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United States and Afghanistan sign deal on night raids
By Sayed Salahuddin, The Washington Post Sunday, April 8, 9:08 PM
KABUL — The United States and Afghanistan signed a deal on night military operations on Sunday, resolving a major source of friction between President Hamid Karzai and Washington.
Defending Afghanistan: are Afghan forces ready?
An extended occupation and ever-shifting objectives could leave Afghanistan shakier in 2014 than when US-led forces arrived.
By Howard LaFranchi, Staff writer The Christian Science Monitor April 8, 2012 at 11:28 am EDT
Kabul, Afghanistan - The dirt roads through Balaqala in the Charhasya Valley south of Kabul are oozy with mud after recent rains, and the fruit trees just beyond low earthen walls are about to blossom and demand tending. Still, many of the village's 1,000 inhabitants have come out to hear what Brig. Gen. Said Abdul Karim
INTERVIEW-Support for peace talks growing, Afghan diplomat says
Reuters By Rob Taylor Sun Apr 8, 2012
KABUL - Support is building among Afghanistan's regional neighbours for a comprehensive peace process with the Taliban, but Pakistan's backing and access to insurgent leaders are crucial to getting stalled talks on track, a top Afghan diplomat said.
Clash leaves 4 Taliban, 1 Afghan policeman dead
JALALABAD, Afghanistan, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Gun battle between Taliban militants and police in Lalpor district of Nangahar province 120 km east of capital Kabul left five people including one police and four militants dead on Sunday, a local official said.
16 Taliban militants killed in operations in Afghanistan: gov't statement
KABUL, April 8 (Xinhua) -- A total of 16 Taliban militants have been killed and 21 others detained during a series of cleanup operations within the past 24 hours, the Afghan Interior Ministry said on Sunday.
Ghor Governor Denies Land Grab Accusations
TOLOnews.com Saturday, 07 April 2012
A number of Ghor province's inhabitants have accused the Governor of land grabbing - a claim he has flatly denied.
Jalali to contest 2014 presidential vote
Pajhwok Afghan News By Mir Agha Samimi Apr 7, 2012
KABUL - A former interior minister announced on Saturday he would contest the 2014 presidential election, saying his decision was based on the consistent demand of his supporters.
Roadside bomb kills 3 Afghan civilians
KHOST, Afghanistan, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Three civilians lost their lives as a roadside bomb struck a car in Paktia province 100 km south of capital Kabul on Sunday, a local official said.
Top Taliban Commanders Killed in Ghazni
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 08 April 2012
At least 12 Taliban insurgents, including two of their top commanders, were killed during a joint Afghan and Nato troops operation in eastern Ghazni province on Saturday, local officials said.
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United States and Afghanistan sign deal on night raids
By Sayed Salahuddin, The Washington Post Sunday, April 8, 9:08 PM
KABUL — The United States and Afghanistan signed a deal on night military operations on Sunday, resolving a major source of friction between President Hamid Karzai and Washington.
The agreement removes a key obstacle to a long-term strategic partnership between the two countries, including a U.S. military presence in Afghanistan after 2014, when all foreign combat troops are set to leave the country.
Karzai, who has led Afghanistan since U.S.-backed Afghan forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001, has repeatedly called for an end to the raids, calling them a clear violation of Afghan sovereignty. But U.S. military officials have long hailed the effectiveness of night operations, during which many suspected insurgents — and their commanders — have been arrested.
Under the deal, a newly formed national force — the Afghan Special Operations Unit — will have the authority to search houses and private compounds and arrest suspected insurgents, Afghanistan’s Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said Sunday. U.S. forces will provide support “only as required or requested,” according to the agreement, which was signed by Wardak and General John R. Allen, the commander of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
“This is ... a landmark day for the rule of law in Afghanistan,” Allen said during a signing ceremony. “This means that Afghan security forces operating under Afghan law will now be responsible for capturing and detaining the terrorists who try to kill and wound the innocent people of Afghanistan.”
Many Afghans in the south and east of the country, the main bastions of the insurgents and the focus of the night operations by U.S. and NATO forces, have repeatedly complained about the raids, charging that they violate their privacy, create panic among the population and result in civilian casualties.
The targeted operations are expected to remain a key part of military strategy through 2014 — a viable way of crippling terrorist networks, officials said, even as NATO troops continue leaving the country by the thousands. The operations will still be based on U.S. intelligence, and, for now, Afghan forces will continue to depend on U.S. airstrikes during the raids, according to the agreement.
About 3,000 night operations have been conducted during the past 14 months, with suspects apprehended 81 percent of the time, U.S. officials said last week.
Afghan officials called the agreement on night operations a significant breakthrough in relations between the two countries. The other major hurdle to a long-term strategic partnership was removed last month when U.S. and Afghan officials signed an agreement to hand over the largest U.S. military prison in the country.
Shaida Mohammad Abadali, deputy head of Afghanistan’s national security council, said by e-mail that the deal addresses “our years-long demand for full respect to Afghan sovereignty.”
“The breakthrough on this crucial matter is going to bring a new taste to our relationship,” he added.
A summit in Chicago next month between the two countries is expected to address lingering questions about the cost and size of the Afghan army and a timeline for the U.S. military to shift away from a predominantly combat role.
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Defending Afghanistan: are Afghan forces ready?
An extended occupation and ever-shifting objectives could leave Afghanistan shakier in 2014 than when US-led forces arrived.
By Howard LaFranchi, Staff writer The Christian Science Monitor April 8, 2012 at 11:28 am EDT
Kabul, Afghanistan - The dirt roads through Balaqala in the Charhasya Valley south of Kabul are oozy with mud after recent rains, and the fruit trees just beyond low earthen walls are about to blossom and demand tending. Still, many of the village's 1,000 inhabitants have come out to hear what Brig. Gen. Said Abdul Karim, commander of the Afghan National Army Special Operations Command, has to say about the 15 Afghan elite troops who have set up camp in a nearby empty farmhouse.
Karim says his men will help provide security for their families, while acting as liaisons to government agencies on education, health, and farming issues. But Karim also offers a broader vision of his forces' role.
"Through the work of these brave soldiers of Afghanistan," he says, "we want the people to understand who is standing with them, and who the enemy of the country really is."
Already, Afghanistan is demanding and taking more responsibility for itself. Today in Kabul, US forces granted the government of President Hamid Karzai oversight of controversial night raids that have been a favorite tactic of US forces. NATO is ending its combat role here at the end of 2014, which will leave the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) largely on their own.
Perhaps if more of the ANSF – expected to consist of 195,000 Army soldiers and 157,000 National Police by this fall – were like Karim's men, there would be fewer doubts about the future.
But his maroon-bereted Special Ops troops are only a sliver of Afghanistan's growing but still formative security forces. In the Army, and more glaringly in the National Police, problems range from insufficient vetting of recruits to widespread illiteracy, from low morale to ethnic ties overriding national identity. Corruption is especially rampant among the National Police, the corps in closest contact with the people.
All these issues, which have shown little improvement as the United States has poured billions of dollars into Afghanistan, place question marks over the ability of the security forces to hold off a weakened but still active Taliban post-2014. Perhaps even more grave is the threat of Afghanistan returning to civil war after international forces leave – a prospect that preoccupies many Afghans.
It may have been mission impossible all along for outside forces to expect to build in a matter of a few years a modern and united national security force in a country as poor, illiterate, and ethnically and geographically divided as Afghanistan. The countries of the international coalition didn't help by persistently failing to provide the number of needed trainers.
But for some experts, the extended foreign occupation and its shifting objectives – counterterrorism here, counterinsurgency there, creating national security forces, then turning to developing militias – will leave Afghanistan shakier than when the NATO-commanded, US-led forces arrived.
"I don't think there's any way to come out of this that Afghanistan is going to be more stable than when we went in," says Christine Fair, a South Asia security expert at Georgetown University in Washington. "A lot of people, including me, expect another civil war."
Even top US officials in Kabul, while more optimistic, offer cautious predictions of what Afghanistan's military and police will be capable of by the time international forces leave in 2014. As the US ambassador to Kabul, Ryan Crocker, says, the ANSF should by then be able to defend an Afghanistan that is "basically secure, basically stable, basically democratic, [and] that can look after its own interests."
The assessments of Afghan security forces that run from modest to bleak suggest why President Obama is focused on securing a Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) with Afghan President Hamid Karzai over the coming weeks. With no hope on the horizon of defeating Afghanistan's insurgency, the administration will settle for an agreement that allows the US, after its 2014 combat departure, to pursue its terrorist-hunting interests in the area while standing back in a reserve capacity. The US would help out – for example, with air power – when the Afghans get swamped. NATO countries would maintain some military training. In exchange, President Karzai will get the funding to prop up a state with meager revenues.
The SPA, Dr. Fair says, "is really our ticket out of there."
Still murky is what happens between September, when the US will have withdrawn 23,000 of about 90,000 forces in Afghanistan, and the end of 2014. The US military is likely to call for the remaining combat drawdown to be back-ended to give the ANSF more time, while the US public and many regional experts press for front-loading the withdrawal from what they see as a corrosive engagement.
Gen. John Allen, the US commander of NATO forces here, recently hinted to Congress that he was unlikely to recommend any further cuts in the 68,000 US forces remaining after September until well into 2013. Mr. Obama has said he wants to set a "gradual pace" of withdrawal.
Yet whether the withdrawal of international forces is steep or gradual seems almost immaterial to prospects for Afghan security forces to maintain stability, since so many of their problems are internal and resistant to a quick fix.
Turncoats in the Afghan forces
With nearly a fifth of the 96 international forces killed in Afghanistan this year killed by their Afghan counterparts, much of the attention on Afghanistan in recent weeks has focused on these incidents. Their growing frequency suggests a fraying relationship between the Afghans and the international security force.
The US-led mission said in early April that lapses in Afghan screening of recruits had failed to weed out turncoats, while adding that new countermeasures have been taken. For example, Afghan soldiers are increasingly disarmed when entering coalition bases, and international and Afghan forces who once lived together are now more often kept in separate quarters.
Yet as vital as that issue may be, it has also obscured the rising problem of Afghan-on-Afghan violence within the security forces, and what those growing tensions could portend for the post-NATO Afghanistan of 2015.
Two incidents in late March underscored the deep worries about long-term Afghan unity, as well as about the care with which the Afghan Security Forces are being assembled. First, nearly a dozen suicide vests were found inside the Ministry of Defense in Kabul, and several Afghan soldiers were arrested. More chilling was the case in Paktika Province where a policeman drugged, then shot dead, other officers.
In the Paktika incident, a known Taliban fighter who claimed to have repented was allowed to join the Afghan Local Police, a new force that with US assistance is being developed to use local recruits to provide security in their own villages. The former Taliban was allowed after only a few weeks of training to join the force and begin work in a village outpost – where on March 30 he killed eight sleeping colleagues and one visitor before fleeing.
It was the kind of fratricidal act that has many Afghans wondering where more than three decades of war have left them.
"I would say the international forces can never leave Afghanistan; if they do it will expose a divided country that cannot defend itself," says Baktash Syawash, the youngest member of the parliament's lower house. "If the Americans left Kandahar tomorrow, it's Talibanization.... [I]t shows you that what we suffer from is a lack of vision for the future of our country."
Against such downbeat assessments, the leaders of the international presence here, civilian and military, generally offer more optimistic views of Afghanistan's evolution and of the ability of ANSF to take on the Taliban, deny havens to Al Qaeda, and keep a lid on civil war.
Ambassador Crocker notes that half the Afghan population is already under full Afghan security control, and he expects that share to jump as the "transition" of responsibilities from international forces to the Afghans accelerates. "I suspect that by midsummer, 75 percent of the country will be looking to Afghan forces for their immediate security," he says.
A weakening insurgency?
On the military side, commanders say a decrease in insurgent-initiated violence compared with last year points to a weakened insurgency. (But the Afghan NGO Safety Office found an increase in such violence last year, and the United Nations says civilian casualties are up.)
"I am confident that by the end of 2014 we will be able to hand off security [to Afghans] to deal with a still-active but continuously diminishing insurgency," says Lt. Gen. Adrian Bradshaw, the British deputy commander of the international force here.
Some military officials also insist that the "reintegration" program designed to bring Taliban fighters back into Afghan society is registering successes after years of difficulty. This is true now, they say, because Afghan forces increasingly play a lead role – thus denying the Taliban the line that they are fighting an occupation.
"They say they were fighting to provide security to their families and to get rid of the foreigners," says Bradshaw, referring to interviews he says were conducted with some 3,000 reintegrated ex-Taliban. "But now we're seeing that a combination of a security presence that is more and more Afghan, plus the pressure we've kept up on the Taliban leadership, is creating a shift."
However, some former military personnel who were involved in the reintegration effort say its successes have been played up, while others are even more dismissive. "It's a flop," says Georgetown's Fair. "The most that can be said is that it has brought in some people from the [insurgency's] very lowest rungs."
A key aim of the upbeat assessments of high-level officials like Crocker and Bradshaw is to pave the way to NATO's May summit in Chicago. There, alliance and partner countries will be asked to commit to more than $4 billion in annual funding for the ANSF for up to a decade. Cementing such a commitment would send a strong message to both Afghanistan's enemies and its neighboring countries, foreign officials say, that the international community will remain committed long after combat troops have left.
What NATO wants to head off is the "rush for the exits" by the international community that Obama recently warned against. To do that, officials with the international forces are not trying to minimize the storm of recent incidents in Afghanistan – the burning of Qurans and ensuing riots, the killing of 17 Afghan civilians by a rogue US soldier, the multiplying renegade assaults – but instead to suggest that in a more fragile setting, the reverberations of such incidents would have been worse.
ANSF shows 'steadiness under pressure'
Afghan forces efficiently handled the Quran-burning unrest, they argue, and the Afghans have taken measures to reduce the opportunity for inside attacks on coalition forces.
"What we've witnessed is a very strong indication of their steadiness under pressure," Bradshaw says.
Perhaps more important, officials say, despite Karzai's outburst that he was "at the end of the rope" with the US over a March massacre by a US soldier, US-Afghan talks on the SPA were not ruptured.
Both Afghan and foreign officials say a US-Afghan SPA would send a strong message in multiple directions – to Afghans, to the Taliban that cut off nascent peace talks, to neighboring countries, and to Chicago – that the US will remain on the ground well into the future.
A key target of that message is Pakistan, where Afghan Taliban fighters continue to find refuge. The US wants the SPA to signal that it is not abandoning Afghanistan and that Pakistan's interests do not lie in an unstable neighbor. Some experts counter that Pakistan worries more about archrival India's expanding economic and political footprint here.
Karzai is insisting that any accord must confirm Afghanistan's sovereignty, a sticking point.
An example is the practice of night raids. US and NATO military officials say that continuing the raids would be essential. Officials note that the vast majority of night raids – which have been successful at capturing Taliban leaders and dismantling bombmaking – are already under Afghan leadership. One option under consideration is to require a warrant from an Afghan judge to carry out a raid.
To underscore the country's "positive trajectory," NATO points to upbeat numbers on ANSF recruiting, training, and retention. As of March 1, the NATO Training Mission says the Army, at 188,000 strength, is on track to reach its goal of 195,000 by October. Attrition rates run from 1 to 5 percent per month, depending on the corps, the NTM says, but it says those numbers are made up for by strong recruitment. The National Police is also expected to reach its October goal.
But such rosy figures gloss over the security forces' shortcomings, some experts say. Anthony Cordesman, an international security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, says NATO officials have resorted to "spin" in past reports on training and attrition numbers, and he joins other experts in insisting the problems are worse than NATO suggests.
Mr. Cordesman's conclusion? While enough Afghan security forces may be ready to "contain" the insurgency in key areas by the end of 2014, he says 2016 is more realistic – and then only if Afghanistan's partners fund the forces and continue their training. Left on their own, Afghanistan's still-consolidating forces are likely to lose whatever nascent national spirit they have and to split along ethnic and regional lines that may doom the country to civil war.
That may be a gloomy prognosis for two "partners" who, after more than a decade of war, are tiring of each other's company. But the alternative may be worse. As Shahgul Rezayee, one of the 69 female members of parliament, says, "We all prefer a strong Afghanistan standing on its own feet, but unfortunately we are not at that moment. And until then, yes, we will need some foreign presence."
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INTERVIEW-Support for peace talks growing, Afghan diplomat says
Reuters By Rob Taylor Sun Apr 8, 2012
KABUL - Support is building among Afghanistan's regional neighbours for a comprehensive peace process with the Taliban, but Pakistan's backing and access to insurgent leaders are crucial to getting stalled talks on track, a top Afghan diplomat said.
Jawed Ludin, the deputy foreign minister and senior negotiator in talks with Washington on an Afghan-U.S. strategic pact, also said the two allies were near agreement on a deal to curb controversial night raids by NATO troops on Afghan homes.
But Ludin - the main architect of Afghan foreign policy - said both sides had failed to communicate the benefits of the pact and dampen anxiety among Afghans that foreigners were preparing to abandon the country after a 2014 withdrawal of Western combat troops.
"We need to communicate better, we need to explain it better. There are various interests, there are people who play this up the wrong way, they explain it the wrong way," Ludin told Reuters late on Saturday ahead of a trip to Australia.
"Some would like to see this as our inability to succeed and then the end of commitment."
The United States and Afghanistan have for months been negotiating on a strategic pact for a long-term presence in Afghanistan of U.S. advisers and possibly some elite troops, while at the same time trying to draw the Afghan Taliban and other insurgents into twin-track peace talks.
But in March the Taliban suspended exploratory negotiations with the United States, seen by backers as a way to end the country's conflict, while refusing to meet President Hamid Karzai's government, calling its officials U.S. "stooges".
Ludin, a former chief of staff and spokesman for Karzai, said he was confident an agreement would soon be signed with Qatar to open a Taliban representative office in the Gulf state as a vehicle for talks, about which he was "positive".
Ludin said he also held strong hopes that both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia's governments would weigh in to give political momentum to Afghan government efforts to engage the Taliban.
"We are working under the assumption that once this process moves, and once we bring some of the other contributing elements to this, we need to make sure we create an environment with support from not just Pakistan, but other countries - notably Saudi Arabia - but above all Pakistan," said Ludin.
"I think at the regional level, we seem to be coming closer to a consensus that is basically the need of the day, and that there will have to be a political process, there will have to be something done to end violence and bring peace to Afghanistan."
The "key contribution" for talks to succeed would need to be from Pakistan, where the Afghan president travelled in February to ask for access to Taliban leaders belonging so the so-called Quetta Shura (council), Ludin said.
Named after the Pakistani city where they are said to be based, Shura members would be the decision makers in any substantive peace negotiations. But Pakistan denies any top insurgents enjoy sanctuary within its borders.
"SPOILER" ALERT
"There are a number of elements and we all know what those are. The question of access, the question of providing a conducive environment for contacts to be established and for talks to take place wherever they are," Ludin said.
"We need to bring about an environment where leadership of the Taliban can viably use that office to engage with Afghanistan, with the government of Afghanistan, in constructive forward-looking talks about the peace process and about taking this step forward."
A revitalised peace process would be in the interests of the entire region, Ludin said, although some groups he would not name were acting as "spoilers" to a negotiated peace after decades of war during which millions of Afghans have fled.
While he would not clarify whether he meant neighbouring nations, reports in the United States this week said American officials believed Iranian agents had been active in trying to instigate violent protests in Afghanistan after the inadvertent burning of Korans by a U.S soldier at a NATO base.
"There is no doubt that there are various diverging interests at work," Ludin said. "What is important is that we really do not create excuses and opportunities for spoilers, for elements that wish to undermine the current transition. That should be our priority and that will be our priority."
Karzai has demanded U.S. and other foreign troops withdraw from Afghan villages after an American soldier allegedly massacred 17 civilians in Kandahar, while the burning of Korans in February triggered protest riots that raged for a week.
Afghanistan had signed strategic agreements with several countries contributing troops to the 130,000-strong NATO coalition in the country, including Britain and Italy. The government would soon finalise one more with close U.S. ally Australia, Ludin said before leaving for Canberra.
The transition to fully Afghan-provided security to be completed by 2014 was poorly understood, he said, as the country would then enter a period of transformation, with Western aid and advisers likely to remain in the country.
Economic aid would also continue to ensure no sudden economic collapse and flight of capital as wealthy Afghans and businesses moved their assets to safety elsewhere.
"In the last 10 years, it has been about military security assistance to Afghanistan. Now that we have our own institutions, we don't need that kind of support. What we need is your political commitment ... and also not least your economic assistance in the long term," he said.
Ludin said the government had made clear it was interested in a political solution with the Taliban and denied strategic partnership talks with the U.S. and other nations were inconsistent with Islamist demands for foreign troops and advisers to leave the country, and for Islamic-focused reform. (Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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Clash leaves 4 Taliban, 1 Afghan policeman dead
JALALABAD, Afghanistan, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Gun battle between Taliban militants and police in Lalpor district of Nangahar province 120 km east of capital Kabul left five people including one police and four militants dead on Sunday, a local official said.
"Taliban rebels attacked an outpost of border police in Lalpor district at 01:00 a.m. local time today and police returned fire as a result four insurgents were killed," district governor Abdul Qayum told Xinhua.
He also confirmed that three more policemen sustained injuries in the firefight that lasted for a while.
Meantime, Zabihullah Mujahid who claims to speak for the Taliban outfit in talks with media via telephone from unknown location confirmed the clash and said three Taliban fighters were wounded in the clash.
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16 Taliban militants killed in operations in Afghanistan: gov't statement
KABUL, April 8 (Xinhua) -- A total of 16 Taliban militants have been killed and 21 others detained during a series of cleanup operations within the past 24 hours, the Afghan Interior Ministry said on Sunday.
"Afghan National Police (ANP), army and coalition forces launched seven joint cleanup operations in Nangarhar, Faryab, Badakhshan, Kandahar, Ghazni, Khost and Paktika provinces, killing 16 Taliban insurgents and detaining 21 other armed insurgents over the past 24 hours," the ministry said in a statement.
They also found and seized weapons besides defusing 12 mines, the statement added without saying if there were casualties on security forces.
Taliban militants have yet to make comments.
Afghan forces and some 130,000 NATO-led coalition troops have intensified cleanup operations against Taliban and other militant groups throughout the country recently. Over 430 insurgents have been killed and more than 880 others detained in the country so far this year, according to the Interior Ministry.
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Ghor Governor Denies Land Grab Accusations
TOLOnews.com Saturday, 07 April 2012
A number of Ghor province's inhabitants have accused the Governor of land grabbing - a claim he has flatly denied.
Ghor inhabitants claimed that Governor Dr Abdullah Haiwad gave some government land to his relatives and is now claiming some of the inhabitants' land for himself and relatives.
The affected inhabitants said they have land title documents legitimising their claim, but that Haiwad has refused to accept their land title.
One of Ghor's inhabitants, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told TOLOnews: " I have a court order but the governor will not accept it."
Another inhabitant said: "[The court] should specify which lands are government-owned and which belong to the people, so all know their rights."
Haiwad responded to the claims saying they were groundless.
"If they have evidence, I am accountable to the law," he said.
"We have fulfilled all the demands of the court. It is exceptional that a powerful person would want the land of a woman without power, and this land refers to a poor woman so, I disagree and we should give an opportunity for this woman to apply to the court."
Ghor provincial council head Mawlawi Ramazan said: "It is not within the authority of the governor or others to act against legal documents. We have discussed the issue with the governor to permit the court to do its work and I have warned him to not interfere in the work of justice and judicial institutions."
Meanwhile, Ghor provincial police chief General Khuda Yar Qudsee said that the governor ordered him to imprison those who insisted on the court orders being followed.
"We have arrested some people and the governor ordered us to detain them until he returned from Kabul," he said.
But Haiwad said that the court orders were not rightful "so we ordered to implement measures against it".
The inhabitants of Ghor said that land grabbing continues with new "owners" destroying green areas and parks to build homes, and government officials have not stopped them.
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Jalali to contest 2014 presidential vote
Pajhwok Afghan News By Mir Agha Samimi Apr 7, 2012
KABUL - A former interior minister announced on Saturday he would contest the 2014 presidential election, saying his decision was based on the consistent demand of his supporters.
In an exclusive interview with Pajhwok Afghan News, Ali Ahmad Jalali said his backers had asked him to join the 2009 presidential race that saw Hamid Karzai re-elected for a five-year term.
During the last presidential ballot, Karzai, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah and parliamentarian Ramazan Bashardost were the leading candidates. There were rumours that Jalalai would be among the 30 runners, but he chose not to contest.
“In deference to people’s wishes, I intend to contest the presidential election in 2014,” said the ex-minister, who called for the creation of a working group -- committed to the core national interests -- to end the ongoing conflict and steer the country out of the present crisis.
“The conflict cannot be resolved unless an honest team is constituted to run national affairs. A leader having a complete team should run for the presidency,” he opined.
He called a weak central government the main challenge to efforts at resolving the conflict, saying officials working for personal or foreign interest should be replaced with honest and professional individuals.
“Now is the time to bring to a single platform all the forces with the ability to implement the constitution, win the trust of the people and deal with internal and external threats,” he said.
On the 2014 election, Jalali said he was worried whether the vote would take place on schedule. “A transparent vote can bring peace and stability,” he believed, warning that the country would be further destabilised by an unfair ballot. "If Afghans vote for a person who works to rescue the country, it will be your success.”
Speculation has it that Jalali stood down as interior minister after developing differences with Karzai on on the appointment of provincial governors and the alleged involvement of government officials in the drug commerce.
Born in Kabul in 1940, Jalali obtained his Bachelor’s degree from the former Afghan Military University (currently knowns as Kabul Military Training Centre) after graduating from the Habibia High School. Later, he earned a diploma from the US Army Infantry Advance Course in Fort Benning, Georgia, in 1964.
Jalali did his Masters in Military Science from the Staff College in Kabul in 1966, and his PSC from the British Staff College in 1967. He has served as a professor at the Military University and Staff College in Kabul, besides working with the Voice of America as a writer, broadcaster and chief of Pashto, Dari and Farsi services.
In January 2003, he was appointed as minister of interior under the Transitional government. The author of numerous books, strategic analyses and articles, he speaks Dari, Pashto, English, French, Russian and Tajik. He was re-appointed as interior minister 2004.
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Roadside bomb kills 3 Afghan civilians
KHOST, Afghanistan, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Three civilians lost their lives as a roadside bomb struck a car in Paktia province 100 km south of capital Kabul on Sunday, a local official said.
"A civilian car ran over a mine which was planted by insurgents on the road in Zarmat district today afternoon leaving three commuters dead," deputy to provincial governor Wakil Abdul Rahman told Xinhua.
The victims include a child, a woman and a man from the same family.
Rahman, however, blamed the enemies of peace, a term used against Taliban militants by Afghan officials for organizing the attack.
The armed outfit fighting Afghan government and largely relying on roadside and suicide bombings has yet to make comment.
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Top Taliban Commanders Killed in Ghazni
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 08 April 2012
At least 12 Taliban insurgents, including two of their top commanders, were killed during a joint Afghan and Nato troops operation in eastern Ghazni province on Saturday, local officials said.
Three other insurgents were wounded in the operation, according to General Daud Shah Wafadar, the 203rd Thunder Military Corps commander.
The operation to clear an area of insurgents was launched yesterday and it was continuing Sunday in the Muqur district of Ghazni province.
A Taliban shadow governor named Mullah Naeem and a local Taliban commander Hameedullah were among the dead, he said.
There were no Afghan, Nato or civilians casualties in the operation, he added.
Muqur district has experienced recent insurgent activity, mainly targeting Afghan security troops.
Meanwhile, Afghan and Isaf forces captured a Haqqani "facilitator" during an operation in Pul-e ‘Alam district, Logar province Sunday morning, according to an Isaf statement released Sunday.
"The facilitator built multiple roadside bombs for attacks against Afghan and coalition security forces throughout the province. He also provided explosive device materials and expertise to other insurgents in the area," Isaf said.
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