Tweet
Bombs kill 46 across Afghanistan
By By DEB RIECHMANN and AMIR SHAH | Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Suicide bombers launched multiple attacks in a remote corner of southwestern Afghanistan near the Iranian border Tuesday, killing dozens of people including shoppers buying sweets for a Muslim holiday and leaving charred and smoldering bits of cookies and dried fruit among the bodies on the ground.
A separate market bombing, this one in northern Afghanistan, brought the overall death toll to 46, most of whom were civilians. It was the deadliest day for Afghan civilians this year.
The attacks in provinces on opposite ends of the country — Nimroz in the southwest and Kunduz in the north — come as Taliban insurgents and their allies step up their assaults in a display of force that often results in civilian carnage. Militants are especially trying to weaken the still-developing Afghan security forces, who are to assume control of security across their homeland in 28 months when most foreign combat troops will have left.
"The Taliban "want to expand their influence — show that they are everywhere," said Afghan political analyst Jawid Kohistani. "They want to show that the Afghan police are not strong enough so they are targeting the security forces and the government."
The scope of the attacks in Nimroz, which has seen relatively few insurgent attacks over the past year, was surprising. The bombings took place in the provincial capital, Zaranj, where militants wearing suicide vests detonated their explosives in various neighborhoods, provincial police chief Musa Rasouli said. At least 25 civilians and 11 police were killed, he said.
The Nimroz provincial capital lies about 6 miles (10 kilometers) from the Iranian border. Police arrested three attackers who later apparently confessed that they were from Zahedan, the capital of Iran's Sistan and Baluchistan province near the Afghan border, according to Sadeq Chakhansori, a member of the Nimroz provincial council. The significance of this was not immediately clear.
Authorities said the casualties would have been far higher had they not learned of the plot beforehand. Police killed two potential attackers Monday night and captured three more Tuesday morning. But they could not catch them all.
Rasouli said three suicide bombers detonated their explosive vests, including one in front of a television station and another at an intersection in a bazaar. Most of the casualties, however, were from a bombing in a shopping bazaar in front of a civilian hospital. The area was crowded with shoppers from the city and outlying areas who were buying dried fruit, cookies and other sweets for the coming Muslim holiday of Eid.
"It was very powerful," Rasouli said. "Everywhere there was smoke. With my eyes, I saw the dead bodies."
The bodies, wrapped in blood-stained sheets, were ferried off in ambulances and pickup trucks. The legs of two victims hung off the back of a small truck that sped away with a long sheet dragging behind in the dusty road. Police fired bullets into the air to clear crowds from the scene.
"We cannot carry on with our daily lives," Sayed Ahmad said, lying on a bed in a hospital where he was being treated for injuries. "People are scared and cannot go out of their houses," he said. "We don't know what to do."
Three more attackers, also clad in explosive vests, tried to strike the governor's house, but Afghan police killed them before they were able to blow themselves up.
"We took off their suicide vests — very carefully, very professionally — after we killed them," Rasouli said. "They had no chance, the police bullets rained on them."
The sparsely populated province is partly desert and is not regularly beset by insurgent attacks as are Helmand and Kandahar provinces to the east. Recently, however, Nimroz has seen an increase in violence. On Saturday, an Afghan police officer killed 11 of his fellow officers in the remote Dilaram district of the province.
Tuesday's other major attack, in northern Kunduz province, involved a bomb on a motorcycle that was parked outside a crowded bazaar in Archi district. The attack killed at least 10 people, including five children, and wounded at least 25 others, according to Hamid Agha, the police chief for Archi district.
Altogether, at least 35 civilians were killed in the attacks in the two provinces, making Tuesday the deadliest day for Afghan civilians this year.
"What we saw today were further acts of intentional mass murder," said Gen. John Allen, the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. "By targeting innocent civilians in populated areas, the insurgents have again shown they will kill non-combatants without hesitation to advance their backward-looking plans for Afghanistan. Once again, I call on (Afghan Taliban leader) Mullah Omar to rein in his murderers. His intentions not to target civilians are hollow," Allen said in a statement.
In past statements, Omar has asked his fighters to avoid civilian casualties. In one message in 2010, for instance, he said: "Pay attention to the life and property of the civilians so that ... your jihad activities will not become a cause for destruction of property and loss of life of people."
The U.N. reported last week that civilian deaths were lower in the first six months of 2012 than in the first half of 2011, but that an onslaught of summer attacks from insurgents were threatening to reverse that trend. In all, 1,145 civilians were killed in Afghanistan between January and June of this year, according to the U.N. report.
On June 6, a car bomb and a motorcycle bomb killed 22 people near Kandahar airport in the volatile south. Another suicide attack July 14 on a wedding killed 23 people, including the provincial intelligence chief and two army generals.
___
Associated Press Writers Kay Johnson and Rahim Faiez in Kabul contributed to this report.
Grenades at east Afghan mosque wound 9 people
Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan – Two grenades exploded inside a mosque compound during morning prayers in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, wounding at least nine worshippers, an Afghan official said.
The attack in eastern Khost province came a day after a series of bombs around Afghanistan killed at least 50 people in the deadliest day for civilians this year as Taliban insurgents and their allies ramp up violence across the country. The Taliban summer offensive this year coincides with Afghan police and soldiers taking on more responsibility for security while international forces start to withdraw.
Three grenades were thrown into the mosque compound in Baghi Sara area, Khost police chief Sardar Mohammad Zazai said. One exploded inside the mosque itself, and one in the courtyard outside. The third failed to detonate.
Zazai blamed Taliban insurgents for the attack.
"This was the work of the enemy," he said. "It cannot be a private dispute. Why would anyone be so angry to throw grenades in a mosque while people are praying?"
He said many of those praying were Afghans who work at the nearby U.S. base, Forward Operating Base Salerno.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid issued a statement that did not acknowledge the mosque attack but claimed an insurgent suicide bomber had attacked a U.S. base in Khost, causing several American casualties.
A spokesman for the NATO military coalition said Wednesday that there was no attack on the Salerno base, which is close to the mosque in Baghi Sara. Lt. Col. Hagen Messer said the American personnel at the base reported hearing gunfire from the mosque but that Afghan police were investigating.
The latest violence comes after a particularly bloody day for Afghanistan. Suicide bombers launched multiple attacks in remote Nimroz province in southwestern Afghanistan near the Iranian border on Tuesday, killing dozens of people, including shoppers buying sweets for a Muslim holiday. The bombings left charred and smoldering bits of cookies and dried fruit among the bodies on the ground.
A separate market bombing later Tuesday, this one in Kunduz in the north, killed 10 people, including five children.
And in the eastern province of Paktika, a car hit a roadside bomb. Four children died in the blast, provincial spokesman Mokhlis Afghan said, bringing Tuesday's death toll to 50 — 11 police and 39 civilians. At least 110 people were wounded in all the attacks.
The attacks came as the Taliban and their allies step up their assaults in a display of force that often results in civilian carnage. Militants are especially trying to weaken the still-developing Afghan security forces, who are to assume control across their homeland in 28 months when most foreign combat troops will have left.
The Taliban "want to expand their influence — show that they are everywhere," said Afghan political analyst Jawid Kohistani. "They want to show that the Afghan police are not strong enough so they are targeting the security forces and the government."
Gen. John Allen, the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan said Tuesday's attacks were "acts of intentional mass murder."
"By targeting innocent civilians in populated areas, the insurgents have again shown they will kill non-combatants without hesitation to advance their backward-looking plans for Afghanistan. Once again, I call on (Afghan Taliban leader) Mullah Omar to rein in his murderers. His intentions not to target civilians are hollow," Allen said in a statement.
In past statements, Omar has asked his fighters to avoid civilian casualties. In one message in 2010, for instance, he said: "Pay attention to the life and property of the civilians so that ... your jihad activities will not become a cause for destruction of property and loss of life of people."
The U.N. reported last week that civilian deaths were lower in the first six months of 2012 than in the first half of 2011, but that an onslaught of summer attacks from insurgents were threatening to reverse that trend. In all, 1,145 civilians were killed in Afghanistan between January and June of this year, according to the U.N. report.
Afghan Official Says Border Shelling Kills One
August 14, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
An official in eastern Afghanistan says shelling from across the border in Pakistan has killed at least one Afghan border guard.
Wasifullah Wasify, a spokesman for eastern Konar Province, said a battle between Afghan and Pakistan border patrols broke out early on August 14 near a checkpoint in Konar's Dangam district, across from the Pakistani district of Bajaur.
He said one of the rockets killed a border-patrol officer and wounded at least four others.
Wasify says at least 83 rockets have landed in the area.
It is the latest report of cross-border fire that has raised tensions between the two neighbors.
Pakistan officials had no immediate comment. Islamabad has denied deliberately targeting Afghan territory in fighting militants on its side of the border.
Based on reporting by AP, dpa, and BBC
Pakistan denies Afghan delegation met with imprisoned deputy Taliban leader
Associated Press August 13 , 2012
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan on Monday denied reports that a delegation of Afghan officials met with a former deputy leader of the Taliban who is imprisoned in Pakistan.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was captured in Pakistan in 2010. His arrest reportedly angered Afghan President Hamid Karzai because Baradar had been in secret talks with the Afghan government.
The former Taliban deputy is seen as a potentially important player in the process of striking a peace deal in Afghanistan, with most NATO forces scheduled to depart at the end of 2014.
Pakistan’s Interior Ministry said reports of a meeting between Afghan officials and Baradar were “absolutely baseless and ill motivated.”
An official with the Afghan High Peace Council, Ismail Qasemyar, said Sunday that members of the Afghan Embassy in Pakistan met with the former Taliban deputy, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, but declined to give further details.
A Pakistani intelligence official confirmed the meeting but also declined to provide details. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Despite the Pakistani denial, it’s still unclear whether there has been any contact between the Afghan government and Baradar.
The Afghan government has pushed for the release of Baradar and other Taliban prisoners to speed the effort for peace talks.
Afghans Olympic medalist warmly welcomed home
KABUL, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The inciting Afghans awarded red-carpet welcome to Olympic medallist Rohullah Nikpa who returned home on Tuesday as thousands of people waited in long queue at Kabul International Airport.
A long convoy of motorcades and horse riders were slowly moving on the road leading to the airport to welcome the medallist. The roads as well as government building were seen decorated with the pictures of the Nikpa and banners inscribed with slogans encouraging sport and athletes.
Afghan taekwondo player, Rohullah Nikpa, was the first Afghan athlete who had won bronze medal in Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and secured again bronze in London Olympics 2012 on Aug. 9.
Hundreds of people were accompanying their athletes from airport to Kabul sport stadium, where thousands of people were waiting to welcome them.
The emotional and happy fans were chanting "Thank you for win", "Victory is yours," and "Afghanistan, Afghanistan" when meeting the players at the stadium.
The Afghan parliament is going to formally appreciate Nikpa and his team on Wednesday; while sport fan and businessmen will also award the Olympic medallist privately.
A six-member Afghan team which includes Rohullah Nikpa and Nisar Ahmad Bahawi in taekwondo, Masoud Azizi and Tahmina Kohistani the only female in the team in running, Aimal Faisal and Ajmal Faizi Zada in boxing and judo represented Afghanistan in the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Afghanistan unites behind Olympic success – and beating Pakistan
Rohullah Nikpai's taekwondo bronze, Afghanistan's second ever medal, helped country to feel normal after years of war
Guardian.co.uk By Emma Graham-Harrison Monday 13 August 2012
Kabul - For once, Afghanistan was just another country. Used to being treated as victim or headache on the international stage, its athletes lined up at the Olympics to compete as equals and revelled in showing the world another face, unconnected to decades of conflict.
For Afghans back home, it was an emotional rollercoaster. Two weeks of competition brought the glory of the country's second ever medal, dashed hopes of a third, triumph in getting one over on its powerful neighbour Pakistan, and anger over the role of an old enemy – corruption.
The divided nation was seized by a brief, unifying fit of taekwondo fever as the diminutive fighter who is probably the country's biggest sporting hero took to the mats. Rohullah Nikpai, whose Olympic profile lists his profession as hairdresser, is an unlikely champion: a poor former refugee, he is from the Hazara ethnic minority, which has long faced discrimination from more dominant groups.
But his background meant nothing to millions of Afghans when he unexpectedly claimed a bronze medal in Beijing, becoming the first person from their country to stand on an Olympic podium.
Half of Kabul stayed up late to watch him clinch another bronze in London, and one of the city's regular power cuts sent men streaming out to ice-cream stalls and other shops with generators to catch the end of one fight.
There was joy across the country, and an explosion of excitement on social media, which has been embraced by the tiny but growing elite with internet access.
An international community pleased to have something to celebrate in the middle of a decade-long war jumped on the bandwagon, with congratulations from the US embassy and the Nato-led coalition that has been fighting in Afghanistan for more than a decade.
There was also elation that Afghanistan had bettered their richer and more powerful neighbour Pakistan, which has long been resented for interference in Afghan affairs.
"Afghanistan's Rohullah Nikpai wins Taekwondo bronze!! That's one more medal than its failed enemy, Pakistan," @Afghanpolicy crowed on twitter.
The only people not caught up in the excitement seemed to be the Taliban. "We are considering a reaction to this. Cannot say whether happy for the medal or not," a spokesman for the insurgent group told the BBC's Harun Najafizada.
The country's second medal hope, Nesar Bahawi – another taekwondo fighter – lost his bronze medal bout. But having fought with injuries so severe he was taken to hospital after the match, his bravery won the hearts of Afghans.
The aftermath of Nikpai's victory and Bahawi's near-miss also reflected some of Afghanistan's perennial problems. Government critics noted that Americans were faster than their own president to congratulate their double hero.
And there was anger when it emerged that the country's 22-strong Olympic delegation did not include a physiotherapist. Arif Paiman, spokesman for the Olympic committee headed by Lieutenant General Muhammad Zahir Aghbar, said London organisers provided doctors for all competitors. But both taekwondo fighters were battling with injuries that might have been better managed by someone who knew them personally.
Activists blamed corruption, a common scourge in a country that has been judged the fourth most graft-ridden in the world. "Because every post is a political position and acquired based on affiliations to warlords and power-holders, the position of head of the Olympic committee is given to an army general who should instead be fighting the insurgency up in the mountains," said activist Wazhma Frogh.
"[Yusufzai] isn't a trained sports expert, that's why he takes his bodyguards and friends on sports-related trips while there was no physiotherapist for injured Bahawi."
Mokhtar Amiri contributed reporting
Afghan girls inspired to maintain exercise
By Abdul Haleem
KABUL, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- "By attending the London Olympics I have given the message to all the Afghan girls that they are talented, they can do sport, they can attend international competitions and above all they can earn honor to their country," Tahmina Kohistani told Xinhua on Tuesday.
The only Afghan girl, Kohistani, 23, who competed in running at London Olympics but failed to win medal, was joyful for representing Afghan women there in the international contests.
"Although I could not earn medal in the contest, I was able to represent Afghan women with talent and so, I am proud to be the first Afghan girl attending Olympic Games," said the ambitious Kohistani after returning home.
In the conservative Afghanistan it was unbelievable 11 years ago when Taliban regime was in power.
The fundamentalist regime which collapsed in late 2001 by the U.S.-led military campaign had banned schools for girls and confined women to their houses. The outfit has also imposed series of restrictions on men athletes including sporting long beard and wearing long trousers during playing.
In the national sport stadium -- Ghazi Stadium, Kabul where the athletes in the post-Taliban Afghanistan exercise daily to improve their ability, Taliban militants during their six-year reign often awarded punishment including execution and chopping hands and feet to alleged criminals there each Friday which is the Muslim Weekly holiday.
A six-member Afghan team which includes Rohullah Nikpa and Nisar Ahmad Bahawi in taekwondo, Masoud Azizi and Tahmina Kohistani the only female in running, Aimal Faisal and Ajmal Faizi Zada in boxing and judo represented Afghanistan in the London 2012 Olympic Games.
In the men's 68kg category, the Afghan taekwondo player, Nikpa after beating his rivals Michal Loniewski from Poland 12-5, Martin Stamper from Britain 5-3, David Boui of Central African Republic 14-2 and losing to Iranian player Mohammad Bagheri Motamed had earned Bronze medal, the second of its kind earned by Afghanistan, both by Nikpa, 25.
However, the remaining five had lost in the London 2012 international tournaments.
The team returned home Tuesday morning and the exciting Afghans awarded red-carpet welcome to Olympic medalist Rohullah Nikpa and his entourage as thousands of people including government officials and lawmakers waiting in long queue at Kabul International Airport to receive the Olympic hero and associates.
A long convoy of motorcades and horse riders were slowly moving on the road leading to the airport to welcome the athletes.
"I would try my best to win gold medal in the next Olympic Games," Nikpa told Xinhua amid hundreds of his admirers.
The people waiting to receive the athletes were proud of the earning a medal -- the bronze in the London Games.
"It is a matter of pride for Afghans that their country has secured position among the medal winning nations," a sport fan and athlete Ahmad Adeeb Wali, 21 told Xinhua at Ghazi Stadium; while eagerly waiting among thousands of people to receive the six athletes which includes Ms. Tahmina Kohistani, the ambitious girl inspiring Afghan females to support sport in Afghanistan.
U.S. boosts intelligence after Afghan insider attacks
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Tuesday it was expanding counterintelligence staff in Afghanistan after a rise in insider attacks by Afghans thought to be friendly to U.S. forces but who have killed 37 coalition troops so far this year.
Last Friday, six U.S. troops were killed in two separate incidents, one which saw an Afghan police commander and several of his men kill three U.S. Marines after inviting them to a Ramadan breakfast to discuss security.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said he was deeply concerned by the killings "because of the lives lost and because of the potential damage to our partnership efforts."
The increasing number of incidents have eroded trust between the allies just as NATO combat troops prepare to hand over security control to Afghan forces by 2014.
General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the same news conference that the U.S. military was bolstering counterintelligence expertise at the battalion level and above in Afghanistan.
He said the same was occurring within Afghan forces, which he said had so far discharged hundreds of soldiers who showed a risk of radicalization -- including travel back and forth to Pakistan, where many militants enjoy safe haven.
So far in 2012, there have been 29 attacks, resulting in 37 coalition deaths, 21 of which were among U.S. forces. For the same period last year, there were 16 attacks and 28 deaths.
In all of 2011, there were 35 coalition troops killed, 24 of whom were U.S. troops.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Eric Beech)
Have Obama and Romney Forgotten Afghanistan?
New Yorker By Dexter Filkins August 13, 2012
How’s this for a conspiracy of silence? With less than three months to go until Election Day, President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have successfully avoided saying almost anything about America’s war in Afghanistan. Remember that war? You will at some point, however little the two candidates talk about it.
You can make your own guesses about why the candidates have said so little about Afghanistan—their positions are virtually identical, the economy is more important, etc. My own guess: neither of them knows what to do about the place. In a mere twenty-eight months, the United States is scheduled to stop fighting, and every day brings new evidence that the Afghan state that is supposed to take over is a failing, decrepit enterprise.
The latest bit of evidence: in the past several days, three of the most powerful people around President Hamid Karzai have come under fire, and now either are gone from their jobs, have promised to leave, or are hunkered down while clinging to what’s left of their legitimacy. Earlier this month, the Afghan parliament voted to impeach the two Afghan officials responsible for overseeing the war: Abdul Rahim Wardak, the minister of defense, and Bismullah Khan Mohammadi, the minister of the interior, on allegations of corruption, favoritism, and incompetence. (The charges are as yet unproven, and both men have denied them.) In the case of B.K., as Mohammadi is known, there were also concerns that he was stacking the Afghan police forces with men more loyal to the largely ethnic Tajik militia that he used to help lead, Jamiat-e Islami, than to the Afghan state—heightening fears that an American withdrawal could precipitate a civil war. (I wrote about those dangers in a piece for The New Yorker last month.)
But the most interesting case concerns Omar Zakhilwal, the Afghan finance minister. Reporters for Tolo, the country’s largest private media network, obtained bank statements for at least two of Zakhilwal’s accounts, dating back several years. Those accounts show deposits totaling nearly a million dollars, most of which were made while Zakhilwal was a public servant. Many of the deposits—like the hundred thousand dollars he deposited on July 16, 2009—were made in cash. At the time of that deposit, Zakhilwal was Karzai’s minister of finance as well as the finance chairman for his reëlection campaign.
In some cases, Zakhilwal’s bank statements show the source of the money. In August of 2009, for instance, a two-hundred-thousand-dollar deposit was made by the Safi Landmark Hotel, which is owned by an Afghan family that also owns an airline and other businesses that deal with the government. One of the bank statements obtained by Tolo shows that between 2007 and 2009, Zakhilwal transferred nearly four hundred thousand dollars from his accounts in Afghanistan to another one of his accounts in Canada.
Where did all the money for Zakhilwal come from? And what was it for?
Najeeb Manali, an aide to Zakhilwal, told me that his boss would not talk about the case until the Afghan attorney general completed an investigation, which he—Zakhilwal—had asked for. In a recent letter to the Times, Zakhilwal acknowledged that the bank statements published by Tolo were his. He claimed that the Tolo reports were “inaccurate and misleading” and part of a “larger smear campaign against me,” but didn’t elaborate. “I have been a minister only for the last three and a half years, but I have held various professional positions for more than 15 years, including well-compensated senior advisory and consulting positions,” he wrote to the paper. “My assets are mostly from those jobs.”
But Zakhilwal’s letter raises more questions than it answers. According to his official biography, Zakhilwal has been employed by the government since at least 2005. He served as economics advisor to Karzai, acting minister for transport and aviation, and president of the Afghan Investment Support Agency, which licenses foreign firms that want to do business in the country. In March, 2009, he became minister of finance. Even before 2005, Zakhilwal worked for the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development and was a board member of the Afghan Central Bank.
In other words, over at least the past seven years, Zakhilwal held a number of government jobs that would have given him broad influence over Afghan business and economic activity. And over that same period, hundreds of thousands of dollars were deposited into his account.
Zakhilwal does appear to have done consulting gigs during that same period—which in itself is curious. Did he really earn a million dollars working for the United Nations or other such agencies while also working for the Afghan government? And did they pay him in cash?
The pressure appears to be getting to him. According to the Guardian, Zakhilwal wept during a recent meeting with Western ambassadors and said he had been “naïve” in his handling of some two million dollars in contributions to Karzai’s 2009 reëlection campaign while finance chairman. At the meeting, Zakhilwal maintained that he had done nothing wrong, the Guardian said.
This isn’t the first time that Zakhilwal’s financial dealings have raised questions. In January, 2011, Zakhilwal told me that he received a briefcase containing two hundred thousand dollars from representatives of Kabul Bank, to be used for Karzai’s reëlection. (Kabul Bank is the ill-starred financial institution that flourished on the strength of its political connections until it collapsed after running up hundreds of millions dollars in losses.) He told me then that he kept no record of the briefcase-with-cash and didn’t know what happened to it. This sort of shoddiness was endemic to Karzai’s reëlection campaign: election monitors invalidated nearly a million ballots cast on his behalf.
Why does all this matter to American voters? Look at this way: after eleven years, more than four-hundred billion dollars spent and two thousand Americans dead, this is what we’ve built: a deeply dysfunctional, predatory Afghan state that seems incapable of standing on its own—even when we’re there. What happens when we’re not? You can bet that, whoever the President is, he’ll be talking about it then.
Afghanistan's Princelings: Are the Children of the Mujahedin Ready to Rule?
Educated in some of the best schools in the world, the offspring of the commanders involved in four decades of war return to a country at the crossroads. Can they affect the future?
TIME By Mujib Mashal August 13, 2012
Kabul - War made Abdul Mutalib Bek one of the most powerful men in the northern Afghan province of Takhar. In the 1970s, the conscript with little more than mosque education abandoned his duties to join guerrilla fighters who — eventually with tremendous CIA backing — would force the mighty Soviet Red Army out of Afghanistan and topple the Kabul government propped-up by Moscow. Bek survived subsequent power struggles with other commanders as the victorious Mujahedin fought each other in a bloody civilwar; then in his northern redoubt, he outlasted the Taliban, becoming an influential part of the new regime that took shape after the U.S. invasion of October 2001 overthrew the radical Islamists.
Bek’s son Matin has a different story. Sent to study in India, he engaged in debates over ideas he found in Plato, Hobbes,Locke and other major western thinkers as well as Indian giants such as B.RAmbeidkar, who championed the cause of the untouchables. The education, says Matin, 26, “gave me the strength to analyze and understand politics In the campus where I lived, there were always rallies, speeches, discussions. I learned the power of youth – that was always a model in my mind.” Three years ago, after completing his masters in political science, he returned to the politics of patronage in his father’s fiefdom of Takhar to run the commander’s campaign for a seat in parliament. School, Matin says, taught him how to run a campaign but he admits to the “struggle of reintegrating” upon his return. To escape the stress of managing his father’s election, Matin would often sneak away from the old guerrilla’s gaze to light a cigarette on the rooftop of the family home. More importantly, for two hours a day, he would sit in a garden rocking chair to read.
The Beks are only one example of a generational transformation among the Afghan elite. As the Mujahedin commanders assumed feudal powers in the post-Taliban era, their children went abroad to get degrees. Salahuddin Rabbani, son of Burhanuddin Rabbani, earned two master’s degrees, one from Kingston University in London and the other from Columbia University in NewYork. His sister, Fatima Rabbani, recently completed a masters degree at the University of London. Adib Fahim, son of the current Afghan vice president and former commander Marshal Fahim, got a masters from New York University. Batur Dostum, son of General Abdul Rashid Dostum, earned a masters from Gazi University in Turkey. The list goes on and on.
Having completed their education in the most prestigious universities around the world, the younger generation is being groomed to inherit the legacies of their fathers. This passing of the torch is taking place at a critical if not tumultuous juncture. Will their western, liberal education change the trajectory of the country’s future as NATO prepares to withdraw its troops by 2014 and as the resurgent shadow of Taliban and their allies loom?
The pre-ordained nature of the succession has already led to sarcastic responses in local social media. “Get to know your future leaders,” went one remark after a video of a meeting involving a Mujahedin scion circulated.
That has not made the children of the commanders any less shy about their political ambitions. Batur Dostum, 25, established a foundation in his powerful father’s name, which provides charity, emergency aid, as well as cultural and educational programs. The Dostum Foundation is not only as an effort to soften the public perception of General Abdul Rashid Dostum, who has been accused of many atrocities, but also to launch Batur into the public arena. Aina TV, also affiliated with General Dostum, often runs reports on Batur’s meetings. One such report shows a statesmen-like meeting between Batur – and his younger brother Babur – and the sons of Hazara commander Mohamed Mohaqiq. Cameras flash and notes are taken as the neatly dressed young men exchange thoughts.
Twenty-seven-year old Adib Fahim, son of vice president Marshal Fahim, is one of the few who, despite being actively involved behind closed doors, has yet to take a public role in legacy politics. But he has no illusions that it awaits him in the future. Having completed his masters in public policy at NYU, Adib returned to Afghanistan to take up a job at the national security council — on the advice of President Hamid Karzai, an ally of his father — and then moved on to the foreign ministry. “There is no need for a discussion,” says Adib when asked whether his father had told him of his political legacy — and inevitable responsibility. “There is a very strong understanding there.”
Even as a child, Adib’s father brought him along to important meetings with commanders. Now the son is regularly at the father’s side during meetings with diplomats and officials, or on official trips abroad. “Occasionally, he has told me that, being his oldest son, I have to work on the legacy in the future. But there has been no need for him to even saythat. It’s a natural process for me.”
Sometimes the succession comes through sudden tragedy. Burhanhuddin Rabbani, who served as Karzai’s chief peace negotiator with the Taliban in his final days, was killed by a Taliban turban-bomber last September. His son Salahuddin left Turkey, where he was the Afghan ambassador, to lead his father’s political party, Jamiat. “Salahuddin’s decision to take over Jamiat was a very given; I don’t see why it should have been a surprise for anybody,” his sister Fatima says. “My father had worked for Jamiat most of his life. It is only natural for his son to take it up – whoelse should have been taken over Jamiat, if not his own blood.” Months later, after a public jostling for the late Rabbani’s official position, Salahuddin was declared his father’s replacement to lead the peace efforts. Many among the old Mujahiddeen guard publicly criticized the move, calling him inexperienced and young. Others, however, pointed to his multiple degrees from abroad.
In the south of the country, where fighting still continues with the Taliban, the children of the same generation of commanders are also inheriting their fathers’ political legacies, but they have lagged behind in education. For example, Kalimullah Naqib, 30, has only “six or seven years” of formal education and several years of religious schooling from Kandahar seminaries. After years as a highway contractor, he now fills the shoes of his late father, Haji Mullah Naqib, who was one of the most powerful men in southern Afghanistan before and after the fall of the Taliban. Mullah Naqib’s succumbed to a heart attack in 2009. President Karzai attended the funeral, where he crowned Kalimullah to replace his father as the chief of the Alkozai tribe. Protected by 22 security guards, Kalimullah meets with elders all day in his house in the suburbs of Kandahar city, mostly to resolve disputes. “In Kandahar, people’s education is much less than the rest,” he admits, citing the constant violence as the reason. “In the north, most of their children got their education abroad. But for our people, if the opportunity came to educate their children right there next to them, they would do it. But they would not send their children abroad.”
Outside of the southern provinces, however, thepedigree of education continues to count for a lot. In the late 1990s, when the Taliban ruled most of the country, Bek ensured the schools remained open in the area he controlled and hired private tutors for his other children, including Matin, one of 29 Bek offspring from four wives. Matin Bek’s campaigning for his father’s parliamentary seat paid off in 2010. With 9,411 votes, Abdul Matlib Bek was the third highest vote taker in the province, securing himself a seat in the parliament.
Today, the fathers’ networks, cash, and legacy prop up the sons; and the sons’ liberal education and perceived open-mindedness softens the fathers’ controversial image. “The force I worked with, [the young voters] were the real target of the voting, and they delivered,” says Matin. “I spent $30,000 maybe but I brought a huge vote for him,”
Matin Bek too would inherit his father’s mantleearlier than he expected. Less than a year into his term at the parliament,Abdul Mutalib Bek was killed during a bomb attack at a funeral in Takhar. At his burial, young Matin was crowned as his successor as the tribal chief. Then, the Mujahedin commander’s old comrades called on the government to appoint the younger Bek to an important government post, Karzai — who was himself educated in India — obliged. Matin is now the youngest deputy minister in the government today. His organization is responsible for appointing all the governors anddistrict governors – though a large number are still handed on quotas to powerbrokers. Gone are the dark curls and scruffy look he wore while acting as his father’s campaign manager. Sporting well-fitted suits, he is driven around in armored vehicles. His Blackberry phone rings constantly, with governors on the line. The question remains: will the heirs of the Mujahedin be able to transform the legacy of their fathers — and Afghanistan?
Afghan Taliban kill suspected child kidnapper in Ghazni
BBC News 13 August 2012
The Taliban in Afghanistan have shot dead a man accused of kidnapping a child from a village, tribal elders have told the BBC.
They said that the boy's father approached the militants for help after local authorities failed to act.
Witnesses said the Taliban were quick to surround the village in Ghazni province and get the boy released. The alleged kidnapper was shot dead later.
Correspondents say the Taliban's action is aimed at expanding their support.
An Afghan security official in Ghazni told the BBC that the Taliban initially wanted to carry out a public execution of the kidnapper but decided against it.
The man's body was found on the side of the road on Monday morning in Qarabagh district.
Rapid response
Tribal elders and villagers in the area said that the Taliban's speedy response to the kidnapping was in contrast to that of the government.
Although the authorities arrested one of the suspected kidnappers, they did nothing against the other, despite numerous complaints from the kidnapped boy's father.
"As soon as the Taliban's local council was informed, they ordered an operation and in a matter of an hour they had surrounded the village and announced through loudspeakers why they were there. They took the kidnapper out and shot him with an AK-47," a village elder told told the BBC.
Qarabagh district is about 40km (25 miles) south-east of Ghazni City on the strategically important Kandahar-Kabul highway.
Insurgents have a strong presence in rural areas of Ghazni province.
Afghanistan war: Can the US gains last?
Almost 11 years into the US-led war in Afghanistan, the situation still remains so tenuous in some parts of Afghanistan that locals worry about the safety of accepting aid from the West.
By Tom A. Peter | Christian Science Monitor
At a recent meeting of local government officials in east Afghanistan, a US Department of Agriculture representative lays out plans to build cold storage facilities for local farmers that would allow them to sell produce out of season at higher prices.
After listening quietly, Mohammad Hasan, a senior sub-governor asks a question that sparks nearly an hour of debate and ultimately questions whether the US mission here has worked at all.
“The Taliban threatens people not to accept development projects with American money,” he says. “How are we supposed to build these storage facilities? If we talk about them, the Taliban will kill us.”
Almost 11 years into the US-led war in Afghanistan and just weeks before the US military begins winding down its yearlong surge into Ghazni Province, the situation still remains so tenuous that locals worry about the safety of accepting development aid from the West.
RELATED How much do you know about Afghanistan?
For the past year, Ghazni has been home to one of the final major US military offensives in Afghanistan. Though the US military says it's made significant gains here, it remains unclear if these improvements can hold as the number of US troops drops.
The farming province became the focus of the US military because of the road that passes through it, linking Kabul and Kandahar, the nation’s two largest cities. Known as Highway 1, it connects Afghanistan to neighboring countries and is critical for trade.
With security established in Kabul and improving in Kandahar, US military planners wanted to eliminate the instability in the areas between them.
In Ghazni, the 1,000 Polish troops posted there reportedly lacked the resources to do much more than secure the area directly around the highway and did little to protect the outlying villages. As a result, the Taliban managed to gain a strong foothold in Ghazni.
Last summer, the US military took control of the province and increased the number of soldiers there to nearly 3,000.
“Overall the mission was to come in and produce a stronghold,” says US Army Lt. Matt Long, a platoon commander in Delta Company of the 2-504 Parachute Infantry Regiment. “I think we’ve significantly affected the area in what [the Taliban] can and can’t do.”
Throughout Afghanistan, whether these gains hold depends largely on the ability of the Afghan security forces that continue to take over responsibility for security ahead of the 2014 deadline.
In Qarah Bagh, many joint patrols are now planned and led by the Afghan military, with US troops there largely to support the Afghan National Army if it needs it.
Though US soldiers say that enough time remains to fine-tune their skills and get them ready for 2014, there remain questions about the ability of some Afghan soldiers.
At a recent training, an Afghan Army sergeant told of losing a friend who tried to remove a roadside bomb by taking several steps back and shooting at it with his rifle until it exploded and killed him.
“Prior to this [American] unit operating here, this Afghan National Army unit was really in a defensive fight to hold its own position and wasn’t really afforded the position to get much better,” says Lt. Col. William Ryan, security forces assistance team leader for the 2-504 PIR, who likens the Afghan military to a sports team without an off-season. “The contribution of the [the US Army] has … allowed the Afghan National Army to take time that it needs to get better.”
US military officials say “tactical and operational analysis” is still underway to determine how large a force will replace the current group of US soldiers currently stationed in Ghazni, but initial reductions are expected to be modest.
“What’s decisive is ultimately Afghans’ confidence in their security forces, both the police and the Army. Sure, us being here has had an impact on the enemy, but that impact is designed to give time and space to the Afghan security forces and the people to develop the relationship they need to have for our gains to be lasting,” says Maj. Jason Condrey, executive officer of the 2-504 PIR.
As US troop levels decrease, there is some question as to whether the Afghan forces will place the same level of focus on the villages far beyond the highway. Afghans tend to place greater emphasis on providing security through checkpoints than through patrolling.
“I think the highway will remain secure, but I don’t know about the villages,” says Lt. Kirk Shoemaker, a platoon leader in 2-504 PIR’s Charlie Company. He adds that while villagers are now open to speaking with American patrols that pass through, many seem to be waiting to see what will happen after the Americans begin to drawdown, he says.
In May, a group of villagers in Ghazni’s Andar district rose up against the Taliban after the group got too aggressive and had closed most of the area's schools. Despite hopes that the movement will spread to other areas of the province, no other uprisings have yet to materialize.
In the coming year, US Special Forces are expected to begin establishing Afghan Local Police units in the villages in Ghazni, which many say they hope will ensure that security does not slip away from the more remote areas of the province.
“Half the battle is the population. Once they all start turning on the Taliban, then the Taliban has no leg to stand on, and I do think we’ll get there sooner rather than later,” says Lt. Col. Praxitelis “Nick” Vamvakias, commander of the 2-504 PIR.
Have Afghan forces been infiltrated?
With Afghan 'insider' attacks on NATO soldiers on the rise, we discuss whether the killings are part of a strategy.
Aljazeera Inside Story 13 Aug 2012
Three US marines were shot dead by an Afghan worker at an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) base in Southern Afghanistan. And another three US marines from a Special Forces unit had been killed earlier in the day in the same area by a uniformed Afghan police officer.
NATO refers to these incidents as "green on blue" attacks - indicating they are carried out by Afghan police and soldiers or individuals wearing the uniforms. The same police personnel and soldiers trained by and supposedly working hand in hand with ISAF.
During 2008, such attacks took place only once or so a year but this year, they have been averaging one per week. In just the past week, six NATO military died in three separate attacks.
The death toll so far this year has been at least 34, compared to 35 for all of 2011.
These attacks have come at a time when the NATO-led forces are preparing to leave and hand over security responsibility to the Afghan army and police, with the withdrawal process due to be completed within the next two years.
NATO troops have been in the country since the US-led invasion in October 2001. By 2003 the US secretary of defence claimed that "major combat" had ended.
But a decade later the number of the NATO-led force had risen to 150,000 with no significant let up in the level of violence.
NATO's ISAF command has tried to downplay the attacks, focusing instead on what it calls the Afghans' steady progress towards taking over the war against the Taliban by the end of 2014.
But both the Taliban and many government commanders say the attacks are carried out by Taliban infiltrators.
So, has the Afghan army and police been infiltrated by forces opposed to international military intervention? Who is behind the attacks? How safe are soldiers working alongside Afghan forces? And what impact do they have on long-term security in Afghanistan?
Inside Story, with presenter Mike Hanna, discusses with guests: Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and author of Ending the US War in Afghanistan: A Primer; Fahim Dashty, an Afghan journalist and a spokesman for the Afghan National Journalists Union; and Brigadier General Gunter Katz of ISAF.
"The main cause for those incidents were personal grievances. Knowing this, we still have confidence in our Afghan partners, the troops out there are still willing to work with them, they have the trust that we all are working together to achieve the same objective."
Brigadier General Gunter Katz, NATO forces spokesperson
New US Envoy says Afghan Govt Needs Reform
TOLOnews.com Monday, 13 August 2012
The new United States Ambassador to Afghanistan, James Cunningham, said on Monday that the Afghan government needs to make reforms and fulfill its responsibilities in order to gain US political and economic support. Speaking at a press conference, Ambassador Cunningham added that talks between Islamabad and Washington are underway to delve into the issue of cross-border attacks.
He also stressed that the US will take necessary actions to protect Afghan civilians.
"There are reports about cross-border rocket attacks on Afghanistan's bordering regions. Our negotiations with Afghan and Pakistani officials are underway that these attacks do not harm Afghan civilians, and we will do everything to continue these talks," Cunningham said in a press conference in Kabul today, adding that US will take necessary actions to protect Afghan civilians.
He also confirmed that a meeting will take place between Afghan officials and the Taliban's top military commander, Mullah Ghani Bradar, who is in jail in Pakistan.
James Cunningham replaces Ryan Crocker who resigned earlier this year due to personal issues.
U.S. Says Pakistan to Launch Offensive
Associated Press August 13, 2012
WASHINGTON - Pakistan has indicated that it plans to launch combat operations against Taliban militants soon in a tribal area near the Afghan border that also serves as a haven for leaders of the al Qaeda-affiliated Haqqani network, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Monday.
Mr. Panetta said Pakistan's military chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, discussed the planned operation in recent conversations with the top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen.
Mr. Panetta said he did not know when the Pakistani operation would start, but he said he understands it will be in the "near future," and that the main target will be the Pakistani Taliban, rather than the Haqqani network.
Saying he had previously "lost hope" that Pakistan's military would take action in the North Waziristan tribal area, Mr. Panetta welcomed Gen. Kayani's initiative, even though the main target may not be the Haqqani leadership.
Mr. Panetta's comments come nearly two weeks after The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. and Pakistani officials were considering joint counterterrorism campaigns in Afghanistan and Pakistan, targeting Haqqani militants and Taliban fighters. (See related article.)
The U.S. long has been frustrated by Islamabad's refusal to target Afghan Taliban militants and their allies using Pakistani territory to stage attacks against U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan. Many analysts believe Pakistan is reluctant to target groups with which it has strong historical ties and could be useful allies in Afghanistan after foreign forces withdraw.
The Pentagon chief said relations with the Pakistani military have improved "a great deal" lately, after a falling out over American airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November and Pakistan's subsequent closing of border crossings that facilitated the flow of military supplies to U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan.
He said Gen.s Allen and Kayani have "discussed concerns" about the Haqqanis, whose fighters have moved back and forth across the border to launch attacks in Afghanistan.
"Gen. Kayani did indicate that they had developed plans to go into Waziristan," Mr. Panetta said. "Our understanding is that hopefully they're going to take that step in the near future. I can't tell you when. But the indication that we have is that they are prepared to conduct that operation soon."
He added: "They've talked about it for a long time. Frankly, I'd lost hope that they were going do anything about it. But it does appear that they in fact are going to take that step."
Pakistan has denied this, saying its forces are stretched too thin fighting Pakistani Taliban militants at war with the state. It also has criticized NATO and Afghan forces for not doing enough to stop Pakistani militants holed up in Afghanistan from launching attacks across the border into Pakistan.
Haqqani leaders fled to Pakistan's North Waziristan region from their homeland in eastern Afghanistan following the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.
Indian low-cost airline starts Kabul flights
AFP 13/08/2012
Indian low-cost airline SpiceJet will start direct flights from New Delhi to the Afghan capital Kabul from Tuesday as trade and medical tourism grows between the countries.
SpiceJet will be India's first private airline to operate a direct service to Kabul with its one-hour flight, three times a week. The state-run flagship Air India also flies to Afghanistan, six times a week.
"India and Afghanistan always had strong trade links. The idea is to revive that growth potential," SpiceJet spokeswoman Priti Dey told AFP.
"The route would benefit Afghan traders and enable medical tourists from Afghanistan to visit India. Instead of flying to the Gulf, they can fly to Delhi, which is closer."
India, strongly encouraged by the United States, is keen to expand its economic influence in Afghanistan, but New Delhi is also acutely aware of nuclear-armed rival Pakistan's sensitivities about Indian "encroachment".
In October last year, India and Afghanistan signed a "strategic partnership" aimed at deepening security and economic links, with Afghan President Hamid Karzai keen to elevate India's involvement.
New Delhi, fearful of the return of an Islamist regime in Kabul, has ploughed at least $2 billion in aid into the country.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
By By DEB RIECHMANN and AMIR SHAH | Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Suicide bombers launched multiple attacks in a remote corner of southwestern Afghanistan near the Iranian border Tuesday, killing dozens of people including shoppers buying sweets for a Muslim holiday and leaving charred and smoldering bits of cookies and dried fruit among the bodies on the ground.
A separate market bombing, this one in northern Afghanistan, brought the overall death toll to 46, most of whom were civilians. It was the deadliest day for Afghan civilians this year.
The attacks in provinces on opposite ends of the country — Nimroz in the southwest and Kunduz in the north — come as Taliban insurgents and their allies step up their assaults in a display of force that often results in civilian carnage. Militants are especially trying to weaken the still-developing Afghan security forces, who are to assume control of security across their homeland in 28 months when most foreign combat troops will have left.
"The Taliban "want to expand their influence — show that they are everywhere," said Afghan political analyst Jawid Kohistani. "They want to show that the Afghan police are not strong enough so they are targeting the security forces and the government."
The scope of the attacks in Nimroz, which has seen relatively few insurgent attacks over the past year, was surprising. The bombings took place in the provincial capital, Zaranj, where militants wearing suicide vests detonated their explosives in various neighborhoods, provincial police chief Musa Rasouli said. At least 25 civilians and 11 police were killed, he said.
The Nimroz provincial capital lies about 6 miles (10 kilometers) from the Iranian border. Police arrested three attackers who later apparently confessed that they were from Zahedan, the capital of Iran's Sistan and Baluchistan province near the Afghan border, according to Sadeq Chakhansori, a member of the Nimroz provincial council. The significance of this was not immediately clear.
Authorities said the casualties would have been far higher had they not learned of the plot beforehand. Police killed two potential attackers Monday night and captured three more Tuesday morning. But they could not catch them all.
Rasouli said three suicide bombers detonated their explosive vests, including one in front of a television station and another at an intersection in a bazaar. Most of the casualties, however, were from a bombing in a shopping bazaar in front of a civilian hospital. The area was crowded with shoppers from the city and outlying areas who were buying dried fruit, cookies and other sweets for the coming Muslim holiday of Eid.
"It was very powerful," Rasouli said. "Everywhere there was smoke. With my eyes, I saw the dead bodies."
The bodies, wrapped in blood-stained sheets, were ferried off in ambulances and pickup trucks. The legs of two victims hung off the back of a small truck that sped away with a long sheet dragging behind in the dusty road. Police fired bullets into the air to clear crowds from the scene.
"We cannot carry on with our daily lives," Sayed Ahmad said, lying on a bed in a hospital where he was being treated for injuries. "People are scared and cannot go out of their houses," he said. "We don't know what to do."
Three more attackers, also clad in explosive vests, tried to strike the governor's house, but Afghan police killed them before they were able to blow themselves up.
"We took off their suicide vests — very carefully, very professionally — after we killed them," Rasouli said. "They had no chance, the police bullets rained on them."
The sparsely populated province is partly desert and is not regularly beset by insurgent attacks as are Helmand and Kandahar provinces to the east. Recently, however, Nimroz has seen an increase in violence. On Saturday, an Afghan police officer killed 11 of his fellow officers in the remote Dilaram district of the province.
Tuesday's other major attack, in northern Kunduz province, involved a bomb on a motorcycle that was parked outside a crowded bazaar in Archi district. The attack killed at least 10 people, including five children, and wounded at least 25 others, according to Hamid Agha, the police chief for Archi district.
Altogether, at least 35 civilians were killed in the attacks in the two provinces, making Tuesday the deadliest day for Afghan civilians this year.
"What we saw today were further acts of intentional mass murder," said Gen. John Allen, the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. "By targeting innocent civilians in populated areas, the insurgents have again shown they will kill non-combatants without hesitation to advance their backward-looking plans for Afghanistan. Once again, I call on (Afghan Taliban leader) Mullah Omar to rein in his murderers. His intentions not to target civilians are hollow," Allen said in a statement.
In past statements, Omar has asked his fighters to avoid civilian casualties. In one message in 2010, for instance, he said: "Pay attention to the life and property of the civilians so that ... your jihad activities will not become a cause for destruction of property and loss of life of people."
The U.N. reported last week that civilian deaths were lower in the first six months of 2012 than in the first half of 2011, but that an onslaught of summer attacks from insurgents were threatening to reverse that trend. In all, 1,145 civilians were killed in Afghanistan between January and June of this year, according to the U.N. report.
On June 6, a car bomb and a motorcycle bomb killed 22 people near Kandahar airport in the volatile south. Another suicide attack July 14 on a wedding killed 23 people, including the provincial intelligence chief and two army generals.
___
Associated Press Writers Kay Johnson and Rahim Faiez in Kabul contributed to this report.
Grenades at east Afghan mosque wound 9 people
Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan – Two grenades exploded inside a mosque compound during morning prayers in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, wounding at least nine worshippers, an Afghan official said.
The attack in eastern Khost province came a day after a series of bombs around Afghanistan killed at least 50 people in the deadliest day for civilians this year as Taliban insurgents and their allies ramp up violence across the country. The Taliban summer offensive this year coincides with Afghan police and soldiers taking on more responsibility for security while international forces start to withdraw.
Three grenades were thrown into the mosque compound in Baghi Sara area, Khost police chief Sardar Mohammad Zazai said. One exploded inside the mosque itself, and one in the courtyard outside. The third failed to detonate.
Zazai blamed Taliban insurgents for the attack.
"This was the work of the enemy," he said. "It cannot be a private dispute. Why would anyone be so angry to throw grenades in a mosque while people are praying?"
He said many of those praying were Afghans who work at the nearby U.S. base, Forward Operating Base Salerno.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid issued a statement that did not acknowledge the mosque attack but claimed an insurgent suicide bomber had attacked a U.S. base in Khost, causing several American casualties.
A spokesman for the NATO military coalition said Wednesday that there was no attack on the Salerno base, which is close to the mosque in Baghi Sara. Lt. Col. Hagen Messer said the American personnel at the base reported hearing gunfire from the mosque but that Afghan police were investigating.
The latest violence comes after a particularly bloody day for Afghanistan. Suicide bombers launched multiple attacks in remote Nimroz province in southwestern Afghanistan near the Iranian border on Tuesday, killing dozens of people, including shoppers buying sweets for a Muslim holiday. The bombings left charred and smoldering bits of cookies and dried fruit among the bodies on the ground.
A separate market bombing later Tuesday, this one in Kunduz in the north, killed 10 people, including five children.
And in the eastern province of Paktika, a car hit a roadside bomb. Four children died in the blast, provincial spokesman Mokhlis Afghan said, bringing Tuesday's death toll to 50 — 11 police and 39 civilians. At least 110 people were wounded in all the attacks.
The attacks came as the Taliban and their allies step up their assaults in a display of force that often results in civilian carnage. Militants are especially trying to weaken the still-developing Afghan security forces, who are to assume control across their homeland in 28 months when most foreign combat troops will have left.
The Taliban "want to expand their influence — show that they are everywhere," said Afghan political analyst Jawid Kohistani. "They want to show that the Afghan police are not strong enough so they are targeting the security forces and the government."
Gen. John Allen, the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan said Tuesday's attacks were "acts of intentional mass murder."
"By targeting innocent civilians in populated areas, the insurgents have again shown they will kill non-combatants without hesitation to advance their backward-looking plans for Afghanistan. Once again, I call on (Afghan Taliban leader) Mullah Omar to rein in his murderers. His intentions not to target civilians are hollow," Allen said in a statement.
In past statements, Omar has asked his fighters to avoid civilian casualties. In one message in 2010, for instance, he said: "Pay attention to the life and property of the civilians so that ... your jihad activities will not become a cause for destruction of property and loss of life of people."
The U.N. reported last week that civilian deaths were lower in the first six months of 2012 than in the first half of 2011, but that an onslaught of summer attacks from insurgents were threatening to reverse that trend. In all, 1,145 civilians were killed in Afghanistan between January and June of this year, according to the U.N. report.
Afghan Official Says Border Shelling Kills One
August 14, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
An official in eastern Afghanistan says shelling from across the border in Pakistan has killed at least one Afghan border guard.
Wasifullah Wasify, a spokesman for eastern Konar Province, said a battle between Afghan and Pakistan border patrols broke out early on August 14 near a checkpoint in Konar's Dangam district, across from the Pakistani district of Bajaur.
He said one of the rockets killed a border-patrol officer and wounded at least four others.
Wasify says at least 83 rockets have landed in the area.
It is the latest report of cross-border fire that has raised tensions between the two neighbors.
Pakistan officials had no immediate comment. Islamabad has denied deliberately targeting Afghan territory in fighting militants on its side of the border.
Based on reporting by AP, dpa, and BBC
Pakistan denies Afghan delegation met with imprisoned deputy Taliban leader
Associated Press August 13 , 2012
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan on Monday denied reports that a delegation of Afghan officials met with a former deputy leader of the Taliban who is imprisoned in Pakistan.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was captured in Pakistan in 2010. His arrest reportedly angered Afghan President Hamid Karzai because Baradar had been in secret talks with the Afghan government.
The former Taliban deputy is seen as a potentially important player in the process of striking a peace deal in Afghanistan, with most NATO forces scheduled to depart at the end of 2014.
Pakistan’s Interior Ministry said reports of a meeting between Afghan officials and Baradar were “absolutely baseless and ill motivated.”
An official with the Afghan High Peace Council, Ismail Qasemyar, said Sunday that members of the Afghan Embassy in Pakistan met with the former Taliban deputy, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, but declined to give further details.
A Pakistani intelligence official confirmed the meeting but also declined to provide details. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Despite the Pakistani denial, it’s still unclear whether there has been any contact between the Afghan government and Baradar.
The Afghan government has pushed for the release of Baradar and other Taliban prisoners to speed the effort for peace talks.
Afghans Olympic medalist warmly welcomed home
KABUL, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The inciting Afghans awarded red-carpet welcome to Olympic medallist Rohullah Nikpa who returned home on Tuesday as thousands of people waited in long queue at Kabul International Airport.
A long convoy of motorcades and horse riders were slowly moving on the road leading to the airport to welcome the medallist. The roads as well as government building were seen decorated with the pictures of the Nikpa and banners inscribed with slogans encouraging sport and athletes.
Afghan taekwondo player, Rohullah Nikpa, was the first Afghan athlete who had won bronze medal in Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and secured again bronze in London Olympics 2012 on Aug. 9.
Hundreds of people were accompanying their athletes from airport to Kabul sport stadium, where thousands of people were waiting to welcome them.
The emotional and happy fans were chanting "Thank you for win", "Victory is yours," and "Afghanistan, Afghanistan" when meeting the players at the stadium.
The Afghan parliament is going to formally appreciate Nikpa and his team on Wednesday; while sport fan and businessmen will also award the Olympic medallist privately.
A six-member Afghan team which includes Rohullah Nikpa and Nisar Ahmad Bahawi in taekwondo, Masoud Azizi and Tahmina Kohistani the only female in the team in running, Aimal Faisal and Ajmal Faizi Zada in boxing and judo represented Afghanistan in the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Afghanistan unites behind Olympic success – and beating Pakistan
Rohullah Nikpai's taekwondo bronze, Afghanistan's second ever medal, helped country to feel normal after years of war
Guardian.co.uk By Emma Graham-Harrison Monday 13 August 2012
Kabul - For once, Afghanistan was just another country. Used to being treated as victim or headache on the international stage, its athletes lined up at the Olympics to compete as equals and revelled in showing the world another face, unconnected to decades of conflict.
For Afghans back home, it was an emotional rollercoaster. Two weeks of competition brought the glory of the country's second ever medal, dashed hopes of a third, triumph in getting one over on its powerful neighbour Pakistan, and anger over the role of an old enemy – corruption.
The divided nation was seized by a brief, unifying fit of taekwondo fever as the diminutive fighter who is probably the country's biggest sporting hero took to the mats. Rohullah Nikpai, whose Olympic profile lists his profession as hairdresser, is an unlikely champion: a poor former refugee, he is from the Hazara ethnic minority, which has long faced discrimination from more dominant groups.
But his background meant nothing to millions of Afghans when he unexpectedly claimed a bronze medal in Beijing, becoming the first person from their country to stand on an Olympic podium.
Half of Kabul stayed up late to watch him clinch another bronze in London, and one of the city's regular power cuts sent men streaming out to ice-cream stalls and other shops with generators to catch the end of one fight.
There was joy across the country, and an explosion of excitement on social media, which has been embraced by the tiny but growing elite with internet access.
An international community pleased to have something to celebrate in the middle of a decade-long war jumped on the bandwagon, with congratulations from the US embassy and the Nato-led coalition that has been fighting in Afghanistan for more than a decade.
There was also elation that Afghanistan had bettered their richer and more powerful neighbour Pakistan, which has long been resented for interference in Afghan affairs.
"Afghanistan's Rohullah Nikpai wins Taekwondo bronze!! That's one more medal than its failed enemy, Pakistan," @Afghanpolicy crowed on twitter.
The only people not caught up in the excitement seemed to be the Taliban. "We are considering a reaction to this. Cannot say whether happy for the medal or not," a spokesman for the insurgent group told the BBC's Harun Najafizada.
The country's second medal hope, Nesar Bahawi – another taekwondo fighter – lost his bronze medal bout. But having fought with injuries so severe he was taken to hospital after the match, his bravery won the hearts of Afghans.
The aftermath of Nikpai's victory and Bahawi's near-miss also reflected some of Afghanistan's perennial problems. Government critics noted that Americans were faster than their own president to congratulate their double hero.
And there was anger when it emerged that the country's 22-strong Olympic delegation did not include a physiotherapist. Arif Paiman, spokesman for the Olympic committee headed by Lieutenant General Muhammad Zahir Aghbar, said London organisers provided doctors for all competitors. But both taekwondo fighters were battling with injuries that might have been better managed by someone who knew them personally.
Activists blamed corruption, a common scourge in a country that has been judged the fourth most graft-ridden in the world. "Because every post is a political position and acquired based on affiliations to warlords and power-holders, the position of head of the Olympic committee is given to an army general who should instead be fighting the insurgency up in the mountains," said activist Wazhma Frogh.
"[Yusufzai] isn't a trained sports expert, that's why he takes his bodyguards and friends on sports-related trips while there was no physiotherapist for injured Bahawi."
Mokhtar Amiri contributed reporting
Afghan girls inspired to maintain exercise
By Abdul Haleem
KABUL, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- "By attending the London Olympics I have given the message to all the Afghan girls that they are talented, they can do sport, they can attend international competitions and above all they can earn honor to their country," Tahmina Kohistani told Xinhua on Tuesday.
The only Afghan girl, Kohistani, 23, who competed in running at London Olympics but failed to win medal, was joyful for representing Afghan women there in the international contests.
"Although I could not earn medal in the contest, I was able to represent Afghan women with talent and so, I am proud to be the first Afghan girl attending Olympic Games," said the ambitious Kohistani after returning home.
In the conservative Afghanistan it was unbelievable 11 years ago when Taliban regime was in power.
The fundamentalist regime which collapsed in late 2001 by the U.S.-led military campaign had banned schools for girls and confined women to their houses. The outfit has also imposed series of restrictions on men athletes including sporting long beard and wearing long trousers during playing.
In the national sport stadium -- Ghazi Stadium, Kabul where the athletes in the post-Taliban Afghanistan exercise daily to improve their ability, Taliban militants during their six-year reign often awarded punishment including execution and chopping hands and feet to alleged criminals there each Friday which is the Muslim Weekly holiday.
A six-member Afghan team which includes Rohullah Nikpa and Nisar Ahmad Bahawi in taekwondo, Masoud Azizi and Tahmina Kohistani the only female in running, Aimal Faisal and Ajmal Faizi Zada in boxing and judo represented Afghanistan in the London 2012 Olympic Games.
In the men's 68kg category, the Afghan taekwondo player, Nikpa after beating his rivals Michal Loniewski from Poland 12-5, Martin Stamper from Britain 5-3, David Boui of Central African Republic 14-2 and losing to Iranian player Mohammad Bagheri Motamed had earned Bronze medal, the second of its kind earned by Afghanistan, both by Nikpa, 25.
However, the remaining five had lost in the London 2012 international tournaments.
The team returned home Tuesday morning and the exciting Afghans awarded red-carpet welcome to Olympic medalist Rohullah Nikpa and his entourage as thousands of people including government officials and lawmakers waiting in long queue at Kabul International Airport to receive the Olympic hero and associates.
A long convoy of motorcades and horse riders were slowly moving on the road leading to the airport to welcome the athletes.
"I would try my best to win gold medal in the next Olympic Games," Nikpa told Xinhua amid hundreds of his admirers.
The people waiting to receive the athletes were proud of the earning a medal -- the bronze in the London Games.
"It is a matter of pride for Afghans that their country has secured position among the medal winning nations," a sport fan and athlete Ahmad Adeeb Wali, 21 told Xinhua at Ghazi Stadium; while eagerly waiting among thousands of people to receive the six athletes which includes Ms. Tahmina Kohistani, the ambitious girl inspiring Afghan females to support sport in Afghanistan.
U.S. boosts intelligence after Afghan insider attacks
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Tuesday it was expanding counterintelligence staff in Afghanistan after a rise in insider attacks by Afghans thought to be friendly to U.S. forces but who have killed 37 coalition troops so far this year.
Last Friday, six U.S. troops were killed in two separate incidents, one which saw an Afghan police commander and several of his men kill three U.S. Marines after inviting them to a Ramadan breakfast to discuss security.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said he was deeply concerned by the killings "because of the lives lost and because of the potential damage to our partnership efforts."
The increasing number of incidents have eroded trust between the allies just as NATO combat troops prepare to hand over security control to Afghan forces by 2014.
General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the same news conference that the U.S. military was bolstering counterintelligence expertise at the battalion level and above in Afghanistan.
He said the same was occurring within Afghan forces, which he said had so far discharged hundreds of soldiers who showed a risk of radicalization -- including travel back and forth to Pakistan, where many militants enjoy safe haven.
So far in 2012, there have been 29 attacks, resulting in 37 coalition deaths, 21 of which were among U.S. forces. For the same period last year, there were 16 attacks and 28 deaths.
In all of 2011, there were 35 coalition troops killed, 24 of whom were U.S. troops.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Eric Beech)
Have Obama and Romney Forgotten Afghanistan?
New Yorker By Dexter Filkins August 13, 2012
How’s this for a conspiracy of silence? With less than three months to go until Election Day, President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have successfully avoided saying almost anything about America’s war in Afghanistan. Remember that war? You will at some point, however little the two candidates talk about it.
You can make your own guesses about why the candidates have said so little about Afghanistan—their positions are virtually identical, the economy is more important, etc. My own guess: neither of them knows what to do about the place. In a mere twenty-eight months, the United States is scheduled to stop fighting, and every day brings new evidence that the Afghan state that is supposed to take over is a failing, decrepit enterprise.
The latest bit of evidence: in the past several days, three of the most powerful people around President Hamid Karzai have come under fire, and now either are gone from their jobs, have promised to leave, or are hunkered down while clinging to what’s left of their legitimacy. Earlier this month, the Afghan parliament voted to impeach the two Afghan officials responsible for overseeing the war: Abdul Rahim Wardak, the minister of defense, and Bismullah Khan Mohammadi, the minister of the interior, on allegations of corruption, favoritism, and incompetence. (The charges are as yet unproven, and both men have denied them.) In the case of B.K., as Mohammadi is known, there were also concerns that he was stacking the Afghan police forces with men more loyal to the largely ethnic Tajik militia that he used to help lead, Jamiat-e Islami, than to the Afghan state—heightening fears that an American withdrawal could precipitate a civil war. (I wrote about those dangers in a piece for The New Yorker last month.)
But the most interesting case concerns Omar Zakhilwal, the Afghan finance minister. Reporters for Tolo, the country’s largest private media network, obtained bank statements for at least two of Zakhilwal’s accounts, dating back several years. Those accounts show deposits totaling nearly a million dollars, most of which were made while Zakhilwal was a public servant. Many of the deposits—like the hundred thousand dollars he deposited on July 16, 2009—were made in cash. At the time of that deposit, Zakhilwal was Karzai’s minister of finance as well as the finance chairman for his reëlection campaign.
In some cases, Zakhilwal’s bank statements show the source of the money. In August of 2009, for instance, a two-hundred-thousand-dollar deposit was made by the Safi Landmark Hotel, which is owned by an Afghan family that also owns an airline and other businesses that deal with the government. One of the bank statements obtained by Tolo shows that between 2007 and 2009, Zakhilwal transferred nearly four hundred thousand dollars from his accounts in Afghanistan to another one of his accounts in Canada.
Where did all the money for Zakhilwal come from? And what was it for?
Najeeb Manali, an aide to Zakhilwal, told me that his boss would not talk about the case until the Afghan attorney general completed an investigation, which he—Zakhilwal—had asked for. In a recent letter to the Times, Zakhilwal acknowledged that the bank statements published by Tolo were his. He claimed that the Tolo reports were “inaccurate and misleading” and part of a “larger smear campaign against me,” but didn’t elaborate. “I have been a minister only for the last three and a half years, but I have held various professional positions for more than 15 years, including well-compensated senior advisory and consulting positions,” he wrote to the paper. “My assets are mostly from those jobs.”
But Zakhilwal’s letter raises more questions than it answers. According to his official biography, Zakhilwal has been employed by the government since at least 2005. He served as economics advisor to Karzai, acting minister for transport and aviation, and president of the Afghan Investment Support Agency, which licenses foreign firms that want to do business in the country. In March, 2009, he became minister of finance. Even before 2005, Zakhilwal worked for the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development and was a board member of the Afghan Central Bank.
In other words, over at least the past seven years, Zakhilwal held a number of government jobs that would have given him broad influence over Afghan business and economic activity. And over that same period, hundreds of thousands of dollars were deposited into his account.
Zakhilwal does appear to have done consulting gigs during that same period—which in itself is curious. Did he really earn a million dollars working for the United Nations or other such agencies while also working for the Afghan government? And did they pay him in cash?
The pressure appears to be getting to him. According to the Guardian, Zakhilwal wept during a recent meeting with Western ambassadors and said he had been “naïve” in his handling of some two million dollars in contributions to Karzai’s 2009 reëlection campaign while finance chairman. At the meeting, Zakhilwal maintained that he had done nothing wrong, the Guardian said.
This isn’t the first time that Zakhilwal’s financial dealings have raised questions. In January, 2011, Zakhilwal told me that he received a briefcase containing two hundred thousand dollars from representatives of Kabul Bank, to be used for Karzai’s reëlection. (Kabul Bank is the ill-starred financial institution that flourished on the strength of its political connections until it collapsed after running up hundreds of millions dollars in losses.) He told me then that he kept no record of the briefcase-with-cash and didn’t know what happened to it. This sort of shoddiness was endemic to Karzai’s reëlection campaign: election monitors invalidated nearly a million ballots cast on his behalf.
Why does all this matter to American voters? Look at this way: after eleven years, more than four-hundred billion dollars spent and two thousand Americans dead, this is what we’ve built: a deeply dysfunctional, predatory Afghan state that seems incapable of standing on its own—even when we’re there. What happens when we’re not? You can bet that, whoever the President is, he’ll be talking about it then.
Afghanistan's Princelings: Are the Children of the Mujahedin Ready to Rule?
Educated in some of the best schools in the world, the offspring of the commanders involved in four decades of war return to a country at the crossroads. Can they affect the future?
TIME By Mujib Mashal August 13, 2012
Kabul - War made Abdul Mutalib Bek one of the most powerful men in the northern Afghan province of Takhar. In the 1970s, the conscript with little more than mosque education abandoned his duties to join guerrilla fighters who — eventually with tremendous CIA backing — would force the mighty Soviet Red Army out of Afghanistan and topple the Kabul government propped-up by Moscow. Bek survived subsequent power struggles with other commanders as the victorious Mujahedin fought each other in a bloody civilwar; then in his northern redoubt, he outlasted the Taliban, becoming an influential part of the new regime that took shape after the U.S. invasion of October 2001 overthrew the radical Islamists.
Bek’s son Matin has a different story. Sent to study in India, he engaged in debates over ideas he found in Plato, Hobbes,Locke and other major western thinkers as well as Indian giants such as B.RAmbeidkar, who championed the cause of the untouchables. The education, says Matin, 26, “gave me the strength to analyze and understand politics In the campus where I lived, there were always rallies, speeches, discussions. I learned the power of youth – that was always a model in my mind.” Three years ago, after completing his masters in political science, he returned to the politics of patronage in his father’s fiefdom of Takhar to run the commander’s campaign for a seat in parliament. School, Matin says, taught him how to run a campaign but he admits to the “struggle of reintegrating” upon his return. To escape the stress of managing his father’s election, Matin would often sneak away from the old guerrilla’s gaze to light a cigarette on the rooftop of the family home. More importantly, for two hours a day, he would sit in a garden rocking chair to read.
The Beks are only one example of a generational transformation among the Afghan elite. As the Mujahedin commanders assumed feudal powers in the post-Taliban era, their children went abroad to get degrees. Salahuddin Rabbani, son of Burhanuddin Rabbani, earned two master’s degrees, one from Kingston University in London and the other from Columbia University in NewYork. His sister, Fatima Rabbani, recently completed a masters degree at the University of London. Adib Fahim, son of the current Afghan vice president and former commander Marshal Fahim, got a masters from New York University. Batur Dostum, son of General Abdul Rashid Dostum, earned a masters from Gazi University in Turkey. The list goes on and on.
Having completed their education in the most prestigious universities around the world, the younger generation is being groomed to inherit the legacies of their fathers. This passing of the torch is taking place at a critical if not tumultuous juncture. Will their western, liberal education change the trajectory of the country’s future as NATO prepares to withdraw its troops by 2014 and as the resurgent shadow of Taliban and their allies loom?
The pre-ordained nature of the succession has already led to sarcastic responses in local social media. “Get to know your future leaders,” went one remark after a video of a meeting involving a Mujahedin scion circulated.
That has not made the children of the commanders any less shy about their political ambitions. Batur Dostum, 25, established a foundation in his powerful father’s name, which provides charity, emergency aid, as well as cultural and educational programs. The Dostum Foundation is not only as an effort to soften the public perception of General Abdul Rashid Dostum, who has been accused of many atrocities, but also to launch Batur into the public arena. Aina TV, also affiliated with General Dostum, often runs reports on Batur’s meetings. One such report shows a statesmen-like meeting between Batur – and his younger brother Babur – and the sons of Hazara commander Mohamed Mohaqiq. Cameras flash and notes are taken as the neatly dressed young men exchange thoughts.
Twenty-seven-year old Adib Fahim, son of vice president Marshal Fahim, is one of the few who, despite being actively involved behind closed doors, has yet to take a public role in legacy politics. But he has no illusions that it awaits him in the future. Having completed his masters in public policy at NYU, Adib returned to Afghanistan to take up a job at the national security council — on the advice of President Hamid Karzai, an ally of his father — and then moved on to the foreign ministry. “There is no need for a discussion,” says Adib when asked whether his father had told him of his political legacy — and inevitable responsibility. “There is a very strong understanding there.”
Even as a child, Adib’s father brought him along to important meetings with commanders. Now the son is regularly at the father’s side during meetings with diplomats and officials, or on official trips abroad. “Occasionally, he has told me that, being his oldest son, I have to work on the legacy in the future. But there has been no need for him to even saythat. It’s a natural process for me.”
Sometimes the succession comes through sudden tragedy. Burhanhuddin Rabbani, who served as Karzai’s chief peace negotiator with the Taliban in his final days, was killed by a Taliban turban-bomber last September. His son Salahuddin left Turkey, where he was the Afghan ambassador, to lead his father’s political party, Jamiat. “Salahuddin’s decision to take over Jamiat was a very given; I don’t see why it should have been a surprise for anybody,” his sister Fatima says. “My father had worked for Jamiat most of his life. It is only natural for his son to take it up – whoelse should have been taken over Jamiat, if not his own blood.” Months later, after a public jostling for the late Rabbani’s official position, Salahuddin was declared his father’s replacement to lead the peace efforts. Many among the old Mujahiddeen guard publicly criticized the move, calling him inexperienced and young. Others, however, pointed to his multiple degrees from abroad.
In the south of the country, where fighting still continues with the Taliban, the children of the same generation of commanders are also inheriting their fathers’ political legacies, but they have lagged behind in education. For example, Kalimullah Naqib, 30, has only “six or seven years” of formal education and several years of religious schooling from Kandahar seminaries. After years as a highway contractor, he now fills the shoes of his late father, Haji Mullah Naqib, who was one of the most powerful men in southern Afghanistan before and after the fall of the Taliban. Mullah Naqib’s succumbed to a heart attack in 2009. President Karzai attended the funeral, where he crowned Kalimullah to replace his father as the chief of the Alkozai tribe. Protected by 22 security guards, Kalimullah meets with elders all day in his house in the suburbs of Kandahar city, mostly to resolve disputes. “In Kandahar, people’s education is much less than the rest,” he admits, citing the constant violence as the reason. “In the north, most of their children got their education abroad. But for our people, if the opportunity came to educate their children right there next to them, they would do it. But they would not send their children abroad.”
Outside of the southern provinces, however, thepedigree of education continues to count for a lot. In the late 1990s, when the Taliban ruled most of the country, Bek ensured the schools remained open in the area he controlled and hired private tutors for his other children, including Matin, one of 29 Bek offspring from four wives. Matin Bek’s campaigning for his father’s parliamentary seat paid off in 2010. With 9,411 votes, Abdul Matlib Bek was the third highest vote taker in the province, securing himself a seat in the parliament.
Today, the fathers’ networks, cash, and legacy prop up the sons; and the sons’ liberal education and perceived open-mindedness softens the fathers’ controversial image. “The force I worked with, [the young voters] were the real target of the voting, and they delivered,” says Matin. “I spent $30,000 maybe but I brought a huge vote for him,”
Matin Bek too would inherit his father’s mantleearlier than he expected. Less than a year into his term at the parliament,Abdul Mutalib Bek was killed during a bomb attack at a funeral in Takhar. At his burial, young Matin was crowned as his successor as the tribal chief. Then, the Mujahedin commander’s old comrades called on the government to appoint the younger Bek to an important government post, Karzai — who was himself educated in India — obliged. Matin is now the youngest deputy minister in the government today. His organization is responsible for appointing all the governors anddistrict governors – though a large number are still handed on quotas to powerbrokers. Gone are the dark curls and scruffy look he wore while acting as his father’s campaign manager. Sporting well-fitted suits, he is driven around in armored vehicles. His Blackberry phone rings constantly, with governors on the line. The question remains: will the heirs of the Mujahedin be able to transform the legacy of their fathers — and Afghanistan?
Afghan Taliban kill suspected child kidnapper in Ghazni
BBC News 13 August 2012
The Taliban in Afghanistan have shot dead a man accused of kidnapping a child from a village, tribal elders have told the BBC.
They said that the boy's father approached the militants for help after local authorities failed to act.
Witnesses said the Taliban were quick to surround the village in Ghazni province and get the boy released. The alleged kidnapper was shot dead later.
Correspondents say the Taliban's action is aimed at expanding their support.
An Afghan security official in Ghazni told the BBC that the Taliban initially wanted to carry out a public execution of the kidnapper but decided against it.
The man's body was found on the side of the road on Monday morning in Qarabagh district.
Rapid response
Tribal elders and villagers in the area said that the Taliban's speedy response to the kidnapping was in contrast to that of the government.
Although the authorities arrested one of the suspected kidnappers, they did nothing against the other, despite numerous complaints from the kidnapped boy's father.
"As soon as the Taliban's local council was informed, they ordered an operation and in a matter of an hour they had surrounded the village and announced through loudspeakers why they were there. They took the kidnapper out and shot him with an AK-47," a village elder told told the BBC.
Qarabagh district is about 40km (25 miles) south-east of Ghazni City on the strategically important Kandahar-Kabul highway.
Insurgents have a strong presence in rural areas of Ghazni province.
Afghanistan war: Can the US gains last?
Almost 11 years into the US-led war in Afghanistan, the situation still remains so tenuous in some parts of Afghanistan that locals worry about the safety of accepting aid from the West.
By Tom A. Peter | Christian Science Monitor
At a recent meeting of local government officials in east Afghanistan, a US Department of Agriculture representative lays out plans to build cold storage facilities for local farmers that would allow them to sell produce out of season at higher prices.
After listening quietly, Mohammad Hasan, a senior sub-governor asks a question that sparks nearly an hour of debate and ultimately questions whether the US mission here has worked at all.
“The Taliban threatens people not to accept development projects with American money,” he says. “How are we supposed to build these storage facilities? If we talk about them, the Taliban will kill us.”
Almost 11 years into the US-led war in Afghanistan and just weeks before the US military begins winding down its yearlong surge into Ghazni Province, the situation still remains so tenuous that locals worry about the safety of accepting development aid from the West.
RELATED How much do you know about Afghanistan?
For the past year, Ghazni has been home to one of the final major US military offensives in Afghanistan. Though the US military says it's made significant gains here, it remains unclear if these improvements can hold as the number of US troops drops.
The farming province became the focus of the US military because of the road that passes through it, linking Kabul and Kandahar, the nation’s two largest cities. Known as Highway 1, it connects Afghanistan to neighboring countries and is critical for trade.
With security established in Kabul and improving in Kandahar, US military planners wanted to eliminate the instability in the areas between them.
In Ghazni, the 1,000 Polish troops posted there reportedly lacked the resources to do much more than secure the area directly around the highway and did little to protect the outlying villages. As a result, the Taliban managed to gain a strong foothold in Ghazni.
Last summer, the US military took control of the province and increased the number of soldiers there to nearly 3,000.
“Overall the mission was to come in and produce a stronghold,” says US Army Lt. Matt Long, a platoon commander in Delta Company of the 2-504 Parachute Infantry Regiment. “I think we’ve significantly affected the area in what [the Taliban] can and can’t do.”
Throughout Afghanistan, whether these gains hold depends largely on the ability of the Afghan security forces that continue to take over responsibility for security ahead of the 2014 deadline.
In Qarah Bagh, many joint patrols are now planned and led by the Afghan military, with US troops there largely to support the Afghan National Army if it needs it.
Though US soldiers say that enough time remains to fine-tune their skills and get them ready for 2014, there remain questions about the ability of some Afghan soldiers.
At a recent training, an Afghan Army sergeant told of losing a friend who tried to remove a roadside bomb by taking several steps back and shooting at it with his rifle until it exploded and killed him.
“Prior to this [American] unit operating here, this Afghan National Army unit was really in a defensive fight to hold its own position and wasn’t really afforded the position to get much better,” says Lt. Col. William Ryan, security forces assistance team leader for the 2-504 PIR, who likens the Afghan military to a sports team without an off-season. “The contribution of the [the US Army] has … allowed the Afghan National Army to take time that it needs to get better.”
US military officials say “tactical and operational analysis” is still underway to determine how large a force will replace the current group of US soldiers currently stationed in Ghazni, but initial reductions are expected to be modest.
“What’s decisive is ultimately Afghans’ confidence in their security forces, both the police and the Army. Sure, us being here has had an impact on the enemy, but that impact is designed to give time and space to the Afghan security forces and the people to develop the relationship they need to have for our gains to be lasting,” says Maj. Jason Condrey, executive officer of the 2-504 PIR.
As US troop levels decrease, there is some question as to whether the Afghan forces will place the same level of focus on the villages far beyond the highway. Afghans tend to place greater emphasis on providing security through checkpoints than through patrolling.
“I think the highway will remain secure, but I don’t know about the villages,” says Lt. Kirk Shoemaker, a platoon leader in 2-504 PIR’s Charlie Company. He adds that while villagers are now open to speaking with American patrols that pass through, many seem to be waiting to see what will happen after the Americans begin to drawdown, he says.
In May, a group of villagers in Ghazni’s Andar district rose up against the Taliban after the group got too aggressive and had closed most of the area's schools. Despite hopes that the movement will spread to other areas of the province, no other uprisings have yet to materialize.
In the coming year, US Special Forces are expected to begin establishing Afghan Local Police units in the villages in Ghazni, which many say they hope will ensure that security does not slip away from the more remote areas of the province.
“Half the battle is the population. Once they all start turning on the Taliban, then the Taliban has no leg to stand on, and I do think we’ll get there sooner rather than later,” says Lt. Col. Praxitelis “Nick” Vamvakias, commander of the 2-504 PIR.
Have Afghan forces been infiltrated?
With Afghan 'insider' attacks on NATO soldiers on the rise, we discuss whether the killings are part of a strategy.
Aljazeera Inside Story 13 Aug 2012
Three US marines were shot dead by an Afghan worker at an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) base in Southern Afghanistan. And another three US marines from a Special Forces unit had been killed earlier in the day in the same area by a uniformed Afghan police officer.
NATO refers to these incidents as "green on blue" attacks - indicating they are carried out by Afghan police and soldiers or individuals wearing the uniforms. The same police personnel and soldiers trained by and supposedly working hand in hand with ISAF.
During 2008, such attacks took place only once or so a year but this year, they have been averaging one per week. In just the past week, six NATO military died in three separate attacks.
The death toll so far this year has been at least 34, compared to 35 for all of 2011.
These attacks have come at a time when the NATO-led forces are preparing to leave and hand over security responsibility to the Afghan army and police, with the withdrawal process due to be completed within the next two years.
NATO troops have been in the country since the US-led invasion in October 2001. By 2003 the US secretary of defence claimed that "major combat" had ended.
But a decade later the number of the NATO-led force had risen to 150,000 with no significant let up in the level of violence.
NATO's ISAF command has tried to downplay the attacks, focusing instead on what it calls the Afghans' steady progress towards taking over the war against the Taliban by the end of 2014.
But both the Taliban and many government commanders say the attacks are carried out by Taliban infiltrators.
So, has the Afghan army and police been infiltrated by forces opposed to international military intervention? Who is behind the attacks? How safe are soldiers working alongside Afghan forces? And what impact do they have on long-term security in Afghanistan?
Inside Story, with presenter Mike Hanna, discusses with guests: Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and author of Ending the US War in Afghanistan: A Primer; Fahim Dashty, an Afghan journalist and a spokesman for the Afghan National Journalists Union; and Brigadier General Gunter Katz of ISAF.
"The main cause for those incidents were personal grievances. Knowing this, we still have confidence in our Afghan partners, the troops out there are still willing to work with them, they have the trust that we all are working together to achieve the same objective."
Brigadier General Gunter Katz, NATO forces spokesperson
New US Envoy says Afghan Govt Needs Reform
TOLOnews.com Monday, 13 August 2012
The new United States Ambassador to Afghanistan, James Cunningham, said on Monday that the Afghan government needs to make reforms and fulfill its responsibilities in order to gain US political and economic support. Speaking at a press conference, Ambassador Cunningham added that talks between Islamabad and Washington are underway to delve into the issue of cross-border attacks.
He also stressed that the US will take necessary actions to protect Afghan civilians.
"There are reports about cross-border rocket attacks on Afghanistan's bordering regions. Our negotiations with Afghan and Pakistani officials are underway that these attacks do not harm Afghan civilians, and we will do everything to continue these talks," Cunningham said in a press conference in Kabul today, adding that US will take necessary actions to protect Afghan civilians.
He also confirmed that a meeting will take place between Afghan officials and the Taliban's top military commander, Mullah Ghani Bradar, who is in jail in Pakistan.
James Cunningham replaces Ryan Crocker who resigned earlier this year due to personal issues.
U.S. Says Pakistan to Launch Offensive
Associated Press August 13, 2012
WASHINGTON - Pakistan has indicated that it plans to launch combat operations against Taliban militants soon in a tribal area near the Afghan border that also serves as a haven for leaders of the al Qaeda-affiliated Haqqani network, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Monday.
Mr. Panetta said Pakistan's military chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, discussed the planned operation in recent conversations with the top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen.
Mr. Panetta said he did not know when the Pakistani operation would start, but he said he understands it will be in the "near future," and that the main target will be the Pakistani Taliban, rather than the Haqqani network.
Saying he had previously "lost hope" that Pakistan's military would take action in the North Waziristan tribal area, Mr. Panetta welcomed Gen. Kayani's initiative, even though the main target may not be the Haqqani leadership.
Mr. Panetta's comments come nearly two weeks after The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. and Pakistani officials were considering joint counterterrorism campaigns in Afghanistan and Pakistan, targeting Haqqani militants and Taliban fighters. (See related article.)
The U.S. long has been frustrated by Islamabad's refusal to target Afghan Taliban militants and their allies using Pakistani territory to stage attacks against U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan. Many analysts believe Pakistan is reluctant to target groups with which it has strong historical ties and could be useful allies in Afghanistan after foreign forces withdraw.
The Pentagon chief said relations with the Pakistani military have improved "a great deal" lately, after a falling out over American airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November and Pakistan's subsequent closing of border crossings that facilitated the flow of military supplies to U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan.
He said Gen.s Allen and Kayani have "discussed concerns" about the Haqqanis, whose fighters have moved back and forth across the border to launch attacks in Afghanistan.
"Gen. Kayani did indicate that they had developed plans to go into Waziristan," Mr. Panetta said. "Our understanding is that hopefully they're going to take that step in the near future. I can't tell you when. But the indication that we have is that they are prepared to conduct that operation soon."
He added: "They've talked about it for a long time. Frankly, I'd lost hope that they were going do anything about it. But it does appear that they in fact are going to take that step."
Pakistan has denied this, saying its forces are stretched too thin fighting Pakistani Taliban militants at war with the state. It also has criticized NATO and Afghan forces for not doing enough to stop Pakistani militants holed up in Afghanistan from launching attacks across the border into Pakistan.
Haqqani leaders fled to Pakistan's North Waziristan region from their homeland in eastern Afghanistan following the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.
Indian low-cost airline starts Kabul flights
AFP 13/08/2012
Indian low-cost airline SpiceJet will start direct flights from New Delhi to the Afghan capital Kabul from Tuesday as trade and medical tourism grows between the countries.
SpiceJet will be India's first private airline to operate a direct service to Kabul with its one-hour flight, three times a week. The state-run flagship Air India also flies to Afghanistan, six times a week.
"India and Afghanistan always had strong trade links. The idea is to revive that growth potential," SpiceJet spokeswoman Priti Dey told AFP.
"The route would benefit Afghan traders and enable medical tourists from Afghanistan to visit India. Instead of flying to the Gulf, they can fly to Delhi, which is closer."
India, strongly encouraged by the United States, is keen to expand its economic influence in Afghanistan, but New Delhi is also acutely aware of nuclear-armed rival Pakistan's sensitivities about Indian "encroachment".
In October last year, India and Afghanistan signed a "strategic partnership" aimed at deepening security and economic links, with Afghan President Hamid Karzai keen to elevate India's involvement.
New Delhi, fearful of the return of an Islamist regime in Kabul, has ploughed at least $2 billion in aid into the country.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com