for more. I mean, as I just finished saying, we're -- we're not satisfied with anything. This is not, you know, a check-box kind of experience where, "Oh, we're done with that. We're done with that."
But look at what has been accomplished. And I think that we will continue to see a very close coordination. But it is important for Americans to understand that focusing on Al Qaida and the Taliban -- who are largely, but not exclusively, now in Pakistan -- cannot be done if we allow them to return to a safe haven in Afghanistan. So this has to be viewed as part of the overall strategy.
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Top US senator pleads for patience on Afghanistan
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Democratic US Senator John Kerry said Monday that President Barack Obama and the Congress should not automatically grant the top US military commander in Afghanistan's request for more troops.
"We should not commit troops to the battlefield without a clear understanding of what we expect them to accomplish, how long it will take, and how we maintain the consent of the American people," he said.
"Otherwise, we risk bringing our troops home from a mission unachieved or poorly conceived," Kerry, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote in an opinion column published in the Wall Street Journal.
The Democrat praised the top US and NATO military commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, for providing policymarkers with "a tightly reasoned blueprint" for winning the nearly eight-year-old war.
"It may be that General McChrystal has provided the road map to victory. Or it may be that some other strategy would work better, with fewer risks. We can't know until we test every assumption and examine every option," said Kerry.
The senator said that the United States needed an exit strategy and cautioned that the situation in Afghanistan had changed dramatically since Obama called in March for a new approach.
Kerry underlined that "the deeply flawed presidential election" there raised questions about whether the Afghan government can be a strong partner in a US counterinsurgency strategy or whether it is "weak and viewed with deep suspicion" by its people.
Kerry said that ramping up US troops levels in Afghanistan might stabilize that country, but might not stabilize Pakistan, and "chaos there could put nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists."
His comments came as Obama's Republican foes have ramped up pressure on the president to quickly agree to send more troops to Afghanistan, amid warnings from the US military that time is running out to turn the tide.
Obama "promises not to send more troops to Afghanistan until he has absolute clarity on what the strategy will be. He is right to take the time he needs to define the mission. We should all follow his lead and debate all of the options," said Kerry.
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Gates: Mistake to set Afghan withdrawal timelines
By JIM KUHNHENN (AP)
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert Gates says it's a mistake to set a deadline to end American military action in Afghanistan, as some liberals have sought, adding that a defeat would be disastrous for the U.S.
In a stern warning to critics of a continued troop presence in Afghanistan, Gates said the Islamic extremist Taliban and al-Qaida would perceive an early pullout as a victory over the United States as similar to the Soviet Union's humiliating withdrawal in 1989 after a 10-year war.
"The notion of timelines and exit strategies and so on, frankly, I think would all be a strategic mistake. The reality is, failure in Afghanistan would be a huge setback for the United States," Gates said in an interview broadcast Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."
"Taliban and al-Qaida, as far as they're concerned, defeated one superpower. For them to be seen to defeat a second, I think, would have catastrophic consequences in terms of energizing the extremist movement, al-Qaida recruitment, operations, fundraising, and so on. I think it would be a huge setback for the United States."
Gates' pointed remarks came as President Barack Obama re-examines his administration's strategy in Afghanistan and as the Pentagon sits on a request for additional troops from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan.
McChrystal has said a different strategy on the ground as well as more troops are needed in Afghanistan. In a "60 Minutes" profile that aired Sunday night, the commander argued for faster progress. "We could do good things in Afghanistan for the next 100 years and fail," he says. "Because we're doing a lot of good things and it just doesn't add up to success. And we've got to think quicker."
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton suggested Obama's decisions will come after the election in Afghanistan is sorted out.
"This is not like an election in Western Europe or the United States, to carry out an election in these circumstances was going to be difficult under any conditions. It's not over yet," Clinton told CBS' "Face the Nation."
"We have to wait until it is resolved, hopefully very soon. Then make a new commitment on how to meet our strategic goals. And it's going to be up to the president to determine how best to achieve that."
Gates said Obama has made no decision on whether to send additional troops. He said if Obama were to choose to increase combat forces, they would not be able to mobilize until January.
The prospect of sending additional soldiers has created a backlash among some Democrats in Congress and has angered anti-war activists on the left who rallied behind Obama's presidential candidacy last year.
Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin has said the administration should set a "flexible timeline" to draw down troops. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, has called for a timeline and a time limit for achieving objectives in Afghanistan.
"I do not believe the American people want to be in Afghanistan for the next 10 years, effectively nation building," she told "Fox News Sunday."
Others, such as Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin of Michigan, have not gone as far, but have urged Obama not to escalate the war.
Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, said he hopes Obama will decide to commit the necessary troops, a number the senator pegged between 30,000 and 40,000 as "one of the many worst-kept secrets in Washington."
"I think you will see signs of success in a year to 18 months, if we implement the strategy right away," McCain said on ABC's "This Week."
Obama sent 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan earlier this year. But in a tough assessment of conditions on the ground, McChrystal warned that without more troops the United States could lose the war against the Taliban and its allies. Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen also has endorsed more troops, telling Congress this month Afghan forces aren't ready to fight the insurgency and protect the population on their own.
Gates rejected suggestions of a split over troop levels between the Pentagon's uniformed leadership on one side and Gates and Obama on the other.
"Having the wrong strategy would put even more soldiers at risk," he told ABC. "So I think it's important to get the strategy right and then we can make the resources decision."
He said the strategy review would be "a matter of weeks," but he said he would not submit McChrystal's request for troops to the president "until I think — or the president thinks — it's appropriate to bring that into the discussion of the national security principles."
In veiled criticism of the Bush administration, which he also served as defense secretary, Gates said the United States was too preoccupied with Iraq to have a comprehensive strategy for Afghanistan.
"The strategy that the president put forward in late March is the first real strategy we have had for Afghanistan since the early 1980s," he said.
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U.S. commander offers options for Afghanistan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan planned to offer options for policymakers to try to stem Taliban gains, including sending up to 30,000 to 40,000 additional combat troops and trainers, according to defense and congressional officials.
General Stanley McChrystal hand-delivered his long-awaited request for more troops to U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen and NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Admiral James Stavridis, on Friday.
But the White House has said it wants to review the entire strategy for the war before considering McChrystal's request.
Pentagon officials said the contents of the request were confidential. But they described the document as analytical, containing not only the commander's recommendations but also troop level options and an assessment of the risks associated with each option.
Speaking on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, Senator John McCain, who was the Republican presidential candidate in 2008, urged President Barack Obama to choose the option of sending 30,000 to 40,000 troops, a range administration and congressional officials said was at the top end of McChrystal's request.
Officials said McChrystal also looked at smaller troop commitments, giving Obama some alternatives to choose from.
The troops sought by McChrystal would be part of an overhaul of U.S. tactics with an emphasis on securing civilians in population centers to loosen the grip of a strengthening Taliban-led insurgency.
In a bleak war assessment prepared last month, McChrystal wrote that his mission would likely fail if he is not given reinforcements for his force, now more than 100,000 strong including about 63,000 Americans.
Defense officials said several White House meetings on strategy were scheduled for next week.
The war has intensified in recent months. A United Nations report released on Saturday said 1,500 civilians had died so far this year, with August the deadliest month and August 20 -- Afghanistan's election day -- seeing the largest number of attacks since 2001.
August and July have also been the deadliest months of the war for Western troops, who launched major advances.
Obama, who has already ordered 21,000 extra troops to Afghanistan this year, has described himself as a "skeptical audience" of the case for sending more, and says he wants to be sure the strategy is correct first.
Republican critics have reacted sharply to the delay, accusing him of dithering.
(Reporting by Adam Entous; Editing by Vicki Allen)
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NATO chief on Afghanistan: We're not running from the fight
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen aims to halt criticism that US allies are not doing their share during a speech in Washington this afternoon.
By Ben Hancock September 28, 2009 at 9:15 am EST The Christian Science Monitor
The new head of NATO is set to argue today that the multilateral force is not running from the fight in Afghanistan. In his first major US speech as NATO's secretary-general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen will be addressing US doubts over alliance efforts in the South Asian nation as it reels from weekend attacks and the White House weighs critical next steps in the eight-year war.
A car bomb targeting the Afghan energy minister Sunday left him alive but killed four civilians. The NATO-led force reported the same day that three soldiers, including two Americans, had also been killed in separate insurgent attacks.
Similar incidents occur almost daily and have drained American and European support for the war. But Mr. Rasmussen is determined to emphasize the positive in his speech at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington this afternoon. He'll aim to ramp up support and halt criticism that US allies are not doing their share, according to Reuters:
[Rasmussen], in prepared remarks seen by Reuters, will acknowledge the need for more resources to battle the Taliban in the face of mounting Western casualties and fading public support for the war ...
"Talking down the European and Canadian contributions – as some here in the US do, on occasion – can become a self-fulfilling prophesy."
In the speech, he points to 9,000 additional non-US troops who have joined the Afghan effort in the past 18 months, saying "the allies are not running from the fight, despite the conventional wisdom."
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned Sunday that a deadline for the US mission in Afghanistan, as some Democrats are seeking, would be fatal to efforts there, according to the Associated Press. Those remarks came a week after the Washington Post revealed that the head American ground commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, believes a troop surge is necessary to prevent "failure."
Both of those assessments underscored the political minefield faced by President Obama as he decides America's next steps in the war, a decision which "could define, even destroy, his presidency", according to the London-based Times newspaper. Former presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona said Sunday he can "sympathize with" the president's current predicament with Afghanistan.
Mr. Obama seems to be waiting on the outcome of the contested Afghan presidential election to make a decision; a runoff could be held if a United Nations monitoring group declares a large number of ballots invalid. But the administration has already decided to back incumbent Hamid Karzai, the Washington Post reported.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other NATO foreign ministers, meeting Friday in New York with their Afghan counterpart, reached "consensus" that Karzai would probably "continue to be president," whether through a runoff or as the legitimate winner of more than 50 percent of votes cast in disputed Aug. 20 elections, an Obama administration official said.
What Karzai has called "reconciliation" with insurgents who agree to lay down their arms is emerging as a major factor in administration deliberations about a way forward in Afghanistan, officials said. Along with plans to increase the size of the Afghan security forces, the US military is developing programs to offer monetary and other inducements to insurgents it thinks are only loosely tied to the Taliban and other militant groups.
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New NATO Chief Says America's Allies Stand Firm Against Taliban
By Elaine Cobbe VOA News Paris 28 September 2009
In his first major speech in the United States, the new head of NATO is expected to respond Monday, to President Obama's concerns that the United States is doing the lion's share of the fighting in Afghanistan. In prepared remarks, Anders Fogh Rasmussen acknowledges more resources are needed to fight the battle against the Taliban. However, he is expected ask the United States to stop downplaying efforts by America's allies.
The new head of NATO is set to defend the international body's contribution to the fight in Afghanistan.
Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama said there was "an almost reflexive anti-Americanism", which was stopping some countries from stepping up to the plate.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen is expected to say that is just not true.
The new NATO head's prepared remarks say he understands Washington's frustration. But he will warn that American downplaying international efforts could prove a self-fulfilling prophecy.
He is expected to say America's allies are not running from the fight. Nine thousand additional non-U.S. troops have joined the battle in Afghanistan in the past 18 months.
The long-drawn-out fight against the Taliban does not have huge popular support in Europe. Already, the Netherlands has set next year as its deadline for a full withdrawal of its troops and Italy has made it known it wants out too.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has rejected calls for a withdrawal deadline for American troops, saying that would be a "strategic mistake".
American accusations that its allies are not pulling their weight hit hard in France. In recent days, four French soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, in two separate accidents.
France has the fourth-largest contingent in Afghanistan, with 3400 troops based around the country.
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Australian troops should take lead in Afghanistan: ADA
CANBERRA, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Australia should replace the Netherlands as senior coalition partner in Oruzgan province of Afghanistan when Dutch forces leave in August next year, the Australia Defense Association (ADA) said on Monday.
That would require up to 2,000 more troops, on top of 1,500 already in Afghanistan, including combat support units assets such as artillery and attack helicopters.
"We should be the senior partner in the province to back up our strategic alliance with the Americans a lot better," the association's executive director Neil James said.
Tactically and operationally on the ground it would be better if the Australians were in charge and not the Americans.
"Not just from our point of view, but probably from the point of view of the Afghans because our operational culture and philosophy is different from the Americans."
The U.S. is now debating a report from its Afghanistan commander General Stanley McChrystal calling for more troops.
James said the Americans had been expecting their allies to do much more for a long time, although Australia was being pressured less than European coalition members.
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Obama can't downsize to success in Afghanistan
Los Angeles Times By Max Boot September 28, 2009
The president appears to be dragging his feet on more troops for the struggle, but that's what an effective counterinsurgency strategy requires.
During last year's campaign, Barack Obama stressed that while he wanted to withdraw from Iraq, he was no pacifist. "As president," he said on July 15, 2008, "I will make the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban the top priority that it should be. This is a war that we have to win."
He began to make good on his word on March 27 when he announced a "comprehensive new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan" that included 21,000 additional troops. The goal, he said, was to "reverse the Taliban's gains" and "prevent Afghanistan from becoming the Al Qaeda safe haven that it was before 9/11."
On Aug. 30, the president's handpicked commander in Afghanistan delivered a plan to do just that. Implementing his counterinsurgency strategy, Gen. Stanley McChrystal wrote, "requires more forces." If extra troops are not sent, and soon, the "likely result" would be "failure."
One would expect, based on his past statements, that Obama would rush to give McChrystal the forces needed to win what the president described in August as a "war of necessity." Yet that's not the case. The White House has been sitting on the general's report for a month, refusing to allow him to submit his resource request or testify to Congress and leaking to the news media that the president may decide to downsize the entire war effort.
Why this sudden hesitation after so many months of resolute rhetoric? Surely the president cannot be getting cold feet simply because of rising American casualties. Losses are tragic but expected in a tough fight.
Maybe he's panicking over falling public support for the war, especially among his liberal base. Yet this war remains far more popular than the one in Iraq was in 2006 when President George W. Bush approved the "surge." If Obama asks for more troops, Congress is unlikely to oppose him.
Perhaps the fraud-marred presidential election has caused Obama to doubt whether it's possible to build a legitimate government in Kabul. That's a real concern, but it is being addressed by the Afghan electoral authorities, who are reexamining ballots cast in hundreds of precincts where fraud was alleged. Even if President Hamid Karzai ultimately prevails, that's hardly the end of the world. He remains popular with many Afghans, especially the Pashtuns, who make up the base of the insurgency. He has at least as much credibility as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki did in 2007 at the start of the surge, and he can increase his support still further if he does a better job of delivering basic services and fighting corruption -- something coalition forces can push for if they receive more resources.
Admittedly, improving governance will be a tough task. The same may be said of the other "lines of operation" that McChrystal's strategy envisions, from growing the Afghan security forces to improving population security, strategic communications and detainee operations. But what's the alternative?
Vice President Joe Biden favors a smaller-scale strategy that would employ high-tech weapons and special forces to kill terrorists from afar. But such a strategy has rarely, if ever, succeeded. It has been employed by Israel against Hamas and Hezbollah. The result: Hamas controls Gaza, and Hezbollah controls southern Lebanon. It has been employed by the U.S. in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The result: The Taliban controls western Pakistan and large swaths of eastern and southern Afghanistan.
There is no reason to expect, given its long record of failure, that this strategy will work, and no one knows that better than McChrystal, who was in charge of special operations forces hunting terrorists in Iraq for years. Such operations are useful but not decisive, because terrorist leaders can always be replaced. Only by placing security forces among the population can a government prevent terrorists from creating havens.
In Afghanistan today, that must be a job primarily for NATO because the Afghan security forces are simply too small. Afghanistan is bigger in area and population than Iraq, yet its army and police are less than one-third the size of Iraq's (170,000 versus 600,000). Sending more U.S. troops today can push the insurgents back and create breathing room for the expansion of the Afghan forces.
Conversely, if we start downsizing, our NATO allies are sure to beat us to the exits. The result will be the further unraveling of security in Afghanistan. In such an environment, it is hard to know how we could generate the intelligence needed to successfully target terrorists or the stability needed to train Afghan forces. The presence of American trainers or special forces requires a substantial support base to keep supply lines open, safeguard bases and rescue Americans who are in danger of being overrun.
Gains for the Taliban would be not only a human rights disaster but a strategic disaster, because of the close links between the Taliban and Al Qaeda. As a little-noticed passage in McChrystal's leaked report notes: "Al Qaeda's links with HQN [the Haqqani network, one of the leading insurgent groups] have grown, suggesting that expanding HQN control could create a favorable environment for AQAM [Al Qaeda and associated movements] to reestablish safe havens in Afghanistan."
We do not have to create "Jeffersonian democracy" in Afghanistan. But we do have to keep it from becoming a terrorist haven. The only way to achieve that minimal objective is with a comprehensive counterinsurgency strategy. If Obama blinks now, he will be doing grave damage not only to U.S. security but to his own credibility.
Max Boot is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow for National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and the author, most recently, of "War Made New: Technology, Warfare and the Course of History, 1500 to Today."
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Little power for Afghans elected to local councils
Boston Globe 28 Sept 2009
WASHINGTON - They campaigned in the farthest corners of Afghanistan. They spent thousands of their own dollars on posters. They braved death threats from the Taliban. At least two were murdered.
But after all that, the 3,196 candidates vying for 420 seats on provincial councils across Afghanistan face another problem: Even if they win, they will be virtually powerless.
Local elections for Afghanistan's 34 provincial councils, held alongside a bitterly contested presidential race, have been all but ignored by the international community and Afghan voters because the councils - loosely akin to US state legislatures - don't have the authority to make laws, collect taxes, or decide how money should be spent.
As in the presidential race, the outcome of the Aug. 20 provincial council election is still being determined amid widespread allegations of fraud. But some say, whatever the outcome, these elections are an example of a flawed approach to establishing stability in Afghanistan.
“We have come up with a ridiculous model for the country,'' said Andrew Wilder, research director at the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University, who grew up in Afghanistan and returns regularly to do field research. “We are spending vast amounts of money to get them elected, and then we ignore them.''
Advocates of local elections argue that these exercises in grass-roots democracy hold a key to bringing peace to the conflict-ridden country, by offering the promise of a connection between disgruntled citizens and the Afghan government, often seen as detached and unaccountable.
“There is a recognition within various donors that this is a body that could play a pivotal role in the evolution of institutional development here,'' said Susan Carnduff, a Newburyport native who is the Kabul-based director of the National Democratic Institute, which trains 20 provincial councils.
The Obama administration has vowed to beef up Afghanistan's local government structures as a key part of the new US counterinsurgency strategy. One idea is to give provincial councils a more formal role in determining the budgets of local development projects.
For the time being, USAID, the US government's chief aid agency, has begun providing some provincial councils with basic support, including desks and chairs.
But the emphasis on creating elected bodies that have no real power is worrisome, Wilder said, because Afghanistan by itself cannot afford to pay the hundreds of millions of dollars that it takes to run these elections, or the salaries of the locally elected officials, who earn about $300 per month. This year's presidential and provincial council elections cost $325 million, about a third of which was paid for by the United States.
Plans are moving forward to set up even more layers of local government. In addition to the provincial councils, the Afghanistan Constitution requires that elections be held for an estimated 400 district councils as well as thousands of municipal and village councils. Those elections are slated to be held for the first time next year.
The question of just how much authority to give local officials and how much power the central government should retain has been debated for decades in Afghanistan, which has a long history of weak central governments that hold little sway over what happens outside the capital.
Today, provinces are run by governors appointed by Afghanistan's president, while the elected councils serve merely as advisers. But even as advisers, provincial councils have been eclipsed by “provincial development committees'' set up by the government and US military commanders. The councils are also overshadowed by traditional community leaders, including unelected tribal chiefs, elders, and religious figures. As a result, some provincial councils don't even hold regular meetings.
Yet, neither lack of authority nor attacks and death threats have deterred people from seeking provincial council posts, which are often seen as steppingstones to greater political power. Roughly the same number of candidates registered this year for provincial elections as in 2005. In Kabul Province, the number of candidates more than doubled, from 217 to 524.
Anisa Maqsudi, a candidate and a current member of the 29-seat council, said her constituents asked her to run again because she improved their lives, even without funding. She persuaded a foreign charity to dig wells in the area and pushed Kabul officials to pave the roads.
“I always try to help people,'' Maqsudi, who hails from a politically active family, said in a telephone interview. Maqsudi, who lives solely on her council pay, said she spent about $3,000 - nearly a year's salary - on business cards and posters, although half of it was donated by relatives.
Another council candidate in Kabul bluntly described his campaign as an avenue to greener political pastures. Ghulam Reza Ramazanzada, 21, the son of a wealthy Kabul businessman, intends to stand for Parliament in a few years.
“If I have no prior experience; I will be not able to work for my voters,'' said Ramazanzada, who spent $15,000 on his campaign. “I will go step by step.''
The powers of provincial councils have been an issue since the constitution was first drafted in 2003. A description had not even been finalized by the time candidates ran in the first election in 2005, causing many victorious candidates to feel disappointed by their new posts.
“A year after they had been elected, in many places PC [provincial council] members were sitting twiddling their thumbs,'' said Anna Larson, a researcher at the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, a think tank based in Kabul. Larson, who researches voting in Afghanistan, said one woman she interviewed sold all of her gold, and all of her daughter-in-law's gold, to run a successful campaign, but later complained that the position wasn't worth the expense.
In 2004, then-foreign minister Ashraf Ghani tried to raise $1 million for councils to spend on aid projects, but donors didn't fund the idea.
“That has always been the debate: Do you give them a budget or not?'' said Paul O'Brien, a former assistant to Ghani who is now director of the aid-effectiveness program at Oxfam America, headquartered in Boston. “We believe that you have to give them some funding . . . to reward the responsible ones and punish those that are corrupt.''
The councils have so little power that some candidates appeared to run for office solely because they believed the official title would offer some protection from arrest on charges of drug trafficking or war crimes, Wilder said.
Still, some elected officials have managed to wield real political clout by family connections or the sheer force of their personalities. President Hamid Karzai's brother, who heads Kandahar's provincial council, wields great influence over development projects, while the chairman of Balkh's provincial council has made a reputation for himself by holding news conferences denouncing ineffective international aid.
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Taliban to Germany: Leave Afghanistan or lose Oktoberfest
The insurgents' threat to bomb the famous festival is apparently meant to weaken Germany's resolve for the fight in Afghanistan. It follows similar warnings issued by the Taliban and Al Qaeda ahead of Sunday's elections.
By Christian Science Monitor - David Montero | Correspondent 09.28.09
The Taliban have a new target: beer and bratwurst.
In perhaps their most bizarre threat to date, Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan have threatened to bomb the Oktoberfest festival in Munich, Germany, which attracts millions of visitors ever year, along with several landmark buildings and government officials.
The threats, while perhaps farfetched, follow a series of warnings from the Taliban and Al Qaeda and underscores a concerted effort by the insurgents to weaken Germany’s resolve for the fight in Afghanistan.
Germany has responded by banning all air flights over Munich for the rest of the 16-day festival, which ends Oct. 4.
The threats were delivered in a series of videotapes issued by the Taliban on Friday, the Guardian reported. One features a German-speaking militant named Ajjub.
The videos coincide with a recent warning to Germany issued by Osama Bin Laden, delivered in Arabic with German subtitles, as The Christian Science Monitor reported.
In fact, for the past two weeks, in the runup to Germany’s elections on Sunday, the Taliban and Al Qaeda have issued several messages, as Germany’s Deutsche Welle news service reports.
No less than five threatening messages have surfaced recently, including a message from al Qaeda’s Osama bin Laden – complete with German subtitles – demanding that Europeans leave Afghanistan.
Whether the Taliban have the capacity to carry out an international terrorist attack remains to be seen. To date, their attacks have all taken place in Afghanistan, or in Pakistan by related militant groups.
The messages are meant to play upon deep divisions in Germany between the government and the public over the war in Afghanistan. Germany has 4,200 troops in Afghanistan, and 35 have been killed since 2002. Most political parties are committed to continuing the mission. But public support for the war effort has flagged, and took a particular dive after a September airstrike in Afghanistan – called in by German troops and executed by American planes – left dozens of civilians dead. Polls suggest that the German public wants to reduce or pull out altogether its troops on the ground.
Noting that dismay, German political parties tried to keep the Afghan mission out of political debates, reports Radio Free Europe. But now that the elections are over, the debate is likely to return to the fore.
In an editorial last week, the Christian Science Monitor advised:
“[I]f NATO wants to avoid “going wobbly” (to use a phrase of Margaret Thatcher’s), [German Chancellor Angela Merkel] and others – including President Obama – will have to bring their publics around. Or follow them on a risky retreat.
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Security developments in Afghanistan
(Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 2:30 p.m. British time on Monday: Skip related content
* KHOST - One civilian was killed in a NATO-led airstrike in eastern Khost province, a spokesman for the provincial governor said. A U.S. forces spokeswoman said NATO forces dropped one bomb in the air strike which targeted a small group of men who were carrying rocket propelled grenades. She did not have any details about civilian casualties.
KUNDUZ - One civilian was killed and another wounded when foreign troops working for the NATO-led force fired on their car in northern Kunduz province, police chief Abdul Razzaq Yaqubi said.
FARAH - Taliban gunmen attacked an Afghan army convoy in the village of Shewan in western Farah province. Two Taliban fighters were killed and two Afghan soldiers wounded, a spokesman for the Afghan army said.
KUNAR - Six civilians were killed in a roadside bomb in eastern Kunar province Sunday, the Interior Ministry said.
BADGHIS - The Taliban hanged a man they accused of being a government spy in Bala Morghab district of northwestern Badghis province Saturday, a police spokesman said.
(Reporting by Sayed Salahuddin, Hamid Shalizi and Sharafuddin Sharafyar; Editing by Dean Yates)
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U.N. report finds 2009 deadliest year in terms of civilian casualties in Afghanistan
By Hadi Mayar
KABUL, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- A U.N. report has describes 2009 as the deadliest year in terms of civilian casualties in Afghanistan ever since the commencement of U.S.-led war against Taliban and al-Qaida militants in the country.
Facts about civilian casualties have been presented in a report on "The situation in Afghanistan and its implications for international peace and security," which the U.N. secretary general released on Saturday.
The report says 1,500 civilians had been killed in attacks by both the Taliban insurgents and the Afghan and the international forces up to the month of August.
According to UNAMA (United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan) mid-year bulletin, which presented contents of the report, the highest number of casualties took place in the month of August.
The report blames some 68 percent of civilian casualties on Taliban attacks while holding the pro-government forces responsible for remaining of the casualties.
The largest number of casualties, the report says, took place as a result of improvised explosive devices (IED) blasts planted by Taliban, followed by suicide attacks mounted by the latter, and airstrikes by pro-government forces.
The fresh report reflects on the increasing trend in insecurity over recent months.
Going by facts and figures accumulated by the world body it seems that the number of civilian casualties in Afghanistan is constantly increasing on monthly basis ever since 2005.
In the past, human rights organizations and media have mostly been blaming the international forces for civilian casualties in Afghanistan.
A hue and cry was raised in Afghan and international media when30 civilians were killed in a U.S. airstrike in Kunduz province of northern Afghanistan earlier this month.
Similarly, some 100 civilians, including women and children, according to media reports were killed when NATO forces bombed an alleged Taliban compound in Bala Balouk district of the western Farah province in April this year.
The massive killing aroused widespread criticism of the U.S. and coalition forces. Besides street protest in Farah and other cities of Afghanistan, the incident also triggered harsh debate in the Afghan parliament.
Later, the U.S. Central Command (Centcom) released the contents of its investigation finding that two airstrikes were ordered on a building in the province, which "resulted in civilian casualties."
In its report, the Centcom asked the military "to refine its rules for using airstrikes in situations where civilians could be hurt."
It also called for appropriateness of aircraft presently in use in Afghanistan.
"U.S. and NATO must do every thing possible to avoid civilian casualties," U.S. defense secretary, Robert Gates said after publishing of the report, adding "the Afghan people must be reassured that U.S. and NATO forces are there as friends and partners and, along with the Afghan security forces, they are protectors as well."
In his latest report presented to the Pentagon, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. supreme commander in Afghanistan, has emphasized the need for winning the hearts and minds of the Afghans.
Although in past the Taliban had mostly been precise in their attacks on Afghan government and NATO forces but in recent months their attacks have largely become indiscriminate.
Realizing that a larger number of casualties would create a bigger impact, the militants now appear to stage suicide attacks and IED blasts in densely populated areas.
They are also targeting their suicide attacks in such areas, where they can claim a higher casualty tally.
Besides, the Taliban have, for the first time in their eight-year fight, also started rocket blitzes on cities, which are liable to cause greater human and material losses to civilians.
As desperation on both sides is heightening in the run-up to the winter season, wherein fighting traditionally subsides in Afghanistan, there is a possibility that attacks from both sides may intensify, and so may cause more civilian casualties.
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Afghan police shot dead 2 suspected suicide bombers in West
KABUL, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Police in Nimroz province, west of Afghanistan, shot dead two would-be suicide bombers before attacking any targets, provincial police chief said Monday.
"Two suicide bombers entered the provincial capital Zaranj Sunday evening but police identified and shot them dead," Abdul Jabbar Purduli said.
But he did not give more details.
A suicide car bomb targeted Minister of Energy and Water Ismael Khan in the neighboring Herat province for which Taliban outfit claimed responsibility left four civilians dead and 17 others injured on Sunday.
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Afghan president congratulates Merkel on wining election
KABUL, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Afghan sitting president Hamid Karzai on Monday congratulated German Chancellor Angela Merkel on her victory in Germany's parliamentary election, a press release issued by Karzai's office said.
"President Hamid Karzai congratulates Madam Angela Merkel on wining the parliamentary election held Sunday and hoped that relations between Afghanistan and Germany would further develop under her leadership," the press release added.
Merkel, according to media reports, won more than 33 percent of the votes in the parliamentary election held the other day.
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Al-Qaida No. 2 calls Obama a 'fraud'
By SARAH EL DEEB (AP)
CAIRO — Al-Qaida's deputy leader on Monday seized upon President Barack Obama's failure to bring about a freeze in Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and called him a "fraud" in a new audio message.
Ayman al-Zawahri's 28-minute audio message was mainly a eulogy for slain Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, but he also took the opportunity to slam NATO member states operating in Afghanistan, including Germany, which he criticized for keeping troops there.
The recording comes after a series of al-Qaida videos this past month, including several attacking Germany and threatening strikes against Berlin's military mission in Afghanistan. Those releases raised concerns among German authorities ahead of parliamentary elections which ended Sunday.
Al-Zawahri reserved special scorn for Obama, whom he has insulted in nearly every one of his messages since the latter's historic election as U.S. president.
Many experts believe that Al-Qaida is struggling in the face of Obama's popularity in the Muslim world, especially compared to his predecessor George W. Bush.
Obama publicly called for an Israeli freeze in settlement construction in order to restart the peace talks, but was rebuffed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week.
"Here is Obama, the fraud, who pretended to be affected by the suffering of the Palestinians and then allows the settlements to flourish in the West Bank and in Jerusalem ... while pressing the weak (Arab) leaders to offer more concessions," al-Zawahri said.
U.S. officials have asked Arab countries to normalize relations with Israel to encourage the Jewish state to restart talks with the Palestinians.
"Is the reality of the criminal Obama now clear to us? Or do we need more crimes in Kabul, Baghdad, Mogadishu and Gaza to be sure of his criminal nature," he said.
Al-Zawahri's reference to events taking place just a week earlier indicate the urgency with which the message was recorded and posted as al-Qaida hastens to point out any of Obama's shortcomings in the region.
Germany has become a frequent target of Al-Qaida criticisms in the wake of the German contingent in Afghanistan calling in an airstrike that killed dozens earlier in the month.
Al-Zawahri attacked Chancellor Angela Merkel personally in his message, accusing her of lying when she told parliament that German mission in Afghanistan was to support international peace and security.
"International peace and security will not be realized until you get out from the lands of Muslims and stop interfering in their affairs," he said, apparently addressing the entire NATO alliance.
Al-Zawahri also singled out Turkey, which assumes the rotating command of the NATO peacekeeping operation in Kabul next month, accusing the predominantly Muslim country of "participating in shedding Muslim blood."
In November, Turkey will increase the number of its troops to 1,600 from the current 795, none with combat responsibilities.
About half of the recording was dedicated to the Pakistani Taliban chief Mehsud who was killed following a U.S. strike near the Afghan border on Aug. 5.
Al-Zawahri's eulogy was the terror group's first acknowledgment of the death of one of al-Qaida's main partners in Pakistan's tribal area where top leaders of the terror movement are believed hiding.
Al-Zawahri praised Mehsud for his role in mobilizing fighters in the region, and challenging "the new crusaders and their agents," in reference to the NATO forces and the Pakistani and Afghan security forces.
"To the Americans, their allies and their slaves in Afghanistan and Pakistan, I say you may have killed (Mehsud) ...but you did not kill Islam or holy war," al-Zawahri said, listing 10 of Mehsud's contributions to the jihad cause.
The August U.S. missile strike against Mehsud sparked speculation about his fate and put the group in disarray over a successor. The Pakistani Taliban later declared a former aide to Mehsud as the group's new leader.
Al-Zawahri didn't name the successor but appealed to Muslims around the world to follow in Mehsud's footsteps, and urged Afghans to come out in support of the Taliban.
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Afghan female activist nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
KABUL, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- An Afghan human rights activist and sitting president of Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) Mrs. Seema Samar has been nominated for Nobel Peace Prize, a local newspaper reported Monday.
"The Oslo-based Independent Institute for International Peace Studies has nominated Seema Samar for Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her efforts for peace and human rights," daily 8 Subh reported.
Samar is the first Afghan that has been nominated for the internationally recognized and prestigious medal so far, the newspaper said.
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NATO's security balloon shot down in N Afghan province
KABUL, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The security balloon set by NATO-led forces on the space of Kunduz province in north Afghanistan was shot down, a local newspaper reported Monday.
Daily Arman-e-Millie in its edition quoting Shikh Saadi, governor of Dasht-e-Archi district, as saying that the balloon was shot down on Saturday night.
Meantime, Taliban insurgents, according to the newspaper, claimed Sunday they had shot down a pilotless plane in Kunduz province but both Afghan officials and NATO troops have rejected the claim as baseless.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in a bid to stabilize security have launched security balloons on the space of some cities including the capital city Kabul to monitor and take picture for the authorities in ground.
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Mass migration in Pakistani tribal area as operation looms
ISLAMABAD, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Tribesmen are migrating from various areas of northwest Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal agency in fear of an upcoming military operation, local TV channels reported Monday.
Political official said people have been advised to vacate these areas as action against militants has become inevitable in Maken and Mehsud tribal region, the private TV Express reported.
According to sources, a large number of tribesmen are leaving their houses in South Waziristan to various areas of nearby Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu and North Waziristan after security forces announced directives to vacate the area from a local radio station Sunday.
According to TV channel reports, Pakistani security forces are moving from Swat valley to South Waziristan. Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders are believed to be hiding in the area where the U.S. has intensified drone attacks this year.
But Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik told media on Sunday that Pakistan has not decided whether it should launch a full-scale ground military operation in the Waziristan tribal areas against Taliban militants.
Meanwhile, White House officials reportedly are refocusing on Pakistan by potentially launching more missile strikes by unmanned spy planes and sending more special operations forces in the lawless tribal regions along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.
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Italy sees no quick pull-out of Afghan troops
Mon Sep 28, 2009 11:42am EDT
GOTHENBURG, Sweden (Reuters) - Italy does not expect to be able to significantly reduce the number of troops it has stationed in Afghanistan as part of a NATO-led mission for three to five years, a deputy minister said on Monday.
Italy, which has about 3,100 troops in Afghanistan, said the international force there would only be scaled back once the situation had stabilized enough to allow a withdrawal, something which was likely to be several years away.
"We know it is not reasonable to assume that most of the objectives we have can be reached before 3 years or 5 years," Guiseppe Cossiga, an Italian vice minister for defense, told Reuters on the sidelines of a meeting of EU defense ministers.
"We would not expect a reduction in the presence of the coalition (before then) and hence we do not expect Italy to achieve any significant reduction."
However, Italy would consider keeping the reinforcement of around 500 troops it sent to boost security ahead of the Afghan elections earlier this year, he added.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi earlier this month said he planned a strong reduction in troop levels in Afghanistan, but his government has since confirmed that it has no plans to withdraw troops.
General Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, submitted a request for more troops this month, but the Pentagon plans to hold it while President Barack Obama decides what strategy to pursue.
Cossiga said more troops were needed in Afghanistan, where the war has intensified in recent months as Taliban forces have stepped up attacks, but he sought to dampen expectations Italy could contribute more manpower.
"We are not willing today to say no -- we will consider any request -- but our resources and our capacity is already strained very much," he said.
More than 40 states have troops in the NATO-led force in Afghanistan, with Italy one of the largest European contributors. However enthusiasm for the mission has waned in many countries given mounting casualties and a lack of clear progress eight years after the international effort began.
(Reporting by Niklas Pollard; additional reporting by Deepa Babbington; editing by David Brunnstrom)
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Tribal elder killed in Pakistan
Monday, 28 September 2009 08:19 UK BBC News
An anti-Taliban tribal elder has been killed in a suicide bomb attack in the Bakakhel area of north-west Pakistan, police officials say.
Gul Hakim and three others were killed when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives next to the car they were travelling in.
He was a member of the Bakakhel Peace Committee, a pro-government group that regularly confronted Taliban militants.
Several tribal elders were killed in a neighbouring district last week.
The attack comes just days after many were killed in two other suicide car bomb attacks in the north-west.
Correspondents say the spate of recent attacks across north-west Pakistan has raised fears that the Taliban appear to be reasserting themselves after a series of setbacks.
A journalist in Bakakhel told BBC Urdu's Dilawar Khan that the bomber targeted Gul Hakim's car shortly after 1000 local time.
Witnesses said the car was completely destroyed by the force of the blast
Bakakhel is extremely close to Janikhel where last week suspected Taliban militants shot dead several pro-government tribal elders, sparking a clash in which a number of people were killed.
Bakakhel and Janikehl have long been troubled by militant violence.
The areas are close to the tribal region of North Waziristan, a Taliban stronghold.
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