The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread October 2011

[GAP]

Insurgents attack two foreign bases in Afghan south
Thu Oct 27, 2011
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KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents armed with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, as well as a suicide car bomber, attacked two bases used by foreign troops in southern Afghanistan Thursday, the U.S. embassy and NATO-led coalition officials said.

An attack on a military and civilian provincial reconstruction team (PRT) in southern Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taliban, was still going several hours after it began, and there were some unconfirmed reports of casualties.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

"The attack included RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) and small arms fire and is still ongoing at this time," the U.S. embassy in Kabul said in a statement Thursday evening.

"Afghan and coalition forces have responded to the incident. All PRT chief of mission personnel are safe and accounted for, but there are unconfirmed reports of a number of other injuries," it said.

Afghan interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said soldiers also found a car suspected to contain explosives, and sealed off the area while inspecting the vehicle for bombs.

Earlier, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul said no ISAF troops had been killed in the Kandahar PRT attack.

Also Thursday, a suicide attacker detonated a car bomb outside an ISAF base in Kandahar province's Panjwai district. There were no ISAF casualties and the perimeter of the base was not breached, the coalition said.

Kandahar city, 480 km (300 miles) southwest of the capital, Kabul, and surrounding districts remain some of the most insecure areas of Afghanistan despite more than a year of offensives by NATO and Afghan troops.  Continued...
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[GAP]

Articles found October 30, 2011

Baad justice haunts Afghanistan
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Saturday October 29, 2011

In Kandahar, Canadian troops are taking their base apart now that their combat role is over in Afghanistan. 

Afghans meanwhile, are still putting together the framework for justice and governance to keep the country together once western troops depart.

Millions have already been spent training judges and building courthouses.

But ten years after the war began, many Afghans still resort to old traditions which have cruel consequences for women, as we hear from Canadian journalist Laura Lynch at the jail where many wind up. 
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Afghan lockdown after Australians killed
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Simon Cullen, agencies  Sun, 30 Oct 2011

Hundreds of Afghan troops have been disarmed and confined to barracks after three Australian soldiers were shot dead on morning parade.

Seven Australian soldiers were wounded in the parade-ground attack at Forward Operating Base Sorkh Bed, in Kandahar province.

All were gunned down dead by an Afghankistan army soldier they had been helping to train.

The Chief of the Australian Defence Force, General David Hurley, says the attacker was immediately killed. But he conceded it will affect how Australian troops work with their Afghan colleagues.

Apprehensive
"People are apprehensive about what the working relationship is like. I think that would be quite natural," he said.

The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has paid tribute to the soldiers - "Fine Australian professionals, fine Defence Force personnel and very brave men."
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Commonwealth government leaders commit to stepping up efforts to eradicate polio worldwide
By Associated Press, Published: October 28
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PERTH, Australia — Commonwealth government leaders meeting in Australia agreed Saturday to step up efforts to eradicate polio worldwide, despite the Afghanistan war setting back vaccination efforts there and in neighboring Pakistan.

Leaders of Britain, Canada, Australia and Nigeria, as well as billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, committed tens of millions of dollars in additional funding toward the World Health Organization’s campaign to wipe out the disabling disease from the four countries where it remains endemic — India, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.
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[GAP]

Articles found November 5, 2011

US General Peter Fuller fired as Afghan training chief
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4 November 2011 Last updated at 22:20 ET

A senior US commander has been dismissed after he made disparaging comments about Afghanistan's leaders.

Maj Gen Peter Fuller, deputy commander of Nato's Afghan training mission, said in an interview with Politico the country's leadership was "isolated from reality".

It is not clear whether Gen Fuller will be reassigned or will retire.

The head of US forces in Afghanistan says Gen Fuller's comments do not represent the US-Afghan relationship.

Gen John Allen described the two countries as "solid", adding: "The Afghan people are an honourable people, and comments such as these will not keep us from accomplishing our most critical and shared mission - bringing about a stable, peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan."

Pentagon spokesman George Little said Defence Secretary Leon Panetta was aware of the remarks but said that Gen Fuller had been speaking for himself and not the Department of Defense.
'Poke me in the eye'

Speaking while visiting Washington, Gen Fuller told Politico on Thursday that Afghan President Hamid Karzai was an unimpressive public speaker.

"When they are going to have a presidential election, you hope they get a guy that's more articulate in public," he said.
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How solving the mystery of shell shock might help us all
Published On Fri Nov 04 2011
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In Afghanistan, a buried IED, crude and lethal, awaits pressure from a human foot — or maybe an armoured vehicle — to trigger its violent eruption among Canadian military troops.

In Toronto, a lab rat’s white matter spills proteins — and reveals secrets of bomb blasts — under the eyepiece of a Toronto microscope.

The link: soldiers’ brains, physically altered by supersonic shock waves driven through their skulls. Survivors often have no hint of inner trauma. But it’s there.

As Remembrance Day approaches, the state of our troops’ battered heads is an emerging issue on two fronts. It is a source of worry for the wounded and a trove of medical clues for scientists.

“I’ve had a headache since 2007,” says Michael Blois, a retired master corporal from Exeter, Ont.

Blois, 29, suffered a mild traumatic brain injury during a four-hour firefight in Afghanistan while serving with the 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment. Headache was the first of his physical symptoms. Dizziness, nausea, fatigue and short-term memory loss took hold shortly after.

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), commonly called concussions in this hockey nation, are dubbed by Americans the “signature injury” of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts over the past decade. No other wartime period has produced this volume of documented military TBIs.

How many in Canada? Hard to know. Only 278 Canadian Forces personnel have qualified to receive payments for TBI since 2004, according to Office of the Veterans Ombudsman figures released to the Star’s Allan Woods. Brain injury experts believe the number is much higher, since 38,558 regular and reserve troops have served in the Afghanistan mission.

The Canadian head-injury figure is dwarfed by the 220,000 diagnosed TBI cases (and counting) of nearly 2 million U.S. troops cycled through Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Suffering soldiers, four-legged saviours
kim mackrael Saturday's Globe and Mail Friday, Nov. 04, 2011
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Dave Desjardins says he’s convinced a Rottweiler named Maggie helped save his life.

The 41-year-old retired soldier was diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder in 2005, a few months after he returned from Afghanistan. When he first met the dog last year, he was addicted to morphine and afraid to leave his home for anything more than a quick cigarette in the backyard.

He said it was his relationship with Maggie, who leans in to nuzzle him when she senses he’s nervous and helps pull him up hills in his wheelchair, that brought him out of the depths of anxiety and depression.

“I can honestly say Maggie has saved my life,” he said. “She was an absolute godsend.”

He met the dog through an Ottawa-based program called Courageous Companions and says he wants to see more veterans who are suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder gain access to animals trained to help them manage their symptoms.

It’s a move both Veterans Affairs Canada and the Department of National Defence say they’re considering, but with restricted budgets and limited Canadian research on the program, neither department says it has immediate plans to step in.

“There are a lot of Canadians that have good ideas and good programs outside the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces, that want to provide support to military members,” said Commander Marie-France Langlois. “We’re doing as much as we can in supporting that, but we treat [those programs] with caution as well.”

She said the Canadian Forces are examining the Courageous Companions program now, and are aware of several other Canadian groups that offer training for dogs to help veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder.
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Bhutto murder: Pakistan police and Taliban charged
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5 November 2011 Last updated at 08:04 ET

An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan has charged two senior police officers over the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

They were charged with security breaches and failure to protect her, prosecutors said.

Five alleged Taliban militants have also been charged with criminal conspiracy over Bhutto's death.

She died in a gun and bomb attack while campaigning for election. The accused deny the charges.

One of the police officers charged was Saud Aziz, the chief of police at the time in Rawalpindi, where Ms Bhutto was killed.

He and the other police officer were arrested nearly a year ago.

Prosecutor Mohammad Azhar said they were accused of "changing the security plan for BB [Bhutto]," Reuters news agency said.
Musharraf 'fugitive'

Pervez Musharraf, president of Pakistan at the time, has also been implicated in Ms Bhutto's murder.

The anti-terrorism court issued an arrest warrant for him in February over what it said was his failure to provide her with adequate security.
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