Articles found 22 Sept 2006
Canadian leader: 'No quick fixes' on Afghanistan
POSTED: 1821 GMT (0221 HKT), September 21, 2006
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/09/21/canada.afghan.reut/index.html
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -- The international effort against Taliban militants in Afghanistan faces major long-term problems and cannot succeed by military means alone, an unusually downbeat Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday.
Canada has 2,300 soldiers in the southern city of Kandahar, scene of a series of major clashes with the Taliban. In the last three months alone, 20 Canadians have died, prompting ever louder calls for the troops to be brought back home.
"Let us be realistic. The challenges facing Afghanistan are enormous. There will be no quick fixes. Moreover, success cannot be assured by military means alone," Harper told the U.N. General Assembly.
Harper -- in some of his gloomiest comments on Afghanistan since his Conservatives won the January 23 election -- said the international community could not afford to fail.
"We have responded. But we haven't made Afghanistan's progress irreversible -- not yet. ... We are therefore acutely aware that the United Nations' job in Afghanistan is not done," he said.
"Difficulties don't daunt us. But lack of common purpose and will in this body would. ... If we fail the Afghan people, we will be failing ourselves."
Harper is under fire from critics who say he has not done nearly enough to explain why Canada is fighting in Afghanistan rather than focusing on the reconstruction effort. Four Canadian soldiers died in a bomb blast Monday.
There are around 41,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, but Ottawa -- complaining it is carrying too much of the burden -- wants other NATO nations to contribute more. (Watch NATO's commander describe the Taliban's expected reaction to NATO forces -- 2:14)
Last week Canada said it was sending 200 more troops and a squadron of Leopard tanks to reinforce its mission.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai is due to address Canada's Parliament on Friday.
Harper was more upbeat when he spoke to the Economic Club of New York on Wednesday night, playing down recent opinion polls that show most Canadians want the troops to come back.
"I don't really accept that Canadians are opposed to the mission. I think what Canadians regret, what hurts Canadians a lot, is seeing their brave men and women in uniform lose their lives," he said.
More on link
Building bridges to locals in Afghanistan
By Scott Peterson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0920/p06s02-wosc.html
$43 million will go to reconstruction in five provinces in bid to reduce Taliban influence.
KANDAGAL, AFGHANISTAN – The generals and governor strode across the 230-ft. span in eastern Afghanistan - the longest Bailey Bridge built during combat since World War II, the military says - with an optimism they want to spread across this divided valley where US and Afghan troops fight almost daily battles against the Taliban.
"Once they see the joy of reconstruction, many people will come to our side," provincial governor Didar Shalizai tells US Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Freakley. "They will run toward us."
More on link
Pakistan: U.S. threatened to bomb us back to Stone Age
POSTED: 0039 GMT (0839 HKT), September 21, 2006
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/21/pakistan.threat.ap/index.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan says the United States threatened to bomb his country back to the Stone Age after the 9/11 attacks if he did not help America's war on terror.
Musharraf says the threat was delivered by Richard Armitage, then the deputy secretary of state, to Musharraf's intelligence director, the Pakistani leader told CBS-TV's "60 Minutes."
"The intelligence director told me that (Armitage) said, 'Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age,' " Musharraf said in the interview to be shown Sunday on the CBS television network. (Watch how Armitage shook up the Pakistan intelligence chief -- 1:35)
It was insulting, Musharraf said. "I think it was a very rude remark," he told reporter Steve Kroft.
But, Musharraf said he reacted responsibly. "One has to think and take actions in the interests of the nation and that is what I did," he said.
The White House and State Department declined to comment on the conversation.
Armitage told CNN on Thursday that he never threatened to bomb Pakistan, wouldn't say such a thing and didn't have the authority to do it. Armitage said he did have a tough message for Pakistan, saying the Muslim nation was either "with us or against us," according to CNN. Armitage said he didn't know how his message was recounted so differently to Musharraf.
In a speech in January 2002, four months after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Musharraf gave a speech in which he clearly came down on the side of reform at home and opposition to Islamic fundamentalism.
Pakistan to this day is considered an ally of the United States in the struggle with militant groups. Sometimes, however, Pakistan appears reluctant to go after the Taliban, which controlled neighboring Afghanistan until 2001 and has intensified its insurgency in the southern part of the country in recent months.
More on link
Bush would send troops inside Pakistan to catch bin Laden
POSTED: 0544 GMT (1344 HKT), September 22, 2006
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/20/bush.intv/index.html
NEW YORK (CNN) -- President Bush said Wednesday he would order U.S. forces to go after Osama bin Laden inside Pakistan if he received good intelligence on the fugitive al Qaeda leader's location.
"Absolutely," Bush said.
The president made the comments Wednesday in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. (Watch Bush state his position on Iran and the war on terror -- 18:06)
Although Pakistan has said it won't allow U.S. troops to operate within its territory, "we would take the action necessary to bring him to justice."
But Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, told reporters Wednesday at the United Nations that his government would oppose any U.S. action in its territory.
"We wouldn't like to allow that at all. We will do it ourselves," he said.
A January airstrike on suspected al Qaeda figures on the Pakistan border provoked protests by tens of thousands of Pakistanis and complaints by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who said U.S. officials launched the attack without consulting his government.
Bin Laden's followers killed nearly 3,000 Americans in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001. In response, the United States and its allies overthrew Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, which had allowed al Qaeda to operate within its territory -- but bin Laden slipped the U.S. noose and is believed by many to be hiding in the rugged mountains along the Afghan-Pakistani border five years later.
Pakistani authorities recently signed a peace agreement with pro-Taliban tribal leaders in the country's restive northwest after two years of clashes with the traditionally autonomous tribes that left more than 600 Pakistani troops dead. But Aziz told CNN earlier this month that top terrorist leaders like bin Laden would have "no immunity" under the agreement.
"This notion that anybody who has a record as a terrorist will get safe haven -- we would not even think of doing that," he said.
More on link
19 Afghan construction workers killed when rebels ambush their bus
Friday Sep22 2006
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/story/3695625p-4271966c.html
KABUL (AP) - Rebels ambushed a bus carrying Afghan construction workers Friday in the country's volatile south, killing' of them, the Interior Ministry said.
The attack happened shortly after noon in Kandahar province began when a roadside bomb exploded near the bus, said ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary.
Some of the labourers may have been killed by the bomb, while others were shot by militants who fired on the remaining workers, he said.
Officials couldn't immediately say who employed the labourers
More on link
Afghan President Hamid Karzai arrives to address House of Commons
Friday Sep22 2006
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/canada/story/3695617p-4271964c.html
OTTAWA (CP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has arrived on Parliament Hill to deliver a historic speech to the Commons.
A 21-gun salute boomed out as he inspected a military guard of honour drawn up before the Peace Tower to greet him, all of them soldiers who have served in Afghanistan.
Karzai paused to thank the air force band which played the national anthems of both countries.
"What a nice anthem you played," he told the band leader. "It was great.
"I wish I could have a tape of it."
Then he turned to the band and said: "It was beautiful. I'll take a copy of it back home."
The Afghan leader was met by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor and Gen. Rick Hillier, the chief of the defence staff, among other dignitaries.
Karzai signed a guest book in the rotunda beneath the Peace Tower, writing that he wanted to thank Canadians for their help in Afghanistan's "hour of need."
O'Connor was asked how long Canada will stay in Afghanistan. Canada now is committed until 2009.
"NATO and Canada will consider an exit when we believe that governance and development are making steady progress and are irreversible," the minister said.
About a half dozen protesters wearing masks depicting U.S. President George W. Bush, Harper and Karzai chanted as Karzai went through the welcoming ceremonies.
"Hey Karzai," they shouted, well within earshot of the Afghan president, "we know you. You're a little puppet too."
End
Several suspected Taliban killed, detained in southern Afghanistan
Sep 21, 2006, 16:42 GMT
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/southasia/article_1203712.php/Several_suspected_Taliban_killed_detained_in_southern_Afghanistan
Kabul - One Afghan policeman and ten suspected Taliban insurgents were killed and several others detained in various incidents around the country Thursday.
Two policemen were also injured in the clashes, officials said.
A police spokesman in Helmand said that one policeman was killed and two injured when a police patrol was ambushed Wednesday night by suspected Taliban in Nawa district. Three attackers were arrested.
In a statement, NATO said NATO-led International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF)troops on Tuesday killed up to ten insurgents and destroyed three of their vehicles in clashes with rebels bearing small arms and rockets in Garmsar district in Helmand province.
No ISAF troops were injured in the fighting.
Also in Helmand, the Afghan Interior Ministry said the body of a Turkish engineer had been recovered by police in Nahri Saraj district.
Mustafa Azimi was working for a Turkish road construction company when he was kidnapped by the Taliban more than two weeks ago, a purported Taliban spokesman, Yusuf Ahmadi said announcing his execution to local reporters.
NATO also announced that ISAF military police Wednesday detained 12 suspected Taliban members following the detonation of an explosive near troops in the southern province of Kandahar.
There were no ISAF casualties in that incident either, NATO said
More on link
Afghanistan's President Notes Progress, Problems
By John D. Banusiewicz, American Forces Press Service
Sep 21, 2006, 10:50
http://www.blackanthem.com/News/military200608_966.shtml
Blackanthem Military News, WASHINGTON, D.C. – Although progress has been profound and his country continues to move forward, terrorists have stepped up their efforts to derail that progress, Afghanistan's president told the United Nations General Assembly in New York yesterday.
"We have seen terrorism rebounding as terrorists have infiltrated our borders to step up their murderous campaign against our people," Hamid Karzai said.
Terrorists, he told the assembly, see a successful and prosperous Afghanistan as a knockout blow for their aims there.
"That is why our schools and clinics get burned down and our ... teachers and our doctors get killed," he said. "That is why, today, 200,000 of our students who went to school a year ago are no longer able to do so."
He noted that polio cases in his country have risen from four in 2005 to 27 so far this year.
"All of these cases have occurred in some areas of southern Afghanistan, where terrorists are preventing children from access to vaccination and health care," Karzai said. "Terrorists are prepared to cross any boundaries and commit horrific acts of violence to try to derail Afghanistan from its path to success. They want the international community to fail in its collective endeavor to help Afghanistan rebuild.
"That is why they decapitate elderly women, blow up mosques full of worshipers, and kill school-going children in indiscriminate bombings of civilian areas," he continued. "And that is why they are killing international soldiers and civilians who have come to Afghanistan to help the Afghan people, like the four Canadian soldiers who were killed four days ago while distributing notebooks and candies to children in a village in Kandahar, or the Turkish engineer who was building roads in Helmand."
The Afghan president told the multinational gathering of the progress his country has seen since he last addressed the body two years ago and noted that millions of Afghans voted in the country's presidential and parliamentary elections.
More on link
Afghanistan names candidate for UN Secretary-General
www.chinaview.cn 2006-09-22 04:37:32
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-09/22/content_5122240.htm
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan announced on Thursday the nomination of Ashraf Ghani, former Finance Minister of Afghanistan, as the candidate for the next Secretary-General of the United Nations.
The Afghan government believes that Ashraf Ghani is "uniquely equipped to lead the United Nations at time when imagination and leadership are required in both security and development," said a government press release.
With experience at the frontlines of conflict and poverty, Ghani stands at the intersection of Islam and the West with the capacity to bring the world together at a time of growing religious and geographical tension, according to the press release.
Ghani, currently chancellor of Kabul University, served as Afghanistan's finance minister. Before that he worked for the World Bank in Asia, spending 10 years working in China, India and Russia. "He is therefore particularly sensitive to the opportunities presented by the world's emerging economies," the press release said
More on link
U.S. to maintain Afghanistan force level
Sept. 21, 2006, 12:30PM By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press Writer © 2006 The Associated Press
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/politics/4204336.html
WASHINGTON — U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan are likely to remain steady, at about 21,000, at least until next February, the top U.S. general there said Thursday, echoing earlier comments about forces in Iraq.
Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry told Pentagon reporters that while the Taliban enemy in Afghanistan is not extremely strong, their numbers and influence have grown in some southern sections of the country.
More on link
Report: Soldier says British military casualties in Afghanistan underreported
The Associated Press Published: September 21, 2006
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/09/21/europe/EU_GEN_Britain_Afghanistan_Casualties.php
A British army officer claimed that Britain is sustaining higher casualties in Afghanistan than official figures suggest, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported Thursday.
Maj. Jon Swift, who is currently serving in Afghanistan, also said the British operation in Afghanistan is "politically" driven, the BBC said.
His comments were briefly posted on the Web site of his Royal Regiment of Fusiliers infantry battalion before being removed, according to the BBC.
British soldiers often have been treated for wounds and sent back out to fight in Afghanistan without their injuries being recorded, the network quoted Swift as saying.
"The scale of casualties has not been properly reported and shows no sign of reducing," Swift's letter on the Web site was quoted as saying. "Political, and not military, imperatives are being followed in the campaign."
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defense denied the accuracy of Swift's comments, which, he said, the BBC apparently had quoted correctly.
The spokesman said the ministry had not ordered that Swift's comments be removed from the Web site, which is maintained and controlled by an independent, private regimental association based in England. A phone call to the association on Thursday night was not immediately returned.
Speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with the Ministry of Defense's rules, the spokesman said all serious casualties suffered by British soldiers in Afghanistan are routinely recorded on the Ministry of Defense's Web site.
"We publish all serious injuries. We don't include relatively minor injuries, cuts, bruises, but all significant gunshot wounds, shrapnel wounds, amputations are fully reported on," the spokesman said.
He said the deployment of British troops in violent Afghan provinces such as Helmand in the south was not "politically motivated," but came at the request of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
More on link
Bush works to defuse fray between allies Pakistan and Afghanistan
The Associated Press Published: September 22, 2006
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/09/22/america/NA_GEN_US_Bush_South_Asia.php
President George W. Bush is playing middle man in a foreign policy problem that has bubbled up between Afghanistan and Pakistan, two allies in the U.S. campaign against terrorism who accuse each other of not doing enough to crack down on extremists.
Bush was meeting on Friday with Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. He is following up that meeting with talks on Tuesday with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Then, they will have a three-way sit down on Wednesday.
Bush is working to find a way to defuse the dispute between Pakistan, which is helping the United States track Osama bin Laden and restrain bin Laden's al-Qaida organization, and the struggling democratic government in Afghanistan.
Karzai's government is suffering its heaviest insurgent attacks since U.S.-led troops toppled the Taliban in late 2001.
Coinciding with the Bush-Musharraf meeting was a news report alleging that after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the United States pressured Pakistan to become a partner in the U.S.-led war on terror.
In an interview to air Sunday on CBS-TV's "60 Minutes" program, Musharraf said that after the attacks, Richard Armitage, then deputy secretary of state, told Pakistan's intelligence director that the United States would bomb his country if it did not help fight terrorists.
"The intelligence director told me that (Armitage) said, 'Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age,'" Musharraf told "60 Minutes."
The White House and State Department declined to comment on the conversation.
Armitage told CNN on Thursday that he never threatened to bomb Pakistan, would not have said such a thing and did not have the authority to do it. Armitage said he did have a tough message for Pakistan, telling the Muslim nation that it was either "with us or against us," according to CNN. Armitage said he didn't know how his message was recounted so differently to Musharraf.
Afghan officials have alleged repeatedly that Taliban militants are hiding out in neighboring Pakistan and launching attacks across the border into Afghanistan. Pakistan, which has deployed 80,000 troops along the border, rejects the accusation and says it's doing all it can to battle extremists.
"This isn't about pointing fingers at one another," State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said Thursday. "What this is about is finding ways that we can all work together to be able to achieve our common objectives, which is a free, secure and independent Afghanistan; a secure Pakistan border area as well."
Musharraf is strongly defending a truce he recently signed with Taliban-linked militants in the tribal North West Frontier Province where his government has little control. Under the terms of that deal, Pakistani troops agreed to end their military campaign against fighters in North Waziristan. For their part, the militants said they would halt their attacks on Pakistani forces and stop crossing into Afghanistan to launch ambushes.
"If they're able to live up to the terms of those agreements, the border should be a much quieter region," NATO's top commander, U.S. Gen. James L. Jones, said at a Senate hearing on Thursday. "We're in the process now of observing very closely what is going on and what the effect is on the Afghani side of the border. And we'll know that within probably the next month or so."
Karzai said in a speech in New York City on Thursday that the Taliban was not gaining strength and he suggested that Pakistan's toleration of militants had helped make Afghanistan unstable.
He also said some in the region used extremists to maintain political power, referring to Musharraf.
Karzai equated cooperating with terrorists to "trying to train a snake against somebody else."
"You cannot train a snake. It will come and bite you," he said.
During Musharraf's visit, human rights activists are asking Bush to press Musharraf to restore civilian rule in Pakistan, end discrimination of women, and stop using torture and arbitrary detention in counterterrorism operations. Musharraf seized power in a 1999 coup. Instead of giving up his military uniform in 2004 as promised, he changed the constitution so he could hold both his army post and the presidency until 2007.
___
On the Net:
White House: http://whitehouse.gov
CIA World Factbook on Pakistan:
https://http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/pk.html
WASHINGTON President George W. Bush is playing middle man in a foreign policy problem that has bubbled up between Afghanistan and Pakistan, two allies in the U.S. campaign against terrorism who accuse each other of not doing enough to crack down on extremists.
Bush was meeting on Friday with Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. He is following up that meeting with talks on Tuesday with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Then, they will have a three-way sit down on Wednesday.
Bush is working to find a way to defuse the dispute between Pakistan, which is helping the United States track Osama bin Laden and restrain bin Laden's al-Qaida organization, and the struggling democratic government in Afghanistan.
Karzai's government is suffering its heaviest insurgent attacks since U.S.-led troops toppled the Taliban in late 2001.
Coinciding with the Bush-Musharraf meeting was a news report alleging that after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the United States pressured Pakistan to become a partner in the U.S.-led war on terror.
In an interview to air Sunday on CBS-TV's "60 Minutes" program, Musharraf said that after the attacks, Richard Armitage, then deputy secretary of state, told Pakistan's intelligence director that the United States would bomb his country if it did not help fight terrorists.
"The intelligence director told me that (Armitage) said, 'Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age,'" Musharraf told "60 Minutes."
The White House and State Department declined to comment on the conversation.
Armitage told CNN on Thursday that he never threatened to bomb Pakistan, would not have said such a thing and did not have the authority to do it. Armitage said he did have a tough message for Pakistan, telling the Muslim nation that it was either "with us or against us," according to CNN. Armitage said he didn't know how his message was recounted so differently to Musharraf.
Afghan officials have alleged repeatedly that Taliban militants are hiding out in neighboring Pakistan and launching attacks across the border into Afghanistan. Pakistan, which has deployed 80,000 troops along the border, rejects the accusation and says it's doing all it can to battle extremists.
"This isn't about pointing fingers at one another," State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said Thursday. "What this is about is finding ways that we can all work together to be able to achieve our common objectives, which is a free, secure and independent Afghanistan; a secure Pakistan border area as well."
Musharraf is strongly defending a truce he recently signed with Taliban-linked militants in the tribal North West Frontier Province where his government has little control. Under the terms of that deal, Pakistani troops agreed to end their military campaign against fighters in North Waziristan. For their part, the militants said they would halt their attacks on Pakistani forces and stop crossing into Afghanistan to launch ambushes.
"If they're able to live up to the terms of those agreements, the border should be a much quieter region," NATO's top commander, U.S. Gen. James L. Jones, said at a Senate hearing on Thursday. "We're in the process now of observing very closely what is going on and what the effect is on the Afghani side of the border. And we'll know that within probably the next month or so."
Karzai said in a speech in New York City on Thursday that the Taliban was not gaining strength and he suggested that Pakistan's toleration of militants had helped make Afghanistan unstable.
He also said some in the region used extremists to maintain political power, referring to Musharraf.
Karzai equated cooperating with terrorists to "trying to train a snake against somebody else."
"You cannot train a snake. It will come and bite you," he said.
During Musharraf's visit, human rights activists are asking Bush to press Musharraf to restore civilian rule in Pakistan, end discrimination of women, and stop using torture and arbitrary detention in counterterrorism operations. Musharraf seized power in a 1999 coup. Instead of giving up his military uniform in 2004 as promised, he changed the constitution so he could hold both his army post and the presidency until 2007.
___
On the Net:
White House: http://whitehouse.gov
CIA World Factbook on Pakistan:
https://http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/pk.html
WASHINGTON President George W. Bush is playing middle man in a foreign policy problem that has bubbled up between Afghanistan and Pakistan, two allies in the U.S. campaign against terrorism who accuse each other of not doing enough to crack down on extremists.
Bush was meeting on Friday with Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. He is following up that meeting with talks on Tuesday with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Then, they will have a three-way sit down on Wednesday.
Bush is working to find a way to defuse the dispute between Pakistan, which is helping the United States track Osama bin Laden and restrain bin Laden's al-Qaida organization, and the struggling democratic government in Afghanistan.
Karzai's government is suffering its heaviest insurgent attacks since U.S.-led troops toppled the Taliban in late 2001.
Coinciding with the Bush-Musharraf meeting was a news report alleging that after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the United States pressured Pakistan to become a partner in the U.S.-led war on terror.
In an interview to air Sunday on CBS-TV's "60 Minutes" program, Musharraf said that after the attacks, Richard Armitage, then deputy secretary of state, told Pakistan's intelligence director that the United States would bomb his country if it did not help fight terrorists.
"The intelligence director told me that (Armitage) said, 'Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age,'" Musharraf told "60 Minutes."
The White House and State Department declined to comment on the conversation.
More on link
Body of kidnapped Turkish citizen found in Afghanistan
September 22, 2006
http://english.people.com.cn/200609/22/eng20060922_305172.html
The body of kidnapped Turkish citizen Mustafa Semih Tufal was found on Thursday in Afghanistan, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.
Officials of Turkish Embassy in Kabul were quoted as saying that the body of Tufal, who was kidnapped in Afghanistan last month, was found.
Taliban militants on Tuesday shot dead Tufal, after his company failed to meet demands to leave Afghanistan.
Tufal's funeral will take place in Turkey on next Tuesday, said the officials.
On Aug. 28, Tufal was kidnapped on Kandahar-Erat highway in an armed attack while his colleague Murat Gedik, also a Turkish citizen, was killed at the scene.
Source: Xinhua
End
EU wants quick military success in southern Afghanistan
www.chinaview.cn 2006-09-22 22:17:41
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-09/22/content_5126616.htm
BRUSSELS, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) has asked for quick military victories in southern Afghanistan coupled with improvement of governance at the local level and reconstruction assistance.
"It is not politically a good idea to have a long fighting season, not only now, but in the next year or two," EU's special representative in Afghanistan, Francesc Venedrell told reporters in Brussels.
Civilian casualties, which are largely unavoidable in military operations, bear a political price, he explained. Even the killing of Taliban fighters in these operations may draw sympathies from the Pashtun population in the south, he said.
He said "Operation Medusa," which was aimed to establish government control over an area of Kandahar Province centered on the town of Panjwayi, had ended satisfactorily with full control of Panjwayi.
The victory in the battle does not mean victory in the war, he said. But through the operation, the Taliban has seen the capacity of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
Military victories should be followed up immediately by reconstruction assistance, he said.
"There has to be tangible and visible reconstruction efforts to provide more employment to the people," he said.
The Taliban are able to recruit people not due to ideological grounds, but to their promises of higher pay than the police and the army, he said.
Enditem
General Explains Decision to Refrain From Targeting Taliban Funeral
By John D. Banusiewicz American Forces Press Service
http://www.defenselink.mil/News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=1081
WASHINGTON, Sept. 21, 2006 – Much has been made in recent days of an aerial photograph taken in Afghanistan that reportedly shows hundreds of Taliban fighters attending a funeral and the decision to refrain from wiping out the gathering militarily.
At a Pentagon news conference today, the commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan said the rules of engagement provide all the flexibility needed to take the fight to the enemy and to protect coalition forces, but the decision in this case was not as simple as it might appear to be.
Army Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry said the intelligence available to the coalition commander on the ground did, indeed, support the belief that the gathering was for the funeral of a mid-level Taliban operative. “It was also reasonable to believe that, as he looked down at that photograph or looked down at the video, that a number of the people that were standing there at that funeral were Taliban fighters,” the general added.
But it’s what the picture didn’t show that ultimately led to the decision not to strike, Eikenberry said. Just outside the frame, he said, was an Afghan village.
“And it also was reasonable for the commander to conclude from that village that there were probably innocents -- maybe sympathetic to Taliban, but innocents, noncombatants -- that had moved to participate in that funeral,” the general said. And the photo couldn’t rule out the possible presence of women and children, he added.
More on link
More on link
