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Lull in Strikes by U.S. Drones Aids Militants in Pakistan
By ERIC SCHMITT The New York Times January 7, 2012
WASHINGTON — A nearly two-month lull in American drone strikes in Pakistan has helped embolden Al Qaeda and several Pakistani militant factions to regroup, increase attacks against Pakistani security forces and threaten intensified strikes against allied forces in Afghanistan, American and Pakistani officials say.
The insurgents are increasingly taking advantage of tensions raised by an American airstrike in November that killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers in two border outposts, plunging relations between the countries to new depths. The Central Intelligence Agency, hoping to avoid making matters worse while Pakistan completes a wide-ranging review of its security relationship with the United States, has not conducted a drone strike since mid-November.
Diplomats and intelligence analysts say the pause in C.I.A. missile strikes — the longest in Pakistan in more than three years — is offering for now greater freedom of movement to an insurgency that had been splintered by in-fighting and battered by American drone attacks in recent months. Several feuding factions said last week that they were patching up their differences, at least temporarily, to improve their image after a series of kidnappings and, by some accounts, to focus on fighting Americans in Afghanistan.
Other militant groups continue attacking Pakistani forces. Just last week, Taliban insurgents killed 15 security soldiers who had been kidnapped in retaliation for the death of a militant commander.
The spike in violence in the tribal areas — up nearly 10 percent in 2011 from the previous year, according to a new independent report — comes amid reports of negotiations between Pakistan’s government and some local Taliban factions, although the military denies that such talks are taking place.
A logistics operative with the Haqqani terrorist group, which uses sanctuaries in Pakistan to carry out attacks on allied troops in Afghanistan, said militants could still hear drones flying surveillance missions, day and night. “There are still drones, but there is no fear anymore,” he said in a telephone interview. The logistics operative said fighters now felt safer to roam more freely.
Over all, drone strikes in Pakistan dropped to 64 last year, compared with 117 strikes in 2010, according to The Long War Journal, a Web site that monitors the attacks. Analysts attribute the decrease to a dwindling number of senior Qaeda leaders and a pause in strikes last year after the arrest in January of Raymond Davis, a C.I.A. security contractor who killed two Pakistanis; the Navy Seal raid in May that killed Osama bin Laden; and the American airstrike on Nov. 26.
Pakistan ordered drone operations at its Shamsi air base closed after that airstrike, but C.I.A. drones flying from bases in Afghanistan continue to fly surveillance missions over the tribal areas. The drones would be cleared to fire on a senior militant leader if there was credible intelligence and minimal risk to civilians, American officials said. But for now, the Predator and Reaper drones are holding their fire, the longest pause in Pakistan since July 2008.
“It makes sense that a lull in U.S. operations, coupled with ineffective Pakistani efforts, might lead the terrorists to become complacent and try to regroup,” one American official said. “We know that Al Qaeda’s leaders were constantly taking the U.S. counterterrorism operations into account, spending considerable time planning their movements and protecting their communications to try to stay alive.”
C. Christine Fair, an assistant professor of political science at Georgetown University who just returned from a month in Pakistan, put it more bluntly: “They’re taking advantage of the respite. It allows them to operate more freely.”
Several administration officials said Saturday that any lull in drone strikes did not signal a weakening of the country’s counterterrorism efforts, suggesting that strikes could resume soon. “Without commenting on specific counterterrorism operations, Al Qaeda is severely weakened, having suffered major losses in recent years,” said George Little, a Defense Department spokesman. “But even a diminished group of terrorists can pose danger, and thus our resolve to defeat them is as strong as ever.”
Analysts say the hiatus coincides with and probably has accelerated a flurry of insurgent activity and new strategies.
In the past week, leaflets distributed in North Waziristan announced that the Afghan Taliban and Al Qaeda had urged several Pakistani militant groups to set aside their differences and some commanders have reportedly asked their fighters to focus on striking American-led allied forces in Afghanistan.
The Pakistani groups include the Pakistani Taliban, an umbrella group led by Hakimullah Mehsud that has mounted attacks against the Pakistani state since the group was formed in 2007. The new council also includes the Haqqani network and factions led by Maulvi Nazir of South Waziristan and Hafiz Gul Bahadur of North Waziristan, which already target NATO soldiers and have tacit peace agreements with the Pakistani military.
In telephone interviews, some Pakistani militants said the purpose of the agreement was to settle internal differences among rival factions and improve the image of the Taliban, which has been tarnished because of the increasing use of kidnapping and the rise in civilian killings.
Other analysts say that the Afghan Taliban are also feeling the pinch of American-led night raids and other operations across the border. They said the Taliban needed the militants in Pakistan’s tribal region to focus more on helping to launch a final offensive in Afghanistan, in hopes of gaining leverage before any peace talks and the ultimate withdrawal of most American forces from Afghanistan by 2014.
One of the main drivers of the accord was Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the Haqqani network, prompting some Pakistani analysts to reason that the Pakistani Army had also prodded the creation of the council, or shura, to maintain its leverage in any peace negotiations. Last summer Adm. Mike Mullen, who was then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called the Haqqanis “a veritable arm” of Pakistan’s main military spy agency.
“No agreement is ever permanent in frontier politics, and it’s all very complicated,” said one American government official with decades of experience in Pakistan and its tribal areas.
Stuck in a stalemate in the lawless borderlands with this array of militants are 150,000 Pakistani troops. A recent report by an Islamabad-based research organization, the Pak Institute for Peace Studies, said that militant-based violence had declined by 24 percent in the last two years. But it also concluded that terrorist attacks in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, or FATA, and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province increased 8 percent in 2011 from the year before.
“The security situation remained volatile as militants dislodged from their strongholds constantly managed to relocate to other parts of the FATA,” the report said.
In a sign of the shifting insurgent tactics, the number of suicide bombings in the country declined to 39 through November, compared with a high of 81 in all of 2009, according to the Pakistani military.
The number of attacks from homemade bombs, however, increased to 1,036 through November, compared with 877 for all of 2009. More than 3,500 Pakistani soldiers and police officers have been killed since 2002.
One senior Pakistani Army officer with experience in the tribal areas said that insurgents had devised increasingly diabolical triggers and fuses for bombs.
Unlike Americans, Pakistani soldiers still drive in pickups or carriers with little protection. “The effects are devastating,” said the officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Vehicles are basically vaporized.”
“The Pakistani Army is overstretched, and that’s clearly had an impact on morale,” said Maleeha Lodhi, a former Pakistani ambassador to the United States. “But we have to maintain the pressure on the militants.”
Pir Zubair Shah contributed reporting from Cambridge, Mass., and Ismail Khan from Peshawar, Pakistan.
Afghanistan to open embassy in Greece to help deal with tens of thousands of illegal migrants
By Associated Press,
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry says it will open an embassy in Greece within a few months to assist tens of thousands of Afghan illegal migrants there.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Musazai says the new embassy in Athens should be open by the end of March. He says that Kabul will close its embassy in Bulgaria at the same time.
Musazai said Sunday that about 50,000 Afghans illegally enter Greece each year, seeking a better life in the European Union. Most choose the country because of its porous land border with Turkey.
But many are either caught and jailed or find themselves stranded with no money and no papers. Musazai said a recent government delegation provided 650 passports to Afghans who wanted to return home.
U.S. cargo drone being tested in Afghanistan
The Associated Press January 08, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - The U.S. military is testing a revolutionary new drone for its arsenal, a pilotless helicopter intended to fly cargo missions to remote outposts where frequent roadside bombs threaten access by convoys.
Surveillance drones for monitoring enemy activity and armed versions for launching airstrikes have become a trademark of America's wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. But this is the first time a chopper version designed for transport has been used.
Two unmanned models of the Kaman K-MAX helicopters and a team of 16 company technicians and eight Marines are conducting a six-month evaluation program for the new craft at Camp Dwyer, a Marine Corps airfield in the Garmsir district of southern Helmand Province.
The craft have flown 20 transport missions since the inaugural flight on Dec. 17, said Maj. Kyle O'Connor, the officer in charge of the detachment. They have delivered nearly 18 tons of cargo, mainly thousands of Meals Ready to Eat and spare parts needed at the forward operating bases.
"Afghanistan is a highly mined country and the possibility of improvised explosive devices is always a problem moving cargo overland in a convoy," O'Connor said.
"Every load that we can take off of a ground convoy reduces the danger and risk that our Marines, soldiers and sailors are faced with," he said.
Taliban weapons facilitator captured: ISAF
KABUL, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- A senior Taliban weapons facilitator was captured in Afghanistan' eastern Nangarhar province, the NATO- led ISAF forces said on Sunday.
"An Afghan and coalition security force captured a senior Taliban network facilitator named Mashahud during a security operation in Surkh Rod district, Nangarhar province, January 1," the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a press release.
"Mashahud is a well-known weapons facilitator who planned large- scale attacks against the local populace throughout the region," it said, adding that the captured Taliban facilitator has also been linked to a command wire bomb attack on Dec. 21, 2011, that left five ISAF service members dead in eastern province of Ghazni.
More than 130,000 members of ISAF, mostly Americans, have been serving in Afghanistan.
Taliban, which launched in May 2011 an offensive against Afghan and NATO forces, has yet to make any comments.
7 insurgents killed in S. Afghanistan
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Seven suspected Taliban insurgents, including four local insurgent leaders, were killed Sunday in a special operation in the Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand, a provincial government spokesman said.
"A unit of Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) launched a special operation on a Taliban hideout in Mirmandab area of Gereshk district in the wee hours Sunday," spokesman Daud Ahmadi told Xinhua.
Ahmadi said an exchange of fire broke out shortly after the NDS or intelligence agency forces arrived at the compound, leaving seven insurgents dead. Four local insurgent leaders, namely Malawi Mansour, Abdul Raziq, Mullah Maluk and Shekari, were among the dead.
No members of the security force or civilians were injured in the raid, he added.
Taliban, who launched in May 2011 an offensive against Afghan and NATO forces, has yet to make comments.
3 insurgent killed, 11 arrested in Afghanistan
KABUL, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- At least three Taliban insurgents have been killed and 11 detained in cleanup operations launched by Afghan forces and NATO-led troops in Afghanistan over the past 24 hours, the Afghan Interior Ministry said on Sunday.
"Afghan National Police (ANP), Afghan National Army and NATO- led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) launched eight joint operations in Helmand, Uruzgan, Khost and Farah provinces over the past 24 hours," the ministry said in a press release.
"As a result of these operations, three armed insurgents were killed, one wounded and 11 others arrested by the ANP," it said, adding the joint forces also found and seized a handful of weapons besides defusing 30 anti-vehicle mines in the same period.
"The ANP also discovered and defused six 5 kg drums full of explosives, five anti-vehicle mines, one BM-1 rocket, and one rocket launcher as a result of separate security operations in Kandahar, Logar, Khost, and Herat provinces in the past 24 hours," it added.
In an unrelated development, a local Taliban leader surrendered to the government in southern Afghan province of Helmand, a spokesman for provincial government said on Sunday.
"A Taliban commander namely Abdul Satar laid down his arm and joined government in Kajaki district of Helmand province on Saturday," Daud Ahmdai told Xinhua.
He said Satar also handed over seven machine guns, a rocket launcher and a motorbike to the security authorities in the district.
Taliban who launched in May 2011 a rebel offensive against Afghan and NATO forces, has yet to make comments.
Foreigners Cannot Have Prisons in Afghanistan: Delegation
TOLOnews.com Saturday, 07 January 2012
A delegation assigned by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to visit the Bagram detention centre, said on Saturday that based on the Afghan constitution no foreign countries can have prisons in Afghanistan.
Every country has the right to rule on its own soil, the delegation said.
The delegation said, while Afghanistan needs assistance of other countries, it also needs its sovereignty to be respected.
"While I accept that we are in need of assistance from other countries, I must stress that we have the right to rule on our own soil," Head of the oversight commission of constitutional implementation, Gul Rahman Qazi, said.
The delegation has also prepared a report about the situation in the Bargram detention centre in which some prisoners have complained of being mistreated.
Both the foreign and national sections of the Bargram detention centre have been visited by the delegation.
According to the delegation there have been less instances of human rights abuses in the national section of the prison that the foreign section.
Meanwhile, US officials have said that Washington and Kabul have been discussing the handover of the Bagram detention centre to Afghan control.
The United States on Thursday stressed on the "responsible" transfer of the US military prison to Afghan control.
"We have been working... for some time with the Afghan government on appropriate timing and pace for transfer of the detention facilities" at Bagram, US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Thursday.
"We need to do this in a manner that is maximally responsible. That's what we want to do. And we're going to... keep working on it," she added.
It comes as Afghan President Hamid Karzai recently ordered the transfer of Bagram detention centre to Afghan control to take place in a month.
Taliban Should Accept Afghan Government's Main Role in Peace Talks
Fars News Agency January 8, 2012
TEHRAN (FNA)- Senior member of Afghanistan's High Peace Council Abdul Hamid Mobarez underlined the United States' minor role in the Afghan peace talks, and said the Taliban leaders should accept that the Kabul government and not Washington plays the main role in these negotiations.
"The Taliban should ultimately understand the reality that negotiations with the US and other foreign countries does not play an influential role in reaching peace and it should negotiate with Afghanistan (government) for peace," Mobarez underlined.
He reiterated that the Afghan government and the High Peace Council welcome negotiations with the Taliban provided that they are seen as the main center of the peace talks.
Analysts are skeptical of the prospects of meaningful peace negotiations with the Taliban.
The developments came after the United States softened tone on the Taliban, an accomplice of the al-Qaeda which the US has long taken responsible for the 9/11 attacks on New York's twin towers.
The Pakistani media revealed earlier this month that the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has removed the name of Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar from the list of "most wanted terrorists."
The report came following Washington's secret meetings with the Taliban after one decade of war. US officials have held several meetings with representatives of the Afghan Taliban leader, headed by Tayyib Agha, in Germany and Qatar over the past months.
During the meetings, the US and Taliban negotiators reached a deal to transfer five Taliban militants, who are under custody in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, to Qatar. The removal of Mullah Omar's name from the terror list comes after the prisoner deal.
The founder of the Taliban, Mullah Omar, has been in hiding since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
Washington removed Mullah Omar's name despite its continued allegations that the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden were behind the September, 11 attacks in the US. Mullah Omar was Bin Laden's staunchest ally and most intimate friend.
The United States invaded Afghanistan 10 years ago under the pretext of eradicating the Taliban, but its failure has forced Washington to turn to negotiation with militants.
The US government has planned new round of talks with the Taliban in early 2012.
US reliance on Afghan paramilitaries in rural areas worries European allies
Britain wonders if local police force can keep stability, while Germans argue the units are not easy to control
Julian Borger guardian.co.uk, Sunday 8 January 2012 18.37 GMT
A split between the US and its European allies has emerged over the role of rural Afghan paramilitary units, seen by American commanders as critical to the military exit strategy.
A year after the Afghan local police (ALP) was launched, the US military has announced a plan to triple its numbers from a current strength of 9,800 to 30,000 by the end of 2013, with further expansion beyond that. According to the US strategy, the lightly-armed groups of men hired to protect their villages are expected to help contain a Taliban resurgence as the US and its Nato allies withdraw combat troops over the next three years.
General John Allen, the American commander of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) sees the ALP as the key to success in Helmand, from where some 14,000 US marines are departing in the next few months, leaving a 9,000-strong British garrison and some Georgian and Danish troops to manage until Afghan regular soldiers and police can be deployed.
British officials, however, have voiced anxiety over the strategy, particularly over the capabilities of the ALP, described by Allen's predecessor, General David Petraeus, as "a community watch with AK-47s". In northern Afghanistan, German officers have warned their American counterparts the local forces could run out of control once their US mentors and paymasters leave.
An Isaf inquiry last month into allegations of abuse by ALP units recommended that vetting be improved "to focus on hostile groups or negative actors who might inhibit ALP performance". Human rights organisations argue the problems are systemic and oppose the planned expansion of the scheme.
The issue is becoming central as the withdrawal and the transition to Afghan-run security in 2014 approaches. One senior western diplomat said: "Whether you are optimistic or pessimistic about Afghanistan really depends on what you think of the ALP." ALP units are set up in communities where the local council, or shura, has requested them. They are screened by shura members and given a criminal check, and 40 hours' training. They wear brown uniforms to distinguish them from the grey of the regular police, earn 60% of regular police pay, and do not have the power of arrest. They are organised in 150-strong units, each mentored by about a dozen US Green Berets or sometimes British Royal Marines.
Speaking in a recent interview in Afghanistan, General Allen argued the ALP would play an important role in Helmand. "The Afghan local police has become an important component," the Isaf commander said. "It's all about community mobilisation. The ALP will hold the ground, providing stability, which permits us to use both Isaf and ANSF [Afghan national security forces] elsewhere."
British commanders, however, have voiced their concern at troops being spread too thinly as the number of US marines in Helmand are expected to be reduced from a total of 20,000 to an anticipated 6,000 by the end of next summer. UK officials have told their American counterparts that British troops will not "backfill" areas vacated by the marines, and have expressed concerns over the ability of a home guard with only 40 hours' training to keep the Taliban from taking back villages and towns from which the insurgents were driven out in the past two years.
UK officials acknowledge the ALP has contributed to the fall in violence across Helmand in the past year, but worry that the community defence forces cannot defend hard-won territory. Faced with the prospect of dwindling budgets for Afghanistan, US commanders see the ALP as an affordable, long-term security fix. The head of US special operations, Admiral William McRaven, this month backed the extension of the ALP programme beyond 2015. A British Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "The ANSF is the long-term solution to security provision in Afghanistan. However, we recognise that local initiatives may in the short term help meet community security needs, until adequate numbers of ANSF are trained."
German officers who lead Isaf say the ALP in their zone are indistinguishable from the warlord-led groups preying on the population. A German official said: "We're not happy about the ALP. It is a half-public, half not-so-public institution and its not easy to control. The problem we find is there are too many actors in the security arenas, and they all have their own agenda."
German military officials say that although ALP units are formally under the control by the Afghan interior ministry (under a deal to overcome President Hamid Karzai's objections to their creation), their actual paymasters, at least in the north, are US special forces. The Germans have told their US counterparts they worry that as soon as the Americans leave their region, ALP units will defect to whomever pays them to fight: warlords, the Taliban or drugs traffickers.
Last month, Karzai closed down another US-back irregular force operating in the north, called the Critical Infrastructure Police, whose record of extorting money from the local population was also a cause of anxiety for the Germany army. But the Afghan president has bowed to US pressure over the ALP.
Human Rights Watch has urged the Obama administration not to proceed with the tripling of the ALP announced by Admiral McRaven, pointing to its record of abuses.
"The ALP has come to be a key rationale for the US drawdown, because they can't do the training and equipping of the ANSF in time," Brad Adams, the group's Asia director, said.
"They are throwing people with very little training into securing an area that has seen some of the most fierce fighting in Afghanistan," Adams added, expressing concerned that the ALP is mutating from its originally intended form.
"The ALP is supposed to not supposed to have heavy weapons. If they now expect them to occupy space militarily to protect civilians from insurgents, they do not seem to be the right force. But if they are going to be that force, maybe they're going to be just another militia."
China-funded irrigation project helps boost farming in Afghanistan
By Farid Behbud
KABUL, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- As Chinese workers tried to complete in a few months an irrigation canal project in Parwan province that was built by China in the 1970s but left unfinished during ensuing wars, local people were looking to its completion with great expectation.
"The completion of Parwan irrigation canal would enable us to irrigate our vineyards and farmland properly and eventually increase our income," said 45-year-old Hamidullah Khan, a native of Parwan province noted for vineyards.
"Our good neighbor China helps us to improve our living condition and increase our income by launching this project,"he added.
The Chinese-initiated project would irrigate thousands of hectares of farmland in Parwan and neighboring Kapisa and Kabul provinces, said some local people.
"Having water is essential for both our daily life and our economy," 65-year-old farmer Gulabudin, who like many Afghans goes by a single name told Xinhua in a recent interview.
"As you know, Afghanistan has suffered from over 30 years of war and we are still suffering from protracted security incidents which have badly damaged all economic sectors including agriculture in the country," he added.
"The project in Parwan is a water canal project, built by China as aid to Afghanistan in the 1970s and its reconstruction begun in 2004 and would be completed by May 2012," Fu Guoliang, manager of the project told Xinhua.
"In 2009, our company got the permission from Chinese government to undertake this project, the Parwan project. By August, 2009, we have completed the preliminary preparation efforts. However, the land acquisition problem in Afghanistan was not settled until November, 2011. With the construction started one month ago, we plan to finish this project on May 30, 2012," Fu added.
China's economic assistance to Afghanistan dated back to the 1950s when the two countries formed diplomatic ties. Since 2002 China has contributed some 200 million U.S. dollars to the post- Taliban Afghanistan. It launched many major projects to help Afghanistan with its post-war reconstruction, ranging from the construction of hospitals, government office buildings, and schools to providing equipment for health care and educational institutions.
Just a few weeks ago, Chinese Ambassador to Afghanistan Xu Feihong and Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul signed an agreement on bilateral economic and technical cooperation worth 150 million yuan or 23.5 million U.S. dollars.
With over 70 percent of population engaged in farming and livestock breeding, agriculture has been the backbone of Afghan's national economy. Although only 12 percent of its total land is arable, less than 6 percent of that land is under cultivation as years of wars, violence and continued droughts have drastically shrunk the land under cultivation to less than 6 percent of the arable land. This has led to a serious food shortage.
A survey conducted in 2007-2008 by National Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (NRVA), an Afghan government statistic organization financed by European Commission, found that 7.4 million, nearly a-third of the whole Afghan population, are unable to get enough food.
"Due to the past three decades of war, investment in the agriculture field has dropped by 43 percent," Afghan Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation Minister Mohammad Asif Rahimi said in October 2011.
"Normally, every Afghan family spends nearly 59 percent of their monthly income on foodstuff," he said.
The price of rice has increased by 3 percent and that of maize by 74 percent over the past year and half. "They haven't had enough money for other expenses like health and education," the minister added.
The tough food situation has made local people all the more eager to look forward to the completion of the irrigation project. They predicted that upon its completion, all the Shamali plain along Parwan-Kabul road will be irrigated and thus thousands of people would benefit directly or indirectly.
Candidates spar over when to remove troops from Afghanistan
By Associated Press,
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Mitt Romney says he wants to pull troops out of Afghanistan as soon as possible but would consult commanders there before setting a date to do so.
The Republican candidates sparred about foreign policy and military deployments in a nationally televised debate Saturday. Polls show the former Massachusetts governor leading the field in New Hampshire, which holds its primary Tuesday.
Former ambassador Jon Huntsman says it’s up to the president as commander in chief to decide when troops leave. Newt Gingrich said Afghanistan was just one part of growing international tensions facing the US. He said instability in Pakistan and the threat of a nuclear Iran were more pressing issues.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry said he would send troops back to Iraq to prevent Iran from taking over that country.
Former Pakistan President Announces Plans to Return Home
VOA News January 8, 2012
Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has announced plans to return to the country later this month.
Mr. Musharraf told supporters in Karachi via telephone Sunday that he would arrive between January 27 and January 30.
The former president leads his own faction of the All Pakistan Muslim League and has talked about returning to Pakistan to lead the party and run in upcoming elections. He said in Sunday's telephone call that he has the support of all ethnic groups in Pakistan.
Pakistani prosecutors on Saturday said they would arrest him upon his arrival for alleged involvement in the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
The former president blamed the attack on the Pakistani Taliban, but prosecutors have since said he played a role himself.
Mr. Musharraf has been living in self-imposed exile in London and Dubai since 2008.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
By ERIC SCHMITT The New York Times January 7, 2012
WASHINGTON — A nearly two-month lull in American drone strikes in Pakistan has helped embolden Al Qaeda and several Pakistani militant factions to regroup, increase attacks against Pakistani security forces and threaten intensified strikes against allied forces in Afghanistan, American and Pakistani officials say.
The insurgents are increasingly taking advantage of tensions raised by an American airstrike in November that killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers in two border outposts, plunging relations between the countries to new depths. The Central Intelligence Agency, hoping to avoid making matters worse while Pakistan completes a wide-ranging review of its security relationship with the United States, has not conducted a drone strike since mid-November.
Diplomats and intelligence analysts say the pause in C.I.A. missile strikes — the longest in Pakistan in more than three years — is offering for now greater freedom of movement to an insurgency that had been splintered by in-fighting and battered by American drone attacks in recent months. Several feuding factions said last week that they were patching up their differences, at least temporarily, to improve their image after a series of kidnappings and, by some accounts, to focus on fighting Americans in Afghanistan.
Other militant groups continue attacking Pakistani forces. Just last week, Taliban insurgents killed 15 security soldiers who had been kidnapped in retaliation for the death of a militant commander.
The spike in violence in the tribal areas — up nearly 10 percent in 2011 from the previous year, according to a new independent report — comes amid reports of negotiations between Pakistan’s government and some local Taliban factions, although the military denies that such talks are taking place.
A logistics operative with the Haqqani terrorist group, which uses sanctuaries in Pakistan to carry out attacks on allied troops in Afghanistan, said militants could still hear drones flying surveillance missions, day and night. “There are still drones, but there is no fear anymore,” he said in a telephone interview. The logistics operative said fighters now felt safer to roam more freely.
Over all, drone strikes in Pakistan dropped to 64 last year, compared with 117 strikes in 2010, according to The Long War Journal, a Web site that monitors the attacks. Analysts attribute the decrease to a dwindling number of senior Qaeda leaders and a pause in strikes last year after the arrest in January of Raymond Davis, a C.I.A. security contractor who killed two Pakistanis; the Navy Seal raid in May that killed Osama bin Laden; and the American airstrike on Nov. 26.
Pakistan ordered drone operations at its Shamsi air base closed after that airstrike, but C.I.A. drones flying from bases in Afghanistan continue to fly surveillance missions over the tribal areas. The drones would be cleared to fire on a senior militant leader if there was credible intelligence and minimal risk to civilians, American officials said. But for now, the Predator and Reaper drones are holding their fire, the longest pause in Pakistan since July 2008.
“It makes sense that a lull in U.S. operations, coupled with ineffective Pakistani efforts, might lead the terrorists to become complacent and try to regroup,” one American official said. “We know that Al Qaeda’s leaders were constantly taking the U.S. counterterrorism operations into account, spending considerable time planning their movements and protecting their communications to try to stay alive.”
C. Christine Fair, an assistant professor of political science at Georgetown University who just returned from a month in Pakistan, put it more bluntly: “They’re taking advantage of the respite. It allows them to operate more freely.”
Several administration officials said Saturday that any lull in drone strikes did not signal a weakening of the country’s counterterrorism efforts, suggesting that strikes could resume soon. “Without commenting on specific counterterrorism operations, Al Qaeda is severely weakened, having suffered major losses in recent years,” said George Little, a Defense Department spokesman. “But even a diminished group of terrorists can pose danger, and thus our resolve to defeat them is as strong as ever.”
Analysts say the hiatus coincides with and probably has accelerated a flurry of insurgent activity and new strategies.
In the past week, leaflets distributed in North Waziristan announced that the Afghan Taliban and Al Qaeda had urged several Pakistani militant groups to set aside their differences and some commanders have reportedly asked their fighters to focus on striking American-led allied forces in Afghanistan.
The Pakistani groups include the Pakistani Taliban, an umbrella group led by Hakimullah Mehsud that has mounted attacks against the Pakistani state since the group was formed in 2007. The new council also includes the Haqqani network and factions led by Maulvi Nazir of South Waziristan and Hafiz Gul Bahadur of North Waziristan, which already target NATO soldiers and have tacit peace agreements with the Pakistani military.
In telephone interviews, some Pakistani militants said the purpose of the agreement was to settle internal differences among rival factions and improve the image of the Taliban, which has been tarnished because of the increasing use of kidnapping and the rise in civilian killings.
Other analysts say that the Afghan Taliban are also feeling the pinch of American-led night raids and other operations across the border. They said the Taliban needed the militants in Pakistan’s tribal region to focus more on helping to launch a final offensive in Afghanistan, in hopes of gaining leverage before any peace talks and the ultimate withdrawal of most American forces from Afghanistan by 2014.
One of the main drivers of the accord was Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the Haqqani network, prompting some Pakistani analysts to reason that the Pakistani Army had also prodded the creation of the council, or shura, to maintain its leverage in any peace negotiations. Last summer Adm. Mike Mullen, who was then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called the Haqqanis “a veritable arm” of Pakistan’s main military spy agency.
“No agreement is ever permanent in frontier politics, and it’s all very complicated,” said one American government official with decades of experience in Pakistan and its tribal areas.
Stuck in a stalemate in the lawless borderlands with this array of militants are 150,000 Pakistani troops. A recent report by an Islamabad-based research organization, the Pak Institute for Peace Studies, said that militant-based violence had declined by 24 percent in the last two years. But it also concluded that terrorist attacks in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, or FATA, and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province increased 8 percent in 2011 from the year before.
“The security situation remained volatile as militants dislodged from their strongholds constantly managed to relocate to other parts of the FATA,” the report said.
In a sign of the shifting insurgent tactics, the number of suicide bombings in the country declined to 39 through November, compared with a high of 81 in all of 2009, according to the Pakistani military.
The number of attacks from homemade bombs, however, increased to 1,036 through November, compared with 877 for all of 2009. More than 3,500 Pakistani soldiers and police officers have been killed since 2002.
One senior Pakistani Army officer with experience in the tribal areas said that insurgents had devised increasingly diabolical triggers and fuses for bombs.
Unlike Americans, Pakistani soldiers still drive in pickups or carriers with little protection. “The effects are devastating,” said the officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Vehicles are basically vaporized.”
“The Pakistani Army is overstretched, and that’s clearly had an impact on morale,” said Maleeha Lodhi, a former Pakistani ambassador to the United States. “But we have to maintain the pressure on the militants.”
Pir Zubair Shah contributed reporting from Cambridge, Mass., and Ismail Khan from Peshawar, Pakistan.
Afghanistan to open embassy in Greece to help deal with tens of thousands of illegal migrants
By Associated Press,
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry says it will open an embassy in Greece within a few months to assist tens of thousands of Afghan illegal migrants there.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Musazai says the new embassy in Athens should be open by the end of March. He says that Kabul will close its embassy in Bulgaria at the same time.
Musazai said Sunday that about 50,000 Afghans illegally enter Greece each year, seeking a better life in the European Union. Most choose the country because of its porous land border with Turkey.
But many are either caught and jailed or find themselves stranded with no money and no papers. Musazai said a recent government delegation provided 650 passports to Afghans who wanted to return home.
U.S. cargo drone being tested in Afghanistan
The Associated Press January 08, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - The U.S. military is testing a revolutionary new drone for its arsenal, a pilotless helicopter intended to fly cargo missions to remote outposts where frequent roadside bombs threaten access by convoys.
Surveillance drones for monitoring enemy activity and armed versions for launching airstrikes have become a trademark of America's wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. But this is the first time a chopper version designed for transport has been used.
Two unmanned models of the Kaman K-MAX helicopters and a team of 16 company technicians and eight Marines are conducting a six-month evaluation program for the new craft at Camp Dwyer, a Marine Corps airfield in the Garmsir district of southern Helmand Province.
The craft have flown 20 transport missions since the inaugural flight on Dec. 17, said Maj. Kyle O'Connor, the officer in charge of the detachment. They have delivered nearly 18 tons of cargo, mainly thousands of Meals Ready to Eat and spare parts needed at the forward operating bases.
"Afghanistan is a highly mined country and the possibility of improvised explosive devices is always a problem moving cargo overland in a convoy," O'Connor said.
"Every load that we can take off of a ground convoy reduces the danger and risk that our Marines, soldiers and sailors are faced with," he said.
Taliban weapons facilitator captured: ISAF
KABUL, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- A senior Taliban weapons facilitator was captured in Afghanistan' eastern Nangarhar province, the NATO- led ISAF forces said on Sunday.
"An Afghan and coalition security force captured a senior Taliban network facilitator named Mashahud during a security operation in Surkh Rod district, Nangarhar province, January 1," the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a press release.
"Mashahud is a well-known weapons facilitator who planned large- scale attacks against the local populace throughout the region," it said, adding that the captured Taliban facilitator has also been linked to a command wire bomb attack on Dec. 21, 2011, that left five ISAF service members dead in eastern province of Ghazni.
More than 130,000 members of ISAF, mostly Americans, have been serving in Afghanistan.
Taliban, which launched in May 2011 an offensive against Afghan and NATO forces, has yet to make any comments.
7 insurgents killed in S. Afghanistan
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Seven suspected Taliban insurgents, including four local insurgent leaders, were killed Sunday in a special operation in the Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand, a provincial government spokesman said.
"A unit of Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) launched a special operation on a Taliban hideout in Mirmandab area of Gereshk district in the wee hours Sunday," spokesman Daud Ahmadi told Xinhua.
Ahmadi said an exchange of fire broke out shortly after the NDS or intelligence agency forces arrived at the compound, leaving seven insurgents dead. Four local insurgent leaders, namely Malawi Mansour, Abdul Raziq, Mullah Maluk and Shekari, were among the dead.
No members of the security force or civilians were injured in the raid, he added.
Taliban, who launched in May 2011 an offensive against Afghan and NATO forces, has yet to make comments.
3 insurgent killed, 11 arrested in Afghanistan
KABUL, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- At least three Taliban insurgents have been killed and 11 detained in cleanup operations launched by Afghan forces and NATO-led troops in Afghanistan over the past 24 hours, the Afghan Interior Ministry said on Sunday.
"Afghan National Police (ANP), Afghan National Army and NATO- led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) launched eight joint operations in Helmand, Uruzgan, Khost and Farah provinces over the past 24 hours," the ministry said in a press release.
"As a result of these operations, three armed insurgents were killed, one wounded and 11 others arrested by the ANP," it said, adding the joint forces also found and seized a handful of weapons besides defusing 30 anti-vehicle mines in the same period.
"The ANP also discovered and defused six 5 kg drums full of explosives, five anti-vehicle mines, one BM-1 rocket, and one rocket launcher as a result of separate security operations in Kandahar, Logar, Khost, and Herat provinces in the past 24 hours," it added.
In an unrelated development, a local Taliban leader surrendered to the government in southern Afghan province of Helmand, a spokesman for provincial government said on Sunday.
"A Taliban commander namely Abdul Satar laid down his arm and joined government in Kajaki district of Helmand province on Saturday," Daud Ahmdai told Xinhua.
He said Satar also handed over seven machine guns, a rocket launcher and a motorbike to the security authorities in the district.
Taliban who launched in May 2011 a rebel offensive against Afghan and NATO forces, has yet to make comments.
Foreigners Cannot Have Prisons in Afghanistan: Delegation
TOLOnews.com Saturday, 07 January 2012
A delegation assigned by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to visit the Bagram detention centre, said on Saturday that based on the Afghan constitution no foreign countries can have prisons in Afghanistan.
Every country has the right to rule on its own soil, the delegation said.
The delegation said, while Afghanistan needs assistance of other countries, it also needs its sovereignty to be respected.
"While I accept that we are in need of assistance from other countries, I must stress that we have the right to rule on our own soil," Head of the oversight commission of constitutional implementation, Gul Rahman Qazi, said.
The delegation has also prepared a report about the situation in the Bargram detention centre in which some prisoners have complained of being mistreated.
Both the foreign and national sections of the Bargram detention centre have been visited by the delegation.
According to the delegation there have been less instances of human rights abuses in the national section of the prison that the foreign section.
Meanwhile, US officials have said that Washington and Kabul have been discussing the handover of the Bagram detention centre to Afghan control.
The United States on Thursday stressed on the "responsible" transfer of the US military prison to Afghan control.
"We have been working... for some time with the Afghan government on appropriate timing and pace for transfer of the detention facilities" at Bagram, US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Thursday.
"We need to do this in a manner that is maximally responsible. That's what we want to do. And we're going to... keep working on it," she added.
It comes as Afghan President Hamid Karzai recently ordered the transfer of Bagram detention centre to Afghan control to take place in a month.
Taliban Should Accept Afghan Government's Main Role in Peace Talks
Fars News Agency January 8, 2012
TEHRAN (FNA)- Senior member of Afghanistan's High Peace Council Abdul Hamid Mobarez underlined the United States' minor role in the Afghan peace talks, and said the Taliban leaders should accept that the Kabul government and not Washington plays the main role in these negotiations.
"The Taliban should ultimately understand the reality that negotiations with the US and other foreign countries does not play an influential role in reaching peace and it should negotiate with Afghanistan (government) for peace," Mobarez underlined.
He reiterated that the Afghan government and the High Peace Council welcome negotiations with the Taliban provided that they are seen as the main center of the peace talks.
Analysts are skeptical of the prospects of meaningful peace negotiations with the Taliban.
The developments came after the United States softened tone on the Taliban, an accomplice of the al-Qaeda which the US has long taken responsible for the 9/11 attacks on New York's twin towers.
The Pakistani media revealed earlier this month that the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has removed the name of Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar from the list of "most wanted terrorists."
The report came following Washington's secret meetings with the Taliban after one decade of war. US officials have held several meetings with representatives of the Afghan Taliban leader, headed by Tayyib Agha, in Germany and Qatar over the past months.
During the meetings, the US and Taliban negotiators reached a deal to transfer five Taliban militants, who are under custody in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, to Qatar. The removal of Mullah Omar's name from the terror list comes after the prisoner deal.
The founder of the Taliban, Mullah Omar, has been in hiding since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
Washington removed Mullah Omar's name despite its continued allegations that the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden were behind the September, 11 attacks in the US. Mullah Omar was Bin Laden's staunchest ally and most intimate friend.
The United States invaded Afghanistan 10 years ago under the pretext of eradicating the Taliban, but its failure has forced Washington to turn to negotiation with militants.
The US government has planned new round of talks with the Taliban in early 2012.
US reliance on Afghan paramilitaries in rural areas worries European allies
Britain wonders if local police force can keep stability, while Germans argue the units are not easy to control
Julian Borger guardian.co.uk, Sunday 8 January 2012 18.37 GMT
A split between the US and its European allies has emerged over the role of rural Afghan paramilitary units, seen by American commanders as critical to the military exit strategy.
A year after the Afghan local police (ALP) was launched, the US military has announced a plan to triple its numbers from a current strength of 9,800 to 30,000 by the end of 2013, with further expansion beyond that. According to the US strategy, the lightly-armed groups of men hired to protect their villages are expected to help contain a Taliban resurgence as the US and its Nato allies withdraw combat troops over the next three years.
General John Allen, the American commander of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) sees the ALP as the key to success in Helmand, from where some 14,000 US marines are departing in the next few months, leaving a 9,000-strong British garrison and some Georgian and Danish troops to manage until Afghan regular soldiers and police can be deployed.
British officials, however, have voiced anxiety over the strategy, particularly over the capabilities of the ALP, described by Allen's predecessor, General David Petraeus, as "a community watch with AK-47s". In northern Afghanistan, German officers have warned their American counterparts the local forces could run out of control once their US mentors and paymasters leave.
An Isaf inquiry last month into allegations of abuse by ALP units recommended that vetting be improved "to focus on hostile groups or negative actors who might inhibit ALP performance". Human rights organisations argue the problems are systemic and oppose the planned expansion of the scheme.
The issue is becoming central as the withdrawal and the transition to Afghan-run security in 2014 approaches. One senior western diplomat said: "Whether you are optimistic or pessimistic about Afghanistan really depends on what you think of the ALP." ALP units are set up in communities where the local council, or shura, has requested them. They are screened by shura members and given a criminal check, and 40 hours' training. They wear brown uniforms to distinguish them from the grey of the regular police, earn 60% of regular police pay, and do not have the power of arrest. They are organised in 150-strong units, each mentored by about a dozen US Green Berets or sometimes British Royal Marines.
Speaking in a recent interview in Afghanistan, General Allen argued the ALP would play an important role in Helmand. "The Afghan local police has become an important component," the Isaf commander said. "It's all about community mobilisation. The ALP will hold the ground, providing stability, which permits us to use both Isaf and ANSF [Afghan national security forces] elsewhere."
British commanders, however, have voiced their concern at troops being spread too thinly as the number of US marines in Helmand are expected to be reduced from a total of 20,000 to an anticipated 6,000 by the end of next summer. UK officials have told their American counterparts that British troops will not "backfill" areas vacated by the marines, and have expressed concerns over the ability of a home guard with only 40 hours' training to keep the Taliban from taking back villages and towns from which the insurgents were driven out in the past two years.
UK officials acknowledge the ALP has contributed to the fall in violence across Helmand in the past year, but worry that the community defence forces cannot defend hard-won territory. Faced with the prospect of dwindling budgets for Afghanistan, US commanders see the ALP as an affordable, long-term security fix. The head of US special operations, Admiral William McRaven, this month backed the extension of the ALP programme beyond 2015. A British Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "The ANSF is the long-term solution to security provision in Afghanistan. However, we recognise that local initiatives may in the short term help meet community security needs, until adequate numbers of ANSF are trained."
German officers who lead Isaf say the ALP in their zone are indistinguishable from the warlord-led groups preying on the population. A German official said: "We're not happy about the ALP. It is a half-public, half not-so-public institution and its not easy to control. The problem we find is there are too many actors in the security arenas, and they all have their own agenda."
German military officials say that although ALP units are formally under the control by the Afghan interior ministry (under a deal to overcome President Hamid Karzai's objections to their creation), their actual paymasters, at least in the north, are US special forces. The Germans have told their US counterparts they worry that as soon as the Americans leave their region, ALP units will defect to whomever pays them to fight: warlords, the Taliban or drugs traffickers.
Last month, Karzai closed down another US-back irregular force operating in the north, called the Critical Infrastructure Police, whose record of extorting money from the local population was also a cause of anxiety for the Germany army. But the Afghan president has bowed to US pressure over the ALP.
Human Rights Watch has urged the Obama administration not to proceed with the tripling of the ALP announced by Admiral McRaven, pointing to its record of abuses.
"The ALP has come to be a key rationale for the US drawdown, because they can't do the training and equipping of the ANSF in time," Brad Adams, the group's Asia director, said.
"They are throwing people with very little training into securing an area that has seen some of the most fierce fighting in Afghanistan," Adams added, expressing concerned that the ALP is mutating from its originally intended form.
"The ALP is supposed to not supposed to have heavy weapons. If they now expect them to occupy space militarily to protect civilians from insurgents, they do not seem to be the right force. But if they are going to be that force, maybe they're going to be just another militia."
China-funded irrigation project helps boost farming in Afghanistan
By Farid Behbud
KABUL, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- As Chinese workers tried to complete in a few months an irrigation canal project in Parwan province that was built by China in the 1970s but left unfinished during ensuing wars, local people were looking to its completion with great expectation.
"The completion of Parwan irrigation canal would enable us to irrigate our vineyards and farmland properly and eventually increase our income," said 45-year-old Hamidullah Khan, a native of Parwan province noted for vineyards.
"Our good neighbor China helps us to improve our living condition and increase our income by launching this project,"he added.
The Chinese-initiated project would irrigate thousands of hectares of farmland in Parwan and neighboring Kapisa and Kabul provinces, said some local people.
"Having water is essential for both our daily life and our economy," 65-year-old farmer Gulabudin, who like many Afghans goes by a single name told Xinhua in a recent interview.
"As you know, Afghanistan has suffered from over 30 years of war and we are still suffering from protracted security incidents which have badly damaged all economic sectors including agriculture in the country," he added.
"The project in Parwan is a water canal project, built by China as aid to Afghanistan in the 1970s and its reconstruction begun in 2004 and would be completed by May 2012," Fu Guoliang, manager of the project told Xinhua.
"In 2009, our company got the permission from Chinese government to undertake this project, the Parwan project. By August, 2009, we have completed the preliminary preparation efforts. However, the land acquisition problem in Afghanistan was not settled until November, 2011. With the construction started one month ago, we plan to finish this project on May 30, 2012," Fu added.
China's economic assistance to Afghanistan dated back to the 1950s when the two countries formed diplomatic ties. Since 2002 China has contributed some 200 million U.S. dollars to the post- Taliban Afghanistan. It launched many major projects to help Afghanistan with its post-war reconstruction, ranging from the construction of hospitals, government office buildings, and schools to providing equipment for health care and educational institutions.
Just a few weeks ago, Chinese Ambassador to Afghanistan Xu Feihong and Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul signed an agreement on bilateral economic and technical cooperation worth 150 million yuan or 23.5 million U.S. dollars.
With over 70 percent of population engaged in farming and livestock breeding, agriculture has been the backbone of Afghan's national economy. Although only 12 percent of its total land is arable, less than 6 percent of that land is under cultivation as years of wars, violence and continued droughts have drastically shrunk the land under cultivation to less than 6 percent of the arable land. This has led to a serious food shortage.
A survey conducted in 2007-2008 by National Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (NRVA), an Afghan government statistic organization financed by European Commission, found that 7.4 million, nearly a-third of the whole Afghan population, are unable to get enough food.
"Due to the past three decades of war, investment in the agriculture field has dropped by 43 percent," Afghan Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation Minister Mohammad Asif Rahimi said in October 2011.
"Normally, every Afghan family spends nearly 59 percent of their monthly income on foodstuff," he said.
The price of rice has increased by 3 percent and that of maize by 74 percent over the past year and half. "They haven't had enough money for other expenses like health and education," the minister added.
The tough food situation has made local people all the more eager to look forward to the completion of the irrigation project. They predicted that upon its completion, all the Shamali plain along Parwan-Kabul road will be irrigated and thus thousands of people would benefit directly or indirectly.
Candidates spar over when to remove troops from Afghanistan
By Associated Press,
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Mitt Romney says he wants to pull troops out of Afghanistan as soon as possible but would consult commanders there before setting a date to do so.
The Republican candidates sparred about foreign policy and military deployments in a nationally televised debate Saturday. Polls show the former Massachusetts governor leading the field in New Hampshire, which holds its primary Tuesday.
Former ambassador Jon Huntsman says it’s up to the president as commander in chief to decide when troops leave. Newt Gingrich said Afghanistan was just one part of growing international tensions facing the US. He said instability in Pakistan and the threat of a nuclear Iran were more pressing issues.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry said he would send troops back to Iraq to prevent Iran from taking over that country.
Former Pakistan President Announces Plans to Return Home
VOA News January 8, 2012
Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has announced plans to return to the country later this month.
Mr. Musharraf told supporters in Karachi via telephone Sunday that he would arrive between January 27 and January 30.
The former president leads his own faction of the All Pakistan Muslim League and has talked about returning to Pakistan to lead the party and run in upcoming elections. He said in Sunday's telephone call that he has the support of all ethnic groups in Pakistan.
Pakistani prosecutors on Saturday said they would arrest him upon his arrival for alleged involvement in the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
The former president blamed the attack on the Pakistani Taliban, but prosecutors have since said he played a role himself.
Mr. Musharraf has been living in self-imposed exile in London and Dubai since 2008.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com