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Taliban Beheads 17 Afghan Civilians
VOA News August 27, 2012
Officials in southern Afghanistan say Taliban insurgents have beheaded 17 Afghan civilians, including two women.
The Interior Ministry says the civilians were killed in the Kajaki district of Helmand province late Sunday.
There were conflicting reports about the reasons behind the killings. Some Afghan officials said the Taliban attacked the party because insurgents disapprove of music and dancing. But Helmand's governor said the killings took place after a long-standing feud between two Taliban commanders turned violent. And the governor of nearby Musa Qala district said insurgents killed the civilians because they had links to the government.
Authorities say it is difficult to corroborate the reports, because the area is not controlled by the government.
Later on Sunday, officials say insurgents overran an Afghan military post in Helmand's Washir district, killing 10 Afghan troops and wounding four others. A local official said five other Afghan soldiers were either kidnapped or joined the attackers.
Meanwhile, in eastern Afghanistan, NATO officials say an Afghan soldier turned his weapon on two coalition service members, killing them. NATO says its troops returned fire, killing the soldier.
The attack in Laghman province is the latest in a string of insider attacks this year.
Monday's attack brings the number of foreign soldiers killed in such violence this month to 12.
Last week, the commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, General John Allen, said many of the attacks are due to personal grievances and arguments, with about 25 percent attributed to Taliban infiltration, impersonation or coercion.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
Attacks on Soldiers and Civilians Leave Dozens Dead in Afghanistan
New York Times By GRAHAM BOWLEY and RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. August 27, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - Two American soldiers were shot and killed by a member of the Afghan Army in eastern Afghanistan on Monday when a dispute broke out during a joint American and Afghan patrol, Afghan officials said.
There were unconfirmed reports that the dispute erupted after the convoy was hit by a roadside bomb. NATO confirmed that two of its soldiers had been killed by a member of the Afghan Army.
In a separate episode in the southeast, attackers killed 10 Afghan soldiers at a checkpoint in Helmand Province early on Monday, in what a provincial spokesman described as the latest attack by insurgents who had infiltrated the Afghan military.
The Taliban, meanwhile, cut the throats of 17 civilians — including two women — in a rural, Taliban-controlled district of Helmand on Sunday, Afghan officials said.
The killing of American soldiers in the east, in Laghman Province, took to 42 the number of coalition soldiers shot by Afghan police and military forces so far this year, 12 of them this month alone.
Noor Rahman, a Laghman police official, said the shooting happened at about 9 a.m. in the Alingar district. “A verbal argument erupted and fire was exchanged,” he said. Lt. Col. Hagen Messer, a NATO spokesman in Kabul, said that the Afghan soldier was shot and killed in a return of fire and that no other coalition soldiers were wounded.
“According to our initial operational reporting, a service member of the ANA turned his weapon against ISAF forces, killing two ISAF service members,” he said, referring to the Afghan Army and the International Security Assistance Force, the formal name of the NATO-led force. “Isaf forces returned fire, killing the attacker.”
The shooting of the Afghan soldiers in the south in Helmand Province took place at a checkpoint in the Washir district, according to Dawood Ahmadi, the spokesman for the Helmand governor.
Mr. Ahmadi said five other Afghan soldiers fled the checkpoint. He described these as insurgents who had infiltrated the Afghan Army and plotted to carry out the attack.
“The enemy does not have the strength to fight our forces face to face,” he said. “Therefore they try to carry out attacks by infiltrating in Afghan forces.”
The number of so-called green-on-green, or insider, attacks by Afghan police and military forces on their own troops has risen sharply over the past two years, mirroring a similar increase in attacks by Afghan forces on NATO troops
The majority of attacks on Western forces are motivated by outrage or personal disputes, officials say. But officials blame infiltration by the Taliban for most of the Afghan-on-Afghan attacks.
Early reports were confusing, however. The Ministry of Defense in Kabul, while confirming the deaths, rejected the characterization of the episode as an insider attack by infiltrators. A spokesman, Dawlat Waziri, said that a large number of insurgents had attacked the checkpoint, and that there had been a prolonged confrontation, leaving several members of the Taliban dead.
In the case of the throat-cuttings in Helmand, officials said the authorities were investigating the reasons for the killings, which occurred in the Kajaki district. “The government does not have access to this area because of the strong Taliban presence,” said Mr. Ahmadi, the provincial spokesman.
He vowed that a military operation would be carried out there soon. He said none of the victims had any ties to the government.
The Afghan Interior Ministry provided a very similar account of the killings and called them “another unforgivable and shameful crime.” The ministry said the attack took place in the Shah Kariz region of Kajaki on Sunday when “armed Taliban opened fire” and slit the throats of “17 innocent civilians, including two women.”
By late Monday morning a disagreement had emerged between local Helmand officials about the killings.
Haji Naimatullah Khan, the governor of the Musa Qala district, which borders Kajaki to the west, said the throat cuttings occurred in Musa Qala, in a village known Roshan Abad.
He confirmed the death toll of 17 — including two women — but said the men who were killed either did have links to the government or were providing information to the authorities. The women were killed, he said, because they had begged for the Taliban to spare the lives of the men. He said he based his account on reports from witnesses and relatives of the victims.
“Sometimes they provided intelligence information to the government, and the Taliban learned that these are the people who had links with government,” Haji Khan said of the victims. “They were detained in their homes and taken away.”
“The area is not secure, and there is a heavy presence of Taliban,” he said.
Taimoor Shah, Sangar Rahimi and an employee of The New York Times contributed reporting from Kabul, and an employee of The New York Times from Helmand Province.
Afghanistan says sources confirm militant commander Badruddin Haqqani has been killed
Associated Press August 26 , 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - The son of the founder of the powerful Haqqani network was been killed in an airstrike in Pakistan, Afghanistan’s intelligence agency said Sunday, providing the first public confirmation of rumors that have been swirling for days about the key member of a militant group the U.S. considers one of the most dangerous in the region.
The Taliban rejected reports of Badruddin Haqqani’s death, however, saying that he was alive and well in Afghanistan.
Haqqani’s death would be a serious blow to the organization founded by his father, Jalaluddin Haqqani. The group, which has ties to both the Taliban and al-Qaida, has been blamed for a series of high-profile attacks and kidnappings in Afghanistan, particularly in and around the capital city of Kabul, and poses perhaps the biggest threat to stability in the country.
Shafiqullah Tahiri, the spokesman for Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security intelligence agency, said Haqqani was killed last week in an airstrike in Pakistan. He did not provide any further details, and would not say what information the agency’s operatives were basing their conclusion on.
U.S. officials have declined comment on the reports.
But Tahiri’s account is similar to one provided Saturday by a senior Taliban leader who said Haqqani was killed in a drone strike. It also hews closely to a version provided by Pakistani officials who said Saturday that they were 90 percent sure the militant commander was killed in a missile attack Tuesday in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal region.
The Taliban, who are closely allied with the Haqqani network, rejected all reports of Haqqani’s death.
Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said Haqqani is alive and in good health in Afghanistan.
“A number of media have reported that Badruddin Haqqani has been killed. We would like to inform all media that this rumor is not correct,” Mujahid said in the email to reporters late Saturday. “Badruddin Haqqani is in the country and is occupied with his operational responsibilities. He is alive and healthy. The rumor about him being killed is more propaganda of the enemy.”
In a telephone call with The Associated Press on Sunday Mujahid again maintained that Haqqani was alive.
The territory where the American drone strikes generally occur are in Pakistan’s remote and dangerous tribal regions, making it difficult for reporters or others to verify a particular person’s death. And the U.S. does not comment publicly on its drone program, which is widely reviled by the Pakistani public and has been a source of tension with Islamabad.
The al-Qaida-allied Haqqani tribe runs a mafia-like smuggling operation and occasionally turns to terrorism with the aim of controlling its territory in eastern Afghanistan. The Haqqanis use Pakistani towns to plan, train and arm themselves with guns and explosives, cross into Afghanistan to attack NATO and Afghan forces, then retreat back across the border to safety.
Badruddin is considered a vital part of the Haqqani structure and is believed to have played an active role in kidnappings, extortion and high-profile operations in Afghanistan. Tahiri said that Haqqani’s responsibilities included arranging foreign suicide bombers, maintaining relations with other insurgent groups, recruiting Pakistani Taliban fighters for the Haqqani group and overseeing operations in southeastern Afghanistan and in Kabul.
“He was the mastermind of the organized suicide attacks in Kabul,” Tahiri said, referring to a number of high-profile strikes in the Afghan capital targeting everything from hotels to Western embassies. Every time there has been a highly complex attack in Kabul involving coordination between multiple insurgents, American officials have pointed the finger at the Haqqanis.
In the latest such attack in June, gunmen stormed a lakeside hotel outside of Kabul and opened fire on Afghans having dinner, killing 18 people. The commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan quickly attributed the attack to the Haqqani network, which has long operated as a sort of arm of the Taliban in the eastern part of the country.
Still, there are likely people waiting in the wings to replace Badruddin, said former Afghan intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh, now an opposition leader.
“They are going to find another person to replace him. What I know is that his elder brother, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is playing a larger role in the Haqqani network,” Saleh said in an interview on Afghanistan’s Tolo television. He said until the group’s ability to operate across Afghanistan and Pakistan is limited, “killing their commanders or leaders will have its effect, but not that large of an effect.”
The U.S. State Department has designated Badruddin, along with his father and brothers — Nasiruddin and Sirajuddin — as terrorists. The State Department said in May 2011 that Badruddin sits on the Miram Shah Shura, a group that controls all Haqqani network activities and coordinates attacks in southeastern Afghanistan.
Badruddin is also believed to have been responsible for the 2008 kidnapping of New York Times reporter David Rohde, the department said.
After their father effectively retired in 2005, Badruddin and his brother Sirajuddin expanded the network into kidnapping and extortion, both highly profitable for the organization, according to a recent report by the West Point, N.Y.-based Combating Terrorism Center. Afghan intelligence authorities have released intercepts of Badruddin orchestrating an attack against the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul in 2011, the CTC said.
The U.S. has long viewed the Haqqani network as one of the biggest threats to U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan as well as the country’s long term stability. The group has shown little interest in negotiating with the Washington, and has pulled off some of the highest-profile and most complex attacks in Afghanistan, although not necessarily the most deadly.
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Associated Press writers Rebecca Santana in Islamabad and Anwarullah Khan in Khar, Pakistan, contributed to this report.
Afghans Say Top Haqqani Leader Killed In U.S. Drone Strike
August 27, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Afghanistan says it believes that a top commander of the militant Haqqani insurgent network was killed last week in a U.S. drone strike, citing intelligence reports that it said countered Afghan Taliban claims that Badruddin Haqqani was still alive.
Haqqani, who was head of operations and ran the network's vital business interests, was thought to have been killed during the strike this week in Pakistan's tribal North Waziristan, both Afghanistan's Interior Ministry and national spy agency said.
"The elimination of Badruddin Haqqani will deal a major blow and serious setback to the Haqqani Network," Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said.
Shafiquallh Tahriri, spokesman for Afghanistan's spy agency the National Directorate of Security, also said that Haqqani was killed last week, based on intelligence from Afghan agents collected from sources in Pakistan.
Tahriri declined to say what evidence was in the reports the government had received, including whether anyone had actually seen Badruddin Haqqani's body.
However, Afghanistan's Taliban, allies of the Haqqani network, dismissed claims of Badruddin's death on August 25 as propaganda from Pakistan's military and the NATO-Afghan coalition.
Maulvi Ahmed Jan, a senior Haqqani network commander, also denied that Badruddin -- the son of the network's founder Jalaluddin Haqqani --- had been killed and said the insurgents would soon provide proof he was alive.
U.S. officials blame the Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqanis for some of the worst recent attacks in Afghanistan, including an April 15 attack on embassies, NATO headquarters, and the parliament in Kabul that lasted 18 hours, killing 11 Afghan security forces and four civilians.
Another attack in June that Afghan and Western officials blamed on the Haqqanis saw insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machineguns storm a hotel.
The United States accuses Pakistan's intelligence agency of supporting the Haqqani network and using it as a proxy in Afghanistan to gain leverage against the growing influence of its arch-rival India in the country.
Pakistan denies the allegations.
Based on reporting by Reuters
Hezb-i-Islami Using Anti-Taliban Uprisings to Gain Power: Senators
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 26 August 2012
Islamist militants from Hezb-i-Islami are taking advantage of so-called local uprisings in Afghan villages to wrest power from the Taliban, Afghan senators claimed in Sunday's sitting session.
The senators called for the government to closely monitor the uprisings of residents against Taliban control in local villages and districts in order to prevent other groups from taking advantage of the power upheaval.
An uprising of students against the Taliban control was first reported in Ghazni province in late June, but similar protests have since spread to districts of Nangarhar, Faryab, Laghman, and Badghis provinces.
They said the government must prevent any enemy infiltrating the public under the guise of a local uprising.
"A delegation from the Afghan parliament should go to these provinces and monitor the uprising closely," Afghan Senator Zalmai Zabuli said.
"It should be clear whether Hezb-i-Islami or another group is leading these uprisings, or whether it is really the protest of local residents against the Taliban's cruelty," Afghan Senator Belqis Roshan said.
Some senators also criticised some of the provincial governors, accusing some of them of being spies for Taliban.
The most recent report of an uprising came from the Hasarak district of eastern Nangarhar province, which was said to have driven around 80 percent of the Taliban from the villages in the district within three days of fighting last week.
Two ISAF Troops Killed In New Attack By Afghan Army Soldier
August 27, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
NATO says two of its soldiers have been shot dead in a new “green-on-blue,” or insider, attack by an Afghan army soldier.
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said a member of the Afghan National Army turned his weapon on ISAF forces on August 27 in eastern Laghman Province, killing two service members.
An ISAF statement said NATO soldiers returned fire and killed the attacker.
The latest deaths take the toll from such attacks in August to at least 12 and to more than 40 so far this year.
Taliban insurgents have claimed responsibility for many of the attacks, saying militants had infiltrated NATO-led forces.
Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP
NATO says it has closed more than 200 bases in Afghanistan as part of drawdown
Associated Press August 26 , 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - NATO has closed more than 200 bases in Afghanistan and transferred nearly 300 others to local forces, a concrete step toward its 2014 target of handing over security responsibility, NATO officers said Sunday.
All 202 closed facilities were small, ranging from isolated checkpoints to bases of a dozen to 300 soldiers, said Lt. Col. David Olson, a NATO forces spokesman. Most of the closures have been along the country’s main highways, spread across nearly every province, Olson said.
Another 282 bases of the same size have been handed over to the Afghan government, he said.
That means international forces now operate about half as many bases in Afghanistan as in October of 2011, when they ran about 800 bases.
The closures are part of the large-scale drawdown over this year and next as international forces prepare to transfer security tasks to the Afghan government at the end of 2014. Most of the troops that are leaving are American, and therefore most of the closures are U.S. bases.
“As our Afghan security force partners take more responsibility for their own security, more bases will be closing and transitioning,” said Brig. Gen. Steven Shapiro, who is heading up the operation to return or hand over U.S. equipment. He said that so far the U.S. government has given about 20,000 pieces of equipment worth about $3 million to the Afghan government, ranging from chairs to large generators.
“Our footprint here will continue to shrink,” Shapiro told reporters at a briefing about how non-military equipment is being processed as numbers of American forces decrease.
The U.S. started drawing down forces from a peak of nearly 103,000 last year and plans to have 68,000 troops in Afghanistan by October.
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Associated Press writer Heidi Vogt contributed.
Insider attacks not to affect NATO operations in Afghanistan: spokesman
KABUL, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- The so-called "green-on-blue" or insider attacks will not affect the NATO's counter-insurgency campaign in the war-torn Afghanistan, a spokesman said Monday.
"These incidents will not affect our operation. The campaign is on track, we effectively fight the insurgency, and most importantly, we continue to fight alongside our partners from the Afghan National Security Force, who take responsibility for more of this country every day," a NATO-led coalition or International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) spokesman, Brigadier General Gunter Katz, told reporters in a weekly press briefing.
The comments came hours after an Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier shot dead two U.S. soldiers with the ISAF in eastern Afghanistan, the latest in the green-on-blue attacks when Afghan army or police or gunmen in their uniform turned their weapons against foreign soldiers with the coalition.
The attacker was also killed in the incident which occurred Monday morning in eastern Laghman province.
"The factors that contribute to these insider threat incidents were wide-ranging from infiltration and impersonation to personnel grievances. We can clearly identify a direct insurgent connection to the attacker in about 10 percent of the cases," he said, adding "In another 15 percent of the cases we suspect an insurgent link with the attacker, however, the tie cannot be definitively proven. "
The Taliban insurgents, who have been waging more than a decade- long insurgency and launched spring offensive from May 3 this year to target security forces, have regularly claimed responsibility for the insider attacks or green-on-blue offensives.
"Given these two points, our conclusion is that about 25 percent of these attacks are in some manner related to the insurgency," the ISAF spokesman noted.
Currently over 130,000 NATO-led ISAF troops with majority of them Americans have been serving in Afghanistan since the Taliban regime was toppled in late 2001.
According to ISAF spokesman Katz, up to 42 soldiers with the coalition have been killed in the 33 so-called green-on-blue attacks since beginning this year, including 12 soldiers who lost their lives in such attacks so far this month.
Meantime, in a similar incident, five members of ANA shot dead 10 colleagues and injured four others in an Afghan army checkpoint in Washer district of southern Helmand province on Sunday night, before leaving the checkpoint.
U.S. to Discipline Nine Soldiers in Afghan Incidents
Wall Street Journal By DION NISSENBAUM August 26, 2012
WASHINGTON - The U.S. military is expected to discipline nine service members on Monday in connection with two incidents that sparked widespread outrage in Afghanistan, including the burning of copies of the Quran at one of the country's largest military bases.
The punishment, which doesn't include criminal charges or jail time, falls far short of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's calls for a public trial, and it remains unclear how Afghan officials and the broader public will respond to decisions that could be viewed as relatively lenient.
In addition to the incident of the burning of copies of the Quran, service members will face discipline in connection with a video of four Marines urinating on dead militants.
A military investigation of the Quran burning found that six U.S. soldiers at Bagram Airfield were "derelict in their duties" when they sent boxes of Qurans and other religious books to a base landfill for incineration in late February, according to two U.S. military officials.
While the military concluded that there was no ill-intent on the part of the American soldiers, the investigation also determined that they didn't follow proper procedure when they ordered the destruction of the prison library books, officials said.
"It was a series of mistakes," one military official said on Sunday.
The investigation also found that a lack of trust between U.S. and Afghans at the base fed into the errors.
The incident sparked days of nationwide riots that left more than three-dozen people, including two U.S. soldiers, dead.
Afghan officials said the burning of the Qurans—Islam's holiest book— showed the cultural ignorance and insensitivity of U.S. forces. Muslims view the Quran as the sacred word of God as relayed to the Prophet Muhammad, and burning the books en masse at a military incinerator was seen as an especially disrespectful affront.
President Barack Obama apologized for the incident and Mr. Karzai called for the American soldiers to be put on public trial in his country.
At the time, military officials said the books were sent for destruction after they determined that Afghan detainees were using them to relay messages and share extremist writing. Afghan leaders briefed on the initial investigation challenged that claim and said the books recovered from the landfill contained innocuous signatures from the detainees, not inflammatory notes.
Six U.S. soldiers involved in the incident are expected to be punished, which could come in the form of a letter of reprimand or a verbal admonishment, officials said.
The U.S. Navy dismissed administrative charges against a sailor who was also investigated in connection with the incident.
On Monday, the U.S. military is also expected to announce punishment for three of the Marines shown in a video urinating on the bodies of slain Taliban members.
The video, which became public in January after it appeared on YouTube, showed four Marines urinating on the corpses of militants.
"Have a great day, buddy," one of the Marines is heard saying.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta condemned the video, which was believed to have been filmed in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province in the spring or summer of 2011.
Investigators quickly determined the Marines in the video were from 3rd Battalion 2nd Marine Regiment, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Investigators concluded that the leadership of the Marines' platoon failed to create a proper "command climate," allowed discipline to slip and dishonorable behavior to occur.
In addition to disciplinary action against the Marines shown in the video, the Corps is taking action against the officers in charge of the unit, according to three military officials. Officials said that investigators found other questionable incidents in the unit, although none as serious as the urination incident, and other evidence of a breakdown in leadership.
Officials said one or more company-grade officers are likely to be punished later. The battalion commander of the Marine unit isn't expected to face discipline.
The punishments against the Marines, and likely for the Army soldiers, are expected to be career-ending, blocking service members from re-enlisting, officialssaid.
Both the Army and Marine Corps are shrinking, and service members with significant administrative actions against them are unlikely to be retained, officials said.
American officials decided to release the two investigations at the same time in an effort to contain any possible protests against the disciplinary actions.
American military officials said Mr. Karzai was briefed on the results of the investigations on Sunday. In an effort to tamp down any possible backlash, coalition officials have spent several days in Afghanistan speaking to political and religious leaders about the impending announcements.
Officials in Kabul were bracing for demonstrations, but expressed hope that there would be little public anger over the military decisions.
Write to Dion Nissenbaum at dion.nissenbaum@wsj.com
Afghanistan music festival organisers hope for repeat of last year's success
Asian Dub Foundation among bands who will perform at the Sound Central event next month
Guardian.co.uk By Emma Graham-Harrison Sunday 26 August 2012
Kabul - The usual waves of diplomats, soldiers, aid workers and journalists streaming through Kabul's international airport will be joined next month by an unlikely mix of BMX bikers, break dancers, musicians from UK electronica collective Asian Dub Foundation and rock bands from across Central Asia, arriving to perform at one of the world's most surprising music festivals.
The organisers of Sound Central defied the odds last year to stage the country's first music festival in decades, at the edge of a park laid out by the Mughal emperor Babur around 500 years ago.
Now they are planning an even bigger week of workshops, screenings and concerts in September, as a step towards making the festival an annual event.
And they have persuaded Asian Dub Foundation, whose eclectic credits include a 2006 opera about the former Libyan dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, and playful art group Future Cinema, who mix live music and theatre into cinema screenings, to put Afghanistan on their tour calendar.
"We like to go to places that are off the map, places that other people don't go to," said Asian Dub Foundation's Steve Savale, in a phone interview from Slovakia. "We don't discriminate against countries."
"A lot of our music is underpinned by pieces from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan so it makes sense to explore Afghan music as well and what better place to do it than Kabul."
Public concerts are still a rarity in deeply conservative Afghanistan, where the Taliban banned most music when they were in power and musicians can still come under heavy pressure.
Last week popular singer Shafiq Mureed cancelled a planned concert in the western city of Herat after mullahs condemned it as immoral, even though he planned to sing tributes to mothers and children, and patriotic songs, the local Tolo TV channel reported.
But with a very young population – over two-thirds of Afghans are under 25 – there is a huge appetite for music and art.
In the decade since the Taliban's removal from power Kabul has seen the creation of poetry groups, a contemporary art collective, and a string of bands; Afghanistan's first graffiti artists have also been trying to break the monotony of the city's blast walls and high compound enclosures.
"The festival last year was attended by men and women from all areas and ethnic groups of Afghanistan," said Sound Central organiser Travis Beard. "Afghans in Kabul are thirsty for alternative music in any form they can get it: live, online, from friends. We plan to supply that."
Future cinema will screen French film La Haine, the 1995 Mathieu Kassovitz portrayal of urban youth in the bleak suburbs of Paris, as part of the festival, that they believe will resonate with young Afghans despite some yawning cultural differences.
"It is such a powerful film, with I think quite a positive message overall. I hope it just perhaps opens up the idea of what young people can do and how they can actually try and make a change," said Fabien Riggall, the creative director of Future Cinema.
Kabul Municipality Official Sacked After Beating Cameraman
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 26 August 2012
A Kabul official was sacked after he was reported for abusing a cameraman who was filming the poor roads of Kabul near the airport.
TOLOnews cameraman Jawid Arezomand was beaten and verbally abused by Kabul Municipality's District 10 Head of Cleanliness on Sunday while filming Kabul Airport Avenue and its surrounds.
The official, Ghulam Rabbani, hit and reportedly threatened to kill Arezomand by driving his car into him when he saw the filming taking place.
According to other municipal officials, Rabbani was already sacked from his position later on Sunday.
Journalists and camerapersons frequently face harsh and violent reactions from the government officials and other powerful figures in Afghanistan.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
VOA News August 27, 2012
Officials in southern Afghanistan say Taliban insurgents have beheaded 17 Afghan civilians, including two women.
The Interior Ministry says the civilians were killed in the Kajaki district of Helmand province late Sunday.
There were conflicting reports about the reasons behind the killings. Some Afghan officials said the Taliban attacked the party because insurgents disapprove of music and dancing. But Helmand's governor said the killings took place after a long-standing feud between two Taliban commanders turned violent. And the governor of nearby Musa Qala district said insurgents killed the civilians because they had links to the government.
Authorities say it is difficult to corroborate the reports, because the area is not controlled by the government.
Later on Sunday, officials say insurgents overran an Afghan military post in Helmand's Washir district, killing 10 Afghan troops and wounding four others. A local official said five other Afghan soldiers were either kidnapped or joined the attackers.
Meanwhile, in eastern Afghanistan, NATO officials say an Afghan soldier turned his weapon on two coalition service members, killing them. NATO says its troops returned fire, killing the soldier.
The attack in Laghman province is the latest in a string of insider attacks this year.
Monday's attack brings the number of foreign soldiers killed in such violence this month to 12.
Last week, the commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, General John Allen, said many of the attacks are due to personal grievances and arguments, with about 25 percent attributed to Taliban infiltration, impersonation or coercion.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
Attacks on Soldiers and Civilians Leave Dozens Dead in Afghanistan
New York Times By GRAHAM BOWLEY and RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. August 27, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - Two American soldiers were shot and killed by a member of the Afghan Army in eastern Afghanistan on Monday when a dispute broke out during a joint American and Afghan patrol, Afghan officials said.
There were unconfirmed reports that the dispute erupted after the convoy was hit by a roadside bomb. NATO confirmed that two of its soldiers had been killed by a member of the Afghan Army.
In a separate episode in the southeast, attackers killed 10 Afghan soldiers at a checkpoint in Helmand Province early on Monday, in what a provincial spokesman described as the latest attack by insurgents who had infiltrated the Afghan military.
The Taliban, meanwhile, cut the throats of 17 civilians — including two women — in a rural, Taliban-controlled district of Helmand on Sunday, Afghan officials said.
The killing of American soldiers in the east, in Laghman Province, took to 42 the number of coalition soldiers shot by Afghan police and military forces so far this year, 12 of them this month alone.
Noor Rahman, a Laghman police official, said the shooting happened at about 9 a.m. in the Alingar district. “A verbal argument erupted and fire was exchanged,” he said. Lt. Col. Hagen Messer, a NATO spokesman in Kabul, said that the Afghan soldier was shot and killed in a return of fire and that no other coalition soldiers were wounded.
“According to our initial operational reporting, a service member of the ANA turned his weapon against ISAF forces, killing two ISAF service members,” he said, referring to the Afghan Army and the International Security Assistance Force, the formal name of the NATO-led force. “Isaf forces returned fire, killing the attacker.”
The shooting of the Afghan soldiers in the south in Helmand Province took place at a checkpoint in the Washir district, according to Dawood Ahmadi, the spokesman for the Helmand governor.
Mr. Ahmadi said five other Afghan soldiers fled the checkpoint. He described these as insurgents who had infiltrated the Afghan Army and plotted to carry out the attack.
“The enemy does not have the strength to fight our forces face to face,” he said. “Therefore they try to carry out attacks by infiltrating in Afghan forces.”
The number of so-called green-on-green, or insider, attacks by Afghan police and military forces on their own troops has risen sharply over the past two years, mirroring a similar increase in attacks by Afghan forces on NATO troops
The majority of attacks on Western forces are motivated by outrage or personal disputes, officials say. But officials blame infiltration by the Taliban for most of the Afghan-on-Afghan attacks.
Early reports were confusing, however. The Ministry of Defense in Kabul, while confirming the deaths, rejected the characterization of the episode as an insider attack by infiltrators. A spokesman, Dawlat Waziri, said that a large number of insurgents had attacked the checkpoint, and that there had been a prolonged confrontation, leaving several members of the Taliban dead.
In the case of the throat-cuttings in Helmand, officials said the authorities were investigating the reasons for the killings, which occurred in the Kajaki district. “The government does not have access to this area because of the strong Taliban presence,” said Mr. Ahmadi, the provincial spokesman.
He vowed that a military operation would be carried out there soon. He said none of the victims had any ties to the government.
The Afghan Interior Ministry provided a very similar account of the killings and called them “another unforgivable and shameful crime.” The ministry said the attack took place in the Shah Kariz region of Kajaki on Sunday when “armed Taliban opened fire” and slit the throats of “17 innocent civilians, including two women.”
By late Monday morning a disagreement had emerged between local Helmand officials about the killings.
Haji Naimatullah Khan, the governor of the Musa Qala district, which borders Kajaki to the west, said the throat cuttings occurred in Musa Qala, in a village known Roshan Abad.
He confirmed the death toll of 17 — including two women — but said the men who were killed either did have links to the government or were providing information to the authorities. The women were killed, he said, because they had begged for the Taliban to spare the lives of the men. He said he based his account on reports from witnesses and relatives of the victims.
“Sometimes they provided intelligence information to the government, and the Taliban learned that these are the people who had links with government,” Haji Khan said of the victims. “They were detained in their homes and taken away.”
“The area is not secure, and there is a heavy presence of Taliban,” he said.
Taimoor Shah, Sangar Rahimi and an employee of The New York Times contributed reporting from Kabul, and an employee of The New York Times from Helmand Province.
Afghanistan says sources confirm militant commander Badruddin Haqqani has been killed
Associated Press August 26 , 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - The son of the founder of the powerful Haqqani network was been killed in an airstrike in Pakistan, Afghanistan’s intelligence agency said Sunday, providing the first public confirmation of rumors that have been swirling for days about the key member of a militant group the U.S. considers one of the most dangerous in the region.
The Taliban rejected reports of Badruddin Haqqani’s death, however, saying that he was alive and well in Afghanistan.
Haqqani’s death would be a serious blow to the organization founded by his father, Jalaluddin Haqqani. The group, which has ties to both the Taliban and al-Qaida, has been blamed for a series of high-profile attacks and kidnappings in Afghanistan, particularly in and around the capital city of Kabul, and poses perhaps the biggest threat to stability in the country.
Shafiqullah Tahiri, the spokesman for Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security intelligence agency, said Haqqani was killed last week in an airstrike in Pakistan. He did not provide any further details, and would not say what information the agency’s operatives were basing their conclusion on.
U.S. officials have declined comment on the reports.
But Tahiri’s account is similar to one provided Saturday by a senior Taliban leader who said Haqqani was killed in a drone strike. It also hews closely to a version provided by Pakistani officials who said Saturday that they were 90 percent sure the militant commander was killed in a missile attack Tuesday in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal region.
The Taliban, who are closely allied with the Haqqani network, rejected all reports of Haqqani’s death.
Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said Haqqani is alive and in good health in Afghanistan.
“A number of media have reported that Badruddin Haqqani has been killed. We would like to inform all media that this rumor is not correct,” Mujahid said in the email to reporters late Saturday. “Badruddin Haqqani is in the country and is occupied with his operational responsibilities. He is alive and healthy. The rumor about him being killed is more propaganda of the enemy.”
In a telephone call with The Associated Press on Sunday Mujahid again maintained that Haqqani was alive.
The territory where the American drone strikes generally occur are in Pakistan’s remote and dangerous tribal regions, making it difficult for reporters or others to verify a particular person’s death. And the U.S. does not comment publicly on its drone program, which is widely reviled by the Pakistani public and has been a source of tension with Islamabad.
The al-Qaida-allied Haqqani tribe runs a mafia-like smuggling operation and occasionally turns to terrorism with the aim of controlling its territory in eastern Afghanistan. The Haqqanis use Pakistani towns to plan, train and arm themselves with guns and explosives, cross into Afghanistan to attack NATO and Afghan forces, then retreat back across the border to safety.
Badruddin is considered a vital part of the Haqqani structure and is believed to have played an active role in kidnappings, extortion and high-profile operations in Afghanistan. Tahiri said that Haqqani’s responsibilities included arranging foreign suicide bombers, maintaining relations with other insurgent groups, recruiting Pakistani Taliban fighters for the Haqqani group and overseeing operations in southeastern Afghanistan and in Kabul.
“He was the mastermind of the organized suicide attacks in Kabul,” Tahiri said, referring to a number of high-profile strikes in the Afghan capital targeting everything from hotels to Western embassies. Every time there has been a highly complex attack in Kabul involving coordination between multiple insurgents, American officials have pointed the finger at the Haqqanis.
In the latest such attack in June, gunmen stormed a lakeside hotel outside of Kabul and opened fire on Afghans having dinner, killing 18 people. The commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan quickly attributed the attack to the Haqqani network, which has long operated as a sort of arm of the Taliban in the eastern part of the country.
Still, there are likely people waiting in the wings to replace Badruddin, said former Afghan intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh, now an opposition leader.
“They are going to find another person to replace him. What I know is that his elder brother, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is playing a larger role in the Haqqani network,” Saleh said in an interview on Afghanistan’s Tolo television. He said until the group’s ability to operate across Afghanistan and Pakistan is limited, “killing their commanders or leaders will have its effect, but not that large of an effect.”
The U.S. State Department has designated Badruddin, along with his father and brothers — Nasiruddin and Sirajuddin — as terrorists. The State Department said in May 2011 that Badruddin sits on the Miram Shah Shura, a group that controls all Haqqani network activities and coordinates attacks in southeastern Afghanistan.
Badruddin is also believed to have been responsible for the 2008 kidnapping of New York Times reporter David Rohde, the department said.
After their father effectively retired in 2005, Badruddin and his brother Sirajuddin expanded the network into kidnapping and extortion, both highly profitable for the organization, according to a recent report by the West Point, N.Y.-based Combating Terrorism Center. Afghan intelligence authorities have released intercepts of Badruddin orchestrating an attack against the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul in 2011, the CTC said.
The U.S. has long viewed the Haqqani network as one of the biggest threats to U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan as well as the country’s long term stability. The group has shown little interest in negotiating with the Washington, and has pulled off some of the highest-profile and most complex attacks in Afghanistan, although not necessarily the most deadly.
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Associated Press writers Rebecca Santana in Islamabad and Anwarullah Khan in Khar, Pakistan, contributed to this report.
Afghans Say Top Haqqani Leader Killed In U.S. Drone Strike
August 27, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Afghanistan says it believes that a top commander of the militant Haqqani insurgent network was killed last week in a U.S. drone strike, citing intelligence reports that it said countered Afghan Taliban claims that Badruddin Haqqani was still alive.
Haqqani, who was head of operations and ran the network's vital business interests, was thought to have been killed during the strike this week in Pakistan's tribal North Waziristan, both Afghanistan's Interior Ministry and national spy agency said.
"The elimination of Badruddin Haqqani will deal a major blow and serious setback to the Haqqani Network," Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said.
Shafiquallh Tahriri, spokesman for Afghanistan's spy agency the National Directorate of Security, also said that Haqqani was killed last week, based on intelligence from Afghan agents collected from sources in Pakistan.
Tahriri declined to say what evidence was in the reports the government had received, including whether anyone had actually seen Badruddin Haqqani's body.
However, Afghanistan's Taliban, allies of the Haqqani network, dismissed claims of Badruddin's death on August 25 as propaganda from Pakistan's military and the NATO-Afghan coalition.
Maulvi Ahmed Jan, a senior Haqqani network commander, also denied that Badruddin -- the son of the network's founder Jalaluddin Haqqani --- had been killed and said the insurgents would soon provide proof he was alive.
U.S. officials blame the Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqanis for some of the worst recent attacks in Afghanistan, including an April 15 attack on embassies, NATO headquarters, and the parliament in Kabul that lasted 18 hours, killing 11 Afghan security forces and four civilians.
Another attack in June that Afghan and Western officials blamed on the Haqqanis saw insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machineguns storm a hotel.
The United States accuses Pakistan's intelligence agency of supporting the Haqqani network and using it as a proxy in Afghanistan to gain leverage against the growing influence of its arch-rival India in the country.
Pakistan denies the allegations.
Based on reporting by Reuters
Hezb-i-Islami Using Anti-Taliban Uprisings to Gain Power: Senators
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 26 August 2012
Islamist militants from Hezb-i-Islami are taking advantage of so-called local uprisings in Afghan villages to wrest power from the Taliban, Afghan senators claimed in Sunday's sitting session.
The senators called for the government to closely monitor the uprisings of residents against Taliban control in local villages and districts in order to prevent other groups from taking advantage of the power upheaval.
An uprising of students against the Taliban control was first reported in Ghazni province in late June, but similar protests have since spread to districts of Nangarhar, Faryab, Laghman, and Badghis provinces.
They said the government must prevent any enemy infiltrating the public under the guise of a local uprising.
"A delegation from the Afghan parliament should go to these provinces and monitor the uprising closely," Afghan Senator Zalmai Zabuli said.
"It should be clear whether Hezb-i-Islami or another group is leading these uprisings, or whether it is really the protest of local residents against the Taliban's cruelty," Afghan Senator Belqis Roshan said.
Some senators also criticised some of the provincial governors, accusing some of them of being spies for Taliban.
The most recent report of an uprising came from the Hasarak district of eastern Nangarhar province, which was said to have driven around 80 percent of the Taliban from the villages in the district within three days of fighting last week.
Two ISAF Troops Killed In New Attack By Afghan Army Soldier
August 27, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
NATO says two of its soldiers have been shot dead in a new “green-on-blue,” or insider, attack by an Afghan army soldier.
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said a member of the Afghan National Army turned his weapon on ISAF forces on August 27 in eastern Laghman Province, killing two service members.
An ISAF statement said NATO soldiers returned fire and killed the attacker.
The latest deaths take the toll from such attacks in August to at least 12 and to more than 40 so far this year.
Taliban insurgents have claimed responsibility for many of the attacks, saying militants had infiltrated NATO-led forces.
Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP
NATO says it has closed more than 200 bases in Afghanistan as part of drawdown
Associated Press August 26 , 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - NATO has closed more than 200 bases in Afghanistan and transferred nearly 300 others to local forces, a concrete step toward its 2014 target of handing over security responsibility, NATO officers said Sunday.
All 202 closed facilities were small, ranging from isolated checkpoints to bases of a dozen to 300 soldiers, said Lt. Col. David Olson, a NATO forces spokesman. Most of the closures have been along the country’s main highways, spread across nearly every province, Olson said.
Another 282 bases of the same size have been handed over to the Afghan government, he said.
That means international forces now operate about half as many bases in Afghanistan as in October of 2011, when they ran about 800 bases.
The closures are part of the large-scale drawdown over this year and next as international forces prepare to transfer security tasks to the Afghan government at the end of 2014. Most of the troops that are leaving are American, and therefore most of the closures are U.S. bases.
“As our Afghan security force partners take more responsibility for their own security, more bases will be closing and transitioning,” said Brig. Gen. Steven Shapiro, who is heading up the operation to return or hand over U.S. equipment. He said that so far the U.S. government has given about 20,000 pieces of equipment worth about $3 million to the Afghan government, ranging from chairs to large generators.
“Our footprint here will continue to shrink,” Shapiro told reporters at a briefing about how non-military equipment is being processed as numbers of American forces decrease.
The U.S. started drawing down forces from a peak of nearly 103,000 last year and plans to have 68,000 troops in Afghanistan by October.
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Associated Press writer Heidi Vogt contributed.
Insider attacks not to affect NATO operations in Afghanistan: spokesman
KABUL, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- The so-called "green-on-blue" or insider attacks will not affect the NATO's counter-insurgency campaign in the war-torn Afghanistan, a spokesman said Monday.
"These incidents will not affect our operation. The campaign is on track, we effectively fight the insurgency, and most importantly, we continue to fight alongside our partners from the Afghan National Security Force, who take responsibility for more of this country every day," a NATO-led coalition or International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) spokesman, Brigadier General Gunter Katz, told reporters in a weekly press briefing.
The comments came hours after an Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier shot dead two U.S. soldiers with the ISAF in eastern Afghanistan, the latest in the green-on-blue attacks when Afghan army or police or gunmen in their uniform turned their weapons against foreign soldiers with the coalition.
The attacker was also killed in the incident which occurred Monday morning in eastern Laghman province.
"The factors that contribute to these insider threat incidents were wide-ranging from infiltration and impersonation to personnel grievances. We can clearly identify a direct insurgent connection to the attacker in about 10 percent of the cases," he said, adding "In another 15 percent of the cases we suspect an insurgent link with the attacker, however, the tie cannot be definitively proven. "
The Taliban insurgents, who have been waging more than a decade- long insurgency and launched spring offensive from May 3 this year to target security forces, have regularly claimed responsibility for the insider attacks or green-on-blue offensives.
"Given these two points, our conclusion is that about 25 percent of these attacks are in some manner related to the insurgency," the ISAF spokesman noted.
Currently over 130,000 NATO-led ISAF troops with majority of them Americans have been serving in Afghanistan since the Taliban regime was toppled in late 2001.
According to ISAF spokesman Katz, up to 42 soldiers with the coalition have been killed in the 33 so-called green-on-blue attacks since beginning this year, including 12 soldiers who lost their lives in such attacks so far this month.
Meantime, in a similar incident, five members of ANA shot dead 10 colleagues and injured four others in an Afghan army checkpoint in Washer district of southern Helmand province on Sunday night, before leaving the checkpoint.
U.S. to Discipline Nine Soldiers in Afghan Incidents
Wall Street Journal By DION NISSENBAUM August 26, 2012
WASHINGTON - The U.S. military is expected to discipline nine service members on Monday in connection with two incidents that sparked widespread outrage in Afghanistan, including the burning of copies of the Quran at one of the country's largest military bases.
The punishment, which doesn't include criminal charges or jail time, falls far short of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's calls for a public trial, and it remains unclear how Afghan officials and the broader public will respond to decisions that could be viewed as relatively lenient.
In addition to the incident of the burning of copies of the Quran, service members will face discipline in connection with a video of four Marines urinating on dead militants.
A military investigation of the Quran burning found that six U.S. soldiers at Bagram Airfield were "derelict in their duties" when they sent boxes of Qurans and other religious books to a base landfill for incineration in late February, according to two U.S. military officials.
While the military concluded that there was no ill-intent on the part of the American soldiers, the investigation also determined that they didn't follow proper procedure when they ordered the destruction of the prison library books, officials said.
"It was a series of mistakes," one military official said on Sunday.
The investigation also found that a lack of trust between U.S. and Afghans at the base fed into the errors.
The incident sparked days of nationwide riots that left more than three-dozen people, including two U.S. soldiers, dead.
Afghan officials said the burning of the Qurans—Islam's holiest book— showed the cultural ignorance and insensitivity of U.S. forces. Muslims view the Quran as the sacred word of God as relayed to the Prophet Muhammad, and burning the books en masse at a military incinerator was seen as an especially disrespectful affront.
President Barack Obama apologized for the incident and Mr. Karzai called for the American soldiers to be put on public trial in his country.
At the time, military officials said the books were sent for destruction after they determined that Afghan detainees were using them to relay messages and share extremist writing. Afghan leaders briefed on the initial investigation challenged that claim and said the books recovered from the landfill contained innocuous signatures from the detainees, not inflammatory notes.
Six U.S. soldiers involved in the incident are expected to be punished, which could come in the form of a letter of reprimand or a verbal admonishment, officials said.
The U.S. Navy dismissed administrative charges against a sailor who was also investigated in connection with the incident.
On Monday, the U.S. military is also expected to announce punishment for three of the Marines shown in a video urinating on the bodies of slain Taliban members.
The video, which became public in January after it appeared on YouTube, showed four Marines urinating on the corpses of militants.
"Have a great day, buddy," one of the Marines is heard saying.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta condemned the video, which was believed to have been filmed in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province in the spring or summer of 2011.
Investigators quickly determined the Marines in the video were from 3rd Battalion 2nd Marine Regiment, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Investigators concluded that the leadership of the Marines' platoon failed to create a proper "command climate," allowed discipline to slip and dishonorable behavior to occur.
In addition to disciplinary action against the Marines shown in the video, the Corps is taking action against the officers in charge of the unit, according to three military officials. Officials said that investigators found other questionable incidents in the unit, although none as serious as the urination incident, and other evidence of a breakdown in leadership.
Officials said one or more company-grade officers are likely to be punished later. The battalion commander of the Marine unit isn't expected to face discipline.
The punishments against the Marines, and likely for the Army soldiers, are expected to be career-ending, blocking service members from re-enlisting, officialssaid.
Both the Army and Marine Corps are shrinking, and service members with significant administrative actions against them are unlikely to be retained, officials said.
American officials decided to release the two investigations at the same time in an effort to contain any possible protests against the disciplinary actions.
American military officials said Mr. Karzai was briefed on the results of the investigations on Sunday. In an effort to tamp down any possible backlash, coalition officials have spent several days in Afghanistan speaking to political and religious leaders about the impending announcements.
Officials in Kabul were bracing for demonstrations, but expressed hope that there would be little public anger over the military decisions.
Write to Dion Nissenbaum at dion.nissenbaum@wsj.com
Afghanistan music festival organisers hope for repeat of last year's success
Asian Dub Foundation among bands who will perform at the Sound Central event next month
Guardian.co.uk By Emma Graham-Harrison Sunday 26 August 2012
Kabul - The usual waves of diplomats, soldiers, aid workers and journalists streaming through Kabul's international airport will be joined next month by an unlikely mix of BMX bikers, break dancers, musicians from UK electronica collective Asian Dub Foundation and rock bands from across Central Asia, arriving to perform at one of the world's most surprising music festivals.
The organisers of Sound Central defied the odds last year to stage the country's first music festival in decades, at the edge of a park laid out by the Mughal emperor Babur around 500 years ago.
Now they are planning an even bigger week of workshops, screenings and concerts in September, as a step towards making the festival an annual event.
And they have persuaded Asian Dub Foundation, whose eclectic credits include a 2006 opera about the former Libyan dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, and playful art group Future Cinema, who mix live music and theatre into cinema screenings, to put Afghanistan on their tour calendar.
"We like to go to places that are off the map, places that other people don't go to," said Asian Dub Foundation's Steve Savale, in a phone interview from Slovakia. "We don't discriminate against countries."
"A lot of our music is underpinned by pieces from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan so it makes sense to explore Afghan music as well and what better place to do it than Kabul."
Public concerts are still a rarity in deeply conservative Afghanistan, where the Taliban banned most music when they were in power and musicians can still come under heavy pressure.
Last week popular singer Shafiq Mureed cancelled a planned concert in the western city of Herat after mullahs condemned it as immoral, even though he planned to sing tributes to mothers and children, and patriotic songs, the local Tolo TV channel reported.
But with a very young population – over two-thirds of Afghans are under 25 – there is a huge appetite for music and art.
In the decade since the Taliban's removal from power Kabul has seen the creation of poetry groups, a contemporary art collective, and a string of bands; Afghanistan's first graffiti artists have also been trying to break the monotony of the city's blast walls and high compound enclosures.
"The festival last year was attended by men and women from all areas and ethnic groups of Afghanistan," said Sound Central organiser Travis Beard. "Afghans in Kabul are thirsty for alternative music in any form they can get it: live, online, from friends. We plan to supply that."
Future cinema will screen French film La Haine, the 1995 Mathieu Kassovitz portrayal of urban youth in the bleak suburbs of Paris, as part of the festival, that they believe will resonate with young Afghans despite some yawning cultural differences.
"It is such a powerful film, with I think quite a positive message overall. I hope it just perhaps opens up the idea of what young people can do and how they can actually try and make a change," said Fabien Riggall, the creative director of Future Cinema.
Kabul Municipality Official Sacked After Beating Cameraman
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 26 August 2012
A Kabul official was sacked after he was reported for abusing a cameraman who was filming the poor roads of Kabul near the airport.
TOLOnews cameraman Jawid Arezomand was beaten and verbally abused by Kabul Municipality's District 10 Head of Cleanliness on Sunday while filming Kabul Airport Avenue and its surrounds.
The official, Ghulam Rabbani, hit and reportedly threatened to kill Arezomand by driving his car into him when he saw the filming taking place.
According to other municipal officials, Rabbani was already sacked from his position later on Sunday.
Journalists and camerapersons frequently face harsh and violent reactions from the government officials and other powerful figures in Afghanistan.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com