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Taliban Declares Victory, as Fighting Goes On
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG The New York Times January 16, 2012, 12:36 pm
KABUL, Afghanistan — Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban’s one-eyed leader, seems to have taken a page from George W. Bush’s playbook.
Just as the former president declared “mission accomplished” in Iraq years before the war there ended, the Taliban made their own victory declaration this weekend, even though roughly 130,000 coalition troops were still fighting in Afghanistan — and keeping the Afghan government firmly in power.
No matter, suggested the Taliban, which calls itself the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, in a statement bluntly titled: “Formal Proclamation of Islamic Emirate’s Victory.” The American push to open talks is proof that the insurgents are winning, the Taliban reasoned.
“It is but sheer determination, religious and ideological adherence and unequalled sacrifices displayed by true Afghan Mujahid nation for the last decade that today regional and world powers are after to reach mutual understanding about the country,” the statement said in the Taliban’s typically fractured English.
The coalition declined to comment on the Taliban’s statement.
Most American and Afghan officials would surely dispute the Taliban’s logic. But taken as a statement of intent, the Taliban’s declaration offers an instructive glimpse into their thinking. For them, a seat across the table from the Americans – and, if a settlement is reached, a formal role in the Afghan government — may be the victory they’ve been fighting for.
That fight looks set to go on for at least a few more years. The combat role for the American-led coalition is not set to conclude until the end of 2014, and Western officials say they expect trainers and special operations to remain in Afghanistan for years afterward. In the meantime, both the Taliban and the coalition have made it clear they plan to keep fighting, even as they start talking.
Few here believe the Taliban, armed mostly with rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and roadside bombs, have any chance of overcoming the foreign and Afghan forces arrayed against them. Even former Taliban officials who now live in Kabul but maintain contact with their former compatriots say the insurgents know an outright victory on the battlefield is a near impossibility in the foreseeable future.
Rather, they say, the Taliban have been fighting for precisely what is now unfolding: the opening of talks as a prelude to the withdrawal of American and allied troops. The Americans, for their part, say they’ve been fighting for the same.
But for the Taliban, the move toward talks nonetheless appears to be a chance to take a rhetorical victory lap and score a few propaganda points with ordinary Afghans, the vast majority of whom are tired of war and more inclined to see the talks as a sign of American weakness and insurgent strength than the other way around.
That is sentiment the Taliban are eager to promote, as evidenced by their statement, which was posted on their official Web site late Sunday in English and Pashto, one of Afghanistan’s major languages. It was the first time the Taliban were known to have declared victory, although they have been predicting it for years. The statement is signed with only the name “Khapalwak,” though the content for the Web site is believed to be approved at the highest levels of the group.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan showed it openly to the world that it is a well-organized political power besides being a military power,” the statement said. “The invading countries of Afghanistan are compelled to review their policies by looking into the military and political determination, unity, organization and unshakeable stance of the Islamic Emirate.”
The Taliban held up the choice of Qatar as the location for the talks, and for an office, soon to be opened, for the insurgents, as added evidence that it was winning the war in Afghanistan.
President Hamid Karzai’s government — often referred to by the insurgents as a “stooge” or “puppet” administration — wanted the office to be in Saudi Arabia or Turkey and only reluctantly agreed to Qatar under pressure from the Americans. “But Qatar having balance relations with all sides and a prestigious status in the Islamic world is the most appropriate place for this kind of office,” the statement said.
There is, however, one issue not addressed in the statement: Are the Taliban sincere about negotiating an end to the war in Afghanistan? Or are they just waiting for 2014, thinking they can eventually overcome Afghan forces once most of the foreign troops are gone?
That may be harder to divine from the insurgents’ self-congratulatory rhetoric. But the Taliban, in their latest statement and the countless others they have put out over the past decade, leave little doubt that their ultimate goal is to again rule Afghanistan. The Islamic Emirate “has ruled the country successfully and preserves the right and might of each and every decision of the country,” the statement said. “It can neither accept external orders nor can it come under any one’s pressure.”
It concludes archly with an admonishment for the United States and its allies: “If the present invaders had chosen a lucid path instead of incursion, they would not have faced such a huge personnel and financial loss in Afghanistan.”
Afghan official: 3 killed in helicopter crash
January 16, 2012 Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan – A civilian helicopter crashed in southern Afghanistan on Monday, killing all three people on board, an Afghan official said.
Marjan Haqmal, police chief of Nad Ali district in Helmand province, said the Russian-made aircraft probably went down because of a technical malfunction.
NATO confirmed that a civilian helicopter crashed Monday in southern Afghanistan. It said the site of the crash has been secured and that coalition forces are trying to gather more information about what happened.
The alliance did not provide information about casualties.
Dozens of Russian-built cargo helicopters are used by contractors working for the NATO-led coalition.
The coalition relies heavily on helicopters or airdrops to deliver food and other supplies to remote outposts in order to avoid using roads that are frequently mined by the insurgents. Transport aircraft are also frequently used for airdrops to isolated bases.
The Taliban have few dedicated anti-aircraft weapons, but they have damaged or destroyed dozens of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft using automatic rifles and other infantry weapons. In August, militants shot down a U.S. Chinook transport helicopter, killing 30 U.S. special operation troops, a translator and seven Afghan commandos.
Spanish DM makes surprise visit to troops in Afghanistan
MADRID, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- Spanish Defense Minister Pedro Morenes on Monday made a surprise visit to Spanish troops stationed in Afghanistan.
Morenes, who took office less than a month ago, set off from the military airbase in Torrejon, just outside of Madrid on Sunday night to visit the bases at Herat, where around 500 military personnel are stationed, and Qala I Naw, which hosts the majority of the Spanish military contingent in the country.
It is his first trip overseas after being named as defense ministry by the new Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.
There are currently around 1,500 Spanish troops stationed in Afghanistan, where they form part of the United Nations mission in the country.
20 Taliban fighters lay down arms in southern Afghan province
GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- Twenty Taliban fighters including a key commander on Monday laid down arms and joined the peace process in Afghan Ghazni province, 125 km south of capital Kabul. "These former rebels under Mullah Khadimul Furqan have handed over their weapons to security authorities,"provincial governor Musa Khan Akbarzada said at the ceremony to welcome the former militants.
With these people joining the peace process, the security situation will be further improved, he said, adding more militants would give up militancy and join the peace process in future.
Mullah Furqan and his men were active in Dayak district and nearby areas and had often harmed government interests including Afghan and NATO-led forces. "Since war is not the solution to Afghan problem, I have decided to join peace process and I am also calling on other armed oppositions to follow in the steps and give up fighting", Mullah Furqan said.
However, he was concerned about his future and called on the government to ensure his security and the security of his followers, saying Taliban would target anyone who switches side.
Taliban militants have yet to make comment.
According to Afghan government, more than 3,000 anti-government militants have laid down arms and joined the government-initiated peace process and national reconciliation over the past year, a claim rejected by Taliban outfit as groundless.
92 insurgents surrender to Afghan gov't in month: official
KABUL, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- At least 92 armed insurgents have surrendered to the government last month, a spokesman for Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) said here on Monday. "A total of 92 anti-government armed insurgents have renounced violence and joined the government in Kandahar, Herat, Badghis, Farah, Ghor and Baghlan provinces last month", spokesman Lutfullah Mashal told reporters at a press briefing.
He said the former insurgents were operating in eight groups in the above provinces and a number of local insurgent leaders were also among those who surrendered to the government.
According to Afghan officials, more than 3,000 anti-government militants have laid down arms and joined the government-initiated peace process and national reconciliation process last year, a claim rejected by Taliban outfit as groundless.
Mashal added that the NDS had detained 18 terrorists loyal to Taliban outfit during manhunt operations in the country's Kunduz, Logar, Paktika and Nangarhar provinces last month.
The Taliban stepped up their attacks on Afghan and NATO-led troops since a rebel offensive was launched in May 2011 in the war- ravaged country.
Hakimullah Mehsud Killed in Pakistan
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 15 January 2012
Leader of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Hakimullah Mehsud, may have been killed in a US drone attack, Pakistani media reported.
Pakistani TV channel, Geo News reported that Hakimullah Mehsud has died in a US drone attack on January 12.
Pakistani intelligence officials have said that they have intercepted radio communications of Pakistani Taliban discussing if their leader had died in a US attack on January 12.
The death may have occurred in North Waziristan.
In the intercepted communications some Taliban militants have confirmed the death and some have criticised them for talking about it on the radio.
Pakistani Taliban have denied reports about Mesud's death, according to Geo TV.
A Changed Way of War in Afghanistan’s Skies
New York Times By C. J. CHIVERS January 15, 2012
INSIDE STRIKE FIGHTER VENGEANCE 13, over Kandahar Province, Afghanistan
Cmdr. Layne McDowell glanced over his left shoulder, through the canopy of a Navy F/A-18, to an Afghan canyon 9,000 feet below. An American infantry company was down there.
The soldiers had been inserted by helicopter. Now a ground controller wanted the three strike fighters circling overhead to send a sign — both to the grunts and to any Taliban fighters shadowing them as they walked.
Commander McDowell banked and aligned his jet’s nose with the canyon’s northeastern end. Then he followed his wingmen’s lead. He dived, pulled level at 5,000 feet and accelerated down the canyon’s axis at 620 miles per hour, broadcasting his proximity with an extended engine roar.
In the lexicon of close air support, his maneuver was a “show of presence” — a mid-altitude, nonlethal display intended to reassure ground troops and signal to the Taliban that the soldiers were not alone. It reflected a sharp shift in the application of American air power, de-emphasizing overpowering violence in favor of sorties that often end without munitions being dropped.
The use of air power has changed markedly during the long Afghan conflict, reflecting the political costs and sensitivities of civilian casualties caused by errant or indiscriminate strikes and the increasing use of aerial drones, which can watch over potential targets for extended periods with no risk to pilots or more expensive aircraft.
Fighter jets with pilots, however, remain an essential component of the war, in part because little else in the allied arsenal is considered as versatile or imposing, and because of improvements in the aircraft’s sensors.
Commander McDowell’s career has followed the arc of this changing role. At the outset of the war in 2001, American aircraft often attacked in ways that maximized violence, including carpet bombing, dropping cluster munitions and conducting weeks of strikes with precision-guided munitions.
Flying in an F-14 squadron from the aircraft carrier Enterprise, then-Lieutenant McDowell dropped 6,000 pounds of munitions in the war’s first week, destroying Taliban aircraft and vehicles at Herat airfield and striking training camps and barracks in Kandahar Province.
He had already flown the past two years in Kosovo and Iraq, where in 32 combat sorties he dropped 35,000 pounds of guided munitions, including on Serbian barracks that were struck when the largest number of soldiers were believed to be inside.
“Our culture is a fangs-out, kill-kill-kill culture,” he said. “That’s how we train. And back then, the mind-set was: maximum number of enemy killed, maximum number of bombs on deck, to achieve a maximum psychological effect.”
That was then. A little more than a decade on, his most common mission is what is called an “overwatch,” scanning the ground via infrared sensors and radioing what he sees to troops below.
In 953 close-air support sorties by the 44 F/A-18 Super Hornets aboard the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis, from where Commander McDowell flies now, aircraft struck only 17 times. They flew low- or mid-elevation passes 115 times.
The shifts in missions and tactics partly reflect adaptations by the Taliban. But guided by complex rules of engagement and by doctrine emphasizing proportionality and restraint, they also reflect what Commander McDowell calls “a different mentality.”
These days, striving for certitude in target selection and minimizing civilian casualties have become standard practice. Projecting power nonlethally is routine. Dropping bombs is not.
“So much has changed from when I was here the first time,” he said, looking down at Afghanistan on a six-hour flight early last week. “Now I prefer not dropping — if I can accomplish the mission other ways.”
A Day’s Work
Commander McDowell’s workday began at 4:30 a.m., when he woke in a small stateroom and readied for a long sortie. At 5:30 a.m., he gathered for his preflight briefing.
Lt. Cmdr. Fran Catalina, a pilot who would be one of his wingmen, offered a reminder that the Afghan war, in its 11th winter, was grinding on, and that the reach of the Navy’s carrier aircraft was welcome — even far inland. “There were 43 enemy-initiated attacks in the last reporting period,” he said, showing a map. “Lots of kinetics yesterday.”
Each pilot and weapons-systems officer, who flies in the rear seat of an F/A-18F, was assigned a mission supporting a different ground unit.
At 7:15 a.m., after donning ejection-seat torso harnesses and survival vests and collecting their pistols, they climbed into their aircraft, which waited, armed and fueled, on the flight deck. The carrier was steaming into the wind in the North Arabian Sea.
The aircraft carried a mix of laser- and G.P.S.-guided bombs, heat-seeking air-to-air missiles and ammunition for 20-millimeter cannon.
Shortly before 8 a.m., after preflight checks, Commander McDowell taxied to one of the ship’s four catapults, where sailors attached a hold-back bar to the jet’s nose wheel. He pushed Vengeance 13’s dual engines to full power. The engines roared. The aircraft shook.
He saluted a sailor on the flight deck. The sailor saluted back. “Five seconds,” Commander McDowell said.
He raised his chin, pressed the back of his helmet against the seat and flexed his muscles as he braced for the rush.
The bar released. The steam-driven catapult slammed forward. Vengeance 13 accelerated to 180 miles an hour in about 200 feet. It vaulted off the carrier’s bow. Perhaps two seconds had passed. He had just experienced 3.5 Gs, and he was flying, just above the waves.
“And we’re airborne,” he said.
Commander McDowell is scheduled to assume command of an F/A-18 squadron in May. He is 38, a graduate of the Naval Academy and a former test pilot. His call-sign — Keebler — reflects what he calls his elfin stature (he is 5 feet 7 inches tall) and insatiable sweet tooth.
The nickname also suggests a compliment. Shorter pilots can typically withstand greater gravitational forces when in fast minimum-radius turns or the dives, rolls and climbs involved in dogfighting and strafing. Commander McDowell, who has withstood seven Gs without losing consciousness, is known, in his trade, as “a G-monster.”
On a previous flight from the carrier he had demonstrated for a reporter in the back seat some of what an F/A-18F can do, making the reporter disoriented — and airsick — at 6.5 Gs, chatting calmly as he put the aircraft into a supersonic dive and a series of maneuvers over the Gulf of Oman.
For a combat flight into Afghanistan, however, he would conserve energy and fuel. He flew level at 500 feet for seven miles, banked left and climbed to 25,000 feet, where he was joined by two other Super Hornets.
The trio headed north for their first mission, to support the company freshly landed in the valley in Kandahar.
To get there, they flew toward a designated slot of airspace in western Pakistan. Known as “the Boulevard,” the corridor is a busy air bridge — the route through which Pakistan allows NATO aircraft access to Afghanistan. For planes from air bases in the Persian Gulf, this is the way around Iran.
Commander McDowell’s flight, commanded by Capt. Dell Bull in Vengeance 11, overtook slower aircraft heading to the war. Around 9:15 a.m., the flight crossed over the Afghan border.
An Air Force KC-10 tanker waited ahead, flying a wide circle over a Central Asian desert. It dragged a hose ending in a basket surrounding a small valve. It was time to refuel.
Vengeance 13 went first. After Vengeance 11 had refueled, too, the two aircraft broke off and headed to their mission; Vengeance 12 would join them later. Captain Dell checked in with the ground controller, who said the company had taken fire earlier in the morning.
For about an hour, the aircraft used infrared sensors to watch buildings and the canyon, covering the soldiers’ movement. The Taliban did not show themselves.
A New Mind-Set
After refueling a second time, the jets checked in with a ground controller near the Arghandab River, the area that in late 2010 was a high-profile part of the offensive to displace the Taliban.
Before that offensive, the American presence along the river had been light. Now, from the air, the military footprint was clear. The river was a network of outposts and bases with high walls, many watched over by cameras mounted on tethered blimp-like balloons.
If one place might suggest the way Commander McDowell’s role on the battlefield had changed over his career, this was it. He flew a slow left turn, pointing to an area where several days before an infantry patrol had skirmished with Afghan gunmen.
The gunmen had fired from a field not far from Forward Operating Base Wilson and then dashed into a cluster of mud-walled buildings, he said. Commander McDowell had arrived overhead within minutes.
What happened next framed the contrast between the old practices and the new.
The infantrymen talked him toward the building. Then they marked it by firing a smoke grenade at its walls. Above the river, Commander McDowell fixed his infrared sensor on the compound, sharing the video feed with a ground controller, who confirmed he was looking at the right place. What to do?
In 1999, late in the war in Kosovo, Commander McDowell said pilots routinely killed. On one sortie, in the rush to stop Serbs from killing ethnic Albanians, Commander McDowell dropped a 1,000-pound, laser-guided bomb at the mouth of a tunnel that five trucks carrying Serbian soldiers had just entered. The shrapnel and pressure wave from the blast probably killed every man.
Back then, the rules of engagement allowed pilots to track suspected military vehicles.
“And if a military vehicle stopped at a house, we would get a reading of where the driver went,” he said. “If we were able to identify that the truck was Serbian military, and it stopped for a long period of time at the house, we made the assumption that they were stopping for resupply and within a couple days that house was taken out.”
A little more than a dozen years later, he was above a home in which at least two Taliban fighters had taken shelter after firing on an American patrol. But he did not know who else might be inside. Neither he nor the soldiers requested clearance for an airstrike.
“What if we hit that house and two guys inside had guns and we get eight kids, too?” he said.
High over the Arghandab River, he banked over the home that he and the rules had spared.
Referring to the targeting display in the cockpit, he pointed out its proximity to other homes, and described the limits of what he knew about so-called “patterns of life” — the rhythm of the human activity at the compound where Taliban fighters hid.
“I didn’t think about these things at all in Kosovo,” he said.
The reach of a nuclear carrier, augmented with aerial tankers, made it possible for strike aircraft to penetrate 800 miles from the ship. But what was the point of projecting power if it was not projected responsibly? The changes, he said, have been good.
“I would say that in my younger days I would have been frustrated, because we have ordnance and we know where the enemy is, and I would have wanted permission to strike that building,” he said. “Did I feel frustrated this time? Not in the slightest. It is a different mission. It calls for a different mentality.”
Nuristan Governor Urges Operation against Insurgents
TOLOnews.com By Zabihullah Jehanmal Sunday, 15 January 2012
The governor of eastern Nuristan province on Saturday called on the Afghan government to launch military operations to clear all insurgents in Kunar and Nuristan provinces.
The governor of Nuristan, Tamim Nuristani, said he has been able to maintain security in some areas in cooperation with local councils, but some militant groups still threaten government workers travelling between Kunar and Nuristan.
"Not only the Taliban militants, but also militants from Hezb-e-Islami and some other groups are behind insecurity in the area," Mr Tamim Nuristani said.
Meanwhile, civilians have also complained about security threat on the Nuristan-Kunar routes.
"There are groups who stop passengers and beat them," a Nuristan resident said. Kamdish, Barg-e-Matal, and Waigal districts are areas that are said to have been under Taliban control over the past eight months, but the governor of Nuristan says he is making efforts to get local councils' cooperation to retake the areas.
Insurgents have frequently attacked some districts of Nuristan province mainly targeting police check points.
The limited number of Afghan security forces in the province is the main reason behind insecurity in many districts, the governor added.
No sign of Taliban infiltration into Afghan security forces: ISAF
KABUL, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- There were no signs of Taliban infiltration into Afghan army and police forces, A spokesman for NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said here Monday.
"There were no signs that the Taliban are seriously infiltrating the Afghan security forces," ISAF spokesman Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson told a joint press conference.
He made the comments after a string of attacks involving individuals in Afghan army and police uniforms that left some members of foreign forces dead and injured over the past few years.
In the latest such incidents, a man in Afghan army uniform during a training mission opened fire on foreign colleagues killing a U.S. soldier and injuring at least five American soldiers before being shot in southern Zabul province on Jan. 8.
In another incident, a gunman wearing an army uniform shot dead two French soldiers with ISAF in the province of Kapisa, some 65 km north of capital city of Kabul late last December.
Taliban insurgents fighting Afghan and NATO forces frequently claim responsibility for such incidents.
Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi, at the same press conference, said that the government has sent a delegation recently, to northern provinces, to probe recent reports that members of NATO and U.S.-funded Afghan Local Police (ALP) forces were involved in committing human rights abuses.
"The ministry of interior has already suspended 15 members of ALP, who may have been involved in abuse and mistreat of locals in parts of the country, and put them in custody over the past one year,"Sediqqi added.
"Afghan Local Police represents the only legitimate security force programs authorized by Presidential decree and administered by Ministry of Interior. Let me emphasize that Afghan Local Police is not a militia group," said Jacobson.
The ALP or community police was established in August 2010 to protect villages and districts around the insurgency-hit country where Afghan army and police have limited presence.
"Afghan Local Police are community based, bringing self-defense, governance and opportunity for economic development to rural areas of Afghanistan," a spokesman of 130,000-strong ISAF force said, adding that in less than 18 months, the program has grown to nearly 11,000 ALP serving in 57 validated districts and the number is to reach to 30,000 in near future.
Heavy snow brings cheer to war-torn Afghan capital
AFP By Lawrence Bartlett 15/01/2012
If Afghans are right and snow brings luck, their war-ravaged country is due for a large dose of good news amid tentative moves towards peace talks with Taliban insurgents.
Heavy snow falls transformed the usually dry and dusty capital Kabul on Sunday, with even the ubiquitous concertina razor wire metamorphosed into curly white works of art.
On streets lined with trees -- and hesco blast walls -- laced in white, men shovelling sidewalks and guards nursing assault rifles in gloved hands chatted, smiling, to strangers passing by.
The social networking site Twitter, widely used in Afghanistan to track the latest horrors of the 10-year war, reflected the cheerful mood.
"Quite a bit of snow on the ground here in Kabul over the past 24 hours. Looks beautiful," tweeted ISAF, NATO's International Security Assistance Force, which has some 130,000 US-led troops in the country.
"Kabul police dropped their AK47s and playing snowball in Kabul city," tweeted one resident.
But the mood is likely to be brief, melting with the snow and an inevitable return to news of death and destruction as both the United States and the Taliban work on strategies of fighting and talking at the same time.
The Taliban, who have announced plans to open a political office in Qatar ahead of possible talks with Washington, said this did not mean they had surrendered in the war against US-led coalition forces.
Rather, they would use their political wing alongside their military to achieve their aims, the hardline Islamists said.
The move towards talks met with some scepticism, but the Taliban surprised analysts last week by saying that an online video of US Marines urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban fighters would not derail negotiations.
There were fears that the offensive video, quickly condemned in Washington, could lead to violent anti-US protests in Afghanistan like those that followed the burning of a Koran last year by an American pastor.
"The fact that Taliban chose not to have an angry reaction as in the past cases and not reverse their decision to talk to US could be a reason why we are not witnessing" protests in Kabul, said Afghan analyst Mati Kharoti.
Given that many of the more conservative Afghans outside the main cities do not have access to the Internet or television, analysts have cautioned that protests could still erupt.
But on Sunday, as groups of people warmed their hands on the charcoal braziers of kebab sellers and breathed crisp air cleansed of the usual pollution by the snow, there was cautious optimism about the country's future.
"I am optimistic about the Taliban office in Qatar which will be set up for negotiations purpose," said Mahboob Shah, 30, a mason.
"Without a Taliban political address it is impossible to bring durable peace in Afghanistan, because they are part of this land."
Student Abdul Kabir, 19, agreed: "We support the Taliban office in Qatar which will be set up for talks. With this office, hopefully the war and internal fighting would end in Afghanistan."
But others, like Ahmad Mansoor, 21, said any peace negotiations should take place in Afghanistan itself and ruled out a role for the Taliban in government.
"If they join the government nobody would be pleased, because they would continue their same barbaric regime," he said, a reference to the brutal Taliban rule before they were ousted by a US-led invasion in 2001.
For the moment though, residents were enjoying the heaviest snowfall of the winter in a city which relies on snow for its water supplies and prides itself on the slogan: "Kabul can be without gold but not without snow."
5 killed in avalanche in northeastern Afghanistan
FAIZABAD, Afghanistan, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- A total of five people were killed in an avalanche in northeastern Afghan province of Badakhshan, an official said on Monday.
"A huge avalanche hit a village in Rigei area of Arghistan district Sunday night leaving five people dead," a spokesman for provincial government Abdul Maruf Rasikh told Xinhua.
The Afghan National Police with the support of locals have rescued dozens of persons in the remote district while at least five to six others are still missing in the province with Faizabad as its capital, 315 km northeast of capital city of Kabul, the spokesman Rasikh added.
Heavy snowfall covered parts of northern and central parts of Afghanistan last week while Kabul, the capital of the war-torn nation, witnessed the snowfall on Saturday and Sunday.
Snow Disrupts Traffic at Salang Pass
TOLOnews.com By Sharif Amiri Sunday, 15 January 2012
The Salang Pass has been closed to traffic due to heavy snow, Afghan Ministry of Public Works said on Sunday.
While the heavy snow has brought joy to the capital Kabul, the Ministry of Public works says snow has caused problems in many other parts of the country.
Deputy Minister of Construction for the Public Works Ministry, Ahmad Shah Wahid, said snow has blocked the roads of Badakhshan, Bamian, Daikundi, Sar-e-Pul and Ghor provinces.
In Kabul people are happy and believe such a snow fall has been unprecedented in the last ten years.
Kabul has witnessed snow falls since the beginning of the week.
While many people are happy there are also many poor families who find it difficult to carry on without enough firewood and other essential needs.
It comes as the price of fuel and firewood has gone high.
Pakistan Minister Wants Evidence of Taliban Leader’s Death
VOA News January 16, 2012
Pakistan's interior minister says he is unable to confirm reports that the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud, was killed Thursday in a U.S. drone strike in the North Waziristan tribal region.
Rehman Malik told reporters in Islamabad Monday that unless he has “DNA evidence” or confirmation from his own “independent sources,” he will not say Mehsud is dead.
On Sunday, unnamed Pakistani intelligence officials said they had intercepted wireless radio conversations of the Taliban fighters discussing whether their chief was killed in the attack. Some of the overheard militants confirmed Mehsud was dead, while at least one criticized them for talking about it on the radio.
There was no official confirmation from Pakistan, and the Taliban issued a denial.
Pakistan PM Faces Contempt Charges
VOA News January 16, 2012
Pakistan's Supreme Court has issued a contempt notice to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani for failing to follow the court's orders and open a corruption probe into the president.
The notice issued Monday orders the prime minister to appear before the court on January 19. If convicted of contempt of court, Gilani can be sent to jail and removed from his post.
The judges want the government to examine corruption allegations against President Asif Ali Zardari dating back to the 1990s. However, so far, Gilani has refused, saying Zardari enjoys immunity as the head of state.
The court order escalates the pressure on Pakistan's civilian government, which faces separate court battles and high tensions with the country's powerful military.
A Supreme Court-appointed panel is investigating the origins of an unsigned memo in which Pakistan's civilian government allegedly asked for U.S. help in reining in the Pakistani military, following the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden last May.
The existence of the document came to light in October when Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz accused the then-Pakistani ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, of writing the memo. Haqqani denies he wrote the document and has since resigned.
U.S. military officials confirmed that the top U.S. military officer at the time, Admiral Mike Mullen, received the memo but did not find it credible.
Last week, Gilani accused army chief General Pervez Ashfaq Kayani and Inter-Services Intelligence head Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha of acting unconstitutionally by making unilateral submissions to the ongoing inquiry.
In response, the military said his remarks will have "very serious ramifications," and warned of "grievous consequences" for the country.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
Rights Commission Urges Public Punishment for Torturers of Afghan Girl
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 15 January 2012
Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission on Sunday called for the public punishment of those who illegally imprisoned and tortured the Afghan girl, Sahar Gul, in northern Baghlan province.
Sahar Gul was freed by the Afghan police from a toilet in her home in Baghlan where she had been imprisoned by the family members of her husband for five months.
Sahar Gul was kept in a toilet and was tortured by family members of her husband. The tortures included beating and nail removal.
The Commission blames the incident mainly on Sahar Gul's husband and expresses concern over why he has not yet been arrested in connection to the incident.
"Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission calls on the government to publicly punish those responsible for imprisoning and torturing Sahar Gul," In charge of Women's Rights section at the Commission, Latifa Sultani, said.
Meanwhile, the Attorney General's Office says that the case is being investigated by the court of appeal in Baghlan and that three family members have been detained in connection with the case.
"Three family members of Sahar Gul's husband including her father-in-law, mother-in-law and husband's sister have been arrested," Qudsia Niazi, head of the Attorney General Office section to fight violence against women, said.
Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission warns that if such cases are left unaddressed, violence against women will increase.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG The New York Times January 16, 2012, 12:36 pm
KABUL, Afghanistan — Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban’s one-eyed leader, seems to have taken a page from George W. Bush’s playbook.
Just as the former president declared “mission accomplished” in Iraq years before the war there ended, the Taliban made their own victory declaration this weekend, even though roughly 130,000 coalition troops were still fighting in Afghanistan — and keeping the Afghan government firmly in power.
No matter, suggested the Taliban, which calls itself the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, in a statement bluntly titled: “Formal Proclamation of Islamic Emirate’s Victory.” The American push to open talks is proof that the insurgents are winning, the Taliban reasoned.
“It is but sheer determination, religious and ideological adherence and unequalled sacrifices displayed by true Afghan Mujahid nation for the last decade that today regional and world powers are after to reach mutual understanding about the country,” the statement said in the Taliban’s typically fractured English.
The coalition declined to comment on the Taliban’s statement.
Most American and Afghan officials would surely dispute the Taliban’s logic. But taken as a statement of intent, the Taliban’s declaration offers an instructive glimpse into their thinking. For them, a seat across the table from the Americans – and, if a settlement is reached, a formal role in the Afghan government — may be the victory they’ve been fighting for.
That fight looks set to go on for at least a few more years. The combat role for the American-led coalition is not set to conclude until the end of 2014, and Western officials say they expect trainers and special operations to remain in Afghanistan for years afterward. In the meantime, both the Taliban and the coalition have made it clear they plan to keep fighting, even as they start talking.
Few here believe the Taliban, armed mostly with rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and roadside bombs, have any chance of overcoming the foreign and Afghan forces arrayed against them. Even former Taliban officials who now live in Kabul but maintain contact with their former compatriots say the insurgents know an outright victory on the battlefield is a near impossibility in the foreseeable future.
Rather, they say, the Taliban have been fighting for precisely what is now unfolding: the opening of talks as a prelude to the withdrawal of American and allied troops. The Americans, for their part, say they’ve been fighting for the same.
But for the Taliban, the move toward talks nonetheless appears to be a chance to take a rhetorical victory lap and score a few propaganda points with ordinary Afghans, the vast majority of whom are tired of war and more inclined to see the talks as a sign of American weakness and insurgent strength than the other way around.
That is sentiment the Taliban are eager to promote, as evidenced by their statement, which was posted on their official Web site late Sunday in English and Pashto, one of Afghanistan’s major languages. It was the first time the Taliban were known to have declared victory, although they have been predicting it for years. The statement is signed with only the name “Khapalwak,” though the content for the Web site is believed to be approved at the highest levels of the group.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan showed it openly to the world that it is a well-organized political power besides being a military power,” the statement said. “The invading countries of Afghanistan are compelled to review their policies by looking into the military and political determination, unity, organization and unshakeable stance of the Islamic Emirate.”
The Taliban held up the choice of Qatar as the location for the talks, and for an office, soon to be opened, for the insurgents, as added evidence that it was winning the war in Afghanistan.
President Hamid Karzai’s government — often referred to by the insurgents as a “stooge” or “puppet” administration — wanted the office to be in Saudi Arabia or Turkey and only reluctantly agreed to Qatar under pressure from the Americans. “But Qatar having balance relations with all sides and a prestigious status in the Islamic world is the most appropriate place for this kind of office,” the statement said.
There is, however, one issue not addressed in the statement: Are the Taliban sincere about negotiating an end to the war in Afghanistan? Or are they just waiting for 2014, thinking they can eventually overcome Afghan forces once most of the foreign troops are gone?
That may be harder to divine from the insurgents’ self-congratulatory rhetoric. But the Taliban, in their latest statement and the countless others they have put out over the past decade, leave little doubt that their ultimate goal is to again rule Afghanistan. The Islamic Emirate “has ruled the country successfully and preserves the right and might of each and every decision of the country,” the statement said. “It can neither accept external orders nor can it come under any one’s pressure.”
It concludes archly with an admonishment for the United States and its allies: “If the present invaders had chosen a lucid path instead of incursion, they would not have faced such a huge personnel and financial loss in Afghanistan.”
Afghan official: 3 killed in helicopter crash
January 16, 2012 Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan – A civilian helicopter crashed in southern Afghanistan on Monday, killing all three people on board, an Afghan official said.
Marjan Haqmal, police chief of Nad Ali district in Helmand province, said the Russian-made aircraft probably went down because of a technical malfunction.
NATO confirmed that a civilian helicopter crashed Monday in southern Afghanistan. It said the site of the crash has been secured and that coalition forces are trying to gather more information about what happened.
The alliance did not provide information about casualties.
Dozens of Russian-built cargo helicopters are used by contractors working for the NATO-led coalition.
The coalition relies heavily on helicopters or airdrops to deliver food and other supplies to remote outposts in order to avoid using roads that are frequently mined by the insurgents. Transport aircraft are also frequently used for airdrops to isolated bases.
The Taliban have few dedicated anti-aircraft weapons, but they have damaged or destroyed dozens of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft using automatic rifles and other infantry weapons. In August, militants shot down a U.S. Chinook transport helicopter, killing 30 U.S. special operation troops, a translator and seven Afghan commandos.
Spanish DM makes surprise visit to troops in Afghanistan
MADRID, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- Spanish Defense Minister Pedro Morenes on Monday made a surprise visit to Spanish troops stationed in Afghanistan.
Morenes, who took office less than a month ago, set off from the military airbase in Torrejon, just outside of Madrid on Sunday night to visit the bases at Herat, where around 500 military personnel are stationed, and Qala I Naw, which hosts the majority of the Spanish military contingent in the country.
It is his first trip overseas after being named as defense ministry by the new Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.
There are currently around 1,500 Spanish troops stationed in Afghanistan, where they form part of the United Nations mission in the country.
20 Taliban fighters lay down arms in southern Afghan province
GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- Twenty Taliban fighters including a key commander on Monday laid down arms and joined the peace process in Afghan Ghazni province, 125 km south of capital Kabul. "These former rebels under Mullah Khadimul Furqan have handed over their weapons to security authorities,"provincial governor Musa Khan Akbarzada said at the ceremony to welcome the former militants.
With these people joining the peace process, the security situation will be further improved, he said, adding more militants would give up militancy and join the peace process in future.
Mullah Furqan and his men were active in Dayak district and nearby areas and had often harmed government interests including Afghan and NATO-led forces. "Since war is not the solution to Afghan problem, I have decided to join peace process and I am also calling on other armed oppositions to follow in the steps and give up fighting", Mullah Furqan said.
However, he was concerned about his future and called on the government to ensure his security and the security of his followers, saying Taliban would target anyone who switches side.
Taliban militants have yet to make comment.
According to Afghan government, more than 3,000 anti-government militants have laid down arms and joined the government-initiated peace process and national reconciliation over the past year, a claim rejected by Taliban outfit as groundless.
92 insurgents surrender to Afghan gov't in month: official
KABUL, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- At least 92 armed insurgents have surrendered to the government last month, a spokesman for Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) said here on Monday. "A total of 92 anti-government armed insurgents have renounced violence and joined the government in Kandahar, Herat, Badghis, Farah, Ghor and Baghlan provinces last month", spokesman Lutfullah Mashal told reporters at a press briefing.
He said the former insurgents were operating in eight groups in the above provinces and a number of local insurgent leaders were also among those who surrendered to the government.
According to Afghan officials, more than 3,000 anti-government militants have laid down arms and joined the government-initiated peace process and national reconciliation process last year, a claim rejected by Taliban outfit as groundless.
Mashal added that the NDS had detained 18 terrorists loyal to Taliban outfit during manhunt operations in the country's Kunduz, Logar, Paktika and Nangarhar provinces last month.
The Taliban stepped up their attacks on Afghan and NATO-led troops since a rebel offensive was launched in May 2011 in the war- ravaged country.
Hakimullah Mehsud Killed in Pakistan
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 15 January 2012
Leader of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Hakimullah Mehsud, may have been killed in a US drone attack, Pakistani media reported.
Pakistani TV channel, Geo News reported that Hakimullah Mehsud has died in a US drone attack on January 12.
Pakistani intelligence officials have said that they have intercepted radio communications of Pakistani Taliban discussing if their leader had died in a US attack on January 12.
The death may have occurred in North Waziristan.
In the intercepted communications some Taliban militants have confirmed the death and some have criticised them for talking about it on the radio.
Pakistani Taliban have denied reports about Mesud's death, according to Geo TV.
A Changed Way of War in Afghanistan’s Skies
New York Times By C. J. CHIVERS January 15, 2012
INSIDE STRIKE FIGHTER VENGEANCE 13, over Kandahar Province, Afghanistan
Cmdr. Layne McDowell glanced over his left shoulder, through the canopy of a Navy F/A-18, to an Afghan canyon 9,000 feet below. An American infantry company was down there.
The soldiers had been inserted by helicopter. Now a ground controller wanted the three strike fighters circling overhead to send a sign — both to the grunts and to any Taliban fighters shadowing them as they walked.
Commander McDowell banked and aligned his jet’s nose with the canyon’s northeastern end. Then he followed his wingmen’s lead. He dived, pulled level at 5,000 feet and accelerated down the canyon’s axis at 620 miles per hour, broadcasting his proximity with an extended engine roar.
In the lexicon of close air support, his maneuver was a “show of presence” — a mid-altitude, nonlethal display intended to reassure ground troops and signal to the Taliban that the soldiers were not alone. It reflected a sharp shift in the application of American air power, de-emphasizing overpowering violence in favor of sorties that often end without munitions being dropped.
The use of air power has changed markedly during the long Afghan conflict, reflecting the political costs and sensitivities of civilian casualties caused by errant or indiscriminate strikes and the increasing use of aerial drones, which can watch over potential targets for extended periods with no risk to pilots or more expensive aircraft.
Fighter jets with pilots, however, remain an essential component of the war, in part because little else in the allied arsenal is considered as versatile or imposing, and because of improvements in the aircraft’s sensors.
Commander McDowell’s career has followed the arc of this changing role. At the outset of the war in 2001, American aircraft often attacked in ways that maximized violence, including carpet bombing, dropping cluster munitions and conducting weeks of strikes with precision-guided munitions.
Flying in an F-14 squadron from the aircraft carrier Enterprise, then-Lieutenant McDowell dropped 6,000 pounds of munitions in the war’s first week, destroying Taliban aircraft and vehicles at Herat airfield and striking training camps and barracks in Kandahar Province.
He had already flown the past two years in Kosovo and Iraq, where in 32 combat sorties he dropped 35,000 pounds of guided munitions, including on Serbian barracks that were struck when the largest number of soldiers were believed to be inside.
“Our culture is a fangs-out, kill-kill-kill culture,” he said. “That’s how we train. And back then, the mind-set was: maximum number of enemy killed, maximum number of bombs on deck, to achieve a maximum psychological effect.”
That was then. A little more than a decade on, his most common mission is what is called an “overwatch,” scanning the ground via infrared sensors and radioing what he sees to troops below.
In 953 close-air support sorties by the 44 F/A-18 Super Hornets aboard the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis, from where Commander McDowell flies now, aircraft struck only 17 times. They flew low- or mid-elevation passes 115 times.
The shifts in missions and tactics partly reflect adaptations by the Taliban. But guided by complex rules of engagement and by doctrine emphasizing proportionality and restraint, they also reflect what Commander McDowell calls “a different mentality.”
These days, striving for certitude in target selection and minimizing civilian casualties have become standard practice. Projecting power nonlethally is routine. Dropping bombs is not.
“So much has changed from when I was here the first time,” he said, looking down at Afghanistan on a six-hour flight early last week. “Now I prefer not dropping — if I can accomplish the mission other ways.”
A Day’s Work
Commander McDowell’s workday began at 4:30 a.m., when he woke in a small stateroom and readied for a long sortie. At 5:30 a.m., he gathered for his preflight briefing.
Lt. Cmdr. Fran Catalina, a pilot who would be one of his wingmen, offered a reminder that the Afghan war, in its 11th winter, was grinding on, and that the reach of the Navy’s carrier aircraft was welcome — even far inland. “There were 43 enemy-initiated attacks in the last reporting period,” he said, showing a map. “Lots of kinetics yesterday.”
Each pilot and weapons-systems officer, who flies in the rear seat of an F/A-18F, was assigned a mission supporting a different ground unit.
At 7:15 a.m., after donning ejection-seat torso harnesses and survival vests and collecting their pistols, they climbed into their aircraft, which waited, armed and fueled, on the flight deck. The carrier was steaming into the wind in the North Arabian Sea.
The aircraft carried a mix of laser- and G.P.S.-guided bombs, heat-seeking air-to-air missiles and ammunition for 20-millimeter cannon.
Shortly before 8 a.m., after preflight checks, Commander McDowell taxied to one of the ship’s four catapults, where sailors attached a hold-back bar to the jet’s nose wheel. He pushed Vengeance 13’s dual engines to full power. The engines roared. The aircraft shook.
He saluted a sailor on the flight deck. The sailor saluted back. “Five seconds,” Commander McDowell said.
He raised his chin, pressed the back of his helmet against the seat and flexed his muscles as he braced for the rush.
The bar released. The steam-driven catapult slammed forward. Vengeance 13 accelerated to 180 miles an hour in about 200 feet. It vaulted off the carrier’s bow. Perhaps two seconds had passed. He had just experienced 3.5 Gs, and he was flying, just above the waves.
“And we’re airborne,” he said.
Commander McDowell is scheduled to assume command of an F/A-18 squadron in May. He is 38, a graduate of the Naval Academy and a former test pilot. His call-sign — Keebler — reflects what he calls his elfin stature (he is 5 feet 7 inches tall) and insatiable sweet tooth.
The nickname also suggests a compliment. Shorter pilots can typically withstand greater gravitational forces when in fast minimum-radius turns or the dives, rolls and climbs involved in dogfighting and strafing. Commander McDowell, who has withstood seven Gs without losing consciousness, is known, in his trade, as “a G-monster.”
On a previous flight from the carrier he had demonstrated for a reporter in the back seat some of what an F/A-18F can do, making the reporter disoriented — and airsick — at 6.5 Gs, chatting calmly as he put the aircraft into a supersonic dive and a series of maneuvers over the Gulf of Oman.
For a combat flight into Afghanistan, however, he would conserve energy and fuel. He flew level at 500 feet for seven miles, banked left and climbed to 25,000 feet, where he was joined by two other Super Hornets.
The trio headed north for their first mission, to support the company freshly landed in the valley in Kandahar.
To get there, they flew toward a designated slot of airspace in western Pakistan. Known as “the Boulevard,” the corridor is a busy air bridge — the route through which Pakistan allows NATO aircraft access to Afghanistan. For planes from air bases in the Persian Gulf, this is the way around Iran.
Commander McDowell’s flight, commanded by Capt. Dell Bull in Vengeance 11, overtook slower aircraft heading to the war. Around 9:15 a.m., the flight crossed over the Afghan border.
An Air Force KC-10 tanker waited ahead, flying a wide circle over a Central Asian desert. It dragged a hose ending in a basket surrounding a small valve. It was time to refuel.
Vengeance 13 went first. After Vengeance 11 had refueled, too, the two aircraft broke off and headed to their mission; Vengeance 12 would join them later. Captain Dell checked in with the ground controller, who said the company had taken fire earlier in the morning.
For about an hour, the aircraft used infrared sensors to watch buildings and the canyon, covering the soldiers’ movement. The Taliban did not show themselves.
A New Mind-Set
After refueling a second time, the jets checked in with a ground controller near the Arghandab River, the area that in late 2010 was a high-profile part of the offensive to displace the Taliban.
Before that offensive, the American presence along the river had been light. Now, from the air, the military footprint was clear. The river was a network of outposts and bases with high walls, many watched over by cameras mounted on tethered blimp-like balloons.
If one place might suggest the way Commander McDowell’s role on the battlefield had changed over his career, this was it. He flew a slow left turn, pointing to an area where several days before an infantry patrol had skirmished with Afghan gunmen.
The gunmen had fired from a field not far from Forward Operating Base Wilson and then dashed into a cluster of mud-walled buildings, he said. Commander McDowell had arrived overhead within minutes.
What happened next framed the contrast between the old practices and the new.
The infantrymen talked him toward the building. Then they marked it by firing a smoke grenade at its walls. Above the river, Commander McDowell fixed his infrared sensor on the compound, sharing the video feed with a ground controller, who confirmed he was looking at the right place. What to do?
In 1999, late in the war in Kosovo, Commander McDowell said pilots routinely killed. On one sortie, in the rush to stop Serbs from killing ethnic Albanians, Commander McDowell dropped a 1,000-pound, laser-guided bomb at the mouth of a tunnel that five trucks carrying Serbian soldiers had just entered. The shrapnel and pressure wave from the blast probably killed every man.
Back then, the rules of engagement allowed pilots to track suspected military vehicles.
“And if a military vehicle stopped at a house, we would get a reading of where the driver went,” he said. “If we were able to identify that the truck was Serbian military, and it stopped for a long period of time at the house, we made the assumption that they were stopping for resupply and within a couple days that house was taken out.”
A little more than a dozen years later, he was above a home in which at least two Taliban fighters had taken shelter after firing on an American patrol. But he did not know who else might be inside. Neither he nor the soldiers requested clearance for an airstrike.
“What if we hit that house and two guys inside had guns and we get eight kids, too?” he said.
High over the Arghandab River, he banked over the home that he and the rules had spared.
Referring to the targeting display in the cockpit, he pointed out its proximity to other homes, and described the limits of what he knew about so-called “patterns of life” — the rhythm of the human activity at the compound where Taliban fighters hid.
“I didn’t think about these things at all in Kosovo,” he said.
The reach of a nuclear carrier, augmented with aerial tankers, made it possible for strike aircraft to penetrate 800 miles from the ship. But what was the point of projecting power if it was not projected responsibly? The changes, he said, have been good.
“I would say that in my younger days I would have been frustrated, because we have ordnance and we know where the enemy is, and I would have wanted permission to strike that building,” he said. “Did I feel frustrated this time? Not in the slightest. It is a different mission. It calls for a different mentality.”
Nuristan Governor Urges Operation against Insurgents
TOLOnews.com By Zabihullah Jehanmal Sunday, 15 January 2012
The governor of eastern Nuristan province on Saturday called on the Afghan government to launch military operations to clear all insurgents in Kunar and Nuristan provinces.
The governor of Nuristan, Tamim Nuristani, said he has been able to maintain security in some areas in cooperation with local councils, but some militant groups still threaten government workers travelling between Kunar and Nuristan.
"Not only the Taliban militants, but also militants from Hezb-e-Islami and some other groups are behind insecurity in the area," Mr Tamim Nuristani said.
Meanwhile, civilians have also complained about security threat on the Nuristan-Kunar routes.
"There are groups who stop passengers and beat them," a Nuristan resident said. Kamdish, Barg-e-Matal, and Waigal districts are areas that are said to have been under Taliban control over the past eight months, but the governor of Nuristan says he is making efforts to get local councils' cooperation to retake the areas.
Insurgents have frequently attacked some districts of Nuristan province mainly targeting police check points.
The limited number of Afghan security forces in the province is the main reason behind insecurity in many districts, the governor added.
No sign of Taliban infiltration into Afghan security forces: ISAF
KABUL, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- There were no signs of Taliban infiltration into Afghan army and police forces, A spokesman for NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said here Monday.
"There were no signs that the Taliban are seriously infiltrating the Afghan security forces," ISAF spokesman Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson told a joint press conference.
He made the comments after a string of attacks involving individuals in Afghan army and police uniforms that left some members of foreign forces dead and injured over the past few years.
In the latest such incidents, a man in Afghan army uniform during a training mission opened fire on foreign colleagues killing a U.S. soldier and injuring at least five American soldiers before being shot in southern Zabul province on Jan. 8.
In another incident, a gunman wearing an army uniform shot dead two French soldiers with ISAF in the province of Kapisa, some 65 km north of capital city of Kabul late last December.
Taliban insurgents fighting Afghan and NATO forces frequently claim responsibility for such incidents.
Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi, at the same press conference, said that the government has sent a delegation recently, to northern provinces, to probe recent reports that members of NATO and U.S.-funded Afghan Local Police (ALP) forces were involved in committing human rights abuses.
"The ministry of interior has already suspended 15 members of ALP, who may have been involved in abuse and mistreat of locals in parts of the country, and put them in custody over the past one year,"Sediqqi added.
"Afghan Local Police represents the only legitimate security force programs authorized by Presidential decree and administered by Ministry of Interior. Let me emphasize that Afghan Local Police is not a militia group," said Jacobson.
The ALP or community police was established in August 2010 to protect villages and districts around the insurgency-hit country where Afghan army and police have limited presence.
"Afghan Local Police are community based, bringing self-defense, governance and opportunity for economic development to rural areas of Afghanistan," a spokesman of 130,000-strong ISAF force said, adding that in less than 18 months, the program has grown to nearly 11,000 ALP serving in 57 validated districts and the number is to reach to 30,000 in near future.
Heavy snow brings cheer to war-torn Afghan capital
AFP By Lawrence Bartlett 15/01/2012
If Afghans are right and snow brings luck, their war-ravaged country is due for a large dose of good news amid tentative moves towards peace talks with Taliban insurgents.
Heavy snow falls transformed the usually dry and dusty capital Kabul on Sunday, with even the ubiquitous concertina razor wire metamorphosed into curly white works of art.
On streets lined with trees -- and hesco blast walls -- laced in white, men shovelling sidewalks and guards nursing assault rifles in gloved hands chatted, smiling, to strangers passing by.
The social networking site Twitter, widely used in Afghanistan to track the latest horrors of the 10-year war, reflected the cheerful mood.
"Quite a bit of snow on the ground here in Kabul over the past 24 hours. Looks beautiful," tweeted ISAF, NATO's International Security Assistance Force, which has some 130,000 US-led troops in the country.
"Kabul police dropped their AK47s and playing snowball in Kabul city," tweeted one resident.
But the mood is likely to be brief, melting with the snow and an inevitable return to news of death and destruction as both the United States and the Taliban work on strategies of fighting and talking at the same time.
The Taliban, who have announced plans to open a political office in Qatar ahead of possible talks with Washington, said this did not mean they had surrendered in the war against US-led coalition forces.
Rather, they would use their political wing alongside their military to achieve their aims, the hardline Islamists said.
The move towards talks met with some scepticism, but the Taliban surprised analysts last week by saying that an online video of US Marines urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban fighters would not derail negotiations.
There were fears that the offensive video, quickly condemned in Washington, could lead to violent anti-US protests in Afghanistan like those that followed the burning of a Koran last year by an American pastor.
"The fact that Taliban chose not to have an angry reaction as in the past cases and not reverse their decision to talk to US could be a reason why we are not witnessing" protests in Kabul, said Afghan analyst Mati Kharoti.
Given that many of the more conservative Afghans outside the main cities do not have access to the Internet or television, analysts have cautioned that protests could still erupt.
But on Sunday, as groups of people warmed their hands on the charcoal braziers of kebab sellers and breathed crisp air cleansed of the usual pollution by the snow, there was cautious optimism about the country's future.
"I am optimistic about the Taliban office in Qatar which will be set up for negotiations purpose," said Mahboob Shah, 30, a mason.
"Without a Taliban political address it is impossible to bring durable peace in Afghanistan, because they are part of this land."
Student Abdul Kabir, 19, agreed: "We support the Taliban office in Qatar which will be set up for talks. With this office, hopefully the war and internal fighting would end in Afghanistan."
But others, like Ahmad Mansoor, 21, said any peace negotiations should take place in Afghanistan itself and ruled out a role for the Taliban in government.
"If they join the government nobody would be pleased, because they would continue their same barbaric regime," he said, a reference to the brutal Taliban rule before they were ousted by a US-led invasion in 2001.
For the moment though, residents were enjoying the heaviest snowfall of the winter in a city which relies on snow for its water supplies and prides itself on the slogan: "Kabul can be without gold but not without snow."
5 killed in avalanche in northeastern Afghanistan
FAIZABAD, Afghanistan, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- A total of five people were killed in an avalanche in northeastern Afghan province of Badakhshan, an official said on Monday.
"A huge avalanche hit a village in Rigei area of Arghistan district Sunday night leaving five people dead," a spokesman for provincial government Abdul Maruf Rasikh told Xinhua.
The Afghan National Police with the support of locals have rescued dozens of persons in the remote district while at least five to six others are still missing in the province with Faizabad as its capital, 315 km northeast of capital city of Kabul, the spokesman Rasikh added.
Heavy snowfall covered parts of northern and central parts of Afghanistan last week while Kabul, the capital of the war-torn nation, witnessed the snowfall on Saturday and Sunday.
Snow Disrupts Traffic at Salang Pass
TOLOnews.com By Sharif Amiri Sunday, 15 January 2012
The Salang Pass has been closed to traffic due to heavy snow, Afghan Ministry of Public Works said on Sunday.
While the heavy snow has brought joy to the capital Kabul, the Ministry of Public works says snow has caused problems in many other parts of the country.
Deputy Minister of Construction for the Public Works Ministry, Ahmad Shah Wahid, said snow has blocked the roads of Badakhshan, Bamian, Daikundi, Sar-e-Pul and Ghor provinces.
In Kabul people are happy and believe such a snow fall has been unprecedented in the last ten years.
Kabul has witnessed snow falls since the beginning of the week.
While many people are happy there are also many poor families who find it difficult to carry on without enough firewood and other essential needs.
It comes as the price of fuel and firewood has gone high.
Pakistan Minister Wants Evidence of Taliban Leader’s Death
VOA News January 16, 2012
Pakistan's interior minister says he is unable to confirm reports that the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud, was killed Thursday in a U.S. drone strike in the North Waziristan tribal region.
Rehman Malik told reporters in Islamabad Monday that unless he has “DNA evidence” or confirmation from his own “independent sources,” he will not say Mehsud is dead.
On Sunday, unnamed Pakistani intelligence officials said they had intercepted wireless radio conversations of the Taliban fighters discussing whether their chief was killed in the attack. Some of the overheard militants confirmed Mehsud was dead, while at least one criticized them for talking about it on the radio.
There was no official confirmation from Pakistan, and the Taliban issued a denial.
Pakistan PM Faces Contempt Charges
VOA News January 16, 2012
Pakistan's Supreme Court has issued a contempt notice to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani for failing to follow the court's orders and open a corruption probe into the president.
The notice issued Monday orders the prime minister to appear before the court on January 19. If convicted of contempt of court, Gilani can be sent to jail and removed from his post.
The judges want the government to examine corruption allegations against President Asif Ali Zardari dating back to the 1990s. However, so far, Gilani has refused, saying Zardari enjoys immunity as the head of state.
The court order escalates the pressure on Pakistan's civilian government, which faces separate court battles and high tensions with the country's powerful military.
A Supreme Court-appointed panel is investigating the origins of an unsigned memo in which Pakistan's civilian government allegedly asked for U.S. help in reining in the Pakistani military, following the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden last May.
The existence of the document came to light in October when Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz accused the then-Pakistani ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, of writing the memo. Haqqani denies he wrote the document and has since resigned.
U.S. military officials confirmed that the top U.S. military officer at the time, Admiral Mike Mullen, received the memo but did not find it credible.
Last week, Gilani accused army chief General Pervez Ashfaq Kayani and Inter-Services Intelligence head Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha of acting unconstitutionally by making unilateral submissions to the ongoing inquiry.
In response, the military said his remarks will have "very serious ramifications," and warned of "grievous consequences" for the country.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
Rights Commission Urges Public Punishment for Torturers of Afghan Girl
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 15 January 2012
Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission on Sunday called for the public punishment of those who illegally imprisoned and tortured the Afghan girl, Sahar Gul, in northern Baghlan province.
Sahar Gul was freed by the Afghan police from a toilet in her home in Baghlan where she had been imprisoned by the family members of her husband for five months.
Sahar Gul was kept in a toilet and was tortured by family members of her husband. The tortures included beating and nail removal.
The Commission blames the incident mainly on Sahar Gul's husband and expresses concern over why he has not yet been arrested in connection to the incident.
"Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission calls on the government to publicly punish those responsible for imprisoning and torturing Sahar Gul," In charge of Women's Rights section at the Commission, Latifa Sultani, said.
Meanwhile, the Attorney General's Office says that the case is being investigated by the court of appeal in Baghlan and that three family members have been detained in connection with the case.
"Three family members of Sahar Gul's husband including her father-in-law, mother-in-law and husband's sister have been arrested," Qudsia Niazi, head of the Attorney General Office section to fight violence against women, said.
Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission warns that if such cases are left unaddressed, violence against women will increase.
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