Afghanistan

NATO: Bringing About Change - Part 1

ISAF and Afghan forces have cleared insurgents from Nad Ali, now the Afghan government and the international community are working to prevent them from returning.

From natochannel123 on YouTube

Channel 4 News: Gruelling Afghan patrol proves Taliban threat

Embedded in Afghanistan with the Coldstream Guards Channel 4 News' Alex Thomson finds that while NATO has the power and military might, the Taliban insurgency shows little sign of ending the fight.

It was the longest and deepest patrol that the Coldstream Guards have yet undertaken in a seven month tour in the Babaji district. And yet we were only a couple of miles from their forward base - if that.

And we only walked perhaps a mile or two at most, over the three days.
 
Even so that meant an airlift at dawn involving three Chinook transport helicopters with air cover from Apache assault helicopters. All that, to move that tiny distance.

Continues at: channel4.com/news/ - Gruelling Afghan patrol proves Taliban threat

PA: Taliban shooting 'more accurate'

British commanders in Afghanistan are watching to see if the Taliban are changing tactics after troops in a militant hotspot reported that insurgents' shooting is becoming more accurate. Report from the PA News.

Six UK soldiers died in Sangin in northern Helmand Province in the space of a week at the start of this month, four of them from gunshot wounds.

Defence chiefs are monitoring whether this represents a shift by militants away from the use of roadside bombs to target British forces in the notoriously violent district.

AP: Suicide bombs kill 39, wound 95 in Pakistani city

A pair of suicide bombers targeting army vehicles detonated explosives within seconds of each other Friday, killing at least 39 people in this eastern city and wounding nearly 100, police said. It was the fourth major attack in Pakistan this week, indicating Islamist militants are stepping up violence after a period of relative calm. Babar Dogar and Munir Ahmed report from Lahore for Associated Press.

About ten of those killed were soldiers, said Lahore police chief Parvaiz Rathore.

The bombers, who were on foot, struck RA Bazaar, a residential and commercial neighborhood where several security agencies have facilities. Security forces swarmed the area as thick black smoke rose into the sky and bystanders rushed the injured into ambulances. Video being shot with a mobile phone just after the first explosion showed a large burst of orange flame suddenly erupting in the street, according to GEO TV, which broadcast a short clip of the footage shot by Tabraiz Bukhari.

Continues at: hosted.ap.org - Suicide bombs kill 39, wound 95 in Pakistani city

AP: Marjah push - Ups and downs are lessons for future

EDITOR'S NOTE: Alfred de Montesquiou, an Associated Press correspondent embedded with US Marines in the battle for the Afghan town of Marjah, was able to observe some of the lessons of the fighting and hear from the officers in command how they are being absorbed.

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After a day spent pinned down in gunbattles or caught in a maze of roadside bombs, with little hope of air support and an erratic Afghan army to coax along, LCpl Travis Anderson reflected on the frustrations of the campaign US forces were fighting.

"I understand the reason behind it, but it's so hard to fight a war like this," the 20-year-old from Altoona, Iowa, said as his company of Marines spearheaded the ground assault to reclaim Marjah from the Taliban.

Three weeks later, the Marjah insurgents have been largely defeated. The offensive on the southern Afghan town - NATO's largest combined operation in Afghanistan - is described as the first step of an 18-month push to push the Taliban out for good.

Continues at: hosted.ap.org - Marjah push: Ups and downs are lessons for future

BBC News: A life more ordinary in Musa Qal'ah

Musa Qal'ah, in northern Helmand, will shortly become the first British base in Afghanistan to be handed on to US Marines.

BBC defence correspondent Caroline Wyatt visited the town to see whether there are any lessons to be learned.

Back in 2006, it seemed unlikely that the Taliban's then stronghold of Musa Qal'ah, a centre of the opium trade, would be persuaded to listen to the voice of the Nato coalition and the Afghan government.

But the defection of a local Taliban commander, Mullah Salaam, helped turn the tide after a controversial deal between British troops and tribal elders to keep the insurgents out had collapsed.

Continues at: news.bbc.co.uk - A life more ordinary in Musa Qal'ah

WSJ: Arrests force Taliban flight

The Afghan Taliban's leadership has spread out to cities across Pakistan in an effort to evade capture that is also making it harder for them to organize. Matthew Rosenberg reports from Kabul for The Wall Street Journal.

The dispersion of Taliban leaders, a response to Pakistan's recent arrests of senior militants there, is slowing the group's process of replacing its operations chief and effective No. 2, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, say militants and tribal elders with ties to the insurgents.

Mullah Baradar was arrested in late January, and at least three other major Taliban figures have since been picked up, along with a handful of second-tier leaders, U.S. and Pakistani officials say.

Continues at: online.wsj.com - Arrests Force Taliban Flight

The Times: British Army meets its match as German nature lovers halt training

They have faced improvised bombs, been ambushed by guerrillas and shot at by al-Qaeda. Now, British troops training for their next battle with Afghan insurgents have been foiled by German nature lovers. Allan Hall reports from Berlin for The Times.

Plans to erect mock Afghan villages in the heathland of Gütersloh, northwest Germany, to prepare the Army for close-contact warfare were put on hold this week after a German court ruled in favour of the rare sand lizard and the even rarer blue-winged grasshopper.

Continues at: timesonline.co.uk - British Army meets its match as German nature lovers halt training

Guardian: Iran's 'double game' in Afghanistan

The Iranian president's outspoken criticism of the US presence during his visit to Kabul embarrassed his Afghan counterpart. Massoumeh Torfeh writes in The Guardian.

It must have felt very uncomfortable for President Hamid Karzai to have his guest and "brother", Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, use a press conference in Kabul to attack Afghanistan's main donor and ally, the United States. "They themselves created terrorists and now they're saying that they are fighting terrorists," said Ahmadinejad, accusing the US of playing a "double game" in Afghanistan.

Ahmadinejad was in fact returning a compliment by the US defence secretary, Robert Gates, who only hours earlier had accused Tehran of "playing a double game" of offering friendship to the Afghan government while at the same time giving "low-level support" and money to the Taliban.

Continues at: guardian.co.uk - Iran's 'double game' in Afghanistan

AP: Blast kills three in attack on Afghan police post

Commander of new police rapid-response force among victims of explosion after gun battle in eastern Afghanistan, reports Associated Press.

Insurgents opened fire on a police post in eastern Afghanistan and detonated a roadside bomb as police reinforcements arrived, killing three officers.

Among the dead was the commander of a new police rapid-response force created in Paktia province to deal with Taliban threats, said Azizudin Wardak, the provincial police chief.

Continues at: guardian.co.uk - Blast kills three in attack on Afghan police post

Guardian: British troops hand over control of key Afghan town to US

Soldiers based in Musa Qal'ah in northern Helmand to be redeployed, but 800 troops will remain in Sangin. Richard Norton-Taylor reports for The Guardian.

Control of a key town in southern Afghanistan, twice captured by British troops and where 23 were killed, is to be handed over to the US marines, it was announced today.

Five hundred British soldiers based in Musa Qal'ah, in northern Helmand, will be redeployed further south to join most of the UK's remaining 10,000 troops in the province, Bob Ainsworth, the defence secretary, told MPs.

Continues at: guardian.co.uk - British troops hand over control of key Afghan town to US

Al Jazeera: Peace eludes Swat Valley

Only a year ago, the Swat Valley - a region in northern Pakistan - was under full control of the Taliban. But after a long drawn-out military offensive, Pakistan claimed to have defeated the group. However, the victory is being questioned, as clashes between the two sides fail to die out. Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra reports from the Swat Valley.

From AlJazeeraEnglish on YouTube

AFP: The saga of an Afghan cab

In the 30 years since Ghulam Ali bought his yellow-and-white taxi and drove it home from Saudi Arabia, all of Afghan life - from expectant brides to dying war wounded - has occupied its back seat. Sardar Ahmad reports from Kabul for AFP.

Once a gleaming source of pride that made Ali a big man in a city where traffic was dominated by horse-drawn carts, the 1973 Toyota Corona sedan is now a rusty shadow of its former self.

But Ali is no less proud of the opportunities the car gave him and his family after his return to Kabul from the oil-rich Gulf kingdom in 1977.

"It certainly didn't look like this," he said of the car, stroking the broken steering wheel, bandaged now with a piece of plaid cloth.

Continues at: telegraph.co.uk - The saga of an Afghan cab

Channel 4: Soldier blog: Well earned rest in Afghanistan

Trooper Pete Sheppard, from the Brigade Reconnaissance Force, writes from Afghanistan where his patrol have been building bridges and getting some well earned rest.

We have spent the last couple of days in a really well equipped main base close by. We went there to replenish our water, fuel and rations and also to have a shower, wash our clothes and eat some hot food.

We managed to get some more clothing issued to us, which was handy because the days living in the field had started to take their toll on some of the guys' kit.

Continues at: channel4.com - well earned rest in Afghanistan

IRIN: Talking to the Taliban

KABUL, 11 March 2010 (IRIN) - The insurgents in Afghanistan have shown interest in negotiating with the UN and aid agencies on humanitarian access and aid distributions, according to a purported Taliban spokesman.

“If aid agencies contact our local Mujahedin and reach an agreement we would vouch for the safety of their workers and convoys,” Qari Yosuf Ahmadi told IRIN on the phone from an undisclosed location.

“Whether it’s a vaccination campaign or food aid distribution they [aid agencies] can do their activities in consultation and agreement with us,” he said.

Continues at: irinnews.org - Talking to the Taliban

ISAF: Operation Moshtarak Illustrates Way Forward in Afghanistan

During his visit to NATO Headquarters on 10 March, NATO’s Senior Civilian Representative in Afghanistan, Ambassador Mark Sedwill, briefed the North Atlantic Council on the progress of the military and civilian phases of Operation Moshtarak which is ongoing in southern Afghanistan.

In a subsequent news conference, Ambassador Sedwill explained how Operation Moshtarak, with its particularly comprehensive military and civilian approach, provides a template for the way the Afghan Government in partnership with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) wants to move forward over the next year and a half.

“We’re all clear that although I’m telling you the story of one district of one province in Afghanistan, this is an illustration of the entire issue that we face there: military operations are enabling, they can bring security to an area, but that security is only going to endure if we can provide particularly the governance – security and justice, just real basic governance – but also development, particularly education, to follow it up. And that needs to be provided by the Afghan government with our support,” he said.

Continues at: isaf.nato.int - Operation Moshtarak Illustrates Way Forward in Afghanistan

ISAF: ANSF Discover Significant Weapons Cache in Kabul

Elements of the Afghan National Security forces, operating independently of ISAF, discovered a large weapons cache in Kabul yesterday.

The discovery included more than 1,000 detonators with remote control units, and 700 kilograms (approximately 1,500 lbs) of explosives, sufficient to make 28 individual improvised explosive devices. Two insurgents were arrested in conjunction with the find.

"Afghan National Security Forces acted on credible intelligence information to plan, coordinate and carry out this operation. This is a significant amount of explosives and related equipment that won't be used to kill or injure anyone," said Navy Capt. Jane Campbell, ISAF Joint Command spokesperson.

Source: isaf.nato.int - ANSF Discover Significant Weapons Cache in Kabul

BBC News: Making war and peace in Afghanistan

Guest columnist Ahmed Rashid asks what impact the Nato-led assault in Afghanistan's Helmand province and recent
 
The continuing Marjah offensive is an important test both for Western and Afghan military forces.

But it will also test the Afghan government's ability to deliver speedy governance and provide services to people in areas dominated by the Taliban for years.

Continues at: news.bbc.co.uk - Making war and peace in Afghanistan

BBC News: Afghan police recruits abusing drugs, US report finds

Drug abuse is rife in the Afghan police force with up to four out of 10 recruits testing positive for illegal drugs in some areas, a US report says.

The report for the US Congress said the illegal drugs trade "undermines virtually every aspect" of efforts to secure Afghanistan.

Afghanistan produces 90% of the world's opium and the drugs trade is a key source of funding for the insurgency.

Continues at: news.bbc.co.uk - Afghan police recruits abusing drugs, US report finds

Al Jazeera: Kabul 'does not want proxy wars'

Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, has said Pakistan has an important role to play in talks with the Taliban.

But he wants Islamabad to hand over a captured Taliban commander.

The detention of Mullah Abdul Ghani Brader, considered the number two to Mullah Omar, the Afghan Taliban chief, has been shrouded in mystery over Pakistan's true motivations.
 
Continues at: english.aljazeera.net - Kabul 'does not want proxy wars'