[Afghan News] December 7, 2011

[یاسمینه]

Bombing in Kabul sets back efforts to stabilize Afghanistan; Karzai blames Pakistani group
By Associated Press, Thursday, December 8, 1:56 AM
KABUL, Afghanistan — The fallout from this week’s deadly suicide bombing in Kabul has further splintered Afghanistan’s relations with neighboring Pakistan and set back the U.S.-led military campaign to stabilize the region before international troops leave at the end of 2014.
The attack that killed 56 people and wounded more than 160 others outside a Shiite shrine highlighted a marked decline in security in the Afghan capital over the past year. Afghan forces, who have been in charge of security in Kabul for more than a year, have had successes in foiling plots and minimizing casualties, but insurgents increasingly slip through checkpoints and conduct complex assaults.
Ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan were already frayed when President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday blamed a Pakistan-based extremist group for the bombing at the shrine. Pakistan challenged Karzai to provide hard evidence.
The evidence, Karzai suggested, was that a man claiming to be from Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al-Alami, a Pakistan-based splinter group of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi that has carried out attacks against Shiite Muslims in Pakistan, called various media outlets Tuesday to claim responsibility for the Kabul bombing and a nearly simultaneous attack that killed four Shiites in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
“We are investigating this issue and we are going to talk to the Pakistani government about it,” Karzai said, standing outside a Kabul hospital after visiting victims of the bombing.
Until now, the decade-long Afghan war has largely been spared sectarian violence, where civilians are targeted simply for their membership in a particular religious group. Tuesday’s attack suggests that at least some militant groups may have shifted tactics, taking aim at ethnic minorities such as the Hazara who are largely Shiite and support the Afghan government and its Western partners.
But there was some doubt that a little-known splinter group could carry out the coordinated bombings in Afghanistan, where neither it nor the main Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has a history of conducting operations.
Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said Pakistan would encourage Kabul to share any evidence it has that the group was responsible.
Later, he sent a text message to The Associated Press, condemning the attack on the shrine.
“The government and the people of Pakistan are grieved and stand by the brotherly people of Afghanistan at this difficult time,” he said.
Pakistani military spokesman Gen. Athar Abbas dismissed any suggestions that Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has links to the country’s intelligence agencies or that the government was not doing everything it could to quash the group.
“Lashkar-e-Janghvi has declared war on the security forces in Pakistan,” he told the AP. He said the group has been implicated in some of the worst attacks on Pakistani security forces. “They are being hunted down,” he said.
Karzai began to sharpen his criticism of Pakistan several months ago after a suicide bomber, pretending to be a peace emissary from the Taliban, assassinated former President Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was leading Afghan efforts to broker a deal with the insurgency.
Afghan officials said the Sept. 20 assassination was planned on the southern outskirts of Quetta, the Pakistani city where key Taliban leaders are based. Afghan officials shared evidence with Pakistani officials, but Afghan-Pakistan cooperation on the investigation into Rabbani’s murder so far has been tenuous.
American-Pakistan ties are deeply scarred too. To protest recent NATO airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani troops along the Afghan border, Islamabad boycotted this week’s conference in Bonn, Germany, on the future of Afghanistan. Pakistan also closed down routes that NATO members use to deliver supplies to the 130,000-strong coalition force in landlocked Afghanistan.
The recent events have left the three main players in the decade-old conflict — Afghanistan, Pakistan and the U.S. — at odds at a time when the West is trying to secure Afghanistan’s future — and convince its people that their security forces can keep the peace when most foreign troops go home in three years.
Previous attacks in Kabul have been blamed on the Haqqani militant network, which is based in Afghanistan and is thought to have ties to the Taliban, al-Qaida and Pakistan’s spy agency.
To the mourners burying the dead in Kabul and planting red flags in dusty cemeteries to mark the fresh graves, achieving stability in Afghanistan is more important than which militant group was responsible for the latest attacks.
Mohaqeq Zada, a member of the Shiite council in Kabul, said the bombing showed no one can count on the government for protection.
“There have been so many attacks, even against government officials, and still they can’t stop these things,” Zada said.
In London, Britain’s Defense Secretary Philip Hammond told legislators that it was too early to say if Tuesday’s attack — the first major sectarian assault in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime a decade ago — would derail plans to hand over security responsibilities to Afghan forces in an increasing number of regions.
But he acknowledged that recent incidents have raised concern.
“Clearly, the last two weeks have seen some significant setbacks,” Hammond said. “Yesterday’s attack in particular was a very unwelcome development — effectively, on the face of it, opening a new front” to the war, Hammond said. “But I think it would be hugely premature to suggest that that will deflect the process of transition to Afghan-led security.”
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Associated Press writers Rahim Faiez in Kabul, Kathy Gannon in Islamabad, Pakistan, and David Stringer in London contributed to this report.

Karzai Cuts Britain Trip Short After Deadly Attacks in Afghanistan
VOA News December 7, 2011
President Hamid Karzai has returned to Afghanistan, canceling a trip to Britain after a pair of bomb attacks in Afghanistan killed at least 59 people.
Mr. Karzai arrived Wednesday in the capital Kabul to visit with some of the more than 160 wounded in the blasts. He traveled home from Germany, where he attended an international conference on Afghanistan.
Mourners also gathered to bury the victims in Kabul, where on Tuesday at least one suicide bomber set off a blast
that killed 55 people, including one American. The blast happened near the Abul Fazel shrine as Shi'ite worshippers gathered on Ashura, the holiest day of the Shi'ite Muslim calendar.
A second explosion killed four people at a shrine in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, but it is not clear if Shi'ites were specifically targeted.
In a new attack Wednesday, officials say a roadside bomb hit a bus in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, killing at least 19 civilians. Five children were among the dead.
The Taliban denied involvement in Tuesday's attacks, calling them “cruel and indiscriminate” and blaming them on the “invading enemy.”
The Pakistan-based insurgent group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al-Alami claimed responsibility for the Kabul attack.
The Sunni extremist group is an offshoot of the bigger Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which is affiliated with al-Qaida and is responsible for a number of attacks against Shi'ites in Pakistan.
Mr. Karzai said the attacks Tuesday were the first of “that horrible nature” to take place on such an important religious day in Afghanistan.
Ashura marks the death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammad.
U.S. President Barack Obama strongly condemned the violence, saying the United States continues to stand with the people of Afghanistan against terrorism.
Experts say the attacks, which came a day after the conference to discuss Afghanistan's future as international combat troops prepare to leave the country, underscores the importance of what was agreed in Bonn — that all countries in the region need to cooperate in securing long-term stability for Afghanistan.

Afghan attacks raise fears of sectarian violence
By Usman Sharifi | AFP
Deadly blasts at Afghan shrines that left 59 people dead on Shiite Muslims' holiest day have raised fears the war-weary nation now faces the prospect of an eruption of Iraq-style sectarian violence.
The Afghan Taliban has denied responsibility for the blasts in Kabul and the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, and leading Shiites in Afghanistan have pointed the finger of blame at groups in Pakistan.
Analysts say the response of Shiite leaders is now key to determining whether splits emerge between Afghanistan's Sunni Muslims, and Shiites who make up roughly 20 percent of the population.
The scale of the attacks was unprecedented in Afghanistan, which until now had not been hit by the kind of sectarian violence that devastated Iraq after the 2003 US-led invasion in a bid to sow civil war.
The Afghan state is already fragile, with different ethnic groups including Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras and Uzbeks living together, sometimes uneasily, under one flag as a decade-long war rumbles on with no end in sight.
It remains unclear who would have the most to gain from whipping up sectarian conflict in Afghanistan, where people have voiced increasing fears of civil war after the scheduled departure of NATO combat troops in 2014.
So far, Shiite leaders have urged calm in the aftermath of the unprecedented attacks.
The Shiite ulema council, seen as a figurehead for Shiites in Afghanistan, promptly issued a statement condemning the attack while urging the community not to respond with violence.
Mohammad Mohaqqiq, an ethnic Hazara and leader of one of Afghanistan's main Shiite political parties, issued a statement calling on Afghans to approach the aftermath of the violence "thoughtfully and carefully".
Some leading Shiites voiced optimism that insurgents would not succeed in opening up divisions.
Alemi Balkhi, a Shiite lawmaker, said people were "aware of the conspiracies" and would be patient.
But analyst Ahmad Saeedi said the threat of longer-term implications from the attack was real.
He claimed that elements in Pakistan, which boycotted Monday's Bonn conference on Afghanistan's future after a NATO air strike killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, were worried about developments including Kabul's ongoing negotiations with Washington over a strategic partnership deal.
"It is a danger as despite the relative peace, relations between Afghan Shiites and Sunnis have remained fragile," he said.
"We have witnessed some sectarian violence in the past. Sectarian violence can erupt here if provoked. This would lead to chaos from which the perpetrators can benefit."
Many Afghans are deeply sceptical of Pakistan's role in Afghanistan, accusing it of offering safe havens to insurgents and orchestrating attacks.
Islamabad counters by saying that it too has suffered at the hands of the Taliban and insists it has a key role to play in any moves towards peace negotiations, currently badly stalled.
Shiites -- who faced brutal persecution under the 1990s Taliban regime -- have stepped up their mourning rituals in Kabul this year, with black shrines and flags dotting many locations in the city where they have never been before.
However, it is still not clear whether this prominence helped encourage the attack or whether there was another motivation, perhaps political.
"The attacks looked designed to intentionally spark ethnic and sectarian violence but they could also galvanise resistance against what is seen as outside efforts to further disrupt Afghanistan's already besieged relations," wrote Kate Clark of Kabul think-tank the Afghanistan Analysts Network.
"In order to understand the longer-term implications of (the) killings, we need to know who was behind the attack, what the intended message was and who the message was aimed at.
"And we can only hope that these were one-off attacks, never to be repeated."

Afghan government: Roadside bomb kills 19 in south
By AMIR SHAH and MIRWAIS KHAN
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — A minibus struck a roadside bomb while driving in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, triggering an explosion that killed 19 Afghan civilians, officials said.
The vehicle was driving on a road in Helmand province's volatile Sangin district — a Taliban stronghold — when it hit the bomb, said Daoud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Helmand government.
At least five children were among the dead, he said. Another six people were wounded and all were being treated at a NATO base. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack — a common situation when bombs kill civilians.
The blast comes a day after twin bombings on Shiite Muslims celebrating the holiday of Ashoura left 60 dead and sparked fears that attacks in Afghanistan might be taking on a sectarian dimension for the first time. Ashoura honors the death of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, in 680 A.D.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai cut short a European trip because of Tuesday's attacks and returned to Kabul on Wednesday to visit the scores of wounded and the bereaved families of those killed in the capital.
A suicide bomber slaughtered 56 Shiite worshippers and wounded more than 160 others Tuesday outside a shrine where hundreds had gathered to worship. One U.S. citizen was also among the dead, according to a statement issued by the American embassy in Kabul. The deceased was not a government employee, U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Megan Ellis said, but declined to give further details.
The blast, coupled with another smaller explosion in a northern city that killed four people in a holiday vehicle procession, marked the first major assault on a Muslim sect in Afghanistan in recent memory.
Karzai said in a statement shortly after the blast that the attack on Shiites was unprecedented in scope and marked the first time that one had been carried out during a religious event.
His office said Wednesday that he had arrived back in Kabul, cutting short a trip to Britain and Germany, and planned to spend the day visiting the wounded in city hospitals.
Families gathered for funerals across the city on Wednesday. In western Kabul, a group of mourners carried four bodies in a funeral procession through the city's largest Shiite cemetery. They carried pictures of the dead and shouted, "They are martyrs! We honor them!"
One of the mourners said no place felt safe anymore.
"Killing Muslims in front of a holy shrine, it is unbelievable," said Mohammad Nahim, 35. "Last night I told my children not to visit any shrines after dark. It is too dangerous." He said the graphic images of piled bodies came on the television as his family was eating dinner the night before and they all started crying.
"The man who owned the shop on my street corner, the man I bought vegetables from, he was killed in the attack," Nahim said.
At one of the funerals, a member of the city's Shiite council said the attack showed no one can count on the government for protection. "There have been so many attacks, even against government officials, and still they can't stop these things," said Mohaqeq Zada.
It remained unclear what the political reverberations of the attack could be.
The Taliban condemned the attack, which was reminiscent of the wave of sectarian bloodshed that shook Iraq during the height of the war there. Suspicion centered on militant groups based in neighboring Pakistan, where Sunni attacks on minority Shiites are common.
A man who claimed to be from Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al-Alami, a Pakistan-based group that has carried out attacks against Shiite Muslims, called various media outlets in Pakistan to claim responsibility for the bombing in Kabul. The validity of the claim could not be determined.
Until now, the decade-long Afghan war has largely been spared sectarian violence, where civilians are targeted simply for their membership in a particular religious group. Tuesday's attack suggests that at least some militant groups may have shifted tactics, taking aim at ethnic minorities such as the Hazara who are largely Shiite and support the Afghan government and its Western partners.
Afghanistan's Shiite community makes up about 20 percent of the nation's 30 million population. Hard-line Sunnis consider Shiites nonbelievers because their customs and traditions differ from the majority sect.
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Associated Press writers Rahim Faiez, Patrick Quinn, Deb Riechmann and Heidi Vogt in Kabul contributed to this report.
(This version CORRECTS name of Pakistan group to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al-Alami.)

Pakistan-based group claims role in deadly blast in Kabul
Washington Post By Ernesto Londoño December 6 , 2011
KABUL - A suicide attack here that left dozens of Shiite worshipers dead was apparently conducted by a militant group with a history of ties to Pakistan’s main intelligence service, a connection that threatened to escalate tensions in Afghanistan just as the United States plans its exit.
The bombing and a second attack on Shiites in northern Afghanistan left at least 60 people dead, making Tuesday one of the deadliest days for civilians in the decade-long war. The strikes were highly unusual because they targeted members of Afghanistan’s Shiite minority, which was persecuted during the Taliban’s reign but which has not been a focus of insurgent bombings since the Taliban fell in 2001.
The Taliban denied any role in Tuesday’s attacks. But a spokesman for the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-i-Jhangvi called a station operated by Radio Free Europe to assert responsibility. If the claim is true, it would mark the first time that the group, which has ties to al-Qaeda, has carried out a major attack in Afghanistan.
Lashkar-i-Jhangvi militants have systematically assassinated Shiites and attacked their religious gatherings in Pakistan. If the group is extending operations into Afghanistan, it could add a highly destabilizing sectarian dimension to the costly and protracted Afghan war.
The attack could also worsen the already thorny relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Afghan government and U.S. officials have accused elements of Pakistan’s Inter- Services Intelligence directorate (ISI) of helping to execute attacks in Afghanistan, including several recent high-profile strikes in Kabul.
The ISI has supported Lashkar-i-Jhangvi in the past, though it is not known whether the organizations maintain ties. Pakistan has denied any role in attacks in Afghanistan.
Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have been especially rocky in recent weeks, with Pakistan boycotting on Monday an international conference on the future of Afghanistan after a NATO airstrike last month killed 24 Pakistani troops.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who was in Germany to attend the conference, condemned the attacks and offered condolences to relatives of those killed.
“This is the act of enemies of Islam and Afghanistan who don’t want Afghan Muslims to live together and to be united,” he said in a statement. Karzai later canceled plans for a trip to Britain and flew back to Afghanistan.
Tuesday’s noontime attack in downtown Kabul was carried out by a suicide bomber who approached the Abul Fazal Abbas shrine in the Murad Khani district on foot as worshipers were streaming in, authorities and witnesses said. The blast killed at least 56 people, said Gen. Mohammad Zahir, director of criminal investigations for the Kabul police department. The attack occurred during Ashura commemorations, the holiest occasion of the year for Shiites.
Shortly afterward, explosives attached to a bicycle killed four Shiite pilgrims in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif. That bombing sparked clashes between Sunni and Shiite university students, witnesses and security officials said.
Shortly afterward, explosives attached to a bicycle killed four Shiite pilgrims in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif. That bombing sparked clashes between Sunni and Shiite university students, witnesses and security officials said.
Ahmad Shuja, a prominent Afghan analyst and blogger, said the attacks were likely to exacerbate ethnic tensions that have remained largely latent in the past decade, as fighting between the Western-backed Afghan government and the Taliban has eclipsed long-running ethnic conflicts. The majority of the victims in Tuesday’s attacks were ethnic Hazaras.
Human rights groups say the Taliban, a radical Sunni group, massacred thousands of Hazaras in the late 1990s when it held power in Kabul. Taliban leaders have derided Shiites as nonbelievers.
“The impact this has on the political process is it makes reconciliation much less of a choice,” Shuja said in a phone interview from Washington. “It increases antipathy within an aggrieved community and brings back memories of an era during which the Taliban carried out massacres.”
The attacks come at a crucial time for Afghanistan as its government pursues elusive peace talks with the Taliban. Facing fiscal woes and political fallout, the United States and allied nations with troops here intend to terminate the coalition’s combat mission in Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
Muktar Amiri, 28, a Hazara resident of Kabul, watched in disbelief as police officers cleaned up the site of the bombing Tuesday afternoon.
“This will have a big effect,” he said. “From now on, there will be some friction between Shiites and Sunnis.”
He said it was too early to say who was to blame but speculated that the motive was to lay the groundwork “for another civil war here when the Americans leave.”
The American commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan, without blaming the attacks on the Taliban, called on the group’s leader, Mohammad Omar, to denounce the bloodshed.
“This insurgency, which wraps itself in a false veil of Islam, must know that killing innocent pilgrims will spell its own demise,” Gen. John Allen said in a statement. “I call on Mullah Omar to condemn this grotesque act of terrorism.”
Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, condemned the attacks, which he charged were probably orchestrated by the West to justify extending its presence in Afghanistan.
The suicide bomber arrived in Kabul with a group of Shiite pilgrims from Logar province, just south of the capital, according to Abdul Aziz, an Afghan intelligence official who was near the shrine when the blast occurred. He said authorities had no reason to search pilgrims as they walked into the shrine.
“When they come in a crowd practicing their religion, who can search them?” he said.
Shortly before the bomber struck, shirtless men were flagellating themselves and beating their chests, a gesture of penance practiced during Ashura, the climax of a month-long period of mourning commemorating the death of the prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussein.
Abdul Ali Ahmat was inside the shrine distributing glasses of milk to worshipers when the blast occurred. He said the bomber struck when the mosque was particularly crowded, as worshipers trying to leave mixed with a large group that was entering.
“I saw women, children and men,” he said. “It was a horrible, horrible situation.”
Abdullah Khadri, a shopkeeper who was near the site of the attack, said it had undermined his confidence in the Afghan government.
“The police are too weak; the government is too weak,” he said. “They can’t even provide protection for our religious day.”
Correspondent Karin Brulliard in Islamabad, Pakistan, and special correspondents Javed Hamdard and Sayed Salahuddin in Kabul contributed to this report.

NATO Ministers To Discuss Pakistan, Afghanistan, Russia
December 7, 2011 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Foreign ministers from NATO member states are gathered for two days of meetings at the alliance's headquarters in Belgium that are expected to focus on the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as relations with Russia.
The meetings come amid heightened tensions with Pakistan after an air strike by NATO planes near the Afghan border last month killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
The ministers are also expected to discuss the aftermath of this week's international meeting in Bonn on the future of Afghanistan, including the progress of moves to transfer security responsibilities to Afghan forces in 2014 and the alliance's mission in Kosovo following recent violence with minority Serbs that left 50 NATO troops injured.
On December 8, the NATO ministers will be joined by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council. That meeting is expected to focus on Russian concerns about the planned deployment of a NATO missile-defense system in Europe.
'New Arms Race' Warning
The chief of staff of the Russian armed forces meanwhile said as NATO ministers were preparing to gather that Russia was being pushed into a new arms race by the planned deployment of a NATO European missile-defense system.
General Nikolai Makarov, speaking at a meeting with foreign military attaches warned of a possible "sharp deterioration" of relations.
"The very idea of creating a missile-defense system can definitely bring about a sharp deterioration in our relations," Makarov said.
The NATO meeting also comes one day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticized Russia's parliamentary elections, citing allegations of fraud.
Protests in many Russian cities are continuing.
compiled from agency and RFE/RL reports

Mining to grow to near half Afghanistan GDP - minister
Reuters By Silvia Antonioli Wed Dec 7, 2011
LONDON - Revenue from mining will grow to reach almost half of Afghanistan's gross domestic product from 2024 as the government strives to attract foreign investment to boost the economy, the Afghan minister of mines told Reuters in an interview.
"Our prediction is that by 2024 the contribution of the mining sector to the country's GDP will be between 42 and 45 percent," the minister of mines, Wahidullah Shahrani said on Tuesday.
"By 2016 the revenue of the government from oil and gas and mineral commodity production will be at least $1.5 billion per year, and by 2024 that will go up to $4 billion per year, but these estimates are very conservative."
Afghanistan issued a tender on Tuesday for the exploration and development of four mineral deposits potentially containing gold and copper.
The country will tender deposits of molybdenum, lithium and other rare earths and will explore further in the future as it tries to attract investment to its potentially lucrative natural resources sector, the minister said.
Industry analysts and miners said investing in Afghanistan remains risky due to political instability and safety concerns, which outweigh the potential advantages of exploiting natural resources, but some investors have shown interest in the country's deposits.
A consortium led by the Metallurgical Corp of China won the country's first big mining contract to develop the Aynak copper deposits in 2008. Another consortium led by the Steel Authority of India this month won the rights to develop three blocks of the large Hajigak iron ore concession in central Afghanistan.
The award to the Indian group may have strengthened political relationships with India and weakened links with neighbouring Pakistan, according to some analysts.
The Afghan minister underlined, however, that although India has historically been a major partner, the tender was awarded based on technical capabilities and enrichment opportunities for the country and said the doors are open for other investors, including from Pakistan, to express interest in other projects.
ADDING VALUE
In exchange for mining concessions, the Afghan government is asking investors to focus on the processing of minerals and on developing infrastructure, which would create jobs, benefit the population and help to enrich Afghanistan.
The government will also get the benefit of mining royalties as per international practice, the minister said.
"With Hajigak and Aynak, which are the major projects so far, both the developers have committed to do the entire processing within the country, which will have a huge impact on increasing the value of our exports and improving our trade balance," he said.
The SAIL-led consortium is expected to invest $10.7 billion within the next seven to 10 years to develop a large iron ore mine, build a steelmaking plant with maximum capacity of almost 7 million tonnes per year, construct a large power plant and some railway infrastructure, the minister said.
The CMM-led consortium will build a copper smelter, which will produce up to 250,000 tonnes per year of refined copper, and infrastructure, which will involve construction of a 900 km railway linking central Asia to South Asia, and will establish a 400 megawatt coal-fired power plant.
About half of the power produced by this plant will be sold to the government at the cost of production.
A large part of the metals produced at these sites will be exported to third countries, given that Afghanistan is a small market.
Iron ore production is expected to start in 2016, and steel production will reach 3.6 million tonnes per year in the first phase of the project, which will start in 2019, and will increase to 6.5 million tonnes per year in the second phase, which will start in 2021. Afghanistan consumes about 500,000 tonnes of steel each year.
The Aynak copper deposit will start production in 2014, and most of the expected output of 250,000 tonnes a year will also be exported, with only 5,000-10,000 tonnes consumed in Afghanistan every year.
The Afghan government has established a special unit, whose costs are completely borne by the government, to protect the mining industry from terrorist attacks, ensure security after the handover to Afghan control in 2014.
"Despite some concerns of perception about insecurity, until now we haven't recorded a single incident in any mining operation, and this is something that we are going to pursue in the future by expanding the resources of the mines protection units," he said.
"We also keep the communities very involved in the projects to make sure that communities will be very supportive," the minister added.
(Editing by Jane Baird)

China expects Afghanistan to achieve peace and stability at an early date
BEIJING, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- As its friendly neighbor, China expects Afghanistan to achieve peace and stability at an early date, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Wednesday.
Shocked by the incidents, China mourns the victims and has great sympathy and concern for their family members, Spokesman Hong Lei said at the daily press briefing.
He said that Afghanistan has achieved positive development in its peaceful reconstruction process, but is still faced with severe challenges.
The government of Afghanistan and the international community should make joint efforts to help Afghanistan realize overall stability, he added.
Two suicide bombings occurred on Tuesday in the Afghan cities of Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif, leaving at least 59 people dead and 154 others injured, according to the local authorities.

Pakistan's cooperation essential in stabilizing Afghanistan: NATO chief
BRUSSELS, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Wednesday that Pakistan's help is essential in securing and stabilizing Afghanistan, days after the alliance's cross-border air raids killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
"I fully agree ... we need a positive engagement of Pakistan if we are to ensure long-term peace and stability in Afghanistan and in the region. So there is no alternative," he told reporters ahead of a two-day session of NATO foreign ministers.
"The only way forward is positive cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan, between the United States and Pakistan, between NATO and Pakistan," Rasmussen said.
"I hope to see further progress in our relationship. We have offered a political framework for cooperation between NATO and Pakistan," he said.
On November 26, NATO fighter jets and helicopters bombed two Pakistan's border posts, leaving 24 Pakistani soldiers killed.
Islamabad reacted angrily to the attack by pulling out of an international conference on Afghanistan's future on Monday in Bonn, Germany.

Commander Seeks Delay in U.S. Troop Drawdown
Risking White House Clash, U.S. Commander Pushes for a 2013 Pause in Pulling Soldiers From War
Wall Street Journal By ADAM ENTOUS And JULIAN E. BARNES DECEMBER 7, 2011
WASHINGTON - The top military commander in Afghanistan is privately recommending staving off new U.S. troop reductions until 2014, a position that could put him at odds with a White House eager to wind down the 10-year-old war.
Gen. John Allen, who commands U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces in Afghanistan, has shared his thinking with visiting congressional officials and other delegations in a series of recent closed-door briefings in Kabul, according to participants and other officials.
In June, President Barack Obama ordered the Pentagon to wind down a 33,000 troop surge by reducing the U.S. force to about 68,000 by the end of next summer. There currently are around 97,000 U.S. troops in the war zone and the number is gradually dropping, under that pullout plan.
After the 2012 drawdown is complete, Mr. Obama said U.S. troops would continue leaving Afghanistan at a "steady pace" as Afghan forces assume more responsibility for the country's security.
But people briefed on Gen. Allen's thinking said he wants to halt troop withdrawals after the 2012 reductions and maintain troop levels at 68,000 through all of 2013. He envisages the drawdown resuming sometime in 2014, the year Afghans are scheduled to assume lead responsibility for securing the country, officials said.
This position reflects the findings of an internal assessment by NATO's International Security Assistance Force, which Gen. Allen commands.
The assessment, officials said, warns that quickly cutting U.S. troop levels below 68,000 would make it harder to clear and hold insurgent havens, and would complicate efforts to protect supply lines and bases ahead of the scheduled 2014 handover.
"It is about preserving capabilities until the end," a senior defense official said of Gen. Allen's reasoning. Gen. Allen officially took command of the war in July.
In contrast, some civilian advisers to the White House have privately made clear they want troop reductions in 2013 to match or exceed the 23,000 scheduled to be withdrawn between the beginning of 2012 and the end of the summer, said participants in the White House discussions. The Pentagon is slated to pull out 10,000 troops by the end of this year.
Military commanders in the field frequently use briefings for high-level visitors both to try to advance their agenda and to sound out political leaders on military plans. Some officials in Washington are critical of what they sometimes see as commanders in war zones circumventing decision makers back home.
Preliminary discussions are just now beginning within the military and the administration about withdrawals beyond those already planned. "Gen. Allen continues to emphasize that decisions about troop presence post-September 2012 have not been made, and it is premature to speculate about those numbers," said Rear Adm. Hal Pittman, the senior ISAF spokesman.
Another significant troop reduction announcement could allow Mr. Obama to spotlight his commitment to ending the war.
However, it could also open him to charges that he doesn't heed the advice of top commanders in the field, especially if disagreements flare between the White House and military commanders over the next steps in the war.
While eager to show he is winding down the war, Mr. Obama is likely to be wary of a public scrape with top military commanders, which could provide fodder for unified Republican attacks.
Mr. Obama has been criticized by Republican presidential hopefuls for his handling of U.S. foreign policy, which his own supporters see as a strong suit. The GOP hopefuls are divided over what do in Afghanistan, with some advocating a rapid withdrawal and others urging a more sustained effort.
Troop decisions have long been a flashpoint in relations between the Obama White House and the military. Tensions flared in 2009 over the scale of an Afghan troop surge and again this year over keeping U.S. forces in Iraq. Mr. Obama has had four top commanders in Afghanistan, two of which he forced from their posts.
A senior military official said there was a "natural tension" between commanders who want to maintain high troop levels and White House officials who are under domestic political pressure to reduce the U.S. footprint.
Administration officials said Mr. Obama carefully considers the recommendations of military commanders, as well as civilian advisers, in decisions on strategy and troop levels.
Some advisers to Mr. Obama would like to see further Afghan troop reductions next year, according to several officials, possibly to coincide with a summit of NATO leaders in Chicago in May, at the height of the U.S. presidential campaign.
Presentations by Gen. Allen and other top officers in Kabul about the importance of maintaining troop levels at 68,000 have raised some eyebrows on Capitol Hill, where many Democratic lawmakers favor a more rapid withdrawal.
"We don't have the resources, the manpower or time to do everything that they want to do," said Rep. Mike Quigley, an Illinois Democrat who recently visited Kabul, where he met with top commanders.
"Yes, we want to get out of there," said Rep. Rob Wittman, a Virginia Republican who took part in the same trip. But Rep. Wittman said his constituents agreed with commanders in the field and wanted to make sure "we're not withdrawing troops at a rate that compromises the gains that we've made."
Rep. Wittman said that requires "thoughtful, calculated, military decisions about our withdrawal."
Both lawmakers declined to say what Gen. Allen told them during their meetings in Kabul about future troop levels.
Defense officials say Gen. Allen has yet to present a formal recommendation to the Pentagon or the White House, but confirmed his preference for maintaining the 68,000 level.
A military official said Gen. Allen, in recent briefings with lawmakers and others, has not used specific numbers, speaking only about his preference to stay at presurge troop levels.
A military official said Gen. Allen, in recent briefings with lawmakers and others, was "trying to simply provide his best military advice" while showing respect for White House control over war strategy and troop commitments.
Officials briefed on U.S. and NATO planning say ISAF war planners have done extensive study on the force level requirements in the country. A leading rationale for maintaining U.S. troop levels is concern that NATO allies plan major withdrawals in 2012 and beyond.
According to the internal assessment prepared by ISAF, cutting U.S. troop levels below 68,000 could make it harder to ensure the safety of U.S. and allied forces in more remote regions.
Gen. Allen and other ISAF officers have also privately cautioned that future reductions could create a series of logistical problems that could jeopardize supply lines for U.S., NATO and Afghan forces. It also would make it harder to maintain rapid-response capabilities that now allow the military to evacuate wounded soldiers to combat hospitals within an hour of their injuries.
ISAF officials also worry that additional troop reductions before 2014 could jeopardize NATO's offensive in eastern Afghanistan, which is due to expand next summer. Gen. Allen is concerned that territorial gains will be harder to defend in 2013 if troop levels drop below 68,000.
The Pentagon is considering the possibility of shifting U.S. strategy in Afghanistan starting as early as next year, giving Afghanistan greater responsibility and limiting allied forces to a "train, advise and assist" mission.
Some officials who want to keep troop levels at 68,000 through 2013 argue that such a mission change, coming in the middle of the presidential campaign, could provide some political cover to the White House to delay sharp troop reductions into 2014.
It is unclear whether Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, agree with Gen. Allen's position. During a visit to Afghanistan in July, Mr. Panetta appeared to back a gradual withdrawal, telling reporters: "We're going to have 70,000 there through 2014, and obviously, as we get to 2014, we'll develop a plan as to how we reduce that force at that time."
Pentagon officials said at the time that Mr. Panetta misspoke and that drawdown plans through 2014 had yet to be developed.

Afghanistan, neighboring countries boost anti-drugs cooperation
VIENNA, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Afghanistan and seven neighboring countries on Wednesday launched an UN-backed plan to boost regional cooperation in their anti-drugs efforts.
The move follows an international conference on Afghanistan held in the German city of Bonn to set the course for the country after the 2014 handover of power to the Afghan government.
"Given the gradual disengagement of the International Security Assistance Force, the international community will increasingly look to the United Nations to take on additional responsibilities in supporting Afghanistan," said Yury Fedotov, the head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
"The agreement by eight national officials to cement cooperation, especially in information-sharing, is unprecedented," added Fedotov in his statement.
He also pointed out: "Because the coming years are absolutely crucial for Afghanistan's future, we must produce a response based on shared responsibility and concrete action."
Representatives from Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan launched UNODC 2011-2014 Regional Programme in Vienna, the UN agency announced.
According to a press release of the UNODC, the Regional Programme focuses on counter-narcotics and the rule of law in order to respond effectively to drug trafficking and organized crime.
Future works may also include training counter-narcotics law enforcement officials; conducting joint raids, drug seizures and border controls; and combating cross border illicit money flows, the statement said.
The UNODC says some 90 percent of the world's illicit opium was produced in Afghanistan in the past five years.

Afghans uneasy despite security gains made by U.S. troop buildup
In Kandahar, Afghanistan, the U.S. troop buildup has led to a drop in Taliban attacks, but residents say militants are hiding in plain sight.
Los Angeles Times By Laura King December 6, 2011
Kandahar, Afghanistan - The former Taliban commander was furious, chain-smoking, scowling and scattering ashes on a plastic mat spread on the dusty ground.
He deeply regretted, he said, that he had defected to the Afghan government side this year with nearly two dozen of his men, one of whom has already been hunted down and killed in revenge. And he did not believe that his former comrades in arms in the insurgency were ready to give up the fight for their traditional heartland.
With this year's fighting season drawing to a close as the harsh Afghan winter sets in, U.S. commanders have declared that the "surge" ordered by President Obama two years ago achieved its aims.
"Militarily, the surge worked," Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told journalists in London last week.
A crucial goal of the troop buildup was breaking the insurgency's hold on Kandahar, the Taliban's birthplace and a center of gravity for all of southern Afghanistan. But even as the NATO force reports an overall drop in insurgent attacks against Western troops during the fighting season, many here question the durability of gains against the Taliban, whose roots in this city run too deep to be readily eradicated.
Longtime residents murmur uneasily that the insurgents, many of them drawn from Kandahar and its surrounding farm districts, are simply lying low, sometimes in plain sight.
"They are never really gone," said Umar Sediq, a Kandahar merchant. "You walk down the street and say: 'Oh, yes, there is that one, and that one. And that one."
In a key sign of recalcitrance on the part of Taliban fighters, few of those from Kandahar have joined an ambitious government reintegration program, meant to lure fighters from the battlefield. Only 83 insurgents have switched sides in Kandahar province, less than one-twentieth of the total across the country, despite the area's importance as a center of the insurgency.
One defector was Mullah Tor Jan, a disgruntled veteran field commander who spent the better part of a decade battling Western troops in Kandahar and neighboring provinces. Tiring of the fight, he turned himself in this year, hoping for a government job.
Now, he describes himself as a virtual prisoner in a garrison district of Kandahar where Afghan military families are housed. He has no work; his large family lives in a squalid two-room structure. The Taliban killed one of the 23 men who joined the reintegration program along with him.
"They send me messages," he said of his former fellow fighters. "Sometimes they threaten me, but they also taunt me for being tricked. They know the government didn't keep its promises to me and the others."
Tor Jan's relations are also rocky with the Afghan security forces, which he had once hoped to join, preferably in a position carrying something of the authority and prestige he had in the Taliban movement. Recently, two of his relatives in nearby Arghandab district were arrested on suspicion of having links to the insurgency, a development he took as a grave personal affront.
"The lowest soldier here treats me with disrespect," he said, fuming. "I destroyed my life for nothing."
In Kandahar, switching sides is an extremely dangerous proposition. The Taliban may have trouble mounting organized attacks against Western troops, but the fighters have shown extraordinary determination to exact vengeance against those who leave the ranks.
Another Taliban commander who came in from the cold was Noorul Aziz, who was seriously wounded in October when assailants tossed a grenade into his vehicle, the latest of several attempts by insurgents to assassinate him. He remains active in the reintegration effort, but said the authorities had endangered fighters who wanted to turn themselves in by parading them before TV cameras.
"That's a mistake, showing their faces," said Aziz, who was given the post of provincial director for the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, after turning himself in this year.
Efforts to bring the Taliban leadership to the bargaining table, a process that Western officials had hoped would coincide with the troop buildup, have faltered in recent months. Officials had hoped that Pakistan, a key intermediary with the insurgents, would take part in an international conference in Bonn, Germany, this week, but the Islamabad government is boycotting the gathering to protest the deaths of 24 of its soldiers in an apparently mistaken NATO airstrike.
Without political progress toward a settlement, military gains can be difficult to cement. After last year's fighting season, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization force declared that it had dislodged the Taliban from three key districts surrounding Kandahar: Arghandab, Panjwayi and Zhari. Arghandab has remained relatively peaceful, but Zhari and Panjwayi are considered "contested," said German Brig. Gen. Carsten Jacobson, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force.
In this year's fighting season, the drop in attacks against Western troops reported by the NATO force led to a commensurate decrease in military casualties. Troop deaths in Kandahar and Helmand remain the highest among Afghanistan's 34 provinces, but they are significantly lower than in 2010, which was the deadliest year of the war for Western forces.
Months after the fiercest fighting subsided, however, Western officials are struggling to win villagers' trust. Last month in Zhari, seven civilians, including six children, were killed as NATO troops pursued suspected Taliban militants. The incident is under investigation.
"People in Zhari are very dissatisfied with NATO airstrikes and military operations," said the district chief, Nayaz Mohammad Sarhadi. "And the security situation is better, but enemy activity always lessens in the winter."
As a prelude to withdrawing nearly all combat troops in 2014, the West has begun handing over security responsibilities to Afghan forces. In some formerly volatile southern districts, including Marja and Nawa in Helmand province, Afghan police and soldiers are set to begin assuming control within weeks.
Two winters ago, both districts were battlegrounds, with U.S. Marines spearheading a major offensive. Now, many of the trappings of pre-Taliban times have been restored. Bazaars buzz with activity; many schools have reopened.
But some locals fear that once Afghan forces are in charge, that hard-won security could vanish.
"With what we have now, we're not ready to take the responsibility for security," said Ghulam Wali, the district police chief in Marja. "We need heavy weapons, and we need more personnel."
In Kandahar, even what is being characterized as a quiet year has been marked by explosions of violence. The Kandahar city mayor and provincial police chief were assassinated by the Taliban. Insurgents also staged a spectacular jailbreak and freed hundreds of fighters.
With 33,000 U.S. troops scheduled to be gone by this time next year, and European allies also accelerating their drawdowns, some fear a Taliban resurgence in the spring on its home turf.
A former official in the Taliban government, Mullah Abdullah Akhund, predicted the movement would use the winter to try to regroup and rearm, then seek to exploit any perceived opening in the south as U.S. attention shifts to the battlegrounds of eastern Afghanistan, close to Pakistan's tribal areas.
"That's why people here in Kandahar are just waiting to see what will happen, and not placing trust in the government," he said. "They know that when the foreigners leave, the Taliban could be back in power again."

Australian troops help to destroy poppy seeds in Afghanistan
CANBERRA, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Australian soldiers have taken part in a joint mission to destroy almost two tonnes of poppy seeds, which is used to produce heroin in Afghanistan, the Australian Defense Force said Wednesday.
In setback to the insurgency-linked drug trade, the Australian Special Operations Task Group (SOTG), the Afghan National Interdiction Unit and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration ( DEA) raided a drug production facility in Baghran region of Afghan southern province of Helmand.
Lieutenant Colonel G, the Commanding Officer of the Special Operations Task Group, who cannot be named for security reasons, said 1,785 kilograms of poppy seeds are found and destroyed on location on last Friday. It is believed that they were being cached in preparation for the 2012 growing seasons.
"While this dollar amount is not significant, if the poppy seeds were cultivated, processed into heroin, and sold in the United States, the DEA assess the find would potentially be worth more than 717 million U.S. dollars," he said in a statement.
"A number of insurgents were killed during the mission. However no ANSF (Afghan National Security Forces), SOTG or DEA personnel were killed or wounded," he said. "Destroying the poppy seed and removing insurgents from the area will affect the insurgency's ability to operate effectively during the winter months."
He said high grade seeds were crucial to sustaining poppy production and were generally highly protected by insurgents in Afghanistan.

HAIDARI: Bonn II: Seeking a secure Afghanistan
Conclave is only the first draft of a postwar blueprint
The Washington Times By M. Ashraf Haidari Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Ten years ago last Monday, the international community and various Afghan parties and factions gathered in Bonn, Germany, to lay the foundation of a permanent democratic government in Afghanistan. That momentous event under the United Nations auspices marked long-awaited international re-engagement in the country, following the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
In the preceding decade, Afghans, who had fought one of the bloodiest proxy conflicts of the Cold War against the former Soviet Union, were abandoned by their Western allies and the international community at large. Indeed, the consequences of neglecting Afghanistan’s postwar reconstruction, after the withdrawal of defeated Soviet forces from the country in 1989, allowed regional players to fuel a proxy civil war in Afghanistan. This resulted in state collapse and breakdown of the economy in the country, providing an easy and safe environment where transnational extremists, terrorists and drug traffickers freely operated.
Consequently, a neglected and increasingly isolated Afghanistan began undermining global peace and security, particularly when al Qaeda, sheltered by the Taliban, carried out terrorist attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. Of course, the response of the U.S., with a strong coalition of NATO and nonallied countries, to topple the Taliban, was swift. This classic international intervention was welcomed by the Afghan people, who overwhelmingly backed coalition forces to liberate Afghanistan from the tyranny of the Taliban.
Since the first Bonn gathering Dec. 5, 2001, Afghans have held two rounds of presidential and parliamentary elections. They also adopted one of the most modern constitutions in the region, guaranteeing women equal rights. Moreover, the writ of the Afghan state has continued to expand across the country, increasingly providing basic services to people in more than 20,000 villages where some 300,000 Afghan national security forces maintain security.
The results of ongoing civil-military efforts are visible everywhere in Afghanistan. Dismal Afghan social indicators have rapidly improved. Some 20,000 community health workers and 2,500 midwives are annually saving more mothers, infants and children under the age of 5 than any time in Afghan history. Additionally, Afghanistan has seen a significant increase in the enrollment of students, the recruitment and training of male and female teachers, and the reconstruction or construction of schools across the country. This combined progress has allowed nearly 7 million children - including 2.5 million girls - to go back to school.
These are but a few accomplishments of the Afghan people and government with international aid over the past 10 years. Nonetheless, international experience in such cases as the reconstruction of post-World War II Europe demonstrates that Afghanistan’s 10-year rebuilding achievements are a work in progress. Each civil or military gain thus far must be consolidated and sustained before Afghanistan can firmly stand on its own.
Therefore, at the request of Afghanistan, Germany hosted a conference of more than 100 nations and international organizations that met Dec. 5 in Bonn to discuss the way forward in Afghanistan after 2014, when most international military forces will have withdrawn from the country. The agenda of the conference focused on three important issues of concern to the government and people of Afghanistan.
First, the process of transition currently under way is overly militarized and neglects the civilian aspects of transition to Afghan control. While Afghan national security forces must be trained and equipped to reach their targeted goal of some 350,000 by the end of 2012, the institutions of democratic governance and rule of law, which play an equally critical role in ensuring long-term stability, must be strengthened at the national and local levels. Afghanistan needs adequate resources to improve institutional capacity for rule of law enforcement and public administration. This should gradually enable the Afghan government to fight corruption - a systemic problem of weak governance - more effectively.
Second, Afghanistan seeks to clearly define long-term international engagement after 2014. Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul and his German counterpart recently proposed three pillars for this: continuing civilian reconstruction, sustained support to the training and equipping of Afghan national security forces as long as necessary, and helping Afghanistan unlock its immense economic potential for the benefit of the Afghan people and of the region.
Third, international support for an Afghan-led peace process must continue. In a recent consultative, traditional Loya Jirga, more than 2,000 representatives of the Afghan people recommended that reaching a peace settlement with the armed opponents of Afghanistan must be an integral part of a comprehensive reconstruction and stabilization strategy. In other words, peace efforts should not be pursued in isolation, and the armed opponents willing to negotiate must comply with renouncing violence, breaking with international terrorism, and respecting the Afghan constitution and the fundamental human rights enshrined in it, including the equal rights of Afghan women.
It is self-evident that the second Bonn conference’s discussions about Afghanistan’s post-transition blueprint for security and development are not enough. The country’s nation-partners must learn the lessons of the reconstruction effort to date and make adjustments. Assistance needs to be better coordinated, and more needs to be done to build the capacity of Afghans so they can take responsibility for their own futures. Once neglected, Afghans do not want their country to return to the chaos and violence of the 1990s. As we learned from the Sept. 11 tragedy and the suffering of the Afghan people since, a failed Afghanistan is not an option for international peace and security. Success must be the only way forward.
M. Ashraf Haidari is deputy assistant national security adviser of Afghanistan, and was the charge d’affaires and deputy ambassador of the Afghan Embassy in Washington.

AP source: US rerouting some Afghan war supplies
Associated Press By PAULINE JELINEK 06/12/2011
WASHINGTON - The U.S. military is working around a Pakistani government border blockade by shipping small amounts of some supplies for the Afghan war through alternate countries, U.S. defense officials said Tuesday.
The supplies for U.S. troops in Afghanistan are items that would have been sent through Pakistan if the border hadn't been closed in protest over the U.S. bombing on Nov. 26 that killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers, according to two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
One official said selected items in very small amounts have been shifted to "other means of delivery" in the last few days. The official declined to be more specific. Other officials said there is no immediate need to alter the flow of war supplies substantially because there is no near-term prospect of shortages.
The rerouted supplies, like all that go through Pakistan, are non-lethal items.
Closing the border is among a series of actions Pakistan took in response to the Nov. 26 incident, for which the U.S. has expressed regret but not apologized. The Pakistanis refused an invitation to participate in a U.S. Central Command investigation of the killings, and they boycotted an international conference in Bonn, Germany, this week on sustaining financial and political support for Afghanistan.
A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt. John Kirby, said the border closing has had "no appreciable impact" on military operations in Afghanistan and that senior American commanders believe they are well supplied for now.
Kirby said the top U.S. commander in Kabul, Marine Gen. John Allen, is "comfortable that he's got what he needs right now."
About 30 percent of the non-lethal supplies for U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan normally come via two routes from Pakistan — the Torkham border crossing in the northwest Khyber tribal area and at the Chaman gateway in the southwestern Baluchistan province, near the city of Quetta. Much of what is supplied is fuel.
About 40 percent of non-lethal supplies travel on a northern route that enters Afghanistan by rail through Uzbekistan, and about 30 percent are shipped by air.
Pakistan has not said how long it will keep the border closed. After previous incidents, including an attack a year ago by a U.S. helicopter that killed two Pakistani soldiers posted on the border, the crossings were closed for 10 days to two weeks. U.S. officials believe the closure will last longer this time.
Aware of its vulnerability to unpredictable Pakistani border closings, the U.S. military in recent years has developed alternative supply routes. In particular it has expanded the capacity of the northern route since 2009. With a troop drawdown now under way in Afghanistan, supply requirements are expected to fall, thus also reducing the need to send fuel and other materials by land across Pakistan.
Kirby described U.S.-Pakistani military relations as being in "a very tough spot." Noting that Pakistan on Tuesday recalled some troops from border posts meant to coordinate activity with international forces in Afghanistan, Kirby said the U.S. and its NATO partners hope they will return soon.
"The whole reason those centers exist is to help try to prevent incidents like what happened" Nov. 26 on the border, he said. "The risks (of miscommunication and mistaken attacks) only increase when you don't have those coordination centers fully manned and staffed."
The closing of the border and other Pakistani reactions to the border incident have again raised questions in Congress about the future of U.S.-Pakistani relations.
Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said Monday that Washington should reconsider the relationship. They called the Pakistani soldier deaths a "terrible tragedy" but said Islamabad's response was "deeply troubling" and has added to the deterioration of the relationship.
"In particular, all options regarding U.S. security and economic assistance to Pakistan must be on the table, including substantial reductions and stricter standards for performance," they said in a joint statement.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told reporters Tuesday that legislation putting new restrictions on aid to Pakistan would have a "good chance" of passing Congress.

India Boosts Afghan Military Role
India’s military establishment is finalizing plans to train thousands of Afghan Army officers. Will New Delhi secure a first movers’ advantage?
The Diplomat December 07, 2011
On Monday, more than 85 nations began a meeting in Bonn to discuss the future of Afghanistan from 2014, when U.S.-led troops are scheduled to hand over security to Kabul.
But thousands of miles away, plans are already in the final stages of receiving Indian government clearance for an extensive training schedule for the fledgling Afghan National Army (ANA) at training institutions across the country.
The program is the first concrete follow-up on military-to-military cooperation under the umbrella of the Strategic Partnership Agreement that was signed between Kabul and New Delhi in October, when Afghan President Hamid Karzai was given a grand reception in India.
Under the agreement, India, which has the world’s third-largest army, agreed to train, equip and build the capacity of the Afghan forces.
Sources in the Indian security establishment familiar with the contours of the detailed schedule say Kabul and New Delhi have identified three areas to focus on, namely increasing the intake of officers in India’s premier training institutes; providing specialized training to middle and higher level officers already operating in the Afghan National Army (ANA); and training soldiers in counter-insurgency and counter-terrorist operations by seconding them to various regimental centers across India.
This will involve, sources told me last month, when I first did a report on the issue for NDTV, bringing to India more than 25,000 ANA officers and men over the next three years.Finalizing the schedule may take at least another couple of months, the sources added.
The military leadership in India and Afghanistan has concluded after several rounds of discussions that training the officer cadre won’t on its own be enough, since Afghan soldiers also need to be given the skills to take on the mixed role of counter-insurgency operations and providing static security three years from now.
At the same time, military planners have concluded that mid-level officers in the ANA need to be reoriented and given the training needed to assume leadership roles in the post-NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014. Accordingly, officers at the ranks of Lt. Col. and Brigadier will be provided focused training at three specialized institutions in India: The Commando School in Belgaum in south India, The Counter-insurgency and Jungle Warfare (CIJW) School in Mizoram, in northeast of India, and The High Altitude Warfare School in Sonamarg, Kashmir.
While the Belgaum School imparts soldiers and officers with commando skills over and above their basic infantry training, the CIJW, a 33-year-old institution in India’s northeast, has over the years perfected the techniques of counter-insurgency operations in varied terrain, and has trained contingents from countries including the United States and Vietnam. The High Altitude Warfare School, meanwhile, which is located in the Kashmir Valley, teaches basic skills to allow forces to operate in snowy and high altitude areas.
Initially, the plan is to train select officers and then slowly ramp up training to include small groups of soldiers, too.
But the bulk of the program will be concentrated on training and welding together company-level (100 men) contingents by basing them at various regimental centers run by the Indian Army to train new recruits into the force. These centers, commanded by brigadiers, are the first training stop for every Indian soldier before he joins regular battalions. The training is likely to last for six to eight months. So far, India has trained half a dozen platoon level (30 soldiers) groups from the ANA, but has kept this development well under wraps.
With 25 Infantry regimental centers spread across the country, India is able to train up to 2,500 Afghan soldiers simultaneously.Moreover, India has also decided to double the vacancies for fresh Afghan officer recruits in two of the country’s premier institutions – the Indian Military Academy at Dehra Dun, and the two Officers’ Training Institutes at Chennai and Gaya. So far, there have been a total of 50 seats on offer in these training establishments.
But there is reportedly an additional component to the training that Indian officials are reluctant to talk about – training by select intelligence officers in Indian Army’s Military Intelligence Training School, located in the western Indian city of Pune. About 20 operatives from the ANA are said to have undergone a six month intelligence course, with more on their way.
New Delhi has also decided to supply vehicles, information technology and sports equipment, a move seen as a paradigm shift in India’s approach to Afghanistan.
So far, India has concentrated on using “soft power” in the development sector, such as helping with the building of roads, hospitals and even the parliament building in Afghanistan. But by offering extensive training facilities for ANA, India has decided to ramp up its involvement, although it’s currently stopping short of supplying any military hardware. New Delhi has also decided not to send training teams to Afghanistan in view of the two attacks on its embassy in Kabul.
The Indian security and strategic establishment has been wary of discussing the Indo-Afghan military-to-military relationship, not least because of Islamabad’s sensitivities. Pakistan sees the growing relationship between New Delhi and Kabul as denying “strategic depth” to its army, and even as an Indian attempt to encircle Pakistan.
Veteran analysts and military officers in India for their part dismiss such fears. Former Director General of Military Intelligence in the Indian Army, retired Lt. Gen Ravi Sawhney, speaks for many in arguing: “India has legitimate interests in Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics and has every right to develop its relationship with any country in keeping with its own national interests.”
But Sawhney, one of the first officers to establish contact with Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance in the late 1990s and early 2000s, says he opposes any Indian troop deployment in Afghanistan.
“There’s no advantage in doing so, since India doesn’t have any direct land access to that country,” he says. “Our strength is the quality of training troops, and India is doing the right thing by concentrating on this aspect.”
As the United States and its NATO allies prepare for their drawdown over the next couple of years, the jostling for strategic space in Afghanistan by countries in the region is likely to intensify. By starting out early, India is trying to gain a first movers’ advantage. Whether it will benefit in the long run from such a significant investment of energy, though, remains to be seen.
Nitin Gokhale is Defence & Strategic Affairs Editor with Indian broadcaster, NDTV 24×7

Talking about Taliban killers is taboo in the UK
Increasing and controversial role for the much-praised SAS in Afghanistan cloaked in official secrecy
Guardian.co.uk By Richard Norton-Taylor Tuesday 6 December 2011
Britain's special forces played an important role in Iraq, and in Libya. In Afghanistan, relentless special forces operations are killing 130 to 140 insurgent leaders every month, according to Lt Gen James Bucknall, the most senior British military figure in the country.
In an interview in the Guardian this week, the General hailed the actions of the SAS, suggesting they were the key to defeating the Taliban.
For years, the SAS and the SBS (the Special Boat Service) have been conducting night raids, often with US special forces, capturing and killing individuals identified - sometimes correctly, sometimes not - as Taliban commanders and their supporters.
It is hard to see what these killings are achieving. Assassinated "insurgent leaders" are being replaced by a younger generation even less likely to agree to reconciliation talks with the Taliban that the British top brass, notably chief of defence staff General Sir David Richards, have said they want, and the sooner the better.
While special forces set out on killing raids, conventional British troops engage in a battle for "hearts and minds". The jury is out over whether a carrot and stick approach is working in Helmand province, the base for the 9,500 or so British troops still in Afghanistan.
While most of these troops are busy mentoring and training Afghan forces, 500 British special forces soldiers are engaged in intense operations designed to kill as many Taliban commanders as possible. That such operations are of questionable legality is clear from the special (and secret) legal advice given to special forces, different to that given to the rest of the British armed forces.
Special forces will become increasingly important as conflict and warfare becomes more and more sophisticated, further and further away from the traditional world of set-piece battles and bombing campaigns. In Afghanistan, special forces are working increasingly closely with Britain's security and intelligence agencies, notably MI6. In future conflicts, special forces and spies will be joined by pilotless armed drones and cyber warriors in a new arsenal of key weapons systems.
This is not mere speculation. It is the considered view of most senior military officers. Yet Britain's special forces remain taboo, more so even than the activities of MI5 and MI6. Even the Ministry of Defence's D Notice Committee, which runs a system of voluntary self-censorship in cooperation with the media establishment, believes the official secrecy surrounding the activities of Britain's special forces should be relaxed.
Books may be written about the SAS, their operations may be described in the media, especially if they are accounts of apparently successful derring-do. But they remain officially secret. Officials and ministers do not comment on them, officially, to MPs, the media, or the public.
The SAS has one thing in common with the Trident submarine nuclear missile system. They are both officially taboo. One is relatively cheap to run and regarded as increasingly relevant. The other is costing tens of billions of pounds, and, senior military officers agree, increasingly irrelevant.

Afghanistan and Libya Zoos Survive War
By Glen Levy Wednesday, Dec. 07, 2011 time.com
If you were to play word association with either Libya or Afghanistan in 2011, chances are that the word zoo wouldn't make the top of the list. But both Tripoli and Kabul's zoos played a small if significant part in the broader story. In Libya, the zoo was located in the former Gaddafi stronghold of Abu Salim, where the employees and — of course — the animals had to handle considerable food and water shortages. Ibrahim Basha, the head keeper for 24 years, said the Gaddafi regime frequently failed to make monthly payments, meaning that it owed the company that provided the animals' food more than $1.5 million. Even one of Gaddafi's sons, Saadi (who owned nine of the zoo's 19 lions and loved to check on their progress), stopped visiting. As for the zoo's employees, only 15 of the 100 were willing to work.
In Kabul, it could be argued that the worst was already over. Following the collapse of the communist regime in 1992, the Afghan civil war decimated the zoo; with nobody to feed them, the better part of 400 animals died of hunger. Yet the rise of the Taliban (it came to power in 1996) stopped the bleeding as the insurgents built new outer walls and gave food to the surviving animals. What's more, China and Pakistan have given animals as diplomatic gifts over the years, bolstering the number of both creatures and visitors, who, admittedly, visit as much for the shade afforded by the zoo as by a desire to spend time with the animals.

www.afghanistannewscenter.com