[Afghan News] November 1, 2011

[یاسمینه]

Turkey: Regional meeting to address security, economy in Afghanistan before troop pullout
By Associated Press,
ISTANBUL — Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday appealed to Pakistan for help in the investigation of the assassination of an Afghan peace envoy, and said efforts to talk directly to the Taliban are futile as long as the insurgents show no desire to negotiate in good faith.

Karzai spoke after a meeting with his Pakistani counterpart, Asif Ali Zardari, and one day ahead of a regional conference on security and economic development in Afghanistan, which has endured a series of high-profile assaults in the Kabul area in the last few months.

One of those attacks was the Sept. 20 assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani, a former Afghan president and peace council leader who was killed at his Kabul home by a suicide bomber posing as an emissary from the Taliban. Some Afghan officials accused Pakistan and its spy agency of supporting the militants who killed him, alleging Taliban leaders based in the Pakistani city of Quetta were involved.

“We cannot keep talking to suicide bombers,” Karzai said. “Therefore we have stopped talking about talking to the Taliban until we have an address for the Taliban, until we have a telephone for the Taliban, until we have a door that we can knock on.... We have been hurt badly. Our desire for peace has been either misunderstood or misused.”

Karzai said he and Zardari, along with Turkish President Abdullah Gul, agreed on a joint inquiry into Rabbani’s death.

“We have evolved a mechanism that I hope will give us the results,” Karzai said.

Gul said the intelligence services of all three countries are discussing the Rabbani investigation.

“We reached a common understanding and we will take further steps in the days to come,” said Gul, who has hosted the Afghan and Pakistani leaders in the past.

At Wednesday’s conference, diplomats will campaign for a stable Afghanistan after the planned withdrawal of international combat forces by the end of 2014, a goal imperiled by militant attacks, a weak Afghan government and the conflicting interests of regional players.

Karzai said there are many problems and threats against countries in the region, and he urged the nations to cooperate with honesty, his office said. In Istanbul, Afghanistan and Pakistan signed cooperation agreements, including conducting joint military drills.

Afghanistan and the United States are demanding that Pakistan do more to curb militant activity and sanctuaries on its territory. Pakistan denies it shelters or supports the Haqqani network, a Taliban wing blamed for an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul in September and other deadly operations.

The title of the meeting Wednesday is “Security and Cooperation in the Heart of Asia,” yet diplomats in Afghanistan, regional countries and the West have downplayed expectations.

Fourteen regional countries are to be represented: Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenisan, Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates.

Germany, France and other Western countries with troops deployed in Afghanistan were sending envoys to show support. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had planned to attend, but canceled her trip to be at the side of her mother, who was ill. On Tuesday, Dorothy Rodham died in Washington.

Iran, at odds with the international community over its nuclear program, is sending its deputy foreign minister, Mohammad Ali Fathollahi.

Afghanistan’s broader aims were not likely to be achieved in Turkey.

The war-weary nation wants countries to sign confidence-building measures, such as exchanging information on defense spending and numbers of troops deployed on borders; visiting military bases; pledging not to violate territorial integrity or interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign states; relaxing visa requirements; expanding trade; and cooperating on border management.

A senior U.S. administration official said the regional countries are expected to reiterate a commitment to sovereignty, endorse a transition to Afghan security leadership, endorse Afghan efforts for a political solution to the war and help Afghanistan develop a sustainable economy. The official briefed reporters on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions.

Clinton was in Pakistan earlier this month to press the nation to send its army after militants the U.S. says get special protection from the Pakistani government, while making the case that Pakistan should use its influence with Taliban militants to encourage peace in Afghanistan.

Pakistan has deployed 170,000 soldiers to its eastern border with Afghanistan and more than 3,000 soldiers have died in battles with militants. Pakistani leaders bristle at U.S. criticism that they have not done enough or that they play a double game, fighting militants in some areas and supporting them in others where they might be useful proxies in a future conflict with India, its archenemy.

___

Deb Riechmann reported from Kabul, Afghanistan.

Afghanistan, Pakistan to cooperate in Rabbani murder probe
By Burak Akinci | AFP
Afghanistan and Pakistan on Tuesday agreed to cooperate with an investigation into the murder of former Afghan leader and peace negotiator Burhanuddin Rabbani, the Turkish president said.

"One of the most important conclusions of this summit is the decision made by Pakistan and Afghanistan to establish a cooperation mechanism to illuminate the assassination of ex-Afghan President Rabbani," Turkish President Abdullah Gul said after hosting a trilateral summit.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Asif Zardari of Pakistan both travelled to Istanbul for the talks which were designed to ease tensions and promote cooperation between the two neighbours amid stepped-up Taliban attacks.

"This cooperation will help improve mutual trust between the two countries," said Gul, adding intelligence services of both countries had "open and honest" discussions on this cooperation, without eloborating further on the modalities of the mechanism.

The Istanbul meeting, which comes ahead of an international conference on Afghanistan on Wednesday in Turkey, was the first between the two neighbours since Rabbani was assassinated on September 20.

Kabul has accused Islamabad of refusing to cooperate in the investigation of the murder, which according to Afghan authorities, was planned in Pakistan and committed by a Pakistani suicide bomber.

"We were hurt badly by the assasination of Rabbani," said Karzai after the closed-door talks. "I hope this cooperation will produce results."

Pakistan's Zardari expressed pleasure with the agreement to cooperate saying that "We want to be a responsible partner to bring peace to the region."

The Istanbul meeting comes just days after 17 people died in the deadliest attack yet in Kabul against the US-led NATO mission, including 10 Americans, and three days after a US-run base in Kandahar was targeted.

Later Tuesday, the three presidents signed two agreements on security cooperation.

The Istanbul meeting is the sixth in Turkey, a NATO member, since the regular consultation mechanism was established in 2007 to encourage both countries to cooperate against extremism.

The previous meetings between the two countries' presidents, military leaders and intelligence chiefs resulted in the parties' commitment to improve cooperation.

Kabul, like the United States, has said Islamabad is not doing enough against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda which have found refuge in the Pakistani tribal areas bordering Afghanistan and regularly carried out attacks against the Afghan, US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

The trilateral summit will be followed by an international conference Wednesday in Istanbul on the theme "Security and Cooperation in the heart of Asia." Twenty countries and organisations are expected to attend.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton changed her plans and cancelled her visit to Istanbul at the last minute after her 92-year-old mother died. US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman is expected to replace her.

The United States provides more than two-thirds of a total of 140,000 foreign troops currently in Afghanistan.

The Istanbul conference is intended to map out Afghanistan's future with the US-led NATO mission already locked into troop drawdowns.

In Istanbul, the Afghan president is expected to officially announce the new sites that are to transition from NATO to Afghan control. In July, he announced the first seven areas to begin the transition process.

The process must be completed by the end of 2014, when the coalition forces are due to withdraw its combat troops.

Afghanistan urges Pakistan to act on militants
Jonathon Burch and Myra MacDonald
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan urged Pakistan on Tuesday to "move beyond words" and take concrete steps to curb Islamist militants which it said were a threat to both countries.

The two neighbors were holding their first talks since the assassination in September of the chief Afghan peace negotiator. The meeting, hosted by Turkey, aims to heal a rift that is undermining prospects of ending the Afghan war.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari met along with Turkish President Abdullah Gul while their army chiefs consulted ahead of an international conference on Afghanistan Wednesday.

Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed Ludin told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting in Istanbul that Afghanistan and Pakistan had been trying for several years to build trust "but I think we have failed to see results on the ground."

"So we are at a stage where we need to move beyond words, beyond expressions of commitments. We need to get to a stage where we actually do concrete things that will address our concerns with regards to our security," he said.

Afghanistan accuses Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) agency of supporting Taliban insurgents who have launched a string of attacks in recent months as the United States and its allies prepare to pull out most combat troops by the end of 2014.

Kabul broke off talks with Islamabad after the assassination of Afghan peace envoy and former president Burhanuddin Rabbani, which it blamed on Taliban insurgents it said were based in the Pakistani city of Quetta.

Ludin said Islamabad's cooperation was vital to the security of Afghanistan but also to Pakistan - which has also faced a wave of bombings by the Pakistani Taliban.

"So the message we are really bringing today is to tell Pakistan, 'Look, you're not doing us a favor by helping with bringing peace and security to Afghanistan ... It's a question of peace and security in Pakistan that's also suffering at the hands of terrorism.'"

Islamabad, which denies supporting the Taliban, has complained that insurgents from the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Pakistani Taliban, have been using Afghanistan as a base from which to launch attacks in Pakistan.

It has also stressed the need to hold talks with insurgents to try to reach a political settlement to end the war.

But Rabbani's assassination reduced hopes that talks might offer a way forward, though the United States has said it remains open to reaching an accord with insurgents ready to sever ties with al Qaeda, renounce violence and respect the Afghan constitution.

Karzai, underlining Afghan suspicions that Islamabad is backing the insurgents, had said after Rabbani was killed by a suicide bomber posing as a Taliban peace emissary, that any negotiations should be held directly with Pakistan instead.

Tuesday, Karzai's spokesman reiterated Afghan concerns that Pakistan was supporting the militants.

"President Karzai's message is that Pakistan needs to end using radicalism as a tool in their politics," said Emal Fayzi.

HAQQANI NETWORK IN FOCUS

Pakistan had no immediate detailed comments on the talks though Interior Minister Rehman Malik said they were "very good."

Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, who held separate talks in Istanbul with Afghanistan army chief General Sher Mohammad Karimi and the head of the Turkish military, declined to comment.

The army dominates foreign and security policy in Pakistan.

Asked about Pakistan's initial response at the meeting, Ludin said: "Te test remains to be taken and that is to the extent that we can actually see concrete steps to help with the peace process."

He also said Afghanistan wanted Pakistan to deal with the Haqqani network - a powerful insurgent group which says it owes allegiance to the Afghan Taliban, but has traditionally been seen as close to the ISI.

Pakistan denies supporting the Haqqani network and attributes its lack of action against the group to the fact that its army is already overstretched fighting Pakistani Taliban militants and others.

A senior U.S. administration official said Monday that Pakistani action against the Haqqani network did not necessarily need to be military.

Instead it would include "ensuring that intelligence doesn't go to the Haqqani network" and "that they don't benefit from financial resources or flow of finances."

The trilateral talks will be followed by a regional conference on Afghanistan to be attended by Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna and their counterparts from France and Germany, among others.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton canceled her trip because of the ill health of her mother.

Head of Islamic school that spawned Taliban, insurgents offers to help Afghan talks
By Associated Press, November 1, 2011
AKORA KHATTAK, Pakistan — At the hard-line Islamic school that spawned a generation of Afghan Taliban leaders, the top cleric still lectures his students to go to Afghanistan to fight Americans. But he says he’s willing to help bring insurgents to peace talks.

The offer by the influential “father of the Taliban” raises some hope for American attempts to find a negotiated end to the 10-year-old war — not necessarily because he will indeed be brought in as a mediator, but more because it gives a sign that there is a willingness among the Taliban and their allies to talk, something that has been thrown in doubt by months of setbacks in efforts to start negotiations.

“There must be some way out,” Maulana Sami-ul-Haq told The Associated Press. “A way out that can also give America a respectable exit. Bloodletting is not a solution.”

America’s public commitment to peace talks is stronger then ever as it works to bring the bulk of its troops home from Afghanistan by 2014. It has called on Pakistan to bring insurgents into the process, but so far there has been little progress. American officials believe greater military pressure against the insurgents is still needed — through operations in Afghanistan and drone strikes in the Pakistan border region, an approach it calls “fighting and talking.”

“We are pounding them, and there is some evidence that people would like to come to an agreement,” said a senior U.S. official, who didn’t give his name because of the diplomatic sensitivities surrounding the reconciliation process. “The Pakistanis tell us that there are guys that want to talk.”

In a new pressure move, the United States on Tuesday designated Mali Khan, a commander in the militant Haqqani network, as a specially designated global terrorist. The designation freezes any assets or property he may have in U.S. jurisdictions and barring Americans from providing him with material support.

Haq, in his 70s, is a respected figure among militants on both sides of the border. His religious school, Darul Uloom Haqqania, counts among its graduates the head of the Taliban, Mullah Omar, as well as leading figures in the Haqqani network, the militant group based in the Pakistan border region that the U.S. counts as its most dangerous opponent. The family that heads the network took its name from the school, which is close to the main northwestern city of Peshawar, just off a main highway to the Afghan border.

On a recent day, Haq walked across his campus to deliver a lecture to around 500 young men set to graduate soon. The students, many of whom had been in the institution since they were young boys, sat cross-legged on the floor in rows in a cavernous hall as he urged them “to make preparations for jihad” in Afghanistan.

As Haq left the hall, hundred of students crowded around him to shake his hand, a measure of the regard he is held in. The school, which was founded in 1947 and has about 3,000, has a hard-line curriculum, instilling not only calls for jihad but also the extreme puritanical strain of Islam that the Taliban imposed on Afghanistan during their rule in the 1990s.

Speaking to AP, Haq said ongoing resistance to the U.S. and its allies in Afghanistan was justified, and he said he and other Taliban supporters are deeply suspicious of the peace process. He said many militants believe that the U.S.’s moves for talks aim to weaken the insurgency by dividing it into different, competing factions.

Haq said the government or the army had not asked him to mediate, but that he would do if asked.

“They will listen to me. We have a relation of respect and knowledge,” he said of insurgent groups, pausing to sort through the invitations for his son’s upcoming wedding. “But America has to come clean that it will not deceive the Taliban. The Taliban are very clever people. They understand all these deceptions.”

The Taliban’s public line is that they will not talk so long as American troops remain in Afghanistan.

But representatives are known to have had exploratory talks with the U.S. — including a commander in the Haqqani network.

The Haqqanis and other insurgents leaders are widely believed to be based in Pakistan and have connections with the security forces dating back 20 years, when they worked with the CIA to use them as proxies against Soviet-rule in Afghanistan. That means Pakistan has a potentially key role to play in any peace process, something it uses as leverage in its troubled ties with Washington.

The U.S. wants Pakistan to pressure the Haqqanis inside their base in the North Waziristan border region, but is not asking for a full-scale offensive there, said the U.S. official. Pakistan’s army has said it does not have enough troops to do that effectively and that it could spark a destabilizing backlash.

In talks late last month with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other American officials, Pakistani army chief Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani recognized the need to “squeeze the Haqqanis,” the official said. Greater intelligence sharing, cutting financing networks and stopping fighters from crossing the border would make life difficult for the group were discussed, he said.

Haq has his own close ties to Pakistan’s military. In late September, he attended a meeting with the prime minister, army chief and leading politicians in Islamabad to discuss Pakistan’s response to U.S. allegations its spy agency aided the Haqqanis in an attack on its embassy in Kabul. The meeting ended in a resolution that called for peace with militants on both sides of the border.

Still, Rahimullah Yousafzai, a local journalist and expert on the Taliban, doubts Haq has much sway with the Taliban or that Pakistan’s main spy agency — which is controlling the negotiation process — needed intermediaries.

“They can go direct,” he said.

The meat of any deal, which would presumably involve talk about power-sharing with the Taliban in parts of Afghanistan and prisoner releases, is a long way off — assuming discussions even reach that stage. Pakistani officials, who have complained about being left out of the process in the past, are now concerned they will be blamed if talks with the militants fail or they can’t bring them to the table.

“The Pakistan government can possibly make a bridge to these people,” said Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi, who fought alongside the Haqqanis against the Soviets in the 1980s and is now influential in Islamist circles. “But no one has the remote control for them.”

U.S. hopes regional talks will stabilize Afghanistan
By Arshad Mohammed | Reuters – Mon, Oct 31, 2011
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States wants Afghanistan's neighbors to pledge to respect its sovereignty at regional talks this week, a U.S. official said on Monday, even as Washington accuses Pakistan and Iran of meddling.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will attend a conference in Istanbul on Wednesday that the United States hopes will bring Afghanistan's neighbors more directly into efforts to stabilize the country as U.S. troops withdraw.

A senior U.S. official said he hoped the countries gathered would commit to respect Afghan sovereignty; back a transition to Afghan security leadership; support Afghan efforts to achieve a political solution and promote economic growth.

"We are urging all of Afghanistan's neighbors to commit to a set of principles ... that underscore full respect for Afghan sovereignty and territory," said the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

What is unclear, however, is whether any words put on paper at the Conference on Security and Cooperation in the Heart of Asia held in Istanbul will lead to actions on the ground, notably by Pakistan and Iran. U.S. officials accuse Iran of providing lethal aid, including weapons and training, to insurgents fighting U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

The United States has blamed the Haqqani network, which some U.S. officials suspect of being supported by Pakistani intelligence, for a series of recent attacks in Afghanistan, including a September 13 assault on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

During an October 20-21 visit to Kabul and Islamabad, Clinton pressured Pakistani leaders to take military action against the Haqqani network in hide-outs along the Afghan border.

"We think that Pakistan, for a variety of reasons, has the capacity to encourage, to push, to squeeze ... terrorists, including the Haqqanis and the Afghan Taliban, to be willing to engage in the peace process," she said October 21 in Islamabad.

The U.S. official was noncommittal when asked if Pakistan had moved against the Haqqani network, which some Western officials believe may have been behind a suicide bombing Sunday in Kabul that killed 13 foreigners, since Clinton's visit.

"We continue to work very, very closely with them and Gen. Kayani and the civilian leadership have committed ... to undertaking actions and assisting in squeezing," he said, referring to Pakistani army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.

"(Clinton) was quite clear that we all need to see physical signs of progress as a matter of some urgency, in days and weeks, as she noted, as opposed to months and years," he added. "We are continuing to follow up through all of our channels of communication -- on the military, intelligence and diplomatic fronts."

The official said he did not expect U.S.-Iranian talks at the meeting, saying Iran was not expected to send its foreign minister but rather a lower-level official.

(Editing by Bill Trott)

Ankara tries to bolster fight against Taliban
Financial Times By Daniel Dombey and Matthew Green October 31, 2011
Istanbul and Islamabad - Turkey is bringing together leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan in an attempt to reduce tensions that Ahmet Davutoglu, Ankara’s foreign minister, says could complicate efforts to end the war against the Taliban.

Mr Davutoglu told the Financial Times that the meeting between Presidents Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan and Abdullah Gul of Turkey, came “at a critical time” because of clashes between Kabul and Islamabad.

Although the gathering in Istanbul on Tuesday reflected Ankara’s ambitions on the world stage, many participants acknowledged that the obstacles to a breakthrough are forbidding

Senior Afghan officials have publicly accused the Pakistan army’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency of playing a role in the September 20 assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani, a former Afghan president who led efforts to reach out to insurgents, and Kabul broke off dialogue with Pakistan in its wake.

“If there is tension between Afghanistan and Pakistan, there cannot be a healthy transition,” Mr Davutoglu, said, referring to the drawdown of US surge forces in Afghanistan and the transfer of the fight against the Taliban to Afghan forces

He added that as part of the attempt to establish mutual trust between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the meeting would gather together the two countries’ chiefs of staff, intelligence heads and interior ministers – a list that includes General Ashfaq Kayani, Pakistani’s army chief – and he called for the countries to hold more joint manoeuvres.

Tuesday’s meeting came as part of a big international push to make progress towards a political settlement of the Afghan war by the end of the year. That effort also includes a gathering on Wednesday, also in Istanbul, that will feature Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, and a host of representatives from other states and bodies.

“If we want to establish peace in Afghanistan, there are inescapable countries which should be definitely in the process,” Mr Davutoglu said, noting that Mrs Clinton would be sitting at the same table as her counterpart from Iran, as would the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan.

“The purpose of this will be mainly to create regional ownership,” he said. “Stability in Afghanistan means regional stability: instability in Afghanistan means regional instability.”

Diplomats have depicted this week’s gatherings in Istanbul as a stepping stone to a meeting next month in Bonn, which had been intended to cap the year by getting a political process under way to end the Afghan war.

But such hopes have been revised downward with the stubbornly high level of violence in Afghanistan – including a weekend attack in Kabul that killed 17 people, including 13 foreigners, and the deaths in Kandahar on Monday of three Afghans working for the UN refugee agency.

One former Afghan presidential adviser said even before the Rabbani killing, Mr Karzai had become increasingly frustrated with Pakistani intransigence, suspending his previous attempts to persuade Islamabad to help convince the Taliban to give up the fight.

Mr Karzai’s government has announced it will convene a meeting of tribal elders and politicians, or jirga, in Kabul starting on November 16 to chart a new policy towards talks with the Taliban, after which dialogue with Pakistan may resume, an Afghan diplomat said.

“Negotiations with Pakistan and the Taliban have stopped,” the diplomat said. “Everything . . . will be (decided) in the jirga.”

Testimony Begins in Afghan Atrocities Trial
VOA News November 1, 2011
Luis Ramirez | Lewis-McChord Military Base, Washington State
An American soldier is on trial for the murders of unarmed non-combatants in Afghanistan in what is alleged to have been the worst known case of misconduct by U.S. troops during the Afghan conflict.

The court martial session heard accounts of unarmed Afghan farmers being shot in staged combat scenes, their corpses mutilated, fingers cut off and passed around as trophies.

The grisly testimony came Monday in graphic photos showing victims' bodies and, in the words of chief witness Jeremy Morlock - once the right hand of platoon leader Calvin Gibbs. Morlock pleaded guilty to murder in March and is serving a life sentence.

Gibbs is one of 12 platoon members charged. Prosecutors say he was the main conspirator of the killings in Kandahar province last year.

Morlock says Gibbs viewed Afghan people with disdain, referring to them as savages.

Monday's testimony here included accounts of rampant narcotics use in the platoon and of failing morale. Morlock said the troops were eager to get into the firefights for which they had been trained. He said that months into their Afghan deployment, they had engaged only in what Morlock described as meet-and-greets and handshaking - and he said frustration was building.

It was then that Morlock says Gibbs handed him a grenade and told him to go out make the platoon's first kill. Two others followed in the subsequent months. In Monday's testimony, there were details of nearly 100 conversations that Gibbs and others in the platoon had in planning how to stage the killings.

In a community with strong ties to the military, the court-martial touches many.

George Harbin, a war veteran, spoke while attending a dinner meeting of a local veterans' organization near the base. He lost two stepsons in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and believes Gibbs' alleged misconduct diminishes the sacrifices made by thousands of American soldiers.

“There's no excuse. A staff sergeant should have at least two years of college. If you're going to have two years' college, you're going to have the mentality and IQ to know the difference between right and wrong," said Harbin. "A person running across in front of your weapon without a weapon is not fair game. We're not Nazis and we're not Fascists."

Gibbs has pleaded not guilty on all of the charges. In opening statements Monday, his attorney, Phil Stackhouse, said the killings happened in legitimate combat. He said Gibbs cut a finger off the Afghan's corpse because he was angry about the man's alleged attempts to kill him. He had no explanation for why Gibbs kept the finger.

A total of 28 witnesses will take the stand before a panel of five soldiers decides whether Gibbs is guilty of the 16 charges against him that include premeditated murder and conspiracy.

For the 26-year-old soldier, a conviction could mean life in prison without parole.

U.S. revises its strategy for ending the Afghan war
Washington Post By Karen DeYoung Tuesday, November 1, 2011
The Obama administration has launched a revised strategy for Afghanistan that officials hope will lead to substantive negotiations with insurgents and regional support for a political end to the war.

The strategy is an attempt to fold disparate policy elements into a comprehensive package as the administration tries to fashion an exit that will not leave Afghanistan open to civil war or the reestablishment of terrorist bases.

Elements of the strategy already underway include escalation of military pressure on the Haqqani network of insurgents in eastern Afghanistan — along with an open door for the network, and other Taliban groups, to hold direct talks with the United States.

Pakistan, where the groups are based, has been offered a principal role in the negotiations in exchange for curtailing its support for them and helping bring them to the table, where the Afghan government will also have a seat.

Until recently, the administration insisted that substantive talks must be between the Afghans and the insurgents, with U.S. facilitation and Pakistani support. The new strategy, officials said, recognizes that talks are more likely to succeed with the direct participation of the four parties with the biggest stake in the outcome.

A senior administration official said that initial negotiations would ideally result in “measurable, demonstrable confidence-building measures,” including local cease-fires, “that will lead to conversations about the future of Afghanistan” among insurgents and other internal Afghan groups vying for control under a future political structure.

The strategy also includes more energetic efforts to persuade neighbors — many of which have conflicting interests in Afghanistan — to support a political resolution and contributing to sustainable economic development.

Marc Grossman, the administration’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, last month visited most of the other key players in the region, including India, China and the Central Asian republics north of the Afghan border. European interlocutors with embassies in Tehran have been enlisted to discuss the issue with Iran.

On Wednesday, officials from these governments and others, along with the United States, will attend a regional conference in Istanbul that the administration hopes will result in pledges of non-interference in Afghanistan and long-term economic and political support. The administration has already shepherded several preliminary meetings for an economic initiative it calls the New Silk Road, which would seek to reestablish Afghanistan’s historic position as the Asian crossroads.

The Istanbul conference is to be followed by a broader international gathering on Afghanistan in Bonn, Germany, on Dec. 5, and by a NATO summit meeting in Chicago in May that will add a political component to plans drawn up last year for the withdrawal of combat troops by the end of 2014.

In Chicago, the United States and its allies “hope to be able to say more about reconciliation” among Afghan combatants, “knock on wood,” said the official, who discussed the administration’s plan on the condition of anonymity.

This official and others acknowledged that the success of the strategy, which Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has described as “fight, talk and build,” depends on a positive outcome for several variables that currently appear headed in the wrong direction.

On Saturday, insurgents staged a suicide bomb attack in Kabul that killed at least 12 Americans, a Canadian and four Afghans. A similar truck bomb attack Monday left three United Nations employees dead in the southern city of Kandahar.

The attacks were the latest in a series of spectacular insurgent strikes that have made reconciliation seem remote. In September, the Pentagon blamed the Haqqani network for a truck bombing of a combat outpost west of Kabul that wounded 77 U.S. troops and for an assault by gunmen on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

A week after the embassy strike, a suicide bomber killed Burhanuddin Rabbani, the head of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, which is in charge of reconciliation negotiations for the government.

U.S. officials have said they were unsure whether the attacks were a reflection of insurgent military weakness, a rejection of talks or a burst of aggression designed to improve the militants’ negotiating position — similar to the escalation of U.S. attacks on the Haqqani network.

“I don’t think we could have any more of a robust military effort at this point,” said a second administration official of the U.S. combat effort, “given what’s been done on the Afghan side of the border over the last few weeks, given the ongoing kind of other efforts to target [Haqqani] leadership,” including recent drone strikes on Haqqani sanctuaries in western Pakistan. “That will continue as aggressively and robustly as it has.”

But, the official said, “that does not mean . . . that it will necessarily foreclose opportunities on the talk side, recognizing that we have to keep an open mind.”

In recent months, U.S. officials have held preliminary talks with the umbrella Taliban organization, led by Mohammad Omar, and the Haqqani network. This effort, this official said, is to “make sure that we explore all opportunities that have the potential to bring this to a successful resolution.”

Another uncertainty is whether Pakistan is willing or able to support the U.S. plan. The administration has concluded that Pakistan will never launch an all-out military offensive against Haqqani sanctuaries in the North Waziristan tribal region and has stopped exhorting it to do so.

Instead, after publicly accusing Pakistan’s intelligence service of aiding and directing the insurgents, the administration has offered a new compact. The price of attaining its desired position of influence over Afghanistan’s future, Clinton and others in a high-powered delegation told Pakistan during a visit there last week, is intelligence and military assistance in U.S. strikes against the Haqqani leadership, along with pressure on the insurgents to negotiate.

With trust between the two governments at an all-time low, U.S. officials expressed little confidence in complete Pakistani compliance. But they cited both negative and positive reinforcements, including the ongoing suspension of already-approved U.S. military assistance and congressional action to impose strict conditions on all forms of aid to Pakistan.

Afghanistan's missed opportunities and new choices
By Omar Samad Monday, October 31, 2011 Foreign Policy
Assuming for a moment that many of Afghanistan's security problems originate outside the country's borders, the upcoming international conference on Afghanistan to be held in Istanbul on November 2 could be a unique occasion to address the many obstacles inhibiting a just and durable peace in the country. But the possibility of obtaining any tangible result from Istanbul is more remote than some may expect. Under the veneer of diplomatic nicety and rhetoric lies a set of mini-Great Game maneuvers that will put to the test the current efforts to bring about Afghan reconciliation, transition, sovereignty, and a sustainable paradigm shift in regional relations.

The Turkish initiative, backed by Afghanistan and major Western donors, will bring together a core group of leaders from 14 nations that form the "Heart of Asia" consortium, along with observers from the United States, the United Nations, the European Union, Japan and others, to try to improve region-wide security and cooperation prospects through confidence-building measures and economic integration initiatives, such as the "New Silk Road" project.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, explained that the United States and others are working in forums such as the Istanbul meeting to help secure commitments from regional countries "to respect Afghan sovereignty and territorial integrity and to support Afghan reconciliation." Another aim of the gathering is to smooth the way for December's much larger conference to be held in Bonn, Germany, where decisions will be made for the post-2014 international engagement and long-term Afghan aid strategy.

These gatherings are happening at a time when, despite recent Taliban military setbacks in Southern Afghanistan, the overall security situation on both sides of the Durand Line remains tenuous; tension is brewing between Washington and Islamabad over alleged covert Pakistani support for cross-border militants, increasing numbers of Iranian-made arms and munitions are being spotted in insurgent hands, and a fragile government in Kabul is negotiating a set of strategic accords to protect itself against future threats and secure a large chunk of funding for its expenditures over a 10-year span.

Watered-down declaration

The Afghan government entered into wide-ranging preliminary talks before the meeting expecting to obtain a binding non-interference agreement in Afghanistan under the aegis of the United Nations that would start the process of shutting down insurgent safe-havens beyond Afghan borders. However, sources close to the talks have reportedly said that Pakistani, Iranian and Russian delegates expressed varying degrees of reservations about different aspects of such a deal. Even the idea of a mechanism to verify tangible commitments to not intercede in Afghanistan was shot down last week at a working group meeting in Kabul. Despite the conciliatory language, then, regional players are still jockeying for position in Afghanistan as 2014 gets closer.

It thus seems clear that a watered-down declaration will be issued in Istanbul this week, whereby as part of the "confidence-building" measures, participants would welcome Afghanistan's willingness and determination to use its geographic position to promote regional security and cooperation, rather than forging a true non-intervention agreement. Such toothless pronouncements have been the norm since 2002, when the Declaration on Good Neighborly Relations was signed. The Istanbul version goes only one step further, calling for a follow-up mechanism comprising the "Heart of Asia" nations, aiming to meet on a regular basis to pursue their stated objectives.

Based on draft declarations reviewed by the author, the closest these nations will come to discussing contentious issues facing Afghanistan and the region is to commit "in principle" to refrain from the threat or use of force in Afghanistan, and not to allow their territory to be used against one another. They will also likely pledge in principle to fight terrorism, extremism and the drug trade. But it does not seem probable that any binding clause or verification regime will be attached to any of the diplomatic verbiage.

Strategic accords as guarantors

Most war-battered Afghans will see the Istanbul conference as yet another missed opportunity to address the real security challenges facing their country, especially the behavior of regional powers that provide safe-havens for militants and use armed radical proxies as strategic tools. The latest policy buzz words out of Washington meant to deal with this issue while still working for a deal in Afghanistan, as enunciated by Clinton, are "fight, talk and build." This can work best if the aforementioned components are mutually reinforcing pieces of a strategy where the end result can provide some measure of sustainable stability, as well as contingency guarantees to preserve Afghan sovereignty and integrity via other measures, like strengthening Afghan institutions and striking key strategic partnerships, in the post-2014 NATO disengagement period.

While some pundits continue to call for a ceasefire followed by unconditional negotiations with the insurgents, what we are actually seeing emerge on the ground is a pattern of more psychological warfare, more deception, and more fear-mongering on the part of the broader Taliban conglomerate. The current tactical aim of the more radical elements within the group, such as the Haqqani Network, is to further weaken the Western political will to fight, and tilt vulnerable local communities in Southern and Eastern Afghanistan toward submission. The trend of insurgent violence also displays a strong undercurrent of ethnic provocation that aims to further weaken the Afghan political structure, as various ethnic groups, fearing a Taliban encroachment, are forced to come up with new defensive lines.

To counteract an escalation in militant violence, and maintain stability in the post-2014 period, Afghan leaders and major international stakeholders are seeking long-term strategic safeguards that would provide frameworks for security, social and economic development, governance and other types of cooperation -- though without plans to set up permanent bases for foreign troops in Afghanistan. While much of this agreement has reportedly been drafted, the remaining discussions center on unresolved issues of detention rights and Special Forces night raids, operations the Afghan government would like to bring under their control. Other agreements are currently in the works with NATO, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and France.

To this end, the Afghan government is planning to convene a traditional Loya Jirga in mid-November to ask for a de facto endorsement of a strategic cooperation agreement with the United States. However, the government faces two key challenges to ratifying any agreement; Taliban death threats targeting Loya Jirga participants, and local political opposition to holding what many see as an illegal assembly, based on the rules laid out in the country's constitution. However, if security conditions permit, the Jirga will almost certainly give its (non-binding) blessing to the strategic accord before the Bonn meeting.

Scenarios and Choices

The political buzz in Kabul is that Afghan President Hamid Karzai will use the momentum created by the Istanbul conference, the Loya Jirga, and the Bonn II meeting to re-launch a joint peace process with Pakistan. Such a move would be designed to test the sincerity of Islamabad in helping bring about Afghan reconciliation, and to pick up where Clinton left off, by leaving an impression that Pakistani rulers have agreed in principle to cooperate and encourage some Taliban and Haqqani elements to join the backchannel peace talks currently underway. Ironically, under such a scenario, the United States has no alternative but to rely once again on the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate(ISI) to manage the shadowy process on the other side of the Durand Line. Here are a few of the scenarios that may emerge over time after this round of international conversations about Afghanistan's future:

1. A zero-sum game using time and force. As long as the insurgency can keep up the current operational tempo and successfully use targeted killings and psychological operations that instill fear in the Afghan population, the scheduled 2014 international withdrawal of international military forces favors those forces that have the wherewithal to sustain their efforts for a power grab or prolonged proxy-led civil war. This scenario may lead to serious regional tensions and expanded transnational threats emanating from a newly unstable Afghanistan.

2. Hedging. Neighboring countries will hedge in order to unilaterally secure their interests and reinforce their armed assets in Afghanistan for any eventual reversal, or for use as leverage in an eventual grand bargain. This scenario might prevent the emergence of a secure Afghanistan and provoke internal chaos, with regional spillover effects.

3. Stalemate, leading to forced negotiations, giving way to power-sharing and a fragile coalition government. The sustainability of such a scenario is questionable, and would most probably lead to renewed fighting and instability.

4. "Fighting and talking" leading to negotiations, where red lines (such as insurgents renouncing violence, abandoning al-Qaeda, and abiding by the Afghan constitution, including its protections for women and minorities) laid out by Afghans and the United States will likely not be maintained. This would open the way for a gradual Talibanization of Afghanistan, and provoke internal ethnic and social tension.

5. "Fighting and talking" leading to acceptance of the red lines by all sides, and a continuation of the status quo -- or better. For this scenario to succeed, foreign safe havens for militant groups need to be shut down, backed by binding international guarantees.

6. A regional paradigm shift in strategy and outlook, whereby ruling elites stop using proxy assets as strategic tools, and dismantle the infrastructure that supports terrorism and radicalism. This will result in accelerated economic activity, strengthen a culture of moderation, tolerance, and pluralism, and promote stability and prosperity across the region and beyond.

Given what Afghans and others have experienced, and what is at stake, there are options and important choices to be made. Meetings and high-level declarations have a certain level of utility in that they focus attention and provide platforms for exchange and brainstorming, but at the end of the day, there is a general sense of doubt surrounding the Afghan conflict that can only be overcome if Afghan leaders can commit to a commonly-shared vision, regional actors clean up their act and revamp their priorities, and the international community stands by the pledges made over the last decade. Because in this case, the outcomes will be felt not just in the West, but by all countries with a stake in Afghanistan's future.

Omar Samad is the former Ambassador of Afghanistan to France (2009-2011), Canada (2004-2009) and Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2001-2004).

Civilian killed by Australian soldiers in S Afghanistan
CANBERRA, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- Australian soldiers shot and killed a civilian in southern Afghanistan, Australian Defence Force (ADF) confirmed on Monday.

In a statement, ADF said Australians soldiers on Saturday opened fired after the Afghan man failed to follow directions to stop while he was riding a motorbike in Tarin Kot, Uruzgan Province.

The incident happened as Australian soldiers were securing a site for a meeting of the provincial reconstruction team.

The ADF said it takes all reasonable steps to ensure its operations do not put the lives of civilians in jeopardy.

The victim was a local aged in his twenties named Hayatullah, who ran a phone card stall, and there are some reports that the killing has drawn anger from some residents in Tarin Kot.

The ADF is promising to cooperate with investigations into the shooting.

3 policemen killed by Afghan Taliban
GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- Taliban militants fighting Afghan government raided a police department in Ghazni province, 125 km south of capital city Kabul, killing three policemen including a district police chief on Tuesday, provincial police chief Zarawar Zahid said.

"A group of Taliban rebels attacked police department in Rashidan district today afternoon and killed three police including Mohammad Amin the district police chief," Zahid told Xinhua.

A number of Taliban insurgents were also killed and injured during the firefight, he stressed, but did not give an exact figure.

Twin blasts wound 5 Afghans
KHOST, Afghanistan, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- Double explosions that rocked Khost province 150 km southeast of capital city Kabul on Tuesday left five people including three police injured, police spokesman in the province said.

"Both the blasts happened in a span of an hour -- at 07:00 a.m. and 08:00 a.m. local time today in Gorboz district, left three policemen and two civilians injured," Ziarat Gul told Xinhua.

The blasts took place when the police were on routine patrol, he further said.

He blamed Taliban militants for organizing the twin blasts, but the outfit fighting Afghan government has yet to make comment.

Tajikistan Seals Border With Afghanistan to Block Radicalism
Voice of America By James Brooke October 31, 2011
Panji Poyon, Tajikistan - As instability spreads in Afghanistan, neighboring Tajikistan seeks to hold the line at the border.

The newly paved road from Dushanbe, Tajikistan’s capital, passes a Tajik army training base, as well as three Russian bases, home to some 6,000 soldiers - the largest deployment of Russian army troops outside of Russia.

But as one approaches Afghanistan, and a new $40-million American-built bridge at Panji Poyon, police stop traffic one kilometer from the river border.

More Tajiks live across the river in Afghanistan than in Tajikistan. But on the Tajikistan side, all road crossings are closed.

Back in Dushanbe, tight border controls are defended by Sayfullo Safarov, deputy director of the Center for Strategic Studies, a government-affiliated think tank.

Safarov defends the tight controls as a way to stop opium flowing north from Afghanistan.

But Zafar Abdullayev, an online blogger, says few people use drugs in this Muslim-majority nation.

He says the real threat to Tajikistan from Afghanistan is Taliban-style Islamist radicalism.

Tajikistan got a jolt in September when a Taliban suicide bomber killed Burhanuddin Rabbani, the de facto leader of the 8 million Tajiks living in Afghanistan.

Rabbani, a former Afghan president, was leading peace talks with the Taliban. He was killed four days before he was to attend a meeting in Dushanbe.

At an Afghanistan conference in Dushanbe, Abdul Ghafour Arezou, Kabul's new ambassador here, blames the violence on what he calls "outside forces."

He says that the main ethnic groups of Afghanistan - Tajiks, Pashtuns and Baluchis - can live in peace.

But some analysts say Afghan history risks repeating itself. In the 1990s, Rabbani was a leader of the Northern Alliance. Now this anti-Taliban coalition reportedly is re-emerging.

Ismoil Rakhmatov, who teaches history in Dushanbe, says that the Tajik-led Northern Alliance is a powerful group with wide support in northern Afghanistan.

As the United States cuts troop levels in Afghanistan, securing Tajikistan’s southern border is a growing priority.

Sealing this long border separates Tajiks on both sides. But with instability spreading in Afghanistan, the move is an attempt to block the spread of Taliban-style extremism north into Central Asia.

4 children killed in bomb blast in Wardak, Afghanistan
MAIDAN SHAR, Afghanistan, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- Four children were killed when a roadside bomb went off in Afghanistan's Wardak province with Maidan Shar as its capital 35 km west of capital city of Kabul on Monday, a spokesman for provincial administration said on Tuesday.

"Four innocent children, all member of the same family, were killed when a roadside bomb went off in Khawajagan village in surrounding area of provincial capital Maidan Shar late on Monday," Shahidullah Shahid told Xinhua on Tuesday morning.

According to Shahid the victim, three brothers and a sister aged from seven to 16-year, were busy in grazing their animals when the blast occurred in the province where Taliban insurgents often attack security forces.

He blamed enemies of Afghanistan, a term often used by Afghan official for referring to Taliban insurgents, for placing the bomb.

Taliban militants have been largely relying on roadside bombing and suicide attacks in fighting Afghan security force and NATO-led troops based in Afghanistan, often causing civilian casualties.

The militant group has yet to make comments.

The Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant since the militant group announced to launch spring offensive from May 1 against Afghan and NATO-led troops stationed in Afghanistan.

A total of 1,462 Afghan civilians were killed in the first half of 2011, a 15 percent rise over the same period of 2010, according to the United Nations mid-year report released in Kabul in July this year.

Provinces that could be listed for Afghan second stage handover
Nad-e Ali district in Afghanistan is expected to be handed over to Afghan forces, it has been claimed, as part of a list of provinces pending final approval by Hamid Karzai.
Telegraph.co.uk 31 Oct 2011
Mr Karzai is expected to announced at a regional conference in Istanbul on Nov. 2 the areas chosen for the second phase of the planned handover of security responsibility from foreign to Afghan forces.

Here is a list of the potential provinces:

NORTH AFGHANISTAN

BADAKHSHAN – Considered to be one of the most peaceful provinces in northern Afghanistan, it is patrolled by German soldiers under Nato-led troops. Eight districts of Badakhshan are expected to be in the second stage of the security handover.

They are: Shahr Buzurg, Yaftal Sufla, Faizabad, Arghanj, Baharak, Tashkan, Kishim, and Argo.

TAKHAR – Taliban militants, fighting an insurgency against the foreign and Afghan troops, have recently gained ground in several areas of Takhar province, which borders the volatile Kunduz province. Takhar could be handed over in full, according to the a list seen by Reuters.

SAR-E-PUL – There is not a heavy presence of Taliban insurgents in Sar-e-Pul, but there have been occasional roadside incidents blamed on the Taliban. According to the list, the whole province is slated to be handed over.

PARWAN – Just an hour's drive from the capital Kabul, Parwan has been home to active Taliban insurgents in recent years. An attack by a squad of suicide bombers at the provincial governor's compound killed a dozen people in August this year. The entire province is earmarked to be handed over.

BALKH – Balkh is in the north of Afghanistan, bordering Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The Taliban have been active in some remote districts of the province, with occasional attacks on government and foreign troops. The province is patrolled by a contingent of German forces under Nato. It is slated to be handoverover in its entirety.

SAMANGAN – It has been the site of rare roadside bomb incidents, but no major attacks. According the list, the entire province is set to be handed over to Afghan army and police.

EAST AFGHANISTAN

GHAZNI – Likely to be one of the most challenging provinces in the second tranche, Ghazni lies southwest of the capital Kabul and has become an insurgent stronghold in recent years. Only the provincial capital is on the list.

NANGARHAR – Bordering Pakistan, Taliban militants frequently attack government and Nato installations in the province. Five districts, including the provincial capital Jalalabad, plus Behsud, Kuz Kunar, Kama, and Surkhrod have been selected for the handover.

LAGHMAN – Laghman's capital Mehtar Lam was handed over in the first phase of the transition. Since then, Afghan officials say Taliban militants have stepped up attacks there. Only Qarghayi district is listed for the second stage of the handover.

KABUL

KABUL – Kabul city was handed over to Afghan forces in 2008. Only Sarobi district, where French-led forces have been fighting Taliban insurgents, is listed for the second phase. Ashraf Ghani, chairman of the security transition, said there would be no official handover ceremony for other Kabul districts because Afghan forces had effectively been responsible for the area since 2008.

SOUTHERN AFGHANISTAN

HELMAND – One of the most violent provinces in southern Afghanistan, and the largest producer of illegal drugs, Helmand's capital Lashkar Gah was handed over to Afghan troops in first stage of the transition this summer. Helmand borders Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban movement and its current stronghold. Originally only its Nawa district was slated to be part of the second phase, but if reports are to be believed, then Nad-e Ali district will be part of the handover.

WESTERN AFGHANISTAN

HERAT – Herat is located in western Afghanistan, bordering Iran. A commercial hub, its capital city has already been handed over to Afghan forces. The Taliban are mainly active in some remote districts of Heart. Suicide bombers this year tried to storm a military base run by Italian forces under Nato. According to the list, Shindand and Chusht Sharif will not be handed over, but it did not name those which would be.

NIMROZ – In Afghanistan's southwest, Nimroz has estimated population of only 400,000. Much of it empty desert, including the harsh Plain of the Dead. Bordering Iran to the west and Pakistan to the south, it has long been a crossroads for smugglers, and the Taliban are active in some remote districts. The whole province of Nimroz is earmarked for the second phase of the security transition.

CENTRAL AFGHANISTAN

WARDAK – Wardak province is significant due to its proximity to Kabul. Just an hour's drive from the capital, Wardak has become a Taliban stronghold in recent years. Taliban insurgents frequently attack and burn fuel tankers bound for Nato-led troops. A district and two areas in Wardak are listed for the second phase of the transition.

DAIKONDI – Daikondi borders Bamiyan, a fiercely anti-Taliban province, dominated by the Hazara ethnic group. Daikondi is listed for handover in full.

GHOR – Once at the heart of the medieval Ghorid empire stretching between present-day Iran and South Asia, Ghor is now poor and desolate even by Afghanistan's standards, with no proper roads, hospitals and schools.

Ghor is still relatively peaceful, though it shares a border with Helmand province. Provincial officials say the Taliban have limited influence in Ghor, but express concern about the heavy presence of rival armed groups. Only its capital Chekhcheran would be handed over.

NORTHWESTERN AFGHANISTAN

BADGHIS – Badghis Province is located in the hills of northwestern Afghanistan and shares a long border with Herat, Ghor, and Faryab provinces, as well as Turkmenistan.

The Taliban have a presence in Badghis province, but there have not been major attacks. Two districts, Aab Kamari and Qala Naw, have been selected for transition.

Afghan police kill 11 insurgents, capture 29: Interior Ministry
KABUL, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- Afghan police backed by army and NATO- led troops have eliminated 11 anti-government insurgents during series of operations carried out over the past 24 hours in different parts of the militancy-ridden country, Interior Ministry said in a press release issued here Tuesday.

"During the operations carried out in Khost, Kandahar, Paktia, Paktika. Helmand and Uruzgan provinces over the past 24 hours, 11 Taliban rebels have been killed, one injured and 29 others made captive," the press release emphasized.

A large number of arms and ammunitions including explosive devices and anti-tanks mines have also been seized during the operations, it further said.

Taliban militants fighting Afghan and NATO-led troops have yet to make comment.

Taliban group commander, 3 others captured in S. Afghanistan: NATO
KABUL, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- Afghan and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) during joint operations in Taliban birthplace Kandahar province 450 km south of Afghan capital Kabul detained four insurgents including a group commander on Monday, a press release of the alliance released here Tuesday said.

"A combined Afghan and coalition security force captured a Taliban leader during an operation in Panjwa'i district, Kandahar province, yesterday," the press release added.

The press release, however, did not mention the name of the captured leader, adding "he distributed weapons and supplies throughout the Panjwa'i district, as well as, planned ambush and roadside bomb attacks against coalition forces."

Three more Taliban insurgents were also captured during the operations in panjwai and Zharay districts on Monday, the press release further said.

Taliban militants have yet to make comment.

Kandahar the birthplace of Taliban outfit and the former stronghold of the insurgents has been the scene of increasing militancy over the past couple of years.

Militants loyal to the Taliban outfit in a bloody attack in Kandahar's provincial capital Kandahar city targeted a guesthouse leaving six people dead including three employees of UN agency for refugees (UNHCR) On Monday.

Afghan Private Schools Under Scrutiny
Education ministry closes ten schools and warns many others to raise standards.
IWPR By Maiwand Safi, Mina Habib 31 Oct 11
Afghanistan - The Afghan government is tightening up on private-sector education in the capital Kabul, accusing some schools of falling far below the required standards of teaching.

Since President Hamed Karzai ordered a probe of private education in April, the education ministry has closed down ten schools and ordered six others not to reopen for the autumn term until they submit the requisite documentation.

According to ministry spokesman Amanullah Iman, five others were fined up to 1,000 US dollars each, 16 received written warnings and 14 were sent letters advising them what improvements they needed to make.

The process is to be extended to other Afghan provinces in the near future, Iman said.

Outlining the major problems the ministry uncovered, Iman said staff at some private schools were untrained, teaching methods were variable, some of them taught via English instead of the official languages Dari and Pashto, and the fees they charged were often exorbitant.

Afghanistan currently has around 450 fee-paying private schools and universities, compared with over 14,000 state schools where there are no fees.

The closures and other measures have angered the Association of Private Schools, and also the national Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which called them an attack on the private sector.

“The government must reconsider its decision,” the chamber’s deputy head Khan Jan Alokozay said, adding, “Of course we are ready to close privately-owned schools immediately if they’re acting against national, traditional and religious values or against the law.”

Iman said it was the ministry’s job to regulate private education and to decide what practices schools needed to adhere to.

“What’s important thing to us is the future of children in this country, not public opinion,” he said. “We won’t allow anyone to play with the future of this country’s children.”

Sultan Mohammad, who owns the Sarwar-e Kayenat school, which was among those shut down, alleged that the authorities had acted unfairly and as a result, cast hundreds of pupils adrift.

“Our documents were in order, and our teaching methodology was in line with standards,” he said. “We were operating in compliance with the guidelines set by the education ministry, yet it arbitrarily closed our school.”

Iman denied accusations of high-handed behaviour, insisting that the ministry did not discriminate between institutions and was seeking only to ensure all children got a good education.

“Our investigatory team performed its duty in a completely upright manner,” he added.

He pointed out that some private schools had come out well from the investigation.

Osman, who has two sons at the Ahmad Shah Abdali, said he was satisfied with the teaching there.

“I’m happy with the education in this school,” he said. “My sons do their homework every day and prepare for the next day’s lessons. If they don’t turn up at school, the school administration will call us. We monitor their work and if we spot a problem, we contact the school administration.”

At some other schools, however, there are concerns that a focus on profits overshadows everything else.

Kabul resident Ataullah expressed disappointment with the private school where he enrolled his son. Despite being in a low-paid job as a driver, he found the fees for what he hoped would be a superior education.

“After a while, I realised my son’s learning was deteriorating day by day,” he said. “I went to the school and saw that in many of the classes, there were no teachers and the boys were just playing. So I took my son out.”

His son Salem, 14, who now goes to a state school, added, “Private schools have nice buildings and look very beautiful from the outside, but there’s nothing inside. ”

He described a pattern of young teachers arriving to teach and then leaving, sometimes after just a few days, and classes being left to their own devices without any supervision.

“Everything was sold at a price there – we even had to pay for drinking water,” he said.

The school’s headmaster said it conformed with all the regulations, and the only time classes were left without teachers was when new staff were being interviewed and tested.

“That takes time, but otherwise, none of our classes has been left without a teacher,” he said, acknowledging that “everybody falls ill or has family commitments, so every teacher sometimes needs to be absent”.

A teacher at one private school in Kabul, who asked to remain anonymous, said complaints from pupils and parents were quite justified. Far from being properly qualified, many of his colleagues were high-school graduates who had failed their university entrance exams.

“I can honestly tell you that we have teachers who can’t even read a text properly, and their writing and punctuation is appalling,” he said. “The school administration always pressures teachers to give the pupils pass marks, because that’s how they make money.”

The use of English as a teaching medium has proved popular with parents who believe it give their children an edge in their future careers, but it has not been approved by the education ministry.

A pupil at one of the Kabul schools fined by the education ministry said classes in English often left him and his classmates confused.

“Apart from two subjects, all classes in our school are taught in English and there are many things we don’t understand properly,” he said.

State-sector educators, meanwhile, insist their schools are better standards than private ones.

“From my perspective, the standard of education in these privately-owned schools is very low, because the teachers are high-school graduates or even pupils from the same school who have recently completed the 12th grade,” Hasina Yusufi, head of the Bibi Mahro school for girls, said.

“Professional teachers with degrees don’t work in the private schools because they don’t have a future there. For instance, teachers in government schools have pensions, opportunities for promotion, protected salaries and so on, which means they have a guaranteed future. They don’t get those things in the private schools.”

Yusufi concluded, “Anyway, these schools aren’t to be trusted. They’re here today, but if they make a loss tomorrow, they will close and the teachers will face an uncertain future.”

Maiwand Safi and Mina Habib are IWPR-trained reporters in Afghanistan.

A city divided: the ethnic tensions splitting Kabul
Formerly mixed areas of the Afghan capital are becoming segregated as fears of civil war loom. Lianne Gutcher reports.
The Independent By Lianne Gutcher Tuesday 01 November 2011
The Afghan capital, Kabul, is becoming increasingly divided along ethnic lines as residents relocate to neighbourhoods that would allow them a speedy getaway to their home provinces and ancestral villages in the event that the country descends back into civil war. Property dealers visited by The Independent last week in three areas of Kabul all said they had noticed a shift in population as residents packed up and left formerly mixed neighbourhoods for more ethnically homogenous areas. They said Kabul residents fear a further decline in political stability and a return to the civil war that ravaged the city in the 1990s.

Until 1992, people of different ethnic backgrounds lived in relative harmony in Kabul, the property dealers said. It was only after rival mujahedin factions, who had united to fight the Soviets, splintered and wrestled for political power that ethnic tensions were ignited. Commanders bombarded the city with rockets, killing and injuring tens of thousands of civilians. The memories of those days linger on in the minds of many of the city's residents.

Today, property dealers in Ahmad Shah Baba Maina, a predominantly Pashtun area named after the founder of modern Afghanistan that lies to the north-east of Kabul, said they had seen an influx of Pashtuns who had previously settled in other areas in Kabul such as Khair Khana in the north-west and Darulaman in the west.

One property dealer, who asked for anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said: "Nowadays, we see Pashtuns going to one side [of town] and non-Pashtuns going to the other side. There is a strong perception amongst Pashtuns that if the security situation gets worse in Kabul city, they [need to] have safe ways to get back to where they came from in the villages and in the provinces. Pashtuns also do not believe in – or do not trust – the current security system."

Ahmad Shah Baba Maina is the gateway to the east, and the predominantly Pashtun provinces of Nangarhar, Paktia and Paktika.

A recent spate of attacks in Kabul – including the 20-hour assault on the US Embassy and Isaf's headquarters on 13 September – have exacerbated fears that the Afghan government will not be able to adequately handle security after international combat troops withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014 and that the Taliban is not willing to participate in a negotiated settlement to end the insurgency. The assassination on 20 September of peace council chief Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was also the head of the Northern Alliance, also incensed northern leaders and their supports. Rumours are swirling around Kabul that the Northern Alliance is in the process of rearming so as to be prepared should there be an outbreak of ethnic violence.

A British Government review ordered by David Cameron to be published in mid-November is likely to warn that there are "significant risks" of civil war or a Taliban takeover of the south and east of Afghanistan after 2014.

The Mayor of Kabul declined to comment on the situation and the Central Statistics Organisation of Afghanistan refused to provide figures of the ethnic make-up of Kabul. Countrywide though, Pashtuns make up 42 per cent of the population, Tajiks 27 per cent, and Hazaras and Uzbeks 9 per cent, according to the CIA World Factbook.

Another property dealer in Ahmad Shah Baba Maina, Haji Izat Shah Mangal, offered to show The Independent his property register, saying: "You can check that. The people who are selling the houses [here] are Uzbeks, Hazaras and Tajiks. All the buyers are Pashtuns. If anyone says that all ethnic groups are equal and do not hate each other and can live together, they would be totally wrong."

In the area of Darulaman – blessed with a good water and power system – residents insist that Uzbeks, Tajiks and Pashtuns continue to live in harmony, even though it is a predominately Hazara area. Haji Mohammad Reza, who has run a property agency in Darulaman for eight years, qualified this, however, by saying that people "are worried that the civil war era will come back".

At the only property dealer owned by Pashtuns in Darulaman, co-owner Gul Mohammad said: "People are not satisfied. They believe once again that the same thing [civil war] will happen. This is the reason Hazara people are coming here and the Pashtuns are going to the other side. Every ethnic group is trying to live with its own people."

In the predominantly Tajik enclave of Khair Khana, property agent Haji Azam said that while many Pashtuns still run businesses in the area, they are no longer prepared to live there and had started renting out their houses to members of other ethnic groups. Another property dealer, Tamin, said that many Pashtuns were selling up and moving out. "The tendency is Pashtuns leaving the area and going to other parts of Kabul because their friends and fellows are there," he said.

All the people The Independent spoke to felt that the ethnic tensions were fuelled by continued interference of foreigners in Afghanistan's affairs.

Haji Reza, the property dealer in Darulaman, summed it up by saying: "We don't have patriotism and nationalism in Afghanistan. Here, we see everyone working in the best interests of other countries. We have a lot of agents and spies working for [the best interests of] Pakistan and Iran in Afghanistan."

Afghan tribes

Pashtun

Around 45 per cent of the Afghan population belongs to the dominant Pashtun ethnic group. Many believe the government favours the Pashtuns (President Karzai hails from a Pashtun tribe), causing resentment between ethnic groups.

Hazara

Unlike the majority of Afghans, the Hazaras are mostly Shia. Some feel victimised by Pashtun expansion.

Tajik

A key part of the governing elite, about a quarter of the population is Tajik. Dominant among Northern Alliance forces, Tajiks have sporadically battled the Hizb-e Wahdat political group, popular among Hazaras, since the 1990s.

Uzbek

Some ethnic groups tend to regard Uzbeks as former communists, partly because an Uzbek leader fought for Afghanistan's Soviet occupiers before switching sides in 1992.

An Afghan Hell On Earth For 'Darkhorse' Marines
NPR By Tom Bowman October 31, 2011
The Marines of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment remember Sangin in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province as different from anywhere else they'd fought.

Sgt. Daniel Robert describes it as "hell." Lance Cpl. Jake Romo calls it "the Wild West." Lt. Col. Jason Morris says he'd heard it described as "the most dangerous place in Afghanistan."

Morris was the commander of the Marines of the 3/5, known as "Darkhorse," and Sangin had been a battleground long before he arrived.

The British were there for four years, but could only fight the Taliban to a bloody stalemate. Now the British were leaving, and Darkhorse battalion moved in.

Morris' orders were clear: Eliminate the Taliban as a threat.

"The fight initially was to be able to maneuver outside the patrol base without getting shot or stepping on [an improvised explosive device, or IED] that had been planted 50 yards or 100 yards outside of the patrol base. You could not move outside of the district center without getting shot," Morris recalls.

Arriving in late September 2010, they learned the place fast, slogging through canals, fighting through dense vegetation and patrolling a maze of narrow dirt roads bordered by 15-foot mud walls.

Saying Goodbye

A few weeks earlier in California, the Marines gathered to say goodbye to their families in the middle of the night at the parade grounds at Camp Pendleton, where the unit was based.

Ashley Tawney was there with her husband, Sgt. Ian Tawney; they had known each other since they were kids. They had just bought a house, and Ashley was pregnant with their first child.

Sangin was Ian's fifth deployment. Ashley says this one felt different.

"I just remember driving in the car, and I would just say, 'I don't want you to go,' and he said, 'No, I'll be fine. I need to go and I want to go.' And he always said, 'If you're on the varsity team, why sit on the bench?' " Ashley recalls.

Ian had served in Iraq. In Afghanistan, he would lead his own squad.

They stood for hours that night at Pendleton. Then, just before sunrise, it was time to say goodbye. Ashley kissed her husband.

"He said, 'I love you,' and I just nodded, and I didn't want to start crying by saying it," she says.

Sgt. Tawney boarded the bus that would take him to his plane for the long flight to Afghanistan.

The Dying Begins Almost Immediately

A few weeks later in Afghanistan, Tawney led his men on a patrol. The situation was extremely dangerous: The Taliban had stockpiled weapons and poked holes in thick mud walls to use as shooting positions in order to ambush the Marines.

Tawney had just a part of the fight. For Lt. Col. Morris — the Darkhorse commander — the battle was everywhere.

"We had over a hundred firefights in the first three weeks. This is what we had trained for. The only thing that was different from what we had trained all our lives for as Marines was the IED threat," Morris says.

On Oct. 13 — the same day the 3/5 officially assumed control over the area — four Darkhorse Marines were killed when a blast ripped apart their vehicle.

The next day, some of Morris' Marines went out on a foot patrol. The initial report came in that they were taking mortar fire.

Then, Morris remembers three rapid explosions; they turned out to be three Marines stepping on IEDs in rapid succession. All three died.

In just two days, Morris lost seven of his men — more than his predecessor had lost in six months.

And the violence didn't let up. At the end of the week, another Marine was dead: Sgt. Ian Tawney. He was 25.

'I Couldn't Fathom That He Was Gone'

At home in California, Ashley Tawney remembers waking up from a nap on her couch. It was the middle of an October afternoon.

The house she and Ian had recently bought had several French doors. Through the glass of one of them, she watched two Marine officers pass by. She didn't have to open the door to see them standing there.

"It was just a real solemn ... very eerie sight. It's just like the movies, just like the movies," she recalls.

To this day, she doesn't know how she made it to the front door.

"I, like, floated over there or something," she says. "And everything was kind of in slow-motion. And I opened the door, and then they started off with the whole spiel ... and I was just in shock."

"I remember my cat was playing with the chaplain's uniform. ... Then they started to do the paperwork ... the whole, me going to Dover to meet his body, and that's when it hit me, and I just covered my face with my hand and was like, 'Oh my God, oh my God.' There's no goodbye and there's no nothing. I couldn't fathom that he was gone," she says.

What happened to Ashley Tawney was happening to other Marine families.

The Darkhorse battalion was taking horrific casualties. Back home, the emails and phone calls flew back and forth.

To calm everyone down, the Marines convened a town hall meeting, and 150 family members showed up.

"I wasn't prepared for it to be as bad as it was. I don't think any of us really thought it was going to be like it was in October," recalls Amy Murray, the wife of Capt. Patrick Murray.

"Sometimes you got off the phone, and your heart would sink," says Melissa Fromm, wife of Lt. Brad Fromm.

Says Kait Wyatt, wife of Cpl. Derek Wyatt: "It's pretty much hell on Earth for most wives, just going day to day with not knowing."

'Every Day Someone Was Dying'

October 2010 was pretty much hell on Earth for the Marines in Sangin, too.

Cpl. Marcus Chischilly stepped on an IED on Oct. 9.

"I was probably the eighth person that stepped on that same IED. It's based on luck, really," he remembers.

Capt. Chris Esrey recalls the incident in which Lance Cpl. John Sparks died. "Sparks just grabbed his machine gun and went to his rooftop ... and began to exchange fire with the insurgents when he was struck by a bullet."

There were "IEDs everywhere," says Lance Cpl. Josue Baron. "So one of my friends just stepped on one, and it got both of us."

"Every day someone was dying, or every day someone was losing a limb," he adds. "So we were just like, when are they going to stop?"

It fell to Morris, the battalion commander, to fix things.

"I was on my own for this. I mean, having to figure this out? It's up to the battalion commander," he says.

Morris pressed his company commanders to take extra care on patrol. He stepped up training: The Marines buried mock IEDs and practiced finding them. And Morris asked for reinforcements.

His bosses back at the Pentagon had a different idea. Defense Secretary Robert Gates suggested pulling the Marines out of Sangin for a while.

The Marines' top officer, Gen. James Amos, said "absolutely not."

"We don't do business that way. You would have broken the spirit of that battalion," Amos says.

Instead of pulling Darkhorse out, the military sent hundreds more Marines, as well as mine-clearing equipment.

Progress At A Price

Two months went by. By January, things started to get better.

Capt. Chris Esrey remembers that getting "more boots on the deck really increased our patrolling," while Sgt. Daniel Robert says it became easier for the Marines to get some rest.

The fighting let up. Morris says life returned: markets opened; children were on the streets.

Progress came at a price: 25 dead and 184 wounded, with 34 losing at least one limb over the course of the deployment. But the Marines say it was worth it.

"Every single Marine that was over there — and saw the beginning and saw the end — saw the 180-degree change in that place," Morris says. "We changed it. We changed it completely."

"It went from total war-fighting of three months to saving lives and rebuilding homes," says Sgt. John Decker.

Even Lance Cpl. Baron, who lost one eye, one leg and some of his closest friends, agrees: "It was worth it. If I say it wasn't worth it, what about my friends that died? I'm disrespecting them, like they died for nothing."

Remembering Those Who Were Lost

In April, back at Camp Pendleton, the survivors of Darkhorse gathered for a memorial service.

Some stood, some sat at a helicopter landing zone, a wide patch of asphalt surrounded by low brush, mountains in the distance. They faced 25 combat crosses, one for each of the dead. Helmets and weapons and combat boots sat on a wooden base.

Morris, Darkhorse's commander, stood before the families and the wounded.

"I hope you understand how much we appreciated your sons, your husbands, your brothers in life — and how much we continue to value their sacrifice and their memory. Marines, your Marines, these Marines — they took the fight to the enemy, and they won," he told them.

As the wind kicked up, they called the names of the Marines who were lost.

Ashley Tawney was there with her infant daughter, Claire — born three months after her father died — and remembers looking out at the crowd.

"Just seeing all the people that this deployment had affected, all the wounded, just the loss is just, like, overwhelming. And it kind of felt like his work funeral. He'll never get up when it's dark outside and drive to work and come home late. And our life down there was over. That chapter was over," she says.

Ashley is starting a new chapter. She plans to move to North Carolina. Her mother lives there. And it's not far from the Marine base at Camp Lejeune.

"Being part of that Marine family, you feel real secure. It's hard, because I still longed for that, I still wanted to be part of that life, but I didn't have him anymore, and he was my connection to that life," Ashley says. "I'm still a military widow, but then I'm not — I'm back in civilian life again, so it's hard to know where to fit in."

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