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Afghan ex-intel chief opposed Karzai peace plan
By Jonathon Burch And Hamid Shalizi – Tue Jun 8, 6:56 am ET
KABUL (Reuters) – The former head of Afghanistan's intelligence service quit after seeing himself as an obstacle to President Hamid Karzai's plan to reach out to insurgents for talks, he said on Monday, a day after his resignation. Amrullah Saleh
Karzai’s Isolation Worries Afghans and the West
New York Times By ALISSA J. RUBIN June 7, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan observers and Western officials are interpreting the forced resignations of Afghanistan’s two top security officials as another worrying sign of President Hamid Karzai’s increasingly impulsive decision making and deepening isolation from his backers, both within Afghanistan and abroad.
NATO suffers deadliest day this year in Afghanistan
by Karim Talbi
KABUL (AFP) – Twelve NATO soldiers were killed in Afghanistan in the deadliest 24 hours for the alliance this year, underlining a growing Taliban momentum in defiance of calls for peace talks.
23 Taliban killed, 7 detained in SW Afghanistan
KABUL, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Afghan forces backed by NATO-led troops eliminated 23 Taliban militants and detained seven others in northwest Badghis province, an Afghan army officer Zainudin Sharifi said Tuesday.
Afghan troops kill 14 militants in Taliban hotbed
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Afghan forces backed by NATO-led troops during an overnight operation against Taliban hideout eliminated more than a dozen militants in Taliban hotbed Kandahar province, provincial administration said in a statement on Tuesday.
US urges Afghanistan to detail Taliban reintegration plan
Tue Jun 8, 9:02 am ET
MADRID (AFP) – The Afghan government must outline how international funding for a plan to reintegrate Taliban fighters who renounce violence will be overseen before it can begin operating, US special envoy Richard Holbrooke said Tuesday.
Top Taliban leaders leave Pakistan, Afghanistan: Pakistani FM
ISLAMABAD, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that Taliban leadership quit Pakistan and Afghanistan due to military action in his country's tribal areas, Pakistani media reported Tuesday.
US trainers shape new 'face' for Kandahar police
by Daphne Benoit – Tue Jun 8, 1:00 am ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) – Sandwiched between an orchard and a collection of decrepit homes, Afghan police post number six is a familiar haunt of US trainers trying to gain the upper hand in the battle for Kandahar.
Afghan, Pakistani officials to attend forum for first time
CNN By Al Goodman June 7, 2010
Madrid, Spain - Afghan and Pakistani government officials will attend for the first time a meeting in Madrid on Monday with special envoys from 33 other nations, including the United States and China, to discuss peace efforts in the war-torn region, a senior Spanish diplomat said.
Afghanistan: Now the Longest U.S. War
June 7, 2010 - 4:22 PM | by: Mike Emanuel Fox News
After 104 months of combat, Afghanistan has now passed Vietnam as America’s longest war. Now some key American officials from over the years are weighing in on lessons learned and successes in this military campaign.
China hails success of Afghan peace assembly
BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang on Tuesday extended China's congratulations to Afghanistan's peace gathering, the National Consultative Peace Jirga.
UK plans Kabul 'reintegration centre' for boys
June 8, 2010 BBC News
The UK Border Agency is planning a £4m "reintegration centre" in Afghanistan so that failed Afghan child asylum seekers can be returned home.
Taliban stage public execution in NW Pakistan
By Rasool Dawar, Associated Press Writer
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan – The Pakistani Taliban staged a public execution in front of hundreds of tribesmen in the country's northwest Tuesday after an Islamic court convicted the man of killing two brothers, intelligence officials and a local resident said.
16 girls sick in suspected poisoning in Afghanistan
By the CNN Wire StaffJune 8, 2010
(CNN) -- At least 16 teenage Afghan girls are recuperating at a hospital after they were poisoned and lost consciousness during school Tuesday, officials said.
Afghanistan: Looking for a Few Good Cops in Marjah
TIME By Abigail Hauslohner Monday, Jun. 07, 2010
Marjah - No one showed up for start of official recruitment for Marjah's first local police force. No one showed up until the third and last day at a U.S. Marines base in North Marjah, the Afghan district invaded by American and Afghan military forces in February.
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Afghan ex-intel chief opposed Karzai peace plan
By Jonathon Burch And Hamid Shalizi – Tue Jun 8, 6:56 am ET
KABUL (Reuters) – The former head of Afghanistan's intelligence service quit after seeing himself as an obstacle to President Hamid Karzai's plan to reach out to insurgents for talks, he said on Monday, a day after his resignation. Amrullah Saleh -- for six years a key figure in the anti-Taliban fight as head of the National Directorate for Security -- said Karzai had already lost faith in his security forces before an attack on a peace conference last week.
Saleh resigned on Monday along with Hanif Atmar, who controlled the police as interior minister. Karzai's office said the two top security officials had quit because of lapses that led to an insurgent attack on last week's peace meeting.
In an interview at his home in the Afghan capital, Saleh described plans to negotiate with insurgents as a "disgrace," and said one of the main reasons he had quit was because Karzai had ordered a review of Taliban prisoners in detention.
He denied being forced out, saying he had contemplated quitting for a "very long time." Last week's attack on the peace "jirga" or tribal council meeting, was just the last straw.
"A number of reasons had accumulated and it needed a tipping point and the jirga was the tipping point," he said. He also spoke out strongly about what he called Pakistani involvement in attacks in Afghanistan, describing Pakistani intelligence as "part of the landscape of destruction."
Insurgents fired at least four rockets at a giant tent holding the traditional jirga of 1,600 Afghan notables and elders last Wednesday, and then launched a commando raid involving three insurgents wearing suicide vests.
While there were no casualties apart from the attackers -- two were shot dead and one captured -- the incident was embarrassing for Karzai, who had called the jirga to discuss his proposals to make peace overtures to the Taliban.
Karzai summoned Saleh and Atmar to his palace in Kabul on Sunday to explain how the attack was able to take place despite a massive security blanket thrown over the capital. His office said both men had resigned on the spot when the president had not been satisfied with their accounts.
Saleh said that during the palace meeting Karzai tried to get him to pin blame for the lapse onto Atmar and the police.
"Our intent was to make the jirga peaceful. There was a breach and I don't want to blame my police comrades for the breach," he said. "So when there was an effort to have me put the blame on the police, I said no."
"The president of Afghanistan has lost trust in the capability of Afghan national security forces. He thinks these forces are not able to protect him or the country," he added.
OBSTRUCTION
Saleh is well liked by the West and was seen as a close ally of Karzai. Nevertheless, as an ethnic Tajik and prominent member of the guerrilla movement which fought the Taliban during the 1990s, he was seen as an obstruction to Karzai's plans to negotiate with the mainly ethnic-Pashtun insurgents.
At last week's peace jirga, elders and religious leaders agreed to support Karzai's plan to reach out to the insurgents to try to bring an end to nearly nine years of fighting.
In his first act since then, Karzai ordered a review of all insurgent prisoners in Afghan jails, a move Saleh said was a main reason for him quitting. Asked if he agreed that he had become an obstacle to Karzai's plan, Saleh said: "Absolutely."
"Negotiating with ... suicide bombers will disgrace this country," he added. He denied he was forced to resign, however.
"No. My conscious force made me to resign. When the moment came and I saw that there is a stain in that relationship (between him and Karzai), the morality of my profession pushed me to resign," he said.
During his tenure as intelligence chief, Saleh was known to accuse Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency of attacks on Afghan soil, a claim he made explicit in Monday's interview.
"It is no longer an issue whether ISI or not ISI. ISI is part of the landscape of destruction in this country, no doubt, so it will be a waste of time to provide evidence of ISI involvement. They are a part of it," he said.
Saleh said the Punjab-based Lashkar-e Taiba militant group responsible for the attacks in Mumbai, had also been behind several attacks on Indian targets in Kabul.
"Absolutely. We had the evidence. I'm no longer the chief, we had concrete evidence. And those who know Lashkar-e Taiba know it's a child of ISI," he said.
For its part, Pakistan has complained of links between the NDS under Saleh and its arch-foe India, which India denies.
(Writing by Jonathon Burch; Editing by David Fox and Peter Graff)
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Karzai’s Isolation Worries Afghans and the West
New York Times By ALISSA J. RUBIN June 7, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan observers and Western officials are interpreting the forced resignations of Afghanistan’s two top security officials as another worrying sign of President Hamid Karzai’s increasingly impulsive decision making and deepening isolation from his backers, both within Afghanistan and abroad.
The two men who resigned over the weekend, Interior Minister Hanif Atmar and the intelligence director, Amrullah Saleh, had strong relationships with American and British officials and were seen as being among the most competent of his cabinet members, said several Western officials in Kabul. Mr. Saleh, in particular, had built an intelligence agency that the West had come to depend on in a region where reliable partners are hard to find, they said.
Their ready dismissals have left the sense that, in trying to ensure his own survival, Mr. Karzai will not hesitate to make decisions counter to the interests of his staunchest Western allies or the Afghan government as a whole, or even to make decisions that seem counter to his own long-term interests.
“This is the beginning of the unraveling of the Afghan government,” said Haron Meer, a political analyst and former aide to Ahmed Shah Massoud, the leader of the Northern Alliance, which fought the Taliban when they ruled Afghanistan.
“This is a signal that Mr. Karzai is oblivious about this situation,” he said. “Afghan people want a government where people are appointed based on merit, and instead he is doing the opposite. He is removing two of the best managers in his cabinet.”
To some, the forced departure of the two men is a troubling indication of the president’s mounting insecurity and his fear that even those closest to him are not looking out for him.
Compounding those fears is Mr. Karzai’s lack of faith in the Americans and his uncertainty about whether they will back him over the long term. That impression has been reinforced by President Obama’s pledge to start withdrawing troops in July 2011 and his administration’s arm’s-length relationship with President Karzai.
“The root of this is the perception that President Karzai got last year from the kind of cold reception that he got from the American administration, and that made him feel insecure,” said Ahmed Ali Jalali, who was Afghanistan’s interior minister from 2003 to 2005. He now teaches at the National Defense University in Washington.
The insecurity has left Mr. Karzai alternately lashing out in anger and searching for new allies, turning to Iran and elements within the Taliban. Both are antagonistic to American interests.
“He is trying to create new networks, new allies and contacts both inside the country and outside the country in case there’s a premature withdrawal, so a lot of this is more of a survival gesture,” Mr. Jalali said.
Since late March, the president has lashed out at the NATO coalition, accusing it of perpetrating fraud in the presidential election last year and for behaving in ways that made the Westerners seem almost like “invaders.” While the anger was glossed over in a visit to the United States in May, the distrust has remained, Western officials said.
At a peace convention, or jirga, last week, Mr. Karzai got an endorsement of his long-held plan to release Taliban prisoners. On Sunday, he issued a decree to release those held without enough evidence for trials, in an apparent effort to prove his bona fides to his enemies and show that he could deliver.
But such a move is highly controversial, both within the country and for the NATO coalition. Some of the Taliban held in Afghan and American detention have killed fellow Afghans; some have killed NATO troops.
Ostensibly Mr. Atmar and Mr. Saleh were forced to resign over security lapses during the jirga that allowed the Taliban to fire rockets at the opening ceremony. Beyond that, however, the two men and Mr. Karzai had a number of differences.
Mr. Saleh, whose National Directorate of Security runs detention centers that hold a number of detainees, was opposed to any casual release of Taliban fighters. In some cases his men died while capturing Taliban operatives with the assent of Mr. Karzai or his close aides, according to people close to the presidency.
Mr. Karzai appears determined to proceed anyway, without, in the view of his critics, getting anything in return. The move has heightened fears that he is grasping at straws in his effort to win political support from any quarter.
“It’s one thing if there is a grand bargain for peace that is endorsed by the Parliament, and on one side Karzai releases some Taliban and on the other side Afghanistan gets something,” said an Afghan businessman who closely watches politics, but who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he has business with Mr. Karzai’s government. “But what does he get for this? Nothing.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Karzai’s internal political support appears to be ebbing. During the election campaign, he garnered the support of Shiite Hazara leaders and the former commanders Karim Khalili and Hajji Muhammad Moheqiq, as well as the Uzbek commander Abdul Rashid Dostum.
All have since drifted away, and neither Mr. Dostum nor Mr. Moheqiq attended the peace jirga. While none of the former warlords are beloved in Afghanistan, Mr. Karzai had previously calculated that it was better to have them in the tent than outside it.
Now they are outside in any case, saying Mr. Karzai has failed to make good on promises to award their supporters powerful positions in the government in exchange for helping Mr. Karzai win re-election. While that is not Mr. Karzai’s fault — he tried, but many of his cabinet nominees were rejected — it has left him alone and reaching out to the Taliban.
“We don’t know what destination our government is going towards,” said Shukria Barakzai, a member of Parliament and a supporter of Mr. Karzai. “But unfortunately we are going backward, not forward.”
Abdul Waheed Wafa contributed reporting.
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NATO suffers deadliest day this year in Afghanistan
by Karim Talbi
KABUL (AFP) – Twelve NATO soldiers were killed in Afghanistan in the deadliest 24 hours for the alliance this year, underlining a growing Taliban momentum in defiance of calls for peace talks.
Seven Americans, two Australians and one French soldier were killed on Monday as they pursued a nearly nine-year war against an insurgent Taliban militia that is seeking to overthrow the Western-backed government.
Two more soldiers were killed in an improvised bomb attack in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said, without giving any further details.
Six of the US soldiers were killed by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and another was killed by small arms fire, Washington announced.
The two Australians, who were training Afghan troops, were killed by a roadside bomb during a patrol in the province of Uruzgan.
France said one of its troops was killed and three others wounded in a rocket attack by Taliban militants in the east of the country.
Furthermore, two foreign contractors, one of them American, were killed in a suicide attack on an Afghan police training centre in the southern city of Kandahar on Monday, the US embassy said.
The combat toll exceeded the deaths of 11 French soldiers on one day in August 2008 and came after a landmark "peace jirga" in Kabul last week agreed to offer an olive branch to militants.
Some 1,600 delegates from across Afghanistan's political spectrum endorsed President Hamid Karzai's plan which included giving jobs and money to militants who lay down arms, as well as removal of leaders from a UN terrorist blacklist.
But the start of that meeting was interrupted by a suspected Taliban rocket attack and many analysts dismiss the peace efforts as idealistic and impractical.
"The priority in Afghanistan should be improving security and governance," Haroun Mir, director of Afghanistan's Centre for Research and Policy, told AFP.
"The peace jirga has emboldened the Taliban to see that everyone else -- including the international community -- is trying to buy their favour," he said.
Taliban militants, who were overthrown by the US-led invasion in 2001, have stepped up their campaign to rid Afghanistan of the 130,000 foreign fighters and have spread their influence beyond their traditional stronghold in the south.
Waheed Mujda, a political analyst who was an official during the Taliban regime, said militants have increased attacks in reaction to the peace discussion.
"Talibans were quite unhappy about the peace jirga discussions and the fact that neither withdrawal of foreign forces or amendments to the constitution (to include Islamic law) were discussed," Mujda said.
"So they have intensified their operations because they want to be powerful and be in a better position."
But NATO, US and Afghan troops are also preparing their biggest offensive yet against the Taliban in Kandahar province, with total foreign troop numbers in the country set to peak at 150,000 by August.
President Barack Obama ordered the US war effort to be ramped up in the hope that an initial surge will break the back of the Taliban insurgency and allow him to start drawing down troops next year.
Obama and his military commanders are banking on a push into the militant bastion of Kandahar -- the birthplace of the Taliban and seat of their five-year government -- to defeat the movement.
US military have warned that casualty tolls will naturally climb during the increased operations.
According to an AFP tally based on a count kept by the independent website icasualties.org, 247 foreign soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year. Last year was the deadliest yet with 520 killed.
The rising toll is unwelcome news in Washington and London -- the two biggest contributors of troops supporting Karzai's government -- with voters increasingly weary of casualties in a far-off and seemingly endless foreign war.
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23 Taliban killed, 7 detained in SW Afghanistan
KABUL, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Afghan forces backed by NATO-led troops eliminated 23 Taliban militants and detained seven others in northwest Badghis province, an Afghan army officer Zainudin Sharifi said Tuesday.
"Afghan and international troops raided Taliban hideouts in Darai Bom village of Balamirghab district Monday night, killing 23 rebels and injured 21 others," Zainudin Sharifi the commander of Commando unit in the region told Xinhua.
The troops also captured seven more insurgents, he further said.
Meantime, he contended that there were no casualties on the troops.
On the other hand, an official said on the condition of anonymity that four Afghan soldiers were killed in the gun battle lasted for few hours.
Taliban militants have yet to make comment.
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Afghan troops kill 14 militants in Taliban hotbed
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Afghan forces backed by NATO-led troops during an overnight operation against Taliban hideout eliminated more than a dozen militants in Taliban hotbed Kandahar province, provincial administration said in a statement on Tuesday.
"The combined forces launched an assault against Taliban positions in Zanton area of Mianshin district Monday night killing 14 insurgents," the statement said, adding that six more militants were injured during the operation.
It also said that the joint forces discovered a weapons cache in the area.
In separate incident, according to the statement, a child was killed and another child was injured as a roadside bomb went off in Arghandab district of Kandahar province on the same day Monday.
On the same day, an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attack killed a foreign soldier with the NATO-led forces, it said, adding that the incident occurred while Afghan and NATO forces were on a routine foot patrol in Salawat village of Panjwai district.
However, the statement did not disclose the nationality of the ill-fated solider.
Kandahar the spiritual center of the Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan has been branded as a stronghold of the hardliner militia in southern part of the country.
Afghan and NATO forces are gearing up to launch a massive summer operations in the restive Kandahar province possibly within weeks.
Twelve soldiers with NATO-led troops have been killed over the past two days in the southern region where Taliban fighters are active.
Around 130,000-strong NATO-led troops are stationed in Afghanistan to help ensure peace in the country.
The strength of NATO-led troops will reach to 150,000 with deployment addition troops from U.S. and other NATO member states by the end of this year.
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US urges Afghanistan to detail Taliban reintegration plan
Tue Jun 8, 9:02 am ET
MADRID (AFP) – The Afghan government must outline how international funding for a plan to reintegrate Taliban fighters who renounce violence will be overseen before it can begin operating, US special envoy Richard Holbrooke said Tuesday.
"The details of how it will be administered and overseen are quite important to the donor governments so there is no question of the diversion of funds," he told a Madrid news conference.
The US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan said he expected the details of how the so-called Afghanistan Peace and Reconciliation Programme will be run to be announced before an international conference in Kabul on July 20.
"We emphasize the absolute essentiality of the programme actually being signed into law, in detail, and up and running by the time we get to Kabul. This is much too important a programme for delays," he said.
Holbrooke estimated that over over 200 million dollars (165 million euros) had so far been pledged to the fund, which will be used to set up retraining centres and create jobs and buy land for former Taliban fighters.
"I would also like to see literacy programs, one of the great needs of Afghanistan is to increase literacy in every walk of life, certainly involving poor people who have been misled into joining the Taliban because they think the Taliban represents their religion which it does not," he said.
Japan is the biggest single contributor to the fund, which also has received pledges from the United States and Britain.
During a news conference on Monday, Holbrooke said there would be "more developments" regarding the fund at the Kabul conference in a comment interpreted by some that more pledges of cash would be made.
But on Tuesday Holbrooke clarified that he was referring to details as to how the fund will be administered.
"There are other countries that are still ready to pledge money, but July 20, the Kabul conference is not a pledging conference, I really want to stress that," he said.
"Somebody may make a speech announcing they are going to give money to the fund but it is not about that."
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is scheduled to attend the international conference in Kabul along with the foreign ministers from several Western nations.
Holbrooke was in Madrid for an informal meeting of special representatives for Afghanistan from more than 30 countries and organisations.
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Top Taliban leaders leave Pakistan, Afghanistan: Pakistani FM
ISLAMABAD, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that Taliban leadership quit Pakistan and Afghanistan due to military action in his country's tribal areas, Pakistani media reported Tuesday.
Addressing a joint press conference with his Afghan and Turkish counterparts in Istanbul, Qureshi said Pakistan military's successful operations in tribal belt have forced many important Taliban leaders to flee outside the region. The foreign minister said that the ties between Pakistan and Afghanistan have seen a dramatic shift after democracy restored in Pakistan.
There is also a greater understanding between the military leaderships of the two countries, he added.
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US trainers shape new 'face' for Kandahar police
by Daphne Benoit – Tue Jun 8, 1:00 am ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) – Sandwiched between an orchard and a collection of decrepit homes, Afghan police post number six is a familiar haunt of US trainers trying to gain the upper hand in the battle for Kandahar.
Driving up in heavily armoured MRAP trucks built to withstand the lethal bombs planted by the Taliban across this provincial capital, American military police head inside the modest one-storey building.
"We are here to make sure that they are engaging the people, that they are proactive," said US Sergeant Gary Woodruff, whose tour of Afghanistan is his fourth overseas deployment, after Kosovo and two missions in Iraq.
"We want to put a nice face on them, make them stop acting tough, like a lawless organisation," he said.
The US-led NATO force in Afghanistan is undertaking one of its most ambitious counter-insurgency operations in the nine-year Afghan war.
Many of the 30,000 troops President Barack Obama ordered to Afghanistan late last year are heading to Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban movement and a hotbed of bombings, assassinations and lawlessness.
The objective is to help Afghan forces restore government authority in Kandahar, a province of more than a million inhabitants according to the Central Statistics Organisation of Afghanistan.
This is terrain where insurgents and criminals have gained ground since a US-led invasion in 2001 brought down the Taliban regime. Any stain on the reputation of the police plays right into the insurgents' hands.
"Initially when we first got there for the mentoring mission, a lot of locals didn't like the ANP," said one US intelligence officer who has spent the last year in Kandahar, referring to the Afghan National Police.
"They thought they were corrupt, that the ANP robbed them etc. So they had a really bad name for themselves... But over a year of mentoring they have improved and the perception of locals has improved."
NATO operations are focused on districts surrounding Kandahar that are used as a base for the insurgency, particularly Zhari in the west and Arghandab in the north. They are also aimed at cutting insurgents' access to the city.
In the city itself the focus is on redoubling efforts to reinforce the under-strength and poorly trained police.
Long underpaid in comparison with the army, Afghan police nonetheless got significant pay rises in 2009, aimed at discouraging them from succumbing to bribery and corruption.
On patrol, Woodruff's men let the Afghan police sweep ahead into the narrow lanes between high, sand-coloured walls.
Lagging behind and surrounded by curious children, the Americans watch attentively from the sidelines.
Next to a dusty track, Woodruff points out a gaping hole half full of rubbish that had been the site of an improvised explosive device (IED), the weapon of choice for insurgents, which the police had got to before it could add to the death toll.
"Somebody tipped off the ANP. If the people are unhappy, they won't do it. It's all about keeping these people happy. You've got to keep everybody on your side. That's the whole hearts and minds game," said Woodruff.
In the city, commanders are determined to avoid using force as far as possible in order not to push the population into the arms of the insurgents.
But experts admit that this "battle of perceptions" is complex.
Since spring, the Taliban have assassinated dozens of prominent personalities in Kandahar, and have launched repeated rocket attacks on its military base.
"I don't think they're going to leave the city or lie low," said Stephen Biddle, of the Centre for Foreign Relations in Washington, predicting "lots of IEDs and assassinations of government officials and collaborators".
"But there is a hope that the sheer density of security forces will deter the Taliban from contesting control of the city."
At a NATO base in town, Canadians are trying to drum the basics into Afghan police on a six-week course -- namely target practice, how to conduct searches and the constitution.
"As soon as the police get hired, they get a uniform and get sent out... They have no clue about human rights, they don't know how to hold a weapon and most of them are illiterate," said Canadian supervisor Amir Butt.
In front of him, a dozen Afghans in dirty blue shirts with plastic AK-47s search a replica home built for training purposes.
A short distance away, gunfire punctures the air from target practice.
"The Afghan people will be much safer when these guys get out of training," said Amit.
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Afghan, Pakistani officials to attend forum for first time
CNN By Al Goodman June 7, 2010
Madrid, Spain - Afghan and Pakistani government officials will attend for the first time a meeting in Madrid on Monday with special envoys from 33 other nations, including the United States and China, to discuss peace efforts in the war-torn region, a senior Spanish diplomat said.
It will be the 11th meeting of the International Support Group for Afghanistan and Pakistan since it was formed in May 2009.
But the first-time appearances at the forum by the Afghan and Pakistani representatives -- as well as special envoys from Saudi Arabia and Jordan -- is seen as a sign of the expanding effort to push for peace and reconstruction in Afghanistan, the diplomat said.
"There's a process of reconciliation and integration, aiming to weaken the Taliban. This process is led by the Afghans and financed by the international community," said the diplomat, who insisted on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly about the Madrid meeting.
Afghan Finance Minister Omar Zakhilwal and two advisers to Afghan President Hamid Karzai will attend, along with Pakistan's ambassador to Spain.
U.S. special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, will appear at a news conference Monday along with Zakhilwal, as well as Germany's special envoy, who chairs the support group, and the Spanish foreign minister, the host of the meeting.
The International Support Group does not make binding decisions or sign treaties. Instead, member countries report back to their respective governments on progress toward bringing peace to the region.
The envoys on Monday will discuss last week's jirga peace conference in Afghanistan and the upcoming Kabul Conference on July 20 that will address economic, development and security issues.
Among the 33 countries also due to attend the Madrid meeting are Russia, Britain, Australia, Canada, Egypt, France, Georgia, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Holland, Poland, South Korea, Turkey and United Arab Emirates, the diplomat said.
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Afghanistan: Now the Longest U.S. War
June 7, 2010 - 4:22 PM | by: Mike Emanuel Fox News
After 104 months of combat, Afghanistan has now passed Vietnam as America’s longest war. Now some key American officials from over the years are weighing in on lessons learned and successes in this military campaign.
Dr. Zalmay Khalilzad served as the Special Presidential Envoy to Afghanistan, and then as the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan from 2003-2005. In terms of lessons learned, Khalilzad said, “We were attentive to the sanctuary for Al Qaeda but I don’t think we were attentive enough to sanctuary of Taliban in Pakistan, and from that problem largely grew this insurgency that's now threatening the coalition and Afghan forces.”
“The second issue I think we could have been more attentive done more earlier to build institutions of Afghanistan - particularly the security institutions,” Khalilzad told Fox News.
Retired U.S. Army General Dan K. McNeill served two tours in Afghanistan. From May 2002 to May 2003, McNeill served as Commander, Combined Joint Task Force 180. McNeill also served in Afghanistan as the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Commander in 2007.
General McNeill praised the success of the initial invasion, but now believes more boots on the ground might have been wise. “One could make the argument that we probably should have gone in there initially with a bigger force then we did go in with,” McNeill told Fox News.
Both leaders say it is important to remember how much progress has been made in Afghanistan. “It was a devastated country, it doesn't have much infrastructure - did not have much when we got there,” said Khalilzad. “We have done a huge amount to rebuild the country’s infrastructure from roads to clinics to schools. Afghans are leading a better life thanks to efforts of the United States.”
“For my money, that's likely been the greatest bit of progress, a government of self determination. There are more roads in country then they've ever had. This allows farmers to get their crops to the market,” McNeill told Fox.
The Afghans have had mixed feelings about Americans and others being there. “We don’t want you westerners here, but don't you leave just yet. We need you to help us,” McNeill said many Afghans told him.
While the Afghan War may get compared to Vietnam in terms of length of combat, the two are dissimilar in terms of American troops killed. More than 50,000 Americans were killed in Vietnam. The U.S. just suffered its 1000th combat fatality in Afghanistan last month, which demonstrates the tremendous improvement in battlefield medicine over the years.
As for finishing the job, McNeill believes the U.S. will be successful, and the current top U.S. Commander in Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal gets a big thumbs up. “We have I would argue our most capable military commander… there are those who might say I’m wrong on that. Well, if he's not the best we've got, he's certainly in the top three by my reckoning,” said McNeill.
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China hails success of Afghan peace assembly
BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang on Tuesday extended China's congratulations to Afghanistan's peace gathering, the National Consultative Peace Jirga.
The three-day Jirga, or assembly, concluded on June 4 in Afghan capital Kabul with a resolution calling for a lasting peace and an end to violence.
As a close and friendly neighbor of Afghanistan, China cares about the situation in the central Asian state and supports the Afghan government's policy of national reconciliation, Qin told a regular press briefing.
The Chinese government also appreciates Afghan government efforts to realize peace, Qin added.
China believes Afghanistan will realize peace, stability and development at an early date through joint efforts by the government and the people, Qin said.
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UK plans Kabul 'reintegration centre' for boys
June 8, 2010 BBC News
The UK Border Agency is planning a £4m "reintegration centre" in Afghanistan so that failed Afghan child asylum seekers can be returned home.
An organisation is being sought to run the centre in the capital, Kabul, which would aim to help their resettlement.
The goal would be to assist 12 boys a month, aged 16 and 17, and 120 adults.
Refugee groups have questioned whether the UK should be considering sending unaccompanied children back to a country that is not safe.
Home Office figures from March this year show there are about 4,200 unaccompanied child asylum seekers in Britain supported by local authorities.
Of the 405 children claiming asylum in the first three months of 2010, 175 were Afghans.
Until now, the UK has had a policy of not returning children under 18 to Afghanistan unless they are accompanied by their families.
But plans for a £4m, three-year contract to build what the Border Agency calls a reintegration centre, put out to tender in March, appear to change that.
Finding families
Failed asylum seekers returned to Kabul from the UK would be given help with education, training and starting a business, as well as somewhere to live.
Unaccompanied children would also receive assistance to help them find their families.
The Guardian newspaper reported that the centre would provide children with a supervised home until they were 18 and short-term accommodation for newly returned adults.
The move is part of a Europe-wide plan to increase the number of people returned to Afghanistan.
Caroline Slocock, chief executive of Refugee and Migrant Justice, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the money could be better used.
"They fled Afghanistan because they feared for their safety and they've often undertaken dangerous, arduous and very long journeys to get to this country. I think the last thing to do if you've got their welfare at heart is to send them back to very uncertain prospects," she said.
"And I think if the government's got four million to spend, they should spend it on providing better support for children here and working with them - perhaps in some cases - for them to return voluntarily to their country."
'Appropriate support'
The Refugee Council also said there were "serious questions" about how the UK plan would work.
Chief executive Donna Covey told the Guardian: "There has been little said about how these children would be kept safe… if they have no family to whom they can be returned safely, should they be returned at all?
"The money would be better spent improving the way that children's claims are assessed, so that we can be sure we never put them in danger."
But Immigration Minister Damian Green said the government wanted "to find ways to help these young men in their home countries, and to return those who are in the UK safely to their home nations with appropriate support once they arrive".
He added: "No-one should be encouraging children to make dangerous journeys across the world."
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Taliban stage public execution in NW Pakistan
By Rasool Dawar, Associated Press Writer
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan – The Pakistani Taliban staged a public execution in front of hundreds of tribesmen in the country's northwest Tuesday after an Islamic court convicted the man of killing two brothers, intelligence officials and a local resident said.
The execution illustrated the level of militant control in North Waziristan, a tribal area along the Afghan border that the U.S. has long pushed Pakistan to target. Many Islamist militants use North Waziristan as a base to launch attacks against NATO troops in Afghanistan.
The man who was executed Tuesday was caught by the Taliban minutes after he killed the brothers two weeks ago in Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan, said intelligence officials.
A Taliban court convicted him of murder and sentenced him to death, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
After the ruling, the Taliban paraded the man onto a soccer field in Miran Shah surrounded by hundreds of tribesmen, said local resident Khan Ameer. As the Taliban watched, a brother of the slain men shot the convicted murderer six times, he said.
Taliban in both Pakistan and Afghanistan enforce a strict form of Islamic law and often carry out public executions to demonstrate their power and warn local residents to obey their rules.
The Pakistani government has launched several offensives in the northwest to counter Taliban control. But it has been reluctant to target North Waziristan, saying the military is already stretched thin by ongoing operations.
Many analysts suspect the government is also hesitant because it doesn't want to cross Afghan Taliban fighters in the area with whom it has historic ties and who have focused their attacks against NATO troops in Afghanistan, not against the Pakistani state.
They contend these militants could serve as useful allies for Pakistan if the Taliban are able to re-establish some level of control in Afghanistan after foreign forces withdraw.
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16 girls sick in suspected poisoning in Afghanistan
By the CNN Wire StaffJune 8, 2010
(CNN) -- At least 16 teenage Afghan girls are recuperating at a hospital after they were poisoned and lost consciousness during school Tuesday, officials said.
The attack is another in a string of suspected poisonings that have targeted school girls in recent months in Afghanistan.
This latest case happened at the Gawharsha Begom primary school, said Sakhi Kargar a spokesman for the Ministry of Health. Police had detained groundskeepers at the school and the water supply was being tested.
This attack comes after at least 88 girls and teachers became ill in separate cases at three girls' schools in the Kunduz province in late April. The Taliban was suspected in those cases, authorities said at the time.
Girls were not allowed to attend school during the Taliban's rule in that area. Since girls' schools began reopening after the Taliban was overthrown in late 2001, the facilities and the female students have been the victims of attacks.
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Afghanistan: Looking for a Few Good Cops in Marjah
TIME By Abigail Hauslohner Monday, Jun. 07, 2010
Marjah - No one showed up for start of official recruitment for Marjah's first local police force. No one showed up until the third and last day at a U.S. Marines base in North Marjah, the Afghan district invaded by American and Afghan military forces in February. Locals told the 3rd Division 6th Marines that they had reservations about joining the force — they were too scared or too intimidated by the Taliban to risk allying themselves with foreign forces in a landscape that the Marines are still struggling to bring under control.
Set in the rural desert farm country west of the Helmand River, Marjah is unremarkable but for its reputation as a major poppy cultivation district, and the site of the February offensive by the Marines, the largest one by NATO in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion. More recently, it has gained notoriety among the war's critics for the slow pace of achieving security here, and for NATO Commander Stanley McCrystal's characterization of the area as a "bleeding ulcer," a remark reported by McClatchy Newspapers. (See how the drug trade complicates the U.S. job in Marjah.)
Indeed, Marjah's local government remains primitive at best. Firefights between the Marines and insurgents occur daily. And the 77 square mile swath of territory in Helmand province wasn't even defined as a district until the Marines' push four months ago. The district governor is Haji Zahir, a man who Marines Commander Lt. Col. Brian Christmas says is making steady inroads with the local population, but who other military and local sources allege is just another operator in a country already full of them. (See pictures from the front line in Afghanistan.)
Christmas acknowledges that in the long quest for Marjah's security, the Marines hold 80% of the solution. But the other 20%, he says, is up to the local population. And the establishment of a local police force "could be that 20%." "The people have to be willing to sacrifice and be part of the solution," says Christmas. "In this case, the solution is the police force — guys who are from the town, who know the people, and understand every road and which way it goes... That's the future of security here."
On Sunday, the third and final day of police recruitment at Christmas' headquarters at Camp Hanson, the commander's efforts to spread the word finally paid off. Christmas had hoped for 80 recruits; he had to settle for 11 — fresh-faced, mostly-beardless, and smiling. Some looked a little too young to be policemen. But all claimed to be old enough: 18 or above. And more importantly, they had passed the initial screening; all said they were ready and willing to serve their country, had secured the signatures of two local elders to vouch for their credibility, and no one had been red-flagged by the Marines' computer database. "My relatives and friends left because there is no security here," says new recruit Saif Allah, 22. "I want to bring it back." (Watch a video on whether the Afghan army will ever be fit to fight.)
After a morning of paperwork and instructions, they were ready to make their way to Lashkar Gah to undergo a two-month training course, along with other new recruits from other regions of the volatile province. If they make it until the end, the 11 will be the beginnings of Marjah's first local police force, and potentially, a key to solving Marjah's bleeding ulcer status.
Captain Michael Vasquez, the Marine regiment's project manager for police recruitment says a lot will ride on the success of this first class. "The goal was set high, but like anything, it's going to be incremental," he says. "A lot of the elders want to see how it goes. So the fact that we have 11 is a major victory . . . If everything goes well, you won't have 80 in the next class, you'll have 180."
The pressure is on. The Marines and the Afghan Interior Ministry have less than six months to assemble the troubled district's police force, before losing the help of several hundred Afghan National Civil Order Police (ANCOP), who the Afghan government sent to Marjah after the offensive. In November, they'll move on to Kandahar to assist U.S. Army operations there. But a tenuous security situation and persistent Taliban presence means the Taliban still wield the power to intimidate Marjah's residents. And attacks across Afghanistan frequently target Afghan security forces. "A good portion of the Taliban are the locals. They've been fighting for 30 years," says Christmas. At this point, he adds, many of the local farmers remain on the fence, waiting to see which group controls the area before they decide whether to side with the Marines or the Taliban. "Everyone wants to join the police, but the problem is that the Taliban are one kilometer from here, and they will create problems for us," explains a villager
not far from the Marines' base.
All but three of the new recruits say they're from the Ishaqzai tribe, in northern Helmand, which has typically been pro-Taliban. On the one hand, their inclusion in the new force could factor strategically into the Marines' efforts, providing much needed employment to a group that has long complained of marginalization and whose disenchantment has helped fuel the insurgency. On the other hand, the tribe's Taliban connections could be a liability. But Vasquez doesn't believe they will be a problem. Each recruit has the official backing of a tribal elder, a mechanism based on custom and accountability that he says will counter any possible Taliban allegiances. And the promised salary — 12,000 Afghanis a month (roughly $240), compared to the 9,000 Afghanis earned by police in other provinces, should add an additional incentive to do good work. (See pictures of the battle against the Taliban.)
"I'm more concerned that they're going to get halfway through training and then there's going to be a problem back home that pulls their attention back here," says Vasquez. "Someone could be trying to intimidate their family. And we have a lot of guys who, for whatever reason, start the training and then something happens back home and they disappear."
The new force will also face the obstacle of overcoming a dismal police legacy. For years, rampant abuses by Afghan police in Helmand have fueled support for the Taliban, and undermined efforts to build local governance. "There is a district governor and there are police here," says Mullah Musa Mohammed, a Marjah elder who attended a recent shura, or gathering of elders in the district center. "The problem is they do not work well." (See pictures of the U.S. Marines' offensive in Afghanistan.)
A month ago, Marines based at the Marjah district center discovered that the ANCOP forces stationed at their base were scamming Afghan civilians as they entered and left the base to pick up money for war damage claims. They would charge people a fee to enter, and then solicit a bribe from the damage money when they left, one Marine explained on condition of anonymity. Eventually, Marines had to re-position themselves to monitor the police. "ANCOP take our supplies. We give them rations and they take them down to the bazaar and sell them. It's unbelievable," he added. "They go down the bazaar and shake people down because they have the authority . . . The local nationals are scared to come to ANCOP so they come to us — the Marines."
The pressure is also riding on Marjah's new recruits. "The next class is June 30, so we'll see how it goes," says Vasquez. "Everyone is going to be watching these 11." That afternoon, Vasquez and his team ushered the new recruits into the Marines' armored vehicles to transport them to Marjah's district center, en route to their training course in Lashkar Gah. As the door shut on truck, Vasquez joked to his team: "Hurry! Seal them up before they change their minds!"
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