Re: Taliban Trailed: Sid Harth
Sid Harth
Wed Dec 2, 2009 9:47am EST
Monday, 23 Nov 2009 03:44pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Taliban
insurgency has achieved a dominant influence in 11 of Afghanistan's 34
provinces, the top U.S. military officer said on Wednesday.
But Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told
the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee that the 30,000 additional
deployments announced on Tuesday would allow the U.S. military to
"gain the initiative" in Afghanistan.
(Reporting by Andrew Quinn and Phil Stewart, editing by Vicki Allen)
http://www.reuters.com/article/gc05/idUSTRE5B136320091202
...and I am Sid Harth
bademiyansubhanallah
(AFP) – 10 hours ago
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The Taliban vowed on Wednesday to step up
resistance and fight against the extra 30,000 American troops US
President Barack Obama has ordered to Afghanistan, a spokesman said.
"Obama will witness lots of coffins heading to America from
Afghanistan," spokesman Yousuf Ahamdi told AFP by telephone from an
unknown location.
"Their hope to control Afghanistan by military means will not become
reality," he said, reading from what he described as a statement
issued by the Taliban's Islamic Emirate.
"The extra 30,000 troops that will come to Afghanistan will provoke
stronger resistance and fighting," he added.
"They will withdraw shamefully. They cannot achieve their hopes and
goals," the rebel spokesman said.
The statement said the Americans would face the same fate as Russian
and British soldiers previously -- during the 19th century British
invasion of Afghanistan and that by Soviet troops in the 1980s.
The Taliban were in power between 1996 and 2001 before they were
ousted in a US-led attack that was backed by most members of the NATO
alliance. Remnants of the Taliban have been leading an insurgency to
regain power since then.
The insurgency, which includes an increasing number of suicide
bombings once unheard of in the destitute nation, has gained pace
every year, with 2009 now the deadliest since US and NATO troops
deployed.
The Taliban accuse the Western troops of trying to take over the
conservative Muslim country and are fighting to topple the Western-
backed government in Kabul.
"This is a colonizing strategy which is securing the colonizing
interests of American investors and it shows that America has dirty
plans not only for Afghanistan but for the region," the Taliban
statement said.
Currently there are around 113,000 Western, mainly US, troops in
Afghanistan. They are fighting against the Taliban and helping Kabul
train its security forces, which Afghans hope will eventually take
responsibility for security.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved.
The Taliban ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5id16fRoCidTaSwXMoAUWmPHfElaw
Sid Harth
Dec 3, 2009
By Jim Garamone, American Forces Press Service
Photo credit Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert M.
Gates and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee at the
Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., Dec. 2, 2009. The
testimony focused on President Barack Obama's decision to send an
additional
WASHINGTON (Dec. 2, 2009) -- President Barack Obama's decision on the
Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy offers the best possibility to
decisively change the momentum in Afghanistan and fundamentally alter
the strategic equation in Pakistan and Central Asia, Defense Secretary
Robert M. Gates told the Senate Armed Service Committee here today.
A centerpiece of the president's decision is to surge 30,000 American
troops into the eastern and southern areas of the country in the first
six months of 2010. The president said combating al-Qaida and the
Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan is in America's vital national
interest, and he reaffirmed the goal of disrupting, dismantling and
defeating al-Qaida in Afghanistan and Pakistan and to prevent its
return.
"The international military effort to stabilize Afghanistan is
necessary to achieve this overarching goal," Gates said. "Defeating al-
Qaida and enhancing Afghan security are mutually reinforcing missions.
They cannot be untethered from one another, as much as we might wish
that to be the case."
Taliban support for al-Qaida complicates an already complicated
situation in Afghanistan. "The success of the Taliban would vastly
strengthen al-Qaida's message to the Muslim world that violent
extremists are on the winning side of history," Gates said. "Put
simply, the Taliban and al-Qaida have become symbiotic, each
benefiting from the success and mythology of the other."
After setbacks early in the war, the Taliban have reconstituted and
now hold parts of Afghanistan. This, Gates said, has increased the
attractiveness of the Taliban myth and encouraged extremists.
"The lesson of the Taliban's revival for al-Qaida is that time and
will are on their side," the secretary said, "[and] that, with a
Western defeat, they could regain their strength and achieve a major
strategic victory as long as their senior leadership lives and can
continue to inspire and attract followers and funding.
"Rolling back the Taliban is now necessary, even if not sufficient, to
the ultimate defeat of al-Qaida," he added.
Afghanistan and Pakistan have too many ties of tribes, culture,
commerce and faith to ignore in this struggle, Gates said. Pakistan
also is a nuclear power and is targeted by extremists.
"The two countries ... share a porous border of more than 1,500
miles," he said. "Giving extremists breathing room in Pakistan led to
the resurgence of the Taliban and more coordinated, sophisticated
attacks in Afghanistan. Providing a sanctuary for extremists in
southern and eastern Afghanistan would put yet more pressure on a
Pakistani government already under attack from groups operating in the
border region."
The Taliban in Pakistan, with al-Qaida's help, have escalated bombing
attacks throughout the country. In the spring, they launched
operations that took the extremist group to within 60 miles of
Islamabad, Pakistan's capital. The Pakistani army has moved decisively
against this threat and also has launched operations in South
Waziristan - part of the federally administered tribal area that holds
al-Qaida and Taliban safe havens.
Gates told the senators that the United States has work to do in
winning the Pakistani people's confidence for the way ahead. "Because
of American withdrawal from the region in the early 1990s, followed by
a severing of military-to-military relations, many Pakistanis are
skeptical that the United States is a reliable, long-term strategic
partner," he said. "We must change that perception."
The threat is real, Gates said. If Islamic extremists are successful
in Central and South Asia, he told the senators, it would strengthen
al-Qaida in particular and extremist groups in general.
"It would strengthen the al-Qaida narrative, providing renewed
opportunities for recruitment, fund-raising and more sophisticated
operations," the secretary said. "Aided by the Internet, many more
followers could join their ranks, both in the region and in
susceptible populations across the globe."
The border area of Afghanistan and Pakistan is "the epicenter of
extremist jihadism: the historic place where native and foreign
Muslims defeated one superpower and, in their view, caused its
collapse at home," Gates said.
Paramilitary fighters took on the Soviet Union after its occupation of
Afghanistan in 1979. They fought against the Red Army for years until
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev pulled out the last troops in 1988.
"For [extremists] to be seen to defeat the sole remaining superpower
in the same place would have severe consequences for the United States
and the world," Gates warned.
"Less than five years after the last Soviet tank crossed the Termez
Bridge out of Afghanistan," he said, "Islamic militants launched their
first attack on the World Trade Center in New York. We cannot afford
to make a similar mistake again."
U.S. strategy aims to reverse the Taliban's momentum and reduce its
strength while providing the time and space necessary for the Afghans
to develop enough security and governance capacity to stabilize their
own country, the secretary said. Its goals are to roll back the
Taliban, deny them access to the Afghan people, disrupt them outside
secured areas, prevent al-Qaida from regaining sanctuary and degrade
Taliban capabilities to levels that allow Afghan national security
forces to take the lead.
The strategy also calls for increasing the size and capability of
Afghan security forces and selectively building the Afghan
government's capacity, particularly in key ministries.
"This approach is not open-ended 'nation building,'" Gates said. "It
is neither necessary nor feasible to create a modern, centralized,
Western-style Afghan nation-state, the likes of which has never been
seen in that country."
It also does not mean pacifying every village from one end of
Afghanistan to the other, the secretary said. "It is, instead, a
narrower focus tied more tightly to our core goal of disrupting,
dismantling and eventually defeating al-Qaida by building the capacity
of the Afghans - capacity that will be measured by observable progress
on clear objectives, and not simply by the passage of time."
The civil-military plan is to clear, hold, build and transfer, the
secretary said.
"Beginning to transfer security responsibility to the Afghans in
summer 2011 is critical - and, in my, view achievable," the secretary
said. "This transfer will occur district by district, province by
province, depending on conditions on the ground. The process will be
similar to what we did in Iraq, where international security forces
provided 'overwatch' - first at the tactical level, then at the
strategic level."
The United States will continue to work with the Afghan government and
military, even after transferring security responsibility to the
Afghans, he noted.
"We will not repeat the mistakes of 1989, when we abandoned the
country only to see it descend into chaos, and then into Taliban
hands," Gates, who was the deputy director of central intelligence at
the time, told the senators.
The first additional U.S. forces will begin to arrive in Afghanistan
within two or three weeks, the secretary said, and when all of them
are in place, about 100,000 American servicemembers will be in
Afghanistan.
"We are looking to NATO and our other partners to send a parallel
international message of strong resolve," he said. "Our allies must
take the lead and focus their resources in the north and west to
prevent the insurgency from establishing new footholds."
U.S. officials will ask allies for an additional 5,000 to 7,000
troops, and the United States expects them to share more of the burden
of training, equipping and funding the Afghan army and police.
Gates said that while the situation in Afghanistan is worsening, it is
nowhere near as bad as Iraq was when he took office three years ago.
"With all the resources already committed to this campaign, ... I
believe the pieces are being put in place to make real and measurable
progress in Afghanistan over the next 18 to 24 months," the secretary
said.
The effort in Afghanistan will take more patience, perseverance, and
sacrifice by the United States and its allies, Gates said. "As always,
the heaviest burden will fall on the men and women who have
volunteered - and in many cases re-volunteered - to serve their
country in uniform," he added. "I know they will be uppermost in our
minds and prayers as we take on this arduous, but vitally necessary,
mission."
http://www.army.mil/-news/2009/12/03/31242-strategy-offers-best-chance-for-success-gates-says/
Sid Harth
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Dec. 2, 2009 – Tens of thousands of additional U.S. forces
slated for deployment to Afghanistan will be employed to target and
eliminate terrorist leaders and assist the Afghan government to better
safeguard and provide a brighter future for its people, the commander
of U.S. Central Command said today.
President Barack Obama last night announced the deployment of 30,000
extra U.S. forces to Afghanistan over the next several months, which
would bring the total U.S. troop strength there to about 100,000.
Officials are finalizing plans as to exactly where in Afghanistan the
additional troops will be deployed, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus told
John D. Roberts today on CNN’s “American Morning” television news
program. The Afghanistan-bound troops will be deployed to secure the
most important elements of the Afghan population, while also securing
lines of communication and enabling the training of additional Afghan
military and police so that they can eventually assume the security
mission, the general said.
Concurrently, he added, counterterrorist operations against Taliban
and al-Qaida operatives will be ramped up. “You have to kill or
capture key leaders, the irreconcilables, in such an endeavor,”
Petraeus said.
Meanwhile, he added, efforts to engage and provide better security and
economic opportunity for the Afghan people will be increased “so that
local individuals don’t have to choose sides to go with the Taliban
because they’re threatened or because it’s the only way they can earn
a living for their family.”
The organization of local community defense cells also is part of the
revised Afghanistan strategy, the general said.
Roberts asked Petraeus -- the architect of the successful U.S.
military surge of forces that turned the tide in Iraq -- if any
lessons learned from the Iraq experience might be applied during the
new ‘surge’ into Afghanistan.
“Well, I think any time you try to apply lessons from one situation to
another,” Petraeus replied, “you have to be keenly aware of the
differences, of the context in which those lessons will be applied.”
Obama earlier this year ordered the deployment of more than 20,000
extra U.S. troops to Afghanistan, including 4,000 trainers for Afghan
soldiers and police, bringing the current total number of U.S. forces
there to about 68,000. Those troops provided “the kind of density to
where you can carry out strategies that can capitalize on the lessons
that we did bring back from Iraq,” Petraeus said, including experience
in population protection, community outreach, and reconciliation of
former members of the insurgency.
The upcoming deployment of another 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan
will be welcomed by its citizens “if we, indeed, are seen by the
Afghan people to be helping them realize a better future for
themselves and their families,” Petraeus said.
Meanwhile, efforts to convince Taliban insurgents to make peace with
the Afghan government already are bearing fruit, Petraeus said. After
the recent killing of a senior Taliban commander in western
Afghanistan’s Herat province, for example, his fighters renounced
violence and departed the insurgency, the general noted. However, he
cautioned, “irreconcilables” who “never will support the new
Afghanistan have to be killed, captured or run off.”
Roberts asked Petraeus if reports of corruption within some elements
of the Afghan governmental bureaucracy would impair the war effort
there. Citing Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s recent second-term
inauguration address, Petraeus said the newly elected Afghan leader
“had some very important language in it about tackling corruption,
about government serving its people rather than preying on them.”
Petraeus said he is buoyed by news of recent arrests and detentions of
“certain fairly senior Afghan government officials” in the country’s
border forces and in some ministries.
http://www.defenselink.mil//news/newsarticle.aspx?id=56908
chhotemianinshallah
Taliban detainee 'met Bin Laden this year'
By Orla Guerin
BBC News, Islamabad
Bin Laden is believed to be somewhere along the Pakistan-Afghan
border
A Taliban detainee in Pakistan claims to have information about Osama
Bin Laden's whereabouts in January or February of this year.
His claims cannot be verified but a leading American expert says his
account should be investigated.
The detainee claims to have met Osama Bin Laden numerous times before
9/11.
He says that earlier this year he met a trusted contact who had seen
Bin Laden 15 to 20 days earlier across the border in Afghanistan.
"In 2009, in January or February I met this friend of mine. He said he
had come from meeting Sheikh Osama, and he could arrange for me to
meet him," he said.
According to the detainee, his contact is a Mehsud tribesman,
responsible for getting al-Qaeda operatives based abroad to meetings
with Bin Laden.
"He helps al-Qaeda people coming from other countries to get to the
sheikh, so he can advise them on whatever they are planning for Europe
or other places.
"The sheikh doesn't stay in any one place. That guy came from Ghazni,
so I think that's where the sheikh was."
No-go areas
The province of Ghazni in eastern Afghanistan has an increasingly
strong Taliban presence. Large parts of the province are no-go areas
for coalition and Afghan forces.
The detainee said that militants were avoiding Pakistani territory
because of the risk of US drone attacks.
"Pakistan at this time is not convenient for us to stay in because a
lot of our senior people are being martyred in drone attacks," he
said.
The detainee can't be named for legal reasons.
According to a Pakistani security official he has close ties with
leaders of the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and was involved
in kidnapping and fundraising operations.
We were given access to him twice in the past month. A Pakistani
interrogator was listening in as he spoke.
His account suits Pakistan, which maintains that Bin Laden is not on
its soil although Britain and the US think otherwise.
But a leading US expert, former CIA analyst Bruce Riedel, says his
story is plausible and should be investigated.
"The entire Western intelligence community, CIA and M16, have been
looking for Osama Bin Laden for the last seven years and haven't come
upon a source of information like this," he said.
"So if it's true - a big if - this is an extraordinary and important
story.
"We know Osama Bin Laden is alive. We know that he is living somewhere
in the badlands along the border with Pakistan and Afghanistan.
"What is extraordinary about this story is we have someone who has
come forward and said, really for the first time, 'I met with Osama
Bin Laden and I had the opportunity to met him again in the recent
past'."
The detainee's account raises many questions - among them, what were
his motives for talking?
Bruce Riedel says his story is a very important lead which ought to be
tracked down. But that won't be easy.
Western interrogators may have lots of questions they would like to
ask, but so far the detainee has been out of their reach.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8394470.stm
chhotemianinshallah
8:32pm UK, Thursday December 03, 2009
Adam Arnold, Sky News Online
The loss of public support for the Afghan war is more damaging to
soldiers' morale than bombs or the Taliban, the head of the UK armed
forces has warned.
Falling public support damages troop morale, claims Sir Jock
Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup said declining approval at home for
the mission risked undermining the whole campaign.
The Chief of the Defence Staff said that while the militants could not
win in Afghanistan, the international coalition could still fail if it
lost the will to see the mission through.
His comments came just days after Prime Minister Gordon Brown
announced 500 more British troops would be deployed there.
There will be a total of over 10,000 UK military personnel in
Afghanistan, Mr Brown told MPs.
US President Barack Obama said an extra 30,000 American troops would
be sent to fight the Taliban and other countries had also pledged
additional military personnel.
Sir Jock Stirrup
Italy said it would probably send around 1,000 soldiers, after Albania
offered 85, and Poland suggested it could send 600 more.
In his annual lecture to the Royal United Services Institute in
London, Sir Jock said: "It's time we recalled those famous words: 'In
war, resolution'.
"This endeavour is important enough to our national security to
justify the price our people are paying. The mission is achievable and
at last we have a properly resourced plan to deliver the strategy.
"Our people in theatre know this. The greatest threat to their morale
is not the Taliban or IEDs (improvised explosive devices), but
declining will at home.
"Support for our service men and women is indivisible from support for
this mission.
Brown meets Pakistan's PM
"Our people know that they can succeed, that we'll only fail if we
choose to fail. We owe it to them, and to those we've lost, not to
make that choice."
Meanwhile, Mr Brown is standing by his assertion that Osama bin Laden
is in Pakistan despite the country's prime minister, Raza Gilani,
insisting that he is not.
The UK government has also expressed concern over the number of
British Pakistanis travelling between the two countries who are
involved in terrorism.
Mr Gilani rejected Mr Brown's claim that three-quarters of terror
plots against the UK originated in Pakistan.
bademiyansubhanallah
www.chinaview.cn 2009-12-05 15:12:42
KABUL, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- Afghan national security forces backed
by NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) detained a
group of Taliban militants in an operation in Kandahar province of
southern Afghanistan, according to a statement of the military
alliance received here on Saturday.
"An Afghan-international security force detained several suspected
militants in Kandahar on Friday after searching a compound known to be
used by a Taliban facilitator," the statement said.
However, it did not mention the exact number of detainees. "The
joint security forces targeted a compound near the village of Nurayo
Kariz, in Arghandab district," it said, adding "the forces searched
the compound without incident and detained the militants including the
Taliban facilitator."
But did not say the name or the rank of the Taliban facilitator.
No shots were fired and no one was injured in the operation, it
stressed. Taliban militants have not made comment.
In their first operation against militants since announcing
President Obama's new strategy on Wednesday in which he promised
sending in additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. About 1,000 U.S.
Marines and some 150 Afghan troops launched an offensive on Friday to
disrupt Taliban activities in Nowzad district of Helmand province in
the country.
Editor: Xiong Tong
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/05/content_12594112.htm
bademiyansubhanallah
Clinton
ANI
Posted: Monday , Dec 07, 2009 at 1147 hrs
Washington:
Hillary said she was "highly skeptical" that any of the current
Taliban leaders would be interested in following the path of
negotiations or accept such conditions.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that the US will
negotiate with Taliban leaders in Afghanistan only if they “renounce
Al Qaeda and violence.”
On Sunday, several members of the Obama administration suggested that
talks are possible with Taliban leaders in order to bring about a
settlement of the war in Afghanistan.
"They have to renounce Al-Qaeda, renounce violence. They have to be
willing to abide by the constitution of Afghanistan and live
peacefully," The News quoted Clinton, as saying.
She said she was "highly skeptical" that any of the current Taliban
leaders would be interested in following the path of negotiations or
accept such conditions.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said that President Obama is
sending extra troops to Afghanistan in order to bring the Taliban to
the negotiation table.
"I think that the likelihood of the leadership of the Taliban, or
senior leaders, being willing to accept the conditions Secretary
Clinton just talked about depends in the first instance on reversing
their momentum right now, and putting them in a position where they
suddenly begin to realize that they're likely to lose," Gates said.
...and I am Sid harth
bademiyansubhanallah
By Sajjad Tarakzai (AFP) – 7 hours ago
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Umar Hayat was among scores of volunteers who
worked for days to find survivors after Pakistan's worst bomb blast in
two years, panic rising as he scrambled through scorched rubble.
Clawing at debris after a massive bomb pulverised a busy market in
Pakistan's northwest capital Peshawar on October 28, Hayat could find
no trace of his eldest son, 11-year-old Mohsin.
"One after another, we found dead bodies. Soon after burying my
brother, I came back to the bomb site. I found my son's body at
midnight. The next day, in the afternoon, we found my nephew's body,"
Hayat told AFP.
"My wife is still in shock. I don't know what to do. She spends the
whole time crying and saying 'bring back my Mohsin'."
But rather than feeling disgust at Taliban fighters blamed for an
attack that killed 125 people, Hayat holds the United States
responsible, reflecting a deep-seated distrust felt throughout
Pakistan.
"I appeal to America, please leave us be. Please stop this game, this
war on terror. Osama (bin Laden) is just a smokescreen to attack
Muslims," Hayat said.
"Stop it. How many more lives will you take in revenge for the World
Trade Centre? Do you want to destroy the whole of Pakistan?"
Washington is trying to win firmer backing from Pakistan to fight
extremism as it prepares to deploy 30,000 extra troops to end the war
in neighbouring Afghanistan, but reaction to the new strategy has been
scathing.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani asked US President Barack Obama for
more clarity, while many fear an increased troop presence could send
more militants flooding into Pakistan as after the 2001 US-led
invasion of Afghanistan.
On the streets, people are already struggling to cope with
increasingly potent suicide bombings.
Officials blame the blasts on Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants,
the architects of a two-and-a-half year insurgency that has killed
more than 2,600 people in attacks across Pakistan.
Parents have lost children. Children have been orphaned. Struggling to
comprehend the scale of the violence, conspiracy theories abound.
"What did my father do? Why did somebody do this to us?" said Rashid
Javed, who lost his father and two cousins on October 28.
"Half his (my cousin's) body was missing. We received the upper
half... I think America, Israel and India are involved. The Taliban
can't do this -- they used to target only police and army men."
Such views are widely held in the conservative Muslim city of
Peshawar, a cultural capital for Pashtuns, the ethnic group that
provides a bulk of Taliban support in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The sentiments, which echo pan-Islamist radicalism, are fuelled
locally by Taliban propaganda blaming America and arch-rival India for
Pakistan's ills and accusing the United States of trying to occupy the
region.
CDs and DVDs can be bought in markets. Statements are distributed.
Text messages of shadowy origin go from phone to phone, spreading
rumours that the United States deployed hundreds of Marines to
Pakistan or that the private US security firm formerly known as
Blackwater is operating in the country.
In mosques, preachers rail against "foreign elements" allegedly
meddling in Pakistan's affairs.
The US embassy has sought to scotch the rumour mill by putting out
statements denying reports of a Blackwater presence, but anti-American
feeling in Pakistan has deep roots.
Many people feel bitterness over what they saw as US abandonment of
the region once the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989.
Rahimullah Yusufzai, an expert on Pakistan's northwest, blamed US
foreign policy over the years, particularly the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
"There are strong anti-American sentiments in this region and this is
because of American policy and its role in this region since the
Russian invasion in Afghanistan," Yusufzai said.
Fuelling anger are regular US missile strikes targeting Taliban and Al-
Qaeda in Pakistan's northwest.
US drone attacks have killed around 625 people in the last 15 months,
with Pakistanis seething at the perceived violation of sovereignty and
reports of civilian casualties.
"I'm sure it was a drone attack," said Ghulam Ali, looking at his
cotton shop, which was damaged in the Peshawar blast.
"We are fed up. I can't believe the Taliban are involved in these
bombings. I'm sure the troika -- America, India and Israel -- is doing
all this."
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved.
Pakistani people are struggling to cope with increasingly potent
suicide bombings
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jEeg0e-UicFJgnbfrR1pIGTr-RBQ
chhotemianinshallah
(AFP) – 3 hours ago
ASADABAD, Afghanistan — NATO warplanes pounded a Taliban stronghold in
eastern Afghanistan on Monday, killing more than 20 insurgents and
destroying a bunker complex, military officials said.
Noor Akbar, a regional Taliban commander was among those killed in the
raid in the province of Kunar, a mountainous region and Taliban
flashpoint area near the Pakistan border, Afghan army general Mohammad
Qasim Bitanai told AFP.
"More than 20 Taliban fighters, including their commander Noor Akbar,
were killed in the raid," he said.
The NATO-run International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it
called in an air strike that demolished a Taliban stronghold in the
province's Watapur district but did not give details of casualties.
"An international security force conducted an air strike today and
destroyed a known Taliban stronghold consisting of bunkers and
prepared defensive positions in Kunar province.
"The security force targeted the stronghold near the village of
Tsangar Darah in the mountainous Watapur district after intelligence
sources indicated militant activity at the location," ISAF said.
The Afghan general said the operation was coordinated between Afghan
and foreign forces, which currently number around 113,000 in the
country.
Several other rebels were killed in operations elsewhere in the
province of Paktika, also in the east, ISAF said without giving a
figure.
US President Barack Obama last week ordered 30,000 more troops to the
war-torn country as NATO allies pledged at least an extra 7,000
soldiers as part of a sweeping new strategy to crush a surge in
Taliban violence.
The Taliban have made a deadly come-back since the 2001 US-led
invasion toppled their regime in Kabul, forcing commanders to demand
reinforcements in a bid to win a war increasingly unpopular in Western
capitals.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved.
US President Barack Obama last week ordered 30,000 more troops to the
war-torn country
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iYCeKFqIj1hz_QmdNCfMz4GyRZPw
chhotemianinshallah
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 7, 2009 | 5:23 a.m.
Reporting from Kabul — U.S. Marines and Afghan security forces
assaulting a Taliban stronghold in the Now Zad valley of Helmand
province have uncovered large caches of explosives, rifles, machine
guns and material used to make roadside bombs, the Marines announced
today.
Resistance has been sporadic in the once-thriving community that is
now virtually abandoned except for the Taliban. There were no reports
of Marine or Afghan casualties, the Marines said.
A dozen enemy fighters have been killed and several captured.
The operation, called Cobra's Anger, is part of the Marines' drive to
eliminate the Taliban presence in the province that the insurgents
once controlled. Along with the Marines and Afghan forces, Denmark's
Jutland Dragoon Regiment participated.
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fgw-afghan-caches8-2009dec08,0,1447672.story
bademiyansubhanallah
Afghanistan
www.chinaview.cn 2009-12-08 21:39:05
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- As the joint U.S. and
Afghan military operation entered its fifth day, 11 Taliban insurgents
were killed in a single day Tuesday in the troubled Helmand province,
Commander of Afghan forces in southern region said.
"During cleanup operation in Nawzad district 11 rebels have been
sine early morning today," General Shir Mohammad Zazai told Xinhua.
Five more militants were wounded and four others have been
arrested, he added.
He also stressed that there were no causality on the troops.
Two heavy guns, tens of assault rifles, over 200 mines and some
100 kg of explosive material have been recovered from Taliban
hideouts, Zazai contended.
The operation, dubbed "Cobra's Anger" begun last Friday with the
involvement of some 1,000 U.S. Marines and 150 Afghan soldiers to
disrupt Taliban activities in the region, have so far, according to
officials, eliminated over 50 insurgents.
However, Taliban militants have not made comment.
Editor: Lin Zhi
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/08/content_12613350.htm
chhotemianinshallah
www.chinaview.cn 2009-12-14 16:29:54
KABUL, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- Afghan troops in conjunction with the
NATO-led multinational force apprehended a weapon supplier to
militants in Taliban birthplace Kandahar, south Afghanistan on Monday,
a statement of the military alliance released here said.
"Afghan and International Security forces detained a Taliban
weapon facilitator in Kandahar today," the statement added.
The man, detained from Panjwai district without any shots,
according to the statement was involved in shipment of weapons to
Taliban militants in the restive region. However, it did not give his
name.
In the statement, it added that some more militants were detained
during the operation against the weapon facilitator. Taliban militants
fighting the troops have not made comment.
Kandahar, a former stronghold of Taliban and the neighboring
Helmand and Zabul provinces have been the scene of increasing
insurgency over the past couple of years.
Editor: Wang Guanqun
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/14/content_12645576.htm
chhotemianinshallah
By SANGAR RAHIMI and ALAN COWELL
Published: December 14, 2009
KABUL, Afghanistan — Eight Afghan police officers in the northeastern
Baghlan Province were killed before dawn on Monday when militants
opened fire on a checkpoint, a local official said, and eight more
were reported slain in a similar attack on a road-block in the south.
Mohammad Akbar Barakzai, the governor of Baghlan province, said two of
the attackers were also killed in the attack there.
“The checkpoint was set up on the main highway to provide security for
the highway and villages around the area,” he said in a telephone
interview.
At around the same time, the Interior Ministry in Kabul reported that
eight more officers died when militants opened fire on another police
checkpoint in Lashkar Gah, the capital of troubled Helmand Province in
the south, according to The Associated Press.
It was not immediately clear if the two attacks were linked in an
attempt by the militants to discourage Afghans from joining the
security forces.
The attacks came after the American commander in charge of training
the Afghan security forces said last week that there had been a recent
wave of recruits for the Afghan Army, most likely because of a pay
increase that he said put salaries close to those of Taliban fighters.
Separately, the NATO command in Afghanistan said foreign troops
working with Afghan forces detained a militant supplying and
distributing weapons to insurgents fighting the American-led coalition
in Khost Province.
The suspect was said to belong to a group of militants linked to Al
Qaeda.
“In another operation today, an Afghan-international security force
detained a Taliban weapons facilitator and a couple of other militants
in Kandahar province,” NATO said. Both arrests were made without shots
being fired.
Foreign forces in Afghanistan include some 68,000 Americans and 27,000
from other coalition countries. President Obama has pledged to send a
further 30,000 Americans while allies in the 43-nation coalition in
Afghanistan have said they will commit 7,000 more, including some
already in the country.
A central part of Washington’s strategy is to train Afghan forces so
that American troops can begin withdrawing in July, 2011.
But President Hamid Karzai said last week that that Afghanistan would
not be able to pay for its own security until at least 2024,
underscoring his government’s long-term financial dependence on the
United States and NATO.
Last weekend, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain joined a
procession of coalition leaders, including senior Obama administration
officials, to visit Afghanistan and talk to President Karzai.
Coalition leaders say they want Mr. Karzai to root out corruption in
his government after a flawed election last August that returned him
to power.
Britain has lost 100 soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year out of a
total of 237 since 2001 and the war is unpopular with many voters in
advance of elections next year and has left many Britons struggling to
understand the conflict’s complexities.
”We’ve been too simplistic in our attitude towards the Taliban,” said
Bishop Stephen Venner, the recently appointed bishop to Britain’s
armed forces.
“There’s a large number of things that the Taliban say and stand for
which none of us in the West could approve, but simply to say
therefore that everything they do is bad is not helping the situation.
The Taliban can perhaps be admired for their conviction to their faith
and their sense of loyalty to each other,” he said in an interview
published in The Daily Telegraph, arguing that it was unhelpful to
demonize the insurgents.
“We have to involve all the people of Afghanistan to find justice and
prosperity for all,” he said.
Sangar Rahimi reported from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Alan Cowell from
London.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/world/asia/15afghan.html?ref=asia
chhotemianinshallah
Efforts to improve Afghanistan's dysfunctional judicial system have
been plagued by inefficiency, bribery, and nepotism. Reform efforts
appear to be failing to the point that many Afghans are turning to
another power for justice -- the Taliban.
Monday, December 14, 2009By RFE/RL
When Kabul's mayor was sentenced to four years in prison on corruption
charges this week, officials were quick to paint the sentencing as
evidence of the "serious steps" being taken to eliminate graft and
bribery in Afghanistan.
Deputy Attorney General Fazal Ahmad Faqiryar, speaking to RFE/RL's
Radio Free Afghanistan after the December 7 verdict, said that the
case of Mayor Abdul Ahad Sahebi showed the "positive effects on
society" that would result from the government's efforts to fight
corruption.
The very next day, however, Sahebi was back in the Mayoral Office
after a higher court granted him bail. And despite official statements
that he is not allowed to continue running the capital city, Sahebi
did just that for nearly a week before finally resigning on December
13.
The fact that he stayed in office for so long astonished Afghans and,
according to Kabul University law professor Najeeb Mahmood, it has
placed the entire Afghan judiciary under the spotlight.
"Of course, the order to detain the Kabul mayor is a controversial
matter. It has brought the power of the judiciary and justice system
of the country under question," he says.
Inefficiency, Bribery, And Nepotism
With the help of considerable international funding, Afghanistan has
over the past eight years established a network of primary and
appellate courts that span the country's 34 provinces and 365
districts and which are subject to the Supreme Court in Kabul.
But efforts to improve a system plagued by inefficiency, bribery, and
nepotism appear to be failing to the point that many Afghans are
turning to another power for justice -- the Taliban.
The ranks of Taliban judges are often filled by barely literate
mullahs, but benefit from a reputation for being available when
needed, and for not taking bribes or contributing to bureaucratic red
tape. And unlike the case of the Kabul mayor, there is no questioning
the authority of Taliban judges, who can implement their decisions
swiftly and decisively -- sometimes by shooting alleged murders and
rapists.
Kabul University law and political science professor Nasrullah
Stanekzai says the Afghan judiciary suffers from numerous complex and
endemic problems. He tells RFE/RL that the country needs more court
houses, along with the trained police officers, prosecutors, lawyers,
and judges needed to help them function effectively.
"There are some deficiencies in our laws and it is a problem. There is
nepotism and still there is the gun and the relationships flowing from
it," he says.
"Corruption is another problem. And unfortunately, it is still seen
[as rampant] in different Afghan institutions, including the police
and judiciary."
Stanekzai says that the formal legal system is rooted in Islamic law,
while also practicing secular law. At times, this places the mixed
system in a compromising position of competition with Islamic and
customary laws adjudicated by clerics and tribal leaders. The Taliban,
meanwhile, forward their unique interpretation of Islamic Shari'a
law.
'Not Like Building A Road'
The clash of three judicial ideals leads many Afghans to seek to
settle their disputes in local councils, called jirgas and shuras,
under local customary law. However, the Taliban has considerably
weakened tribal leaderships, leaving its judges as the only viable
alternative.
J Alexander Thier oversees Afghanistan and Pakistan at the U.S.
Institute of Peace, an independent nonpartisan Washington think tank.
Thier says this phenomenon is most evident in remote Afghan regions
where the Taliban insurgency is most active.
Thier, who has researched the Afghan legal systems for years, says
that the weakness and or absence of state courts push rural Afghans to
seek arbitration from the Taliban, "who will resolve disputes quickly
and definitively and would make sure that they are enforced."
In its role as the lead donor on judicial reforms in Afghanistan,
Italy has over the years spent tens of millions of dollars building
court houses and training Afghan lawyers and judges. Thier says that
the efforts have made slow progress in the cities but little headway
in the countryside.
"Building a justice system is not like building a road," he says.
"It takes people and training and systems and legitimacy to be put
into place. The formal justice system has really not been rebuilt at
all in the rural areas. They simply have not had the resources to do
that," Thier maintains adding that the weakness or unavailability of
the formal justice system in the rural areas leaves people "either to
the traditional justice system or to the Taliban system."
He suggests that the short-term remedy for this problem is to link the
traditional justice system made up of shuras and jirgas to the formal
courts that fall under the authority of the Afghan state -- a
throwback to the times of peace enjoyed before the onset of wars in
late 1970s.
Reining In the Warlords
Thier says this will provide Afghans access to a justice system
supported by the Afghan state and the international community.
"Otherwise, if they secede the territory of justice to the Taliban, I
think that's very dangerous," he says.
"The Afghan government will not be legitimate if it is not seen to be
involved in the resolution of disputes; if it is not seen to be
involved in justice."
Thier says that to permanently establish the rule of law, Afghan
militia leaders and warlords who still control key government posts or
exert significant influence must agree to abide by Afghan law.
Their successful resistance of this over the past eight years,
according to Thier, bred a culture of impunity that "undermined the
government and created space for the insurgency."
He still believes that establishing the rule of law is possible in
Afghanistan. "But you have to have all of the key parties buying in to
the idea of the rule of law and then implementing it. And we haven't
yet seen that really since 2001."
Kabul University professor Stanekzai says that building a robust
judiciary is a key prerequisite for restoring stability and moving
forward with reconstruction and development in Afghanistan.
"Without a fundamentally strong judicial system we cannot find our way
to justice. And people cannot trust their government," he says.
Copyright (c) 2008. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W.
Washington DC 20036.
bademiyansubhanallah
HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times
New Delhi, December 14, 2009
First Published: 15:22 IST(14/12/2009)
Last Updated: 01:19 IST(15/12/2009)
On December 12 fax machines at police headquarters in different states
went off. It was a message from the Intelligence Bureau about an
escalated terror threat to big cities.
“It said a terrorist team comprising Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)
has sneaked inside the country through the Kupwara sector in Kashmir,”
West Bengal Home Secretary, Ardhendu Sen told HT.
The alert was received by the West Bengal DGP and Kolkata Police
Commissioner. “Though it doesn’t mention any specific information
about the militant group or where they might be headed, the IB message
says they might be headed for Kolkata or Delhi or Mumbai and might
conduct a suicide or terrorist attack on vital installations in these
cities,” Sen said.
Most police forces went on high alert for trained fidayeen (suicide)
operatives, believed to be Pashto speakers, after the report. The
targets: Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, the American consulate in
Kolkata, the Bombay Stock Exchange and RSS headquarters in Delhi.
Government functionaries told HT, that as had been the case with the
26/11, the intelligence received was “sketchy” and “rather diffused”
but authorities are taking no chances.
Another set of inputs suggest that either members of the fidayeen
squads or local supporters have already managed to carry out a
reconnaissance at Mumbai to check out guest houses and smaller hotels.
Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, and all of Gujarat have been put on high alert
with extra deployment at all vital installations in these cities.
Mumbai Police, however, sought to underplay the issue. Commissioner D.
Sivanandhan said no alert about “Taliban-trained fidayeen sneaking
into the city” had been received. “It is not true. There is a
perpetual threat to places like BSE, BARC and Siddhivinayak temple. We
are always on alert.”
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Terror-alert-sounded-in-Metro-cities/H1-Article1-486380.aspx
bademiyansubhanallah
Press Trust Of India
Washington, December 15, 2009
First Published: 02:05 IST(15/12/2009)
Last Updated: 02:15 IST(15/12/2009)
Besides the National Defense College in New Delhi, Somnath temple in
Gujarat and certain Bollywood stars and Shiv Sena leaders in Mumbai
were also the targets of banned LeT, which was planning to carry out
strikes with the help of two Chicago-based residents of Pakistani
origin, the FBI has said.
The three possible LeT targets were revealed for the first time by the
FBI in a footnote to the fresh evidence and charge sheet submitted by
it against Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Hussain Rana, the terror-
suspect whose bail plea hearing is scheduled for Tuesday in a Chicago
court.
"In the September 7, 2009 conversation, Headley discussed four targets
with Rana -- Somnath (a temple in India) and Denmark, Bollywood (a
reference to the Indian film industry) and Shiv Sena (a political
party in India with roots in Hindu nationalism)," the FBI said in a
foot note on page nine of the 10-page fresh affidavit.
"In his post-arrest statement, Rana falsely claimed that these were
references to potential business ventures. It is difficult to imagine
why a person who praises the work of a designated terrorist group that
attacks India would look at an Indian temple or a Hindu nationalist
party as a business venture," the FBI noted.
"And it bears note that, as set out in the complaint, 'business' and
'investments' were code words used by Rana, David Coleman Headley
(American-born terror suspect also charged for plotting Mumbai terror
attacks), "Pasha" (a retired Pakistani Army Brigadier) and others to
describe terrorist plots," the FBI said.
bademiyansubhanallah
MADRID
Mon Dec 14, 2009 3:37pm EST
MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's high court has jailed 11 men to up to 14-
and-a-half years for attempted suicide bombings on Barcelona's metro
in 2008, the court said on Monday.
World
The group, including 10 Pakistanis and one Indian, were very close to
developing explosives to be used in the attacks which had been planned
for between January 18 and January 20, 2008, according to the ruling,
passed December 11.
"(The group) had radical ideologies to the point of following the
violent principals of jihad as told by the Taliban leader Baitullah
Mehsud," the court said.
The two highest jail terms of 14-and-a-half years each for Shaib Iqbal
and Qadeer Malik were passed for "belonging to a terrorist
organization and handling explosives."
The other nine members were sentenced to eight-and-a-half years each
for "belonging to a terrorist group," but were absolved of any charges
related to possession of explosives.
(Reporting by Emma Pinedo; Writing by Paul Day; Editing by Jon
Hemming)
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BD4QM20091214
chhotemianinshallah
By Khalid Qayum and Farhan Sharif
Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- A suicide car bomber killed 20 people in an
attack on the home of a Pakistani provincial government minister,
rescue workers and a local official said.
The attacker slammed his car into the outer wall of Dost Muhammad
Khosa’s house in Punjab province’s Dera Ghazi Khan town today, said
Siddiq-ul-Farooq, a spokesman for the faction of the Pakistan Muslim
League that leads the local coalition government. Khosa, a former
chief minister of Punjab, and his family weren’t at home, Farooq
said.
Terrorist attacks in Pakistan have surged after the military on Oct.
17 started an offensive against Taliban militants belonging to the
Tehrik-e-Taliban group in the country’s northwest tribal region of
South Waziristan. The U.S. is pushing Pakistan to expand its
operations to include insurgents attacking international troops in
neighboring Afghanistan.
The bomb in Dera Ghazi Khan also damaged the nearby house of Sardar
Zulfiqar Khosa, the minister’s father and an adviser to the government
of Punjab. The blast destroyed several shops in a nearby market and
injured about 40 people, the Edhi ambulance service said. Others are
buried under debris, GEO television reported, citing police officials
it didn’t identify.
The military said last week it has killed about 600 guerrillas since
the campaign began in Waziristan. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani
has said the government may decide soon to extend the military
operation to the Orakzai tribal area, where fleeing militants may have
regrouped.
To contact the reporters on this story: Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at
kqa...@bloomberg.netFarhan Sharif in Karachi at
Fsha...@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: December 15, 2009 07:14 EST
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=ahl1BQxLFoQ4
chhotemianinshallah
STAFF WRITER 15:34 HRS IST
Berlin, Dec 15 (PTI) As the tremors of the NATO air strike in northern
Afghanistan last September continue to rock Chancellor Angela Merkel's
government, new claims suggest that Germany's armed forces were more
deeply involved in the incident than believed until now.
The German Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said yesterday
that the commander of the German forces in Afghanistan, Col Georg
Klein had called in a NATO aircraft on September 4 not only to destroy
two oil trucks supposedly hijacked by the Taliban near Kundus, but
also to eliminate a group of Taliban insurgents present there.
He told a meeting of Christian Social Union (CSU) that upon his
instructions, the Bundestag factions were informed on November 6 that
the strike was aimed at liquidating Taliban fighters.
The "Kundus affair" will be investigated by a parliamentary inquiry
commission which takes up its work tomorrow.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/424405_Sept-NATO-strikes-were-also-to-eliminate-Taliban
chhotemianinshallah
By ELIANE ENGELER (AP) – 2 hours ago
GENEVA — The international Red Cross has made its first visit to
Afghan prisoners held by the Taliban in the northwest of the country,
the organization said Tuesday.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it visited three
members of the Afghan security forces detained by the Taliban in
Badghis province. The two visits took place last month, it said.
"This is the first time since the beginning of the current conflict
that the ICRC has visited people detained by the armed opposition,"
said Reto Stocker, the head of the ICRC's delegation in Kabul. He
called the visits a breakthrough.
ICRC spokeswoman Carla Haddad Mardini declined to comment on the
conditions of the three prisoners visited by the agency.
"We did assess the conditions of detention and treatment and made
recommendations when we felt necessary," she told reporters.
The neutral agency does not publish the findings of its visits, but
issues confidential reports to the detaining authorities or groups.
Haddad Mardini said she was unable to say how many other people were
being held by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The access to the three
prisoners has been the result of years of work, she said. "We hope we
will be able to repeat that visit and to extend such visits to other
regions in the country."
The ICRC, which is the guardian of the Geneva Conventions on the
conduct of warfare, regularly visits prisoners of war around the world
to check how they are being held and treated. It also helps prisoners
keep in touch with their families.
The agency said it has visited 136 places of detention in Afghanistan
and has registered more than 16,000 prisoners since the U.S. invasion
in 2001.
Stocker said he hopes the ICRC will also be able to visit people held
by "other armed opposition groups," in Afghanistan.
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iWwqZz5VE-9iOwy4E12kHnRki_IwD9CJMPGG1
chhotemianinshallah
Westerners
By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 11:08 AM on 15th December 2009
At least eight people were killed and 40 others wounded today when
suicide bombers struck a Kabul district that is popular with
Westerners.
The mid-morning blast damaged the Heetal Hotel, owned by the son of
former president Burhanuddin Rabbani, in the Wazir Akbar Khan area.
were trying to kill former vice-president Ahmad Zia Massoud, who
lives nearby, as the explosion occurred 30 yards from the inn’s
entrance.
Bloody: A wounded woman is rushed away from the blast site by Afghan
soldiers
Mr Massoud, the brother of legendary anti-Taliban hero Ahmad Shah
Massoud, suffered damage to his house and two of his bodyguards were
killed by the blast.
The attack took place shortly before Afghan President Hamid Karzai
opened a three-day conference on corruption at the nearby Foreign
Ministry.
A large cloud of dark grey smoke rose from the area as firefighters
worked to extinguish flames from the burning vehicle.
Hamayun Azizi, 22, a British studying at Kabul University, reported
seeing a black four-wheeled drive vehicle near the hotel.
Blast: The vehicle uses in the suicide attack with smoke pouring off
it
Flames rise at the vehicle after the explosion caused it to flip over
‘It drove very slowly to the checkpoint and then it blew up.’
The explosion flipped the vehicle, which landed upside down about 10
yards from the blast site, which left a crater, roughly 3ft deep and
6ft wide in the street.
President Karzai later condemned the terrorist attack and instructed
government officials to thoroughly investigate the incident and
identify those responsible.
Rubble: Afghan policemen and security personnel inspect the blast
site
‘This terrorist attack, which killed and wounded innocent civilians,
was an attack on humanity and Islam,’ he said.
Separately, five Afghans and a Nepalese national were killed in an
explosion that occurred at a foreign organization operating in Paktia
province.
bademiyansubhanallah
Pakistan, U.S. at Odds over Taliban Leader
Posted by Daniel Carty
(CBS/AP)When President Barack Obama announced his decision to send an
additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan, he stressed that success
in that region was "inextricably linked to our partnership with
Pakistan."
But despite the rhetoric of increased cooperation on counter-
terrorism, relations between the two nations appear to be frayed.
Pakistan has refused U.S. demands that it crack down on Siraj Haqqani,
an Afghan Taliban militant leading insurgents against American forces
but who also serves as an asset for Pakistani intelligence, according
to a New York Times report Tuesday.
Haqqani uses the restive Pakistani region of North Waziristan as a
safe haven and has been linked to senior al Qaeda leaders, including
Osama bin Laden, according to the report.
The U.S. has pressed the Pakistani military to turn on Haqqani, both
in State Department messages and a follow-up meeting by Gen. David
Petraeus. Pakistan's failure to cooperate could mean increased
American drone attacks within their border, U.S. officials have
reportedly told them.
According to the report, Pakistani officials are privately fuming over
the increasing burden of their U.S. alliance and view Mr. Obama's new
surge strategy with skepticism. In refusing to go after Haqqani,
Pakistan may be preparing for a post-America Afghanistan – one in
which regional powers like China, Russia and, especially, India will
jockey for influence. In short, Pakistan may need Haqqani to shore up
support among locals.
Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the head of Pakistan's military, has argued
against going after Haqqani for short-term reasons: Pakistan has its
hands full fighting its own Taliban in South Waziristan and can't
afford to wage a second offensive against the Afghan Taliban, which
moves in and out of North Waziristan.
Pakistani officials also say that because Haqqani spends so much time
in Afghanistan, the U.S. could eliminate him there, without help from
Pakistan, according to the report.
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/12/15/world/worldwatch/entry5981928.shtml
bademiyansubhanallah
Yara Bayoumy
CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan
Tue Dec 15, 2009 2:16pm EST
CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The first reinforcements of
President Barack Obama's Afghanistan "surge" will give U.S. Marines
the forces needed to tackle the last major Taliban stronghold on their
patch, a commander said on Tuesday.
Lieutenant Colonel Jeff Rule, in charge of current operations for
Marines in Helmand Province, said the Taliban bastion of Marja was
next on the target list. An assault would come once the Marines have
enough reinforcements to ensure they can launch it without having to
give up territory they already control.
A unit of 1,500 Marines is due to begin arriving in Afghanistan within
days, the first of 8,500 in total that will nearly double the Marine
contingent in the next few months.
The 10,000 Marines now in Helmand, Afghanistan's deadliest province,
seized most of the lower Helmand River valley in an operation code-
named Strike of the Sword in July, the biggest offensive of the eight-
year-old war.
They have left just the town of Marja, a network of irrigation canals
southwest of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, as a major population
center still in Taliban hands.
"Marja is going to happen. It's an enemy safe haven. It's literally a
festering sore when it comes to Taliban presence," Rule told Reuters
at Camp Leatherneck, the Marines' sprawling desert headquarters in
Helmand.
He declined to give a timeframe for when the operation would start but
said it would be possible once enough of the new Marines arrived.
"To do Marja now, we'd have to pull some people out after staying
there for a short time, which is something we've committed to the
Afghan people we won't do," Rule said.
"We won't leave anywhere else uncovered. We won't go anywhere we can't
clear, we won't clear anywhere we can't stay and we won't stay
anywhere we can't build."
HOPE TO REVERSE INSURGENCY
U.S. President Barack Obama hopes to reverse a resurgent Taliban
insurgency by committing 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, to
accompany the nearly 110,000-strong NATO-led force already in place.
The Pentagon announced orders last week for the first 16,000 of the
new troops to deploy, with the 8,500 Marines providing the main
increase in combat power alongside thousands of army trainers and
enablers such as air crew.
The extra Marines will be sent to Helmand, which produces most of the
world's opium, and also neighboring Kandahar province, birthplace of
the Taliban movement.
Most of the 10,000 Marines already in Helmand arrived in May as part
of the last major increase ordered by Obama earlier this year. They
doubled the size of a British-led force in the province, with the
British now focusing on the northern half while the Marines take the
southern half.
Previously the overstretched British-led NATO contingent had lacked
the manpower to hold onto territory it cleared in much of the
province, and instead mainly defended a few scattered outposts in
heavy fighting.
"When we got here (in May) a local national couldn't even walk down
Nawa without intimidation from the Taliban. Now the most high-profile
personality can walk down there without personal protection," Rule
said of one of the towns the Marines seized in July in the fertile
river valley.
Despite the success so far after the last increase ordered by Obama,
Marine commanders lament a severe shortage of Afghan troops to patrol
areas they clear. Afghanistan's government has promised to send up to
10,000 more of its soldiers to Helmand.
Rule said the sprawling military camp, with its endless rows of
concrete barriers and semi-cylinder tents, would be able to
accommodate the extra U.S. Marines that are on their way.
"When we got here (in May), we went from 3,500 to 10,000," said Rule.
"It's not a challenge if you plan for it. We do business like this all
the time."
(Editing by Peter Graff and Bill Tarrant)
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BE3MZ20091215
bademiyansubhanallah
By SEBASTIAN ABBOT (AP) – 2 hours ago
KHAN NESHIN, Afghanistan — Only a few hundred American troops are
policing the southern border of one of Afghanistan's major smuggling
areas, leaving open a vast expanse of desert that the Taliban use to
shuttle in weapons and fighters from Pakistan.
This dusty hamlet 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of the border in
Helmand province was the Taliban's key transit point from Pakistan
before the Marines arrived in July. Since then, the Marines have set
up a series of patrol bases east and west of Khan Neshin to disrupt
the Taliban's supply lines.
But the battalion deployed at only about 50 percent of its authorized
strength, and one of its three companies is posted in central Helmand.
That leaves several hundred Marines to cover roughly 6,000 square
miles (15,000 square kilometers) — an area larger than Connecticut.
As a result, the Marines may have trouble curbing Taliban supply lines
as thousands of fresh troops pour into the province as part of
President Barack Obama's surge.
"I would like to push closer to the border, but I can only go as far
as I can support," said Lt. Col. Michael Martin, commanding officer of
4th Marine Division, 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion.
"Like Napoleon, you don't want to overextend your capabilities, or you
will get your butt handed to you," said Martin, whose troops are
spread out among a handful of patrol bases along the Helmand River,
marking the coalition's most southern presence in the province.
Some 8,500 additional Marines are slated to arrive in Helmand by
mid-2010 as part of the 30,000-troop buildup. But any decision to send
more Marines south to patrol the largely uninhabited border area would
leave fewer troops for the major population centers farther north.
Many Taliban fighters fled to Pakistan following the U.S.-led invasion
of Afghanistan in 2001 and found sanctuary in the mountainous belt
that runs between the two countries. Obama has pressed Pakistan to
target the militants, but many analysts believe the government has
resisted because the Taliban could serve as useful proxies if the
coalition effort in Afghanistan fails.
That leaves the Marines with the difficult task of disrupting the flow
of Taliban fighters into Afghanistan largely without Pakistani help.
"We are trying to make it as difficult as possible for the Taliban to
stay connected to their sanctuary in Pakistan," said Capt. Timothy
Newkirk, executive officer of 4th LAR's Bravo Company, which is based
in a 200-year-old mud fort in the town of Khan Neshin.
Tribal elders attending a recent meeting at the Marines' most eastern
patrol base reported scores of Taliban fighters flowing through a
bazaar about 12 miles (20 kilometers) to the northeast near the town
of Sar Banader.
"If they can get there, they can get into Marjah and they have basic
freedom of movement there," Newkirk said.
Marjah is the Taliban's principal stronghold in central Helmand and
will likely be a key target once the 11,000 Marines currently in the
province are bolstered with the surge troops.
If the Taliban are able to send reinforcements to Marjah from
Pakistan, it could make it more difficult for the Marines to take the
city.
Martin, the battalion commander, said his ultimate goal would be to
push south with Afghan border police the Marines are training to set
up an outpost near Bahram Chah, a town just north of the Pakistani
border teeming with Taliban fighters and drug smugglers making their
way into Afghanistan.
But that would require hundreds of additional troops so that the
Marines could extend their security control far enough south to
protect any outpost near the border.
"I can drive my vehicle down to the border and back, but if I have a
problem, I can't be reinforced," Martin said.
The Marines said they don't want to make the same mistake as the Army,
which set up a series of remote bases near Afghanistan's eastern
border with Pakistan that were constantly in danger of being overrun
because the military didn't control the surrounding area. Some of
those outposts have now been abandoned.
"A presence on the border would be better, but it is so far south that
supporting it wouldn't be feasible right now," Newkirk said. "It
wouldn't be diligent to have hundreds of Marines down in hostile
territory 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the nearest medical
facilities."
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gvwu275sWYLvoLYi_uuOYvNJDxYQD9CK7AT84
chhotemianinshallah
(AFP) – 4 hours ago
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistani troops backed by helicopter gunships
have pounded suspected Taliban hideouts in the northwest tribal belt,
killing at least 43 militants, officials said Wednesday.
The armed forces targeted Orakzai and Kurram districts, strongholds of
the Pakistani Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked fighters and part of a
lawless tribal region where the military is trying to dismantle
insurgent sanctuaries.
"At least 18 militants were killed when helicopters pounded Toorikhel
town of Orakzai when militants were holding an important meeting
Tuesday," paramilitary spokesman Major Fazlur Rehman said.
The meeting, chaired by local Taliban commander Qari Ismail, was held
to arrange a reconciliation between two feuding groups of militants,
he said. It was not immediately clear if Ismail was among the dead.
Local administration official Riaz Khan confirmed the toll, and said
four more people were killed in airstrikes in Orkazai's Sultanzai
town. Seven militant hideouts and five vehicles were also destroyed,
he added.
The military also mounted a ground and air operation in Dagar town of
Kurram region on Tuesday, killing 21 militants, Rehman said, adding
that the operations continued on Wednesday.
Such death tolls supplied by the military are impossible to confirm
independently, with the region out of bounds to media and most aid
groups.
Pakistani troops this year launched multiple operations across the
tribal belt, but are under fierce US pressure to target not only the
Pakistani Taliban but groups that focus on attacking foreign troops in
neighbouring Afghanistan.
Top US military officer Admiral Mike Mullen is in Pakistan for talks
Wednesday on the new US war strategy for Afghanistan, which Washington
says hinges on Pakistan's own battle against Islamist extremists.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iJUbJYlh5oc7WoKpdyS5fTRqV8Hw
chhotemianinshallah
www.chinaview.cn 2009-12-16 19:19:10
KABUL, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Afghan and NATO-led forces eliminated a
key Taliban commander Mullah Ahsanullah in Kunduz province north of
Afghanistan Wednesday, deputy to provincial police chief Abdul Rahman
Haqtash said.
"The troops were in patrol in Chardara district this morning when
Taliban rebels attacked them and the troops returned fire killing
Mullah Ahsanullah," Haqtash told Xinhua.
He also said that few more insurgents were killed and injured in
the firefight but could not give an exact figure.
Taliban militants have yet to make comment.
A relatively peaceful province until early this year, Kunduz has
been the scene of increasing militancy over the past couple of
months.
Editor: Wang Guanqun
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/16/content_12657714.htm
Sid Harth
Taliban allegedly planned attack on German camp
Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:
The Taliban have raised the intensity of their attacks in Afghanistan
As the German parliament begins a probe into civilian deaths after a
fatal bombing of fuel trucks in Afghanistan, intelligence sources say
there were plans to attack German troops in Kunduz.
The deputy chairman of the German parliament's Kunduz inquiry
committee, Karl Lamers, told the German television news network NTV on
Wednesday that in the weeks before the controversial order to call in
a NATO airstrike against the hijacked fuel trucks there had been
"announcements" by Taliban insurgents that an attack was being planned
against German armed forces stationed in Afghanistan's northeastern
region.
"It was clear that a great danger existed for the German military
compound," Lamers said.
According to the German news agency DPA, Colonel Georg Klein, the
German officer embroiled in the controversy for calling in the air
strike, did so under the assumption that an attack by Taliban
insurgents was imminent.
Intelligence reports warned of a plot
DPA has reported that the German Intelligence Agency (BND) and
Bundeswehr Special Forces (KSK) had uncovered a three-phase plot by
the Taliban for attacking German troops in Kunduz.
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:
Cololnel Klein suspected that Taliban insurgents were behind the
seizure of the fuel trucks Colonel Klein assumed on the fateful night
of September 3 that the hijacking of the fuel trucks near Kunduz was
part of this plan.
Omid Nouripour, a German Green party defense expert, NTV that he would
not have liked "to be in Colonel Klein's shoes that night."
"We know that he was under inhuman pressure, and that's why this is
not about judging him, but about judging the mistakes that he made,"
Nouripour said, "so that disasters like this do not happen again."
The parliamentary commissioner for the German armed forces, Reinhold
Robbe, said most Germans are not aware that their troops in
Afghanistan "were putting their lives on the line every day and just
glad when they come back alive and healthy from a patrol."
The air strike called in by Colonel Klein resulted in the deaths or
injury of at least 142 people, including civilians.
gb/dpa/ap
Editor:Chuck Penfold
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5018633,00.html
bademiyansubhanallah
Published: Dec. 16, 2009 at 12:50 PM
KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- Operations by Afghan and
international security forces in Wardak and Kandahar provinces seized
high-ranking Taliban commanders without firing a shot.
The International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan said
operations with Afghan security forces resulted in the capture of
several Taliban commanders in villages associated with militant
activity in Wardak province.
ISAF, without identifying the commander, said a Taliban leader
captured in separate operations in Kandahar province "led a sizable
militant element."
Wardak and Kandahar provinces in the central region of Afghanistan are
considered regions where Taliban control is pervasive.
The international force stressed no shots were fired during the
operations.
Military strategists said the rise in the influence of the Taliban in
Afghanistan led some to conclude the mission there was close to
failure. U.S. President Barack Obama in a Dec. 1 address to the nation
ordered 30,000 troops to report to duty in Afghanistan in a renewed
push to reverse that trend.
U.S. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
said American troops and civil-affairs experts began preparing for
deployment to Afghanistan within 72 hours of the presidential speech.
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2009/12/16/Taliban-seized-in-Afghan-raids/UPI-12781260985800/
chhotemianinshallah
By EDITH M. LEDERER (AP) – 6 hours ago
UNITED NATIONS — The Security Council is expected to approve new
measures Thursday aimed at ensuring that U.N. sanctions target the
right people, companies and organizations for links to al-Qaida and
the Taliban — including a new ombudsperson.
Since the council imposed sanctions against the Taliban a decade ago,
questions have been raised about the fairness of the list and the
rights of those subject to punitive measures to argue their case for
being removed. There is also a problem of insufficient information
about some on the list which prevents police, border authorities and
financial institutions from implementing sanctions.
Austria, which currently heads the Security Council committee
monitoring sanctions against al-Qaida and the Taliban, said about 30
court cases have been filed by listed individuals in Europe, Pakistan,
Turkey and the United States protesting their inclusion.
The U.S.-sponsored resolution hammered out after lengthy negotiations,
would strengthen the current sanctions regime, make it more
transparent, and try to address these shortcomings.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because
negotiations have been private, said the resolution is expected to be
adopted unanimously on Thursday.
The Security Council imposed sanctions against the Taliban in November
1999 for refusing to send Osama bin Laden to the United States or a
third country for trial on terrorism charges in connection with two
1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa.
The sanctions — a travel ban, arms embargo and assets freeze — were
later extended to al-Qaida. In July 2005, the council extended the
sanctions again to cover affiliates and splinter groups of al-Qaida
and the Taliban.
The draft resolution reiterates the council's "unequivocal
condemnation" of bin Laden, the Taliban and al-Qaida "for ongoing and
multiple criminal terrorist acts aimed at causing the deaths of
innocent civilians and other victims, destruction of property and
greatly undermining stability." It expresses concern at the increase
in kidnappings and hostage-takings by individuals or groups associated
with them "with the aim of raising funds or gaining political
concessions."
Currently, governments propose individuals and entities for the
sanctions list, and the Security Council committee monitoring
sanctions decides behind closed doors who should be subject to the
punitive measures.
Requests to be taken off the list go to an official in the U.N.
Secretariat who checks with appropriate governments to see whether
they recommend "delisting." The official then sends all information to
the sanctions committee for a decision.
A key proposal in the draft resolution would establish an ombudsperson
to examine requests from individuals, organizations and companies to
be taken off the sanctions list. The ombudsperson would gather
information, facilitate a substantive dialogue with the petitioner,
and present a report to the council committee monitoring sanctions
laying out the arguments for removing the individual or entity from
the list. The sanctions committee would then make a decision.
The draft resolution states that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in
consultation with the sanctions committee, should appoint "an eminent
individual of high moral character, impartiality and integrity with
high qualifications and experience in relevant fields, such as legal,
human rights, counterterrorism and sanctions, to be ombudsperson."
The proposed resolution also calls on the 192 U.N. member states to
provide as much information as possible when proposing a new entry for
the list.
To ensure that the right terrorists are targeted, the draft would give
members of the Security Council committee monitoring sanctions more
time to verify that names proposed merit inclusion. Before agreeing to
a new designation, the committee would be required to approve detailed
"narrative summaries" outlining the reasons for the listing.
The sanctions committee is reviewing all 488 individuals and entities
on the list, which should be completed by June 30, 2010. The draft
resolution calls for regular reviews every three years, and special
annual reviews to remove people who have died or cannot be adequately
identified from the list.
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iF3MqcG6c46Pm3Sdg28O1NPd6TdAD9CKSI800
Sid Harth
www.chinaview.cn 2009-12-17 22:11:34
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- Seven civilians
including five women were killed and three others sustained injures as
their car ran over a roadside bomb in Taliban hotbed Kandahar province
of southern Afghanistan Thursday, spokesman for local administration
said.
"The bloody incident occurred in Khakriz district at 4 p.m. local
time (1130 GMT) as a result seven people including five women were
killed," Zulmi Ayobi told Xinhua.
All the victims are the members of same family, he added.
Three children were injured in the incident, he further said.
However, he did not point finger at any particular groups or
individuals.
Taliban militants, who have been fighting Afghan government, often
plant mines on the roads to target Afghan and international security
forces but such attacks often claim civilians live.
Editor: Yan
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/17/content_12663853.htm