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Afghan Officials: Up to 70 Taliban Killed in Base Attack
VOA News November 9, 2011
Afghan officials says Afghan and NATO troops have killed at least 70 Taliban militants who launched an attack on a base near the Pakistani border.
A spokesman for the governor of Paktika province, Mukhlis Afghan, said the combined force repelled the assault late Tuesday in the Barmal district.
NATO said a large group of insurgents attacked the base with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades. Troops called in coalition air support to help fight the militants. A NATO spokesman said there were no reports of coalition casualties.
The provincial spokesman said the militants came from the border region.
Earlier on Tuesday, Australia's defense ministry said an Afghan soldier shot and seriously wounded three Australian and two Afghan soldiers at a base in southern Afghanistan.
Officials say the Afghan soldier was armed with an automatic weapon and a grenade launcher when he opened fire at the base in Uruzgan province.
A search was underway for the shooter, who fled in an Afghan army vehicle.
The attack comes less than two weeks after another Afghan soldier shot dead three Australian soldiers and wounded seven others during a parade. It also took place just days after Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard returned from a trip to Afghanistan.
Ms. Gillard told reporters in Melbourne Wednesday that while the incidents are “distressing” and “dreadful,” the country's mission in Afghanistan must continue. The prime minister noted that training is pivotal to that mission and that troops aim to deny terrorists a country where they can train to “wreak violence around the world.”
Australia has 1,550 troops in Afghanistan, the largest number of any non-NATO member. At least 32 Australian troops have been killed in Afghanistan since the country joined the NATO-led coalition.
Afghanistan attack to cause questions, but Australia committed: PM
MELBOURNE, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Wednesday said another attack on Australian soldiers serving in Afghanistan will cause many to question the mission, but the country is committed to the war until the scheduled withdrawal in 2014.
Three Australian soldiers have been wounded in Afghanistan when an Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier opened fire to his colleagues. The incident came just 10 days after three Australian soldiers died and seven wounded in a similar attack in Afghanistan. Also in May, an Afghan soldier shot dead his Australian mentor as they carried out guard duty.
Gillard said she was very conscious the attack, coming so soon after the previous "dreadful killings", might cause Australians to question the mission in Afghanistan and trust in ANA soldiers.
Although the attack "corroded" trust, Gillard insisted progress was being made in Afghanistan.
She said training Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers and local police is "pivotal" so they can eventually provide security and Australian troops can come home.
"(But) as distressing as these incidents are, as dreadful as these incidents are, our mission in Afghanistan does need to continue," she told reporters in Melbourne.
Defense Minister Stephen Smith agreed, saying that the latest attack, which would be "exhaustively investigated", represented a very serious setback.
He noted that there had been 15 such incidents over the past 12 months involving international forces in Afghanistan.
"(But) despite these events we continue to very strongly believe we're on track to transition to Afghan responsibility for security matters by 2014," he said.
Defense force chief David Hurley said security has now been beefed up at the small Basir base where the attack occurred overnight.
Australia will now raise vetting procedures with the International Security Assistance Force "to make sure everything is done to vet those people that go into the Afghan national security forces".
War-shattered Afghan women live on alms
by Abdul Haleem
KABUL, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- In many countries, including Afghanistan, begging has been regarded as a taboo, but in this war- ravaged and poverty-stricken country, many people including women has adopted begging as a profession to support their families.
"Continued conflicts have destroyed my life, claimed the life of my husband and forcing me to beg for alms in order to survive," 56-year-old Bibi Fatima told Xinhua on Tuesday.
Collecting money and meat from affluent families on Eidul Adha holidays -- the Muslims' largest annual religious festival, falling on Nov. 6-8, the dejected Fatima said she could collect some 10kg mutton and beef on the first day of Eidul Adha.
During Eidul Adha holidays, Muslims across the world sacrifice animals and distribute meat to needy people.
Walking with the help of a stick and carrying a sack on her back, the aged and feeble woman said she has "no option but to beg. "
Revealing her ordeal, Fatima said, "The cruel war left all members of the family including my husband dead in Mazar-e-Sharif city 13 years ago."
Wiping out the tears of her eyes, Fatima said, the tale of her pain is too tragic to speak, adding "pain is felt by those who burn in flame" and walked away without speaking more.
In the male-dominated Afghan society, the protracted war has often claimed the lives of men who are the bread earners of their families.
The legacy of war is tangible almost in each corner of the war- ravaged Afghanistan. Even in the capital city Kabul, dozens of street children and women with grim faces and grimy clothes are seen begging to support their families.
Fatima is not alone that the endemic war has swallowed her family, forcing her to bear the burden of daily life to survive.
Another woman Muzhgan, 31, was seen wandering around wealthy communities on Eidul Ahda holidays to collect donations.
"I have no choice but to beg and support my children to live and let them go to school," Mughgan, who lost her husband in a suicide bombing in Kabul three years ago said in a brief chat.
"This is not the life to live on begging. I really hate it, it is a taboo act. To support my children and to survive, unfortunately I have no option but to beg," Muzhgan went on to say in an unhappy mode.
Analysis - With an eye on 2014, India steps up Afghan role
Reuters By Sanjeev Miglani Wed Nov 9, 2011
SINGAPORE - India plans to train Afghan army combat units at top counter-insurgency schools, officials say, deepening its commitment to Afghanistan as Western forces prepare to withdraw, a move that will fan Pakistani fears of encirclement.
India may also provide light weapons to the Afghan army and train pilots and ground staff for Afghanistan's small air force under a strategic partnership agreement signed last month.
Up until now India has mainly provided discreet training to Afghan security forces in an unstructured manner, with officers attending largely theoretical courses. Once, in 2007, two platoon-sized units of 30 men each were trained.
But the new agreement sets the stage for a formal Indian involvement in boosting Afghan security forces beyond 2014, when foreign combat troops will withdraw, leaving Afghans to fight a Taliban insurgency now at its most potent in 10 years of war.
"The Afghanistan initiative, so far as I understand it, will be training, including future trainers, in such places as the Army War College in Mhow," said an Indian security official, referring to a top institution in central India.
"This is about ... military exercises designed to enable them to engage in actual combat operations," he said.
A greater and more overt Indian role in boosting Afghan security preparedness, on top of a $2 billion (1 billion pounds) civil aid effort building highways, power transmission lines and dams, marks an intensification of a regional struggle for post-2014 influence.
It also represents a re-ordering of regional alliances, with the United States seen to have backed the India-Afghan pact after the fraying of its relationship with Pakistan, which it blames for sheltering militants fighting in Afghanistan.
"I think it's a huge deal. It confirms a lot of Pakistan's worst fears about Afghanistan. Moreover, given how many ANSF (Afghan National Security Forces) join to fight Pakistan, adding Indian mentorship into the mix strikes me as a terrible idea," said Joshua Foust, a security analyst at the non-partisan think tank the American Security Project in Washington.
"But I think a lot of the decisions are driven by wanting India to pick up this slack the U.S. will be leaving," he said. "This has high-level backing in Washington and Delhi, so it's a done deal. They think there won't be a blowback. I disagree."
RACING THE CLOCK
NATO is racing against the clock to train a force of 350,000 Afghan police and soldiers to take over the battle against the Taliban and other insurgents.
As domestic support for the war falls, U.S. President Barack Obama could be looking at even faster withdrawals, sources said last month after the White House asked the Pentagon for 2014 scenarios that included 2013 troop levels.
Pakistan, which sees itself as the central player in shaping a political solution to the conflict, has warned repeatedly against what it describes as destabilising Indian involvement.
It also worries about Afghan officers being trained in India because it could mould them into an anti-Pakistan institution.
The Indian embassy in Kabul has been attacked twice, with U.S. and Indian officials blaming the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network. U.S. officials say the Haqqanis have close ties with Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency.
India, riding one of the world's fastest-growing economies, has signalled it will stay the course despite the threat of a backlash. It also has a wary eye on China's growing investments in Afghanistan's potentially rich mining sector.
"The door has been opened for the training of Afghanistan's army, air force and police in India," said retired Indian army Major-General Ashok Mehta.
He said the Afghans want to build their army on the Indian model of a secular, national force that draws recruits from across the country and from different religious and ethnic backgrounds and turn them into a cohesive fighting unit.
The Afghan army is still seen as a force dominated by the minority Tajik and Hazara ethnic groups, with the Pashtuns who make up the majority of the population under-represented.
"They didn't want to go to Pakistan, even though the Pakistanis have repeatedly offered ... , because they said they didn't want to 'Islamise' the army," Mehta added.
GIVING WEAPONS, TRAINING PILOTS
Mehta said the Afghans were expected to send company-sized units of 120 men for training at Indian bases, including a respected counter-insurgency school in northeastern Vairengte.
Afghan infantry units are also expected to train at a high- altitude warfare school in Kashmir, where Indian forces have had plenty of experience battling revolts over 20 years.
Part of the Soviet Union's exit strategy after its disastrous campaign in Afghanistan relied on training troops, and some pilots, in then Soviet-Uzbekistan. Some soldiers were also flown to Moscow in the mid-1980s.
Under the India-Afghan pact, weapons such as rifles, rocket launchers and artillery would help fill equipment gaps and pilots would be trained on simulators in India.
Kamran Bokhari, vice president of Middle Eastern and South Asian affairs at global intelligence consulting firm STRATFOR, said intelligence sharing would be the biggest, yet least talked-about, part of the India-Afghanistan partnership.
He said military cooperation between the two countries had to be limited because they don't share a border and that a hostile Pakistan lies in between.
"But intelligence is something that doesn't require borders and they can do quite a lot in that area," Bokhari said.
(Editing by Paul Tait)
Afghan President leaves for Maldives to attend SAARC summit
KABUL, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday left for Maldives to attend the 17th the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit, a statement released by his office said.
In the two-day summit due to open on Thursday, the Afghan president will deliver a speech on enhancing cooperation in economic, cultural, political and security sectors with the other member states, the statement said.
A high-ranking delegation, including some ministers, is accompanying the Afghan president during the tour to Maldives.
Established in 1985, the SAARC groups India, Pakistan, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Afghanistan joined the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in 2007.
Afghan rethink after second shooting
Sydney Morning Herald BY STAFF REPORTERS 09 Nov, 2011
It is too early to say whether the latest attack on Australians by an Afghan soldier is linked to the previous shooting, which left three diggers dead.
However, the Australian Defence Force is reconsidering aspects of its training model and force protection measures, while also hunting down the gunman who remains on the run.
Chief of Defence Force General David Hurley said Australian and Afghan soldiers had been resting in a patrol base in southern Afghanistan when a member of the Afghan National Army opened fire from a tower, using an automatic weapon and a grenade launcher.
Three Australians suffered serious wounds. They are now at a hospital at Kandahar, after receiving initial treatment at the scene and more treatment at the nearby military hospital at Tarin Kowt.
It is the third time this year an ANA soldier has targeted Australian troops this year. It also follows a snap visit by Prime Minister Julia Gillard to Tarin Kowt on Monday.
It comes after another Afghan soldier opened fire on Australians, killing Captain Bryce Duffy, Lance Corporal Luke Gavin and Corporal Ashley Birt less than a fortnight ago.
Two Afghan soldiers were also wounded in the latest attack and General Hurley said they were in a satisfactory condition.
General Hurley said he could understand the reaction that many people would have to news of this incident when it came so soon after such a similar attack, but it was too early to say if they were linked
“I stress that there is no simple one-line explanation to this incident or the previous incident. This is a highly complex issue and there are many factors at play that require further examination and analysis,” he said.
He did not know whether the attacks were the result of a personal grievance, religious ideology or something else, or if the second soldier had been inspired by the actions of the first.
General Hurley said Afghan forces had initially pursued the man, although this had been called off because it was making it harder to track the man using unmanned aerial vehicles.
“We continued with a more technical means to track him down and we have our own forces poised should we get some more information,’’ he said.
The about 30 Afghan soldiers at the patrol base had been temporarily disarmed, although they have not been separated from their Australian colleagues.
General Hurley said Defence had taken steps after last week’s incident to protect Australians against similar attacks – including higher levels of personal protection and re-evaluating the transition in the mentoring process - but Afghanistan was a complex place and risks would always remain.
When asked how Australian soldiers would be able to regain a level of trust in their Afghan colleagues, General Hurley said that was a “pretty fair question”.
He said Australian soldiers in Afghanistan realised it was risky.
Meanwhile, General Hurley said the investigation into the October 29 incident
On that occasion, a rogue Afghan soldier opened fire during a parade in Kandahar province, killing three Australian soldiers.
The men were members of Mentoring Task Force 3 and had just ended a regular weekly parade at a forward operating base at Shah Wali Kot in Kandahar province.
A memorial service for one of the diggers, Corporal Ashley Birt, will be held in Brisbane later today.
In May, Lance Corporal Andrew Jones was shot dead by a rogue ANA soldier while on guard duties.
'There's no magic bullet'
Australia Defence Association executive director Neil James, cautioned against drawing larger strategic trends from the latest incident - particular suggestions that Australia should now withdraw from Afghanistan.
"I'm not sure this shows that we should withdraw - this is actually part of our withdrawal plan," he told smh.com.au.
"I think what a lot of people aren't grasping - at the end of the day this is an Afghan civil war, the Afghans have to take over from the international forces.
"The only way that can occur is if they're brought up to a certain standard, and the only way they can do that is if they're trained and mentored.
"Everyone's looking for the magic bullet here and there isn't one. You can mitigate against this risk, but you can't completely eliminate it - you have to do this task."
He also said this incident should not lead to an outpouring of anger against the Afghan forces, who were doing a good job under difficult conditions.
"The majority of the Afghans that we're training are just as angry and embarrassed about this as the Australians are," he said.
"As one Afghan veteran said to me recently, people should take comfort from how infrequently these things happen."
Others within Defence, while acknowledging the incident will not affect Australia's withdrawal plan, do say it could lead to some changes in operating procedures, including being more restricted within bases.
with smh.com.au and agencies
Rogue chief betrayed US in Afghanistan: prosecutor
AFP – Wed, Nov 9, 2011
The ringleader of a rogue US army unit in Afghanistan "betrayed" the American people by killing Afghan civilians for sport, prosecutors said Wednesday as a court-martial neared its climax.
In a closing argument, Major Robert Stelle dismissed Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs's claims that his unit was responding to legitimate attack when they killed the civilians, before removing body parts as trophies and taking photos with the corpses.
"This is a case about betrayal, the ultimate betrayal... Staff Sergeant Gibbs betrayed his folk, he betrayed his unit, and with the flag of his nation emblazoned across his chest, thousand miles from home, he betrayed his nation," he said.
Gibbs, 26, faces life in prison if convicted on charges including three counts of premeditated murder in southern Afghanistan between January and May last year, in a scandal that has threatened Abu Ghraib-style embarrassment for the US military.
Specifically he is accused of setting up the killings, and then planting weapons on the dead civilians' bodies to make it look like they were fighters, before removing fingers and teeth to show their colleagues.
Gibbs' court-martial started last week, and in an unexpected appearance Friday he claimed his unit was engaged in genuine combat -- while admitting that he took fingers from the dead corpses as what prosecutors described as "trophies."
But the military prosecutor dismissed those claims during a closing argument lasting over an hour at the Joint Base Lewis/McChord, south of Seattle, home to the 5th Stryker Brigade.
"Selling the engagement as legitimate was part of the plan," said Stelle, calling Gibbs's stories "fundamentally implausible."
The prosecution also attempted to demonstrate Gibbs's mindset, mentioning a filmed incident when another soldier stabbed an Afghan corpse. Instead of reprimanding the soldier, Gibbs told the cameraman "don't film that (expletive)."
The defense was due to present its closing argument later Wednesday before a five-person military jury is asked to consider its verdicts, which could come Thursday.
Afghan Film Cancellation Blamed on Iran
Tehran accused of derailing screening of films depicting abuse of Afghan refugees.
IWPR By Abdul Latif Sahak, Khan Mohammad Danishju 8 Nov 11
Afghanistan - A controversial film depicting the plight of Afghan refugees in Iran was pulled at the eleventh hour in Kabul, sparking angry allegations that the authorities had caved into pressure from Tehran.
As the furore over the cancellation escalated, the Afghan parliament summoned information and culture minister Sayed Makhdum Rahin, who has oversight over such events. Both he and the state-run agency Afghan Film denied they had banned the film, called “Madrassa”, while the Iranian embassy said it had no hand in the decision.
The allegations of Iranian interference, made by filmmakers and a member of parliament, reflect widespread suspicions about the behind-the-scenes role Tehran plays in Afghan politics.
“Madrassa” depicts the struggle of an Afghan refugee as he tries to enrol his daughter in Iranian schools, which repeatedly shut their doors on her. The film shows Iranians treating the father with contempt because he is Afghan, and eventually imprisoning and torturing him.
The film should have been shown in Kabul in mid-October, but was halted at the last minute.
Shukria Barakzai, a member of parliament for Kabul, believes the film was cancelled because of Iranian diplomatic pressure, and accused the Afghan government of surrendering to this kind of interference.
The Iranian embassy in Kabul did not answer IWPR’s repeated requests for a comment on the issue, but Afghanistan’s Tolo TV quoted it as denying any involvement.
The incident angered local film-makers, including Asad Sekandar, the head of the company which made “Madrassa”, who said cancelling it was a breach of freedom of expression.
Jawansher Haidari, head of the Afghanistan Cinema Association, called the decision unlawful and undemocratic. The proper procedure was to raise a complaint with Afghanistan’s media watchdog, not to censor films in advance, he said.
“Madrassa” is not the only film to spark controversy recently. Several movies at a human rights film festival last month in the northern Balkh province prompted rowdy protests.
Although the protesters were ostensibly unhappy about content they claimed was un-Islamic, the festival’s organiser Malek Shafii said he suspected this was not the real target. He claimed pro-Iranian networks in Balkh orchestrated the protests to stop other films being shown.
“Some students at Balkh university’s faculty of Shariah law and religion were hired for this purpose, and disrupted the festival by staging protests against one or two films which had nothing wrong with them,” he said.
One of the films that was due to be shown, called “Neighbour”, was about a massacre of Afghans after a riot at a refugee camp in Iran. Its maker Zubair Farghand said the protests against other films were actually a way of derailing his one.
“Because the film is based on a true story, the Iranian government has sought to prevent it from being screened by every means possible,” he said.
Those involved in disrupting film showings insisted their anger was directed only at the denigration of Islamic values. The screening of “Paper Boats”, in which a widow is befriended by a mullah, was interrupted by chants of “Allahu Akbar” and had to be stopped.
Student Mohammad Jamshed said he found “Paper Boats” genuinely offensive, as it showed “an imam at a mosque displaying sexual interest in a woman. How can a Muslim tolerate that?”
However, another member of the audience, Sohrab Sirat, said the story the film actually told was how a war widow’s faith in humanity was restored by a mullah. He too believed the expressions of outrage were merely a ploy to stop “Neighbours”, with its Iranian content, being seen at the festival.
Festival organiser Shafii insisted that all the films on the programme had been vetted and approved in advance by a commission that included a culture ministry representative. Saleh Mohammad Khaliq, the provincial head of culture and information, said this was not the case and his department had not been informed about the festival.
Maiwand, a commentator on cultural affairs in Balkh, said Iran had been building a presence in the province since Taleban rule ended in 2001, by setting up religious schools, libraries and charities, and funding local media. He urged Afghanistan’s western allies to counter what he said was covert Iranian activity in the province.
Abdul Latif Sahak is an IWPR-trained reporter in Afghanistan. Khan Mohammad Danishju is editor-in-chief of Abadi Weekly in Kabul.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
VOA News November 9, 2011
Afghan officials says Afghan and NATO troops have killed at least 70 Taliban militants who launched an attack on a base near the Pakistani border.
A spokesman for the governor of Paktika province, Mukhlis Afghan, said the combined force repelled the assault late Tuesday in the Barmal district.
NATO said a large group of insurgents attacked the base with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades. Troops called in coalition air support to help fight the militants. A NATO spokesman said there were no reports of coalition casualties.
The provincial spokesman said the militants came from the border region.
Earlier on Tuesday, Australia's defense ministry said an Afghan soldier shot and seriously wounded three Australian and two Afghan soldiers at a base in southern Afghanistan.
Officials say the Afghan soldier was armed with an automatic weapon and a grenade launcher when he opened fire at the base in Uruzgan province.
A search was underway for the shooter, who fled in an Afghan army vehicle.
The attack comes less than two weeks after another Afghan soldier shot dead three Australian soldiers and wounded seven others during a parade. It also took place just days after Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard returned from a trip to Afghanistan.
Ms. Gillard told reporters in Melbourne Wednesday that while the incidents are “distressing” and “dreadful,” the country's mission in Afghanistan must continue. The prime minister noted that training is pivotal to that mission and that troops aim to deny terrorists a country where they can train to “wreak violence around the world.”
Australia has 1,550 troops in Afghanistan, the largest number of any non-NATO member. At least 32 Australian troops have been killed in Afghanistan since the country joined the NATO-led coalition.
Afghanistan attack to cause questions, but Australia committed: PM
MELBOURNE, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Wednesday said another attack on Australian soldiers serving in Afghanistan will cause many to question the mission, but the country is committed to the war until the scheduled withdrawal in 2014.
Three Australian soldiers have been wounded in Afghanistan when an Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier opened fire to his colleagues. The incident came just 10 days after three Australian soldiers died and seven wounded in a similar attack in Afghanistan. Also in May, an Afghan soldier shot dead his Australian mentor as they carried out guard duty.
Gillard said she was very conscious the attack, coming so soon after the previous "dreadful killings", might cause Australians to question the mission in Afghanistan and trust in ANA soldiers.
Although the attack "corroded" trust, Gillard insisted progress was being made in Afghanistan.
She said training Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers and local police is "pivotal" so they can eventually provide security and Australian troops can come home.
"(But) as distressing as these incidents are, as dreadful as these incidents are, our mission in Afghanistan does need to continue," she told reporters in Melbourne.
Defense Minister Stephen Smith agreed, saying that the latest attack, which would be "exhaustively investigated", represented a very serious setback.
He noted that there had been 15 such incidents over the past 12 months involving international forces in Afghanistan.
"(But) despite these events we continue to very strongly believe we're on track to transition to Afghan responsibility for security matters by 2014," he said.
Defense force chief David Hurley said security has now been beefed up at the small Basir base where the attack occurred overnight.
Australia will now raise vetting procedures with the International Security Assistance Force "to make sure everything is done to vet those people that go into the Afghan national security forces".
War-shattered Afghan women live on alms
by Abdul Haleem
KABUL, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- In many countries, including Afghanistan, begging has been regarded as a taboo, but in this war- ravaged and poverty-stricken country, many people including women has adopted begging as a profession to support their families.
"Continued conflicts have destroyed my life, claimed the life of my husband and forcing me to beg for alms in order to survive," 56-year-old Bibi Fatima told Xinhua on Tuesday.
Collecting money and meat from affluent families on Eidul Adha holidays -- the Muslims' largest annual religious festival, falling on Nov. 6-8, the dejected Fatima said she could collect some 10kg mutton and beef on the first day of Eidul Adha.
During Eidul Adha holidays, Muslims across the world sacrifice animals and distribute meat to needy people.
Walking with the help of a stick and carrying a sack on her back, the aged and feeble woman said she has "no option but to beg. "
Revealing her ordeal, Fatima said, "The cruel war left all members of the family including my husband dead in Mazar-e-Sharif city 13 years ago."
Wiping out the tears of her eyes, Fatima said, the tale of her pain is too tragic to speak, adding "pain is felt by those who burn in flame" and walked away without speaking more.
In the male-dominated Afghan society, the protracted war has often claimed the lives of men who are the bread earners of their families.
The legacy of war is tangible almost in each corner of the war- ravaged Afghanistan. Even in the capital city Kabul, dozens of street children and women with grim faces and grimy clothes are seen begging to support their families.
Fatima is not alone that the endemic war has swallowed her family, forcing her to bear the burden of daily life to survive.
Another woman Muzhgan, 31, was seen wandering around wealthy communities on Eidul Ahda holidays to collect donations.
"I have no choice but to beg and support my children to live and let them go to school," Mughgan, who lost her husband in a suicide bombing in Kabul three years ago said in a brief chat.
"This is not the life to live on begging. I really hate it, it is a taboo act. To support my children and to survive, unfortunately I have no option but to beg," Muzhgan went on to say in an unhappy mode.
Analysis - With an eye on 2014, India steps up Afghan role
Reuters By Sanjeev Miglani Wed Nov 9, 2011
SINGAPORE - India plans to train Afghan army combat units at top counter-insurgency schools, officials say, deepening its commitment to Afghanistan as Western forces prepare to withdraw, a move that will fan Pakistani fears of encirclement.
India may also provide light weapons to the Afghan army and train pilots and ground staff for Afghanistan's small air force under a strategic partnership agreement signed last month.
Up until now India has mainly provided discreet training to Afghan security forces in an unstructured manner, with officers attending largely theoretical courses. Once, in 2007, two platoon-sized units of 30 men each were trained.
But the new agreement sets the stage for a formal Indian involvement in boosting Afghan security forces beyond 2014, when foreign combat troops will withdraw, leaving Afghans to fight a Taliban insurgency now at its most potent in 10 years of war.
"The Afghanistan initiative, so far as I understand it, will be training, including future trainers, in such places as the Army War College in Mhow," said an Indian security official, referring to a top institution in central India.
"This is about ... military exercises designed to enable them to engage in actual combat operations," he said.
A greater and more overt Indian role in boosting Afghan security preparedness, on top of a $2 billion (1 billion pounds) civil aid effort building highways, power transmission lines and dams, marks an intensification of a regional struggle for post-2014 influence.
It also represents a re-ordering of regional alliances, with the United States seen to have backed the India-Afghan pact after the fraying of its relationship with Pakistan, which it blames for sheltering militants fighting in Afghanistan.
"I think it's a huge deal. It confirms a lot of Pakistan's worst fears about Afghanistan. Moreover, given how many ANSF (Afghan National Security Forces) join to fight Pakistan, adding Indian mentorship into the mix strikes me as a terrible idea," said Joshua Foust, a security analyst at the non-partisan think tank the American Security Project in Washington.
"But I think a lot of the decisions are driven by wanting India to pick up this slack the U.S. will be leaving," he said. "This has high-level backing in Washington and Delhi, so it's a done deal. They think there won't be a blowback. I disagree."
RACING THE CLOCK
NATO is racing against the clock to train a force of 350,000 Afghan police and soldiers to take over the battle against the Taliban and other insurgents.
As domestic support for the war falls, U.S. President Barack Obama could be looking at even faster withdrawals, sources said last month after the White House asked the Pentagon for 2014 scenarios that included 2013 troop levels.
Pakistan, which sees itself as the central player in shaping a political solution to the conflict, has warned repeatedly against what it describes as destabilising Indian involvement.
It also worries about Afghan officers being trained in India because it could mould them into an anti-Pakistan institution.
The Indian embassy in Kabul has been attacked twice, with U.S. and Indian officials blaming the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network. U.S. officials say the Haqqanis have close ties with Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency.
India, riding one of the world's fastest-growing economies, has signalled it will stay the course despite the threat of a backlash. It also has a wary eye on China's growing investments in Afghanistan's potentially rich mining sector.
"The door has been opened for the training of Afghanistan's army, air force and police in India," said retired Indian army Major-General Ashok Mehta.
He said the Afghans want to build their army on the Indian model of a secular, national force that draws recruits from across the country and from different religious and ethnic backgrounds and turn them into a cohesive fighting unit.
The Afghan army is still seen as a force dominated by the minority Tajik and Hazara ethnic groups, with the Pashtuns who make up the majority of the population under-represented.
"They didn't want to go to Pakistan, even though the Pakistanis have repeatedly offered ... , because they said they didn't want to 'Islamise' the army," Mehta added.
GIVING WEAPONS, TRAINING PILOTS
Mehta said the Afghans were expected to send company-sized units of 120 men for training at Indian bases, including a respected counter-insurgency school in northeastern Vairengte.
Afghan infantry units are also expected to train at a high- altitude warfare school in Kashmir, where Indian forces have had plenty of experience battling revolts over 20 years.
Part of the Soviet Union's exit strategy after its disastrous campaign in Afghanistan relied on training troops, and some pilots, in then Soviet-Uzbekistan. Some soldiers were also flown to Moscow in the mid-1980s.
Under the India-Afghan pact, weapons such as rifles, rocket launchers and artillery would help fill equipment gaps and pilots would be trained on simulators in India.
Kamran Bokhari, vice president of Middle Eastern and South Asian affairs at global intelligence consulting firm STRATFOR, said intelligence sharing would be the biggest, yet least talked-about, part of the India-Afghanistan partnership.
He said military cooperation between the two countries had to be limited because they don't share a border and that a hostile Pakistan lies in between.
"But intelligence is something that doesn't require borders and they can do quite a lot in that area," Bokhari said.
(Editing by Paul Tait)
Afghan President leaves for Maldives to attend SAARC summit
KABUL, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday left for Maldives to attend the 17th the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit, a statement released by his office said.
In the two-day summit due to open on Thursday, the Afghan president will deliver a speech on enhancing cooperation in economic, cultural, political and security sectors with the other member states, the statement said.
A high-ranking delegation, including some ministers, is accompanying the Afghan president during the tour to Maldives.
Established in 1985, the SAARC groups India, Pakistan, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Afghanistan joined the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in 2007.
Afghan rethink after second shooting
Sydney Morning Herald BY STAFF REPORTERS 09 Nov, 2011
It is too early to say whether the latest attack on Australians by an Afghan soldier is linked to the previous shooting, which left three diggers dead.
However, the Australian Defence Force is reconsidering aspects of its training model and force protection measures, while also hunting down the gunman who remains on the run.
Chief of Defence Force General David Hurley said Australian and Afghan soldiers had been resting in a patrol base in southern Afghanistan when a member of the Afghan National Army opened fire from a tower, using an automatic weapon and a grenade launcher.
Three Australians suffered serious wounds. They are now at a hospital at Kandahar, after receiving initial treatment at the scene and more treatment at the nearby military hospital at Tarin Kowt.
It is the third time this year an ANA soldier has targeted Australian troops this year. It also follows a snap visit by Prime Minister Julia Gillard to Tarin Kowt on Monday.
It comes after another Afghan soldier opened fire on Australians, killing Captain Bryce Duffy, Lance Corporal Luke Gavin and Corporal Ashley Birt less than a fortnight ago.
Two Afghan soldiers were also wounded in the latest attack and General Hurley said they were in a satisfactory condition.
General Hurley said he could understand the reaction that many people would have to news of this incident when it came so soon after such a similar attack, but it was too early to say if they were linked
“I stress that there is no simple one-line explanation to this incident or the previous incident. This is a highly complex issue and there are many factors at play that require further examination and analysis,” he said.
He did not know whether the attacks were the result of a personal grievance, religious ideology or something else, or if the second soldier had been inspired by the actions of the first.
General Hurley said Afghan forces had initially pursued the man, although this had been called off because it was making it harder to track the man using unmanned aerial vehicles.
“We continued with a more technical means to track him down and we have our own forces poised should we get some more information,’’ he said.
The about 30 Afghan soldiers at the patrol base had been temporarily disarmed, although they have not been separated from their Australian colleagues.
General Hurley said Defence had taken steps after last week’s incident to protect Australians against similar attacks – including higher levels of personal protection and re-evaluating the transition in the mentoring process - but Afghanistan was a complex place and risks would always remain.
When asked how Australian soldiers would be able to regain a level of trust in their Afghan colleagues, General Hurley said that was a “pretty fair question”.
He said Australian soldiers in Afghanistan realised it was risky.
Meanwhile, General Hurley said the investigation into the October 29 incident
On that occasion, a rogue Afghan soldier opened fire during a parade in Kandahar province, killing three Australian soldiers.
The men were members of Mentoring Task Force 3 and had just ended a regular weekly parade at a forward operating base at Shah Wali Kot in Kandahar province.
A memorial service for one of the diggers, Corporal Ashley Birt, will be held in Brisbane later today.
In May, Lance Corporal Andrew Jones was shot dead by a rogue ANA soldier while on guard duties.
'There's no magic bullet'
Australia Defence Association executive director Neil James, cautioned against drawing larger strategic trends from the latest incident - particular suggestions that Australia should now withdraw from Afghanistan.
"I'm not sure this shows that we should withdraw - this is actually part of our withdrawal plan," he told smh.com.au.
"I think what a lot of people aren't grasping - at the end of the day this is an Afghan civil war, the Afghans have to take over from the international forces.
"The only way that can occur is if they're brought up to a certain standard, and the only way they can do that is if they're trained and mentored.
"Everyone's looking for the magic bullet here and there isn't one. You can mitigate against this risk, but you can't completely eliminate it - you have to do this task."
He also said this incident should not lead to an outpouring of anger against the Afghan forces, who were doing a good job under difficult conditions.
"The majority of the Afghans that we're training are just as angry and embarrassed about this as the Australians are," he said.
"As one Afghan veteran said to me recently, people should take comfort from how infrequently these things happen."
Others within Defence, while acknowledging the incident will not affect Australia's withdrawal plan, do say it could lead to some changes in operating procedures, including being more restricted within bases.
with smh.com.au and agencies
Rogue chief betrayed US in Afghanistan: prosecutor
AFP – Wed, Nov 9, 2011
The ringleader of a rogue US army unit in Afghanistan "betrayed" the American people by killing Afghan civilians for sport, prosecutors said Wednesday as a court-martial neared its climax.
In a closing argument, Major Robert Stelle dismissed Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs's claims that his unit was responding to legitimate attack when they killed the civilians, before removing body parts as trophies and taking photos with the corpses.
"This is a case about betrayal, the ultimate betrayal... Staff Sergeant Gibbs betrayed his folk, he betrayed his unit, and with the flag of his nation emblazoned across his chest, thousand miles from home, he betrayed his nation," he said.
Gibbs, 26, faces life in prison if convicted on charges including three counts of premeditated murder in southern Afghanistan between January and May last year, in a scandal that has threatened Abu Ghraib-style embarrassment for the US military.
Specifically he is accused of setting up the killings, and then planting weapons on the dead civilians' bodies to make it look like they were fighters, before removing fingers and teeth to show their colleagues.
Gibbs' court-martial started last week, and in an unexpected appearance Friday he claimed his unit was engaged in genuine combat -- while admitting that he took fingers from the dead corpses as what prosecutors described as "trophies."
But the military prosecutor dismissed those claims during a closing argument lasting over an hour at the Joint Base Lewis/McChord, south of Seattle, home to the 5th Stryker Brigade.
"Selling the engagement as legitimate was part of the plan," said Stelle, calling Gibbs's stories "fundamentally implausible."
The prosecution also attempted to demonstrate Gibbs's mindset, mentioning a filmed incident when another soldier stabbed an Afghan corpse. Instead of reprimanding the soldier, Gibbs told the cameraman "don't film that (expletive)."
The defense was due to present its closing argument later Wednesday before a five-person military jury is asked to consider its verdicts, which could come Thursday.
Afghan Film Cancellation Blamed on Iran
Tehran accused of derailing screening of films depicting abuse of Afghan refugees.
IWPR By Abdul Latif Sahak, Khan Mohammad Danishju 8 Nov 11
Afghanistan - A controversial film depicting the plight of Afghan refugees in Iran was pulled at the eleventh hour in Kabul, sparking angry allegations that the authorities had caved into pressure from Tehran.
As the furore over the cancellation escalated, the Afghan parliament summoned information and culture minister Sayed Makhdum Rahin, who has oversight over such events. Both he and the state-run agency Afghan Film denied they had banned the film, called “Madrassa”, while the Iranian embassy said it had no hand in the decision.
The allegations of Iranian interference, made by filmmakers and a member of parliament, reflect widespread suspicions about the behind-the-scenes role Tehran plays in Afghan politics.
“Madrassa” depicts the struggle of an Afghan refugee as he tries to enrol his daughter in Iranian schools, which repeatedly shut their doors on her. The film shows Iranians treating the father with contempt because he is Afghan, and eventually imprisoning and torturing him.
The film should have been shown in Kabul in mid-October, but was halted at the last minute.
Shukria Barakzai, a member of parliament for Kabul, believes the film was cancelled because of Iranian diplomatic pressure, and accused the Afghan government of surrendering to this kind of interference.
The Iranian embassy in Kabul did not answer IWPR’s repeated requests for a comment on the issue, but Afghanistan’s Tolo TV quoted it as denying any involvement.
The incident angered local film-makers, including Asad Sekandar, the head of the company which made “Madrassa”, who said cancelling it was a breach of freedom of expression.
Jawansher Haidari, head of the Afghanistan Cinema Association, called the decision unlawful and undemocratic. The proper procedure was to raise a complaint with Afghanistan’s media watchdog, not to censor films in advance, he said.
“Madrassa” is not the only film to spark controversy recently. Several movies at a human rights film festival last month in the northern Balkh province prompted rowdy protests.
Although the protesters were ostensibly unhappy about content they claimed was un-Islamic, the festival’s organiser Malek Shafii said he suspected this was not the real target. He claimed pro-Iranian networks in Balkh orchestrated the protests to stop other films being shown.
“Some students at Balkh university’s faculty of Shariah law and religion were hired for this purpose, and disrupted the festival by staging protests against one or two films which had nothing wrong with them,” he said.
One of the films that was due to be shown, called “Neighbour”, was about a massacre of Afghans after a riot at a refugee camp in Iran. Its maker Zubair Farghand said the protests against other films were actually a way of derailing his one.
“Because the film is based on a true story, the Iranian government has sought to prevent it from being screened by every means possible,” he said.
Those involved in disrupting film showings insisted their anger was directed only at the denigration of Islamic values. The screening of “Paper Boats”, in which a widow is befriended by a mullah, was interrupted by chants of “Allahu Akbar” and had to be stopped.
Student Mohammad Jamshed said he found “Paper Boats” genuinely offensive, as it showed “an imam at a mosque displaying sexual interest in a woman. How can a Muslim tolerate that?”
However, another member of the audience, Sohrab Sirat, said the story the film actually told was how a war widow’s faith in humanity was restored by a mullah. He too believed the expressions of outrage were merely a ploy to stop “Neighbours”, with its Iranian content, being seen at the festival.
Festival organiser Shafii insisted that all the films on the programme had been vetted and approved in advance by a commission that included a culture ministry representative. Saleh Mohammad Khaliq, the provincial head of culture and information, said this was not the case and his department had not been informed about the festival.
Maiwand, a commentator on cultural affairs in Balkh, said Iran had been building a presence in the province since Taleban rule ended in 2001, by setting up religious schools, libraries and charities, and funding local media. He urged Afghanistan’s western allies to counter what he said was covert Iranian activity in the province.
Abdul Latif Sahak is an IWPR-trained reporter in Afghanistan. Khan Mohammad Danishju is editor-in-chief of Abadi Weekly in Kabul.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com