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Taliban blamed for sharp rise in Afghan casualties
By Robert H. Reid, Associated Press Writer – Tue Aug 10, 8:42 pm ET
KABUL, Afghanistan – The number of Afghan civilians killed or injured in the war soared 31 percent in the first six months of the year, with Taliban bombings and assassinations largely responsible for the sharp rise, the United Nations reported.
Killing civilians intolerable: Afghan gov't
KABUL, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- The chief spokesman of Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday said that his government echoed United Nations call on Taliban militants and the NATO-led forces stationed in Afghanistan to avoid harming civilians, adding any type of civilian casualties are intolerable.
Taleban should be prosecuted for war crimes in Afghanistan
Amnesty International (AI) / August 10, 2010
The Taleban and other insurgent groups should be investigated and prosecuted for war crimes, Amnesty International said today, following the release of a UN report showing a rise in targeted killings of civilians in Afghanistan by anti-government fighters.
Five killed in Kabul suicide attack: police
By Sayed Salahuddin – Tue Aug 10, 9:02 am ET
KABUL (Reuters) – Two suicide bombers killed up to five Afghans in an attack on a residential area of central Kabul on Tuesday, Afghan police and security sources said, only hours after a U.N. report detailed a sharp rise in civilian casualties.
4 Afghan civilians killed as roadside bomb strikes vehicle
GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Four civilians including three women were killed as a roadside bomb struck a civilian vehicle in Ghazni province south of Afghanistan on Tuesday, a local official said.
13 Taliban militants killed, cleanup operation goes on in eastern Afghan province
KABUL, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Thirteen Taliban militants including Asadullah deputy to militants commander were killed in Afghanistan' s eastern Laghman province on Monday night, Zahir Azimi spokesman for Afghan Defense Ministry said Tuesday.
Future unclear for man who impregnated widow in Afghanistan
By Matiullah Mati, CNN August 10, 2010 5:12 a.m. EDT
Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A man accused of having sex with a widow and impregnating her remained in Taliban detention Tuesday, his future unclear.
India's Tripartite Plan for Afghanistan
Delhi is drawing closer to Iran and Russia in anticipation of a U.S. troop drawdown.
Wall Street Journal By SHANTHIE MARIET D'SOUZA AUGUST 9, 2010
While the United States seeks to revamp its Afghanistan strategy, India, too, is reassessing its approach to the war-torn country. Its vision, a kind of regional "concert of powers" with Russia and Iran, would not only protect India's interests in Afghanistan in the short term but could help stabilize the country in the long term after U.S. troops leave.
Iran says will host regional meet on Afghanistan
Tue Aug 10, 3:39 am ET
TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran said on Tuesday it will soon host a regional meeting on stabilising Afghanistan to be attended by the neighbours of the war-ravaged country.
Canada names new representative in Kandahar
OTTAWA, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon Monday appointed Tim Martin as the new Representative of Canada in Kandahar province (RoCK) of Afghanistan, where the Canadian combat mission is slated to end next July.
Ex-Guantanamo Detainee Seeks Office In Afghanistan
NPR By Quil Lawrence August 10, 2010
It's election season in Afghanistan, and both the Afghans and the international community can only hope this one will go better than last year's balloting, when President Hamid Karzai won re-election through a process widely denounced as fraudulent.
Afghan driver for slain medical volunteers being held by authorities
A government spokesman refuses to say whether the driver, identified as Safiullah, is formally under arrest or is suspected of colluding in last week's attack in Afghanistan's Badakhshan province.
Los Angeles Times By Laura King August 10, 2010
Reporting from - An Afghan driver for the humanitarian team that fell into a lethal ambush last week in northeastern Afghanistan is being held and questioned by Afghan authorities, who on Monday declined to say whether he was formally under arrest or suspected of colluding in the attack.
Slain aid worker Brian Carderelli found beauty in daily Afghan life
By Annie Gowen Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, August 10, 2010
When videographer Brian Carderelli left Kabul three weeks ago to accompany a team of doctors on a medical mission to northern Afghanistan, the 25-year-old from Harrisonburg, Va., was well aware of the dangers ahead. He knew that other aid workers had been killed and that the long journey on pack animals through the Hindu Kush could be perilous.
Iran's Islamic Azad University Opens a Branch in Afghanistan's Capital
Bloomberg By Ali Sheikholeslami Aug 9, 2010
Iran’s Islamic Azad University, which has more than 400 locations, has opened a branch in the Afghan capital, Kabul.
WikiLeaks' blow to the surge
Washington Post By Marc A. Thiessen Monday, August 9, 2010
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has made clear that his objective in releasing tens of thousands of classified documents was to "end the war in Afghanistan" and "oppose an unjust [war] plan before it reaches implementation." He may well achieve his goal. Assange's illegal disclosures are helping the Taliban to undermine Gen. David Petraeus's counterinsurgency strategy before it has a chance to work.
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Taliban blamed for sharp rise in Afghan casualties
By Robert H. Reid, Associated Press Writer – Tue Aug 10, 8:42 pm ET
KABUL, Afghanistan – The number of Afghan civilians killed or injured in the war soared 31 percent in the first six months of the year, with Taliban bombings and assassinations largely responsible for the sharp rise, the United Nations reported.
Hidden bombs and suicide attacks are killing and maiming so many Afghans that Amnesty International urged the Afghan government to seek prosecution of Taliban leaders for war crimes. Women and children are increasingly bearing the brunt of the conflict — even as NATO restrains the use of force on the battlefield.
The U.N. report released Tuesday found the number of deaths and injuries caused by NATO and Afghan government forces dropped 30 percent compared with the first six months of last year, largely a result of curbs on the use of air power and heavy weapons.
But the overall sharp rise in deaths and injuries indicate the war is growing ever-more violent, undermining the coalition's aim of improving security for ordinary Afghans in the face of a virulent Taliban insurgency.
Violence has paralyzed life in much of the country, especially the south, where many people are afraid to work with the Afghan government, run a business or travel. The last two months have seen record death tolls for U.S. and NATO forces on the battlefield.
"The human cost of this conflict is unfortunately rising," said Staffan de Mistura, the top U.N. envoy in Afghanistan. "We are very concerned about the future because the human cost is being paid too heavily by civilians. This report is a wake-up call."
According to the U.N. report, at least 1,271 Afghans were killed and 1,997 injured — mostly from bombings — in the first six months of the year. The U.N. said the figures represented a 31 percent increase in civilian deaths and injuries over the same period last year.
The U.N. said the Taliban and their allies were responsible for 76 percent of all civilian deaths and injuries. The report attributed the rise to greater Taliban use of larger and more sophisticated hidden bombs throughout the country and a 95 percent increase in targeted assassinations.
An updated Taliban code of conduct distributed to insurgents in southern Afghanistan this month urged their fighters to avoid killing civilians, suggesting the militant leadership is also sensitive to a possible public backlash among their support base.
However, the Taliban consider anyone who works for or shows support for the Afghan government and its international partners to be traitors and legitimate targets for death. Roadside bombs intended for NATO convoys often strike civilian vehicles instead. Suicide attacks in outdoor markets and other public places routinely end up killing or maiming civilians.
Two suicide bombers Tuesday attacked a building rented by a private security company in the Afghan capital, killing two company drivers. Four other civilians were killed by Taliban bombs Tuesday — one in Ghazni and the other in Kandahar — according to police.
The U.N. attributed the 30 percent drop in civilian casualties caused by NATO or Afghan government forces to a sharp decline in deaths and injuries from airstrikes. Last year former top commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal limited the use of airstrikes and heavy weapons to quell a rising tide of anger among Afghans over civilian deaths at the hands of international forces.
McChrystal's successor, Gen. David Petraeus, has maintained those curbs, telling his troops this month that "every Afghan death diminishes our cause." Nevertheless, airstrikes accounted for 69 of the 223 civilian deaths attributed to NATO or government forces, the report said.
"The devastating human impact of these events underscores that nine years into the conflict, measures to protect Afghan civilians effectively and to minimize the effect of the conflict on basic human rights are more urgent than ever before," said Georgette Gagnon, director of human rights for the U.N. mission here.
Violence is taking an increasing toll on Afghan women and children, according to the U.N. Insurgent roadside bombs alone killed at least 74 children in the first half of the year — a 155 percent increase in bombing-related deaths among children compared to the same period last year, the U.N. said.
Deaths among women as a result of insurgent attacks rose 6 percent during the reporting period, the U.N. said. U.N. officials attributed the increase in large part to Taliban bombings in open-air markets where women gather with their children to shop.
"Afghan children and women are increasingly bearing the brunt of this conflict," de Mistura said. "They are being killed and injured in their homes and communities in greater numbers than ever before."
In response to the U.N. report, Amnesty International said the Taliban and other insurgents should be prosecuted for war crimes. It urged the Afghan government to ask the International Criminal Court to open investigations of insurgent leaders.
"The Taliban and other insurgents are becoming far bolder in their systematic killing of civilians. Targeting of civilians is a war crime, plain and simple" said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International's director for Asia. "The Afghan people are crying out for justice, and have a right to accountability and compensation."
Rachel Reid, Afghanistan researcher for Human Rights Watch, said the U.N. report shows "the Taliban are resorting to desperate measures," including assassinations of teachers, doctors, civil servants and tribal elders.
"Targeting civilians violates the laws of war," she said.
Taliban tactics could also complicate efforts by President Hamid Karzai to begin negotiations with the insurgents on a political settlement to end the nearly 9-year war. U.S. and NATO officials have said the increasingly unpopular war can be resolved only through a political solution.
"One day, when unavoidably there will be a discussion about the future of the country, will you want to come to that table with thousands of Afghans, civilians, killed along the road?" de Mistura asked.
He said if the Taliban want to play a role in a future Afghanistan, "they cannot do so over the bodies of so many civilians."
___
Associated Press writers Heidi Vogt and Rahim Faiez contributed to this report.
(This version corrects style to de Mistura)
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Killing civilians intolerable: Afghan gov't
KABUL, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- The chief spokesman of Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday said that his government echoed United Nations call on Taliban militants and the NATO-led forces stationed in Afghanistan to avoid harming civilians, adding any type of civilian casualties are intolerable.
"The Afghan government supports United Nations stance calling on anti-government elements and international forces to avoid harming civilians,"Waheed Omar told a weekly press briefing here.
He made the comments in the wake of the United Nations report released earlier in the day, indicating 31 percent rise on civilian causalities in the first half of this year compared with the same period last year.
"We call once again on armed oppositions to stop killing innocent civilians," he said, adding "any single case of civilian causality is not justifiable and not compensable."
"Aerial bombardments and night raids by our international partners are the main causes of civilian casualties," he stated, adding "we want both of them to be stopped."
However, Omar said the directives issued by NATO-led forces commander in last July has helped to reduce the incidents causing civilian casualties.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in its report released today said, "from January 1 to June 30, 2010, UNAMA Human Rights Unit documented 3,268 civilian casualties including 1,271 deaths and 1,997 injuries."
Anti-government militants were responsible for 2,477 casualties (76 percent of all casualties, up 53 percent from 2009) while 386 were attributed to pro-government elements' activities (12 percent of all casualties, down from 30 percent in 2009), according to the report.
Omar also said that the government would soon announce a plan to devolve all private security companies without exception.
President Hamid Karzai couple of days ago expressed concern over the activities of private security companies and called for their banning. Dozens of private security firms are active in Afghanistan and often provide escort to NATO-led troops' logistic convoys and guards to foreign agencies' offices based in Afghanistan.
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Taleban should be prosecuted for war crimes in Afghanistan
Amnesty International (AI) / August 10, 2010
The Taleban and other insurgent groups should be investigated and prosecuted for war crimes, Amnesty International said today, following the release of a UN report showing a rise in targeted killings of civilians in Afghanistan by anti-government fighters.
Civilian deaths in Afghanistan leapt by 31% in the first half of 2010, driven largely by the Taleban and other insurgents' rising use of improvised explosive devices, and their increased targeting of civilians for assassination, according to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). Attacks by the Taleban and other anti-government forces accounted for more than 76% of civilian casualties and 72% of deaths.
In the first half of 2010, the executions and assassinations of civilians by the Taleban and other insurgent groups increased by over 95% to 183 recorded deaths compared to the same time last year. The victims were usually accused of supporting the government.
"The Taleban and other insurgents are becoming far bolder in their systematic killing of civilians. Targeting of civilians is a war crime, plain and simple" said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific Director. "The Afghan people are crying out for justice, and have a right to accountability and compensation."
"There is no practical justice system in Afghanistan now that can address the lack of accountability. So the Afghan government should ask the International Criminal Court to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity that may have been committed by all parties to the conflict."
Afghanistan is a signatory to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Amnesty International has been told that tribal elders in various villages of Kandahar, Zabul, and Khost provinces have been fleeing rural areas, fearing systematic targeting by the Taleban.
"The elders are threatened and if they don't cooperate with the Taleban they are killed," said a Kandahar journalist. "Then the Taliban will just tell the village that the elder was an American spy and that is why he was killed." The journalist asked not to be identified out of fear of Taleban retaliation.
Amnesty International is urging the international and Afghan forces to ensure they comply with their legal obligation to protect civilians from harm, especially those who provide them with information about anti-government groups or cooperate during military operations.
According to UNAMA, NATO-led and government forces caused 29% fewer casualties than the previous year, which has been attributed to policy changes placing greater priority on civilian protection, borne out in a 64% decline in casualties caused by aerial attacks.
Amnesty International welcomes the reported drop in deaths caused by NATO-led forces, but sounded a note of caution. "Pro-government forces were responsible for at least 223 deaths in six months, and NATO still has no coherent way of accounting for casualties," said Sam Zarifi. "Special Forces in Afghanistan are still failing to be open about their actions when being called to account over civilian casualties."
The UNAMA report singles out Special Forces in Afghanistan for acting without accountability, and calls for greater transparency over their operations, and for more information on forces are now operating under a new integrated command structure, so that casualties can be properly investigated and justice delivered to victims.
Related
Amnesty International report focusing on the deaths of two brothers in a Kandahar night raid in 2008: 'Getting away with murder? The impunity of international forces in Afghanistan'
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA11/001/2009/en
Amnesty International background paper and releases on the Kunduz airstrike of 4 September 2009
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/afghanistan-german-government-must-investigate-deadly-kunduz-airstrikes-20091030
Amnesty International Report, 10 June 2010: 'As if Hell fell on me': The human rights crisis in northwest Pakistan http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA33/004/2010/en
ENDS/
Public Document
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Five killed in Kabul suicide attack: police
By Sayed Salahuddin – Tue Aug 10, 9:02 am ET
KABUL (Reuters) – Two suicide bombers killed up to five Afghans in an attack on a residential area of central Kabul on Tuesday, Afghan police and security sources said, only hours after a U.N. report detailed a sharp rise in civilian casualties.
One police source said one of the bombers had blown himself up at the gate of a compound used by foreigners, killing three Afghan passers-by and two security guards.
He said the second bomber had managed to get inside the compound before detonating an explosives-packed vest he was wearing but caused no further casualties.
A government security source said the bodies of at least three Afghans could be seen close to the site of the attack. The source said the target appeared to be an American company next to a guest-house but had no further details.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said four suicide bombers equipped with hand grenades, rockets and assault rifles had launched the attack.
"They have attacked a guest-house and a security company and fighting is going on," he told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Police and government officials said there were no more than two attackers and that no foreigners were hurt.
A second police source said a guest-house used by foreigners had been the target but Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said that was not yet clear.
"There have been casualties but I do not know how many people," he told Reuters.
"It was a suicide attack. The situation is under control," Bashary said.
CIVILIAN DEATHS
The attack came only hours after the United Nations mission in Afghanistan released a report that said civilian casualties had risen 31 percent in the first six months of the year, compared with the same period in 2009.
More than three-quarters of those casualties were blamed on the Taliban and other insurgents battling foreign forces and the Afghan government.
Violence across Afghanistan has reached its highest levels since the Taliban were ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001, with the death toll for foreign troops also hitting record levels.
Some 150,000 foreign troops are squared off against the insurgents.
Commando-style attacks such as Tuesday's are not uncommon, especially against government and foreign targets in more remote areas in the south and east. In October 2009, five foreign U.N. staff were killed in a similar attack on a Kabul guest house.
A suicide bomber killed four Afghans in an attack apparently aimed at a convoy of foreign forces in Kabul on July 18, and insurgents embarrassed Afghan officials by firing rockets at a major peace conference in the capital in June.
In February, two suicide bombers killed 14 people and wounded 32 when they blew themselves up near Kabul's biggest shopping center and a hotel.
(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi; Editing by Paul Tait and Sanjeev Miglani)
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4 Afghan civilians killed as roadside bomb strikes vehicle
GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Four civilians including three women were killed as a roadside bomb struck a civilian vehicle in Ghazni province south of Afghanistan on Tuesday, a local official said.
"The incident occurred at around 02:00 p.m. local time in Shahbaz bazaar area outside the provincial capital Ghazni city, leaving four persons including three women dead," deputy to provincial governor Qazi Malyar told Xinhua.
Three more persons, all civilians, sustained injuries in the blast, he said.
Meantime, a rocket fired by militants slammed outside the provincial capital but caused no loss of life or damage.
Like Taliban birthplace Kandahar in south Afghanistan, Ghazni has also been experiencing increasing militancy over the past one year.
A day earlier on Monday, three Taliban insurgents were killed as they came in contact with security forces.
The militants have vowed to intensify activities this year in Afghanistan.
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13 Taliban militants killed, cleanup operation goes on in eastern Afghan province
KABUL, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Thirteen Taliban militants including Asadullah deputy to militants commander were killed in Afghanistan' s eastern Laghman province on Monday night, Zahir Azimi spokesman for Afghan Defense Ministry said Tuesday.
"The cleanup operation in Laghman is going on and so far 13 militants, five foreign fighters among them, have been killed in fierce fighting between Afghan National Army (ANA) and the rebels," Azimi told a joint press conference with Brigadier-General Josef Blotz spokesman of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) here in defense ministry compound.
The operation was launched after Taliban ambushed a convoy of ANA in Laghman days ago, Azimi said.
However, Azimi confirmed that seven Afghan soldiers had been killed in the fighting and 14 others sustained injuries.
He also said that the operation was launched by Afghan army but international forces later provided air support.
Elsewhere in the country, according to Azimi, 22 other Taliban fighters had been killed and 79 others had been detained by Afghan and NATO-led troops over the past two weeks.
"The operations were conducted by joint forces in Helmand, Kandahar, Zabul and Farah in southern Afghanistan, as well as Paktika, Paktia and Khost in eastern region," Azimi said.
"Afghan and Coalition forces have been working hard to establish security throughout Afghanistan," Gen. Blotz the spokesman of over 130,000 NATO-led ISAF forces said in the same press conference.
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Future unclear for man who impregnated widow in Afghanistan
By Matiullah Mati, CNN August 10, 2010 5:12 a.m. EDT
Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A man accused of having sex with a widow and impregnating her remained in Taliban detention Tuesday, his future unclear.
The 47-year-old woman, Sanam Gul, also known as Sanam Bibi, was killed in Badghis province in western Afghanistan Saturday morning, said Ashrafuddin Majidi, the provincial governor's spokesman.
A Taliban commander carried out the execution, shooting the woman in her head, said Hashim Habibi, the district governor of Qades, which is located in the province.
Gul had been widowed for four years. She was accused of adultery for her relationship with the unnamed man, said Abdul Jabar, the provincial police chief.
Local residents said the man had planned to marry Gul. Instead, the Taliban whipped him 200 times and detained him, Jabar said.
The International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan condemned the killing.
"This tragic gruesome brutality is an example of Taliban justice," said U.S. Army Col. Rafael Torres, director of the ISAF Joint Command Combined Joint Operations Center.
"This is not what the people of Afghanistan want -- they want peace and freedom and that's what we're going to help provide."
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India's Tripartite Plan for Afghanistan
Delhi is drawing closer to Iran and Russia in anticipation of a U.S. troop drawdown.
Wall Street Journal By SHANTHIE MARIET D'SOUZA AUGUST 9, 2010
While the United States seeks to revamp its Afghanistan strategy, India, too, is reassessing its approach to the war-torn country. Its vision, a kind of regional "concert of powers" with Russia and Iran, would not only protect India's interests in Afghanistan in the short term but could help stabilize the country in the long term after U.S. troops leave.
New Delhi is concerned about the ramifications of that possible U.S. troop drawdown, announced by President Barack Obama last year. That decision accelerated the Afghan government's efforts to reconcile with the Taliban and America's hurry to hand over responsibility for running the country to the Hamid Karzai administration. India worries that Washington is moving too fast and leaving the door open for Pakistan to increase its influence in the country.
The latter is a real concern. The Pakistani military appears to have convinced Mr. Karzai that it holds the key to reconciliation with the Taliban. This is an easy argument to make, given Islamabad's intelligence services funded the Taliban in the group's early days. Foreign and local Indian media reported in June that Islamabad has facilitated meetings between Mr. Karzai and Taliban factional leader Sirajuddin Haqqani in Kabul. Both countries signed a series of pacts seeking enhanced political, strategic and trade cooperation last month.
In response, India is hedging its bets by drawing closer to Russia and Iran, both of which broadly share Delhi's antipathy toward the Taliban. Moscow in particular harbors no love for the Taliban, given its own experience in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and believes that an extremist-led Afghan government would pose significant risks not only to Russia's underbelly in Central Asia but to the larger South Asian region. Last week, Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao visited Moscow to discuss, among other things, ways the two countries could cooperate on Afghanistan.
Delhi is warming ties with Tehran, too, despite voting with the U.S. against Iran's nuclear program development last year. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Ali Fathollahi visited India for three days last week to discuss a wide range of issues, including coordinated efforts to stabilize Afghanistan. This was the second ministerial visit from Iran to India in less than a month and follows a July 9 meeting at which both countries discussed ways to expedite the development and expansion of the Chabahar port in Iran, which could facilitate India's trade with Afghanistan and Central Asia—and bypass Pakistan.
At the moment it's tough to discern what the details of this tripartite cooperation might look like. The overarching goal is to prevent the return of the Taliban to any position of influence in Afghanistan. India would of course welcome any initiative to inhibit the political legitimization of the Taliban and, by extension, Pakistan's influence in Afghanistan. One example is the Indian government's construction of the Zaranj Delaram road, which connects landlocked Afghanistan to Central Asia and Iran, reducing the country's dependence on Pakistan for trade.
India's vision shouldn't be surprising. The country has historically been allied with Iran and Russia, so in some respects Delhi is simply reverting to form. But since the Clinton administration, India has drawn closer to the U.S., both economically and militarily, as a response to the rise of China. Given the Obama administration's strained relationship with Russia and Iran, Delhi will have to proceed cautiously to avoid a rift with its U.S. partner.
This isn't an impossible mission. Even Washington must agree that in the long run, Afghanistan will be better off if all of its neighbors have a stake in the country's stability. When President Obama visits Delhi in November, India should present its roadmap for how it can contribute to this vision, either as a direct participant or as a bridge between the U.S., Russia and Iran.
For years, India pursued a "soft power" approach to Afghanistan that focused on economic aid and development. Its reinvigorated regional diplomacy shows how its role in the region is changing. Unlike in the past, India is a key power that needs to be involved, consulted and heard in discussions on Afghanistan. Washington should take note.
Ms. D'Souza is a visiting research fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore and an associate fellow at the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses in New Delhi.
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Iran says will host regional meet on Afghanistan
Tue Aug 10, 3:39 am ET
TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran said on Tuesday it will soon host a regional meeting on stabilising Afghanistan to be attended by the neighbours of the war-ravaged country.
The conference would be part of "concrete actions that we (Iran) are adopting to fight drug-trafficking, extremism and to seek solutions" for stability, foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said.
The official, who was speaking to reporters, did not indicate when the conference would be held.
"If other countries want to help, they should support these regional efforts to resolve crises and avoid creating obstacles," he added in reference to the international community, including the United States.
Mehmanparast also said that Iran's archfoe the United States was aware how "important" Tehran was for the stability of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Last week Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hosted a mini-summit with his Afghan and Tajik counterparts in which he denounced the deployment of foreign troops in Afghanistan and insisted regional countries resolve issues there.
Kabul has good relations with Tehran despite being heavily reliant militarily and financially on the United States, which has been at loggerheads with the Islamic republic for more than three decades.
But despite their rivalry, Washington and Tehran are both sworn enemies of the extremist Sunni Muslim Taliban militia which ruled in Kabul from 1996 to 2001, before being overthrown in the US-led invasion.
The United States has made a number of efforts to involve all of Afghanistan's neighbours, including Iran, in restoring stability to Afghanistan.
But they have been complicated by the lack of diplomatic relations between Tehran and Washington.
Shiite Iran, which has close ethnic and religious ties with Afghanistan, has long suffered from the effects of opium production in its eastern neighbour, with easily available heroin fuelling a big rise in drug use at home.
Afghanistan is the source of 90 percent of the world's heroin.
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Canada names new representative in Kandahar
OTTAWA, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon Monday appointed Tim Martin as the new Representative of Canada in Kandahar province (RoCK) of Afghanistan, where the Canadian combat mission is slated to end next July.
Cannon said Martin, former ambassador to Argentina and Paraguay, assumes a very important role for Canada's engagement in Afghanistan, as governance and development support in Kandahar remain areas of priority for Canada's mission.
The Conservative government says the country's aid work will continue after the military mission ends, and Martin will oversee that transition during his one-year posting.
The Representative of Canada in Kandahar is Canada's senior-most civilian representative in Kandahar province.
Located at the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team (KPRT), which is part of Camp Nathan Smith, the RoCK reports to Canada's Ambassador to Afghanistan and serves as the principal interlocutor with provincial officials, international institutions, non-governmental organizations and military partners in Kandahar.
The RoCK also provides strategic guidance to Canada's team of diplomats, development officers, and police and corrections officials working in partnership with the Canadian Forces.
Earlier this year, the KPRT transitioned from a military-led to a civilian-led effort, integrating Canadian and U.S. civilians and focusing on the areas of governance, reconstruction and development.
Martin succeeds Ben Rowswell, who held the position since September 2009.
About 2,830 Canadian troops are deployed in Afghanistan, mostly in the southern province of Kandahar, as part of NATO's International Security Assistance Force, with 48 civilian police and 40 military police training Afghan police officers in Kandahar.
A Canadian parliamentary motion passed on March 13, 2008, calls for Canada to "end its presence in Kandahar as of July 2011."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper subsequently said that the vast majority of troops would be out of Afghanistan, and not just Kandahar, by the deadline.
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Ex-Guantanamo Detainee Seeks Office In Afghanistan
NPR By Quil Lawrence August 10, 2010
It's election season in Afghanistan, and both the Afghans and the international community can only hope this one will go better than last year's balloting, when President Hamid Karzai won re-election through a process widely denounced as fraudulent.
So far, not many clear themes have emerged in the campaign for the Sept. 18 parliamentary elections.
But one candidate has an interesting distinction: He is the only former Guantanamo detainee running for office.
Anti-American, Anti-Karzai Sentiment
Campaigning is in full swing, but that's not what is bringing people into the streets these days in Kabul. Anti-American sentiment is strong in Afghanistan, particularly among people outraged over recent incidents in which civilians have been injured and killed.
It's a current many politicians might like to harness. And there may be no candidate better positioned than Izatullah Nusrat, a 42-year-old village elder from Sorobi, east of Kabul.
Nusrat says he used to believe the Americans were good people. But that was before U.S. soldiers arrested him and his 80-year-old father in March 2003 and sent them to the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
"When they took me to the airplane, when they shaved my beard, I realized that Americans are the most cruel people in the world, and they're very stupid. Someone whose crime is not proved, so you destroy his whole life. And in the world you claim that you are the protector of the human rights, and you're doing such actions with a human being," Nusrat says.
Nusrat admits he did once work with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former mujahideen warlord who once enjoyed American support against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Nusrat says it has been years since he had any connection with the warlord, who is now leading a large insurgent faction.
Years At Gitmo
He made that denial hundreds of times during interrogations in Guantanamo, enduring, he says, solitary confinement and many other privations.
After almost five years, American authorities declared that Nusrat was no longer a threat, and he and his father were released.
He says Karzai is an American puppet, but that's slightly better than the return of the Taliban.
"There are two ways: One is the Taliban way and one is the government. So I choose the government way. I think it is a better way of serving to the country and to the people," Nusrat says.
As a candidate, he has the potential to tap support from like-minded Afghans.
Earlier this month in Kabul, hundreds of mostly young women and men turned out for an anti-American rally, spurred by a traffic accident in which an American defense contractor's SUV crushed an Afghan car, killing six of the passengers inside, including two women and two children.
Sohil, a 26-year-old student, says the rally sought to condemn the American killing of civilians and the U.S. support for what he calls the incompetent Karzai government. He doesn't stop there, repeating a conspiracy theory that the U.S. is also supporting al-Qaida.
The crowd also condemned neighboring states Pakistan and Iran for interfering in Afghan affairs. The main organizer of the protest is a party that calls itself Hambastagi (Solidarity), which does not back anyone in the upcoming election.
'A Better Way Of Serving'
Nusrat says his community in Sorobi welcomed him like he had returned from the dead.
But not everyone in this part of the country wishes him well. The Taliban has threatened many candidates and election workers.
Sorobi is considered the most dangerous spot on the highway between Kabul and the eastern city of Jalalabad. Nusrat did not want to be seen on the street with a foreigner, so he sat for an interview in a small room by a gas station owned by his family, with a Kalashnikov rifle leaning on the wall next to him.
It would be a stretch to say that Nusrat has much of a platform. He wants the Americans to leave, but not in such a way that the country falls into chaos. Mostly, he says, he wants an end to the fighting. He cites an Afghan proverb: "Blood cannot be cleaned with blood."
He's in favor of negotiating with the Taliban. And if he wins election, his unique resume as member of Parliament and former Guantanamo prisoner might just make him the sort of politician who can help the peace talks get started.
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Afghan driver for slain medical volunteers being held by authorities
A government spokesman refuses to say whether the driver, identified as Safiullah, is formally under arrest or is suspected of colluding in last week's attack in Afghanistan's Badakhshan province.
Los Angeles Times By Laura King August 10, 2010
Reporting from - An Afghan driver for the humanitarian team that fell into a lethal ambush last week in northeastern Afghanistan is being held and questioned by Afghan authorities, who on Monday declined to say whether he was formally under arrest or suspected of colluding in the attack.
Ten of the team's 12 members, six of them Americans, were shot dead by gunmen in remote, rugged Badakhshan province as they returned from a medical mission in neighboring Nuristan province. The Taliban claimed responsibility, accusing the group of spying and preaching Christianity.
The bodies of the U.S. nationals — which were flown to the capital Sunday along with those of two Afghans, a German and a Briton who died with them — were to be brought to the United States for autopsies as part of an FBI-assisted investigation, the group's executive director, Dirk Frans, told reporters in Kabul on Monday.
He described the International Assistance Mission, a nonprofit Christian group that has been operating in Afghanistan since 1966, as "devastated" by the killings, one of the worst attacks on aid workers in the course of the nearly nine-year war.
Two team members survived. One Afghan assistant had left ahead of schedule because of medical problems and drove home by another route. The other, identified as Safiullah, was present for the assault. He told police he recited verses from the Muslim holy book as he pleaded for his life, and the gunmen spared him.
Frans said his group had spoken only briefly with Safiullah by phone since the killings and didn't know whether he had been arrested or was merely being asked for a detailed account of what happened.
"He is here in Kabul, in a Ministry of Interior facility," Frans said. "He is part of the investigation — he is one of, if not the only, witness."
Zemari Bashary, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, refused to say whether the driver was suspected of being an accomplice to the gunmen. "We are not saying 100% that he is a criminal, but we are doing our investigation to find out more," he said.
Asked about the driver's account, Frans said the other two Afghan members of the group were also Muslims and would probably have recited Koranic verses as well if they believed themselves in mortal danger.
At the group's news conference, Frans again strongly denied that the team had engaged in any proselytizing, which would be against Afghan law and run counter to agreements the organization has signed.
He said foreign members of the team probably carried personal Bibles in their own languages, but he denied the Taliban claim that they had distributed Bibles in the Afghan languages of Dari or Pashto.
He also said that while the organization understood there was a degree of risk, the decision to travel in a large and somewhat conspicuous group to a dangerous area was not made lightly. Two of the senior team members — optometrist Tom Little and longtime aid worker Dan Terry — had decades of experience in Afghanistan and were fluent in Dari.
The group also publicly identified the last of the six slain Americans as 25-year-old Brian Carderelli of Pennsylvania, who was on the trip as a general assistant and videographer.
laura.king@latimes.com
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Slain aid worker Brian Carderelli found beauty in daily Afghan life
By Annie Gowen Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, August 10, 2010
When videographer Brian Carderelli left Kabul three weeks ago to accompany a team of doctors on a medical mission to northern Afghanistan, the 25-year-old from Harrisonburg, Va., was well aware of the dangers ahead. He knew that other aid workers had been killed and that the long journey on pack animals through the Hindu Kush could be perilous.
But he had fallen in love with the country and its people when he moved to Afghanistan in September, shortly after graduating from James Madison University with a degree in digital journalism. When the doctors asked him along on the trip to Nuristan province, he said yes -- eager to see a remote area of the country where residents normally get little medical care.
His father, Mike, is an administrator for an international school in Kabul, but his parents were home in Harrisonburg on summer break. They were getting daily updates via e-mail and satellite phone on their son's progress as he slogged with the group of 10 through rivers swollen by rain and up steep slopes.
Then, Friday, nothing.
"They started getting worried," said J.D. Patton, a family friend from Harrisonburg, about two hours south of the District. "Then they learned there was an attack."
Authorities later said that gun-toting men with long beards set upon the team as it wound through the mountains on the way home to Kabul. The men forced the aid workers into nearby woods and shot them one by one. The Taliban later claimed responsibility and accused the aid workers of being spies and carrying Bibles written in Dari, the local language. The aid organization -- a Kabul-based Christian group called the International Assistance Mission -- denies those claims.
"Brian was a Christian, and so were some of the other team members, but their motivation wasn't evangelistic," Patton said. "It was a demonstration of the life of Christ by their actions in how they cared for the poor."
Friends and family, who said they were devastated by the loss, described Carderelli as a quiet young man with a sharp sense of humor. He'd spent most of his life in Harrisonburg, where he was home-schooled and attended the local Covenant Presbyterian Church.
On his Shutterfly and Facebook pages, he posted dozens of photographs of his far-flung travels -- to Mexico, England and finally Afghanistan, where he captured the lives of ordinary Afghans, from rug merchants to burqa-clad women on dusty streets. He called one album about the country ".the Beautiful" and wrote, "It's not all war."
"He often told me how beautiful Afghanistan was," said Mike Albert, 24, a doctoral student at Duke University, who was a childhood friend.
"I know that Brian had a passion for what he was doing, and he would not choose to do things differently, I don't think. He knew the risks associated with going and working in Afghanistan, and he considered it worth the risk."
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Iran's Islamic Azad University Opens a Branch in Afghanistan's Capital
Bloomberg By Ali Sheikholeslami Aug 9, 2010
Iran’s Islamic Azad University, which has more than 400 locations, has opened a branch in the Afghan capital, Kabul.
The Kabul site is the university’s fourth international center after those in the U.K., the U.A.E. and Lebanon, according to its president, Abdollah Jassbi, the state-run Fars news agency reported today.
“In the past 28 years, 3.5 million people have graduated from Azad University,” Jassbi was cited as saying. “It has 1.5 million students at present.”
Afghanistan is Iran’s eastern neighbor. The two countries share a border of about 400 miles (645 kilometers). The Dari language spoken in Afghanistan is understood by Iranians who speak Farsi. About 1 million registered Afghan refugees live in Iran, according to Refugees International.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ali Sheikholeslami in London at alis2@bloomberg.net.
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WikiLeaks' blow to the surge
Washington Post By Marc A. Thiessen Monday, August 9, 2010
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has made clear that his objective in releasing tens of thousands of classified documents was to "end the war in Afghanistan" and "oppose an unjust [war] plan before it reaches implementation." He may well achieve his goal. Assange's illegal disclosures are helping the Taliban to undermine Gen. David Petraeus's counterinsurgency strategy before it has a chance to work.
The documents Assange made public exposed the identities of at least 100 Afghans who were informing on the Taliban -- in some cases including the names of their villages, family members, the Taliban commanders on whom they were informing, and even GPS coordinates where they could be found. The Taliban quickly announced that it was combing the WikiLeaks Web site for information to use to punish these Afghans.
Then, just four days after the WikiLeaks documents were published death threats began arriving at the homes of Afghan tribal leaders. A few days later, one such leader was dragged from his home and executed. It is unknown whether his identity was exposed in the WikiLeaks documents, but according to Newsweek, his execution and the death threats "sparked a panic among many Afghans who have worked closely with coalition forces."
A Taliban intelligence officer warned that "the group's English-language media department is actively examining the WikiLeaks material and intends to draw up lists of collaborators in each province, to add to the hit lists of local insurgent commanders." He said that the message being sent to the Afghan people is: "America is not a good protector of spies."
This is a devastating blow to the surge in Afghanistan -- all the more so because point No. 1 on the counterinsurgency guidance Petraeus just issued to his troops reads: "Secure and serve the population. . . . Only by providing them security and earning their trust and confidence can the Afghan government and [the International Security Assistance Force] prevail."
In an insurgency, our enemies do not have to persuade the civilian population to join their side to prevail -- they simply need to intimidate the population enough to ensure that they do not join our side. This is why, as Petraeus explains in the separate counterinsurgency manual he authored in December 2006, coalition forces must provide "security from insurgent intimidation and coercion . . . informers must be confident that the government can protect them and their families against retribution. . . . Counterinsurgents should not expect people to willingly provide information if insurgents have the ability to violently intimidate sources."
By contrast, Petraeus explains that if security is established "the populace begins to assist [the coalition] more actively. Eventually, the people marginalize and stigmatize insurgents to the point that the insurgency's claim to legitimacy is destroyed." This is precisely what Petraeus did in Iraq. He secured the population, got it to join the fight and marginalized the insurgency.
The Taliban is determined to ensure that Petraeus does not replicate this success in Afghanistan. In June, the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Omar, issued new guidance to his troops, directing them to "Capture and kill any Afghan who is supporting and/or working for coalition forces or the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan" and to "Capture and kill any Afghan women who are helping or providing information to coalition forces." WikiLeaks just made the Taliban's job a lot easier. Indeed, the Taliban could not have come up with a better plan to defeat Petraeus's counterinsurgency strategy. How can Petraeus persuade Afghans to join the fight against the Taliban when WikiLeaks has demonstrated that America cannot protect their identities?
The damage Assange has wreaked extends far beyond Afghanistan. The United States also needs sources in places such as Pakistan, Yemen and East Africa to inform on al-Qaeda and help to prevent new attacks. America needs sources to tell us about the Iranian nuclear program, and other gathering dangers. Why would anyone risk helping America now, after it allowed the identities of more than 100 intelligence sources to be posted on the Internet?
It may be impossible to fully recover from this leak. But to mitigate the damage, the Obama administration must, at a minimum, show that the United States is taking action to ensure that such catastrophic disclosures are not repeated. Assange has threatened to release another 15,000 even more sensitive classified documents. If he is allowed to do so, the message will go forth from Kabul to Peshawar to Aden and beyond that America is powerless to protect those who help us.
Last week, the Pentagon warned that if WikiLeaks does not stand down, the government will "make them do the right thing." WikiLeaks immediately responded with this mocking tweet: "Obnoxious Pentagon spokesperson issues formal threat against WikiLeaks." Then, over the weekend, a WikiLeaks spokesman rejected the Pentagon's demand, declaring, "I can assure you that we will keep publishing documents -- that's what we do."
Now the ball is in the Obama administration's court.
Marc A. Thiessen is a visiting fellow with the American Enterprise Institute and writes a weekly column for The Post.
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