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Karzai sacks key ally of the West
By AFP
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has sacked five provincial governors, including a key Western ally in one of the most turbulent battlegrounds of the south, officials said Thursday.
Crucial Afghan mining laws up for review within a fortnight
By Jessica Donati
KABUL (Reuters) - Redrafted mining laws that Afghan officials and Western donors hope will persuade foreign firms to invest in the country's resource wealth will be submitted to the government for review within a fortnight, a government spokesman said on Thursday.
Obama, Karzai Discuss 'Insider' Attacks
September 20, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
U.S. President Barack Obama has held a video conference with his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, focusing partly on efforts to stem insider attacks on U.S., coalition, and Afghan forces.
Afghans protest against French cartoons, US film
By AFP
Hundreds of Afghans on Thursday protested for the first time against cartoons of the prophet Mohammed published in France and staged fresh rallies against a US-made anti-Islam film.
Afghanistan: Why don't we leave now?
The rise in attacks by Afghan forces against Western troops is threatening US-Afghan military cooperation – a key reason to stay until 2014. The trend could affect the US exit strategy.
Christian Science Monitor By Anna Mulrine, Staff writer September 19, 2012
Washington - Why can’t we just leave Afghanistan now? It’s the unspoken question that top Pentagon officials are endeavoring to answer in their assurances that America must stay its course in the war-torn country.
China donates 100 ambulances to Afghanistan
KABUL, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- The government of China donated 100 ambulances to Afghanistan's Public Health Ministry on Thursday, Public Health Ministry said in a statement released here.
Karzai won't try to stay in office: former US envoy
AFP 20/09/2012
WASHINGTON - Afghan President Hamid Karzai is unlikely to try to bend the rules to stay in office once his term ends in 2014, former US ambassador to Afghanistan, Ryan Crocker, said Monday.
Pakistan Must Pressure Taliban, Former U.S. Envoy Says
Bloomberg By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan September 19, 2012
Pakistan should use its leverage to press Taliban leaders to make peace with the government in neighboring Afghanistan, according to the recently retired U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan.
Afghans Without Americans: A Preview of Soldiering When the U.S. Withdraws
The curtailment of U.S.-Afghan patrols because of so-called “green on blue” killings focuses attention on how ready local troops are
By John Wendle time.com September 19, 2012
Combat Outpost Garda, Wardak Province - The jumble of Afghan soldiers stood in the shade of a wall, waiting for orders to prepare for drills from their American trainers. Suddenly the thump of an explosion sent them scattering. The U.S. soldiers grabbed their rifles and a sergeant ordered everyone to a bunker. The Afghans do not listen. Most poked their head
Sayyaf Slams Suicide Bombers
TOLOnews.com By Mahboba Pardis Wednesday, 19 September 2012
Former Jihadist and current Kabul MP Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf slammed suicide attackers on Wednesday saying that their actions are unforgivable by God himself.
Polish troops find abandoned baby in Afghanistan
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish troops on patrol in southern Afghanistan have found a newborn baby abandoned on the side of a road.
UK soldier unexpectedly gives birth in Afghanistan
By DAVID STRINGER | Associated Press
LONDON (AP) — Hours after a British soldier in Afghanistan told medics she was suffering from stomach pains, the Royal Artillery gunner unexpectedly gave birth to a boy — the first child ever born in combat to a member of Britain's armed forces.
What happens when the U.S. leaves Afghanistan?
USA TODAY By Carmen Gentile, Special for USA TODAY 19/09/2012
A former resistance fighter during the Soviet occupation of his country, Afghan Col. Turab Adil knows that Afghans can put up a good fight.
The US Army And Afghanistan’s Bad Divorce
Why our relationship with the Afghan Army is like an epically bad divorce.
The Daily Beast By Benjamin Trupper Sep 19, 2012
Recently, a good friend told me he was getting divorced after a decade-long marriage. A fair assessment would be that the marriage started brilliantly, but after many trials and tribulations, as well as many children, the bloom came off the rose.
Disbelief at Hezb-e-Islami Using Female Bomber
TOLOnews.com By Shahla Murtazaei Wednesday, 19 September 2012
Islamist militant group Hezb-e-Islami's claim that a woman carried out the suicide bombing in Afghanistan's capital Tuesday morning has shocked government officials, with some claiming it cannot be true.
Parliament to Investigate Mullah Lashing of Ghazni Girl
TOLOnews.com By Saleha Soadat Wednesday, 19 September 2012
Afghanistan's parliament will investigate the lashing of a girl in Ghazni as ordered by local mullahs amid concerns that religious leaders are exacting justice outside of the country's laws.
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Karzai sacks key ally of the West
By AFP
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has sacked five provincial governors, including a key Western ally in one of the most turbulent battlegrounds of the south, officials said Thursday.
Government insiders said the move was part of efforts to reform and fight corruption, but the dismissal of Mohammad Gulab Mangal in Helmand province could ruffle British and US allies who considered him an important ally against the Taliban.
Mangal was sacked for "political reasons," according to a senior official in Karzai's office.
"He had lots of unnecessary relations, close relations with the foreigners which the president didn't like. He was suspected to be involved in corruption," the official said, on condition of anonymity.
The four other sacked governors -- for the provinces of Kabul, Badghis in the west, Nimroz in the south and Wardak, south of Kabul, were dismissed for being "incompetent," the official said.
Mangal, a Pashtun from eastern Paktia province, served as a colonel in the Afghan army and worked in the interior and defence ministries in the late 1970s when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.
He served three times as a governor -- of Paktia from 2004-2006, Laghman from 2006-2008, and Helmand from 2008-2012.
His replacement in Helmand is General Mohammad Naeem Baloch, an army general who was a Jihadi commander during the 1980s, who has previously served as the province's intelligence chief.
He is currently working in the intelligence agency.
Waheed Mujda, an author and political analyst, told AFP: "The areas where new governors were appointed by President Karzai are areas the president controls and he has an influence in those areas.
"I don't accept that Mangal was fired because he had good relations with the West, usually most of the governors had good relations with the West.
"And we have seen in the past, Karzai has always appointed former governors in new posts and he has always brought old faces into his cabinet."
Another four governors were reshuffled between the provinces of Faryab and Takhar in the north, and Laghman and Logar, adjacent to Kabul.
Munshi Abdul Majeed, the governor of Baghlan, also in the north, was made an advisor to Karzai.
The government official said he had been moved because he is old. Taliban insurgents have increased their activities in Baghlan in recent years.
In July, Karzai admitted that his government was corrupt and issued a sweeping directive for reform ahead of the withdrawal of international troops in 2014.
The president -- who has faced accusations he is part of the problem rather than its solution -- called on the Supreme Court to "work on and finalise all the cases regarding administrative corruption, land-grabbing... within six months".
The government official, speaking to AFP, said that further reforms would be made.
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Crucial Afghan mining laws up for review within a fortnight
By Jessica Donati
KABUL (Reuters) - Redrafted mining laws that Afghan officials and Western donors hope will persuade foreign firms to invest in the country's resource wealth will be submitted to the government for review within a fortnight, a government spokesman said on Thursday.
Afghanistan's untapped natural resources were estimated by the U.S. government at over $1 trillion, but decades of war and political instability have kept the country off the radar.
Proposals to draft new legislation have been backed by Western donors and the World Bank who hope revenue from oil and mining will help Afghanistan support itself once international aid eventually runs out.
But to the surprise of diplomats and mining companies, some cabinet members blocked proposed legislation in July, saying it failed to protect national interests from foreign exploitation.
Adding to complaints about proposed royalties, some fear mining and drilling could hurt communities and the environment.
The process is being watched by energy companies which are drawn to Afghanistan's potential, but fear it is still too dangerous. New legislation is urgently needed to bring Afghanistan's legal framework into line with international norms if tenders now being considered are to attract viable bids.
"If the law isn't passed, no one will come to Afghanistan," Atiq Sediqi, a senior adviser to the Ministry of Mines, told Reuters.
Ehsanullah Tahiri, a government spokesman, said the legislative process could be completed rapidly.
"It will not take any more than two weeks for the draft to be submitted to the Council of Ministers," he told Reuters by telephone.
The council, which approves legislation before it goes to parliament, had overseen the redrafting and was likely to submit it for urgent debate, he said. Approval could take as little as three to four weeks, if objections are overcome.
U.S. energy giant ExxonMobil raised hopes of a breakthrough in perception in Afghanistan after it expressed interest in oil blocks offered in the northern Tajik basin. The bid deadline is October, and the blocks are among around half a dozen tenders in progress.
THE CLAUSES
The new draft includes directives for enforcement -- for instance, ensuring that reported production matches actual output -- along with regulation for employment, infrastructure and environment protection, according to an expert working on the draft who asked not to be identified.
Among the clauses are that 100 percent of unskilled staff must be Afghan, along with a proportion of semi-skilled workers.
Western donors see mining revenues as key to Afghanistan's survival, with more than $50 billion pumped into the aid-reliant economy over the past decade.
Pledges of around $4 a year by donors at a conference in July fell short of $6 billion a year the Afghan central bank said was needed to promote growth on top of a $4.1 billion bill for security after foreign troops leave in 2014.
With oil hovering above $100 a barrel, revenues from crude alone could generate around half the country's gross domestic product of $20 billion in 2011.
But security concerns have hampered several projects, including the $3 billion Ainak copper mine in eastern Logar province, operated by China Metallurgical Group.
And governance watchdog Integrity Watch Afghanistan said in a recent interview that mining activities have already hit water supply in some regions and sharpened tribal rivalries.
A briefing paper released by the Pentagon in 2010 said the main resources were iron ore with an estimated value of nearly $421 billion and copper deposits valued at $273 billion.
(Reporting by Jessica Donati; Editing by Rob Taylor and Ron Popeski)
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Obama, Karzai Discuss 'Insider' Attacks
September 20, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
U.S. President Barack Obama has held a video conference with his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, focusing partly on efforts to stem insider attacks on U.S., coalition, and Afghan forces.
At least 51 foreign troops have been killed in "insider" attacks this year in which security personnel have turned their weapons on their Western mentors.
Meanwhile, Obama's spokesman, Jay Carney, rejected a call by three U.S. senators -- John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Joseph Lieberman -- for a “strategic pause” to assess the impact of the killings.
The White House said Obama and Karzai also discussed the need for restraint in the face of "inflammatory materials," an apparent reference to a film made in the United States deemed offensive to Islam that sparked violence in Muslim countries, including Afghanistan.
Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters
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Afghans protest against French cartoons, US film
By AFP
Hundreds of Afghans on Thursday protested for the first time against cartoons of the prophet Mohammed published in France and staged fresh rallies against a US-made anti-Islam film.
About 300 students chanted "death to France, death to America" in a western neighbourhood of the capital Kabul, an AFP photographer said.
Nearby hundreds more gathered on a flyover and chanted "death to America" and "long live Islam, long live Afghanistan", another AFP photographer said.
Both demonstrations were peaceful, condemning new Mohammed cartoons published by a French satirical magazine on Wednesday and the low-budget film "Innocence of Muslims" which has triggered protests around the world.
Similar rallies have been held across Afghanistan in the last four days. On Monday, a protest of more than 1,000 residents in eastern Kabul turned violent when the crowd set fire to cars and threw stones at police. About 50 officers were slightly wounded.
Afghanistan is a devoutly Muslim nation and issues seen as an insult to religion are taken very seriously, often with violent consequences. Earlier this year 40 people were killed in street unrest over the burning of copies of the Koran by US soldiers on a base.
France has said that on Friday, the Muslim day of prayer, it will close diplomatic missions, cultural centres and French schools in around 20 Muslim countries for fear of violent protests over the cartoons.
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Afghanistan: Why don't we leave now?
The rise in attacks by Afghan forces against Western troops is threatening US-Afghan military cooperation – a key reason to stay until 2014. The trend could affect the US exit strategy.
Christian Science Monitor By Anna Mulrine, Staff writer September 19, 2012
Washington - Why can’t we just leave Afghanistan now? It’s the unspoken question that top Pentagon officials are endeavoring to answer in their assurances that America must stay its course in the war-torn country.
It comes in the wake of a spate of “insider attacks” by Afghan security forces that have left 51 NATO service members dead this year – a 45 percent increase in such attacks over 2011.
It also comes during a month in which the surge of 30,000 forces that President Obama ordered into the country in 2009 is ending. By the end of September, some 68,000 American troops will remain in Afghanistan.
The majority of US troops are scheduled to depart in 2014, when US combat operations will come to an end.
The nation’s top military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, stressed this week that the surge’s purpose was “to buy us some time on some Taliban initiatives,” he said, “and to buy us some space to grow the Afghan security forces.”
He says it worked, but grappled aloud with its cost. “The surge had its intended effect,” General Dempsey said. “I think it was an effort that was worth the cost – and don’t forget, it did have its cost.”
That cost continues, in both money and lives.
One American is killed every day in Afghanistan, on average, this year.
In a time of budget-cutting, the US treasury spends $60 billion a month on the war. On an annual basis, that’s enough to buy groceries for every American family for more than a year and a half.
“At some level, when you make a decision to continue waging a war, losing lives and money, you make a decision that hopefully what you can get in exchange for that is worth it,” says Stephen Biddle, professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University and a former adviser to retired Gen. David Petraeus.
“At some point it will reach the point where what we get is no longer worth American lives.”
Analysts point out that the bulk of the war is already slated to end in 2014. After that, some American advisers will stay on the ground. But with the spate of “insider attacks” on US forces, the joint Afghan-American patrols that are a key part of the training mission have been suspended, deemed too dangerous to risk American lives.
Retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, who commanded the Pentagon’s Iraqi security force training program from 2003 to 2004, says this latest round of green-on-blue killings will prompt tough questions among commanders and within the Pentagon. “You have to ask yourself, what has changed?” says General Eaton, now a senior adviser to the National Security Network think tank.
“Should we accelerate the cessation of combat operations from what the president laid out in the NATO conference in Chicago? These are valid questions, and that’s what [commander of US forces in Afghanistan] John Allen, his chain of command, the secretary of defense – that is precisely what they must be mulling over right now.”
Eaton and others point out that simply ending US involvement in a war is a vast undertaking, and speeding it up comes with its own risks.
Anthony Cordesman, an Afghanistan analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, estimates that it will take “at least 13 months to clear the equipment we’ve got deployed. People forget that there are very real physical limits. We cannot leave the things behind at random – they’re worth too much and are potentially dangerous.”
But these are logistics, a matter in which the US military has long excelled. Troops might still guard the equipment, moving it out in an orderly manner without risking US lives. “It’s certainly isn’t true that this is something you have to continue,” Dr. Cordesman says. “You can move troops out more quickly than planned. You can cut aid more sharply.”
The larger question, he adds, is whether it is strategically desirable to leave Afghanistan now. With a focus on tamping down corruption and with a couple more years work with the Afghan national security forces, “I think what you can accomplish is a reasonable chance that the Afghan government and economy can hold together” with “some chance of a coherent structure in Kabul, and a reasonable chance that the Afghan Army can be strong enough that, with some cooperation,” it can hold insurgent forces at bay,” Cordesman says.
“Can we guarantee a future? No,” he adds. “Yes, it has been an incredibly costly and frustrating decade. And yes, we do not seem to have clear plans for the future.”
However, “We can create a situation where we can show the world that we were not defeated,” he says, and at the same time avoid a decision that would "deprive Afghanistan of any chance of stability."
“There’s a very real difference between simply running for the exits and leaving in a way that provides some chance of structure and order,” he adds.
Yet it remains an ongoing source of debate whether American forces can accomplish any more to make American any safer in the time they have left in the country – or more precisely, analysts say, whether what they might accomplish is worth any more American lives.
“The question of what we’re gaining there – that’s been a question for a number of years,” says retired Marine Col. T.X. Hammes, a senior research fellow at the National Defense University.
With Mr. Obama’s announcement of a 2014 withdrawal, “We’ve now accepted that strategically we’ve gotten all we can” out of Afghanistan. “We now have a path out that we’ve committed to,” he adds.
“We’re trying to leave, and have sufficient resources to cover our withdrawal. There’s nothing particularly ennobling in that, or anything that makes you feel good, but at least we’re leaving.”
Some military officers say, however, that as the decade-long war in Afghanistan winds down, it brings to mind Sen. John Kerry’s famous lament of Vietnam, in 1971 Senate testimony: “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?”
Dr. Hammes recalls working with British forces in Iraq in 2008 “who were asking that question.” He adds that there was and is no good answer. “It’s hard for those people who are going to lose family there” in the months to come, and for the commanders and politicians who must answer for it. “That frankly is one of those leadership challenges that come with the conflict.”
Eaton recalls asking himself the same questions as a young second lieutenant in 1972, after four years at West Point, as Saigon was still raging. “The attitude was, ‘I’d really rather not be the last guy shot as we get out of Vietnam,’ ” he recalls. But “that’s been going on in warfare since we started wars – and since we’ve hoped to end them. That is part of being a soldier.”
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China donates 100 ambulances to Afghanistan
KABUL, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- The government of China donated 100 ambulances to Afghanistan's Public Health Ministry on Thursday, Public Health Ministry said in a statement released here.
"The People Republic of China donated 100 new ambulances worth 4 million U.S. dollars to the Ministry for Public Health and a technical team of China would also train Afghans on how to maintain and repair the ambulances," the statement added.
Afghan minister for public health Dr. Saraya Dalil, while thanking China for the contribution, said the ambulances will be distributed to all the health centers in the provinces.
Speaking on the occasion, Chinese ambassador to Afghanistan Xu Feihong said that China would continue to support Afghanistan and donation of these ambulances speaks of Chinese government firm commitment in this regard.
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Karzai won't try to stay in office: former US envoy
AFP 20/09/2012
WASHINGTON - Afghan President Hamid Karzai is unlikely to try to bend the rules to stay in office once his term ends in 2014, former US ambassador to Afghanistan, Ryan Crocker, said Monday.
"Unless circumstances change dramatically I'm quite confident that President Karzai will not seek to amend the constitution," Crocker told an audience at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
And the former envoy who left his post in Kabul in July said he was also convinced that Karzai would not try to "find some extra-constitutional mechanism that would allow for either prolongation or his re-election."
Karzai was re-elected in 2009 in only the second elections to be held since the ousting of the hardline Islamic Taliban poll from Kabul. But his victory was marred by allegations of widespread voting irregularities.
His term ends in 2014, which coincides with the transfer of security responsibilities from a US-led NATO force to Afghan troops, with about 130,000 US-led troops still in the country, fighting a deadly Taliban-led insurgency.
In April, Karzai said he might call an early presidential election to leave enough time for the new government to handle the planned security transition.
But the Western-backed leader has dismissed claims by opponents that he might delay the vote, amending the constitution to allow himself to stay in office.
The elections pose "a huge multi-faceted challenge and opportunity. It will be the first election of the post-Karzai era, something Afghanistan has not experienced since the fall of the Taliban," Crocker said.
But the Afghan leader would "want to see an election outcome that he literally can live with. Where a successor will not have him brought up on capital charges, which could happen in a state where rule of law is not exactly well-established."
Afghan lawmakers on Saturday endorsed a controversial new spymaster who was nominated by Karzai as part of a cabinet reshuffle, seen as his bid to secure his powerbase before anointing a successor to stand in 2014.
Crocker said he believed Karzai would be acting not as "a king-maker, but would be looking to see contenders emerge with whom he can co-exist, very likely on the same compound for security reasons.
"Losing an election in embryonic or unstable democracies is no joke."
And acknowledging the dangers for Karzai -- whose brother Ahmed Wali Karzai was assassinated in July 2011 -- Crocker said "the future he envisions is one in which he's actually alive."
Karzai, who has led Afghanistan since the Taliban government was ousted in late 2001 by a US-led invasion, is under increasing domestic and international pressure to reform his administration.
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Pakistan Must Pressure Taliban, Former U.S. Envoy Says
Bloomberg By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan September 19, 2012
Pakistan should use its leverage to press Taliban leaders to make peace with the government in neighboring Afghanistan, according to the recently retired U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan.
Ryan Crocker, who left his post as the top U.S. envoy to Afghanistan two months ago and served as ambassador in Pakistan from 2004 to 2007, said today by e-mail that “Pakistan has substantial influence with Taliban leaders on its soil; for its own sake, as well as that of Afghanistan, it should use that influence to encourage reconciliation.”
Crocker was reacting to comments yesterday by a former Pakistani intelligence and military chief who said the U.S. has “unrealistic expectations” about Pakistan’s ability to bring Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar to peace talks.
Retired General Ehsan ul Haq said in a brief interview in Washington that while Pakistan fully supports Afghan peace talks, it “can’t deliver anybody” to the negotiating table.
The Obama administration’s strategy for withdrawing almost all U.S. combat forces by the end of 2014 calls for continuing to fight the Taliban, seeking reconciliation with insurgents willing to lay down their arms, and strengthening the Afghan government and security forces. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called the approach “Fight, Talk, Build.”
The U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan said this week that it was temporarily restricting joint combat operations with Afghan troops in response to so- called insider attacks on allied forces by their supposed Afghan allies. It said the move was tied to the uproar over an anti- Islamic video.
‘Tactical Changes’
U.S. Army General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sought to downplay the significance of the move.
“They’re tactical changes in response to a changing threat,” Dempsey said in a speech today to the Air Force Association’s annual conference in Maryland.
There have been 51 coalition troops killed by Afghan allies or infiltrators so far this year, compared with 35 last year, according to ISAF in Kabul.
“This is about adaptability,” Dempsey said. “It’s not about changing the objectives.”
Three senators called today for an immediate suspension in withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
“We are concerned that the rush to build up the Afghan National Security Forces as quickly as possible -– so that U.S. forces could begin withdrawing on the administration’s timetable -– has contributed to the problem of the so-called insider attacks,” Republicans John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut said in an e-mailed statement.
Continued Engagement
In a Sept. 17 speech at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington policy research group, Crocker urged the U.S. and international community not to abandon Afghanistan as foreign troops are drawn down, saying continued engagement is essential to protect the newfound rights of women and minorities and what he called dramatic improvements in the quality of life.
He said that when he was posted to Afghanistan in 2002 to reopen the U.S. embassy after the fall of the Taliban, he arrived “without any instructions” from President George W. Bush’s administration about what he was meant to accomplish in his first months there. Last year, his marching orders were clear, he said.
Meeting Secretly
While some U.S. policy makers think the administration’s withdrawal plans and the departure of many allied troops have encouraged the Taliban to sit tight rather than compromise, Crocker was a keen supporter of efforts to promote reconciliation in his year as the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan.
He said he met secretly with members of insurgent groups, including the Taliban leadership that was ousted from power in Afghanistan after the U.S. military operation began there in October 2001.
The Afghan Taliban are based in the Pakistani city of Quetta, and the Haqqani insurgent network has support in the Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan. Both groups benefit from ties to elements of Pakistan’s security forces, U.S. intelligence officials have said.
Hunting Haqqani
Haq, who ran Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency from 2001 to 2004, denied that Pakistan provides such assistance. He said yesterday that Pakistan’s security forces conducted several raids on the religious school and homes of the Haqqani network’s founder in the Pakistani town of Miram Shah from 2002 to 2004.
“He was not there; he was in Paktia, Paktika,” he said, referring to two provinces in Afghanistan.
Haq, also a former chairman of the military’s joint chiefs of staff, said the U.S. must take the lead in advancing the “political track” with the Taliban.
Crocker, in his Sept. 17 speech, said it wasn’t possible to get a comprehensive Afghan peace settlement without full cooperation from neighboring Pakistan.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai also has sought Pakistan’s help facilitating peace talks with the Taliban leadership, and Pakistan has pledged to support the process.
Efforts to establish more formal talks through a Taliban office in Qatar broke down in March over terms for a potential swap of five Taliban detainees in Guantanamo for a U.S. soldier believed to be held by the Haqqani group.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar met today in Washington with members of the Senate intelligence committee and told lawmakers that “Pakistan aims to have a genuine dialogue with the U.S. on Afghanistan,” Pakistan’s embassy to the U.S. said in an e-mailed statement.
To contact the reporter on this story: Indira A.R. Lakshmanan in Washington at ilakshmanan@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Walcott at jwalcott9@bloomberg.net
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Afghans Without Americans: A Preview of Soldiering When the U.S. Withdraws
The curtailment of U.S.-Afghan patrols because of so-called “green on blue” killings focuses attention on how ready local troops are
By John Wendle time.com September 19, 2012
Combat Outpost Garda, Wardak Province - The jumble of Afghan soldiers stood in the shade of a wall, waiting for orders to prepare for drills from their American trainers. Suddenly the thump of an explosion sent them scattering. The U.S. soldiers grabbed their rifles and a sergeant ordered everyone to a bunker. The Afghans do not listen. Most poked their head over the wall, trying to get a look at the blast. Just 300 meters away a dark brown cloud from an improvised explosive device rose over the village next to the base – Combat Outpost Garda, 30 miles from Kabul. The chatter of heavy machine guns and the clatter of rifles returning fire rolled over the base and then they went silent. More than a quarter of the times the Afghan forces have gone out in the past week, they have encountered IED threats. This time their sappers blew the explosives in place, but other times they have stumbled on them, though none of their troops have been injured or killed.
And then, the U.S. stopped patrolling with the Afghans — which is a big deal since only the American troops here have minesweeping equipment to safely detect IEDs — though Afghan forces elsewhere have the equipment and it is said that Afghan soldiers are being trained. Reacting to a series of setbacks recently, U.S. commanders here curtailed interaction between U.S. and Afghan forces and halted foot patrols – leaving the Afghans to work on their own.
After protests swept through Muslim countries last week and Afghan security forces killed a number of Coalition troops in insider attacks, U.S. commanders in Afghanistan decided that halting foot patrols would decrease the risk of angering locals. At the same time, limiting interaction between the U.S. platoons and their Afghan counterparts would minimize the risk of further green on blue killings. But while the measures were temporary, they gave Afghan soldiers a glimpse of what it will be like after the U.S. leaves – and the local troops, at least in Garda, did not like the view.
First, with the American minesweepers absent, the Afghans find it harder to spot IEDs in advance — though they have found more than their U.S. mentors. So they had to find them the old fashioned way: with their feet – as one soldier said. And though the Afghan captains continued to meet with the U.S. captains, the Americans stopped training and drilling the Afghan Army in everything from shooting to binding wounds.
What was left – on both sides – was frustration. “We have to do our mission. But the big problem is that we don’t have a mine detector. It’s the big problem we have,” says Cpt. Sayed Abdullah, when he was told that a U.S. squad would not be accompanying the Afghans on a recent, early morning patrol. “It’s very difficult for us,” he told the soldier sent to deliver the bad news. “We know there are lot of IEDs along the main road, that’s why we are asking for your soldiers to go with us and to clear the roads,” he said with a sigh – and then again emphasized that his unit has no way to detect mines and IEDs.
With the “cooling-off” period over, Afghan and U.S. soldiers can again interact (not that they do, really). U.S. forces in Garda will return to foot patrols – though, for the time being, without their Afghan partners – and to mentoring the Afghan unit here. But they will also continue to strip down their base and make it “Afghan sustainable” – the new catch phrase that entails shrinking this facility so the Afghan unit taking over can hold it without American help. One U.S. officer described the situation as “taking the training wheels off.”
(One other recent change: U.S. forces will no longer be calling in fire support without the approval of a one star general or higher, unless it is in self defense. While the order is temporary, it has no expiration date. The guidance came after NATO accidentally killed eight women in an airstrike targeting insurgents. The regulation amounts to yet another shackle on American war fighting capabilities – though this one may prove beneficial – at least to civilians.)
Now that the Afghan officers at Garda have seen what the battle spacelooks like without their American comrades-in-arms, they themselves may begin to question whether they are ready to handle security on their own once thepull out is complete in 2014. As it stands, while the unit here seems well led and decently motivated, it also seems they still want and need their training wheels.
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Sayyaf Slams Suicide Bombers
TOLOnews.com By Mahboba Pardis Wednesday, 19 September 2012
Former Jihadist and current Kabul MP Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf slammed suicide attackers on Wednesday saying that their actions are unforgivable by God himself.
Speaking at a gathering for tomorrow's first anniversary of the death of former Afghan president and head of Afghanistan's High Peace Council Burhanuddin Rabbani, Sayyaf sent a message to would-be suicide bombers that they act against Islam's holy book, the Quran, and they are the enemies of all Muslims.
"Anyone acting against the Quran will be destroyed and never forgiven by God. Anyone wanting his or her own good should not act against Quran," Sayyaf said.
Burhanuddin Rabbani was assassinated September 20 last year at his home in Kabul's Wazir Akbar Khan area by a Taliban member who came under the guise of a peace envoy.
Sayyaf's words are in stark contrast to the militant Islamists who describe suicide attacks as a form of martyrdom deserving the highest honour and praise.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai also addressed the gathering, praising the actions of Rabbani who Karzai said lost his life in trying to bring peace to Afghanistan.
"Mr Rabbani was aware of the situation in the region and world and he reached for this goal. We should follow in his footsteps and bring peace to Afghanistan," Karzai said.
Afghanistan's Second Vice President Abdul Karim Khalili called on the insurgents to join the peace process and lay down their weapons in respect for the Afghan people. "The only way they will survive is by accepting peace and joining the peace process," Khalili said.
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Polish troops find abandoned baby in Afghanistan
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish troops on patrol in southern Afghanistan have found a newborn baby abandoned on the side of a road.
The towel-wrapped girl was found Wednesday by soldiers who were checking the safety of a route near their Waghez military base, according to Defense Ministry spokesman Janusz Walczak.
The soldiers were first suspicious about the item in a country where hidden roadside bombs are prevalent.
No other people were found in a 2-kilometer (about 1 mile) radius, and it was unclear who had left the baby there and why.
The entire column took the girl to a medical center at the base, and soldiers were sent to buy baby formula, a bottle and a bib.
The troops named the girl Pola, after Poland, and planned to give her to Afghan authorities.
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UK soldier unexpectedly gives birth in Afghanistan
By DAVID STRINGER | Associated Press
LONDON (AP) — Hours after a British soldier in Afghanistan told medics she was suffering from stomach pains, the Royal Artillery gunner unexpectedly gave birth to a boy — the first child ever born in combat to a member of Britain's armed forces.
Britain's defense ministry said Thursday the soldier told authorities she had not been aware she was pregnant and only consulted doctors on the day that she went into labor.
The soldier, who arrived in Afghanistan in March, delivered the child Tuesday at Camp Bastion, the vast desert camp in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province where Prince Harry is deployed and a Taliban attack last week killed two U.S. Marines.
"Mother and baby are both in a stable condition in the hospital and are receiving the best possible care," the ministry said in a statement. It said a team of doctors would fly out to Afghanistan in the coming days to help the soldier and her son return safely to Britain.
The U.K. does not allow female soldiers to deploy on operation if they are pregnant. Although the soldier's child was conceived before her tour of duty began in March, she is not likely to face censure.
Britain has previously sent female soldiers home from wars after they became pregnant — including about 60 from Afghanistan, but hasn't previously had a servicewoman go into labor in a war zone.
The soldier, a citizen of Fiji, is one of about 500 British military women serving in Afghanistan. She is also among around 2,000 Fijians who serve in the British military, even though the country became independent from Britain in 1970.
Camp Bastion, which hosts the U.S. Camp Leatherneck, is home to most of Britain's 9,500 soldiers in Afghanistan, including Prince Harry — who arrived there earlier this month to serve as an attack helicopter gunner. Last Friday, a Taliban assault on the base ended up with two U.S. marines killed and six American fighter jets destroyed.
Maj. Charles Heyman, a retired officer and author of "'The British Army Guide" said the unexpected birth would cause some concern at the base.
"This sort of thing makes life difficult for everyone else, but the important thing is the welfare of the female soldier. This could have gone wrong and we don't know if the attack on Camp Bastion might have forced the birth," said Maj. Charles Heyman, a retired officer and author of "'The British Army Guide."
Heyman said it may have been "that the excitement of the tour masked the symptoms of the pregnancy."
Belinda Phipps, chief executive of the National Childbirth Trust, a British parenting charity, also suggested the soldier's demanding work could explain why she either didn't know she was pregnant, or had attempted to ignore the signs.
"It could be that she was so very focused on other things, and because she was in a life-or-death scenario, that she simply didn't recognize that she was pregnant," Phipps said.
Phipps said the pregnancy may not have been obvious to the soldier's colleagues. "Not everyone has a very big baby bump, some women carry their baby far inside," she said.
Patrick O'Brien, a consultant obstetrician at University College London Hospital, said cases of unnoticed pregnancies were unusual, but that he encountered at least one each year.
"There are some women who have very irregular periods, often women who are very fit and exercise a lot. There are women who don't have sickness during pregnancy. Some women — particularly those who are overweight — don't recognize they have put on weight, or feel the baby moving," O'Brien said.
Many cases involved women who refused to accept that they were pregnant and attempted to disguise it, particularly young women living at home.
"It's not just that they hide the pregnancy from their parents, they often become in denial of the pregnancy," he said.
"If you have a combination of any or all of those things, a pregnancy can go undetected, or the woman can be in denial of it if the implications to their life are so great," said O'Brien, a spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist.
A study published in 2011 by Glasgow's Victoria Infirmary said that denial of pregnancy was more common than expected, suggesting it occurred in around 1 in 2,500 births.
In a 2002 German survey of Berlin obstetric hospitals, researchers found that 40 percent of women who didn't realize they were pregnant had seen doctors who also failed to spot the signs.
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What happens when the U.S. leaves Afghanistan?
USA TODAY By Carmen Gentile, Special for USA TODAY 19/09/2012
A former resistance fighter during the Soviet occupation of his country, Afghan Col. Turab Adil knows that Afghans can put up a good fight.
He recalls how in the 1980s the mujahedin, as they were known, slipped through the hills and valleys to drive out the Communist superpower and its attack helicopters, tanks and fully armed troops.
Today's Afghan army will fight just as ferociously against Taliban fighters, but Adil and others say it can't defeat them under the current U.S. military strategy that calls for the withdrawal of all combat forces by the end of 2014.
"When the coalition forces leave, there will be a lot of problems for us," Adil says in the halting English he learned at an Afghan university.
The U.S. military's exit strategy in Afghanistan is to maintain security now established in southern Afghanistan while shifting enough combat troops to the east to dismantle the Taliban there. A trained force of Afghans will be expected to keep the peace. But weeks of interviews with Afghan soldiers and U.S. troops on the battle lines in eastern Afghanistan cast doubts on that strategy. Recent Taliban attacks — the latest on a major U.S. air base — and insider "green-on-blue" shootings against coalition forces only amplify these doubts.
After almost 11 years of war and nearly 2,000 Americans dead, Ahmed Majidyar, an Afghanistan expert at the American Enterprise Institute, says Afghan security forces will not be self-sufficient, as the Pentagon hopes under the current scenario.
"Over the last few years there has been tremendous progress in the Afghan National Security Forces," he says. "But when it comes to logistics (supplies and support for Afghan troops), intelligence gathering and decision-making, they still need help."
Even so, the help will be diminishing at a critical moment in the counterinsurgency strategy as the coalition moves to dislodge Taliban strongholds in eastern Afghanistan. A withdrawal of 30,000 troops ordered by President Obama will be complete in October, reducing troop strength from a peak of nearly 103,000 last year to 68,000.
The military challenge presents just one of many problems in a country plagued by corruption and with a long history of frustrating foreign forces. Indeed, some experts suggest the job — winning, however defined — cannot be completed given the myriad hurdles and other issues, such as neighboring Pakistan's support for the insurgency.
The United States should "recognize the limits of its power," says George Friedman, who heads the private intelligence firm Stratfor and author of The Next Decade, a book that lays out where conflicts might occur.
"U.S. strategic interest in Afghanistan has been achieved. It's disrupted al-Qaeda in that country, and it needs to withdraw."
Two very different forces
Combat Outpost Kalagush is in Nuristan province in eastern Afghanistan on the border with Pakistan's Northwest Frontier, the one permanent U.S. base in the province.
Life here is not easy. To escape the scorching summer sun, Afghan soldiers often rest in the shade under barracks propped up on cinder blocks. Fresh water for drinking, cooking and bathing is sometimes scarce.
"We are Afghan. We can deal with all kinds of difficulties," says Col. Sher Khan, the new commander at Kalagush.
The Taliban bulked up its presence in the mountains here after U.S. troops withdrew years ago amid deadly attacks on two outposts that drew constant fire. The outpost is divided: U.S. forces are on one side and Afghans on the other. American soldiers have hot showers, good food and air-conditioned barracks. Afghan soldiers are cramped into metal storage containers turned into sleeping quarters.
On this day, U.S. adviser teams are training Afghan soldiers to take the lead in military operations. Capt. Marcus Morgan, an American adviser at Kalagush, sees progress. He says Afghan commanders have shown initiative and leadership in planning and executing missions, noting that Afghan forces sometimes patrol without U.S. backing.
"They are completely in the lead outside the wire," Morgan says.
But Afghans going it alone? That's another issue. "If they get into a firefight and can't handle it on their own, they can call on us."
In three months, no one will be there to answer. All U.S. troops at Kalagush are to leave the base by the end of the year.
Khan says what his men really will miss is U.S. firepower and aircraft, which he says may not be forthcoming under current withdrawal plans. They can handle the ground fighting, Khan says, but need the U.S. military to come to their aid when things get out of hand. If not, he says, they will likely be overwhelmed by attackers.
"Our soldiers are very well-trained, but we need the right weapons to defend this area," he says. "There are times we'll need to drop troops behind enemy lines, and we'll need air support."
Some in the international coalition suggest that an accommodation must be made eventually for the Taliban to share power with the U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai. But many Afghan soldiers do not see it that way.
The Taliban is a clerical movement that rose up during Afghan civil wars in the 1990s, and many current Afghan military officers remember life under its rule. A harsh brand of Islam was imposed on Afghans. Its adherents demanded men wear beards and denied schooling for women. Girls could be married off at age 9. Homosexuals faced the death penalty.
The Taliban banned music, alcohol and even kite flying. Those who disobeyed were subject to summary execution. Amnesty International and others condemned the Taliban's reign, but the regime was in little danger until it refused to turn over Osama bin Laden to the United States.
'You can't whitewash it'
The Pentagon says its counterinsurgency strategy will succeed, and that the withdrawal of allied forces will not allow Afghanistan to once again become a base for the export of Islamic terrorism that it was under the Taliban.
"The stakes are very high," U.S. Gen. John Allen, the top commander in Afghanistan, said recently. "The fact that we were attacked on the 11th of September (2001) is a direct line relationship between what happened on that day and what could happen again if we don't get this right."
Recent Taliban attacks have provided fodder for critics of the Obama administration's position that the country has been sufficiently pacified to pave the way for an exit:
•In the Afghan capital of Kabul on Tuesday, an Islamist group allied with the Taliban claimed credit for a suicide attack that killed 12 people, mostly foreign workers.
•NATO troops were ordered this week to halt some joint operations with their counterparts in the Afghan police and army after several attacks by Afghans in uniform.
•At least 51 International Security Assistance Force troops have been killed in such incidents this year, according to the Associated Press.
•The pause in joint operations follows a coordinated missile attack last week on Camp Leatherneck in Helmand province that destroyed six U.S. Marine jets and three fueling stations.
•Two weeks ago, U.S. Special Operations Command suspended training of local Afghan police, a force that is supposed to keep the Taliban out of villages from which U.S. troops are withdrawing.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., complains that Obama is pulling out for political reasons and jeopardizing eventual victory against a potent enemy. Obama's Republican rival for the presidency, Mitt Romney, says the president was "misguided" for announcing a withdrawal date to the enemy.
The president defends today's strategy, arguing repeatedly that he is winding down the war "responsibly" and believes the Afghans can handle security themselves.
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said the green-on-blue attacks represent the "last gasp" of the Taliban. But Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the attacks spell trouble for U.S. aims.
"You can't whitewash it. We can't convince ourselves that we just have to work harder to get through it. Something has to change," Dempsey told Armed Forces Press Service on Sunday.
Anthony Cordesman, an Afghanistan expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, does not see a "clear transition plan" to the Afghans that will work. He says the current strategy could give the Taliban an opening to take over and resume the kinds of terror activities that prompted the U.S.-led invasion.
"I think what you may see is a whole bunch of localized power struggles," Cordesman says. "Where it gets to be dangerous is when you have rival warlords with enough power to take over larger areas."
Defining 'a good day'
The eastern province of Khost is a haven of the Haqqani network, a Pakistan-based Muslim terror group that along with other militant groups aligned with the Taliban have been building forces here for years and in Paktika, Ghazni, Kunar and Wardak provinces.
Adil, the Afghan army colonel, insists his men can hold off the Taliban in Nangalam. But the narrow road connecting Nangalam to points of supply is riddled with buried mines and often controlled by Taliban checkpoints. He says he needs U.S. air support to safely deliver supplies such as food and ammunition.
"A lot of people in this area are helping them (militant groups)," Adil says.
Adil says he will be at a great disadvantage if U.S. helicopters are no longer circling during firefights. And removal of U.S. high-tech capacity means they can't keep up scans of the night landscape to spot impending assaults on their remote base here.
"One day we might get hit with 10 mortars, the next day only two or three, which for us would be a good day," he says.
The U.S. military recognizes the strain on the Afghan army as it make the transition from working with the U.S. forces to replacing them.
The strategy, according to Lt. Col. Jay Bullock, who leads the U.S. security adviser team at Nangalam, is to "try to find simple Afghan solutions" to the challenges they'll face once U.S. forces leave so they "can learn and grow on them."
The U.S. advisers are training Afghan soldiers to fire heavy artillery left behind by the Soviets, who invaded Afghanistan in the 1980s and lost thousands of troops in a nearly decade-long conflict. So far, the training is progressing slowly but steadily, the advisers say.
Sgt. Zaren, who like many Afghans here goes by one name, studies maps of the area around the base to calculate distances for effective fire.
"I just want to be able to fire the artillery to keep the Taliban away," Zaren says.
Maj. Christopher Thomas, spokesman for the 4th Brigade Combat Team 4th Infantry Division, says that the shortcomings of the Afghan forces in the east is a real concern. But, "there have been real improvements" in the Afghans' ability to be a self-sustaining fighting force.
"Right now the focus is putting the Afghans in the lead," Thomas says. "Let them get a bloody nose, but don't let them get a broken nose."
Capt. Hugh Miller, who fought along the Pech River during a 2009 deployment, says that if Afghan forces here can control the supply lines and provide effective firepower, they should be able to keep the enemy under control.
"Those are the two things that if they can get good at, we don't need to be here," Miller says.
Majidyar agrees with Miller's assessment but says there is something more that the Afghans must do that they have yet to do alone: root out and destroy militant havens.
"They (Afghan forces) aren't trained to do that, not equipped to do that and don't have the ability to do that," Majidyar says.
Uncertainty ahead
Mountain ranges here are full of caves and small villages where the Taliban and other groups stage ambushes on coalition forces. U.S. helicopters fly in and destroy militant havens.
The possibility of losing American backing worries some Afghan villagers.
Haji Noor Ullah, an elder from the village of Nangalam in the Pech River Valley, says facing the Taliban unassisted is a daunting prospect. He acknowledges that many Afghans here support the Taliban, but the many who do not might have to fall in line or risk violence. After all, that's been the model in years past.
"We will face a lot of troubles in the future," he said of the Taliban. "This is a very dangerous region."
There have been few serious attacks on Kalagush since the current unit of Americans arrived here in the spring, says the company commander, Capt. Adam Marsh. He agrees that the lull is "unusual" given the area's reputation for a heavy presence of militants.
"It's possible that they are just waiting for us to leave," he says.
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The US Army And Afghanistan’s Bad Divorce
Why our relationship with the Afghan Army is like an epically bad divorce.
The Daily Beast By Benjamin Trupper Sep 19, 2012
Recently, a good friend told me he was getting divorced after a decade-long marriage. A fair assessment would be that the marriage started brilliantly, but after many trials and tribulations, as well as many children, the bloom came off the rose.
Neither partner committed any flagrant fouls, but once the frustration and bickering became a daily occurrence, and hope for the future was in doubt, my friend made the decision to propose divorce.
Once this genie was out of the bottle, the ground rules changed instantly. Small slights, which had in the past been ignored, became grounds for full-scale arguments. In short order, my friend saw the combative levels rise dramatically with his wife, and it even escalated into a recent violent outburst by his spouse. This was something heretofore unheard of in his marriage.
In the course of a decade, this relationship went from hope and optimism, to distrust and violence. It’s a scenario that is also playing out on a macro-level today in another area near and dear to my heart: Afghanistan.
For 12 months, I served as an embedded trainer in the Afghan National Army (ANA), where I mentored and led Afghan soldiers in combat and in training.
In many ways my relationship with the Afghans mirrored the experiences of my friend in the process of his divorce. Embedded team trainers, or ETT's as we were known, began our tours about a decade ago, and experienced the honeymoon phase where camaraderie and congeniality were the order of the day.
All the resentment and anger is boiling over, and for too many Afghans, there is no love lost, the gloves are off, and tragically, blood is flowing.
But by the mid 2000s, the relationship had begun to fray. During my time there in 2006-07, the war was getting harder and victory was for the first time in doubt. The ANA was growing, getting better at its job, and chaffing at the perceived collar it wore, which was connected to a leash held firmly by American ETT hands.
Fast forward to today in Afghanistan, where the "divorce" discussion has been had, and the terms and conditions for ending the relationship are set. All the resentment and anger is boiling over, and for too many Afghans, there is no love lost, the gloves are off, and tragically, blood is flowing.
There are no excuses for the Afghan soldiers and police who murder the American soldiers assigned to train them. Yet there are likely causes for these "green on blue" murders that are occurring.
One cause that is likely contributing to this spike in murders is that we have woven a bloody tapestry over 11 years of both accidental and intentional incidents where Afghan civilians have been killed—as in the recent May 11, 2012 incident where a rogue US soldier murdered 16 women and children.
We in the West are rightly quick to dismiss these as aberrations; but to Afghans, aided by Taliban propaganda, forgiveness is not as forthcoming as it was back in the honeymoon phase of the war.
The enemy is also improving its ability to infiltrate and sew dissent among the Afghan security forces' ranks. When I was there, rumors surfaced of $50,000 bounties on our heads, but our camaraderie and rapport with the Afghan soldiers we mentored made this a running joke. I never once worried or watched my back with my Afghan comrades, and they never made any efforts to collect on this hefty Taliban bounty.
Regardless of the mistakes we have made, there is no excuse for the murders that are occurring of US soldiers by Afghan security personnel. But recognize we must that, much like my friend’s dissolving marriage, the ground rules have changed, and the years of camaraderie and integration are over. Call it a divorce. Call it a withdrawal. Either way the two parties are entering a new chapter of a long and rocky relationship, and the protocols of the past no longer seem to apply.
Benjamin Tupper is an infantry officer currently serving in the Army National Guard, a graduate student at Syracuse University, and the author of two books on his experiences in the Afghan war: Greetings From Afghanistan: Send More Ammo and Dudes of War.
For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.
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Disbelief at Hezb-e-Islami Using Female Bomber
TOLOnews.com By Shahla Murtazaei Wednesday, 19 September 2012
Islamist militant group Hezb-e-Islami's claim that a woman carried out the suicide bombing in Afghanistan's capital Tuesday morning has shocked government officials, with some claiming it cannot be true.
While condemning yesterday's suicide attack outside Kabul International Airport which killed 12 civilians including nine foreigners, a number of lawmakers and senators counter-claimed that no Afghan woman would willingly make herself part of such a deed.
The militant Hezb-e-Islami told multiple media outlets Tuesday that the bomber, who also died in the massive explosion, was 18-year-old Fatima from Kabul.
Kabul MP Shukria Barakzai struggled to believe it.
"Not under any circumstances could one who is a mother herself and has given birth to a child could kill another human or herself," she said.
Herat MP Nahid Farid lamented the use of a woman as a bomber.
"I condemn the idea of using women as a tool in my society. Women should be messengers of peace, not messengers of insecurity and tension," he said.
Senator and member of the Senate's committee for religious and cultural affairs Rana Tarin said a woman loses her "sanctity" when used in this way.
"According to Islam, humanity, and the creation of mankind, I don't see it why a woman who is a mother needs to carry out an act in which she as a woman would lose her sanctity," she said.
The lawmakers also voiced their concern over the insecurity in the country, especially its larger cities.
Tuesday's bombing was the second in Kabul in ten days after a suicide attack struck in high security area near the Nato headquarters on September 8, killing six Afghan civilians, mostly children.
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Parliament to Investigate Mullah Lashing of Ghazni Girl
TOLOnews.com By Saleha Soadat Wednesday, 19 September 2012
Afghanistan's parliament will investigate the lashing of a girl in Ghazni as ordered by local mullahs amid concerns that religious leaders are exacting justice outside of the country's laws.
The secretariat of the parliament gave responsibility to the committee of justice and the committee of women's affairs to examine the incident.
"The Parliament will take a solemn decision on this incident after inspections are made by these two commissions," Deputy Speaker of Parliament Nematullah Ghafari said Wednesday.
The decision came after MPs called for incident where three mullahs punished a 16-year-old Afghan girl for an "illegal relationship" to not be ignored.
Kabul MP Shinkai Zahin Karokhil described it as an unforgivable crime.
"Three Mullahs called Shafaee, Saadati, and Rahimi issued the sentence. These Mullahs performed this crime in the name of Islam," he said.
MPs called on the Ulema Council and the governor of the Jaghori district where the incident took place to address the matter before any more drum-head courts are held.
"There would be no need to have local officials if every mullah or half-mullah can issue such sentences alongside the district governor and other local officials. The district governor should respond," Kabul MP Abdul Hafiz Mansoor said.
The lawmakers insisted that if the matter was ignored it would lead people to lose their trust in the country's proper judicial process.
"The existence of our judicial bodies will not mean anything if this continues," Ghazni MP Mohammad Aref Rahmani said.
Ghazni MP Ali Akbar Qasemi said it effectively means anyone can issue a "sentence" in their own home.
TOLOnews reported last week that local mullahs had sentenced a young man and a 16-year-old girl of Jaghori's Hout Qoul village to be punished for an "illegal relationship".
The nature of the relationship is not clear as local officials declined to discuss the matter, but Ghazni provincial head of women's affairs Shukria Wali said at the time she was concerned that the man was free and in the district.
The mullahs fined the young man 80,000 Afs and the girl Sabera to be whipped.
Wali said that Sabera received 80 lashes, but other sources say the sentence was 101 lashes.
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