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Pakistan: Mortars From Afghanistan Kill Pakistani Soldiers
VOA News July 19, 2011
Pakistani officials say mortars fired from Afghanistan have hit a paramilitary post in Pakistan's tribal region, killing four soldiers.
Pak-Afghan Interior Ministers meet at Kabul
Associated Press of Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Jul 19 (APP): Interior Minister Rehman Malik met his Afghan counterpart, General Bismillah Muhammadi, at Kabul and discussed issues of mutual interest, security and bilateral relations. The two sides also discussed installation of Biometrics System at Pak-Afghan Border, incursion of Taliban through Afghanistan and launching attacks on Pakistani security forces, said a message received here on Tuesday.
As Generals Change in Afghan War, Violence Flares
New York Times By JACK HEALY July 18, 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan - Gen. David H. Petraeus handed over command of the Afghan war on Monday, leaving behind a country racked by deep political instability whose fledgling security forces are fighting a weakened but deadly insurgency that kills coalition troops and Afghan civilians and officials nearly every day.
Karzai Aide Assassins Had Contacts with Pakistan: Interior Minister
Tolo news July 19, 2011
Assassins of a close advisor to President Hamid Karzai were having phone contacts with some inside the country and Pakistan, Interior Minister to parliament on Tuesday.
The wave of Afghan assassinations underscores a complicated security situation
A reporter struggles to figure out what the murder of two sources says about the state of the Afghanistan war.
Christian Science Monitor By Tom A. Peter, Correspondent July 18, 2011
Kabul, Afghanistan - Afghanistan has always seemed to be a difficult country to read, but as the NATO has begun looking to exit, ever more divergent narratives are emerging. As a firsthand observer to it all, I'm often asked which narrative to believe. Is or isn't Afghanistan ready for drawdown?
Afghan Policeman Poisons, Shoots Dead Seven Fellow Officers
July 19, 2011 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
An Afghan official says that a policeman in southern Afghanistan has killed seven of his fellow officers -- first poisoning them and then shooting them.
Iran, Afghan Customs Sign Cooperation Agreement
Tolo news July 19, 2011
Afghanistan and Iran's customs departments on Tuesday signed a cooperation agreement to help resolve trade transit challenges between the two nations.
As Leadership Changes, So Could Afghanistan Strategy
NPR By Rachel Martin July 18, 2011
Gen. David Petraeus stepped down as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan on Monday and handed control of the war over to Marine Corps Gen. John Allen. Petraeus is leaving to become head of the CIA at the end of the summer.
In laid-back Herat, fear that the calm will not last
The Globe and Mail Susan Sachs Monday, Jul. 18, 2011
HERAT, AFGHANISTAN - In the warm evenings, when city-dwellers elsewhere in the country have rushed home to safety or retreated behind concrete blast walls, families dine under the stars in this ancient city’s hilltop restaurants. Men lounge on cushion-covered platforms late into the night, puffing out wisps of apple-flavoured smoke through burbling water pipes.
Afghan gov't takes over security responsibility in E town
LALALABAD, Afghanistan, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Afghan government took over security charge from NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Mehterlam city the capital of Laghman province 90 km east of capital city Kabul on Tuesday, an official said.
Taliban Video Shows Police Being Executed In Pakistan
July 18, 2011 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The Taliban has released a video that appears to show militants executing 16 Pakistani tribal policemen who reportedly were captured during a cross-border raid from Afghanistan earlier this summer.
Afghan conspiracy theories as US drawdown begins
By Sardar Ahmad (AFP) – July 19, 2011
KABUL — As NATO troops begin to pull out of Afghanistan, conspiracy theories abound among locals suspicious of what they believe are the foreign coalition's real plans and ulterior motives.
Wanted: Afghan butcher class for US special forces
(AFP) – July 18, 2011
WASHINGTON — US special forces in Afghanistan are known for taking out militants in stealthy night raids but commanders now want them to learn how to butcher meat and cook "authentic" meals for village elders.
U.S. Promotes New Plan To Battle Drug Trade In Afghanistan, Central Asia, Russia
July 19, 2011 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty By Richard Solash
WASHINGTON -- Counternarcotics officials in Washington have unveiled a plan to help combat the flow of drugs from Afghanistan, through Central Asia, and into Russia -- and in doing so, ease fears that the impending withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan could play into the hands of drug traffickers.
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Pakistan: Mortars From Afghanistan Kill Pakistani Soldiers
VOA News July 19, 2011
Pakistani officials say mortars fired from Afghanistan have hit a paramilitary post in Pakistan's tribal region, killing four soldiers.
The latest incident of cross-border violence occurred Tuesday in the Angoor Adda area of South Waziristan.
Local security officials say at least two other paramilitary soldiers were wounded. Afghan officials did not immediately comment on the report.
Tensions along the Afghan-Pakistani border have risen in recent weeks.
Pakistan says militants allegedly coming from Afghan bases have killed more than 55 soldiers in recent attacks. Pakistan has protested the cross-border attacks and called on Afghan and NATO forces do more to crack down on insurgents.
Afghanistan accuses Pakistan of intentionally firing hundreds of rockets into its territory, killing at least 36 Afghan civilians. Pakistan says its security forces may have fired a few accidental rounds into Afghanistan while pursuing militants.
Taliban and al-Qaida-linked militants have save havens on both sides of the porous Afghan-Pakistani border.
On Tuesday, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari traveled to Kabul and offered condolences to Afghan President Hamid Karzai on the recent assassination of his half-brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai.
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Pak-Afghan Interior Ministers meet at Kabul
Associated Press of Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Jul 19 (APP): Interior Minister Rehman Malik met his Afghan counterpart, General Bismillah Muhammadi, at Kabul and discussed issues of mutual interest, security and bilateral relations. The two sides also discussed installation of Biometrics System at Pak-Afghan Border, incursion of Taliban through Afghanistan and launching attacks on Pakistani security forces, said a message received here on Tuesday.
Malik said Pakistan wants peace in Afghanistan, which would guarantee progress and prosperity in the all countries of the region.
He said Pakistan values its relation with Afghanistan.
Another meeting between Interior Ministers of Pakistan and Afghanistan will soon take place in which both sides share views on installation of Biometrics System at the border.
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As Generals Change in Afghan War, Violence Flares
New York Times By JACK HEALY July 18, 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan - Gen. David H. Petraeus handed over command of the Afghan war on Monday, leaving behind a country racked by deep political instability whose fledgling security forces are fighting a weakened but deadly insurgency that kills coalition troops and Afghan civilians and officials nearly every day.
His successor, Gen. John R. Allen, will confront those challenges — and many more — as he guides NATO-led forces through the handoff of security control to Afghan forces by the end of 2014 — a process that is still in its earliest stages.
“There will be tough days ahead,” General Allen said in prepared remarks, which he delivered at a ceremony at the headquarters of the International Security Assistance Force here, “and I have no illusions about the challenges we will face together.”
His first day in command offered a grim snapshot of those difficulties. Three NATO soldiers were killed on Monday by a bomb in eastern Afghanistan, and another died in the south, NATO forces said in statements.
Elsewhere in Kabul, Afghan officials gathered at the presidential palace to pay tribute to the second powerful political figure to be assassinated in less than a week. The politician, Jan Mohammed Khan, was a former governor from the south and a close ally of the president. He was gunned down at his home on Sunday night.
To gain entry, the two killers pretended to be members of Mr. Khan’s tribe who were seeking his assistance as a tribal elder, Afghan officials said Monday. Mr. Khan gave one of the men 3,000 Afghanis — about $60 — before they began shooting, the officials said. A member of Parliament was also killed in the attack.
The two gunmen in turn were killed by Afghan security forces, though one of them held the police off for nearly eight hours. The police finally set off a bomb in the room inside Mr. Khan’s home where the gunman had taken refuge.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, as they did for the assassination last Tuesday of President Hamid Karzai’s powerful half brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, who was shot dead by a close associate.
On Monday, a Karzai spokesman lionized both of the slain men as national heroes, dismissing as defamation the widespread criticism of both men’s unsavory alliances and suspected ties to the drug trade. The spokesman, Waheed Omer, said their deaths were part of a concerted attempt to disrupt Afghanistan’s security.
“The enemy is trying to remove these personalities,” he said. “They want to remove them in a very systematic manner.”
At the handover ceremony, General Petraeus offered similar warnings about the dedication of the insurgents, whom he said were willing to carry out “barbaric” and indiscriminate attacks against civilians.
Indeed, the United Nations recently said that civilian casualties in the last six months had risen sharply compared with the same period a year ago. It blamed antigovernment forces like the Taliban for 80 percent of the killings .
“We should be clear-eyed about the challenges that lie ahead,” General Petraeus said, adding later, “There is nothing easy about such a fight.”
Still, as General Petraeus prepared to depart for Washington to become the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency, his overall assessment was hopeful.
He said Afghan and NATO troops had pushed back Taliban fighters in their southern strongholds of Helmand and Kandahar Provinces. And he said there were fewer insurgent attacks on security forces in the last two and a half months than in the same period in 2010, “even though there are over 80,000 more Afghan and I.S.A.F. forces this year, and we have been on the offensive.”
He also cited as signs of progress the transition of seven cities and provinces to Afghan-led security. The central province of Bamiyan — home to the ancient Buddha statues that were destroyed by the Taliban a decade ago — was handed over on Sunday, and officials said that more areas would begin the formal transition this week.
But violence flared Monday just outside the next city on the list, Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province in the south. Daoud Ahmadi, spokesman for the Helmand governor, said that seven police officers had been shot to death at a checkpoint east of the city after somehow having been poisoned, and that their weapons and vehicles had been stolen. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack.
Most of the seven areas included in the first round of transitions are relatively stable, or have handled their own security for years with little help from NATO forces. Afghan officials in Kabul and some of the seven areas have acknowledged that the change will be more symbolic than substantive, at least in the short term.
In Kandahar Province, the police chief of the Registan district was killed along with three bodyguards when a homemade bomb detonated under their vehicle as they were driving to the Shorabak district. Three more bodyguards were wounded, said Sher Shah Yousufzai, the chief of security for Kandahar Province.
The device appeared to have been freshly planted, Mr. Yousufzai said. The police, even more than the army, have been insurgent targets in part because their vehicles are not armored, but also because they often work in remote and dangerous areas.
And in the western province of Farah, four people from a mountainous village called Toot were found beheaded Monday, a week after being kidnapped by the Taliban. Their deaths appeared to be a grisly reprisal for the killing of three Taliban fighters a few weeks earlier in a firefight with a local security commander, said Mohammed Ghous Malyar, the province’s acting police chief.
Alissa J. Rubin, Abdul Waheed Wafa and Sangar Rahimi contributed reporting.
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Karzai Aide Assassins Had Contacts with Pakistan: Interior Minister
Tolo news July 19, 2011
Assassins of a close advisor to President Hamid Karzai were having phone contacts with some inside the country and Pakistan, Interior Minister to parliament on Tuesday.
Interior Minister General Besmellah Mohammadi said insurgents are making efforts to kill high-ranking and influential officials.
On Tuesday Interior Ministry and Deputy Director of Intelligence organisation were called over to the House of Representatives to provide answers about the latest killings of senior Afghan officials, including Jan Mohammad Khan, a close aide of Karzai and Mohammad Hashim Watanwal, an MP who represented Oruzgan in the house.
Jan Mohammad Khan was shot dead by Dost Mohammad Khan an assailant who was 22- year-old and at the same time Mohammad Hashim Watanwal was killed by another attacker, General Besmellah Mohammadi said.
"We have obtained their cell phones and the last calls they received were from Pakistan and some other provinces inside the country," Interior Ministers told MPs.
Jan Mohammad Khan and Mr Watanwal were killed a late-night insurgent attack on his home on Sunday this week.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
The deaths came more than a week after President Karzai's brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, assassination by one of his bodyguards at his home.
On Monday President Karzai's Spokesperson told a news conference that targeted and serial killings of high-profile Afghan officials wouldn't go without revenge.
Some lawmakers also expressed concern about increasingly growing province at a time as Afghan security forces have begun to take security lead in some of the handover regions.
"The incident has caused widespread concern among the parliamentarians," Speaker of the House Abdul Raouf Ibrahimi said.
Some MPs representing Bamyan, the province now under the lead of Afghan security forces, voiced concern about possible security threats.
Fakour Beheshti, an MP representing Bamyan province, said: "There are 800 Afghan forces stationed in Bamyan. It should be doubled. Bamyan is one of the stable areas in Afghanistan and has occasionally been vulnerable from Baghlan province."
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The wave of Afghan assassinations underscores a complicated security situation
A reporter struggles to figure out what the murder of two sources says about the state of the Afghanistan war.
Christian Science Monitor By Tom A. Peter, Correspondent July 18, 2011
Kabul, Afghanistan - Afghanistan has always seemed to be a difficult country to read, but as the NATO has begun looking to exit, ever more divergent narratives are emerging. As a firsthand observer to it all, I'm often asked which narrative to believe. Is or isn't Afghanistan ready for drawdown?
The best answer I can come up with? It’s complicated.
Last night, Hashim Watanwal, a member of parliament from Uruzgan province was killed while visiting Jan Mohammed Khan, a senior adviser to President Hamid Karzai and major power-broker here. Two suicide bombers entered Mr. Khan’s house in an a presumably secure neighborhood of Kabul and killed the two men.
While I’d never met Mr. Watanwal in person, I’d talked to him several times over the phone, most recently on Thursday, and he proved a helpful and friendly source. He’s also the second person I’ve talked to in recent months who has been killed within days of speaking with me: The other was Gen. Khan Mohammad Mujahid, police chief for Kandahar Province.
Though Watanwal and General Mujahid held different opinions about where the country was headed shortly before their deaths – Watanwal was cynical and Mujahid said he’d seen major improvements – their murders inside secure compounds stand as a stark reminder of how unstable Afghanistan remains.
About 12 hours after Watanwal and Khan’s assassination, I attended US Army Gen. David Petraeus’s change of command ceremony. For anyone who follows Afghanistan, the speakers’ remarks may have been predictable. They spent a lot of time elaborating the successes of international and Afghan security forces. And then ceded that the gains were fragile and reversible, as NATO commanders tend to say.
For firsthand observers to the conflict, it’s often easy to poke fun at NATO’s seemingly indefatigable public optimism in the face of incidents like Sunday night's assassination, however, it’s also sometimes difficult to know who is right.
Just a few days before Mujahid was killed inside the police headquarters in Kandahar this past April, I sat in his office drinking tea and chatting about the security situation. Later in the afternoon, I planned to drive into the Arghandab district, an area that just a year before was home to some of the most brutal fighting in the country. I made the trip without any problems.
“I am hopeful that we will have a safe and secure environment in our city,” he told me, somewhat annoyed that I continued to press him with concerns that the situation might not be as good as it seemed. “We have destroyed and eradicated [militants’] safe havens, so they don’t have bases to plan their attacks and operations.”
A few days later, a man dressed in an Afghan police uniform approached Mujahid, hugged him, and detonated a suicide bomb in the courtyard of the police station.
Does that mean everything he said about security improvements in the south of Afghanistan was wrong? Again, it’s complicated. There are definite gains, but the region still has a long way to go before the chief of police won’t have to worry about being killed by one of his own men or someone dressed like one of his own men.
When it comes to consuming the news about Afghanistan, the best advice I can give readers hoping to make sense of the situation, is to take nothing at face value. It’s always more complicated than it seems, no matter how earnest the convictions or who they're coming from.
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Afghan Policeman Poisons, Shoots Dead Seven Fellow Officers
July 19, 2011 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
An Afghan official says that a policeman in southern Afghanistan has killed seven of his fellow officers -- first poisoning them and then shooting them.
The killings took place at a checkpoint in Lashkar Gah, the capital of the southern Helmand Province.
Daud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said the killer fled after stealing ammunition.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said the victims were killed by a Taliban sleeper agent.
Lashkar Gah is one of seven areas where foreign troops are to hand over security responsibility to their Afghan counterparts this week.
In neighboring Kandahar Province, gunmen killed a local tribal leader overnight.
NATO officials have claimed gains in southern provinces in the past year, but insurgent attacks have increased in recent weeks.
Last week, President Hamid Karzai's half-brother was shot dead by one of his bodyguards.
compiled from agency reports
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Iran, Afghan Customs Sign Cooperation Agreement
Tolo news July 19, 2011
Afghanistan and Iran's customs departments on Tuesday signed a cooperation agreement to help resolve trade transit challenges between the two nations.
Afghan General Customs Department which operates under finance ministry said based on the agreement border gates between Iran and Afghanistan will be open from 6:30 am to 6:30 pm and trucks could cross in and out without any stop.
Iranian Director for International Customs Ties emphasised on resolution of possible transit problems facing traders from both nations.
Delegations from Iran and Afghanistan get together in the border city of Islam Qala in western Herat province and signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on trade transit cooperation on which customs of the two nations will be closed for three days in the whole year, officials said.
"We have stepped up this measure to lessen off days in customs services to help accelerate trade transit incomes for our traders,"
Iranian Director for International Customs Ties, Bagh Enayat, said.
General Chief of Afghan Customs Department said: "We have agreed that when there is a transit problem, customs departments of the two nations should jointly begin to resolve it."
Delegations of Iran and Afghanistan also reached a consensus to share reports of any illegal cross-border activity between the two sides.
Iran has been accused of supplying explosives and arms to insurgents to fight international forces in Afghanistan.
But officials in Tehran constantly deny the allegations.
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As Leadership Changes, So Could Afghanistan Strategy
NPR By Rachel Martin July 18, 2011
Gen. David Petraeus stepped down as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan on Monday and handed control of the war over to Marine Corps Gen. John Allen. Petraeus is leaving to become head of the CIA at the end of the summer.
A year ago, President Obama asked Petraeus to take charge in Afghanistan and jump-start the counterinsurgency operation there. Now, there's a question of whether Monday's change in command also signals a change in strategy.
The Counterinsurgency Strategy
When asked earlier this month about the chances for success in Afghanistan, Petraeus said what he has been saying since his first day on the job: "We believe this is doable," Petraeus said. "This is hard, but doable."
At the same time, Petraeus, who helped write the counterinsurgency strategy, left room for doubt about what it can achieve.
"There has been progress over the course of the last year in particular. And what we are intent on doing is building on that progress, so that by the end of 2014, Afghan forces will be in the lead," he said. "And that's what we're intent on doing, but I don't issue guarantees."
The gist of the counterinsurgency strategy is this: protect the Afghan population, win their support for the Afghan national government and build up Afghan security forces.
Making that happen costs a lot of money. The U.S. is spending roughly $10 billion a month in Afghanistan. It also requires a lot of boots on the ground: at the height of the surge, roughly 100,000 U.S. troops.
For all that, results have been hard to measure.
A Counterterrorism Option
There is an alternative strategy out there: Just go after the terrorists. The best example of that is the special operations raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, talking with troops in Afghanistan last week, didn't say his No. 1 priority is building a stable Afghanistan or defeating the Taliban — he said it's fighting al-Qaida.
"One of my proudest moments was the ability as CIA director to work with special forces in the plan to go after bin Laden. That was a major blow to al-Qaida," Panetta said. "And every time you go out after targets [in Afghanistan], you add to the effort to dismantle and disrupt al-Qaida and their militant allies."
Analysts say Obama's decision to start drawing down forces in Afghanistan could be the start of a shift in strategy: less emphasis on fixing Afghanistan (the counterinsurgency strategy) and more emphasis on taking out insurgents with targeted raids and drone strikes (the counterterrorism strategy).
Which Method Works?
Not everyone welcomes such a shift.
"The bin Laden raid, important as it was, was designed to remove one person from the battlefield," says John Nagl, the president of the Center for a New American Security.
"It's really, really hard taking people off the battlefield. It's necessary but it's not sufficient to accomplish your objective, if that objective is to leave behind a stable society," he says.
Nagl says a move toward a counterterrorism strategy in Afghanistan is a short-term fix.
"It has no end state," he says. "Whatever caused those insurgents to rise in the first place is likely to continue to create more of them."
Nagl says the U.S. has only committed the right resources to the counterinsurgency strategy in this past year, and success will take more time. But he admits that even then, the outcome is murky.
"There is no guarantee that even if we follow this strategy, that if we work hard to build better Afghan governance, better Afghan security forces, that insurgents cannot again find a base inside Afghanistan, but we make it less likely," he says.
The question is which strategy works in Afghanistan now: counterinsurgency or counterterrorism. Petreaus will still have a say in the matter, although from a different vantage point.
The architect of the counterinsurgency strategy is set to take charge at the CIA, where he'll head the counterterrorism fight against al-Qaida.
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In laid-back Herat, fear that the calm will not last
The Globe and Mail Susan Sachs Monday, Jul. 18, 2011
HERAT, AFGHANISTAN - In the warm evenings, when city-dwellers elsewhere in the country have rushed home to safety or retreated behind concrete blast walls, families dine under the stars in this ancient city’s hilltop restaurants. Men lounge on cushion-covered platforms late into the night, puffing out wisps of apple-flavoured smoke through burbling water pipes.
This week, lead responsibility for security in seven cities and provinces is officially being transferred from foreign troops to Afghan forces. Herat’s turn comes on Thursday. Like the other showcase areas, it has effectively been policing itself for some time with only occasional help from NATO troops. The eventual hope is that Afghan police and soldiers will manage on their own by 2014, when foreign troops leave. But the start of the transition process underscores how subjective the topic of security can be.
As insurgent violence has spread to other parts of the country and intensified in southern provinces such as Kandahar, a growing number of people are moving their families to Herat because they see it as an island of safety. At the same time, long-time residents fret that they have too few police and too few soldiers to deal with the threat of Taliban attacks from districts surrounding Herat.
“It’s the psychological insecurity that is making people crazy,” said Sayed Wahid Qatali, a provincial council member and scion of one of the city’s richest families. “It’s that they don’t know what will really happen.”
For centuries a bustling trade hub, Herat has so far largely escaped the kind of violence that has hit other parts of the country in the form of the Taliban-ordered assassinations, suicide attacks and roadside bombs that kill and maim dozens of Afghan civilians each week. But there are clear signs that the insurgent group intends to target those areas that have been considered fairly safe.
Last month, for example, the Taliban kidnapped and beheaded the provincial council chairman of usually peaceful Bamiyan province, which formally shifted to the control of Afghan security forces on Sunday. Kabul, another transition city, has been hit with monthly suicide attacks on public buildings.
While the Taliban are known to operate in rural districts of Herat province, the city had its first full-scale insurgent assault in late October when suicide bombers and gunmen attacked a United Nations compound. At the end of May, a car bomb exploded in front of the Provincial Reconstruction Team headquarters, the Italian-led base for NATO civilian and military aid programs. A second bomb hit a shopping area and cinema. Seven people were killed.
For Mr. Qatali, the blasts were just the public manifestation of the threat he has been feeling for months.
Among its many other businesses, his family has a security company that guards construction crews on a highway outside the city and regularly escorts NATO fuel trucks. The Taliban have pledged to murder anyone working with foreigners. Mr. Qatali, who fears the transition will only embolden the insurgents, said he gets several specific threats each week.
“Maybe nine of the 10 are not real, but maybe one will be real,” he said. “I can tell you that these days anyone who has the financial means hires bodyguards even to take his child to the kindergarten.”
Yet security is a relative term and, especially in Herat, a highly subjective one.
Maroof Komaki, a 22-year-old university student, said he has never felt as safe as he feels living in Herat. A native of Kandahar, he uprooted his mother and two siblings and brought them to the city recently to get away from Taliban threats.
“A huge number of people are coming here from Kandahar,” Mr. Komaki said. “I know 10 or 15 families that have moved their lives and everything to Herat.”
In southern Afghanistan, he got death threats from his own relatives in the Taliban who vowed to kill him because he worked with foreigners.
He has no job yet in Herat and is living off his savings. “But here I can tell people I used to work for the UN and there’s no problem,” he said. “There I risked getting killed.”
On the outskirts of Herat, in a shantytown of mud and concrete hovels, several dozen farming families from the province just to the north have also found refuge.
“The Taliban would come and fire from our area, and then the foreigners come in and bomb us with air strikes,” said Lahoor, an elderly white-bearded man who fled to Herat for safety.
The city, to him and his neighbours, is an oasis of peace, even if Taliban violence sometimes intrudes. They said they are caught between the government and NATO forces on one side and the insurgents on the other.
“The problem is the government wants people to join the arbaki, and if you don’t join, they threaten to arrest you for being with the Taliban,” said Ghulam Rasool, referring to the neighbourhood militias that NATO and Afghan commanders are arming in rural areas to fight insurgents. “And the Taliban threatens to kill you if you don’t join with them.”
The province of Herat has more than 10,000 Afghan police officers and army troops, according to Noor Khan Nikzad, a spokesman for the provincial police chief. But many people here say it needs many more to consolidate security during the transition to Afghan control.
The Afghan central government does not seem to see it that way, said Daud Shah Sabah, the provincial governor. Three weeks ago, a group of Herat-based police officers were abruptly transferred to the restive southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar.
A U.S.-trained engineer, Mr. Sabah is worried enough about the Taliban’s threats to kill government officials that he has not brought his family to Afghanistan from the United States. “The surrounding districts of the city are still relatively safe,” he said. “But the chance of infiltration is there. Five people with bombs can still do a lot of damage.”
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Afghan gov't takes over security responsibility in E town
LALALABAD, Afghanistan, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Afghan government took over security charge from NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Mehterlam city the capital of Laghman province 90 km east of capital city Kabul on Tuesday, an official said.
"Afghan security forces formally took over the security responsibility from NATO-led ISAF troops in Mehterlam city this morning," spokesman for Laghman's provincial administration Faizanullah Patan told Xinhua.
Soldiers from United States of America have been stationed in Mehterlam city, he further added.
However, he did not say when the transition process in Laghman province would be completed, adding ISAF forces would gradually hand over the security responsibility to Afghan forces there.
He also stated that the handing over ceremony attended by Afghan and NATO officials was over peacefully and no security incident has been reported.
Mehterlam is the second Afghan city after Bamyan, whose security charge has been transferred to Afghan security forces.
The process of transferring security from over 140,000-strong NATO-led troops to Afghan forces, began this month and would be completed by the end of 2014.
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Taliban Video Shows Police Being Executed In Pakistan
July 18, 2011 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The Taliban has released a video that appears to show militants executing 16 Pakistani tribal policemen who reportedly were captured during a cross-border raid from Afghanistan earlier this summer.
The video shows the policemen being shot dead after being lined up on a hillside with their hands tied behind their backs. The video includes a note saying the policemen were captured on June 1, when hundreds of Taliban raided Pakistan's northwest Dir district from the eastern Afghan province of Kunar.
Pakistan army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas confirmed the contents of the video. He said the Taliban fighters who executed the policemen came from the Swat Valley.
Meanwhile, NATO said three of its soldiers were killed in the same part of eastern Afghanistan by a roadside bomb on July 18. The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) did not disclose the nationalities of the soldiers.
compiled from agency reports
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Afghan conspiracy theories as US drawdown begins
By Sardar Ahmad (AFP) – July 19, 2011
KABUL — As NATO troops begin to pull out of Afghanistan, conspiracy theories abound among locals suspicious of what they believe are the foreign coalition's real plans and ulterior motives.
News that a first batch of 650 American troops left last week made a splash and was broadcast by the dozen or so local television stations that have sprouted since the 2001 US-led invasion brought down the Taliban.
But some Afghans believe that the public departure of American troops in a withdrawal process due to end combat missions by the end of 2014 is merely a front.
"The Americans will never leave Afghanistan," said Mohammad Ali, a 36-year-old shopkeeper in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, one of seven areas due to move to Afghan security control this week.
"They are withdrawing a few thousand of their soldiers as a cover for their long-term plans... They have invested a long time in Afghanistan and will not leave that easily."
NATO says all foreign combat troops will leave by 2015, handing control to Afghan security forces in a process that began this week, as President Hamid Karzai urges the Taliban to reconcile and find a political settlement.
On Sunday, New Zealand troops handed over responsibility for the anti-Taliban province of Bamiyan, probably the safest in the country. On Tuesday, a similar ceremony is scheduled in the volatile town of Mehtar Lam.
But some Afghans are deeply suspicious about US war aims, believing that the conflict has always been part of a conspiracy aimed at robbing Afghanistan of its natural mineral wealth, which remains largely untapped.
Afghan and US officials have estimated the mineral wealth could be worth more than $1 trillion, with the sector seeing some Chinese investment so far.
"The Americans have achieved all their goals over the past 10 years. They took all our minerals and now nothing is left so they leave. They don't need us any more," said grocer Mohammad Zahir, also in Mazar-i-Sharif.
Like or hate the foreign presence, many Afghans fear the NATO withdrawal could lead to a bloody return to the civil war that gripped the country when rival warlords fought each other for control in the 1990s.
With grave doubts lingering over the ability of the national army and police to maintain security, Afghans worry that a civil conflict could be every bit as brutal as it was when Soviet forces left in 1989 and tens of thousands of people were killed.
"My big fear after the withdrawal of the US forces is the return of the former armed groups," said shopkeeper Ahmad Jawed in the western city of Herat.
"They will come back and destroy everything that has been built over the past 10 years."
US President Barack Obama has announced that 33,000 troops sent to bolster counterinsurgency efforts in late 2009, mostly in the volatile southern region, will leave Afghanistan by the end of 2012.
The decision was made as Western voters tire of the long war that has cost the lives of thousands of soldiers and billions of dollars in funds, amid a global recession that has hit the US economy hard.
But for many Afghans, the United States and its allies are withdrawing for a simple reason: they lost.
"I think they're escaping," said Jamal Ahmad, an English teacher in Kabul.
"After 10 years they have realised that they can't gain this country so they are leaving. All this transition process, reconciliation and talks with the Taliban are excuses to get out of here."
Back in Mazar-i-Sharif, university student Sayed Rohullah agreed.
"The Americans could not stay any longer, they lost the war and are leaving," he said.
For other Afghans, the killing in Pakistan of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden by US Navy SEALS in May marked the real end of the war, and they reject publicly-stated aims to bolster the national government and security forces.
"They killed Osama, their war is over, they don't need to stay here," Kabul resident Ghulam Haidar said.
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Wanted: Afghan butcher class for US special forces
(AFP) – July 18, 2011
WASHINGTON — US special forces in Afghanistan are known for taking out militants in stealthy night raids but commanders now want them to learn how to butcher meat and cook "authentic" meals for village elders.
The military is planning a three-day "abattoir training" course for the highly-trained troops, who will be taught how to slaughter, cure and cook meat in line with Afghan customs, according to US Special Operations Command (SOCOM).
The command issued a request last week for private contractors to organize classes for 132 students on "how to use local Afghan cooking materials and prepare an authentic Afghan meal cooked in the style and presentation that would be expected by local village elders."
The contractor also would teach troops halal slaughter methods in according with Islamic practices, said the Pentagon solicitation, which was first reported by Wired magazine's Danger Room blog.
"The contractor shall provide instruction on how to process and cure meats and vegetables in a culturally sensitive environment," it said.
The request suggests the butchering and cooking skills would help special operations troops forge ties with local Afghans, though the official purpose of the classes was to "provide students with necessary meat butchering training for the Islamic culture."
Apart from butchering meat the Afghan way, the troops will also be taught how to "preserve meat and residual hides" and to bake bread "with raw wheat kernels," it said.
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U.S. Promotes New Plan To Battle Drug Trade In Afghanistan, Central Asia, Russia
July 19, 2011 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty By Richard Solash
WASHINGTON -- Counternarcotics officials in Washington have unveiled a plan to help combat the flow of drugs from Afghanistan, through Central Asia, and into Russia -- and in doing so, ease fears that the impending withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan could play into the hands of drug traffickers.
The plan, still in draft form, is known as “The Central Asian Counternarcotics Initiative” (CACI). It envisions the establishment of counternarcotics task forces in the five Central Asian countries -- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan -- which would communicate with similar existing units in Afghanistan and Russia.
The seven groups would share sensitive information, improve coordination on joint and cross-border operations, and help build cases against wanted or arrested traffickers.
William Brownfield, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, told RFE/RL that by developing the CACI, Washington is attempting to get around what he called an “insufficient level of confidence” among the governments and law enforcement agencies of the seven countries:
“It is a means by which [the Central Asian republics] can get important and sensitive information emanating from Afghanistan related to [drug] production, to interdiction operations, and to law enforcement efforts against traffickers in Afghanistan itself," he said, adding that for the Russian Federation "it is a means by which they can link into the efforts both in the source country, Afghanistan, and transit countries, the Central Asian five, in a way that they currently cannot do."
U.S. State Department dollars would fund training and the purchase of equipment to help develop the task forces.
Withdrawal Concerns
Brownfield traveled throughout Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Russia in late June and early July to preview the initiative and solicit feedback from counternarcotics officials. Along the way, he met with Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbaeva and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon.
He said he heard concerns voiced “several times” during his trip that the coming withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan -- including 10,000 by the end of this year -- could boost the flow of opium poppies from the country.
Despite U.S.-supported eradication initiatives and alternative livelihood programs for farmers, Afghanistan remains the world’s primary source of opium, which is processed into heroin and other drugs in a multibillion dollar illegal trade that funds extremist groups and creates legions of addicts.
But Brownfield maintains that the withdrawal of U.S. troops won't exacerbate the problem, because force reductions won't translate into reduced support for Afghan law enforcement:
“I believe we've making progress in Afghanistan and I believe that hand-in-hand with [the] U.S. and NATO drawdown from Afghanistan, we're going to see an increase in the capabilities of Afghan law enforcement and the international community's support for Afghan law enforcement," he said, adding that "there is no plan to draw down law enforcement support in Afghanistan. The projection is to reduce our security and armed forces presence."
Brownfield, who became the State Department’s top international narcotics official in January, previously served as U.S. Ambassador to Colombia, a country where drug interests often co-opt or overwhelm official resistance.
Full-Fledged Commitment Needed
While maintaining that “Colombia is not Central Asia,” Brownfield said one important reality from the South American country does apply: along with supporting regional initiatives, such as the new U.S. plan, he said each country's leader must make a full-fledged commitment to fight the drug trade, even if it's a painful decision to do so.
“They must decide that they are willing to pay the political price -- because there is a political price," he said. "Breaking down the penetration of narcotics trafficking organizations is expensive in terms of money, it is expensive in terms of human life, it requires giving great priority to law enforcement, and security matters for a period of time, and during that time, those that require assistance from the state for other areas are likely to be disappointed. And at times it involves having to make difficult decisions about specific individuals."
In deciding whether to sign onto the U.S.-organized plan, Central Asian leaders are likely to weigh Russia's reaction.
Increased cooperation between Washington and Moscow on counternarcotics was identified as an early goal in the “reset” of bilateral relations under U.S. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev.
But the July 9 edition of the official paper of the Russian Defense Ministry, “Krasnaya Zvezda,” hinted at Moscow’s concern over U.S. forays into the region.
In an article about a U.S.-funded guard post on the Tajik-Afghan border, which Brownfield had opened the week before, the paper commented, “Of course, this is not a full [U.S.] military presence, but as they say, it all starts with the small.”
U.S. And Russia Share 'Same Objective'
Russia has also expressed interest in returning to the Tajik-Afghan border, where its troops patrolled until 2005.
Brownfield, who did not meet with defense ministry officials on his trip to Moscow, said the United States and Russia have the “same objective” of reducing the flow of narcotics through the region.
He also said that the Central Asia Counternarcotics Initiative “does not require massive presence by either the United States or the Russian Federation to support or pursue the idea.”
Allowing each Central Asian country to build their own task force according to their preferred structure, he added, would allow the proposed initiative to “rise above” any perceived battle for influence between Washington and Moscow.
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