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Suicide bomber was sold to terror network, Afghanistan says
By the CNN Wire Staff July 4, 2011
Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The Pakistani Taliban recruited and trained a suicide bomber, then sold him to the Haqqani network to carry out an attack in Afghanistan, but he was arrested before pulling off the plan, an official with Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS) said Monday.
'Mini-surge' of U.S. Special Forces to hit Afghanistan
July 4, 2011 Stars and Stripes
U.S. military leaders are working to replace some of the exiting American conventional forces from Afghanistan with a "mini-surge" of U.S. Special Forces, a measure to soothe commanders’ fears that the withdrawal of troops might put at risk military gains, according to the Times out of Australia.
Four Pakistani children injured by rockets from Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Tribesmen in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region said Monday that four children were injured in rocket firing from Afghan territory.
Pakistani forces advance in Taliban stronghold
ISLAMABAD, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani security forces backed by gunships and fighter jets Monday advanced on the Taliban stronghold in a tribal region and consolidated positions, military sources said.
US Senators Tired of Pakistan Double Game
Tolo news July 4, 2011
A senior US senator said on Monday that there is a growing anger in US Congress toward Pakistan, saying it should choose if it wants to be ally or enemy to the United States.
16 militants killed by Afghan, NATO troops in E province
JALALABAD, Afghanistan, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Afghan forces backed by NATO-led troops eliminated 16 insurgents in Nangarhar province 120 km east of capital city Kabul on Sunday night, a local official said Monday.
Afghanistan: Doable mission or lost cause?
Washington Post BY DAVID IGNATIUS 03/07/2011
KABUL - On the night that President Obama announced he would be withdrawing troops from Afghanistan faster than the military had wanted, Gen. David Petraeus held a videoconference from Washington with his senior staff, who were assembled in Kabul for their 7:30 a.m. meeting. He assured them their campaign plan was still “doable,” even with fewer numbers over time, and told them to stay on the offensive.
Afghanistan: Doable mission or lost cause?
Washington Post BY DAVID IGNATIUS 03/07/2011
KABUL - On the night that President Obama announced he would be withdrawing troops from Afghanistan faster than the military had wanted, Gen. David Petraeus held a videoconference from Washington with his senior staff, who were assembled in Kabul for their 7:30 a.m. meeting. He assured them their campaign plan was still “doable,” even with fewer numbers over time, and told them to stay on the offensive.
Soldier Missing In Afghanistan 'Is Found'
Sky News
A missing British soldier has reportedly been found in Afghanistan's Helmand province - however it is not yet known if he is alive or dead.
British soldier missing in south Afghanistan
By Jonathon Burch
KABUL (Reuters) - A British soldier has gone missing in southern Afghanistan and an extensive search is underway, the British Defense Ministry said Monday.
British PM visits Afghanistan
KABUL, July 4 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister David Cameron arrived in Afghanistan on Monday, a government official said.
Canadians unaware of the good news in Afghanistan: Kandahar governor 4
By Thane Burnett Monday, July 4, 2011 Toronto Sun
DAMAN DISTRICT, AFGHANISTAN - The Afghan people know what this combat mission has cost Canada -- and especially the families of our fallen troops -- assures Kandahar's provincial governor.
Petraeus marks July 4 with troops in Afghanistan
By DEB RIECHMANN - Associated Press | AP
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — A member of the NATO-led international force fighting in Afghanistan went missing in the country's restive south and a search is under way, the NATO command said Monday.
U.S. Shifts Supply Routes To Central Asia
July 3, 2011 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The U.S. military is expanding its Central Asian supply routes for the war in Afghanistan, fearing that the routes going through Pakistan could be endangered by deteriorating U.S.-Pakistani relations.
U.S. and Allies Cut Plans for Funding Afghanistan's Forces
Wall Street Journal By MARIA ABI-HABIB JULY 4, 2011
KABUL - The U.S. agreed to fund an increase of about 46,000 Afghan security personnel next year, a significantly smaller expansion than had been expected, Western diplomats said.
‘Healing Wounds’
An interview with Mohammad Umer Daudzai.
Newsweek Pakistan By Shah Mara July 8‚ 2011‚ issue
Mohammad Umer Daudzai was appointed Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan this April. He has previously served as President Hamid Karzai’s chief of staff, and as ambassador to Iran. NEWSWEEK’s Sami Yousafzai spoke with Daudzai in Islamabad on issues affecting Pakistan-Afghanistan relations. Excerpts:
Pakistani Military Still Cultivates Militant Groups, a Former Fighter Says
New York Times By CARLOTTA GALL July 3, 2011
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The Pakistani military continues to nurture a broad range of militant groups as part of a three-decade strategy of using proxies against its neighbors and American forces in Afghanistan, but now some of the fighters it trained are questioning that strategy, a prominent former militant commander says.
Inside the Kabul Zoo: A Sign of Afghanistan's Future?
By Frédéric Bobin / Le Monde / Worldcrunch Monday, July 04, 2011 time.com
This post is in partnership with Worldcrunch, a new global-news site that translates stories of note in foreign languages into English. The article below was originally published in Le Monde.
Filipinos fight for US citizenship in Afghanistan
By Ben Sheppard | AFP
Darby Ortego, 25, endures gunfire and mine attacks fighting for the United States army in Afghanistan, but this July 4 will be his first as a citizen of the country he serves.
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Suicide bomber was sold to terror network, Afghanistan says
By the CNN Wire Staff July 4, 2011
Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The Pakistani Taliban recruited and trained a suicide bomber, then sold him to the Haqqani network to carry out an attack in Afghanistan, but he was arrested before pulling off the plan, an official with Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS) said Monday.
The accusation comes amid a growing war of words between Pakistan and Afghanistan, with each side blaming the other for instability and attacks, including cross-border bombardments. Last week Pakistan complained that the Afghan government and NATO were not doing anything to prevent the Taliban from crossing into tribal agencies in the east.
The Afghan NDS source, who did not want to be named for security reasons, said Afghan authorities arrested a man trying to commit a suicide attack in the Jaji Maidan district of Paktia Province in eastern Afghanistan. The bomber, identified as Sheer Hassan Khanjar, is from Miran Shah, Pakistan, and was recruited by Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud, the official said.
After three years of training in how to carry out a suicide attack, the would-be bomber was sold to Sirajuddin Haqqani, the NDS source said. Sirajuddin Haqqani is a leader of the Haqqani network, which operates on both sides of the Pakistani-Afghan border. Afghanistan officials believe the Haqqani network was behind last week's deadly siege on a Kabul hotel.
Sheer Hassan, the alleged would-be suicide bomber, told Afghan officials that someone working for Mehsud sold him and others to the Haqqani network.
Pakistan army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said he had no information about claims the Haqqani network may be buying Pakistani suicide bombers from Mehsud and the Pakistani Taliban.
Abbas said the Pakistani government has long acknowledged that militants move back and forth along the border, and Pakistan is doing its part to stop it. "It's difficult to stop militants crossing the border in that region but it's the responsibility of both sides to stop it," Abbas said. "We have more than 900 check posts along the border and that's more than they have on the other side."
Tensions between the two nations have shown no sign of waning despite Afghan President Hamid Karzai's visit to Islamabad last month.
Journalist Fazel Reshad Wardak and CNN's Nick Paton Walsh and Reza Sayah contributed to this report.
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'Mini-surge' of U.S. Special Forces to hit Afghanistan
July 4, 2011 Stars and Stripes
U.S. military leaders are working to replace some of the exiting American conventional forces from Afghanistan with a "mini-surge" of U.S. Special Forces, a measure to soothe commanders’ fears that the withdrawal of troops might put at risk military gains, according to the Times out of Australia.
Military sources told The Times that 16 special operations personnel are considered to be worth the equivalent of 100 conventional troops.
In June, President Obama announced plans to withdraw 10,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year. The remainder of the surge troops, about 23,000, would be withdrawn in 2012, leaving about 70,000 troops in Afghanistan until 2014.
Defense analysts have said of late that the reduction of conventional troops likely will place a heavier burden on clandestine units, such as SEALs, and Army Rangers and Green Berets.
The Times reports there are more than 7,000 U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan and about 3,000 in Iraq, with many of the latter expected to be moved to Afghanistan.
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Four Pakistani children injured by rockets from Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Tribesmen in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region said Monday that four children were injured in rocket firing from Afghan territory.
It was not immediately known whether the NATO or Afghan forces fired rockets into Pakistani border region.
The injured were shifted to the main hospital in Miranshah, center of North Waziristan tribal agency, a correspondent in the region said by phone.
Doctors said that one child is in critical condition.
Tribesmen said that scores of rockets landed at Bang Dar border village and some hit houses.
Pakistani and Afghan officials have recently claimed shelling in each other's territory, which caused diplomatic row between the two countries. Both summoned ambassadors to the foreign ministries for lodging formal protest.
Pakistan says armed militants from Afghanistan entered Pakistani areas and launched five attacks in a month on the border checkpoints and villages, killing nearly 40 soldiers and injuring 80 others.
Afghan authorities say that Pakistani forces have fired hundreds of rockets and artillery shells into Afghanistan's eastern Kunar and Nangrahar provinces which killed dozens of people including women and children.
Tension along the border increased at a time when Pakistan and Afghanistan have formed a joint peace and reconciliation commission to work jointly to get the armed Taliban to the negotiation table.
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Pakistani forces advance in Taliban stronghold
ISLAMABAD, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani security forces backed by gunships and fighter jets Monday advanced on the Taliban stronghold in a tribal region and consolidated positions, military sources said.
Hundreds of Pakistani regular and border troops are attacking hideouts of militants in Kurram tribal region to eliminate and expel them, they said.
"Taliban militants did not show any resistance," a military officer said.
The security forces made advancement in the mountainous areas including Mushat, Masozai and Ali Sherzaoi, the former stronghold of Taliban militants, he said. The troops are now consolidating positions and establishing check posts atop the mountains to overlook main roads and movement of the militants.
Sources said that most of the militants have already fled their hideouts ahead of the operation.
Residents said that thousands of people have left homes and have taken shelter in a camp at Sadda, a main town in the region. Hundreds of families had already shifted to the camp after the authorities told them to leave to avoid casualties.
Officials said that more Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are expected to arrive in the camp in the coming days.
They said that the camp has the capacity to accommodate 1,500 families. The IDPs have been asked to get themselves registered at the camp to get the required facilities.
The decision to launch the operation was taken after a recent attack by the militants on a security checkpost, killing one soldier and injuring several others. Security officials said that the militants had entered Kurram region from Afghanistan's Khost province.
Officials said that Taliban militants from other regions have also taken shelter in Kurram agency, who are also involved in attacks in Shia Muslims and also closed several roads for a long time.
Taliban militants have carried out several attacks on caravans of Shia Muslims and kidnapped them for ransom, according to a lawmaker from the region. Peace deals with the militants to reopen the roads have also failed, forcing the army to launch the operation.
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US Senators Tired of Pakistan Double Game
Tolo news July 4, 2011
A senior US senator said on Monday that there is a growing anger in US Congress toward Pakistan, saying it should choose if it wants to be ally or enemy to the United States.
Three top US senators after their arrival in the Afghan capital, Kabul, appeared at a news conference and expressed doubts about progress being made in peace talks with the Taliban.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman told a press conference: "It is a growing anger, it's not just impatience in the Congress of the United States toward Pakistan. We want to have a good relationship with them, but we are tired of seeing them be both our allies and our enemies and supporting our enemies at the same time."
"They have to decide to be our allies and we will be good allies to them or we won't," the Senator further said.
The top US Republican Sen. John McCain said: "We have to deal with Pakistan on a basis of realism that the are connections between the ISI and the Haqqani network and Taliban and we have to start from a basis of realistic situation."
Kabul has recently stressed more on peace talks with the Taliban, but US Senators have a different view.
"I think we should worry, If the Taliban somehow regain some power, what does that do with the people of Afghanistan? What does that do to women's rights? What does that do to their strict interpretation of Islamic laws? I mean what kind of a deal we would be cutting with them, if such an occasion rose," Mr McCain said.
"I don't believe there will be serious negotiation with the Taliban until they are convinced that they cannot succeed and attain their goals by use of force and weapons and arms on the battlefield," Sen. McCain further said.
The senators also said corruption and especially the Kabul Bank issue is something that the Afghan government should address.
"The truth as I see it is the Afghan people having real problem with the lack of embracing fighting corruption. Kabul Bank is an opportunity for President Karzai and his government, and they are making some progress, to show to Afghan people Afghanistan is changing and to ensure to American people that things are changing on the corruption frontier," said Sen. Lindsey Graham.
While it has been said that the US drawdown plan has been discussed with US military officials, Sen. John McCain says troop reduction at this point is an unnecessary risk, adding that the military commanders had not supported the plan.
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16 militants killed by Afghan, NATO troops in E province
JALALABAD, Afghanistan, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Afghan forces backed by NATO-led troops eliminated 16 insurgents in Nangarhar province 120 km east of capital city Kabul on Sunday night, a local official said Monday.
"Afghan and NATO-led troops launched a joint operation against Taliban hideouts in Margi Khil village of Khogyani district Sunday night, as a result 16 rebels were killed," governor of Khogyani district Mohammad Hassan told Xinhua.
The majority of those killed during the operation are foreign fighters, Hassan said but did not give more details.
Meantime, Zabihullah Mujahid who claims to speak for the Taliban outfit in talks with media via telephone from undisclosed location confirmed the operation and said 13 Taliban were killed in the gun battle that lasted for several hours.
However, he stressed that over 20 Afghan and U.S. soldiers were killed in the fight, a claim rejected by Mohammad Hassan as groundless.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in a statement released here on Monday said that 15 insurgents were killed during a combined Afghan-NATO forces operation in Sherzad district of Nangarhar province on Sunday.
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Afghanistan: Doable mission or lost cause?
Washington Post BY DAVID IGNATIUS 03/07/2011
KABUL - On the night that President Obama announced he would be withdrawing troops from Afghanistan faster than the military had wanted, Gen. David Petraeus held a videoconference from Washington with his senior staff, who were assembled in Kabul for their 7:30 a.m. meeting. He assured them their campaign plan was still “doable,” even with fewer numbers over time, and told them to stay on the offensive.
The call was a classic Petraeus move — a show of optimism and determination, combined with realpolitik.
He must have been disappointed, but he kept it well hidden, explaining to his team that the president’s decision had been shaped by broader factors than the military’s preferred timetable.
Petraeus will leave his command of NATO forces here this month with the outcome of the Afghanistan war far from certain. He hasn’t achieved the same decisive turnaround as in Iraq, where he led a surge of U.S. troops that pulled the country back from the brink of civil war. The Afghan conflict has proved more intractable.
Petraeus says that he knew from the beginning that a quick “flip” in Afghanistan was impossible. But he’s still confident that his counterinsurgency strategy can work here, even as the United States draws down its troops. He says the definition of success will be the transfer of responsibility for security to the Afghans by 2014, when U.S. combat troops will leave.
Politicians from both parties are already writing off Afghanistan as a lost cause. But Petraeus argues that Obama’s December 2009 troop surge is beginning to pay dividends, even as Washington sours on the war: The level of violence in recent weeks has been down about 5 percent from a year ago, and the Taliban has failed to regain control of Kandahar and Helmand strongholds that were cleared in 2010. Afghan troops are performing better, he insists, and they are suffering three times as many deaths as NATO forces.
The negatives are also obvious to many observers. The government of President Hamid Karzai remains grossly corrupt, and governance around the country is somewhere between poor and nonexistent. Afghanistan is a battered and dysfunctional country.
The Petraeus legacy will be debated by military historians for years to come. He is the most prominent general of his generation, celebrated as a miracle worker after the rescue of Baghdad but still resented by some colleagues as too political. Somehow, he has been the favorite military commander of both George W. Bush and Barack Obama, who is plucking him from Kabul to head the CIA.
During an interview in his office here, Petraeus offered an unusual self-assessment when I asked him to list his strengths and weaknesses as commander.
At the top of his list of positives was creation of the Afghan Local Police, a bottom-up security initiative that recognized Afghanistan’s tribal makeup and was initially resisted and then embraced by Karzai. He also mentioned the anti-corruption campaign headed by his longtime adviser, Brig. Gen. H.R. McMaster. And he cited development of the framework for transition to Afghan security control, province by province, that will commence next month.
I asked Petraeus about the broader issue of his leadership style, which is intense and focused, even by military standards. A small example is the way he cleaned up the NATO coalition’s headquarters, which was a dilapidated mess under previous commanders. What he did was simple but decisive: He says he walked around the compound with the base commandant for 30 minutes and told him what to fix. The brooms and paint brushes followed quickly.
Petraeus’ self-critique focused on areas that led to friction with the Afghan population, undermining the counterinsurgency goal. He says he should have moved more quickly to rein in private security contractors, whose presence was a major irritant to Afghans. And he should have worked harder to reduce coalition-caused civilian casualties, which declined on his watch but still angered Karzai and the nation.
What’s hard to imagine is that after 37 years in the Army, Petraeus is finally taking off the uniform — one so heavy with the battle ribbons that symbolize his ambition and achievement. He says it will be easier because he is joining another “family” of service at the CIA. It would be harder, he says, if he were heading to the beach to contemplate lucrative business or book-writing offers. This will be the seventh time in the last nine years that he celebrates the Fourth of July in a combat post. He says that “taking the final pass-in-review” may “start to weigh more heavily in the weeks ahead.”
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6 Afghan insurgents killed as explosive device explodes prematurely
KABUL, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Six Taliban insurgents were killed when their explosive device went off prematurely in Afghanistan's Helmand province, 555 km south of capital city of Kabul, provincial government said on Monday.
"Six Taliban insurgents were busy in planting a mine on a road in Sangin district of Helmand province Sunday but their explosive device detonated prematurely, killing all rebels on the spot," a statement issued by Helmand provincial government here said.
Taliban militants who largely rely on roadside bombing and suicide attacks have yet to make comment.
Notorious for growing poppy and militancy, the Helmand province has been regarded as Taliban hotbed in the insurgency-hit southern part of the country.
In a separate development, police detained a would-be suicide bomber and thus foiled a terrorist attack in Surobi district of Kabul province, some 60 km east of Kabul city, on Sunday, Kabul police said in a statement released here Monday.
In another development two rockets landed in Kabul on Sunday night but caused no loss of life and property damages, according to police.
The Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant since the militant group announced to launch spring offensive from May 1 against Afghan and NATO-led troops stationed in Afghanistan.
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Soldier Missing In Afghanistan 'Is Found'
Sky News
A missing British soldier has reportedly been found in Afghanistan's Helmand province - however it is not yet known if he is alive or dead.
Jerome Starkey, a journalist in Kabul with The Times, told Sky News: "We understand the soldier was found around 7pm local time after being missing for about 17 hours.
"Officials say that the search has been called off and are not looking for any other soldiers."
The news comes after a huge search was launched following his disappearance in the south of the country.
Sky sources indicate he was based in Nahr-e Saraj and was serving with 4 Scots.
Coalition troops had been stood down from regular operations to help look for him from the ground and air, with Nato command earlier listing him as "duty status whereabouts unknown".
British forces' emergency actions also affected Prime Minister David Cameron, who was a secret trip to visit troops in Helmand province.
Mr Cameron had been scheduled travel to nearby Lashkar Gah but the search for the missing soldier meant plans had to be changed.
The Prime Minister said: "I arrived here in Helmand province and said to the military, 'Whatever you do, don't worry about taking me around - throw everything you have got at trying to pick up this young man.'"
Defence Secretary Liam Fox told the House of Commons the unnamed soldier went missing "in the early hours of this morning".
He added: "His next-of-kin has been informed and updated as the operation continues, so no other family need be concerned."
Confirmation of the disappearance first came after the Taliban sent a statement by text message claiming they had captured a soldier on Sunday.
The Taliban often make exaggerated claims for propaganda purposes and the claim could not be verified.
Sky News defence correspondent Niall Paterson said the Ministry of Defence did not release much information due to operational concerns.
"Information coming from Afghanistan indicated he left his base after a patrol to go for a swim, in a village where Isaf forces have been heavily engaged in counter-insurgency operations," Paterson said.
Mr Starkey said it is thought the soldier went missing around 4am and the alarm was raised shortly afterwards.
He added: "The suggestion that I've had... is that the soldier was last seen walking south from a checkpoint where he was based.
"He did not appear, or at least there are no reports, that he was under any duress."
An American soldier serving in Afghanistan is believed to still be in Taliban captivity.
Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, 25, from Hailey, Idaho, was taken prisoner in June 2009 in Paktika province in eastern Afghanistan and is thought to be in Pakistan.
In July 2010, two sailors from the US navy went missing in Logar province, south of the Afghan capital, prompting an extensive manhunt.
The dead bodies of both sailors were found days later in Logar.
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British soldier missing in south Afghanistan
By Jonathon Burch
KABUL (Reuters) - A British soldier has gone missing in southern Afghanistan and an extensive search is underway, the British Defense Ministry said Monday.
The Taliban said they had captured and killed him, but Reuters could not independently verify the claim and the hardline Islamists often exaggerate battlefield exploits.
"The individual was based in central Helmand and was reported missing in the early hours of this morning," the Ministry of Defense said. His next of kin have been informed.
A spokesman for the Taliban told Reuters the militant group had captured the soldier Sunday and had executed him in the Babaji area of southern Helmand.
"The soldier was captured yesterday evening during a firefight. When the fighting got more intense we couldn't keep him so we had to kill him," Qari Mohammad Yousuf said by telephone from an undisclosed location.
A spokesman from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force declined to comment on the Taliban claim.
More than 2,500 foreign troops have died in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in late 2001. News of another missing soldier will likely add to public opposition in Western countries for a war that has now dragged on for nearly 10 years.
The three other service members who went missing in Afghanistan were all American, and were all captured or killed by the Taliban.
In June 2009, insurgents captured American soldier Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl in southeastern Afghanistan and have released videos showing him in captivity dressed in both Afghan clothing and in military uniform.
In those videos, Bergdahl is seen denouncing the war in Afghanistan and calling for the United States to withdraw its troops from the country, in what the U.S. Military has called illegal propaganda.
In July 2010, two sailors from the U.S. Navy went missing in Logar province, south of the Afghan capital, prompting an extensive manhunt. The dead bodies of both sailors were found days later in Logar.
The sailors went missing after failing to return in a vehicle they had taken from their compound in Kabul, ISAF had said, but officials have declined to give anything but scant details since, prompting speculation they had acted outside the chain of command.
GAINS FRAGILE
Violence has flared in Afghanistan since Taliban insurgents began their spring offensive at the start of May, after record deaths in 2010.
Foreign military casualties were slightly lower in the first six months of 2011 than the same period of 2010, but the United Nations has said May 2011 was the deadliest month for civilians since it started keeping records four years ago.
In late June, U.S. President Barack Obama announced a plan to start withdrawing 10,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2011, followed by about 23,000 more by the end of next summer.
This gradual drawdown is part of a Kabul-backed plan for Afghan forces to take the lead in securing the entire country by the end of 2014 when foreign troops are due to cease combat operations, remaining only in a training and supporting role.
The U.S. military has tried to distance itself from Obama's withdrawal plan over the next year, telling the U.S. Congress they sought a slower, less risky drawdown.
Extra U.S. troops ordered into Afghanistan by Obama in 2009 have mostly been fighting in the Taliban's southern heartland, where commanders say they have made some security gains but that those gains were fragile and reversible.
(Additional reporting by Ismail Sameem in Kandahar and Abdul Malik in Lashkar Gah; Editing by Emma Graham-Harrison and Yoko Nishikawa)
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British PM visits Afghanistan
KABUL, July 4 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister David Cameron arrived in Afghanistan on Monday, a government official said.
"Prime Minister David Cameron arrived in Afghanistan on Monday for an official visit," the official told Xinhua but declined to give his name.
However, he added that Prime Minister Cameron and President Hamid Karzai would hold a joint press conference on Tuesday.
Britain has over 9,500 troops in Afghanistan serving within the framework of the NATO-International Security Assistance Force ( ISAF) to help stabilize the war-battered nation.
Foreign dignitaries often pay unannounced visits to the militancy-plagued Afghanistan and leave the country secretly due to security reasons.
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Canadians unaware of the good news in Afghanistan: Kandahar governor 4
By Thane Burnett Monday, July 4, 2011 Toronto Sun
DAMAN DISTRICT, AFGHANISTAN - The Afghan people know what this combat mission has cost Canada -- and especially the families of our fallen troops -- assures Kandahar's provincial governor.
In an exclusive interview with QMI Agency, Dr. Toryalai Wisa, a Afghan-Canadian academic who oversees the area our combat soldiers will soon be pulling out of, says the level of sacrifice is understood.
Wisa recalls conversations he's had with family members of dead Canadian soldiers: "My heart is still with them -- I express my very deep, deep appreciation from the bottom of my heart.
"(Canadians) did not spend only the taxpayers money here...they have sacrificed their youth here."
The governor added: "We shall never forget that. That will be part of Kandahar history."
But Wisa complains that while the Afghan people herald the toil of Canadians, the message seems lost before it reaches North America.
Wisa, born in a village near Kandahar City, was an agriculture specialist at the University of British Columbia.
He took over the governor's position here almost three years ago.
On the day we spoke, he rolled into the compound in a dusty line of SUVs, bursting with a security detail and Afghan media.
In Canada last month to see his daughter's graduation ceremony, Wisa also took part in an international conference in Montreal, only to find: "The Canadians were not aware of what is (happening) here."
As he stood inside the Daman District Centre, which has been upgraded thanks to almost $1-million in funding from Canada, a frustrated Wisa noted: "The only news the Canadians were getting was just explosions, death, killings, assassinations."
On that last visit back to Canada, he said no one seemed aware of the schools the Canadians have built and refurbished, roads paved or the irrigation and dam projects military engineers have created.
The Daman District centre where Sun News spoke to Wisa, sits in an area of relative calm -- though a local police officer said they still have their share of run-of-the-mill murders.
Canadian engineers built up the defenses around the centre and even built a jirga hall -- a meeting place.
"This building is for our future, future generations use," district leader Haji Saraj Ahmad assured Canadian Col. Richard Giguère.
The district elders and leaders shared a last meal -- goat and chicken -- before the Afghans said goodbye to the Canadians for a final time here.
"We have learned from one another," Ahmad told the Canadian colonel. "And we grew closer in a common cause."
The provincial governor just wishes Canadians could, even amid an uncertain future, appreciate that a little more.
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Petraeus marks July 4 with troops in Afghanistan
By DEB RIECHMANN - Associated Press | AP
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — A member of the NATO-led international force fighting in Afghanistan went missing in the country's restive south and a search is under way, the NATO command said Monday.
The command did not identify the nationality of the missing service member.
Only one soldier from the NATO-led force is believed in captivity. Bowe Bergdahl, a 25-year-old Army sergeant from Hailey, Idaho, was taken prisoner June 30, 2009, in Afghanistan. He is believed held in Pakistan.
Also Monday, the outgoing U.S. commander in Afghanistan marked his last Fourth of July in uniform by speaking to American troops during a re-enlistment ceremony in the south of the country.
Gen. David Petraeus, who was recently confirmed as the next director of the CIA, told the 235 troops re-enlisting in Kandahar province that they have achieved progress on the battlefield but that "much work remains" to be done in Afghanistan.
"You raised your right hand and said 'Send me,' and today you raised your right hand again and said 'Send me again, if needed,'" he told the soldiers on America's 235th birthday.
"I cannot say how impressive your action is," he said. "It is the most meaningful display of patriotism possible."
Petraeus will be replaced by U.S. Marine Lt. Gen. John Allen even as 33,000 U.S. troops begin to withdraw from Afghanistan, the start of President Barack Obama's promised withdrawal of all combat troops by 2014.
Later Monday, Petraeus is to speak at another re-enlistment ceremony at Bagram Air Field, just north of Kabul.
Meanwhile, NATO said a service member was killed Monday in a bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan. The death brings the number of NATO fatalities in Afghanistan this year to 271, three of them this month.
On Sunday, three U.S. Senators visiting Afghanistan criticized the pace of withdrawal and expressed concerns that it may leave NATO with too few troops to deal a decisive blow to the insurgency.
"I believe that the planned drawdown is an unnecessary risk," John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, said Sunday. McCain arrived in Afghanistan with Sens. Joe Lieberman and Lindsay Graham. McCain lost to Obama in the 2008 presidential race.
Also on Sunday, five Afghan police officers were killed in a four-hour gun battle between Afghan security forces and NATO troops, and insurgents in the Bala Buluk district of Farah province in western Afghanistan.
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U.S. Shifts Supply Routes To Central Asia
July 3, 2011 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The U.S. military is expanding its Central Asian supply routes for the war in Afghanistan, fearing that the routes going through Pakistan could be endangered by deteriorating U.S.-Pakistani relations.
"The Washington Post" reports on July 3, citing unnamed Pentagon officials, that in 2009, the United States moved 90 percent of its military surface cargo through the Pakistani port of Karachi and then through mountain passes into Afghanistan.
Now almost 40 percent of surface cargo arrives in Afghanistan from the north, along a patchwork of Central Asian rail and road routes. In addition, the U.S. government is negotiating expanded agreements with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and other countries that would allow for delivery of additional supplies to the Afghan war zone.
There are currently up to 150,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, including about 99,000 from the United States.
compiled from agency reports
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U.S. and Allies Cut Plans for Funding Afghanistan's Forces
Wall Street Journal By MARIA ABI-HABIB JULY 4, 2011
KABUL - The U.S. agreed to fund an increase of about 46,000 Afghan security personnel next year, a significantly smaller expansion than had been expected, Western diplomats said.
Meeting in Kabul last week, the U.S. and its international partners agreed to expand the total number of Afghan police and soldiers to 352,000 by October 2012 from about 305,600 now. The agreed increase is about 26,000 fewer than had been envisaged in a review in January because of funding reductions for the war by the U.S. Congress and concerns that the impoverished Afghan government can't pay for such a large force in future.
The smaller increase, combined with plans to withdraw 33,000 U.S. troops by 2012, will leave Afghanistan with a much smaller fighting force than previously anticipated to combat the insurgency, which still shows great resilience after 10 years of war.
Nonetheless, the Afghan government remains upbeat about its ability to secure the country before a gradual handover from U.S.-led international forces to their Afghan counterparts that starts this month. "We are optimistic about the future of the Afghan national forces," said Gen. Zahir Azimi, the spokesman for the Defense Ministry. "They are well trained and well equipped."
This year, the U.S. and its coalition partners are spending $11.6 billion training, equipping and providing the salaries for Afghanistan's police and army. Next year, funding will grow to $12.8 billion, with the U.S. paying for 92% and European and other partners footing the rest.
Afghanistan's gross domestic product for 2011 is estimated at $18.3 billion, according to the International Monetary Fund, most of it generated by the international community's presence. Diplomats expect the Afghan government will have to struggle to pay for the country's national forces after 2014 when the bulk of international troops withdraw.
"Sustainability is a serious issue; it's almost impossible to calculate when the Afghans will be able to pay for their own forces, but nobody is really expecting it to happen for at least another 15 years," said a senior European diplomat who attended last week's meeting.
Afghanistan's Defense Ministry estimates it will cost around $6 billion a year for the Afghan government to sustain the current force itself after 2014, said Col. John Ferrari, a senior commander with NATO's training mission in Afghanistan. He said next year's increase in personnel might not be the last.
European ambassadors attending last week's meeting raised concerns about the quality of the Afghan army and police, which suffer from persistently high illiteracy rates and drug use.
But Col. Ferrari said the Afghan forces have increased their quality, allowing them to raise the overall security forces' size by "100,000 police and soldiers in the last 18 months." He added: "More people want to be in a quality force."
Another pressing concern of European ambassadors is what will happen if the country falls back into civil war after 2014, when most international forces leave. They wonder whether the army and police could fracture along ethnic lines, taking their weapons to either side. Western diplomats said their embassies have consistently raised this issue when faced with further troop and funding requests by the Afghan government and the NATO training mission.
"We're developing a professional Afghan army and police controlled by the civilian government of Afghanistan, which ethnically balances the army and police," said Col. Ferrari.
Gen. Azimi said that he was confident in the professionalization of the Afghan forces and that a civil war won't break out across the country after 2014. Afghanistan has suffered from a decades-long civil war among the country's four main ethnic groups since the 1970s.
—Zia Sultani contributed to this article.
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‘Healing Wounds’
An interview with Mohammad Umer Daudzai.
Newsweek Pakistan By Shah Mara July 8‚ 2011‚ issue
Mohammad Umer Daudzai was appointed Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan this April. He has previously served as President Hamid Karzai’s chief of staff, and as ambassador to Iran. NEWSWEEK’s Sami Yousafzai spoke with Daudzai in Islamabad on issues affecting Pakistan-Afghanistan relations. Excerpts:
You said in 2008 that a new chapter in Pakistan-Afghanistan relations had begun. While there has been talk on trade, not much has happened on core issues like the Haqqani network and militant infiltration. Why is that?
Both countries are serious in their intentions to further strengthen the bilateral relationship. Since 2008, progress has been made in all sectors, including security. We have just begun talking about Pakistan’s role in the reconciliation process [with the Taliban]. Pakistan has clearly stated that the process must be led and owned by Afghans, and their government must tell us what help they need. We have specified some areas in which they could help.
What kind of reconciliation are we looking at, and are Afghanistan and Pakistan on board with the U.S.-Taliban talks?
It is too early for us to [predict] the type of settlement that may emerge with the Taliban. However, the people of Afghanistan are proud of their achievements of the last 10 years and would not be willing to compromise them. We have not yet reached the status of [direct] negotiations with the Taliban, so we don’t know their position. U.S.-Taliban talks are very preliminary contacts. There is a clear understanding that the U.S. or any other NATO member may pursue preliminary contact with the Taliban, but only with the prior go-ahead from the Afghan government. When it is proved that contact is credible, it will be transferred to the Afghan peace high council.
Why would the Taliban seek talks when, after 10 years, they are stronger than ever?
It is not a question of being strong or weak, but of preventing further bloodshed in our country. We want the Taliban to make peace with the people of Afghanistan, to realize that the Afghan people have paid the heaviest price over the past 30 years. The Afghan Taliban may wish to realize this, particularly now that it is clear that the Afghan government will be in charge of the security of the country.
Who is more dangerous for the region: the Afghan Taliban or the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan?
They are both followers of the same ideology, but differ in tactics and objectives.
You’ve said that Pakistan is not behind terrorist acts in Afghanistan, most Afghans believe otherwise.
We have left the blame game behind us. Mistakes were made in the past. We are in the process of healing wounds, not making new ones. I had said that most suicide missions originate from madrassahs in Pakistan, but it is not necessarily the case that Pakistani state institutions are behind them.
Is there any truth to Pakistan’s complaints that Indian assets based in Afghanistan are helping and sheltering the Balochistan Liberation Army?
There is no such presence on Afghan soil. We have clearly stated that we will not allow anyone to use Afghan soil to harm Pakistan. We mean it, and are willing to take action if served with credible information.
Who are the militants that are crossing over from Afghanistan to attack Pakistani forces?
They are enemies of the friendship between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and enemies of the people of both countries. It is ironic that as we are talking of an improvement in our relationship, such cross-border infiltration increases. These [attacks] are aimed at stemming progress in our relations.
Karzai and his team have recently held meetings with Pakistan’s military and intelligence chiefs. What was on the agenda?
They talked about bilateral cooperation to ensure peace and stability in our region.
Are Pakistan’s concerns about Indian influence in Afghanistan legitimate?
These are exaggerated by the media. Pakistan appreciates the Indian contribution to Afghanistan’s reconstruction.
Is 2014 a realistic target for the withdrawal of foreign troops?
I think so. We appreciate the generous U.S. assistance in the past 10 years, and we hope that assistance will continue for a long time. However, sooner than later, Afghans must get used to life without foreign troops.
To comment on this article‚ email letters@newsweek.pk
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Pakistani Military Still Cultivates Militant Groups, a Former Fighter Says
New York Times By CARLOTTA GALL July 3, 2011
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The Pakistani military continues to nurture a broad range of militant groups as part of a three-decade strategy of using proxies against its neighbors and American forces in Afghanistan, but now some of the fighters it trained are questioning that strategy, a prominent former militant commander says.
The former commander said that he was supported by the Pakistani military for 15 years as a fighter, leader and trainer of insurgents until he quit a few years ago. Well known in militant circles but accustomed to a covert existence, he gave an interview to The New York Times on the condition that his name, location and other personal details not be revealed.
Militant groups, like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen and Hizbul Mujahedeen, are run by religious leaders, with the Pakistani military providing training, strategic planning and protection. That system was still functioning, he said.
The former commander’s account belies years of assurances by Pakistan to American officials since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that it has ceased supporting militant groups in its territory. The United States has given Pakistan more than $20 billion in aid over the past decade for its help with counterterrorism operations. Still, the former commander said, Pakistan’s military and intelligence establishment has not abandoned its policy of supporting the militant groups as tools in Pakistan’s dispute with India over the border territory of Kashmir and in Afghanistan to drive out American and NATO forces.
“There are two bodies running these affairs: mullahs and retired generals,” he said. He named a number of former military officials involved in the program, including former chiefs of the intelligence service and other former generals. “These people have a very big role still,” he said.
Maj. Gen. Zaheer ul-Islam Abbasi, a former intelligence officer who was convicted of attempting a coup against the government of Benazir Bhutto in 1995 and who is now dead, was one of the most active supporters of the militant groups in the years after Sept. 11, the former commander said.
He said he saw General Abbasi several times: once at a meeting of Taliban and Pakistani militant leaders in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province as they planned how to confront the American military in Afghanistan; and twice in Mir Ali, which became the center for foreign militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas, including members of Al Qaeda.
There were about 60 people at the Taliban meeting in late 2001, soon after the Taliban government fell, the former commander said. Pakistani militant leaders were present, as were the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, and Muhammad Haqqani, a member of the Haqqani network.
Several retired officials of Pakistan’s premier spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, were also there, he said, including a man known as Colonel Imam but who was actually Brig. Sultan Amir, a well-known trainer and mentor of militants, and General Abbasi. The militant groups divided Afghanistan into separate areas of operations and discussed how to “trip up America,” he said.
The Pakistani military still supports the Afghan Taliban in their fight to force out American and NATO forces from Afghanistan, he said, adding that he thought they would be successful.
The ISI also still supports other Pakistani militant groups, even some of those that have turned against the government, because the military still wants to keep them as tools for use against its archrival, India, he said. The military used a strategy of divide and rule, encouraging splits in the militant groups to weaken and control them, he said.
Although the military has lost control of many of the firebrand fighters, and has little influence over the foreign fighters in the tribal areas who belong to Al Qaeda — some of whom openly oppose the Pakistani government — it was reluctant to move against them, he said. Pakistan could easily kill the notoriously vicious militant leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud, but chose not to, he said. “If someone gave me 20,000 rupees, I would do it,” he said, citing a price of about $235.
“The government is not interested in eliminating them permanently,” he said. “The Pakistani military establishment has become habituated to using proxies.” He added that there were many sympathizers in the military who still supported the use of militants.
Pakistan has 12,000 to 14,000 fully trained Kashmiri fighters, scattered throughout various camps in Pakistan, and is holding them in reserve to use if needed in a war against India, he said.
Yet Pakistan has been losing the fight for Kashmir, and most Kashmiris now want independence and not to be part of Pakistan or India, he said. Since Sept. 11, Pakistan has redirected much of its attention away from Kashmir to Afghanistan, and many Kashmiri fighters are not interested in that fight and have taken up India’s offer of an amnesty to go home.
Others, like the former commander, have gotten out because of their disillusionment over the way they were being used to fight Osama bin Laden’s war, or used for the aims of a few top generals who had allied Pakistan with the United States to gain access to its military and financial aid. “There are a lot of people who do not think they are doing the right thing,” he said of the military.
“This is extremely wrong to sacrifice 16,000 people for a single person,” he said, referring to Bin Laden. “A person should sacrifice himself for 16,000 people.” He said he was using the figure of 16,000 just as an example.
“The Taliban lost a whole government for one person,” he said, again referring to Bin Laden. “And Pakistan went to war just for a few generals and now for President Zardari,” he said, referring to Asif Ali Zardari. “A real war is for a country.”
Many of the thousands of trained Pakistani fighters turned against the military because it treated them so carelessly, he said. “Pakistan used them and then, like a paper tissue, threw them away,” he said. “Look at me, I am a very well-trained fighter and I have no other option in life, except to fight and take revenge.”
Indeed, he was first trained for a year by the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba at a camp in Kunar Province, in Afghanistan, in the early 1990s. The war against Soviet troops in Afghanistan was over, and Pakistan turned to training fighters for an insurgency in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir.
He became skilled at firing Russian-made rocket-propelled grenades, and he was sent to fight, and train others, in Kashmir, Bosnia, Chechnya and Afghanistan. Over the years he worked with different militant groups, and he estimated that he personally trained up to 4,000 fighters.
The entire enterprise was supported by the Pakistani military and executed by Pakistani militant groups, he said. He was paid by a wing of the ISI, which is an integral part of the army.
Fighters were paid about $50 a month, he said, and commanders about $500.
But now, he said, Pakistan and the United States would be much better able to counter terrorism if they could redirect the legions of militants toward the correct path of Islam to rebuild and educate communities, he said.
“Pakistan, and especially America, needs to understand the true spirit of Islam, and they need to project the true spirit of Islam,” he said. “That would be a good strategy to stop them.”
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Inside the Kabul Zoo: A Sign of Afghanistan's Future?
By Frédéric Bobin / Le Monde / Worldcrunch Monday, July 04, 2011 time.com
This post is in partnership with Worldcrunch, a new global-news site that translates stories of note in foreign languages into English. The article below was originally published in Le Monde.
In the shade of the tall fir trees, a small crowd walks past a fountain and along the menagerie's dry paths. Behind the wire fences, animals bask placidly in the sun. White and brown bears, peacocks, macaques, gazelles, wolves, eagles, owls and parrots capture the attention of their friendly audience. It is important to find time for relaxing, even in troubled Afghanistan.
Along with the Shar-e-Now park (famous for its Bollywood movie theater) and the Babur Gardens, the Kabul Zoo is one of the havens for the capital's inhabitants to forget their everyday worries and fears of the future. The day before, not far from the zoo, a suicide squad attacked a police station, killing nine people. Within a few hours, the streets were empty. But today, the people are out again, sweeping into the markets, crowding the sidewalks. Life must go on.
The zoo's visitors reflect the mixed urban population of Kabul. A young man in jeans walks next to a woman in a blue burqa. Inside the aquarium, a woman points out the shimmering colors of the fish to her handicapped son. The child is amazed. Opposite the gazelles' pen, a refreshment stall sells sodas and kebab sandwiches. Some visitors doze in the cool shade of the trees. The zoo is surrounded by the winding hills of Kabul, a cirque of rock flanked by ochre adobe houses. The light is so bright that the stony ridges seem to be on fire.
For Aziz Gul Saqeb, the zoo director, this is his personal battleground. He invites us into his large office with its purple, flowery rugs. The computer and the television show some affluence, signs of an Afghan state striving to exist. The zoo, the pride of the 1960s Kabul when King Mohammed Zahir Shah undertook the modernization of the country, must live again. It's a question of principle. Trained in India, the young director sought support from overseas zoos. The Zoological Society of London and the North Carolina Zoo answered his call. But with serious debts, recovery is painstaking.
It was the civil war that steadily devastated the Kabul Zoo, which was situated right on the front line. Following the collapse of the communist regime in 1992, mujahedin factions plunged the country into violence and chaos. With no one feeding them, the animals that were once numbering 400 died of hunger. Fighters helped themselves as though the zoo were a butcher shop's backroom. Deer and ducks ended up in cooking pots. But bears, tigers, monkeys and eagles escaped the hungry militiamen because consuming them was considered to be haram, or forbidden. These animals died of negligence or were hit by stray bullets. When the Taliban came to power in 1996, they limited the damage. Saqeb says, "They built new outer walls" and "gave food to the surviving animals."
The tragedy of Marjan the lion sums up the zoo's misfortune. Ah, Marjan! The Kabulis still talk about him with emotion. He was paraded as a national emblem. His story is a parable for Afghan martyrdom. The Germans gave Marjan to the zoo in the late 1960s, when the director of the zoo was prince Nader, the King's son. Next to the extremely rare Bactrian deer, Marjan was the pride of the institution. In 1993, at the height of the civil war, a daredevil had a strange idea of slipping into his den to defy him. Marjan made short work of his opponent, who quickly died. The next day the victim's brother took revenge by throwing a grenade at the lion's snout. Marjan lost one eye and his teeth.
"Look how he suffered," murmurs Saqeb as he shows a photo of the disfigured lion. Marjan's face was scarred, he was permanently blinded, but he survived. He died of old age in 2002, just as the new Afghanistan started offering some signs of hope. A bronze statue of Marjan now stands at the zoo's entrance. Visitors stroke him lovingly and ask to be photographed with him. Marjan is immortalized as a hero.
The day after Marjan died, the Chinese gave Afghanistan two new African lions. Later they added two bears, substitutes for the pandas they usually give as diplomatic gifts. Pakistan tried to outdo China with a gift of Kashmir peacocks. This is how the menagerie is slowly being repopulated. Saqeb prefers to have animals from Afghanistan, but local wildlife, like the Badakhshan snow leopard, is under threat from animal traffickers. "Putting an endangered species in a zoo is out of the question," asserts Saqeb.
In any case, the residents of Kabul don't necessarily flock to the menagerie to see a precious wildcat. They go to enjoy this quiet oasis, its cool shade, its sodas, its kebab sandwiches and the myth of King Marjan.
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Filipinos fight for US citizenship in Afghanistan
By Ben Sheppard | AFP
Darby Ortego, 25, endures gunfire and mine attacks fighting for the United States army in Afghanistan, but this July 4 will be his first as a citizen of the country he serves.
Ortego, who battles insurgents in the violent eastern province of Khost with Bravo Company, 1-26 Infantry, recently attended a naturalisation ceremony at a US base near Kabul ahead of this year's Independence Day celebrations.
Like thousands of fellow Filipinos, he sees the US military as a fast-track to American citizenship, securing his own future and also helping his family back home.
"I joined up to get my mom to America," said Private Ortego, who is deployed at Combat Outpost Sabari in Khost, where US troops clash with Taliban rebels based across the border in Pakistan.
"I want to bring my mom from her village in the Philippines to Nevada, where I live. I want her to be with me."
Ortego is one of the roughly 9,000 legal immigrants who join the US armed forces each year from countries as far apart as Panama, Nigeria, Liberia and Turkey.
He has "Green Card" permanent residency in the US, and was living with his divorced father in Nevada when he signed up for the army two years ago.
Other benefits to military service include a free college education, which Ortego says he hopes to use to study business management.
Troop commanders say new citizens fight hard for their privileges.
"He volunteered to serve in the army, so he certainly deserves to raise his right hand and take the citizenship oath," said Ortego's commanding officer Captain Aaron Tapalman.
"Like all soldiers going through the citizenship process, he has always felt completely part of the team. You wouldn't know unless these guys tell you."
There are around 25,000 non-US citizens serving in the military, the Pentagon says.
Non-citizens have fought for the US since the 18th century War of Independence, while the US officially started recruiting Filipinos after World War II when it opened military bases in the Philippines.
After the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the naturalisation process for military personnel was streamlined when President George W. Bush scrapped waiting requirements for active soldiers.
In the last 10 years, nearly 69,000 immigrant troops have become US citizens while serving.
Naturalisation takes just months for serving military personnel compared to years for regular legal immigrants.
Unemployment and poverty in their homeland have driven millions of Filipinos abroad to search for work, often on construction sites or as domestic staff.
"It is better in the US because there are more opportunities. You can find a job and they will pay a decent amount," said Ortego, who sends money back to his family in Northern Samar province.
But the sacrifices he now has to make for himself and his mother are significant.
"Army life is tough, this is a stressful environment," he said. "There are bad days here, IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and small arms fire.
"My mom is scared for me. It is a mother's thing. She misses me a lot, I've only seen her briefly once in the last two years when she stopped overnight in Los Angeles just to say hi.
"I keep telling her, when I get citizenship, you guys are going to be in the US with me."
In the week leading up to July 4 this year more than 24,000 new Americans -- civilian and military -- are passing through naturalisation ceremonies, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services said, with events for members of the armed forces being held in Kuwait and Baghdad as well as Kabul.
At an often emotional occasion, participants raise their hands and swear the oath of allegiance before receiving official certificates.
Also taking the military path to citizenship is Von Bolante, 24, who moved from the city of Tacloban outside Manila to Hawaii when he was 12.
Bolante, who serves alongside Ortego in Bravo Company, admits it seems "a bit odd" to serve in a nation's army and yet still have to apply to be a citizen.
"But I might as well as be American by now anyway, it is my adopted country," he said. "I was working in a grocery store in Hawaii and wasn't getting anywhere so I joined up."
On his first patrol in Afghanistan, Bolante watched from a hill as his platoon mates were hit by an IED in a field.
"It blew up a few metres from them. That was the scariest thing I've seen. I don't know how nobody got hurt," he said.
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