# The Sandbox and Area Reports Thread September 2013



## The Bread Guy (31 Aug 2013)

*The Sandbox and Area Reports Thread September 2013  *               

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


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## GAP (8 Sep 2013)

*Articles found Sept 8, 2013*

 Afghan security forces shoot dead protester outside Iranian consulate in western city
Published September 07, 2013 Associated Press
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan –  Officials say Afghan security forces have shot dead one demonstrator outside the Iranian consulate in a western city.

Abdul Hamid Hamidi, who is deputy police chief of Herat province, said a crowd of several hundred were rallying on Saturday outside the consulate in Herat city to protest its failure to grant visas.

He said security forces opened fire, killing one and wounding three. It was unclear why they fired on the group.

Some outside windows of the compound were broken and rocks apparently thrown by protesters lay near the entrance.
end

 Pakistan militants preparing for Afghanistan civil war
September 08, 2013 Associated Press
Article Link

Militants in Pakistan's most populous province are said to be training for what they expect will be an ethnic-based civil war in neighboring Afghanistan after foreign forces withdraw in 16 months, according to analysts and a senior militant.

In the past two years the number of Punjab-based militants deploying to regions bordering on Afghanistan has tripled and is now in the thousands, says analyst Mansur Mehsud. He runs the FATA Institute, an Islamabad-based think tank studying the mix of militant groups that operate in Pakistan's tribal belt running along much of the 1,600-mile Afghan-Pakistan border.

Mehsud, himself from South Waziristan where militants also hide out, says more than 150 militant groups operate in the tribal regions, mostly in mountainous, heavily forested North Waziristan. Dotted with hideouts, it is there that Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri is thought by the U.S. to be hiding, and where Afghanistan says many of its enemies have found sanctuary.

While militants from Punjab province have long sought refuge and training in the tribal regions, they were fewer in number and confined their hostility to Pakistan's neighbor and foe, India.

All that is changing, say analysts.

"Before, they were keeping a low profile. But just in the last two or three years hundreds have been coming from Punjab," said Mehsud. "Everyone knows that when NATO and the American troops leave Afghanistan there will be fighting between Pashtuns and non-Pashtuns."
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 Pakistan announces release of 7 more Taliban prisoners to facilitate Afghan peace talks
Article Link
By: Rebecca Santana And Munir Ahmed, The Associated Press 09/7/2013

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan is releasing seven more Taliban prisoners to facilitate a peace process aimed at reaching a political resolution to the war in neighbouring Afghanistan, the Foreign Ministry announced Saturday.

Some 26 other Taliban detainees have been released over the last year in an attempt to revive the troubled peace process, but critics have questioned whether they have enough influence to convince the Taliban to negotiate after their release. Some fear the released militants may simply return to the fight.

The statement did not make clear if the releases had already happened or were in the process of happening. Two Pakistani intelligence officials said the men were no longer in Pakistani custody but refused to share any more details about their whereabouts. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The Foreign Ministry identified the seven Taliban detainees as Mansoor Dadullah, Said Wali, Abdul Manan, Karim Agha, Sher Afzal, Gul Muhammad and Muhammad Zai.

It is not clear why Islamabad, which has historical ties with the Afghan Taliban but which is battling its own branch of the militant movement, had arrested the men originally.

The most well-known among them appears to be Dadullah who was captured in Feb. 2008 by Pakistani forces in Baluchistan. He was a commander in southern Afghanistan. According to the Long War Journal, which tracks militant activity in Afghanistan and Pakistan, he took command in 2007 after his brother was killed by British special forces in Helmand province.

But little information is known about the other six detainees, the circumstances of their capture, and how long they've been in Pakistani custody.
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 Taliban attack on intel office kills 4 Afghan soldiers; NATO strike alleged to kill civilians
Article Link
By: Amir Shah And Nahal Toosi, The Associated Press 09/8/2013

KABUL - Taliban militants detonated a car bomb outside an Afghan intelligence office near the capital Sunday and then tried to attack it on foot with guns, officials and the insurgent group said. At least four soldiers guarding the compound were killed and six insurgents died in the assault, officials said.

Separately Sunday, Afghan officials said that an apparent NATO airstrike had killed 15 people — nine of them civilians, including women and children — in a remote eastern province where the Taliban are strong. NATO said 10 militants died in the strike, but that it had no reports of any civilian deaths.

Both incidents underscored the insecurity in Afghanistan as U.S.-led foreign forces reduce their presence and hand over more responsibilities to Afghan troops. Sunday's bombing, for instance, occurred in Maidan Shahr, a city in eastern Wardak province that lies just 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Kabul.

Hazrat Janan, a member of the Wardak provincial council, described the explosion as powerful, saying that it shattered windows in a wide stretch of the city.

Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said the explosion occurred around 1 p.m. and that many of the wounded were Afghan government employees working in nearby offices. Soldiers guarding the compound managed to kill the militants on foot after the explosion, he said. He said four soldiers and five attackers died, in addition to the car bomber.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack.

Meanwhile, conflicting reports emerged from the airstrike in the Watapur district of Kunar, a province that lies along the border with Pakistan. The territory is dangerous and difficult to reach, and many Arab and other foreign insurgents are believed to operate there alongside the Afghan Taliban. Some are suspected of links to the Al-Qaida terrorist network.
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## GAP (15 Sep 2013)

*Articles found Sept 15, 2013*

Surreal Afghanistan boardwalk fading into memory as U.S. troops withdraw
Article Link
 By Jay Price, McClatchy Foreign Staff

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- There is nothing quite like coming off a patrol, your body-armor-shaped sweat stains still drying and ears ringing from grenades, only to have the hostess at T.G.I. Friday’s tell you to wait a few. Sorry, sergeant, we’ve got to clear a table.

Or hovering over the desert for hours in a throttled-down Apache helicopter on an oh-dark-30 stakeout, disassembling half a dozen Taliban fighters with your chain gun as they plant a roadside bomb, only to get back to base and discover that the Canadian-themed donut shop is selling just coffee because insurgents blew up the latest inbound shipment of donut mix.

What’s a man gotta do to get a maple-glazed in this war?

Soon enough, he won’t be able to. The Kandahar Airfield boardwalk, for a decade the surreal yet comfortingly familiar heart of the biggest NATO base in Afghanistan, is closing down.

The festive, elevated rectangle of shops and fast-food vendors built around a small soccer field and running track will inevitably live on in the war stories of tens of thousands of U.S. and NATO troops and contractors who’ve lived at Kandahar Airfield or passed through it on the way to smaller combat outposts.

The businesses will shut down in phases, beginning next month, with the final one closing before the end of 2014, base officials said in an emailed statement. Most of the buildings will be torn down, though the walkway and the sports facilities will remain awhile.

The closure plan mirrors the withdrawal of U.S. troops as the NATO coalition here shrinks in advance of ending its combat mission next year. The 62,000 or so U.S. troops still in Afghanistan are expected to begin leaving in significant numbers after this year’s summer fighting season tapers.

“This is a natural evolution as we draw down forces across the country,” U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. John Dolan, the base commander, wrote in the statement. “As our personnel numbers decrease, so will the amenities at our installations.”

Every large base here has amenities to make long tours of duty more bearable, including “local national” markets, with cheap rugs and jewelry, bootleg DVDs, counterfeit watches and other goods and souvenirs. But they are all lowly five-and-dimes to the boardwalk’s Mall-of-America-like grandness, street-corner buskers to Liberace.

Soldiers slurping tea and fruit smoothies browse locally owned shops that offer alterations, patches for uniforms, shoes, flat-screen TVs, cellphones, jewelry and carpets. They line up for American, Mexican, Asian or Middle Eastern fast food, or opt for dine-in at the T.G.I. Friday’s.
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## GAP (18 Sep 2013)

*Articles found Sept 18, 2013*

 At least 24 die in Afghaninstan mine collapse
Article Link
By Kevin Sieff and Mohammad Sharif, Published: September 15 

KABUL — At least 24 Afghan miners were killed Saturday when a coal mine collapsed in northern Afghanistan, according to local officials.

The miners had been complaining about dangerous working conditions on the morning of the incident, said Sediq Azizi, a spokesman for the governor of Samangan province, where the mine is located.

The mine’s supervisor did not heed the workers’ concerns, Azizi said, and fled after the men were killed.

The incident is a cautionary tale in a country that soon expects to increase its mining operations exponentially, filling a financial the gap that will be left when foreign troops withdraw from Afghanistan. Chinese, Indian and Canadian companies all have invested in extracting the country’s mineral wealth.

Still, many mines, like the one in Samangan, are locally owned and operated, with limited safeguards for workers.
end

 Reservist fulfils dream in Afghanistan
  Article Link 
By Jonathan Charlton, The Starphoenix September 18, 2013

A First Nations army reservist has found a new and unexpected mission in the heart of one of the world's most troubled countries.

Lt. Rodney Dignean, 56, spent the summer mentoring Afghans in the logistics of running a hospital. It's the fulfilment of his lifelong passion for Canadian military history, and a way to honour relatives who served before him.

"I always believed if I was going to do this historical display it would be nice to talk the talk but also walk the walk in terms of the armed forces," Dignean said in a phone interview from an office in a compound in downtown Kabul.
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 Afghanistan is mostly offline…but ready to embrace social media
By John Brandon September 16, 2013 FoxNews.com
Article Link

Imagine living in a country where only 3.5 percent of the population use the Internet. When you ask a neighbor about Facebook, they give you a confused look. Posting a status update on Twitter is a foreign concept, and most citizens still rely on printed newspapers and radio reports.

That’s life in Afghanistan today, where only 1.5 million people (out of 30M) have Internet access.

A new National Social Media Summit intends to change that trend. To be held September 22 to 23 in Kabul, and featuring some 200 speakers, the event will promote the use of social media as a way to not only discuss current news, but to make news.

“When the Taliban were ousted in 2001, you had to travel to Pakistan to make an international call,” Eileen Guo, the event director, told FoxNews.com. “Internet penetration … has increased significantly since the introduction of affordable 3G, and estimates of mobile coverage vary from around 80 percent to 95 percent of the country.”
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## GAP (19 Sep 2013)

*Articles found Sept 19, 2013*

Taliban kill Afghan election official in Kunduz province
Article Link
  18 September 2013 

The head of Afghanistan's electoral commission in Kunduz province has been shot dead.

Amanullah Aman was shot by two gunmen on a motorbike while on his way to work, according to officials. He died of his wounds in hospital.

The Taliban said they carried out the attack in Kunduz city.

The Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, has said the movement does not view presidential polls due next April as legitimate.

"[Mr] Aman was shot dead in the morning in front of his house as he was leaving for his office," provincial spokesman Enayatullah Khaliq told the AFP agency.

Last month, Mullah Omar branded the presidential election a "deceiving drama" and said that the candidates' selection "de facto, takes place in Washington".

The Taliban have called on Afghans to boycott previous elections, deploying fighters to block roads to polling stations and targeting candidates and activists.
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Top Pakistan officers killed 'by Taliban'
Article Link
  15 September 2013

Two senior Pakistani military officers and a soldier have been killed in a roadside bomb close to the border with Afghanistan.

The Pakistani Taliban have said they were responsible for the deaths.

One of the men who died was a major general - a rare high-ranking casualty in Pakistan's war against militants.

The blast happened as the Taliban outlined a number of pre-conditions it wants met before it will take part in peace talks with the government.
Senior figure

The three men were returning from inspecting the army's border posts in Khyber Paktunkhwa province when the blast happened.

According to the Associated Press news agency, the most senior of them - Maj Gen Sanaullah Niazi - was the top commander in Swat Valley, where the military carried out a major offensive against the Taliban in 2009.

Pakistani political parties have endorsed peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban to end a decade of fighting.

But the Taliban are demanding the release of prisoners and the withdrawal of troops from the country's tribal areas - where they mainly operate. 
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## GAP (22 Sep 2013)

*Articles found Sept 22, 2013*

 Three US-led troopers killed in green-on-blue attack
Article Link

“Three ISAF service members died when an individual wearing an Afghan National Security Forces uniform shot them in eastern Afghanistan today," the Western military contingent announced on its Twitter account on Saturday.

The ISAF in the Afghan capital city of Kabul confirmed the incident but did not provide any further details.

The latest attack on foreign troops comes at a sensitive time for the United States and its allies, since they are preparing to withdraw the majority of their troops by 2014 under a plan that requires Afghan forces to take responsibility for the country's security.
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 Afghan troop deaths hit record amid US exit
September 21, 2013 The Wall Street Journal
Article Link

Afghan troops are in the midst of their deadliest fighting season since the war here began 12 years ago.

That is because, as U.S.-led forces withdraw, the Afghans are fighting a different war.

The Taliban are growing more aggressive. Coalition forces, taking with them their superior training and equipment, are leaving Afghan troops less able to fight and less able to save the lives of their critically wounded.

The Afghan forces—including the army, national police and village self-defense police—have been losing well over 100 men a week to insurgent attacks, with close to 300 injured, through much of the summer, according to numbers provided by coalition officials.

By contrast, coalition fatalities, which are reported precisely, have fluctuated between 13 and 27 troops a month since heavier fighting resumed in the spring.
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 Pakistan frees top Afghan Taliban prisoner in peace move
September 21, 2013 Associated Press
Article Link

ISLAMABAD –  Pakistan released its highest-ranking Afghan Taliban prisoner on Saturday in an effort to jump-start Afghanistan's struggling peace process, Pakistani officials said.

The Afghan government has long demanded that Pakistan free Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban's former deputy leader who was arrested in a joint raid with the CIA in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi in 2010.

Pakistani intelligence and security officials confirmed that he left detention Saturday but did not provide any details, including where he was held. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry announced earlier that Baradar would be released Saturday "to further facilitate the Afghan reconciliation process," but also didn't provide any details.
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 At least 60 killed in suicide bombing of Pakistan church
 September 22, 2013 Associated Press
Article Link

PESHAWAR, Pakistan –  A pair of suicide bombers detonated their explosives outside a historic church in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday, killing over 60 people in the deadliest-ever attack on the country's Christian minority, officials said.

The bombing in Peshawar, which wounded another 120 people, underlines the threat posed by Islamic extremists as the government seeks a peace deal with domestic Taliban militants. It will likely intensify criticism from those who believe that negotiating peace with militants is a mistake.

The attack occurred as hundreds of worshippers were coming out of the church in the city's Kohati Gate district after services to get a free meal of rice offered on the front lawn, said a top government administrator, Sahibzada Anees.
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 Outcry over rape of five years old girl in Pakistan
Published September 15, 2013 AFP
Article Link

LAHORE, Pakistan (AFP) –  Rights campaigners staged protest rallies across Pakistan on Sunday against the rape of a five-years old girl in the eastern city of Lahore whose condition is now relatively stable.

Police still have no clue who carried out the attack despite detaining several suspects and releasing most of them after questioning, a law enforcement official said.

The five-year old girl was kidnapped on Thursday and brutally raped in the eastern city of Lahore.

Police said the girl was found outside a hospital at around 8pm (1500 GMT) on Friday, a day after she went missing from a low-income neighbourhood in the city.
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## GAP (29 Sep 2013)

*Articles found Sept 29, 2013*


 A slow farewell to Helmand: British troops hand over patrol base to Afghans (but it will still be 2015 before pullout is complete)
Article Link
    Soldiers relinquished control of Patrol Base Ouellette in Helmand Province
    Sign of increasing confidence in the Afghan National Security Forces
    Aim is for British forces to run just five bases by the end of October
By Wills Robinson, 29 September 2013

British soldiers in Hellmand Province have handed a base over to Afghan forces as the native troops take on a greater role in the conflict.

In a demonstration of the increasing capability and confidence of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), the British Army has relinquished control of Patrol Base (PB) Ouellette to the Afghan National Civil Order Police (ANCOP). 

The base, which is situated on Route 611 in the district of Nahr-e Saraj, had been home to UK Armed Forces since July 2011. 
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