The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread August 2012

[The Bread Guy]

The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread August 2012              

News only - commentary elsewhere, please.
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[GAP]

Articles found August 2, 2012


Afghan Force Development Director Outlines Priorities
Article Link
By Karen Parrish - American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Aug. 1, 2012 – With Afghanistan’s army and police forces working more independently at the kandak, or battalion, level and below, coalition efforts increasingly are aimed at developing Afghan capabilities at higher unit levels, a senior NATO International Security Assistance Force officer said today.

Brig. Gen. Thomas Putt of the Canadian army, director of Afghan national security forces development for ISAF Joint Command, briefed Pentagon reporters today via video teleconference from the Afghan capital of Kabul.

Putt -- who also is deputy commander of the U.S. Army’s 5th Corps as an exchange officer -- said his job is to work with all of the coalition’s development and field advisory teams working with Afghan forces in ISAF’s regional commands. As the security transfer to Afghan lead in 2014 approaches and that nation’s troops increase their combat skills, he said, developing a self-sufficient security framework is essential.

The general said he has visited most of the regional commands and their partnered Afghan corps and sees a big difference in the Afghan forces since he was deployed to Kandahar six years ago.

“Frankly, I have been impressed with the remarkable improvement since 2006,” he said. “Today, we are witnessing [Afghan national army] corps like the 205th in Kandahar conducting independent brigade- and multibrigade-led operations. … This was considered unthinkable not 24 months ago.”
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'Five insurgents killed' in Kabul gun battle
Article Link
  2 August 2012

Afghan officials say five insurgents believed to have been planning attacks in central Kabul have been killed in a gun battle.

Security personnel raided a house in the east of the city and fighting broke out in the early hours of Thursday.

The battle continued for six hours. Dozens of homes were evacuated and vehicles containing explosives were also found at the scene.

The raid involved Afghan forces acting on a tip-off, officials said.

Security officials had earlier told the BBC that eight insurgents had been killed.

Officials say three vehicles packed with explosives have been seized from insurgents along with suicide vests and other weapons, the BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul reports.

Three insurgents with remote controls and directions for sophisticated attacks in different parts of the city were arrested last night, Kabul police chief Gen Mohammad Ayub Salangi told the BBC.

"This was a really big plan. Thank God we were able to stop it," intelligence agency spokesman Latifullah Mashal told the Associated Press.

The Taliban has denied that its fighters were involved in the battle.
end

Mutilated Pakistani woman rebuilds her life
Article Link
  2 August 2012

A Pakistani woman whose nose was cut off by her husband 32 years ago says she has been brought back from the dead after surgery which gave her a new nose. Allah Rakhi hid her face for decades after the attack. Orla Guerin went to central Punjab to meet her.

Thirty-two years ago a teenaged mother of two set off through the lush fields of central Punjab with one thought in her mind - escape.

She was slim and spirited and famed as the beauty of her family.

Her name was Allah Rakhi, and she had just endured another beating by her husband, Ghulam Abbas.

She made it to the edge of their village, the hamlet of Thatta Pira, before he caught up with her. Within minutes the rich brown soil was running red with her blood. Ghulam Abbas had hacked off her nose.

Three decades on, still spirited but now a doting grandmother, Allah Rakhi took me to the spot at the edge of the rice fields, where she was robbed of her looks, and much of her life. Dry-eyed and animated, she relived the attack.

"He told me to sit down and listen to him," she said. "I told him he had destroyed my life, beating me every day and that I was going to my parents' house. He sat on my chest, and reached into his pocket for a blade. As he slashed my nose off, blood poured into my eyes. Then he cut my ankle, from one side to the other."

Drenched in blood she was carried back home, rather than to the hospital, so she could not make a police report. Eventually Ghulam was arrested, and spent six months in jail. Allah Rakhi agreed to his release, for the sake of their young children. When he came home he divorced her, and threw her out.
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After Kandahar, the history war
David Bercuson Special to The Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, Aug. 02 2012
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Virtually every significant war in history is followed by another, smaller war: the bloodless war among historians, journalists and veterans to set the historical narrative of the war that just ended. That’s what the former Athenian general Thucydides was doing when he wrote his account of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. And now we have Afghanistan, still being fought, with the postwar accounts already appearing, written mostly by journalists – including a few very good ones by Canadians – and generals and diplomats.
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[GAP]

Articles found August 3, 2012

Afghans fear what will happen when troops leave
Article Link
August 2, 2012 By DEB RIECHMANN

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Asadullah Ramin has lost all hope in his homeland - he's so worried about what will happen when U.S. and international troops leave that he's ready to pay a smuggler to whisk his family out of Afghanistan.

It would cost the 50-year-old, self-employed electronics engineer tens of thousands of dollars to leave his middle-class life in the Afghan capital and start a new chapter with his wife and their three daughters. He has done OK in recent years, even getting contracts from the foreign forces, and he has warm memories of Kabul from his teens — before Soviet forces invaded the nation.

But he wouldn't hesitate for a moment. He already paid to have his two sons smuggled to a European county he won't disclose.

"If I could go in the next hour, I would leave everything — the house, my shop," Ramin said, tears welling in his eyes as he spoke in his dusty workshop.

"I have no hope, no hope," he said, opening his palms as if pleading to be understood.

The United States and its allies have tried to reassure Afghans that they are not abandoning the country when international combat troops leave by the end of 2014. Donor nations have pledged billions to bankroll Afghan security forces and billions more in development aid. Country after country has signed a long-term partnership pact with Kabul.

But the promises have done little to buoy the hopes of Afghans who are in despair about the future of their nation.

Among Afghans around the country interviewed by The Associated Press, the worry is pervasive. Many are deeply skeptical that Afghan police and security forces, which the U.S.-led coalition has spent years trying to build, will be able to fight insurgents and militants without American and NATO fighting alongside. Worse-case scenarios that some fear: The Afghan forces could splinter along ethnic line and prompt civil war, the nation could plunge into a deep recession, or the Kabul government — plagued with corruption and still fragile despite efforts to establish its authority — would remain too weak to hold off a Taliban takeover.
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Afghan Units Slow to Break Dependence on NATO
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Aug 02, 2012 Military.com| by Richard Sisk

Afghan national army and police units have started the slow process of shedding reliance on NATO coalition trainers as NATO leaders struggle to define what operating independent means for Afghan forces.

In July, Marine Maj. Gen. Charles Gurganus, commander of Regional Command-Southwest, was asked how many Afghan National Army units in Helmand province were capable of conducting operations on their own – no U.S. trainers, mentors, transport or logistics backup.

“Right now, we only have, really, one battalion-sized unit that I would tell you is completely independent,” Gurganus said in July from Camp Leatherneck in Helmand province in a video briefing to the Pentagon.

But Wednesday, in a video briefing to the Pentagon from Kabul, Canadian Brig. Gen. Thomas E. Putt, director of Afghan National Security Forces Development for the coalition, said that 40 percent of the ANA was acting independently, and then quickly hedged.

“They are fighting the Taliban with mentors,” he said.

Putt said that some “Kandaks” – battalion-sized units of about 600 – were operating on their own in the North and the West, but he couldn’t say how many.

“Currently, there is adequate mentor coverage” across the theater to assist the Afghans as they increasingly take the lead security role, Putt said. It was unclear whether more or fewer NATO trainers and mentors would stay behind through the withdrawal of coalition combat forces by 2014. “No, we don’t right now at this time” have a handle on whether the funding would be there for mentors, Putt said.

NATO air support would be needed through 2014 to substitute for the motley Afghan air force, which was expected to double in size to 8,000 by 2014 or 2015, Putt said. The 26 Russian-made Mi17 helicopters that the U.S. recently bought for the Afghans in a controversial $365 million deal had yet to arrive, Putt said, and he couldn’t say when they would.
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Afghan finance minister faces questions over cash transfers to Canada
Published on Friday August 03, 2012
Article Link
Bruce Campion-Smith Ottawa Bureau Chief

OTTAWA—Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal once said his return to Afghanistan from Canada to serve in the highest echelons of its government was a calling, a chance to give back to the country of his youth.

But now Zakhilwal, the country’s finance minister who was educated at Canadian universities, is facing allegations he stashed more than $1 million away in overseas banks, including accounts in Canada.

The country’s anti-corruption czar said this week he will launch a probe into the Zakhilwal’s financial dealings.

The allegations, which Zakhilwal has rebuffed, centre on revelations that he deposited large amounts of money into his account which was then transferred abroad.

Those revelations were made by Afghanistan television channel Tolo, which displayed what it said were copies of Zakhilwal’s bank statements.

They showed cash transfers, including two transfers in the summer of 2007 totalling $150,000 to Canada for a house purchase and another transfer that November for $67,000 to a personal account at the Royal Bank of Canada.

They also purportedly show a 2009 deposit worth $200,000 from the Sofi Landmark Hotel, a hotel located in Kabul.
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[GAP]

Articles found August 5, 2012

  Hamid Karzai accepts dismissal of top security ministers
By Hamid Shalizi, Reuters
Article Link

KABUL – Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Sunday he had accepted a vote by the country’s parliament to dismiss his two top security ministers, but ordered both to remain in their jobs pending replacement, a move aimed at safeguarding fragile stability.

The fractious parliament voted on Saturday to remove Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak and Interior Minister Bismillah Mohammadi after a series of recent insurgent assassinations of top officials, as well as cross-border fire incidents blamed on Pakistan which infuriate many Afghan voters as well as politicians.

Their removal could be a blow to NATO plans to hand over security responsibilities to Afghan forces before the end of 2014, as both positions are crucial to the 11-year war against insurgents as Western countries draw down their military presence.

Karzai, who chaired a Sunday meeting of Afghanistan’s National Security Council, issued a statement thanking the pair for “their hard work and dedication”, and saying replacements would be brought in.

Karzai can keep both ministers in their jobs for months if he chooses, and as he previously has done after parliamentary votes to reject his choices.

Those moves may have alienated lawmakers whose cooperation he needs to crack down on widespread corruption within his unpopular government in order to help guarantee up to $16 billion worth of aid promised by his Western backers.
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Plans being made for NZ soldiers' return
AAP Updated August 5, 2012
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Preparations are being made to repatriate the bodies of two New Zealand soldiers killed in action in Afghanistan's Bamyan province.

The attack on Saturday night (AEST local time) left six other soldiers wounded with three in a serious condition.

Chief of Defence Force Lieutenant General Rhys Jones told a briefing in Auckland on Sunday that one of the soldiers was in an armoured vehicle hit by a rocket and the other was hit by a blast or fire from a rifle.

One died immediately and the other died in a helicopter while being evacuated.

The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) was expected to release the names of the dead soldiers on Monday, after their next of kin had been given a chance to grieve.

It is hoped their bodies will be returned home next week, with the help of the Australian and British defence forces.

The New Zealand Provincial Reconstruction Team had gone to the aid of local security forces fighting suspected insurgents near a village south of Do Abe at about 5pm AEST on Saturday.
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Afghan attacks on US troops on the increase as withdrawal date beckons
By Aaron Solis · August 3, 2012
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The troops going home are from the surge force of 33,000 sent to Afghanistan by President Obama in 2010. US commanders are trying to ensure that the gaps left by the US Marines and Army in the south of the country are adequately filled by properly trained Afghan units.

Brigadier-General Thomas Putt, a Canadian who is in charge of Afghan national security forces development, told The Times this week: “I’m satisfied that the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police are filling in behind [as the US troops withdraw].”

However, as if in response to the departure of US forces, the Taleban and other militant groups have launched a series of attacks that have included targeted bomb explosions against American military units due to return home over the next few weeks.

Last month, 40 US Marines and soldiers were killed, the majority by improvised explosive devices. The worst incident was on July 8, when six soldiers died. The July death toll was the highest monthly total in nearly a year.

An official with Nato’s International Security Assistance Force partly blamed the upsurge in violent attacks on the increased presence of Afghan security forces in areas where the insurgents have been pushed out of population centres. About 900 members of the Afghan national security forces have been killed in four months.
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Afghan interpreter Sayed Shah Sharifi makes new home in Toronto
Published on Saturday August 04, 2012
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Laura Stone
Staff Reporter
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He has survived dozens of Taliban ambushes, roadside explosions and sinister visits in the pitch-black Kandahar night.

But as he walks along a sunny strip of College St., admiring the streetcar tracks and staring in bemusement at a car sprouting grass in Kensington Market, Sayed Shah Sharifi has another matter on his mind.

His shorts.

“If I was walking in the shorts in Kandahar City, there may be more than 15 people walking behind me, looking at me,” he says.

“But here, in this city, if you do anything, if you are wearing any kind of stuff . . . nobody tells anyone what to do.”

The 24-year-old former combat interpreter for Canadian forces in Kandahar arrived in Toronto last Sunday, after a two-year fight to get to Canada.

After delays and rejection, front-page stories by the Star’s Paul Watson and finally an intervention from Prime Minister Stephen Harper, he was approved on a visa under a special program set up to protect Afghans who faced retaliation from Taliban-led insurgents.

And while Sharifi sounds upbeat about settling into Canada, of making friends and maybe even one day getting married, he knows he faces challenges in the country he has only known from afar.

“It is like really, really different than Afghanistan. There will be a lot of problems coming for me, but I have to fight the problems, and I have to protect myself,” he says.

“Because if I protect myself from insurgents, I have to solve my problems also here.”

The moment Sharifi stepped off the plane at Pearson airport, his life changed.
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[GAP]

Articles found August 7, 2012


Ancient artifacts returned to Afghanistan
843 objects looted during the 1990s
CBC News Posted: Aug 5, 2012
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Hundreds of artifacts looted from Afghanistan have been returned to the country’s National Museum, including objects dating back 4,000 years.

Many of the 843 items were stolen during the country’s civil war in the 1990s and sold on the black market. Some were recovered by British border police, others were discovered in private collections and still more were bought back by generous donors.

London’s British Museum assisted in the returns and the British Ministry of Defence used its planes to bring the items back to Afghanistan.

Among the treasures are a series of decorative inlays dating back to the first century AD, the British Museum said.

One statue of Buddha dates back to the second or third century. As well, there are medieval Islamic coins and a stone water spout in the shape of a lion’s head that’s 2,300-years-old.

In fact, the Buddha ended up in the hands of a Japanese collector, who refused to return it and could not be compelled legally to do so. An anonymous British dealer bought it and gave it back to the museum.

"It's very important for us to get these [artifacts] back, because they are part of our cultural heritage and history, that was looted during three decades of war," said Afghanistan's Deputy Culture Minister Sayed Masaddeq Khalili to The Guardian newspaper.

Khalili said that approximately 9,000 looted artifacts have been returned from different countries since 2001.

The National Museum in Kabul was rebuilt with international aid after it was mostly destroyed when rival warlords battled in the capital in a brutal struggle for power in the early 1990s.
end

Haqqani Leader Killed In Afghan Air Strike
  Article Link
8/6/2012

(RTTNews) - One of the leaders of the Haqqani terror group identified as Hakimi was killed in a weekend air strike in eastern Afghanistan.

He was killed in a joint operation by Afghan-coalition forces in Muhammad Aghah district of Logar province on Sunday, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a press release on Monday.

Hakimi served directly under the Haqqani leader for the district, and has been transporting explosives and weapons to insurgents throughout the region, it added.

Another joint operation to arrest a Taliban leader in Achin district, Nangarhar province, on Monday resulted in the death of several militants, ISAF said.

During the operation, an armed group of insurgents attempted to attack the Afghan and coalition troops, which then resorted to a precision air strike.

Another group of militants was killed in a precision air strike in Tsamkani district of Paktiya province on Sunday during a security operation by Afghan-coalition forces in search of a Haqqani leader, ISAF said.
end

CSI Kabul: US military trains Afghan police force in crime-solving techniques
The American military has built a forensic academy to teach the latest crime-solving laboratory techniques to the Afghan police force.
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By Ben Farmer, Kabul 05 Aug 2012

Afghan officers are being trained in methods such as DNA profiling and fingerprint analysis which are staples of British or American detective work and crime shows, but alien to Afghanistan's rough and ready policing.

The race to train Afghans in techniques which could catch Taliban bombers as well as other criminals comes as the Nato coalition has begun withdrawing tens of thousands of soldiers from the country.

The coalition has around 200 of its own forensic experts in seven military laboratories, gathering evidence from insurgent suspects, homemade bombs and mobile phones found on the battlefield.

When these laboratories scale back, the Afghans will be left with virtually no ability to gather or interpret forensic evidence themselves.

Lt Col Syed Rahmatullah Qureshi, the Afghan police's chief forensic expert, estimated only 40 of his officers had ever received any training. Much of that was learned more than 20 years ago from Soviet advisers and was now outdated, or forgotten.
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'Auschwitz-like' Afghan military hospital investigation 'delayed'
An investigation into "Auschwitz-like conditions" at Afghanistan's top military hospital was allegedly delayed by a top US general for political reasons, Congress has heard.
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By John Wendle in Kabul 25 Jul 2012

When inquiries were first made into Nato's support of the Afghan National Army's (ANA) medical system, the US Medical Training Advisory Group (MTAG) described "horrid conditions at the Afghan National Military Hospital in Kabul, the 'crown jewel' of the ANA medical system," said retired Colonel Gerald Carozza in testimony.

On a visit by Colonel Mark Fassl, the Inspector General of the Nato Training Mission, to the Dawood National Military Hospital, "what he found was horrifying," said Col Carozza.

"Patients were lying in filth, in some cases starving and with grotesque bed sores."

Col Carrozza said the advisory team found one patient who "was on the brink of starving to death" and who died "despite intense efforts led by the US Medical Advisory Group to save him."

Besides the atrocious conditions pervading the country's best military hospital, the Inspector General of the Afghan Defence Ministry said staff would "not tend to patients unless the patients were from their clan or they were able to pay gratuities for the care," Col Carozza said.
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[GAP]

Articles found August 8, 2012

Afghanistan civilian casualties fall, says UN
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  8 August 2012

Civilian casualties in Afghanistan have fallen for the first time in five years, the latest UN figures show.

Those killed or injured fell by 15% in the first half of 2012 compared with the same period last year.

Analysts say increased sensitivity on both sides about the impact of civilian deaths in Afghanistan has led to more carefully targeted attacks.

In the latest violence, Nato says three of its soldiers were killed in a militant attack in Kunar province.

Local officials in the provincial capital, Asadabad, told the BBC two suicide bombers targeted US troops near the governor's compound in the city.

Nato soldiers were walking from their base at the time of the attack, police told the AFP news agency.
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US military deaths in Afghanistan at 1,941
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By The Associated Press

As of Tuesday, August 7, 2012, at least 1,941 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan as a result of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to an Associated Press count.

The AP count is seven less than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Tuesday at 10 a.m. EDT.

At least 1,620 military service members have died in Afghanistan as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

Outside of Afghanistan, the department reports at least 116 more members of the U.S. military died in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Of those, 12 were the result of hostile action.

The AP count of total OEF casualties outside of Afghanistan is the same as the department's tally.

The Defense Department also counts three military civilian deaths.

Since the start of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, 17,095 U.S. service members have been wounded in hostile action, according to the Defense Department.
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Afghan defense minister steps down after vote
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August 07, 2012 Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan –  Afghanistan's defense minister, who played a key role overseeing the rapid expansion of the country's army, stepped down on Tuesday days after receiving a no-confidence vote from parliament.

The resignation of Abdul Rahim Wardak, one of the members of President Hamid Karzai's cabinet who was trusted by Washington, leaves his key ministry without its longstanding leader at a time when Afghan troops are charged with taking over responsibility from international forces by the end of 2014.

Separately, a truck bomb rammed into the gate of a NATO base in eastern Afghanistan, seriously wounding several people, while a roadside explosion killed nine civilians riding in a bus near the Afghan capital. NATO also reported that three service members were killed during the past two days as fighting continued in the east and south where militants have their deepest roots.

Lawmakers last Saturday passed no-confidence votes against Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak and Interior Minister Bismullah Khan Mohammadi, faulting them for what they said was the government's weak response to cross-border attacks that Afghans blame on the Pakistani military.

The lawmakers, who asked why Afghanistan had not launched a military response, also quizzed the ministers about allegations of corruption within their ministries and alleged security lapses that led to recent assassinations of top officials.
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[GAP]

Articles found August 10, 2012


‘Not enough’ trainers in NATO to help Afghans eradicate IEDs
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A shortage of NATO trainers is complicating efforts to expedite the instruction of Afghan troops about the top threat they will face after international forces leave in 2014 — roadside bombs.

“This is something that they’re crying out for more of,” Canadian armyMaj. Gen. Jim Ferron, deputy commander of the NATO training mission in Afghanistan, said in a phone interview with The Washington Times.

Homemade bombs have been the No. 1 killer of NATO troops in Afghanistan for some time, and they have become the top killer of Afghan soldiers and police as they gradually take the lead in their country’s security.

Locating, disarming and disassembling the bombs is a specialized capability that few troops have mastered. Still, NATO considers imparting that expertise to Afghan security forces a high priority, though there are “not enough” trainers, Gen. Ferron said.

“It’s always a tragedy when a soldier is injured or killed with one of these, but it’s absolutely heartbreaking when a child here in Afghanistan is subjected to the effects of war, so that’s why I say ‘not enough’ people,” he added.

However, “Our focus right now is not bringing more American experts or more NATO coalition force experts into Afghanistan,” he said, adding that the training mission will focus on training Afghan troops who then can train their comrades.

“Our efforts now are on training the trainers because we are at the [command] of many of our governments. We are in a transition period,” Gen. Ferron said.
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Three US troops killed by man in Afghan army uniform
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August 10, 2012 Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan –  A man in an Afghan uniform shot and killed three American troops Friday morning in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military command said, in the third attack on coalition forces by their Afghan counterparts in a week. The Taliban claimed the shooter joined the insurgency after the attack.

So far this year, at least 21 similar attacks -- in which Afghan forces or insurgents disguised in Afghan uniforms have turned their guns on international troops -- have killed 30 coalition service members, according to an Associated Press tally.

Friday's shooting took place in Sangin district of Helmand province, said U.S. military spokeswoman Maj. Lori Hodge. She gave no further details and said the military were investigating.

Exactly what happened in the attack was unclear, and there were conflicting accounts. Sangin Gov. Mohammad Sharif said the shooting happened at a police checkpoint after a joint meal and a security meeting, but an Afghan army commander, Farooq Parwani, said that the attack happened on a U.S. base.

The U.S. military said it was also not clear whether the attacker wore an Afghan army or police uniform.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said by telephone that the attacker, whom he identified as a member of Helmand police named Asadullah, had joined the insurgency after his attack. Ahmadi said the man had been helping U.S. forces train the Afghan Local Police troops.

The U.S. is hoping the Afghan Local Police will be a key force to fight the insurgency after most international troops withdraw.
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Afghan defense minister quits, hands Karzai a security headache
ReutersBy Mirwais Harooni and Abdul Aziz Ibrahimi | Reuters – Tue, 7 Aug, 2012
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KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak resigned on Tuesday after losing a no-confidence vote in parliament, leaving President Hamid Karzai scrambling to find a replacement for one of his top security tsars as insurgent attacks mount.

Wardak, in charge of the army and one of the country's two key security ministers, told reporters he accepted parliament's decision, which has clouded NATO plans to hand security responsibilities to Afghan forces before the end of 2014.

"I respected the parliament's decision to twice appoint me as defence minister, and now I accept the parliament decision to remove me. I resign my position," Wardak told journalists.

Karzai's increasingly unpopular government was already under a cloud, with Finance Minister Hazarat Omar Zakhilwal vulnerable as a result of accusations aired on Afghan television that he stashed more than $1 million in overseas banks.

The fractious parliament voted on Saturday to remove Wardak and Interior Minister Bismillah Mohammadi after recent insurgent assassinations of senior officials, as well as cross-border attacks blamed on Pakistan.

While Karzai opted to keep him in place in an acting role to underpin stability, Wardak's decision to quit immediately leaves one of his most vital Cabinet posts vacant at the peak of the summer fighting months and as U.S. and French troops draw down.

It was not immediately clear how soon Karzai would be able to replace the veteran four-star general and ethnic Pashtun from eastern Wardak province, who is credited by Western diplomats with helping forge the fledgling Afghan National Army into an increasingly effective force against insurgents.
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[GAP]

Articles found August 12, 2012


  3 more U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan
By Rob Taylor, Reuters
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KABUL - Three U.S. Marines have been shot dead by an Afghan worker on a military base in southern Afghanistan, in a deadly 24 hours for NATO-led forces during which six American soldiers were killed in rogue attacks.

The shooting took place on Friday night in the Garmsir district of Helmand province, where three U.S. special forces soldiers were killed by an Afghan policeman and comrades earlier in the day.

“Let me clearly say that those two incidents clearly do not reflect the overall situation here in Afghanistan,” the chief NATO force spokesman, Brigadier-General Gunter Katz, told reporters on Saturday.

The three Marines were shot by a base employee who turned a gun on them, in the third rogue incident in four days. Foreign military sources said the man had not been wearing a uniform and it was unclear how he got hold of the weapon.

The gunman had been detained and a joint Afghan-NATO investigation team was reviewing security and looking into the reason for the shootings.
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5,000 Afghan 'militants' have surrendered - but are they real?
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Officials say the Afghanistan Peace and Reintegration Program has brought stability to several areas. But critics say the real anti-government fighters aren't participating. 

By Tom A. Peter, Correspondent / August 8, 2012
Puli Khumri, Afghanistan

As part of an effort to end the Afghan war peacefully, the Afghan government developed a program to get low- and mid-level fighters to lay down their weapons and reintegrate with society.

With more than 5,000 individuals reintegrated so far, many Afghan and international officials say the program has helped bring stability to several areas.

Still, the program, which is almost two years old, may possess a fatal flaw: It’s unclear if everyone who reintegrates is actually an insurgent. Many Afghans say they worry that a number of locals are pretending to be insurgents to take advantage of the reintegration program’s incentives.

“This process has failed. It is not successful. There’s been no clear definition of who the enemy is and that’s why things are not clear,” says Mehdi, a member of parliament from Baghlan, who like many Afghans only has one name. “It’s a shame to admit that this is a problem, but unfortunately it’s a really bad thing that is happening all over Afghanistan.”

QUIZ How well do you know Afghanistan?

Those who reintegrate agree to renounce violence, cut ties with insurgent and terrorist groups, and support the Afghan constitution. In exchange, they receive a transitional stipend of $120 per month for three months. Communities who then agree to accept re-integrees are eligible for development grants.

The program is Afghan-run, but financially supported by international donors. In 2012 it received $123.7 million from 12 international donors, with Japan and the US shouldering the lion’s share of the cost, $52 million and $50 million respectively.

The example of 'insurgent' Wali

Earlier this month in Afghanistan’s northern Baghlan Province, Commander Abdul Wali and about 40 of his fighters became some of the nation’s most recent re-integrees. Mr. Wali, however, admits he was never much of an insurgent.

During Afghanistan’s civil war, he battled the Taliban, fighting under the storied Northern Alliance commander Ahmad Shah Massoud. An ethnic Tajik, he is an opponent of the extremist group, which draws about 95 percent of its fighters from Afghanistan’s Pashtun community.
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Taliban's Ghorband valley stronghold two hours from Kabul
Article Link
  10 August 2012

The Ghorband valley in Afghanistan's Parwan province hit the headlines last month when amateur video emerged of a young woman's public execution by militants. Parwan is not far from Kabul and the killing highlighted worsening security in the province, which Nato handed to Afghan responsibility last summer. The BBC's Bilal Sarwary reports.

It takes about two hours to reach the Ghorband river valley from the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The valley has strategic significance as it offers passage to the central provinces, the capital and the Kabul-Mazaar highway - a key Nato supply route.

Bagram air base, one of the largest US military bases in the country, is also close by.

As we approach the foothills of the Hindu Kush, driving along the Ghorband river, the valley looks serene. The tranquillity, however, is broken by an Afghan police check post.

This is the last stop, the police commander informs me. Why, I ask?

Haji Ahmad Truck driver, Shinwari
'Everything is fine'

At the checkpoint a thorough search of vehicles ensues.

Ten minutes later, vehicles are allowed to proceed but only after the officer manning the post is convinced of their credentials.

At the check post, an officer working for the National Directorate of Security (NDS), the country's spy agency, gives me a snapshot of the situation in the valley we have just entered.

"In the past three years, the government has not been able to arrest even one criminal or a suspect in the valley," he says.
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[GAP]

Articles found August 14, 2012


Heavily Armed Afghan Militant Group Preparing For Attack Killed In Air Strike
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8/13/2012

(RTTNews) - A heavily armed group of insurgents preparing for an attack in eastern Afghanistan was killed in an air strike on Sunday.

The militant group was noted during a joint operation by Afghan-coalition security forces in Watahpur district of Kunar province, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a press release on Monday.

It confirmed that the air strike had not injured any civilians or damaged any of their property.

In another joint operation on Monday in Khugyani district, Nangarhar province, a Taliban leader was arrested. He was responsible for the movement of weapons and insurgents throughout the region, and for multiple attacks on Afghan and NATO forces.

In Nawah-e Barakzai district of Helmand province, an Afghan-coalition security force detained several suspected insurgents during an operation to arrest a Taliban explosives expert.

In a separate operation, Afghan-coalition security forces arrested a senior leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) in Chahar Darah district, Kunduz province. The IMU leader directed IED (improvised explosive device) attacks in Kunduz province. He also acquired IEDs, weapons and rockets and distributed them to insurgents throughout the region. The security force also detained two additional suspected insurgents and seized improvised explosive devices components during the operation, ISAF said.
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New Afghan police attack on NATO forces; no deaths
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August 13, 2012

KABUL – The new U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan called a sudden rash of attacks on international forces by their Afghan partners “troubling” Monday, after an Afghan policeman opened fire on NATO forces in the fifth such assault in a week.

No international service members were killed in the latest attack. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the shooting in the eastern province of Nangarhar, claiming the attacker was a police officer who had been in contact with insurgents before the assault.

A spike in so-called “green-on-blue” attacks, in which Afghan security forces or attackers wearing their uniforms turn their guns on coalition troops, has raised concerns as NATO aims to turn over control for security to Afghan forces in a little more than two years.

“It’s obviously very troubling, not just to us, but it’s also very troubling to our Afghan partners,” U.S. Ambassador James Cunningham told reporters in the capital in his first public comments after taking over the post earlier in the day.

“There’s a lot of work being done to understand why this is happening,” Cunningham said. He said it was not clear if all of the attackers were Taliban infiltrators, but noted that the strikes still threaten the “confidence and trust” needed for the two military forces to work together.
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Pakistan plans new combat operation
by The Canadian Press - Aug 13, 2012
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Pakistan has told U.S. military officials that it plans to launch combat operations against Taliban militants soon in a tribal area near the Afghan border that also serves as a haven for leaders of the al-Qaida-affiliated Haqqani network, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said Monday.

Speaking to The Associated Press in his Pentagon office, Panetta said Pakistan's military chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, discussed the planned operation in recent conversations with the top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen.

The U.S. long has been frustrated by Islamabad's refusal to target Afghan Taliban militants and their allies using Pakistani territory to stage attacks against U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan.

Many analysts believe Pakistan is reluctant to target groups with which it has strong historical ties and could be useful allies in Afghanistan after foreign forces withdraw.

Panetta said he did not know when the Pakistani operation would start, but he said he understands it will be in the "near future," and that the main target will be the Pakistani Taliban, rather than the Haqqani network.

Panetta welcomed Kayani's initiative, even though the main target may not be the Haqqani leadership.

"They've talked about it for a long time. Frankly, I'd lost hope that they were going do anything about it. But it does appear that they in fact are going to take that step," said Panetta.
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Afghan blasts: 'Dozens killed' in Nimroz and Kunduz
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  14 August 2012

Forty-two people have been killed and more than 130 others wounded in a series of bombings in the south-west and north of Afghanistan.

Thirty people were killed in four suicide bombings in Zaranj near the Iranian border.

Eleven bombers had targeted the city, police said, but not all had been able to blow themselves up.

Shortly afterwards, police in the northern province of Kunduz said 12 people were killed in another blast.

More than 30 others were reported wounded.

The district governor of Dasht-e Archi district in Kunduz told the BBC the bomb had been placed on a motorbike and had gone off shortly before the end of the day's fast for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Many of the victims were thought to be civilians, including foodsellers, he said.
'Blood all over'

In both Kunduz and Nimroz province in the south-west, the bombers were said to have attacked crowded markets.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, on a visit to Saudi Arabia, condemned the attacks, saying the bombers did not care about Ramadan.
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[GAP]

Articles found August 18, 2012

Is the Taliban wearing out its welcome in Afghanistan?
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Tuesday marked the most violent day in Afghanistan this year, while Afghans are starting to show that they're tired of violence and fed up with the Taliban.
By Tom A. Peter, Staff writer / August 15, 2012

Kandahar and Ghazni, Afghanistan

After US Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales allegedly walked off a US base in Kandahar last March and went house to house, killing a total of 17 Afghan civilians, many worried that the Taliban would capitalize on the incident and the long restive province would revert to violence.

Yet more than five months later, violence in Kandahar remains at record lows. Compared with the same time last year, the Kandahar governor’s office reports that insurgent attacks and activity are down 75 percent.

Marking a new development, not only did the Taliban fail to use the shooting spree as a propaganda tool to renew their momentum, but a growing number of residents say they’ve grown frustrated with the group and increasingly intolerant of its activities.

“The bad behavior of the Taliban with the local people – when they use their fields, houses, mosques, and streets as their battlefield, when they put landmines in roads and in their fields – has shifted the sympathy of the people toward the government. People are very unhappy with the Taliban about these issues,” says Haji Fazel Mohammad, the district governor of Panjwayi, where the Bales incident occurred.

Throughout Afghanistan, many locals are losing whatever sympathy they may have once had for the Taliban. In Ghazni Province in eastern Afghanistan, a group of locals in Andar district rose up against the extremist group after it shut down a majority of schools in the area.

The uprising, which began in May, failed to spread beyond Andar and there are a number of indications that local politics and power struggles may have had just as much, if not more, to do with the uprising than frustration with the Taliban. Most evidence points to a conflict between Afghanistan’s Hezeb-e Islami, a more moderate Islamic group, and the Taliban that has reportedly been taking place in Wardak and Ghazni for some time now.
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Pakistan preps for September militant purge
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By Dominic Di-Natale  August 15, 2012 FoxNews.com

Top Pakistani military officials plan to conduct a major militant clearing operation next month similar to the 2009 Swat valley operation that purged one of the most Taliban-infested regions of Pakistan, U.S. military officials tell Fox News.

The news confirmed a Monday disclosure from Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who said Pakistan had indicated its military was planning an operation against terrorists in a militant hotbed in the northwest. Now, U.S. military officials in Kabul and Washington say that Pakistan’s army chief Pervez Kayani recently told the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, that it would be a large-scale offensive designed to sweep the Waziristan tribal agencies.
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Afghan police officer kills 2 U.S. troops, military says
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A uniformed Afghan police officer turned his weapon on U.S. forces in Farah province Friday, killing two of them before being shot and killed himself, a U.S. military statement said.

The killings are the latest in a series of assaults this year carried out by Afghans clad in security force uniforms.

This attack also follows a Thursday statement by the Taliban's elusive leader boasting that fighters are infiltrating Afghanistan's security forces. The statement said fighters are attacking NATO-led forces on their bases, according to a statement purported to be from Mullah Mohammed Omar.
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Shootings by Afghan forces take growing toll on NATO troops
By Peter Bergen, CNN National Security Analyst, and Jennifer Rowland, Special to CNN
Mon August 13, 2012
Article Link

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Before dawn on Friday, a man wearing an Afghan uniform shot and killed three U.S. soldiers during a meeting to discuss local security issues in the southern province of Helmand.

It was one of an unprecedented series of five attacks by people in Afghan security forces uniforms in the past week against NATO forces.

If the trend over the past few months continues, NATO troops in Afghanistan face a rapidly growing threat. It is compounded by the strategy of withdrawing all combat troops by the end of 2014, which will increasingly leave relatively isolated international military advisors embedded with Afghan soldiers.

Attacks believed to be connected to Afghan security forces have already killed 34 NATO service members this year, drawing close to the record 36 international soldiers killed in similar attacks in 2011, according to data compiled by the New America Foundation.

Nineteen of the 34 NATO troops killed this year were U.S. soldiers, while 15 American service members were killed in such attacks in 2011.

These attacks now constitute 8% of the total number of U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year. In 2011, this number was closer to 4%.

The targeting of U.S. and other NATO soldiers by members of the Afghan security forces first spiked in 2009, and the number of incidents has gone up each year since.
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[GAP]

Articles found August 24, 2012


Canadian ex-soldier accused of murdering Taliban fighter states his case
Wednesday, August 22, 2012 By Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press
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Capt. Robert Semrau is seen at his court martial in Gatineau, Quebec, on Wednesday March 24, 2010. The former Canadian infantry officer, who was at the centre of a national debate over mercy killing in war, has broken his silence in a book that paints a stark, searing portrait of the chaos in the Afghan war. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick


OTTAWA - The day he was alleged to have killed a wounded, unarmed Taliban fighter, Capt. Robert Semrau watched in dismay as stoned Afghan soldiers passed around "King Kong" marijuana joints and carried their rifles like baseball bats.

The former Canadian infantry officer, who was at the centre of a national debate over mercy killing in war, has broken his silence in a book that paints a stark, searing portrait of the chaos in the Afghan war.

An advance copy of the book was obtained by The Canadian Press.

Throughout his trial for second-degree murder and in the aftermath of his dismissal from the military, Semrau has been silent about what happened on Oct. 19, 2008, following a horrific firefight.

And anyone looking for a tabloid-type revelation, an explanation — or even contrition — in his book, The Taliban Don't Wave, will be disappointed.

In passages devoid of sentiment and reflection, Semrau recounts the events leading to the discovery of the wounded insurgent in an almost machine gun-like narrative.

The dying enemy fighter had "a small, fist-like hole in his stomach, with a partially severed foot and an injured knee," he writes.

Some of the Afghan soldiers he was mentoring debated whether the man was dead.

"Captain Shafiq Ullah said the man was torn apart, had lost all of his blood in a nearby stream, and was ninety per cent dead," Semrau writes.

"And although they differed in their testimony as to the manner and what was said before the incident, two witnesses basically agreed that I had shot the insurgent two times, in what was later dubbed by the international press as a mercy killing."

His narrative sticks carefully to the public record laid down during his 2010 court martial for second-degree murder and attempted murder, charges of which he was acquitted.

He adds nothing about his motivation and defends only his silence.
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Lawsuit: Local Soldier Was Killed by Afghan Security Employee Who Had Made Threats
A Santa Clarita couple is suing a U.S. government contractor after their soldier son was killed by the company's employee
By Lolita Lopez  Thursday, Aug 23, 2012
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Rudy Acosta was just weeks away from coming home to Santa Clarita from his deployment overseas when he and a group of unarmed soldiers were ambushed. Two soldiers died and three others were injured.

That's according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by his parents in July.

Pfc. Acosta was 19 when he was killed in March 2011 inside a secure area of the Forward Operating Base Frontenac in Afghanistan.

The combat medic was shot to death on base by an Afghan national hired to protect the military – a man who had previously threatened to kill U.S. troops, according to the lawsuit filed by Dante and Carolyn Acosta in federal court.

"We lost our oldest son. We lost a bright, funny, charismatic 19-year old young man with a bright future. He wanted to be a surgeon," Dante Acosta, Rudy's father, said.

The Acostas are suing the private security company, Tundra Group, based in Canada, saying that the firm rehired Shir Ahmed after previously firing him for making the threats.
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Taliban attempts to kidnap family of jailed CIA informant in Pakistan
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By Dominic Di-Natale  August 24, 2012 FoxNews.com

PESHAWAR –  The Taliban attempted to kidnap the brother and other relatives of the Pakistani doctor jailed for helping the CIA hunt down Usama Bin Laden, members of the family told Fox News.

The alleged attempted abduction happened on Monday, according to Qamar Afridi, a cousin of Dr. Shakil Afridi, when a man identifying himself as a representative of Afghan President Hamid Karzai met with a family lawyer in Peshawar to discuss the case. The man reportedly said the Afghan leader wanted to help the Afridi family, and was willing to offer them financial support in their efforts to free the doctor. 

The man, who identified himself as Haji Hukam Khan and said he was “very close to Karzai,” asked the lawyer to bring Jamil (Dr. Afridi’s brother) and other family members to Kabul, Afghanistan to meet Karzai. “He wants to aid you,” Qamar said the man told the lawyer.

The family reacted to the offer with alarm because the Karzai government has shown no interest in the Afridi case. An Afghan official confirmed those suspicions on Friday, saying “no one from the Karzai administration has reached out to Afridi, nor do they intend to."

Qamar said he had little doubt about who was behind what he is convinced was an attempted abduction.

“We believe it was the Taliban. It has to be … We firmly believe this is the Taliban trying to get us.”

Afridi was sentenced to 33 years in jail on May 23, 2012, a year to the day after his arrest. He was convicted of supporting and financing a terror network, in what the U.S. government considers to be trumped-up charges. The Taliban and their supporters in Pakistan have also declared Afridi a “sworn enemy.”
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  Americans tune out war in Afghanistan even as US service personnel dying at rate of 1 a day
Americans tune out Afghan war as fighting rages on
By DEB RIECHMANN | Associated Press | Aug 21, 2012
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The Afghan conflict generates barely a whisper on the U.S. presidential campaign trail. It's not a hot topic at the office water cooler or in the halls of Congress _ even though more than 80,000 American troops are still fighting here and dying at a rate of one a day.

Americans show more interest in the economy and taxes than the latest suicide bombings in a different, distant land. They're more tuned in to the political ad war playing out on television than the deadly fight still raging against the Taliban. Earlier this month, protesters at the Iowa State Fair chanted "Stop the war!" They were referring to one purportedly being waged against the middle class.

By the time voters go to the polls Nov. 6 to choose between Obama and presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney, the war will be in its 12th year. For most Americans, that's long enough.

Public opinion remains largely negative toward the war, with 66 percent opposed to it and just 27 percent in favor in a May AP-GfK poll. More recently, a Quinnipiac University poll found that 60 percent of registered voters felt the U.S. should no longer be involved in Afghanistan. Just 31 percent said the U.S. is doing the right thing by fighting there now.

Not since the Korean War of the early 1950s _ a much shorter but more intense fight _ has an armed conflict involving America's sons and daughters captured so little public attention.

"We're bored with it," said Matthew Farwell, who served in the U.S. Army for five years including 16 months in eastern Afghanistan, where he sometimes received letters from grade school students addressed to the brave Marines in Iraq _ the wrong war.

"We all laugh about how no one really cares," he said. "All the `support the troops' stuff is bumper sticker deep."
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U.S. Boosts Security For Afghan Contractors
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    August 21, 2012

By NATHAN HODGE

The U.S. military has added previously undisclosed security measures for contractors in Afghanistan, amid a wave of insider attacks by Afghan soldiers and police and the continuing withdrawal of coalition troops.

Separately, the top U.S. general's plane was hit by insurgent fire early Tuesday as it sat on a runway at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. Indirect rounds fired shortly after midnight damaged the C-17 transport plane of Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and another helicopter, according to the U.S.-led coalition.

The general and his entourage weren't on the plane at the time and weren't injured, the coalition said, adding the entourage took another military aircraft to leave Afghanistan. The attack came just months after an Afghan civilian tried to drive a stolen vehicle into the U.S. defense secretary's plane during a similar visit.

In scheduled meetings with U.S. commanders in Afghanistan and Afghan military officials, Gen. Dempsey had focused on the rise in attacks on U.S. military forces by Afghan police and army personnel.

The U.S.-led coalition has also ordered tighter "force protection" measures for contract personnel who are involved in military training, according to Royal Canadian Air Force Maj. Steve Neta, a spokesman for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization training mission in Afghanistan.

A NATO document viewed by The Wall Street Journal outlines a number of extra precautions for contractors, including requiring personnel to travel in more heavily armored convoys with military-compatible communications, GPS trackers and specific weaponry.
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IEDs get in the way of my plan to reach Canada’s former Afghan bases
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Richard Johnson | Aug 21, 2012

Although Americans are reportedly losing interest in the war in Afghanistan, more than 80,000 U.S. troops continue to fight in this country, dying at a rate of about one a day.

Still, the war itself, now in its 11th year, commands little attention in the Western media and even less in the ongoing presidential campaigns.

At home in the United States, public opinion about the war effort is not favourable, with 66% opposed to it, and just 27% in support, according to a May AP-GfK poll published by the Associated Press.

It makes the stories all that more important. Hopefully I’ll get some soon.

When I showed up at the heliport Tuesday, there was the usual group of men standing around. No way to tell who they were, nor where they were going. The fashion seems to be to look as much like a special-forces soldier as possible. This involves shaving one’s head, sporting a thick ZZ-Top mini-beard, and a variety of tattoos, along with adopting a casual – “It’s just another day facing death” demeanour. I fit in perfectly apart from the missing beard, lack of tattoos, and the frightened look on my face. Of course it is also possible that they are all special forces.
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[GAP]

Articles found August 26, 2012

  Army “Red Team” Report Understood, But Buried Islamic Motivations For Afghan Murders of US Troops
Saturday, 25 August 2012
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On May 12, 2011 a US Army “Red Team” issued an unclassified report which purported to explain the burgeoning rash of murderous attacks (which have since escalated even further, still) by Afghan National Army (ANA) members on US and other NATO troops.

Although the report is dominated by apologetic, cultural relativist drivel which attempts, in vain, to explain away these acts of murder committed against the US and NATO troops by their by ANA “allies,” it also includes a crudely buried, sub rosa truthful narrative.

This latter discussion is all that matters, and bears full, clear exposure—particularly in light of the morally cretinousexcuse for the most recent spate of such killings of US troops. Specifically,  General Allen in an obscene pronouncement for which he should be forced to resign, maintained that Ramadan fasting, combined with operational tempo during the summer heat, were the drivers of these most recent killings of his own troops by Muslim ANA soldiers.

What the depraved General Allen willfully ignores was laid out, albeit clumsily camouflaged, using plain language, fifteen months ago in the “Red Team” report.

Based upon extensive interviews, US and NATO troops, as the report notes, were both disgusted with, and highly (and justifiably) suspicious of, the Islamically-sanctioned practices and behaviors of their Afghan military allies, and Afghan civilians.

[p. 3] U.S. Soldiers’ views of ANSF [Afghan National Security Forces], particularly of the ANA, were…extremely negative. They reported pervasive illicit drug use, massive thievery, personal instability, dishonesty, no integrity, incompetence, unsafe weapons handling, corrupt officers, no real NCO [non-commissioned officer] corps, covert alliances/informal treaties with insurgents, high AWOL rates, bad morale, laziness, repulsive hygiene, and the torture of dogs. Perceptions of civilians were also negative stemming from their insurgent sympathies and cruelty towards women and children
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Kandahar Journal : A Healthy Paranoia
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Richard Johnson | Aug 25, 2012

Forward Operating Base Apache, Qalat City, Zabul Province, Afghanistan – This military base is just a short drive from the “city”. It is a small, utilitarian, ugly, dirty square of land, perched on the top of a hill in southern Afghanistan.

This base has been open and operating since 2006, and even the gravel has that well-worn, tired feel. The base connects to a much larger Afghan National Army (ANA) Barracks.

The ANA Barracks looks new, large and sprawling. It even has its own soccer field for the Afghan soldiers, and a covered stand for the fans to sit in. There was a time, recently, when International Security Assistance Force members would use the field as well, but an attack on unarmed soldiers early in 2012 by an ANA soldier ended ISAF access.

After my first full night’s sleep in a week I was pretty excited to get out and about. I accompanied a U.S. Security Forces Assistance Team (SFAT) over to the ANA Barracks so that I could listen in on the Afghan Battle Update Brief (BUB) on how the plans for a joint operation were coming along.

The joint operation will include hundreds of soldiers so there were a multitude of intricacies to work out – all in two languages. The ANA will lead, using only their own equipment. The U.S. SFAT, hopefully, will serve only as observers.

The ANA Barracks houses the 6th Kandak, a unit that fought alongside Canadian Forces in Kandahar Province, during Canada’s time there. Many of the Kandak soldiers still wear a patch on their uniforms that displays the Canadian flag alongside the Afghan one.
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Taliban deny report of key Haqqani commander's death
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Published August 26, 2012

A Taliban spokesman in Afghanistan rejected reports that the son of the founder of the powerful Haqqani militant network has been killed, even as senior insurgents and members of the Pakistani government said they believe Badruddin Haqqani was dead.

Zabiullah Mujahid said in an email sent to reporters late Saturday that Haqqani is alive and in good health in Afghanistan.

The statement conflicts with assertions by a senior Taliban commander that a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan killed Haqqani. Pakistani intelligence officials have also said they are 90 percent certain he was killed in an American missile strike Tuesday in the North Waziristan region. They said their information was based on reports received from their agents in the field but acknowledged they haven't spoken to anyone who has seen the body.

If confirmed, Haqqani's death would mark a major blow to the organization founded by his father, Jalaluddin Haqqani, which is viewed by the U.S. as a powerful enemy in Afghanistan. The son is considered the network's day-to-day operations commander.

The Haqqani network has been blamed for a series of high-profile attacks and kidnappings in Afghanistan.
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[GAP]

Articles found August 29, 2012

Canadian officer intervened to save U.S. soldiers from green on blue attack
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    Afghanistan  August 26, 2012  By: Robert Tilford

A military report appropriately called: “A Crisis of Trust and Cultural Incompatibility - A Red Team study of mutual perceptions of Afghan National Security Force Personnel and U.S. soldiers in understanding and mitigating the phenomena of ANSF – committed fratricide murders”, represent a rare look into the top tier grievances the ANSF have with American troops serving in Afghanistan.

The report contains many instances of near fratricide and murder of U.S. troops.

On page 12, of the report and ANSF member related a rather incredible story about how a courageous Canadian Captain intervened one day in a dispute between Afghan Army troops and the U.S. military that probably saved the lives of several American soldiers on that day.

“Eight months ago…U.S. soldiers insisted on searching a villager’s home, even after he took out a Quran and put it in the face of ANA (Afghan National Army) face, pleading for respect. Initially the U.S. soldiers ignored the ANA’s pleas to search the home. It wasn’t until the ANA charged their weapons and a Canadian Captain intervened that the U.S. soldiers listened and changed their mind about doing the search. Two ANA searched the home instead”, he said. Adding: “The Quran outranks orders.”

The name of the Canadian officer was not given in the report, but it is clear he probably saved the situation from escalating into a “Green on Blue attack” against U.S soldiers.
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NATO may need more troops to ship home Afghan gear
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By Adrian Croft BRUNSSUM, The Netherlands | Tue Aug 28, 2012

NATO countries may temporarily send more troops to Afghanistan to pack up and ship out huge quantities of weapons and equipment as they wind down operations after more than a decade of war, a military planner said on Tuesday.

Lieutenant-Colonel Colin Richardson also said coalition members could use other routes to ship home their equipment even if the troubled crossing through Pakistan were closed to them.

With most foreign combat troops set to withdraw by the end of 2014, NATO must send home or dispose of 200,000 shipping containers and vehicles, said Richardson, a Canadian logistics expert at a NATO command in the Dutch town of Brunssum that supports the Afghan operation.

According to some estimates, more than $60 billion worth of equipment needs to be pulled out while soldiers continue operations against Taliban insurgents in a war that shows no sign of abating.

While the total number of foreign troops is falling as they gradually turn over security to Afghan forces, Richardson said the job of cleaning, packing and shipping equipment may lead some countries to send in more soldiers temporarily.

"Experience has shown us that for many of the troop-contributing nations, their troop levels will actually experience a slight increase as they bring in extra forces to prepare their equipment for redeployment," Richardson told reporters during a briefing at Brunssum.

NATO forces are expected to use a mixture of air, land and sea routes to ship home equipment and they are not completely dependent on transit through Pakistan, he said.

PAKISTAN TENSIONS

Pakistan banned trucks from carrying supplies to coalition troops in Afghanistan for seven months in protest at a cross-border NATO air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last November.

The route reopened in July after the United States said "sorry" for the deaths but U.S.-Pakistan ties remain difficult.

"Would all the nations prefer to have the Pakistan option available? Yes. Can we redeploy without it? Yes. We do have other options," Richardson said.
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Taliban insurgents behead 17 civilians at dance party in Afghanistan
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By Heidi Vogt and Mirwais Khan, The Associated Press August 27, 2012

KABUL - Insurgents beheaded 17 civilians in a Taliban-controlled area of southern Afghanistan, apparently because they attended a dance party that flouted the extreme brand of Islam embraced by the militants, officials said Monday.

The killings, in a district where U.S. Marines have battled the Taliban for years, were a reminder of how much power the insurgent group still wields in the south — particularly as international forces draw down and hand areas over to Afghan forces.

The victims were part of a large group that had gathered late Sunday in Helmand province's Musa Qala district for a celebration involving music and dancing, said district government chief Neyamatullah Khan. He said the Taliban slaughtered them to show their disapproval of the event.

All of the bodies were decapitated but it was not clear if they had been shot first, said provincial government spokesman Daoud Ahmadi.

Information was only trickling out slowly because the area where the killings occurred is largely Taliban controlled, Khan said. The Taliban spokesman for southern Afghanistan could not be reached for comment.

Many Afghans and international observers have expressed worries that the Taliban's brutal interpretation of Islamic justice will return as international forces withdraw. Under the Taliban, who ruled the country from 1996 to 2001, all music and film was banned as un-Islamic, and women were barred from leaving their homes without a male family member as an escort.
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Father of 'American Taliban' John Walker Lindh 'Proud' of Son's Testimony in Group Prayer Lawsuit
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By ALYSSA NEWCOMB Aug. 27, 2012

The father of John Walker Lindh, the young American who was captured in Afghanistan after 9/11 and sentenced to prison for aiding the Taliban against U.S. troops, said he is proud of his son for fighting in court today for the right to pray with other Muslim prisoners.

"I was really proud of John," Frank Lindh told ABCNews.com. "Today he did such a good job of explaining the daily prayer. It was a really well informed testimony. It shows how much depth of knowledge he has about Islam."

John Lindh, who pleaded guilty to helping the Taliban and carrying explosives, testified in court today that a prison policy limiting group prayer has forced him to sin.

Lindh, 31, is suing prison officials for the right to pray five times a day with fellow Islamic inmates instead of praying alone in his cell.

"I believe it's obligatory," Lindh said in court, the Associated Press reported. "If you're required to do it in congregation and you don't, then that's a sin."

Lindh is being held in the Communications Management Unit in Terre Haute, Ind., where he is serving a 20-year sentence for supplying services to the Taliban and carrying an explosive during the commission of a felony.
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