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Taliban again refute claims of peace talks with West
Wed Jul 6, 2011 11:09am EDT
KABUL (Reuters) - The Afghan Taliban again refuted on Wednesday claims they had entered into talks with the West to try and find an end to the war, saying any contacts with foreign countries had only been to negotiate prisoner exchanges.
Britain announces troop reduction in Afghanistan
By the CNN Wire Staff July 6, 2011
London (CNN) -- British Prime Minister David Cameron Wednesday announced a reduction in the British troop level in Afghanistan, removing 500 service members by the end of next year.
Brawl Erupts During Impeachment Talks in Afghan Parliament
New York Times By ALISSA J. RUBIN and SANGAR RAHIMI July 5, 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan - Members of the Afghan Parliament came to blows Tuesday as a majority for the first time began to discuss impeaching President Hamid Karzai, signaling the near-total breakdown of relations between the Parliament and the president as the country teeters on the brink of a constitutional crisis.
Afghan MPs Urge Karzai to Step Down
Tolo news July 5, 2011
Some Afghan lawmakers on their Tuesday session called on President Karzai to step down amid growing tensions between executive, judiciary and legislative branches of the government.
Taliban says it shot down NATO-chartered plane, killing 8
By the CNN Wire Staff July 6, 2011
Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Eight people died when a cargo plane chartered by NATO crashed into the mountains in Afghanistan, a provincial governor said Wednesday.
Afghan gov't launches search, rescue mission for crashed cargo plane
KABUL, July 6 (Xinhua) -- A joint team of Afghan Defense, Interior and Transport ministries launched a search and rescue operation on Wednesday to locate and recover the bodies if any, of the cargo plane that crashed overnight in Parwan province 55 km north of capital city Kabul, an official said.
Afghan refugees lose homes, family to Pakistan shells
By Mohammad Anwar | Reuters
SHULTAN VALLEY, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A rocket fired from Pakistan struck a small mud house in the mountain-top Afghan village of Chogam two weeks ago, killing Juma Gul's son, daughter-in-law and four grandchildren.
276 Taliban fighters killed in 2 weeks in Afghanistan: official
KABUL, July 6 (Xinhua) -- Afghan forces backed by the NATO-led troops have eliminated a total of 276 Taliban insurgents throughout the country over the last two weeks during series of operations, Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.
Clash leaves 23 Afghan police, 5 civilians dead
ASSADABAD, Afghanistan, July 6 (Xinhua) -- Gun battle between police and Taliban insurgents has left 23 policemen and five civilians dead in Nuristan province in eastern Afghanistan, provincial governor Jamaludin Badar said Wednesday.
Petraeus Says Afghan Fight To Shift East
July 5, 2011 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The outgoing commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan says the focus of the war there is about to shift.
Senators question military spending on Afghanistan infrastructure
Washington Post By Walter Pincus Wednesday, July 6 2011
Military commanders in Afghanistan tapped a new $400 million Defense Department infrastructure fund to bring electricity to Kandahar and begin building provincial justice centers as part of the military’s program to secure Kandahar and Helmand provinces, according to senior administration officials.
Women-run Afghan media offer untold side of story
By Amie Ferris-Rotman Tue, Jul 5, 2011
KABUL (Reuters) - Farida Nekzad has faced threats of kidnapping, acid attacks and a plot to blow up her apartment since she founded her first news agency in Afghanistan seven years ago.
Struggling for Power in Afghanistan
New York Times By GLENN ZORPETTE July 5, 2011
THE Western campaign for hearts and minds in Afghanistan is based heavily on providing roads, dams, buildings and, especially, electricity. The United States Agency for International Development, or U.S.A.I.D., expects to spend $2.1 billion this year in Afghanistan. It has been working there for half a century, since the Soviets and Americans were competing to be the country’s development partners.
Militants from Afghanistan attack Pakistani villages: officials
By Augustine Anthony and Saud Mehsud
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Up to 600 militants from Afghanistan attacked two Pakistani villages on Wednesday, Pakistani officials said, the latest in a campaign of large-scale raids on civilians and security forces.
2 militants, passerby killed in rare clash in Miranshah
By Reza Sayah, CNN July 6, 2011
Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Two militants and a passerby were killed in a rare clash between security forces and Taliban fighters in Pakistan's tribal belt, officials and a witness told CNN Wednesday.
Afghan MPs warn Pakistan over attacks
Press TV July 5, 2011
Afghan lawmakers have warned that if Pakistani cross-border missile attacks against their soil continue, Kabul will break its diplomatic ties with Islamabad.
Five refugees self harm in Australia's detention center in a week
CANBERRA, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Tensions are rising alarmingly inside Darwin's Northern Immigration Detention Facility in Australian as five detainees have attempted suicide over the last week.
S. Korean base in Afghanistan comes under attack
SEOUL, July 6 (Xinhua) -- A base for South Korean reconstruction workers in Afghanistan came under another apparent rocket attack, the foreign ministry said Wednesday.
Australian troops capture senior Taliban bomb-maker in Afghanistan
CANBERRA, July 6 (Xinhua) -- Australian Special Forces and Afghanistan National Police have captured a senior insurgent bomb maker and his associates in an operation in the Mirabad Valley, Oruzgan Province of Afghanistan, Australian Defense Force confirmed on Wednesday.
70 % of Kabul Residents Don't have Access to Drinking Water
Tolo news July 6, 2011
Afghan Ministry of Urban Development on Wednesday said that 70 percent of the Kabul residents do not have access to safe drinking water.
UN Chief Names New Afghan Mission Official
VOA News July 6, 2011
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Britain's Michael Keating as his new Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan.
Canada lists Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan as terrorist group
OTTAWA, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Canada has listed a Taliban group in Pakistan as a terrorist organization, the minister of public safety said here on Tuesday.
Pakistani Panel Bars Bin Laden Family From Leaving for Now
VOA News July 6, 2011
A Pakistani commission investigating the U.S. raid that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden says the terror leader's family can not leave the country without its consent.
24 deminers, 4 drivers kidnapped in W Afghanistan
HERAT, Afghanistan, July 6 (Xinhua) -- Armed militants abducted 28 people including 24 deminers in Farah province 695 km west of Afghan capital Kabul on Wednesday, police said.
Canadians eye home front as they quit Afghanistan
By Katherine Haddon | AFP News
For the Canadian troops leaving Afghanistan for the last time, the smiles and laughter as they filed across the tarmac to their transport plane said it all -- they were finally going home.
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Taliban again refute claims of peace talks with West
Wed Jul 6, 2011 11:09am EDT
KABUL (Reuters) - The Afghan Taliban again refuted on Wednesday claims they had entered into talks with the West to try and find an end to the war, saying any contacts with foreign countries had only been to negotiate prisoner exchanges.
In a statement emailed to media, the Taliban also repeated their long-standing position of rejecting any negotiations for peace as long as foreign troops were in Afghanistan.
"The rumor about negotiation with America is not more than the talks aimed at the exchange of prisoners. Some circles call these contacts as comprehensive talks about the current imbroglio of Afghanistan," the Taliban said.
"However, this shows their ... lack of knowledge about the reality. It is clear as the broad daylight that we consider negotiation in condition of presence of foreign forces as a war stratagem of the Americans and their futile efforts."
Last month, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the United States was in direct talks with the insurgents but that talks were not at a stage where the Afghan government was sitting down with the militants.
Washington and London have both acknowledged there have been recent contacts with insurgents although former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he expected it could take months before any headway could be made.
But so little is known about these contacts that they have been open to widely different interpretations and any discussions that may be taking place are still not at a stage where they can be a deciding factor.
Despite trumpeting military gains, particularly in southern Afghanistan, foreign leaders and military commanders have long recognized the need for a political solution to a war that has now dragged on for almost 10 years.
In Wednesday's statement, the Taliban said they had been in contact with "some" countries to arrange prisoner exchanges, including most recently with France for the release of two French journalists and their Afghan translator last month.
The men were seized outside Kabul on December 30, 2009 and held captive for 18 months.
France has denied any ransom was paid to secure the release of the two men, and their Afghan interpreter Reza Din. Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said revealing details of the negotiations could damage efforts to free other French hostages in Africa.
The Taliban said they were also continuing "direct and indirect" contacts to secure the release of U.S. and Canadian prisoners.
In June 2009, insurgents captured U.S. 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.
Bergdahl's abduction prompted a large-scale manhunt but U.S. officials have declined to comment whether they have tried to negotiate his release.
(Reporting by Jonathon Burch; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
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Britain announces troop reduction in Afghanistan
By the CNN Wire Staff July 6, 2011
London (CNN) -- British Prime Minister David Cameron Wednesday announced a reduction in the British troop level in Afghanistan, removing 500 service members by the end of next year.
In remarks to the House of Commons, Cameron said the move will bring the troop level to 9,000, and more reductions will be carried out in the coming years.
"We are now entering a new phase in which the Afghan forces will do more of the fighting and patrolling, and our forces more training and mentoring," Cameron said.
"As President Obama said in his address last month, the mission is changing from combat to support."
Cameron emphasized the move "marks the start of a process which will ensure that by the end of 2014 there will not be anything like the number of British troops there as there are now -- and they will not be serving in a combat role."
After 2014, he said, Britain will have a "major strategic relationship with Afghanistan," involving development, training, diplomacy and trade.
"Above all, we have a vital national security interest in preventing Afghanistan from once again becoming a safe haven for international terrorism. So although forces will not long be present in a combat role, we will have a continuing military relationship," he said.
The announcement was made on the eve of the sixth anniversary of the July 7 terror attack in London, and Cameron makes the point that the attack was "inspired by al Qaeda and executed by extremists following the same perverted ideology that underpinned the September 11th attack in 2001."
Cameron noted that international troops have been putting pressure on al Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan, pointed out the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and cited the weakening of al Qaeda.
He also said there's evidence to indicate that the Taliban's "momentum" in Helmand province -- in which British troops have been based -- has been stopped.
"In 2009, my predecessor told this House that some three-quarters of the most serious terrorist plots against Britain had links to Afghanistan and Pakistan. We must always be on our guard, but I am advised that this figure is now significantly reduced," Cameron said.
The planned reduction comes as other countries also make preparations for drawdowns and shift to plans for non-combat missions in Afghanistan, such as training.
U.S. President Barack Obama recently announced the withdrawal of 33,000 American troops by the end of next year.
France announced that it would also begin to reduce troop numbers, saying it "will initiate a progressive withdrawal of troops in Afghanistan, and will follow a timetable comparable to the withdrawal of the American troops."
Canada this week is ending its combat mission in Afghanistan and transitioning to a training role.
Britain's 500-troop reduction does not include the previously announced plan to withdraw 426 British military personnel by February.
Along with the military strides, Cameron said the Afghanistan security forces have been making great improvements. For example, he cited their handling of the aftermath of the Kabul hotel attack last week.
"The Afghan forces dealt with it professionally and speedily, only calling in assistance from a NATO helicopter to deal with insurgents on the roof," Cameron said.
Britain has long had the second-largest contingent in NATO's International Security Assistance Force, the coalition that has been fighting militants in Afghanistan. The United States has the largest.
The number of British troops who have died in Afghanistan stands at 375.
The latest was on Monday, when Scott McLaren, from D Company, The Highlanders, 4th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, was killed. He had been reported missing and was found later Monday after an "extensive search," the Defence Ministry said.
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Brawl Erupts During Impeachment Talks in Afghan Parliament
New York Times By ALISSA J. RUBIN and SANGAR RAHIMI July 5, 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan - Members of the Afghan Parliament came to blows Tuesday as a majority for the first time began to discuss impeaching President Hamid Karzai, signaling the near-total breakdown of relations between the Parliament and the president as the country teeters on the brink of a constitutional crisis.
The dispute centers on the legality of a special court set up by President Karzai to adjudicate allegations of fraud by candidates who lost their seats or were disqualified in last September’s parliamentary elections. Two weeks ago the special court ruled that 62 members of the current Parliament should be replaced by those who brought challenges, many of whom are allies of the president.
Neither the country’s election authorities nor the international community have recognized the court’s authority, and the prospect of now having to give up their seats has enraged a large bloc of the current 249-seat Parliament. All of the legislators have already been sworn in.
The fight between the Parliament and Mr. Karzai has halted the normal workings of government. Nine months after the election, the president has yet to introduce a transitional government — or to submit proposed legislation for review. He has been ruling by decree and by allowing a number of acting ministers and acting Supreme Court justices to remain in charge.
The result is a situation in which the majority of the Parliament does not trust the president; he has lost trust in them as well as they have become more hostile and estranged.
In clips of the session broadcast on the Afghan Tolo Television Network, most members of Parliament appeared to be present Tuesday as the impeachment discussion got under way with much shouting and banging on desks. “The president is sick,” said Mohammed Shafiq Shahir, a member of Parliament from Herat.
He was drowned out by one of Mr. Karzai’s defenders, a member of Parliament from Kandahar, Abdul Rahim Ayoubi. There was no substitute for the president, he argued. “Do we have an alternative for the president, do we have the knowledge and wisdom of running the country ourselves?” he asked. “Why should we sacrifice the achievements gained by the blood and money and sacrifice of the international community and sacrifice it in favor of 62 fraudulent Parliament members?”
The Afghan Constitution provides for the impeachment of the president under Article 69, which says that crimes against humanity, national treason or other crimes can be grounds for the chief executive’s removal.
Soon after Mr. Ayoubi spoke, Hamida Ahmadzai, who represents the Kuchis, a Pashtun minority, expressed her support of the president’s position. She had previously been part of a coalition of Parliament members who had agreed to stand together against the special court.
Her switch in position infuriated Nazifa Zaki, a former police general and representative from Kabul. She reached under her desk, removed her shoe and hurled it at Ms. Ahmadzai, according to another Parliament member who was there. “Your support is wrong; you may have taken money to support bad people and you are taking the wrong road!” Ms. Zaki shouted.
Ms. Ahmadzai took the only weapon she had to hand — a bottle of water — and threw it at Ms. Zaki, who rushed at her and began punching her; Ms. Ahmadzai managed only one or two punches in return before the two were separated.
By then legislators were swarming around them, still yelling.
The scene might appear to be merely political opera, but the situation has reached a point where it is difficult to see a way out that would be acceptable both to the members of Parliament and Mr. Karzai.
The majority of Parliament members, 200 out of 249, according to Fatima Aziz, a Parliament member from Kunduz, have decided to stick together, putting the president in the position of having to take an extreme step if he wants to force them to comply: either dissolve the Parliament or order their arrest — either of which could turn violent. Senior government officials have unsuccessfully tried to divide the anti-president bloc, according to several Parliament members.
Raising the stakes is that the biggest players on both sides have arms, and while skirmishes seem unlikely with 150,000 NATO troops here, traditionally arguments in Afghanistan are settled by force. There are several powerful commanders in Parliament, including Haji Abdul Zaher Qadir, who has become the Parliament’s standard bearer and has issued veiled and not so veiled threats.
Meanwhile, Mr. Karzai seemed aloof. At a news conference Tuesday with Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, the president spoke about Afghanistan’s nascent democracy, but offered no solution.
“Regarding the problems being created about the parliamentary election of Afghanistan; I consider it as part of the natural growth process of democracy in Afghanistan,” he said.
“We are at a very early stage in this process,” he said, adding, “Ultimately it will be solved in accordance with the Afghan Constitution.”
What that means is unclear since some believe that the Supreme Court has final say while others believe when it comes to elections, the Independent Election Commission has the last word.
For the West, which insists publicly that Afghanistan is a young but viable democracy, the disarray undermines claims that the country is ready for a transition to Afghan control and for the most part Western diplomats have been silent amid the government’s troubles.
The United Nations, however, has been actively meeting with both sides in search of a solution and is urging the government to set aside the rulings of the special court and support the Independent Electoral Commission, which, although it did not prevent significant amounts of fraud did a more credible job than at any time in the past, said Staffan de Mistura, the United Nations special representative to Afghanistan.
“The special court established to change the outcome of the elections is something that goes against international electoral approaches,” said Mr. de Mistura. “A court is supposed to find criminals, not to change the outcome of the election.”
“This can only be solved with a political solution,” he added. The alternative for the government would be to ignore the Parliament and rule by traditional tribal gatherings and by decree, he said. “That would be unfortunate for an embryonic democracy,” he said.
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Afghan MPs Urge Karzai to Step Down
Tolo news July 5, 2011
Some Afghan lawmakers on their Tuesday session called on President Karzai to step down amid growing tensions between executive, judiciary and legislative branches of the government.
Parliamentarians claimed that President Karzai is sick and has lost the capability to govern the nation.
Some lawmakers warned that if President Karzai refuses to step down, they will implement the article 69 of the constitution.
The article 69 of the Afghan constitution says president accused of crimes against humanity and national treason could be held responsible by one third of the members of the House of Representative that will follow his resignation in a grand council, Loya Jirga.
Government taking a silence stance against Pakistan missile attacks into Afghanistan and neglecting the demands of parliamentarians have left the House of Representatives infuriated.
"The country is in a very sensitive situation. Lots of things will happen this year from security handover, Core Group summit to conclusion of US-Afghan strategic partnership agreement," Mohammad Shahir Rafiq, an Afghan MP, said. "President Karzai has fallen sick and fails to govern the nation. He should respect the Afghan nation and step down."
Another Afghan MP, Samiullah Samimi, said: "The time has come for the implementation of article 69 of the constitution. The President wants to drag the country to instability, not stability.
Tuesday session of lawmakers ended up with violence between two female legislators.
But President Karzai said new tensions between parliament and justice institutions are because democracy is young in the country.
"This is a normal process of democracy in Afghanistan and every nation that steps into a democratic system should go through some challenges to reach maturity," President Karzai said.
President Karzai has previously accused Pakistan of firing 470 missiles into Afghanistan which was later denied by officials in Islamabad.
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Taliban says it shot down NATO-chartered plane, killing 8
By the CNN Wire Staff July 6, 2011
Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Eight people died when a cargo plane chartered by NATO crashed into the mountains in Afghanistan, a provincial governor said Wednesday.
The Azerbaijan Airlines cargo plane fell out of the sky Tuesday night in Ghorband district of Parwan province, said Yaqoob Rasouli, head of the Kabul International Airport.
Abdul Basir Salangi, governor of northern Parwan province, said he did not know why the plane crashed, but the Taliban said it had shot down the plane.
"The plane was shot down by heavy and light weapons when it was flying very low above the area last night," said Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mojahed.
Police were scouring the area for bodies, said Abdul Alim Mujadidi, the district governor.
CNN's Matiullah Mati contributed to this report
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Afghan gov't launches search, rescue mission for crashed cargo plane
KABUL, July 6 (Xinhua) -- A joint team of Afghan Defense, Interior and Transport ministries launched a search and rescue operation on Wednesday to locate and recover the bodies if any, of the cargo plane that crashed overnight in Parwan province 55 km north of capital city Kabul, an official said.
"A joint team of the Ministry of Transportation and Civil Aviation, Ministry of Interior and Defense has been sent to the site where the plane crashed in the wee hours of today," Nangialy Qalatwal the spokesman for Ministry of Transport and civil aviation told Xinhua.
He said the site of the incident has been located in Ghorband district of Parwan province, a mountainous area with difficult terrain. "There were nine crewmembers aboard the cargo aircraft IL-76 of the Azerbaijani cargo airliner, chartered by NATO-led forces to transport supplies," Qalatwal added.
However, he could not provide details if there were casualties or survival among the people on board the ill-fated plane.
Earlier, President of Kabul International Airport Mohammad Yaqub Rassuli told Xinhua that officials from air control service reported to him at around 00:30 a.m. on Wednesday that the plane was disappeared from radar.
However, according to Rasuli the plane was flying from Azerbaijan to Bagram military airfield, the main U.S. military base, 50 km north of Kabul and there might be five to eight people aboard.
The cause of the crash has yet to be determined.
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Afghan refugees lose homes, family to Pakistan shells
By Mohammad Anwar | Reuters
SHULTAN VALLEY, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A rocket fired from Pakistan struck a small mud house in the mountain-top Afghan village of Chogam two weeks ago, killing Juma Gul's son, daughter-in-law and four grandchildren.
Two days later Gul had fled down to the Shultan valley, joining hundreds of other displaced families taking refuge from a barrage of cross-border shells landing in mountainous eastern Kunar province.
They have killed dozens, including children, the government in Kabul says.
"We are poor people, we don't have food to eat or water to drink. Who is going to protect us from this misery?" Gul, aged in his 60s, asked with tears in his eyes. "There is no help from the government or foreign troops, we live a difficult life."
Governor Fazlullah Wahidi said the attacks have displaced over 1,000 people from their homes in Kunar alone. The Sarkani, Shigal, Dangam, Nari and Khas Kunar districts are all still under fire, he added.
In just an hour on Wednesday morning, a Reuters witness saw 10 artillery shells hit high areas around the Shultan Valley, about 300 km (186 miles) northeast of the Afghan capital Kabul. They appeared to come from across the border.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he would not respond with military force to the shelling, infuriating many Afghans. Some 300 people also protested the shelling in the Kunar provincial capital Asadabad on Tuesday.
"It is better to live under the Taliban and in peace. This government is even not able to stop Pakistan from shelling innocent people," said Mustafa, who goes by one name and lost his brother a week after the rocket barrage began in early June.
"I ask the Taliban to revenge the blood of innocent lives, in Pakistan. The Taliban are brave people and they are able to hit back," he said. "We are not with the Taliban or any other group but people in my village were massacred very brutally."
Karzai's parliament, despite facing internal turmoil after a government-backed court ruled in June to unseat 62 lawmakers, has focused debate on the attacks for several days, and wants to see sterner action. The issue even sparked a physical fight between two female lawmakers in parliament.
Pakistan has rejected Afghan allegations of large scale cross-border shelling, saying that only "a few accidental rounds" may have crossed the border when it pursued militants who had attacked its security forces.
There are insurgents on both sides of the remote, porous and disputed mountainous border and it is difficult to verify events. Pakistan has in the past fiercely contested cross-border attacks by NATO forces chasing insurgents.
The Afghan Interior Ministry says nearly 800 rockets have killed 42 people, wounded 55 and destroyed 120 houses.
Mohammad Rasool, who lives in the Shultan valley and took in a family of eight who had fled the rocket attacks, warned that Kabul needed to help the refugees.
"The government must help these people get a new shelter somewhere," he said. "We can't keep them here forever."
(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi, writing by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
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276 Taliban fighters killed in 2 weeks in Afghanistan: official
KABUL, July 6 (Xinhua) -- Afghan forces backed by the NATO-led troops have eliminated a total of 276 Taliban insurgents throughout the country over the last two weeks during series of operations, Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.
"Afghan National Army (ANA) forces during independent and joint operations with foreign troops have killed 276 enemies and detained 237 more insurgents all over the country over the past two weeks," General Zahir Azimi told reporters in weekly press briefing here.
According to Azimi, the casualties on Taliban fighters were counted from June 22 to July 5.
The army forces also found and neutralized 149 roadside bombs and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) besides seizing 170 pieces of weapons over the mentioned period of time.
"As many as three weapon caches were found and destroyed by ANA personnel in the past 14 days and the troops also seized 11 vehicles and motor bikes from the rebels in the mentioned time," Azimi further said.
Briefing reporters on army casualties, Azimi said a total of 59 army personnel were killed and some 108 other army soldiers and officers sustained injuries over the same period of time.
Regarding the beginning of security transition from NATO and U.S. forces to Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) later this month, Azimi said Afghan army and police were ready and had the ability to take security charges of seven areas including three provinces later in July.
"Afghans must be responsible for defending of their country, our army and police have the ability of taking security charges from foreign partners," Azimi said.
Later in July, U.S. troops are going to begin a gradual withdrawal from the country, he said, adding a comprehensive plan was underway to deploy Afghan forces in areas where foreign troops withdraw to avoid any security vacuum anywhere in the country.
The process of security transition from NATO-led troops to Afghan forces will start later this month and runs to 2014 with the aim of Afghan security forces to lead the securing affairs of their country independently.
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Clash leaves 23 Afghan police, 5 civilians dead
ASSADABAD, Afghanistan, July 6 (Xinhua) -- Gun battle between police and Taliban insurgents has left 23 policemen and five civilians dead in Nuristan province in eastern Afghanistan, provincial governor Jamaludin Badar said Wednesday.
"In the battle over control of Kamdish district Tuesday, 23 policemen of Border Police Force have been killed so far," Badar told Xinhua.
Five civilians were also killed and seven policemen injured in the clash, some of them in critical condition, he said.
He said that some 40 Taliban militants were killed and injured in the gun battle.
"Taliban insurgents, many of them foreign nationals, have retreated and the district is in our control," Badar emphasized.
Meanwhile, Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, claimed over 30 policemen were killed in the battle.
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Petraeus Says Afghan Fight To Shift East
July 5, 2011 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The outgoing commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan says the focus of the war there is about to shift.
General David Petraeus said fighting will likely move in coming months from Taliban strongholds in the south to the country's poorly guarded border with Pakistan in the east.
The U.S.-led coalition has concentrated most of its troops and attention in Helmand and Kandahar provinces in southern Afghanistan.
Petraeus, who is set shortly to become the director of the CIA, said more special forces, intelligence, and air power will be deployed in the east.
Petraeus spoke to The Associated Press and three other news outlets on July 4 after attending reenlistment ceremonies in Kandahar and at Bagram Air Field, north of Kabul.
The trip was one of the last of his command.
Petraeus will be succeeded by U.S. Marine Lieutenant General John Allen on July 18.
Petraeus's exit from Afghanistan comes as the United States begins a 15-month drawdown of some 33,000 troops by September 2012.
compiled from agency reports
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Senators question military spending on Afghanistan infrastructure
Washington Post By Walter Pincus Wednesday, July 6 2011
Military commanders in Afghanistan tapped a new $400 million Defense Department infrastructure fund to bring electricity to Kandahar and begin building provincial justice centers as part of the military’s program to secure Kandahar and Helmand provinces, according to senior administration officials.
“General [Stanley A.] McChrystal — and then after he took over, General [David H.] Petraeus — made very clear that increasing and making sustainable an electricity supply for the city of Kandahar was an essential part of our campaign plan and in order to defeat the Taliban,” David S. Sedney, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia, told a Senate committee on June 30.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), chairman of the contracting oversight subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, questioned why the new Afghanistan Infrastructure Fund was being used for long-term construction programs that usually would be funded through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department.
McCaskill focused on the Pentagon’s payments of $40 million for imported diesel fuel to power generators in Kandahar city, $86 million for power transmission between the cities of Chimtal and Gardez, and $20 million for provincial justice centers, all from the new fund.
Sedney said the commanders determined that battlefield success required “certain economic inputs,” and quickly supplying electricity for Kandahar was one of them. As for the justice centers, he said, “we believe [they] are so important to the success of the campaign that if it’s not possible for USAID to be funding those at this time, they are included in the Afghan infrastructure fund.”
J. Alexander Thier, director of USAID’s Office of Afghanistan and Pakistan Affairs, testified at the hearing that it was a joint military-USAID decision “to invest in some short-term power generation, diesel fuel, which . . . is not a long-term sustainable effort, to turn the lights on in Kandahar.” He said 50,000 people received electricity “so that the people of Kandahar, as well as the people of Helmand, are going to see the positive results of this effort.”
In all cases, Sedney added, “this is a combined civil-military effort discussed extensively with our colleagues at the U.S. Embassy and USAID.”
McCaskill responded, “It looks like to me that the military is deciding what projects need to be done, and if USAID doesn’t have the money, we just find the money in our budget.”
She and the subcommittee’s ranking Republican, Sen. Rob Portman (Ohio), also focused on the sustainability of Afghan reconstruction projects.
When McCaskill asked Sedney whether the Defense Department had “a certification process for sustainability before we spend any American money in Afghanistan,” he said he did not know but would pass the question on to his bosses.
Portman questioned the necessity of a $300 million dual-fuel power plant outside Kabul. USAID’s inspector general had determined that the plant was not sustainable because the diesel fuel required was too costly and because the Afghans did not have the capability to maintain and operate its complex equipment.
Thier said the plant was built as a “peaking power plant” — a backup to provide electricity to Kabul when power requirements exceeded what was being supplied through lines from Uzbekistan.
Portman questioned $300 million in USAID money being spent on a backup, but Thier insisted that “when the decision to build that plant was made, there was no assurance that this line coming down from Uzbekistan would, in fact, be available. And even once the plant was built, a landslide, for example, cut out that power line, allowing the [backup plant to be the] only reliable source of power.”
A self-described “deficit hawk” and director of the Office of Management and Budget in the George W. Bush administration, Portman was not satisfied. He asked Thier: “Could you provide us, the committee, some data to back up the assertion that this was built as a backup power plant for peaking only, and with regard to the sustainability? We’d love to see more information on that.”
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Women-run Afghan media offer untold side of story
By Amie Ferris-Rotman Tue, Jul 5, 2011
KABUL (Reuters) - Farida Nekzad has faced threats of kidnapping, acid attacks and a plot to blow up her apartment since she founded her first news agency in Afghanistan seven years ago.
Members of the Taliban e-mailed some of the warnings; others arrived over the phone. One caller warned she would be murdered and disfigured so horrendously that her family would not be able to recognize her body.
But the mother-of-one, whose most recent project is a news agency that spearheads coverage of the problems that Afghan women face, is undeterred. Wakht, or 'Time' in Nekzad's native Dari, is one of a handful of majority female media outlets springing up across a country where women's voices often go unheard.
It has seven female reporters and three male journalists and operates across 10 provinces.
Nekzad, who has start-up funding from private donors and hopes to become self-supporting through advertising within 18 months, aims to expand from text reports to multimedia ones.
"In 30 years of war, women and children are the ones to suffer the most ... but they are not given any attention and have no media coverage," Nekzad told Reuters, referring to decades-long violence sparked by the Soviet invasion in 1979.
A long-time journalist with international media awards under her belt, Nekzad first received threats when she co-founded privately-owned news agency Pajhwok, in 2004 in Kabul. Her husband has also received written warnings saying he would be killed as punishment for his wife's work. Nekzad's new project increased the threat to the safety of both. The only news agency of its kind, Wakht joins five women-owned radio stations spread across Afghanistan, that have also been the target of violence and intimidation.
They face constant opposition from the Taliban, challenges from more conservative sectors of a devoutly Muslim society, and staffing and management issues related to employing women in a country where only a minority work outside the home. One in Kabul was torched, taking it temporarily off the air. Female journalists at Radio Sahar, set up in the western city of Herat, say they have received death threats. A female-run television channel, called Shiberghan TV after the capital of northern Jowzjan province, will air from mid-September, but finding women willing and able to work on camera is a constant struggle.
"NOT EASY BEING A FEMALE LEADER"
Since the austere Taliban government was toppled by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in 2001, women in Afghanistan have won back basic rights in education, voting and work, which the militant group considered un-Islamic. But they face an uncertain future as Afghan and foreign leaders have embraced the idea of seeking a negotiated end to ten years of war, through talks with the Taliban. Female Afghan lawmakers and analysts warn the talks could result in women losing the rights they have regained, but still struggle to exercise in a male-dominated society. "It is not easy being a female leader in Afghanistan. I suffer from it constantly," said Nekzad, speaking in fluent English and dressed in a velvet black headscarf, long blouse and flowing ebony floor-length skirt. The 34-year-old was educated in Afghanistan and India, a country she has visited regularly since registering Wakht a year ago, to keep a low profile after the barrage of Taliban threats.
Until March, she turned down invitations to appear on talk shows and at conferences, fearing for her safety.
She leads Wakht's coverage on domestic violence, the bartering of girls and women between families and the widespread but illegal practice of forced marriages. Though common across the country, such stories rarely make the mainstream media, despite funding for many outlets coming from Western donors who are keen to promote women's rights.
And even dedicated outlets struggle. Wakht's reporters have in the past been lured away by rivals with big cash offers, in what Nekzad sees as an attempt by more conservative factions of society to silence the agency. "We are also ignored," Nekzad said, adding that Wakht employees are often not invited to events, and must ask journalists from other outlets about what is taking place.
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Struggling for Power in Afghanistan
New York Times By GLENN ZORPETTE July 5, 2011
THE Western campaign for hearts and minds in Afghanistan is based heavily on providing roads, dams, buildings and, especially, electricity. The United States Agency for International Development, or U.S.A.I.D., expects to spend $2.1 billion this year in Afghanistan. It has been working there for half a century, since the Soviets and Americans were competing to be the country’s development partners.
So you’d think that a new five-year, $1.2 billion program that U.S.A.I.D. has proposed to create a modern electrical grid there would be a model. You’d be quite wrong.
When it comes to electricity, the agency has a dismal record, one that needs to be reviewed now, before the grid plan moves ahead. Afghanistan is in the bottom 10 percent of the world in electricity consumption per capita; if recent patterns hold, it will stay there as U.S.A.I.D. and the State Department try to appease the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, and also give American officials a veneer of victory over Afghanistan’s problems as American troops start to withdraw. President Obama’s desire to speed the withdrawal makes the issue more urgent.
As in Iraq, the main American electrical reconstruction effort in Afghanistan is divided between U.S.A.I.D. and the Army Corps of Engineers. Of the two, the Corps has proved far more efficient.
The biggest project until now has been a 105-megawatt diesel power plant at Tarakhil, outside Kabul. It took the aid agency nearly three years to get it built. And as documented by the reporters Pratap Chatterjee of the CorpWatch news service and Marisa Taylor of McClatchy Newspapers, the Kabul plant became emblematic of the agency’s struggles.
Its contractors were the Louis Berger Group and Black & Veatch. Last year, U.S.A.I.D.’s inspector general said delays and contracting problems at the project had cost nearly $40 million, out of a total outlay of more than $300 million.
The agency itself had criticized Black & Veatch in letters to the company and in performance reports. So analysts who followed the contracting — including academics, lawyers, legislators and journalists — were stunned last October when U.S.A.I.D. offered Black & Veatch a $266 million contract, without competitive bidding, for other electrical projects in Afghanistan. The agency has cited the special challenges of war-zone work.
And in the end, the Kabul plant most often has sat idle, as it supplements power from abroad. Current prices for diesel fuel trucked into a war zone have driven its operating costs to around 40 cents per kilowatt-hour, seven times the 6 cents that a kilowatt-hour imported over transmission lines from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan or Tajikistan costs.
Another U.S.A.I.D. failure was at the Shorandam Industrial Park, near the city of Kandahar, which I visited with American military engineers in April. In 2005, U.S.A.I.D. set out to install 10 diesel generators able to produce 6.6 megawatts together. But it had a dispute with its initial contractor about costs and later said the generators had been damaged by an improvised explosive device.
After the generators sat in storage for five years, the agency contracted with Black & Veatch to finally install them; now the agency hopes to get the facility running this month. Meanwhile, the Corps of Engineers contracted for a 10-megawatt facility on the same site last July; it went into full operation on Dec. 2.
Why have two American agencies planned two different diesel-generating facilities in the same location, but with different transformers, switches, contractors and manufacturers? That’s a good question — one of many I couldn’t get a sensible answer to in the three weeks I spent in Afghanistan reporting for my magazine on the projects.
Now U.S.A.I.D. is about to start its five-year initiative to rebuild, improve, expand and tie together Afghanistan’s decrepit electrical networks into a single modern grid. It’s an excellent idea, but the agency and the Afghan national utility are not up to the challenge.
In an annex to a U.S.A.I.D. report, dated March 5 and given to me in Afghanistan, the agency outlines a nine-part mechanism for contracting and financing the many projects. It indicates its intention to put the national utility in overall charge, with the agency as a sort of supervisor and intermediary with the Afghan Finance Ministry. Just last week at a briefing in Washington, the utility’s chief executive officer, Abdul Razique Samadi, enthusiastically looked forward to getting to work on the project.
According to the March 5 outline of the project, the utility would control $906 million to be issued over five years — most of the budget. But that makes no sense. The utility has no experience with large-scale international contracting work, and most of its existing grids are ancient. No technical specialist outside of U.S.A.I.D. with whom I spoke in Afghanistan thinks the utility can direct and monitor the work of perhaps dozens of Western contractors and subcontractors. “It’s almost like we’re setting them up for failure,” one development official told me.
Why is U.S.A.I.D. pushing this scheme? It is under intense pressure from two sides: from its State Department overseers, who want to show progress before the troop pullouts are well under way, and from President Karzai, who wants more control over development funds and activities. Giving the utility and the Afghan Finance Ministry control of this project could satisfy both parties, at least on paper.
At its core, the problem isn’t the utility’s inadequacy; it is U.S.A.I.D.’s. The agency has shown an inability to manage large electrical projects. Its programs change with the policy goals of the American administrations it serves, and it seems to lack officials in Afghanistan who arrived with prior experience in electrical projects and contracting.
What to do? Turn the projects over to the Army Corps of Engineers. It has performed better than U.S.A.I.D. on electrical projects in Afghanistan; it is less hobbled by politics; it has experienced engineers. It’s critical that this happen soon, because the Corps can expect to be withdrawn with the rest of the Army, even if the timetable isn’t set.
Yes, a transfer of responsibility would upset the delicate war-zone power balance between the State and Defense Departments. And the military isn’t supposed to do long-term development overseas. But weigh those objections against the record: U.S.A.I.D.’s performance in Afghanistan’s electrical sector has been so poor for so long that we can expect many millions of dollars to be wasted unless the administration acts now to give a vast new project a better chance of succeeding before only the aid agency is left in Afghanistan to struggle with the job.
Glenn Zorpette is the executive editor of I.E.E.E. Spectrum, the magazine of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
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Militants from Afghanistan attack Pakistani villages: officials
By Augustine Anthony and Saud Mehsud
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Up to 600 militants from Afghanistan attacked two Pakistani villages on Wednesday, Pakistani officials said, the latest in a campaign of large-scale raids on civilians and security forces.
Militants stormed the border villages of Nusrat Dra and Kharo in the Upper Dir region, fighting soldiers and pro-government tribal militia.
"According to reports from the two villages, between 550-600 militants launched the attack at around 5 in the morning and the fighting continued for several hours," police official Abdul Sattar told Reuters.
Another official said four pro-government tribesmen who fought along with troops were wounded in the attack.
Pakistan says more than 55 soldiers have been killed in several attacks from across the border over the past month. The raids have raised tension between the neighbors as they battle protracted insurgencies by Taliban and al Qaeda-linked militants.
Pakistani Taliban fighters who fled to Afghanistan in the face of army offensives have joined allies in Afghanistan to regroup and threaten Pakistan's border regions again, analysts say.
Pakistan blames Afghanistan for giving refuge to militants on its side of the border, leaving its troops vulnerable to counter-attack when it chases them out of the tribal areas and into Afghanistan.
Kabul in turn has blamed Pakistan for killing dozens of civilians in weeks of cross-border shelling that has angered Afghans at street level and senior officials alike.
The lawless frontier is home to some of the world's most dangerous militant groups, who are intricately linked and cross back and forth to carry out operations.
Separately, Pakistan-based militants attacked troops in another tribal region of North Waziristan on Wednesday. Intelligence officials said troops backed by helicopter gunships killed three militants and wounded five in the firefight. Five soldiers were also wounded.
The Pakistani Taliban have been stepping up attacks against the state after warning they would avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. special forces on May 2.
After bin Laden's death, the United States reiterated calls for Pakistan to crack down harder on militants, especially those who cross over to Afghanistan to attack Western forces.
The Pakistan army said on Monday it had launched an air and ground offensive against militants in the tribal region of Kurram which also borders Afghanistan.
(Reporting by Augustine Anthony and Saud Mehsud; Editing by Chris Allbritton and Daniel Magnowski)
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2 militants, passerby killed in rare clash in Miranshah
By Reza Sayah, CNN July 6, 2011
Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Two militants and a passerby were killed in a rare clash between security forces and Taliban fighters in Pakistan's tribal belt, officials and a witness told CNN Wednesday.
The skirmish took place in Miranshah, North Waziristan, a district in Pakistan's tribal region where Pakistani security forces seldom fight the Taliban.
A Pakistani intelligence official and a local political official said the fighting started when armed militants ambushed a military convoy that was on its way to destroy a hospital that was suspected of being used as a Taliban hideout.
Pakistani troops backed by at least three helicopter gun ships fought back the militants in a firefight that lasted at least two hours, a resident of Miranshah told CNN by phone.
The clash comes a day after a planted bomb just outside Miranshah killed two security forces and injured 15 others.
U.S. officials call North Waziristan a safe haven for al Qaeda-linked militants who attack American soldiers across the border in Afghanistan.
Despite increasing pressure by Washington to launch an offensive in North Waziristan, the Pakistani Army has refused, saying its troops are stretched too thin with other operations in northwest Pakistan.
The army's reluctance to attack the Taliban in the district has fueled suspicions that the Pakistani military has links to militant groups in North Waziristan that are undermining the NATO operation in Afghanistan.
Pakistani military officials have repeatedly denied the allegations.
Elsewhere in northwest Pakistan, more than 100 armed militants from Afghanistan crossed the border into the district of Upper Dir and killed a leader of a pro-government, anti-Taliban volunteer militia, a Pakistani military official told CNN.
The militants also set fire to 11 shops and three schools in the village of Nusrat Dara.
In recent years militants have increasingly targeted volunteer militias that are established by local villagers to keep out the Taliban from their towns and villages.
The military official asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
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Afghan MPs warn Pakistan over attacks
Press TV July 5, 2011
Afghan lawmakers have warned that if Pakistani cross-border missile attacks against their soil continue, Kabul will break its diplomatic ties with Islamabad.
During the open session of the parliament on Monday, the lawmakers described Pakistani missile attacks against Afghanistan's eastern provinces in the past four weeks as “aggression” and approved a motion that states in case such attacks persist, “irreversible” events will transpire in their bilateral ties, IRNA reported.
The MP's also emphasized on retaliatory measures against the Pakistani missile attacks.
Additionally, the Afghan lawmakers called on international organizations such as the UN and the Islamic Cooperation Organization to halt the continuation of Pakistan's artillery attacks through diplomatic channels.
Tensions between the two neighboring countries have climbed in recent weeks.
According to Afghan sources, the Pakistani army has launched over 700 missiles on the eastern provinces of Kunar, Nangarhar, and Khost, killing and injuring dozens.
Pakistani authorities, however, has dismissed the Afghan allegations, raising further concerns among Afghan officials.
The Afghan Parliament has summoned the country's defense, interior and foreign ministers to explain the Pakistani missile attacks.
Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rasul has stated that diplomatic measures for halting the Pakistani missile strikes “have not been productive as the attacks continue do persist.”
Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan has been summoned to Afghanistan Foreign Ministry over the missile attacks.
Meanwhile, Pakistani sources have reported that Afghan artillery fired several missiles toward Pakistan on Monday. Afghanistan's defense ministry spokesman has told IRNA that the measure was in retaliation to Pakistani attacks during the past several weeks.
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Five refugees self harm in Australia's detention center in a week
CANBERRA, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Tensions are rising alarmingly inside Darwin's Northern Immigration Detention Facility in Australian as five detainees have attempted suicide over the last week.
The fifth detainee harmed himself at the center on Monday night, refugee advocates said on Tuesday. The man, believed to be from Afghanistan, received emergency treatment about 10:00 p.m. (AEST) on Monday.
ABC News quoted Asylum Seeker Support Network spokesman Carl O' Connor as saying Tuesday that there has been a number of self-harm attempts, a number of people have been on hunger strikes, and there was a large sit-down protest. A number of people have gotten up onto the roof of the center to protest.
"The Department needs to urgently move some of these men out of detention and into the community or process their claims quickly," O'Connor said.
Australia has been facing overcrowding problem in immigration detention centers, due to the large amount of boat arrival in Australian waters.
There have also been a number of wide-spread protests inside the centers across Australia in the past few months, as detainees are unsatisfied with the delay of their refugee status processing.
O'Connor said the people involved in the protests and incidents of self-harm have been in immigration detention for up to two years.
He said their mental state when they arrive in Australia is not good, and to be forced into immigration detention for close to two years will only make that worse.
"Detainees don't have a great deal of complaints about the conditions as such in terms of the food or the accommodation," O' Connor said. "It's the fact that they are detained in immigration for long periods of time for no apparent reason."
The incidents of self-harm started last week when Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard was visiting Darwin Immigration Center.
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S. Korean base in Afghanistan comes under attack
SEOUL, July 6 (Xinhua) -- A base for South Korean reconstruction workers in Afghanistan came under another apparent rocket attack, the foreign ministry said Wednesday.
Rocket-propelled grenades fell outside the base, located in the Afghanistan city of Charika, the 12th attack this year. No casualties have been reported.
The incident marked the seventh since the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the U.S. Twin Tower terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. He was killed in Pakistan by U.S. forces in May.
Officials suspect the series of attacks might have been linked to retaliatory attacks by bin Laden sympathizers.
South Korea currently has some 340 troops stationed in the conflict-ridden country to help protect a team of civilian reconstruction workers, and has beefed up security around the base for aid workers amid fears of terrorist threats.
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Australian troops capture senior Taliban bomb-maker in Afghanistan
CANBERRA, July 6 (Xinhua) -- Australian Special Forces and Afghanistan National Police have captured a senior insurgent bomb maker and his associates in an operation in the Mirabad Valley, Oruzgan Province of Afghanistan, Australian Defense Force confirmed on Wednesday.
Defense Force said the operation was conducted on Saturday, when members of the Australian Special Operations Task Group (SOTG) and Afghan Provincial Response Company conducted a cordon and search operation in a known insurgent area.
The operation resulted in detaining nine individuals, one who was positively identified as a senior district level insurgent commander.
SOTG's commanding officer, who cannot be named for security reasons, said the capture would further disrupt the insurgency in southern Afghanistan.
"The man was a significant threat to friendly forces and the local population, a key improvised explosive device facilitator and commander of many insurgent fighters," he said in a statement released on Australian Defense Force website on Wednesday.
"He was well connected to the senior insurgent leadership and led attacks in heavily populated areas of the province."
He said that the Australian and Afghanistan forces have been tracking this individual for several months, and removing insurgent leaders from Oruzgan has significant impact on insurgent operations in the province.
The captured insurgent will be transferred to the U.S.-run detention facility in Parwan Province to await prosecution through the Afghanistan judicial system.
Recent operations by the SOTG and the Afghan Provincial Response Company have resulted in 23 senior insurgent leaders being killed or captured in Oruzgan province since March.
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70 % of Kabul Residents Don't have Access to Drinking Water
Tolo news July 6, 2011
Afghan Ministry of Urban Development on Wednesday said that 70 percent of the Kabul residents do not have access to safe drinking water.
Currently, only 30 percent of Kabul residents drink safe water, but this figure will change to 50 percent in the next two years with support of Germany, officials said.
Afghan Ministry of Urban Development has recently signed an agreement with a German company based on which water supply networks would be developed in parts of Kabul city , in the next two years.
Acting Minister of Urban Development, Sultan Hussain Hessari, said the project costs 25.5 million dollars that Germany will cover.
"Supplying drinking water to the people of Afghanistan is a part of the country's infrastructure programme. We emphasise on projects and contracts that we could approach to our commitments for adapting the Afghan National Development Strategy," Mr Hessari said.
More than 11,000 families in Khushhal Khan, Third Parwan, Rahman Mina and Deh Naw will have access to safe drinking water after the end of the project, officials said.
Mr Hessari said that currently 20 percent of Kabul residents and 11 percent of the local residents in villages of Kabul drink safe water.
He added that digging deep wells next to septic wells has caused spoiling of underground water in Kabul.
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UN Chief Names New Afghan Mission Official
VOA News July 6, 2011
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Britain's Michael Keating as his new Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan.
In a statement Wednesday, the U.N. mission in Afghanistan said Keating brings extensive experience in managing humanitarian emergencies and post-conflict recovery programs in Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa.
He replaces Robert Watkins of Canada, who has been appointed to be the Deputy Special Coordinator for Lebanon.
Keating was born in Uganda and has spent 15 years working for the United Nations.
He will also serve as the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan.
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Canada lists Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan as terrorist group
OTTAWA, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Canada has listed a Taliban group in Pakistan as a terrorist organization, the minister of public safety said here on Tuesday.
Vic Toews said listing Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an organization that has claimed responsibility for multiple suicide attacks in Pakistan and the attempted bombing of Times Square in New York City in May 2010, is an essential part of Canada's efforts to combat terrorism and keep the communities safe.
"Fighting terrorism is one of the most important challenges we face as a nation," he said in a statement. "The threat is real, persistent, and evolving, and we remain vigilant in confronting it."
The listing of terrorist entities is an essential part of efforts to combat terrorism, as it facilitates the prosecution of supporters of terrorism and plays a key role in countering the financing of terrorist activities.
For example, the listing prohibits all persons in Canada as well as every Canadian abroad from knowingly dealing with assets owned or controlled by the TTP.
In addition, it is an offence to knowingly participate in, contribute to, or facilitate certain activities of a listed entity.
Speaking to reporters on Parliament Hill on Tuesday, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said the move was part of a global effort to crack down on terrorism.
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan joins 43 other terrorist entities on Canada's list.
The Pakistani Taliban is not directly affiliated with the original Afghan Taliban, which controlled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, sheltered al-Qaida terrorists and supported terrorist training.
Several years ago, Mullah Omar, leader of the Afghan Taliban, asked Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan to support the war in Afghanistan.
Pakistani Taliban leaders agreed to put aside their differences to help counter increasing numbers of the United States troops in Afghanistan. They reaffirmed their allegiance to Mullah Omar and to Osama bin Laden.
The group has almost exclusively targeted elements of the Pakistani state, though its leaders said in April 2010 they would make U.S. cities a "main target" in response to U.S. drone strikes across the Afghan-Pakistan border.
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Pakistani Panel Bars Bin Laden Family From Leaving for Now
VOA News July 6, 2011
A Pakistani commission investigating the U.S. raid that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden says the terror leader's family can not leave the country without its consent.
Three of bin Laden's wives and several children have been in Pakistani custody since the May 2 raid. Pakistani officials have said the wives — one from Yemen and two from Saudi Arabia — would be repatriated. Authorities had indicated in recent days the youngest wife could soon be sent back to Yemen.
But the four-member commission said late Tuesday it has told the country's interior ministry and Inter-Services Intelligence agency to ensure bin Laden's family members are not sent home without its approval.
Pakistan has a history of probes and inquiries that have been met with interference from the powerful military and intelligence service.
The commission, headed by a Supreme Court judge, is tasked with investigating how bin Laden was able to hide out in Pakistan for several years without being detected. The Pakistani government set up the panel amid public anger over the U.S. raid, which was seen as a violation of the country's sovereignty.
The panel said Tuesday it will carry out a thorough and independent investigation of the U.S. military operation that killed the al-Qaida leader and called on the public to share any information about the raid. The commission is set to meet again next week.
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24 deminers, 4 drivers kidnapped in W Afghanistan
HERAT, Afghanistan, July 6 (Xinhua) -- Armed militants abducted 28 people including 24 deminers in Farah province 695 km west of Afghan capital Kabul on Wednesday, police said.
"A group of armed Taliban militants kidnapped 24 de-miners along with four drivers in Balablok district this morning and have shifted them to unknown locations," provincial police chief Syed Mohammad Roshandil told Xinhua.
The deminers were busy in cleaning mines from the area when armed Taliban attacked and took them to unknown place, the police chief said.
All those kidnapped were employees of a mine clearing agency -- Demining Agency for Afghanistan (DAFA), Roshandil added.
He also noted that police have begun search operation to rescue the deminers.
Afghanistan is one of the most mine-contaminated countries as millions of mines and unexploded ordnances have left over from the past three decades of wars.
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Canadians eye home front as they quit Afghanistan
By Katherine Haddon | AFP News
For the Canadian troops leaving Afghanistan for the last time, the smiles and laughter as they filed across the tarmac to their transport plane said it all -- they were finally going home.
The 117 troops who left Kandahar airfield, the giant military base in the heart of the southern war zone, early Wednesday were among nearly 3,000 Canadian combat troops whose mission ends this week after nine years and 157 deaths.
Still in uniform, carrying camouflage kit bags and flashing thumbs-up signs to photographers, most were purely and simply looking forward to going back to their families.
But others were conscious that the adjustment from frontline to civilian life might not be totally straightforward, despite a five-day "decompression" period in Cyprus on the way home to help them acclimatise.
Speaking on the runway moments before boarding the C17 transport aircraft, Captain Giles McClintock was desperate to get back to Canada to catch up on lost time with his infant son.
"I got to meet him for a week before I was deployed and during three weeks' break," he said. "I haven't even known him as a baby -- I'm coming back to him as a little boy."
McClintock, who spent eight months in Afghanistan working with an engineering unit building roads and schools, said it felt "great" to be going home.
But some more senior officers cautioned that some soldiers might have a harder time adjusting to the aftermath of war.
Lieutenant-Colonel Martin Arcand spent 15 months in a senior operational role for Canadian forces and starts work as a military adviser to Canada's ambassador to the United Nations in New York later this month.
"Here, you're always on, you're called throughout the night. Back home it's going to be more like nine to six. You don't bring much work home. It will need some adjustment for sure," he said.
In Cyprus, the troops will attend talks on the psychological impact of war, while counselling will be available for those who want it. It will also be their first chance in months to drink alcohol.
Arcand said the Cyprus stop-off aimed to help them prepare for going home.
"You've been away for a year, you're going back home, your family have been doing stuff together for a year so you need to be able to adapt to a normal life," he said.
McClintock, though, was ambivalent about the prospect of the extended layover.
"Obviously it will be nice to be with the guys in a relaxed setting," he said. "However, all of us just want to go home."
A few soldiers whose husbands, wives or partners were also in the military in Afghanistan do not feel in such a rush to head back to their families.
Warrant Officer Yves Martin served as a physician specialising in trauma at frontline bases around Kandahar province, one of Afghanistan's most dangerous.
He said that members of his team provided strong support for each other, particularly after dealing with some of the most harrowing cases of dead and injured soldiers.
"After every case, we would get together and do a debrief," he said. "You can't save all the lives. You need to make sure everybody knows they did their best. So far I've been lucky, knock on wood, that I haven't had anything too traumatising."
Martin also had his wife to turn to, although military rules prevent intimacy between serving couples.
"We saw each other but we couldn't be too close. We played a lot of cards," he said.
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