# The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread December 2013



## The Bread Guy (1 Dec 2013)

*The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread December 2013 *               

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


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## McG (4 Dec 2013)

> *With a little help from Canada, Afghan forces have come a long way*
> Matthew Fisher, Postmedia News
> Edmonton Journal
> 02 Dec 2013
> ...


More here: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/With+little+help+from+Canada+Afghan+forces+have+come+long/9237256/story.html


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## GAP (26 Dec 2013)

*Articles found Dec 26, 2013*

U.S. military auctioning off millions of dollars worth of equipment as troops prepare to withdraw from Afghanistan
Rob Crilly, The Telegraph | December 23, 2013
Article Link

It is a January sale with a difference. The U.S. military is auctioning off millions of dollars of tankers, accommodation blocks, tents, generators and other “white goods” in Afghanistan ahead of next year’s deadline for the end of combat operations.

In a tender document published on Friday, buyers are invited to offer a percentage of the equipment’s original value by January 10 when sealed bids will be opened.

There is just one snag. According to the brochure, “all property listed therein is offered for sale ’as is’ and ’where is’”.

That means that successful bidders will have to collect their lots from some of the most dangerous terrain in the world – the forward operating bases used by U.S. troops as they battled the Taliban.
More on link

Morale among Canadian troop trainers in Afghanistan was shaky: army survey
Canadian Press | November 24, 2013 
Article Link

OTTAWA — An army survey has found Canadian troops suffered from shaky morale when they were deployed to train the Afghan military following the end of Canada’s combat mission in Kandahar.

Only one-third of the soldiers who took part in the end-of-tour study said they would be willing to deploy on similar operations in the future — a finding that senior commanders found troubling.

Equally disturbing for the military leadership was that only 58 per cent of those asked felt that their job, which mostly involved training Afghan national army trainers, was “significant or important.”
More on link

US Embassy in Kabul attacked on Christmas Day
 World News, Dec 25, 2013
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - The U.S. Embassy in Kabul was hit by indirect fire before dawn on Christmas Day but no Americans were hurt, as attacks elsewhere in Afghanistan killed at least six people Wednesday, officials said.

Two rounds struck the sprawling embassy compound but it was not immediately clear which part of the complex, and a U.S. Embassy official said the incident was under investigation.

"At approximately 6:40 local time in Kabul, approximately two rounds of indirect fire impacted the U.S. Embassy compound," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. "All Americans are accounted for and no injuries were sustained."

Indirect fire can refer to either mortars or rockets.

The Taliban promptly claimed they fired four rockets at the American Embassy on Wednesday and said they inflicted heavy casualties. But the insurgents often exaggerate their claims.

Elsewhere, an Afghan official said a bicycle bomb was remotely detonated in front of a restaurant at a bazaar in Puli Alam, the capital of Logar province, 60 kilometers (37 miles) east of Kabul, killing six people and wounding 13.

Two of the killed were policemen and four were civilians, said Abdul Wali Tofan, the deputy police chief in Logar province. He said the attack also wounded 13 civilians, including several children.

Earlier in the day, a roadside bombing in eastern Kabul wounded three Afghan policemen. Kabul police chief, Mohammad Zahir, said one suspect was arrested over that attack.

Police later uncovered an unexploded bomb in the same area and successfully neutralized it, Zahri said.
More on link

Task Force Guam donates boots to Afghan security guards
Article Link

CAMP PHOENIX, Afghanistan – Task Force Guam let its feet do the talking in its last act of goodwill before departing Afghanistan.

Members of 1st Battalion, 294th Infantry Regiment, Guam Army National Guard, donated more than 120 pairs of boots to an Afghan security organization that serves a significant purpose in Kabul, according to Patrick McCafferty, a retired Canadian military warrant officer who mentors close to 250 Afghanistan Public Protection Force employees. The Guam soldiers are slowly trickling out of Afghanistan as their Operation Enduring Freedom commitment rapidly ends, but made time for one final mission to the Afghan community.

McCafferty began Operation Walking Tall last year, a program meant to outfit APPF guards with sufficient footwear. Task Force Guam obliged this program with its donation, the largest amount McCafferty received since the program’s birth.
More on link

Suspected US drone strike in Pakistan kills 3 militants
December 26, 2013 Associated Press
Article Link

ISLAMABAD –  A suspected American drone fired two missiles at a home in a northwestern tribal region of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, killing at least three foreign militants, Pakistani intelligence officials said Thursday.

The U.S. authorities often target Taliban, Al Qaeda and their Pakistani supporters in the country's tribal regions.

The latest strike took place just before midnight Wednesday in the village of Qutab Khel in North Waziristan and initial reports gathered from their agents in the field suggested the slain men were Arabs, the two intelligence officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
More on link

Afghan woman’s nose and lips ‘cut off by her heroin addict husband because she refused to sell jewellery to fund his habit'
By Sophie Jane Evans, 24 December 2013
Article Link

An Afghan woman has had her nose and lips allegedly cut off by her husband after refusing to sell her jewellery to fund his heroin addiction.

The mother-of-four - known only as Setara - was reportedly beaten and mutilated by her partner at their home in Herat, Afghanistan.

He allegedly hit her on the head with a stone, before using a knife to slice off her nose and lips.
More on link 

Two Taliban rockets land in U.S. embassy compound in Kabul as insurgents step up pressure ahead of elections
By Daily Mail Reporter, 25 December 2013
Article Link

Two Taliban rockets landed inside the U.S. embassy compound in Kabul early on Christmas Day.

No one was injured but the attack underlines Afghanistan's continuing security problems as many foreigners in the capital held festive celebrations.

Taliban militants, who have been fighting the U.S.-backed government since being ousted from power in 2001, claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks, which included at least one other strike in the city.
More on link


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## GAP (29 Dec 2013)

*Articles found Dec 29, 2013*

Intelligence estimate reportedly says US gains in Afghanistan may be lost by 2017
Published December 29, 2013 FoxNews.com
Article Link

A new report on the war in Afghanistan suggests that any gains made by the U.S. and its allies will be lost by 2017 as the Taliban and other groups become increasingly influential in the war-torn country and as the U.S. winds up its troop presence there.

According to The Washington Post, the report, known as a National Intelligence Estimate, includes input from all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies. The assessment also predicts that the situation would deteriorate even more rapidly if the U.S. and the Afghan government do not sign a security deal that would provide for an international force in Afghanistan after next year's official drawdown of U.S. troops.

The report's dire prognosis is not universally accepted by all members of the Obama administration. The Post quotes an administration official as saying "An assessment that says things are going to be gloomy no matter what you do, that you're just delaying the inevitable, that's just a view. I would not think it would be the determining view."

The paper quotes another U.S. official as saying "I think what we're going to see is a recalibration of political power, territory and that kind of thing. It's not going to be an inevitable rise of the Taliban."
More on link

 Suicide bomber kills 3 in Afghan capital
by The Canadian Press Dec 27, 2013 
Article Link

A suicide car bomber attacked a convoy of international troops in an eastern district of the Afghan capital Kabul on Friday, killing three service members and wounding six Afghans, officials said.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the insurgent group was behind the attack. Television images showed remains of the exploded car in the street, and several armoured vehicles stopped nearby.

The bomber struck the convoy about a kilometre (half mile) from NATO's Camp Phoenix base, Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanakzai, who reported the Afghan injuries.

The International Security Assistance Force didn't provide details on the identities or nationalities of the three service members killed.
More on link


Canadian troops mark last holiday in Afghanistan
 By: Bruce Campion-Smith Ottawa Bureau, Published on Wed Dec 25 2013 
Article Link

OTTAWA—Canadian troops are packing up in Afghanistan, confident the Afghan security forces they’ve helped train will be able to defend the country against persistent insurgent attacks.

This Christmas is a bittersweet milestone as Canadian soldiers mark their last holiday in the war-torn land after more than a decade of fighting insurgents and, more recently, training Afghan army and police units to take on that role themselves.

“I’ve seen them fight through this last fighting season with very little support and do extremely well,” Maj.-Gen. Dean Milner told the Star in a telephone interview from Kabul.

“They’ve come a long way. Their confidence, their capabilities, their leadership. We’ve helped them build a pretty strong force,” he said.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (29 Dec 2013)

The CIA thought their estimates about Vietnam were pretty good--interesting read on the analytic process, political pressure, policy devotion blinding to intelligence assessments, etc.:
https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/cia-and-the-vietnam-policymakers-three-episodes-1962-1968/epis3a.html

Mark
Ottawa


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