Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Conference seeks cash and progress for Afghanistan
Donor states, military powers and regional players will be seeking a more effective strategy for Afghanistan's development and security as well as pledging funds at a conference in Paris on Thursday.
Afghanistan will ask the ministers and other delegates from around 65 countries to fund a $50 billion five-year development plan, for which donors will demand that Kabul do more to fight corruption in what is one of the world's poorest states.
Two years after a similar meeting in London outlined an international effort to promote security, good governance and development, envoys will assess "remaining challenges" in Afghanistan, which still suffers daily violence more than six years after U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban government.
Last year alone, an insurgency by a rejuvenated Taliban accounted for some 6,000 deaths.
"No one anticipated the levels of violence that we see today. That's probably one of the best reasons for reviewing the London compact -- the basic assumptions in the compact did not hold true when they were written," said one official who briefed reporters. (Reuters)
Labels: Afghanistan, Taliban
Friday, June 6, 2008
Pakistan tries to assure Afghans over Taliban talks
Pakistan's foreign minister sought on Friday to allay Afghanistan's concerns that peace talks with Pakistani Taliban would lead to more militant attacks on the Afghan side of the border.
"We will not engage with terrorists, we will not compromise with terrorists. And those who would take up arms and guns are neither your friends nor our friends," Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told a joint news conference in Kabul.
The United States and NATO commanders share doubts about Pakistan's proposed peace pact with Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, based in South Waziristan.
NATO says Taliban attacks have jumped up along the border areas since the start of talks in recent weeks.
The Pakistan army carried out an operation in January to bottle up Baitullah Mehsud's forces in their mountain fastness, after the country had reeled from a wave of suicide attacks in the previous six months.
Pakistan's new government, sworn in at the end of March, followed up by negotiating with elders of the Mehsud tribe in a bid to bring the Taliban leader to heel. (Reuters)
Labels: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Taliban
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
US general takes over NATO command in Afghanistan; 2 soldiers killed
The U.S. general who led American troops into Iraq took command Tuesday of the 40-nation NATO-led campaign in Afghanistan.
Army Gen. David D. McKiernan took charge of the 51,000-member International Security Assistance Force from Gen. Dan McNeill, who will retire from the U.S. Army after 40 years.
Addressing a change of command ceremony Tuesday, McKiernan said he was "honored to walk alongside our Afghan brothers."
"While today marks a transition in commanders, the mission must continue without missing a beat," he said, listing security, reconstruction and development as the types of support that Afghanistan deserves. "Insurgents, foreign fighters, criminals and others who stand in the way of that mission will be dealt with."
In the latest violence, three ISAF soldiers were killed in attacks, including two in eastern Afghanistan, where most of the forces are American. About 15 others - insurgents and Afghan police - also died in violence. (AP)
Labels: Afghanistan, NATO, Taliban, U.S.
Pakistani Taliban targeted Danes after cartoons: officials
Pakistani officials said Tuesday an attack on the Danish embassy was likely a one-off linked to cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed and will not impact the new government's talks with the Taliban.
Investigators believe Taliban militants based in a tribal region on the Afghan border were responsible for Monday's suicide attack, which killed at least six people including a Danish national, a government official said.
Police have found skull fragments at the scene which confirm that the bombing was a suicide attack, a tactic favoured by Taliban rebels who have been blamed for a wave of blasts in Pakistan in the past year, officials said.
But the senior government official told AFP on condition of anonymity: "It appears to be a one-off attack which has little relevance to the ongoing negotiations between Taliban and the authorities."
Pakistani Taliban militants agreed to peace talks with the government after parties allied to US-backed anti-terror ally President Pervez Musharraf were trounced in elections in February.
The United States, NATO and Afghanistan have all expressed doubts over the talks.
"This attack was not born out of the events in the country or the region, rather it was part of global outrage in the Islamic world against publishing blasphemous cartoons," the official said. (AFP)
Labels: Denmark, Pakistan, Taliban
A struggle between war and peace
Since 2006 in Afghanistan, coalition forces battling the Taliban-led insurgency have alternated between all-out offensives and ceasefire deals. Similarly in Pakistan, the authorities have chopped and changed between peace accords and military action against militants in the tribal areas.
This vicious - and unproductive - cycle in the South Asian "war on terror" theater can be expected to continue unless the major players drop the idea of piece-meal peace agreements and adopt a broad and consistent policy of grand reconciliation.
In the latest "peace' phase, Islamabad agreed a ceasefire this month with the Taliban in the tribal areas along the Durand Line that separates Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The ink on this accord had hardly dried than Ghairat Bahir was released last week from the United States Bagram air base near Kabul.
Ghairat Bahir is the son-in-law of veteran mujahid Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and a top leader of the Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA). He was arrested by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in Islamabad in 2002 on American pressure when he was making desperate moves to activate the HIA's jihadi network in favor of the Taliban. He was handed over to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and kept in various secret locations before being moved to Bagram. He was recently sent to Pul-i-Charki jail in Kabul after apparently agreeing to cooperate with the administration of President Hamid Karzai. (Asia Times)
Labels: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Taliban
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Scores of Taliban killed in operation: Afghan govt
Scores of Taliban militants were killed last week in an operation involving Afghan and foreign troops in Afghanistan, the interior ministry said on Sunday.
The operation occurred in the Bala Boluk and Bakwa districts of western Farah province which lies near the border with Iran, the ministry said in a statement, adding the districts were under the control of the government.
"It is worth mentioning that the operation lasted for three days, as a result of which more than 100 enemies of Afghanistan's peace and stability were killed," it said.
An interior ministry official said there were no casualties among Afghan forces and the U.S.-led troops during the operation.
He did not know if air support was involved.
The government release on the Taliban deaths comes amid other reports from the area about civilian casualties during the operation, but the ministry official said he had no information about these reports.
The Taliban could not be contacted immediately for comment. (Reuters)
Labels: Afghanistan, Taliban, U.S.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Afghan town recaptured by security forces
Afghan security forces along with U.S.-led coalition forces regained control of a district centre in the province of Ghazni after the Taliban had captured it overnight, provincial governor, Shir Khosti told Reuters.
"The word I have got a few minutes ago is that they (Taliban) have been pushed back," he said.
Asked if Afghan and coalition forces were now in charge of the district centre, Khosti replied: "Yes".
Taliban insurgents had seized the remote Afghan town overnight, patrolling the streets for some hours before withdrawing ahead of a government operation to retake it on Friday, residents and officials said.
Ghazni province where the attack took place is only a two-hour drive south from the capital, Kabul, and while not as unstable as provinces such as Kandahar or Helmand, the villages around the historic city of Ghazni have seen an upsurge of Taliban activity in the past two years. (Reuters)
Labels: Afghanistan, Taliban, U.S.
Mr Market combats the Taliban
In one of the most important developments since the war in Afghanistan began in late 2001, opium production has declined in the country. Over 20 of the country's 34 provinces will be opium-free this year according to a report by the United Nations that has now been corroborated by Afghanistan's counter-narcotics minister, General Khodaidad.
Among the provinces with remaining opium cultivation, the Taliban-dominated Helmand province ranks high, but even here it is being seen that the humble wheat crop has replaced poppy. Some newspapers that sent reporters to Helmand province, over the course of April and May this year, have independently verified this assertion. A European television program on the subject was among the most-forwarded news items on the Internet last week.
Interestingly, it is not the efforts of the Afghan government alone that have caused the reduction in opium production but something much more mundane, namely the increased price of wheat, that has pushed up production of the grain in many parts of the country. Therein lies a tale of so-called market manipulation that actually goes back to one of the central points about rural poverty alleviation in the region, namely the strength of economics. (Asia Times)
Labels: Afghanistan, Taliban
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Britain defense sec endorses talks with Taliban
Britain's Defense Minister Des Browne endorsed peace talks between Pakistan and Taliban militants on Wednesday despite concerns from Afghanistan that the talks will allow the Taliban to regroup and launch more attacks.
Browne said Britain supported any moves that would encourage militants to put down their weapons and stop violence, and said Pakistan and Afghanistan needed to work together on problems with their border, much of which is controlled by Taliban insurgents.
He said reconciliation should be a part of any strategy, although it was clear some militants had no intention of putting down their weapons.
"But you can't kill your way out of these sorts of campaigns," Browne told journalists at Australia's National Press Club on Wednesday.
Faced with a wave of suicide attacks, Pakistan has begun talks with Taliban militants who control much of the country's 2,700 km (1,670 miles) mountain border with Afghanistan. (Reuters)
Labels: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Taliban, U.K.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Thirteen police and 11 civilians killed in Afghanistan
Eleven civilians and 13 policemen were killed in a series of blasts and Taliban attacks in Afghanistan on Tuesday, officials said.
Nine police were killed in Taliban attacks in Shor Abak district of southern Kandahar, provincial police chief Sayed Aqa Saqib told Reuters.
"The Taliban killed five police in an attack on their post and the other four were killed when we sent in reinforcements later," he said.
Three children were killed by a blast while playing near a police station outside Kandahar city, he said, adding the explosion occurred as a Taliban militant was planting the device under a bridge.
Earlier in the day, one woman, a child and six men were killed when a blast hit a bus in Del Aram district of western Farah province, deputy provincial governor Mohammad Younus Rasuli said.
The blast occurred on a road where Afghan and foreign troops have come under similar attacks and ambushes by Taliban insurgents in recent months, he told Reuters. (Reuters)
Labels: Afghanistan, Taliban
Monday, May 26, 2008
Taliban vow to fight on in Afghanistan
The Taliban will fight on till the last foreign soldier is driven out of Afghanistan, but their door is always open to talks with other Afghan opposition groups, the Islamist movement said on Monday.
The offer comes days after Burhanuddin Rabbani, a former president and mujahideen chief, now opposition leader, said the Taliban had shown a desire for political dialogue and called for serious efforts to establish talks with the Islamist rebels.
The Taliban "will fight till the withdrawal of the last crusading-invader, but the door for talks, understanding and negotiations will always be open for the all the mujahideen," the Taliban said in a statement on its website.
But, the Taliban said, the mujahideen should join the insurgency and help fight to drive out foreign forces.
Rabbani and other former leaders of the mujahideen forces which fought the Soviet occupation in the 1980s, then each other in the 1990s, now dominate the opposition in parliament. (Reuters)
Labels: Afghanistan, Taliban
Friday, May 23, 2008
Afghan troops ready for bulk of fight: U.S. general
The Afghan army could by early next year be leading the vast majority of military operations against enemy insurgents in the country, the U.S. soldier in charge of training them said on Thursday.
Major General Robert W. Cone said Afghan authorities aimed to have 80,000 trained personnel ready by early 2009, compared to just over 57,000 now, as part of an effort to share more of the burden of fighting with NATO countries.
Asked what that meant for Afghan forces' ability to lead operations against Taliban and other insurgents, Cone told a news conference at NATO headquarters:
"I would say leadership certainly of most operations and probably, depending on their readiness, tending towards virtually all operations.
"That will lift a significant amount of the burden from ISAF forces," he said of NATO's International Security Assistance Force, which commanders currently say numbers around 50,000.
Cone, who leads the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan (CSTC-A) training effort, said Afghan troops had led around half of 180 joint operations with international forces in the early months of this year. (Reuters)
Labels: Afghanistan, Taliban, U.S.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Afghans skeptical that security's getting better
The Taliban in Afghanistan are getting weaker, the U.S. ambassador tells local councilors in the eastern city of Ghazni, but he is met by a wall of shaking heads and tutting noises; 'no, no', some reply.
While Afghan government and international forces point to some success in restricting Taliban guerrilla attacks across the south and east, suicide bombs -- 140 last year -- roadside bombs, kidnappings and threats have created an atmosphere of fear.
"We don't want food, we don't want schools, we want security!" said one woman council member.
"Ok, let me ask you," replied U.S. ambassador William Wood. "Are the Taliban weaker now?"
"No," the councilors said, shaking their heads.
"But are these Taliban or criminals?" Wood asked.
"Taliban," they replied. (Reuters)
Labels: Afghanistan, Taliban
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Nato helicopter hit in Afghanistan
Taliban fighters have fired a rocket hitting a Nato helicopter in which the governor of a key southern Afghan province was travelling, officials said.
They said no one was injured, but a series of clashes, air attacks and bomb blasts elsewhere in the country killed 10 fighters and four civilians on Saturday.
Ghulab Mangal, the governor of Helmand, and a delegation of British officials were about to land in the provincial town of Musa Qala when a rocket-propelled grenade struck the CH-47 Chinook helicopter, Mangal told the Associated Press.
The grenade "hit the tail end" of the chopper, said Major Martin O'Donnell, a spokesman for Nato's International Security Assistance Force.
"There was a minor damage to shaft and the rear blade," O'Donnell said.
"The helicopter landed under control" at a nearby Nato base. (Al Jazeera)
Labels: Afghanistan, NATO, Taliban
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Afghanistan violence claims lives
A series of clashes, air strikes and bomb blasts have killed 10 fighters and four civilians in Afghanistan, according to Afghan officials.
In one incident, a roadside bomb in the eastern province of Paktia left three civilians dead, Ghamai Mohammadi, an Afghan government spokesman, said on Saturday.
A second bomb exploded as a police vehicle passed by in Kandahar city in southern Afghanistan, killing a 10-year-old boy and injuring another civilian, Mohammad Nabi, a police officer, said.
In the western Farah province, Afghan and foreign soldiers bombed a Taliban hideout where two hostages were being held, killing eight fighters, Jalander Shah, an Afghan army commander, said.
Both hostages were freed during Friday's operation, he said. (Al Jazeera)
Labels: Afghanistan, Taliban
Taliban release Pakistan envoy after fighters freed
Taliban militants freed a kidnapped Pakistani ambassador on Saturday after the release of more than 40 Taliban fighters in recent days, a senior security official said.
Pakistan's envoy to Afghanistan, Tariq Azizuddin, was abducted on February 11 while traveling from the northwestern city of Peshawar to the Afghan border, on his way back to Kabul.
Azizuddin was held by fighters loyal to Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, in neighboring South Waziristan, said the security official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The official said more than 40 Taliban fighters held captive by the authorities had been released over the past few days.
Pakistan's most senior Interior Ministry official earlier denied that the envoy was released as a result of any prisoner swap and said there had been some kind of action.
Azizuddin said he was unaware of any clash between the militants and security forces. (Reuters)
Labels: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Taliban
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Afghan governor says 150 rebels killed in past week
International and Afghan troops forged ahead with an offensive against the Taliban near the Pakistan border on Tuesday, with a governor insisting 150 rebels had been killed in the past week. US Marines and British troops under NATO command launched a significant new operation two weeks ago in Garmser district in southern Helmand Province, a key battleground for a Taliban-led insurgency and an opium-producing center. Soldiers in a separate US-led coalition have also reported several engagements in the area in the past week. They said Tuesday they had killed a dozen rebels in Garmser on Monday.
The international forces helping Afghanistan fight an insurgency led by the Al-Qaeda-backed Taliban normally do not issue death tolls. But Helmand Governor Gulab Mangal said Tuesday that 150 rebels, most of whom he said were Al-Qaeda-linked Arab and Pakistani fighters, had been killed in Garmser in the past week.
"In the past seven, eight days, we have killed about 150 insurgents, most of them foreign fighters," he said, citing "intelligence."
"We have intelligence reports that more than 500 enemy fighters, most of them foreign terrorists, are in the district," he said. "The operation will continue until the district is cleared of these destructive elements." (AFP)
Labels: Afghanistan, NATO, Taliban, U.S.
Thousands displaced by fighting in Afghan south: U.N
Thousands of people have fled their homes as a result of fighting between U.S.-led forces and Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan this month, a U.N. official said on Tuesday.
In the latest incident in Garmsir district in the southern province of Helmand, coalition forces killed around a dozen militants on Monday in a joint air and ground operation, the U.S. army said on Tuesday.
"The information that I have...is that some 1,200 families have become displaced from that district (Garmsir) because of the recent fighting," said Mohammad Nader Farhad, a spokesman for the U.N. agency for refugees in Afghanistan, citing government estimates.
Of the 1,200 families, 900 have ended up in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, while the rest have gone to Registan district, Farhad said. (Reuters)
Labels: Afghanistan, Refugees, Taliban, U.N., U.S.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Taliban deliver silent death threats after midnight
Afghans call them 'night letters' -- notes scattered or pushed under doorways by Taliban militants in the dead of night, threatening villagers' lives if they cooperate with foreign forces and the government.
The threats have picked up in recent weeks in areas across southeastern Afghanistan, U.S. officers and Afghans say, as the Taliban intensify their activities along the Pakistan border and in mountainous communities inland towards Kabul.
The notes are often poorly written but the message is clear -- have nothing to do with the foreign troops or serve in the government they back, otherwise, your business will be destroyed, your livestock snatched or your throat cut.
At least six people have had either throats slit or were beheaded by the militants for allegedly acting as spies for the foreign forces only in recent weeks in various parts of southeastern Afghanistan, according to officials and the Taliban. (Reuters)
Labels: Afghanistan, Taliban
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Taliban governor killed in raid: Afghan ministry
Afghan police killed the self-styled governor and provincial police chief of Taliban insurgents in the western province of Ghor on Thursday, the interior ministry said.
The police raid killed Mullah Sarajuddin identified as Taliban's governor for Ghor and the police chief named only as Mawlavi, along with five other militants while planning to carry out a "sabotage" plan, the ministry said.
There were no casualties among the police, it said in a statement, terming the reported Taliban deaths as a major achievement.
The Taliban who lead an insurgency against the government and foreign troops, could not be contacted for comment immediately
Separately on Thursday, a suicide car bomber targeted a convoy carrying foreign soldiers on the western outskirts of Kabul, but missed, and instead three civilians were wounded in the attack, a police official said.
Violence has been at its worst level in Afghanistan since 2006, the bloodiest period since the removal of the al Qaeda-backed Taliban in 2001. (Reuters)
Labels: Afghanistan, Taliban
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Marines ignore Taliban cash crop to not upset Afghan locals
The Marines of Bravo Company's 1st Platoon sleep beside a grove of poppies. Troops in the 2nd Platoon playfully swat at the heavy opium bulbs while walking through the fields. Afghan laborers scraping the plant's gooey resin smile and wave.
Last week, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit moved into southern Helmand province, the world's largest opium poppy-growing region, and now find themselves surrounded by green fields of the illegal plants that produce the main ingredient of heroin.
The Taliban, whose fighters are exchanging daily fire with the Marines in Garmser, derives up to $100 million a year from the poppy harvest by taxing farmers and charging safe passage fees - money that will buy weapons for use against U.S., NATO and Afghan troops.
Yet the Marines are not destroying the plants. In fact, they are reassuring villagers the poppies won't be touched. American commanders say the Marines would only alienate people and drive them to take up arms if they eliminated the impoverished Afghans' only source of income.
Many Marines in the field are scratching their heads over the situation.
"It's kind of weird. We're coming over here to fight the Taliban. We see this. We know it's bad. But at the same time we know it's the only way locals can make money," said 1st Lt. Adam Lynch, 27, of Barnstable, Mass. (AP)
Labels: Afghanistan, Taliban, U.S.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Karzai assassination bid: two held
Two government employees have been arrested in Afghanistan in connection with an attempt last week to assassinate Hamid Karzai, the country's president.
He was unharmed in the attack on a military parade, which killed three other people, including a parliamentarian.
One of those arrested used to work in the defence ministry reparing weapons, Amrullah Saleh, the country's intelligence chief, said.
The other worked in the interior ministry as a police nurse. Both are accused of having contact with a member of al-Qaeda who allegedly led the plot.
Saleh said: "The angle that al-Qaeda had a role in [the attack] is very clear."
However, the Taliban has said it was responsible for the attack on April 27. (Al Jazeera)
Labels: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Taliban
Friday, May 2, 2008
Taliban claim victory from a defeat
The Taliban have suffered their first major loss in this year's offensive, but they are putting on a brave face, even spinning the setback as a triumph in their broader battle against foreign forces in Afghanistan.
On Wednesday, several thousand US Marines captured the town of Garmsir in the southern Afghan province of Helmand in their first large operation since arriving to reinforce North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) troops last month.
The Taliban-controlled Garmsir had served as a main supply route for their insurgency in the area.
The Taliban, however, claim the loss of one base is not critical, and anyway, for NATO to hold on to its gain it will have to commit thousands of troops to the outpost, which is located in the inhospitable desert, if it is to effectively guard the lawless and porous border through which the Taliban funnel men, arms and supplies.
The Taliban also claim that one of their underlying goals since the US-led invasion in 2001 has been to tie down as many foreign troops as possible, much as the mujahideen wore down Soviet troops in the 1980s. Various Taliban leaders have told the media they will not resist the forces in Garmsir, one of the biggest concentrations since the 2001 assault on the country. (Asia Times)
Labels: Afghanistan, NATO, Taliban
Thursday, May 1, 2008
US 'terror' report targets Iran
The US has said Iran remains the "most active" state sponsor of what it calls "terrorism".
The US state department, in its annual Country Reports on Terrorism document, accused Iran of providing aid to the Palestinian group Hamas, the Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah, "Iraq-based militants", and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
The report said "elements" of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were directly involved in the planning and support of "terrorist" acts throughout the Middle East.
Pentagon officials say they have given Iraqi leaders US evidence that contradicts Tehran's stated commitment to stop providing arms, weapons technology and training to Shia militias inside Iraq.
The state department report comes as Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, said this week that a second aircraft carrier sent to the Gulf was a "reminder" to Iran, but not an escalation.
It also comes a day after Iran stopped conducting oil transactions in US dollars in what it called a concerted attempt to reduce reliance on Washington. (Al Jazeera)
Labels: Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Taliban, U.S.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Push comes to shove in Afghanistan
In what has been described as "a good public relations exercise", Prince William, second in line to the British throne, has visited Afghanistan to meet British troops in Kandahar province.
The brief unannounced trip is indeed headline-grabbing, but it cannot disguise the fact that the Western coalition has a monumental battle on its hands against the Taliban-led insurgency, and the first round has already begun.
Surprise Taliban attacks from the northern Afghan province of Kapisa (the Tagab Valley) to the southern Helmand districts and from Kunar to Nangarhar provinces have conclusively engaged the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in its biggest
operations since the deployment of its forces in Afghanistan in 2001.
In a telling development, several hundred US Marines this week 
engaged the Taliban in Helmand province near Garmser, the farthest south American troops have operated in that province.
The Taliban rule the countryside here all the way to the Pakistan border. The assault on Garmser was the first offensive by the 2,300 marines who arrived from the United States this month to bolster mainly British forces in the area.
This trend of deploying additional troops in direct confrontations is expected to continue, even at the risk of higher casualties, in provinces such as Nangarhar, Ghazni, Kunar, Helmand and Kandahar, where the Taliban have established strongholds.
This follows a recent NATO summit at which the member countries agreed to reconcile their differences over Afghanistan and commit more troops, especially to the south, where previously many NATO members were not prepared to send troops. (Asia Times)
Labels: Afghanistan, NATO, Taliban
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Bush acknowledges Afghan 'struggle'
George Bush has admitted that the US faces a "long struggle" in Afghanistan but insisted that international forces there were making "good progress".
The US president said in Washington on Tuesday that Washington and its allies were fighting a "very resilient enemy" intent on bringing the ousted Taliban back to power.
"We're making progress in Afghanistan, but there's tough fighting. I'm under no illusions that this isn't tough. I know full well we're dealing with a determined enemy," he said.
"We are in a global struggle against thugs and killers. And the United States of America has got to continue to take the lead."
Bush's speech came after the Taliban attacked a military parade in Kabul attended by Hamid Karzai, the president. (Al Jazeera)
Labels: Afghanistan, Taliban, U.S.
Many Afghans die in suicide blast
A suicide bombing in eastern Afghanistan has killed 15 Afghans and wounded 25 more, the Nato-led military force has said.
The Taliban said it carried out Tuesday's attack near the district centre of Khogyani in the eastern province of Nangarhar.
Afghan and foreign troops also called in airstrikes as they battled armed groups in a series of clashes that left at least 23 fighters dead and 20 others wounded, officials said on Tuesday.
The clashes happened in eastern and southern Afghanistan, where Taliban and other groups are waging an insurgency against government and foreign forces.
The joint forces clashed with fighters in the Qarabagh district of Ghazni province on Monday, leaving six Taliban dead and eight others wounded, Zia Wali, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said.
There were no casualties among the Afghan and foreign forces, Wali said. (Al Jazeera)
Labels: Afghanistan, NATO, Taliban
Marines launch operation in Afghanistan's Taliban territory
U.S. Marines in helicopters and Humvees flooded into a Taliban-held town in southern Afghanistan's most violent province early Tuesday, the first major American operation in the region in years.
Several hundred Marines pushed into the town of Garmser in predawn light in an operation to drive out militants, stretching NATO's presence into an area littered with poppy fields and classified as Taliban territory.
Helmand province is the world's largest opium poppy growing region and has been a flashpoint of the increasingly violent insurgency the last two years. British troops - who are responsible for Helmand - have faced fierce battles on the north end of Helmand.
U.S. commanders say Taliban fighters had been expecting an assault and were setting up improvised explosive devices. It wasn't known how much resistance the Marines would face in Garmser, where the British have a small base at the town's edge but whose main marketplace is closed because of the Taliban threat. (AP)
Labels: Afghanistan, Taliban, U.S.
Drugs for guns: how the Afghan heroin trade is fuelling the Taliban insurgency
The heroin flooding Britain's streets is threatening the lives of UK troops in Afghanistan, an Independent investigation can reveal.
Russian gangsters who smuggle drugs into Britain are buying cheap heroin from Afghanistan and paying for it with guns. Smugglers told The Independent how Russian arms dealers meet Taliban drug lords at a bazaar near the old Afghan-Soviet border, deep in Tajikistan's desert. The bazaar exists solely to trade Afghan drugs for Russian guns – and sometimes a bit of sex on the side.
The drugs are destined for Britain's streets. The guns go straight to the Taliban front line. The weapons on sale include machine guns, sniper rifles and anti-aircraft weapons like the ones used in the attempt to assassinate the Afghan President Hamid Karzai last weekend.
"We never sell the drugs for money," boasted one of the smugglers. "We exchange them for ammunition and Kalashnikovs." (Independent)
Labels: Afghanistan, Taliban, U.K.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Pakistan Taliban halts peace talks
Pakistan's Taliban movement has decided to suspend peace talks with the government over its refusal to pull troops from a troubled tribal area.
Mawlawi Omar, the group's spokesman, told Al Jazeera on Monday that Beitullah Mehsud, the movement's leader, had halted peace talks due to the lack of progress.
Omar accused the government of being "unserious" towards reaching a peace agreement with the movement, which was due to be signed in the coming few days.
The Pakistani government has not yet commented on the suspension of talks.
Mehsud, accused by the last government of orchestrating the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the late Pakistani prime minister, made the decision after meeting tribal elders acting as mediators. (Al Jazeera)
Afghanistan probes parade attack
Afghanistan is investigating how elements from the Taliban movement could get within 500 metres of president Hamid Karzai and other top leaders to carry out a brazen attack.
At least six people, including a member of parliament and three attackers, were killed and nine others wounded in the assault near the presidential palace on Sunday.
The assault was an embarrassment for Afghan authorities as the event was supposed to showcase the army's growing strength.
The Taliban movement said it had launched the attack to show it had the power to strike even the nation's biggest annual military parade.
Karzai immediately announced an investigation to find out how the armed group breached security to hammer bullets into the back of the stage where he was seated with a host of Afghan and foreign dignitaries as well as launch rockets. (Al Jazeera)
Labels: Afghanistan, Taliban
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Taliban bitten by a snake in the grass
The Taliban and their al-Qaeda associates, in what they considered a master stroke, this year started to target the Western alliance's supply lines that run through Pakistan into Afghanistan.
Their focal point was Khyber Agency, in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, a key transit point for as much as 70% of the alliance's supplies needed to maintain its battle against the Afghan insurgency.
The spectacular blowing up on March 20 of 40 gas tankers at Torkham - the border crossing in Khyber Agency into Afghanistan's Nangarhar province - sent shock waves through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led (NATO) coalition. So much so that it made a deal for some supplies to transit through Russia, a much more arduous route.
The Torkham success was followed by a number of smaller attacks, and the Taliban's plan appeared to be going better than they could have expected.
Then came this week's incident in which the Taliban seized two members of the World Food Program (WFP) in Khyber Agency, and it became obvious the Taliban had been betrayed, and all for the princely sum of about US$150,000.
Their Khyber dreams are now in tatters.
When the Taliban's new tactic emerged, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) - which Pakistan's intelligence community says maintains its biggest South Asian presence in Pakistan - sprung into action and staged a coup of its own.
But that's getting ahead of the story. (Asia Times)
Labels: Afghanistan, Taliban
Afghan president escapes assassination bid
Afghan President Hamid Karzai escaped unhurt on Sunday after an assassination attempt by Taliban fighters who fired guns and rockets at an official celebration near the presidential palace in Kabul.
Karzai, government ministers, former warlords, diplomats and the military top brass ducked for cover after gunfire sounded at the event to mark the 16th anniversary of the fall of the Afghan communist government to the mujahideen.
Karzai later appeared on state television to address the nation.
"Today, the enemies of Afghanistan, the enemies of Afghanistan's security and progress tried to disrupt the ceremony and cause disorder and terror," Karzai said.
"Fortunately, Afghanistan's military forces surrounded them quickly and arrested some of the suspects," he said.
The Taliban, which claimed responsibility for the attack, said three of its fighters were killed. (Reuters)
AP Have a personal recount of the assassination attempt. (AP)
Labels: Afghanistan, Taliban
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Taliban claims helicopter attack
Zabihullah Mujahed, a Taliban spokesman, told Al Jazeera that three US soldiers were killed in the incident and another two injured on Saturday.
The US has admitted there was fighting in the area, but denies that any of its aircraft were brought down.
Dhabihullah Mujahid, Al Jazeera's correspondent in the region, reported the Taliban as saying they brought the helicopter down in Konar state in eastern part of the country.
A US forces spokesperson in Konar, which is to the east of Kabul, said that clashes had taken place and the US warplanes had carried out bombing raids. (Al Jazeera)
Labels: Afghanistan, Taliban, U.S.
Afghan leader urges strategy change
Hamid Karzai, in an interview to the New York Times on Saturday, criticised the conduct of US and British force in Afghanistan and said the real Taliban threat was in Pakistan.
He said the real threat was in Taliban and al-Qaeda strongholds in Pakistan and argued civilian casualties needed to stop completely.
He also argued that the US-led forces in Afghanistan needed to create a trained police force and said his government should be given the lead in policy decisions.
"For the success of the world in Afghanistan, it would be better to recognise this inherent character in Afghanistan and work with it and support it," newspaper quoted him as saying in the interview. (Al Jazeera)
Labels: Afghanistan, NATO, Taliban, U.S.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Pakistan Taliban in truce call
Betullah Mehsud, who is accused of masterminding last year's assassination of Benzair Bhutto, the former prime minister, ordered the ceasefire in a leaflet, a government official said on Thursday.
"For the sake of general peace, provocative actions are strictly banned. The order is final and there will be no leniency," the leaflet said, attributing the order to Mehsud.
The leaflet warned that those who violated the order would be strung up in public.
A government official confirmed the leaflets were genuine and were issued by Mehsud's group.(Al Jazeera)
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Taliban kill 13 in series of Afghan attacks
Taliban insurgents killed 13 people, including 10 police, in a series of attacks across the country on Wednesday, officials said.
Afghanistan has seen a rising tide of violence following the traditional winter lull. Some Western leaders have warned this year Afghanistan risks sliding back into anarchy unless more is done to coordinate military, political and development efforts.
Five police officers were killed when Taliban fighters stormed their post in the eastern province of Kunar, near the border with Pakistan, Abdul Saboor Allahyar, a senior provincial police officer said.
"After the attack, a clash erupted in which 13 Taliban were also killed," Esmatullah, a border force commander, told reporters. (Reuters)
Labels: Afghanistan, Taliban
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Pakistan frees pro-Taliban leader, makes peace with group
Pakistan freed a pro-Taliban cleric and quickly signed an accord with his hard-line group Monday, the first major step by the new government to talk peace with Islamic militants and break with President Pervez Musharraf's policy of using force.
The day's developments began with the release of Sufi Muhammad, who is believed in his 70s, after more than five years in custody following his dispatch of thousands of followers to fight in Afghanistan.
A few hours later, the government of North West Frontier Province said Muhammad's group signed a pact renouncing violence in return for being allowed to peacefully campaign for Islamic law. Security forces have the right to "act against" any extremists who attack the government. (AP)
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Pakistan's ambassador says held by Taliban: TV
Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan, who went missing in February in the Khyber region, appeared on Arabic television on Saturday saying he was being held by the Taliban and urged Islamabad to meet their demands.
Ambassador Tariq Azizuddin appeared in a video tape on Al Arabiya television surrounded by armed militants to make his first public statement since going missing.
"We were kidnapped by mujahideen from the Taliban," the ambassador, wearing an open-necked shirt and looking calm, said in the remarks which were translated from Urdu into Arabic.
"I suffer health problems such as high blood pressure and heart pains," said the bespectacled and grey-bearded ambassador, who gestured to his armed captors in an arid, hilly region. (Reuters)
Labels: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Taliban
US, Pakistan say Taliban commander killed in shootout
A Taliban commander blamed for the deadliest attack on U.S. troops since they entered Afghanistan in 2001 has been killed in a shootout with security forces in Pakistan, American and Pakistani officials said.
Police killed Ahmad Shah, also known as Mullah Ismail, at a roadblock near the northwestern city of Peshawar, a senior Pakistani intelligence official said. Two U.S. security officials confirmed Shah's death in a shootout and said Pakistani authorities had his body.
All three officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
U.S. and Afghan officials have described Shah, who also went by the name Mullah Ismail, as the leader of Taliban militants who ambushed a group of U.S. commandos in June 2005 and shot down a Chinook helicopter sent to rescue them. Sixteen American special forces members died on the helicopter. (AP)
Labels: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Taliban, U.S.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Son of Dutch military chief killed in Afghanistan
The son of the new chief of the Dutch military and another Dutch soldier serving with NATO-led forces were killed in an explosion in Afghanistan on Friday.
Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the blast, which occurred at a time of rising violence following a traditional winter lull in fighting.
The Dutch Defence Ministry said in a statement there were no indications that the attack was specifically targeted at the 23-year-old son of chief of joint staffs Peter van Uhm, who took over command of the Dutch military on Thursday.
"The contrast with yesterday's festivities, when command was handed over to General Van Uhm, could not have been bigger," Defence Minister Eimert van Middelkoop told a news conference in the Hague. (Reuters)
Labels: Afghanistan, Taliban
Nato admits mistakenly supplying arms and food to Taliban
Nato forces mistakenly supplied food, water and arms to Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan, officials today admitted.
Containers destined for local police forces were dropped from a helicopter into a Taliban-controlled area of Zabul province.
The coalition helicopter had intended to deliver pallets of supplies to a police checkpoint in Ghazni, a remote section of Zabul late last month.
By mistake they were dropped some distance from the checkpoint where it was taken by the Taliban, the Internal Security Affairs Commission of the Wolesi Jirga — the Afghan parliament's lower house — was told.
Hamidullah Tukhi, a local politician from Zabul, told the parliamentary commission that the consignment had been taken by a local Taliban commander.
A Nato spokesman said the pallets were carrying rocket propelled grenades, ammunition, water and food.
Afghan politicians have said they do not believe the drop was an accident. (Guardian)
Labels: Afghanistan, NATO, Taliban
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Several dozen Taliban said killed in Afghan clashes
Afghan and foreign forces killed several dozen Taliban insurgents on Thursday in separate clashes in Afghanistan, officials said.
After the traditional winter lull, violence has increased in recent weeks in Afghanistan.
Twenty Taliban fighters were killed in a joint operation by Afghan and NATO forces in the southern province of Zabul, a senior provincial police official, Faridullah Khogiani, said.
In neighboring Ghazni province, 10 insurgents died after a botched ambush against a joint Afghan and U.S.-led convoy on a highway in Ghazni province, a provincial official said.
In another clash in the same province, the Afghan National Army killed three more Taliban guerrillas, the defense ministry said in a statement. (Reuters)
Labels: Afghanistan, Taliban
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Afghan opposition says it's been talking to Taliban
An opposition group says its leaders, including a former president, have been meeting with the Taliban and other anti-government groups in hopes of negotiating an end to rising violence in Afghanistan.
The contacts have taken place between leaders of the opposition National Front and "high level" militant leaders during the last few months, party spokesman Sayyid Agha Hussain Fazel Sancharaki said in an interview Sunday.
He said among those at the meetings were former President Burhanuddin Rabbani, now a member of parliament, and Mohammad Qasim Fahim, who is President Hamid Karzai's security adviser and a powerful northern strongman.
Rabbani said Afghanistan's six-year war must be solved through talks, echoing a view held by many in the country.
"There's no doubt that some inside the Taliban are not willing to negotiate, but there are some Taliban who are interested in solving problems through talks," Rabbani, Afghanistan's president from 1992-96, told The Associated Press in an interview. (AP)
Labels: Afghanistan, Taliban