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Karzai: Death Toll in Attacks on Afghan Shi’ites Rises to 80
VOA News December 11, 2011
Afghan President Hamid Karzai says Tuesday's rare sectarian attacks on minority Shi'ites in the country killed at least 80 people, significantly higher than the previously reported figure of 59.
In a speech Sunday in Kabul, Mr. Karzai said he learned of the updated death toll earlier in the day and blamed the bombings on people trying to undermine peace in Afghanistan. In the deadliest December 6 attack, a suicide bomber blew himself up near a Kabul shrine where Shi'ites were marking the holy day of Ashura, while a smaller blast happened near a Shi'ite shrine in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
Authorities initially put the death toll at 55 in Kabul and four in Mazar-e-Sharif. It was not clear if the 80 deaths reported by Mr. Karzai included people killed only at the Kabul shrine or in both cities.
Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for the Kabul attack, which raised fears that Afghanistan could see an eruption of Sunni – Shi'ite violence of the kind that is common in Pakistan and Iraq.
U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker said Saturday he does not expect the Ashura bombings to ignite a sectarian conflict, in part because Afghan Shi'ite leaders have called for calm.
Afghanistan's Sunni militant Taliban movement issued another statement Sunday condemning the attacks.
In other violence, NATO says a bomb attack killed two of its service members in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday. It did not disclose their nationalities.
President Karzai also used his speech to urge the international community to do more to help Afghanistan fight corruption. Berlin-based group Transparency International ranked the country as one of the world's most corrupt in a survey released this month.
In his speech marking International Anti-Corruption Day, Mr. Karzai said foreign donors and companies contribute to the corruption problem by awarding development contracts to high-ranking Afghan officials and their relatives. He called for the practice to stop.
Speaking at the same event, the head of Afghanistan's High Office of Oversight and Anti-Corruption said his agency is like a “toothless lion” and needs more power to deal with the problem. Azizullah Ludin said Afghanistan's more than 10 anti-corruption bodies should be merged into a single unit to fight corruption effectively.
Mr. Karzai also called on the United States to extradite former Afghan central bank chief Abdul Qadir Fitrat to face questions about a corruption scandal at Kabul Bank, Afghanistan's biggest commercial lender. Fitrat fled to the United States in June, saying his life was in danger because of the scandal.
Critics accuse Fitrat and other central bank officials of failing to act on warnings of corruption inside the private bank, whose near-collapse last year triggered an economic crisis.
Afghan president vows to fight corruption
KABUL, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday vowed to fight corruption in his cash-strapped and militancy-plagued country.
"We are determined to fight corruption and implement the law to curb this social evil," President Karzai said in his remarks to observe the International Anti-Corruption Day.
The militancy-hit Afghanistan has ranked the second most corrupted nations after Somalia and Democratic People Republic of Korea, according to a recent report by Transparency International.
To root out corruption, Karzai pointed out that implementation of the law is essential, adding the government should push the reforms and end nepotism.
He also noted that Afghanistan would overcome the menace of corruption through its long-term fight.
However, the Afghan president pointed finger at foreign countries present in Afghanistan, saying "Our foreign friends should not give huge contracts to high ranking government functionaries as signing such contracts would pave the way for corruption." Nevertheless, the president did not mention any name.
Certain countries contributing troops to Afghanistan particularly the United States, according to officials have inked contracts worth millions of U.S. dollars with private firms.
"The worth of these contracts is billions of U.S. dollars and inked without our information. If such contracts are inked in a proper way and Afghan government takes tax it would benefit our economy," President Karzai said, adding "we want our foreign friends to assist us in this field".
In parts of his speech, the Afghan leader also hinted that " BBC and certain media outlets have making propaganda that Afghanistan would plunge into civil war after NATO-led forces pull out from the war-torn country", saying these media outlets should stop such propaganda against Afghanistan.
Meantime, the Afghan President said education is very important for taking his country out from the current problems, as educating Afghans would help the country to stand on its feet.
Earlier, Azizullah Ludin, the head of Anti-Corruption Directorate of Afghanistan in his speech described corruption as a major challenge in government administration.
"My administration is like a toothless lion that captures a prey but cannot eat," Ludin told the audience while referring to the weakness of administration.
He also admitted that the law is implemented against the weak citizens while the big fishes and influential figures enjoy immunity and emphasized that the culture of impunity should be ended in Afghanistan.
US commander defends night raids in Afghanistan
By PATRICK QUINN
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The U.S. Special Operations commander who directed the operation that killed Osama bin Laden defended the unpopular night raids on homes in Afghanistan that have provoked the fury of the country's president and held up a security agreement with the United States.
Adm. William McRaven also backed a training program his troops run for village police forces — an initiative that some fear could spawn militias and new violence.
McRaven, who leads the U.S. Special Operations Command, said in a rare interview with journalists late Saturday that the U.S. understands Afghan concerns about night raids and has allowed its partner Afghan forces to take the lead in those and other operations.
"At the end of the end of the day I think you would find that night raids are very valuable when you are trying to get someone who is trying to hide," McRaven said.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has called for an end to the raids, in which troops borne in by helicopter search homes, because he says the forces conducting them treat too many civilians as if they were insurgents and violate privacy in an intensely conservative society. The deaths they cause — although relatively few in number — have made them unpopular with many Afghans.
Afghan citizens, Karzai says, cannot feel secure if they think armed troops might burst into their homes in the middle of the night.
McRaven, who would not answer questions about the May raid that killed bin Laden in neighboring Pakistan, said the United States was discussing the future of night raids with Afghanistan's government.
Around 2,800 raids against insurgent targets have been carried out in the past year, he said. But in 85 percent of them, the forces involved never fired a shot.
"In that time the civilians casualties were less than 1 percent. The number of times we engaged was about 15 percent," he said.
Karzai convened a traditional national assembly known as a Loya Jirga last month that stopped short of demanding a complete end to night raids. Instead, it asked that they be led and controlled by Afghan security forces — a demand that the U.S. says it has met.
Still, the issue has held up the signing of a security agreement with the U.S. that could keep thousands of American troops here for years beyond the 2014 deadline for most international forces to leave. Remaining U.S. troops would train Afghan forces and assist with counterterrorism operations.
The U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Ryan Crocker, told reporters Saturday the raids will be a topic of debate when the two countries return to the negotiating table to discuss their strategic partnership.
McRaven's command is involved in training Afghan commandos — 8,200 so far — as well as special forces and local police known as ALPs.
U.S. special forces have been training the village-level fighting forces in hopes of countering the Taliban insurgency — a concept similar to the one that turned the tide of the Iraq war.
But the ALP initiative has stirred worries it will legitimize existing private militias or create new ones. Warlord-led militias ravaged Afghanistan in the 1990s, opening the way for the Taliban takeover.
McRaven said he had not seen any evidence that the groups were fueling local rivalries. He said there was no decision to increase the number of ALP's, although "my instinct is yes to increase, but that remains to be seen."
The Afghan government has agreed to have about 30,000 of the ALP forces trained by the end of 2013. They will be located across 99 districts around the country at a cost of about $170 million a year. The forces are not meant to replace the Afghan army or police, but complement them in some areas.
"The real advantage for the ALP ... is the ability for Afghans from their local districts to protect their own homes," McRaven said.
Pakistan: US Military Vacates Pakistani Air Base by Deadline
VOA News December 11, 2011
Pakistan says the U.S. military has vacated an air base in the country's southwest, meeting a deadline set by the Pakistani government in response to a NATO air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last month.
The Pakistani military says it took over the Shamsi base in Baluchistan province on Sunday, as the last flight carrying U.S. personnel and equipment departed. U.S. media say the U.S. military had used the base as part of a years-long drone offensive against al-Qaida and Taliban militants along the Pakistani-Afghan border. There was no immediate confirmation of the base withdrawal from U.S. officials.
The Pakistani government ordered the United States to vacate the base by December 11 as part of several punitive measures reflecting Pakistani anger about the November 26 NATO strikes that killed the soldiers. Islamabad also closed its border crossings to trucks delivering supplies to NATO forces in land-locked Afghanistan and boycotted a December 5 international conference on stabilizing its western neighbor.
U.S. officials have denied Pakistani accusations that NATO warplanes deliberately targeted the Pakistani soldiers during an operation against militants on the border of Afghanistan's Kunar province and Pakistan's Mohmand tribal region. The U.S. military and NATO have launched investigations of the incident and U.S. President Barack Obama has offered condolences to Pakistan for the soldiers' deaths.
U.S. intelligence experts say the withdrawal from the Shamsi air base is not likely to have a major impact on the drone war in the border region because the U.S. military still can fly the unmanned planes out of air fields in Afghanistan.
In another development, two prominent Pakistani Taliban members have denied a claim by one of the group's commanders that the militant group is engaged in peace talks with the Pakistani government.
The Associated Press reported Sunday that Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ehsansullah Ehsan and commander Mullah Dadullah told the agency that no such talks are under way.
The Pakistani Taliban's deputy chief Maulvi Faqir Mohammad had announced Saturday that negotiations with the government were progressing well and could soon lead to an agreement. Mohammad's fighters operate in Pakistan's Bajaur tribal region.
Pakistani Taliban members' conflicting statements about peace talks appeared to reflect a split within the group, whose command structure is unclear. The Pakistani government has not confirmed any negotiations with the militants blamed for much of the country's deadly violence in recent years, but officials have spoken of a need for dialogue.
The United States has long pressured Pakistan, a major U.S. aid recipient, to fight the Islamist militants who use bases in Pakistani tribal regions to attack U.S.-led NATO forces in Afghanistan.
News Analysis: Mystery shrouds over Pakistani Taliban talks
By Muhammad Tahir
ISLAMABAD, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- Differences in the ranks of Pakistani Taliban visibly appeared on Sunday as two senior commanders quickly denied a latest claim by their senior leader Maulvi Faqir Muhammad that the militants are in talks with the Pakistani government.
Maulvi Faqir, deputy chief of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistani or TTP, called media persons in Pakistan from an undisclosed location on Saturday and confirmed the talks with Islamabad.
He also claimed that the talks are progressing well and Pakistan has freed 145 Taliban militants as a goodwill gesture and the Taliban in return have promised a ceasefire.
Maulvi Faqir, who had led Taliban fighters to fight Pakistani forces in Bajaur tribal region in 2008-9, fled after the army cleared the region of the militants. A Pakistan army's spokesman says that Faqir is now operating from Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province, which borders Bajaur.
A TTP Commander Maulana Dadullah Sunday categorically denied Faqir's claim and said the Taliban are not holding any talks with the Pakistani government.
Dadullah called Pakistani journalists in the northwestern city of Peshawar to reject the claim by the TTP deputy chief, saying that Faqir may have contacted the government in his personal capacity and not as TTP leader. He said the TTP does not intend to hold talks with the government unless the Islamic system is implemented in Pakistan.
Dadullah, who also belongs to Bajaur tribal region, appeared in Afghanistan's Kunar province along with Pakistani boys, kidnapped by the Pakistani Taliban some four months ago and the hostages are still held in Afghanistan.
Another senior Pakistani Taliban commander Abdul Wali, also known as Omar Khalid, also rejected Faqir's claim and said the TTP are not holding any talks with the Pakistani government. Omar Khalid is the head of Taliban in Mohmand tribal region and the Pakistan army says he has also crossed into Afghanistan and has re- grouped his fighters there.
The Pakistani government has not shown any reaction to the fresh Taliban's talks claim, but local TV channels late Saturday night aired a denial of Faqir's claim by unnamed security sources. The Pakistan army and the Interior Minister had denied earlier talks claims by unnamed Taliban leaders.
There had been reports in recent weeks about the talks between the Pakistani Taliban and the government but it was the first time on Saturday when the deputy chief of the TTP confirmed to some of the media that the movement is in peace talks with Islamabad.
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in October offered talks with the Taliban after nearly 60 political and religious leaders proposed talks with the militants in the wake of threats of unilateral action against army in Pakistan by then US Chief of Joints Staff Mike Mullen. The country's powerful army had also agreed with the Taliban talks proposal but Pakistan has never officially offered any word about the talks.
Sources close to the TTP said that the Taliban leadership has been allowed to talk to the security forces or officials in their respective areas only to "resolve problems in their respective areas" but they are not supposed to take important decisions like holding talks with the government.
But Faqir's talks claim and quick denial by two other Taliban leaders show differences within the Taliban on the issue of talks with the government.
Another important thing is that the TTP chief or its spokesman have so far not issued any reaction to Saturday's statement of the movement's deputy chief. The TTP central spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan had earlier denied talks with the government when media quoted unnamed Taliban commanders as saying that they are in talks with Islamabad.
Prominent Pakistani expert on Afghan affairs and newspaper editor Rahimuallah Yousafzai said reaction from the TTP central leadership is very important to the mystery of the Taliban- Government talks. Yousafzai said that the Taliban are now very weak as they have lost many areas under their control and they even do not have strong contacts with each other for consultations.
Conflicting statements from Taliban commanders have now confirmed that there are differences within the Taliban ranks over the issue of dialogue with the government. Experts believe that this can further weaken the movement and their weakness can force them to have a dialogue with the government.
Iran Complains to Afghanistan About U.S. Drone
By ALISSA J. RUBIN The New York Times December 11, 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Iranian Foreign Ministry expressed its displeasure to Afghanistan’s ambassador to Iran over an American drone aircraft that Iran says flew deep into its airspace and crashed last week, a spokesman for the Afghan Foreign Ministry said Sunday.
According to Afghan officials, the drone was flown from the American and Afghan base at Shindand in western Herat Province. American officials have acknowledged the loss of an RQ-170, a C.I.A. stealth drone made by Lockheed Martin and designed to fly covert missions and collect information in hostile territory, but have declined to confirm or deny that it is the plane that Iran says it recovered.
The Afghan ambassador, Obaidullah Obaid, discussed the matter with Iranian officials and promised to look into the circumstances, said Janan Mosazai, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry.
Such overflights are an example of the difficult position that President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan has been put in by the American presence. Mr. Karzai has repeatedly promised that Afghanistan will not allow the Americans or anyone else to use Afghan soil to mount attacks on its neighbors. While the drone that Iran says it recovered was not armed, Iran views the overflights as hostile.
Canadian Forces won't let Taliban run away
Toronto Sun By Mark Dunn ,Senior National Reporter Saturday, December 10, 2011
OTTAWA - The remaining Canadian Forces' troops in Afghanistan performing non-combat duties will face situations involving the capture of insurgents and transferring them to U.S. forces.
A Defence Department official suggests that while "the likelihood that Canadian Forces will be required to take detainees is very low," it will happen.
On Friday, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird announced a new arrangement with the Americans that allows captured Taliban fighters and others to be transferred to a U.S. detention facility north of Kabul in Parwan.
"A small number of detainees will be transferred to the new facility," the official confirmed in an e-mail to QMI Agency.
"Individuals are detained by the Canadian Forces because they have either attacked or killed Canadian soldiers and officials, Afghan citizens or our international partners," says a background document.
"Or because there is credible information to suggest that they intend to do so."
Canada's combat role ended in July, but hundreds of troops are remaining to train Afghanistan's police and military personnel until 2014 as part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
"With the transition of Canada's combat mission in Kandahar to a new training mission centred in Kabul, it became apparent that a new arrangement was needed for the Canadian Forces," Defence Minister Peter MacKay said.
The treatment of detainees at the U.S. prison will be monitored until their cases have been heard by Afghan courts - one of which is located inside the prison.
The detainee issue is a delicate one for Prime Minister Stephen Harper after incidents in 2006 and 2007 when detainees handed over to Afghanistan authorities were tortured in violation of international statutes.
In June, the government released reams of documents that showed Canadian troops were unaware that detainees were being abused.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
VOA News December 11, 2011
Afghan President Hamid Karzai says Tuesday's rare sectarian attacks on minority Shi'ites in the country killed at least 80 people, significantly higher than the previously reported figure of 59.
In a speech Sunday in Kabul, Mr. Karzai said he learned of the updated death toll earlier in the day and blamed the bombings on people trying to undermine peace in Afghanistan. In the deadliest December 6 attack, a suicide bomber blew himself up near a Kabul shrine where Shi'ites were marking the holy day of Ashura, while a smaller blast happened near a Shi'ite shrine in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
Authorities initially put the death toll at 55 in Kabul and four in Mazar-e-Sharif. It was not clear if the 80 deaths reported by Mr. Karzai included people killed only at the Kabul shrine or in both cities.
Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for the Kabul attack, which raised fears that Afghanistan could see an eruption of Sunni – Shi'ite violence of the kind that is common in Pakistan and Iraq.
U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker said Saturday he does not expect the Ashura bombings to ignite a sectarian conflict, in part because Afghan Shi'ite leaders have called for calm.
Afghanistan's Sunni militant Taliban movement issued another statement Sunday condemning the attacks.
In other violence, NATO says a bomb attack killed two of its service members in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday. It did not disclose their nationalities.
President Karzai also used his speech to urge the international community to do more to help Afghanistan fight corruption. Berlin-based group Transparency International ranked the country as one of the world's most corrupt in a survey released this month.
In his speech marking International Anti-Corruption Day, Mr. Karzai said foreign donors and companies contribute to the corruption problem by awarding development contracts to high-ranking Afghan officials and their relatives. He called for the practice to stop.
Speaking at the same event, the head of Afghanistan's High Office of Oversight and Anti-Corruption said his agency is like a “toothless lion” and needs more power to deal with the problem. Azizullah Ludin said Afghanistan's more than 10 anti-corruption bodies should be merged into a single unit to fight corruption effectively.
Mr. Karzai also called on the United States to extradite former Afghan central bank chief Abdul Qadir Fitrat to face questions about a corruption scandal at Kabul Bank, Afghanistan's biggest commercial lender. Fitrat fled to the United States in June, saying his life was in danger because of the scandal.
Critics accuse Fitrat and other central bank officials of failing to act on warnings of corruption inside the private bank, whose near-collapse last year triggered an economic crisis.
Afghan president vows to fight corruption
KABUL, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday vowed to fight corruption in his cash-strapped and militancy-plagued country.
"We are determined to fight corruption and implement the law to curb this social evil," President Karzai said in his remarks to observe the International Anti-Corruption Day.
The militancy-hit Afghanistan has ranked the second most corrupted nations after Somalia and Democratic People Republic of Korea, according to a recent report by Transparency International.
To root out corruption, Karzai pointed out that implementation of the law is essential, adding the government should push the reforms and end nepotism.
He also noted that Afghanistan would overcome the menace of corruption through its long-term fight.
However, the Afghan president pointed finger at foreign countries present in Afghanistan, saying "Our foreign friends should not give huge contracts to high ranking government functionaries as signing such contracts would pave the way for corruption." Nevertheless, the president did not mention any name.
Certain countries contributing troops to Afghanistan particularly the United States, according to officials have inked contracts worth millions of U.S. dollars with private firms.
"The worth of these contracts is billions of U.S. dollars and inked without our information. If such contracts are inked in a proper way and Afghan government takes tax it would benefit our economy," President Karzai said, adding "we want our foreign friends to assist us in this field".
In parts of his speech, the Afghan leader also hinted that " BBC and certain media outlets have making propaganda that Afghanistan would plunge into civil war after NATO-led forces pull out from the war-torn country", saying these media outlets should stop such propaganda against Afghanistan.
Meantime, the Afghan President said education is very important for taking his country out from the current problems, as educating Afghans would help the country to stand on its feet.
Earlier, Azizullah Ludin, the head of Anti-Corruption Directorate of Afghanistan in his speech described corruption as a major challenge in government administration.
"My administration is like a toothless lion that captures a prey but cannot eat," Ludin told the audience while referring to the weakness of administration.
He also admitted that the law is implemented against the weak citizens while the big fishes and influential figures enjoy immunity and emphasized that the culture of impunity should be ended in Afghanistan.
US commander defends night raids in Afghanistan
By PATRICK QUINN
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The U.S. Special Operations commander who directed the operation that killed Osama bin Laden defended the unpopular night raids on homes in Afghanistan that have provoked the fury of the country's president and held up a security agreement with the United States.
Adm. William McRaven also backed a training program his troops run for village police forces — an initiative that some fear could spawn militias and new violence.
McRaven, who leads the U.S. Special Operations Command, said in a rare interview with journalists late Saturday that the U.S. understands Afghan concerns about night raids and has allowed its partner Afghan forces to take the lead in those and other operations.
"At the end of the end of the day I think you would find that night raids are very valuable when you are trying to get someone who is trying to hide," McRaven said.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has called for an end to the raids, in which troops borne in by helicopter search homes, because he says the forces conducting them treat too many civilians as if they were insurgents and violate privacy in an intensely conservative society. The deaths they cause — although relatively few in number — have made them unpopular with many Afghans.
Afghan citizens, Karzai says, cannot feel secure if they think armed troops might burst into their homes in the middle of the night.
McRaven, who would not answer questions about the May raid that killed bin Laden in neighboring Pakistan, said the United States was discussing the future of night raids with Afghanistan's government.
Around 2,800 raids against insurgent targets have been carried out in the past year, he said. But in 85 percent of them, the forces involved never fired a shot.
"In that time the civilians casualties were less than 1 percent. The number of times we engaged was about 15 percent," he said.
Karzai convened a traditional national assembly known as a Loya Jirga last month that stopped short of demanding a complete end to night raids. Instead, it asked that they be led and controlled by Afghan security forces — a demand that the U.S. says it has met.
Still, the issue has held up the signing of a security agreement with the U.S. that could keep thousands of American troops here for years beyond the 2014 deadline for most international forces to leave. Remaining U.S. troops would train Afghan forces and assist with counterterrorism operations.
The U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Ryan Crocker, told reporters Saturday the raids will be a topic of debate when the two countries return to the negotiating table to discuss their strategic partnership.
McRaven's command is involved in training Afghan commandos — 8,200 so far — as well as special forces and local police known as ALPs.
U.S. special forces have been training the village-level fighting forces in hopes of countering the Taliban insurgency — a concept similar to the one that turned the tide of the Iraq war.
But the ALP initiative has stirred worries it will legitimize existing private militias or create new ones. Warlord-led militias ravaged Afghanistan in the 1990s, opening the way for the Taliban takeover.
McRaven said he had not seen any evidence that the groups were fueling local rivalries. He said there was no decision to increase the number of ALP's, although "my instinct is yes to increase, but that remains to be seen."
The Afghan government has agreed to have about 30,000 of the ALP forces trained by the end of 2013. They will be located across 99 districts around the country at a cost of about $170 million a year. The forces are not meant to replace the Afghan army or police, but complement them in some areas.
"The real advantage for the ALP ... is the ability for Afghans from their local districts to protect their own homes," McRaven said.
Pakistan: US Military Vacates Pakistani Air Base by Deadline
VOA News December 11, 2011
Pakistan says the U.S. military has vacated an air base in the country's southwest, meeting a deadline set by the Pakistani government in response to a NATO air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last month.
The Pakistani military says it took over the Shamsi base in Baluchistan province on Sunday, as the last flight carrying U.S. personnel and equipment departed. U.S. media say the U.S. military had used the base as part of a years-long drone offensive against al-Qaida and Taliban militants along the Pakistani-Afghan border. There was no immediate confirmation of the base withdrawal from U.S. officials.
The Pakistani government ordered the United States to vacate the base by December 11 as part of several punitive measures reflecting Pakistani anger about the November 26 NATO strikes that killed the soldiers. Islamabad also closed its border crossings to trucks delivering supplies to NATO forces in land-locked Afghanistan and boycotted a December 5 international conference on stabilizing its western neighbor.
U.S. officials have denied Pakistani accusations that NATO warplanes deliberately targeted the Pakistani soldiers during an operation against militants on the border of Afghanistan's Kunar province and Pakistan's Mohmand tribal region. The U.S. military and NATO have launched investigations of the incident and U.S. President Barack Obama has offered condolences to Pakistan for the soldiers' deaths.
U.S. intelligence experts say the withdrawal from the Shamsi air base is not likely to have a major impact on the drone war in the border region because the U.S. military still can fly the unmanned planes out of air fields in Afghanistan.
In another development, two prominent Pakistani Taliban members have denied a claim by one of the group's commanders that the militant group is engaged in peace talks with the Pakistani government.
The Associated Press reported Sunday that Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ehsansullah Ehsan and commander Mullah Dadullah told the agency that no such talks are under way.
The Pakistani Taliban's deputy chief Maulvi Faqir Mohammad had announced Saturday that negotiations with the government were progressing well and could soon lead to an agreement. Mohammad's fighters operate in Pakistan's Bajaur tribal region.
Pakistani Taliban members' conflicting statements about peace talks appeared to reflect a split within the group, whose command structure is unclear. The Pakistani government has not confirmed any negotiations with the militants blamed for much of the country's deadly violence in recent years, but officials have spoken of a need for dialogue.
The United States has long pressured Pakistan, a major U.S. aid recipient, to fight the Islamist militants who use bases in Pakistani tribal regions to attack U.S.-led NATO forces in Afghanistan.
News Analysis: Mystery shrouds over Pakistani Taliban talks
By Muhammad Tahir
ISLAMABAD, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- Differences in the ranks of Pakistani Taliban visibly appeared on Sunday as two senior commanders quickly denied a latest claim by their senior leader Maulvi Faqir Muhammad that the militants are in talks with the Pakistani government.
Maulvi Faqir, deputy chief of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistani or TTP, called media persons in Pakistan from an undisclosed location on Saturday and confirmed the talks with Islamabad.
He also claimed that the talks are progressing well and Pakistan has freed 145 Taliban militants as a goodwill gesture and the Taliban in return have promised a ceasefire.
Maulvi Faqir, who had led Taliban fighters to fight Pakistani forces in Bajaur tribal region in 2008-9, fled after the army cleared the region of the militants. A Pakistan army's spokesman says that Faqir is now operating from Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province, which borders Bajaur.
A TTP Commander Maulana Dadullah Sunday categorically denied Faqir's claim and said the Taliban are not holding any talks with the Pakistani government.
Dadullah called Pakistani journalists in the northwestern city of Peshawar to reject the claim by the TTP deputy chief, saying that Faqir may have contacted the government in his personal capacity and not as TTP leader. He said the TTP does not intend to hold talks with the government unless the Islamic system is implemented in Pakistan.
Dadullah, who also belongs to Bajaur tribal region, appeared in Afghanistan's Kunar province along with Pakistani boys, kidnapped by the Pakistani Taliban some four months ago and the hostages are still held in Afghanistan.
Another senior Pakistani Taliban commander Abdul Wali, also known as Omar Khalid, also rejected Faqir's claim and said the TTP are not holding any talks with the Pakistani government. Omar Khalid is the head of Taliban in Mohmand tribal region and the Pakistan army says he has also crossed into Afghanistan and has re- grouped his fighters there.
The Pakistani government has not shown any reaction to the fresh Taliban's talks claim, but local TV channels late Saturday night aired a denial of Faqir's claim by unnamed security sources. The Pakistan army and the Interior Minister had denied earlier talks claims by unnamed Taliban leaders.
There had been reports in recent weeks about the talks between the Pakistani Taliban and the government but it was the first time on Saturday when the deputy chief of the TTP confirmed to some of the media that the movement is in peace talks with Islamabad.
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in October offered talks with the Taliban after nearly 60 political and religious leaders proposed talks with the militants in the wake of threats of unilateral action against army in Pakistan by then US Chief of Joints Staff Mike Mullen. The country's powerful army had also agreed with the Taliban talks proposal but Pakistan has never officially offered any word about the talks.
Sources close to the TTP said that the Taliban leadership has been allowed to talk to the security forces or officials in their respective areas only to "resolve problems in their respective areas" but they are not supposed to take important decisions like holding talks with the government.
But Faqir's talks claim and quick denial by two other Taliban leaders show differences within the Taliban on the issue of talks with the government.
Another important thing is that the TTP chief or its spokesman have so far not issued any reaction to Saturday's statement of the movement's deputy chief. The TTP central spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan had earlier denied talks with the government when media quoted unnamed Taliban commanders as saying that they are in talks with Islamabad.
Prominent Pakistani expert on Afghan affairs and newspaper editor Rahimuallah Yousafzai said reaction from the TTP central leadership is very important to the mystery of the Taliban- Government talks. Yousafzai said that the Taliban are now very weak as they have lost many areas under their control and they even do not have strong contacts with each other for consultations.
Conflicting statements from Taliban commanders have now confirmed that there are differences within the Taliban ranks over the issue of dialogue with the government. Experts believe that this can further weaken the movement and their weakness can force them to have a dialogue with the government.
Iran Complains to Afghanistan About U.S. Drone
By ALISSA J. RUBIN The New York Times December 11, 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Iranian Foreign Ministry expressed its displeasure to Afghanistan’s ambassador to Iran over an American drone aircraft that Iran says flew deep into its airspace and crashed last week, a spokesman for the Afghan Foreign Ministry said Sunday.
According to Afghan officials, the drone was flown from the American and Afghan base at Shindand in western Herat Province. American officials have acknowledged the loss of an RQ-170, a C.I.A. stealth drone made by Lockheed Martin and designed to fly covert missions and collect information in hostile territory, but have declined to confirm or deny that it is the plane that Iran says it recovered.
The Afghan ambassador, Obaidullah Obaid, discussed the matter with Iranian officials and promised to look into the circumstances, said Janan Mosazai, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry.
Such overflights are an example of the difficult position that President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan has been put in by the American presence. Mr. Karzai has repeatedly promised that Afghanistan will not allow the Americans or anyone else to use Afghan soil to mount attacks on its neighbors. While the drone that Iran says it recovered was not armed, Iran views the overflights as hostile.
Canadian Forces won't let Taliban run away
Toronto Sun By Mark Dunn ,Senior National Reporter Saturday, December 10, 2011
OTTAWA - The remaining Canadian Forces' troops in Afghanistan performing non-combat duties will face situations involving the capture of insurgents and transferring them to U.S. forces.
A Defence Department official suggests that while "the likelihood that Canadian Forces will be required to take detainees is very low," it will happen.
On Friday, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird announced a new arrangement with the Americans that allows captured Taliban fighters and others to be transferred to a U.S. detention facility north of Kabul in Parwan.
"A small number of detainees will be transferred to the new facility," the official confirmed in an e-mail to QMI Agency.
"Individuals are detained by the Canadian Forces because they have either attacked or killed Canadian soldiers and officials, Afghan citizens or our international partners," says a background document.
"Or because there is credible information to suggest that they intend to do so."
Canada's combat role ended in July, but hundreds of troops are remaining to train Afghanistan's police and military personnel until 2014 as part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
"With the transition of Canada's combat mission in Kandahar to a new training mission centred in Kabul, it became apparent that a new arrangement was needed for the Canadian Forces," Defence Minister Peter MacKay said.
The treatment of detainees at the U.S. prison will be monitored until their cases have been heard by Afghan courts - one of which is located inside the prison.
The detainee issue is a delicate one for Prime Minister Stephen Harper after incidents in 2006 and 2007 when detainees handed over to Afghanistan authorities were tortured in violation of international statutes.
In June, the government released reams of documents that showed Canadian troops were unaware that detainees were being abused.
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