# The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread January 2011



## GAP (1 Jan 2011)

*The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread January 2011 *               

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


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## GAP (1 Jan 2011)

*Articles found January 1, 2011*

 Canadian trainers likely to be sent across Afghanistan
Article Link
CTV.ca News Staff  Fri. Dec. 31 2010 

The Canadian Forces is rushing to draw up a list of military trainers to send to Afghanistan once Canada's combat mission ends next summer, but senior officers say training positions in the safer regions of the country are already growing few and far between.

The federal government announced earlier this year that up to 950 Canadian soldiers would participate in a three-year mission to train the nascent Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police force.

The Conservative government insisted that the Canadian trainers would be based "inside the wire," working in secure bases in the relatively stable area around Kabul, the Afghan capital.

But the NATO training organization in Afghanistan is expanding rapidly and needs trainers at sites across the country.

Many of the training jobs in Kabul have been snapped up by nations who committed to the training mission much earlier and Canada may have to send its soldiers into riskier regions of the country.

Maj.-Gen. Stuart Beare, the Canadian deputy commander of the NATO training mission, told CTV News that the coalition needs military and police trainers in almost every province of Afghanistan.

"At the end of the day, the NATO requirements are for trainers across the whole of the country," he said. 
More on link

 Afghan officials say Taliban commander killed
The "shadow governor" of a northern Afghan province died in an overnight raid
By ELENA BECATOROS, Associated Press
Article Link

Afghan and coalition troops killed the Taliban "shadow governor" of a northern Afghan province in an overnight raid, local officials said Friday, while NATO said insurgents attacks claimed the lives of two coalition service members.

Once relatively peaceful, security in northern Afghanistan has deteriorated as the Taliban, squeezed by NATO operations focusing on militant strongholds in the south, have expanded their reach to other parts of the country.

NATO said a joint force stormed a compound in the Chahar Dara district of Kunduz province before dawn, killing an insurgent and detaining several suspects in an operation targeting a high-level Taliban leader believed to make roadside bombs and suicide vests. The coalition said it had not yet identified the slain militant.

But district chief Abdul Wahid Omarkhel and the Kunduz governor's spokesman, Mabobullah Sayedi, said the operation killed Maulvi Bahadar, who has been the Taliban's acting shadow governor for Kunduz for several months. They said another four suspects had been arrested. The Taliban have set up so-called shadow governors in many provinces, claiming to be the legitimate authority in the area.

Afghan forces also conducted a separate overnight raid in two compounds in the neighboring province of Tahar, killing a Taliban district chief in a gunfight that also left an Afghan policeman and a border guard dead, said Gen. Shah Jahan Noori, provincial chief of police. Noori identified the slain insurgent as Sheikh Ahmadullah, who he said headed the Taliban in the Khwaja Bahawuddin district and was responsible for organizing roadside bombs and suicide attacks. 
More on link

 A gloomy observation on Afghan training
SUSAN SACHS KABUL— From Saturday's Globe and Mail Friday, Dec. 31, 2010
Article Link

In the nine months he worked as senior adviser to the chief of the Border Police, John Brewer relied on a local translator to navigate Afghan culture. Yet the Canadian Mountie spent as much time trying to interpret the actions of foreign forces to equally puzzled Afghans.

Why, they asked him, did Germany provide their training base with drug-sniffing police dogs but not dog food or kennels? Why would the Americans build a brand new border police headquarters on land with no water? And what should be done with the thousands of donated European radios that do not operate on the same frequency as the Afghan ones?

His polite response was to suggest that Afghans speak up for themselves and that NATO officers listen to them more. Still, the plain-spoken Superintendent Brewer will admit to some frustration with the waste of time and money through miscommunication. “A lesser man,” he says, “would say it’s pissing in the wind.”

Canada is pulling out combat troops from Afghanistan by July of this year, but announced in November that it would provide 750 trainers and 200 support staff who would stay in Afghanistan to assist the NATO mission. Mr. Brewer's experience poses the question of whether the effort will accomplish its goal of creating a self-sustaining and effective Afghan security force.

The Afghan army and police are the linchpin of the coalition exit strategy, which calls for Afghans to progressively take charge of security around the country starting next spring.

NATO countries have pledged to spend $11-billion a year over the next three years to train and develop the fast-growing Afghan security forces. All but 10 per cent will be U.S. money, but Canada could be a major provider of manpower.

If the pledge materializes, the Canadians will make up more than one-fourth of the total 2,800 trainers that coalition commanders say will be needed. What they may find is a well-intentioned but troubled training program that has been beset by false starts, lack of co-ordination, concerns about corruption and a persistent debate over whether it is too focused on order rather than the rule of law.
More on link

 Karzai Unwilling to Oust Official U.S. Deemed 'Worst' in Corruption-Plagued Government
Article Link
Published January 01, 2011

WASHINGTON -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai refused to remove a former warlord from atop the energy and water ministry despite U.S. pressure to oust the minister because Washington considered him corrupt and ineffective.

Secret diplomatic records showed the minister -- privately termed "the worst" by U.S. officials -- kept his perch at an agency that controls $2 billion in U.S. and allied projects.

The refusal to remove the official despite threats to end U.S. aid highlights how little influence the U.S. has over the Afghan leader on pressing issues such as corruption.

Reining in graft is seen as vital to Afghanistan's long-term stability.

President Barack Obama last month cited an urgent need for political and economic progress even as military successes have blunted the insurgency in some regions.
More on link


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## GAP (2 Jan 2011)

*Articles found January 2, 2011*

 Frontline medevac teams are life-savers in Afghanistan
Published On Sat Jan 01 2011
Article Link

Louie Palu Special to The Star

KANDAHAR—I am leaping out the door into the swirling Afghan dust. I can't see where we are running. The deafening hum of the helicopter's engines adds to the chaos of the landing zone, which is turned into a thick fog of war stirred by the bird's blades and rotors. The crew chief, Cpl. Matthew Hyde, scans the area with his assault rifle.

He is the guardian angel to the patient and to flight medic Richard Miller. They are part of a medevac team from the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Combat Aviation Brigade. Among their responsibilities are Canada's fighting forces. These are the people who provide almost all the emergency evacuations and are responsible for saving many Canadian lives.

Today we are on a mission in Zhari District, a place where hundreds of Canadians have fought and, in many cases, died in this long war. It has been a little more than a year since the Canadian military handed over this still-volatile district, along with much of the rest of Kandahar, to U.S. forces, and the fighting has intensified.

Over the summer and into the cool days of fall, the restive districts that surround Kandahar City remain hot with insurgent activity, even after years of combat. When the war is raging at its fiercest, this is when the medevac is at its busiest.

On one warm summer afternoon they are called to pick up three Afghan boys in the village of Pashmul. The brothers were critically injured by an insurgent's roadside bomb, accidentally detonated by a passing donkey.

One boy lies curled up in the helicopter watching the medic, Sgt. Ian Bugh, desperately work on his brother, as the other lies behind him with his intestines held in by a bandage. Bugh performs medical miracles to save the boy bleeding from multiple holes torn through his little body.

Every day the war seems to escalate to a new high. The next day there is more insanity. Bugh runs through a minefield to get to U.S. paratroopers recovering a comrade whose foot was blown off by a landmine.
More on link

 Stonington couple kept their secret
Article Link
By Joe Wojtas  The Day Published 01/01/2011 

Carol and George Ruffo at their home in Stonington on Wednesday. Carol's son, David Rohde, a reporter for The New York Times, was kidnapped and held by the Taliban for more than seven months in 2008. In the meantime, government officials persuaded the Ruffos to keep the kidnapping secret until it could be resolved
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (3 Jan 2011)

ARTICLES FOUND JAN. 3

Hornet squadron touts land-based deployment
_Marine Corps Times_, Jan. 3
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2011/01/marine-hornet-squadron-back-from-land-based-deployment-010211w/



> A Marine Corps squadron recently returned to the United States after a historic deployment as the first of the service’s F/A-18 Hornets to operate from a ground base in Afghanistan.
> 
> With Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 232 operating out of Kandahar Air Field, the unit’s pilots were much closer to infantry troops than they were during previous deployments when they operated of off naval aircraft carriers in the Arabian Sea or Persian Gulf.
> 
> ...



Earlier:

Allies quietly urge Canada to deploy CF-18s to Afghanistan
Canwest News, April 19, *2009*
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1512666

Air Force doubles manpower for Afghan attacks
_USA Today_, Jan. 3
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2011-01-03-airstrike03_ST_N.htm



> WASHINGTON — The Air Force has more than doubled the number of airmen in Afghanistan who call in airstrikes, as the use of bombs, missiles and strafing runs has spiked to its highest level since the war began.
> 
> The Air Force has increased the number of joint terminal attack controllers — the airmen who work with soldiers to coordinate airstrikes — to 134 last year in Afghanistan, up from 53 in 2009, said Maj. Ike Williams, an operations officer at Air Combat Command in Langley, Va.
> 
> ...




Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (4 Jan 2011)

*Articles found December , 2010*

 Porous Pakistan/Afghan border a headache to NATO
Article Link
By SCOTT TAYLOR | On Target Mon, Jan 3 

In 1839, British troops and Indian sepoys poured into Afghanistan in what turned out to be an unnecessary pre-emptive move to block a feared Russian expansion into the territory. Although the Russian envoy had failed to woo the Afghan ruler, the British authorities decided to err on the side of caution and invaded Afghanistan anyway.

Their intent was to put a pliant puppet on the Kabul throne to ensure that the northwest frontier of their lucrative Indian colony remained secure.

True to the historical pattern, the invading British made short work of the poorly armed Afghan defenders. However, once the occupation phase began, the British became overconfident in their military superiority.

Prior to the invasion, Britain’s East India Company had paid the border tribes a tribute — or bribe — to allow their trade convoys safe passage through the Khyber Pass. Now that they had defeated the ragtag Afghan army and set up shop in Kabul, the East India Company decided to save themselves some money and cancelled the tribute payments.

The result was that the Pashtun tribes along the border rose up in revolt and cut off the British supply lines from India.

Forced to retreat from Kabul in the fall of 1841, the British garrison suffered the most complete defeat in military history, with only one survivor — dressed as a woman — managing to elude the victorious Afghans.

Fast-forward to the present conflict and the porous Afghan-Pakistani border remains the predominant headache for the occupying NATO forces. While it would be impossible for the current Afghan insurgents to repeat their forefathers’ feat of annihilating the foreign forces, due to our modern weaponry, airpower and technology, NATO’s inability to close the border provides the Taliban with a constant supply of men and material.
More on link

 Army doctor’s war diary compelling
Article Link
By John Boileau Sun, Jan 2 

Ray Wiss is a 51-year old emergency medicine specialist at the Sudbury Regional Hospital. He also serves in the Canadian Forces reserves, originally as an infantry officer and currently as the medical officer of the 2nd Battalion, Irish Regiment of Canada.

From November 2007 to February 2008, Wiss was a doctor at a forward operating base in Afghanistan. He kept a diary of his experiences there, which was published as FOB Doc: A Doctor on the Front Lines in Afghanistan. It became a bestseller.

In 2009 — to the disbelief of many of his friends and colleagues — Wiss returned to Afghanistan for a second tour. He again kept a diary of his time there, published as A Line in the Sand: Canadians at War in Kandahar.

Wiss describes his first book as "a conversation I was having with my friends," but calls his second one "a conversation I hope to have with all Canadians." I sincerely hope he succeeds, as anyone with an interest in our mission in Afghanistan should read this book.

Wiss’s diary entries work on two planes. At the micro level, he describes the day-to-day functioning of his medical team as they react to a number of casualties: military and civilian, friendly and enemy.
More on link

 Punjab Governor Salman Taseer assassinated in Islamabad
Article Link
 4 January 2011 Last updated at 10:26 ET

The BBC's Aleem Maqbool: "Police say it was one of his own security force that shot him"

The influential governor of Pakistan's Punjab province, Salman Taseer, has died after being shot by one of his bodyguards in the capital, Islamabad.

Mr Taseer, a senior member of the Pakistan People's Party, was shot when getting into his car at a market.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the guard had told police that he killed Mr Taseer because of the governor's opposition to Pakistan's blasphemy law.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has declared three days of mourning.

He also appealed for calm and ordered an immediate inquiry.

It is the most high profile assassination in Pakistan since the killing of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the PPP's leader, three years ago.
'Blasphemer'

Mr Taseer, 56, was shot several times at close range by his Elite Force guard as he got into his car at the Kohsar Market, a shopping centre in Islamabad popular with Westerners and wealthy Pakistanis, Mr Malik said.
Salman Taseer Salman Taseer was politically close to the president

"The governor fell down and the man who fired at him threw down his gun and raised both hands," Ali Imran, a witness, told the Reuters news agency.
More on link

 Afghan detainees report likely to have shortcomings
Article Link

OTTAWA — Whether the Military Police Complaints Commission makes findings that sizzle or fizzle, the panel will claim an important place in the Afghan detainees affair.

The quasi-judicial commission is the only forum to conduct a methodical examination of any element of the detainees issue amid repeated rejections by the federal government of opposition calls for a full-scale independent public inquiry.

After a year of public hearings end early February with final arguments by lawyers, the commission says its “top priority” will be writing a report on whether Canada’s military police should have investigated military officers’ orders to transfer suspected Taliban captives to Afghan authorities despite a risk of torture.

The hearings have pitted federal government lawyers against lawyers for Amnesty International Canada and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and served as a battle ground over the limits of government secrecy on detainee policy and practice.

They have also provided a testing ground for diplomat Richard Colvin’s assertions that senior Canadian officials turned a blind eye to torture that was documented by Afghan and international human rights authorities, the U.S. State Department and, eventually, by Canadian Foreign Affairs officers.
More on link


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## GAP (5 Jan 2011)

*Articles found December 5, 2010*

 Canadian, Afghan troops raid village suspected of harbouring Taliban weapons
Article Link
By: Steve Rennie, The Canadian Press  5/01/2011

KHENJAKAK, Afghanistan - The chopper comes in hard and fast, banking sharply before slamming onto a patch of rutted soil. Troops charge out the back of the Chinook and form a protective cordon. They kneel in the dirt and scan the horizon, rifles ready.

The sun has not yet risen. To the east looms the village of Khenjakak, a maze of mud-walled compounds and grape huts. Each one needs to be searched for the tools of the insurgents' deadly trade.

Soldiers from the Afghan army set out across the cracked earth that lays between the landing pad and the first compound, trailed by Canadian troops and three Americans. The soldiers tread carefully, each step deliberate. The threat of makeshift bombs has that effect.

Birds chirp in the trees. Boots crunch the earth. Two Griffon helicopters whirl overhead. Otherwise, it is quiet. Khenjakak looks deserted.

Military intelligence identified the village as a Taliban hiding spot. Until recently, foreign troops had rarely patrolled this part of southern Kandahar province. Their absence let the insurgents move freely, crossing in and out of safe havens in neighbouring Pakistan. The Taliban stage attacks out of Khenjakak. They move supplies and weapons along the nearby Tarnak River to other parts of the province.

Military officers suspect they caught the Taliban by surprise last week when they raided Khenjakak for the first time. No one shot at them and the bombs they found were disconnected, a sign that the insurgents weren't expecting foreign troops to find them.

This time could be different. The insurgents know Khenjakak is being targeted. Soldiers at Forward Operating Base Imam Sahib expect a fight. Or booby traps.
More on link


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## GAP (6 Jan 2011)

*Articles found December 6, 2010*

 Afghan villagers still living in fear of Taliban
  Article Link 
By Doug Schmidt, Postmedia News January 5, 2011

SALAVAT VILLAGE, Afghanistan — "Here's the truth: The Taliban won't let us work for you. The Taliban won't let our children go to school."

The blunt truth, spat out by a wrinkled and sunburnt elder who recently came close to being hanged outside his home by the militants, is coaxed out only after the area's tough-talking new Afghan army commander starts to lose patience with a group of representatives of a village where militants still hold sway.

In a country thirsting for education and starving for jobs, the village of Salavat is being offered both in abundance — but there are no takers here.

"If our children come to this school, the Taliban will come at night," said the villager, one of five brave old men who answered an invitation to a shura, or meeting, at the school. It's been renovated using Canadian dollars after it was shot up and closed down by the Taliban several years ago.

The area was militarily "cleared" of insurgents by Canadian, Afghan and U.S. soldiers in the summer and fall, but the next stage of winning local hearts and minds is another story.

The whitewashed new school stands empty. Coalition forces put out word there are jobs for everyone — especially for targeted "fighting-age males" — but the only work being done is with contractors brought in from elsewhere.
More on link

 Blast-resistant boxers keep soldiers safe below waist
Article Link
By CHRIS LAMBIE Business Editor Wed, Jan 5

A British company has developed blast-resistant boxer shorts it wants to market to Canadian soldiers heading to Afghanistan.

BCB International Ltd. claims the protective Kevlar shorts, in development for about a year, will help reduce the number of Canadian troops who suffer groin injuries when mines go off underfoot or roadside bombs blast their military vehicles.

The boxers cost about 54 English pounds or C$84.

"We’re selling lots through the good old eBay retail sales," John Rix, the company’s manager of military sales, said Tuesday in a telephone interview.

The shorts have been on sale for about two months, he said. BCB spent about $75,000 developing the product.

The British army is evaluating them, Rix said.

The company developed the boxers after hearing from military medics, he said.

"When you step on an (improvised explosive device), it’s quite often that your front leg, you’re going to lose it," Rix said. "The blast goes up and hits you in the groin area, and it’s the . . . four inches below your groin area and the inner legs where your main arteries are that you need to protect."

He hasn’t tried wearing the shorts yet.
More on link


Speaking of Speaking
Article Link
 Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Mark Sedra, one of Canada's experts on security sector reform, has some thoughts for reforming a different sector: the Prime Minister's communications office.  He is absolutely right that leaders in general and Canadian ones in particular should be clearer about what they are trying to do in Afghanistan. 

Mark is concerned that Harper is going to have to change his tune soon, since Afghanistan does not really need 800 Canadian trainers behind the wire.  What it needs is more trainers out in the field, mentoring and partnering.  I concur.  Where we differ is that I don't expect the Canadians to go out into the field.  I think Harper's marker about "behind the wire" will stick, even though he made a commitment without seeking real guidance from the military.  There may not be a need for folks behind the wire, but they will be there anyway.

This would not be the first time Canadian Forces faced serious restrictions about what they can do in a deployment.  Indeed, this used to be business as usual and not just in Bosnia.  In Afghanistan, the first tour of conventional Canadian troops spent more time guarding the Kandahar air base (2002) than going out precisely because they had to call home to do anything.  Perhaps the restrictions of the past were imposed by the top brass in the military.  This time, the restrictions will come from higher up and will almost assuredly stick. 
More on link

 Canadian troops need protection NO MATTER WHAT THEIR MISSION IS
Article Link

Prime Minister Harold MacMillan, who occupied the office in Great Britain from 1957 to 1963, was fond of advising in speeches he gave, that ... "the first rule of politics is never to invade Afghanistan."        
It was counsel based on a thousand years of history during which invading forces of that country, including that of Great Britain, always came a cropper.
Mr MacMillan’s adage also serves as a metaphor for the political futility implicit in tackling causes lost before they begin.
And so it has happened yet again, with British forces now withdrawing, American forces scheduled to begin the same process in 2011 and 2,800 Canadian military personnel giving up the cause of killing Taliban fighters (and the odd civilian who gets in the way) while Canadian civilians stay on to concentrate on building schools and hospitals and other good works for which there is evident need in this poorest of countries on the planet. 
We are informed by our prime minister that Canadians will no longer fulfil a combat role. Instead, Mr Harper told the House of Commons, "We will continue with a mission on governance, development and humanitarian assistance."
And apparently we will do that with a cadre of Canadians brave enough, or foolhardy enough, to undertake such a mission without any guarantee of military protection whatsoever.
I wonder what insurance will cost those volunteers for what is,  I suggest, a suicide mission. Senator High Segal, a Tory of long standing and some influence,  was quick to pick up on its apparent idiocy.
"It’s wrong for us to have only a civilian presence," said he, "because who’s going to provide security for them."
Good question Hughie. To which there is apparently no answer. Over a year ago Minister of Defence Peter MacKay asked several countries to provide cover for Canadian aid workers after the combat withdrawal, but got no offers.
In any case, it is one thing to provide rifle fire should there be an overt attack on workers, but as has been amply demonstrated over the years in Afghanistan, there is no defence against explosive devices planted in roadsides, or strapped to the body of a suicide bomber. 
It is also clear that the Taliban make no distinction whatsoever between a Canadian in uniform on a killing mission or a Canadian in blue jeans working for a humanitarian cause. To the Muslim fundamentalists known as the Taliban, they are both representatives of the infidel west, and must be eradicated from Muslim soil.
There is a steadily diminishing body of support for participation in the Afghan war amongst Canadians, just as there is in the United States.
In Canada, polls report almost 80 per cent of Canadians are against the combat mission. In the USA a recent poll listed 63 per cent as being against the war. In Afghanistan itself, the Afghans overwhelmingly approve getting rid of all foreign troops as soon as possible.
And around the world, in countries whose troops have been sent to Afghanistan, there is unanimous opposition to a continuation of keeping their soldiers there.
More on link

 Firing The SPG-9 Recoilless Rifle - Afghanistan
Article Link
  
From the source: "This was when we went to the firing range to shoot the SPG-9 Recoilless Rifle. This was one of the perks working on the DDR Team while deployed in Afghanistan. I never thought that I would be in a third world country shooting Russian weapons." 
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (6 Jan 2011)

U.S. Boosts Afghan Surge
Pentagon Plans to Send 1,400 Extra Marines to Supplement Spring Campaign
_WS Journal_, Jan. 6
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703675904576064021086613148.html



> Defense Secretary Robert Gates has decided to send an additional 1,400 Marine combat forces to Afghanistan, officials said, in a surprise move ahead of the spring fighting season to try to cement tentative security gains before White House-mandated troop reductions begin in July.
> 
> The Marine battalion could start arriving on the ground as early as mid-January. The forces would *mostly be deployed in the south, around Kandahar* [emphasis added, our area?], where the U.S. has concentrated troops over the past several months.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (7 Jan 2011)

*Articles found December 7, 2010*

 Targeted Afghan interpreters now living in Canada
Article Link

OTTAWA — When he headed home after work in Kandahar, Ghulam Wali Noori would never take the same route twice.

As an interpreter working with the Canadian military, he was a prime target of insurgents looking to punish Afghans involved with coalition forces.

When he made it to his family home, he and his three brothers would take turns guarding the door, working in shifts of three hours each to ward off any attempts at intimidation.

Now, his front door is protected only by a buzzer coder and his route home is almost always the same — Ottawa public transit.

Noori is one of about 28 interpreters now settled in Canada, more than a year after the federal government launched a program to help Afghans working with the Canadian mission in Kandahar immigrate to Canada.

Before moving to Ottawa, Noori had been living and working in Kabul as an adviser in the Karzai government. But from 2006 to 2009, he worked alongside Canadian soldiers training the Afghan National Army.

“We were Canadian,” Noori, 28, says of the hundreds of Afghan interpreters who have worked with the Canadian mission since 2002.

“Ethically, it is the (government’s) responsibility, humanitarily this is their responsibility: to rescue, to save those people who worked with them in dangerous situations
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 The Afghan Diaries: The Long Blooding of the 1-22 Infantry
By Nate Rawlings / Kandahar Wednesday, Jan. 05, 2011
Article Link

The convoy finished snaking its way slowly though Kandahar city just after 10 p.m. From the only open seat in the middle of a supply truck cab, I could see little other than broken roads and tiny trees until finally the driver cut to the left, over what looked like a small concrete footbridge with culverts on either side.

My heart stopped for a moment. This was just the type of spot where we used to find IEDs in Iraq. But the trucks passed over the narrow clip without incident and rolled into a small base known as ANCOP (Afghan National Civil Order Police) that also contains the headquarters of 1-22 Infantry. A sergeant who was bundled up against the cold led me through a dark maze to a small building and I immediately recognized the blue and white shield on the plywood door: the regimental crest of the 22nd Infantry. It was painted on the entrance to the tactical operations center, the brain stem for planning and resourcing the Regulars' operations in what is now the fourth chapter of the unit's nearly decade-long chronicle of war. (Read the first installment of Rawlings' Afghan Diaries.)

The Regulars' deployments began shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S. when the unit's B Company was sent to Guantanamo Bay to guard prisoners from new battlefields in Afghanistan. In 2003, the Regulars, along with the rest of the 4th Infantry Division, were supposed to invade Iraq through Turkey, but when the Turkish government refused to allow an invasion from its borders, they moved through Kuwait and reached Baghdad after the collapse of the Iraq regime. (See the Return to Baghdad series by Nate Rawlings and Bobby Ghosh.)
More on link

 Fear of Taliban keeps villagers from reporting IEDs
  Article Link 
By Doug Schmidt, Postmedia News January 6, 2011

SALAVAT VILLAGE, Afghanistan — The Canadian and Afghan army foot patrol gets less than 100 metres up the road from a typical Afghan village store where it had stopped Thursday when the bomb sniffer dog smells something funny.

A group of shopkeepers and other locals have just finished telling the soldiers they know nothing of the militants the soldiers suspect live among them and who are setting the roadside bombs that are killing and maiming coalition forces and civilians.

It is to this store's location that the soldiers now withdraw after the dog's suspicions are confirmed. It's a homemade bomb filled with shrapnel and planted below the surface on a busy path. The projectile-shaped improvised explosive device is angled to strike in the direction of the person who unwittingly sets it off — perfectly designed for a foot patrol like this.

"We're not f—— dumb, you know, we know some of you people are helping these guys," an angry Master Cpl. Stephane Tremblay Morin tells the group during the long wait as a team of explosives-disposal experts from a nearby military base tackles the bomb. His exact words are not translated by the calm-mannered interpreter, but the obvious exasperation in his voice appears to resonate with the villagers.

Salavat has been "owned" by the Taliban insurgents for years, but coalition and Afghan forces, both military and police, have begun making it a priority, and these patrols, and the Afghan government's presence, will only increase.

Afghans cherish their children, and Tremblay Morin questions why they would stand back and allow the militants to plant bombs in an area frequented by the village's youngsters.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (8 Jan 2011)

ARTICLES FOUND JAN. 8

British troops move out of Helmand
• First permanent UK base set up outside province since 2006
• Patrols aimed at securing key road in violent part of Kandahar
• Household Cavalry working under US command
_Guardian_, Jan. 7
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jan/07/british-troops-afghan-district-kandahar



> British troops have established a permanent presence outside Helmand province for the first time since 2006 in an effort to secure a key road that runs through one of Kandahar's most violent districts, according to US and UK officials.
> 
> Since mid-December troops from the Household Cavalry have been operating on a 12 mile stretch of Highway 1 in Maiwand district where they are overseeing patrols and checkpoints alongside soldiers from the Afghan army.
> 
> ...



NATO to deploy radar planes to Afghanistan
AFP, Jan. 8
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/NATO-to-deploy-radar-planes-to-Afghanistan/articleshow/7238489.cms



> BRUSSELS: NATO decided on Friday to deploy AWACS radar aircraft to Afghanistan to monitor the growing traffic of aerial missions against Taliban insurgents, the Western military alliance said.
> 
> Allies reached an agreement for the "AWACS to begin their operations in Afghanistan in mid-January," NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu told AFP.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (10 Jan 2011)

*Articles found January 10, 2011*

 Canadian troops pushing into volatile territory as Afghan mission winds down
Article Link
By: Steve Rennie, The Canadian Press Posted: 01/9/2011 

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - It has long been Canada's problem child in Kandahar.

The Panjwaii district has vexed the military brain trust for years. It is the cradle of the Taliban movement, the insurgency's spiritual heartland. Many Taliban fighters hail from the district's dominant Noorzai tribe, so the sympathies of villagers do not always lie with foreign forces.

It is one of the last three districts of Kandahar still under Canada's watch. The other districts, Dand and Daman, are relatively stable by comparison — 'relatively' being the operative word.

So with seven months left on Canada's combat clock, time is running out to pacify the Panjwaii.

Canadian troops are in the midst of a massive effort to do just that.

Soldiers have recently stepped up their searches for hidden caches of enemy weapons. Crews are building a major road through the district. Troops are fanning out across Panjwaii. They are holding ground where they haven't before. Afghan and Canadian forces are striking villages, scattershot, to keep the insurgents off-kilter.

The strategy is meant to keep the Taliban at bay long enough for Afghan security forces to gain a solid footing, the commander of Canada's last battle group in Kandahar said in an interview.

"I want to keep the insurgents off-balance," said Lt.-Col. Michel-Henri St-Louis, who is in charge of the 1st Battalion, Royal 22e Regiment combat team, based at CFB Valcartier.

"I want to keep them guessing."
More on link

 Preparing for the challenges of Canada's Afghan pullout
Article Link

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — It will cost “lots of hundreds of millions of dollars” to move Canada’s nearly 3,000 soldiers, all their gear and equipment and nearly a decade’s worth of supportive infrastructure out of Kandahar province this year, says the man in charge of preparing for the mammoth undertaking.

“It’s like moving a very large village or small town, lock, stock and barrel,” said Lt.-Col. Steve Moritsugu, who is leader of the mission transition and liaison team for the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan.

“We have to clean, repair and pack everything up and move it halfway around the world,” he said.

A more precise price tag isn’t available at this stage. Canada hasn’t undertaken such a large-scale military pullout in nearly 60 years. The 1st battalion Royal 22e Regiment battle group has to be out of the fight by July, and most traces of Canada’s military presence in Kandahar must disappear by the end of the year.

And this is no ordinary town that has to be cleared. There are entire base camps and buildings, and many of the hundreds of vehicles that need to be moved are big and heavy, from a squadron of 60-tonne Leopard 2 tanks to large bulldozers, graders, heavy-lift cranes and armoured combat vehicles.

Helicopters have to be shipped home, as do artillery pieces (with their shells weighing more than 45 kilograms apiece) and “hundreds and hundreds” of computers, Lt.-Col. Moritsugu said
More on link

 Military studies what to keep, toss out, as pullout approaches
Article Link
Matthew Fisher, Canwest News Service · Saturday, Dec. 12, 2009

Canadian military planners in Afghanistan are making only the most preliminary studies of what needs to be moved, sold or thrown away for a 2011 withdrawal as part of a process that could still see a change in direction in the next six to nine months.

Gen. Walter Natynczyk, the country's top soldier, was categorical in testimony this week that the military is planning a complete pullout from Afghanistan in response to the government's interpretation of a motion passed by Parliament to end the mission in July 2011.

"We live on fact and we live on orders," Gen. Natynczyk told MPs on the Commons defence committee.

However, while few Canadian politicians and generals may want to hear it, the almost universal view in Kandahar is that Canada will continue to have a military mission of some kind in Afghanistan post-2011.

There is a widespread feeling here and at National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa that Gen. Natynczyk has gone public in recent weeks about planning for the withdrawal in order to focus politicians on Parliament Hill on what, if anything, Canada intends to do in Afghanistan when the current mandate expires.
More on link


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## The Bread Guy (11 Jan 2011)

Military to disband drone team after Afghan mission ends
Article Link
STEVE RENNIE, The Canadian Press (via _Globe & Mail_), Published Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2011 5:13AM EST

The military will ground Canada's spy plane program after the Afghan combat mission ends this summer.

The commander of the prop-driven CU-170 Herons, which operate out of Kandahar Airfield, said the Canadian Forces will disband his squadron once troops pull out of Kandahar.

Maj. Dave Bolton, the new and final commander of Task Force Erebus, said his team will then go on to other jobs within the military.

“There's a lot of very young people that were involved with this program,” he said in an interview.

“There's probably going to be a hiatus of somewhere between two and five years. But those people will still be in the military, and those people will have this experience, and they'll be able to move forward with the yardstick when the time comes.”

The Herons were leased as part of the independent Manley commission report to extend Canada's military mission in Afghanistan until 2011.

The vehicles, which are flown by controllers on the ground, help Canada and other members of the U.S.-led coalition keep watch over roads where insurgents are believed to be planting roadside bombs or planning ambushes.

The commander of Canada's air wing in Kandahar, Col. Paul Prevost, lauded the work of Task Force Erebus during a ceremony this week in which Maj. Bolton took over command of the drone squad .... 
More on link


 What’s a life worth?:  Canadian military payments for death and destruction in Afghanistan have tripled 
Article Link
Michael Friscolanti on Monday, January 10, 2011 9:40am

.... Between April 1, 2009, and March 31, 2010, the military issued 272 ex-gratia payments—more than five per week. The cash settlements ranged from as low as $185 to as high as $21,420, for a grand total of $661,045. That is triple the amount handed out during the previous year (102 payments totalling $205,828) and a fourfold increase from the year before that (57 payments; $152,683).

Why such a huge jump? The answer is difficult to confirm. The Department of National Defence is hesitant to discuss how it atones for civilian loss in Afghanistan, careful not to jeopardize the safety of those who receive the cash—or draw extra attention to the harsh fact that Canadian soldiers sometimes make fatal mistakes. Last year, when Maclean’s filed an Access to Information request for the details of all ex-gratia payments made during fiscal years 2008 and 2009, the documents arrived almost entirely censored (and took eight months to obtain). The latest numbers, outlined in the current Public Accounts of Canada, are equally vague. They contain no names, no dates, and no description of the 272 incidents that led to each payout.

Last month, Maclean’s asked the Forces to explain why ex-gratia awards have tripled over the past year. Are soldiers inflicting far more civilian damage? Or is DND simply more committed to processing claims? Military officials said they would provide an answer before Christmas, but as this magazine went to press, it hadn’t arrived .... 
More on link


Column:  The trouble with embedding 
Article Link
LYSIANE GAGNON, From Monday's Globe and Mail

…. The Canadian government uses embedded journalists to highlight the “human” side of the Afghan war, as well as the undisputed courage of our soldiers. It also deploys civilians to assist the soldiers in humanitarian missions (for instance, Ms. Saeed was to assist Sgt. Taylor as he reached out to the locals). But what happened on Dec. 30, 2009, on a road south of Kandahar, should open up questions about these policies. 
More on link


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## GAP (12 Jan 2011)

*Articles found December 12, 2010*

Bureaucrats slam 'double standard' in awarding military medals
 By Kathryn May, Postmedia News January 11, 2011
   Article Link

OTTAWA — Bureaucrats working alongside the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan are baffled why civilian police officers and Tim Hortons employees at Kandahar Airfield are eligible for military medals but they aren't.

Public servants were eligible for the military's General Service Medal when the mission began in 2002 and they worked under the authority of the Canadian Forces. But several months ago, bureaucrats were notified by Afghanistan Task Force officials they no longer qualified because they don't work for the military.

The change ruffled feathers earlier this month when Task Force Commander Brig-Gen. Dean Milner handed out medals to 14 civilian police officers at the Kandahar Airfield for their nine-month stint working with Afghan police. Bureaucrats say most police officers are paid by the Foreign Affairs Department and work for it on its projects.

National Defence officials have since begun an examination into whom the civilian police reported to and whether they were given the wrong medal.
More on link

Life in jail for two Pakistani Muslim blasphemers
Article Link
 12 January 2011 Last updated at 06:41 ET

A court in Pakistan has sentenced a Muslim prayer leader and his son to life in jail for blasphemy.

The pair were found guilty in Punjab province of tearing down a poster of a gathering to mark the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad. They deny blasphemy.

A Christian leader said this was the first time a jail term had been handed down under the blasphemy law, which carries a mandatory death sentence.

Christian woman Asia Bibi is on death row for allegedly insulting Islam.

The conviction of the Muslim father and son was Pakistan's first under its blasphemy law since last week's assassination of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, who had backed proposed reforms to the legislation.
'Poster trampled'

The sentence was handed down by an anti-terrorism court in the city of Dera Ghazi Khan in eastern Punjab province on Tuesday.

It followed an incident in the small town of Noor Shah Talai, in southern Punjab's Muzaffargarh district, in April 2010, defence lawyer Arif Gurmani told the BBC.

He said the convicted pair, Mohammad Shafi, 45, and his 20-year-old son, Mohammad Aslam, had been running a grocery shop in a small market. Mr Shafi is also a prayer leader at a nearby mosque.

The complainant, Phool Khan, alleged that the pair had ripped down and trampled a poster of a gathering to mark the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad. It had been posted on a pillar outside the grocery shop.

The lawyer said they would launch an appeal against the sentence on Thursday Lahore High Court, as he claimed the allegations had been motivated by sectarian differences.
More on link

 Veterans Affairs to give vets hiring priority
 Published on January 11th, 2011  Ryan Ros
Article Link

Veterans could soon take priority when it comes to hiring at Veterans Affairs, says the minister responsible for the department.

Veterans Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn was in Charlottetown Tuesday as part of a visit to the Maritimes for meetings with Veterans Affairs staff.

During an interview with media, Blackburn said veterans will have priority hiring for jobs in the department, except in cases where it would result in a job loss for someone else.

“After that our first priority is to our veterans. They have to have the ability to do the job, but that’s what we want to introduce,” he said.

Blackburn said the department is in the process of implementing the changes to give veterans priority hiring, but it hasn’t taken effect yet and he didn’t know when it would start.

“We realize we don’t have enough so we are implementing this process.”
More on link

Afghanistan: Attacks on intelligence forces kill eight
Article Link
 12 January 2011 Last updated at 08:12 ET

At least four people were killed when a suicide attacker rammed his motorcycle into a bus in the Afghan capital, Kabul, police have told the BBC.

More than 30 others were injured in the powerful blast in the west of the city.

Security sources said the bus was carrying members of the Afghan intelligence agency, the NDS.

Meanwhile a remote-controlled roadside bomb in the eastern province of Kunar killed another Afghan intelligence service officer and three others.

Separately, Nato says three of its soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing in the east. A fourth died in a bomb attack in the south.
Taliban claim

Wednesday's suicide blast in Kabul damaged the bus, several other vehicles and the windows of nearby buildings.

The bomber's body and his destroyed motorbike lay next to the bus. The Taliban have said they carried out the attack.

The security forces cordoned off the area, which is near ministries, the Afghan parliament and offices run by foreign companies.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (12 Jan 2011)

From the Conference of Defence Associations' latest media round-up:
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1294862135/0#0



> ...
> ---AFGHANISTAN & PAKISTAN---
> 
> A Council on Foreign Relations report on an Independent Task Force on Afghanistan provides an in-depth look at US Af-Pak strategy and contends that, without signs of progress, American strategy is in critical condition.
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (17 Jan 2011)

ARTICLES FOUND JAN. 17

Support Expected for Plan to Beef Up Afghan Forces
_NY Times_, Jan. 16
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/17/world/asia/17afghanistan.html



> KABUL, Afghanistan — The Afghan government and its international partners are set to approve a plan that would expand the nation’s army and police forces to up to 378,000 personnel by October 2012, a 42 percent increase over the current level, Western and Afghan officials say.
> 
> The plan, which is pending, reflects growing confidence in a training mission that for years has been hobbled by illiteracy, drug use, corruption and high desertion and resignation rates among the Afghan security forces. At one point in 2009, more Afghan soldiers were abandoning the army than joining it.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (17 Jan 2011)

*Articles found December 17, 2010*

 Canadians responsible for fraction of Kandahar damage
Article Link
The Canadian Press Saturday Jan. 15, 2011 12:07 PM ET

KANDAHAR — The military says a Canadian road project in southern Afghanistan is responsible for only a fraction of damage claims against foreign troops.

The Canadian Forces says it has paid about $50,000 to Afghans whose property has been damaged by a thoroughfare being carved through rural Kandahar.

Thirty-seven people have filed damage claims over the road.

So far, five kilometres of road out of a total of 18 have been completed.

The road accounts for more than a quarter of all claims made against the Canadian Forces since a military offensive began in early November.

The military says it has paid nearly $174,000 to 88 claimants for various things, mostly property damage, since Nov. 2, 2010.

This week, a delegation of Afghan government officials claimed a recent military effort in Kandahar has come at an astronomical cost: upwards of $100 million in damaged fruit crops, livestock and property.

But the commander of all NATO forces in southern Afghanistan disputes that figure. 
More on link

 Canadian soldiers try using tough love, jealousy to win over Afghan villagers
  Article Link
 By Doug Schmidt, Postmedia News January 15, 2011

PANJWAII DISTRICT, Afghanistan — Months of sometimes tough and bloody fighting by Canadian, U.S. and Afghan forces over the summer and fall weren’t enough to pacify a village that remains a refuge for insurgents in southern Afghanistan.

That’s when the Canadians, with plenty of cash for "icebreaker" projects designed to get young men more interested in jobs than war, decided to just bypass Nakhonay and fund a flood of development projects for its closest neighbours.

Canada’s soldiers have taken on a newer, tough-love approach as two deadlines loom — their summer pullout from Kandahar, and, preceding that, the traditional spring start of another insurgent fighting season.

In Nakhonay and other hardcore villages in the Taliban homelands of Panjwaii district southwest of Kandahar City, Canada is showing impatience in trying to persuade obstinate elders to let go of their sympathies for the insurgents and switch their allegiance instead to the government’s side.

The malik — or leader — of Nakhonay openly boasts of his sons being in the insurgency, according to soldiers here. When renovations recently began on a school in nearby Salavat village, a giant banner proclaiming the project was hung outside a small military post facing Nakhonay. Schools and education are hugely important to most Afghans, and many area schools were destroyed by the Taliban.

Nakhonay residents began asking the soldier foot patrols why they weren’t also getting a school, and the response was that their elders said no.
More on link


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## GAP (18 Jan 2011)

*Articles found January 18, 2011*

 Taliban attack NATO fuel trucks in Baluchistan
By Bill RoggioJanuary 16, 2011 3:22 AM
Article Link

The Pakistani Taliban admitted to destroying 16 NATO fuel tankers yesterday in the Dera Murad Jamali area in the southwestern province of Baluchistan. From NDTV:

    Pakistani Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq in a phone call to AFP claimed responsibility for the attack.

    "It is in retaliation to drone attacks in tribal areas," Tariq said from an undisclosed location in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region. "We will continue to attack NATO supply vehicles and warn those operating them to immediately stop doing it otherwise they may also be targeted," he said.
More on link

 Britain Moves to Ban Pakistani Taliban Under Terror Law
By REUTERS Published: January 18, 2011
Article Link

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has moved to ban the Pakistani Taliban as a terrorist group, making it illegal to belong to or raise funds for the organization in Britain, the government said on Tuesday.

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan is the group most influenced by al Qaeda and is the main militant alliance based in northwestern Pakistan, focusing on attacking the Pakistani state, which it considers illegitimate.

Home Secretary (interior minister) Theresa May introduced the order, which needs legislative approval, in parliament on Monday and it will be debated later this week. The order would ban Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan under the British Terrorism Act. 
More on link

 Conflict on Afghan Efforts to Tax Foreign Contractors
By ROD NORDLAND Published: January 17, 2011
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan — To parse Ben Franklin, the only thing certain about life in Afghanistan is death. Taxes are another matter.

The Ministry of Finance says its efforts to change that have run into robust resistance from the very people lecturing it about the rule of law: American and European allies who do not want to see their own contractors taxed.

Those contractors respond that taxing them is an absurdity, because foreign companies are here spending military and other foreign aid money that, by United States law and plain common sense, ought to be tax exempt.

“The international community should be happy we are implementing the rule of law,” said Said Mubin Shah, deputy minister of finance for customs and revenue. “We should work together to solve this problem and impose the rule of law, because a lot of foreign contractors are evading their taxes.” 
More on link

 In Afghanistan, Insurgents Let Bombs Do Fighting
By MICHAEL KAMBER Published: January 17, 2011
Article Link

PATROL BASE BARIOLAI, Afghanistan — If the battlegrounds of Afghanistan are the “tip of the spear,” as Marines like to say, then the remote district of Sangin in Helmand Province may be its very point: the deadliest spot in the hardest-fought province for Marines leading the American offensive in Taliban territory. 
More on link

 Pakistan’s Failure to Hit Militant Sanctuary Has Positive Side for U.S.
By ERIC SCHMITT Published: January 17, 2011
Article Link

WASHINGTON — Pakistan’s refusal to attack militants in a notorious sanctuary on its northwest border may have created a magnet there for hundreds of Islamic fighters seeking a safe haven where they can train and organize attacks against NATO forces in Afghanistan. But theirs is a congregation in the cross hairs. 
More on link

Canadian, Afghan troops clear Taliban town
Article Link

PANJWAII DISTRICT, Afghanistan - Canadian and Afghan troops have made their third foray into a village in southern Afghanistan suspected of harbouring insurgent weapons.

Forty-two soldiers raided Khenjakak from the south today, about two weeks after troops last swept through the town.

They cleared mud-walled compounds and uncovered several caches of weapons, which they destroyed.

Meanwhile, another 15 Canadians provided support for an American-led operation in the nearby town of Rigwa'i.

Canadian and Afghan forces have been pushing south into the volatile district of Panjwaii in an attempt to keep the insurgents off balance. 
More on link


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## GAP (19 Jan 2011)

*Articles found January 19, 2011*

 Canada troops didn't kill unarmed Afghan: probe
Article Link
By Michel Comte (AFP) – 19 hours ago

OTTAWA — Canadian military police investigators on Tuesday dismissed accusations made by a former translator for Canadian troops in Afghanistan that the soldiers had killed an unarmed Afghan.

Ahmadshah Malgarai told a parliamentary committee last April that in 2007, Canadian soldiers shot an unarmed man whom they believed had been carrying a gun, and arrested innocent civilians to cover it up.

As well, he accused soldiers of subsequently planting a weapon on the dead man.

A nine-month probe zeroed in on a Canadian operation in the overnight of June 18-19, 2007, that resulted in the death of a 17-year-old male.

But investigators said: "The individual was determined to be an armed threat and a legitimate target."

The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service concluded, based on interviews of witnesses and other evidence: "No criminal or service offenses were committed in relation to this incident."

Malgarai testified before a panel investigating claims that Canadian forces transferred detainees to Afghan authorities despite a risk that the prisoners would be tortured.

The former translator said such transfers had taken place and accused the Canadian forces of "subcontracting torture."

Several international human rights treaties prohibit the transfer of detainees to a location or authority if they face a credible risk of torture or other abuse.

Canada currently has 2,830 troops deployed in Afghanistan.
More on link

 US Predators kill 5 'militants' in al Qaeda stronghold of Datta Khel
By Bill RoggioJanuary 18, 2011
Article Link

Today, US Predators launched the first strike in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan in six days, killing five "militants" in an area known to shelter al Qaeda's top leaders.

The strike took place in the Datta Khel area, a command and control center for al Qaeda and allied terror groups. The unmanned Predators or the more deadly Reapers fired two or three missiles at a compound in Datta Khel, according to reports from the region.

A Pakistani intelligence official said all five people killed in the strike were "militants," but did not identify which group they belonged to. No senior al Qaeda, Taliban, or other terrorist leaders have been reported killed in today's strike.

The target of today's attack is not clear. The US targets senior al Qaeda leaders, al Qaeda's external operations networks, and the mishmash of terrorist groups, including the Taliban and the Haqqani Network, that carry out attacks in Afghanistan. 
More on link

Talks underway to replace key Kandahar player in Canadian-patrolled area
January 19, 2011, EST. The Canadian Press
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The Canadian Press has learned secret talks are underway to replace the governor of a tumultuous district of Kandahar that is under Canada's watch.

The backroom dealing in the Afghan capital and in the country's south centres around finding a replacement for Haji Baran, the current governor of Panjwaii.

A security shura, or meeting of Afghan elders, in the district was cancelled on Monday because Baran was in Kabul for meetings.

Reached by telephone, Baran confirmed he was in the capital this week.

Speaking in Pashto, he told a local journalist working for The Canadian Press that he has heard the talk that he will soon be replaced as Panjwaii's governor.

But Baran insisted he's not going anywhere.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (19 Jan 2011)

U.S. Slows Afghan Security-Force Expansion
Proposal to Lift Local Manpower Hits Concerns About Competence, Costs
Wall St. Journal, Jan. 19
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704678004576089811362099154.html?mod=WSJ_topics_obama



> KABUL—The White House has put a hold on a military proposal to raise the ceiling for building up Afghan security forces, with a spokesman saying there have been "no decisions" on army and police manpower growth beyond approved 2011 targets.
> 
> European allies and the Afghan government have also expressed concerns about the plan, focusing on its costs and the quality of police and army personnel. The doubts forced the abrupt postponement of a meeting Tuesday intended to formally approve the new ceiling.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (20 Jan 2011)

*Articles found January 20, 2011*


 Canadians hoping for quiet spring before Kandahar pullout
Article Link
Matthew Fisher, Postmedia News · Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2011

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — It’s a crucial question with no clear answer: will the Taliban return in strength to Kandahar when the traditional fighting season resumes after the annual opium harvest ends this spring?

It’s a question of immense interest to Canada’s battle group, which will continue to patrol one of the three districts in Kandahar, where the insurgency has always been strongest, until its combat mission ends this July.

With no firm evidence yet one way or the other, but armed with knowledge of the Taliban’s usual fighting calendar and their long history of resilience, Canada’s Task Force Kandahar — now led by a battle group in Panjwaii built around a Royal 22nd Regiment battalion — has had to prepare as if the enemy will be back again in April. With that possibility in mind, the Canadians have been trying to consolidate territorial gains made last year by maintaining a high operational tempo to create an environment stable enough to allow the Afghan government to begin offering services to the local population.

Postmedia News, along with some British and American journalists, have been reporting for several months now that the Taliban were dealt a devastating blow by coalition forces in Kandahar after a huge surge of U.S. troops last spring and summer.
More on link

 Canadian Forces seek new staging base for Afghanistan
STEVEN CHASE , BRENT JANG AND JANE TABER
OTTAWA, TORONTO AND OTTAWA— From Thursday's Globe and Mail Published Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2011
Article Link

The Canadian military is casting about for another staging base for Afghanistan to replace makeshift arrangements in Cyprus – where the Forces relocated after Canada was kicked out of the United Arab Emirates late last year.

A move is not certain, but the Canadian Forces are searching for another, possibly closer, location from which to move troops and supplies in and out of Kandahar.
More on link

 Canadian jihadists training in Pak camp
Wednesday January 19 2011 By GURMUKH SINGH
  Article Link

Canadian authorities are worried after reports that a dozen Canadian converts to Islam are getting trained for jihad at an Al Qaeda camp in Pakistan.

Hong Kong-based Asia Times Online has reported a dozen Canadian converts are among the jihadists getting training in an Al Qaeda camp near the Pakistan-Afghan border to mount Mumbai-like attacks in Canada.

Quoting "well-placed Taliban sources" the report says Al Qaeda's aim is to use Western extremists for an attack on Canadian soil.

The report says all the 12 Canadians travelled to Afghanistan in February 2010 where they joined Egyptian militant outfit Jihad Al Islami. In November, they were taken to Darpakhel in Pakistan's lawless North Waziristan border area for weapons training.

"In Afghanistan they received basic jihadi training, while currently they are busy doing some special courses. Their main learning is how to use sophisticated weapons, and how to connect with local smuggling networks in North America," the report quoted Arif Wazir, a local militant of Darpakhel in North Waziristan, as saying.

"They are also learning how to use ordinary materials like sugar and basic chemicals to make powerful explosives. These militants will then return to their country to execute Al Qaeda's plan of targeting big cities in Canada," the militant said.

Canadian authorities said they were assessing the report for its "credibility and reliability" and would take necessary action.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (20 Jan 2011)

Italy to stay the course in Afghanistan
UPI, Jan. 19
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/01/19/Italy-to-stay-the-course-in-Afghanistan/UPI-97781295451559/



> Italy's defense minister said Wednesday his nation's mission in Afghanistan will continue as long as its allies are in the country.
> 
> Ignazio La Russa issued the assurance in response to a comment Tuesday night by Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.
> 
> The Italian premier questioned whether it was "really worth it" to stay the course following news a 36th Italian soldier had died in Afghanistan since 2004...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (21 Jan 2011)

*Articles found January 21, 2011*


 Stryker unit's early arrival in Afghanistan means Germany brigade coming home early
By Seth Robson Stars and Stripes Published: January 20, 2011
Article Link

VILSECK, Germany — The next U.S. Stryker brigade to deploy to southern Afghanistan will be in place ahead of fighting season, allowing for the early return of the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, the unit’s commander said Tuesday.

“Yes, we are coming home early,” Col. James Blackburn said to smiles and applause. “First, 2nd and 3rd Squadrons will be home three weeks ahead of schedule, and 4th Squadron and the Regimental Support Squadron will be a home a week early.”

Speaking at a town hall meeting Tuesday, Blackburn said that the 1st Stryker Brigade, 25th Infantry Division out of Fort Wainwright, Alaska, needs to be in place ahead of the summer fighting season.

“We are trying to get the next unit set early before it really greens up,” he said, referring to the spring growth spurt in Afghan orchards that provides insurgents cover to attack ISAF and Afghan forces.

Col. Todd Wood, commander of the 1st Stryker Brigade, told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner that he’d been to Afghanistan to survey the area and found terrain that is more rugged than the roads where his Strykers operated during their 2008-2009 deployment to Iraq.
More on link

Canadian broadcaster partnering with ABC on a second Canuck drama after success of Rookie Blue.
Article Link

TORONTO – Canadian broadcaster Shaw Media on Thursday said it will co-produce the homegrown medical procedural Combat Hospital with ABC.

Confirmation of the American deal for the Canadian-U.K. drama means production on the now untitled series from Sienna Films, Artists Studios and Lookout Point can go ahead.

There’s no word on casting. Shaw Media is set to announce Monday a veteran director attached to the Canadian medical drama.

Shaw Media's cable drama channel Showcase will air the 13-part series about a military medical facility in Afghanistan where doctors and nurses treat coalition troops and Afghan civilians next summer.

ABC and Global Television, Shaw Media’s conventional TV network, earlier collaborated on Rookie Blue, a Canadian cop drama from Entertainment One now in its second season.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (21 Jan 2011)

Playing Politics: Afstan, USA, Canada and China
Conference of Defence Associations' media round-up, Jan. 21
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1295636566/0#0

Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (22 Jan 2011)

ARTICLES FOUND JAN. 22

Keeping tabs on Afghanistan's porous border with Pakistan
Postmedia News, Jan. 21
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Keeping+tabs+Afghanistan+porous+border+with+Pakistan/4146940/story.html



> SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan — The Canadian general who helps NATO run the war against the Taliban in its southern heartland looked out under a glowering sky toward fog-shrouded mountains on the Pakistan border.
> 
> Many insurgents spend their winters hiding behind that wall of granite, resting while getting resupplied for the fighting season, which usually kicks off again in Kandahar when hot weather arrives in April.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (23 Jan 2011)

*Articles found January 23, 2011*

Article Link
 Taliban and Western forces focus on Afghan district
Deadly Sangin district in the southern province of Helmand is a center of narcotics trafficking for the insurgents and a strategically located area where Western forces are keen to show progress.
By Laura King, Los Angeles Times January 22, 2011

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan —
British troops who have served there tend to depart from standard military terminology when they talk about what kind of place it is. They use words like "spooky," "eerie," "haunted." Or they might invoke a short, sharp profanity.

They are speaking of Sangin, an enclave in Helmand province that is perhaps the Afghan war's most dangerous district.

As a rule, a place so deadly is also strategic, and Sangin is no exception. In a province that supplies most of the world's opium, the district is an epicenter for narcotics processing and drug transport — activities that blur the already ambiguous line between the insurgency and criminal gangs. For the Taliban, Sangin is a perfectly positioned staging ground for attacks not only across Helmand, but in neighboring Kandahar province, another key battleground.
More on link

 US drone strikes kill 6 suspected militants in NW Pakistan as tribesmen protest attacks
Article Link
By: Rasool Dawar, The Associated Press Posted: 01/22/2011

MIR ALI, Pakistan - A pair of suspected U.S. drone strikes killed six alleged militants in Pakistan's troubled North Waziristan tribal area near the Afghan border Sunday, Pakistani intelligence officials said.

The attacks came as more than 2,000 tribesmen, many of them students, held a protest in one of North Waziristan's largest towns demanding an end to the drone strikes, saying they killed innocent civilians.

Militants have effective control over North Waziristan, and it was unclear if they played a role in organizing the protest. The U.S. refuses to acknowledge the covert CIA drone strikes publicly, but officials insist privately that the attacks are precise and mainly kill Taliban and al-Qaida militants. However, there have been credible accounts of civilian casualties.

In the first drone attack, the aircraft fired two missiles at a vehicle and a house in Doga Mada Khel village, killing four suspected militants, said intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Hours later, a drone fired two missiles at a pair of suspected foreign militants riding a motorcycle in the same village, killing them, said the officials.

The exact identities of the suspected militants killed were unknown, but Doga Mada Khel is controlled by fighters loyal to the powerful militant commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur. His group and other militants in North Waziristan regularly launch attacks against U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

The U.S. has stepped up its use of drone strikes to target militants in North Waziristan given the reluctance of the Pakistani army to launch an offensive in the area.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (23 Jan 2011)

Former Spy With Agenda Operates a Private C.I.A.
_NY Times_, Jan. 22
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/world/23clarridge.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2



> Duane R. [Dewey] Clarridge parted company with the Central Intelligence Agency more than two decades ago, but from poolside at his home near San Diego, he still runs a network of spies.
> 
> Over the past two years, he has fielded operatives in the mountains of Pakistan and the desert badlands of Afghanistan. Since the United States military cut off his funding in May, he has relied on like-minded private donors to pay his agents to continue gathering information about militant fighters, Taliban leaders and the secrets of Kabul’s ruling class.
> 
> ...



'Russia to supply copters to Afghans'
PressTV (Iran), Jan. 22
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/161360.html



> Russia and the United States are expected to hold talks later this month to pave the way for supplying Afghanistan's military with Russian helicopters, reports say.
> 
> Zamir Kabulov of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Asia department told the RIA Novosti on Friday that a group of experts from the ministry and Russia's state arms exporter, Rosoboronexport, will meet with US officials in Washington.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (23 Jan 2011)

Canadians to begin Afghan combat pullout in June: commander
Article Link
Matthew Fisher, Postmedia News · Sunday, Jan. 23, 2011

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Canada’s last combat troops in Afghanistan are to begin withdrawing from “outside the wire” between “the middle and end of June” and all of them will be back at Kandahar Airfield or in Canada “by the end of July,” says their commander, Lt.-Col. Henri-Michel St-Louis.

“I don’t have specific orders but what I have been telling my guys over the last couple of weeks is that we are now concentrating on that window,” Lt.-Col. St. Louis, who leads the last of 10 battle groups that have rotated through Kandahar since the spring of 2006, said in an interview Sunday.

“Obviously the date that the individual soldier is to go home is foremost on his mind. As the plan is finalized we will be informing the guys.”

There have been quiet negotiations for several months now involving Canada, the U.S. and NATO’s Regional Command South over exactly when would be the best time for the Royal 22nd Regiment battle group to withdraw, bearing in mind a deadline imposed in Ottawa to end their combat mission in Kandahar “by July.”

The discussions centred on whether it was better to begin the handover responsibility to U.S. forces for Panjwaii District, where the Van Doo battle group’s 1,300 combat troops are concentrated, as early as April or to do so closer to the end of mission date set by the House of Commons three years ago. Although the formal transfer of Panjwaii to U.S. authority has not yet been ratified, it is likely to take place sometime early in July.

“To be honest, I wasn’t too privy to the to-and-fro between Task Force Kandahar and RC South or, as you put it, between Canada and the U.S.,” Lt.-Col. St. Louis said.

“A relief in place of a combat force like ours in the middle of the fighting season in the summer is obviously complicated. There has been PhD-level planning that had courses of action which saw it (Canada’s withdrawal) a bit earlier and a bit later or somewhere in between.”

Most of the Van Doos will end up spending about eight months in Afghanistan. Their first month in the country, in December, was the busiest yet for Canadian forces, due to what the military calls “IED events,” and “IED finds,” Lt.-Col. St. Louis said. They had encountered an average of more than two homemade landmines every day last month and the ratio of finds to strikes or explosions was nine-to-one.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (24 Jan 2011)

ARTICLES FOUND JAN. 24

Russia Ready to Train Afghan Police Forces 
TOLOnews (Afghan), Jan. 23
http://www.tolonews.com/en/afghanistan/1669-russia-ready-to-train-afghan-police-forces-



> Russia is ready to provide equipment and training to Afghan police forces, a top official at the Ministry of Interior Affairs (MoI) said on Sunday.
> 
> Presently a number of Afghan police forces are receiving anti-drugs trafficking trainings in Russia, Interior Ministry Spokesperson, Zemarai Bashari, told reporters during a conference.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (26 Jan 2011)

ARTICLES FOUND JAN. 26

In letter, Petraeus offers optimistic assessment of Afghan war
_Washington Post_, Jan. 26
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/25/AR2011012506019.html



> KABUL - Gen. David H. Petraeus on Tuesday offered an optimistic assessment of the war in Afghanistan, writing to his subordinates that coalition and Afghan troops in the past year "inflicted enormous losses" on mid-level insurgents and "took away some of their most important safe havens."
> 
> The three-page letter from the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan to the troops
> http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/29586-comisaf-assessment.html
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (28 Jan 2011)

ARTICLES FOUND JAN. 28

Debating Withdrawal
German Parliament Votes to Extend Afghanistan Mandate
_Spiegel Online_, Jan. 28
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,742234,00.html#ref=nlint



> A broad majority of German parliamentarians voted on Friday to extend the country's involvement in Afghanistan by one year. For the first time, however, the mandate includes a potential withdrawal date -- and the opposition is warning Chancellor Angela Merkel's government that it needs to keep its promise.
> 
> Parliament in Berlin on Friday voted to extend the German military's mandate in Afghanistan with the broad majority most had expected. With much of the opposition throwing its support behind Chancellor Angela Merkel's government, 420 parliamentarians voted in favor of extending the mission by one year. There were 116 "no" votes and 43 abstentions.
> 
> ...



Progress in Afghanistan, unrest in the Arab World
Conference of Defence Associations' media round-up, Jan. 28
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1296235580



> - Afghanistan
> - Canadian Forces and Canadian Defence Issues
> - American Defence and Security Issues
> - International Security and Defence Issues
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (29 Jan 2011)

*Articles found January 29, 2011*

Kandahar deputy governor killed in suicide attack
Article Link
 29 January 2011 Last updated at 01:47 ET

The deputy governor of Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province has been killed in a suicide attack, officials have said.

A suicide bomber attacked Abdul Latif Ashna's convoy as he was being driven to work in Kandahar city.

His spokesman said a suicide bomber on a motorcycle slammed into his car. Three of his bodyguards were wounded in the attack, the spokesman added.

Thousands of US-led forces are fighting insurgents in the province.

US ambassador Karl Eikenberry, who was visiting Kandahar on Saturday, condemned the attack but said it would not blunt attempts to defeat the insurgency. 
More on link

Afghan police pledge justice for Taliban stoning
By Quentin Sommerville BBC News, Kabul   26 January 2011 
  Article Link

The men who stoned a couple to death in north Afghanistan will be brought to justice, say officials, after footage of the killings came to light.

The man and woman were accused of adultery in the district of Dashte Archi in Kunduz province last August.

Hundreds of people attended the stoning but no-one was charged. The area is still under Taliban control.

After viewing the footage, regional police chief Gen Daoud Daoud said those responsible could be recognised.

"Special police investigators will be sent there, we will find them and they will be brought to justice," he told the BBC.

A mobile phone recording of the killings has only just been seen by Afghan and Nato officials. Most of the video is too graphic to be shown.
Soaked in blood

The video begins with Siddqa, a 25-year-old woman, standing waist-deep in a hole in the ground.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote

    Anyone who knows about Islam knows that stoning is in the Koran, and that it is Islamic law”

End Quote Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid

She is entirely hidden in a blue burka. Hundreds of men from the village are gathered as two mullahs pass sentence. As Taliban fighters look on, the sentence is passed and she is found guilty of adultery.
More on link

 Pakistan’s wounded soldiers fight uphill battle for attention
Article Link

RAWALPINDI, PAKISTAN—Lt. Muhammad Ali is one of Pakistan’s wounded and forgotten soldiers.

Six years after his left foot was blown off by a land mine in South Waziristan, a remote and mountainous region of Pakistan used as a safe haven by the Taliban, Ali is still battling to get proper care for his injury.

Pakistan is Canada’s ally in the fight against the Taliban, and its beleaguered military is paying a high price. While critics charge that the South Asian country’s fight against religious extremists is half-hearted, the Pakistani army argues that statistics say otherwise. It has lost more soldiers than all of its Western allies combined.

Canada, the U.S. and other coalition force countries have suffered a collective 2,058 soldier deaths; Pakistan’s military has already lost 2,348 soldiers.

The number of wounded Pakistani soldiers is similarly sobering.

In neighbouring Afghanistan, Canadian soldiers face their most dangerous threat from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and anti-personnel mines. The same holds true in Pakistan, where sinister and silent bombs below the ground have been the weapon of choice for Taliban fighters in Swat and South and North Waziristan.
More on link

Supermarket blast in Kabul diplomatic district kills at least 8 and injures 6
Article Link
By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, January 29, 2011

KABUL - An explosion in a supermarket in the heart of Kabul's diplomatic district Friday afternoon killed at least eight people, including three foreign women, according to Afghan police.

The blast, which injured six, gutted the Finest supermarket, a store popular with American and other foreign workers, in a normally peaceful neighborhood not far from the British and Canadian embassies.

Witnesses said the attack began with gunfire, followed by at least one explosion inside the store. Some said a lone gunman wearing a suicide vest entered and started shooting before detonating himself. Kabul's police chief, Gen. Ayoub Salangi, said it was unclear what type of explosion occurred. 
More on link


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## GAP (30 Jan 2011)

*Articles found January 30, 2011*

 Kabul suicide attack slays prominent Afghan family
Article Link

(Reuters) - A prominent Afghan doctor, his rights activist wife and four of their children were all killed in Friday's suicide attack on a Kabul supermarket, President Hamid Karzai said Saturday.

Hameeda Barmaki, a professor at Kabul University and child rights activist at the country's Independent Human Rights Commission, was shopping with her husband and children when the blast ripped through the three-storey shop in downtown Kabul.

"The martyrdom of this intellectual family who were committed to serving their nation is a loss," Karzai said in statement Saturday, offering condolences on the deaths.

Doctor Masood Yama's mother is senator Mahbuba Hoqoqmal, a former minister of women's affairs under Karzai.

The shop is frequented by foreigners, located at the heart of an embassy district, just a few hundred metres from the British, Canadian, Japanese and several other missions.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the suicide attack, saying they were targeting the head of a foreign security company. But the city police chief's office said Saturday that while there were foreigners among the wounded, only Afghans died.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (31 Jan 2011)

ARTICLES FOUND JAN. 31

Dutch parliament approves new Afghanistan mission  
_Deutsche Welle_, Jan. 28
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,14800862,00.html



> ...
> Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte's minority government obtained parliamentary approval for its Afghanistan strategy early on Friday, following a heated debate in The Hague.
> 
> A slim majority of MPs voted for the Dutch cabinet's decision to send 545 men and women to Afghanistan to train police until 2014...



French troops help ready Afghan army for handover  
AFP, Jan. 31
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iT8aOerdLgyUAzignwmGp-6xexzA?docId=CNG.8d9c3a38fa2e6ca5b9243f7da812b46e.331



> TAGAB, Afghanistan — As NATO prepares to hand control to the Afghan army in 2014, coalition troops are being integrated within its ranks to help rebuild the national force and accompany its soldiers into combat.
> 
> In Tagab, in northeast Afghanistan, there are 56 French soldiers advising the Afghan National Army (ANA), fighting shoulder to shoulder with Afghans to repel insurgents in the Kapisa valley, near the Pakistan border...
> 
> Some 65 OMLTs, six of them French, advise the ANA across the country. The leader of the Tagab team sees them as "the ideal accompaniment" to the withdrawal of international troops in Afghanistan, planned for the end of 2014...


 
Mark  
Ottawa


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