MMU is brought to you by: 

Moby Group,

Afghanistan’s leading privately owned and integrated media company

●  TOLO TV  ● Afghan Scene Magazine  ●  ARMAN FM  ●  Lapis  ●   LEMAR TV   ●   Kaboora Production ●   TOLOnews TV   ●   Alef Technology  ●  ARAKOZIA FM  ●  Barbud

For more information, or to advertise with Moby Media Updates, contact: +93 (0) 799 321 010

 

Advertisement

 

Who next will win the big prize?  Based upon the international hit format Deal or No Deal, GANJINA is the overwhelming viewers’ choice each weeknight.  Don’t miss this exciting game show on TOLO Saturday through Wednesday at 8:00pm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

25 July 2012

 

 

 

FEATURE STORY

U.S. Builds Afghan Air Base, But Where Are the Planes?

 

 

BUSINESS

No articles featured today

NATION

Afghan Couple Flee Families, Receive Pakistan's Protection
Romney embraces date to hand over power in Afghanistan
Afghanistan demands list from diplomats in anti-graft fight
Senators Blast Karzai Government for Lack of Clear Trade Policy
In the same boat
7 Children Killed in Ghor Roadside Mine Blast
Police Official Went to Fight for Taliban, Afghans Say
NDS Detains 241 Suicide Bombers in Two Years: Taheri
Congress Eyes Probe Into Army Program
Afghan President Hamid Karzai demands handover, not demolition, of NATO bases
Dozens Killed as Tajikistan Army Clashes with Insurgents Near Afghanistan
Afghanistan looks forward to Australia ODI
They Loaded Mortars In The War, So Now What?
The road to London 2012: Afghan athletes look to leave fighting behind
Taliban Threaten Panjwai Residents for Turning to Government
Afghan security forces say major hotel attack foiled
Attack on NATO supply trucks in Pakistan kills driver, injures another

PRESS RELEASES

No articles featured today

Back to Top

FEATURE STORY 

U.S. Builds Afghan Air Base, But Where Are the Planes?

Wall Street Journal
By NATHAN HODGE
July 24, 2012
SHINDAND, Afghanistan

Shindand Air Base has an 8,000-foot runway, a gleaming new headquarters complex and a cadre of motivated Afghan pilot candidates.

Because of the way Washington operates, however, it lacks warplanes.

The budding Afghan air force was supposed to receive $355 million worth of planes custom-made for fighting guerrillas well ahead of the U.S. withdrawal in 2014. Equipped with machine guns, missiles and bombs, those reliable, rugged turboprop aircraft are cheaper to operate and easier to maintain than fighter jets.

The Afghans won't get the planes on time. The Air Force initially awarded a contract to a U.S. company to supply Brazilian-designed planes. But it canceled the contract after a Kansas-based plane maker filed suit to block it, and the Air Force decided the contract had insufficient documentation. The Kansas congressional delegation also lobbied hard against the Brazilian plane. The Air Force has started the bidding process again, and a new contract likely won't be awarded until next year.

Afghanistan is unlikely to gain an independent, fully functioning air force until around 2016 or 2017, two to three years after the U.S. pullout, said Air Force Brig. Gen. Timothy Ray, who heads the NATO air training command in Afghanistan.

"They have wasted the most precious commodity they have in combat, which is time," says Edward Timperlake, a former Marine Corps fighter pilot who served as a director of technology assessment at the Pentagon until 2009 and is now retired.

Problems with the Afghan warplanes add to a separate controversy over a $275 million fleet of U.S.-provided C-27A cargo planes that has remained grounded for months because of lack of maintenance and spare parts, information first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

At a meeting with President Hamid Karzai and security officials in late May, the Afghan military expressed "unease" over the slow pace of the air force's revival and asked for urgent talks with the U.S. and allies to tackle the issue, according to a presidential statement.

Obtaining these attack planes "is very important for us in order to support our infantry, the army on the ground," says Afghan Lt. Gen. Mohammad Dawran, chief of staff for the Afghan air force, in an interview. "We desperately need to intensify the capacity of our air force."

Air power is essential for policing Afghanistan, a mountainous land with forbidding terrain, harsh weather and few roads. Recent events have underscored its importance in quelling the insurgency. When the Taliban staged attacks in Kabul and across the country in April, Afghan security forces managed to end the assault thanks to U.S. air support.

The country's previous occupiers knew this well: As the Soviets withdrew in 1989, they left to the Afghans over 400 military aircraft, including over 200 Soviet-made fighter jets. Remnants of that defunct air force—rusting supersonic Su-22 attack planes, bullet-perforated Mi-6 heavy lift helicopters—now litter the boneyard of Shindand, the hub of the Afghan air force near the Iranian border.

Maj. Gen. Mohammad Baqi, the top Afghan air force commander at Shindand, likes to bring young Afghan trainees here for a history lesson. The scrap heap, he says, is a reminder of "what a strong air force we had" before the base was battered by Afghanistan's civil war, and before its runway was cratered by U.S. bombs during the 2001 campaign to oust the Taliban.

"We don't want the same thing to happen to our new air force that happened to the last one," he says.

Across from the Shindand scrap heap these days, hundreds of Afghan construction workers in hard hats and reflective vests are putting the finishing touches on a headquarters facility for the Afghan air force. Concrete for aircraft parking spaces is freshly poured; dormitories for enlisted personnel are coated with canary-yellow paint; and spacious new aircraft hangars with curved roofs rise over the flight line.

U.S. Air Force Col. John Hokaj, until recently the commander of the advisory group that helps oversee the training of Afghan aviators, had signs placed in front of the construction site advertising it as the "home of the Afghan air force," a gesture to Afghanistan's sovereignty.

All told, the U.S. has spent nearly $300 million on upgrading the Shindand facilities. The base has a brand-new fleet of small fixed-wing aircraft: Six Cessna C-182T training planes and 12 Cessna C-208B short-haul transports, both propeller-driven aircraft painted in military gray with Afghan air force livery.

Young Afghan helicopter pilots are flying the MD-530F, high-performance training helicopters made by MD Helicopters Inc. of Mesa, Ariz. They eventually graduate to the Russian-made Mi-17, a workhorse transport chopper.

Shindand's training program, Gen. Baqi said, was on track to turn out a competent new group of pilots. Problem is these pilots will have no actual aircraft for close-air support missions once their training is completed.

"We have a commando unit here, we have a police garrison, we have district center police; whenever they need air support they ask us and we say, 'Oh, this is a training unit, we don't have any air support,' " the Afghan general lamented.

The U.S. Air Force was supposed to be remedying that situation by now. At the height of the Iraq war, as the conflict in Afghanistan simmered, the Air Force began studying options for "counterinsurgency" aircraft, light planes equipped with sensors and weapons that could provide affordable close-air support. One of the best-known options on the market was a Brazilian-made plane, the Super Tucano. The rugged fighter plane is flown by the militaries of Brazil, the Dominican Republic and Colombia, where it is used in counterinsurgency and drug-interdiction missions similar to those required by Afghanistan.

Sierra Nevada Corp., based in Sparks, Nev., joined with Brazil-based Embraer SA ERJ -1.93% in 2010 to offer the Super Tucano to the Air Force. Rival aircraft manufacturer Hawker Beechcraft Corp., based in Wichita, Kan., offered the AT-6, a modified version of a plane that the U.S. military currently operates as a basic trainer for Air Force and Navy pilots.

In 2009, Sen. Sam Brownback and Rep. Todd Tiahrt, both Republicans of Kansas, sent a letter to then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates voicing "strong and unequivocal objection" to any possible deal between the U.S. and Brazil for the Pentagon to acquire the Super Tucanos as light-attack planes.

The following spring, U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, then the top commander in Afghanistan, sent an urgent request to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to acquire four Super Tucanos to provide extra air power to support Special Operations troops in Afghanistan.

The project stalled after lawmakers blocked a $44 million request for funding. The Kansas congressional delegation played a major role in stopping the funds, said Mr. Tiahrt, who left Congress last year after losing the Kansas GOP Senate primary.

The former Kansas representative said he was concerned the deal would give Embraer a leg up in any future Pentagon contest to buy light-attack planes. Mr. Tiahrt, who has worked as a consultant to Hawker Beechcraft and other U.S. aviation companies since leaving office, added that he and other lawmakers "wanted to give American workers a chance to compete for the tax dollars." Former Sen. Brownback, who is now governor of Kansas, declined to comment on the issue.

Despite such lobbying, the U.S. Air Force excluded the Hawker Beechcraft AT-6 planes from running for the Afghan warplane contract in November 2011, effectively handing the deal to the U.S.-Brazilian consortium.

Hawker Beechcraft responded by lodging a protest with the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The GAO dismissed the protest in December. According to the GAO, the Air Force found "significant weaknesses" in Hawker Beechcraft's proposal that made its offer too risky. The Air Force, citing competitive sensitivity and litigation, hasn't given a detailed explanation of that decision. But proponents of the Embraer plane point to a core difference between the two aircraft: The Super Tucano is in service with many militaries, while the AT-6 is a modified version of a training plane that is untested as a combat aircraft. Hawker counters that the Super Tucano is the riskier choice, because the AT-6 is based on a plane that is already used by the U.S. military and has an existing training and parts-supply base.

Last December, the service awarded a contract worth $355 million to Sierra Nevada for 20 Super Tucanos to the Sierra Nevada/Embraer team. Hawker Beechcraft then filed suit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to stop the Air Force from moving forward with the contract. In the suit, Hawker argued it was improperly excluded from the contest. "It was a flawed process," said Bill Boisture, the chairman of Hawker and the head of its Hawker Beechcraft Defense Co. subsidiary.

In late February, the U.S. Air Force moved to cancel the contract for Super Tucanos and restart the contest. In a statement, the service said that top procurement officials were "not satisfied with the documentation" in the original round of bidding. Both Hawker Beechcraft and the Sierra Nevada/Embraer team are vying for the contract the Air Force now expects to award early next year.

Sierra Nevada subsequently sued the Air Force to reinstate the December contract. "We do think that we won on technical merits, we do think we have the only solution that's out there," said Taco Gilbert, vice president of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance business development at Sierra Nevada.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said the cancellation of the original contract for the light-attack planes "was profoundly disappointing" for the service. "We know our Afghan partners need this capability, and we restarted the acquisition as quickly as we could," he said in a statement.

For both Embraer and Hawker, the stakes of winning the contract are high. For Embraer, a win would provide an entry into the U.S. defense market, the largest in the world. For Hawker Beechcraft, which filed for bankruptcy protection in early May in the midst of the restarted competition, a contract would keep production lines open.

In a new twist, the company recently disclosed discussions with a Chinese firm, Superior Aviation Beijing Co., over the sale of most of its businesses, but Hawker said a potential transaction with Superior wouldn't include its military aircraft segment.

The procurement delays represent another setback for the U.S. Air Force, which saw its reputation suffer during a decadelong fight over a multibillion-dollar contest to build a fleet of aerial refueling tankers. That competition, which pitted Boeing Co. BA -1.21% against the U.S.-incorporated unit of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., EAD +0.48% or EADS, became one of the most politicized Pentagon acquisition projects in recent years. Boeing eventually won the tanker order in 2011, but only after the collapse of a scandal-tainted lease deal and a successful protest of a contract award to EADS.

"The whole Washington environment for source selection is polluted, is toxic," says retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Tome Walters, former head of the Pentagon agency that oversees foreign military sales.

Big-ticket weapons deals such as the Afghan air force contract have become "a life or death issue" for many defense firms, leading to protests and litigation that stall delivery, he added. "There is no downside, there's no penalty for filing a protest. In an era of a decreasing number of contracts, it's taken as almost a given that the losers are going to protest."

In Shindand, meanwhile, Afghan pilot candidates—who include three young women—are hoping that the promised warplanes will arrive here one day. Like young pilots in any air force, they are dreaming of speed.

Second Lt. Emal Azizi and 2nd Lt. Walid Noori said they initially expected to be assigned to transport planes such as the C-208B or the C-27A once they graduate this year. Both, however, said they yearn to fly combat missions against the Taliban.

"In Afghanistan most war is like a guerrilla war, so we need fighters," said Lt. Azizi. Lt. Noori added with a grin: "I want to be a fighter pilot."

Back to Top

BUSINESS

No articles featured today

Back to Top

NATION

Afghan Couple Flee Families, Receive Pakistan's Protection

TOLOnews.com
Tuesday, 24 July 2012

An Afghan couple will be protected under Pakistani law after the Peshawar High Court (PHC) ruled that if they returned to Afghanistan they would be killed.

The PHC ordered police to protect the pair who fled Afghanistan and got married in the Pakistani town Abbottabad against the will of their families, according to Pakistan's Express Tribune.

PHC Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan ruled on Monday that the newlywed couple be taken into protective custody and provided with accommodation either at the Women Police station or Police Lines Peshawar. He also ordered police provide the couple with food and clothing, the paper reported.

The 22-year-old Hewad married 18-year-old Mariyam Marjman last month after they escaped Kabul with the help of a Pakistani friend. According to the Tribune, the Afghan nationals eloped when they found out that Mariyam's parents wanted her to marry the husband of her deceased elder sister. They took the dead sister's two-year-old daughter with them.

The chief justice dismissed an earlier decision by a judicial magistrate to send Mariyam back to Kabul and book Hewad under the Foreigners' Act for not having the correct travel documents.

He repealed the ruling against Hewad at Mirpur police station in Abbottabad, saying the couple had taken refugee under grave compulsion.

Back to Top

Romney embraces date to hand over power in Afghanistan

Msnbc.com
By Michael O'Brien
24/07/2012

Mitt Romney re-emphasized Tuesday a shared goal with President Barack Obama, to transfer control of Afghanistan to that country’s security forces by the end of 2014.

Speaking Tuesday before the annual meeting of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Romney noted his past criticism of the pace of the drawdown of U.S.-led security forces in Afghanistan, which was set to culminate in a handover of responsibility to Afghan forces in 2014.

But the presumptive Republican nominee said that it would be his own goal, as well, to complete a transition of power by 2014 – a stance that is difficult to distinguish from the president’s.

“As president, my goal in Afghanistan will be to complete a successful transition to Afghan security forces by the end of 2014,” he said in Nevada.

Romney didn’t offer specifics when it comes to what that would mean for the precise level of U.S. forces that would remain in Afghanistan over the course of the transition, relying on his usual rhetoric about deferring to the judgment of commanders on the ground.

“I will evaluate conditions on the ground and solicit the best advice of our military commanders,” he said. “And I will affirm that my duty is not to my political prospects, but to the security of the nation."

In a separate fact sheet, the Republican’s campaign said that Romney, as president, would order an interagency review of the transition in Afghanistan during his first 100 days in office.

The Afghanistan announcement was just one part of a multifaceted speech outlining the presumptive Republican nominee’s foreign policy vision before he embarks on a tour of the United Kingdom, Israel and Poland meant to burnish his credentials as commander-in-chief. Still, Romney’s pronouncement today on Afghanistan would seem, if nothing else, to mark a significant departure in the rhetoric he’s used toward the situation in Afghanistan.

But readers might be forgiven for reading Romney's speech today as a more forgiving assessment of the way Obama has managed the war in Afghanistan. Obama first launched a surge in troops in Afghanistan, a move that was generally applauded by Republicans.

Before officially launching his current presidential bid, Romney said in a March 2010 interview with NPR: “I was pleased that the president made the decision to take action to root out the Taliban in Afghanistan. I think he made a couple of errors, even in doing so, that makes it a little more difficult - or potentially substantially more difficult for our troops to be successful there.”

He continued, “Number one, when the military came and said we need a minimum of 40,000 more troops, I would not have been inclined to cut that to 30,000. My inclination would be to give him at least 40 or maybe 50,000. Number two, I would not have announced the date we're going to start pulling people out. I think that makes it more difficult at the time you're just adding troops.”

But his decision to withdraw those troops by September of this year had turned into the centerpiece of Romney's criticism of Obama.

Romney said in his June 2, 2011 speech launching his current White House run that Obama was “wrong” to announce a date by which U.S. troops would withdraw from Afghanistan.

Aides to the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said that Romney's disagreement with Obama stems from the pace of the withdrawal of troops, particularly in 2012, during the height of the fighting season in Afghanistan. Romney, aides said, would have more closely heeded military leaders' guidance to keep surge troops there longer.

But Romney shares an end goal of having only a small level of troops in Afghanistan at the time of the handover, pending the success in standing up the Afghan government.

"The timetable, by the end of 2014, is the right timetable for us to be completely withdrawn from Afghanistan, other than a small footprint of support forces," he said at a Nov. 13, 2011 presidential debate.

The pace of withdrawal Romney would pursue as president is unclear, though; commanders haven't issued their recommendations, and Romney's words at a Jan. 2012 debate underscored just how uncertain the conditions that would warrant a drawdown can be.

But Romney otherwise said he opposed negotiations with the Taliban that would end the fighting in Afghanistan. The solution, he said at an NBC News debate on Jan. 23, 2012, was to defeat the Taliban outright – a strategy that would seem to open the door to a potentially interminable engagement in Afghanistan and, for that matter, Pakistan.

"By beating them," Romney said of his strategy to end the fighting in the region. "By standing behind our troops and making sure that we have transitioned to the Afghan military, a capacity for them to be successful in holding off the Taliban."

"Our mission there is to be able to turn Afghanistan and its sovereignty over to a military of Afghan descent -- Afghan people that can defend their sovereignty. And that is something which we can accomplish in the next couple of years," he added.

Back to Top

Afghanistan demands list from diplomats in anti-graft fight

Reuters
By Hamid Shalizi
Tue Jul 24, 2012
KABUL

Afghanistan has asked major Western backers and diplomats to furnish a list of contractors they use with close ties to top Afghan officials as part of efforts to crack down on rampant corruption worrying international donors.

Graft remains one of the biggest headaches for President Hamid Karzai and Afghanistan's international backers, who demanded at a conference in Tokyo this month that the government combat graft as the price of future aid worth $16 billion.

Karzai in turn has accused the international community of helping to fuel corruption and has asked foreign donors to stop awarding massive reconstruction projects to contractors linked to senior officials in his government.

"As part of fighting corruption outside the government, we have asked the United States and UK embassies, and NATO authorities, to give us a list of names of major contractors related to senior officials," a senior government official told Reuters on Tuesday on condition of anonymity.

"We have made plans to fight corruption at all levels, within and outside the government."

Afghanistan is ranked as one of the most corrupt countries by the Berlin-based anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International.

Much of the money has been siphoned from billions of dollars worth of aid and reconstruction projects, some awarded to contractors with ties to Karzai's extended family, damaging the president's own popularity.

"The contractors often misuse the names of senior officials and use that influence to win tens of millions of dollars they earn from the projects," the official said.

Karzai called last month, just ahead of the major donors' meeting in Tokyo, for parliament to do more to tackle graft and said "corruption has reached its peak in Afghanistan".

While the call fell short of Western hopes for tough action and prosecutions, his remarks were seen as one of the strongest commitments to fight graft since U.S.-led Afghan forces toppled the Taliban government in late 2001.

Karzai promised he would bring administrative reforms from top to bottom in his government, a vow which was welcomed by the international community.

Karzai's chief spokesman, Aimal Faizi, said the decree on administrative reforms would be signed by Karzai "very soon" but rejected reports that some Cabinet ministers and provincial governors under a graft cloud would soon be sacked.

"Each ministry and government administration will be given a timeframe to introduce reforms, better governance, and most importantly tackle graft," Faizi told Reuters.

Highlighting the worries among Karzai's backers, Britain's aid watchdog this year called on the government in London to tighten its oversight of aid to Afghanistan.

Karzai's government has yet to prosecute a single high-level corruption case. (Editing by Rob Taylor and Nick Macfie)

Back to Top

Senators Blast Karzai Government for Lack of Clear Trade Policy

TOLOnews.com
Tuesday, 24 July 2012

Afghan senators described the Karzai government's trade policy with Pakistan as equally poor as its diplomatic policy with the neighbouring country, calling for the trade problems faced by Afghan businesses to be addressed.

"Just as the government doesn't have a clear defense policy and has kept silent about the Pakistani shelling, the same is with its trade policy," senator Urfanullah Urfan said in the senate session Tuesday.

Senator Najiba Hussaini voiced her agreement saying the trade policy is weak with all countries.

"In fact, the Afghan government does not have a clear policy with any of the neighboring countries, particularly with Pakistan," she said.

The statements came after the Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) complained Tuesday about major transit problems faced by Afghan traders exporting to Pakistan.

ACCI Deputy Chairman Khanjan Alokozay raised his concerns with the senators, saying that Afghan traders face major difficulties in dealing with Pakistan, including their trade materials getting "lost" in transit.

"[To pressure Pakistan], we want the government not to allow fruit and food to come to Afghanistan from Pakistan, as well as ban the export of Afghan trade materials," Alokozay said before the senators Tuesday.

He also warned about a possible collapse in the Afghan carpet industry as many other kinds of foreign carpets were coming to Afghanistan making it difficult for Afghan carpet producers to compete.

He said that extortion is damaging the industry, with traders being forced to pay bribes in order to transport their goods.

"For example, a provincial governor or a police checkpoint is taking extortion all the way up to Torkham port, so, how a trader can compete in the market. It's a major challenge for the traders," Alokozay added.

Alokozay said that he has shared his concerns with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and that investigative commissions were formed, but they had failed to make a difference.

Back to Top

In the same boat

DAWN.com
By Najmuddin A Shaikh
24/07/2012

LOOKING at the headlines over the last month there is one thing that stands out clearly: Pakistan is as much a battle zone as Afghanistan.

A report out of Afghanistan says the Taliban executed a woman before a large audience a short distance away from Kabul, while another report says the Taliban lashed two alleged kidnappers, again before an appreciative audience, only 70km from Kabul. President Karzai says that people seek the rough-and-ready justice of the Taliban because the officials of the district cannot provide it.

In Pakistan a mentally challenged alleged blasphemer was dragged out of a police station and burnt to death by a vigilante crowd while the police stood by helplessly. President Zardari says “no one should be allowed to take the law into his own hands, no matter what the crime is”, but so far there is no report suggesting that anyone has been arrested, leave alone punished, for instigating mob violence.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are two of the three countries in the world in which polio remains a threat. In Afghanistan the security situation prevents health workers from accessing the children to whom the polio drops need to be administered. In ‘sovereign’ Pakistan a militant leader decrees that no polio-vaccination teams will be allowed into North and South Waziristan unless drone attacks are stopped. The jirga of local elders put together by the local administration to persuade the militant leaders, who apparently exercise full control of these tribal agencies, to change their minds end up agreeing with him that no vaccination should be permitted until his conditions are met.

Around 250,000 to 350,000 children are at risk in these agencies. But ominously, children are at risk even in Karachi, where a UN team of vaccinators was recently attacked as it entered an Afghan basti in Sohrab Goth.

In April 2011, prisoners — mostly Taliban — escaped from Kandahar jail through a tunnel dug from the outside. In April 2012, prisoners — again mostly Taliban — escaped from a Bannu jail after a frontal attack by the Taliban, who rode up to the prison in pick-up trucks and freed the prisoners while facing no resistance from prison guards. In both cases the attackers boasted of having inside information.

In ‘insecure’ Afghanistan attacks on Afghan police stations and security posts are a matter of routine. Now with attacks on police stations in Bannu and the killing of a party of Pakistani soldiers in the vicinity of Gujarat, ‘secure and sovereign’ Pakistan’s record matches that of the Afghans.

Every day we read reports of Nato and Afghan forces carrying out operations that kill dozens of ‘insurgents’, but which seem to do nothing to restore peace. Now in Pakistan we see daily reports of airforce and army attacks on militant hideouts but with no indication from the people of the area that this has in any way reduced the influence of the militants in the tribal areas.

Every day Nato and Afghan sources accuse Pakistan of harbouring Afghan militants. Now there is increased stridency to Pakistani claims that Afghanistan is harbouring dissidents from Balochistan in farari camps and is allowing India to use Afghan soil to foment the insurgency in this troubled province of Pakistan.

The Afghans and their Nato allies have long accused Pakistan of not preventing the launching of attacks on Afghanistan by militants with ‘safe havens’ in Pakistan’s tribal areas or along the Pak-Afghan border in Balochistan. Now the Pakistanis are accusing the Afghans and Nato of not preventing attacks on Pakistan from safe havens in Kunar and Nuristan provinces by Mullah Fazlullah and Maulvi Faqir Mohammad’s militias.

With respect to this last similarity, Pakistan is now taking ‘direct action’ to eliminate the threat from these Afghanistan-based insurgents. The Afghans say that Pakistan has laid down artillery barrages in the area, killing a number of civilians and causing an evacuation from the area. They have threatened to take the matter to the UN Security Council and on Sunday summoned the Pakistan ambassador to register a protest and to demand an immediate cessation of such attacks. According to a statement from President Karzai’s office, the Afghan National Security Council has instructed security officials “to put into place all due actions necessary”. Pakistan has denied the charges, saying “Pakistani troops only respond to and engage militants from where they are attacked/fired upon”.

This development may not mean that there is going to be a war between the two countries, though this cannot be ruled out. It does, however, point to the dangers that lie ahead. It suggests that the agreement reached between President Karzai, British prime minster Cameron and our prime minister during his recent visit to Kabul to work together to ‘eliminate’ terrorism which ‘poses the gravest threat to regional and international security’ will not really be the determinant of policy on the ground.

And yet the need for putting into operation a policy to ‘eliminate terrorism’ is urgent. The Americans and their allies are leaving by the end of 2014. The economic situation in both countries is set to deteriorate further. In Afghanistan the withdrawal of foreign forces will deprive it of the main driver of economic activity, and this cannot be compensated for by the limited aid that has been promised by the international community at the Tokyo conference.

In Pakistan, a government in election mode is not going to make the hard decisions needed to put its economic house in order. Economic hardship will compound the deterioration of the security situation.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are in the same boat, but if this boat is not to be the Titanic, the leaders in the two countries have to work together to promote genuine reconciliation and to eliminate terrorism.

Pakistan, which I believe still has the capacity, has to take action to restore its writ over its territory and to make clear to the ‘guests’ on its soil that Pakistan will not want — any more than Afghanistan’s present leadership and its Nato allies — a Taliban-dominated Afghanistan.

Afghanistan, on its part, has to be more sensitive to Pakistan’s concerns and secure its full cooperation to effect reconciliation and to eliminate the threat that both countries face.

The writer is a former foreign secretary.

Back to Top

7 Children Killed in Ghor Roadside Mine Blast

TOLOnews.com
Wednesday, 25 July 2012

At least seven children were killed in a roadside mine blast in western Ghor province on Tuesday afternoon, local officials said.

The blast happened in the Teura district of the province while the children were playing, provincial spokesman Abdul Hai Khatibi said. No group, including the Taliban, has claimed responsibility for the blast.

Insurgents frequently place improvised explosive devices (IED) in or on the road to target Afghan and Nato troops, but most of the victims are civilians.

Civilian casualties from IEDs are a serious concern in armed conflicts.

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently urged parties to conflict to do more to comply with international humanitarian and human rights laws.

"All violations require our attention and action. But some demand particular scrutiny. Among them: the growing use of explosive weapons in populated areas," he said.

He also urged for a more systematic engagement with non-state armed groups.

These groups, the Secretary-General said, must understand their responsibilities and the consequences of violating these laws.

Back to Top

Police Official Went to Fight for Taliban, Afghans Say

New York Times
By ALISSA J. RUBIN and HABIB ZAHORI
July 24, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan

Local officials in western Afghanistan reported Tuesday that a low-level police commander had switched sides with his men and gone to fight for the Taliban, and an American engineer was reported killed in an area less than 50 miles from the Afghan capital.

The apparent defection occurred in the Bala Baluk district of Farah Province in the far west part of the country, where the Taliban have been active. The province borders the Taliban heartland of Helmand Province and the largely lawless Ghor Province.

It was unclear from officials how many of the commander’s men had defected with him or whether they had been forced to leave their post.

The Interior Ministry denied accounts of the defection, but said in a statement that it had “recovered six police in Farah” and that a search operation was continuing, suggesting that if there had been a defection by his men, it had been brief. Two policemen were still missing late on Tuesday night, said Siddiq Siddiqi, the Interior Ministry spokesman.

In a different account of what happened, the provincial governor’s spokesman, Abdul Rahman Zhwand, said that 11 of the commander’s men had gone with him and that they had taken two police pickup trucks.

The commander, whose name is Mirwais, had ties to the insurgents and was put in charge of two outposts in the hope that he could woo local members of the Taliban into changing sides, said Abdul Basir Khairkhwah, the chairman of Farah’s provincial council.

“The reason he was chosen to command the two outposts in Shiwa was that he knew a lot of people, both civilians and Taliban, in the area,” Mr. Khairkhwah said.

He continued: “By appointing him as the commander of these two outposts, the government hoped that he might be able to bring in some Taliban to the government. The provincial government has started an investigation into Mirwais’s defection, but I think it is too late and it will be useless because he is gone now. They should have thought twice before trusting him with all those resources and men.”

Mr. Khairkhwah added that the commander had taken weapons, radios, ammunition and two police trucks with him.

On almost the other side of the country, in the mountainous Parwan Province, gunmen attacked a car on Sunday carrying an American, an Afghan engineer and a driver, killing all three, according to the provincial governor’s office and Shirin Agha, the police chief of the Seyah Gerd district, where the attack occurred. News of the killing began to surface late Monday.

The American Embassy confirmed that an American civilian had been killed but said it could not release additional information because of privacy laws.

According to local residents and Mr. Agha, the district police chief, the American was about 60 years old and had been wearing Afghan-style clothing: a shalwar kameez, including a loosefitting shirt that hangs to the knees and baggy long pants. A spokeswoman for the Parwan governor’s office described the American man as an electrical engineer.

“They all had beards, and the American engineer had a long gray beard,” Mr. Agha said. “The insurgents were hiding on one side of the road and, as soon as the engineers’ car had passed, they opened fire.”

He said he thought the attack was a coincidence rather than a planned killing of an American by the insurgents.

“They are trying to show their presence and scare commuters,” he said.

Mr. Agha said that despite the attack, the valley, once one of the only safe routes to the remote Bamian Province, was far better than it had been a couple of months ago before a military operation that killed and captured many insurgents from rival factions.

Before that operation, the provincial council head of Bamian was kidnapped and killed, and “they were attacking police convoys, kidnapping people and torching fuel tankers,” Mr. Agha said.

However, there are now reports that recently some Taliban migrated to the area from a nearby province, suggesting that the Afghan security forces are contending with a tenacious insurgency there.

Sangar Rahimi contributed reporting.

Back to Top

NDS Detains 241 Suicide Bombers in Two Years: Taheri

TOLOnews.com
Tuesday, 24 July 2012

As many as 241 suicide bombers planning to target government officials and parliamentary members have been arrested in the past two years in Afghanistan, a media official with the National Directorate of Security (NDS) said Tuesday.

The country's two vice presidents, the Balkh provincial governor Atah Mohammad Noor, judicial high court members, cabinet members and parliamentarians were among targets the detained bombers had planned to assassinate, according to NDS spokesman Shafiqullah Taheri.

Other targets Taheri named were jihadi leaders Ustad Sayyaf and Sebghatullah Mujadidi.

Taheri said that NDS investigations showed neighboring countries were agitating more conflict in Afghanistan for their own benefit.

"The interrogations of the detainees show that there are regional - Central and South Asian - neighboring countries supporting terrorism and war in Afghanistan, including some spy agencies from the Central and South Asian neighboring countries," he said.

Taheri listed a number of provinces where there had been some recent success for the NDS forces.

He said that the Taliban's shadow governor in the Kohe Safi district of Parwan province and one of his fighters were detained by the NDS recently. In Kunduz a seven-member suicide group was detained. An planner of suicide attacks was arrested in western Herat province, while in the country's capital Kabul, a massive insurgent attack on one of the five star hotels was prevented.

He also said that five insurgents related to Taliban's shadow governor of northern Takhar province were arrested recently - two were intending to attack the capital Taloqan city, while three other insurgents were arrested with 52 kg of potassium chloride in northern Takhar province.

Back to Top

Congress Eyes Probe Into Army Program

Associated Press
By LOLITA C. BALDOR
July 25, 2012
WASHINGTON

Congress is poised to launch an investigation into why Army leaders have resisted requests to provide battlefield units with a specific computer program that helps troops locate and clear roadside bombs.

The software program, the Palantir System, is being used by some units in Afghanistan, but Army officials have denied multiple requests for it from others, including the 1st Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, which in a May memo cited an "urgent need" for it in the volatile Ghazni province.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., a member of the House Armed Services Committee, has asked the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to investigate the matter. In his letter, he questioned why an Army report in April that recommended the use of Palantir was rescinded and replaced a month later by a version that deleted some recommendations and favorable references to the program.

Army officials said they also have begun their own investigation. The congressional probe is likely to start within the House Oversight panel.

"The idea that ground combat units in Afghanistan are being denied intelligence tools that are requested and readily available is unsettling and underscores a major failure in a process that is intended to deliver resources to the warfighter as quickly as possible," wrote Hunter, a former Marine who served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.

According to a memo sent by the 82nd Airborne brigade, other military units and special operations forces in nearby areas use the Palantir program. Because the brigade doesn't have the same program, it is difficult to share data and intelligence. The memo, obtained by The Associated Press, also said that Palantir would give it greater analytical tools.

Defense officials said that Army units are using another system, the Distributed Common Ground System, in Afghanistan, which was built to meet the military and intelligence requirements. It was developed by a team of defense companies, led by Northrop Grumman.

Some Army units are also using Palantir, and the Army is trying to determine if the two technologies can be combined.

The software program merges and analyzes information to help determine where insurgents are planting bombs — the top killer of U.S. and allied troops in Afghanistan.

Hunter said data indicates that the military's ability to find and clear roadside bombs increased by about 12 percent when using Palantir. And he noted that in one email exchange an Army officer said that the chain of command believes that using the Palantir system "will save soldiers' lives and limbs."

Palantir is based in Palo Alto, Calif.

Back to Top

Afghan President Hamid Karzai demands handover, not demolition, of NATO bases

Washington Post
By Kevin Sieff
July 24 , 2012
KABUL

President Hamid Karzai and Afghan lawmakers called on the NATO coalition this week to stop demolishing Western military bases, saying that the facilities could be converted to schools, clinics and government offices.

As NATO troops continue their withdrawal from Afghanistan, U.S. and coalition officials have begun to identify and dismantle bases that the Afghan army lacks the capacity to inherit or that are no longer operationally significant. Dozens more of the facilities, which range from one-room checkpoints to large operating bases, could be bulldozed over the next two years.

Karzai has asked his defense minister, Abdul Rahim Wardak, to “take all necessary measures to stop the demolition of bases by NATO and make their handover possible,” according to presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi.

Afghan officials in Kabul said they have been shut out of the process and have been forced to watch as some of the country’s most modern and best-fortified buildings are torn apart for no apparent reason.

“They have spent lots of money for constructing the bases, and now they are spending more money for their destruction,” said Shukria Barakzai, a lawmaker. “We can use these bases for clinics, schools and for other administrative purposes.”

NATO officials say that Afghan government officials do have an opportunity to claim bases before they are demolished but that they often do not act in time.

NATO and U.S. forces engage “directly and regularly with the Afghan Ministry of Finance-led Base Closure Commission, who ultimately determines the disposition of bases,” said Lt. Col. Sarah Goodson, a spokeswoman for NATO forces. “On those occasions where the Afghan government does not desire a base which ISAF [the International Security Assistance Force] is leaving, the base is demilitarized and the ground is returned to its original state and appearance.”

In June, the Reston-based firm Serco was awarded a three-year, $57 million contract to plan and document the dismantling of bases across Afghanistan. The company played a similar role in Iraq, where dozens of bases were shuttered rather than transferred to Iraqi control.

To do the job, Serco will deploy teams that specialize in closing military installations.

“It makes no sense to spend money to destroy a facility that you have spent money to build in the first place,” said Daud Kalakani, another lawmaker.

Although the Afghan army is about 200,000-strong, U.S. officials say it lacks the logistical capacity to inherit the hundreds of bases that pepper Afghanistan, including many in isolated mountain ranges.

Rather than spread the Afghan security forces too thin, U.S. and NATO officials are proposing a large-scale consolidation of bases. Some large installations are being downsized. And many will be dismantled — a process that can take weeks.

Javed Hamdard and Sayed Salahuddin in Kabul and Marjorie Censer in Washington contributed to this report.

Back to Top

Dozens Killed as Tajikistan Army Clashes with Insurgents Near Afghanistan

TOLOnews.com
Wednesday, 25 July 2012

More than 40 insurgents and 12 Tajikistan army soldiers were killed in a massive operation of the Tajikistan government against insurgents based near border with Afghanistan.

The Tajik government said that 12 soldiers and 40 militants were killed during the operation launched in the Gorno-Badakhshan province.

Tajik local officials said that the commander of a special forces unit and eight Afghan insurgents were among the dead.

Tajikistan's chief military prosecutor Khairullo Saidov was wounded in the foot during the fighting, the official said.

The military operation is continuing through Wednesday.

It was launched after Abdullo Nazarov, a general with Tajikistan's national intelligence service, was stabbed to death Saturday in Ishkashim, some 520 kilometers east of the capital, Dushanbe.

Back to Top

Afghanistan looks forward to Australia ODI

AFP
24/07/2012

Afghan cricket chiefs Tuesday said the team was "anxiously waiting" for the country's first international against Australia in the Middle East next month, as they focus on becoming an established side.

The emerging cricketing nation will play Australia in a one-day match in the desert venue of Sharjah on August 25, their second contest against a major cricketing country after playing Pakistan at the same venue in February.

"The value of the match in terms of increased experience as well as confidence and skill building will be immeasurable," Afghanistan Cricket Board chief executive Hamid Shinwari said.

"Our players and supporters greatly admire and love cricketers from Australia and the opportunity to play them has created widespread interest and excitement and they are anxiously waiting for the day to come."

Waleed Bukhatir, vice chairman of Sharjah Cricket Club, said it will be great to watch the fledgling Afghan team play Australia.

"Afghanistan has a national team that is definitely on the rise and we can put our hand out," he said.

"I think it?s the responsibility of every cricket-loving country to develop the game and to reach out to a country in need."

Afghanistan became an ICC affiliate member in 2001 and a national team was formed in the same year, when US-led forces invaded the country to oust the Islamist Taliban regime. Just nine years later, Afghanistan played at the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 in the Caribbean.

Afghanistan failed to qualify for the 2011 World Cup, but have ODI status until 2013 and have also qualified for this year's World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka.

Cricket in Afghanistan was developed by refugees who learnt the game in camps in Pakistan.

Back to Top

They Loaded Mortars In The War, So Now What?

The Associated Press
July 24, 2012
WASHINGTON

U.S. combat troops patrol dusty pathways in Afghanistan, look for hidden roadside bombs, load and fire mortar shells at insurgents' positions. So when they come home, how will that help them land a civilian job?

They can "be a mercenary," muses Capt. John Rodriguez, who'll leave the Army soon after six years.

That's the kind of thinking the government wants to change, both among American employers and members of the armed forces. In fact, the skills troops use in combat can be useful for many types of civilian jobs, but employers often don't understand them and people leaving the military need help with presenting those skills or developing new ones.

Rodriguez was attending a recent resume-writing class, part of the Transition Assistance Program, which is run by the departments of Defense, Labor and Veteran Affairs to help soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines successfully make the transition back to the civilian world.

Some 250,000 service members leave the military each year and all must attend counseling on finances and other issues whether they served six years or 26 years, whether they saw the battlefield or not. Other parts of the 20-year-old transition program have been voluntary, such as the resume writing class and one on how to dress for the civilian workplace.

At the class Rodriguez attended, teacher Aleshia Thomas-Miller offered some tips for writing resumes that might help civilian employers understand what veterans did in Afghanistan and Iraq and how their experience translates to a non-military job:

—Don't use military jargon or an alphabet soup of military acronyms. Even a job isn't called a job in the military, it's called an MOS, or military occupational specialty. That might fly in military circles, but in the civilian world, it's incomprehensible.

"It doesn't matter how qualified you are if the employer does not understand," she told the class of a dozen soldiers.

—If you were a platoon leader, as Rodriguez was in Afghanistan, don't use that term either, Thomas-Miller said. Say you managed 50 people, were responsible for expensive equipment, made decisions in stressful situations.

There's online help as well. At careeronestop.org and Mil2FedJobs.com, troops can type in their military occupation and get a list of related jobs, the states in which they're located and sometimes with a link to apply for the job online, depending on the program.

For instance, an 11C (an Indirect Fire Infantryman who can supervise or serve on a mortar unit), might find one of 180 jobs in Illinois, driving trucks, running company training programs or working in security.

The vast majority of veterans are employed, but the jobless rate for America's new generation of veterans was 9.5 percent last month. That's down from 12.7 percent the previous month and 13.3 percent in June 2011, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics said. But it's still been consistently higher than the country at large, with an unemployment rate of 8.2 percent in June, and for vets from all previous wars.

There are hundreds of jobs in the military — for medics, computer specialists, mechanics, lawyers, finance officers, pilots, electrical engineers, nuclear engineers, food service managers, heavy equipment operators, and more. Though officials provided no data on who has the hardest time finding jobs after military service, many say it's infantrymen and those who held other jobs directly involved in combat that have no direct civilian equivalent.

President Barack Obama on Monday announced a redesign of the transition program. Starting later this year, assistance will begin earlier in a military career, rather than at the end. There will be more one-on-one help, a separate focus for those wanting to go back to school or start their own businesses. Classes will be five to seven days, rather than the current three and more things will be mandatory for most people.

The redesigned program will have a fancier new name — Transition GPS. The administration is calling it the first major overhaul of a system started in the 1990s post-Cold War drawdown, though it's been updated in recent years to be more youth friendly with web-based information and workshops.

Acknowledging that troops already have some terrific experience, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the revised program will help them "apply their experience to additional training, formal education, and develop successful civilian careers."

A recent study by the Center for New American Security, a Washington think tank, said businesses want to hire new vets because they believe they have leadership qualities, teamwork skills, character, discipline, expertise, effectiveness, and loyalty.

Envisioning how vets might fit into their company is a different matter, said the study, which included interviews with 87 unidentified businessmen representing 69 companies.

"The most prominent obstacle to hiring veterans," it said, is that "both civilians and members of the military have a hard time translating military skills into civilian job qualifications."

Employers also said their fears include concern:

—that troops with post traumatic stress may be "damaged" or have violent tendencies.

—that National Guard and Reserve troops will be called up for duty, leaving the company short-handed.

—that the majority of post-9-11 vets lack the college degrees or industry-specific expertise they'd need for senior positions, yet don't want lower level jobs employers feel are more appropriate for them.

—that vets too often seek jobs that they don't have the education or skills to do.

"There are folks who get it, are coming out of the service and say 'I realize I'm not going to be CEO,'" said Devin B. Holmes, CEO of Warriorgateway.org, a portal to help troops find help with employment, health questions, education and a range of other transition needs.

"There are also folks coming out and (saying) 'I want a GS14 position in the government,'" Holmes said, meaning the second highest level in the "General Schedule" of government pay — jobs that go to people with a lot of experience and/or a very high level of expertise in their field, and are management positions.

"You can achieve that if you work hard and do a good job ... but you're not going to get it on Day 1," Holmes said.

Officials say privately that part of the disconnect comes from a sense of entitlement among some troops, the feeling that they deserve a great job after doing duty that only a tiny fraction of Americans were willing to do. But Holmes said the larger reason is that troops lack an understanding of what some jobs entail and what experience and education is needed to get them — a problem he thinks the Transition Assistance Program should work on.

Back to Top

The road to London 2012: Afghan athletes look to leave fighting behind

Combat sports feature heavily in the London squad, but the national Olympics chief wants the emphasis to change in future

Guardian.co.uk
By Emma Graham-Harrison
Tuesday 24 July 2012
Kabul

The head of the Olympic committee used to smuggle sports equipment in with mujahideen weapons' shipments, the country's best sprinter had no idea what the Olympics were the first time he competed, and the only female athlete on the team has to worry about covert mobile-phone videos of her training sessions turning up online. Meet the Afghan team.

Afghanistan has been left stranded on the margins of international sport by three decades of conflict, and grinding poverty, but the challenges have also served to hone the six-strong Olympic team's mental strength.

In Beijing, the taekwondo fighter Rohullah Nikpai won a bronze that was the country's first Olympic medal, and the group heading to London this year are aiming for more.

"It's my great hope that I can bring back a medal for myself and my country," said the 23-year-old Ajmal Faizada, eight times the national judo champion, who will be competing thanks to a wildcard.

For years Faizada has started training at 5am, worked from 8am to 5pm painting cars and then returned for an evening judo session. He knows tough conditions at home mean that he faces an uphill struggle in elite international competition.

"In terms of mentality, it's important for a sportsman to feel relaxed and secure. But we have economic problems, suicide attacks and the war. And when it comes to training and equipment we can't compare."

He practises in a single room on the edge of Kabul's only stadium, once used by the Taliban for public executions. The two sprinters comprising Afghanistan's track and field team train nearby, in conditions that would make many elite athletes hang up their running shoes.

"I always say we only have one problem, which is that we have nothing," said Abdul Karim Aziz, the head of the national athletics federation.

"We have no electronic timing equipment, no starting gun … most of the runners don't even have standard [running] shoes, just ones they buy from the bazaar."

The only female athlete on the Olympic team, Tahmina Kohistani, also has to deal with the daily challenge of being a female runner in a country where many men still think women should not take part in sports.

Aziz said he had caught boys sneaking into the stadium to video her training and post the clips on the internet. Others shout abuse when they see her run.

"They think women who exercise are not clean," Kohistani said, sitting on the bleachers in modest traditional dress, with her hair covered.

"This is a country that has endured a dark regime and three decades of war. People are just starting to move forward and try new things. I expect these reactions against me, it's a traditional country. Sport has no value to them."

Kohistani, who has the full support of her family and coach and says she tries to ignore her critics, expects London to be one of the greatest memories of her life.

"I hope my participation will be an inspiration to other Afghan women and girls," the 22-year-old undergraduate says, adding that she has plans and pledges of financial support to convert that inspiration into action on her return and create a sports programme for women ..

Her team-mate and fellow sprinter Masood Aziz is looking forward to his third Olympics in a career that began in relaxed fashion because he thought he was attending just another international athletics meeting. "When I got there I was amazed to see the huge crowd, and several champions in the stadium. I felt like I had joined the champions … like I was a true sportsman," he said.

Perhaps because of the legacy of violence, combat sports are highly popular and account for four of the six-strong team – Nikpai, a taekwondo team-mate, judoka Faizada and a boxer.

"Some people say boxing is a violent sport, but I like it because it is strong and tough," said the 22-year-old Ajmal Faisal, who will be competing as a wildcard in the 52kg category.

The government has launched a push for young Afghans to take up team sports rather than more individualistic, "violence-based" martial arts.

"What we are doing now, based on our new policy, is to focus more on group sports like basketball, volleyball and others … that promote team working and unity," said Lieutenant General Muhammad Zahir Aghbar, the head of the Afghan Olympic committee, who has a far more colourful CV than most of his international counterparts.

As a young man he joined the mujahideen guerillas fighting Soviet forces but refused to give up a passion for sport that led him to compete internationally with the national handball team. "I was the one and only commander who during jihad times also had a team playing sport," he said.

His dedication led him to hide balls and nets among more critical shipments on a transport plane from Tajikistan, earning the anger of his charismatic general, Ahmad Shah Massoud.

"He criticised me, and said 'this is a time of war, you should be bringing more weapons, not sports material'," Aghbar said. He continued the covert shipments anyway, and when the Taliban were toppled in 2001, asked for a job promoting sports and physical education.

"My life has been tied up with sports," he said, with no signs of diminishing enthusiasm. So what is next for the dry and landlocked country's athletic ambitions? "We are working to establish water polo as a sport; Afghans are quite interested in it."

Back to Top

Taliban Threaten Panjwai Residents for Turning to Government

TOLOnews.com
Tuesday, 24 July 2012

Taliban insurgents are threatening the local residents of southern Kandahar province's Panjwai district with death if they refer to their local councils to solve their problems, an official said.

Panjwai district governor Haji Fazel Mohammad said the residents of Panjwai villages receive death threats from the militants if they go to their local government-appointed authorities to resolve any issues.

He said some of the council representatives have already been killed or injured.

"The armed opposition groups have gone into homes of residents and mosques in the Panjwai district and told people not to go to the councils, saying we will kill those who disobey," Mohammad said, adding that the problem has been happening more or less for eight years.

He also said that a clearing military operation named ‘Decisive Decision' was recently launched by the Afghan security forces in the district to drive out the insurgents, and he hopes it will have achieved its aims by the end of the operation.

Meanwhile, the Taliban rejected Mohammad's claims of threatening the local villagers.

Back to Top

Afghan security forces say major hotel attack foiled

Reuters
By Mirwais Harooni
July 24, 2012
Kabul

Afghan security forces have foiled a plan by insurgents to attack a major international hotel in Kabul, intelligence officials said on Tuesday, blocking what would have been the second such attack in the capital in as many months.

Describing the plan as "major and aggressive", a spokesman for Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS) said the attack could have caused carnage, although he refused to give details.

"Terrorists planned to launch an attack on a five-star hotel. We avoided the assassination of scores of our people and the destruction of an important installation," said Shafiqullah Tahiri, the deputy spokesman for the NDS.

Investigations into the attack were continuing, he said.

Taliban gunmen in June stormed a small resort hotel and restaurant at Qargha lake, on Kabul's outskirts, taking hostages and killing 20 people with rocket-propelled grenades, suicide vests and assault rifles.

Afghan police and NATO-led international forces ended the attack after a 12-hour siege, but it again showed the ability of insurgents to stage high-profile raids even as NATO nations prepare to withdraw most of their combat troops by the end of 2014 and leave Afghans to lead the fight.

In April, Taliban fired rockets into the Star Hotel near President Hamid Karzai's presidential palace during an attack on the city's central business area, while in June 2011 insurgents attacked the Kabul Intercontinental Hotel, killing 19 people, including all eight attackers. (Editing by Rob Taylor)

Back to Top

Attack on NATO supply trucks in Pakistan kills driver, injures another

Los Angles Times
July 24, 2012
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan

Gunmen in northwest Pakistan attacked two trucks ferrying supplies to U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing a driver and injuring another in what was believed to be the first ambush of an alliance supply convoy since Pakistani authorities ended a seven-month blockade of the supply routes.

The trucks were moving through the tribal region of Khyber on their way to the Torkham border crossing when assailants on two motorcycles drove up and opened fire with AK-47 rifles, witnesses and local authorities said.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but following Islamabad’s decision earlier this month to reopen transit routes used by Afghanistan-bound NATO supply convoys, Pakistani Taliban militants had warned that they would begin launching attacks on the convoys.

Pakistan shut down NATO supply routes through the country last November after U.S. airstrikes mistakenly killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers near the Afghan border.

The soldiers’ deaths were widely viewed by Pakistanis as a last straw for the troubled U.S.-Pakistan relationship, which had already been severely strained by Washington’s ongoing drone missile campaign against militants in the country’s northwest, the American commando raid deep into Pakistani territory that killed Osama bin Laden in May 2011, and the release of a CIA contractor accused of killing two Pakistani men in the eastern city of Lahore in January 2011.

The supply routes were reopened after Washington issued a carefully worded apology for the November border incident, satisfying one of Pakistan’s key demands during months of negotiations aimed at ending the blockade.

The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan uses Pakistan as a transit country for roughly 40% of its nonlethal supplies, which move by truck from the Pakistani port city of Karachi to crossings on the Afghan border. During the blockade, Washington had to rely on a more circuitous and costly route into Afghanistan from the north, which was costing the U.S. and its allies in Afghanistan roughly $100 million a month.

The supply routes through Pakistan will become even more crucial as the U.S. and its Western allies begin transporting heavy equipment out of Afghanistan as part of planned troop withdrawals slated to wrap up by the end of 2014.

NATO supply trucks and tankers bound for Afghanistan have been ambushed dozens of times in recent years, and Tuesday’s attack likely will renew questions about the level of security that Pakistani authorities had assured they would provide to the convoys.

Bakhtiar Mohmand, a senior Khyber government official, said local authorities are providing security to NATO vehicles en route to the Torkham crossing. However, the two trucks that were attacked had left a convoy without informing authorities, Mohmand said.

Back to Top

PRESS RELEASE

No articles featured today

Back to Top