 |
||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serving you since 1998 | ||||||||||||
|
|
Afghanistan Raids Will Continue At Night, According To NATO
Associated Press via The Huffington Post
KABUL, Afghanistan — NATO will carry out nighttime kill-and-capture raids against suspected insurgents with increased participation from Afghan special forces, the alliance said Monday, after repeated protests by President Hamid Karzai.
Taliban must have clear representative for peace talks, Karzai says
By the CNN Wire Staff Sun December 18, 2011
Kabul (CNN) -- Afghanistan's government can't hold peace talks with its Taliban insurgents until the Islamic militia identifies a representative with the authority to negotiate, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in an interview that aired Sunday.
Afghanistan appeals for help with reconciliation talks
AFP via Yahoo! News - Dec 19 12:52pm
The Afghan government on Monday appealed for international help to boost talks with the Taliban and other armed opposition groups.
More time needed to train Afghan forces: NATO
KABUL, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- A NATO spokesman on Monday said more time was needed to train Afghan Special Forces to carry out unilateral night raid operations on insurgents, while insisting it is the safest form of raids and will continue in the insurgency- hit country.
Afghans negotiating long-term US presence: Karzai
AFP 18/12/2011
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Sunday that his government is negotiating the terms of a long-term US presence in his country that could involve US troops.
Pakistan restores Afghan border centers in step forward
By Sanjeev Miglani | Reuters
KABUL (Reuters) - Pakistan has restored liaison officers at coordination centers on the Afghanistan border, NATO said on Monday, in a slight easing of tensions, after NATO air strikes last month killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers and provoked fury across the country.
Suicide bombers hit Afghan market
AFP via Yahoo! News - Dec 18 11:51pm
Twin suicide bombers on a motorcycle struck an Afghan market in the southern province of Nimroz on Monday, killing themselves but causing no other casualties, officials said.
Italy to lend Afghanistan $179 mln to upgrade airport
Reuters Sun Dec 18, 2011
KABUL - Italy, struggling with a debt mountain at home, will lend Afghanistan 137 million euros ($179 million) to renovate and expand an airport in western province Herat, the Afghan president's office said in a statement at the weekend.
Allen on Afghanistan: ‘We’re not leaving
By Tom Vanden Brook - USA Today via Army Times Monday Dec 19, 2011 10:45:38 EST
KABUL, Afghanistan — Top American officials in Afghanistan say the U.S. military intends to maintain a troop presence here beyond a 2014 deadline for Afghan troops to take over.
Taliban claim downing US chopper
Press TV - Mon Dec 19, 10:20 am ET
Taliban militants claim that they have shot down a US-led chopper operated by NATO in war-torn Afghanistan's troubled south.
Eight terrorists detained in western Afghan Herat province
HERAT, Afghanistan, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Personnel of Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) have detained eight terrorists in different parts of western Herat province and recovered explosive materials, provincial department of NDS said on Monday.
Afghanistan paves way for mining
Dec. 19, 2011 at 4:48 PM
KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Afghanistan has indicated it is seeking Australia's involvement in tapping into the Asian country's massive mining potential.
Afghan official: Most Kabul Bank loans recoverable
AP By RAHIM FAIEZ 18/12/2011
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan's new central bank governor expressed confidence Sunday that the government can recover up to 80 percent of the $825 million it cost to bail out the private Kabul Bank.
11 Afghan police kidnapped by militants freed
By RAHIM FAIEZ | AP – Sat, Dec 17, 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan security forces and international troops freed 11 Afghan policemen kidnapped by militants nearly two weeks ago, the Defense Ministry said Saturday.
15 more survivors rescued after ship sinks in Indonesia
JAKARTA, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Rescuers on Monday found 15 other missing migrants after their wooden ship sank in the waters off Trenggalek district of East Java province on Saturday, bringing the total rescued survivor to 48, while more than 200 are still missing, an Indonesian official said.
Back to Top
Afghanistan Raids Will Continue At Night, According To NATO
Associated Press via The Huffington Post
KABUL, Afghanistan — NATO will carry out nighttime kill-and-capture raids against suspected insurgents with increased participation from Afghan special forces, the alliance said Monday, after repeated protests by President Hamid Karzai.
The raids have become a flash point for anger over foreign meddling in Afghanistan and whether detention operations will be run by the Afghans or Americans. Karzai has demanded that foreign troops stop entering homes, saying Afghan citizens cannot feel secure if they think armed soldiers might burst into their houses in the middle of the night.
Karzai's office said in a statement that during a National Security Council meeting late Sunday, the president emphasized the need to prevent civilian casualties, saying the casualties and the night raids on homes "have created serious problems."
Last month, Karzai convened a traditional national assembly known as a Loya Jirga that stopped short of demanding a complete end to night raids. Instead, it asked that they be led and controlled by Afghan security forces.
NATO spokesman Brig. Gen. Carsten Jacobson said that Afghan special forces now take part in nearly all night raids, and their participation is constantly increasing. The raids remain the safest form of operation to take out insurgent leaders, since they account for less than 1 percent of civilian casualties and in 85 percent of cases no shots are fired, he said.
"President Karzai has asked foreign troops to (refrain) from entering Afghan homes and this is exactly where ... 'Afghanization' comes in," Jacobson said, referring to the gradual transfer of responsibility for security to the Afghan army and police. They are due to assume full control in 2014, when foreign forces are set to end their combat role in Afghanistan.
"Speeding up Afghanization is in everybody's interest, (but) we need time to train the special forces," he said.
Adm. William McRaven, who leads the U.S. Special Operations Command, said last week that about 2,800 raids were carried out against insurgent targets over the past year.
Some analysts have questioned the military and political value of the operations, saying that when guerrilla commanders are killed, they are usually replaced by younger and more aggressive fighters less disposed to making any compromise with the government.
The issue also has held up the signing of a security agreement with the U.S. that could keep thousands of American troops here for years beyond the 2014 deadline for most international forces to leave. Remaining American troops would train Afghan forces and assist with counterterrorism operations.
The latest controversy over night raids was sparked by an operation early Saturday on a home in the Ahmadaba district of Paktia province.
The provincial governor condemned what he said was a raid on the home of the local counternarcotics chief. Three men were detained during the operation, including a leader with the Haqqani militant network, which is affiliated with al-Qaida and the Taliban. The coalition said a joint Afghan-NATO force returned gunfire coming from the house.
One woman inside the compound was killed during the operation.
Jacobson said the counter-narcotics chief was released from custody on Sunday.
Separately, Jacobson said that "in recent days" Pakistani officers had been returning to the joint control centers where NATO, Afghanistan and Pakistan share information and coordinate security operations.
A Pakistani army statement later denied this, saying the officers had visited the centers "for consultations only" and then left.
Pakistani liaison officers were withdrawn in November after NATO airstrikes killed 24 Pakistani troops along the border.
Furious over the incident, Islamabad retaliated by cutting the route which NATO uses to transport supplies to its forces in landlocked Afghanistan. It also severed military coordination between the two sides.
Also Monday, two attackers wearing suicide vests were killed when their explosives detonated while they were riding a motorcycle through Dilaram district in western Nimroz province, the Interior Ministry said. There were no other injuries, the statement said.
___
Associated Press writers Rahim Faiez in Kabul and Chris Brummitt in Islamabad, contributed to this report.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Taliban must have clear representative for peace talks, Karzai says
By the CNN Wire Staff Sun December 18, 2011
Kabul (CNN) -- Afghanistan's government can't hold peace talks with its Taliban insurgents until the Islamic militia identifies a representative with the authority to negotiate, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in an interview that aired Sunday.
Karzai told CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" in an exclusive interview that Afghanistan also needs the help of neighboring Pakistan for any talks to succeed.
Karzai said the September assassination of former President Burhanuddin Rabbani, who had attempted to meet with Taliban representatives, showed that "we were actually talking to nobody."
"A man who came in the name of a messenger for peace turned out to be a suicide bomber," Karzai said. "Therefore, we have now clearly said that we will welcome a Taliban address, but that address must have the clarity that this representative is authorized and is representing the Taliban movement as we see it."
Meanwhile, Pakistan's involvement is important "because we all know that the Taliban have their places there," Karzai said. "They operate from there. And a meaningful peace process cannot go well or end in satisfactory results without Pakistan's participation and help."
NATO forces led by the United States have been battling the Taliban and their al Qaeda allies in Afghanistan for a decade, since al Qaeda's 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. A U.S. invasion swiftly deposed the Taliban, which had ruled most of Afghanistan before the attacks, but the fundamentalist Islamic movement regrouped as a guerrilla movement battling allied troops and Karzai's government.
Already-strained ties among Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States were aggravated by a November airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani troops at border posts along the Afghan frontier. Karzai has chafed at American raids that have killed Afghan civilians, while his critics accuse him of overseeing a corrupt administration and a 2010 election that international observers said was riddled with fraud.
Pakistan's president returns from medical treatment
International troops are scheduled to be withdrawn in 2014. Karzai said the allied force has been able to provide political stability for Afghanistan over the past 10 years, but security for individual Afghans "is yet to come."
In an excerpt released Friday, Karzai said a rape victim freed from prison after he intervened on her behalf has the right to make her own choice about whether to marry her attacker.
The woman, identified only as Gulnaz for her own protection, was sentenced to 12 years in prison after she reported that her cousin's husband had raped her. The 21-year-old was freed this week following the president's intervention, and is now staying at a women's shelter in Kabul with the daughter she conceived in the attack and gave birth to in prison.
Afghan law fails to clearly distinguish between rape and adultery, which is a crime under Sharia, or Islamic law. But Karzai said he convened a judicial meeting when he became aware of her case.
"The issue was discussed in detail, and the right inquiries made," he said. "We, on advice from the chief justice and the minister of justice, decided that this was a case, perhaps, of misjudgment and that it has to be resolved, and resolved by giving her a pardon immediately. That's what I did."
The woman's plight attracted international attention when it came out that she had agreed to marry her attacker to gain her freedom and legitimize her daughter.
After the attack two years ago, Gulnaz hid what happened as long as she could because she was afraid of reprisals. But then she began showing signs of pregnancy and at age 19, was found guilty of adultery and sentenced to 12 years in jail.
Despite the pardon, Gulnaz's future remains unclear in a conservative society where her ordeal is considered to have brought shame on her family. She told CNN from prison last month that she was willing to marry her attacker in order to end her incarceration, though she did not want that option.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghanistan appeals for help with reconciliation talks
AFP via Yahoo! News - Dec 19 12:52pm
The Afghan government on Monday appealed for international help to boost talks with the Taliban and other armed opposition groups.
At a UN Security Council debate on the war-torn country, Afghanistan's deputy foreign minister Jawed Ludin stressed the government's determination to pursue reconciliation efforts despite Taliban attacks and assassinations.
"We believe the process may benefit from the establishment of an office, within or outside Afghanistan, whereby formal talks between relevant Afghan authorities and representatives of arm opposition, including the Taliban, could be facilitated," Ludin told the council.
The Taliban recently opened an office in Qatar, which western diplomats said could help moves toward reconciliation talks.
The minister stressed the cooperation needed from Pakistan and other neighboring countries to overcome armed opposition groups.
UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said meanwhile that the UN mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, will remain in the country long after the international military withdrawal scheduled for 2014.
Civil groups in Afghanistan and the international community have called for a "strengthened" UN presence in the country.
Ladsous said there had been a "relative" decline in security incidents in recent months though over the year so far there has been a 21 percent increase in incidents compared to 2010.
The number of attacks in September, October and November is down on last year, Ladsous said, without giving detailed figures.
It was hailed as "good news" but Ladsous added: "We mustn't deceive ourselves. We have witnessed large-scale attacks over the recent weeks. We must continue to exercise great caution and vigilance."
He said there had been nearly 800 civilians deaths in Afghanistan over the past three months.
A Security Council statement released at the end of the meeting welcomed plans for a decade of transformation for Afghanistan that a recent international conference in Bonn said would be launched after the military withdrawal in 2014.
But it stressed that the transition process "entails the assumption of the leadership of the leadership responsibility by the government of Afghanistan." President Hamid Karzai's government has been widely criticized for being corrupt and divided.
Back to Top
Back to Top
More time needed to train Afghan forces: NATO
KABUL, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- A NATO spokesman on Monday said more time was needed to train Afghan Special Forces to carry out unilateral night raid operations on insurgents, while insisting it is the safest form of raids and will continue in the insurgency- hit country.
"Night operations remain the safest form of operations conducted to take the insurgents leaders off the battlefield, and just as reminding, in 85 percent of night operations not a single shot is fired and it do cause less than 1 percent of civilian casualties," spokesman of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson told reporters in a ISAF press briefing here.
He made the comments in the wake of a recent call of Afghan President Hamid Karzai on NATO forces to stop entering Afghan houses and end the night raid operations that often cause civilian deaths.
In the latest raid, a joint unit of Afghan and ISAF forces carried out an operation in Gardez city, the provincial capital of eastern Paktia province on Friday night that left a woman death and four others injured.
"A regular National Security Council meeting held in the presidential palace on Sunday condemned the foreign forces night raid operation on the house of the Paktia's counter-narcotics chief Hafizullah, in which a woman was killed and four others injured," a statement released by Karzai's office said on Sunday.
"President Karzai has asked the foreign troops from straining themselves from entering Afghan houses and this is exactly the process where Afghanization (Afghan forces in lead) sets in," Jacobson said.
The spokesman of over 130,000 ISAF forces also said, "Speeding up Afghanization is in everybody's interest, it is in the interest of ISAF, it is in the interest of Afghanistan and it is in the interest of Afghanistan security forces but we need time to train Afghan Special Forces."
However, without giving the reason of the raid, Jacobson said the Afghan official namely Hafizullah was released on Sunday.
"We are increasing Afghaniztion and there is no night operation without Afghan participation," he added.
"Over the next three years, NATO's role will progressively evolve from combat to training and support," said NATO civilian spokesman Dominic Medley in the same press briefing.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghans negotiating long-term US presence: Karzai
AFP 18/12/2011
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Sunday that his government is negotiating the terms of a long-term US presence in his country that could involve US troops.
The United States is withdrawing 10,000 troops this year, leaving 91,000 on the ground into next year. Another 23,000 are due to leave by the end of September.
That will mark the end of the "surge" ordered by President Barack Obama in late 2009 in a bid to reverse the Taliban insurgency, defeat Al-Qaeda and speed up an end to the war, with some 68,000 US forces left on the ground.
"We are negotiating with the United States towards an enduring partnership," Karzai said on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS."
"That may bring about the presence of some US troops in Afghanistan for the duration of the agreement that we reach, with support to Afghanistan, with training and equipping the Afghan forces."
But he cautioned that troop levels would depend on the specifics of any agreement reached.
The US-led international coalition has "been able to provide in the past 10 years political stability to Afghanistan," Karzai said.
But he stressed that the US and Afghan governments have been unable "to provide the Afghan people with their individual personal security. That is yet to come."
Karzai, interviewed from Kabul, also said he could not hold peace talks with the Taliban unless the insurgents produce a verifiable authorized representative.
The September assassination of Afghan peace negotiator Burhanuddin Rabbani "brought us in a shock to the recognition that we were actually talking to nobody, that those who came in the name of the peace process were assassins, were killers, were terrorists rather than negotiators," he said.
Rabbani was assassinated at home in Kabul by a bomber who hid explosives in his turban, and who had purported to be a peace emissary from the Taliban leadership.
"We have now clearly said that we will welcome a Taliban address, but that address must have the clarity that this representative is authorized and is representing the Taliban movement as we see it," said Karzai.
Neighboring Pakistan has a key role to play because of the insurgents presence there, the president stressed.
"They operate from there. And a meaningful peace process cannot go well or end in satisfactory results without Pakistan's participation and help," he added.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Pakistan restores Afghan border centers in step forward
By Sanjeev Miglani | Reuters
KABUL (Reuters) - Pakistan has restored liaison officers at coordination centers on the Afghanistan border, NATO said on Monday, in a slight easing of tensions, after NATO air strikes last month killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers and provoked fury across the country.
But the U.S.-led coalition's supply lines that run through Pakistan remain closed since the November 26 incident and it is both in the interests of foreign forces as well as Pakistan that the routes be opened sooner rather than later, the alliance said.
Ties between the United States and Pakistan are fraught, with Islamabad blocking the Afghan supply line for one of the longest periods yet. Last week, U.S. lawmakers agreed to freeze $700 million in aid to Pakistan demanding it disrupt the movement of fertilizers used in making homemade bombs, the deadliest killer of foreign troops.
But the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, U.S. General John Allen, had spoken to the Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Kayani and there were signs of progress over the last few days, Brigadier General Carsten Jacobsen, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), told reporters.
"We have seen liaison officers, Pakistani officers, return to border coordination centers, General Allen has spoken to General Kayani, so we are moving in the right direction," he said.
The border control centers were set up to help NATO and Afghan forces and their Pakistani counterparts on the other side of the porous border to coordinate operations against militants and avoid the kind of the incident that occurred last month in which two Pakistan army posts in Mohmand came under NATO fire.
Pakistan said the United States had carried out an unprovoked attack, an accusation rejected by Washington. An investigation has been ordered and Jacobsen declined to go into details of the incident ahead of the results.
But he urged Pakistan to reopen the two supply routes into Afghanistan, which carry just under a third of all cargo for foreign forces fighting in the landlocked nation.
"It is in our interest as well as Pakistan's interests, for economic reasons that they reopen these routes sooner rather than later," he said.
NIGHT RAIDS
Jacobsen also defended the use of night raids on Afghan homes to hunt down insurgents, despite yet another call overnight from Afghan President Hamid Karzai to end the practice, deeply hated by most Afghans.
"Night operations remain the safest form of operations conducted to take insurgents off the battlefield," he said, adding that in 85 percent of such raids not a single shot is fired. The raids have accounted for less than one percent of civilian casualties, he said.
Karzai on Sunday asked NATO not to enter Afghan homes for such operations after a raid in eastern Paktia province in which he said a woman was killed and four people wounded.
Foreign forces fighting in Afghanistan have become more accurate in conducting night-time raids on homes, but they have stepped up the number and scope of the operations so they affect more civilians, a report by the Open Society Foundations and The Liaison Office said in September.
Jacobsen said the way forward was greater involvement of Afghan Special Forces in these raids.
(Additional reporting by Mirwais Harooni; Editing by Daniel Magnowski and Ron Popeski)
Back to Top
Back to Top
Suicide bombers hit Afghan market
AFP via Yahoo! News - Dec 18 11:51pm
Twin suicide bombers on a motorcycle struck an Afghan market in the southern province of Nimroz on Monday, killing themselves but causing no other casualties, officials said.
The interior ministry said the attackers with "suicide-loaded vests" blew up their motorcycle at around 8:50 am (0420 GMT) in the Haji Zahid market of Dilaram district, but that "fortunately nobody was killed or injured".
Government and police officials said there was a nearby police post, but that the target was unclear.
"The attack took place near the Haji Sharif roundabout and a police checkpost was also nearby," Nimroz police chief Abdul Jabar Pordili told AFP.
A spokesman for the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, but gave no further information.
The Islamist militia have led a 10-year insurgency against the Afghan government and 140,000 US-led foreign troops since they were ousted from power in the 2001 US-led invasion.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Italy to lend Afghanistan $179 mln to upgrade airport
Reuters Sun Dec 18, 2011
KABUL - Italy, struggling with a debt mountain at home, will lend Afghanistan 137 million euros ($179 million) to renovate and expand an airport in western province Herat, the Afghan president's office said in a statement at the weekend.
The long-term loan will be used to build a new terminal and runways at the airport in Herat, Afghanistan's third-largest city. The statement did not give any details on the terms of the loan.
"Italy will pay 137 million euros in the form of a long-term loan to expand Herat airport, build a new terminal and runways," the statement said.
Paolo Romani, the Italian economic development ministry's representative for Afghanistan and Iraq, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed the loan in Kabul on Saturday.
($1 = 0.7665 euros) (Reporting by Hamid Shalizi; Writing by Agnieszka Flak; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)
Back to Top
Back to Top
Allen on Afghanistan: ‘We’re not leaving’
By Tom Vanden Brook - USA Today via Army Times Monday Dec 19, 2011 10:45:38 EST
KABUL, Afghanistan — Top American officials in Afghanistan say the U.S. military intends to maintain a troop presence here beyond a 2014 deadline for Afghan troops to take over.
Marine Gen. John Allen, the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said the Taliban and other forces in the region need to know the U.S. military will make sure the Afghans can handle the job.
“If you been waiting for us to go, we’re not leaving,” he said.
NATO forces agreed last year to set a deadline of the end of 2014 for turning over security to Afghan forces and ending combat operations.
The United States has 90,000 troops in Afghanistan. There are more than 30,000 troops from NATO allies.
By the end of the summer of 2012, U.S. forces are slated to drop to about 68,000.
Allen did not say how many American troops would remain or what role they would have beyond training the Afghan air force into 2016.
Among the capabilities Afghanistan’s security forces lack are high-end intelligence gathering and superior counterterrorism techniques.
“This is a work in progress,” Allen said. “The continued work beyond ’14 in terms of development of economic capability and governance will continue. We will also see, probably, a U.S. military capability beyond ’14.”
Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday it was important for the region to know that the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan does not expire in three years. Dempsey said the Taliban can’t think it will prevail by waiting for a U.S. withdrawal, and American fighters need to know their efforts to secure the nation will be safeguarded.
Before 2014, the role of U.S. troops will shift from leading combat missions to advising as Afghan forces become more capable, Allen said.
Dempsey said that whether the military keeps trainers or counterterrorism troops beyond 2014 will be negotiated but that he was “not predicting tens of thousands” of U.S. troops.
U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker stressed that a key to Afghanistan’s stability lies with Pakistan’s. He said Pakistan must go after extremists who use havens on its side of the border to launch attacks in Afghanistan.
“It’s going to be very hard to succeed in Afghanistan if there is not action taken to reduce the safe havens in Pakistan,” Crocker said at his residence here. “Some of our Afghan colleagues use the image of a hornet’s nest. You can whack the hornets here, but the nest is not here.”
Crocker said the U.S. administration has no intention of taking out the safe havens in Pakistan.
“We have means of reaching across the border,” he said. “But the notion of U.S. troops actually moving into Pakistan has never been on the table. … It would be effectively a declaration of war on a country of 170 million people with nuclear weapons. It is not an option.”
Pakistan has cooperated with NATO in the past, but its leaders shut down a border crossing used to supply U.S. troops last month after 24 Pakistani troops were killed by NATO aircraft. NATO said it targeted militants on the Pakistan side of the border after coalition troops in Afghanistan took fire. Pakistan says the attack was unprovoked and has refused to cooperate with a NATO investigation of the incident.
Crocker and Allen said negotiations continue to ease tensions.
“The safe havens are going to play an extraordinarily important role in the end in the success of this conflict,” Crocker said.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Taliban claim downing US chopper
Press TV - Mon Dec 19, 10:20 am ET
Taliban militants claim that they have shot down a US-led chopper operated by NATO in war-torn Afghanistan's troubled south.
According to a spokesman for the militants, the US helicopter was brought down in Zabul Province when it was trying to rescue crew members of another helicopter that had crashed nearby.
The militants also say that a number of US soldiers have also been killed in the incidents.
The report has not yet been confirmed by Afghan or US officials.
The United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 under the pretext of eradicating the Taliban militant group, but its failure has forced Washington to turn to negotiation with militants.
NATO has acknowledged the growing power of militants in Afghanistan despite the presence of nearly 150,000 US-led forces in the country.
The rising death toll of US-led foreign forces in Afghanistan has also prompted growing opposition to the Afghan war in NATO member states and other countries that have contributed troops to the military occupation.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Eight terrorists detained in western Afghan Herat province
HERAT, Afghanistan, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Personnel of Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) have detained eight terrorists in different parts of western Herat province and recovered explosive materials, provincial department of NDS said on Monday.
"Eight terrorists have been detained by NDS during separate operations in Pashtun Zarghun, Guzara districts and Herat city over the past one week," Herat's NDS or intelligence agency said in a press release.
It said the detainees were loyal to Taliban insurgents and had planned to attack security forces and government officials in Herat city and surrounding areas in the province, some 640 km west of the capital city of Kabul.
"The captured terrorist had planned to carry out some five massive attacks on security forces and high-ranking officials in Herat but their vicious attacks have been thwarted by determined NDS workforce," it said, adding a handful of powerful explosives including suicide vests were found and seized by NDS.
The Taliban insurgents, who launched in May this year a rebel offensive against Afghan and NATO forces, have yet to make comments.
Herat city was among seven areas where Afghan security forces took security responsibilities from NATO forces in July this year, in the first part of a security transition process which will run to 2014 when Afghanistan will take over the full leadership of its own security duties from the United States and the NATO forces.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghanistan paves way for mining
Dec. 19, 2011 at 4:48 PM
KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Afghanistan has indicated it is seeking Australia's involvement in tapping into the Asian country's massive mining potential.
In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Afghanistan's ambassador to Australia Nasir Andisha said he's planning exploratory meetings to check "if there is a possibility of getting major companies interested," mentioning Australian mining giants BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and "others."
That follows advertising placed by the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in major Australian newspapers earlier this month for "expressions of interest" as Kabul formerly opened a tender process for four large copper and gold concessions.
U.S. defense officials estimated in 2010 that there could be as much as $1 trillion worth of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and lithium in Afghanistan.
Afghan President Hamid Karzi, speaking this month at an international conference in Germany regarding the future of Afghanistan, said his government is working hard to exploit its mineral resources for "long-term growth and prosperity."
Afghanistan Minister of Mines Wahidullah Shahrani predicts that mining would account for 25 percent of Afghanistan's gross domestic product by 2016 and 45 percent by 2024.
Downplaying concerns of violence in the country, Shahrani told The Australian newspaper, "Most of these deposits are located in relatively secure areas of the country, and Afghanistan has committed to provide the necessary security."
He added that the tender process would be carried out in a "very clean and transparent way."
Also up for tender, says Shahrani: "a huge oil basin" in March 2012 followed by "a big gas field on the border of Turkmenistan" and "another huge iron ore deposit" near Hajigak, the Financial Times reports.
"These tenders will help us move forward toward self-sufficiency," the minister said. "We know what the contribution of oil, gas, and minerals should be to our GDP, given that we are a country heavily dependent on international aid, which is not sustainable."
Last month, a consortium of Indian mining companies secured rights to Afghanistan's massive Hajigak iron ore deposit and in 2007 state-backed Chinese Metallurgical Group Corp. won the rights to one of the largest copper deposits, at Mes Aynak, near Kabul.
Even at this early stage, Kabul's manner of awarding mining rights is being questioned.
Alexander Benard, managing director of Washington investment advisory firm Gryphon Capital Partners, said that China had been well positioned to win the Mes Aynak tender because with state backing it could offer much higher mining royalties.
But Andisha, the Afghan ambassador, maintains that Kabul has "a policy of balance" and aims to attract investors from all over the world.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan official: Most Kabul Bank loans recoverable
AP By RAHIM FAIEZ 18/12/2011
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan's new central bank governor expressed confidence Sunday that the government can recover up to 80 percent of the $825 million it cost to bail out the private Kabul Bank.
The near-collapse last year of Kabul Bank, once the nation's largest private lender, created economic and political turmoil, prompted the freezing of some international aid and became a symbol of the country's deep-rooted corruption.
According to the International Monetary Fund, Kabul Bank operated like a "Ponzi scheme" that resulted in fraud on a massive scale. The case has been closely followed by international donors because it is seen as a test of government officials' pledge to root out patronage and graft and to show accountability to world financial institutions such as the IMF.
Last month, the IMF approved a three-year $133.6 million loan for Afghanistan because it found the government had taken steps to address governance and accountability issues that surfaced during the Kabul Bank crisis. The decision reassured international donors, many whom had withheld aid while waiting for the IMF decision.
Since the crisis, Kabul Bank has been split into two parts —a healthy one being run by the Afghan Finance Ministry, and another which is has taken over hundreds of millions of dollars in bad loans. The Afghan government hopes to put the healthy bank up for sale in the middle of next year.
Central bank chief Noorullah Delawari said 80 percent of the $825 million has been identified as receivable, and the bank hopes to get 20 percent back in the near term, and 60 percent in one to five years. It was still working to identify 20 percent of the funds — or about $152 million — still missing.
"A total of $825 million has been paid so far by the central bank and the government to Kabul Bank. Of that, $80 million has been received from the loans which were given by the Kabul Bank to individuals, almost 20 percent is going to come back in the near future and that is from properties mostly in Dubai and in Kabul," Delawari said.
He added that a delegation would travel to Dubai in coming days for meetings with officials there to find properties owned by those who took loans. Those properties would then be seized and sold.
Back to Top
Back to Top
11 Afghan police kidnapped by militants freed
By RAHIM FAIEZ | AP – Sat, Dec 17, 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan security forces and international troops freed 11 Afghan policemen kidnapped by militants nearly two weeks ago, the Defense Ministry said Saturday.
Militants abducted the Afghan policemen Dec. 5 during an ambush in Wardooj district of Badakhshan province. Two policemen were killed and four others wounded during the kidnapping, said Sayed Hussain Safawi, deputy provincial police chief.
Afghan border police and international troops rescued the policemen on Friday after local elders' attempts to mediate their release failed. About two dozen suspected insurgents were arrested during the rescue.
Separately, in the east, the U.S.-led coalition and local Afghan officials have released differing accounts of a raid on a home around 1 a.m. Saturday in Ahmadaba district of Paktia province.
The governor of Paktia province condemned what he said was a raid on the home of the Afghan government's counternarcotics chief in the province, the governor's spokesman, Rohullah Samon, said. He said local authorities, who believe the counternarcotics chief has not committed any crime, have contacted the coalition about getting him released.
After international troops exchanged gunfire with guards at the house, they detained the counternarcotics chief and two of his sons, he said. An Afghan woman and another member of the counternarcotics chief's family were killed and three other women were injured, Samon said.
The coalition said the three men detained included a leader with the Haqqani militant network, which is affiliated with al-Qaida and the Taliban. Two AK-47 assault rifles, a bolt-action rifle, ammunition and a grenade were confiscated from the compound.
A joint Afghan-NATO force returned gunfire coming from the house, the coalition said. After the shooting stopped, they called for those inside to come out.
Two Afghan women inside were wounded and evacuated to a medical facility and one later died of a gunshot wound, the coalition said.
Back to Top
Back to Top
15 more survivors rescued after ship sinks in Indonesia
JAKARTA, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Rescuers on Monday found 15 other missing migrants after their wooden ship sank in the waters off Trenggalek district of East Java province on Saturday, bringing the total rescued survivor to 48, while more than 200 are still missing, an Indonesian official said.
The ship was carrying 250 asylum seekers, most of whom from the Middle East including Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq, according to a statement from the search and rescue office in east Java province.
Head of the provincial Search and Rescue Office named only Sutrisno said rescuers from Australia also joined Indonesian rescuers, comprising those from the navy, marine police and volunteers, to search for the missing asylum seekers.
"Fifteen other survivors were found today, 13 of whom were on waters off Jember and the rest at waters off Malang (of the province). Their conditions are very weak. Now they are heading onshore. We will bring them soon to the nearby hospitals when they arrived on the coast," he told Xinhua by phone from the province.
The searching on Monday involved two small planes, two helicopters, six ships, and hundreds of rescuers from both Indonesia and Australia.
"Australia rescuers also join today's (Monday) search and rescue, they come with two planes and one ship," said Sutrisno.
The search and rescue might be temporarily ended on Monday evening and will be resumed on Tuesday, he said.
According to the office, the rescue operation is going to last up to the seventh day of the accident as stipulated by the Indonesian law.
The ship sank at about 40 nautical miles from TPI Prigi beach of Trenggalek district at about 9:00 a.m. Jakarta time (0200 GMT) on Saturday and the victims were first found by sailors at about 15:00 p.m. Jakarta time (0800 GMT) in the day, a rescuer at the office named Brian Gautama has said.
The rescuer quoted a survivor as saying that the ship was carrying a batch of immigrants and heading to Christmas island of Australia for a better life.
Indonesia has been a favorable transit points for illegal immigrants from the Middle East heading to Australia. But fatal sea accidents take place frequently, as the immigrants always embark on the journey with inadequate safety standard, while facing huge waves on the ocean.
Indonesia has already set up cooperation with Australia to address the issue of illegal immigrants.
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).