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More than 1,000 Afghans protest possible pact to keep US troops in Afghanistan after 2014
By Associated Press, Sunday, November 20, 6:14 PM
KABUL, Afghanistan — More than 1,000 university students blocked a main highway in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday to protest any agreement that would allow U.S. troops to remain in the country after a planned transfer of authority in 2014.
An assembly of more than 2,000 tribal elders and dignitaries known as a loya jirga over the weekend endorsed negotiating a security pact with Washington, though they also backed a series of conditions proposed by Afghan President Hamid Karzai including the end of night raids by international troops and complete Afghan control over detainees.
On Sunday, the protesters in Jalalabad city denounced any agreement that would keep U.S. troops in the country, blocking the road to Kabul and shouting “Death to America. Death to Karzai.”
Both the resolution and the protests reflect the tension in Afghanistan between a desire for real sovereignty and the need to bolster the relatively weak government against a still-strong Taliban insurgency.
The idea of the proposed security agreement is to keep a U.S. military presence in Afghanistan past 2014, when most international forces are to have left. Afghan and U.S. officials envision a force of several thousand U.S. troops, who would train Afghan forces and help with counterterrorism operations. The pact would outline the legal status of that force in Afghanistan, as well as the rules under which it would operate and where it would be based.
The jirga’s resolution carries no legal weight, but could bolster Karzai’s negotiating position with the United States during difficult talks under way to craft what Washington is calling a Strategic Partnership Document.
For its part, the Taliban condemned the recent meeting of elders on Sunday, saying that they were puppets of the Afghan government and therefore also puppets of the NATO and U.S. forces it sees as occupiers.
“They are acting like servants of the invaders of our country by issuing this resolution,” Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement. He repeated the Taliban position that the only acceptable solution is for international forces to leave the country.
Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry said Afghan and international forces killed 16 insurgents in fighting over the past three days in the eastern Afghan province of Nuristan. There were no casualties among government forces, according to Mohammad Zareen, a spokesman for the provincial government.
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Rahmat Gul contributed this report from Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
Afghanistan 'loya jirga' endorses lingering US presense, but in what form?
In the wake of the latest Afghanistan 'loya jirga,' the challenge will be finding a way to make a strategic bilateral partnership mutually agreeable to both Afghans and the US.
By Tom A. Peter, Correspondent / November 20, 2011 The Christian Science Monitor
Kabul, Afghanistan - A day after nearly 2,000 Afghan elders concluded a 4-day loya jirga -- or grand assembly -- with a near unanimous decision to endorse a strategic agreement the US, hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in the east of Afghanistan in protest.
Despite the student protest, where demonstrators said they feared such an agreement would create a never-ending American presence here, the loya jirga’s proposal has found widespread support throughout Afghanistan.
Among many Afghans there is an increasing realization that long-term stability will likely require American and international support for some years to come. While there is much weariness about the foreign presence here, many Afghans acknowledge that without it much needed support will evaporate. The challenge now is finding a way to make that presence mutually agreeable to Afghans and the US.
“Our people know they are vulnerable and know they need a strong partnership with the superpower in the world. They definitely realize the location of their country and they get all their problems from the neighborhood, from the region. That’s why they thought it’s for their benefit and the mutual benefit of the people of Afghanistan and the people of the United States,” says Hameed Farouqi, a representative at the loya jirga and a professor of economics at Kabul University.
US forces beyond 2014?
Although the loya jirga endorsed peace talks with the insurgency, the meeting was mostly focused on the strategic agreement with the US. The representatives stipulated a number of terms necessary for an agreement that would potentially allow US forces to stay beyond 2014 when all combat forces are required to leave the country.
Among the conditions laid out by the loya jirga, the representatives called for an end to night raids and housing searches, the closure of US and foreign operated prisons, and for Americans who commit crimes here to be held accountable in Afghan courts.
The final point may prove problematic in negotiations with the US.
American leaders decided to completely remove forces from Iraq last month when Iraqi politicians called for American forces to be held accountable by local courts.
American and Afghan officials have already spent months negotiating a potential partnership, but have yet to come to a final agreement. The loya jirga’s decisions are not binding, but President Hamid Karzai, who praised the recommendations, is expected to use them as leverage during future negotiations.
“The important thing is that for the first time in a very long time, especially in the last ten years, the people of Afghanistan – I’m not talking about the parliamentarians, I’m talking about the people, the real people, the tribal members – got together under one roof and saw each other and they discussed the problem of Afghanistan and they agreed” on the necessary solutions, says Prince Ali Seraj, a relative of Afghanistan’s former king and a representative at the loya jirga.
How representative was the loya jirga?
Still, there are many Afghans who question the loya jirga’s decision. Several people have criticized the meeting, which was called by Mr. Karzai, saying it was stacked predominately with government loyalists and was not a truly representative body.
“These are not the real representatives of the people. They were the puppets of the government. The government wanted this, that’s why they called this loya jirga even though there is a parliament,” says Mohammad Ismael, a student at Nangahar University who protested the loya jirga’s decision on Sunday. “We’ve never wanted this kind of agreement with America and we don’t want their military bases in Afghanistan.”
Afghan public shows various reactions on long-term relations with U.S.
by Farid Behbud, Zhang Jianhua
KABUL, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- The war-tired Afghans have shown mixed reactions on a proposed long-term strategic partnership with the Unites States of American a day after a national assembly backed government's call for having an agreement with the United States in near future.
A four-day Loya Jirga or traditional grand assembly, with over 2,300 participants including tribal elders, notables, lawmakers and government functionaries, kicked off in capital city of Kabul on Wednesday and wrapped up on Saturday.
In a 76-article resolution read-out at the end of the four-day Jirga, the participants expressed their support to ink strategic relationship with the United States, believing it would benefit war-torn Afghanistan in all fields.
"I have no idea about strategic partnership, what is it like, but the only thing it want from the government and international community is that they should increase my salary, I cannot fed my family with this 5,000 Afghanis (104 U.S. dollars)," a worker with the Kabul municipality Sakhi, who like many Afghans goes only on one name, told Xinhua on Sunday while working to clean up a dusty road here.
"It is no matter for me if this country has any relations with others but I am thinking how to cope with this price hike. Living cost is very high here and nobody cares about it," Sakhi went on to say while complaining about the skyrocketing prices of basic foodstuff and fuel as the winter is coming the war-torn country.
"Every day there are killing and bombing, people are angry with both side of the war as Taliban are killing people with suicide bombers foreigners are capturing innocent during raids," he said.
However, the Jirga resolution said the NATO and U.S. forces should halt night raid operations on villages and stop arresting of Afghan civilians in war on insurgents.
It also demanded the U.S. military to hand over any detention center in Afghan soil to the Afghan government.
"In my opinion having strategic partnership with the United States is a step that is necessary for this country, we have been fed up with 30-year of war, we want peace and a stop of neighboring counties' interference, this step will eventually stop it," a bystander, Abdul Wahab said to Xinhua.
The Jirga in part of the resolution said that the United States should not bring nuclear, biological and chemical weapons to Afghanistan.
It also noted that "inking strategic partnership with the United States would be for 10 years and can be extended if necessary."
The resolution also recommended that the strategic partnership between Afghanistan and the United States should be inked "between two sovereign independent countries," and "the documents of strategic partnership should be registered with the United Nations" .
"For my part, I would like to say this relations with the United States would further cause the war in this country as many religious people will call on people to start fighting with this government and its allied forces," another passerby Abdul Wasah, 35, said.
One day after the decisions of the Jirag was announced hundreds of university students came to the street in Nangarhar province 120 km east of Afghan capital Kabul on Sunday and lashed at the Jirga recommendations in favor of U.S.-Afghan strategic partnership and called for the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO-led forces from Afghanistan.
The protesters while blocking the main road connecting Nangarhar's provincial capital Jalalabad city to Kabul were chanting "death with government", "death with U.S.," as well as "foreigners out of Afghanistan".
The demonstrators dispersed peacefully after three hours.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai also on Saturday welcomed decisions taken by country's Loya Jirga or grand assembly on a proposed strategic partnership with the United States.
"I agree with your decisions and the resolution readout today has been a comprehensive decision that will be respected and implemented," President Karzai in his short speech at the end of the assembly.
"I welcome and support your decisions," Karzai said in his speech to the audience after the resolution was readout at the end of the historic Jirga.
"We will put into practice these decisions and all the course of this process will be implemented by your discussions," the Afghan President further said.
"This strategic partnership with the United States will never be signed without discussing with you and that it will be clear and unambiguous," Karzai added.
"If the national interests of Afghans are not clear in this pact it would not be implemented," Afghan President said, adding "this pact (the strategic partnership with the United States) will be beneficial for Afghanistan."
Taliban reject Afghan-US deal
Agence France-Presse via Hindustan Times Kabul, November 20, 2011
The Taliban on Sunday rejected as a "show" the endorsement by a traditional assembly of a strategic partnership deal with the United States that could allow its troops to remain in Afghanistan for years.
In a statement sent to media, the Islamist militant group said the assembly, or loya jirga, which ended Saturday was orchestrated by the Afghan government to achieve American aims.
"All the participants were active government workers. What they discussed at the jirga was what America wanted," said the Pashto-language statement quoting Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
"In the past 10 years they brutally searched Afghans' houses, they detained Afghans and put them in their prisons, they destroyed people's orchards... and this cruel army still wants to continue its barbarism for another 10 years."
After four days of talks, loya jirga delegates endorsed a strategic partnership deal which will govern the presence of US troops in Afghanistan after 2014, when all NATO-led foreign combat forces are due to leave.
But they insisted on a string of conditions including that US nationals committing crimes in Afghanistan must not be entitled to immunity, and that the US must side with Afghanistan if a third country tries to attack it.
President Hamid Karzai accepted the conditions and recommendations of the jirga, which brought together 2,000 delegates from around the country in Kabul for four days, saying they were "for the good of Afghanistan".
The meeting also backed holding talks with members of the Taliban who renounce violence, despite the assassination in September of peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani which officials blame on insurgents.
Hundreds of people, mostly university students, took to the streets in Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday to protest against the pact.
Angry demonstrators shouting "death to America" and "death to American puppets" blocked the Kabul-Jalalabad highway for two hours, burning a US flag and an effigy of US President Barack Obama.
Reports: Blast hits Uzbekistan railroad used for supplying US troops in Afghanistan
By Associated Press, November 20, 2011
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Uzbekistan media have reported an explosion on a railway line on the Central Asian nation’s border with Afghanistan.
The rail route lies on a distribution network used for the supply of goods to United States troops serving in Afghanistan, but the cause of the blast was unclear.
News site Gazeta.ru reported Saturday that nobody was killed in the explosion which reportedly occurred Wednesday night. It said a commission has been set up to investigate the incident.
Information is strictly guarded by Uzbekistan’s authoritarian government, which has not released any information on the blast.
Privately operated Uzmetronom news site, based in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, said investigators are probing a possible terrorist link.
New U.S. Strategy On Afghanistan Hinges On Pakistan
by Jackie Northam November 20, 2011 NPR
As the drawdown of American combat troops in Afghanistan nears, the U.S. is facing an increasingly dangerous opponent. The Pakistan-based Haqqani network, allied with the Taliban, is believed to be behind a recent string of deadly attacks in Afghanistan, and it's forcing the U.S. to rethink an earlier strategy for stabilizing the country.
But the strategy hinges on help and cooperation from Pakistan — which is never a sure thing.
In the early afternoon of Sept. 13, the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy in the center of Kabul, the Afghan capital, came under attack. For hours, insurgents firing guns and rocket-propelled grenades were able to hold off Western and Afghan security forces.
The audacious assault was just one of several high-profile attacks blamed on the Haqqani network. The militant group has existed for more than three decades — and actually worked with the United States during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Now, it has become one of America's most virulent foes, capable of undermining U.S. plans for Afghanistan.
Help In Squeezing Militants
During her recent swing through the region, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pointed specifically to the Haqqani network when she laid out the U.S. strategy, called "Fight, Talk, Build." Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, says it's not really a new strategy.
"They've put a label on that which the United States has been trying to do quietly behind the scenes. I actually think it's a type of diplomacy combined with targeted coercive measures to try to actually hammer out a sustainable peace agreement, but I think it'll take years," Katulis says.
Clinton described those coercive measures as "squeezing" the Haqqanis. The U.S. has already been hunting and killing Haqqani and Taliban militants in Pakistan with drones. It's also pressing Islamabad to arrest or kill suspected militants hiding out in the country's tribal areas.
But getting that help is the sticking point to the "Fight, Talk, Build" strategy. Pakistan has been publicly accused by the U.S. of providing support to the Haqqanis and other Islamist groups and providing safe haven for them. Clinton said that has to change.
"We intend to push the Pakistanis very hard as to what they are willing and able to do with us and the international community to remove the safe havens and the continuing threats across the border to Afghanistan," she said.
U.S. officials say they want Islamabad to "turn off the spigot" of funding and support for the Haqqanis and other groups. The U.S. is no longer asking Pakistan to launch another enormous military operation to clear out insurgents as it did a couple years ago in the Swat Valley. Instead, the U.S. is looking for targeted hits and shared intelligence.
Can Pakistan Deliver?
Shamila Chaudhary, an analyst at the Eurasia Group, was, until recently, the director for Pakistan at the U.S. National Security Council. She says it's not completely clear what the Pakistanis can or cannot deliver.
"The Pakistanis are holding their cards very close to their chest and many of those cards may well be blank. And I think they're feeling extremely vulnerable, so vulnerable that they don't actually want to play any of those cards — they're trying to hold them as long as they can," she says.
Chaudhary says that holds true for any reconciliation efforts as well — whether Pakistan can bring militants to the table or prevent them from showing up. The U.S. has shown it is willing to meet: Clinton divulged that there was a meeting this summer between U.S. officials and members of the Haqqani network.
Michael Semple, a fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School, says he is encouraged the U.S. is willing to talk.
"It's good that they're prepared to stomach dealing with some fairly difficult actors; obviously dealing with the Taliban, the Haqqanis, it's no joke — these are very difficult actors. But sometimes one is obliged to do this kind of thing to get the right results. The real question marks I have is whether they're going to be able to sustain the effort long enough to see the results," Semple says.
The Eurasia Group's Chaudhary agrees with that assessment.
"I think that within the administration itself, there's still significant debate over whether reconciliation is the right way to go," Chaudhary says. "Some parts of the government still see the Taliban as a group that can't be negotiated with, while others see it as the U.S. having no choice."
And, Chaudhary says, those mixed messages are confusing all the players, including Pakistan's leadership and the Haqqani network.
Suicide bombing kills bomber, wounds 2 Afghans
KABUL, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- A suicide bomber blew himself up in Logar province, 60 km south of Kabul on Sunday, killing himself and wounding two others, the Afghan Interior Ministry said in a statement released here.
"A terrorist riding an explosive-laden motorbike blew himself up next to the Governor Office in the provincial capital Pul-e- Alam at 03:15 p.m. local time today, as a result the attacker was killed and two civilians sustained injuries," the statement added.
It also condemned the attack, adding an investigation has been initiated to identify the network organizing suicide attacks in the province.
Taliban official arrested: Afghan official
GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- Afghan forces during a cleanup operation against Taliban militants in Ghanzi province 125 km south of capital city Kabul, captured the outfit's financial in-charge on Sunday, an Afghan army officer in the province Dillawar Shah Dillawar said.
"We launched the operation early this morning in Muqar district as a result Mullah Shah Wali the financial in-charge of Taliban rebels was arrested," Dillawar told Xinhua.
There were no casualties on security forces and civilians, he contended.
Taliban militants fighting Afghan government and NATO-led troops have yet to make comment.
Police arrest 5 insurgents in Afghan Helmand province
KABUL, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- Afghan police raided Taliban hideouts in Kajaki district of Helmand 555 km south of Afghan capital city Kabul in the wee hours of Sunday, a press release of provincial administration said.
"The raid conducted in Zamendawar Nicha Sfaly village of Kajaki district at 01:00 a.m. local time today as a result five insurgents were captured and 10 kg explosive were seized from their possessions," the press release added.
However, it did not provide more details.
Helmand has been regarded as the hotbed of Taliban militants in southern region of the militancy-hit Afghanistan.
Afghan police struggling on their own
ByMandy Clark
(CBS News) The traditional national assembly in Afghanistan, the Loya Jirga, endorsed on Saturday the government entering into talks that could keep thousands of U.S. troops in the country for years after 2014. Afghan forces are taking command in some areas, but are finding that self-reliance has a steep learning curve.
CBS News correspondent Mandy Clark reports that in a remote valley near the Pakistani border, an Afghan commander worries about his mission and his men.
"Our ammo won't last until the end of the month," he through a translator in a recent CBS News interview. "If we don't get more soon, this post could fall into the hands of enemy."
Help is not on the way. The commander, who asked for his name to be withheld, says the border police are being left stranded at their posts because U.S. and NATO forces are refusing to fly them out. No flights means no re-supply either.
"We don't have any helicopters," the commander said. "We are running out of food."
The border police rely heavily on American aircrafts to move their food, fuel, ammunition and even men around the battle space. But now NATO is increasing pressure on the Afghans to do more themselves.
Brigadier General Tom Consentino works on NATO's training mission in Afghanistan.
"I don't think that the NATO forces will let anybody starve in Afghanistan. On the other hand we do want to encourage them to figure it out and use their systems to actually become self-sustaining," Consentino said.
The Afghans say they want to double the police force to 42,000 officers, but given the logistical problems they already face, it's difficult to see how that's possible.
The Police Deputy Commander, Major General Sayed Aman said: "If my men get injured, I have to drive 8 hours for medical help. Some die on the way. If the U.S. doesn't take this problem seriously, after they leave in 2014, international terrorism will get a foothold in Afghanistan once more."
NATO Gen. Consentino said his concern is still focused on Afghan self-reliance than anything else.
"I would be more worried about not empowering the afghans to do this themselves," Consentino said.
It is a tough balancing act for U.S. forces as they redefine their role here from combat forces to military trainers. Afghan officers say they know they have to be more self-reliant, but they fear they will be abandoned before they are ready to stand on their own
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
By Associated Press, Sunday, November 20, 6:14 PM
KABUL, Afghanistan — More than 1,000 university students blocked a main highway in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday to protest any agreement that would allow U.S. troops to remain in the country after a planned transfer of authority in 2014.
An assembly of more than 2,000 tribal elders and dignitaries known as a loya jirga over the weekend endorsed negotiating a security pact with Washington, though they also backed a series of conditions proposed by Afghan President Hamid Karzai including the end of night raids by international troops and complete Afghan control over detainees.
On Sunday, the protesters in Jalalabad city denounced any agreement that would keep U.S. troops in the country, blocking the road to Kabul and shouting “Death to America. Death to Karzai.”
Both the resolution and the protests reflect the tension in Afghanistan between a desire for real sovereignty and the need to bolster the relatively weak government against a still-strong Taliban insurgency.
The idea of the proposed security agreement is to keep a U.S. military presence in Afghanistan past 2014, when most international forces are to have left. Afghan and U.S. officials envision a force of several thousand U.S. troops, who would train Afghan forces and help with counterterrorism operations. The pact would outline the legal status of that force in Afghanistan, as well as the rules under which it would operate and where it would be based.
The jirga’s resolution carries no legal weight, but could bolster Karzai’s negotiating position with the United States during difficult talks under way to craft what Washington is calling a Strategic Partnership Document.
For its part, the Taliban condemned the recent meeting of elders on Sunday, saying that they were puppets of the Afghan government and therefore also puppets of the NATO and U.S. forces it sees as occupiers.
“They are acting like servants of the invaders of our country by issuing this resolution,” Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement. He repeated the Taliban position that the only acceptable solution is for international forces to leave the country.
Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry said Afghan and international forces killed 16 insurgents in fighting over the past three days in the eastern Afghan province of Nuristan. There were no casualties among government forces, according to Mohammad Zareen, a spokesman for the provincial government.
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Rahmat Gul contributed this report from Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
Afghanistan 'loya jirga' endorses lingering US presense, but in what form?
In the wake of the latest Afghanistan 'loya jirga,' the challenge will be finding a way to make a strategic bilateral partnership mutually agreeable to both Afghans and the US.
By Tom A. Peter, Correspondent / November 20, 2011 The Christian Science Monitor
Kabul, Afghanistan - A day after nearly 2,000 Afghan elders concluded a 4-day loya jirga -- or grand assembly -- with a near unanimous decision to endorse a strategic agreement the US, hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in the east of Afghanistan in protest.
Despite the student protest, where demonstrators said they feared such an agreement would create a never-ending American presence here, the loya jirga’s proposal has found widespread support throughout Afghanistan.
Among many Afghans there is an increasing realization that long-term stability will likely require American and international support for some years to come. While there is much weariness about the foreign presence here, many Afghans acknowledge that without it much needed support will evaporate. The challenge now is finding a way to make that presence mutually agreeable to Afghans and the US.
“Our people know they are vulnerable and know they need a strong partnership with the superpower in the world. They definitely realize the location of their country and they get all their problems from the neighborhood, from the region. That’s why they thought it’s for their benefit and the mutual benefit of the people of Afghanistan and the people of the United States,” says Hameed Farouqi, a representative at the loya jirga and a professor of economics at Kabul University.
US forces beyond 2014?
Although the loya jirga endorsed peace talks with the insurgency, the meeting was mostly focused on the strategic agreement with the US. The representatives stipulated a number of terms necessary for an agreement that would potentially allow US forces to stay beyond 2014 when all combat forces are required to leave the country.
Among the conditions laid out by the loya jirga, the representatives called for an end to night raids and housing searches, the closure of US and foreign operated prisons, and for Americans who commit crimes here to be held accountable in Afghan courts.
The final point may prove problematic in negotiations with the US.
American leaders decided to completely remove forces from Iraq last month when Iraqi politicians called for American forces to be held accountable by local courts.
American and Afghan officials have already spent months negotiating a potential partnership, but have yet to come to a final agreement. The loya jirga’s decisions are not binding, but President Hamid Karzai, who praised the recommendations, is expected to use them as leverage during future negotiations.
“The important thing is that for the first time in a very long time, especially in the last ten years, the people of Afghanistan – I’m not talking about the parliamentarians, I’m talking about the people, the real people, the tribal members – got together under one roof and saw each other and they discussed the problem of Afghanistan and they agreed” on the necessary solutions, says Prince Ali Seraj, a relative of Afghanistan’s former king and a representative at the loya jirga.
How representative was the loya jirga?
Still, there are many Afghans who question the loya jirga’s decision. Several people have criticized the meeting, which was called by Mr. Karzai, saying it was stacked predominately with government loyalists and was not a truly representative body.
“These are not the real representatives of the people. They were the puppets of the government. The government wanted this, that’s why they called this loya jirga even though there is a parliament,” says Mohammad Ismael, a student at Nangahar University who protested the loya jirga’s decision on Sunday. “We’ve never wanted this kind of agreement with America and we don’t want their military bases in Afghanistan.”
Afghan public shows various reactions on long-term relations with U.S.
by Farid Behbud, Zhang Jianhua
KABUL, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- The war-tired Afghans have shown mixed reactions on a proposed long-term strategic partnership with the Unites States of American a day after a national assembly backed government's call for having an agreement with the United States in near future.
A four-day Loya Jirga or traditional grand assembly, with over 2,300 participants including tribal elders, notables, lawmakers and government functionaries, kicked off in capital city of Kabul on Wednesday and wrapped up on Saturday.
In a 76-article resolution read-out at the end of the four-day Jirga, the participants expressed their support to ink strategic relationship with the United States, believing it would benefit war-torn Afghanistan in all fields.
"I have no idea about strategic partnership, what is it like, but the only thing it want from the government and international community is that they should increase my salary, I cannot fed my family with this 5,000 Afghanis (104 U.S. dollars)," a worker with the Kabul municipality Sakhi, who like many Afghans goes only on one name, told Xinhua on Sunday while working to clean up a dusty road here.
"It is no matter for me if this country has any relations with others but I am thinking how to cope with this price hike. Living cost is very high here and nobody cares about it," Sakhi went on to say while complaining about the skyrocketing prices of basic foodstuff and fuel as the winter is coming the war-torn country.
"Every day there are killing and bombing, people are angry with both side of the war as Taliban are killing people with suicide bombers foreigners are capturing innocent during raids," he said.
However, the Jirga resolution said the NATO and U.S. forces should halt night raid operations on villages and stop arresting of Afghan civilians in war on insurgents.
It also demanded the U.S. military to hand over any detention center in Afghan soil to the Afghan government.
"In my opinion having strategic partnership with the United States is a step that is necessary for this country, we have been fed up with 30-year of war, we want peace and a stop of neighboring counties' interference, this step will eventually stop it," a bystander, Abdul Wahab said to Xinhua.
The Jirga in part of the resolution said that the United States should not bring nuclear, biological and chemical weapons to Afghanistan.
It also noted that "inking strategic partnership with the United States would be for 10 years and can be extended if necessary."
The resolution also recommended that the strategic partnership between Afghanistan and the United States should be inked "between two sovereign independent countries," and "the documents of strategic partnership should be registered with the United Nations" .
"For my part, I would like to say this relations with the United States would further cause the war in this country as many religious people will call on people to start fighting with this government and its allied forces," another passerby Abdul Wasah, 35, said.
One day after the decisions of the Jirag was announced hundreds of university students came to the street in Nangarhar province 120 km east of Afghan capital Kabul on Sunday and lashed at the Jirga recommendations in favor of U.S.-Afghan strategic partnership and called for the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO-led forces from Afghanistan.
The protesters while blocking the main road connecting Nangarhar's provincial capital Jalalabad city to Kabul were chanting "death with government", "death with U.S.," as well as "foreigners out of Afghanistan".
The demonstrators dispersed peacefully after three hours.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai also on Saturday welcomed decisions taken by country's Loya Jirga or grand assembly on a proposed strategic partnership with the United States.
"I agree with your decisions and the resolution readout today has been a comprehensive decision that will be respected and implemented," President Karzai in his short speech at the end of the assembly.
"I welcome and support your decisions," Karzai said in his speech to the audience after the resolution was readout at the end of the historic Jirga.
"We will put into practice these decisions and all the course of this process will be implemented by your discussions," the Afghan President further said.
"This strategic partnership with the United States will never be signed without discussing with you and that it will be clear and unambiguous," Karzai added.
"If the national interests of Afghans are not clear in this pact it would not be implemented," Afghan President said, adding "this pact (the strategic partnership with the United States) will be beneficial for Afghanistan."
Taliban reject Afghan-US deal
Agence France-Presse via Hindustan Times Kabul, November 20, 2011
The Taliban on Sunday rejected as a "show" the endorsement by a traditional assembly of a strategic partnership deal with the United States that could allow its troops to remain in Afghanistan for years.
In a statement sent to media, the Islamist militant group said the assembly, or loya jirga, which ended Saturday was orchestrated by the Afghan government to achieve American aims.
"All the participants were active government workers. What they discussed at the jirga was what America wanted," said the Pashto-language statement quoting Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
"In the past 10 years they brutally searched Afghans' houses, they detained Afghans and put them in their prisons, they destroyed people's orchards... and this cruel army still wants to continue its barbarism for another 10 years."
After four days of talks, loya jirga delegates endorsed a strategic partnership deal which will govern the presence of US troops in Afghanistan after 2014, when all NATO-led foreign combat forces are due to leave.
But they insisted on a string of conditions including that US nationals committing crimes in Afghanistan must not be entitled to immunity, and that the US must side with Afghanistan if a third country tries to attack it.
President Hamid Karzai accepted the conditions and recommendations of the jirga, which brought together 2,000 delegates from around the country in Kabul for four days, saying they were "for the good of Afghanistan".
The meeting also backed holding talks with members of the Taliban who renounce violence, despite the assassination in September of peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani which officials blame on insurgents.
Hundreds of people, mostly university students, took to the streets in Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday to protest against the pact.
Angry demonstrators shouting "death to America" and "death to American puppets" blocked the Kabul-Jalalabad highway for two hours, burning a US flag and an effigy of US President Barack Obama.
Reports: Blast hits Uzbekistan railroad used for supplying US troops in Afghanistan
By Associated Press, November 20, 2011
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Uzbekistan media have reported an explosion on a railway line on the Central Asian nation’s border with Afghanistan.
The rail route lies on a distribution network used for the supply of goods to United States troops serving in Afghanistan, but the cause of the blast was unclear.
News site Gazeta.ru reported Saturday that nobody was killed in the explosion which reportedly occurred Wednesday night. It said a commission has been set up to investigate the incident.
Information is strictly guarded by Uzbekistan’s authoritarian government, which has not released any information on the blast.
Privately operated Uzmetronom news site, based in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, said investigators are probing a possible terrorist link.
New U.S. Strategy On Afghanistan Hinges On Pakistan
by Jackie Northam November 20, 2011 NPR
As the drawdown of American combat troops in Afghanistan nears, the U.S. is facing an increasingly dangerous opponent. The Pakistan-based Haqqani network, allied with the Taliban, is believed to be behind a recent string of deadly attacks in Afghanistan, and it's forcing the U.S. to rethink an earlier strategy for stabilizing the country.
But the strategy hinges on help and cooperation from Pakistan — which is never a sure thing.
In the early afternoon of Sept. 13, the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy in the center of Kabul, the Afghan capital, came under attack. For hours, insurgents firing guns and rocket-propelled grenades were able to hold off Western and Afghan security forces.
The audacious assault was just one of several high-profile attacks blamed on the Haqqani network. The militant group has existed for more than three decades — and actually worked with the United States during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Now, it has become one of America's most virulent foes, capable of undermining U.S. plans for Afghanistan.
Help In Squeezing Militants
During her recent swing through the region, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pointed specifically to the Haqqani network when she laid out the U.S. strategy, called "Fight, Talk, Build." Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, says it's not really a new strategy.
"They've put a label on that which the United States has been trying to do quietly behind the scenes. I actually think it's a type of diplomacy combined with targeted coercive measures to try to actually hammer out a sustainable peace agreement, but I think it'll take years," Katulis says.
Clinton described those coercive measures as "squeezing" the Haqqanis. The U.S. has already been hunting and killing Haqqani and Taliban militants in Pakistan with drones. It's also pressing Islamabad to arrest or kill suspected militants hiding out in the country's tribal areas.
But getting that help is the sticking point to the "Fight, Talk, Build" strategy. Pakistan has been publicly accused by the U.S. of providing support to the Haqqanis and other Islamist groups and providing safe haven for them. Clinton said that has to change.
"We intend to push the Pakistanis very hard as to what they are willing and able to do with us and the international community to remove the safe havens and the continuing threats across the border to Afghanistan," she said.
U.S. officials say they want Islamabad to "turn off the spigot" of funding and support for the Haqqanis and other groups. The U.S. is no longer asking Pakistan to launch another enormous military operation to clear out insurgents as it did a couple years ago in the Swat Valley. Instead, the U.S. is looking for targeted hits and shared intelligence.
Can Pakistan Deliver?
Shamila Chaudhary, an analyst at the Eurasia Group, was, until recently, the director for Pakistan at the U.S. National Security Council. She says it's not completely clear what the Pakistanis can or cannot deliver.
"The Pakistanis are holding their cards very close to their chest and many of those cards may well be blank. And I think they're feeling extremely vulnerable, so vulnerable that they don't actually want to play any of those cards — they're trying to hold them as long as they can," she says.
Chaudhary says that holds true for any reconciliation efforts as well — whether Pakistan can bring militants to the table or prevent them from showing up. The U.S. has shown it is willing to meet: Clinton divulged that there was a meeting this summer between U.S. officials and members of the Haqqani network.
Michael Semple, a fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School, says he is encouraged the U.S. is willing to talk.
"It's good that they're prepared to stomach dealing with some fairly difficult actors; obviously dealing with the Taliban, the Haqqanis, it's no joke — these are very difficult actors. But sometimes one is obliged to do this kind of thing to get the right results. The real question marks I have is whether they're going to be able to sustain the effort long enough to see the results," Semple says.
The Eurasia Group's Chaudhary agrees with that assessment.
"I think that within the administration itself, there's still significant debate over whether reconciliation is the right way to go," Chaudhary says. "Some parts of the government still see the Taliban as a group that can't be negotiated with, while others see it as the U.S. having no choice."
And, Chaudhary says, those mixed messages are confusing all the players, including Pakistan's leadership and the Haqqani network.
Suicide bombing kills bomber, wounds 2 Afghans
KABUL, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- A suicide bomber blew himself up in Logar province, 60 km south of Kabul on Sunday, killing himself and wounding two others, the Afghan Interior Ministry said in a statement released here.
"A terrorist riding an explosive-laden motorbike blew himself up next to the Governor Office in the provincial capital Pul-e- Alam at 03:15 p.m. local time today, as a result the attacker was killed and two civilians sustained injuries," the statement added.
It also condemned the attack, adding an investigation has been initiated to identify the network organizing suicide attacks in the province.
Taliban official arrested: Afghan official
GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- Afghan forces during a cleanup operation against Taliban militants in Ghanzi province 125 km south of capital city Kabul, captured the outfit's financial in-charge on Sunday, an Afghan army officer in the province Dillawar Shah Dillawar said.
"We launched the operation early this morning in Muqar district as a result Mullah Shah Wali the financial in-charge of Taliban rebels was arrested," Dillawar told Xinhua.
There were no casualties on security forces and civilians, he contended.
Taliban militants fighting Afghan government and NATO-led troops have yet to make comment.
Police arrest 5 insurgents in Afghan Helmand province
KABUL, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- Afghan police raided Taliban hideouts in Kajaki district of Helmand 555 km south of Afghan capital city Kabul in the wee hours of Sunday, a press release of provincial administration said.
"The raid conducted in Zamendawar Nicha Sfaly village of Kajaki district at 01:00 a.m. local time today as a result five insurgents were captured and 10 kg explosive were seized from their possessions," the press release added.
However, it did not provide more details.
Helmand has been regarded as the hotbed of Taliban militants in southern region of the militancy-hit Afghanistan.
Afghan police struggling on their own
ByMandy Clark
(CBS News) The traditional national assembly in Afghanistan, the Loya Jirga, endorsed on Saturday the government entering into talks that could keep thousands of U.S. troops in the country for years after 2014. Afghan forces are taking command in some areas, but are finding that self-reliance has a steep learning curve.
CBS News correspondent Mandy Clark reports that in a remote valley near the Pakistani border, an Afghan commander worries about his mission and his men.
"Our ammo won't last until the end of the month," he through a translator in a recent CBS News interview. "If we don't get more soon, this post could fall into the hands of enemy."
Help is not on the way. The commander, who asked for his name to be withheld, says the border police are being left stranded at their posts because U.S. and NATO forces are refusing to fly them out. No flights means no re-supply either.
"We don't have any helicopters," the commander said. "We are running out of food."
The border police rely heavily on American aircrafts to move their food, fuel, ammunition and even men around the battle space. But now NATO is increasing pressure on the Afghans to do more themselves.
Brigadier General Tom Consentino works on NATO's training mission in Afghanistan.
"I don't think that the NATO forces will let anybody starve in Afghanistan. On the other hand we do want to encourage them to figure it out and use their systems to actually become self-sustaining," Consentino said.
The Afghans say they want to double the police force to 42,000 officers, but given the logistical problems they already face, it's difficult to see how that's possible.
The Police Deputy Commander, Major General Sayed Aman said: "If my men get injured, I have to drive 8 hours for medical help. Some die on the way. If the U.S. doesn't take this problem seriously, after they leave in 2014, international terrorism will get a foothold in Afghanistan once more."
NATO Gen. Consentino said his concern is still focused on Afghan self-reliance than anything else.
"I would be more worried about not empowering the afghans to do this themselves," Consentino said.
It is a tough balancing act for U.S. forces as they redefine their role here from combat forces to military trainers. Afghan officers say they know they have to be more self-reliant, but they fear they will be abandoned before they are ready to stand on their own
www.afghanistannewscenter.com