 |
||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serving you since 1998 | ||||||||||||
|
|
U.S. intelligence briefing: Taliban increasingly effective
By Peter Bergen, CNN National Security AnalystJanuary 25, 2010
Washington (CNN) -- A December 22 briefing, prepared by the top U.S. intelligence official in Afghanistan and obtained by CNN, maps out the strategy and strength of the Taliban and its allies in Afghanistan, and concludes that the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan is increasingly effective.
U.S. commander sees eventual Taliban peace deal
By Simon Cameron-moore And Zerin Elci
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – The commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan said he hopes increased troop levels will weaken the Taliban enough that its leaders will accept a peace deal.
Talks with Taliban loom over Pakistani-Afghan summit
By Simon Cameron-moore And Zerin Elci – Mon Jan 25, 6:19 am ET
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – The leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan will seek closer cooperation in the fight against militants during a summit in Istanbul on Monday, but a plan to reach out to Taliban insurgents will likely dominate the talks.
Extra troops to be announced at Afghan meeting: UK
LONDON (AFP) – A conference on Afghanistan in London this week will announce an expansion of the Afghan army and police forces, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday.
Afghan aid must not be lost amid corruption: Miliband
BRUSSELS (AFP) – Foreign Secretary David Miliband stressed Monday the need to stop international aid to Afghanistan being lost to corruption, three days ahead of a major conference on the country in London.
UK: Talks to approve Taliban reconciliation plan
AP via Yahoo! News
LONDON – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says an international conference on Afghanistan will likely endorse plans to lure Taliban fighters to lay down their weapons.
Afghanistan delays parliament vote
by Sharif Khoram – Mon Jan 25, 4:10 am ET
KABUL (AFP) – Afghanistan postponed a parliamentary vote for four months in the face of a spiralling Taliban insurgency and a lack of funds, a move welcomed by the UN, which had raised concerns about graft and logistics.
Bombs kill 2 in Afghanistan; rocket hits base
By Amir Shah, Associated Press Writer
KABUL – Bomb strikes killed two NATO soldiers — a Briton and a Norwegian — while a rocket attack at the major international military base in southern Afghanistan wounded eight other international troops, officials said Monday.
U.N. Seeks to Drop Some Taliban From Terror List
Monday, January 25, 2010 By DEXTER FILKINS, The New York Times
KABUL, Afghanistan -- The leader of the United Nations mission here called on Afghan officials to seek the removal of at least some senior Taliban leaders from the United Nations' list of terrorists, as a first step toward opening direct negotiations with the insurgent group.
Afghan regional solution may be too little, too late
LONDON (Reuters) - A renewed push for a regional solution to Afghanistan bringing on board bitter rivals India and Pakistan may be too little, too late to achieve results in time for Washington's 2011 deadline for drawing down troops.
German Ministry Denies Report on 500 More Troops to Afghanistan
Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Germany’s Defense Ministry denied a report in the Rheinische Post newspaper that the government has agreed to send 500 additional troops to Afghanistan. No concrete figure has been decided on
Turkish president meets Afghan, Pakistani leaders for co-op in supporting Afghanistan
21:33, January 25, 2010 People's Daily
Turkish President Abdullah Gul met his Afghan and Pakistani counterparts separately in the largest Turkish city Istanbul on Monday to discuss ways to strengthen cooperation in helping the war-torn Afghanistan achieve security and stability.
Afghan watchdog slams top job for ex-militia chief
25 Jan 2010 13:08:24 GMT By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL, Jan 25 (Reuters) - An Afghan rights watchdog slammed President Hamid Karzai on Monday for giving a top military job to General Abdul Rashid Dostum, a former militia chief who has been accused of human rights abuses.
Pakistan's Rebuff Over New Offensives Rankles U.S.
New York Times By ERIC SCHMITT and DAVID E. SANGER January 24, 2010
WASHINGTON - The Pakistani Army's announcement last week that it planned no new offensive against militants for as long as a year has deeply frustrated senior American military officers, and chipped away at one of the cornerstones of President Obama's strategy to reverse the Taliban's gains in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Iran to attend regional conferences on Afghanistan
Xinhua Jan. 24, 2010
TEHRAN - Iran will attend regional conferences on Afghanistan to be held in Turkey and Russia respectively, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Sunday.
Germany supports plan to pay Taliban militants for laying down arms
BERLIN, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle showed his support for a plan to pay Taliban militants in Afghanistan for laying down their arms and help them reintegrate into mainstream society during an interview on Sunday.
Race against time for Nato strategy
Financial Times By Matthew Green in Kabul January 25 2010
It is a measure of the gravity of the situation in Afghanistan that a four-star general who led a clandestine project to remove insurgent leaders in Iraq is now speaking so openly about talking to the Taliban.
Afghanistan to regulate private security: Canadian general
By Steve Rennie, THE CANADIAN PRESS 25th January 2010
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The greener pastures of private-security firms lure away many an Afghan cop with the promise of bigger paycheques and relatively safer work.
Afghan warlord courts Canada
The Globe and Mail - International Sonia Verma Sunday, Jan. 24, 2010
Mazar-I-Sharif, Afghanistan - From a plush chair, behind a hand-carved desk crowded with custom china and a tissue box made entirely of gold, Atta Mohammad Noor rules his province with an iron fist.
NATO troops discover ammunition cache in S. Afghanistan
KABUL, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) found a cache of explosive devices in the restive Helmand province south of Afghanistan, a press release of the alliance said Sunday.
Norwegian soldier killed in Afghanistan
The Norway Post
A Norwegian soldier has been killed on a mission in the Ghowrmach District in the north of Afghanistan, when his armoured vehicle hit a road mine, according to the Norwegian Defence Command.
Soviet war veterans say US must shift strategies in Afghanistan
The New Straits Times - Jan 24 6:53 PM
MOSCOW: The United States is repeating the mistakes that the Soviet Union made in Afghanistan, Russian veterans say, convinced the USSR’s disastrous near decade-long war there harbours deep lessons for Western forces.
AFGHANISTAN: Thirteen southern districts critical for polio eradication - WHO
KABUL, 25 January 2010 (IRIN) - Successful anti-polio action depends on vaccinators being able to reach and immunize every under-five child in 13 volatile districts in the southern provinces of Kandahar, Helmand and Farah, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO).
Bin Laden claims responsibility for Christmas plane bombing attempt
CAIRO, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- Al-Qaida leader claimed responsibility for a foiled attempt of bombing a U.S.-bound airplane on Dec. 25, and vowed further attacks against the United States, in an audio recording aired Sunday by pan-Arab al-Jazeera TV.
Back to Top
U.S. intelligence briefing: Taliban increasingly effective
By Peter Bergen, CNN National Security AnalystJanuary 25, 2010
Washington (CNN) -- A December 22 briefing, prepared by the top U.S. intelligence official in Afghanistan and obtained by CNN, maps out the strategy and strength of the Taliban and its allies in Afghanistan, and concludes that the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan is increasingly effective.
The briefing, which warns that the "situation is serious," was prepared by Maj. Gen. Michael Flynn last month. His assessment is that the Taliban's "organizational capabilities and operational reach are qualitatively and geographically expanding" and the group is capable of much greater frequency of attacks and varied locations of attacks.
According to the briefing, the insurgency can now sustain itself indefinitely because of three factors:
• The increased availability of bomb-making technology and material;
• The Taliban's access to two major funding streams, one from the opium trade and the other from overseas donations from Muslim countries, which reach the Taliban by courier or through a system of informal banks known as "hawalas" that operate across much of the Islamic world; and
• The Taliban's continuing ability to recruit foot soldiers based on the perception that they "retain the religious high-ground," and factors such as poverty and tribal friction.
A chart in Flynn's briefing notes that security incidents -- which include improvised-explosive attacks, ambushes, mortar and missile assaults --- routinely hit 500 a week in the second half of 2009. That compares with a weekly average of no more than 40 five years ago. Even in the generally slower winter fighting season, incidents have not fallen below 300 a week.
The 23-page briefing predicts that "Security incidents [are] projected to be higher in 2010." Those incidents are already up by 300 percent since 2007 and by 60 percent since 2008, according to the briefing.
One section of the briefing is based on findings from the interrogations of captured insurgents. Those insurgents said the Taliban saw 2009 as the most successful year of the war, because it had expanded violence and because the Afghan presidential election on August 20 was marred by low turnout and fraud.
Detainees also told interrogators that the Taliban sees al Qaeda as a handicap -- a view that is spreading as the Taliban tries to present itself as a nationalist group seeking to liberate Afghanistan from foreign forces.
The Flynn briefing also says, however, that al Qaeda "provides facilitation, training and some funding" to the Taliban and predicts that "perceived insurgent success will draw foreign fighters" into Afghanistan. A map of insurgent groups operating in Afghanistan -- part of the briefing -- shows that an Uzbek militant group, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, already has a presence in five provinces in northern and southern Afghanistan.
The briefing also says the Taliban maintains a "mutually supportive relationship" with Chechen and central Asian fighters and will seek to "manage" its relationship with al Qaeda so as not to alienate the Afghan population, but still "encourage support from the global jihadi network."
Among the Taliban's motivations, according to interrogations of the captured insurgents:
• The United States is seen as desiring a permanent presence in Afghanistan;
• Promised infrastructure projects are either incomplete or ineffective;
• The government of President Hamid Karzai is seen as corrupt or ineffective; and
• Crime and corruption are pervasive amongst security forces.
Detainees also said Taliban leaders strategically aim to portray their insurgency to Afghans as fair and uncorrupted.
Part of that strategy is a "code of conduct" that Taliban leaders published in mid-July 2009. It advises foot soldiers to "keep good relationships" with locals and warns them against mistreating civilians, forcing people to pay donations, searching homes, kidnapping people for money and using child soldiers.
A U.N. report released this month shows that the new Taliban code has not translated into the insurgents killing fewer civilians. The United Nations found that the Taliban killed 1,630 civilians in 2009, representing a 40 percent increase over the previous year.
According to the Flynn briefing, the Taliban has largely re-created the command structure it had before the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in fall 2001. The new structure consists of the "inner shura" (inner council), an 18-member group headed by Taliban leader Mullah Omar that arrives at decisions based on consensus, but "within Omar's guidance." Those decisions are then communicated to regional shuras of up to 20 members, then to provincial shuras and the Taliban's "shadow [provincial] governors."
The Flynn briefing suggests that the Taliban is effectively creating a parallel government, in competition with the Kabul government.
One measure of that, the briefing says: Eleven provinces had a Taliban shadow governor in 2005. The number was 33 by 2009.
The Taliban's strategy in 2010, as described by Flynn, includes expanding into the north and west of Afghanistan, where the Taliban traditionally has had scant support; continuing aggressive operations during winter, when warfare has traditionally eased in Afghanistan; and increasing Taliban influence around the key cities of Kabul and Kandahar.
The Taliban's overall strategy is not to defeat international forces in Afghanistan, but to "outlast international will to remain in Afghanistan." That is to be achieved partly with more improvised-explosive attacks.
Improvised explosives caused 80 percent of U.S. casualties last summer, according to senior U.S. Marine officers in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan.
The explosives do for the Taliban what surface-to-air missiles once did for the Afghan mujahedeen fighting the Soviets -- somewhat equalize the fight against a superpower, Flynn says.
The number of casualties from improvised-explosive attacks in Afghanistan has risen from 326 in 2005 to 6,037 in 2009, according to the briefing.
The size of the insurgents' explosives has dramatically increased, according to Flynn. In May 2008, most weighed less than 25 pounds. As of December, more than three-quarters weighed more than 25 pounds.
In the past, the report says, improvised explosives were made mainly from military ordnance, such as shells. They are increasingly made from homemade explosives. About 85 percent of improvised explosives in Afghanistan are made with ammonium nitrate, a common fertilizer -- the same ingredient used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
On Friday, Karzai banned the use, production, storage or sale of ammonium nitrate.
The Flynn briefing also outlined Taliban weaknesses, including disagreements among local Taliban leaders, its dependence on marginalized ethnic Pashtuns, and over-reliance on "external support," an apparent reference to Taliban havens in Pakistan.
The briefing concludes that the United States has a key advantage -- the Taliban is not a popular movement yet.
A senior U.S. military official in Afghanistan called CNN's account of the report accurate.
The official also cited what he called "fundamental positive change": significantly fewer civilian deaths caused by U.S. and NATO forces, improved counter-insurgency efforts, and more effective partnering with Afghan security forces.
Back to Top
Back to Top
U.S. commander sees eventual Taliban peace deal
By Simon Cameron-moore And Zerin Elci
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – The commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan said he hopes increased troop levels will weaken the Taliban enough that its leaders will accept a peace deal.
U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal told the Financial Times in an interview published on Monday that there had been "enough fighting" and held out the possibility the Taliban could eventually help run the country.
"It's not my job to extend olive branches, but it is my job to help set conditions where people in the right positions can have options on the way forward," he said.
"I think any Afghans can play a role if they focus on the future, and not the past," he said when asked whether he would be content to see Taliban leaders in a future Afghan government.
He was speaking ahead of a conference in London expected to agree a framework for the Afghan government to begin taking charge of security in line with a 2011 timetable set by President Barack Obama to start drawing down U.S. troops.
Obama is sending an extra 30,000 troops in Afghanistan to try to reverse a military stalemate there and has held out the possibility of reintegrating former Taliban fighters.
However, early last year he appeared to rule out any possibility of talks with leaders of the insurgency, saying that the "uncompromising core of the Taliban" must be defeated.
In the first of a series of meetings before Thursday's international conference in London, Turkey hosted the presidents of Pakistan and Afghanistan on Monday for talks expected to focus on plans to reach out to Taliban insurgents.
Masood Khalili, Afghanistan's ambassador to Turkey, told Turkish state-run news agency Anatolian the aim of the meeting was to "forge cooperation that might lead to reconciliation in the region. Everybody in the region is thirsty for peace."
Pakistan has long played an important role in Afghan affairs, having nurtured the Afghan Taliban during the 1990s, but Kabul remains suspicious that Islamabad is pursuing its own agenda in the country to the detriment of Afghanistan.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai was due to hold talks with his counterpart Asif Ali Zardari on the sidelines of a summit with Turkey, which has been working to repair relations between Islamabad and Kabul, notably over negotiations with the Taliban.
Military and intelligence officials from Afghanistan and Pakistan were also attending the talks.
On Tuesday, Turkey is hosting a meeting of Afghanistan's neighbors to seek a common approach to the conflict ahead of the London talks, which will bring together some 60 countries.
Turkey has said the foreign minister of China and officials from Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan will attend as well as British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and U.S. special envoy Richard Holbrooke's deputy, Paul Jones.
(Additional reporting by Daren Butler; Writing by Myra MacDonald; Editing by Jon Hemming)
Back to Top
Back to Top
Talks with Taliban loom over Pakistani-Afghan summit
By Simon Cameron-moore And Zerin Elci – Mon Jan 25, 6:19 am ET
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – The leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan will seek closer cooperation in the fight against militants during a summit in Istanbul on Monday, but a plan to reach out to Taliban insurgents will likely dominate the talks.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari meet ahead of a London conference where Afghanistan and the international community are set to agree a framework for the Afghan government to take responsibility for its own security.
The two men were due to hold talks on the sidelines of a summit with Turkey, which has been working behind the scenes to repair relations between Islamabad and Kabul, notably over negotiations with the Taliban.
Pakistan has long played an important role in Afghan affairs, having nurtured the Afghan Taliban during the 1990s, but Kabul remains suspicious that Islamabad is pursuing its own agenda in the country to the detriment of Afghanistan.
Masood Khalili, Afghanistan's ambassador to Turkey, told state news Anatolian the aim of the meeting was to "forge cooperation that might lead to reconciliation in the region. Everybody in the region is thirsty for peace."
Karzai, under intense pressure from his Western backers to strengthen Afghanistan's security forces at a time of worsening violence, is preparing a programme to reintegrate some Taliban insurgents in order to encourage them to lay down arms.
Pakistan is seeking to play a role in that process. The Foreign Ministry said on Saturday it was reaching out to "all levels" of the Afghan Taliban in a bid to encourage peace in its neighbor.
Signaling NATO was open to a political solution even as U.S. President Barack Obama sends an extra 30,000 U.S. troops, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan said he hopes increased troop levels will weaken the Taliban enough that its leaders will accept a peace deal and bring the war to an end.
"As a soldier, my personal feeling is that there's been enough fighting," Stanley McChrystal said in an interview in the Financial Times on Monday.
Karzai met Turkey's President Abdullah Gul, whose country has increased its diplomatic role in the Muslim world since the ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party took power in 2002. Gul was to hold separate talks with Zardari later.
Military and intelligence officials from Afghanistan and Pakistan -- which have a history of mutual distrust -- were attending the talks.
REGIONAL PLAYERS
Obama has emphasized that success would not be possible in Afghanistan without the support of Pakistan.
On Tuesday Turkey is hosting a meeting of Afghanistan's neighbors on Tuesday to seek a common approach to the conflict.
British officials say they want to persuade regional players to work together to help stabilize Afghanistan.
Turkey has said the foreign minister of China and officials from Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan will attend as well as British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and U.S. Special envoy Richard Holbrooke's deputy, Paul Jones.
(Additional reporting by Daren Butler; Editing by Myra MacDonald)
Back to Top
Back to Top
Extra troops to be announced at Afghan meeting: UK
LONDON (AFP) – A conference on Afghanistan in London this week will announce an expansion of the Afghan army and police forces, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday.
Brown, who will host the conference on Thursday, added that other countries are expected to pledge more forces, but did not specify whether this would happen at the talks.
"We will be announcing new numbers that will raise the size of the Afghan army and police when we come to the London conference," said Brown, noting that Afghanistan this year expects to have 134,000 soldiers and some 90,000 police.
Referring to recent pledges of international forces including 30,000 more US troops and 500 extra British forces, he said: "Quite a number of countries have already announced that they will give additional forces.
"I believe that both for (international) trainers (for Afghan forces) and for forces generally there are still some announcements to be made," he told reporters.
The London conference, called after corruption-tainted Afghan elections which returned President Hamid Karzai to office last year, is expected to focus on how NATO-led troops can hand over to local forces.
Foreign ministers including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are expected to press Karzai to do more to tackle corruption in return for continued Western support against Taliban insurgents.
Brown said Taliban insurgents who renounce violence could also be welcomed into the political process -- but declined to comment on reports that insurgents were being offered cash bribes to lay down their arms.
"I believe that there are many people who could be brought over. But they have to renounce violence, they have to say that they will be part of the democratic process," he said.
He also welcomed the participation of countries in the region like India at the London talks.
"The neighbours of Afghanistan, both near and related countries should come together to see what they can do to help sustain the infant democracy of Afghanistan.
"I believe India has a big role to play there," he said.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan aid must not be lost amid corruption: Miliband
BRUSSELS (AFP) – Foreign Secretary David Miliband stressed Monday the need to stop international aid to Afghanistan being lost to corruption, three days ahead of a major conference on the country in London.
Stressing the civil efforts as much as the military efforts in insurgency-wracked Afghanistan, Miliband said it was "absolutely key that the money is not siphoned away in corruption and extortion."
Thursday's conference "is important for providing a political counterpart... to the military strategy," he told reporters at talks with EU counterparts in Brussels, while admitting that "no one pretends that conferences win wars".
The London meeting is a chance for the international community to mobilise its civilian efforts alongside its military efforts, Miliband added. "More troops will not win this war on their own."
He underlined that "money is important, but money has to be spent in an effective way."
The best way to do that, according to Miliband, is "through Afghan mechanisms and it needs to be spent at local level, not just national level."
The combination of a new government coming into power there and a new military and civil strategy of the international community signifies "a decisive period for the Afghan campaign," Miliband said.
Miliband said he would meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Istanbul on Tuesday ahead of the London talks.
Re-elected in bitterly disputed circumstances in November, Karzai is struggling to keep a hold on his country in the face of a resurgent Taliban.
According to a leaked draft of the London meeting's communique, international forces face up to five more years battling the Taliban.
There are currently some 113,00 international troops stationed in Afghanistan under US and NATO command. They are enduring daily losses from the Taliban militia which was forced from Kabul after an invasion by US forces in 2001.
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, arriving for the EU meeting, said it was premature to start speaking of an exit date for the troops in Afghanistan.
"We should look at gradual transitions from an engagement where the overwhelming emphasis is military to an engagement where it is primarily civilian commitment," he said.
"Any talk of an exit strategy in Afghanistan plays into the hands of the Taliban."
His German counterpart Guido Westerwelle said one of the priorities was integrating into Afghan society those who have supported the Taliban movement without playing an active part.
"That would constitute a totally new priority," for the international community, he said.
"Not all of them are terrorists," the German minister added.
Back to Top
Back to Top
UK: Talks to approve Taliban reconciliation plan
AP via Yahoo! News
LONDON – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says an international conference on Afghanistan will likely endorse plans to lure Taliban fighters to lay down their weapons.
Brown told a news conference Monday that plans for reconciliation with some of those currently fighting international troops would be addressed at talks in London Thursday.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and international foreign ministers will attend to discuss future strategy.
Brown welcomed plans to reintegrate those who renounce violence. He says it is "right to believe that over the long-term we can split the Taliban."
The British leader says the conference will also confirm plans to rapidly increase the number of Afghan soldiers and police.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghanistan delays parliament vote
by Sharif Khoram – Mon Jan 25, 4:10 am ET
KABUL (AFP) – Afghanistan postponed a parliamentary vote for four months in the face of a spiralling Taliban insurgency and a lack of funds, a move welcomed by the UN, which had raised concerns about graft and logistics.
The Independent Election Commission announced the delay on Sunday, just days ahead of an international conference in London on the future of the country after more than eight years of war.
The international community had been pushing for a postponement amid concerns that graft and logistical problems were undermining democracy in one of the world's poorest and most corrupt nations.
Senior election commissioner Fazil Ahmad Manawi said the ballot would now be held on September 18 instead of May 22 as originally planned, because of a "lack of budget, security and uncertainty and logistical challenges".
Kai Eide, the top UN representative to Afghanistan, welcomed the decision, saying the postponement gave Afghanistan's electoral institutions additional time to carry out the necessary preparations for the elections.
"This would have been extremely difficult to do by the original date," Eide said in a statement.
"It also provides time to make improvements to the electoral process based on lessons learned during the presidential and provincial council elections in 2009."
President Hamid Karzai won a second five-year term in office following a controversial election in August that was marred by fraud, low voter turnout and Taliban violence.
Afghanistan has relied on foreign funding for elections since 2001, when a US-led invasion overthrew the hardline Taliban regime.
The election commission had previously said it was short about 120 million dollars to hold the ballot for the Wolosi Jirga, Afghanistan's lower house of parliament.
But the United Nations has said it would need to see evidence of significant reform -- including replacing senior election commission officials -- before agreeing to release money to stage the election.
Sayed Aqa Fazil Sancharaki, spokesman for an opposition group led by Karzai's challenger in the August polls, Abdullah Abdullah, said they supported the delay and also called for reform.
"Their decision to postpone it is legitimate and understandable taking into account the security situation, the need for reform in the electoral commission and electoral law," he said.
Afghanistan held its first direct parliamentary election in September 2005. Under the constitution the next poll was due to be held no later than 30 days before the end of the legislative cycle, which ends on June 22.
The country's Western backers are anxious to avoid a repeat of August's election, when most cases of fraud were reported in areas rife with Taliban and other Islamist militants battling the government.
Militants launched a wave of attacks, killing and maiming dozens, in an attempt to disrupt a ballot they called "an American process".
Karzai is expected to give details at Thursday's conference in London on a peace plan to offer money and jobs to tempt Taliban fighters to lay down their arms and bring militants back into mainstream Afghan society.
Fighting corruption is also one of the key topics to be discussed at the conference, along with the security situation, good governance and reconciliation with Taliban fighters.
Related article: London conference on Afghanistan's future More than 113,000 foreign troops are fighting the Taliban under US and NATO command, with another 40,000 troops being deployed this year.
Related article: Soviet war veterans warn US on Afghanistan US General Stanley McChrystal, the NATO and US commander in Afghanistan, said the troop surge could lead to a negotiated peace with the Taliban -- a result Afghan and Western governments are increasingly moving toward.
By using the surge to secure territory from the Taliban's southern heartlands to Kabul, the general told the Financial Times that he aims to weaken the militia so much its leaders would accept a political settlement.
"I believe that a political solution to all conflicts is the inevitable outcome. And it's the right outcome," McChrystal told the British newspaper.
Karzai is due to hold talks in Istanbul on Monday with his Turkish and Pakistani counterparts, before travelling to Germany on Tuesday.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Bombs kill 2 in Afghanistan; rocket hits base
By Amir Shah, Associated Press Writer
KABUL – Bomb strikes killed two NATO soldiers — a Briton and a Norwegian — while a rocket attack at the major international military base in southern Afghanistan wounded eight other international troops, officials said Monday.
The violence came three days before a London conference on Afghanistan that is expected to focus on a government plan to reintegrate Taliban militants willing to lay down their arms.
The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, said the Taliban could be part of a peace agreement if an influx of 37,000 foreign troops succeeds in bringing stability to the country.
"As a soldier, my personal feeling is that there's been enough fighting, and that what we need to do all of us is to do the fighting necessary to shape conditions where people can get on with their lives," he said in an interview published Monday in the Financial Times. "I think any Afghans can play a role if they focus on the future, and not the past."
An Afghan government plan to offer jobs, vocational training and other economic incentives to tens of thousands of Taliban foot soldiers willing to switch sides will be discussed at the Jan. 28 international conference in London.
Officials have said the program would allow individuals to lay down their arms while top Taliban leaders are urged to negotiate peace. The Taliban leadership has rejected this so long as foreign forces remain in Afghanistan.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the international community would likely endorse the plan at the London conference, telling reporters Monday that it is "right to believe that over the long-term we can split the Taliban."
The Norwegian soldier died Monday when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Faryab province in the north, the country's military said. An explosion Sunday in the southern of Helmand killed a British soldier, according to the British Defense Ministry.
The latest deaths bring the total of NATO forces killed in Afghanistan this month to 37, compared with 23 in January 2009.
Sunday's rocket hit inside Kandahar Air Field after dark, injuring four Bulgarians and four Romanians, said Flight Lt. Wendy Wheadon, a spokeswoman for the international force.
The attack occurred as Bulgarian Defense Minister Nikolai Mladenov visited 270 of his country's troops who guard the inner zone of the Kandahar airport, the ministry said. Mladenov was about 400 yards (meters) from where the rocket hit and was not hurt.
The base was hit by rockets before, though rarely with enough precision to wound people. Wheadon said the last time a rocket struck inside the base was early December when no one was hurt.
Three wounded Bulgarians were transported to Germany for further treatment, while the fourth was released Sunday, according to the country's Defense Ministry.
In Bucharest, the Defense Ministry confirmed two of its soldiers were hurt in the attack. One left the military hospital Monday and the other was in stable condition, it said. It was not immediately clear why NATO and Romania had conflicting numbers of wounded troops.
Interior Minister Hanif Atmar, meanwhile, promoted some officers and handed out commendations for Afghan police who fought a team of Taliban gunmen and suicide bombers in an assault on Kabul a week ago Monday.
Atmar urged security forces to stay alert against a resilient enemy.
"If you close your eyes for a second, one suicide attacker can slip past you and kill innocent people," he said during a ceremony in the capital.
Back to Top
Back to Top
U.N. Seeks to Drop Some Taliban From Terror List
Monday, January 25, 2010 By DEXTER FILKINS, The New York Times
KABUL, Afghanistan -- The leader of the United Nations mission here called on Afghan officials to seek the removal of at least some senior Taliban leaders from the United Nations' list of terrorists, as a first step toward opening direct negotiations with the insurgent group.
In an interview, Kai Eide, the United Nations special representative, also implored the American military to speed its review of the roughly 750 detainees in its military prisons here -- another principal grievance of Taliban leaders. Until recently, the Americans were holding those prisoners at a makeshift detention center at Bagram Air Base and refusing to release their names.
Together, Mr. Eide said he hoped that the two steps would eventually open the way to face-to-face talks between Afghan officials and Taliban leaders, many of whom are hiding in Pakistan. The two sides have been at an impasse for years over almost every fundamental issue, including the issue of talking itself.
"If you want relevant results, then you have to talk to the relevant person in authority," Mr. Eide said. "I think the time has come to do it."
In recent days, Afghan and American officials have signaled their willingness to take some steps that might ultimately lead to direct negotiations, including striking the names of some Taliban leaders from the terrorist list, as Mr. Eide is suggesting.
The remarks by Mr. Eide were the latest in a series of Afghan and Western efforts to engage the Taliban movement with diplomatic and political means, even as a new American-led military effort was under way here.
American, Afghan and NATO leaders are also preparing to start an ambitious program to persuade rank-and-file Taliban fighters to give up in exchange for schooling and jobs. That plan, expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, will be the focus of an international conference this week in London.
The plan aims at the bottom of the Taliban hierarchy -- the foot soldiers who are widely perceived as mostly poor, illiterate, and susceptible to promises of money and jobs. In 2007 and 2008, a similar effort unfolded in Iraq, where some 30,000 members of the country's Sunni minority -- many of them former insurgents -- were put on the American payroll. Partly as a result, violence there plummeted.
Mr. Eide, who will leave his post in March, said that such efforts at reintegration would be useful but not enough. While some rank-and-file Taliban soldiers might be fighting for economic reasons, he said, the motives of most were more complex. The Taliban's leaders exert more control over the foot soldiers than they are given credit for, he said.
"I don't believe it's as simple as saying that these are people who are unemployed, and if we find them employment they will go our way," Mr. Eide said. "Reintegration by itself is not enough."
In the past, talks between the Afghan government and the insurgents have foundered on a few core issues. Afghan leaders have demanded that the Taliban forswear violence and their association with Al Qaeda before talks can begin. For their part, the Taliban have demanded that the Americans and other foreign forces leave the country first.
But some Taliban leaders have indicated that they might be willing to engage in some sort of discussions if their names were stricken from the United Nations' so-called "black list." The list contains the names of 144 Taliban leaders, including Mullah Mohammad Omar, the movement's leader, as well as 257 from Al Qaeda. Under United Nations Resolution 1267, governments are obliged to freeze the bank accounts of those on the list and to prevent them from traveling.
Some Taliban leaders say the black list prevents them from entering into negotiations -- if they show their face, they say, they would be arrested.
"This would allow the Taliban to appear in public," said Arsalan Rahmani, a former deputy minister with the Taliban who now lives in the Afghan capital, Kabul. "It would allow the possibility of starting negotiations in a third country."
Mr. Eide said he did not believe that senior Taliban leaders like Mullah Omar should be removed from the list. It was Mullah Omar, after all, who provided sanctuary to Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, which launched the Sept. 11 attacks.
But some second-tier Taliban should be taken from the list, he said. Those leaders are not necessarily associated with terrorist acts but might be able to speak for the movement, he said, and might be willing to reciprocate a good-will gesture.
The request to strike any Taliban names from the United Nations list would have to made by the Afghan government. In the past, Afghan officials have indicated that they might be willing to take some names off -- even that of Mullah Omar. But they have kept details and their ultimate intentions under wraps.
Last week, the American envoy to the region signaled some willingness to allow the names of some Taliban to be taken off the list as long as they are not senior commanders responsible for atrocities or associated with Al Qaeda.
"A lot of the names don't mean much to me," Richard C. Holbrooke, the Obama administration's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, said last week in Kabul. "Some of the people on the list are dead, some shouldn't be on the list and some are among the most dangerous people in the world.
"I would be all in favor of looking at the list on a case-by-case basis to see if there are people on the list who are on the list by mistake and should be removed, or in fact are dead," he said.
Mr. Holbrooke showed no willingness to ease up on the leaders of the insurgency, including Mullah Omar and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of the Islamic Party, a group fighting the government and the Americans. "I can't imagine what would justify such an action at this time," he said, "and I don't know anyone who is suggesting that."
As for the Taliban prisoners, American officials say that they imposed a more rigorous review process several months ago, and that they are examining the case of each detainee. This month, after years of keeping the names of detainees secret, the American military released the names of 645 detainees being held in the main detention center outside of Kabul.
Since September, when the new review process was imposed, the Americans have reviewed the cases of 576 detainees, and 66 of those have been released, Col. Stephen Clutter, a United States military spokesman, said. A review of all 645 detainees will be completed by the end of March, he added. Mr. Eide said he hoped it would go further.
"There needs to be a more comprehensive review of the list that has now been published," Mr. Eide said.
Still, for all of that, it wasn't clear Sunday just how the Taliban would respond -- or if it would at all.
"I don't know what they will do," Mr. Rahmani said.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan regional solution may be too little, too late
LONDON (Reuters) - A renewed push for a regional solution to Afghanistan bringing on board bitter rivals India and Pakistan may be too little, too late to achieve results in time for Washington's 2011 deadline for drawing down troops.
The foreign ministers of India and Pakistan will have their first chance to meet since September at a conference in London this week at which Britain wants to convince regional players to cooperate rather than compete over Afghanistan.
"Afghanistan has for far too long ... been the ground on which regional powers have essentially exercised or fought out some of their tensions by backing different groups against each other ..." British ambassador to Kabul Mark Sedwill said.
"That has to stop. The Great Game is over and Afghanistan has to be become a point of stability within the region," he said, while briefing reporters on the January 28 conference bringing together representatives from more than 50 countries.
But any easing of India-Pakistan rivalry -- an essential part of any broader regional approach -- is likely to happen too slowly for the timetable set by President Barack Obama.
Washington's need to achieve results in Afghanistan by 2011 is at odds with the longer-term clock followed by India and Pakistan, said Steve Coll at the New America Foundation.
The tense relationship between the two has kept the Pakistan Army focused on its eastern border with India rather than fighting militants on the western border with Afghanistan.
Pakistan is also seen as unwilling to tackle the Afghan Taliban, believing it might need them to counter India's growing influence in Afghanistan in the event of a U.S. withdrawal.
"My sense is that the administration feels stymied by India's continued insistence that it does not want any outside help and the frustratingly slow pace by which India and Pakistan are trying (to find a way back to negotiations)," said Coll.
"The U.S. doesn't seem to be able to construct a breakthrough."
FROM KASHMIR TO KABUL
During Obama's election campaign, analysts spoke of the need for a "grand bargain" which included India and Pakistan making enough progress on their dispute over Kashmir to build the trust needed to allay their suspicions in the Afghan front.
Without that, the risk is that both countries would end up backing opposite sides in a renewed civil war following any U.S. withdrawal -- with India supporting a weak government in Kabul against Taliban militants active in parts of the countryside.
In the short-term, they would also be at odds over reconciliation with Afghan insurgents -- another theme of the London conference -- with India opposed to bringing in hardline Islamists it fears would be backed by Pakistan.
Those hopes for a grand bargain were dashed after the November 2008 attack on Mumbai by Pakistan-based militants -- prompting India to break off talks and leaving both countries assuming the worst about each other's intentions from Kashmir to Afghanistan.
After a brief thaw in mid-2009, relations have turned so frosty that some fear another big militant attack on India could propel the nuclear-armed countries toward war.
Ahead of the London conference British officials have revived talk of a regional detente -- although they have played down media reports of a planned "regional council."
"Only the countries of the region can decide whether they want to build on the multitude of existing regional bodies, or create something new and Afghanistan-specific," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said last week.
Officials have also suggested any regional solution would involve not just India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, but other countries as well, including neighboring Iran and Russia.
But with Pakistan expected to resist Indian involvement -- arguing that India is not an immediate neighbor -- no regional detente is likely without an easing of tensions between the two.
Both Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and his Indian counterpart S.M. Krishna are expected in London, providing an opportunity for a meeting on the sidelines -- though diplomats say none has been arranged so far.
"There is no agenda fixed for that but when you have such conferences they do shake hands on the sidelines," said Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan's High Commissioner to Britain.
"Since India-Pakistan issues are very close to the heart of the British government, they would like them to have a chance to talk to each other."
But such talks would be useful, he said, only if they led to a resumption of the formal peace process, or composite dialogue.
TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is believed to be keen to find a way back into talks with Pakistan and only last week replaced his National Security Adviser with a seasoned diplomat seen as more attuned to his approach.
"His instincts are to do something with Pakistan," said Indian analyst Kanti Bajpai who teaches at Oxford University.
He said there was a case to be made for steps toward a regional solution. Pakistan should cede some space to India in Afghanistan while both countries would need to agree on the limits of their roles.
The problem, however, is that even as India has become more open to talks, the political space in Pakistan to engage in a successful dialogue has been narrowing as it tackles Islamist militants and a spate of bombings and gun attacks at home.
Neither the government nor the army can afford to make the kind of concessions offered by former President Pervez Musharraf on Kashmir [ID:nLJ287792] for fear of alienating public opinion already ambivalent about the approach to militants.
"In the end, Musharraf's willingness was a function of the space that he thought he had and his desire to have his own legacy project (on Kashmir)," said Coll. "Today the equation on the Pakistan side is very different."
"That space has been narrowing and narrowing since the Obama administration came in."
At best, India and Pakistan might eventually get back into talks which could prevent tensions between them escalating into a conflict which would torpedo U.S. plans for Afghanistan.
But the regional diplomatic strategy to ease their rivalries in Afghanistan and stabilize Pakistan by allowing it to redefine its relationship with India may have been stillborn months ago.
(Additional reporting by Adrian Croft in London, Krittivas Mukherjee in New Delhi and Robert Birsel in Islamabad; editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
Back to Top
Back to Top
German Ministry Denies Report on 500 More Troops to Afghanistan
Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Germany’s Defense Ministry denied a report in the Rheinische Post newspaper that the government has agreed to send 500 additional troops to Afghanistan. No concrete figure has been decided on, according to a ministry official who declined to be identified.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Turkish president meets Afghan, Pakistani leaders for co-op in supporting Afghanistan
21:33, January 25, 2010 People's Daily
Turkish President Abdullah Gul met his Afghan and Pakistani counterparts separately in the largest Turkish city Istanbul on Monday to discuss ways to strengthen cooperation in helping the war-torn Afghanistan achieve security and stability.
Gul met Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on the sidelines of a trilateral summit among the three countries scheduled on Monday afternoon, which officials said was aimed at improving Afghan-Pakistani ties to facilitate their joint efforts.
"Turkey is well-situated to be bringing together the two parties because of its historical ties with them," Burak Ozugergin, spokesman for Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Xinhua on Monday.
A largely Muslim country, Turkey is holding such trilateral meetings for the fourth time since 2007 to nudge ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which are at odds with each other over the Taliban forces.
Kabul complains the Taliban insurgents received financial and military support from the Pakistani tribal territories, while Islamabad says the Pakistani Taliban received arms from across Afghanistan and complains they can not fully concentrate on its western border along with Afghanistan if its eastern border, along with India, is not secure.
The purpose of the summit was to create an atmosphere of reconciliation between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Afghan ambassador in Ankara Masood Khalili was quoted by Turkey's semi-official Anatolia news agency as saying prior to the summit.
Ozugergin said the trilateral talks in Istanbul were very practical and discussed many specific areas of cooperation such as health and education.
"They are actually what the Afghan people need most. They are more down to earth and can reach the people," he said.
On Tuesday, leaders of Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as high-level officials from Afghanistan's neighboring countries and some international organizations will attend another regional meeting here on Afghanistan.
Afghan President Karzai unveiled a western-funded program last week which will provide funds and jobs for Taliban militants to come back into mainstream society. He is expected to announce details of the plan at an international conference on Afghanistan in London on Thursday.
Source: Xinhua
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan watchdog slams top job for ex-militia chief
25 Jan 2010 13:08:24 GMT By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL, Jan 25 (Reuters) - An Afghan rights watchdog slammed President Hamid Karzai on Monday for giving a top military job to General Abdul Rashid Dostum, a former militia chief who has been accused of human rights abuses.
Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM) said Dostum's reappointment as chief of staff to the commander-in-chief, Karzai, was a blow to justice and efforts to start peace talks with the Taliban.
Palace officials confirmed the recent reappointment, which a security source said gives Dostum a largely ceremonial role in charge of the armed forces behind Karzai.
"It is a step ahead in Karzai's old policy of legitimising prominent warlords and maintaining a state of criminal impunity for them," Ajmal Samadi director of ARM, a non-governmental group funded by domestic rights campaigners, said in a statement. "Afghanistan cannot achieve viable peace, stability and prosperity under a government with no commitment to justice."
Dostum had previously held the same position until 2008. That year he was put under house arrest by the government following clashes with a rival, and then left for Turkey in an apparent self-imposed exile.
He returned to Afghanistan days before the presidential election last year, urging his supporters to back Karzai.
Diplomats said the two men had struck an eleventh-hour deal, with Karzai pledging government positions to Dostum's allies in return for his support. Dostum denied any deal.
In January, a member of Dostum's Jumbesh-i-Milli party said they had collected 700,000 votes for Karzai's presidential bid and had been promised several cabinet posts in return.
Both the United States and United Nations expressed concern over Dostum's return. The United States and other countries have accused Dostum of human rights abuses and a U.S. official said in August he may be responsible for "massive war crimes".
Dostum is a leader of Afghanistan's ethnic Uzbek community. He is a former Communist general who led militias through decades of civil war, before joining a loose, U.S.-backed alliance that ousted the Taliban from power in late 2001.
Some 2,000 Taliban fighters who surrendered to Dostum suffocated to death in cargo containers in which they were being held in what became known as the Dasht-i-Laili massacre.
Another 300 Taliban prisoners held by Dostum and U.S. forces in a 19th century prison fortress died during a rebellion. U.S. President Barack Obama instructed his national security team in July to investigate the alleged mass killing of war prisoners.
Dostum has denied accusations of human rights abuses, including responsibility for Taliban deaths in Dasht-i-Laili. (Editing by Jonathon Burch and Bill Tarrant)
Back to Top
Back to Top
Pakistan's Rebuff Over New Offensives Rankles U.S.
New York Times By ERIC SCHMITT and DAVID E. SANGER January 24, 2010
WASHINGTON - The Pakistani Army's announcement last week that it planned no new offensive against militants for as long as a year has deeply frustrated senior American military officers, and chipped away at one of the cornerstones of President Obama's strategy to reverse the Taliban's gains in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
When Mr. Obama announced his decision in December to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, he and his aides made clear that the chances of success hinged significantly on Pakistan's willingness to eliminate militants' havens in its territory, including in the tribal region of North Waziristan. United States officials described the American and NATO surge of troops as a hammer, but they said it required a Pakistani anvil on the other side of the border to prevent the Taliban from retreating to the mountains.
Now that strategy appears imperiled by Pakistan's latest statement. On Thursday, soon after Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates arrived on a two-day trip to the country, the Pakistani Army's chief spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, rebuffed American pressure to step up attacks in North Waziristan. That area is the main base of operations for the Haqqani network, which stages operations against American and Afghan forces in Afghanistan. It is believed to be responsible for many of the attacks on Kabul, including a devastating assault early last week near the presidential palace.
Fighters from Al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban have also been concentrated in North Waziristan, including many who were driven out of their positions in South Waziristan by recent Pakistani Army operations.
“This has become the center,” a senior administration official said, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to discuss American strategy publicly.
American officials said they had not been surprised by the Pakistani announcement. Since the last two years of the Bush administration, the United States has been arguing for a far more active Pakistani military presence in North Waziristan. But some said they had been surprised that the rebuff was issued while Mr. Gates was in the country, rather than after he left.
General Abbas told reporters it could be 6 to 12 months before the army consolidated its current operations and began any new offensive. Some American officials think it could be longer.
The critical question is how much the Pakistani decision will undercut Mr. Obama's strategy. During a speech at West Point on Dec. 1, he said his administration would reassess the plan at the end of 2010, after all the troops deployed as part of the increase were in place. But if the Pakistani position does not change, the operations on Pakistan's side of the border will not have begun by the time Mr. Obama has made his assessment.
Mr. Obama made no public demands on Islamabad when he announced the troop increase at West Point, but he said he was acting “with the full recognition that our success in Afghanistan is inextricably linked to our partnership with Pakistan.” He quickly added: “We need a strategy that works on both sides of the border.”
Mr. Obama praised the Pakistani Army for waging an offensive in Swat and South Waziristan, where the Pakistani Taliban were taking aim at the country's fragile government. He promised to work with the Pakistanis to strengthen their ability to combat the militants, but he said the United States had “made it clear that we cannot tolerate a safe haven for terrorists whose location is known and whose intentions are clear.”
Pakistani officials have not refused to go after Qaeda or Taliban fighters in North Waziristan. But they have made it clear that their forces are too tied up now to conduct new, larger operations on Washington's schedule.
As a practical matter, American officials said, Pakistan's inability or reluctance to open a new front in North Waziristan will increase the reliance on missile strikes from drones operated by the C.I.A. to disrupt attacks aimed at Afghanistan.
American officials said that Pakistani military leaders had never promised a specific timetable for beginning a new offensive, but that announcing a delay of as much as 12 months could aid the militants' planning and morale on both sides of the border.
“It's disappointing, but not entirely surprising,” said a senior Defense Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid jeopardizing his ties with Pakistani counterparts.
Mr. Gates and other American officials sought to put the best face on the situation last week, saying that the Pakistani Army was stretched thin from its previous offensives against militants.
“Pakistani leadership will make its own decisions about what the best timing for their military operations is, about when they are ready to do something or whether they are going to do it at all,” Mr. Gates told Pakistani journalists on Friday, the day after General Abbas's comments.
“The way I like to express it is, we're in this car together, but the Pakistanis are in the driver's seat and have their foot on the accelerator,” Mr. Gates said. “And that's just fine with me.”
Gen. David H. Petraeus, the head of the military's Central Command, said at a conference in Washington on Friday that American officials must be mindful of the limitations facing Pakistan's military.
General Petraeus said that the Pakistani leaders would need to negotiate agreements with local tribal leaders to hold the gains that the Pakistani military has achieved in places like Swat and South Waziristan. But he emphasized that any deals must be more resilient than previous pacts in the tribal areas, which fell apart and allowed the militants to regain control.
Senior American officers in the region said that cooperation with their Pakistani counterparts had improved in recent months.
NATO military leaders, for instance, recently provided a detailed briefing on the campaign in Afghanistan to Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the Pakistani army chief of staff, a senior American officer said. Pakistani officers reciprocated last week with a briefing for NATO officers on their campaign plans, the American officer said.
7 Bodies Found With Warnings
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The bodies of seven people accused by the Taliban of spying for the United States were found in North Waziristan on Sunday, officials and residents said.
Notes attached to the bullet-ridden bodies accused the victims of working with the United States as it carries out a wave of drone strikes in the region, and warned that anyone else who did so would meet the same end.
Drone attacks in the region have increased significantly since the bombing of a C.I.A. base in Khost, Afghanistan, that killed seven Americans on Dec. 30.
Elisabeth Bumiller contributed reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Iran to attend regional conferences on Afghanistan
Xinhua Jan. 24, 2010
TEHRAN - Iran will attend regional conferences on Afghanistan to be held in Turkey and Russia respectively, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Sunday.
"Iran's First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi, heading a delegation, will attend the Istanbul conference on Jan. 26," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast told Fars on Sunday.
Iran is also scheduled to participate in another conference on Afghanistan organized by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization ( SCO), said Mehman-Parast.
Deputy Foreign Minister for Asian and Pacific Affairs Mohammad Ali Fathollahi will represent Iran in the conference, due to be held on Monday in Moscow, he was quoted as saying.
Mehman-Parast called on the participants in the two conferences to focus on forming a regional approach towards the Afghan issues, saying "paying attention to regional approaches can bring such conferences closer to success," according to Fars.
Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Thursday that Tehran would take part in a conference on Afghanistan in London next week providing that its viewpoints are fully taken into consideration, Iran's state-run satellite channel Press TV reported.
"If Iran's considerations on Afghanistan are completely taken into account in the final statement of the London conference, we will consider taking part in the gathering," Mottaki was quoted as saying.
He did not give details of Iran's conditions. But Tehran has already called on the NATO forces in Afghanistan to leave and let the Afghan people take control of security with the help of regional states.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Germany supports plan to pay Taliban militants for laying down arms
BERLIN, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle showed his support for a plan to pay Taliban militants in Afghanistan for laying down their arms and help them reintegrate into mainstream society during an interview on Sunday.
"It is economic reasons instead of fanatical beliefs that caused many people to follow the wrong path of Taliban terrorists, " Westerwelle said in an interview with local newspaper the Bild am Sonntag.
"We should provide these people and their families with opportunities to reject violence and come back into the larger Afghan society. For that, Germany would like to offer extra financial support," he said.
"Then we can get our troops out there," he added.
Westerwelle, who is also Germany's vice-chancellor, will represent Germany at the international conference on Afghanistan to be held in London on Jan. 28.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai unveiled a western-funded program on Friday which will provide funds and jobs for Taliban militants to come back into mainstream society.
The Taliban pays its foot soldiers more than the Afghan government does for its own security forces, Karzai said.
Washington has made similar proposals, according to local media reports. German Development Minister Dirk Niebel also expressed his support for such a plan, saying he could well imagine Berlin contributing to the fund.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Race against time for Nato strategy
Financial Times By Matthew Green in Kabul January 25 2010
It is a measure of the gravity of the situation in Afghanistan that a four-star general who led a clandestine project to remove insurgent leaders in Iraq is now speaking so openly about talking to the Taliban.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Stanley McChrystal, the commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, said a political solution would be the right way to end the war. In theory, a settlement should be possible. One irony of the Afghan conflict is that the US and the Taliban say they share the same goal: that the current force of 110,000 foreign troops should go home.
In messier reality, the road from an escalating war to a still hazily defined end state remains rocky. The crucial question is whether General McChrystal can undermine the Taliban fast enough to bring its leaders to the table before growing casualties cause Nato allies to bolt. Insurgents will be loath to talk as long as they feel they are winning. Potential spoilers close to Hamid Karzai, the president, also have little incentive to alter the status quo while atop a lucrative war economy.
Western politicians who sold the war by portraying the Taliban as murderous thugs will have some explaining to do to voters. Contacting Mullah Mohammed Omar, the spiritual head of the Taliban, depends on runners bearing scraps of paper. Mistrust on all sides runs deep, and past attempts have foundered. Nonetheless, Gen McChrystal wants western powers and Afghan leaders gathering in London later this week to think more carefully about dialogue.
"I believe that a political solution to all conflicts is the inevitable outcome. And it's the right outcome," he said. "It's not my job to extend olive branches, but it is my job to help set conditions where people in the right positions can have options on the way forward."
The idea of building on a long Afghan tradition of former foes sitting down for a pragmatic carve-up of power is increasingly attractive for allies confronted with record casualty rates, huge costs and public fears of an unwinnable quagmire.
Afghan experts warn that any moves by the Kabul elite to divvy up posts with the Taliban will only perpetuate the problem driving 30 years of conflict: the lack of a system of governance capable of regulating the country's tensions without bloodshed. For impatient allies, a deal that damps the fighting may trump more idealistic goals.
To Gen McChrystal, the conflict is essentially an armed popularity contest. His plan hinges on using 30,000 extra US forces and 7,000 from Nato allies to unfurl a security umbrella over 85 per cent of the population in the Kandahar and Helmand provinces - the Taliban's ethnic Pashtun heartland. Commerce will take off, and the government extend its reach, he believes. Gen McChrystal wants the conference in London on Thursday to strongly endorse this strategy even as allies are wavering.
The Taliban is waging a mirror-image of his campaign. Mr Omar issued guidelines ordering his forces to minimise civilian casualties shortly after Gen McChrystal did so. Taliban "shadow governments" are exploiting the justice and security vacuum.
Should talks materialise, insurgents and government may struggle to agree a shared vision for Afghanistan. In war-weary western capitals, rhetoric about democracy and women's rights may be less important than guarantees that the Taliban has severed ties with leaders of al-Qaeda, the Islamist terror network. Robert Gates, US defence secretary, broached the issue of talks while in Pakistan on Friday, where he said the Taliban was part of Afghanistan's "political fabric".
Some are encouraged by a public statement attributed to Mr Omar late last year portraying his movement as reform-minded nationalists who would not pose an international threat. Some Afghan officials talk of lifting a United Nations travel ban and financial freeze on Taliban leaders.
There have been reports of secret meetings between Afghan government representatives and Taliban figures and rumours of approaches to UN diplomats in Kabul. Pakistan's intelligence services, which have leverage over the Taliban, could facilitate dialogue if they felt they could limit influence in Afghanistan by rival India. But with Barack Obama, US president, planning to start withdrawing US troops in mid-2011, the Taliban may believe it has far more resolve than the west.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghanistan to regulate private security: Canadian general
By Steve Rennie, THE CANADIAN PRESS 25th January 2010
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The greener pastures of private-security firms lure away many an Afghan cop with the promise of bigger paycheques and relatively safer work.
But now the Afghan government is drawing up new rules for private companies as it tries to stop police from leaving the force.
Canada’s highest-ranking soldier in Afghanistan says the regulations will help put the country’s police force on an even playing field with security companies.
“I don’t think anybody wants to limit anybody’s ability to choose their own destiny,” Maj.-Gen. Michael Ward, deputy commander of NATO forces training the Afghan police, said Monday.
“But when AWOL and desertion are such a big problem in the security forces, then you don’t actually want to be stimulating it by letting the competition hire them away.”
The rules for private-security firms are part of a national police strategy being drafted by Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar.
Measures being considered by the Afghan government include caps on how much security firms can pay their workers and limiting who companies can hire.
“The easiest way for it to be done would be to just say that you have to be licensed, you can work under the following conditions, and that there is actually a cap in terms of who you can hire, and under what conditions,” Ward said.
“You would not be able to hire a soldier or patrolman who didn’t actually have a leaving certificate saying that he completed his or her service honourably and according to the terms of service.”
The military buildup in Afghanistan has stoked a surge of private security contractors, who provide basic security for bases in the country to free up critical manpower.
Several operating bases in southern Afghanistan, where the bulk of Canada’s troops are stationed, are now farming out the sentry work.
The Defence Department has awarded contracts to Canadian-owned security companies, such as Tundra Strategies, which runs an Afghanistan-based operation that hires and trains mostly Afghans as guards, but deploys them as far from their home regions as possible in order to avoid conflicts of interest.
The thinking is that hiring security guards is cheaper than having Canadian soldiers do the same job, and it frees up troops to concentrate on other aspects of the mission.
But Afghan guards are still handsomely paid by local standards. They can earn between US$300 and $600 a month, depending on their job and skill level.
So it’s no wonder some Afghan police, who now make $165 a month after they got a raise this month, flock to private-security companies.
Afghanistan’s police force now stands at 97,000 strong. But Ward said the force loses about 19 per cent of its members each year.
Some of that attrition is due to officers being killed on the job, he said, but often it is police leaving for private-security work.
“If they’re all going across the street to earn more money (with) a competitor who can afford to pay more ... it becomes a losing venture around which (the Afghan government is) trying to insert larger control,” Ward said.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan warlord courts Canada
The Globe and Mail - International Sonia Verma Sunday, Jan. 24, 2010
Mazar-I-Sharif, Afghanistan - From a plush chair, behind a hand-carved desk crowded with custom china and a tissue box made entirely of gold, Atta Mohammad Noor rules his province with an iron fist.
In the five years since the former warlord was crowned provincial governor of Balkh, he's defied every odd: He's eradicated poppy cultivation and driven out the Taliban. He's sowed security that's fuelled stunning economic growth.
Under his forbidding watch, Balkh has become a model of peace and prosperity for the rest of Afghanistan. Now, Mr. Noor has a modest proposal for Canada: “Your country is spending billions of dollars in Kandahar, but you are also losing lives. ... The Taliban are killing your sons, burning your schools and your clinics,” he points out, seated beneath a gild-framed oil painting of Hamid Karzai, his political rival.
“If you spent money in my province, where there is safety and security, we can deliver results,” he promises, with a wave of his hand and flash of his diamond-studded watch.
When Mr. Noor speaks, people tend to listen. Three aides seated on the sidelines diligently take notes of our interview. Outside, a team of his personal bodyguards stands sentry, more powerful than the local police or national army.
Holding court in his office, Mr. Noor, who refers to himself as a full-rank general, appears immensely confident, immensely pleased.
Not long ago, the international community shunned the former mujahedeen commander, viewing his violent past with disdain. He was seen as vestige of Afghanistan's warlord culture, an obstacle to the country's development.
Now, with Mr. Karzai perilously weak, the West is poised to reach out to local Afghan leaders such as Mr. Noor in an effort to bypass the corruption and incompetence of the central government.
In provinces such as Balkh, such a move would further entrench the warlords and rekindle ethnic tensions, but some analysts say the trade-off would be worth it.
As frustration mounts with Mr. Karzai's government and the West seeks strong partners, Mr. Noor is an obvious candidate.
An ethnic Tajik, he was a high-school teacher before he took up arms.
He helped raise an army against the Soviets, fought mercilessly in the civil war, and, ultimately, helped oust the Taliban from power.
He makes no apology for his past. “I'm not saying I'm perfect,” he says, with a bored sigh.
“Imagine if somebody invaded your country and your shopkeepers are obliged to fight, but they don't know how to pull a trigger,” he says. “What are you going to do?”
Today, he wears designer suits. His authority is no longer solely derived from by the barrel of a gun. He also holds substantial interests in real-estate and transportation across Afghanistan's strategic north, home to a vital new NATO supply line.
Mr. Noor has plenty of ideas for how the West might win his support, saying he is ready to forgive “years of neglect.”
“The world community should have two policies: one in the stable provinces; and one in the insecure provinces,” he says.
“Unfortunately right now, they are playing a double role. In those areas where there is fighting, drugs and killings, there are also many projects. But here, in Balkh province, it is very secure, yet the people feel they are being punished with no projects.”
Canada, he believes, should lead the way, “Canada is losing its sons in Kandahar, but the world does nothing. They should also pay attention to other provinces, like Balkh,” he says.
“Look around,” he says with pride. “Instead of calling me a warlord, they should call me a hero.”
The bustling provincial capital of Mazar-I-Sharif has transformed itself into one of the most stable and prosperous in Afghanistan. Since the fall of the Taliban, its population has doubled, topping one million people.
New housing developments and hotels are being built. Banks, telecom and transportation companies have rushed to set up shop.
Yet Mazar, and the province of Balkh, have received minimal international aid, compared with other provinces. Prominent businessmen banded together to build the city's elaborate traffic circles adorned with soaring bronze statues and neon lights.
The vast majority of Afghans here credit Mr. Noor for their city's success. They view him with equal measures of fear and respect.
“If Atta left for even one hour, the whole city would be looted,” says Hajji Mohammed, an elderly shopkeeper who sells traditional emerald green chapan coats in the city's bazaar.
“I am happy. We can work day and night and there is no problem. It's not like Kabul,” says another man, who drives an ancient taxi through the city's traffic-choked streets.
General Sardar Mohammad Sultani, the local police chief, says Mr. Noor – not him – deserves credit for keeping the peace.
“Nobody can deny whatever [Mr. Noor] says. It's the law. ... The governor has every department under his order. Whoever tries to disobey will be punished,” Gen. Sultani says.
Mr. Noor's appointment by Mr. Karzai in 2004 was part of a complicated calculation on the President's part to appease former warlords to consolidate his power.
Many, like Mr. Noor, agreed to lay down their arms, and forced their followers to do the same.
But in recent years, he has emerged as one of Mr. Karzai's fiercest critics. During the last presidential election, Mr. Noor backed Abdullah Abdullah, Mr. Karzai's chief rival. Campaign posters featuring the faces of both men are still plastered all over the city.
However, Mr. Karzai's presidential victory has fuelled speculation that Mr. Noor might soon be removed from his post, a move that would prove deeply unpopular in Balkh and could trigger a larger conflict along ethnic lines.
Northern Afghanistan is dominated by Tajiks and Uzbeks – whose loyalty to Mr. Noor runs deep – and backed by armed force if necessary.
Mr. Noor has become increasingly critical of Mr. Karzai.
Last week's brazen strike by Taliban insurgents on the presidential palace highlighted Mr. Karzai's weakness, the governor says.
“They shouldn't have waited until the enemy attacked their buildings.
They should have had a plan. Instead, bullets arrived to the presidential palace wall. How can we be proud?” Mr. Noor says.
Any attempt by Mr. Karzai to replace him is bound to backfire, observers say.
“The government can't find better than Atta,” says Sayeed Mohammad Tahir Roshanzada, who heads the provincial Chamber Of Commerce, which boasts several hundred members.
“He himself is a businessman,” Mr. Roshanzada points out. “If his stomach is full and his pockets are full of money, he doesn't need to go and get money from other people,” he reasons.
Opposition to Mr. Noor's iron clad control exists, but is muted.
Zainab, a senior government official in the Education Ministry, would like to see Mr. Noor ousted.
She visited the governor's office one day last week to complain about an three-centimetre-thick file folder full of fraudulent 12th-grade diplomas, signed by Mr. Noor.
However, she agreed to be interviewed in a whisper, and did not want her last name published for fear of retribution.
“He is a millionaire. Where did he get that money?” Zainab asks. “He doesn't obey the rules, but because he is a warlord, nobody will oppose him.”
Even if someone does, Mr. Noor has no intention of going anywhere. He has just signed off on a new five-year plan for his province, which he plans to execute with or without outside help.
“There are still some goals I would like to finish,” he says.
Back to Top
Back to Top
NATO troops discover ammunition cache in S. Afghanistan
KABUL, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) found a cache of explosive devices in the restive Helmand province south of Afghanistan, a press release of the alliance said Sunday.
"ISAF forces operating in the Garmser district of Helmand province yesterday discovered a large cache of homemade explosives, " the press release added.
"The estimated 310 kg cache included 36 five liter jugs of explosives and 9 kg of fragmentation," it further said, but did not give more details.
ISAF forces destroyed the cache at the site and there were no injuries during the operation, the press release emphasized.
Taliban militants as part of tactic have been using explosive devices in carrying out suicide attacks and roadside bombings against Afghan and the NATO-led troops stationed in Afghanistan.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Norwegian soldier killed in Afghanistan
The Norway Post
A Norwegian soldier has been killed on a mission in the Ghowrmach District in the north of Afghanistan, when his armoured vehicle hit a road mine, according to the Norwegian Defence Command.
Two other Norwegian soldiers in the same vehicle were slightly injured, according to NRK.
The dead soldier and those injured were evacuated by a helicopter from the Norwegian base at Meymaneh.
The soldiers belonged to the Telemark Batallion, and were on teir way to meet a group of men from the Afghan Army, to carry out joint patrols in the area.
There are around 700 Norwegian troops deployed with the NATO-led ISAF force in Afghanistan at present.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Soviet war veterans say US must shift strategies in Afghanistan
The New Straits Times - Jan 24 6:53 PM
MOSCOW: The United States is repeating the mistakes that the Soviet Union made in Afghanistan, Russian veterans say, convinced the USSR’s disastrous near decade-long war there harbours deep lessons for Western forces.
“It is now (nearly) nine years since the coalition invaded Afghanistan and nothing has changed,” said retired Lieutenant General Ruslan Aushev, 55, who served five years in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation there from 1979-1989.
However, Aushev, who was made a Hero of the Soviet Union after being wounded on his third Afghan deployment, admitted that NATO and US troops face a fiercer enemy today than did Soviet troops.
Then, the Red Army untrained for the mountainous terrain found themselves bogged down in an unwinnable guerrilla war against Mujahedeen Islamist fighters backed financially and militarily by Washington.
“Today, the situation is more complicated. The Mujahedeen were more moderate than the Taliban, who are radical. In our era, there were no suicide bombers,” said Aushev, who now heads the Afghan veterans committee.
Major General Makhmud Gareyev was a former deputy chief of the Red Army general staff and a top military adviser to Afghan President Najibullah, who was overthrown by Islamic insurgents in 1992 and hanged by the Taliban four years later.
After the Soviet pullout in 1989, Gareyev stayed behind to support the Kremlin’s client regime.
He expressed doubts that the current mission in the region had much chance to deliver long-term stability, if coalition forces did not rapidly shift strategy.
“The Americans are fighting a people and not a regular army. Napoleon never could win in Spain. They should understand that it is impossible to fight against a nation,” Gareyev, now president of the Academy of Military Sciences in Moscow, told AFP.
The only strategy forward for the US-led coalition forces is to focus on reconstruction and development in Afghanistan, according to Gareyev and other Russian veterans.
“They have to change their politics and find other solutions. They must help rebuild the country and offer financial, economic and humanitarian aide,” he insisted.
Moscow initially saw its incursion into Afghanistan in December 1979 as a brief mission to bolster its Afghan supporters but became bogged down in a protracted and bloody struggle that lasted nearly 10 years.
The war, which cost over 13,000 Soviet lives and killed as many as one million Afghans, helped lead to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the takeover of Afghanistan by the Islamist Taliban.
Retired General Victor Yermakov, who commanded Soviet forces in Afghanistan from 1982 to 1983, has been among the first to point to the Soviets’ failure as a warning to the West, calling Afghanistan an “impossible” fight.
“The only way to be respected, would be to take the money now spent on maintaining troops in Afghanistan and spend it instead on agricultural development and the reconstruction of schools, mosques and roads,” Yermakov said in an interview with Russian state television Vesti-24.
One week before a London conference aimed at promoting Afghanistan’s development, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced a long-term, non-military strategy to stabilise Afghanistan along those lines.
The plan unveiled Thursday calls for sending more civilian experts to the region to rebuild the Afghan farm sector, improve governance and bring extremists back into mainstream society.
US President Barack Obama said in December that the United States would deploy another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan in 2010 — on top of more than 70,000 already there — to undercut a resurgent Taliban.
Under his plan, US troops are to begin withdrawing in July 2011. -- AFP
Back to Top
Back to Top
AFGHANISTAN: Thirteen southern districts critical for polio eradication - WHO
KABUL, 25 January 2010 (IRIN) - Successful anti-polio action depends on vaccinators being able to reach and immunize every under-five child in 13 volatile districts in the southern provinces of Kandahar, Helmand and Farah, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO).
"These 13 districts are high priority areas and if we succeed in fighting the virus there, we will eradicate polio in the country," Tahir Pervaiz Mir, WHO's polio eradication officer in Afghanistan, told IRIN.
"The virus is localized and we want to finish the job at the earliest [opportunity] and not allow it to spread beyond the southern region," he said.
About 84 percent of Afghanistan is polio-free but the disease remains virulent in the 13 districts, where health workers have little or no access.
Most of the 38 polio cases in 2009 were reported in the south, though one case each was reported in the provinces of Kapisa, Ghor, Nangarhar and Nuristan.
Polio is a highly infectious viral disease which affects mostly under-five children through the oral-faecal route and in some cases causes permanent paralysis, according to WHO.
New vaccine
Owing to its "professional and dedicated anti-polio activities" Afghanistan in December was the first country globally to use a new polio vaccine which is believed to be 30 percent more effective, WHO's Mir said.
The new bivalent vaccine is specifically made for poliovirus types one and three which are circulating in the country. Type two has not been reported globally since 1999, according to health officials.
"With this new vaccine we feel more confident and would be able to defeat polio here," Abdul Qayum Pokhla, director of the health department in Kandahar, told IRIN, adding that about 2.8 million children received the bivalent vaccine in the southern provinces on 15-17 December 2009.
In order to ensure polio eradication and immunize newborn children, the trivalent vaccine will also be used in the four nationwide and four sub-national immunization campaigns in 2010, WHO said.
"Letters of support"
The new and more efficient vaccine has strengthened health workers' technical capacity to wipe out poliomyelitis from Afghanistan.
"We need mouths [into which] to drop the OPV [oral polio vaccine]," said WHO's Mir.
He said "letters of support" from the insurgents' leadership have enabled vaccinators to access children in areas controlled or influenced by the Taliban.
Donors have also been generous and there is no dearth of resources, health officials acknowledge.
However, there are still several major challenges ahead, including parents' poor awareness about immunization, recurrent armed hostilities in polio-prone areas, population movements, and cultural factors.
"Most of the vaccinators are male and when they knock on doors during immunization campaigns only the men bring small children for vaccination, but if men are not at home women do not take the very young. to vaccinators due to social traditions - and these are the children we are failing to vaccinate," said Mir, adding that communities must help vaccinators reach every under-five child.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Bin Laden claims responsibility for Christmas plane bombing attempt
CAIRO, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- Al-Qaida leader claimed responsibility for a foiled attempt of bombing a U.S.-bound airplane on Dec. 25, and vowed further attacks against the United States, in an audio recording aired Sunday by pan-Arab al-Jazeera TV.
"From Osama to Obama ... If our messages would possibly be carried to you by words, we would not have carried them to you by planes," Osama bin Laden said in the tape.
The U.S. foiled an attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23- year-old Nigerian, who tried to blow up on Christmas Day a U.S. airliner from Amsterdam to Detroit.
"And the message meant to be conveyed to you through the plane of heroic mujahid Umar Farouk (Abdulmutallab) is a confirmation of a previous message delivered to you by the heroes of the Sept. 11 attack," he said.
"America will never dream of security until we experience it in reality in Palestine," he added, "It is not fair that you enjoy good living conditions while our brothers in Gaza suffer the worst living conditions."
"Thus, our raids against you will continue as long as your support for the Israelis continues," he threatened.
The audio tape is the first appearance of the al-Qaida chief since Sept. 25, 2009 when he urged, in a similar recording, European nations to pull their troops out of Afghanistan.
Last year, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Leon Panetta said that bin Laden remains in Pakistan and his capture is still the CIA's priority.
Back to Top
Disclaimer:
This news site is mostly a compilation of publicly accessible articles
on the Web in the form of a link or saved news item. The news articles
and commentaries/editorials are protected under international copyright
laws. All credit goes to the original respective source(s).