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Afghan minister survives assassination attempt
Reuters 15/07/2012
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan - An Afghan government minister survived a bomb attack on his motorcade in northern Afghanistan on Sunday, the second assault on a high-profile politician in two days, but two of his bodyguards were wounded, provincial officials said.
Taliban mounts new wave of violent attacks in Afghanistan
by Farid Behbud
KABUL, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Taliban insurgents have been mounting a new wave of violent attacks over the past couple of weeks since they launched the annual spring offensive against Afghan government forces and NATO-led troops.
Taliban harsh policies meet backlash in Afghan rural areas
KABUL, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The restrictions imposed by Taliban militants in villages outside government control have faced backlash as the villagers in Andar district of Ghazni province have made uprising to oust the armed outfit.
The hand that feeds
More aid is pledged, but it will not solve Afghanistan’s many problems
The Economist Jul 14th 2012
KABUL - AFGHAN officials returned from a conference in Tokyo on July 8th relieved that the world had promised another $16 billion in aid over the next four years. The sum corresponds roughly to what the nation’s leaders and the World Bank think is needed to bridge the chasm between public revenue and expenditure. The money comes on top of separate promises to finance the Afghan police and army.
Thousands anti-NATO marchers gather along Pak-Afghan border
ISLAMABAD, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Thousands protesting Pakistan's decision to reopen the land supply routes for NATO forces in Afghanistan Sunday gathered at a border town as part of their campaign to mount pressure on the government to withdraw its decision.
Taliban Commander Killed, 3 Others Arrested in Afghan Operations
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 15 July 2012
A Taliban commander was killed in a joint Afghan and Nato troops operation on Saturday night in Maidan Wardak province, local officials said.
Release of Taliban Inmates Merely Strengthens the Insurgency: Massoud
TOLOnews.com Saturday, 14 July 2012
Releasing insurgents from Afghanistan's prisons is strengthening the "trenches" of the Taliban, head of Afghanistan's opposition party National Front Ahmad Zia Massoud said Saturday.
Taliban Reject Semple's Published Interview with Talib Commander
TOLOnews.com By Sonil Haidari Saturday, 14 July 2012
The Taliban rejected a UK magazine's interview with a Taliban commander, saying in a statement released Saturday that the magazine's claim to have spoken to one their own was "fatuous".
11 Women Executed by Taliban in Parwan This Year: Official
TOLOnews.com Saturday, 14 July 2012
As many as 11 women have been executed by the Taliban in the Shinwari district of northern Parwan province since the start of the year, provincial Women Affairs director Shah Jan Yazdan Parast said Saturday.
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Afghan minister survives assassination attempt
Reuters 15/07/2012
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan - An Afghan government minister survived a bomb attack on his motorcade in northern Afghanistan on Sunday, the second assault on a high-profile politician in two days, but two of his bodyguards were wounded, provincial officials said.
Higher Education Minister Obaidullah Obaid was travelling from Baghlan to Kunduz province when one of the cars in his convoy hit a roadside bomb, Munshi Majid, the provincial governor of Baghlan who was in the same motorcade, told Reuters.
"The minister is safe," Munshi said. "Two policemen were wounded in the bomb attack," he said, adding that the bomb exploded on a highway outside Baghlan city.
Sunday's attack came a day after a suicide bomber blew himself up at a wedding reception in Samangan province, also in the north, killing a top Afghan official and 22 others.
On Friday, a car bomb killed a regional head of women's affairs in the east of the country.
Insurgents have spread their reach from their traditional strongholds in southern and eastern areas of Afghanistan to northern parts of the country once considered relatively safe.
Homemade bombs are by far the most lethal weapons deployed by insurgents and remain the single biggest killer of civilians, as well as foreign and Afghan troops.
Violence in Afghanistan is at its fiercest since U.S.-led Afghan troops overthrew the Taliban government in 2001.
(Reporting by Mohammad Hamed; Writing by Hamid Shalizi; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)
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Taliban mounts new wave of violent attacks in Afghanistan
by Farid Behbud
KABUL, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Taliban insurgents have been mounting a new wave of violent attacks over the past couple of weeks since they launched the annual spring offensive against Afghan government forces and NATO-led troops.
A total of 18 people were injured Sunday morning when Taliban carried out twin blasts in eastern Logar province, some 60 km south of capital city of Kabul, a provincial police source said.
"Our report said that a total of 18 people with majority of them civilians were injured in two back-to-back bomb blasts in provincial capital Pul-e-Alam this morning," deputy provincial police chief Rahis Khan Saddiq told Xinhua.
He said a number of police and army soldiers were among the injured.
The attackers seems to have followed old tactics which depends on creating initial blast to attract security forces and people, then they set off another blast to get higher casualties.
A total of 14 civilians were killed and nine injured in similar bomb attacks in southern Kandahar province on July 8.
Earlier Sunday morning, Afghan Higher Education Minister Obidullah Obid, who was travelling to northern Kunduz province, escaped a bomb attack in neighboring Baghlan province in an attack that injured two policemen.
"The blast took place at around 08:50 a.m. local time in Jari-e- Khoshk area of Baghlan-e-Markazi district but minister Obid was unharmed and keep on his trip to Kunduz province shortly after the blast," police chief of the district, Colonel Mohammad Kamin, told Xinhua.
Meantime, Afghan police, army and NATO-led coalition forces have been mounting pressure against the Taliban.
Up to 15 Taliban insurgents have been killed and six others detained in operations carried out by the joint forces within the past 24 hours, the country's Interior Ministry said Sunday morning.
"A total of seven armed Taliban insurgents were also wounded during the 10 raids launched by the joint forces in Nangarhar, Laghman, Kunduz, Uruzgan, Wardak, Ghazni, Herat and Helmand provinces throughout the past 24 hours," the ministry said in a statement providing daily operational updates.
On Saturday, a suicide bombing against a wedding party in the northern province of Samangan left 17 people dead and 43 others injured. An influential parliamentarian and a province intelligence chief were among the killed.
On Friday, a bomb attack killed an Afghan woman official and her husband in the eastern province of Laghman. Another 11 civilians, including her daughter and her driver, were also injured in the assault. A senior provincial officer was shot and killed in western Herat province on the same day.
A police officer and his 17-year-old son were also killed after militants broke out into his house in northern Baghlan province early Friday morning.
The Taliban stepped up their attacks on Afghan and NATO-led troops since a spring offensive was launched in May in the war- ravaged country.
The Taliban insurgents has warned the civilians to stay away from official gatherings, military convoys and centers regarded as the legitimate targets by militants besides warning people against supporting government and foreign troops.
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Taliban harsh policies meet backlash in Afghan rural areas
KABUL, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The restrictions imposed by Taliban militants in villages outside government control have faced backlash as the villagers in Andar district of Ghazni province have made uprising to oust the armed outfit.
The revolt has spearheaded to outreaching areas in east Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan, local media reports said.
"The residents of Andar district have fed up with the restrictions imposed by Taliban. The Taliban had shut down the schools and bazaars and motivated the people to fight against government. To get rid of Taliban clutch we have decided to stand against them," an anti-Taliban fighter, Wali Mohammad, was quoted as saying by local newspaper 8Subh.
Citing Wali Mohammad, the uprising began with six people some two months ago has grown to more than 500 people resisting Taliban onslaught in Andar and adjoining areas.
Similar uprisings also began in the eastern Paktia and Nuristan provinces.
According to Habib Khan Mangal, a tribal elder in Paktia province, locals in Mirzaka district have revolved against Taliban militants who raided the district over the weekend but security forces with the support of locals foiled the plan and forced Taliban fighters to flee.
In Nuristan, following the Taliban decision to close down the doors of school in Waigal district, all the teachers and students had opposed the decision, said Mawlawi Ahmadullah Moahid, a parliamentarian from the province.
Quoting Moahid, local daily Mandegar reported that security forces were not present in Waigal district and the locals on their own defeated Taliban there.
Locals said the Taliban militants who banned schools for girls and confined women in houses during their six-year rule, which collapsed under U.S.-led military campaign in late 2001, are still against girl education.
The uprising reportedly backed by government, first began from the most restive Andar district in Ghazni province some two months ago when local authorities banned motorbike riding there and the Taliban fighters in reaction decided to close down schools, a decision opposed by locals.
The leader of the uprising in Andar is Lutfullah Kamran, a clean-shaved man and engineer by profession, who has been lashing at Taliban harsh policies imposed on villagers. Kamran said it is the internet era, but people in Andar are deprived of education which is a big discrimination.
Kamram, reportedly a dissident Taliban fighter fed up with the outfit's harsh policies, has said that the restriction imposed by Taliban had led to the closure of schools, clinics, bazaars and eventually led to joblessness and extreme poverty in Andar district.
Taliban as an organized armed outfit fighting Afghan and NATO- led troops to oust the government in Kabul has been using all possible tactics including roadside and suicide bombings.
Due to Taliban restriction on school and education, only eight students got admission to universities last year from Andar district with a population of 240,000, which is discrimination against education, said former lawmaker Abdul Jabbar Shulgarai.
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The hand that feeds
More aid is pledged, but it will not solve Afghanistan’s many problems
The Economist Jul 14th 2012
KABUL - AFGHAN officials returned from a conference in Tokyo on July 8th relieved that the world had promised another $16 billion in aid over the next four years. The sum corresponds roughly to what the nation’s leaders and the World Bank think is needed to bridge the chasm between public revenue and expenditure. The money comes on top of separate promises to finance the Afghan police and army.
Some of the pledges, notably America’s—made in an election year—are vague. And some of the money may not be new. But many Afghan officials believe that the economic commitments, like the strategic agreement reached with America in April, show they will not be abandoned after the majority of NATO troops leave in 2014.
Such donations were not a foregone conclusion, given a backdrop of slow global growth, war weariness, and frustration at Kabul’s inability to tackle corruption. The motivation, donors said, was to avoid repeating the mistakes of the 1990s, when neglect left the nation prey to civil war, which in turn opened the way for the rise of the Taliban.
Now, after a decade of piecemeal funding, donors say that Afghan finances have never looked so well co-ordinated. The question is whether foreign money is being wisely used. And, in the long term, whether dependence on foreign donations can be reduced.
Afghanistan is hugely dependent on aid. A World Bank analysis in May suggests that only Gaza, the West Bank and Liberia have been so reliant. In the year to September 30th 2011 aid was the equivalent of Afghanistan’s entire GDP (see chart).
Aid volume, however, is rarely matched by efficiency. The World Bank says that since 2002 some $55 billion of aid has flowed into the country, and billions of it has flowed out again to pay the salaries of foreign staff and profits to foreign contractors. The World Bank estimates that, in projects that use foreign contractors, only 10-25% of funds given are spent on the ground in Afghanistan. Aid has fed corruption, which has tarnished the administration. Afghan civil groups, meeting on the sidelines in Tokyo, demanded stricter conditions attached to the aid to combat corruption, and to guarantee that social progress in the past decade is not sold away for an easier peace with the Taliban.
Above all, though, government and donors alike know that Afghanistan can only wean itself off aid if it boosts its own economy. The billions pledged in Tokyo will keep the government running, but will do little to foster economic growth. Even with the pledged $4 billion a year, optimistic projections show GDP growth falling from 9% to below 5%. Investment is badly needed, but investors demand security.
Afghanistan’s best bet may be its mineral wealth. A Chinese company has already won rights to a copper deposit at Aynak and an Indian group bought access to an iron deposit in Hajigak. Exploiting such resources is difficult, with chronic instability still plaguing large parts of the country. But some economic strategy is needed. However grave their problems, Afghans cannot depend on foreign billions for ever.
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Thousands anti-NATO marchers gather along Pak-Afghan border
ISLAMABAD, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Thousands protesting Pakistan's decision to reopen the land supply routes for NATO forces in Afghanistan Sunday gathered at a border town as part of their campaign to mount pressure on the government to withdraw its decision.
The two-day march was organized by a Pakistani alliance of dozens of religious and political parties in southwestern Balochistan province, bordering Afghanistan.
It was the second long march by the Defense of Pakistan Council (DPC) as part of its countrywide protest against the July 3 decision by the government to reopen NATO supply line after nearly a seven-month suspension.
The first march between the eastern city of Lahore and the capital Islamabad ended on July 10 and the DPC plans a third march on the NATO's main supply route in the country's northwest on July 16-17.
Pakistan had closed NATO supply line over the killing of 24 soldiers in a NATO airstrike last November. The supply line was unblocked following apology by the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over the losses of Pakistani security personnel.
The decision promoted strong criticism from main religious and several opposition political parties and they are organizing marches and rallies in major cities against the reopening of the NATO supply routes.
"There is a flood of people in the march," Chief of the DPC, Maulana Sami-ul-Haq, told Xinhua on phone from Chaman, the border town in Balochistan province. Chaman, bordering Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province, is the one of the main two NATO supply routes in Pakistan.
"The march is successful than the previous one," he said, adding that the public will "force the government to stop serving the interests" of the U.S. and its NATO allies.
The second march started from Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, on Saturday and the marchers reached Chaman Sunday afternoon after passing through several cities.
Haq said that the "massive participation" of the people in the Balochistan's march reflect the people's sentiments against the reopening of NATO supply line.
Central leaders of the DPC spoke to gatherings at different cities on the march's route and condemned reopening of NATO supply line and said the rulers surrendered to the "U.S. pressure". They asked Pakistan to desist from "helping the foreigners to shed blood of Afghans".
The authorities had taken tight security measures for the marchers in view of the on-going wave of target killings and sectarian attacks, which have killed dozens of people over the past few weeks. Police vehicles escorted vehicles of the central DPC leaders and other hundreds of vehicles in the caravan.
The DPC had also deployed its own volunteers on security duty and there had been no untoward incident during the two-day march.
Pakistan's major Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami also took out a procession in the port city of Karachi on Sunday to oppose the reopening of NATO supply line. The Jamaat chief, Munawar Hasan, asked the main opposition party, the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) to join the anti-NATO protest.
In the northwestern city of Peshawar, tribal elders at a jirga or council on Sunday opposed reopening of NATO supply line. The jirga also condemned U.S. drone strikes in the tribal region and said the attacks kill innocent people.
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Taliban Commander Killed, 3 Others Arrested in Afghan Operations
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 15 July 2012
A Taliban commander was killed in a joint Afghan and Nato troops operation on Saturday night in Maidan Wardak province, local officials said.
The commander Qari Ziauddin, who provided weapons for insurgents in the province, was killed in the operation in Wardak's Jalriz district, provincial police spokesman Abdul Wali said.
There were no civilian, Afghan or Nato troop casualties during the operation, he said.
It comes as a Haqqani weapons dealer was captured in a joint operation in the Khost district of eastern Khost province on Sunday, Isaf said in a statement.
The Haqqani weapons dealer supplied weapons, explosives, and components for improvised explosive devices to insurgents in the region, it said.
Also a senior Taliban leader was captured in Charkh district of Logar province on Sunday.
The unnamed senior leader planned and coordinated insurgent attacks against Afghan and coalition forces throughout the region and provided insurgents with weapons and explosives, Isaf said.
The security forces arrested several suspected insurgents in both operations, Isaf added.
Meanwhile, on Saturday, a Taliban leader was captured in Khugyani district of Nangarhar province in a joint operation, the statement said.
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Release of Taliban Inmates Merely Strengthens the Insurgency: Massoud
TOLOnews.com Saturday, 14 July 2012
Releasing insurgents from Afghanistan's prisons is strengthening the "trenches" of the Taliban, head of Afghanistan's opposition party National Front Ahmad Zia Massoud said Saturday.
Speaking at the "Woman's Rights in Society" conference in Kabul, Massoud spoke of the recent government move to release 79 suspected insurgents from two prisons, saying it would only lead to great insecurity in the country.
"The government has an interest in the insurgent groups. Which authority allowed the President to release those who killed Afghans, Parliament?" Masoud said.
He said the move would not facilitate talks with the Taliban, the apparent reason for the move, pointing out that the Taliban have never recognised the Afghan government nor been open to talks.
Massoud also spoke of the violence against women in Afghanistan, saying that as long as the Afghan people hold on to old traditions, violence against woman will exist.
The government has failed to educate its people to forget these practices and live in a modern way, he added.
Meanwhile, human rights activists at the conference urged all political and other conflict-related parties in Afghanistan, particularly the Afghan government and the Ulema Council, to do more to prevent any further drumhead court acting against women's rights.
"We, the Afghan women, urge all groups in Afghanistan to accept each other and to not harm people and women. The women have sacrificed a lot in the past," head of Afghan Women Association Fatana Gilani said at the conference.
Another human rights activist Marzai Rahimi blamed the government for the lack of respect towards women.
"We live in an Islamic country, we have constitution, but not even the Afghan leaders are respecting women," she said.
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Taliban Reject Semple's Published Interview with Talib Commander
TOLOnews.com By Sonil Haidari Saturday, 14 July 2012
The Taliban rejected a UK magazine's interview with a Taliban commander, saying in a statement released Saturday that the magazine's claim to have spoken to one their own was "fatuous".
The statement on the Taliban website said that the New Statesman article published Thursday was "nothing more than a shameful propaganda ploy of the deceitful flailing enemy".
In the magazine article, former UN Envoy to Afghanistan during the Taliban regime Michael Semple interviewed a Taliban commander who was not identified, apart from a pseudonym Mawlawi, in order to protect him from reprisals.
The commander spoke frankly of his anger towards Al Qaeda for destroying Afghanistan, his relief at Osama bin Laden's death, and the Taliban's dim outlook for outright victory in the country.
The Taliban statement said the article was fabricated as an attempt of Nato to hide its defeat.
"Sometimes they introduce a vegetable seller as a high ranking official of Islamic Emirate [Taliban name for Afghanistan] and try to solve the Afghan issue with him and sometimes an anonymous ‘Mawlawi' as its important member and then publish such nonsense," it said.
Mawlawi's comments to Semple were published widely by multiple media outlets because of their divergence from the militant group's typical statements.
The admission of Mawlawi that he felt the Taliban would not recapture Afghanistan was highly sensitive.
He said: "It would take some kind of divine intervention for the Taliban to win this war. The Taliban capturing Kabul is a very distant prospect. Any Taliban leader expecting to be able to capture Kabul is making a grave mistake. Nevertheless, the leadership also knows that it cannot afford to acknowledge this weakness. To do so would undermine the morale of Taliban personnel."
The Taliban statement scoffed that this could be someone in their ranks because he "basically states that he doesn't believe in the divine help of Allah and that the Mujahideen surely cannot defeat the enemy... We have repeatedly demonstrated to our enemies for the past decade that the Mujahideen can do what could have never been imagined."
It called on the media to not accept any voice as that of the Taliban without the verification of the group's known spokespersons.
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11 Women Executed by Taliban in Parwan This Year: Official
TOLOnews.com Saturday, 14 July 2012
As many as 11 women have been executed by the Taliban in the Shinwari district of northern Parwan province since the start of the year, provincial Women Affairs director Shah Jan Yazdan Parast said Saturday.
As scores of women marched against violence in the provincial capital Charikar on Saturday, Yazdan Parast pointed out that the amateur video of a woman being shot to death in Parwan about a fortnight ago was not an isolated incident with at least 11 others similarly executed this year.
"Since the start of this year, we've recorded more than 70 cases of violence against women, including eleven women being executed by gunmen in the Hiro valley of Shinwari district," Yazdan Parast said. "The media only released the execution of one woman."
Women residents of Parwan marched with banners to protest violence against women, highlighted by the recent public shooting of the 22-year-old known as Najiba, accused of adultery by a Taliban drumhead court in the Shinwari district. She was executed immediately following the verdict.
The execution received global attention and widespread condemnation after the amateur video was released to the media, but the women said more needed to be done.
Protesters called for Afghan security force to launch more operations in the areas controlled by the Taliban in order to enforce government laws and protect the people, particularly the women, in those areas.
"We are protesting the killing of women by unknown gunmen - most of the women in the areas under the control of Taliban are facing violence. We urge the government and the civil society activists to prevent violence and call on security force to clear those areas from Taliban control," head of Parwan civil society network Katol Faqir Zada said at the protest.
A policewomen who was among the protesters blamed the officials responsible in the areas for not taking violence against women seriously.
"We protest because women are facing violence," she said. "Those who commit this violence should be arrested and prosecuted. None of the responsible organs have respected women rights so far."
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