[Afghan News] November 10, 2011

[یاسمینه]

Karzai says Afghanistan’s strategic partnerships with India, US don’t threaten neighbors
By Associated Press, November 10
ADDU, Maldives — Afghan President Hamid Karzai attempted to ease tensions with Pakistan, asserting Thursday that a strategic partnership with India and talks for a similar U.S. deal do not threaten his country’s neighbors.
Pakistan had reacted angrily to the India deal announced last month that many in Islamabad fear would increase its archenemy’s influence in Afghanistan.
The pact, the first Afghanistan has signed with any country, included provisions for India to help train and equip Afghan security forces.
Some feared Pakistan could respond by ramping up its alleged support for Afghan insurgents to ensure that its own influence in its neighboring country did not wane.
Karzai told leaders of South Asian nations at a regional summit in the Maldives that the India agreement, along with talks it was holding with the United States for another strategic partnership, was intended to promote peace.
“I wish to reassure our neighbors ... that none of our partnerships we forge now or in the future shall pose a threat to our neighbors or to our region,” he said.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars since they became independent from Britain in 1947, and Pakistan is sensitive to any signs India could be gaining an upper hand in the region.
Pakistan is also under increasing U.S. pressure to cut ties with militants who could be potential allies against Indian influence in Afghanistan once Washington withdraws its combat troops in 2014.
The relations between India and Pakistan have shown signs of improvement recently. Pakistan granted Most Favored Nation status to India to normalize trade while India had supported Pakistan gain non-permanent member status in the United Nations Security Council.
Also Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani met at the sidelines of SAARC on Thursday after which Singh declared that both countries should stop wasting time exchanging barbs and open a new chapter in their relations.
Praising the developments Karzai said “I hope such examples of goodwill and confidence building will become the norm rather than the exception in South Asia.”
Karzai said there was a need for a collective regional action against terrorism and such action would require “overcoming trust deficit” between countries, in indirect reference to India and Pakistan.

Three dead, US troops hurt in Afghan attack
By Khan Mohammad | AFP
Three Afghan policemen were killed and three US troops injured Thursday when a team of Taliban suicide attackers stormed a government office in eastern Afghanistan, officials said.
It is thought the attack targeted a meeting between the governor of Chamkani district in Paktia province and local elders who were due to attend a government-organised loya jirga or traditional meeting in Kabul next week.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it helped end the attack by destroying a mosque where gunmen had hidden, launching a Hellfire missile and rockets from an Apache helicopter.
Provincial government spokesman Rohullah Samoon said there were four attackers, one of whom detonated a car bomb at the gates of the district centre, allowing three others to enter.
"They have all been killed," he told AFP. "Three of our policemen have also been killed and the district police chief has been injured but is in stable condition. The fighting is over now."
Master Sergeant Nick Conner, a spokesman for ISAF in eastern Afghanistan, said three US troops were injured in the initial car bombing but could not give details of their condition.
He said ISAF received permission from the deputy provincial governor of Paktia before levelling the mosque where the attackers were firing from.
"We did have an air weapons team, an Apache," Conner said. "We were taking heavy machine gun fire from a mosque... (we) did fire a Hellfire along with rockets."
But Paktia deputy governor Abdul Rahman Mangal denied giving permission for the mosque to be destroyed by ISAF and insisted it had been blown up by a suicide bomber.
It was not immediately clear where the mosque was located in relation to the district centre, which usually acts as the headquarters for local government and police.
The attack, which lasted around two hours, highlights the security challenges facing Afghanistan's loya jirga, which has been called by President Hamid Karzai and is due to take place in Kabul from November 16.
The rare meeting will bring together elders from around the warring country to discuss a strategy for trying to broker peace with the Taliban in the wake of the assassination of peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani in September.
Afghanistan's long-term relationship with the US is also on the meeting's agenda.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a text message sent to journalists.
"A large number of suicide attackers attacked and conquered Chamkani district of Paktia province," wrote Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid, claiming heavy casualties.
The Taliban are known regularly to exaggerate their claims in relation to attacks.
Meanwhile, in southern Afghanistan, two civilians were killed when a car bomb targeting an ISAF military convoy detonated in Lashkar Gah, capital of troubled Helmand province.
Mohammad Ismail, coordinator of Afghan security forces in Helmand, said no foreign troops were wounded in the explosion.
There are around 140,000 international troops in Afghanistan helping pro-government forces fight a drawn-out 10-year Taliban-led insurgency that has cost thousands of lives, billions of dollars and wearied Western voters.
The Taliban were ousted from power in 2001 by a US-led invasion in the wake of the September 11 attacks in the United States.
All foreign combat troops are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014, but a sizeable troop mission to train and mentor national forces is set to remain beyond that date.

Afghan Soldier Said to Attack His Instructors From Australia
New York Times By ALISSA J. RUBIN November 9, 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan - Australian troops on a training mission in southern Afghanistan were attacked Tuesday by one of the Afghan soldiers they were training, officials said Wednesday.
Though no one was killed in the attack, in a remote area of Oruzgan Province, it was strikingly similar to one last month in Kandahar Province that killed three Australian soldiers. Together, the two attacks have deepened public criticism in Australia of the Afghan war and Australia’s role in it.
After the Oruzgan attack, the gunman fled the scene of the shooting in a stolen Humvee, which was later found abandoned and on fire, according to the provincial governor, Mohammed Omar Sherzad. Three Australian soldiers and two Afghan soldiers were wounded.
Speaking to reporters in Perth, Australia, on Wednesday, Stephen Smith, the Australian defense minister, said the attacks were “a very serious blow to confidence and trust; there’s no point walking away from that.”
Australia has about 1,550 troops deployed in Afghanistan. Since the start of the conflict, the force has suffered 32 deaths and 212 injuries, the government said; seven were wounded in the Kandahar attack on Oct. 29. Another Australian soldier was killed in May by the Afghan soldier he was training.
Although 49 countries belong to the American-led coalition fighting in Afghanistan, only a handful of them have sent substantial forces, and only five now have more than 1,000 troops in the country: Britain, France, Germany, Australia and the United States.
Public pressure to pull out of Afghanistan ahead of the 2014 deadline set by President Obama for withdrawing all combat troops has been particularly strong in Australia, France and Germany.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard of Australia visited her nation’s troops in Afghanistan on Sunday, stopping at a base in Tirin Kot, the capital of Oruzgan Province, to try to improve morale after the Oct. 29 attack. The attack on Tuesday took place near that base.
Ms. Gillard also met with President Hamid Karzai on her trip. “We came to Afghanistan and we have found some tremendous days of sorrow, but we have also found a great friendship,” she said then, in comments broadcast on Australian television. “We do intend to stay engaged here with you, in a spirit of friendship, for the long term.”
Sharifullah Sahak contributed reporting.

US soldier found guilty in Afghan thrill-killings
By GENE JOHNSON - Associated Press
JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. (AP) — A U.S. Army soldier accused of exhorting his bored underlings to slaughter three civilians for sport was convicted of murder, conspiracy and other charges Thursday in one of the most gruesome cases to emerge from the Afghan war.
Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, of Billings, Mont., was the highest ranking of five soldiers charged in the deaths of the unarmed men during patrols in Kandahar province early last year. At his seven-day court martial at Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Seattle, the 26-year-old acknowledged cutting fingers off corpses and yanking out a victim's tooth to keep as war trophies, "like keeping the antlers off a deer you'd shoot."
But he insisted he wasn't involved in the first or third killings, and in the second he merely returned fire.
Prosecutors said Gibbs and his co-defendants knew the victims posed no danger, but dropped weapons by their dead bodies to make them appear to have been combatants.
Three of the co-defendants pleaded guilty, and two of them testified against him, portraying him as an imposing, bloodthirsty leader who in one instance played with a victim's corpse and moved the mouth like a puppet. Gibbs' lawyer insisted they conspired to blame him for what they had done and told the five jurors the case represented "the ultimate betrayal of an infantryman."
The jury deliberated for about four hours before convicting him. The sentencing hearing began immediately after the verdict was announced, with a prosecutor, Maj. Andre LeBlanc, asking for the maximum, life without parole. He told jurors that Gibbs was supposed to protect the Afghan people, but instead caused many to lose trust in Americans, hurting the mission. LeBlanc noted that Gibbs repeatedly called the Afghans "savages."
"Ladies and gentlemen, there is the savage — Staff Sgt. Gibbs is the savage," he said.
Gibbs' lawyer, Phil Stackhouse, asked for leniency — life with parole, instead of without it — and noted that Gibbs could be eligible for parole after 10 years if they allowed it.
"He'd like you to know he has had failures in his life and he's had a lot of time to think about them," Stackhouse said. "He wants you to know he's not the same person he was in Afghanistan. He doesn't want his wife to have to raise their son on her own."
The investigation into the 5th Stryker Brigade unit exposed widespread misconduct — a platoon that was "out of control," in the words of a prosecutor, Maj. Robert Stelle. The wrongdoing included hash-smoking, the collection of illicit weapons, the mutilation and photography of Afghan remains, and the gang-beating of a soldier who reported the drug use.
In all, 12 soldiers were charged; all but 2 have now been convicted.
The probe also raised questions about the brigade's permissive leadership culture and the Army's mechanisms for reporting misconduct.
After the first killing, one soldier, then-Spc. Adam Winfield, alerted his parents and told them more killings were planned, but his father's call to a sergeant at Lewis-McChord relaying the warning went unheeded. Winfield later pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the last killing, saying he took part because he believed Gibbs would kill him if he didn't.
The case against Gibbs relied heavily on testimony from former Spc. Jeremy Morlock, of Wasilla, Alaska, who is serving 24 years after admitting his involvement in all three killings.
According to Morlock, Gibbs gave him an "off-the-books" grenade that Morlock and Private 1st Class Andrew Holmes, of Boise, Idaho, used in the first killing — a teenager in a field — in January 2010.
The next month, Morlock said, Gibbs killed the second victim with Spc. Michael Wagnon, of Las Vegas, and tossed an AK-47 at the man's feet to make him appear to have been an enemy fighter. Morlock and Winfield said that during the third killing, in May, Gibbs threw a grenade at the victim as he ordered them to shoot.
Morlock and others told investigators that soon after Gibbs joined the unit in 2010, he began talking about how easy it would be to kill civilians, and discussed scenarios where they might carry out such murders.
Asked why soldiers might have agreed to go along with it, Morlock testified that the brigade had trained for deployment to Iraq before having their orders shifted at the last minute to Afghanistan.
The infantrymen wanted action and firefights, he testified, but instead they found themselves carrying out a more humanitarian counter-insurgency strategy that involved meetings and handshaking.
Another soldier, Staff Sgt. Robert Stevens, who at the time was a close friend of Gibbs, told investigators that in March 2010, he and others followed orders from Gibbs to fire on two unarmed farmers in a field; no one was injured. Gibbs claimed one was carrying a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, but that was obviously false, Stevens said.
Stevens also testified that Gibbs bragged to him about the second killing, admitting he planted an AK-47 on the victim's body because he suspected the man on involvement with the Taliban, according to a report on the testimony in The News Tribune newspaper of Tacoma.
But during the trial, Gibbs insisted he came under fire.
"I was engaged by an enemy combatant," he said. "Luckily his weapon appeared to malfunction and I didn't die."
Gibbs testified that he wasn't proud about having removed fingers from the bodies of the victims, but said he tried to disassociate the corpses from the humans they had been as a means of coming to terms with the things soldiers are asked to do in battle.
The muscular 6-foot-4 staff sergeant also testified that he did it because other soldiers wanted the trophies, and he agreed in part because he didn't want his subordinates to think he was a wimp.
Gibbs initially faced 16 charges, but one was dropped during the trial.

Militants, Pro-Government Militia Clash in Pakistan
VOA News November 10, 2011
At least four people have been killed in northwestern Pakistan in a clash between militants and members of a pro-government militia.
Local officials say militants with the Lashkar-e-Islam group attacked the local peace committee in the Khyber tribal agency on Thursday, killing at least four members of the committee.
A gunbattle then ensued in the Akakhel area. There are reports of militant casualties, but no details.
Pakistani security forces recently launched an offensive in the Khyber to clear the region of Taliban and al-Qaida-linked militants.

Georgia promises more troops for ISAF operations in Afghanistan
TBILISI, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- Georgia on Thursday promised to send another battalion to Afghanistan to serve the multinational peace-making mission there.
The country's Defense Minister Bacho Akhalaia said his country would send another battalion to be deployed mostly in Helmand, the southwest province of Afghan, where 950 Georgian troops were already deployed. Georgia also had troops stationed in the Kabul area.
The reinforcement will make Georgia the largest non-NATO member state contributor to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, surpassing Australia which had deployed more than 1,000 troops in Afghanistan.
The South Caucasus country has so far lost 10 soldiers in Afghanistan, mostly due to mine blasts.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, secretary-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), said Thursday that Georgian officers were also taking part in the planning of NATO-led operations in Afghanistan.
"The mission is headed by the ISAF commander, but along with other countries' officers, Georgians are engaged in planning operations," the NATO chief said.
"Georgia's contribution is very significant not only for NATO but for Afghanistan and Georgia. This participation will help Georgia to reform its military forces."
The NATO visitor was scheduled to meet the 33rd Georgian infantry battalion which recently returned from Afghanistan.

Taliban Attack U.S.-Afghan Meeting in Border District
By ROD NORDLAND The New York Times November 10, 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban insurgents attacked a district government center in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday while American troops were meeting with local officials inside, wounding three American soldiers and killing three Afghan police officers, according to Afghan and American officials.
The attack was carried out by a group of 5 to 10 insurgents, some wearing suicide vests, who also took two Afghan officials hostage at the Chamkani district government building in Paktia Province, said Master Sgt. Nicholas Conner, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force troops in eastern Afghanistan.
The hostages included the local chief of the National Directorate of Security, the Afghan intelligence service, as well as the deputy governor of the district, he said.
It was unclear whether fighting had completely ended by nightfall, with varying accounts from officials. It was also unclear what had happened to the hostages who had been taken, but Afghan officials said no one was still being held after the fighting died down Thursday night.
A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabiullah Mujahid, reached by telephone at an undisclosed location, said that “we have taken over the district center.”
Sergeant Conner said: “Technically, I guess you could say they have control of the building at this time, just like a bank robber has control of the bank when he takes hostages.”
The attack came as the Taliban leadership released a statement on the group’s Web site on Thursday mocking claims by the secretary general of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, that Taliban attacks had been declining, and citing contrary information from “other enemy officials” that they had been increasing. The Taliban claims were reported by SITE, an organization that monitors jihadi and extremist Web sites.
NATO figures show that enemy attacks declined by 8 percent during the first nine months of this year compared with the year before. The United Nations, on the other hand, reported in September that insurgent attacks had increased by 39 percent in the first eight months of this year.
Referring to the gradual drawdown of military forces that has begun in Afghanistan, the Taliban statement read, “If Rasmussen and all his allies leave Afghanistan completely then the attacks on them will reach zero, and he can propagate the notion even more and say that the number of Taliban attacks have fallen further.”
The attack in Paktia began around 4 p.m. when one of the attackers exploded his vest at the gate of the district government compound, allowing the others to enter, officials said. Inside, American and Afghan officials had been discussing continuing talks on a future strategic partnership agreement between their two countries, local officials said.
An American Apache helicopter responded to the scene and received heavy machine gun fire from a second team of insurgents holed up in a nearby mosque, Sergeant Conner said. After seeking permission from Afghan officials, the helicopter fired missiles at the mosque and destroyed it. “They only engaged where they were taking fire from, and only after coordinating with the deputy governor of Paktia Province,” he said.
The district police chief, Habib Nour, was also among the wounded, according to Ruhullah Samoun, the spokesman for the provincial governor.
Chamkani district is strategically situated along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, in a rugged mountainous area that has seen a great deal of Taliban activity.
Thursday’s attack was one of several in the past few months targeting heavily guarded government and military centers. In July, the insurgents struck at provincial offices in Tirin Kot, capital of Oruzgan Province, killing 21 people, mostly civilians.
In August, they struck at Charikar, capital of Parwan Province, a normally peaceful area in northern Afghanistan, killing 22 people.
In September, it took the authorities about 20 hours to completely subdue a Taliban attack on the United States Embassy and ISAF headquarters; more than 20 people died in all, although none of the victims were from the embassy or the coalition military. In October, their target was an American military base in the heart of the Panjshir Valley, and while the attack failed, it stunned locals in the most anti-Taliban part of the country.
American officials have said that the Taliban have been seeking high-profile targets to compensate for the decline in their overall capacity to attack coalition forces in the field.
Sangar Rahimi and Sharifullah Sahak contributed reporting from Kabul, and Farouq Jan Mangal from Khost, Afghanistan.

India 'mindful' of Pak sensitivities over Afghanistan: US
PTI | Nov 10, 2011, 01.31PM IST
WASHINGTON: The US has said India has adopted a "very responsible" approach towards Afghanistan and stayed away from taking up a major role in training security forces of the war-torn country so as not to exacerbate Pakistan's concerns.
"I think India has actually been very careful, very mindful of the fact that Pakistan is sensitive to the types of assistance it provides to the Afghans," Michele Flournoy, US under secretary of defence for policy, said.
"It has consciously chosen not to take a major role, for example, in the training and development of the security forces. They have a small police training programme for female police officers in India," she said in response to a question at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, according to a copy of the transcript provided by the Pentagon here.
But India really has chosen "to stay away from that effort in order not to exacerbate Pakistan's concerns," Flournoy said.
"So I think they've taken a very responsible approach. Their development assistance is extremely positive and helpful in the country. And, ultimately, this is between Afghanistan and India. But we've seen them take a very carefully calibrated and helpful role to date," she said.
Afghanistan needs to develop positive relationships with all of its neighbours, she said, noting that the Afghans and Indians have recently signed a strategic partnership of their own.
"We have not seen the details of that document, but our understanding is that India is primarily at this point providing a great deal of development assistance to Afghanistan in the transportation and infrastructure sectors, and so forth," she said.

Afghanistan assures involvement with U.S. not adversely affect South Asia
ADDU CITY, Maldives, Nov. 10 (Xinhua)-- Afghan President Hamid Karzai assured South Asian nations here on Thursday that his country's involvement with the United States would not adversely affect the region.
He made the remarks at the opening ceremony of the 17th South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
He called for recommitment to cooperation, pointing out that many still remain mired in violence and deprivation in the region. This provides a fertile ground for extremism, he stated.
Meanwhile, he took the renewed relations between India and Pakistan as an example.
"I hope that such examples become the norm rather than the exception in South Asia. Last week we took steps towards cooperation and are proud of the fact that Afghanistan as a link bridge. But only a truly stable country can really fulfill the role of interlinking the region and promoting cooperation," he said.
He noted that SAARC can drive regional growth and collectively solve many problems faced by the South Asian region. "Today terrorism remains the greatest threat to my country but others are also severely affected by it. We must be willing to trust each other to reach the goals of safety and stability."
Moving onto energy issues, he pointed out that oil pipelines through Afghanistan gives indication of how success can be achieved in this aspect. Next month Afghanistan will evaluate the last decade and promote its relations with other countries as well as encouraging exchange with India.
The country is also discussing a long term partnership with the United States. The president hopes the partnership will promote stability within Afghanistan and pledges that it will in no way adversely affect its neighbors.
"We need to redouble efforts to eradicate terrorism. The stakes are high and the benefits are clear and the results are ours to make."

In Afghanistan, special units do the dirty work
USA TODAY By Carmen Gentile, Special for USA TODAY 09/11/2011
CHAMKANI, Afghanistan - Insurgents prowling the steep mountains and narrow valleys of this remote land have a name for the U.S. Special Forces: "Bearded *******s."
Growing facial hair is one way U.S. Green Berets blend in among the locals here along the Pakistan border. Their specialty is what the military calls the "self-sustaining element," a force able to fight for long periods in extreme conditions.
"We operate in the seams and gaps where conventional forces can't go," says Maj. Eric Wright, a Special Forces advance operational base commander in nearby Khost Province.
Since the Sept. 11 attacks more than a decade ago, U.S. Special Forces have been embedded here — and in conflict areas such as the Philippines, Yemen and Somalia — in an attempt to quash insurgent Islamists and train locals to take up the fight against them.
In Afghanistan, military officers and analysts say Special Forces have boosted security in areas once held by the Taliban. They are getting increased cooperation from locals to repel insurgents in what former U.S. commander David Petraeus calls a potential "game changer" for the country.
Army Brig. Gen. Jefforey Smith, assistant commanding general at the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan, says the Taliban "is not re-emerging" in areas where locals have been fully trained.
But some analysts worry that despite years of effort from Special Forces and others, such gains may not last beyond NATO's planned withdrawal in December 2014.
"It is unlikely that these indigenous forces — military, police, and militia — will be capable of independently securing the country against the wide range of terrorist and insurgent groups that will still be present in the region in 2014," said Ashley Tellis, a senior associate for the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
In Afghanistan, commanders say, Special Forces have become an indispensable component of a strategy that involves killing the enemy in places where no one else can, and acting as ambassadors, protectors and instructors to Afghans who have expressed a desire to free themselves of militants and overlords.
Going where 'Big Army' can't go
Chamkani is a rugged world.
Villagers here live in valleys and steep hills that can rise to 9,500 feet. Dark clouds blot out of the sun, which makes it difficult for helicopters to fly here. That leaves the U.S. troops without transport, supplies and more importantly, air support during dangerous operations.
It's the kind of place where regular Army does not go, and Green Berets often are sent. The mission is to clear out insurgents and create local defense groups who can keep them out.
"We embed in territories that aren't enforceable by 'Big Army' (conventional U.S. troops)," says a 41-year-old master sergeant here who has deployed to Afghanistan several times. Like all Special Forces members on the battlefield, he is prohibited from disclosing his name.
Created in the early 1950s, the Green Berets saw their first major action in Vietnam, where they honed counterinsurgency tactics and trained small groups of Vietnamese soldiers to fight Viet Cong guerrillas. They later trained troops in Latin America who were fighting communist insurgencies in places such as El Salvador and Colombia.
Training for Green Berets involves grueling physical and psychological challenges that three out of four candidates fail in training.
In Afghanistan there are about 10,000 such U.S. special operations troops, which can include Navy SEALs and others, according to NATO. The latest figures from April to July indicate that 2,832 special operations raids captured 2,941 insurgents and killed another 834.
The Green Berets in Chamkani often hike for several miles on some missions into areas inhabited by insurgents who use the twisting mountain passes to move arms, explosives and fighters from Pakistan.
On one recent day, troops operating out of a small base surrounded by jagged peaks were conducting "village stability operations," in which Afghans are trained in law enforcement techniques and then asked to visit with local leaders.
The aim is to bridge these remote villages to the U.S.-allied federal Afghan government, whose influence is virtually non-existent. So far, the village stability operations (VSO) in the area have had "mixed" results, says Lt. Col. Bob Wilson, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group.
"We've done very well in Chamkani proper (the district's largest town), in the village and the bazaar," he says. "But as you move further away, there is a significant increase in Taliban influence from across the border. The people are intimidated by the Taliban's presence and their communities are hesitant to support VSO."
Afghan President Hamid Karzai wants Afghans to handle all security by the end of 2014, when all foreign troops are scheduled to depart Afghanistan. NATO is training hundreds of thousands of Afghans at less-remote bases across the country.
But it is the police officers in villages all over Afghanistan that are expected to be the first line of defense against a Taliban retaking of territory won by coalition forces.
In the past, 1,555 Afghan police officers have been killed according to NATO figures. That's about double the number of Afghan soldiers killed during the same period.
Before he retired this summer, Petraeus stressed that the local defense forces in the thousands of rural villages where most Afghans live is the key to defeating the Taliban. Special Forces commanders here agree, saying the flow of foreign fighters from Pakistan must be stopped by those who live here if peace is to prevail.
There have been several attacks on the Chamkani military base. Since this Green Beret unit's arrival in the spring, the base has been hit with at least 120 rockets and mortars, making it one of the most targeted military outposts in Afghanistan. There were five attacks here in October, Garcia says.
On the last day of Ramadan in late August, three rockets hit nearby. Two exploded, scorching the outside of a perimeter wall and setting ablaze a nearby hillside.
"It's almost like shooting fish in a fish bowl and we're the fish," said the Special Forces sergeant.
But the Green Berets do get out. Working with Afghan commandos they conduct regular missions throughout the valley here. In one recent battle the Special Forces say they killed 25 insurgents, a toll rarely achieved by conventional forces in one fight.
'It is a challenge'
At their hillside base, made up of a cluster of old Soviet barracks and newer wooden huts, there are about a dozen Green Berets as well as a squad of conventional forces. The Green Berets here spend much of their time recruiting men for the Afghan Local Police (ALP) and and training them to defend their village.
The efforts require an understanding of tribal customs and village politics that exceeds that of typical forces. Green Berets blend in by growing beards and wearing local clothing. Several in the Chamkani unit speak Pashto, the predominant language in this part of Afghanistan and neighboring western Pakistan.
"Their close work with indigenous peoples and host nation security forces and local government make them highly susceptible to targeting by insurgents' information and psychological operations," says Maj. Mike Garcia, a Special Forces spokesman.
Funded by the Afghan government's Ministry of Interior, the ALP introduces a community level of security in the most rural parts of Afghanistan, where the Taliban and other militant groups have the most influence. Vetted by village elders, trainees often are the only defense against incursion from outsiders.
The pace of progress may appear slow: To date, 50 recruits have come forward for about 100 new positions. That is in addition to 200 officers trained and armed in some villages in the district.
"It is a challenge to get these local leaders to stand up and volunteer their sons and brothers to be Afghan Local Police," Wilson says.
But police presence is widening as the Special Forces and their Afghan partners gain the trust of villagers, Garcia says.
After many meetings, elders in Serangor, Mada Kheyl, and Lawarre "finally" agreed to accept Afghan police in their villages, where Taliban insurgents have been increasingly intimidating, he says.
Some of that may have to do with local construction and humanitarian projects, which are as important to improving security as killing the enemy, NATO says.
Garcia's progress reports, when they are not detailing enemy militants killed or captured, are full of updates on other fronts. He discusses the latest work of a "Female Treatment Team" of women who train midwives in prenatal and post-natal care, and giving girls instruction on "how a woman works" — the equivalent of health classes in U.S. schools. Then there are reports to superiors trumpeting the completion of parking lots aimed at reducing traffic in the Chamkani Bazaar.
But not all villages will accept the local protection because those that do can face retaliatory attacks from the Taliban.
Lt. Col. Wilson hopes more will join during the winter months, when insurgents from Pakistan return to their side of the border and their influence in some villages wanes.
During the recent warm weather "fighting season," local defense forces took part in several battles against insurgents, suggesting that various Afghan tribes that traditionally have kept to themselves are banding together for their protection, Afghans say.
"We want to show the enemy that we are willing to help each other out," says Hassan Khan, an ALP leader who lost his right hand to a grenade as 12-year-old soldier, fighting the Soviet occupation of the 1980s. "The ALP is taking the fight from the city center to the mountains where the Taliban are."
The U.S. Special Forces in Chamkani also work with a select group from the Afghan Uniformed Police known as the Special Tactic Team, Afghan soldiers with advanced training.
Together, the units have win small unit tactics and efforts to find and clear insurgent-buried bombs known as improvised explosive devices.
STT Commander Noor Mohammed, who as a young man fought alongside Soviet forces battling the U.S.-backed mujahadeen, says many residents in Chamkani have provided his team with information they need to hunt down insurgents in the district.
"We have a good relationship with the locals the people here inform us right away when insurgents plant IEDS or when they enter a village," Mohammed says.
But he is worried about the day when the Green Berets leave and they are left to stand alone against the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, and the cross-border operating Haqqani Network.
"If the Americans weren't here, the police and the local government would just run away," Mohammed says. "In three days, the district would fall back into the hands of the enemy."

Indian PM pledges fair trade in South Asia
ADDU CITY, Maldives, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged to promote fair trade in the region at the opening ceremony of the 17th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) here on Thursday.
He spoke positively of the progress made in SAARC, terming it as "impressive" and pointed out that many sectors including trade, transport, health and education have benefited from it.
"Our summit is taking place at a time when the West is having an economic crisis. In the meantime developing countries like ours will be squeezed for capital and markets and we should look for innovative solutions within South Asian region," he said.
Development within countries would attract foreign investors and freeing of trade between SAARC members would create benefit for all nations.
South Asia has been able to maintain a respectable growth rate and this encouraging trend has resulted in the integration of SAARC and shows the region is on the right path.
He urged for this process to continue and admitted that India has a special responsibility to make a trade liberalization method that would reduce the sensitive list of the South Asia Free Trade Agreement.
He insisted that India is committed to free and fair trade in the region. He dismissed concerns that smaller economies would be flooded out and stressed that each country has a competitive advantage that can drive consumption and economic growth.
"India is fully committed to economic integration. Connectivity has improved between the members but we must take steps to finalize the regional airways and railways as well as mortar agreements for a long time. Let us commit to completing these plans."
He also encouraged integrated health mechanisms initiated by Sri Lanka and the Maldives and called for more involvement from other members.
As for reducing telecommunication tariffs, he said that India is ready for a regional platform to develop telecommunication and lower call rates. Broadcasting and film making was also promoted by him.
"Host a conclave to boost tourism, traveling exhibition on history of south Asia including 100 archeological pieces selected by respective countries and will be hosted in each of the main museums. India will also increase SAARC scholarships from 15 to 100, mostly for masters and doctoral level."
"We have a long way to go but I am confident we can realize our true potential. We have to learn to trust each other and learn from each other. We cannot afford to allow the many problems that we face to stand in the way of our ambitions. Let us challenge ourselves to do even better."
Established in 1985, the SAARC groups India, Pakistan, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Afghanistan joined the organization in 2007.

Iran surrounded by Western spy centers in neighboring countries: lawmaker
TEHRAN, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- An Iranian lawmaker said Wednesday that Iran has been surrounded by Western spying centers near its borders in neighboring countries.
Zohre Elahian, a member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Iranian parliament, said that Israeli Mossad, American CIA and British MI6 have established espionage centers in the western, northern and eastern borders of Iran, the local Mehr news agency reported.
The spying agencies have their centers in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan near these countries' borders with Iran, the report quoted Elahian as saying.
The espionage bases are tasked with organizing terrorist actions and intelligence operations against Iran and its citizens, said the lawmaker.
Iran borders Iraq and Turkey on the west, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkmenistan on the north, Afghanistan and Pakistan on the east. In the south of Iran lay the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman.
Iran said that in the past years it has arrested a number of Israeli and U.S. spies in the country.
In 2009, Iran detained three U.S. hikers for illegally entering the country and espionage charges. The female hiker, Sarah Shourd, was freed in 2010 on a bail of 500,000 U.S. dollars, and the other two, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, were released in September 2011, also on a bail of 500,000 U.S. dollars each.

EU censors own film on Afghan women prisonersBy Orla Guerin
BBC News, Kabul 10 November 2011
The European Union has blocked the release of a documentary on Afghan women who are in jail for so-called "moral crimes".
The EU says it decided to withdraw the film - which it commissioned and paid for - because of "very real concerns for the safety of the women portrayed".
However, human rights workers say the injustice in the Afghan judicial system should be exposed.
Half of Afghanistan's women prisoners are inmates for "zina" or moral crimes.
A statement from the EU's Kabul delegation said the welfare of the women was the paramount consideration in its decision.
No official from the delegation was prepared to be interviewed about the film.
No new dawn
Some of the women convicted of "zina" are guilty of nothing more than running away from forced marriages or violent husbands.
Human rights activists say hundreds of those behind bars are victims of domestic violence.
Amnesty International says it is important to "lift the lid on one of Afghanistan's most shameful judicial practices".
The documentary told the story of a 19-year-old prisoner called Gulnaz.
After she was raped, she was charged with adultery. Her baby girl, born following the rape, is serving her sentence with her.
"At first my sentence was two years," Gulnaz said, as her baby coughed in her arms. "When I appealed it became 12 years. I didn't do anything. Why should I be sentenced for so long?"
Stories like hers are tragically typical, according to Heather Barr, of Human Rights Watch, who is carrying out research among Afghan female prisoners.
"It would be reassuring to think that the stories told in this film represent aberrations or extreme case," she said. "Unfortunately that couldn't be further from the truth."
She has interviewed many women behind bars, who were victims twice over - abused by their husbands, or relatives, and then by those who were supposed to protect them.
"You hear the story again and again of women going to the police and asking for help and ending up in prison instead," Ms Barr said.
A decade after the Taliban were overthrown, Afghan women are still waiting for justice, campaigners say.
Ms Barr said: "It's very important that people understand that there are these horrific stories that are happening now - 10 years after the fall of the Taliban government, 10 years after what was supposed to be a new dawn for Afghan women."
For many that new dawn has not come, but for Gulnaz there is now the hope of freedom.
Her name is on a list of women to be pardoned, according to a prison official, but as she has no lawyer, the paperwork has yet to be processed.
Gulnaz's pardon may be in the works because she has agreed - after 18 months of resisting - to marry her rapist.
"I need my daughter to have a father," she said.

Ambassador: Afghan attacks 'isolated incidents'
ABC Online By Tony Jones 09/11/2011
Afghanistan ambassador to Australia Nasir Andisha says there is nothing to suggest the most recent attack by a rogue soldier was linked to the Taliban.
Transcript TONY JONES, PRESENTER: Our top story is the second attack on Australian troops by a rogue Afghan soldier in 10 days. Three Australian soldiers have been wounded.
So what's the Afghan view of these attacks? And with 8,000 new recruits being pulled into the military every month are inadequate vetting procedures opening the floodgates to Taliban infiltrators?
Well a short time ago we were joined by Afghanistan's ambassador to Australia, Nasir Andisha. He was in our Canberra studio.
Ambassador Andisha, thanks for being there.
NASIR ANDISHA, AFGHAN AMBASSADOR TO AUSTRALIA: Thank you very much.
TONY JONES: Now these treacherous attacks on Australian soldiers are eroding trust and they're fast eroding the case for keeping our troops in Afghanistan. Is there anything at all that you can say to reassure people in Australia that this will stop happening?
NASIR ANDISHA: You know, this is also another - yet another unfortunate incident which happened there.
But it tell us two things. One - number one is that how difficult this mission is, and the more difficult it gets, the more closer it gets to the transition dates. That's one. And the number two is it shows that, you know, the enemy is the Taliban and Al Qaeda. They will do whatever possible to have this sort of kind of spectacular attacks and to find out that the closer we gets to the transition dates, they shake the resolve of our partners.
So, you know, if we do what the Al Qaeda and Taliban wants, what is - that, you know, we should think twice about our mission, I think that will not be probably a good strategy when we are closing, when we are nearing to the draw-down dates of the international security forces.
TONY JONES: So can I just interrupt there? To come back to my question, is there anything you can say to reassure the Australian people that this will stop or do you in fact think it will get worse?
NASIR ANDISHA: You know, these are some of the incidents that you can't say that will it get worse or will - is there anything we can do to stop it.
Of course, we have taken measures, serious measures on part of the AfghangGovernment as well as on the part of the international security forces, you know, to embed intelligence officers in through the - into the Afghan National Security Forces and to train them not to let this kind of incident happen and people - or the sleeping cells, if I may.
I'm not talking particularly about these cases, but some other cases around, because this case was something that maybe we'll talk about later on - to find out and to make, you know, this vetting process, so the recruiting process, a little bit more tougher so not to let these kind of people get in and to harm.
Because, as you know, there are 3,500 ANSF forces that the Australians are training and cases like this are isolate.
I know you may say that, OK, there was something happened some time back, you know, in Kandahar and now it's happening in Oruzgan, but they are two separate cases and in this case the gentleman, you know - I call him a gentleman, this soldier who just left with the vehicle and then later on burned the vehicle and escaped somewhere, so our forces and your forces are after him, and because he had the - some people connected to, so I'm sure that you will soon - we will get him.
TONY JONES: Yes. Are you suggesting that he is not a Taliban infiltrator, but had some other motive?
NASIR ANDISHA: You know, the recent information I got - I just called governor Sherzai some time back. Recent information that we got was that they don't have any reason to believe that he was linked to the Taliban and I don't think - I haven't heard anything that the Taliban are - the Taliban are claiming this.
But we have to find out the motives because anything can happen in these kind of, you know, military bases that they have. But I cannot confirm and I cannot neither deny that he was Taliban.
TONY JONES: Do we have any idea at all, speaking to the governor, what possible motive he might have?
NASIR ANDISHA: You know, even they are not sure because according to them, even he was not from Oruzgan Province, he was coming from some other provinces and normally those people they don't have a base down there or the neighbourhood, they do not resort to such kind of activities until - unless something happened.
But I cannot - I don't want to speculate on this. We'll let it for our security forces, for your security forces down in Oruzgan to find out and think that more information will come.
TONY JONES: OK. 60 ISAF troops have been killed by rogue Afghan soldiers or police in the past six years. 26 of these killings have happened in the past 12 months. Why is it getting worse?
NASIR ANDISHA: Again, you know, the same reason that I mentioned before is that we are closing the - we are nearing the transition date. We are nearing, you know, a date that the Afghan security forces, Afghan government will be in charge of security responsibilities of the country and we are nearing a phase of - if I may call this peace and reconciliation will go further.
So this is the time that they will make a point that the Taliban and their Al Qaeda allies will do everything possible to show that they are in control. They are there - because they lost many grounds in the south.
You know, they lost grounds around Lashkar Gah and Kandahar as a result of the surge and they do not have proper districts that they control like they had before. So they will resort to this kind of ...
TONY JONES: OK, but - I'm sorry to interrupt you there, but you seem to be saying - although in the case that we're just talking about where the Australian soldiers were shot, you don't necessarily believe it's a Taliban infiltration, but you seem to be saying that most of the incidents are due to the Taliban, is that correct?
NASIR ANDISHA: Ah, you know, the - yes, the information that we got recently that they claimed actually, the Taliban at least claimed - their spokesperson claimed that these were - you know, they are friends, they're people that they have been into this and in some cases our (inaudible) got recently in Kabul show some link between these rogue elements and the networks of Taliban and Haqqani Network.
TONY JONES: Yes, because the US Army investigating some of these cases have discovered the Taliban actually are cold-calling the mobile phone of recruits, that behind-the-scenes they're going to their relatives and asking them for their help to recruit them to turn their guns on foreign troops. Now, do you believe that is the fundamental thing that's going on then?
NASIR ANDISHA: Actually, I - you know, I haven't heard of this, but I know that they are approaching the family members, sometime intimidating the family members in few cases around Ghazni Province, that the parents, you know, some other family members and sometime they're taking them hostages to make these people do something like this so they will probably have no choice doing that. So, yeah, there are cases like that, but I don't know how far is that.
TONY JONES: Let's go back to the question of the vetting recruits. How can there possibly be a proper vetting process in a country with virtually no computer database when you're putting 8,000 new recruiting per month into the military?
NASIR ANDISHA: Again, you see there's another challenge, there's another contradiction, so if what we do in (inaudible) - we are pushing for the transition, we are pushing for increasing the number of Afghan security forces because we need when we believe that the security of Afghanistan should be taken care by the Afghan themselves, you know, after 10 years.
This is something that we agreed, the international security force agreed in Lisbon and we are committed to do this.
And on the other hand, these challenges like this that of course you have the tendency, you have a deadline to have this number of soldiers and on the other hand you have problem like this. So, what we do on the ground there is that of course the biometric, the computer system, the way that it's there in this country; with some other developed countries, we don't have it.
But we do our most to - not to have cases like this. For example, we try to get some of the elders from the villages or people that they are known, the mullahs, the huns, the head of the shuras, the councils, to come forward and to guarantee these people when they are entering the security forces and that is the least that we can do at this moment. But ...
TONY JONES: But that is precisely the problem, isn't it? I mean, as I understand the vetting procedure, it only requires one, possibly two elders within a community to sign a note saying, "I know this person." And in many cases, as we've learnt, they don't actually know them at all, and yet they sign it under pressure for one reason or another. So it's not exactly a vetting procedure, is it?
NASIR ANDISHA: You know, I think there are improvements, there are improvements on this cases so we try to find out that if that person who is coming forward to certify, if I may, this person should be a known person, should have, you know, a proper address, should be available when we contact them when it's needed.
And on the other hand, the biometric system, there is a, you know, intensive work going on the biometric system. Most of the soldiers they put in the Army and in the police where they are entering into the - both forces, their biometrics are taking, so that is a process which is going on and hopefully we will be able by the end of this 2012 to have a full biometric system at least for our security forces.
TONY JONES: After a series of these kind of rogue attacks on US troops, the US Army sent 80 counter-intelligence officers in to do a new round of vetting on the soldiers they were working with. Should the Australians consider doing the same thing?
NASIR ANDISHA: You know, this is something that I will probably leave it to the Australian commanders back in Oruzgan and Kabul to decide to see if that's a proper procedure for them to take.
But one thing I understand is that the Australian Government, there is a consistency in their policies and that shows, you know, a good grasp of the national security interests of Australia when it comes to mission Afghanistan. And the recent advice visit of Julia Gillard, recent successful and timely visit is - I think is one of the evident of this consistency in the policy.
So, these kind of attacks will happen. It depends on how we look at it and it depends what measures we will take to really on the one hand reduce the damage that might cause to the mission, and on the other hand really protect our soldiers on the ground.
TONY JONES: Would the Afghan government be prepared to assist the Australian military if a new round of vetting was required on the troops that are working with the Australians?
NASIR ANDISHA: You know, in principle, why not? Probably this is something again, you know, Ministry of Defence and then our friends or Australian friends and also American friends in Kabul might be already in discussion with our national security leadership . And I'm sure if they find out that yes, there is a need for something to happen, certainly, you know, we don't want this kind of incident to happen, neither you want it - incident like this to happen to put political pressure on your people and on your government in here.
TONY JONES: OK. Final question then: would you acknowledge that the vetting procedure is clearly not working appropriately at the moment when we've had these three attacks in a short space of time on Australian soldiers?
NASIR ANDISHA: I'm will not do that. Because, you know, statistically if you take two incident out of 3,500, I don't know, that will come to 0.000-something percentages. But it will not tell us that no, we should not go to enforce, reinforce our vetting system. We should not go out and to find out to avoid cases like this in future, but I might not tell that there is a huge mistake in the vetting process. We do our best. Your officers and soldiers are doing their best. But I think that's not enough. Maybe we will do more than this and we're learning and that's of course a painful learning.
TONY JONES: Ambassador Nasir Andisha, we thank you very much for taking the time to come and talk to us on Lateline tonight.
NASIR ANDISHA: You're welcome.

Afghanistan: Numbers of returnees down
KABUL, 9 November 2011 (IRIN) - Resettlement challenges in Afghanistan have discouraged refugees living in neighbouring countries from going home, with 60,000 returning in the past 10 months against 100,000 during the same period last year, officials said.
"The most important [reasons] relate to lack of opportunities for livelihoods and shelter, but also due to insecurity in some parts of the country," Nader Farhad, a spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, told IRIN in the capital, Kabul.
A lack of clinics, drinking water and poor education facilities in their places of origin were also among the reasons for the refugees not wanting to return, Farhad added.
Nearly three million registered Afghan refugees live across the region, including 1.7 million in Pakistan and one million in Iran. UNHCR is calling for international support to help returnees settle back in their homeland.
Since March 2002, 4.6 million Afghans have repatriated mainly from Pakistan and Iran under a UNHCR programme. This year's returnees include 43,000 from Pakistan and about 17,000 from Iran. But some say life has been tougher back home.
Abdul Shokoor, 35, and his six-member family, for example, lived in an abandoned kindergarten building with other returnee families in the eastern part of Kabul since returning from Pakistan last year under the UNHCR repatriation programme.
He went to his place of origin in Baghlan province, about 300km northeast of Kabul, but due to insecurity and lack of employment opportunities he had to return to the capital.
"I returned with a hope that my life would be better in my own country, but I was wrong," Shokoor told IRIN, adding that now he was standing every day near a roundabout seeking daily labour to earn enough money to buy some food for his children.
Under the UNHCR repatriation programme, which has entered its 10th year, every returnee receives US$150 upon arrival to cover their transport and some initial costs before settling back home.
Afghanistan's capacity to absorb more returnees is limited, therefore UNHCR is working with the government to ensure sustainable reintegration for those who have returned or will be returning in the future.
"UNHCR has initiated a transition solutions initiative with the governments of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, whereby a multi-year strategy is being established for Afghan refugees in the region," said Farhad.
The strategy would be presented for endorsement by the international community at a high-level stakeholder conference early in 2012, he added.
"While the overall return figures have decreased markedly in comparison with the previous years of return, globally, Afghanistan remains one of the largest voluntary return operations," said Farhad.

Clinton vows to fight for Afghan women's rights
AFP 09/11/2011
With a US withdrawal looming, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is vowing to do her best to fight for women's rights in Afghanistan and progress made in advancing their status in Afghan society.
"I have said from the very beginning that it's going to be one of my highest priorities to argue for and ensure that we do nothing which sets back the rights and the security of women," Clinton told PBS television in an interview whose transcript was released Wednesday by the State Department.
"I feel that it is part of my responsibility to do all that I can to ensure that whatever the United States is part of in trying to resolve this conflict, we do nothing that undermines the gains that have been made for women."
After ousting the Taliban from power in late 2001, a US-led coalition made a key priority of improving the rights of women who had been reduced to a second class by the former militant rulers.
Western troops are due to leave the country by the end of 2014, amid concerns that some of the hard-fought gains could be reversed.
In a report released last month, Oxfam highlighted "significant gains" for Afghan women in education, political participation and the rule of law over the past decade, but warned of "major challenges" that still lie ahead for the gains now "under increasing threat."
According to fellow relief and development group ActionAid, 72 percent of Afghan women say they have a better life today than during the end of the Taliban regime.
"We have to be clear that the life for many Afghan women is not that much different than it was a hundred years ago, 200 years ago," Clinton said.
The PBS interview was conducted in July for the "War Redefined" episode of the five-part special series "Women, War & Peace." The episode aired late Tuesday.
As with most conflicts that have no clear frontlines, women and children have often been the first victims of the Afghan war.
One of the first conditions Washington asked of the Afghan government's reconciliation efforts with Taliban fighters who agree to lay down their arms is to respect existing laws, including the rights of women and minorities, Clinton noted.
"Now, obviously, that will be easier to do if women are actually involved in the peace jirgas, in the high peace councils, at the international conferences," the top US diplomat added.
"And so I am working very hard to make sure that happens as well."

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