Attacted to now Taliban launch string of attacks on key Afghan city

Watches Taliban launch string of attacks on key Afghan city



May 2011 KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The Taliban unleashed a wave of attacks including six suicide bombings on government targets in the major southern Afghan city of Kandahar Saturday, leaving at least 14 people wounded.
Militants with guns and rocket-propelled grenades launched an assault on the governor’s office, and ten explosions including six suicide blasts rocked the city — the birthplace of the Taliban — after the attacks began at about 1:00 pm (0930 GMT).

Gunmen occupied a hotel near the local office of Afghanistan’s intelligence service, while suicide bombers tried to attack two police offices in the south’s de facto capital but were shot before they could reach their targets.

In chaotic scenes, an AFP reporter said gunfire was still ringing out as ambulances evacuated the wounded, who included three policemen, from the area.

“Small-arms fire is still going on. Two RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) have been fired onto the (governor’s) building so far,” provincial spokesman Zalmay Ayubi told AFP.

“The northern and eastern sides of the compound are under direct attack,” he said, also giving details of the other attacks.

It is believed that Kandahar governor Tooryalai Wesa was holed up in his compound.

A spokesman for Kandahar’s main hospital, Doctor Hashem, said that 14 people had been brought in with injuries, including three police.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks, with spokesman Yusuf Ahmadi claiming that “heavy casualties have been inflicted on the enemy”.

The militia had warned on Friday that this week’s killing of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by US forces in Pakistan would give “a new impetus” to their fight against foreign and Afghan forces.

They had already announced the start of their annual spring offensive last week.

But Ahmadi did not mention bin Laden’s death in the context of the Kandahar attacks in his comments to AFP.

The assault against the heavily guarded governor’s compound was launched from two nearby buildings including a shopping mall which the attackers had ordered shopkeepers to leave shortly before the violence began.

There are around 130,000 international troops in Afghanistan, two-thirds of them from the United States, battling the Taliban and other insurgents.

Limited withdrawals from seven relatively peaceful areas, only one of which is in southern Afghanistan, are due to start in July ahead of the planned end of foreign combat operations in 2014.

International forces claim that Kandahar and the surrounding area are now safer following months of intense fighting to clear traditional Taliban strongholds.

But government officials and other targets are still frequently targeted by militants in the city.
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Watch Afghan security contractors 'fund Taliban

Afghan security contractors 'fund Taliban
Heavy US reliance on private security in Afghanistan has helped to line the pockets of the Taliban, a US Senate report says.


Private security guards are often used to guard compounds or convoys

The study by the Senate Armed Services Committee says this is because contractors often fail to vet local recruits and end up hiring warlords.

The report demands "immediate and aggressive steps" to improve the vetting and oversight process.

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Taliban Conflict

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Some 26,000 private security personnel, mostly Afghans, operate in Afghanistan.

Nine out of 10 of them work for the US government.

Private security firms in Afghanistan provide guards for everything from diplomatic missions and aid agencies to supply convoys.

In August, Afghan President Hamid Karzai gave private security companies four months to end operations in Afghanistan.

'Mr White'
"All too often our reliance on private security contractors in Afghanistan has empowered warlords, powerbrokers operating outside Afghan government control," Democratic Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate committee, said.

Continue reading the main story
Analysis

Dawood Azami
BBC World Service editor, Kabul
The US Senate investigation confirms President Karzai's view that private security firms undermine Afghanistan's police and army.

Preparations are under way to absorb most members of security firms into the two forces.

But the police and army already struggle to find new recruits; one reason for this is that a private security guard can earn four times as much compared to a policeman.

The US has said it shares President Karzai's goal to close security firms, but wants to move more slowly than his target of the end of 2010.

President Karzai's decree allows embassies and other international offices to keep private security guards inside their compounds.

The plan is that, after the closure of security firms, Afghan security forces will escort supply convoys and other foreigners working in the country.

"These contractors threaten the security of our troops and risk the success of our mission," he added.

The report found that some contractors have had little training, while others were warlords linked to "murder, kidnapping, bribery and anti-coalition activities".

The document gives several notorious examples, including a man the Americans nicknamed Mr White - after a character in the violent film Reservoir Dogs - and his two brothers.

Mr White, who was hired to help guard Shindand airbase in the western Afghan province of Herat, was killed in 2007 by a rival Afghan security contractor.

The Americans then employed his brother, who was known as Mr White II. He is suspected of having funded the insurgents, and was eventually killed in a US raid on a Taliban meeting.
Cppied by http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11498443

Watch this 5 Afghan Children Among 9 Killed Kandahar Blasts

5 Afghan Children Among 9 Killed Kandahar Blasts


KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) - President Hamid Karzai condemned the "enemies of Afghanistan" on Wednesday after a series of roadside bombs in southern Kandahar city killed nine people, including five children, as insurgents fight back against intensified NATO-led operations.

Bombs targeting a police vehicle ripped through an intersection Tuesday night, the Interior Ministry said, killing nine and injuring 30, including many police. The attack occurred a day after four officers died in coordinated bombings also aimed at police.

Control of Kandahar, the Taliban movement's birthplace, is seen as key to reversing Taliban momentum in the war. Afghan and NATO forces are engaged in a major operation to improve security in and around Kandahar to keep insurgents from staging attacks inside the city.

However, Taliban militants are fighting back hard against U.S. and Afghan forces as they push into areas long held by insurgents.

"President Karzai strongly condemns the multiple explosions in Kandahar city that killed a number of civilians, including children,"
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Afghan policeman shot and killed two Spanish Troops Die in Afghan Shooting

Afghan policeman shot and killed two Spanish Troops Die in Afghan Shooting

KABUL—An Afghan policeman shot and killed two Spanish soldiers and an international interpreter before security forces shot him dead during an army training exercise in northwestern Afghanistan on Wednesday, Afghan and international officials said.

The deaths are the latest in a string of incidents in which Afghan forces have fired on their international mentors during training exercises.

Afghan policemen stand near the skeletal remains of a burnt truck in Badghis province. Afghan police and Spanish troops clashed early Wednesday outside a base in western Afghanistan

Hundreds of Afghans poured into the streets after rumors spread of the death of an Afghan during the exercise, setting fire to government buildings in Badghis province's Qalay-I-Naw district and attacking a nearby military base operated by Spanish troops, local officials said.

The shooting occurred at about 9:20 a.m., officials said. The nationality of the interpreter wasn't known.

In a statement, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said the cause of the shooting was still unclear, though it said reports indicate a member of the Afghan national police fired several rounds and NATO forces returned fire.

The Afghan policeman involved in the shooting may have been a Taliban insurgent, said Sharafuddin Mujadidi, a spokesman for the provincial government of Badghis. A spokesman for the Taliban couldn't be reached to comment.

Mr. Mujadidi said hundreds of Afghan civilians, chanting antigovernment and anti-NATO slogan, tried to enter the base after the gunbattle. "Afghan security forces quickly reacted and cordoned the base, dispersing the mob," he said.


Spanish soldiers patrol near a coal mine in Herat province in western Afghanistan in March.

A NATO official said there were still hundreds of Afghans demonstrating around the military base in Badghis province in the afternoon.

Taliban infiltration among the Afghan police and army is still a major concern despite efforts by Afghan and coalition forces to more thoroughly vet recruits, recently implementing biometric registration to weed out possible insurgents and criminals.

But last month, an Afghan soldier shot and killed two U.S. civilian army trainers and one Afghan during a training exercise, one of several similar incidents throughout the country.

The deaths Wednesday bring to 30 the number of Spanish fatalities in the nine-year U.S.-led war, out of 2,030 international troops, according to icasualties.org. So far this month, 52 members of coalition forces have died, with 30 of those fatalities American.

Violence has picked up in northern and western Afghanistan, which were considered to be quiet by coalition forces who have focused the majority of their troop surge in the southern and eastern parts of the country.

U.S. President Barack Obama ordered for 30,000 U.S. troops to be deployed in the country in December as U.S. forces draw down from Iraq.

—Habib Zahori and Habib Totakhil contributed to this article.

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President Barack Obama's Afghan withdrawal date bolsters enemy says General

Afghan withdrawal date bolsters enemy says General
By Phil Stewart and Sue Pleming, Reuters



President Barack Obama's July 2011 date to start withdrawing troops from Afghanistan has given a morale boost to Taliban insurgents, who believe they can wait out Nato forces, the top US Marine said yesterday.

But retiring General James Conway said he believed Marines would not be in a position to withdraw from the fight in southern Afghanistan for years, even though he acknowledged that Americans were growing "tired" of the 9-year-old war.

Conway's unusually blunt assessment is likely to fan criticism of Obama's war strategy ahead of US congressional elections in November, as public opinion of the conflict sours further and casualties rise.

"In some ways, we think right now it is probably giving our enemy sustenance," Conway, the Marine Corps' commandant, said of the July 2011 deadline.

"In fact we've intercepted communications that say, 'Hey, you know, we only need to hold out for so long.'"

Supporters of Obama's July 2011 date to start withdrawing forces from Afghanistan, conditions permitting, say it conveys a needed sense of urgency to Kabul. Afghans must quickly ramp up the size of their security forces for a gradual handover.

But critics say the strategy backfired, sending a signal to the Taliban that the United States was preparing to wind down the war while setting unrealistic expectations among Americans about the pace of progress in Afghanistan.

Conway, quoting one of his own commanders, told reporters: "We can either lose fast or win slow."

The timetable for withdrawal is certain to come under close scrutiny in a White House strategy review in December, which Obama called for last year when he announced the July 2011 deadline and 30,000 additional forces.

"We know the president was talking to several audiences at the same time when he made his comments on July 2011," Conway told reporters at the Pentagon.

"Though I certainly believe that some American units somewhere in Afghanistan will turn over responsibilities to Afghanistan security forces in 2011, I do not think they will be Marines."

Violence across Afghanistan has reached record levels despite the presence of almost 150,000 US and Nato troops. US and Nato forces have also stepped up operations after the Taliban insurgency spread out of the South and East into once relatively peaceful areas of the North and West.

Coppied by http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/afghan-withdrawal-date-bolsters-enemy-says-general-2061387.html

Enjoy Top Marine Dislikes Afghan Deadline

Top Marine Dislikes Afghan Deadline


WASHINGTON — The commandant of the Marine Corps said Tuesday that President Obama’s July 2011 deadline to begin American troop withdrawals from Afghanistan was “probably giving our enemy sustenance.”

Notes from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and other areas of conflict in the post-9/11 era. Go to the Blog »
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It was by far the most sharply worded public remark from a senior military commander about the White House’s timetable for starting to wind down the war.

The commandant, Gen. James T. Conway, also said that “if you follow it closely, and of course we all do, we know the president was talking to several audiences at the same time when he made his comments on July 2011.” The general apparently meant that Mr. Obama’s deadline was set for a domestic political audience as well as for the Afghans.

But the general, who is retiring this fall, said he thought the deadline might not ultimately comfort the insurgents, who could find that only a small number of United States forces leave Afghanistan next July, a possibility increasingly set forth by Pentagon officials and senior commanders. He predicted that Taliban fighters, who he said have been told repeatedly by their commanders that the Americans would leave en masse, would be demoralized when they realized that the United States was staying.

“What is he going to say to his foot troops,” he said of a Taliban commander, when, “come the fall, we’re still there hammering them like we have been? I think it could be very good for us in that context, in terms of the enemy’s psyche and what he has been, you know, posturing now for, really, the better part of a year.”

General Conway, who spoke to reporters at a Pentagon briefing, also made clear, as he has in the past, that he remained personally opposed to overturning the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law that requires gay men and lesbians in the military to keep their sexual orientation secret or leave the service. Mr. Obama and senior Pentagon leaders, including Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have said that the law should be changed to allow gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the military. The Senate is scheduled to consider legislation next month.

“We will follow the law, whatever the law prescribes,” General Conway said, adding that the Marines “cannot be seen as dragging our feet or some way delaying implementation.”

Based on his information from Marines, he said, “I can tell you that an overwhelming majority would like not to be roomed with a person who is openly homosexual.” But because some Marines do not object, he said, perhaps having those Marines share rooms voluntarily with openly gay service members “might be the best way to start, without violating anybody’s sense of moral concern or perception on the part of their mates.”

Asked what he meant by moral concern, General Conway said, “We have some people that are very religious.” He added: “I couldn’t begin to give you a percentage, but I think in some instances we will have people that say that homosexuality is wrong, and they simply do not want to room with a person of that persuasion because it would go against their religious beliefs.”

Gay rights groups counter that most active-duty service members, who are decades younger than many senior commanders, do not passionately care one way or another about overturning the ban or serving with openly gay men and women.

General Conway, echoing other senior American commanders, said that it “will be a few years” before the Marines can turn over their operations in Afghanistan entirely to Afghan forces. About 20,000 Marines are based in the southern province of Helmand, Afghanistan’s breadbasket and the Taliban heartland, where they continue to battle insurgents in Marja, the site of a major Marine offensive this past winter.

“They’re sniping at us, they’re throwing a few odd rounds here and there, they’re shooting at our helicopters, but mainly they’re intimidating the people, O.K., so as to maintain a presence there and keep Marja from being, again, this strategic victory on the part of the Marines in the south of Helmand,” he said.
Coppied by http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/world/asia/25military.html?_r=1

June was the bloodist month NEWS CENTRAL/S. ASIA Troop deaths top 2000 in Afghan war

Watches this NEWS CENTRAL/S. ASIA Troop deaths top 2000 in Afghan war

More than 2,000 foreign troops have died in Afghanistan since the war began in late 2001, according to the independent icasualties.org website.

In all, 2,002 soldiers have been killed since the US-led invasion, including 1,226 Americans and 331 British.

In contrast to these deaths over a span of almost nine years, 1,271 civilians were killed in the first six months of 2010.

Last week, a UN mid-year report showed civilian casualties had risen by 31 per cent this year compared with the same period last year.

So far this year, 434 foreign troops have been killed, compared with a peak of 521 in 2009, icasualties.org reported on Sunday.

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June 2010 was the bloodiest month of the war with 102 killed as foreign forces pushed ahead with operations in southern Helmand and Kandahar provinces. Another 88 were killed in July.

There are currently more than 140,000 US and Nato-led troops in Afghanistan aiming to to flush out remnants of Taliban fighters, who went on the offensive after being toppled from government in the 2001 invasion.

Disputes over the Afghan war have already brought down a Dutch government in February and a German president in May.

The losses in Afghanistan are less than half of those in the Iraq war, where at least 4,723 foreign troops have been killed since 2003 - 4,405 of them Americans.

Civilian casualties

But, with the US government cutting troop numbers in Iraq before the formal end of combat operations on August 31, attention is certain to be focused back on the Afghan conflict.

Civilian casualties caused by US and other foreign forces have long been a source of friction between the Afghan government and its Western allies and led to a major falling-out between the two sides last year.

The UN report added that Taliban and armed groups were responsible for 76 per cent of casualties.

Deaths caused by "pro-government forces" fell to 12 per cent of the total from 30 per cent last year, due mainly to a 64 per cent fall in deaths caused by aerial attacks.
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