# The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread July 2009



## GAP (30 Jun 2009)

*The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread July 2009  *               

*News only - commentary elsewhere, please.
Thanks for helping this "news only" thread system work!*


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## GAP (1 Jul 2009)

*Articles found July 1, 2009*

Pakistan elder killed by gunmen 
Article Link

A key pro-government tribal elder has been shot dead along with two of his guards in Pakistan's tribal region of Khyber, officials say.

They say that Malik Gali Khan was travelling in the Jamrud area when he was attacked by gunmen. 

The tribal leader was seriously wounded and died on his way to the hospital. 

As news of his death spread, incensed local tribesmen closed down the markets and also the Pakistan-Afghanistan highway through Torkham. 

Malik Gali Khan was known for his support for the government in an area which is a vital supply route for Nato forces. 

The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Islamabad says that he was killed in an area which has seen a number of recent attacks on militants by security forces, as well as the arrest of high profile al-Qaeda members. 

There were at least two other attempts on Mr Khan's life prior to his murder. His family says he had recently received a letter from local Taliban threatening to kill him. 
More on link

 Stalemate in Afghan ghost town shows task ahead
By CHRIS BRUMMITT – 19 hours ago 
Article Link

NOW ZAD, Afghanistan (AP) — U.S. Marines patrol slowly along streets laced with land mines and lined with abandoned shops, clinics and homes. As night falls over this Afghan ghost town, the only sounds are the howling of dogs and the creaking of tin roofs in the wind.

Three years after its residents fled, the once bustling town of Now Zad is the scene of a stalemate between a company of newly arrived Marines and a band of Taliban fighters. The Americans have plenty of firepower. What they don't have is enough men to hold seized ground.

"We would just be mowing the weeds," said Capt. Zachary Martin of any move to drive out the Taliban.

The deadlock shows how a shortage of troops has hindered the Afghan war and points to the challenges for the Obama administration as it sends 21,000 extra Marines and soldiers to the south to try to turn around a bogged down, eight-year conflict. The influx will bring U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan to about 68,000 by late summer — roughly half the current level in Iraq, a smaller country than Afghanistan.

It's unclear if more troops will be deployed to this town in Helmand province, the heart of the Taliban insurgency and the opium poppy trade that funds it. For the meantime at least, it appears Now Zad is too valuable to abandon to the insurgents — but not valuable enough for an all-out offensive.

The 300 or so Marines in Now Zad regularly patrol areas close to the Taliban front lines, skirmishing with them and risking attacks from the area's biggest killer — IEDs. Over the last month, improvised explosive devices have killed one Marine and wounded seven. Four of the men — including the fatality — suffered double leg amputations.
More on link

 Four killed in Balochistan blast  
Article Link

At least four people have been killed in a suicide attack outside the south-western Pakistani city of Quetta in Balochistan province, police say.

Another 10 people were injured in the attack which took place in the town of Sohrab, 300km (186 miles) from Quetta. 

The bomber blew himself up in a roadside restaurant on the town's outskirts, local police told the BBC. 

They say that he entered the restaurant after parking his car outside, which also blew up. 

Police say the man might may well have missed his target, a convoy of 40 trucks carrying supplies for Nato troops in Afghanistan. 

The convoy departed from the restaurant half-an-hour before the suicide bomber arrived. 
More on link

 In Afghanistan, crackdown hurts Iran's once-sterling image
By PHILIP SMUCKER McClatchy Newspapers
Article Link

HERAT, Afghanistan -- Students at Afghanistan's Herat University thought they were living in new era of openness, one in which the right to criticize authority was increasing.

Last week, however, the Iranian Consulate in this Afghan city near the Iranian border complained to the Afghan Ministry of Culture that the student newspaper, Pegah, was inappropriately critical of Tehran's crackdown against pro-democracy demonstrators.

The newspaper was closed for 10 days, the university fired the responsible journalists, and the paper was reopened with no news of the protests. 

The measure, however, is likely to backfire among Afghanistan's increasingly educated and media-savvy younger generation. Student groups denounced the newspaper's closure and refused to hold their tongues in public.

Mohammed Faqiri, the spokesman for Herat University's New Generation Club, admits that his group has some pretty advanced views for young people in a traditional Muslim nation, but he said he's sure that his group is in the mainstream on one issue: Iran.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (1 Jul 2009)

Key in Afghanistan: Economy, Not Military
_Washington Post_, July 1, by Bob Woodward
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/30/AR2009063002811.html



> CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan -- National security adviser James L. Jones told U.S. military commanders here last week that the Obama administration wants to hold troop levels here flat for now, and focus instead on carrying out the previously approved strategy of increased economic development, improved governance and participation by the Afghan military and civilians in the conflict.
> 
> The message seems designed to cap expectations that more troops might be coming, though the administration has not ruled out additional deployments in the future. Jones was carrying out directions from President Obama, who said recently, "My strong view is that we are not going to succeed simply by piling on more and more troops."
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (2 Jul 2009)

The US Marines on the Move
Conference of Defence Associations' media round-up, July 2
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1246555089/0#0

Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (2 Jul 2009)

Troops in Afghanistan foil Taliban ambush
 Business and pleasure; Best way to celebrate? 'By staying alive'
 By Craig Pearson, Canwest News ServiceJuly 2, 2009
  Article Link

Brig.-Gen. Jonathan Vance spent most of Canada Day visiting Canadian bases in southern Afghanistan, wishing soldiers the best - and helping stop a Taliban ambush in the process.

Returning after visiting Canadian soldiers in Zhari district, the military vehicles carrying Canada's top soldier in Afghanistan came upon an ambush of a truck convoy being protected by a private security company.

"There was a great number of trucks in there, some carrying military equipment," Vance said yesterday. "We heard the ambush start. We moved up to investigate. We saw where the ambush was emanating from, so we tried to stop it.

"And we did."

No Canadians were hurt. But as is practice for the Canadian Forces, Vance would not give an estimate of enemy casualties, except to confirm that insurgents died in the skirmish.

Once the danger was eliminated, Vance and his crew, a well-armed and fight-ready unit, simply moved on to the next forward operating base to continue spreading Canadian cheer.

It was a subdued celebration outside the wire. The official festivities to mark Canada Day in Afghanistan are limited typically to the vast Kandahar Airfield where the Canadians are headquartered and where soldiers marked the occasion with ball hockey and volleyball tournaments, tug-of-war, cake, a barbecue and music.

At the more Spartan, forward-operating bases, deep in hostile territory, the atmosphere is all business. Still, troops found time to mark Canada Day in the course of the daily round of patrols.

"It's Canada Day and it's kind of rough when you are far from home on holidays," said Calgary native Cpl. Tom Hume, 25, sitting atop a Leopard 2 tank moments before it rumbled out on patrol from one base in southern Afghanistan. "So you have to do something to celebrate."

Hume and other tank-crew members decorated their huge machines with little touches of Canadiana, proudly taping Canadian flags to the armour.
More on link


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## GAP (3 Jul 2009)

*Articles found July 3, 2009*

 'Incorruptible' Commandos Sign of Hope for Afghanistan?s Future  
Friday, July 03, 2009 
Article Link

At a former Soviet training base in the town of Rish Khvor, a few miles out of Kabul, American Green Berets are working to mentor and support Afghan Special Force soldiers code-named Commandos. Better equipped, better trained, better paid and reputedly incorruptible, the Afghan Commando is meant to be everything the Afghan National Army (ANA) is not. The competition to become part of the elite force is grueling, and the reward for those who make it is the guarantee of battle against deadly insurgent forces.

"There is no corruption among the Commandos," says Maj. Mohmand Zabihullah, Company Commander for the General Training Company, staring intensely as he says it. A veteran of the Afghan military, Zabihullah spent nearly two years in the United States training at Quantico with United States Marines. He is well aware of Afghan soldiers' reputation for corruption, and he vows the Commandos he trains are above it.

The corruption in the army is largely due to lack of pay. The old-fashioned system of cash issued in person by a paymaster is slow, inefficient and skimmed. Soldiers throughout Afghanistan have gone months without receiving salary or rations, and they have occasionally resorted to charging tolls and requisitioning food from the locals. So when the Taliban targeted the soldiers for assassination, there was little sympathy among the general population, and the insurgency grew
More on link

 Marines targeting Taliban in Afghan push
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- U.S. Marines on Friday kept up a major push against entrenched militants in southern Afghanistan in an attempt to rout the Taliban from their stronghold in Helmand province, Marine Capt. William Pelletier said.

A Marine source described Thursday evening's fighting in the Helmand River Valley as "our most significant encounter."

Sporadic fighting that began earlier Thursday stretched over several hours in the southeastern sector of Garmser district, said Pelletier, spokesman for the Marine Expeditionary Brigade-Afghanistan.

Helmand province, a poppy-growing region, is the focus of the U.S.-led Operation Khanjar. Afghanistan supplies 90 percent of the world's opium, which is used in the production of heroin.

The forces are attempting to gain and hold ground in the perilous region ahead of Afghan national elections in August. 

Almost 4,000 Marines and sailors from the expeditionary brigade, along with more than 600 Afghan national security forces, are operating in key population centers along the valley, Pelletier said.

Their targets are Garmser and Nawa districts in central Helmand, and stretch to Rig district in the south, Pelletier said.
More on link

 US drone attack 'kills at least six in Pakistan'
By S.H. Khan – 11 hours ago 
Article Link

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) — US missiles on Friday slammed into the hideout of a Pakistani Taliban commander allied to warlord Baitullah Mehsud in the tribal belt, killing at least six militants, security officials said.

The United States has put Pakistan at the heart of the fight against Al-Qaeda and Thursday flew 4,000 Marines into Afghanistan's Taliban strongholds in a major assault launched as part of a sweeping new war strategy for south Asia.

"Three missiles hit the hideout of Taliban commander Noor Wali," one Pakistani security official told AFP on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Wali is a close ally of Mehsud, who has a five-million-dollar US price on his head and a Pakistani bounty of 615,000 dollars if found dead or alive.

"Seven were killed in Kokat Khel. It is not yet confirmed if the commander is among the dead," a senior security official told AFP. All those killed were Taliban militants, he said.

Wali's compound was hit in the village of Kokat Khel in South Waziristan, which lies on the border with Afghanistan, about 45 kilometres (28 miles) east of Wana -- the main town in the wild, semi-autonomous region.

Asked about reports of two drone attacks in South Waziristan, military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said he had "only report of one, which was at Kokat Khel" and that officials put the death toll at "about six".
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (3 Jul 2009)

Minimizing civilian casualties new Afghan priority
Canwest News, July 2, by Matthew Fisher
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1753127



> Canadian commanders in Afghanistan received new fighting orders on Thursday which will prevent their troops from shooting at the Taliban if there is any risk of civilian casualties, even if it means allowing the enemy to escape.
> 
> The stricter rules of engagement were laid down in a "tactical directive" sent to all foreign forces in Afghanistan by U.S. army Gen. Stanley McChrystal who was President Barack Obama's recent choice to take over the NATO-led war here.
> 
> ...



In Tactical Shift, Troops Will Stay and Hold Ground in Afghanistan 
_NY Times_, July 2
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/world/asia/03afghan.html



> The first major operation launched with the additional troops ordered to Afghanistan by President Obama is devised to clear Taliban havens across a strategic southern province — and then, in a marked departure from past practice, to leave clusters of Marines in small bases close to the villagers they were sent to guard and aid, according to senior military officers.
> 
> Despite the troops’ substantial numbers and firepower, the strategy is not without risks. Indeed, on Thursday, the first Marine was killed in the operation.
> 
> ...



Afghanistan 'surge' will test Obama's military muscle
President Obama hopes Operation Khanjar will finish off the job in Afghanistan that under-funded British forces have failed to do.
_Daily Telegraph_, July 2, by Con Coughlin
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/concoughlin/5725030/Afghanistan-surge-will-test-Obamas-military-muscle.html



> It's the moment we've all been waiting for: the launch of the "surge" against the Taliban in Afghanistan. And to judge by the enormous firepower Nato commanders have deployed for Operation Khanjar, or "sword strike", this time the Americans mean business.
> 
> Four thousand US marines, supported by a further 650 Afghan troops and supplied with the best equipment the American military can provide, have moved into the lower Helmand river valley with the intention of eradicating, once and for all, the threat posed by the Taliban.
> 
> ...



Russia to Allow U.S. Weapon Shipments to Afghanistan 
AP, July 3
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/07/03/world/AP-EU-Russia-US.html



> Russia will allow the U.S. to ship weapons across its territory to Afghanistan, a top Kremlin aide said Friday in a gesture aimed at bolstering U.S. military operations and improving strained ties between Washington and Moscow.
> 
> The deal is expected to be signed during President Barack Obama's visit to Moscow next week, Kremlin foreign policy adviser Sergei Prikhodko said.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (4 Jul 2009)

Insurgents Step Up Attacks on Marines
U.S. Has No Casualties but Must Alter Plans to Meet Afghan Leaders, Residents (with maps and photo gallery)
_Washington Post_, July 4
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/03/AR2009070300877.html



> Taliban insurgents stepped up attacks Friday against U.S. Marines in southern Afghanistan's Helmand River valley, forcing troops in some areas to spend the day fighting instead of carrying out plans to meet with residents and local leaders.
> 
> The stiffest resistance occurred in the district of Garmser, where Taliban fighters holed up in a walled housing compound engaged in an eight-hour gun battle with troops from the 2nd Battalion of the 8th Marine Regiment. The Marines *eventually requested a Harrier fighter jet to drop a 500-pound bomb on the compound, which was believed to have killed all fighters inside.
> 
> ...



2 US troops die in attack on base in Afghanistan
AP, July 4
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/04/AR2009070400236.html



> Taliban militants fired rockets and mortars at a U.S. base in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing two American troops in a fierce battle as thousands of Marines in the south continued with their massive anti-Taliban push.
> 
> The multi-pronged attack in eastern Paktika province - where an American soldier was captured this week - included a truck bombing near the camp's gates. The battle ended only after U.S. forces called in airstrikes on militants.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (5 Jul 2009)

*Articles found July 5, 2009*

 FACTBOX-Security developments in Afghanistan, July 5
Sun Jul 5, 2009 5:15am EDT 
Article Link

 Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 0900 GMT on Sunday.

GARDEZ - Unidentified gunmen kidnapped 16 Afghan personnel working for a United Nations-sponsored demining agency in the eastern province of Paktia late on Saturday, police and U.N. officials said.

SOUTHERN AFGHANISTAN - Two soldiers from the NATO-led coalition were killed by an explosion in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, the alliance said. It gave no further details. The British Ministry of Defence said two of its soldiers were killed in separate incidents in southern Helmand province on Saturday.

HELMAND - A landmine killed an Afghan soldier in Helmand on Saturday, Afghanistan's Defence Ministry said. Thousands of U.S. Marines and hundreds of Afghan troops have been involved in a big operation against the Taliban in Helmand since Thursday.
More on link

 Marines battle heat, small-arms fire in Afghanistan
12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, July 5, 2009 The Associated Press 
Article Link

NAWA, Afghanistan – Taliban militants were nowhere in sight as columns of U.S. Marines walked for a third day Saturday near this town in southern Afghanistan, but the desert heat proved an enemy in its own right.

Elsewhere, Marines taking part in a major offensive in Helmand province came under sporadic small-arms fire Saturday, but for the Marines of Bravo Company in Nawa, heat was the biggest threat. Several troops fell victim Saturday to temperatures topping 100 degrees.

"Happy Fourth of July, dawg. Happy America," said Lance Corp. Vince Morales, 21, of Baytown, Texas, to one of his Marine buddies while resting under a tree during a break.

A few Marines ate watermelon from a farmer's field as the evening sun set, but there were not many other signs of a holiday celebration.

Some 4,000 Marines are moving through southern Helmand to take back Taliban-held territory and pinch the insurgents' supply lines. Bravo Company has seen a lot of walking but up to now little fighting, though other Marines in the operation have had extended battles.
end

 16 UN deminers kidnapped in eastern Afghanistan
By AMIR SHAH – 7 hours ago 
Article Link

KABUL (AP) — Gunmen abducted 16 mine-clearing personnel working for the United Nations in eastern Afghanistan, a provincial police chief said Sunday.

The men were kidnapped as they traveled between Paktia and Khost provinces on Saturday, said Paktia's police chief Azizullah Wardak.

While insurgents operate in the area, Wardak could not say who was responsible for the kidnapping. Similar incidents have happened twice before in Paktia but were resolved successfully, he said.

Wardak criticized the demining team — part of the U.N.'s effort to rid the country of decades of planted land mines — for going into the area without informing the police. All of those kidnapped were Afghans.

Afghanistan is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world, and the increase in violence amid a thriving Taliban insurgency has slowed clearance work. Some 50 people are killed and maimed by mines every month.

Two-thirds of the country's mines have been cleared over the past two decades, with the rest expected to be removed by 2013. But experts fear Afghanistan can no longer meet that goal because of increased fighting and a drop in international funding.

Trained deminers have increasingly been targeted and killed by militants. Last year, insurgents shot and killed six mine clearers in one day and two the next, according to the United Nations Mine Action Center.
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 Details emerge on woman accused of al-Qaida ties
By LARRY NEUMEISTER – 16 hours ago 
Article Link

NEW YORK (AP) — A U.S.-trained scientist accused of being an al-Qaida operative was living freely in Pakistan and Afghanistan for portions of the five years before her arrest last year, a psychologist says, disputing claims that the scientist had spent those years in the custody of foreign authorities.

Newly public court documents contain reports by psychologists who treated Aafia Siddiqui after she was arrested in Afghanistan in July 2008 and was charged with taking a gun and shooting at U.S. soldiers and FBI agents. She was shot in the abdomen in the encounter.

The testimony of the mental health experts will be at issue beginning Monday at a hearing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to determine whether the 37-year-old Pakistani is competent to stand trial.

Defense lawyers for Siddiqui are challenging her competency for trial, citing the conclusions of an expert who found she is suffering from delusional disorder and depression.

Prosecutors cite reports by psychologists who say Siddiqui's behavior reflects malingering, the intentional production of grossly exaggerated psychological symptoms aimed at getting a result, such as avoiding trial.
More on link

 Looking for vacation? Try Afghanistan
By HEIDI VOGT – 21 hours ago 
Article Link

BAMIYAN, Afghanistan (AP) — There's a new building in town, and it isn't a military barracks or a hospital. It's a Tourist Information Center.

Even as troops fight militants in the south, government officials and donors in Afghanistan's central Bamiyan valley are training tour guides and teaching restaurateurs about customer service. It's an attempt to draw tourism and return one small part of Afghanistan to normalcy.

The challenges are many — land mines, dangerous roads outside Bamiyan, and, not least, Afghanistan's reputation as anything but a tourist haven. But the hope is to persuade history buffs and adventure seekers that Afghanistan can be safe, and locals are eager to give it a shot.

"I can improve my province this way, and my homeland," said 19-year-old Zahra Naseri, as she rattled off facts about the calcium carbonate that gives the ground a whitish cast around a series of cascading mountain lakes. Naseri is one of about 20 people, mostly university students, who gather once a day at the tourist center for lessons on how to become tour guides. "I want to show that Bamiyan is a historical place."

The tourism training program is funded through a Geneva-based Islamic organization, the Aga Khan Development Network, as part of a $1.2 million ecotourism program. All Afghan tourism initiatives are currently funded by international donors, according to Deputy Minister for Tourism Ghulam Nabi Farahi. New Zealand and Japan are big donors in Bamiyan.
More on link


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## GAP (6 Jul 2009)

*Articles found July 6, 2009*

 FACTBOX-Security developments in Afghanistan, July 6
Mon Jul 6, 2009 2:43am EDT (Reuters) 
Article Link

- Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 0630 GMT on Saturday.

HELMAND - A British soldier was killed in an explosion near Gereshk in southern Helmand province on Saturday during the latest phase of a major British military operation in the area, Britain's Ministry of Defence said in a statement.

KANDAHAR - Two Afghan truck drivers were killed when a suicide car bomber blew himself up outside Kandahar Air Field, a major foreign military base in southern Kandahar province, Afghan army General Sher Mohammad Zazai said. At least 10 were wounded, he said.

GARDEZ - Sixteen Afghans working for a United Nations-sponsored demining agency who were kidnapped in eastern Paktia province on Saturday have been freed unharmed, an official for the Mine Detection and Dog Centre said. Police and local tribal chiefs were involved in securing their release. Separately, no new information was available about two Afghans working for a Dutch aid agency who were also kidnapped in neighbouring Khost province on Saturday. (Compiled by Golnar Motevalli; Editing by Paul Tait)
end

 Suicide attack kills four U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan  
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — A roadside bomb in northern Afghanistan killed four American soldiers Monday, while a suicide attack in the south killed two civilians, officials said.
The bombing in the northern Kunduz province targeted an American military convoy, said Kunduz Gov. Mohammad Omar.

In Berlin, German Defense Ministry spokesman Thomas Raabe said that Germany was told the dead soldiers were American.

"We received a message today that four American soldiers were killed in" a roadside bomb in the Kunduz area, he said. "There are no further details. So far as we know, it was a mentor team on the road in a Humvee."
More on link

 Canadian soldiers fight to survive extreme Afghan heat
 By Craig Pearson, Windsor StarJuly 5, 2009
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — For cool-weather Canadians fighting a war in the south of this arid country, tackling the heat is sometimes half the battle.


The Afghan sun beats heavily on soldiers kitted up with gear, especially in battles or on patrol.


“It’s like being in a sauna, all dressed up, with 60 or 70 pounds on your shoulders and you just keep throwing water on the rocks,” Pte. Benoit Ainsley, 27, from Tracadie-Sheila, N.B., said Sunday, after spending two days on patrol through villages and grape fields in 45 C-plus heat.


“It depends on what soldiers have to carry, but let’s say I have about 50 pounds on my shoulders . . . it doesn’t take long until you get wet, mostly from wearing the frag vest.

“At some point, your body gets used to the heat. But your kit really starts to get heavier, and dealing with the mud walls that we have to climb, and other difficult ground, you obviously get more tired.”

On patrol, every speck of shade is an oasis — every wall to rest against, a respite.
More on link


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## George Wallace (6 Jul 2009)

*Articles found July 6, 2009*

Suicide blast hits gates of Kandahar airfield
July 6, 2009 10:33 AM 
By Craig Pearson, Canwest News ServiceArticle Link

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — A suicide car bomb exploded Monday morning near the main base for Canadians and other NATO forces stationed in Kandahar province, killing at least two and injuring as many as 14.


The blast occurred around 7 a.m. at a checkpoint crowded with truckers lined up with their wares.


The blast could be heard throughout the sprawling Kandahar Airfield, sending hundreds into bomb shelters.


Some estimates put the number of dead, which includes two Afghan police officers, even higher.


A Taliban spokesman was quoted in local media saying the attack on Kandahar Airfield killed Afghan as well as foreign soldiers, though coalition spokespeople said no NATO forces were hurt.


"No Canadians were involved in that incident whatsoever," Canadian Forces spokeswoman Capt. Marie-France Poulin said. "It's an ANA (Afghan National Army) checkpoint."


The attack on the coalition base comes as insurgent activity climbs during what is known here as "fighting season" — the hot summer months just after the poppy harvest which funds the Taliban.


Four Canadians have been killed within the last month alone, all from roadside bombs.


In Kunduz, in northern Afghanistan on Monday, Reuters reported that a roadside bomb killed four foreign soldiers with the NATO-led forces and two civilians, a spokesman for the alliance and an Afghan police official said.


No details about the nationality of the victims was given, but Germany has about 3,700 troops in Afghanistan, most of them based in Kunduz and other northern provinces. However a German Defence Ministry spokesman in Berlin said the dead soldiers were believed to be Americans, not Germans.


Northern Afghanistan is considered relatively safe compared to Kandahar province and the other Taliban strongholds in the south and the east.


Three German soldiers were killed in June near Kunduz city, when their armoured personnel vehicle crashed while under fire.


In the south, deadly attacks on Afghan police and soldiers are almost a daily event. In Helmand province, on the western border of Kandahar province, where some 4,000 recently arrived U.S. Marines have been pushing hard against insurgents, five British soldiers have died in a week.


Two American soldiers were killed last week as well.


Zemary Bashary, a spokesman for the Afghanistan Interior Ministry, told a news conference Sunday in the capital of Kabul that militants staged 135 attacks last week, killing 35 Afghans and injuring 70.


With files from Reuters

© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service

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Taliban says it has captured U.S. soldier
Last Updated: 6th July 2009, 11:04am
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Article Link

CAIRO — The Taliban confirmed on its website that it is holding an American soldier that the U.S. military had earlier described as possibly being in enemy hands. 

The report of the capture was last in a routine list of Taliban activities posted on the website. 

“It is to be said that five days ago, a drunken American soldier who had come out of his garrison named Malakh, was captured by mujahedeen... He is still with mujahedeen,” said the report. 

The short message did not elaborate on his whereabouts or their plans for him, nor did it provide any proof of its claim. 

The U.S. military earlier said it had intercepted communications in which insurgents talked about holding an American. 

The soldier was noticed missing during a routine check of the unit on Tuesday and first was listed as “duty status whereabouts unknown.” 

His body armour and weapon were found on the base. 

It was not until Thursday that officials said publicly that he was missing and described him as “believed captured.” Details of such incidents are routinely held very tightly by the military as it works to retrieve a missing or captured soldier without giving away any information to captors. 

Two U.S. defence sources said the soldier “just walked off“ post with three Afghans after he finished working. They said they had no explanation for why he left the base. 

More on Link


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## GAP (8 Jul 2009)

*Articles found July 8, 2009*

 Afghan Army, Police to Get Handheld Detectors As IED Violence Escalates
07-Jul-2009 16:37 EDT
Article Link

The Afghan National Army and Police will be getting handheld explosives detection devices thanks to the U.S. Army, which has purchased $6.8 million worth of the Fido XTis made by ICx Technologies. As part of the contract, ICx will also provide in-country training and support services. The company began shipping units at the end of June.

Insurgents have been stepping up their use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Afghanistan. On July 6/09, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) reported that 6 service members were killed in IED explosions. Their nationalities were not released, but the LA Times reported that they were U.S. service members. And on June 22/09, the ISAF said that 6 Afghan civilians were killed and 26 wounded when two IEDs exploded in Khost city in eastern Afghanistan.

DID has more on the Fido XTi and an additional counter-IED contract to Nitek…

The Fido XTi, the international version of the Fido XT, features a modified user-interface, weighs less than 3 pounds, and provides trace detection of explosive materials or contamination. 
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 US strategist helps rival of Afghanistan's Karzai  
A Democratic Party strategist who helped Bill Clinton get into the White House is now assisting a former Afghan finance minister in his campaign to unseat President Hamid Karzai in upcoming elections.
By FISNIK ABRASHI Associated Press Writerm KABUL — 
Article Link

A Democratic Party strategist who helped Bill Clinton get into the White House is now assisting a former Afghan finance minister in his campaign to unseat President Hamid Karzai in upcoming elections.

James Carville said he joined the team of Ashraf Ghani, also a former World Bank official, so Afghans had a viable choice in the Aug. 20 poll.

"This is probably the most important election held in the world in a long time," Carville told The Associated Press in a telephone interview late Tuesday. "This is probably the most interesting project I have ever worked in my life."

President Barack Obama has positioned 
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 Afghanistan says 14 H1N1 cases on U.S. military base
Wed Jul 8, 2009 
Article Link

KABUL (Reuters) - Fourteen new cases of the H1N1 flu virus have been reported among U.S. citizens on the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan, the Afghan Health Ministry said on Wednesday, the second confirmed cases in three months.

"In the past few days, 14 cases of the H1N1 flu have been reported from Bagram Air base among U.S. citizens. All of them were treated and have recovered and returned to work," ministry spokesman Farid Raaid told Reuters by telephone.

Bagram is just north of the capital, Kabul.

The ministry was conducting rapid assessments of health clinics in the area around Bagram but had so far not found any suspected cases, Raaid said. No cases of H1N1 had been detected among Afghans, he said.

Raaid said the ministry had known of about four suspected cases of the virus, commonly known as swine flu, at Bagram Air Base but the U.S. ambassador on Wednesday told the health minister there had been 14 confirmed cases.
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Fury over MoD refusal to buy more helicopters for Afghanistan troops
July 8, 2009 Michael Evans, Defence Editor 
Article Link

The Defence Secretary today faced a furious reaction after ruling out buying more helicopters for the British forces in Afghanistan. 

Bob Ainsworth said that up to eight Merlin helicopters would be transferred from Iraq to Afghanistan and eight Chinooks that are being converted from special forces’ aircraft to basic troop carriers would also be sent. 

He said that he had no plans to buy extra aircraft and that helicopters were not the answer to improving mobility for the troops. 
More on link

 Ottawa plans to replace light armoured vehicles
Updated Tue. Jul. 7 2009 6:53 PM ET The Canadian Press
Article Link

FREDERICTON -- The federal government is expected to announce Wednesday a long-anticipated overhaul of the Canadian army's battered fleet of light armoured vehicles.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay is expected to make the announcement, which could be worth billions of dollars, during a stop at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown, N.B.

A Defence source told The Canadian Press that existing LAV-3s are to be upgraded with better armour and electronics and it's anticipated Ottawa will move forward with the purchase of the next generation of light armoured vehicle, known as the LAV-H.

The LAVs have been the army's principle fighting vehicle in Afghanistan, but have taken a beating, with many in need of a major overhaul by the time the combat mission ends in 2011.

Work on both vehicles is expected to go to General Dynamics Canada plants in London, Ont., and Edmonton.

"The LAV has been the heart and soul of the whole battle group concept in Afghanistan," said Marc Milner, director of the Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society at the University of New Brunswick.

He said while the LAVs provide a great deal of flexibility for the Canadian army, no one ever expected to subject them to the kind of continuous rough conditions they're facing in Afghanistan
More on link


 The Griffons: Canada's utility chopper fleet
Updated Tue. Jul. 7 2009 12:46 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

The utility CH-146 Griffon helicopters currently being used by the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan, have served a variety of purposes since their military introduction 15 years ago. 

More than 100 Griffon helicopters were entered into Canadian military service between 1994 and 1998. Within a few years, the $1.2 billion fleet of choppers was soon being used in a variety of operations including in the aftermath of Manitoba's 1997 Red River flood, the 1998 ice storm, and a United Nations mission in Haiti in 2004. 

In November, the Canadian Forces announced that it would be deploying eight Griffons to Afghanistan, part of a larger effort to beef up the air wing in that country. 

The 5,400-kilogram Griffons, retrofitted with powerful machine guns and other upgrades, were earmarked for escort and security duties in Afghanistan, and to protect the more lumbering Chinook helicopters that are ferrying Canadian troops and their supplies. 

Each Griffon carries a three-member crew, consisting of two pilots and a flight engineer, leaving room for 10 passengers each flight. 

The DND website says that the Griffon has a top speed of more than 200 kilometres per hour, as well as a 656 kilometre flying range -- though in Afghanistan, the choppers have had "non-essential equipment" removed to permit more flexibility for their use. 

The Griffons have also been customized "to operate in the heat and altitude of Afghanistan," the DND has said. 
More on link


----------



## GAP (9 Jul 2009)

*Articles found July 9, 2009*

 Afghanistan tones down contentious marriage law
By RAHIM FAIEZ and HEIDI VOGT – 2 hours ago 
Article Link

KABUL (AP) — Afghanistan's government has revised a law that stirred an international outcry because it essentially legalized marital rape, officials said Thursday. The new version no longer requires a woman submit to sex with her husband, only that she do certain housework.

The changes, which parliament is expected to approve, likely reflect a calculation by President Hamid Karzai that his reputation as a reformer is more important than support from conservative Shiites who favored the original bill.

Presidential spokesman Humayun Hamidzada said the revisions show that Karzai has followed through on a pledge made in April to expunge the offensive parts of the marriage law, which applies only to minority Shiite Muslims.

Women's rights activists welcomed the new draft, but many said the government had not done enough and that little will change in day-to-day life.

"We need a change in customs, and this is just on paper. What is being practiced every day, in Kabul even, is worse than the laws," said Shukria Barakzai, a lawmaker and vocal women's rights advocate.
More on link

 U.S. resumes surveillance flights over Pakistan
Thu Jul 9, 2009 12:07pm 
Article Link

WASHINGTON, July 9 (Reuters) - U.S. military surveillance drones have resumed tracking militants in Pakistan to support Pakistani operations against Taliban insurgents in the South Waziristan region, officials said on Thursday.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the drones provide Pakistan with video images, communications intercepts and other information from border areas controlled by Pakistani Taliban leader and al Qaeda ally Baitullah Mehsud.

The flights are not connected with U.S. missile attacks from CIA drones, which the Pakistan government has condemned. Suspected U.S. missile strikes killed more than 40 fighters in South Waziristan on Wednesday, according to security officials.

The U.S. military began surveillance flights over Pakistani territory in mid-March but ceased a month later when Pakistan abruptly stopped requesting the intelligence. Officials said the missions resumed early last month.
More on link

 Karzai pardons five Afghan heroin traffickers
Thu Jul 9, 2009 10:42am By Sayed Salahuddin
Article Link

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has pardoned five heroin smugglers, at least one of them a relative of a man who heads Karzai's campaign for re-election next month, a source and a government spokesman said.

A spokesman for Karzai Thursday confirmed the pardons, which he said came after the intercession of tribal chiefs, long a tradition in such matters in Afghanistan.

A source with knowledge of the case said one of those released was a close relative of Deen Mohammad, who is running Karzai's campaign for re-election in the August 20 presidential poll.

The man was jailed for more than a decade in 2007 for smuggling more than 100 kg of heroin. The source spoke to Reuters on condition that he not be identified.

Deen Mohammad belongs to a powerful family from eastern Afghanistan. One of his brothers served as a deputy for Karzai before he was assassinated in 2002.

Karzai's spokesman, Siyamak Herawi, said the president had ordered the release of the five men some months ago and said it had no link with the election or Deen Mohammad's job. Herawi gave no other details
More on link

 In pictures: UK and US offensives in Afghanistan  
Wednesday, 8 July 2009 
Article Link

More on link

 Massive Bomb Blast Kills 25 in Central Afghanistan
Article Link
By Pamela Constable Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, July 9, 2009; 3:09 PM 

KABUL, July 9 -- An explosion from a bomb hidden in a truck loaded with firewood killed at least two dozen people early Thursday, including 12 schoolchildren, in a village south of the Afghan capital, local and federal officials said. 

The truck crashed Wednesday night in a stream right near two schools in Logar Province, and it exploded when police came to investigate Thursday morning. Logar is the site of increasing activity by Taliban insurgents and the American forces opposing them. There are several new U.S. military bases in Logar, with daily operations aimed at crushing the Islamist rebels. 

The powerful blast came during a week of intense conflict and exceptionally heavy violence in Afghanistan, largely connected to the offensive by more than 4,000 U.S. Marines and several hundred Afghan army troops in southern Helmand province, several hundred miles from Logar. At least 17 American and British troops have been killed in various combat incidents since Friday.
More on link

 Building Bridges in Afghanistan  
International Security Assistance Force HQ Public Affairs   
Courtesy Story Date: 07.09.2009 Posted: 07.09.2009 12:12
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan – In the sweltering summer heat of southern Afghanistan, International Security Assistance Force engineers from Canada and the United States trained 60 Romanians to construct steel bridges over the streams and wadis in the region.

The newly-qualified Romanian bridge crews will soon be constructing bridges in Zabul province. Their work will allow Afghans to travel more freely in the rugged terrain. 

Chief Warrant Officer Alain Guimond, Canadian army engineer and Master Sgt. Harold Russell, United States Army National Guard engineer, spent nine days teaching the Romanians the skills needed in bridge construction. 

"These bridges aren't for us," said Russell. "We can drive through the wadis. Our mission is to improve mobility for the people of Afghanistan."

"We worked great together, we are a team," said Pvt. Iute Marius, a Romanian engineer. 
More on link

 UN: Rape, sexual violence growing in Afghanistan
1 day ago
Article Link

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Afghan women are increasingly the victims of violence, including rapes and acid-throwing attacks at the hands of anti-government elements and local chieftains, according to new U.N. report.

The situation is further aggravated by impunity for perpetrators and the failure of authorities to protect woman's rights, the report states.

The U.N.'s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said the opportunities that opened for Afghan woman after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001 are under sustained attack, not only from the Taliban but also due to deeply ingrained cultural practices.

Afghan women are also increasingly victims of so-called "honor" killings, trafficking, forced marriages, and domestic violence, according to the report issued Wednesday
end

DynCorp Up On Army Award For Afghanistan Work Worth Up To $7.5B  
Article Link
 JULY 8, 2009, 12:19 P.M. ET 

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Shares of DynCorp International Inc. (DCP) rose Wednesday as the service provider to government agencies and Fluor Corp. (FLR) were selected over rival KBR Inc. (KBR) for U.S. contracts worth up to $7.5 billion each to support base-camp operations in Afghanistan. 

DynCorp and Fluor were notified Tuesday that each won one-year contracts worth as much as $1.5 billion with four one-year options for the same annual amount, Dan Carlson, spokesman for the U.S. Army Sustainment Command, told Dow Jones ...
end


----------



## GAP (10 Jul 2009)

*Articles found July 10, 2009*

 Law will let Afghan husbands starve wives who withhold sex
By Jerome Starkey in Bamiyan Friday, 10 July 2009
Article Link

An Afghan law which legalised rape has been sent back to parliament with a clause letting husbands starve their wives if they refuse to have sex.

President Hamid Karzai ordered a review of the legislation after The Independent revealed that it negated the need for consent within marriage.

Related articles
Forces' resources criticised as two more soldiers die 
Was British diplomat set up by the Russian secret service? 
President Barack Obama described it as "abhorrent", Gordon Brown said Britain would "not tolerate" it, and other Nato countries threatened to withdraw their troops unless the legislation was drastically re-written.

The amendments were passed to the cabinet this week and signed by Mr Karzai on Wednesday, Human Rights Watch said last night.

The women's rights activist Wazhma Frough, who was involved in the review, said that conservative religious leaders had pressured the Justice Ministry to keep many of the most controversial clauses.
More on link

 Truck bomb kills at least 13 kids in Afghanistan
Compiled from Associated Press • July 10, 2009 
Article Link

A truck filled with explosives that police believe may have been destined for Kabul blew up on a highway Thursday, killing 25 people -- more than half of them children walking to school. Two U.S. soldiers died in combat as the U.S. military reported the number of roadside bombs in Afghanistan last month was nearly three times the figure for Iraq.

The blast occurred about 7 a.m. as police were trying to clear a traffic jam on a highway in Logar province after the truck, which was loaded with timber, had overturned the night before. Suddenly, explosives hidden beneath the timber detonated, killing 21 civilians and four policemen, Interior Ministry spokesman Zemerai Bashary said.

At least 13 of the dead were children on their way to school, provincial official Kamaluddin Zadran said.
end

 How foreigners are screwing up Afghanistan
Friday, July 10, 2009 | 9:20 AM ET Brian Stewart CBC News 
Article Link

The biggest problem trying to follow the Afghanistan conflict is that it is such a bits-and-pieces kind of war. 

None of the main actors — military, civilian or diplomatic — seem to have a clear grasp of the big picture, nor really any plan deserving to be called a strategy. 

Afghanistan is NATO's first war of the post-9/11 era, but it meanders on year after year in a remarkably half-hearted and unco-ordinated fashion. 

True, there has now been a surge in the number of U.S. forces there and the marines have just launched a large offensive in the south.

This, however, follows eight years of drift in which Washington, as it now freely admits, gave totally inadequate attention to a fight it was supposed to be leading. It was too distracted by Iraq.

Two Talibans
European allies, meanwhile, remain strikingly reluctant to help their fellow NATO members and have been slow to live up to their own pledges to assist the beleaguered Afghan government.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (10 Jul 2009)

Afghanistan: armoured-up
Conference of Defence Associations' media round-up, July 10
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1247237500

Mark
Ottawa


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## George Wallace (10 Jul 2009)

8 British soldiers killed in Afghanistan
CBC News   10/07/2009 6:34:29 PM
Article Link

*The British military's death toll in Afghanistan surpassed the number of lives claimed in Iraq on Friday, as eight soldiers died in separate attacks in the past 24 hours.
*

The Ministry of Defence said five soldiers were killed by an explosive device while on patrol in Helmand province.

Three other combat deaths were announced earlier in the day, making it one of the worst days for British forces since the Afghan war began seven years ago.

The names of the soldiers have not been released, but next of kin have been notified, the ministry said.

Friday's fresh casualties mean 15 British soldiers have been killed in the last 10 days as fighting in Helmand Province intensifies.

Speaking at the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown defended the Afghan mission, his voice faltering as he expressed sympathy to the families of those who have been killed in recent days.

"Our resolution to complete the work we have started is undiminished," he said. "It is in tribute to the members of our forces who have given their lives that we should succeed in the efforts we have begun."

But Brown also warned it has been "a very hard summer, and it is not over."

The latest casualties take Britain's death toll in Afghanistan to 184. A total of 179 British military personnel have been killed in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.


----------



## GAP (11 Jul 2009)

*Articles found July 11, 2009*

 Griffons 'safe,' commander says after crash
By Stephen Thorne – 20 hours ago 
Article Link

OTTAWA — The commander of the military's Griffon helicopter squadron is defending the safety and performance of his aircraft in Afghanistan following this week's fatal crash in Kandahar.

The Forces modified the notoriously underpowered choppers before they were deployed, removing about 150 kilograms of excess weight, Col. Christopher Coates said in an interview Friday.

Pilots received special training in flying during dusty conditions, he said. And the jobs the Griffon CH-146s are expected to do - mainly escort and reconnaissance - have been tailored to the helicopter's limitations, said Coates, commander of 1 Wing in Kingston, Ont.

He pointed out the environmental challenges posed by the hot and dusty desert are not unique to the Griffons, which look much like the old Hueys that flew by the thousands in Vietnam.

"All aircraft in theatre - and that's regardless of whether they're Canadian, British or American aircraft - their performance degrades with temperature and altitude," he said.

"The Griffon is no different than other aircraft."

The commander would not comment on circumstances surrounding the crash that killed three soldiers, two of them Canadian, on Monday.

Sources said earlier this week the crash apparently occurred when the chopper clipped a security wall while trying to manoeuvre in a blinding dust cloud.
More on link

 Marine Offensive Will Test New Strategy in Afghanistan
U.S. troops mobilized in Helmand province to fight the Taliban again
By Anna Mulrine Posted July 10, 2009
Article Link

Some 4,000 marines flooded the fiercely contested drug-growing epicenter of Afghanistan last week in what amounts to the force's largest operation inside the country to date.

In the early morning hours, the marines, backed by helicopters and accompanied by armored convoys, made their way into Helmand province.

NATO troops have wrestled with the Taliban for control of the region for years—fighting tough battles, losing fellow soldiers, then watching towns fall back under Taliban control once they leave. British soldiers there wistfully call it "mowing the lawn." Until now, U.S. military officials say, NATO forces simply lacked the troop strength to rout the Taliban there for any extended time. In a number of towns that dot the high-desert plains of what was once a place of exile, there has never been any NATO presence at all.

In the weeks to come, Operation Khanjar, or Strike of the Sword, will test the Pentagon's new counterinsurgency strategy. As troops push forward in midday temperatures that their commanders describe as "hot as fire," however, senior officials are well aware that past operations may provide cautionary tales. Indeed, the U.S. military has tried to gain control of key towns in Helmand province before—and quite recently at that.
More on link

 U.S. General Sees Afghan Army, Police Insufficient
Obama Strategy May Need More Funds, U.S. Troops
By Greg Jaffe and Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writers  Saturday, July 11, 2009 
Article Link

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the newly arrived top commander in Afghanistan, has concluded that the Afghan security forces will have to be far larger than currently planned if President Obama's strategy for winning the war is to succeed, according to senior military officials. 

Such an expansion would require spending billions more than the $7.5 billion the administration has budgeted annually to build up the Afghan army and police over the next several years, and the likely deployment of thousands more U.S. troops as trainers and advisers, officials said. 

Obama has voiced strong commitment to the ongoing Afghan conflict but has been cautious about making any additional military resources available beyond the 17,000 combat troops and 4,000 military trainers he agreed to in February. That will bring the total U.S. force to 68,000 by fall. 
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (11 Jul 2009)

U.S. military wants a quick boost in Afghan security forces
The U.S. commander in Afghanistan is expected to recommend a rapid increase in the size of the Afghan army and police, which could require sending more U.S. troops for training.
_LA Times_, July 11
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan-troops11-2009jul11,0,3556371.story



> The U.S. military commander in Afghanistan has told top Pentagon officials that Afghan security forces must expand faster and beyond current target levels to more quickly secure the country, Defense officials said.
> 
> A dramatically stepped-up training program would probably require additional U.S. forces, but it is not clear whether American commanders in Afghanistan will request more, and if so, how many.
> 
> ...



Gordon Brown insists British soldiers are succeeding in Afghanistan
Gordon Brown has insisted Britain's strategy in Afghanistan was succeeding, despite bloody fighting which brought the loss of eight soldiers in 24 hours.
_Daily Telegraph_, July 11
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/5804819/Gordon-Brown-insists-British-soldiers-are-succeeding-in-Afghanistan.html



> The Prime Minister acknowledged that the past ten days had been "extraordinarily difficult" for British forces with the deaths of 15 troops since the start of the month.
> 
> But in a letter to the senior MPs on the Commons Liaison Committee, he said Operation Panther's Claw, the offensive to clear the Taliban from central Helmand, was succeeding.
> 
> ...



British troops giving their lives to secure Britain's future, says David Miliband
David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, has insisted that troops fighting in Afghanistan are engaged in a battle for "the future of Britain" after eight troops were killed in 24 hours.
_Daily Telegraph_, July 11
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/5802488/British-troops-giving-their-lives-to-secure-Britains-future-says-David-Miliband.html



> David Miliband warned that Britain would not be safe until it had built sufficient security in Afghanistan.
> 
> He said that it was essential to prevent Afghanistan from again becoming an "incubator for terrorism" and a launch pad for attacks on the UK and the West
> 
> ...



New peril for British troops in Afghanistan: Taliban have learned modern warfare
Imagination, greater firepower and strengthening of Taliban's ideological bond leaves coalition facing higher casualty rates
_The Guardian_, July 11
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/11/taliban-tactics-analysis



> For many months, military planners in Afghanistan have been readying themselves – and trying to prepare domestic public opinion – for a bloody summer. In spring, a number of officers – from the then commander of coalition forces, David McKiernan, to commanders patrolling sullen villages – said significant casualties were inevitable in the traditional "fighting season" of July and August.
> 
> Nor were casualties likely to be due to greater numbers of troops coming into the country and venturing into new areas. "The Taliban are much, much more stood up. They are much tighter, much more professional, much more together," one intelligence officer in Kabul told the Guardian earlier this year.
> 
> ...



Afghanistan: a war we cannot win
The threat posed by al-Qaeda is exaggerated; the West's vision of a rebuilt Afghanistan ultimately flawed, says former soldier, diplomat and academic Rory Stewart (long piece)
_Daily Telegraph_, July 10
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/5797197/Afghanistan-a-war-we-cannot-win.html



> ...
> Barack Obama, in a recent speech, set out our fears. The Afghan government "is undermined by corruption and has difficulty delivering basic services to its people. The economy is undercut by a booming narcotics trade that encourages criminality and funds the insurgency... If the Afghan government falls to the Taliban – or allows al-Qaeda to go unchallenged – that country will again be a base for terrorists who want to kill as many of our people as they possibly can...
> 
> When we are not presented with a dystopian vision, we are encouraged to be implausibly optimistic. "There can be only one winner: democracy and a strong Afghan state," Gordon Brown predicted in his most recent speech on the subject.
> ...


 
Afghanistan: Who is going to stand up and fight for Britain's short-changed soldiers
Nick Clegg is right to break the all-party consensus on the Afghan campaign, says 
_Daily Telegraph_, July 9, by Con Coughlin
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/concoughlin/5789974/Afghanistan-Who-is-going-to-stand-up-and-fight-for-Britains-short-changed-soldiers.html



> It says a great deal about the parlous state of political leadership in this country that it should fall to Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, to articulate the mounting anger and frustration our Armed Forces feel about the Government's disastrous handling of the military campaign in Afghanistan...
> 
> the Lib Dems are...Britain's most accomplished political opportunists. In normal circumstances, one might expect criticism of the Government's handling of a major military operation overseas to be dominated by the main political parties. But the failure of both Labour and the Conservatives to address the glaring shortcomings in our Afghan campaign has left the field wide open for Mr Clegg to take centre stage. And, for once, the Lib Dem leader's blatant act of opportunism in breaking with the cross-party consensus on Afghanistan is utterly justified. By highlighting the Government's failure to provide our troops with the equipment and force levels they require to succeed in Afghanistan, Mr Clegg is merely stating the widely held view within the military that this Government is guilty of the most shameful betrayal of the covenant between the nation and the Armed Forces.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## MarkOttawa (13 Jul 2009)

ARTICLES FOUND JULY 13

Elite forces target bomb makers
_Toronto Star_, July 13
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/665009



> OTTAWA – Canada's elite special forces soldiers have been launching raids on enemy compounds to directly target insurgents making roadside bombs, the main killer of coalition troops in Afghanistan, the Toronto Star has learned.
> 
> Using intelligence gathered by Canadian spies on the ground in the troubled country, soldiers with Joint Task Force 2 and the special forces regiment are actively involved in going after the networks that produce the improvised explosive devices.
> 
> ...



*PREDATE*

Getting a handle on the spy game
CBC, April 16, by Brian Stewart
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/04/16/f-vp-stewart.html



> ...
> The number of CSIS agents now in this one danger zone in and around Afghanistan is secret but my sources say it is not less than 20 and their work in targeting Taliban field leaders and collecting tribal intelligence is increasingly valued by our generals.
> 
> The CSIS contribution is an untold part of the war...



Afghan insurgents in 'disarray:' Canadian general
CP, July 12
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090712/vance_interview_090712/20090712?hub=TopStories



> KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Mounting casualties and unprecedented numbers of roadside bomb attacks are more a reflection of increased activity by the international coalition than a sign of a strengthening insurgency, Canada's top soldier in Afghanistan says.
> 
> In fact, Brig.-Gen. Jonathan Vance says, the Taliban-led insurgency is in "disarray."
> 
> ...



A Fight for Ordinary Peace
U.S. Marines deployed across an Afghan river valley are waging war on insurgents not by targeting their bases but, rather, by protecting communities.
_Washington Post_, July 12 (long story)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/11/AR2009071102815.html



> NAWA, Afghanistan -- Most of the mud-brick stalls that line the street in this sweltering town on the Helmand River closed down a year ago when Taliban fighters began swaggering through the bazaar, levying taxes on merchants and seeding the roads with homemade bombs. Shopkeepers placed their wares behind padlocked tin doors, teachers shuttered the school, the doctor abandoned the health clinic and residents with means fled to other parts of southern Afghanistan.
> 
> This town does not merit a dot on most maps of Afghanistan. But U.S. civilian and military officials believe what happens to the chockablock market here will be a key indicator of whether President Obama can salvage a war the United States has been losing.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## GAP (13 Jul 2009)

*Articles found July 13, 2009*

 Militants storm police checkpoint, take away 6 policemen in Afghanistan   
 www.chinaview.cn  2009-07-12 
  Article Link

    KABUL, July 12 (Xinhua) -- Taliban insurgents raided a police checkpoint in the relatively peaceful northwest Faryab province, police said Sunday. 

    "A group of armed insurgents raided a police checkpoint in Ghormach district Saturday night and apparently took away six policemen to unknown locations," a senior police officer in the province Mohammad Afzal Imamzada told Xinhua. 

    Since the attack, six policemen have gone missing and apparently the Taliban captured them, he added. 
More on link

 Tribal region poses harsh test for Pakistan army
By NAHAL TOOSI – 1 day ago 
Article Link

ISLAMABAD (AP) — After relative success against Islamic extremists elsewhere, Pakistan's military faces its toughest test yet — a surgical operation against the country's most dangerous militant in a region of harsh terrain and fierce tribal rivalries.

The target of the air and ground offensive now in its early phases is Baitullah Mehsud, the top commander of Pakistan's Taliban who has ties to al-Qaida. Mehsud is believed responsible for scores of suicide attacks — possibly including the December 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Pakistan considers Mehsud its greatest domestic threat. The U.S. views him as a danger to its war effort in Afghanistan because his base in South Waziristan harbors militants fleeing across the border.

The Obama administration fears that a destabilized, nuclear-armed Pakistan could endanger the entire region. In recent months, U.S. missile strikes have increasingly focused on Mehsud-linked targets.

For years, Washington has pressed Pakistan to go beyond halfhearted offensives and fragile peace deals to root out militants from its northwest, especially the lawless tribal belt where al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden may be hiding.

Now it appears Pakistan may be heeding the call following major ground operations against Taliban fighters in the Bajur tribal region and the Swat Valley. But taking on Mehsud and his force of up to 10,000 fighters in South Waziristan will likely prove tougher.
More on link

 Obama orders probe of killings in Afghanistan
8 hours ago
Article Link

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US President Barack Obama said in an interview to be aired Monday that he has ordered a probe into attempts to quash an investigation into the mass execution of Taliban prisoners in Afghanistan.

The New York Times had reported Friday that top officials from the previous administration of president George W. Bush discouraged separate probes by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the State Department and the Pentagon.

They wanted to hush up the killing of up to 2,000 prisoners in 2001 because it was carried out by the forces of General Abdul Rashid Dostam, an Afghan warlord then on the Central Intelligence Agency's payroll, it said.

"The indications that this had not been properly investigated just recently was brought to my attention," Obama told CNN television during his visit to Ghana over the weekend.

"So what I've asked my national security team to do is to collect the facts for me that are known, and we'll probably make a decision in terms of how to approach it once we have all of the facts gathered up," Obama said, according to excerpts released by CNN.

"I think that, you know, there are responsibilities that all nations have, even in war, Obama told CNN.
More on link

 Violence expected to mar Afghanistan’s 2nd presidential election
 By Craig Pearson, Canwest News ServiceJuly 12, 
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan — Facing only their second presidential election in history, war-weary Afghans will soon take another step toward democracy — and likely even more violence.


A number of commentators see the Aug. 20 vote as a pivotal test of a fledgling democracy, and a lightning rod that will make Afghanistan’s inaugural election in 2004 — which ushered in U.S.-supported President Hamid Karzai — seem like a social-club show of hands.


“The spectrum of insurgency out there is picking up pace to try to destabilize the elections, but that was widely expected,” Canada’s ambassador to Afghanistan Ron Hoffman said. “The security situation generally in the country has deteriorated, so, from that point of view, the insurgency is stronger now than last time.


“But I am reasonably confident that, even with a concerted effort (to sabotage the vote), the election will take place, even if there are problems at some polling stations and there is some intimidation.”

The Taliban have not only pledged to boycott next month’s elections, despite repeated invitations from Karzai to participate, but promise to wreak havoc — since they see the entire process as foisted upon them by foreign invaders.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (14 Jul 2009)

ARTICLES FOUND JULY 14

Gordon Brown says troops in Afghanistan have right equipment
Gordon Brown has insisted that British troops are equipped well enough to succeed in the increasingly bloody war against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
_Daily Telegraph_, July 13
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/5819744/Gordon-Brown-says-troops-in-Afghanistan-have-right-equipment.html



> ...Mr Brown appeared to give ground on the issue of troop numbers. Earlier this year he vetoed a permanent increase in the British force to 10,000.
> 
> Instead he agreed a short-term rise from 8,300 to 9,000. After September's elections in Afghanistan it was expected to return to 8,300.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## GAP (15 Jul 2009)

*Articles found July 15, 2009*

 10-year Chinook saga grounds Britain in Afghanistan
Wed Jul 15, 2009 
Article Link

* Chinook contract failure leaves troops short on air power

* Cost of unused helicopters set to top 500 million pounds

* Shortages mean troops have to move by dangerous roads



By Luke Baker

LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) - Part of the difficulty British forces face in Afghanistan, where 15 soldiers have been killed in the past two weeks, can be traced back to mistakes made in procuring helicopters more than a decade ago, experts say.

In 1995, Britain ordered 14 U.S.-built Chinooks, hoping the twin-rotor, heavy-lift helicopters would enable troops and equipment to be shuttled around a battlefield like Afghanistan.

The helicopters were delivered by Boeing in 2001, but eight of them could not be used because software source code needed to certify their airworthiness was not supplied. Access to the code had not been specified as part of the contract.

As a result, the helicopters have spent most of the past eight years sitting under wraps in hangars, while the Ministry of Defence and Boeing have engaged in protracted negotiations.

In the meantime, the cost of the helicopters has risen by more than 70 percent to 422 million pounds ($690 million), and is expected to top 500 million by the time they are finally fit to enter service, probably some time next year.

Parliament's public accounts committee, in a report published in March, called it one of of the worst procurement mistakes it had seen, "bordering on irresponsibility", and said it could put the lives of soldiers in Afghanistan at risk.

In the past two weeks, public anger over the rapidly rising death toll has prompted opposition politicians to criticise the government for failing to get enough helicopters to the warzone.
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 Will history repeat itself in Afghanistan?  

Article Link

British military intervention in Afghanistan has a chequered history, making it easy to conclude that British forces will fail again. But such a conclusion is a mistake and does a disservice both to troops fighting there and to history itself, writes military historian Dr Huw Davies.

General comparisons of Britain's first three wars in Afghanistan and the current conflict, are difficult and fraught with pitfalls and traps. However, if one compares the specific experiences of soldiers and officers, there is much to learn from Britain's history in Afghanistan. 

Many know that the British tried three times between 1839 and 1919 to subjugate Afghanistan, and each time they failed. 

But when dealing with the history of British military involvement in Afghanistan, and in the difficult business of looking for parallels between then and now, it is necessary to separate the general from the specific. 
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 Taliban attack Canada's 'model village' in Afghanistan
 By Craig Pearson, Canwest News ServiceJuly 14, 2009
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — An Afghan soldier was killed and seven others injured in a suicide attack Monday night at an outpost guarding what Canada introduced just last month as a model village in the counter-insurgency war.


The electricity-free community of Deh-e-Bagh, in Dand district, has gained a higher profile thanks to Canada's adopt-a-village approach designed to win the trust of locals by providing improvements such as solar-powered street lights, canal construction, road repair, mosque rejuvenation and more.

"The Taliban is trying to make trouble because of the election," Afghan army corps commander Gen. Shir Muhammad Zazai said Tuesday. "So they want to strike places like Deh-e-Bagh, where there is a project going on. But luckily, we realized what they were doing and we stopped them."
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 FACTBOX-Five facts about Afghanistan's Helmand province
Tue Jul 14, 2009 8:08pm EDT 
Article Link

July 15 (Reuters) - July could become the bloodiest month in the 8-year-old Afghanistan war as casualties mount after U.S. and British troops mounted major operations in Helmand province.

Helmand has been the Taliban's opium-producing heartland.

Some 10,000 U.S. Marines launched Operation "Strike of the Sword" this month in the province's southern half, while a similar-sized British-led task force launched operation "Panther's Claw" to the north.

Following are five facts about Helmand province.

* Helmand is Afghanistan's largest province, about 60,000 sq km (23,000 miles), making it nearly as large as the Republic of Ireland. At least 43 foreign soldiers have already died this month as U.S. and British troops simultaneously launched the two biggest operations of the war to seize the province.

Canadian, Dutch and other NATO troops had been fighting alongside some 9,000 British troops in Helmand but U.S. military commanders had described the combat situation in the past year as a stalemate. Existing force levels had not been able to cope with the size and difficulty of the terrain, which includes wide deserts in the south and mountains in the north. In May, the deputy commander of NATO-led forces in the south warned of "a bloody summer ahead".
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## GAP (16 Jul 2009)

*Articles found July 16, 2009*

 US war zone troops 'can smoke'   
  Article Link

The Pentagon says banning smoking would add to the stress for troops 
American troops are not to be banned from smoking in war zones, the US Defence Department says.

The decision comes despite a recent study which recommended the US military should be tobacco-free. 

Pentagon spokesman, Geoff Morrell, said US troops were already making enough sacrifices in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

He said Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, did not want to add to the stress of the troops by taking away their right to smoke. 

But Mr Morrell said the Pentagon would examine the recent study to see what else could be done to move towards banning tobacco in the military. 

He said: "Obviously it is not our preference to have a force that is using tobacco products." 

'Fearless warrior'

A report commissioned by the US government said last week that the US military should be smoke-free in the next 20 years. 

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) said 30% of army personnel were smokers, leading to "very high" economic and health costs. 

But it acknowledged that the change could be hard to introduce, as smoking had "long been associated with the image of a tough, fearless warrior". 

The Pentagon has said it supports the idea and believes it is "achievable". 
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 Pentagon: Bigger Afghan Army Would Need International Commitment   
By Al Pessin Pentagon 15 July 2009
   Article Link

The Pentagon says any move to further increase the size of Afghan security forces will require an international commitment to provide trainers and funding. The spokesman says such a proposal may well be part of a report expected next month from the new U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan.

Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell says the United States is already spending more than $7 billion a year to recruit, train and equip Afghan soldiers, and has accelerated the plan to raise their number to 134,000. He notes that 4,000 U.S. training troops will arrive in the country in the coming months. But he says increasing the size of the Afghan army more quickly, or to a higher number, would require more help.

"Trainers have been at a premium," said Morrell. "We've had to contribute more of them than we would like because it's been difficult getting them from our allies. If we all believe that it is necessary to grow the Afghan national security forces even beyond that, it's going to take an enormous commitment from not just us, but with the world."

Morrell says that commitment must include trainers and money.

He says a decision about whether to further increase the size of the Afghan Army will not be made until after the new U.S. and NATO commander in the country, General Stanley McChrystal, provides his 60-day assessment next month. But Morrell says the general has already told Defense Secretary Robert Gates a proposal on the size of the Afghan force will be part of his report.
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Afghanistan's TV 'Election': Better Than the Real Thing  
By Aryn Baker  Wednesday, Jul. 15, 2009
Article Link

A wall in Kabul shows posters of candidates in the presidential election, including one for Mujiburahman Poya, 18, a participant on The Candidate, a reality-TV show 
Aryn Baker for TIME

It is Mujiburahman Poya's youth that makes his face jump out from among the posters of the 41 candidates for Afghanistan's presidential election next month. Surrounded by images of the grizzled faces of older men sporting traditional hats or business suits, 18-year-old Poya's poster declares him "The Real Afghanistan" and promises that if elected, he will enrich the country rather than himself. No matter how appealing voters find that message in a country plagued by corruption, though, it will be at least another 22 years before they can tick Poya's name at the polling booths. (Afghanistan's constitution sets the minimum age for a President at 40.) Poya isn't actually running for election; he is a contestant on The Candidate, a reality-TV show that follows six Afghans ages 22 or younger as they compete to develop the policies, campaign and support necessary to win a poll of viewers voting by SMS text messages on their mobile phones. 
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## MarkOttawa (16 Jul 2009)

Afghanistan: equipping the fight
Conference of Defence Associations' media round-up, July 16 (lots on Brits and Afstan)
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1247759736/

MPs' report to say helicopter shortage puts troops at risk in Afghanistan
_The Guardian_, July 15
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jul/15/helicopters-brown-committee-afghanistan



> Ministers will come under intense pressure tomorrow over their handling of Britain's military operations in Afghanistan when an influential committee of MPs challenges Gordon Brown's insistence that a lack of helicopters has not cost lives.
> 
> With General Sir Richard Dannatt, head of the army, openly calling for more "boots on the ground", the Commons defence select committee is expected to rush out a damning report that is likely to say the shortage of helicopters has increased the danger to British soldiers
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (17 Jul 2009)

ARTICLES FOUND JULY 17

Battle for Helmand
Embedded With U.S. Marines  in Afghanistan
_Washington Post_, blog by Ann Scott Tyson
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/battle-for-helmand/

Dannatt warns of strategic failure in Afghanistan as 16th soldier dies in a month
The Times, July 17
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6717499.ece



> The head of the Army warned of strategic failure in Afghanistan today as it was announced that another British soldier had died in Helmand province.
> 
> General Sir Richard Danatt, who has been accused of playing politics over the issue of equipment, demanded more troops and greater investment as part of a shopping list of desires.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (17 Jul 2009)

*Articles found July 17, 2009*

 Taliban threaten to kill captured US soldier
By AMIR SHAH (AP) – 1 day ago
Article Link

KABUL — Local Taliban commanders threatened Thursday to kill a captured American soldier unless the U.S. military stops operations in two districts of southeastern Afghanistan.

Also Thursday, Canadian authorities announced that a Canadian soldier was killed southwest of Kandahar, bringing to 47 the number of international troops killed in Afghanistan this month. That makes July the deadliest month of the war for foreign troops — with nearly half the month to go.

The Taliban claimed last week to be holding the American soldier, whom the U.S. military earlier described as possibly being in enemy hands.

Abdullah Jalali, a spokesman for Taliban commander Mawlavi Sangin, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Thursday that the soldier was healthy.

He said the soldier would be killed unless the U.S. stops airstrikes in Ghazni province's Giro district and Paktika province's Khoshamand district. Jalali did not explain why the Taliban chose those areas, noting only that Giro has been heavily bombed.

Spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias declined to comment on the demands but did say recent operations in Giro district this month did not involve bombings.

Neither district is in Helmand province, where Marines are conducting the largest U.S. military operation in Afghanistan since the Taliban were toppled from power in 2001.
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 U.K. Promises Forces in Afghanistan Everything Needed (Update1)
 By Caroline Alexander and Kitty Donaldson
Article Link

July 17 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. government promised British forces in Afghanistan everything they need to beat the Taliban as Prime Minister Gordon Brown came under more pressure to deploy additional troops and equipment. 

Chief of the General Staff Richard Dannatt, Chief of Defence Staff Jock Stirrup and the prime minister “are working very hard to ensure our troops and commanders on the ground have what they need,” Brown’s spokesman, Tom Hoskin, said. 

Dannatt, who is in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province where a major U.K. offensive against the Taliban is under way, told the British Broadcasting Corp. that more resources were required to win the war. Stirrup said he had delivered Dannatt’s “shopping list” of needs to Brown today. 

The army chief’s recommendations will be taken “very seriously” and there’ll be an “internal process” in the Ministry of Defence to see how they can be implemented, Hoskin said, speaking to reporters in London today. He declined to say from where extra funding might come. 

The comments came as the Ministry of Defence announced that an explosion killed a British soldier yesterday, bringing to 185 the number of U.K. troops to have died in Afghanistan since 2001, more than the 179 who were killed in Iraq. 
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 Nato tankers attacked in Pakistan  
Article Link

Militants in north-west Pakistan have destroyed two tankers carrying fuel for Nato forces in Afghanistan in two separate attacks. 

In the first attack, a bomb hit a tanker in Jamrud in the Khyber tribal region. The owner of a nearby grocery store died in the resulting fire. 

The second bomb damaged a tanker in Khyber's Landi Kotal area. 

The Taliban regularly carry out attacks on trucks ferrying supplies for Nato in the North West Frontier Province . 

The Khyber Pass road which passes through the area serves as a crucial supply line for Nato and US troops based in Afghanistan. 

Since September last year, the Taliban in Pakistan have targeted vehicles carrying supplies for foreign forces in Afghanistan. 

They have hijacked lorries, stolen their cargo and kidnapped their drivers. 
More on link


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## GAP (19 Jul 2009)

*Articles found July 19, 2009*

 Helicopter crash in Afghanistan kills 16
Reuters Sunday, July 19, 2009; 7:28 AM 
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A civilian helicopter under contract for NATO forces in Afghanistan crashed at a military base in the south of the country on Sunday, killing 16 people and wounding five others, the alliance said. 

Captain Ruben Hoornveld, a Dutch NATO spokesman at Kandahar Air Field, said there was no enemy involvement in the crash, which took place as the helicopter was taking off from the base, NATO's headquarters in the south of the country. 

Russia's Interfax news agency described the helicopter as an Mi-8 transporter, operated by a Russian firm, which had 17 passengers and three crew on board at the time of the crash. It gave the death toll as 15. 
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 Canadian soldiers fire at vehicle, kill Afghan man
 By Matthew Fisher, Canwest News ServiceJuly 18, 2009
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Two Canadian soldiers shot and killed an Afghan man and wounded three others Friday in an incident the military said may have been an effort to test Canadian security tactics.

The shooting took place when a minivan approached a cordon that troops had established to protect Canadian combat engineers who were defusing a bomb that Afghan police had found buried in a road in a residential and business district of Kandahar City.

"Our soldiers were unfortunately forced to open fire," because the driver of the vehicle was "driving at high speed and had demonstrated no intention of slowing down" as he approached the area, spokesman Maj. Mario Couture said, as details were released Saturday of what he described as "an escalation-of-force incident."

A day after the shooting it was still unclear whether the men who had been shot were insurgents.
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 Two U.S. pilots die in Afghanistan crash
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 18 (UPI) -- Two U.S. jet fighter pilots died Saturday when their F-15E crashed in eastern Afghanistan, officials said.

Their deaths brought the American death toll in Afghanistan to 26 for July, and 50 for the NATO-led coalition, making it the deadliest month yet for Western forces in the 8-year-old Afghan conflict, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The upsurge in deaths among U.S., British and Canadian troops are a result of a build-up of troops and a push into insurgent-controlled areas of the country, military officials say, warning of more casualties in the coming months.

Military officials told the Times they were conducting an investigation of the jet crash, but have ruled out the possibility it was shot down by enemy fire.
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 Captive G.I. on Video by Taliban  
Article Link

WASHINGTON (AP) — The American soldier who disappeared June 30 in eastern Afghanistan, and was later confirmed to have been captured, appears on a video posted Saturday to a Web site by the Taliban, two United States defense officials said. 

Skip to next paragraph 
Enlarge This Image

Associated Press
The soldier is shown in the 28-minute video with his head shaved and the start of a beard. He is sitting, wearing a nondescript gray outfit. When one of his captors holds the soldier’s dog tag up to the camera, the name and ID number are visible. 

The soldier, whose identity the Pentagon has not yet released, says his name, age and hometown on the video. American defense officials confirmed that the man in the video is the captured soldier. 

The soldier says the date is July 14. He says he was captured when he lagged behind on a patrol. 
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 Australian Soldier Killed in Afghanistan, 11th Death Since 2001  By Jacob Greber
Article Link

July 19 (Bloomberg) -- An Australian soldier was killed and another seriously wounded by an explosive device in Afghanistan, the Department of Defence said. 

Three Afghan civilians including an eight year-old boy were also hurt in the blast, which occurred early yesterday during an operation “against a compound of interest” in the Baluchi Valley north of Tarin Kowt, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston told reporters in Canberra today. 

The dead 22-year-old, who wasn’t immediately identified, is the 11th Australian soldier killed in Afghanistan, the military said in a statement on its Web site. Australia has about 1,550 soldiers under NATO command in Afghanistan. 

Fighting in the country “will become more fierce as the summer progresses,” Defence Minister John Faulkner said today. 
More on link


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## GAP (20 Jul 2009)

*Articles found July 20, 2009*

 Two Russians seriously injured in Afghanistan helicopter crash
Article Link

Two Russian pilots were hospitalized with serious injuries after a civilian helicopter crashed in Afghanistan, killing at least 16 passengers, a Russian diplomat said on Monday, according to RIA Novosti.

A Russian Mi-8 helicopter owned by the Vertical-T air company crashed during takeoff from the Kandahar air field in Afghanistan on Sunday. There were 3 crew members and 18 passengers on board.

"Two Russians and a Belarusian were seriously injured in the crash. The Russians are the commander of the crew and the second pilot, and the Belarusian is the flight engineer. They are at a Canadian hospital in Kandahar," a Russian embassy official in Kabul said.

"There is no information on the nationality of the passengers," the diplomat said, adding that two passengers were also injured in the accident.

An investigation into the crash is being conducted by the air base administration and the Interstate Aviation Committee.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement on Sunday that the civilian-contracted aircraft was not shot down by Taliban militants.
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 Canadian soldier died after mountaintop blast
Last Updated: Sunday, July 19, 2009 | 4:13 PM ET Comments94Recommend57CBC News 
Article Link

A Canadian soldier who was killed last week had stepped on an explosive device before falling to his death in the Panjwaii district of southern Afghanistan, a military official said Sunday.

The latest news about Pte. Sébastien Courcy was released shortly before the start of a repatriation ceremony for the young man at Canadian Forces Base Trenton in eastern Ontario.

Pte. Sébastien Courcy, 26, died Thursday after being knocked from a mountain top, said Lt.-Col. Mike Patrick, chief of operations for Task Force Kandahar. It's unclear whether the explosion was caused by an improvised explosive device or an old landmine, he said.

Earlier reports quoted a spokesman for National Defence in Ottawa as saying the soldier fell from "high ground."

Courcy was taking part in Operation Constrictor IV, a three-day effort designed to clear an area near the village of Nakhonay of Taliban bomb-making facilities.

The village has been under Taliban control for at least two years, according to military officials.
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 Blast kills 12 civilians in west Afghanistan
Mon Jul 20, 2009 3:51am EDT 
Article Link

HERAT, Afghanistan July 20 (Reuters) - A roadside bomb killed 12 Afghan traders as they drove through Afghanistan's remote west on Monday in an attack apparently meant for Afghan or foreign troops, witnesses and officials said.

Highly destructive home-made bombs planted in the road are by far the most deadly weapons used by the Taliban and other insurgents, frequently killing civilians as well as the security forces they traditionally target.

"I saw 12 men were killed and four were wounded," Abdul Razzaq Samadi, a local tribal chief who was at the scene of the blast, told Reuters.

"I took four wounded men to the hospital. Their condition was not good," he said.

The blast happened on a dirt road that links two districts in Farah province, where Taliban insurgents usually plant roadside bombs to target convoys of foreign and government troops, Samadi said.

Farah provincial governor Rohul Amin said all 16 victims were local commuters who travelled between the two districts each day to buy and sell goods.

Violence across Afghanistan has hit its highest level since 2001, when the Taliban's austere Islamist government was ousted for failing to hand over al Qaeda leaders wanted over the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
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 Pakistan ambush kills four police: officials
(AFP) – 11 hours ago
Article Link

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Gunmen killed four police officers in a pre-dawn ambush Monday in an area of northwest Pakistan troubled by militancy on the main supply route to Afghanistan, officials said.

In another incident a bomb killed a soldier in the northwestern town of Bannu.

In the attack on police, assailants targeted a police van on night patrol in the Bara district on the outskirts of the city of Peshawar, senior police officer Qazi Jamil said.

"Around 10 assailants armed with Kalashnikov rifles who had been hiding on both sides of the road opened fire and killed all four police officials," he told AFP.

The incident happened on the main road to eastern Afghanistan near Sarband police station, where territory under direct government control slips into the restive tribal region of Khyber.

The casualties were confirmed by another police official. "Our four colleagues were killed and their funeral prayers would be held late Monday," said officer Safdar Khan.
More on link


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## GAP (21 Jul 2009)

*Articles found July 21, 2009*

Australia out of Afghanistan in '3 to 4' years
By Amy Coopes (AFP) – 3 hours ago
Article Link

SYDNEY — Australia's defence chief on Tuesday said he hoped troops could hand over to Afghan forces in "three to four years," but warned pulling out too early would cause civil war.

Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said a premature withdrawal of international forces would almost certainly deliver the troubled central Asian nation to the Taliban and result in a surge in global terrorism.

"If we were to all withdraw now we would leave the country in a situation where I think there would be a civil war, and there is a very strong possibility the Taliban would prevail," said Houston, delivering an update to press here on Afghanistan.

"If the Taliban were to prevail we would be likely to go back to the circumstances that we had before 2001, where the Taliban hosted groups like Al-Qaeda."

Houston's comments came as the body of young private, killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan Saturday, began its journey home. He was the 11th Australian soldier to die in Afghanistan since the conflict began in 2001.

Houston said troops were about "one third" of the way through a programme to mentor and train the Afghan National Army, and for the first time offered an estimate of a timetable for handing over responsibility for security in Uruzgan province, in the country's restive south.

"I would hope that over a period of time we will be in a position (to hand over) and I would hope it's three to four years," he said.
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 Militants attack gov't center in east Afghanistan
(AP) – 5 hours ago
Article Link

KABUL — A U.S. military official says a group of militants has launched an attack against a government center in eastern Afghanistan.

Capt. Elizabeth Mathias said militants attacked the governor's compound in the eastern city of Gardez with guns and other weapons on Tuesday. U.S. forces responded to the scene but it wasn't immediately clear if they were involved in the fight.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed in a phone call to The Associated Press that 15 militants in suicide vests launched the attack in Gardez
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 Filipinos killed in Afghan crash   
  Article Link

Ten civilians from the Philippines were among 16 people killed in a weekend helicopter crash at a military base in southern Afghanistan, officials said.

A consular official is on the way to Afghanistan to get more details, the Philippines foreign ministry said. 

Investigations would also be made into how the Filipinos were in the country, despite a government ban. 

The civilian-contracted helicopter crashed on Sunday on take-off from Kandahar airfield. 

The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said the helicopter was not shot down by insurgents
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 What has happened to other captured soldiers?
Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl is only the second American service member taken hostage in Afghanistan since 2001. Soldier abductions have been rare in Iraq, too. 
By Gordon Lubold | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor 
from the July 20, 2009 edition
Article Link

Washington - The capture of Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl would appear to mark a rare failure of the military's most basic operating procedures. 

Military units are designed to provide strength in numbers, normally preventing insurgents from infiltrating a corps of hundreds of men to snatch just one. 

It is unclear as yet how Bergdahl was captured, but while American forces in Afghanistan are stretched, they are not outnumbered. There are about 58,000 US service members on the ground, and service members generally operate in such a way that they don't expose themselves to the risk of capture. 

Bergdahl was taken June 30 in eastern Afghanistan's Paktika Province, where his unit was operating. A video was released over the weekend, showing a reasonably healthy Bergdahl in local clothing, eating and talking. Bergdahl said he was scared and missed his family as his captors prompted him at different points of the video (read more about that here). 

American officials have condemned the kidnapping, saying it is a violation of international law and vowing to find him. The US military is poring over intelligence and scouring the area to find the young soldier, who was on his first deployment. Some media reports say he may have been taken to Pakistan, where finding him would be more difficult. 

The military conducts some hostage training, but that is typically reserved for special operators who typically work more autonomously. A young soldier such as Bergdahl would not likely have received much in the way of hostage training because the likelihood of him being kidnapped is so low. When soldiers go "outside the wire" – or off a secure base – they are supposed to operate in groups that would make it almost impossible to be captured. 
More on link


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## GAP (22 Jul 2009)

*Articles found July 22, 2009*

 Making an army out of nothing.
 By Craig Pearson, Canwest News ServiceJuly 21, 2009
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The village boy passed on a message to patrolling Afghan and Canadian soldiers straight from the Taliban: clear the area.

The bullets will fly.

That's the ``rock `n' roll'' that happens, in the parlance of some Canadian infantrymen, in the volatile southern province of Kandahar.

Canadian soldiers know that when they help train Afghans as soldiers and police officers, essential for security in this beleaguered country, it also means shadowing those holding the most dangerous jobs in Afghanistan.

``The only way for Canada to get out of here one day is to help the Afghans to provide their own security,'' said the muscular Cpl. Francois Hebert, known among comrades by the moniker on his helmet, Frank the Tank. ``Because it's not really our war to win. It's theirs.''

The help-them-help-themselves philosophy shows an understanding of Afghanistan's ongoing conflict, worsened by poverty, but barely even hints at the danger surrounding the task.

Frank the Tank, son of the Parti Quebecois member for Hochelaga-Maisonneuve Carole Poirier, puts words into action for Canada this day, as part of a gruelling two-day patrol through Afghan villages and grape fields.

It marks a turning point, of sorts, as the first major patrol designed and led by the Afghan army with Canadians along for the ride, instead of vice-versa.
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With $5.2 Billion in New Funding Army Will No Longer Need a Break 
by Jeff Davis July 22, 2009 
Article Link

The commander of Canada's army says there will likely be no need for a year-long break once Canada's mission in Afghanistan ends in 2011, following the announcement of $5.2 billion for the upgrading and purchase of several fleets of armoured vehicles. 

Visibly excited and relieved, Chief of Land Staff Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie revealed that the new funding package precludes the need for an "operational pause," a significant reversal of position. 

"There is no need for the operational pause if everything unfolds the way I'm hoping," Lt.-Gen. Leslie said. "So what has changed? $5.2 billion dollars has changed." 

"This $5.2 billion is a godsend." 

In an exclusive hour-long interview with Embassy, Lt.-Gen. Leslie said this massive infusion of money, and especially the immediate overhaul of the Light Armoured Vehicle (LAV) fleet, has put Canada's Army on track to accept another mission immediately after it pulls out of Afghanistan in 2011. 

And in a few short years, he said, Canada will have what amounts to a whole new army, preparing Canada to fight more Afghanistan-like counterinsurgency wars in the future. 

In March, Lt.-Gen. Leslie created major waves when he testified to the Senate Defence Committee that due to the cumulative stresses of the Afghan mission, the army would have to scale back or stop overseas operations for a period to allow the army to rest and rebuild its battered armoured fleet

"Beginning in July of 2011, we will have to explore the possibility of taking a short operational break, that is well-organized and synchronized, of at least one year," Lt.-Gen. Leslie told the senators March 9. 

The general later told reporters that the length of this break would likely be a year if everything went according to plan, and possibly months longer if things didn't. 

As many will remember, the general's comments were mocked by comedian Greg Gutfeld on Fox TV's 'Red Eye,' provoking a wave of consternation across Canada. 

The "most important" aspect of the $5.2 billion announcement, he said, is the LAV upgrade program, which will fix his biggest problem: too many damaged or destroyed LAVs. 

"The thing that was causing me to rip the stuffing out of my teddy bear was our vehicles being depleted faster than we can fix them or replace them," he said. "One of the mainstays of the Canadian army—the LAV—was taking up much of its time [in repair] because it's been so hard used after seven years of war." 

Now, Lt.-Gen. Leslie said, between 550 and 640 LAVs will be stripped down and rebuilt from "bare metal," a process that will "turn hands of time right back to zero" and extend the life of the LAVs to 2035. Upgrades will also be made to the LAV's engine, suspension and fire control system, while the body will be "wrapped in further layers of ceramic or steel." 

Best of all, he said, the upgrades will be done at Canadian auto sector factories in London and Edmonton, taking a great deal of work off the hands of Canadian Army vehicle technicians. 

"A huge chore is about to be taken off our backs when we put our LAVs into the LAV upgrade program," he said contentedly. "A huge, 10,000 pound gorilla has just been taken off my back." 
More on link

 13 Taliban militants killed, 12 injured in N. Afghanistan   
KABUL, July 22 (Xinhua) -- 
Article Link

Afghan National Security Forces and the international troops, in a joint operation in Chardara district of northern Kunduz province, eliminated 13 Taliban insurgents and wounding over a dozen others, spokesman of Defense Ministry said on Wednesday. 

    "Operation dubbed Uqab or Eagle was launched on July 18 and 13 insurgents have been killed and 12 others sustained injuries so far," General Zahir Azimi told a press conference here. 

    German Defense Ministry, according to media report, was deploying heavy weapons including tanks in its largest offensive against Taliban. 

    Moreover, Germany's most senior military officer General Wolfgang Schneiderhan said on Wednesday that some 300 German soldiers took part in the offensive with 800-strong Afghan security forces and some 100 police. 
More on link


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## GAP (23 Jul 2009)

*Articles found July 23, 2009*

 Pakistan's double game
National Post  Published: Thursday, July 23, 2009 
Article Link

Anonymous agents from the Pakistani intelligence service -- the ISI -- spent two hours briefing New York Times' staff this week. Apparently, the Pakistan government is unhappy with the U. S. military's new Afghanistan surge. The addition of tens of thousands of U. S. soldiers will, Islamabad fears, drive Afghan Taliban across the border into the lawless provinces of northwestern Pakistan. Too bad.

The ISI created the Taliban in Afghanistan 15 years ago. Since then, elements within it have continued to supply the Taliban with weapons, cash and recruits. Canadian and other NATO troops have on several occasions seen Pakistani officials waving truckloads of Taliban into Afghanistan through Pakistani checkpoints. Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar, the commander-in-chief of the Taliban, are both thought to be hiding in Pakistan with the knowledge, if not the blessing, of hardcore Islamists within the Pakistani government.
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 Afghan kids find skateboards the wheel deal
Australian Ollie Percovich says the skateboards he introduced to Kabul's children are the 'carrots' to connect with them and build trust. His 'Skateistan' nonprofit club awaits a big new facility.
By David Zucchino July 23, 2009 
Article Link

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan -- A white van pulled up to a concrete fountain on a leafy side street in downtown Kabul, trailed by shrieking Afghan children.

"Ollie! Ollie!" they shouted, pounding on the vehicle.

Oliver Percovich, a lanky Australian in a black T-shirt, emerged from the van with a load of banged-up skateboards. The children grabbed the boards and raced off to skate in the cracked bowl of the dried-up fountain.

Skateboarding was unknown to Afghans until Percovich, who followed his social scientist girlfriend to Kabul, starting teaching local children to skate in early 2007. Two years later, their relationship is over and his girlfriend is back in Australia. But Percovich's "Skateistan" nonprofit club has become a magnet for children in Kabul, the capital.

In a country where girls are rigidly segregated from boys and rarely participate in sports, Skateistan has managed to bring boys and girls together. Dozens of children swarm across the fountain every day, sharing boards and showing off improvised skating moves.
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 Soldiers train, shadow the most dangerous job
 By Craig Pearson, Canwest News ServiceJuly 22, 2009
   Article Link

The village boy passed on a message to patrolling Afghan and Canadian soldiers straight from the Taliban: clear the area.

The bullets will fly.

That's the "rock 'n' roll" that happens, in the parlance of some Canadian infantrymen, in the volatile southern province of Kandahar.

Canadian soldiers know that when they help train Afghans as soldiers and police officers, essential for security in this beleaguered country, it also means shadowing those holding the most dangerous jobs in Afghanistan.
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 Canadian leads huge humanitarian delivery to Afghans
 By Matthew Fisher, Canwest News Service December 5, 2008
Article Link

ZHARI DASHT, Afghanistan -- A Canadian naval officer who volunteered for a year-long tour of duty in Afghanistan was the unlikely leader of a U.S.-funded relief convoy that brought more than 27 tonnes of aid to what an American officer called “the poorest of the poor” in the heart of Taliban country this week.

Many thousands of internally displaced Afghans on the run since the war against the Red Army ended in the 1980s, converged on a bleak desert plain of yellow sand to greet Cmdr. Michael Burke of Sarnia, Ont., and his American troops. They also fought with each other over rice, beans, bedding, clothing and toys in almost biblical scenes of joy and desperation.

“An extraordinary amount of planning went into this one,” said Burke, who was the executive officer of a Canadian warship not long ago before becoming chief of staff to the American army colonel who runs NATO’s Afghan Regional Security Integration Command. “The potential for a disaster was huge. It could have been a riot, a suicide bomber, an IED (improvised explosive device).”
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 Opposition Leader Drops Out of Kyrgyz Election, Claiming Fraud  
By CLIFFORD J. LEVY Published: July 23, 2009 
Article Link

MOSCOW — The leading opposition candidate in Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia essentially withdrew from the presidential race on Thursday even before voting had concluded, asserting that widespread fraud had assured the incumbent’s victory.

The opposition candidate, Almazbek Atambaev, a former prime minister, said the election was “illegitimate” and told his supporters who were working as observers at polling stations to leave.

The incumbent, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, said earlier in the day that the voting would be run honestly, and he has accused the opposition of airing false charges of ballot-rigging in an effort to explain away its lack of popularity.

Kyrgyzstan is host to an important American military base that supports the NATO mission in nearby Afghanistan, and the United States has a stake in insuring stability there. The country, a poor former Soviet republic, has a population of five million people.
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 American pleads guilty in attack on U.S. base in Afghanistan
Article Link

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A New York man pleaded guilty in January to charges of aiding al Qaeda and helping attack a U.S. military base in Afghanistan, according to court documents unsealed Wednesday.

Bryant Neal Vinas pleaded guilty in to conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals, providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization and receiving military-type training from a foreign terrorist organization, according to Monica McLean, spokeswoman for the FBI's New York office.

Authorities had accused Vinas of firing rockets at the U.S. military base along with others in September 2008, according to the indictment, filed under seal in January. In addition, authorities said he provided al Qaeda with information about the New York transit system and the Long Island Railroad.

Vinas, 26, is from Long Island, and is an American citizen, said a source close to the investigation. He was arrested in Pakistan, the source said.

Vinas pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court on January 28 in a closed hearing, according to court documents. At the time, the case was filed naming "John Doe" as a defendant and was sealed.

The January hearing was closed after U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis ruled there was "substantial probability that a public guilty plea would prejudice a compelling interest of the government in gathering information of potential importance to protect the national security," according to a transcript of the public portion of the hearing, also unsealed Wednesday.

McLean would not say whether Vinas has been sentenced or comment on why the case was sealed. She said Vinas is in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.

Vinas is also known as "Ibrahim," "Bashir al-Ameriki" and "Ben Yameen al-Kandee," according to the indictment unsealed Wednesday.
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## GAP (24 Jul 2009)

*Articles found July 24, 2009*

 Excalibur: next-gen drone goes 460 mph, carries twice the missiles
Article Link

As if those killer drones flying over Afghanistan and Iraq aren't lethal enough, here comes the next generation: Excalibur. This 13-foot-long prototype is just half-sized; by the time the radio-controlled hovering jet is unleashed on the battlefield, it'll travel at scary-fast 460mph speeds. The mini-jet drone will carry four Hellfire missiles, twice as many as its Predator drone predecessor.

Check out the way it can take off vertically, eliminating the need for runway. Then it sneaks around in the sky, hanging there and waiting to rain down its murderous destruction anywhere on the globe, 24/7. Get out of the way, bad guys! It's amazing the way it can fly either upside down or right side up, firing its missiles at will. Someday soon (if not already), human pilots will be unnecessary, and resistance will be futile.
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 US probes soldier's capture in Afghanistan
(AFP) – 6 hours ago
Article Link

KABUL — US forces in Afghanistan are investigating how an American soldier held by the Taliban disappeared from a military base, while pursuing a massive manhunt for the private, a spokeswoman said Friday.

Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl, 23, was officially listed as missing-captured on July 3, three days after he failed to turn up for duty. But the circumstances of his disappearance are unclear.

US military officials originally said he walked off an outpost in eastern Afghanistan. But in a video clip posted online at the weekend by his captors, Bergdahl says he was snatched while on patrol.

According to a statement picked up by the US-based monitoring service SITE Intelligence, Taliban militants claimed the soldier was drunk.

"The circumstances of his disappearance are certainly being looked at," a US military spokeswoman in Kabul, Christine Sidenstricker, told AFP.

"Any time something like this happens we're certainly going to investigate how and when it happened to try to make sure that we have appropriate processes in place, and rules and procedures are followed."

She was unable to give any details of the investigation or any preliminary findings, but said the hunt for the soldier continued.
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 Karzai Snubs TV Debate Before Afghanistan Election, AFP Says  
By Michael Heath
Article Link

July 24 (Bloomberg) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai failed to attend a television debate last night for candidates running in national elections, prompting opponents to accuse him of being unable to defend his record, Agence France-Presse reported. 

Karzai, who came to power after U.S.-led troops ousted the Taliban in 2001, is favorite to win the Aug. 20 ballot even as he is accused of failing to rein in corruption and contain the insurgency. He won the last election in 2004 with 55.4 percent of the vote. 

“He does not have any program,” AFP cited Said Ali Razwani, a spokesman for former foreign minister and presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah, as saying. “He has nothing to say to defend himself. That is why he could not participate.” Karzai’s campaign team said it wasn’t given enough notice of the debate on private channel Tolo, and accused it of being biased against the president. 
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 U.S. Shifts Afghan Narcotics Strategy  
Article Link

WASHINGTON — The American-led mission in Afghanistan is all but abandoning efforts to destroy the poppy crops that provide the largest source of income to the insurgency, and instead will take significant steps to wean local farmers off the drug trade — including one proposal to pay them to grow nothing.

Times Topics: Opium in AfghanistanThe strategy will shift from wiping out opium poppy crops, which senior officials acknowledged had served only to turn poor farmers into enemies of the central government in Kabul. New operations are already being mounted to attack not the crops, but the drug runners and the drug lords aligned with the insurgency.

Ultimately, farmers must be persuaded to plant other crops, including wheat for domestic consumption and pomegranates and flowers for export, officials said.
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 Strategic Issues, Not Abuses, Are U.S. Focus in Kyrgyzstan  
Article Link

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — “You know what this is for,” Emilbek Kaptagaev recalled being told by the police officers who snatched him off the street. No other words, just blows to the head, then all went black. Mr. Kaptagaev, an opponent of Kyrgyzstan’s president, who is a vital American ally in the war in nearby Afghanistan, was found later in a field with a concussion, broken ribs and a face swollen into a mosaic of bruises.

Mr. Kaptagaev said that the beating last month was a warning to stop campaigning against the president, but that he would not. And so he received an anonymous call only a few days ago. “Have you forgotten?” the voice growled. “Want it to happen again?”

Mr. Kaptagaev’s story is not unusual in this poor former Soviet republic in the mountains of Central Asia. Many opposition politicians and independent journalists have been arrested, prosecuted, attacked and even killed over the last year as the Kyrgyz president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, has consolidated control in advance of elections on Thursday, which he is all but certain to win
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## GAP (27 Jul 2009)

*Articles found July 27, 2009*

Private Security Companies May Surge Into Afghanistan
 By Spencer Ackerman 7/27/09 9:11 AM 
Article Link

The Washington Post’s Walter Pincus reports that the U.S. military command in Afghanistan is considering hiring private security contractors to post as guards at military bases. Danger Room’s Nathan Hodge contextualizes the move, and writes, “Private security firms should be mindful of Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s directive, which instructs the troops to “respect and protect” the Afghan population.”

The ones whom McChrystal hires surely will. But what about the firms hired to protect the new State Department personnel on their way to Afghanistan? State Department security contractors like Blackwater Xe, Triple Canopy and DynCorp have been tied to more population-alienating abuses than the ones who work for the Defense Department. And McChrystal and his boss, Gen. David Petraeus — who dealt with the complications posed by buck-wild State Department security contractors in Iraq — won’t have control over them. The next Worldwide Personnel Protective Services contract, awarded to firms pledging to protect U.S. diplomats, will be a test of Petraeus’s oft-cited new “wingman” partnership with Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, the State Department’s special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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 Afghanistan Secures First Local Taliban Cease-Fire   
By VOA News 27 July 2009
  Article Link 

The Afghan government says the country has struck its first-ever local cease-fire deal with Taliban insurgents.

The truce was reached in northwestern Badghis province in a bid to improve security ahead of next month's presidential elections.

A spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the cease-fire was established Saturday. It was arranged after negotiations between local tribal elders and Taliban leaders.

Under the deal, the Taliban agreed to allow election candidates to set up offices in the province without being attacked.

The government hopes to make similar deals in other parts of the country.

The August 20 vote is a key test of U.S. and NATO-backed efforts to establish democracy in Afghanistan after decades of conflict. Mounting violence has raised fears that the voting will be marred by unrest. 

On Sunday, Afghan officials say one of President Karzai's vice presidential running mates escaped unharmed after Taliban insurgents ambushed his convoy.

The officials say Mohammad Qasim Fahim, a former warlord and defense minister, was traveling in northern Kunduz province when insurgents opened fire.
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 One man's mission: Free and fair elections in Afghanistan  
Omar El Akkad KABUL — From Monday's Globe and Mail  Jul. 27, 2009 07:38AM EDT
  Article Link

Grant Kippen has done something quite difficult: He has found what may become the highest-pressure job in Afghanistan. 

The Ottawa native and veteran of the 2005 Afghan election has the unenviable title of chairman of the country's Electoral Complaints Commission, an independent body charged with ensuring Afghanistan's upcoming elections are free of fraud and other violations. 

In a country where 41 people are trying to become president, where some districts are so infiltrated by the Taliban they will probably be eliminated from the election process altogether, and where influence-peddling allegations are already flying a month before the vote, Mr. Kippen is expected to keep the process honest. 

He is one of the very few foreigners at the centre of what will be, for the first time since the fall of the Taliban, a truly Afghan-led election. 

“There's going to be complaint forms, I think, at just about every polling station in the country,” he says over breakfast at a Kabul café popular with Westerners and protected by an armed guard. “The nightmare scenario is we get 28,000 complaints coming in; then we've got to work it all through. But you plan for the worst and hope for the best.”
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 NZ signals likely to raise Afghanistan troop level
(AP) – 7 hours ago
Article Link

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Prime Minister John Key gave a strong signal Monday that New Zealand likely will increase its troop levels in Afghanistan — with a decision on any fresh commitment by mid-August.

He also restated New Zealand's desire for an "exit strategy" for its troops, with its 140-member provincial reconstruction team currently committed until September 2010.

In recent months, the United States has repeatedly asked New Zealand to raise its troop levels and specifically asked for its elite strategic air service commandos to return for a fourth tour of duty. The commandos were last there in 2006 as part of the U.S.-led bid to fight hard-line Islamist insurgents.

"If the world doesn't get on top of the situation in Afghanistan, the counterfactual is that it will become a bigger hotbed for global terrorism," Key said.

"If you lose control of Afghanistan, you are leaving that country and potentially others exposed as a breeding ground for global terrorism. I can't see how that's in New Zealand's best interests," he told reporters.
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The importance of chopper mobility in Afghanistan
  Sunday, July 26, 2009 Stars and Stripes:
Article Link

There are few good roads in southern Afghanistan. The dirt tracks that meander through the desert are easily mined, and by the time U.S. and other NATO troops lumber out in heavily armored convoys to their destination, the insurgents have often melted away. 
U.S. helicopters have become key to fighting the Taliban, restoring the element of surprise with less risk to troops, U.S. commanders say.

"When we fly out, they can’t stay ahead of us," said Col. Paul Bricker, the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade commander. "You can’t drive to this fight. You have to fly."

With 21,000 American troops pouring into the region, where U.S. and NATO officials hope to turn the tide against an increasingly lethal insurgency, a larger American helicopter force is providing U.S. and allied forces with more range and greater flexibility than they’ve ever had during the 8-year-old war.

Task Force Pegasus — as the 82nd CAB is known — started operations May 15, roughly tripling the number of U.S. helicopters in southern Afghanistan to well over 100 aircraft. These include CH-47 Chinook and UH-60 Black Hawk transport helicopters, plus AH-64 Apaches and OH-58 Kiowas for reconnaissance and attack.

Those copters can mean the difference between life and death.

One recent night, CH-47 Chinook helicopters from the 82nd CAB inserted nearly 450 U.S. and Canadian soldiers into landing zones in the Zhari and Panjwayi districts of southern Afghanistan’s Kandahar province.
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## GAP (28 Jul 2009)

*Articles found July 28, 2009*

 Gun attack on Afghan campaigner   
  Article Link

Abdullah Abdullah was not in the vehicle at the time of the attack 

A campaign manager of Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah has been badly hurt after his vehicle was attacked, officials say.

Officials say his car was shot at in Laghman province. His driver was killed in the assault. 

The attack follows an assassination attempt on President Karzai's running mate on Sunday. No group has claimed responsibility for either incident. 

Meanwhile, a blast in Helmand province killed eight Afghan security guards. 

Afghanistan has seen a rise in violence ahead of presidential and provincial council elections next month. 

The deputy governor of Laghman province told the BBC that efforts were being made to take the campaign manager, Ismail, to safety in a vehicle. 

He is reportedly being taken to the eastern town of Jalalabad for treatment. 
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 Donkeys, guns and trucks - elections Afghan-style
Tue Jul 28, 2009 
Article Link

KABUL, July 28 (Reuters) - Almost as many donkeys as trucks will be used to take ballot papers to remote areas of Afghanistan for next month's presidential election, which the U.N. chief envoy said on Tuesday was the most complicated he'd ever seen.

U.N. Special Representative Kai Eide visited a massive warehouse in Kabul where Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC) is making final preparations for the huge logistical task presented by the Aug. 20 presidential poll.

Afghanistan's 17 million-odd eligible voters will cast their ballots in some 7,000 voting centres or 28,500 smaller voting stations across Afghanistan's 34 provinces and 356 districts.

Many will be set up on mountainsides or by rivers in remote areas where the only access is on the backs of donkeys.

"I emphasise that these are the most complicated elections I have seen," Eide told reporters.

"I mentioned to you how inaccessible the country is, how challenging the whole logistical operation is, and also the fact that the country is a country in conflict," he said.

The election is being staged against the backdrop of increased violence across the country after thousands of U.S. Marines and British troops launched major operations in southern Helmand province this month. [ID:nLR336228] The Helmand operations are the first under U.S. President Barack Obama's new regional strategy to defeat the Taliban and stabilise Afghanistan. Washington is pouring in thousands more troops this year, in part to provide security for the election.

Security is the foremost concern, with attempts made on the lives of two candidates, including President Hamid Karzai's senior vice-presidential running mate, in the past week.
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 3,000 burros to bear burden of Afghan ballots
By FISNIK ABRASHI (AP) – 5 hours ago
Article Link

KABUL — More than 3,000 donkeys are being mobilized in Afghanistan to help deliver ballots for next month's presidential election, what the top U.N. official here is calling the most complicated poll he's ever seen.

Some 17 million registered voters are eligible to vote Aug. 20 for Afghanistan's next president and provincial council members — but the logistics of setting up polling centers in a country plagued by security concerns, rugged terrain and a lack of infrastructure has proved challenging.

"These are the most complicated elections I have seen," Kai Eide, the top U.N. official in Afghanistan, said Tuesday while surveying a cavernous hangar where election materials packed and sealed in blue plastic boxes were being loaded onto trucks for delivery to the provinces.

Eide said donkeys will be used to carry ballots to the country's most inaccessible regions, areas that trucks and even helicopters cannot reach. Some 3,171 burros will be loaded with ballots and voting boxes and sent along the steep ridges of the Hindu Kush mountain range, which bisects the middle of Afghanistan.

Another concern is how to hold polls in the turbulent south and east, where U.S. and British forces fighting the Taliban this month have suffered their highest casualties of the eight-year war.

Of 7,000 polling centers planned across the country, security forces have not yet confirmed whether voting can take place in about 700 of them, said Noor Mohammad Noor, a spokesman for the Independent Electoral Commission.
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 7 arrested in North Carolina on terrorism charges
The men, all but one of whom are U.S. citizens, conspired to wage jihad overseas, according to a federal indictment. The men honed their weapons skills in rural areas of the state, authorities said.
By Josh Meyer July 28, 2009 
Article Link

Reporting from Washington -- Federal authorities in North Carolina on Monday arrested seven men who they said had trained with high-powered weapons as part of a terrorist conspiracy to wage an Islamic holy war overseas.

The men -- including a father who, authorities said, trained in jihad camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and his two sons -- sought to provide material support to terrorists and to murder, kidnap, maim and injure people overseas, according to a seven-count federal indictment. The indictment did not allege that the group was plotting attacks on U.S. soil.


If convicted, the suspects, all but one of whom are U.S. citizens, could face life in prison.

At least some of the men were willing to die as martyrs, according to the indictment, which described a plot that began in 2006 and lasted until earlier this month. It said that the North Carolina residents had raised donations to support their training and had recruited and radicalized others -- "mostly young Muslims or converts to Islam, to believe . . . the idea that violent jihad was a personal obligation on the part of every good Muslim."
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 Why Pakistan Balks at the U.S. Offensive in Afghanistan
By OMAR WARAICH / ISLAMABAD Tuesday, Jul. 28, 2009
Article Link

Pakistan is not betting on a U.S. victory in Afghanistan, nor is it going out of its way to help achieve one. Instead, say analysts and former top officials in Islamabad, Pakistan views the conflict in Afghanistan through the lens of its own national interests and its conflict with India — and it will act accordingly, prioritizing securing its own interests in Afghanistan's future. And that could be bad news for a U.S.-led military campaign that depends on Pakistan's help for thwarting the Afghan insurgency. 

Pakistan officials expressed anxiety two weeks ago when the 4,000 U.S. Marines were sent into Helmand province in the first major offensive under the command of President Barack Obama's new Afghanistan commander, General Stanley McChrystal. McChrystal was forced to visit Pakistan on Sunday to allay its security chiefs' fears that a squeeze on Taliban militants in Helmand could push them across the border and further destabilize Pakistan. 
(Read "A New General, and a New War, in Afghanistan.")

Helmand shares a porous border with Baluchistan, the vast and restive southwestern province of Pakistan where the military has for years — and under a thick media blackout — been battling Baluch separatists in the mountains. Having committed troops to fighting the Pakistani Taliban in the tribal areas of the northwest, and insisting on maintaining a heavy troop concentration along the Indian border in the east, Pakistan complains said that it lacks the troops to rebuff a Taliban spillover from Helmand. 

"What the Pakistanis are asking the Americans to do is encircle [the Taliban militants] within Afghanistan instead," to prevent them crossing the border, says a senior Western diplomat familiar with the discussions. Washington, for its part, has been urging both India and Pakistan to agree to a reciprocal reduction of troop levels along their mutual border, in order to free up more Pakistani forces to tackle the Taliban. But that may be missing the point that one of the reasons for the divergent strategic priorities between Washington and Islamabad is that Pakistan sees Afghanistan as another theater of its conflict with India. 
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## GAP (29 Jul 2009)

*Articles found July 29, 2009*

 Canada, U.S. divvy up turf in Afghan war 
By Matthew Fisher, Canwest News ServiceJuly 28, 2009
Article Link

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — The marriage between Canadian and American troops in war-plagued Kandahar is still some weeks away from consummation, but the two forces have settled on a division of labour for Canadian-American military and civilian efforts in the battle-plagued Taliban heartland.

Which country will be responsible militarily for what parts of Kandahar is not something Canadian or American officers have wished to discuss in precise detail, but the rough overlay is expected to have the Canadians concentrating their effort against the Taliban insurgency primarily in heavily populated areas such as Kandahar City and its southern and western approaches.

The 3,000 or 4,000 fresh U.S. troops from a cutting edge, light-armoured Stryker Brigade will cover the rest of the province, including a few distant places that Canada has until now usually maintained a presence.

"It is an inspired step in my view," Brig.-Gen. Jon Vance, commander of the 2,800 Canadian troops in southern Afghanistan, said of the arrangement. "The first part is military and there are no issues. We have different battle space and boundaries we respect. There are procedures for cross-boundary fire to the movement of forces through each other's AO's (areas of responsibility)."
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 Military manslaughter trial in N.S. urged not to accept self-defence argument
By Michael Tutton (CP) – 21 hours ago
Article Link

SYDNEY, N.S. — A prosecutor says no Canadian soldier would fire a "wild, unaimed" shot without looking at the target in his closing arguments Tuesday in the manslaughter trial of a soldier accused of shooting a comrade in Afghanistan.

Cpl. Matthew Wilcox is facing charges of manslaughter, criminal negligence causing death and neglect of military duty in the March 6, 2007, death of his friend and tentmate, Cpl. Kevin Megeney.

In his testimony at the court martial, Wilcox said he feared for his life, thinking somebody was pointing a gun at his back in his tent when he entered just after a shift as a guard at one of the Kandahar Airfield's entry gates.

The 24-year-old from Glace Bay, N.S., claimed to have pivoted and fired his pistol, only realizing after squeezing the trigger once that he'd shot Megeney, who was from Stellarton, N.S.

In making the prosecution's argument before the defence had its opportunity, Maj. Jason Samson urged the jury of four military officers not to accept that evidence, saying there was testimony from Wilcox's comrades that the corporal had been playing a game of "quick draw" with Megeney.

In that game, soldiers attempt to draw their pistols from holsters more quickly than their opponent.
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Pakistani policeman decapitated  
Article Link

The headless body of a police constable has been found in Mingora, the main town in Pakistan's troubled Swat Valley, local police officials say. 

The corpse was that of a local policeman who had been kidnapped a week earlier, police told BBC Urdu. 

It is the first such death since Pakistan's army this month claimed victory against militants in the area. 

No-one has yet admitted killing the officer, but the Taliban have beheaded security officials in the past. 

Still active 

The body was discovered late on Monday about 4 km (2.5 miles) from Mingora. 

Analysts say it shows Taliban militants are still active in the region, despite the military's three-month offensive in the area, involving thousands of troops. 

In the past, the Taliban targeted security officials, as reprisals for the killing of militants, and to deter the local population from helping the authorities. 
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 Tajik forces kill suspected Islamist rebel -source
Wed Jul 29, 2009 5:57am 
Article Link

DUSHANBE, July 29 (Reuters) - Tajikistan's forces have shot dead a suspected Islamist rebel accused by the authorities of spearheading an armed insurgency on the country's border with Afghanistan, a senior security source said on Wednesday.

Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari and Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai were both in Tajikistan for talks on security in Central Asia, a key transit route for supplies for U.S. troops fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. 

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was due to arrive later as part of a regional summit.

Militants have staged a string of attacks in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in recent weeks. Governments have blamed the attacks on a broader rise in Islamist militancy.

The security source said that the rebel Nemat Azizov was killed as a result of a special operation in Tajikistan.

"Two gang members were killed ... overnight. One of them was Nemat Azizov," the source told Reuters.

Earlier this month, unidentified gunmen attacked a police post near Tajikistan's border with Afghanistan and engaged in a lengthy gun battle with Tajik forces. Five militants were killed, according to Tajikistan's authorities.
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## GAP (31 Jul 2009)

*Articles found July 31, 2009*

 2 indicted in $1 million Afghanistan bribe scheme
By RICHARD LARDNER (AP) – 13 hours ago
Article Link

WASHINGTON — A federal grand jury has indicted two men for allegedly trying to bribe a U.S. Army contracting official with $1 million to win a road construction project in Afghanistan, the Justice Department said Thursday.

Rohullah Farooqi Lodin of Irvine, Calif., and Hashmatullah Farooqi of New York City each are charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud and commit an offense against the United States and one count of attempting to bribe a public official.

The indictment, filed in federal court in Virginia, alleges the men offered $1 million in bribes to an Army captain who is not named in the court documents. In exchange, the officer was to help disqualify lower bidders to build a road in Logar province and award the project to two general contracting firms in Afghanistan.

Lodin and Farooqi allegedly claimed to represent the companies, which each submitted $18 million bids for the work.

The road contract was to be paid for out of an account called the Commander's Emergency Response Program that has been vulnerable to waste and fraud.

Under the program, U.S. military commanders are authorized to finance urgent, small-scale projects that improve conditions for the local population and create jobs. An additional goal is to generate a more positive attitude toward American forces and thus reduce attacks against them. Yet oversight of the money has not always been tight, leading investigators to pay close attention to these projects.
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 In Afghanistan, U.S. May Shift Strategy
Request for Big Boost in Afghan Troops Could Also Require More Americans
  By Rajiv Chandrasekaran Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, July 31, 2009 
Article Link

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan is preparing a new strategy that calls for major changes in the way U.S. and other NATO troops there operate, a vast increase in the size of Afghan security forces and an intensified military effort to root out corruption among local government officials, according to several people familiar with the contents of an assessment report that outlines his approach to the war. 
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 U.S. Takes Steps to Boost Security Cooperation With Russia
By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, July 31, 2009 
Article Link

The United States is moving to deepen security cooperation with Russia as part of the Obama administration's effort to "reset" relations with Moscow, senior officials told Congress on Thursday. 

This week, a team of military experts went to Moscow for the first round of discussions on an early warning center that would assess the threat of ballistic missiles, including any from Iran or North Korea, the officials said. U.S. and Russian officials are also planning to hold talks in October to lay the groundwork for extensive military programs next year. 

"Hopefully, through this joint threat assessment, we can begin to chip away at some of the Russian misperceptions" about U.S. plans for missile defense elements in Europe, Alexander Vershbow, assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, told members of the House Armed Services Committee. 
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 Problems plague rebuilding of war-torn Afghanistan
By RICHARD LARDNER (AP) – 7 hours ago
Article Link

WASHINGTON — U.S. agencies handling reconstruction work in Afghanistan lack direction and communication, problems that risk wasting U.S. tax dollars, says the special inspector general overseeing tens of billions of dollars worth of projects.

Inspector General Arnold Fields says that coordination between the Americans and the Afghans is poor, leading to a disjointed effort and slowing progress on critically needed improvements to the country's transportation, agriculture and energy production.

"The more we move around and the more we conduct our audit work, the evidence is compounding that there is a lack of oversight and follow through," says Fields, who returned July 19 from his fifth trip to Afghanistan since he was appointed last year.

He also said that "there isn't always a direct connection between what the Afghans feel that they need and what the reconstruction effort is delivering." Since 2002, the U.S. has committed $32 billion to Afghanistan's reconstruction. With President Barack Obama ordering more civilian and military personnel there to quell a growing insurgency, that figure is expected to rise to nearly $50 billion by 2010, according to a quarterly report released Wednesday by Fields' office.

The projects vary significantly in size and cost. On his most recent trip, Fields says he visited Badakhshan in northeastern Afghanistan to see a $118 million road construction project. He and his staff also stopped in Ghor, a remote province in central Afghanistan where a $240,000 high school dormitory was recently completed.
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 Canadian soldier convicted in fatal shooting of friend  
OLIVER MOORE
Article Link

HALIFAX — With a report from The Canadian Press 
Last updated on Friday, Jul. 31, 2009 03:11AM EDT


A Canadian soldier accused of playing a reckless game of "quick draw" in Afghanistan was convicted yesterday in the shooting death of a close friend and fellow soldier.

The two Nova Scotians had returned to their shared tent in March of 2007 after a shift guarding the gate at Kandahar Airfield when Corporal Kevin Megeney was hit by a single gunshot to the chest. The Stellarton native died in a military hospital 20 minutes later.

The fatal shot was fired, the military prosecutor alleged during the court-martial of Cpl. Matthew Wilcox, while the two friends were competing to see who could draw his pistol fastest. The defendant denied that, testifying that he acted in self-defence.
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 DynCorp Takes Afghanistan
Nathan Vardi, 07.30.09, 05:24 PM EDT 
Increasingly frozen out by the U.S. military, KBR concedes the Afghan battlefront.
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DynCorp International, the Falls Church, Va., provider of mission critical services to the U.S. military, got good news Thursday from Houston rival KBR, which said it would not be protesting the recent loss of work supporting American troops in Afghanistan to DynCorp and Fluor Group.

"We recently met with the customer for a debrief of the selection criteria and the decision metrics for the awards," said KBR ( KBR - news - people ) chief William Utt on KBR's Thursday conference call. "After the debrief we decided KBR will not protest the outcome of the awards."
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## The Bread Guy (31 Jul 2009)

Agreement Signed Between Afghanistan-Canada
Bakhtar News Agency (AFG), 29 Jul 09
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An agreement on handing over of eight acre land by the Afghan government to Canadian embassy was signed in Kabul by the Afghan Minster of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Rangeen Dadfar Spanta and the Canadian ambassador. During the signing of this agreement Dr. Spanta called Canada as one of the most important donors to Afghanistan in the fields of ensuring security, rebuilding and particularly defending of human right values and rule of law. Appreciating the president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, government and specially the minister of foreign affairs, the Canadian ambassador called handing over of eight acre land for the building of Canadian embassy as the indicator of expansion and Deepings of relation between the two countries.


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## CougarKing (31 Jul 2009)

RIP Soldier. This occurring at the end of the month does not make this loss any less than the others who gave their lives earlier this month.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/090731/world/international_us_afghanistan



> *U.S. soldier killed as deadliest Afghan month closes*
> 
> Fri Jul 31, 9:02 AM
> 
> ...


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