Afghanistan

Germany remains commited to NATO mission in Afghanistan

German Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has held talks with his American counterpart Robert Gates in Washington with Afghanistan topping the agenda.
 
The 45-minute meeting at the Pentagon was dominated by the current military situation in Afghanistan. "The USA and its allies are doomed to succeed," said zu Guttenberg.

Both countries agreed to work closely together on the civilian and military aspects of the mission ahead of an international Afghanistan conference scheduled in January 2010.

Continues at: dw-world.de

Afghanistan is world's worst place to be born: U.N.

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) - Eight years after a U.S.-led invasion ousted the Taliban from power in Afghanistan, the war-ravaged state is the most dangerous place in the world for a child to be born, the United Nations said on Thursday.

It is especially dangerous for girls, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said in launching its annual flagship report, The State of the World's Children.

Afghanistan has the highest infant mortality rate in the world -- 257 deaths per 1,000 live births, and 70 percent of the population lacks access to clean water, the agency said.

Continues at: Reuters.com

Wootton Bassett prepares for 100th repatriation of British soldiers

Only a handful of mourners watched the first coffins pass through the Wiltshire town. Now hundreds are turning out

The scene has become all too familiar but no less emotional. Just before 11am today a C17 Globemaster will fly low over the town of Wootton Bassett. It will touch down at nearby RAF Lyneham and the coffins of two soldiers will be carefully carried off by their colleagues. After being met by families at the base's chapel of rest, the coffins will be driven through Wootton Bassett and on to a hospital in Oxford. As ever, crowds will line the streets of the Wiltshire town and other points along the route to pay their respects.

This will be the 100th repatriation through Lyneham and Bassett, as townspeople call it, and perhaps it will be a time to take stock.

People have been turning out since the bodies of British service personnel were first brought home via the Wiltshire airbase in April 2007. More than 200 bodies have passed this way.

Continues at: Guardian.co.uk

British soldier shot dead in Afghanistan named by MoD

A British soldier shot dead in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday has been named as Sergeant Robert Loughran-Dickson of 4th Regiment, Royal Military Police.

His family described the Aldershot-based 33-year-old, from Deal, Kent, as a "true hero".

There are currently 9,000 UK troops in Afghanistan - most are deployed in Helmand province where Sgt Loughran-Dickson was killed.

Source: BBC Online News

Afghanistan Suicide Bomb Kills 15, Injures 31 in Farah Market

By Eltaf Najafizada

Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- At least 15 people were killed and 31 were injured in a suicide bomb attack at a crowded bazaar in Afghanistan’s western Farah province.

The bomber, who was on a motorcycle, blew himself up at 9 a.m. when police tried to stop him in the center of Farah city, Faqir Mohammad Askar, the province’s chief police officer said by telephone from Farah City. A policeman, women and children were among the dead.

"Some of the wounded are critical and the death toll could rise further," Abdul Jabar Saiq, chief of the Civilian Hospital said by telephone.

Source: Bloomberg.com

My diary from Afghanistan - By Lt Col David Wakefield

By Lt Col David Wakefield
Ministry of Defence

Wiltshire rugby coach Lieutenant Colonel David Wakefield from Upavon is spending six months in Afghanistan.

He deployed with 11 Light Brigade and arrived in the country on 1st October.

While there he is writing a diary for BBC Wiltshire about how he's getting on.

He'll also tell us how he's managing to keep in touch with his family, friends and fellow rugby enthusiasts back at Devizes Rugby Club.

You'll also be able to hear regular updates from him on-air.

Hear him next on BBC Wiltshire on Monday 23 November just after 8am on the Breakfast Show with Matthew Smith. Listen again on the BBC iplayer.

More information: BBC Wiltshire, My diary from Afghanistan 

Afghan president Hamid Karzai sworn in for second term

Hamid Karzai was sworn in for a second term as Afghanistan's president today at a tightly guarded ceremony in Kabul attended by western leaders keen to hear him set out reforms and a programme for tackling corruption.

His inauguration follows an election blighted by fraud and comes at time of growing public doubt in Europe and America about why Nato forces are fighting an increasingly bloody war in Afghanistan. The US, UK and other frustrated Nato countries urged Karzai to use his inauguration speech announce a government clean-up.

The foreign secretary David Miliband, who was due to arrive in Kabul last night, said: "We shall be there to act as witnesses to what should be a new contract between President Karzai and people."

Continues here: Guardian.co.uk: Afghan president Hamid Karzai sworn in for second term

Karzai sets Afghan forces target

Hamid Karzai has been sworn in as Afghan president for a second elected term, saying he wants Afghan forces in charge of the nation within five years.

In his inauguration speech, Mr Karzai also addressed the key question of corruption, saying his ministers had to be "competent and just".

He announced a conference to tackle the issue as well as a national gathering to help bring peace to Afghanistan.

Click here to read more and watch a video of Mr Karzai's speech at BBC News.

David Miliband on why we have to win the war in Afghanistan

As a flawed President Karzai prepares to be sworn in and doubts over the war rise, Brian Reade flies to Afghanistan with Foreign Secretary Davvid Miliband..and gets answers to some tough questions

The swearing in of a president elected for the first time in a poll organised by the people for the people. Proof that the West's mission to replace the Taliban with a democratic leader was more than a dream.

Instead this is a day of embarrassment. The inauguration of President Hamid Karzai, whose corrupt regime faces allegations of ballot-rigging, a crooked police force, human rights abuses, bribed officials, alliances with warlords and well-connected cronies living in heroin-funded "poppy palaces".

The article continues here: Mirror.co.uk: David Miliband on why we have to win the war in Afghanistan

David Davis: Crunch time for a botched mission

It is hardly surprising that support for the war in Afghanistan is slipping away

It is not uncommon in British history for the early stages of counter-insurgency campaigns to be littered with mistakes and false starts. Few, however, can have been pursued with the uncomprehending incompetence of this Government in its actions in Afghanistan.

We had barely established our base of operations when we effectively abandoned the strategy for winning these conflicts, a strategy that had been hammered out over the decades, from the successful conclusion of the "Malayan Emergency" on.

The article continues here: Independent, Comment: David Davis: Crunch time for a botched mission

Christina Schmid: "Olaf and I were everything to each other"

Christina Schmid, widow of army bomb disposal expert Olaf Schmid who was killed on his final day in the field in Afghanistan, talks movingly about her 'irreplaceable' husband.

We armchair warriors consider ourselves well-versed in the sad rituals of repatriation. Flag-draped coffins leaving the belly of a military aircraft, the convoy of hearses through the Wiltshire town of Wootton Bassett, relatives with flowers and tears. It's now a deep, familiar colour in the weave of national life.

But our understanding of a dead soldier's homecoming stops at the lychgate and the crematorium steps. Only the bereaved have to look beyond that. They know another kind of repatriation is awaiting them.

Continues at: Telegraph.co.uk - Christina Schmid: Olaf and I were everything to each other

Germany to extend Afghanistan mission

By THOMAS RIETIG, Associated Press Writer

BERLIN – Chancellor Angela Merkel's government will extend Germany's mission to Afghanistan for another year, but not increase the number of troops, a source close to the government said Wednesday.

The decision, which is to be announced later in the day, requires parliamentary approval, and that is expected before the current mandate expires in December.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement, said Merkel's Cabinet agreed to extend the country's participation in the NATO-led mission to Afghanistan for an additional 12 months.

Continues at: news.yahoo.com - Source: Germany to extend Afghanistan mission

Poverty and graft 'fuel Afghan war'

Corruption and poverty are fuelling the war in Afghanistan, a survey by British charity Oxfam and local organisations released a day before Hamid Karzai's inauguration for a second presidential term has said.

In the survey of 704 randomly selected Afghan men and women, which was released on Wednesday, 70 per cent said that unemployment and poverty were the leading reasons why Afghanistan remains so unstable.

Forty-eight per cent of those interviewed said that corruption and ineffectiveness of the Afghan government was a major cause.

Continues at: english.aljazeera.net - Poverty and graft 'fuel Afghan war'

MOD denies plan to pay off Taliban in Afghanistan

LONDON (AFP) – The Ministry of Defence on Tuesday denied a report it was urging troops to buy off potential Taliban recruits in Afghanistan with cash.

The ministry described a newspaper report citing a new army field manual was "simply untrue," although a spokesman said it backed funding "quick-impact" projects to win over local Afghan populations.

The Times said new counter-insurgency guidelines suggested army officers give away enough money to dissuade Afghans from joining the Taliban, who are known to pay about 10 dollars (just under six pounds) a day to recruit local fighters.

Continues at: afghanistannewcenter.com - MOD denies plan to pay off Taliban in Afghanistan

Afghanistan 'not war without end'

Afghanistan is "not a war without end" but Nato cannot leave a vacuum for the Taliban to fill, says David Miliband.

The foreign secretary also said in a Nato speech the UK was "ready, in the right conditions" to send more troops "on the basis of an agreed strategy".

He said military and civilian resources had to be aligned behind a "clear political strategy".

Click here to read more and watch a video of Mr Miliband's speech at BBC News.

Scramble for survival: the helicopter medics who risk death to save others

By Tom Coghlan in Kandahar

As Sergeant Matthew O’Neill spotted the thin copper wire snaking through the dust he knew, too late, that it was attached to a roadside bomb. It exploded under him an instant later, picking up the stocky, sandy-haired US Marine combat engineer and catapulting him more than 20 feet.

From a ploughed field in southern Helmand to the medical care of the main Nato field hospital in Kandahar is a journey of 100 miles — and getting there, or to the British hospital at Camp Bastion, is a race against the clock. Make it in less than an hour and the rate of survival is well over 90 per cent. Any longer than that, and the chances of survival begin to ebb away.

Meeting that target is the job of the 55th Expeditionary Rescue Squadron, a US Air Force unit now nearing the end of a three-month tour. They have flown nearly 1,500 missions so far, making them the hardest-working American casualty evacuation unit since Vietnam. “This is the highest tempo of missions we have ever seen,” says their commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Jim Kuehn, 41.

Continues at: timesonline.co.uk - Scramble for survival: the helicopter medics who risk death to save others

Afghanistan: how a political surge can work

Building on the PM's foreign policy speech last night, David Miliband will deliver a speech at the NATO parliamentary assembly this morning at 11am UK time.

The Foreign Secretary is in Edinburgh today attending the NATO parliamentary assembly where he will deliver a speech on Afghanistan that builds on the themes of the Prime Minister's foreign policy speech at the Lord Mayor's banquet in the City of London last night.

The speech, which will be delivered ahead of President Karzai's inauguration later this week, is due to focus on the long term future of Afghanistan and the importance of aligning military operations with a clear political strategy.

Source: fco.gov.uk - Afghanistan: how a political surge can work

UK offers to host Afghanistan conference in January

LONDON - Britain has offered to host an international conference in January to set a timetable for transferring security responsibilities to Afghan forces from next year, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Monday.

The bloodiest year for British troops in Afghanistan has fuelled public opposition to the campaign, creating another headache for Brown as he tries to close a big gap on the opposition Conservatives ahead of an election due by June.

Brown, trying to show voters he had an exit strategy, argues that expanding training of Afghan security forces may allow Britain to reduce its troop numbers over time.

Continues at: e-ariana.com - UK offers to host Afghanistan conference in January

Afghan frontline diary

Behind the headlines, what is it like to fight in Afghanistan?

By Major Richard Streatfeild who is on active duty in Afghanistan and who commands "A Company" from a base in the upper Sangin valley, where the heaviest of the fighting has been so far.

The start of a tour is always incredibly busy. Every day is a new experience.

Yesterday we held a Shura at the base. Or more accurately, we had a Shura come to us. A large group of elders arrived to protest the innocence of a man who had been arrested in a security operation. There was no doubt that they had been sent by insurgents, but they were a notable gathering.

In Afghanistan, age, gender, and facial hair are all indicators of seniority in open society. Inside the compound there is alleged to be a matriarchy, outside, in Helmand, mature men with long beards get respect. It was as an impressive bunch of beards as you are likely to find.

Continues at: news.bbc.co.uk - Afghan frontline diary 

PM highlights importance of British role in Afghanistan

The Prime Minister has said that international terrorism remains the biggest source of threat to the UK’s national security but that more has been done to disable Al Qaeda over the past year than in any year since 2001.

The comments were made as the Prime Minister gave his annual foreign policy speech at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet on Monday night, where he discussed the campaign in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as Britain’s role in the world, climate change and the challenge of nuclear proliferation.

Continues at: number10.gov.uk - PM highlights importance of British role in Afghanistan