Tweet
Afghan inside attack puts US troop deaths at 2,000
By HEIDI VOGT and RAHIM FAIEZ | Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An apparent insider attack by Afghan forces has killed a U.S. service member and a foreign civilian contractor with NATO, officials said Sunday. The shooting —the latest in a string of attacks on international troops by their Afghan allies — marked the 2,000th U.S. troop death in Afghanistan over the long-running conflict.
A U.S. official confirmed that the service member killed was American. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the nationality of the dead had not yet been formally announced.
At least two Afghan soldiers were also killed in Saturday's attack at an Afghan army checkpoint in Wardak province, said Shahidullah Shahid, a provincial government spokesman.
An Afghan soldier turned his gun on the Americans and started shooting, Shahid said. He said the checkpoint was in Sayd Abad district, just outside a joint U.S.-Afghan base.
"Initial reports indicate that a misunderstanding happened between Afghan army soldiers and American soldiers," Shahid said. He said investigators had been sent to the site to try to figure out what happened.
An Afghan military spokesman declined to comment.
Afghan soldiers and policemen — or militants in their uniforms — have gunned down more than 50 foreign troops so far this year, eroding the trust between coalition forces and their Afghan partners. An equal number of Afghan policemen and soldiers also died in these attacks, giving them reason as well to be suspicious of possible infiltrators within their ranks.
The attacks are taking a toll on the partnership between international and Afghan forces, prompting the U.S. military to restrict operations with small-sized Afghan units earlier this month.
The close contact — with coalition forces working side by side with Afghan troops as advisers, mentors and trainers — is a key part of the U.S. strategy for putting the Afghans in the lead as the U.S. and other nations prepare to pull out their last combat troops at the end of 2014, just 27 months away.
Gen. Allen: 'Mad as Hell' About Afghan Insider Attacks
VOA News September 30, 2012
The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan says he is "mad as hell" about attacks on Western troops by Afghan soldiers and police, known as "insider attacks."
General John Allen said in an interview with CBS's 60 Minutes, scheduled to air late Sunday, "we are willing to sacrifice a lot for this campaign, but we are not willing to be murdered for it."
Allen said that just as homemade bombs had become the signature weapon of the Iraq war, he believed that in Afghanistan, "the signature attack that we are beginning to see is going to be the insider attack."
A Taliban leader told CBS the insider attacks are part of the militant group's new military strategy. He said the Taliban has its people planted in the Afghan police and the army.
More than 50 international troops have been killed this year in a series of insider attacks. A similar number of Afghan security force members have been killed in such attacks.
Coalition officials originally had reported an insider attack late Saturday was responsible for the death of a U.S. soldier, foreign contractor, and three Afghan soldiers. But NATO has issued a statement saying the incident possibly involved insurgent fire and coalition and Afghan officials are still investigating.
Afghan forces also suffer from insider attacks
AP Sep 29, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan Army Sgt. Habibullah Hayar didn't know it, but he had been sleeping with his enemy for weeks.
Twenty days ago, one of his roommates was arrested for allegedly plotting an insider attack against their unit, which is partnered with NATO forces in eastern Paktia province.
Afghan soldiers and policemen - or militants in their uniforms - have gunned down more than 50 foreign troops so far this year, eroding the trust between coalition forces and their Afghan partners. An equal number of Afghan policemen and soldiers also died in these attacks, giving them reason as well to be suspicious of possible infiltrators within their ranks.
"It's not only foreigners. They are targeting Afghan security forces too," said the 21-year-old Hayar, who was in Kabul on leave. "Sometimes, I think what kind of situation is this that a Muslim cannot trust a Muslim - even a brother cannot trust a brother. It's so confused. Nobody knows what's going on."
The attacks are taking a toll on the partnership, prompting the U.S. military to restrict operations with small-sized Afghan units earlier this month.
The close contact - with coalition forces working side by side with Afghan troops as advisers, mentors and trainers - is a key part of the U.S. strategy for putting the Afghans in the lead as the U.S. and other nations prepare to pull out their last combat troops at the end of 2014, just 27 months away.
The U.S. military also has shown increasing anger over the attacks.
"I'm mad as hell about them, to be honest with you," Gen. John Allen, the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, told CBS' "60 Minutes" in an interview scheduled to be broadcast on Sunday. "It reverberates everywhere across the United States. You know, we're willing to sacrifice a lot for this campaign, but we're not willing to be murdered for it."
So far this year, 51 foreign troops - at least half of them Americans - have been killed in insider attacks. The Afghan government has not provided statistics on the number of its forces killed in insider attacks. However, U.S. military statistics obtained by The Associated Press show at least 53 members of the Afghan security forces had been killed as of the end of August.
A U.S. military official disclosed the numbers on condition of anonymity because he said it was up to Afghan officials to formally release the figures. An Afghan defense official who was shown the statistics said he had no reason to doubt their accuracy.
Overall, the statistics show that at least 135 Afghan policemen and soldiers have been killed in insider attacks since 2007. That's more than the 118 foreign service members - mostly Americans - killed in such attacks since then, according to NATO.
Typically, foreign troops are the main targets, but Afghan forces also have been killed by comrades angry over their collaboration with Westerners and many more get killed in the crossfire, Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Zahir Azimi said. He said the ministry did not have a breakdown of how many had been targeted or killed in gunbattles during the attacks.
In at least one instance, an Afghan police officer with alleged ties to militants, killed 10 of his fellow officers on Aug. 11 at a checkpoint in southwestern Nimroz province. An Afghan soldier also was killed on April 25 when a fellow soldier opened fire on a U.S. service member and his translator in Kandahar province, the southern birthplace of the Taliban.
Last year, a suicide bomber in an Afghan police uniform blew himself up May 28 in Takhar province, killing two NATO service members and four Afghans, including a senior police commander. And just a week before that, four Taliban fighters wearing suicide vests under police uniforms attacked a government building in Khost province, triggering a gunbattle that left three Afghan policemen and two Afghan soldiers dead. On April 16, an Afghan soldier walked into a meeting of NATO trainers and Afghan troops in Laghman province, blew himself up, killing five U.S. troops, four Afghan soldiers and an interpreter.
"It's difficult to know an attacker from a non-attacker when everybody is wearing a uniform, Hayar said.
The attacker was one of seven people rounded up earlier this month from various units within the Afghan National Army Corps 203, Hayar said. The corps covers the eastern Afghan provinces of Paktia, Paktika, Ghazni, Wardak, Logar and Khost.
"He was together with me in my room with some of my other colleagues. He had a long beard. We didn't know anything about him. We were living together, sleeping together," said Hayar, who has been in the Afghan army for 2 1/2 years.
He said the suspected infiltrator was identified after a Taliban militant arrested in Logar told his Afghan interrogators that members of the fundamentalist Islamic movement had infiltrated the corps and were planning imminent attacks. That prompted Hayar's superiors to start questioning soldiers in various units.
Hayar said his roommate's uneasy reaction raised suspicion, and investigators found Taliban songs saved to the memory card of his cell phone. He was then detained by Afghan intelligence officials and confessed he was a member of the Taliban and planned to stage attacks.
Hayar says he assumes his former bunkmate was probably going after foreign forces, but it makes him uncomfortable nevertheless.
"It's very hard to trust anybody - even a roommate," he said. "Whenever I'm not on duty, I lock my weapon and keep the key myself. I don't put my weapon under my pillow to sleep because maybe someone will grab it and shoot me with my own weapon."
To counter such attacks, the U.S. military earlier this year stopped training about 1,000 members of the Afghan Local Police, a controversial network of village-defense units. U.S. commanders have assigned some troops to be "guardian angels" who watch over their comrades even as they sleep. U.S. officials also recently ordered American troops to carry loaded weapons at all time, even when they are on their bases.
Then, after a string of insider attacks, Allen this month restricted operations carried out alongside with small-sized Afghan units. Coalition troops have routinely conducted patrols or manned outposts with small groups of Afghan counterparts, but Allen's directive said such operations would no longer be considered routine and required the approval of the regional commander.
For their part, Afghan authorities have detained or removed hundreds of soldiers as part of its effort to re-screen its security forces. The Ministry of Defense also released a 28-page training booklet this month that advises soldiers not to be personally offended when foreign troops do things Afghans view as deeply insulting.
The booklet urges them not to take revenge for foreign troops' social blunders, such as blowing their noses in public, stepping into a mosque with their shoes on, walking in front of a soldier who is praying or asking about their wives.
"Most of the coalition members are interested to share pictures of their families. It is not a big deal for them. If someone asks you about your family, especially the females in your family, don't think they are disrespecting you or trying to insult you," the booklet says.
"That is not the case. By asking such questions, they are trying to show that they want to learn more about you. You can very easily explain to them that nobody in Afghanistan would ask, especially about wives or females in the family."
---
Associated Press writers Amir Shah and Rahim Faiez in Kabul contributed to this report.
Afghan Attack Brings U.S. Troop Death Toll To 2,000
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan September 30, 2012
A U.S. official says a suspected insider attack by a member of Afghan security forces killed a U.S. soldier, bringing to 2,000 the number of U.S. military deaths in the 11-year-old conflict.
The U.S. official confirmed that the attack in eastern Wardak Province late on September 29 killed a U.S. soldier.
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said a NATO soldier and a foreign civilian contractor were killed in the incident which also resulted in Afghan Army casualties.
ISAF commander, Lieutenant General Adrian Bradshaw, told journalists in Kabul: "Very sadly, one ISAF soldier and one ISAF civilian contractor were killed together with three Afghan National Army personnel. That is the reporting we have so far."
ISAF provided no further details on the incident but said a joint investigation was under way.
Provincial government spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said the shooting was sparked by an apparent "misunderstanding."
"Due to some misunderstanding an exchange of fire has taken place between ISAF and ANA [Afghan National Army] soldiers," Shahid said. "There are casualties but the reason behind the misunderstanding, firing, and exact number of casualties is not known yet. Both forces are investigating the matter."
He said the shooting occurred at an Afghan Army checkpoint in the Syedabad district, just outside a joint U.S.-Afghan base.
Afghan officials said at least two Afghan soldiers were killed in the shoot-out.
Insider Attacks
At least 52 members of the NATO-led force have been killed this year in attacks in which members of Afghan security forces turn their weapons on their Western allies.
Two weeks ago, ISAF restricted joint operations with its Afghan partners following a dramatic rise in such assaults.
But U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on September 27 that most NATO-led troops have resumed joint operations with Afghan forces.
General John Allen, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan -- in an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" scheduled to be aired on September 30 -- said he was "mad as hell" about attacks by Afghan soldiers on Western troops.
Allen, according to excerpts from the interview released by the network, said "we're willing to sacrifice a lot for this campaign, but we're not willing to be murdered for it."
The Taliban routinely claim responsibility for insider attacks which they say were carried out by infiltrators.
NATO combat troops are set to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, but a key part of the strategy is that coalition soldiers will remain to work alongside and train Afghan troops.
The foreign policy debate Obama doesn’t want
Washington Post By David Ignatius September 29 , 2012
It’s embarrassing when President Obama’s risk-averse refusal to engage on foreign policy issues becomes so obvious that it’s a laugh line for the president of Iran.
“I do believe that some conversations and key issues must be talked about again once we come out of the other end of the political election atmosphere in the United States,” President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said cheekily in an interview last Sunday. I hate to say it, but on this matter the often-annoying Iranian leader is right.
Less than six weeks before the election, the Obama campaign’s theme song might as well be the old country-music favorite “Make the World Go Away.” This may be smart politics, but it’s not good governing: The way this campaign is going, the president will have a foreign affairs mandate for . . . nothing.
The “come back after Nov. 6” sign is most obvious with Iran. The other members of the “P5+1” negotiating group understand that the United States doesn’t want serious bargaining until after the election, lest Obama have to consider compromises that might make him look weak. So the talks with Iran that began last May dither along in technical discussions.
Ahmadinejad and some of his aides let slip during their visit to New York that they may be willing to offer a deal that would halt enrichment of uranium above 5 percent. Is this a good deal or not, in terms of U.S. and Israeli security? Sorry, come back later.
Will Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu keep his gun in the holster until after the polls close? The White House certainly hopes so. But someone should check the odds with Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate who is one of Mitt Romney’s biggest financial backers.
The Obama arm’s-length approach is evident with Egypt and the other nations convulsed by the Arab uprising. The United States is launching an innovative economic-assistance program to help Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood government. But you don’t hear much about it this election season. Nor is there much public discussion of the covert U.S. effort to aid the Syrian rebels, or the war in Yemen, or the god-awful mess in Iraq.
And though Obama was eloquent in his speech to the United Nations on Tuesday in eulogizing Christopher Stevens, America’s brave ambassador to Libya, the administration has been reluctant to talk about resurgent al-Qaeda operations in that country. One senses a desire to keep the lid on this explosive subject in the State Department’s effort to suppress CNN’s reporting of Stevens’s private diary, along with a commendable effort to protect the family’s privacy.
I’m told that the talk in the Libyan underground is about a “global intifada,” like what the new al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has been preaching for the past five years. But ask U.S. officials about that subject, and you get a “no comment.”
To be blunt: The administration has a lot invested in the public impression that al-Qaeda was vanquished when Osama bin Laden was killed on May 2, 2011. Obama would lose some of that luster if the public examined whether al-Qaeda is adopting a new, Zawahiri-led strategy of interweaving its operations with the unrest sweeping the Arab world. But this discussion is needed, and a responsible president should lead it, even during a presidential campaign.
Perhaps the most disheartening example of a topic that has been deep-sixed during campaign season is the war in Afghanistan. This month marked the end of the surge that President Obama ordered in December 2009, and troops are back to the pre-surge level of about 68,000. How fast will that number decline over the next year? Here again, we probably won’t know until after Election Day. Gen. John Allen, the commander of U.S. forces in Kabul, is preparing his recommendations, but officials say that this process of review will take . . . well, at least six weeks.
The president hasn’t really made any bones about his wait-till-later approach. He put it frankly to Dmitry Medvedev, then president of Russia, back in March when he thought the microphone was off: “This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility.”
This strategy of avoiding major foreign policy risks or decisions may help get Obama reelected. But he is robbing the country of a debate it needs to have — and denying himself the public understanding and support he will need to be an effective foreign policy president in a second term, if the “rope-a-dope” campaign should prove successful.
davidignatius@washpost.com
16 Taliban militants killed in one-day operations in Afghanistan: gov't
KABUL, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- A total of 16 Taliban militants have been killed in military operations in Afghanistan within the past 24 hours, the Afghan Interior Ministry said Sunday.
"Afghan national police, Afghan army, intelligence agency and the NATO-led coalition forces launched 10 joint cleanup operations in Sar-e-Pul, Kandahar, Uruzgan, Wardak, Logar, Herat, Farah, Ghor and Helmand provinces, killing 16 armed Taliban insurgents and detaining 22 others over the past 24 hours," the ministry said in a statement.
They also found and seized weapons, the statement said, without saying if there were any casualties on the side of security forces.
Up to 10 insurgents were also injured in the raids, it said.
However, the Taliban insurgent group, which announced the launching of an annual spring offensive from May 3 against Afghan and about 100,000 U.S. and NATO forces, has not to make comments yet.
Violence stalks women workers in Afghanistan
Reuters By Amie Ferris-Rotman Saturday, September 29, 2012
KABUL - Muzhgan Masoomi's attacker stabbed her 14 times with a thick blade used to slaughter animals, tearing wide gashes in her flesh before leaving the government worker for dead on the outskirts of the Afghan capital.
With a severe limp and no control over her bladder - caused by the blade scraping her spinal cord - the 22-year-old can no longer work at the Ministry of Public Works, where she was a financial assistant before the assault.
Women who pursue careers in ultra-conservative Afghanistan often face opposition in a society where often they are ostracised - or worse, brutalised - for mixing with men other than husbands or relatives.
Despite commitments to better the rights of women 11 years into the NATO-led war, some say the authorities need to do more to prevent violence against women who work, particularly in government roles.
There are now fears that as the 2014 deadline looms for most foreign troops to leave, opportunities for women in the public sphere could shrink as confidence weakens in the face of continuing violence.
"I have no enemies, no links to gangs, and look what has happened to me. The situation for women in this country is getting worse day by day," Masoomi told Reuters in her brightly lit home, a few minutes' walk from where she was stabbed.
Shaking her long black ponytail, Masoomi said of her assailant: "He didn't like women working out of the house". He threatened her with menacing phone calls and text messages in the months leading up to the attack.
Her parents said the attacker, a relative who worked as a policeman, was now behind bars over the stabbing.
The security concerns of male government workers are taken more seriously than those of women, said Colonel Sayed Omar Saboor, deputy director for gender and human rights at the Interior Ministry.
"Women who work are much bigger targets than men and the government needs to acknowledge this," Saboor said.
How well female government workers are protected was called into question in July when a suicide bomber targeted and killed Hanifa Safi, regional head of women's affairs in eastern Laghman province.
Authorities ignored repeated requests for protection, her family said afterwards. Laghman officials declined to comment.
"She was so worried about her future. The only time someone in the police even addressed the issue of her security was once the Taliban had killed her," said her son, Mohammad Tabriz Safi, 30.
NO SUPPORT
Officially the government must provide security - usually two bodyguards - for ministers, members of parliament and tribal elders, said Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi.
But women not in those senior roles, such as Safi or Masoomi, are in dire need of protection simply because of their gender, Saboor said.
But Sediqqi said it would be "very difficult" for the police to provide security and guards for everyone who works in government. There area about 74,000 women out of 363,000 state employees.
Muzhgan has only recently gathered enough strength to talk about her ordeal, which happened in late March.
With a degree in accounting and some English, Masoomi was a valuable asset to her ministry, where she worked on a UN-funded Afghanistan Peace and Reintegration Programme, bringing former Taliban fighters from the battlefield back into jobs.
But she said not a single person from her ministry came to help her, or gave encouragement after the attack.
"They didn't even come to see me. Financially, morally, I got nothing," she said, adding that members of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) took her to the hospital.
If she does not soon go abroad for surgery, she may never be able to work again. The ministry's deputy, Ahmad Farhad Waheed, said it had asked ISAF to look after her treatment, but the force said it was not down to them.
Afghan women have won back basic rights in education, voting and employment since the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001, but there is concern such freedoms will not be protected and may even be traded away as Kabul seeks a peace deal with the group.
"If a political solution between the Taliban and the government is reached, there is no doubt that women will need to be better protected," said Maria Bashir, the chief prosecutor for Herat province bordering Iran.
The only female prosecutor general in the country, Bashir has been threatened repeatedly and come under attack twice, when her house was set alight and another one firebombed.
Eight bodyguards escort Bashir to work each day, and six live in her house. All are paid for by the international community, she said.
In southern Afghanistan, concerns about what comes next
Washington Post By Kevin Sieff Sunday, September 30, 2012
GARMSIR, AFGHANISTAN - On the wall of his office in this district’s U.S. Marine headquarters, where other commanding officers might display photos of children and wives, Capt. Devin Blowes keeps a roster of bearded men whose names he’s recently learned to pronounce.
They are the same tribal elders Blowes’s predecessors relied on during some of the bloodiest battles of the war. Now, as the Marines draw down from southern Helmand province, these men will determine the future of Garmsir.
Tribal leaders are the backbone of this strategically vital region near Afghanistan’s southern border with Pakistan. If they refuse to support the government after NATO forces leave, U.S. officials say there’s a good chance the Taliban could make a vigorous return. But if traditional leaders present a united front against the insurgency, bolstering the legitimacy of the Afghan army and police, officials contend that a beleaguered Taliban won’t be able to reconquer the district.
Many tribal elders are still on the fence, engaging both the Taliban and the Americans just as the Marines complete their most dramatic withdrawal to date. More than half of the corps’ 17,000 troops will leave Helmand by the end of September. A year ago, they were dispersed across more than 60 bases and outposts in Garmsir alone — a measure of the importance they placed on beating back the insurgency in what was once a Taliban haven. By August, the stations were down to three.
That swift departure has made some of the elders pictured on Blowes’s wall nervous. He has sketched a red dot next to those who “play both sides” — men who shake his hand in district meetings but express doubts about the prospect of a post-Marine Helmand, hedging their bets by supporting the Taliban.
He has sketched a blue dot — a sign of trust and confidence in a district known for sordid alliances and obfuscation — next to only one face: a willowy elder from the influential Alizai tribe named Amir Shah Jan.
Since the Marines converged on southern Helmand in 2009, Jan has offered crucial guidance, often at his own peril. When his son was nearly killed by a suicide bomber, the Marines helped provide medical treatment. Last year, they facilitated his appointment as a local police commander. When he delivered information about the insurgency, officers listened carefully and often made arrests. Like other elders here, Jan is a key conduit to thousands of residents who are more conscious of the district’s tribal hierarchy than they are of the area’s newly installed political leadership.
Jan has long said that he needs the Marines for security. But the Marines might need him more than he needs them. If they can’t prevent the dot next to his picture from changing from blue to red, they risk losing hard-fought gains.
A strong head start
On paper, it looks as if the odds are in favor of the U.S.-backed government. There are about 3,000 Afghan soldiers and police in Garmsir and only 150 or so hardened Taliban fighters, according to a U.S. intelligence estimate. Although Garmsir was once the scene of major violence, ambushes and firefights in the district have largely subsided. The Marines describe their gift to the Afghans as “white space” — a strong head start against the Taliban. It’s a gift they know could be easily squandered.
“If the locals, particularly the elders, don’t trust their own government, they’re going to look for justice and protection elsewhere,” said one U.S. official in Garmsir.
Like many other Afghans in Garmsir, Jan assumes the American departure will hasten a Taliban ascension. So when he came to Forward Operating Base Delhi last month to meet with Marine and civilian leaders, it was with a sense of urgency.
Jan had a tip for the U.S. troops. He had recently turned in a man named Abdul Ali to the police — a local he described as a well-connected Talib. But rumor had it that Ali was going to bribe his way out of prison. The same thing had happened before, Jan said. He had turned Ali in to authorities, but he was later freed and went back to aiding the insurgency.
“We can’t let this happen again,” Jan said. He had crafted a letter signed by more than a dozen elders underscoring the point.
As they had during Jan’s past visits, the Marines nodded and scribbled notes. U.S. officials in Helmand acknowledged that it is not uncommon for guilty men to be released after paying bribes or pulling strings.
Later that evening, at a security briefing, Blowes told his men to follow up on Jan’s accusation.
“This is a guy we trust,” he said. “He has taken personal risks to work with us and to support the government.”
But Jan has little faith in the government, which he calls corrupt and ineffective. Within the past few months, the district police chief, district governor and top prosecutor have all been dismissed in separate cases of malfeasance.
“You’ve done a lot of good here,” Jan told Blowes. “But you failed to build a strong government.”
“We didn’t fail,” Blowes replied. “We just haven’t succeeded yet.”
Intertribal tensions
At FOB Delhi, Jan’s accusation about Ali came to symbolize his broader take on the injustice and ineptitude of the Afghan government. Maybe the Marines could prove him wrong, he hoped. Maybe there was still time to fix the system before they left. After all, he said, Abdul Ali’s release would mean a threat to his own life.
“If the Marines don’t stay until there is a good and transparent government, all the blood they lost here will be wasted,” he said.
But when Marines and Afghan police officers started interrogating Ali, the picture became more muddled.
Yes, Ali said, he had aided the insurgency; he had harbored members of the Taliban in his home. But he had done so only because Jan had threatened to steal his property and the Taliban had offered to protect him. This wasn’t about the insurgency or the government, he said. It was about a personal rivalry.
Abdul Ali’s defense appeared to check out. Even the Afghan detention roster said he was in custody for a “land dispute,” not for abetting the Taliban.
Suddenly, the Marines found themselves in the middle of a messy intertribal feud. Further complicating the judicial process: Abdul Ali had not formally confessed in an Afghan court to working with the Taliban.
“For now, we have nothing at all,” said Khiali Jan, head of the Helmand police force’s counterterrorism unit, after several weeks of investigating. “We’ve told the elders, if you don’t bring evidence and proof, we will have to release him.”
But the prospect of releasing Abdul Ali — and letting down Amir Shah Jan — was potentially devastating, even though the facts remained uncertain.
Southern Helmand is full of such vagaries. Eleven years into the war, the line between good and evil, ally and enemy, is as blurry as it has ever been.
Now, Amir Shah Jan is waiting — not only for a ruling on the Abdul Ali case but also for the more important verdict on the future of his district. The past few months of relative peace in Garmsir have been a rare glimpse into a vision he shares with the Marines.
“But for this to last,” he said, “everything needs to go right.”
Kabul - A City of Hope and Fear
With the US set to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan in 2014, what does the future hold for the country's capital?
Aljazeera By filmmaker John D McHugh 27 Sep 2012
Taking a stroll through the parks and bazaars of Kabul, Afghanistan's capital, after many years covering the war in the south and the east of the country, could have been both terrifying and liberating.
I was conscious that there was certainly a very real threat from suicide bombers and the “spectacular” attacks that garner international headlines, but in reality I found that after following US troops patrolling IED (improvised explosive device) infested orchards in Kandahar or climbing mountains swarming with Taliban fighters in Nuristan and Kunar, Kabul actually felt like a different, much safer world. For the moment at least.
Kabul is the beating heart of Afghanistan. It is the centre of politics and commerce and culture, the place to which all roads here lead. This is why the Mujahedeen battled the Soviets so hard here in the 1980's and why the Taliban fought so desperately to capture it during the brutal civil war that followed.
Now, though the Taliban know that while they cannot hope to reoccupy the city while international forces are in the country, keeping up attacks or at least maintaining the threat of attack, accomplishes two objectives. It acts as constant reminder to the politicians and public in the West that their troops should leave - and it reminds Afghans that once the foreigners are gone, the Taliban will be waiting.
It is true that the violence is still much worse in the provinces than in Kabul, but the Taliban, and their allies, the Haqqani network, are regularly able to bring fear and death to the very heart of the capital. This is quite a feat, considering the thousands of Afghan police and soldiers stationed on the streets, and manning the checkpoints that ring the city.
The Mayor of Kabul
Yet as the city holds it breath, waiting for the next assault, one man refuses to give up on Kabul.
It is the city's mayor Muhammad Yunus Nawandish, who is dedicated to putting capital back on its feet after so many years of destruction and decay. Ddubbed “the builder of Kabul,” he bluntly explains why his job will not let him relax - even for a minute. “The Kabul city is destroyed. It has to be rebuilt,” he says.
His commitment to that process is astonishing – as is his bravery in the face of considerable danger to his person.
He spends hours every day on the road, inspecting infrastructure construction projects, badgering suppliers and contractors, keeping the pressure up on his officials.
He is renowned for his hands on approach, fond of turning up unannounced at building sites and catching municipal staff unawares.
He is also dedicated to fighting corruption, particularly tackling what he calls “the land mafia,” which makes getting anything done in Kabul so difficult.
With warlords illegally grabbing land for development, often for putting up their own absurdly extravagant houses, the mayor’s determination is admirable, but very dangerous.
“Because the fight against corruption and the land mafia is not so easy, I purchased a piece of land for my grave,” he says, without a trace of fear.
The hard road ahead
But if things are bad now, the potential for even worse is on the horizon. In 2014, two major events will occur that threaten to undermine Kabul's achievements of the last 10 years. President Hamid Karzai will come to the end of his second term in office and is currently barred by the constitution from running for a third term. If (and some believe it is still an ‘if’) he follows the rules, then elections will bring a change of leadership.
But the last poll in 2009 was widely condemned as fraudulent by observers both domestic and foreign, and if the then runner-up, Dr Abdullah Abdullah, is to be believed, things will not be that different this time around.
“My hope was, my wish was, post-elections last time, that we all might have learned lessons. But unfortunately there we haven’t seen any sign of positive change,” he says.
When pressed on why, he is quick to lay the blame on his political adversary: “I don’t see the political will in the current leadership of Afghanistan, with President Karzai. There are areas where people are so fed up with local government, that they prefer Taliban.”
It may seem surprising to hear a senior politician, albeit one in opposition, admit that things have become so bad. But it is no surprise to Abdul Hakim Mujahid, the former Taliban envoy to the United Nations, and currently the grandly named first deputy of the High Peace Council. He says the reason is straightforward.
“From the very beginning the problem is the manipulation of power,” he says. This process, he adds, has been made much worse because it has excluded the Pashtuns – the ethnic group to which many Taliban belong.
It is a claim I have often heard in Afghanistan. And there is some truth to it. Since the Taliban were toppled in 2001, and the subsequent Bonn Conference laid out a structure for rebuilding Afghanistan’s political future, the Pashtuns have indeed been sidelined.
Security
The other major event set to affect Kabul in 2014 is the departure of the US troops by the end of that year. Often cited as a definite and final point of US withdrawal, it is actually slightly misleading, as US troops have already been leaving for the past few months following the scaling down of “the surge” as it is known.
But certainly, by the end of 2014 all conventional troops are scheduled to be out of the country. This means that as troops leave, some bases will be handed over to the Afghan army, and others will close.
Considering the Taliban have been able to project such huge control and fear over the population during the height of the US troop deployment, it seems almost certain that this influence will increase, and large swathes of land will fall to the Taliban again during 2013 and 2014. Kabul is particularly at risk as the Americans withdraw from Kunar, Laghman, and Kapisa provinces. Kabulis can read a map and know that this will open up a short and direct path from the insurgent’s camps in Pakistan, and make attacking their city so much easier.
No country for old men
Afghanistan is a country of the young. Three quarters of the country's population is under 30, and the average age is just 16.
Speaking to young people, they initially speak of their hope for the future, but within a few minutes they usually mention leaving the country.
“All the young people, the masters degree, the bachelors degree, who have studied, passed their time in education, one idea they have. They are leaving the country,” says Noorullah Noory, a young man who owns and runs a small internet café in Kabul.
“My friends, best friends, all left Afghanistan, because they are afraid of coming of Taliban.”
Indeed, it is a sad fact that despite 11 years of development projects in Kabul, and billions of dollars poured into the economy, there are still very few places for young people to go and relax.
One of the few is Skateistan, an NGO that uses skateboarding as a hook to hook to bring children and teenagers into their education programme.
According to its founder, Oliver Percovich, “the reason that we do what we’re doing is to build trust.” This means reaching out to the youth of Kabul, regardless of social class, ethnicity or gender. Remarkably over half of Skateistan’s pupils are marginalised street kids and nearly 40 per cent are girls.
“The biggest problem is that there is very little communication between different ethnicities,” Percovich explains, “and everybody is trying to solve problems by throwing financial capital at something that actually requires basic trust.”
Young skateboarder and Skateistan instructor, Madina Saidi, puts it more poetically. “When I skateboard I’m feeling like I am a bird,” she says. But she too fears for the future: “If the Taliban come, I will leave my country.”
Sadly, just a few days after I interviewed her, the children of Skateistan were caught up in a suicide bombing. Madina had just stepped into a building, and escaped the blast. But five of her friends were not so lucky, and died in the explosion.
2014 and beyond
In two years time, the people of Kabul will again watch a superpower’s troops pack up and leave.
As they withdraw, much of the aid money that has kept this country afloat for the last ten years will go with them. That could totally undermine the already fragile confidence of the Afghan business community; several company bosses - and not a few politicians - are known to be quietly planning their departure.
As for Kabul, whether the Taliban could actually retake the capital after 2014 is still open to question. But as we found, most people here expect them to try.
With worsening security and a government losing legitimacy, all-out civil war is a very real threat.
If that happens, the progress the city has made in the last decade could again be thrown into reverse – and this time it might never recover.
5 Foreign Airlines Assessing Prospects in Afghanistan
TOLOnews.com By Zabihullah Jehanmal Saturday, 29 September 2012
Another five foreign airlines are interested in investing in Afghanistan, with at least two expected to begin flights to the country soon, the Afghan Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation (MTCA) told TOLOnews.
MTCA minister Daoud Ali Najafi said Thursday that five foreign airlines, different to the eight already operating in Afghanistan, were showing an interest in opening routes to the country and "two of them will soon start flying".
Najafi identified four of the countries the airlines were based in – Switzerland, Holland, Austria and Thailand – but did not name the specific carriers.
Najafi said that he expected the introduction of the airlines would be good for the local industry, forcing them to compete with the international standards and prices.
"The investment of the airlines will have a good impact on the local airline services and we will ensure there are no violations through price dumping ," Najafi told TOLOnews.
Price dumping refers to the practice of foreign companies selling products or services at prices below the local providers, forcing local prices to drop.
Najafi added that according to the aviation services agreement with foreign countries, as long as Afghan airlines have operations in another countries, those other countries' carriers can launch an equivalent number of services in Afghanistan.
He said that the Turkish government has also pledged to help the ministry in terms of training aviation staff, flight safety, and traffic experts.
However, officials some of the private airline companies in Afghanistan have expressed concerns to TOLOnews in the past that the foreign airlines may introduce unhealthy competition inside the country.
The officials said that the government needed to support the national companies as they are only new companies without the means to fight the large carriers seeking a piece of the Afghan-regional market.
However the Ministry has responded that the investment of the airlines will improve services through the competition it introduces.
At least eight foreign airline are active in Afghanistan including Fly Dubai, Turkish Airways, Air India, Sky Airlines, Gulf Air, SpiceJet, and Pakistan International Airlines.
Isaf Refutes Helmand Police Chief's Airstrike Account
TOLOnews.com Saturday, 29 September 2012
Isaf dismissed reports of a Nato airstrike in southern Helmand province Friday which allegedly killed 10 insurgents saying it had no operational reporting of the incident.
Helmand provincial police chief Farid Ahmad Farhang told TOLOnews Saturday that coalition forces had conducted an airstrike around 5:00PM in the province's Marjeh district.
"Reports showed that insurgents were using the place for planning an attack against government and Nato troops. The suicide bombers have been training in the area and from it carried out suicide attacks," he said.
"An insurgent who was killed during the operation was wearing a suicide vest," he added.
Farhang said that there were no civilian casualties and it was as Isaf only operation – no Afghan forces were involved in the initial threat assessment.
Isaf Joint Command spokesman Lt. Col. Hagen Messer told TOLOnews that according to Isaf reports there have been no airstrikes in Helmand in the past week.
"We checked back to September 22 and we have no operational reporting that this occurred. In my point of view this information is wrong," he said.
The news comes after US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Thursday said that the Nato-led troops have resumed most of their joint operations with Afghan forces after the decision to restrict patrols a few weeks ago over "insider" attacks.
"I can now report to you that most Isaf units have returned to their normal partnered options at all levels," Panetta told a news conference.
Top US military officer Gen. Martin Dempsey also attended the briefing, and both insisted the partnership was effectively back to normal although there is a new approval process in place which requires two-star generals to endorse any joint patrols below the battalion level.
Meanwhile, Afghan special forces undertook a military operation in western Herat province's Shindand district Friday night, according to officials.
Afghan commandos spokesman in Shindand, Mohammad Mahdi, said the operation was launched in the Zer-e Koh region and resulted in the death of six insurgents.
Mahdi added that Mullah Hassan, the Taliban's nominated district governor, and Mullah Akhtar, Taliban district operational leader, were among those killed in the operation.
There were no military casualties, he added.
Students Block Parliament to Protest Rabbani University
TOLOnews.com By Saleha Soadat Saturday, 29 September 2012
University students in Kabul began their sixth day of protest over the renaming of one of the Afghan capital's universities after former Afghan President and Jihadi leader Burhanuddin Rabbani.
Starting from 7:00AM, more than 300 students blocked the entrance to Parliament on Saturday to prevent lawmakers from entering and force them to reconsider changing the names of the Education and Training University and Polytechnic Road to Martyr of Peace Burhanuddin Rabbani.
The first day of protesting took place on the campus of the Education University last Sunday after President Hamid Karzai announced the renaming to honour the first anniversary of the death of Rabbani on September 20, killed by a suicide bomber posing as a Taliban peace emissary.
Rabbani was Afghanistan's highest peace envoy at the time, chairing the High Peace Council.
Protestors have said during the week that they reject the change because Rabbani was a controversial political figure and students do not want to study under his name.
They carried placards reading slogans such as "We are ready to continue under the name of Education and Training University."
One of the students told TOLOnews that little study has been done since Karzai announced the name change.
"In the past two weeks, we haven't studied. Who will give us the answer? The students do not want to be involved in shameless political games of leaders," he said.
Other students said some of the MPs physically threatened the protesters and one vehicle belonging to a lawmaker hit demonstrators, but this could not be verified.
Herat MP Qazi Nazir Ahmad Hanafi told TOLOnews that "the protesters were blocking the way when my car was entering in Parliament and starting punching on the mirrors. But I am not complaining about it."
Kabul MP Shukria Barikzai appeared to agree with the students' demands.
"Why is the government doing this? The government knows that the people of Afghanistan have very bitter memories from the Jihadi and political leaders of the past four decades," she said.
The protesters threatened that if Karzai does not withdraw Rabbani from the university's name, they will demonstrate using violence and the President will be responsible for it.
Anti-Corruption Office Laments Failure to Prosecute
TOLOnews.com By Sharif Amiry Saturday, 29 September 2012
Afghanistan's anti-corruption watchdog said Saturday it is reluctant to send corruption cases to the country's Attorney General because of the inaction of the prosecutor to date.
The chief of the High Office of Oversight and Anti-Corruption Azizullah Lodin told TOLOnews he has been disheartened over the past experiences of sending cases to the Attorney General relating to high-ranking officials where were never acted upon.
"As in the past, if we raise our voice, we will not see any good outcome," Lodin said, warning that the problem of systemic government corruption will not be resolved until the officials with evidence against them are put on trial.
He went on that Afghanistan is known as one of the most corrupt countries in the world which, if not addressed, will ultimately destroy the government.
"The law is not being applied to high-ranking officials, so this will create a gap between the people and government and the result is destruction," he said in the interview Saturday.
Lodin lamented that despite the presidential decree to fight corruption as a government priority, there has been no clarity as to what plan this fight will take and how the government will deal with documents showing corruption among officials.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
By HEIDI VOGT and RAHIM FAIEZ | Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An apparent insider attack by Afghan forces has killed a U.S. service member and a foreign civilian contractor with NATO, officials said Sunday. The shooting —the latest in a string of attacks on international troops by their Afghan allies — marked the 2,000th U.S. troop death in Afghanistan over the long-running conflict.
A U.S. official confirmed that the service member killed was American. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the nationality of the dead had not yet been formally announced.
At least two Afghan soldiers were also killed in Saturday's attack at an Afghan army checkpoint in Wardak province, said Shahidullah Shahid, a provincial government spokesman.
An Afghan soldier turned his gun on the Americans and started shooting, Shahid said. He said the checkpoint was in Sayd Abad district, just outside a joint U.S.-Afghan base.
"Initial reports indicate that a misunderstanding happened between Afghan army soldiers and American soldiers," Shahid said. He said investigators had been sent to the site to try to figure out what happened.
An Afghan military spokesman declined to comment.
Afghan soldiers and policemen — or militants in their uniforms — have gunned down more than 50 foreign troops so far this year, eroding the trust between coalition forces and their Afghan partners. An equal number of Afghan policemen and soldiers also died in these attacks, giving them reason as well to be suspicious of possible infiltrators within their ranks.
The attacks are taking a toll on the partnership between international and Afghan forces, prompting the U.S. military to restrict operations with small-sized Afghan units earlier this month.
The close contact — with coalition forces working side by side with Afghan troops as advisers, mentors and trainers — is a key part of the U.S. strategy for putting the Afghans in the lead as the U.S. and other nations prepare to pull out their last combat troops at the end of 2014, just 27 months away.
Gen. Allen: 'Mad as Hell' About Afghan Insider Attacks
VOA News September 30, 2012
The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan says he is "mad as hell" about attacks on Western troops by Afghan soldiers and police, known as "insider attacks."
General John Allen said in an interview with CBS's 60 Minutes, scheduled to air late Sunday, "we are willing to sacrifice a lot for this campaign, but we are not willing to be murdered for it."
Allen said that just as homemade bombs had become the signature weapon of the Iraq war, he believed that in Afghanistan, "the signature attack that we are beginning to see is going to be the insider attack."
A Taliban leader told CBS the insider attacks are part of the militant group's new military strategy. He said the Taliban has its people planted in the Afghan police and the army.
More than 50 international troops have been killed this year in a series of insider attacks. A similar number of Afghan security force members have been killed in such attacks.
Coalition officials originally had reported an insider attack late Saturday was responsible for the death of a U.S. soldier, foreign contractor, and three Afghan soldiers. But NATO has issued a statement saying the incident possibly involved insurgent fire and coalition and Afghan officials are still investigating.
Afghan forces also suffer from insider attacks
AP Sep 29, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan Army Sgt. Habibullah Hayar didn't know it, but he had been sleeping with his enemy for weeks.
Twenty days ago, one of his roommates was arrested for allegedly plotting an insider attack against their unit, which is partnered with NATO forces in eastern Paktia province.
Afghan soldiers and policemen - or militants in their uniforms - have gunned down more than 50 foreign troops so far this year, eroding the trust between coalition forces and their Afghan partners. An equal number of Afghan policemen and soldiers also died in these attacks, giving them reason as well to be suspicious of possible infiltrators within their ranks.
"It's not only foreigners. They are targeting Afghan security forces too," said the 21-year-old Hayar, who was in Kabul on leave. "Sometimes, I think what kind of situation is this that a Muslim cannot trust a Muslim - even a brother cannot trust a brother. It's so confused. Nobody knows what's going on."
The attacks are taking a toll on the partnership, prompting the U.S. military to restrict operations with small-sized Afghan units earlier this month.
The close contact - with coalition forces working side by side with Afghan troops as advisers, mentors and trainers - is a key part of the U.S. strategy for putting the Afghans in the lead as the U.S. and other nations prepare to pull out their last combat troops at the end of 2014, just 27 months away.
The U.S. military also has shown increasing anger over the attacks.
"I'm mad as hell about them, to be honest with you," Gen. John Allen, the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, told CBS' "60 Minutes" in an interview scheduled to be broadcast on Sunday. "It reverberates everywhere across the United States. You know, we're willing to sacrifice a lot for this campaign, but we're not willing to be murdered for it."
So far this year, 51 foreign troops - at least half of them Americans - have been killed in insider attacks. The Afghan government has not provided statistics on the number of its forces killed in insider attacks. However, U.S. military statistics obtained by The Associated Press show at least 53 members of the Afghan security forces had been killed as of the end of August.
A U.S. military official disclosed the numbers on condition of anonymity because he said it was up to Afghan officials to formally release the figures. An Afghan defense official who was shown the statistics said he had no reason to doubt their accuracy.
Overall, the statistics show that at least 135 Afghan policemen and soldiers have been killed in insider attacks since 2007. That's more than the 118 foreign service members - mostly Americans - killed in such attacks since then, according to NATO.
Typically, foreign troops are the main targets, but Afghan forces also have been killed by comrades angry over their collaboration with Westerners and many more get killed in the crossfire, Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Zahir Azimi said. He said the ministry did not have a breakdown of how many had been targeted or killed in gunbattles during the attacks.
In at least one instance, an Afghan police officer with alleged ties to militants, killed 10 of his fellow officers on Aug. 11 at a checkpoint in southwestern Nimroz province. An Afghan soldier also was killed on April 25 when a fellow soldier opened fire on a U.S. service member and his translator in Kandahar province, the southern birthplace of the Taliban.
Last year, a suicide bomber in an Afghan police uniform blew himself up May 28 in Takhar province, killing two NATO service members and four Afghans, including a senior police commander. And just a week before that, four Taliban fighters wearing suicide vests under police uniforms attacked a government building in Khost province, triggering a gunbattle that left three Afghan policemen and two Afghan soldiers dead. On April 16, an Afghan soldier walked into a meeting of NATO trainers and Afghan troops in Laghman province, blew himself up, killing five U.S. troops, four Afghan soldiers and an interpreter.
"It's difficult to know an attacker from a non-attacker when everybody is wearing a uniform, Hayar said.
The attacker was one of seven people rounded up earlier this month from various units within the Afghan National Army Corps 203, Hayar said. The corps covers the eastern Afghan provinces of Paktia, Paktika, Ghazni, Wardak, Logar and Khost.
"He was together with me in my room with some of my other colleagues. He had a long beard. We didn't know anything about him. We were living together, sleeping together," said Hayar, who has been in the Afghan army for 2 1/2 years.
He said the suspected infiltrator was identified after a Taliban militant arrested in Logar told his Afghan interrogators that members of the fundamentalist Islamic movement had infiltrated the corps and were planning imminent attacks. That prompted Hayar's superiors to start questioning soldiers in various units.
Hayar said his roommate's uneasy reaction raised suspicion, and investigators found Taliban songs saved to the memory card of his cell phone. He was then detained by Afghan intelligence officials and confessed he was a member of the Taliban and planned to stage attacks.
Hayar says he assumes his former bunkmate was probably going after foreign forces, but it makes him uncomfortable nevertheless.
"It's very hard to trust anybody - even a roommate," he said. "Whenever I'm not on duty, I lock my weapon and keep the key myself. I don't put my weapon under my pillow to sleep because maybe someone will grab it and shoot me with my own weapon."
To counter such attacks, the U.S. military earlier this year stopped training about 1,000 members of the Afghan Local Police, a controversial network of village-defense units. U.S. commanders have assigned some troops to be "guardian angels" who watch over their comrades even as they sleep. U.S. officials also recently ordered American troops to carry loaded weapons at all time, even when they are on their bases.
Then, after a string of insider attacks, Allen this month restricted operations carried out alongside with small-sized Afghan units. Coalition troops have routinely conducted patrols or manned outposts with small groups of Afghan counterparts, but Allen's directive said such operations would no longer be considered routine and required the approval of the regional commander.
For their part, Afghan authorities have detained or removed hundreds of soldiers as part of its effort to re-screen its security forces. The Ministry of Defense also released a 28-page training booklet this month that advises soldiers not to be personally offended when foreign troops do things Afghans view as deeply insulting.
The booklet urges them not to take revenge for foreign troops' social blunders, such as blowing their noses in public, stepping into a mosque with their shoes on, walking in front of a soldier who is praying or asking about their wives.
"Most of the coalition members are interested to share pictures of their families. It is not a big deal for them. If someone asks you about your family, especially the females in your family, don't think they are disrespecting you or trying to insult you," the booklet says.
"That is not the case. By asking such questions, they are trying to show that they want to learn more about you. You can very easily explain to them that nobody in Afghanistan would ask, especially about wives or females in the family."
---
Associated Press writers Amir Shah and Rahim Faiez in Kabul contributed to this report.
Afghan Attack Brings U.S. Troop Death Toll To 2,000
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan September 30, 2012
A U.S. official says a suspected insider attack by a member of Afghan security forces killed a U.S. soldier, bringing to 2,000 the number of U.S. military deaths in the 11-year-old conflict.
The U.S. official confirmed that the attack in eastern Wardak Province late on September 29 killed a U.S. soldier.
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said a NATO soldier and a foreign civilian contractor were killed in the incident which also resulted in Afghan Army casualties.
ISAF commander, Lieutenant General Adrian Bradshaw, told journalists in Kabul: "Very sadly, one ISAF soldier and one ISAF civilian contractor were killed together with three Afghan National Army personnel. That is the reporting we have so far."
ISAF provided no further details on the incident but said a joint investigation was under way.
Provincial government spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said the shooting was sparked by an apparent "misunderstanding."
"Due to some misunderstanding an exchange of fire has taken place between ISAF and ANA [Afghan National Army] soldiers," Shahid said. "There are casualties but the reason behind the misunderstanding, firing, and exact number of casualties is not known yet. Both forces are investigating the matter."
He said the shooting occurred at an Afghan Army checkpoint in the Syedabad district, just outside a joint U.S.-Afghan base.
Afghan officials said at least two Afghan soldiers were killed in the shoot-out.
Insider Attacks
At least 52 members of the NATO-led force have been killed this year in attacks in which members of Afghan security forces turn their weapons on their Western allies.
Two weeks ago, ISAF restricted joint operations with its Afghan partners following a dramatic rise in such assaults.
But U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on September 27 that most NATO-led troops have resumed joint operations with Afghan forces.
General John Allen, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan -- in an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" scheduled to be aired on September 30 -- said he was "mad as hell" about attacks by Afghan soldiers on Western troops.
Allen, according to excerpts from the interview released by the network, said "we're willing to sacrifice a lot for this campaign, but we're not willing to be murdered for it."
The Taliban routinely claim responsibility for insider attacks which they say were carried out by infiltrators.
NATO combat troops are set to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, but a key part of the strategy is that coalition soldiers will remain to work alongside and train Afghan troops.
The foreign policy debate Obama doesn’t want
Washington Post By David Ignatius September 29 , 2012
It’s embarrassing when President Obama’s risk-averse refusal to engage on foreign policy issues becomes so obvious that it’s a laugh line for the president of Iran.
“I do believe that some conversations and key issues must be talked about again once we come out of the other end of the political election atmosphere in the United States,” President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said cheekily in an interview last Sunday. I hate to say it, but on this matter the often-annoying Iranian leader is right.
Less than six weeks before the election, the Obama campaign’s theme song might as well be the old country-music favorite “Make the World Go Away.” This may be smart politics, but it’s not good governing: The way this campaign is going, the president will have a foreign affairs mandate for . . . nothing.
The “come back after Nov. 6” sign is most obvious with Iran. The other members of the “P5+1” negotiating group understand that the United States doesn’t want serious bargaining until after the election, lest Obama have to consider compromises that might make him look weak. So the talks with Iran that began last May dither along in technical discussions.
Ahmadinejad and some of his aides let slip during their visit to New York that they may be willing to offer a deal that would halt enrichment of uranium above 5 percent. Is this a good deal or not, in terms of U.S. and Israeli security? Sorry, come back later.
Will Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu keep his gun in the holster until after the polls close? The White House certainly hopes so. But someone should check the odds with Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate who is one of Mitt Romney’s biggest financial backers.
The Obama arm’s-length approach is evident with Egypt and the other nations convulsed by the Arab uprising. The United States is launching an innovative economic-assistance program to help Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood government. But you don’t hear much about it this election season. Nor is there much public discussion of the covert U.S. effort to aid the Syrian rebels, or the war in Yemen, or the god-awful mess in Iraq.
And though Obama was eloquent in his speech to the United Nations on Tuesday in eulogizing Christopher Stevens, America’s brave ambassador to Libya, the administration has been reluctant to talk about resurgent al-Qaeda operations in that country. One senses a desire to keep the lid on this explosive subject in the State Department’s effort to suppress CNN’s reporting of Stevens’s private diary, along with a commendable effort to protect the family’s privacy.
I’m told that the talk in the Libyan underground is about a “global intifada,” like what the new al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has been preaching for the past five years. But ask U.S. officials about that subject, and you get a “no comment.”
To be blunt: The administration has a lot invested in the public impression that al-Qaeda was vanquished when Osama bin Laden was killed on May 2, 2011. Obama would lose some of that luster if the public examined whether al-Qaeda is adopting a new, Zawahiri-led strategy of interweaving its operations with the unrest sweeping the Arab world. But this discussion is needed, and a responsible president should lead it, even during a presidential campaign.
Perhaps the most disheartening example of a topic that has been deep-sixed during campaign season is the war in Afghanistan. This month marked the end of the surge that President Obama ordered in December 2009, and troops are back to the pre-surge level of about 68,000. How fast will that number decline over the next year? Here again, we probably won’t know until after Election Day. Gen. John Allen, the commander of U.S. forces in Kabul, is preparing his recommendations, but officials say that this process of review will take . . . well, at least six weeks.
The president hasn’t really made any bones about his wait-till-later approach. He put it frankly to Dmitry Medvedev, then president of Russia, back in March when he thought the microphone was off: “This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility.”
This strategy of avoiding major foreign policy risks or decisions may help get Obama reelected. But he is robbing the country of a debate it needs to have — and denying himself the public understanding and support he will need to be an effective foreign policy president in a second term, if the “rope-a-dope” campaign should prove successful.
davidignatius@washpost.com
16 Taliban militants killed in one-day operations in Afghanistan: gov't
KABUL, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- A total of 16 Taliban militants have been killed in military operations in Afghanistan within the past 24 hours, the Afghan Interior Ministry said Sunday.
"Afghan national police, Afghan army, intelligence agency and the NATO-led coalition forces launched 10 joint cleanup operations in Sar-e-Pul, Kandahar, Uruzgan, Wardak, Logar, Herat, Farah, Ghor and Helmand provinces, killing 16 armed Taliban insurgents and detaining 22 others over the past 24 hours," the ministry said in a statement.
They also found and seized weapons, the statement said, without saying if there were any casualties on the side of security forces.
Up to 10 insurgents were also injured in the raids, it said.
However, the Taliban insurgent group, which announced the launching of an annual spring offensive from May 3 against Afghan and about 100,000 U.S. and NATO forces, has not to make comments yet.
Violence stalks women workers in Afghanistan
Reuters By Amie Ferris-Rotman Saturday, September 29, 2012
KABUL - Muzhgan Masoomi's attacker stabbed her 14 times with a thick blade used to slaughter animals, tearing wide gashes in her flesh before leaving the government worker for dead on the outskirts of the Afghan capital.
With a severe limp and no control over her bladder - caused by the blade scraping her spinal cord - the 22-year-old can no longer work at the Ministry of Public Works, where she was a financial assistant before the assault.
Women who pursue careers in ultra-conservative Afghanistan often face opposition in a society where often they are ostracised - or worse, brutalised - for mixing with men other than husbands or relatives.
Despite commitments to better the rights of women 11 years into the NATO-led war, some say the authorities need to do more to prevent violence against women who work, particularly in government roles.
There are now fears that as the 2014 deadline looms for most foreign troops to leave, opportunities for women in the public sphere could shrink as confidence weakens in the face of continuing violence.
"I have no enemies, no links to gangs, and look what has happened to me. The situation for women in this country is getting worse day by day," Masoomi told Reuters in her brightly lit home, a few minutes' walk from where she was stabbed.
Shaking her long black ponytail, Masoomi said of her assailant: "He didn't like women working out of the house". He threatened her with menacing phone calls and text messages in the months leading up to the attack.
Her parents said the attacker, a relative who worked as a policeman, was now behind bars over the stabbing.
The security concerns of male government workers are taken more seriously than those of women, said Colonel Sayed Omar Saboor, deputy director for gender and human rights at the Interior Ministry.
"Women who work are much bigger targets than men and the government needs to acknowledge this," Saboor said.
How well female government workers are protected was called into question in July when a suicide bomber targeted and killed Hanifa Safi, regional head of women's affairs in eastern Laghman province.
Authorities ignored repeated requests for protection, her family said afterwards. Laghman officials declined to comment.
"She was so worried about her future. The only time someone in the police even addressed the issue of her security was once the Taliban had killed her," said her son, Mohammad Tabriz Safi, 30.
NO SUPPORT
Officially the government must provide security - usually two bodyguards - for ministers, members of parliament and tribal elders, said Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi.
But women not in those senior roles, such as Safi or Masoomi, are in dire need of protection simply because of their gender, Saboor said.
But Sediqqi said it would be "very difficult" for the police to provide security and guards for everyone who works in government. There area about 74,000 women out of 363,000 state employees.
Muzhgan has only recently gathered enough strength to talk about her ordeal, which happened in late March.
With a degree in accounting and some English, Masoomi was a valuable asset to her ministry, where she worked on a UN-funded Afghanistan Peace and Reintegration Programme, bringing former Taliban fighters from the battlefield back into jobs.
But she said not a single person from her ministry came to help her, or gave encouragement after the attack.
"They didn't even come to see me. Financially, morally, I got nothing," she said, adding that members of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) took her to the hospital.
If she does not soon go abroad for surgery, she may never be able to work again. The ministry's deputy, Ahmad Farhad Waheed, said it had asked ISAF to look after her treatment, but the force said it was not down to them.
Afghan women have won back basic rights in education, voting and employment since the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001, but there is concern such freedoms will not be protected and may even be traded away as Kabul seeks a peace deal with the group.
"If a political solution between the Taliban and the government is reached, there is no doubt that women will need to be better protected," said Maria Bashir, the chief prosecutor for Herat province bordering Iran.
The only female prosecutor general in the country, Bashir has been threatened repeatedly and come under attack twice, when her house was set alight and another one firebombed.
Eight bodyguards escort Bashir to work each day, and six live in her house. All are paid for by the international community, she said.
In southern Afghanistan, concerns about what comes next
Washington Post By Kevin Sieff Sunday, September 30, 2012
GARMSIR, AFGHANISTAN - On the wall of his office in this district’s U.S. Marine headquarters, where other commanding officers might display photos of children and wives, Capt. Devin Blowes keeps a roster of bearded men whose names he’s recently learned to pronounce.
They are the same tribal elders Blowes’s predecessors relied on during some of the bloodiest battles of the war. Now, as the Marines draw down from southern Helmand province, these men will determine the future of Garmsir.
Tribal leaders are the backbone of this strategically vital region near Afghanistan’s southern border with Pakistan. If they refuse to support the government after NATO forces leave, U.S. officials say there’s a good chance the Taliban could make a vigorous return. But if traditional leaders present a united front against the insurgency, bolstering the legitimacy of the Afghan army and police, officials contend that a beleaguered Taliban won’t be able to reconquer the district.
Many tribal elders are still on the fence, engaging both the Taliban and the Americans just as the Marines complete their most dramatic withdrawal to date. More than half of the corps’ 17,000 troops will leave Helmand by the end of September. A year ago, they were dispersed across more than 60 bases and outposts in Garmsir alone — a measure of the importance they placed on beating back the insurgency in what was once a Taliban haven. By August, the stations were down to three.
That swift departure has made some of the elders pictured on Blowes’s wall nervous. He has sketched a red dot next to those who “play both sides” — men who shake his hand in district meetings but express doubts about the prospect of a post-Marine Helmand, hedging their bets by supporting the Taliban.
He has sketched a blue dot — a sign of trust and confidence in a district known for sordid alliances and obfuscation — next to only one face: a willowy elder from the influential Alizai tribe named Amir Shah Jan.
Since the Marines converged on southern Helmand in 2009, Jan has offered crucial guidance, often at his own peril. When his son was nearly killed by a suicide bomber, the Marines helped provide medical treatment. Last year, they facilitated his appointment as a local police commander. When he delivered information about the insurgency, officers listened carefully and often made arrests. Like other elders here, Jan is a key conduit to thousands of residents who are more conscious of the district’s tribal hierarchy than they are of the area’s newly installed political leadership.
Jan has long said that he needs the Marines for security. But the Marines might need him more than he needs them. If they can’t prevent the dot next to his picture from changing from blue to red, they risk losing hard-fought gains.
A strong head start
On paper, it looks as if the odds are in favor of the U.S.-backed government. There are about 3,000 Afghan soldiers and police in Garmsir and only 150 or so hardened Taliban fighters, according to a U.S. intelligence estimate. Although Garmsir was once the scene of major violence, ambushes and firefights in the district have largely subsided. The Marines describe their gift to the Afghans as “white space” — a strong head start against the Taliban. It’s a gift they know could be easily squandered.
“If the locals, particularly the elders, don’t trust their own government, they’re going to look for justice and protection elsewhere,” said one U.S. official in Garmsir.
Like many other Afghans in Garmsir, Jan assumes the American departure will hasten a Taliban ascension. So when he came to Forward Operating Base Delhi last month to meet with Marine and civilian leaders, it was with a sense of urgency.
Jan had a tip for the U.S. troops. He had recently turned in a man named Abdul Ali to the police — a local he described as a well-connected Talib. But rumor had it that Ali was going to bribe his way out of prison. The same thing had happened before, Jan said. He had turned Ali in to authorities, but he was later freed and went back to aiding the insurgency.
“We can’t let this happen again,” Jan said. He had crafted a letter signed by more than a dozen elders underscoring the point.
As they had during Jan’s past visits, the Marines nodded and scribbled notes. U.S. officials in Helmand acknowledged that it is not uncommon for guilty men to be released after paying bribes or pulling strings.
Later that evening, at a security briefing, Blowes told his men to follow up on Jan’s accusation.
“This is a guy we trust,” he said. “He has taken personal risks to work with us and to support the government.”
But Jan has little faith in the government, which he calls corrupt and ineffective. Within the past few months, the district police chief, district governor and top prosecutor have all been dismissed in separate cases of malfeasance.
“You’ve done a lot of good here,” Jan told Blowes. “But you failed to build a strong government.”
“We didn’t fail,” Blowes replied. “We just haven’t succeeded yet.”
Intertribal tensions
At FOB Delhi, Jan’s accusation about Ali came to symbolize his broader take on the injustice and ineptitude of the Afghan government. Maybe the Marines could prove him wrong, he hoped. Maybe there was still time to fix the system before they left. After all, he said, Abdul Ali’s release would mean a threat to his own life.
“If the Marines don’t stay until there is a good and transparent government, all the blood they lost here will be wasted,” he said.
But when Marines and Afghan police officers started interrogating Ali, the picture became more muddled.
Yes, Ali said, he had aided the insurgency; he had harbored members of the Taliban in his home. But he had done so only because Jan had threatened to steal his property and the Taliban had offered to protect him. This wasn’t about the insurgency or the government, he said. It was about a personal rivalry.
Abdul Ali’s defense appeared to check out. Even the Afghan detention roster said he was in custody for a “land dispute,” not for abetting the Taliban.
Suddenly, the Marines found themselves in the middle of a messy intertribal feud. Further complicating the judicial process: Abdul Ali had not formally confessed in an Afghan court to working with the Taliban.
“For now, we have nothing at all,” said Khiali Jan, head of the Helmand police force’s counterterrorism unit, after several weeks of investigating. “We’ve told the elders, if you don’t bring evidence and proof, we will have to release him.”
But the prospect of releasing Abdul Ali — and letting down Amir Shah Jan — was potentially devastating, even though the facts remained uncertain.
Southern Helmand is full of such vagaries. Eleven years into the war, the line between good and evil, ally and enemy, is as blurry as it has ever been.
Now, Amir Shah Jan is waiting — not only for a ruling on the Abdul Ali case but also for the more important verdict on the future of his district. The past few months of relative peace in Garmsir have been a rare glimpse into a vision he shares with the Marines.
“But for this to last,” he said, “everything needs to go right.”
Kabul - A City of Hope and Fear
With the US set to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan in 2014, what does the future hold for the country's capital?
Aljazeera By filmmaker John D McHugh 27 Sep 2012
Taking a stroll through the parks and bazaars of Kabul, Afghanistan's capital, after many years covering the war in the south and the east of the country, could have been both terrifying and liberating.
I was conscious that there was certainly a very real threat from suicide bombers and the “spectacular” attacks that garner international headlines, but in reality I found that after following US troops patrolling IED (improvised explosive device) infested orchards in Kandahar or climbing mountains swarming with Taliban fighters in Nuristan and Kunar, Kabul actually felt like a different, much safer world. For the moment at least.
Kabul is the beating heart of Afghanistan. It is the centre of politics and commerce and culture, the place to which all roads here lead. This is why the Mujahedeen battled the Soviets so hard here in the 1980's and why the Taliban fought so desperately to capture it during the brutal civil war that followed.
Now, though the Taliban know that while they cannot hope to reoccupy the city while international forces are in the country, keeping up attacks or at least maintaining the threat of attack, accomplishes two objectives. It acts as constant reminder to the politicians and public in the West that their troops should leave - and it reminds Afghans that once the foreigners are gone, the Taliban will be waiting.
It is true that the violence is still much worse in the provinces than in Kabul, but the Taliban, and their allies, the Haqqani network, are regularly able to bring fear and death to the very heart of the capital. This is quite a feat, considering the thousands of Afghan police and soldiers stationed on the streets, and manning the checkpoints that ring the city.
The Mayor of Kabul
Yet as the city holds it breath, waiting for the next assault, one man refuses to give up on Kabul.
It is the city's mayor Muhammad Yunus Nawandish, who is dedicated to putting capital back on its feet after so many years of destruction and decay. Ddubbed “the builder of Kabul,” he bluntly explains why his job will not let him relax - even for a minute. “The Kabul city is destroyed. It has to be rebuilt,” he says.
His commitment to that process is astonishing – as is his bravery in the face of considerable danger to his person.
He spends hours every day on the road, inspecting infrastructure construction projects, badgering suppliers and contractors, keeping the pressure up on his officials.
He is renowned for his hands on approach, fond of turning up unannounced at building sites and catching municipal staff unawares.
He is also dedicated to fighting corruption, particularly tackling what he calls “the land mafia,” which makes getting anything done in Kabul so difficult.
With warlords illegally grabbing land for development, often for putting up their own absurdly extravagant houses, the mayor’s determination is admirable, but very dangerous.
“Because the fight against corruption and the land mafia is not so easy, I purchased a piece of land for my grave,” he says, without a trace of fear.
The hard road ahead
But if things are bad now, the potential for even worse is on the horizon. In 2014, two major events will occur that threaten to undermine Kabul's achievements of the last 10 years. President Hamid Karzai will come to the end of his second term in office and is currently barred by the constitution from running for a third term. If (and some believe it is still an ‘if’) he follows the rules, then elections will bring a change of leadership.
But the last poll in 2009 was widely condemned as fraudulent by observers both domestic and foreign, and if the then runner-up, Dr Abdullah Abdullah, is to be believed, things will not be that different this time around.
“My hope was, my wish was, post-elections last time, that we all might have learned lessons. But unfortunately there we haven’t seen any sign of positive change,” he says.
When pressed on why, he is quick to lay the blame on his political adversary: “I don’t see the political will in the current leadership of Afghanistan, with President Karzai. There are areas where people are so fed up with local government, that they prefer Taliban.”
It may seem surprising to hear a senior politician, albeit one in opposition, admit that things have become so bad. But it is no surprise to Abdul Hakim Mujahid, the former Taliban envoy to the United Nations, and currently the grandly named first deputy of the High Peace Council. He says the reason is straightforward.
“From the very beginning the problem is the manipulation of power,” he says. This process, he adds, has been made much worse because it has excluded the Pashtuns – the ethnic group to which many Taliban belong.
It is a claim I have often heard in Afghanistan. And there is some truth to it. Since the Taliban were toppled in 2001, and the subsequent Bonn Conference laid out a structure for rebuilding Afghanistan’s political future, the Pashtuns have indeed been sidelined.
Security
The other major event set to affect Kabul in 2014 is the departure of the US troops by the end of that year. Often cited as a definite and final point of US withdrawal, it is actually slightly misleading, as US troops have already been leaving for the past few months following the scaling down of “the surge” as it is known.
But certainly, by the end of 2014 all conventional troops are scheduled to be out of the country. This means that as troops leave, some bases will be handed over to the Afghan army, and others will close.
Considering the Taliban have been able to project such huge control and fear over the population during the height of the US troop deployment, it seems almost certain that this influence will increase, and large swathes of land will fall to the Taliban again during 2013 and 2014. Kabul is particularly at risk as the Americans withdraw from Kunar, Laghman, and Kapisa provinces. Kabulis can read a map and know that this will open up a short and direct path from the insurgent’s camps in Pakistan, and make attacking their city so much easier.
No country for old men
Afghanistan is a country of the young. Three quarters of the country's population is under 30, and the average age is just 16.
Speaking to young people, they initially speak of their hope for the future, but within a few minutes they usually mention leaving the country.
“All the young people, the masters degree, the bachelors degree, who have studied, passed their time in education, one idea they have. They are leaving the country,” says Noorullah Noory, a young man who owns and runs a small internet café in Kabul.
“My friends, best friends, all left Afghanistan, because they are afraid of coming of Taliban.”
Indeed, it is a sad fact that despite 11 years of development projects in Kabul, and billions of dollars poured into the economy, there are still very few places for young people to go and relax.
One of the few is Skateistan, an NGO that uses skateboarding as a hook to hook to bring children and teenagers into their education programme.
According to its founder, Oliver Percovich, “the reason that we do what we’re doing is to build trust.” This means reaching out to the youth of Kabul, regardless of social class, ethnicity or gender. Remarkably over half of Skateistan’s pupils are marginalised street kids and nearly 40 per cent are girls.
“The biggest problem is that there is very little communication between different ethnicities,” Percovich explains, “and everybody is trying to solve problems by throwing financial capital at something that actually requires basic trust.”
Young skateboarder and Skateistan instructor, Madina Saidi, puts it more poetically. “When I skateboard I’m feeling like I am a bird,” she says. But she too fears for the future: “If the Taliban come, I will leave my country.”
Sadly, just a few days after I interviewed her, the children of Skateistan were caught up in a suicide bombing. Madina had just stepped into a building, and escaped the blast. But five of her friends were not so lucky, and died in the explosion.
2014 and beyond
In two years time, the people of Kabul will again watch a superpower’s troops pack up and leave.
As they withdraw, much of the aid money that has kept this country afloat for the last ten years will go with them. That could totally undermine the already fragile confidence of the Afghan business community; several company bosses - and not a few politicians - are known to be quietly planning their departure.
As for Kabul, whether the Taliban could actually retake the capital after 2014 is still open to question. But as we found, most people here expect them to try.
With worsening security and a government losing legitimacy, all-out civil war is a very real threat.
If that happens, the progress the city has made in the last decade could again be thrown into reverse – and this time it might never recover.
5 Foreign Airlines Assessing Prospects in Afghanistan
TOLOnews.com By Zabihullah Jehanmal Saturday, 29 September 2012
Another five foreign airlines are interested in investing in Afghanistan, with at least two expected to begin flights to the country soon, the Afghan Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation (MTCA) told TOLOnews.
MTCA minister Daoud Ali Najafi said Thursday that five foreign airlines, different to the eight already operating in Afghanistan, were showing an interest in opening routes to the country and "two of them will soon start flying".
Najafi identified four of the countries the airlines were based in – Switzerland, Holland, Austria and Thailand – but did not name the specific carriers.
Najafi said that he expected the introduction of the airlines would be good for the local industry, forcing them to compete with the international standards and prices.
"The investment of the airlines will have a good impact on the local airline services and we will ensure there are no violations through price dumping ," Najafi told TOLOnews.
Price dumping refers to the practice of foreign companies selling products or services at prices below the local providers, forcing local prices to drop.
Najafi added that according to the aviation services agreement with foreign countries, as long as Afghan airlines have operations in another countries, those other countries' carriers can launch an equivalent number of services in Afghanistan.
He said that the Turkish government has also pledged to help the ministry in terms of training aviation staff, flight safety, and traffic experts.
However, officials some of the private airline companies in Afghanistan have expressed concerns to TOLOnews in the past that the foreign airlines may introduce unhealthy competition inside the country.
The officials said that the government needed to support the national companies as they are only new companies without the means to fight the large carriers seeking a piece of the Afghan-regional market.
However the Ministry has responded that the investment of the airlines will improve services through the competition it introduces.
At least eight foreign airline are active in Afghanistan including Fly Dubai, Turkish Airways, Air India, Sky Airlines, Gulf Air, SpiceJet, and Pakistan International Airlines.
Isaf Refutes Helmand Police Chief's Airstrike Account
TOLOnews.com Saturday, 29 September 2012
Isaf dismissed reports of a Nato airstrike in southern Helmand province Friday which allegedly killed 10 insurgents saying it had no operational reporting of the incident.
Helmand provincial police chief Farid Ahmad Farhang told TOLOnews Saturday that coalition forces had conducted an airstrike around 5:00PM in the province's Marjeh district.
"Reports showed that insurgents were using the place for planning an attack against government and Nato troops. The suicide bombers have been training in the area and from it carried out suicide attacks," he said.
"An insurgent who was killed during the operation was wearing a suicide vest," he added.
Farhang said that there were no civilian casualties and it was as Isaf only operation – no Afghan forces were involved in the initial threat assessment.
Isaf Joint Command spokesman Lt. Col. Hagen Messer told TOLOnews that according to Isaf reports there have been no airstrikes in Helmand in the past week.
"We checked back to September 22 and we have no operational reporting that this occurred. In my point of view this information is wrong," he said.
The news comes after US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Thursday said that the Nato-led troops have resumed most of their joint operations with Afghan forces after the decision to restrict patrols a few weeks ago over "insider" attacks.
"I can now report to you that most Isaf units have returned to their normal partnered options at all levels," Panetta told a news conference.
Top US military officer Gen. Martin Dempsey also attended the briefing, and both insisted the partnership was effectively back to normal although there is a new approval process in place which requires two-star generals to endorse any joint patrols below the battalion level.
Meanwhile, Afghan special forces undertook a military operation in western Herat province's Shindand district Friday night, according to officials.
Afghan commandos spokesman in Shindand, Mohammad Mahdi, said the operation was launched in the Zer-e Koh region and resulted in the death of six insurgents.
Mahdi added that Mullah Hassan, the Taliban's nominated district governor, and Mullah Akhtar, Taliban district operational leader, were among those killed in the operation.
There were no military casualties, he added.
Students Block Parliament to Protest Rabbani University
TOLOnews.com By Saleha Soadat Saturday, 29 September 2012
University students in Kabul began their sixth day of protest over the renaming of one of the Afghan capital's universities after former Afghan President and Jihadi leader Burhanuddin Rabbani.
Starting from 7:00AM, more than 300 students blocked the entrance to Parliament on Saturday to prevent lawmakers from entering and force them to reconsider changing the names of the Education and Training University and Polytechnic Road to Martyr of Peace Burhanuddin Rabbani.
The first day of protesting took place on the campus of the Education University last Sunday after President Hamid Karzai announced the renaming to honour the first anniversary of the death of Rabbani on September 20, killed by a suicide bomber posing as a Taliban peace emissary.
Rabbani was Afghanistan's highest peace envoy at the time, chairing the High Peace Council.
Protestors have said during the week that they reject the change because Rabbani was a controversial political figure and students do not want to study under his name.
They carried placards reading slogans such as "We are ready to continue under the name of Education and Training University."
One of the students told TOLOnews that little study has been done since Karzai announced the name change.
"In the past two weeks, we haven't studied. Who will give us the answer? The students do not want to be involved in shameless political games of leaders," he said.
Other students said some of the MPs physically threatened the protesters and one vehicle belonging to a lawmaker hit demonstrators, but this could not be verified.
Herat MP Qazi Nazir Ahmad Hanafi told TOLOnews that "the protesters were blocking the way when my car was entering in Parliament and starting punching on the mirrors. But I am not complaining about it."
Kabul MP Shukria Barikzai appeared to agree with the students' demands.
"Why is the government doing this? The government knows that the people of Afghanistan have very bitter memories from the Jihadi and political leaders of the past four decades," she said.
The protesters threatened that if Karzai does not withdraw Rabbani from the university's name, they will demonstrate using violence and the President will be responsible for it.
Anti-Corruption Office Laments Failure to Prosecute
TOLOnews.com By Sharif Amiry Saturday, 29 September 2012
Afghanistan's anti-corruption watchdog said Saturday it is reluctant to send corruption cases to the country's Attorney General because of the inaction of the prosecutor to date.
The chief of the High Office of Oversight and Anti-Corruption Azizullah Lodin told TOLOnews he has been disheartened over the past experiences of sending cases to the Attorney General relating to high-ranking officials where were never acted upon.
"As in the past, if we raise our voice, we will not see any good outcome," Lodin said, warning that the problem of systemic government corruption will not be resolved until the officials with evidence against them are put on trial.
He went on that Afghanistan is known as one of the most corrupt countries in the world which, if not addressed, will ultimately destroy the government.
"The law is not being applied to high-ranking officials, so this will create a gap between the people and government and the result is destruction," he said in the interview Saturday.
Lodin lamented that despite the presidential decree to fight corruption as a government priority, there has been no clarity as to what plan this fight will take and how the government will deal with documents showing corruption among officials.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com