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U.S. secretly released prisoners in Afghanistan: report
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has been secretly releasing detainees from a military prison in Afghanistan as part of negotiations with insurgent groups, the Washington Post reported in its Monday editions.
The "strategic release" program has allowed American officials over the past several years to use prisoners as bargaining chips to reduce violence in restive provinces, it said, citing U.S. officials who it said spoke on condition of anonymity.
The freed detainees are often fighters who would not be released under the legal system for military prisoners in Afghanistan. They must promise to give up violence, the report said.
Officials would not say whether those who have been released have later returned to attack U.S. and Afghan troops, the Post said.
Releases have come amid efforts to end the war through negotiation, which is central to the Obama administration's strategy for exiting Afghanistan, the report said.
Those efforts have yielded little to no progress in recent years. In part, they have been stymied by the unwillingness of the United States to release five prisoners from Guantanamo Bay — a gesture insurgent leaders have said they see as a precondition for peace talks, the report said.
Unlike at Guantanamo, releasing prisoners from the Parwan detention center does not require congressional approval and can be done secretly, the Post said.
The program's goal is to quell violence in areas where NATO is unable to ensure security. Releases are intended to produce tactical gains, the Post said.
U.S. officials would not say how many detainees have been released under the program, though they said such cases are relatively rare. The program has existed for several years.
"The Afghans have come to us with information that might strengthen the reconciliation process," the newspaper quoted U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker as saying. "Many times we do act on it."
Releases through the secret program from Parwan must be approved by the top U.S. military commander and military lawyer, and are the only exceptions to the prison's judicial review board, the Post said.
It quoted one official as saying the procedure was "outside of our normal protocol," the paper said.
(Reporting By John Crawley; Editing by Eric Walsh)
Airstrike, bombing in Afghanistan cause deaths, officials say
By the CNN Wire Staff May 7, 2012
(CNN) -- Violence raged in Afghanistan over the last 24 hours, with reports of civilian deaths in an airstrike and soldier deaths in a bombing.
At least 14 civilians were killed and six others were injured Sunday in a coalition airstrike in Badghis province in the northwest, a senior Afghan police source said. NATO's International Security Assistance Force said an airstrike in the province killed three insurgents.
"We are aware of and are looking into the reports of civilian casualties," said Lt Col Jimmie Cummings, a spokesman for the NATO-led force.
The strike occurred in the province's Bala Murghab district, said Sharafuddin Majidi, a spokesman for the governor of Badghis province, and the police source.
In eastern Afghanistan, attackers killed three U.S. soldiers Monday, a Western official said.
The deaths occurred just south of a base in Ghazni province when an explosion hit the vehicle the soldiers were traveling in, said the official who asked to remain anonymous because he is not authorized to discuss the incident with media outlets.
Two Americans were wounded as well, the official said.
The NATO-led force reported that three service members died in the bombing.
More than 1,900 Americans and another 1,000-plus allied troops have died in the 10-year-old conflict.
On Sunday, a NATO service member was shot to death by a gunman in an Afghan army uniform in southern Afghanistan, the allied command in Kabul reported.
The attacker was killed by coalition forces who returned fire, the NATO-led force reported. An investigation was under way, it said, and no further details were immediately released.
The year has seen a number of attacks on coalition forces by Afghan forces or by insurgents who have disguised themselves as Afghan troops, fueling distrust at a critical period of the conflict.
In another attack Sunday, a roadside bomb struck a vehicle carrying U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan, killing one American and wounding two, a Western official said. The bombing happened about 10 kilometers (6 miles) south of an outpost in Paktia province, near the Pakistani border, the official said.
CNN's Masoud Popalzai and Nick Paton Walsh in Kabul and Joe Sterling in Atlanta contributed to this report
Afghanistan Commander: 'My Soundbite Is, We’re Succeeding'
By Michael Hirsh | National Journal
TARIN KOT, Afghanistan - Gen. John Allen, commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, on Monday rejected statements made by the heads of the House and Senate intelligence committees that the Taliban have grown stronger since President Obama’s surge of additional U.S. troops, and he suggested that “soundbites” from Washington were not helping.
In an interview from his southern regional command post, Allen indicated he did not fully understand the source of remarks made by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., who heads the House Select Committee on Intelligence. “I’m just interested in understanding the comment in its entirety,” Allen said. “I’ve not seen anything other than what’s been reported in the papers.”
“We have I think pretty clear evidence that the momentum has been reversed, that the surge has accomplished a great deal,” Allen said. He added that Taliban reverses on the battlefield "are very easily documented" across most of the country’s 34 provinces, except for those in the east bordering Pakistan’s tribal regions.
But the worst news for the Taliban, Allen said, was that because of the commitment being made to Afghanistan’s long-term future through the recently announced U.S.-Afghanistan strategic partnership, as well as commitments from NATO allies and 22 other countries taking part in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) that he heads, “there’s going to be an international military presence here in Afghanistan for a long time, a long time after 2014.”
As a result, many Taliban are rethinking their long-held “narrative,” which is that they can just wait the conflict out and then move into “a very quiet battle space” in a few years, Allen said. “If your narrative is 'just wait us out,' (and) you’re going to have to wait now for decades... you're going to start to lose some enthusiasm.”
While praising Feinstein and Rogers for their “tremendous assistance” so far, Allen said he lamented “soundbites” from Washington that can “cause folks at home to doubt the mission.” He said the war is complex, involving a multi-layered approach to defeating insurgents and building up Afghan security and governance.
“There is this sense, and it’s a very Western sense I think, that there is a Napoleonic decisive battle that tends to end wars. In counterinsurgency it’s much less about that than about creating an enduring capacity that grows and compounds on itself over time," Allen said. "And that’s what’s happened.”
When asked if he cared to offer up his own “soundbite,” Allen said: “My soundbite is, we’re being successful.”
Feinstein and Rogers on Sunday gave a very different assessment after returning from a fact-finding trip to Afghanistan recently and receiving intelligence reports. “I think we’d both say that what we’ve found is that the Taliban is stronger,” Feinstein told CNN when asked if Obama’s deployment of 33,000 additional troops had degraded the Taliban’s capabilities.
They also appeared to challenge the president’s statement in a speech from Kabul last week that “we broke the Taliban’s momentum.” Feinstein a suggested that Allen and U.S. officials were too optimistic that Afghanistan’s government and new security forces would render a Taliban return to power impossible, saying the Islamist radical group has “a shadow system of governors in many provinces.”
U.S. and NATO officials in Afghanistan concede that the number of attacks has jumped since before the surge began in 2009, but they say the trend has been gradually declining in the last year, and the severity of attacks is way down as well.
At a meeting with leaders of Uruzgan province on Monday, attended by visiting reporters, Allen made the case that the main concern in the once-violence-torn province was now economic progress more than security. And in general, “in the south and southwest, it really is a post-conflict conversation,” he said.
He also said that ISAF was well ahead of schedule in bringing Afghan security forces to their full strength of 352,000, saying it would likely occur by June rather than the original target date of October.
Afghanistan: Taliban Spring Offensive 'Cowardly and Un-Islamic'
By CHRIS BLAKE 05/07/12 Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Afghan government on Monday condemned the recent Taliban announcement of the start of their annual "spring offensive," calling it cowardly and un-Islamic and pledging the country's forces would thwart any attacks.
The offensive begins every year as snows melt and the weather warms across Afghanistan, making both travel and fighting easier. It normally leads to a surge of militant attacks throughout the country as the Taliban attempt to retake lost territory and intimidate the government.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul acknowledged a two-year, rarely used program to release detainees from a military prison run by the American military near the capital, saying it was meant to bolster reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
The Taliban announcement last week was another sign of the difficulty of reconciling with a group that has been fighting the U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces for more than a decade. The Taliban said they would target anyone – from government workers to tribal leaders – who works against them and helps foreigners in their "occupation" of Afghanistan.
On Monday, the Interior Ministry said that "while again declaring war against the Afghan people, their government and constitution, the Taliban insurgents also abuse their religious values in the name of a cause opposed to the basic Islamic principles of peace, education and kindness."
The ministry statement said the Taliban use propaganda and "twist holy religious values to justify their criminal activities," which have killed thousands of innocent people.
Last year was the deadliest on record for civilians in the Afghan war, with 3,021 killed, according to the United Nations. Taliban-affiliated militants were responsible for more than three-quarters of those deaths.
The Taliban have launched several large-scale attacks in recent weeks, including coordinated attacks on Kabul and three other cities that left 47 people dead, including 36 insurgents, and a strike on a compound used by foreigners in the Afghan capital that killed seven.
The uptick in violence comes as NATO gears up to hand over security to local forces ahead of a 2014 deadline for the withdrawal of foreign combat troops. Some have questioned if local forces will be up to the task.
The U.S.-led coalition has also started its own campaign aimed at insurgents and is thought to have launched a number of operations in the eastern part of Afghanistan near the Pakistani border. The operations, in provinces such as Ghazni, are also aimed at chocking the insurgents' ability to reach Kabul.
On Monday, a bomb killed three NATO service members in the east, the coalition said. It did not provide details about the attack nor the nationality of those killed. NATO usually waits for member nations to provide details about troop deaths. So far this year, 142 coalition members have died in Afghanistan.
The Washington Post reported Monday that the U.S. military has been secretly releasing high-level detainees from the Parwan detention center near Kabul to help with the reconciliation process. Many high-level Taliban detainees are held at the facility, which is run by the U.S. military but will be handed over to the Afghans within six months under a recently signed agreement.
U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker told the newspaper that many times the United States had acted on information that "might strengthen the reconciliation process."
"Ambassador Crocker was referencing a two-year old, rarely used program in which senior military officials, together with their Afghan counterparts, weigh the benefits of releasing certain individuals who are being detained at the Parwan Detention Facility and who are willing to denounce violence and engage in the process of reconciliation," U.S. Embassy spokesman Gavin Sundwall told The Associated Press.
Sundwall said fewer than 20 detainees have ever been released under the program and that the decision takes into account whether they pose any further security threat.
In the latest violence, four gunmen took over a tall building in the eastern province of Paktika late Sunday and started shooting down into surrounding government compounds, wounding one civilian. A spokesman for the governor, Mokhlis Afghan, said police surrounded the building in the provincial capital and killed the attackers after several hours. NATO and Afghan soldiers provided support.
Also Monday, the governor of southern Helmand province condemned a NATO airstrike last week that he said killed six civilians – a woman, three girls and two boys. Gulab Mangal said Friday's strike was aimed at insurgents attacking NATO and Afghan forces in the province's Sangin district. He said "a civilian house was also targeted by the airstrike unintentionally."
He said he asked the commander of NATO forces in the region to "prevent such events in the future."
In the north, a large roadside bomb killed three people Monday in Kunduz province's Imam Sahib district – including a high-ranking national border police commander, said Amanullah Qurishi, the district chief.
___
Associated Press writers Patrick Quinn and Amir Shah contributed to this report.
Afghans 'Ready' To Take Over From French
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan May 7, 2012
KABUL -- The Afghan government says Afghan security forces are ready to fill any vacuum caused by the possible early withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan.
The announcement May 7 follows French President-elect Francois Hollande's pledge to withdraw France's 3,300 troops by the end of 2012.
Such a withdrawal would end France's combat role two years earlier than called for under an official NATO timetable, which says full security control is to be handed over to Afghans by 2014.
Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that Afghan forces could "easily" fill any security vacuum left by the withdrawal of French troops.
Hollande has said he will raise the issue with other NATO leaders at a Chicago summit on May 20-21.
With additional reporting by AFP
NATO not to abandon Afghanistan: spokesman
KABUL, May 7 (Xinhua) -- NATO and its allied nations will not leave Afghanistan after Afghan security forces take full control of security from NATO and U.S. forces by the end of 2014, a NATO spokesman said Monday.
"NATO is clearly committed to supporting Afghanistan beyond 2014, when the gradual transition of responsibility for the security of the country from ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) troops to Afghan forces will be fully implemented," NATO civilian representative spokesman Dominic Medley told reporters in a joint weekly press briefing.
The United States is going to host NATO members at a Chicago summit expected to be held on May 20-21, with Afghanistan at the top of its agenda. Afghan President Hamid Karzai is set to participate in the summit.
Transition of security responsibilities from NATO forces to Afghan army and police began in July last year and lasts till 2014 when Afghanistan is due to take over the its full security duties from U.S. and NATO forces.
According to U.S. President Barack Obama's withdrawal plan, 10, 000 U.S. troops already pulled out from Afghanistan last year and another 23,000 will return home by September this year. "This is the 25th NATO Summit and is set to be the largest ever, "Medley said, adding"Around 60 leaders of countries and international organizations are expected to attend, including the United Nations, World Bank and European Union,"
"At Chicago, leaders will make clear their commitment to a strong partnership with Afghanistan beyond 2014," he said.
"NATO will support Afghanistan after transition is completed, NATO will continue to train, advise and assist Afghanistan and NATO and ISAF partners will carry a fair share of funding Afghan National Security Forces and this is a commitment for the whole international community," he noted. "This past week, we witnessed the signing of the Strategic Partnership Agreement between the United States and Afghanistan. This is a message to the Taliban and others that Afghanistan's allies will not abandon this country after 2014,"an ISAF Spokesman Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson told the same press briefing.
U.S. President Barack Obama paid a surprise visit to Kabul late Tuesday night. During his tour, Obama inked the strategic pact with Karzai and visited main U.S. military facilities in Bagram.
Karzai said that under the pact, the United States needs to support Afghanistan in all fields including economy and security.
Reports Say Taliban Attacks Paktika Province
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan May 6, 2012
KABUL -- A group of Taliban insurgents has attacked government buildings in Afghanistan's southern Paktika province, near the Pakistani border, according to RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan.
The buildings are reportedly located near the office of the provincial governor.
Reports say that there is also fighting in other parts of Paktika province between the Taliban and Afghan government forces.
No further details were immediately available.
26 dead, 100 missing in Afghanistan flood
By Masoud Popalzai, CNN May 7, 2012
Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Flash flooding in northern Afghanistan killed at least 26 people in northern Afghanistan and rescue workers fear the toll may rise, officials said Monday.
Eight hours of relentless rainfall that began Sunday led to the flooding in several districts of Sar-e-Pol province, said Faizullah Sadat, provincial director of Afghanistan Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA).
More than 100 people are missing, most of them members of a wedding party that was deluged, he said.
Pakistan disputes Clinton's assertion on al-Qaida chief
ISLAMABAD, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar Monday asked the United States to provide information on the presence of al-Qaida chief Ayman al Zawahiri in Pakistan hours after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claimed that Al Zawahiri is still hiding in Pakistan.
"We want to disable Al Qaida. Al Zawahiri is still on the run somewhere in Pakistan," Clinton said in the Indian city of Kolkata.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Khar was quick to challenge Clinton' s statement and said "If the United States has any solid intelligence information on the presence of al Qaida leader in Pakistan, it should be shared with us so that the country can look into the matter accordingly."
Khar was briefing the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) on the issue of the U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan 's tribal regions and parliament recommendation last month on Pakistan-U.S. ties.
The parliament had unanimously passed a resolution, calling for an immediate halt to U.S. drone strikes, but Washington ignored the call by launching two strikes in a week, which killed at least 14 people.
Khar said last week that the United States does not listen to Pakistan over drone strikes, which Islamabad condemns as counterproductive in the war on terror and a violation of the country's sovereignty.
Relationship between the two countries had been affected after a NATO airstrike on two checkposts that had killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November 2011.
Khar said Monday that talks between Pakistan and the United States in light of the terms of engagement set by Parliament were still ongoing and may take some time to settle. She said there was no halt in the talks and the impression of failure was wrong.
The foreign minister said she hopes Washington will respect the Pakistani parliament's recommendations, which have been directly linked to the stoppage of drone strikes.
The parliament had also approved new terms of engagements with the United States and its NATO allies in Afghanistan and conditions for the reopening of NATO supply routes which were closed after the NATO strike.
Clinton also said Washington wants Pakistan as a part of the counter terrorism war.
On the issue of war on terror, Clinton said crushing al-Qaida was the next big target of the United States in the post-Osama Bin Laden world.
Al-Qaida Video Shows US Hostage
VOA News May 7, 2012
Al-Qaida has released a video showing an American hostage saying he will be killed if President Barack Obama does not meet the militant group's demands.
Monitoring groups said al-Qaida's media arm posted the nearly three-minute video of Warren Weinstein on jihadist forums Sunday.
Weinstein directs a message at Obama, saying, "If you accept the demands, I live; if you don't accept the demands, then I die."
He also tells his wife he is in good health.
Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri said in a December video that Weinstein would not be released until the United States halts its airstrikes in Muslim countries. He also demanded the release of al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners.
The 70-year-old Weinstein was snatched from his home in Lahore, Pakistan last August after eight gunmen overpowered his security guards.
He served as director in Pakistan of a U.S.-based development consulting company, J.E. Austin Associates.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.
Al Qaeda releases video of American hostage
Associated Press May 06, 2012
WASHINGTON - In a video released Sunday by Al Qaeda, American hostage Warren Weinstein said he will be killed unless President Barack Obama agrees to the militant group's demands.
"My life is in your hands, Mr. President," Weinstein said in the video. "If you accept the demands, I live; if you don't accept the demands, then I die."
Weinstein was abducted last August in Lahore, Pakistan, after gunmen tricked his guards and broke into his home. The 70-year-old from Rockville, Md., is the country director in Pakistan for J.E. Austin Associates, a Virginia-based firm that advises a range of Pakistani business and government sectors.
In a video message posted on militant websites in December, Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri said Weinstein would be released if the United States stopped airstrikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. He also demanded the release of all Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects around the world.
The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant messages, said Al-Sahab, Al Qaeda's media arm, posted the Weinstein video on jihadist forums Sunday.
"It's important you accept the demands and act quickly and don't delay," Weinstein said in the video, addressing Obama. "There'll be no benefit in delaying, it will just make things more difficult for me."
He also appealed to Obama as a father. If the president responds to the militants' demands, Weinstein said, "then I will live and hopefully rejoin my family and also enjoy my children, my two daughters, like you enjoy your two daughters."
After his kidnapping, Weinstein's company said he was in poor health and provided a detailed list of medications, many of them for heart problems, that it implored the kidnappers to give him.
In the video released Sunday, Weinstein said he would like his wife, Elaine, to know "I'm fine, I'm well, I'm getting all my medications, I'm being taken care of."
Where lies the real enemy in Afghanistan?
Sydney Morning By Patrick Porter Opinion May 7, 2012
For 10 years, Australia has been wading deeper into an uncertain mire.
THE conflict in Afghanistan has been Australia's longest war. Measured in time and complexity - if not in blood - it has been one of the hardest. But who or what have we been fighting?
According to Julia Gillard, it has been a struggle against the Taliban, an Afghan theocratic movement that gave haven to terrorists. The problem, allegedly, is the Islamist extremism that found a host in the world's poorest land. The solution is to empower this broken nation to govern and secure itself.
For 10 years we have tried to combat poverty, corruption and state failure by birthing a strong Afghan government. Not an easy task in a country hard to govern from the centre, and where our favoured regime is an unloved kleptocracy.
As Canberra looks to extricate Australia from this long hard slog, it declares victory of sorts, presenting its phased withdrawal as a successful handover to indigenous security forces.
But Afghanistan is not the centre of this war. This is primarily a war over - and against - Pakistan.
Announcing Australia's accelerated withdrawal, Gillard identified Pakistan as ''critical to Afghanistan's stability''. Diplomatically, she defined this in terms of Pakistan being a strategic partner.
Yet the picture is darker than that. The brutal truth is that for the past decade, the war has been difficult precisely because we have been entangled in a proxy war against Pakistan. Or rather, our strongest adversary has been a powerful institution within that country, the Inter-Service Intelligence Agency.
The most obvious symptom of this war is the combat in Pakistan. The US takes the war deep into Pakistan's sovereign territory with a killing program via drone strikes and special operations, often without asking for a hunting licence. And, through its proxies in Afghanistan, Pakistan returns fire.
And we cannot understand the conflict without grasping its central logic: that Pakistan simultaneously feeds and fights the Islamist beast.
Through its army, Pakistan has been at the sharp end in fighting insurgents. But its security services have been instrumental in supporting, funding and giving sanctuary to those same adversaries.
When the Soviet Union withdrew in 1989, it left behind armed mujahideen, seasoned militants created with Western backing. It has been turbulent there ever since. After 9/11, the West struck hard into the region. By doing so, it unwittingly stepped into the complex politics of that world.
Pakistan is a nervous state. It faces a large, nuclear and increasingly wealthy adversary to its east. It fears being encircled by the creation of an Indian client state in Kabul to its west. It fights proxy wars against India in the contested territory of Kashmir. It has its own religious militants, which Islamabad accommodates and uses as a tool of policy, yet which also threaten it.
It walks a tightrope in its relations with the US, receiving millions of dollars in foreign aid and providing logistical and fighting support and in hunting al-Qaeda, while also giving sanctuary and support in its tribal belt to Taliban leaders and allies.
Thanks to Pakistan, this war became internationalised from early on.
Thus our war is one of contradictions. The more we strive to stabilise and strengthen Afghanistan, the more this clashes with Pakistan's determination to deny India a strong ally, and the more Pakistan balances against it.
''Fixing'' Afghanistan would entail not only costly nation building, but somehow resolving an ongoing struggle between other parties.
Projecting power has ironic results. Just to operate there, we rely on the logistical supply lines from Karachi through Pakistan. Yet by paying double-dealing security firms to protect transport, we unwittingly inject cash into the insurgency.
The reality of allies-as-spoilers is uncomfortable. But hypocrisy, and hedging, is the stuff of politics. The logic of helping and hindering allies, or using some-time enemies also as tools, is an old one that those great experts in survival, the Byzantine emperors, would recognise.
It is familiar in wars waged in others' backyards, especially in countries where neighbouring states perceive a conflicting interest.
This matters because we will try to learn lessons from Afghanistan.
Sympathisers regard Afghanistan as a ''good war'' badly waged. They complain that with the Taliban overthrown, the US-led coalition missed opportunities in that golden hour to invest and build, to get nation-building right. The task was then neglected because of the diversion in Iraq. They emphasise things we could control.
We are used to interpreting problems in terms of our behaviour - where to fight, how to fight, who to support - with the enemy's active role as a sideshow. But Afghanistan is hard not only because of errors of design or execution. It is hard because other players want us to fail, and flex their muscles accordingly.
We wanted the war in Afghanistan to be about fighting one enemy within those borders. But we got an aggregation of other conflicts that spilled across borders, beyond our power to resolve.
This may be the hardest lesson of all. Often the wars we want are not the ones we get.
Patrick Porter is reader in strategic studies at the University of Reading in Britain.
Taliban kill 14 Pakistani troops, string up heads of two of them on wooden poles
By Ishtiaq Mahsud, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - Taliban fighters killed 14 Pakistani soldiers in a key militant sanctuary along the Afghan border, beheaded all but one of them and hung two of the heads from wooden poles in the centre of town, officials said Monday.
The killings in Miran Shah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal area, highlight the dilemma facing the military in dealing with an area used by both the country's fiercest enemy, the Pakistani Taliban, and Afghan and Pakistani militants believed to be close to the government who are battling U.S.-led forces in neighbouring Afghanistan.
The U.S. has repeatedly demanded that Pakistan launch an offensive in North Waziristan, especially against the so-called Haqqani network. Pakistan has promised to do so in the future, but claims its forces are stretched too thin right now fighting the Pakistani Taliban in other parts of the tribal region.
"Something has to be done, and it's in the offing," Lt. Gen. Khalid Rabbani, the army's top commander in the northwest, told The Associated Press in an interview Monday. "North Waziristan is the only place left" that hasn't been the target of an operation, he said.
Many analysts believe Pakistan is reluctant to target militants in North Waziristan with whom it has strong historical ties and could be useful allies in Afghanistan after foreign forces withdraw. But those militants are also allies with the Pakistani Taliban, complicating matters even further.
On Sunday, the Taliban ambushed a security checkpoint in Miran Shah, killing nine Pakistani soldiers, the army said. Militants had been firing on the checkpoint for the past few days before they ambushed it, the army added.
When authorities finally retrieved the bodies of the dead soldiers, they found that they had been beheaded, said intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
The army retaliated Sunday with helicopter gunships that pounded suspected militant hideouts and also hit three houses and a mosque in the town, said intelligence officials. Three civilians were killed and 20 were wounded in the helicopter attacks, they said. It's unclear how many militants were killed.
The military also raided a house in Miran Shah on Sunday night, killing a militant commander and several of his colleagues, said intelligence officials. But the remaining militants escaped with five soldiers captured during the raid.
They beheaded four of them and hung two of their heads from poles in Miran Shah on Monday. The bodies of the others were dumped in Miran Shah bazaar, the officials said.
"This will not shy us off establishing the writ of the government in all the areas, including North Waziristan," said Rabbani, who commands 150,000 troops in the northwest along the Afghan border.
The army unleashed its helicopter gunships again Monday, attacking a weapons market in Miran Shah where the militants who attacked the security checkpoint were believed to be hiding, said intelligence officials. The attack killed some 30 militants and destroyed dozens of shops that sold assault rifles, ammunition and rocket propelled grenades, the officials said.
Since the fighting started Sunday, 20 Pakistani troops have been injured, said the officials.
The attack on the weapons market occurred after the army had declared a curfew, so there did not appear to be any civilian casualties within the bazaar, said Haji Zafran, one of the shop owners. But a dozen people were wounded when a mosque near the market was hit, he said.
The market burned for hours after the attack, and the area reverberated with loud bangs as the flames set off the ammunition and grenades in the shops, said Zafran.
The owner of the market, Haji Noor Deen, protested the army's attack and claimed he and the other arms dealers suffered a loss of millions of dollars.
"Our place was targeted for no reason, as nobody fired a shot from there at the army," said Deen. "The dealers just sell arms to tribesmen."
The army lifted the curfew so that tribal elders and militants could hold a meeting to try to resolve the conflict, said intelligence officials. The jirga included members of the Haqqani network, an Afghan group, and also Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a powerful Pakistani militant commander believed to be close to Pakistan, they said.
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Associated Press writers Chris Brummitt and Rasool Dawar contributed to this report from Peshawar, Pakistan.
UN Should Coordinate Future Plan in Afghanistan: Rassoul
Sunday, 06 May 2012 19:14 Written by TOLOnews.com
The United Nations needs to streamline its operations in Afghanistan into a "single work plan" in order to coordinate its activities in the country, Minister of Foreign Affairs Zalmai Rassoul said Sunday.
Rassoul praised the "crucial" work done by the UN in Afghanistan for more than a decade, but said that a single work plan should be made for the sake of coherence across the continuing UN activities.
"These challenges [in Afghanistan] require the UN system in Afghanistan to rethink its approach to the overall strategy to [have] better coordination and coherence," he said at a conference in Kabul entitled "Coordination between United Nations Agencies in Afghanistan".
"We need to embark on the revitalising process of establishing a set of focused priority areas to leverage the UN assistance, expertise, and competencies in support of Afghans and the government's evolving development strategy based on its national priority programs," he said.
UN special representative to Afghanistan John Kubis said that the UN would continue to support Afghanistan working with both the embattled country and the international community.
"We have to support the Afghanistan working partnership to be aligned to the priorities of Afghanistan as defined by Afghanistan, in consultation with international community but as an act of the sovereign country telling and determining for herself what should be the future orientation," Kubis said at the conference.
The UN has had a range of programmes seeking to help Afghanistan develop in multiple sectors including education, health, and government elections in the past decade. It is expected that some of these efforts will continue after 2014 when the foreign troops are slated to withdraw from Afghanistan.
Iran Voices Concerns over Afghan-US Agreement
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 06 May 2012
Iran is concerned the Afghanistan-US long-term agreement may lead to more insecurity and instability the region, Press TV reported Sunday.
Criticising the agreement's lack of detail about what the nature of the US presence in Afghanistan will be after 2013, Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Iran prefers a complete withdrawal of all foreign troops and that Afghanistan should lead any peace negotiations.
He also raised concerns about ongoing speculation that the US will seek to have permanent bases in Afghanistan, saying it could play a significant role in further destabilising both Afghanistan and the region.
"Ambiguity about US military bases in Afghanistan and lack of transparency regarding the military role of US forces in the future have raised Iran's and other countries' concerns," Mehmanparast said.
"Iran believes that peace and stability in Afghanistan is possible with a complete withdrawal of Isaf troops, closure of any foreign military base in Afghanistan, and the start of Afghan-led peace negotiations," he added.
"This agreement will not help stabilise Afghanistan but as the last decade shows, it could promote instability."
Afghanistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded Sunday that the Afghan-US pact is not a threat to regional countries, but rather could increase peace and stability in the region.
Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai said that Afghanistan will not be used to launch attacks against any other country.
"We have always assured neighboring countries, particularly Iran, that we will not tolerate any kind of threat from our soil against them," Mosazai said at a press conference in Kabul.
"We expect other countries not to allow their soil to be used against Afghanistan," he added.
Iran's statement perpetuates the longstanding speculation that the US will seek to keep permanent bases in Afghanistan after the Nato combat mission ends in 2014.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai told reporters the day after the agreement was signed last week that the agreement poses no threat to the region.
"There is no threat from Afghanistan soil to our neighbors," Karzai said Thursday.
US ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker made similar assurances Thursday.
"Our commitments are to Afghanistan in that agreement. This is not an agreement with the neighboring countries, as you know the provisions in the partnership agree that the United States will not have permanent bases in Afghanistan and similarly that we will not launch offensive action against other states from Afghan soil," Crocker said in a press conference.
New Commission to Protect Taliban Who Wish to Negotiate
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 06 May 2012
Members of the Taliban who want to negotiate with the Afghan government will be protected by a newly-formed commission between Kabul, Washington and Islamabad, Afghanistan government officials said Sunday.
The joint commission will coordinate the talks as well as protect Taliban members who are willing to talk, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Janan Mosazai said in a Kabul press conference.
"The Afghan government is maintaining talks with several Taliban leaders in different ways. We will form a protective commission so the Taliban can negotiate with the Afghan government without any fear," Mosazai said.
It comes as recent news reports suggested that several Taliban commanders who were interested in negotiating for peace with the Afghan government have either been threatened or killed by other Taliban and insurgent figures.
The Taliban officially suspended their peace negotiations with the US government in March, accusing it of not being consistent.
The US government has said that it is ready to resume talks with the group but said the Afghan government should lead the talks. The Taliban have rejected any kind of direct talks with the Afghan government.
Nevertheless, Karzai's government has pushed ahead with plans to open a political liaison office for the Taliban in Qatar.
Mosazai also said Sunday that Qatar Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani will visit Afghanistan to sign a strategic pact and finalise plans to open the Taliban office.
"Qatar's Foreign Minister will visit Afghanistan in near future to sign a strategic agreement and finalise the establishment of the Taliban's office in his country," he said at the press conference.
NDS Foils Assassination Attempt on Takhar Provincial Council
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 06 May 2012
Afghan security forces have arrested two people for attempting to assassinate Takhar provincial council members, Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS) said Sunday.
The pair had placed explosives in a computer hard drive at the provincial council offices and were planning to detonate it during a council meeting, NDS media centre chief Shafiqullah Taheri said.
"Amir Shah, a resident of Taluqan the capital city of Takhar and a computer operator at the provincial council office, and Shahpoor, a resident of Yangi Qala [district] and a student at the faculty of agriculture at Takhar University, who placed explosive devices in a computer system and planned to explode it in Takhar's provincial council meeting, have been detained," Taheri said in a press conference.
In a separate incident, a person who planned to attack Nangarhar's airport was also arrested by NDS officials, Taheri said.
The person trained in Peshawar and was sent to Jalalabad to launch a suicide attack on the airport, according to the NDS.
"He was trained by Mawlawi Nik Mohammad in Peshawar and was sent to launch a suicide attack on Jalalabad airport," Taheri said, without providing more details.
Taheri said at the conference that the Taliban are trying to create opportunities during the spring and target government officials to appear to escalate their attacks.
"Taliban are trying to take full advantage of the spring season and assassinate high-ranking government officials, but the NDS officials well not let them do so," he said.
The Taliban released a statement last week saying they would launch their "spring offensive" on May 3, suggesting that their attacks would become bigger or more frequent compared to their attacks during the winter.
On May 3, the NDS arrested a Pakistani national who was driving a truck laden with explosives in Kabul.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has been secretly releasing detainees from a military prison in Afghanistan as part of negotiations with insurgent groups, the Washington Post reported in its Monday editions.
The "strategic release" program has allowed American officials over the past several years to use prisoners as bargaining chips to reduce violence in restive provinces, it said, citing U.S. officials who it said spoke on condition of anonymity.
The freed detainees are often fighters who would not be released under the legal system for military prisoners in Afghanistan. They must promise to give up violence, the report said.
Officials would not say whether those who have been released have later returned to attack U.S. and Afghan troops, the Post said.
Releases have come amid efforts to end the war through negotiation, which is central to the Obama administration's strategy for exiting Afghanistan, the report said.
Those efforts have yielded little to no progress in recent years. In part, they have been stymied by the unwillingness of the United States to release five prisoners from Guantanamo Bay — a gesture insurgent leaders have said they see as a precondition for peace talks, the report said.
Unlike at Guantanamo, releasing prisoners from the Parwan detention center does not require congressional approval and can be done secretly, the Post said.
The program's goal is to quell violence in areas where NATO is unable to ensure security. Releases are intended to produce tactical gains, the Post said.
U.S. officials would not say how many detainees have been released under the program, though they said such cases are relatively rare. The program has existed for several years.
"The Afghans have come to us with information that might strengthen the reconciliation process," the newspaper quoted U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker as saying. "Many times we do act on it."
Releases through the secret program from Parwan must be approved by the top U.S. military commander and military lawyer, and are the only exceptions to the prison's judicial review board, the Post said.
It quoted one official as saying the procedure was "outside of our normal protocol," the paper said.
(Reporting By John Crawley; Editing by Eric Walsh)
Airstrike, bombing in Afghanistan cause deaths, officials say
By the CNN Wire Staff May 7, 2012
(CNN) -- Violence raged in Afghanistan over the last 24 hours, with reports of civilian deaths in an airstrike and soldier deaths in a bombing.
At least 14 civilians were killed and six others were injured Sunday in a coalition airstrike in Badghis province in the northwest, a senior Afghan police source said. NATO's International Security Assistance Force said an airstrike in the province killed three insurgents.
"We are aware of and are looking into the reports of civilian casualties," said Lt Col Jimmie Cummings, a spokesman for the NATO-led force.
The strike occurred in the province's Bala Murghab district, said Sharafuddin Majidi, a spokesman for the governor of Badghis province, and the police source.
In eastern Afghanistan, attackers killed three U.S. soldiers Monday, a Western official said.
The deaths occurred just south of a base in Ghazni province when an explosion hit the vehicle the soldiers were traveling in, said the official who asked to remain anonymous because he is not authorized to discuss the incident with media outlets.
Two Americans were wounded as well, the official said.
The NATO-led force reported that three service members died in the bombing.
More than 1,900 Americans and another 1,000-plus allied troops have died in the 10-year-old conflict.
On Sunday, a NATO service member was shot to death by a gunman in an Afghan army uniform in southern Afghanistan, the allied command in Kabul reported.
The attacker was killed by coalition forces who returned fire, the NATO-led force reported. An investigation was under way, it said, and no further details were immediately released.
The year has seen a number of attacks on coalition forces by Afghan forces or by insurgents who have disguised themselves as Afghan troops, fueling distrust at a critical period of the conflict.
In another attack Sunday, a roadside bomb struck a vehicle carrying U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan, killing one American and wounding two, a Western official said. The bombing happened about 10 kilometers (6 miles) south of an outpost in Paktia province, near the Pakistani border, the official said.
CNN's Masoud Popalzai and Nick Paton Walsh in Kabul and Joe Sterling in Atlanta contributed to this report
Afghanistan Commander: 'My Soundbite Is, We’re Succeeding'
By Michael Hirsh | National Journal
TARIN KOT, Afghanistan - Gen. John Allen, commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, on Monday rejected statements made by the heads of the House and Senate intelligence committees that the Taliban have grown stronger since President Obama’s surge of additional U.S. troops, and he suggested that “soundbites” from Washington were not helping.
In an interview from his southern regional command post, Allen indicated he did not fully understand the source of remarks made by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., who heads the House Select Committee on Intelligence. “I’m just interested in understanding the comment in its entirety,” Allen said. “I’ve not seen anything other than what’s been reported in the papers.”
“We have I think pretty clear evidence that the momentum has been reversed, that the surge has accomplished a great deal,” Allen said. He added that Taliban reverses on the battlefield "are very easily documented" across most of the country’s 34 provinces, except for those in the east bordering Pakistan’s tribal regions.
But the worst news for the Taliban, Allen said, was that because of the commitment being made to Afghanistan’s long-term future through the recently announced U.S.-Afghanistan strategic partnership, as well as commitments from NATO allies and 22 other countries taking part in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) that he heads, “there’s going to be an international military presence here in Afghanistan for a long time, a long time after 2014.”
As a result, many Taliban are rethinking their long-held “narrative,” which is that they can just wait the conflict out and then move into “a very quiet battle space” in a few years, Allen said. “If your narrative is 'just wait us out,' (and) you’re going to have to wait now for decades... you're going to start to lose some enthusiasm.”
While praising Feinstein and Rogers for their “tremendous assistance” so far, Allen said he lamented “soundbites” from Washington that can “cause folks at home to doubt the mission.” He said the war is complex, involving a multi-layered approach to defeating insurgents and building up Afghan security and governance.
“There is this sense, and it’s a very Western sense I think, that there is a Napoleonic decisive battle that tends to end wars. In counterinsurgency it’s much less about that than about creating an enduring capacity that grows and compounds on itself over time," Allen said. "And that’s what’s happened.”
When asked if he cared to offer up his own “soundbite,” Allen said: “My soundbite is, we’re being successful.”
Feinstein and Rogers on Sunday gave a very different assessment after returning from a fact-finding trip to Afghanistan recently and receiving intelligence reports. “I think we’d both say that what we’ve found is that the Taliban is stronger,” Feinstein told CNN when asked if Obama’s deployment of 33,000 additional troops had degraded the Taliban’s capabilities.
They also appeared to challenge the president’s statement in a speech from Kabul last week that “we broke the Taliban’s momentum.” Feinstein a suggested that Allen and U.S. officials were too optimistic that Afghanistan’s government and new security forces would render a Taliban return to power impossible, saying the Islamist radical group has “a shadow system of governors in many provinces.”
U.S. and NATO officials in Afghanistan concede that the number of attacks has jumped since before the surge began in 2009, but they say the trend has been gradually declining in the last year, and the severity of attacks is way down as well.
At a meeting with leaders of Uruzgan province on Monday, attended by visiting reporters, Allen made the case that the main concern in the once-violence-torn province was now economic progress more than security. And in general, “in the south and southwest, it really is a post-conflict conversation,” he said.
He also said that ISAF was well ahead of schedule in bringing Afghan security forces to their full strength of 352,000, saying it would likely occur by June rather than the original target date of October.
Afghanistan: Taliban Spring Offensive 'Cowardly and Un-Islamic'
By CHRIS BLAKE 05/07/12 Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Afghan government on Monday condemned the recent Taliban announcement of the start of their annual "spring offensive," calling it cowardly and un-Islamic and pledging the country's forces would thwart any attacks.
The offensive begins every year as snows melt and the weather warms across Afghanistan, making both travel and fighting easier. It normally leads to a surge of militant attacks throughout the country as the Taliban attempt to retake lost territory and intimidate the government.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul acknowledged a two-year, rarely used program to release detainees from a military prison run by the American military near the capital, saying it was meant to bolster reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
The Taliban announcement last week was another sign of the difficulty of reconciling with a group that has been fighting the U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces for more than a decade. The Taliban said they would target anyone – from government workers to tribal leaders – who works against them and helps foreigners in their "occupation" of Afghanistan.
On Monday, the Interior Ministry said that "while again declaring war against the Afghan people, their government and constitution, the Taliban insurgents also abuse their religious values in the name of a cause opposed to the basic Islamic principles of peace, education and kindness."
The ministry statement said the Taliban use propaganda and "twist holy religious values to justify their criminal activities," which have killed thousands of innocent people.
Last year was the deadliest on record for civilians in the Afghan war, with 3,021 killed, according to the United Nations. Taliban-affiliated militants were responsible for more than three-quarters of those deaths.
The Taliban have launched several large-scale attacks in recent weeks, including coordinated attacks on Kabul and three other cities that left 47 people dead, including 36 insurgents, and a strike on a compound used by foreigners in the Afghan capital that killed seven.
The uptick in violence comes as NATO gears up to hand over security to local forces ahead of a 2014 deadline for the withdrawal of foreign combat troops. Some have questioned if local forces will be up to the task.
The U.S.-led coalition has also started its own campaign aimed at insurgents and is thought to have launched a number of operations in the eastern part of Afghanistan near the Pakistani border. The operations, in provinces such as Ghazni, are also aimed at chocking the insurgents' ability to reach Kabul.
On Monday, a bomb killed three NATO service members in the east, the coalition said. It did not provide details about the attack nor the nationality of those killed. NATO usually waits for member nations to provide details about troop deaths. So far this year, 142 coalition members have died in Afghanistan.
The Washington Post reported Monday that the U.S. military has been secretly releasing high-level detainees from the Parwan detention center near Kabul to help with the reconciliation process. Many high-level Taliban detainees are held at the facility, which is run by the U.S. military but will be handed over to the Afghans within six months under a recently signed agreement.
U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker told the newspaper that many times the United States had acted on information that "might strengthen the reconciliation process."
"Ambassador Crocker was referencing a two-year old, rarely used program in which senior military officials, together with their Afghan counterparts, weigh the benefits of releasing certain individuals who are being detained at the Parwan Detention Facility and who are willing to denounce violence and engage in the process of reconciliation," U.S. Embassy spokesman Gavin Sundwall told The Associated Press.
Sundwall said fewer than 20 detainees have ever been released under the program and that the decision takes into account whether they pose any further security threat.
In the latest violence, four gunmen took over a tall building in the eastern province of Paktika late Sunday and started shooting down into surrounding government compounds, wounding one civilian. A spokesman for the governor, Mokhlis Afghan, said police surrounded the building in the provincial capital and killed the attackers after several hours. NATO and Afghan soldiers provided support.
Also Monday, the governor of southern Helmand province condemned a NATO airstrike last week that he said killed six civilians – a woman, three girls and two boys. Gulab Mangal said Friday's strike was aimed at insurgents attacking NATO and Afghan forces in the province's Sangin district. He said "a civilian house was also targeted by the airstrike unintentionally."
He said he asked the commander of NATO forces in the region to "prevent such events in the future."
In the north, a large roadside bomb killed three people Monday in Kunduz province's Imam Sahib district – including a high-ranking national border police commander, said Amanullah Qurishi, the district chief.
___
Associated Press writers Patrick Quinn and Amir Shah contributed to this report.
Afghans 'Ready' To Take Over From French
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan May 7, 2012
KABUL -- The Afghan government says Afghan security forces are ready to fill any vacuum caused by the possible early withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan.
The announcement May 7 follows French President-elect Francois Hollande's pledge to withdraw France's 3,300 troops by the end of 2012.
Such a withdrawal would end France's combat role two years earlier than called for under an official NATO timetable, which says full security control is to be handed over to Afghans by 2014.
Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that Afghan forces could "easily" fill any security vacuum left by the withdrawal of French troops.
Hollande has said he will raise the issue with other NATO leaders at a Chicago summit on May 20-21.
With additional reporting by AFP
NATO not to abandon Afghanistan: spokesman
KABUL, May 7 (Xinhua) -- NATO and its allied nations will not leave Afghanistan after Afghan security forces take full control of security from NATO and U.S. forces by the end of 2014, a NATO spokesman said Monday.
"NATO is clearly committed to supporting Afghanistan beyond 2014, when the gradual transition of responsibility for the security of the country from ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) troops to Afghan forces will be fully implemented," NATO civilian representative spokesman Dominic Medley told reporters in a joint weekly press briefing.
The United States is going to host NATO members at a Chicago summit expected to be held on May 20-21, with Afghanistan at the top of its agenda. Afghan President Hamid Karzai is set to participate in the summit.
Transition of security responsibilities from NATO forces to Afghan army and police began in July last year and lasts till 2014 when Afghanistan is due to take over the its full security duties from U.S. and NATO forces.
According to U.S. President Barack Obama's withdrawal plan, 10, 000 U.S. troops already pulled out from Afghanistan last year and another 23,000 will return home by September this year. "This is the 25th NATO Summit and is set to be the largest ever, "Medley said, adding"Around 60 leaders of countries and international organizations are expected to attend, including the United Nations, World Bank and European Union,"
"At Chicago, leaders will make clear their commitment to a strong partnership with Afghanistan beyond 2014," he said.
"NATO will support Afghanistan after transition is completed, NATO will continue to train, advise and assist Afghanistan and NATO and ISAF partners will carry a fair share of funding Afghan National Security Forces and this is a commitment for the whole international community," he noted. "This past week, we witnessed the signing of the Strategic Partnership Agreement between the United States and Afghanistan. This is a message to the Taliban and others that Afghanistan's allies will not abandon this country after 2014,"an ISAF Spokesman Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson told the same press briefing.
U.S. President Barack Obama paid a surprise visit to Kabul late Tuesday night. During his tour, Obama inked the strategic pact with Karzai and visited main U.S. military facilities in Bagram.
Karzai said that under the pact, the United States needs to support Afghanistan in all fields including economy and security.
Reports Say Taliban Attacks Paktika Province
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan May 6, 2012
KABUL -- A group of Taliban insurgents has attacked government buildings in Afghanistan's southern Paktika province, near the Pakistani border, according to RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan.
The buildings are reportedly located near the office of the provincial governor.
Reports say that there is also fighting in other parts of Paktika province between the Taliban and Afghan government forces.
No further details were immediately available.
26 dead, 100 missing in Afghanistan flood
By Masoud Popalzai, CNN May 7, 2012
Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Flash flooding in northern Afghanistan killed at least 26 people in northern Afghanistan and rescue workers fear the toll may rise, officials said Monday.
Eight hours of relentless rainfall that began Sunday led to the flooding in several districts of Sar-e-Pol province, said Faizullah Sadat, provincial director of Afghanistan Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA).
More than 100 people are missing, most of them members of a wedding party that was deluged, he said.
Pakistan disputes Clinton's assertion on al-Qaida chief
ISLAMABAD, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar Monday asked the United States to provide information on the presence of al-Qaida chief Ayman al Zawahiri in Pakistan hours after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claimed that Al Zawahiri is still hiding in Pakistan.
"We want to disable Al Qaida. Al Zawahiri is still on the run somewhere in Pakistan," Clinton said in the Indian city of Kolkata.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Khar was quick to challenge Clinton' s statement and said "If the United States has any solid intelligence information on the presence of al Qaida leader in Pakistan, it should be shared with us so that the country can look into the matter accordingly."
Khar was briefing the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) on the issue of the U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan 's tribal regions and parliament recommendation last month on Pakistan-U.S. ties.
The parliament had unanimously passed a resolution, calling for an immediate halt to U.S. drone strikes, but Washington ignored the call by launching two strikes in a week, which killed at least 14 people.
Khar said last week that the United States does not listen to Pakistan over drone strikes, which Islamabad condemns as counterproductive in the war on terror and a violation of the country's sovereignty.
Relationship between the two countries had been affected after a NATO airstrike on two checkposts that had killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November 2011.
Khar said Monday that talks between Pakistan and the United States in light of the terms of engagement set by Parliament were still ongoing and may take some time to settle. She said there was no halt in the talks and the impression of failure was wrong.
The foreign minister said she hopes Washington will respect the Pakistani parliament's recommendations, which have been directly linked to the stoppage of drone strikes.
The parliament had also approved new terms of engagements with the United States and its NATO allies in Afghanistan and conditions for the reopening of NATO supply routes which were closed after the NATO strike.
Clinton also said Washington wants Pakistan as a part of the counter terrorism war.
On the issue of war on terror, Clinton said crushing al-Qaida was the next big target of the United States in the post-Osama Bin Laden world.
Al-Qaida Video Shows US Hostage
VOA News May 7, 2012
Al-Qaida has released a video showing an American hostage saying he will be killed if President Barack Obama does not meet the militant group's demands.
Monitoring groups said al-Qaida's media arm posted the nearly three-minute video of Warren Weinstein on jihadist forums Sunday.
Weinstein directs a message at Obama, saying, "If you accept the demands, I live; if you don't accept the demands, then I die."
He also tells his wife he is in good health.
Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri said in a December video that Weinstein would not be released until the United States halts its airstrikes in Muslim countries. He also demanded the release of al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners.
The 70-year-old Weinstein was snatched from his home in Lahore, Pakistan last August after eight gunmen overpowered his security guards.
He served as director in Pakistan of a U.S.-based development consulting company, J.E. Austin Associates.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.
Al Qaeda releases video of American hostage
Associated Press May 06, 2012
WASHINGTON - In a video released Sunday by Al Qaeda, American hostage Warren Weinstein said he will be killed unless President Barack Obama agrees to the militant group's demands.
"My life is in your hands, Mr. President," Weinstein said in the video. "If you accept the demands, I live; if you don't accept the demands, then I die."
Weinstein was abducted last August in Lahore, Pakistan, after gunmen tricked his guards and broke into his home. The 70-year-old from Rockville, Md., is the country director in Pakistan for J.E. Austin Associates, a Virginia-based firm that advises a range of Pakistani business and government sectors.
In a video message posted on militant websites in December, Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri said Weinstein would be released if the United States stopped airstrikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. He also demanded the release of all Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects around the world.
The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant messages, said Al-Sahab, Al Qaeda's media arm, posted the Weinstein video on jihadist forums Sunday.
"It's important you accept the demands and act quickly and don't delay," Weinstein said in the video, addressing Obama. "There'll be no benefit in delaying, it will just make things more difficult for me."
He also appealed to Obama as a father. If the president responds to the militants' demands, Weinstein said, "then I will live and hopefully rejoin my family and also enjoy my children, my two daughters, like you enjoy your two daughters."
After his kidnapping, Weinstein's company said he was in poor health and provided a detailed list of medications, many of them for heart problems, that it implored the kidnappers to give him.
In the video released Sunday, Weinstein said he would like his wife, Elaine, to know "I'm fine, I'm well, I'm getting all my medications, I'm being taken care of."
Where lies the real enemy in Afghanistan?
Sydney Morning By Patrick Porter Opinion May 7, 2012
For 10 years, Australia has been wading deeper into an uncertain mire.
THE conflict in Afghanistan has been Australia's longest war. Measured in time and complexity - if not in blood - it has been one of the hardest. But who or what have we been fighting?
According to Julia Gillard, it has been a struggle against the Taliban, an Afghan theocratic movement that gave haven to terrorists. The problem, allegedly, is the Islamist extremism that found a host in the world's poorest land. The solution is to empower this broken nation to govern and secure itself.
For 10 years we have tried to combat poverty, corruption and state failure by birthing a strong Afghan government. Not an easy task in a country hard to govern from the centre, and where our favoured regime is an unloved kleptocracy.
As Canberra looks to extricate Australia from this long hard slog, it declares victory of sorts, presenting its phased withdrawal as a successful handover to indigenous security forces.
But Afghanistan is not the centre of this war. This is primarily a war over - and against - Pakistan.
Announcing Australia's accelerated withdrawal, Gillard identified Pakistan as ''critical to Afghanistan's stability''. Diplomatically, she defined this in terms of Pakistan being a strategic partner.
Yet the picture is darker than that. The brutal truth is that for the past decade, the war has been difficult precisely because we have been entangled in a proxy war against Pakistan. Or rather, our strongest adversary has been a powerful institution within that country, the Inter-Service Intelligence Agency.
The most obvious symptom of this war is the combat in Pakistan. The US takes the war deep into Pakistan's sovereign territory with a killing program via drone strikes and special operations, often without asking for a hunting licence. And, through its proxies in Afghanistan, Pakistan returns fire.
And we cannot understand the conflict without grasping its central logic: that Pakistan simultaneously feeds and fights the Islamist beast.
Through its army, Pakistan has been at the sharp end in fighting insurgents. But its security services have been instrumental in supporting, funding and giving sanctuary to those same adversaries.
When the Soviet Union withdrew in 1989, it left behind armed mujahideen, seasoned militants created with Western backing. It has been turbulent there ever since. After 9/11, the West struck hard into the region. By doing so, it unwittingly stepped into the complex politics of that world.
Pakistan is a nervous state. It faces a large, nuclear and increasingly wealthy adversary to its east. It fears being encircled by the creation of an Indian client state in Kabul to its west. It fights proxy wars against India in the contested territory of Kashmir. It has its own religious militants, which Islamabad accommodates and uses as a tool of policy, yet which also threaten it.
It walks a tightrope in its relations with the US, receiving millions of dollars in foreign aid and providing logistical and fighting support and in hunting al-Qaeda, while also giving sanctuary and support in its tribal belt to Taliban leaders and allies.
Thanks to Pakistan, this war became internationalised from early on.
Thus our war is one of contradictions. The more we strive to stabilise and strengthen Afghanistan, the more this clashes with Pakistan's determination to deny India a strong ally, and the more Pakistan balances against it.
''Fixing'' Afghanistan would entail not only costly nation building, but somehow resolving an ongoing struggle between other parties.
Projecting power has ironic results. Just to operate there, we rely on the logistical supply lines from Karachi through Pakistan. Yet by paying double-dealing security firms to protect transport, we unwittingly inject cash into the insurgency.
The reality of allies-as-spoilers is uncomfortable. But hypocrisy, and hedging, is the stuff of politics. The logic of helping and hindering allies, or using some-time enemies also as tools, is an old one that those great experts in survival, the Byzantine emperors, would recognise.
It is familiar in wars waged in others' backyards, especially in countries where neighbouring states perceive a conflicting interest.
This matters because we will try to learn lessons from Afghanistan.
Sympathisers regard Afghanistan as a ''good war'' badly waged. They complain that with the Taliban overthrown, the US-led coalition missed opportunities in that golden hour to invest and build, to get nation-building right. The task was then neglected because of the diversion in Iraq. They emphasise things we could control.
We are used to interpreting problems in terms of our behaviour - where to fight, how to fight, who to support - with the enemy's active role as a sideshow. But Afghanistan is hard not only because of errors of design or execution. It is hard because other players want us to fail, and flex their muscles accordingly.
We wanted the war in Afghanistan to be about fighting one enemy within those borders. But we got an aggregation of other conflicts that spilled across borders, beyond our power to resolve.
This may be the hardest lesson of all. Often the wars we want are not the ones we get.
Patrick Porter is reader in strategic studies at the University of Reading in Britain.
Taliban kill 14 Pakistani troops, string up heads of two of them on wooden poles
By Ishtiaq Mahsud, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - Taliban fighters killed 14 Pakistani soldiers in a key militant sanctuary along the Afghan border, beheaded all but one of them and hung two of the heads from wooden poles in the centre of town, officials said Monday.
The killings in Miran Shah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal area, highlight the dilemma facing the military in dealing with an area used by both the country's fiercest enemy, the Pakistani Taliban, and Afghan and Pakistani militants believed to be close to the government who are battling U.S.-led forces in neighbouring Afghanistan.
The U.S. has repeatedly demanded that Pakistan launch an offensive in North Waziristan, especially against the so-called Haqqani network. Pakistan has promised to do so in the future, but claims its forces are stretched too thin right now fighting the Pakistani Taliban in other parts of the tribal region.
"Something has to be done, and it's in the offing," Lt. Gen. Khalid Rabbani, the army's top commander in the northwest, told The Associated Press in an interview Monday. "North Waziristan is the only place left" that hasn't been the target of an operation, he said.
Many analysts believe Pakistan is reluctant to target militants in North Waziristan with whom it has strong historical ties and could be useful allies in Afghanistan after foreign forces withdraw. But those militants are also allies with the Pakistani Taliban, complicating matters even further.
On Sunday, the Taliban ambushed a security checkpoint in Miran Shah, killing nine Pakistani soldiers, the army said. Militants had been firing on the checkpoint for the past few days before they ambushed it, the army added.
When authorities finally retrieved the bodies of the dead soldiers, they found that they had been beheaded, said intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
The army retaliated Sunday with helicopter gunships that pounded suspected militant hideouts and also hit three houses and a mosque in the town, said intelligence officials. Three civilians were killed and 20 were wounded in the helicopter attacks, they said. It's unclear how many militants were killed.
The military also raided a house in Miran Shah on Sunday night, killing a militant commander and several of his colleagues, said intelligence officials. But the remaining militants escaped with five soldiers captured during the raid.
They beheaded four of them and hung two of their heads from poles in Miran Shah on Monday. The bodies of the others were dumped in Miran Shah bazaar, the officials said.
"This will not shy us off establishing the writ of the government in all the areas, including North Waziristan," said Rabbani, who commands 150,000 troops in the northwest along the Afghan border.
The army unleashed its helicopter gunships again Monday, attacking a weapons market in Miran Shah where the militants who attacked the security checkpoint were believed to be hiding, said intelligence officials. The attack killed some 30 militants and destroyed dozens of shops that sold assault rifles, ammunition and rocket propelled grenades, the officials said.
Since the fighting started Sunday, 20 Pakistani troops have been injured, said the officials.
The attack on the weapons market occurred after the army had declared a curfew, so there did not appear to be any civilian casualties within the bazaar, said Haji Zafran, one of the shop owners. But a dozen people were wounded when a mosque near the market was hit, he said.
The market burned for hours after the attack, and the area reverberated with loud bangs as the flames set off the ammunition and grenades in the shops, said Zafran.
The owner of the market, Haji Noor Deen, protested the army's attack and claimed he and the other arms dealers suffered a loss of millions of dollars.
"Our place was targeted for no reason, as nobody fired a shot from there at the army," said Deen. "The dealers just sell arms to tribesmen."
The army lifted the curfew so that tribal elders and militants could hold a meeting to try to resolve the conflict, said intelligence officials. The jirga included members of the Haqqani network, an Afghan group, and also Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a powerful Pakistani militant commander believed to be close to Pakistan, they said.
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Associated Press writers Chris Brummitt and Rasool Dawar contributed to this report from Peshawar, Pakistan.
UN Should Coordinate Future Plan in Afghanistan: Rassoul
Sunday, 06 May 2012 19:14 Written by TOLOnews.com
The United Nations needs to streamline its operations in Afghanistan into a "single work plan" in order to coordinate its activities in the country, Minister of Foreign Affairs Zalmai Rassoul said Sunday.
Rassoul praised the "crucial" work done by the UN in Afghanistan for more than a decade, but said that a single work plan should be made for the sake of coherence across the continuing UN activities.
"These challenges [in Afghanistan] require the UN system in Afghanistan to rethink its approach to the overall strategy to [have] better coordination and coherence," he said at a conference in Kabul entitled "Coordination between United Nations Agencies in Afghanistan".
"We need to embark on the revitalising process of establishing a set of focused priority areas to leverage the UN assistance, expertise, and competencies in support of Afghans and the government's evolving development strategy based on its national priority programs," he said.
UN special representative to Afghanistan John Kubis said that the UN would continue to support Afghanistan working with both the embattled country and the international community.
"We have to support the Afghanistan working partnership to be aligned to the priorities of Afghanistan as defined by Afghanistan, in consultation with international community but as an act of the sovereign country telling and determining for herself what should be the future orientation," Kubis said at the conference.
The UN has had a range of programmes seeking to help Afghanistan develop in multiple sectors including education, health, and government elections in the past decade. It is expected that some of these efforts will continue after 2014 when the foreign troops are slated to withdraw from Afghanistan.
Iran Voices Concerns over Afghan-US Agreement
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 06 May 2012
Iran is concerned the Afghanistan-US long-term agreement may lead to more insecurity and instability the region, Press TV reported Sunday.
Criticising the agreement's lack of detail about what the nature of the US presence in Afghanistan will be after 2013, Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Iran prefers a complete withdrawal of all foreign troops and that Afghanistan should lead any peace negotiations.
He also raised concerns about ongoing speculation that the US will seek to have permanent bases in Afghanistan, saying it could play a significant role in further destabilising both Afghanistan and the region.
"Ambiguity about US military bases in Afghanistan and lack of transparency regarding the military role of US forces in the future have raised Iran's and other countries' concerns," Mehmanparast said.
"Iran believes that peace and stability in Afghanistan is possible with a complete withdrawal of Isaf troops, closure of any foreign military base in Afghanistan, and the start of Afghan-led peace negotiations," he added.
"This agreement will not help stabilise Afghanistan but as the last decade shows, it could promote instability."
Afghanistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded Sunday that the Afghan-US pact is not a threat to regional countries, but rather could increase peace and stability in the region.
Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai said that Afghanistan will not be used to launch attacks against any other country.
"We have always assured neighboring countries, particularly Iran, that we will not tolerate any kind of threat from our soil against them," Mosazai said at a press conference in Kabul.
"We expect other countries not to allow their soil to be used against Afghanistan," he added.
Iran's statement perpetuates the longstanding speculation that the US will seek to keep permanent bases in Afghanistan after the Nato combat mission ends in 2014.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai told reporters the day after the agreement was signed last week that the agreement poses no threat to the region.
"There is no threat from Afghanistan soil to our neighbors," Karzai said Thursday.
US ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker made similar assurances Thursday.
"Our commitments are to Afghanistan in that agreement. This is not an agreement with the neighboring countries, as you know the provisions in the partnership agree that the United States will not have permanent bases in Afghanistan and similarly that we will not launch offensive action against other states from Afghan soil," Crocker said in a press conference.
New Commission to Protect Taliban Who Wish to Negotiate
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 06 May 2012
Members of the Taliban who want to negotiate with the Afghan government will be protected by a newly-formed commission between Kabul, Washington and Islamabad, Afghanistan government officials said Sunday.
The joint commission will coordinate the talks as well as protect Taliban members who are willing to talk, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Janan Mosazai said in a Kabul press conference.
"The Afghan government is maintaining talks with several Taliban leaders in different ways. We will form a protective commission so the Taliban can negotiate with the Afghan government without any fear," Mosazai said.
It comes as recent news reports suggested that several Taliban commanders who were interested in negotiating for peace with the Afghan government have either been threatened or killed by other Taliban and insurgent figures.
The Taliban officially suspended their peace negotiations with the US government in March, accusing it of not being consistent.
The US government has said that it is ready to resume talks with the group but said the Afghan government should lead the talks. The Taliban have rejected any kind of direct talks with the Afghan government.
Nevertheless, Karzai's government has pushed ahead with plans to open a political liaison office for the Taliban in Qatar.
Mosazai also said Sunday that Qatar Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani will visit Afghanistan to sign a strategic pact and finalise plans to open the Taliban office.
"Qatar's Foreign Minister will visit Afghanistan in near future to sign a strategic agreement and finalise the establishment of the Taliban's office in his country," he said at the press conference.
NDS Foils Assassination Attempt on Takhar Provincial Council
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 06 May 2012
Afghan security forces have arrested two people for attempting to assassinate Takhar provincial council members, Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS) said Sunday.
The pair had placed explosives in a computer hard drive at the provincial council offices and were planning to detonate it during a council meeting, NDS media centre chief Shafiqullah Taheri said.
"Amir Shah, a resident of Taluqan the capital city of Takhar and a computer operator at the provincial council office, and Shahpoor, a resident of Yangi Qala [district] and a student at the faculty of agriculture at Takhar University, who placed explosive devices in a computer system and planned to explode it in Takhar's provincial council meeting, have been detained," Taheri said in a press conference.
In a separate incident, a person who planned to attack Nangarhar's airport was also arrested by NDS officials, Taheri said.
The person trained in Peshawar and was sent to Jalalabad to launch a suicide attack on the airport, according to the NDS.
"He was trained by Mawlawi Nik Mohammad in Peshawar and was sent to launch a suicide attack on Jalalabad airport," Taheri said, without providing more details.
Taheri said at the conference that the Taliban are trying to create opportunities during the spring and target government officials to appear to escalate their attacks.
"Taliban are trying to take full advantage of the spring season and assassinate high-ranking government officials, but the NDS officials well not let them do so," he said.
The Taliban released a statement last week saying they would launch their "spring offensive" on May 3, suggesting that their attacks would become bigger or more frequent compared to their attacks during the winter.
On May 3, the NDS arrested a Pakistani national who was driving a truck laden with explosives in Kabul.
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