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Blasts in southern Afghanistan kill 8
Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — At least eight people were killed Saturday in attacks in southern Afghanistan, including one incident where a suicide bomber on a motorbike blew himself up at a local intelligence office, officials said.
Six people — four Afghan intelligence officers, a coalition service member and a civilian employee working for the coalition — died in the suicide attack in the Maruf district of Kandahar province.
Insurgents frequently target Afghan security forces and government officials in an effort to weaken the government.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing, with spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi saying in a text message to reporters that the group was targeting international forces operating in Afghanistan.
Kandahar provincial spokesman Ahmad Jawed Faisal said the blast occurred in the morning at an entry point to the intelligence office. He said three other Afghan intelligence officers were wounded, including two who were in critical condition.
Jamie Graybeal, a spokesman for the international coalition, confirmed that one coalition service member and a civilian working with the coalition died in the attack. The wounded were evacuated to coalition medical facilities for treatment, he added.
A second attack killed two Afghan policemen and left three others wounded in Qalat, the capital of neighboring Zabul province, provincial spokesman Shariullah Nasari said. After a police vehicle ran over a roadside mine, he said, a second blast struck police who had rushed to aid their colleagues.
11 militants killed in operations in Afghanistan
KABUL, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- Up to 11 militants have been killed and 40 others detained in the latest military operations in different Afghan provinces, authorities said Saturday.
"Afghan police supporting by army and the NATO-led coalition forces carried out eight cleanup operations in Kapisa, Kunduz, Sar- e-Pul, Ghazni, Paktia, Farah and Helmand provinces, killing five armed Taliban militants and detaining 23 other armed Taliban within the past 24 hours," the Afghan Interior Ministry said in a statement issued here.
Three militants were also wounded in the above raids, it said, adding the police also found and seized weapons besides defusing four anti-vehicle mines.
In addition, six Taliban militants were killed, three wounded and 17 others were captured during a special operation lunched by police in Mullah Khil village in Baghlan district, Baghlan province on Friday afternoon, an official with the interior ministry, Gen. Ghayor Andarabi, told Xinhua on Saturday morning.
"A police officer named Mohammad Mujib with the special operation police force was also killed in the gunfight in the operation in the province some 160 km north of Kabul," Andarabi said, adding the militants were responsible for several attacks against security forces throughout the province.
Taliban insurgents, who have been waging an insurgency of more than one decade, have yet to make comments.
Afghanistan accuses Pakistan of violating bilateral transit trade treaty
By ANI | ANI – Fri 12 Oct, 2012
Islamabad, Oct. 12 (ANI): Afghanistan has accused Pakistan of violating the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement 2010 (APTTA) as by denying its cargo access to Wagah border and seaports.
According to officials of the Afghanistan embassy, Pakistan was restricting its cargo to Peshawar, which was a violation of the treaty, reports The Express Tribune.
Under the APTTA, Afghanistan's cargo can go up to Wagah border and to Karachi seaports - Karachi Port and Bin Qasim Port.
The officials said that unlike Pakistan the Afghan authorities were allowing the Pakistani cargo to go to any point. The Afghan people were putting pressure on the government to review its decision of giving free access to Pakistan's cargo until Islamabad resolves the issue, said the officials.
Pakistani authorities defended themselves by saying that they are yet to prepare mechanism to regulate the cargo movement.
According to an official, the Deputy Economic Minister of Afghanistan had requested that Afghanistan's vehicles carrying fresh fruits to be allowed to go up to Wagah border to cross into India. Both sides agreed that loose cargo could be carried through road across the border for one year as it was a cheaper mode of transportation. However, the Pakistani authorities turned down Afghanistan's request to extend the facility for unlimited period, the official added.
Haji Fateh Khan, representative of the Federation of International Transport Companies of Pakistan, said that Pakistani transporters were also facing problems in Afghanistan. He said the biggest issue that dented the transport business was the volatile security situation in the neighbouring country. Khan added that Afghanistan was creating hurdles in giving entry permits which was affecting the cross border movement of cargoes. (ANI)
TEDx Tries To Bring Digital Age To Kabul
By Frud Bezhan October 12, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Looking to bring the modern age of ideas to Afghanistan, TED has come to Kabul.
TED, short for Technology, Entertainment, Design, is a nonprofit organization that has devoted itself to fostering "Ideas Worth Spreading." It does so through conventional conferences, and "conversations" live-streamed via the Internet.
On October 11, in the Afghan capital, TEDxKabul undertook the ambitious task of hosting one of the interactive, digitally supported events in Kabul.
The one-day event, meant to highlight unreported stories of successful Afghan entrepreneurs and innovators, was marred from the onset by technical failures and fears over security. As a result of a weak Internet connection, the live-stream of the event was abandoned. And the security concerns led to confusion as to who, exactly, would participate, with organizers naming the speakers only as the event began.
But in the end, the show went on. Some 15 speakers, many of them Afghans, gave talks, performances, launched products, and held exhibitions. The speakers included internationally famous and little-known human rights advocates, artists, musicians, entrepreneurs, educators, frontline medical workers, teachers, athletes, and journalists.
Una Moore, one of the organizers, said the technical glitches were an unavoidable distraction to an otherwise successful event. She said the show succeeded in highlighting to both Afghan and international audiences the positive contributions that Afghan entrepreneurs and innovators were making in rebuilding the country.
"There hasn't been enough celebration of the Afghans who are putting their creativity and ingenuity into things that are really benefiting and changing their country," Moore said.
"This [event] is going to be a celebration of people whose works fall outside the realm of the war. These are people who against all odds are really trying to make civilian life something better, richer, and more diverse."
Software Entrepreneur
The TEDx speakers were divided into three categories: rights and civil society, creative entrepreneurship, and culture and conflict.
Among the most anticipated talks was from Roya Mahboob, a 25-year-old woman who is the founder and CEO of the software company Afghan Citidel Services (ACS). Mahboob, who is from the western city of Herat, is one of the only female CEOs in Afghanistan, a country where many girls still do not go to school and where some women are still barred from working outside their homes.
Mahboob created ACS in 2010 along with two Herat University classmates with an investment of $20,000, most of it coming from their own savings. Since then, Mahboob's company has expanded enormously and they now provide computer, Internet, and software assistance to schools, hospitals, and businesses in western Afghanistan.
The big name in attendance was Ashraf Ghani, a former finance minister and presidential candidate, who has held executive positions in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). As Afghan finance minister Ghani, who specializes in state-building and social transformation, was instrumental in carrying out radical and effective economic reform and sparking the economic revival in post-Taliban Afghanistan.
During his presentation on entrepreneurship, Ghani said young Afghans should realize that there is no limit to their imaginations. "The world is your ocean," he said.
Speaking about the country's economic future, Ghani called for foreign investment, as opposed to foreign aid.
Among the lesser-known speakers was Sayeed Zabihullah Majidi, an Afghan architect specializing in sustainable environmental design. Majidi is the founder of Sustainability Energy Environment (SEE), an architecture firm in Afghanistan.
Majidi, who is director for Architecture and Design and heads a team of architects and engineers on design projects throughout Afghanistan, was responsible for the development and implementation of a plan to restore the old city of Kabul. His team was also responsible for restoring the French Cultural Center in Kabul in 2009.
Majidi, who has also worked on projects in Germany and China and speaks German and Mandarin, says his designs pay tribute to Afghanistan's "cultural heritage and traditional Afghan craftsmanship."
Two foreigners feared kidnapped from Afghanistan aid team: police
Reuters Oct 13, 2012
KABUL - Two foreigners, thought to be a Canadian and a U.S. citizen, were reported missing on Saturday by a provincial reconstruction team in volatile Wardak, west of Kabul, and were feared to have been kidnapped, Afghan police said.
Rumours of the abduction of a man and a woman by either insurgents or criminal gangs have circulated for several days, but U.S. and Canadian diplomats said they were unaware of anyone reported missing.
"According to the Provincial Reconstruction Team report they had planned to travel from Kabul to Wardak," Wardak police spokesman Wali Mohammad told Reuters.
"The missing foreigners were in contact until they reached the Kampany area on Kabul's outskirts. After that they lost contact," Mohammad said.
"We have information they may have been kidnapped."
The kidnapping of foreigners has become relatively common in parts of Afghanistan since U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled the former Taliban government in 2001.
NATO-led forces said they were aware of the kidnap reports, but the search for the missing pair was being handled by diplomats and Afghan police.
A U.S. embassy spokesman in Kabul late on Friday said there was no information on a missing American, but diplomatic officials are often reluctant to talk about kidnappings in hope it could smooth the way for negotiations on a release.
Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs said it was looking into the reports, but gave no confirmation of a missing citizen.
In May two Western female doctors working for a Swiss charity were kidnapped with two Afghan colleagues by insurgent gunmen in northeastern Afghanistan. They were later rescued by NATO special forces soldiers. (Reporting by Mustafa Andalib; Writing by Rob Taylor; Editing by Michael Perry)
In Afghan Zone, Poppies Fog Military Mission
Wall Street Journal By YAROSLAV TROFIMOV October 12, 2012
BOLDAK, Afghanistan - One after another, lumbering jets taking off from Camp Bastion, the giant coalition base in Afghanistan's most violent province of Helmand, flew over the heads of Marines patrolling this village of mud compounds and poppy fields.
This area was largely uninhabited desert when Camp Bastion was established in 2006, a location that allowed the troops to spot hostile intruders from miles away. Not anymore: when the Taliban breached the base's defenses last month, they blended in among the thousands of farmers who have flocked to this part of Helmand as an unintended consequence of Afghanistan's opium-eradication campaign.
The population influx facilitated the attack, and highlighted the old conflict between the war's aims of combating the Taliban and the narrower goal of fighting narcotics. The U.S. and allies have to weigh the necessity of eradicating opium—Afghanistan's main export and one of the Taliban's main sources of income—against the need to win the cooperation of villagers in Taliban-infested areas, many of them dependent on poppy farming for their livelihoods.
The Sept. 14 attack on Camp Bastion, home to thousands of U.S. Marines and British troops, was one of the most daring Taliban operations since the war began 11 years ago. Dressed in American uniforms, the 16 insurgents cut through three lines of barbed wires to sneak onto Camp Bastion, where they destroyed more than $200 million worth of U.S. combat aircraft, killed the Marine Harrier jet squadron's commander, and incinerated the camp's jet-fuel tanks.
"This was well-planned and well-executed," said Marine Maj. Gen. Charles M. Gurganus, the commander of coalition forces in Helmand. "They had pretty good knowledge of where they were going."
Before launching the attack, the Taliban—who Gen. Gurganus said may have benefited from insider help—carried out "a very detailed study of the terrain," which enabled them to move right under the view of observation towers on the perimeter of the camp. Military officials say the insurgents used a dry riverbed on the eastern side of the camp, after gathering in the area in the guise of farmers before the attack.
There were no such farmers to hide among in this part of Helmand until the last couple of years. Until recently, most of the province's main crop, opium, was grown in the more fertile "green zone" around the Helmand River farther south. It was the coalition military offensives there during President Barack Obama's troop surge in 2010 and 2011, coupled with the Afghan government's poppy-eradication drive, that pushed opium cultivation further into the desert.
With the poppy came thousands of migrant farmers who are now plowing the fields in Camp Bastion's vicinity under the baking sun, using tractors and electricity-powered irrigation wells alongside camels. Afghanistan accounts for some 90% of the world's illicit opiates, and most Afghan production comes from Helmand.
Many of the poppy farmers' new villages here in the desert don't yet have names. On military maps, they are named after New York City boroughs, with one collection of mud-hovels dubbed Manhattan and another labeled Queens.
"Around here, it's the Taliban trying to protect the crops—and it's money growing in the ground," said Capt. Chris Polidora, commander of Bravo company, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines that is tasked with securing the camp's vicinity. He and his men—who are regularly targeted by roadside bombs and potshots—recently walked by freshly plowed fields in Boldak, under Camp Bastion's flight path.
Dried poppy pods, bearing the scratch marks used to collect the narcotic gum and then emptied to plant the fresh crop, littered the roadside.
"Everything here, all that now looks just like fields of rocks, will be turned into poppy fields," said Lt. Mark Mencik, commander of the platoon that patrols the area. "These people came here to plant poppy, and that's all they do." Afghan security forces seldom venture into the area, and there is no Afghan government presence, he said. The area under opium cultivation has actually increased in recent years, according to United Nations surveys, despite the Afghan government's policy of destroying poppy fields.
In contrast, the U.S.-led coalition doesn't interfere with the opium cultivation. Trying not to antagonize the villagers whose livelihoods depend on the illicit crops, the U.S. and allies instead focus their efforts on drug labs and high-level narcotics dealers.
Here around Camp Bastion, Marines take pains not to damage the poppy fields as they drive through, even if this involves a higher chance of being hit by roadside bombs. "The Americans are not here to tell people they can't grow poppies. They have to hear it from the Afghans—who are not here," Lt. Mencik said, referring to the government.
As Marines and coalition troops from Jordan entered a neighborhood of Boldak on a recent day, the white-bearded village elder, Allah Nazar, ran toward the patrol. "The police would come here to destroy our poppy fields. Thanks for protecting our village, and our fields from the police," he told Sgt. Matt Brunnemann, nodding vigorously.
"That's what we're here for," the sergeant said, matter-of-factly. "Looking after their best interests."
The Taliban, the elder assured the Marines, never come to the village, and have no local support. A few minutes later, the Marines picked up a spent AK-47 round among dry poppy pods. "They play both sides," Lt. Mencik said as the troops moved on. "Every single one of them."
Write to Yaroslav Trofimov at yaroslav.trofimov@wsj.com
Taliban Leader Arrested in Kandahar Raid
TOLOnews.com Saturday, 13 October 2012
A Taliban leader was captured by a joint Afghan-led security force in southern Kandahar province on Saturday, Isaf said.
"The Taliban leader commanded a Taliban improvised explosive device cell directly responsible for attacks on Afghan and coalition forces," Isaf said in a statement.
The security force also detained one other suspected insurgent.
Isaf confirmed the death of a Taliban leader, Qari Nasratullah, during a security operation in Sar-e Pul province Friday.
Qari Nasratullah is believed to have commanded more than 20 Taliban fighters, according to Isaf.
It also confirmed the death of Taliban leader Sher Ali in a security operation conducted Tuesday in Kandahar province.
"Ali, also known as Haji Ustad, exercised command and control in an area of Kandahar province," Isaf said.
Also confirmed today was the arrest of insurgent leader Abdul Zahir in Nimroz province on an Afghan Special Police-led mission Monday.
Abdul Zahir coordinated the flow of IEDs and weapons into the Nimroz province area, Isaf said.
Afghan anti-Taliban leader prefers to go it alone
By by Joe Sinclair | Agence-France Presse
He took up arms after the Taliban killed his mother in a hail of bullets and inspired a local uprising that ousted the insurgents from his area.
But Sayed Farhad Akbari, a 32-year-old construction company director, says he has refused to be co-opted into a government-sponsored police programme, branding the authorities corrupt and ineffectual.
The interior ministry has arranged funding for 300 new Afghan Local Police (ALP) in Logar province, just south of Kabul and considered key to protecting the capital.
And according to both Akbari and a senior provincial police commander, he and his followers have been invited to join up as the government tries to capitalise on the uprising and fill a gaping hole in security.
The ALP is a branch of the Afghan National Police, with members intended to act as local security guards.
However, the programme has proved controversial with critics including Human Rights Watch likening the force to a militia amid accusations of serious rights abuses and fears over the proliferation of armed groups.
Speaking by telephone Akbari, who has two wives and 10 children, said he fought back after a series of Taliban atrocities.
They killed seven schoolgirls from his village and closed their school, as well as five members of the same family whose son worked for the government and a local mullah who had called on the insurgents to stop the violence.
"They also killed my mother who was travelling from Kabul to Logar with my brother and four other people. They opened fire at their car. All the others were wounded but my mother died," Akbari, from Kulangar district in central Logar, told AFP.
"After that incident I was fed up and angry. I wanted to leave the country but I changed my mind. I thought I should stay and help save my village from the Taliban."
What started as a gathering at a mosque grew until he had the support of 50 villages and 200 armed men, with 2,000 more waiting to join once weapons are available, he said.
He claims to have spent $160,000 of his own money to buy guns, cars and motorcycles, and local people have provided fuel, food and drink.
The uprising in Logar followed similar anti-Taliban movements in Ghazni and Laghman provinces, but those came amid fears local militia leaders were trying to reassert their authority ahead of the 2014 withdrawal of NATO troops.
Akbari said his group had killed 23 Taliban in three clashes since the uprising started in August, but were simply villagers fighting through necessity.
Colonel Mohammad Tahir, a senior police officer in provincial capital Puli Alam, said the same people who joined the uprising were now set to join the ALP programme.
"They want to continue their mission but they want help from the government," he said, adding that the Afghan army and police had already been providing them with ammunition.
But Akbari said his group had no desire to join, dismissing the ALP as "not very effective" and claiming they complained of not being paid for several months.
"Yes, the government has asked us to join the ALP but we will not. The government is corrupt, they keep freeing the Taliban they arrest. The government has lost its strength and effectiveness," he said.
With the departure of about 30,000 US surge troops in October, the NATO footprint in Afghanistan is shrinking.
Lieutenant Colonel James Wright, commander of 1st Squadron (Airborne) 91st Cavalry Regiment, the US force in Logar, said local police were a necessity.
"Frankly they're at the point now where they flat out have to do it. They've come to their senses that something is better than nothing," he said, adding that the Kolangar uprising and the ALP programme were at least seen as "mutually supportive".
"They would either be recruits or help augment what's going on with it," he said.
But interior ministry spokesman Sediq Seddiqi said: "We have no plans to incorporate the uprisings into the ALP. They are by the people and people are leading it."
NATO is trying to build trust in the government through adviser programmes that target policing and the court system, but when it comes to the release of suspected insurgents Akbari has a point.
Of about 70 people detained by NATO and handed over to Afghan investigators in the province over the past six months, only six cases have gone forward to trial, said Navy Lieutenant Anthony Sham, part of a two-man rule of law team based near Puli Alam.
There have been no convictions.
"There's a lot of things we see in the Afghan system that we deem as corrupt and sometimes they deem as cultural," said Sham.
"One of the big things we see in Logar is not necessarily payment to get somebody out of jail, but people vouching for each other, somebody in a position of leadership saying, 'No, this detainee is a good person.'"
Having lost faith in the government, Akbari prefers to tackle the Taliban himself, and he said he had heard of three other areas of Logar where people were preparing to rise up.
"We are not against Islam, we are against those who misuse Islam for their own benefit and terrorise people," he said.
"The area is now cleared. We are also helping young boys who study and get brainwashed in Taliban madrassas to come and study in our schools."
Afghan anti-Taliban commander, Sayed Farhad Akbari (left), speaks to his men in Kalangar district, Logar province on Saturday. Akbari refuses to join a government-sponsored police programme, branding the authorities corrupt and ineffectual.
Sayed Farhad Akbari (left) says he and his followers have been invited to join the police as the Afghan government tries to capitalise on the uprising and fill a gaping hole in security.
Afghan anti-Taliban armed men under the command of Sayed Farhad Akbari, who says his campaign grew until he had the support of 50 villages and 200 armed men, with 2,000 more waiting to join once weapons are available.
Afghan anti-Taliban commander, Sayed Farhad Akbari (centre) claims to have spent $160,000 of his own money to buy guns, cars and motorcycles, and local people have provided fuel, food and drink.
Wait, we're at war?
Foreign Policy By Paul Miller Friday, October 12, 2012
Last night Martha Raddatz broke the media's code of silence and revealed to the American people that there is a country called Afghanistan, that American troops are there, and that we are at war. This shocking betrayal of omerta temporarily ruffled the presidential race as it forced Vice President Joe Biden and Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan to acknowledge these heretofore unspoken realities. In the epic two-year race for president, the candidates -- no, their seconds -- were forced to spend an entire ten minutes talking about it. How did they fare?
Ryan gave one of the clearest and most thoughtful comments on Afghanistan that I've heard from any American politician from either party in years (admittedly, that is a low bar). He made clear that the Romney/Ryan ticket is committed to a successful transition to Afghan leadership. It is remarkable for its moderation; for the fact that Ryan thinks and speaks in whole, complete sentences; and for its acknowledgment of the importance of finishing the job. It is worth quoting at length (Politico has a transcript).
We don't want to lose the gains we've gotten. We want to make sure that the Taliban does not come back in and give Al Qaida a safe haven. We agree with the administration on their 2014 transition...What we don't want to do is lose the gains we've gotten. Now, we've disagreed from time to time on a few issues. We would have more likely taken into accounts the recommendations from our commanders, General Petraeus, Admiral Mullen, on troop levels throughout this year's fighting season. We've been skeptical about negotiations with the Taliban, especially while they're shooting at us. But we want to see the 2014 transition be successful, and that means we want to make sure our commanders have what they need to make sure that it is successful so that this does not once again become a launching pad for terrorists.
By contrast, Joe Biden said:
But we are leaving. We are leaving in 2014. Period. And in the process, we're going to be saving over the next 10 years another $800 billion. We've been in this war for over a decade. The primary objective is almost completed. Now, all we're doing is putting the Kabul government in a position to be able to maintain their own security. It's their responsibility, not America's.
Biden appeared to go rogue on foreign policy. The position he outlined last night -- a complete withdrawal of all troops by 2014 -- is not the Obama administration's position, at least not its public position. President Obama has committed to an enduring international military presence beyond 2014. At the very least, it will include continued training for the Afghan army and police and an American counterterrorism capability. At the NATO Summit in Chicago earlier this year, ISAF's Declaration on Afghanistan promised NATO support to Afghanistan "up to 2014 and beyond," and promised to establish "a new training, advising and assistance mission." In the new U.S.-Afghan Strategic Partnership Agreement, signed in May 2012, Afghanistan agreed to "provide U.S. forces continued access to and use of Afghan facilities through 2014, and beyond as may be agreed...for the purposes of combating al-Qaeda and its affiliates."
The post-2014 mission could easily require more than 20,000 - 25,000 troops to remain in Afghanistan. Because media outlets regularly report 2014 as a "withdrawal" deadline instead of a transition deadline, it will take Americans by surprise that this is already U.S. policy. In the absence of any decisions to the contrary, bureaucratic inertia will leave tens of thousands of U.S. troops in Afghanistan well beyond 2014. Biden is either unaware of this, or unwilling to acknowledge it. And (hat tip to The Cable), he also misstated the administration's view on the war's basic purpose and goals.
Biden's comments give credence to conservatives' fears that the Obama administration is being disingenuous about its true policy; that it has no real plans to leave a stay-behind force in Afghanistan after 2014 and is only lip-synching the responsible rhetoric to keep things calm while they hasten to withdraw. That's essentially what they did on Iraq. Ryan could have highlighted the botched efforts to get a Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq and the deteriorating security there as a result, and warned the same thing may happen in Afghanistan if Obama/Biden is left in charge for another four years. He didn't, but the Romney campaign could take up that critique in coming days. If you liked Afghanistan before 2001, or if you think Iraq today is a good model for post-2014 Afghanistan, then you'll love what a second Obama term will bring us.
Afghanistan at a crossroads, in no-man's land
With fewer U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Marines in a desolate patch of Helmand province find themselves vulnerable to Taliban attack. They seek help from locals, who distrust them and the militants.
By Ned Parker, Los Angeles Times October 12, 2012
HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan — The sun pounds down on the U.S. Marine sergeant and the tribal elder in this faceless, bone-colored plain.
"We haven't seen any Taliban," the silk-bearded Afghan says, with a grin too large. The sergeant, broiling in his bulletproof vest, anticipates crackling gunfire at any minute. He knows the man is lying and he expects him to lie.
This barren, anonymous-feeling landscape matters because it sits outside the biggest U.S. military and coalition base in Helmand province, known as Camp Leatherneck, a miniature city built in the middle of nowhere. The camp has served as the restive province's command center for American forces during their two-year troop buildup aimed at disrupting the Islamist militants.
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FOR THE RECORD:
An earlier version of this article referred to the U.S. military base Camp Leatherneck as Camp Bastion. The militant attack in September occurred at Camp Bastion, a conjoined allied base.
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Now, with those additional troops having departed, American forces cannot leave Camp Leatherneck without getting fired at or bombed on any given day. An unprecedented assault on an adjoining base in mid-September saw 15 Taliban fighters enter, blow up six Harrier jets and three refueling stations and kill two Marines before they were stopped.
The daily fight right beyond the wire is bitter and unwelcome evidence of the stalemate that exists in southern and eastern Afghanistan. U.S. officers commend their forces for fighting bravely and they praise the growing strength of their Afghan counterparts, who they say will be able to take on the Taliban when the last of the U.S.-led coalition forces leave Afghanistan in 2014.
"We are still a province at war, there is no doubt about that. We have been for a while and it will continue to be, but it is a province where things have improved a lot over the course of three, four years," said Marine Maj. Gen. Mark Gurganus, the commanding U.S. officer in Helmand. "I am watching these young [Afghan] guys step up and take the fight."
But today, the Americans confront an enemy still capable of absorbing punishing hits and then turning around to attack when it suits them, including the assassination of Afghan politicians and security officials. If the Americans hope another year of training will result in Afghan security forces strong enough to push the Taliban back, the militants appear to believe today belongs to them, and tomorrow, without the Americans, does so even more.
It is in this atmosphere that the Marines patrol Boldak, the current name of this no-man's land, home to as many as 20,000 people scattered across dry ravines and gulches about five miles from Camp Leatherneck. As the armored trucks chug down the road, children in white and brown robes spot the Americans and rush after them, trying to strike the convoy with stones, a daily ritual the Marines have become used to. In Iraq, even in the worst of days, children would see a U.S. convoy and chase it in hope of receiving a soccer ball or candy. Here, youngsters use the American vehicles for target practice.
The convoy stops in the middle of Boldak's brown igloo-like huts dotted across the ghostly hills that encircle Camp Leatherneck.
The Marines are relieved to be here and not stuck on the road for hours, lest a 60-pound bomb explode beneath one of their armored vehicles.
As the Marines walk into the narrow alleys between compounds, some of them stand poised with M-16s aimed toward the horizon. They expect sniper fire, or a rocket shot off by a fighter hidden from view, who will then speed away on a motorcycle. At the same time, battle casualties are rare on either side.
The sergeant and an Afghan interpreter wade through a sea of tiny boys, and the elder, with his white robe and cane, approaches. The dry terrain is home to Bedouin hamlets, where people settle during the cooler months to cultivate poppies, then move away in the withering summer heat. The U.S. military has opted to tolerate it rather than infuriate the local population by destroying lucrative crop so close to their base.
The elder shakes the sergeant's hand, seemingly happy to welcome him.
The sergeant breaks the ice by asking, through the interpreter, what the villagers are growing. The interpreter, unrecognizable in sunglasses and armor, afraid of allowing his identity becoming known to the Taliban, stands between them.
The elder says they are cultivating wheat, but the sergeant sees dried-out poppies that look like small garlic bulbs scattered on the ground. He chooses not to mention it.
"Ask him if he wants to help us out at all," the Marine tells the interpreter.
"Sure, why not? I'll help you as much as I can," the elder wheezes. "We know you guys. We can't be friends with the Taliban."
Like all villagers here, the sergeant thinks, the elder's primary concern is to remain safe while waiting to see who wins the war.
The sergeant says he is going to speak with other villagers.
The elder smiles again. "If you want to speak to someone, tell me," he says, addressing the interpreter. "I can bring him anywhere you want. If you go to the houses, people will be scared. The kids will be scared."
The sergeant walks up the narrow, dry brown pathway. He comes up to another old man and his middle-aged son. The elder trails behind with the help of his cane.
The son says they are just poor people in desperate need of work and have never seen the Taliban. The father, frail and exhausted, lets his son do all the talking.
In the dirt is a pile of rusty bullet shells. The sergeant asks where they came from. "These aren't American bullet casings," he says to his interpreter.
The elder has caught up with them and answers cheerfully that they can only be the U.S. military's. "Nobody else is here," he adds. "For seven years, I haven't seen anything happen in this village."
A friend in a black turban, who is chewing a brown tobacco product from a tin, distracts the elder, and the two disappear together.
The sergeant circles back to the father and middle-aged son. A fly buzzes. The sergeant informs the son that the Marines are watching Boldak from the sky with surveillance cameras. "If we see any Taliban in this village, we're coming back for you. I have your name."
The interpreter tells him, the son nods.
"At the same time, if he sees Taliban any time, feel free to come to the base and ask for Sgt. Matt. Do you have kids?"
"Yes," the son says.
"Feel free to come over to the base for medical attention."
The sergeant moves on. He takes a child to the side and whispers to him confidentially about letting the Americans know if he sees the Taliban and gives him a pen he has been eyeing.
The Marines decide they will come back again to this hamlet in a week. But for now, they say, they'd better leave before taking gunfire or allowing time for a bomb to be planted on the road. The next village will be no different.
"They'll tell you all kinds of ridiculous stuff," a Marine lieutenant says. "They'll lie to us, and then they'll lie to the Taliban. They are caught between two sides."
ned.parker@latimes.comW
Prince Harry Reportedly 'Risking His Life' in Afghanistan
By Katie Kindelan | ABC News Blogs – Fri, Oct 12, 2012
Britain's Prince Harry is "in the thick of" fighting in Afghanistan and has had "multiple engagements" with the Taliban during his time in the war zone, according to a new report in the UK's The Sun.
Harry, 28, is one month in to a four-month tour of duty as a chopper pilot in Afghanistan. He is stationed at Camp Bastion in Helmand province, on the front line. Citing an unnamed "military source," the Sun reports that Harry, known as Captain Wales in the British Army, is part of a four-man team on around-the-clock standby to both fire at the enemy and provide cover for aircraft rescuing wounded soldiers.
READ MORE: Prince Harry Heads to War in Afghanistan
"Think World War Two Spitfire pilot and The Battle of Britain," the source told the Sun. "He can be sat in a deckchair for hours then scrambled immediately. When in the air his role is diverse."
The palace has had no comment on Harry's time in Afghanistan.
The prince, and third-in-line to the British throne, also served a tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2008 that was cut short because of publicity and concerns for the safety of him and his fellow soldiers.
The news of Prince Harry's reported direct engagement with Taliban fighters comes less than one month after Camp Bastion was attacked by 15 Taliban fighters dressed in U.S. Army uniforms.
WATCH: Was Prince Harry the Target of Afghanistan Attack?
Two U.S. Marines were killed in the attack, and nine others were wounded, including one civilian contractor. NATO officials said at the time that Prince Harry was several miles away, and was never in danger during the attack.
Just as Prince Harry arrived in Afghanistan last month, a Taliban spokesperson said that the terror group would use "all our strength" to kidnap or kill the prince.
READ MORE: Taliban Threatens to Kill Prince Harry
"We are using all our strength to get rid of him, either by killing or kidnapping," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters by phone around Sept. 10. "We have informed our commanders in Helmand to do whatever they can to eliminate him."
Mujahid made the same threat in an earlier interview with Agence France Presse, saying the Taliban had a "high-value plan" to get the prince. "It is not important for us to kidnap him," he said. "We will target him and we will kill him."
Harry qualified as an Apache helicopter pilot in February after completing a rigorous 18-month training program in the United Kingdom and United States that left him and his fellow trainees, "up to the challenge of operating one the of the most sophisticated attack helicopters in the world," according to a statement from Britain's Defense Ministry.
The Sun broke news last January that the 18-month training program included Harry, who first entered the military in 2005, being hooded and threatened in intense hostage training to prepare him for a possible return to Afghanistan.
Harry, the third in line to the throne, is the first British royal to complete that level of intense training, according to the Sun. His current tour of duty in Afghanistan will make him one of the most decorated Royals in history.
After completing his U.K. and U.S.-based training, in February, Prince Harry was named as the best front-seat pilot, or co-pilot gunner, from his class of more than 20 fellow Apache helicopter pilots. Harry's award was one of only two given at the end of the training course and marked the student whose "overall performance during the course is assessed as the best amongst their peer group," the ministry noted.
ABC News' Randy Kreider and Lima Hasan contributed to this report.
Millions Of Afghans Continue Outpouring For Pakistani Schoolgirl
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan October 13, 2012
Millions of students in Afghanistan have participated in nationwide prayers for the recovery of Malala Yousafzai, the 14-year-old girl shot and gravely wounded this week by the Taliban in Pakistan's Swat Valley.
Officials from Afghanistan's Education Ministry said some 9.5 million students in 15,000 schools across Afghanistan prayed for the injured schoolgirl in a coordinated event on October 13.
"Our sister, Malala, is not alone," one student told Radio Free Afghanistan. "We will not let her be alone. We support her efforts and pray to God for her speedy recovery."
Education Minister Farooq Wardak, speaking at a school in Kabul, called the shooting of Yousafzai a crime "against Islam and humanity."
The Pakistani Taliban shot Yousafzai in the head and neck on her school bus on October to avenge her campaign for girls' right to an education in the militants' former stronghold of Swat.
She remains on a ventilator in a military hospital in Rawalpindi following surgery earlier this week.
Two other girls were less seriously injured in the October 9 attack.
With additional reporting by AFP
Afghanistan to play first rugby competition
Just two years after its formation, Afghanistan Rugby Federation celebrates national team's first official tournament.
Aljazeera By Asad Ziar 12 Oct 2012
Rugby in Afghanistan is the newest sport and it is now gaining the attention of the international community.
The limited resources and lack of the proper grounds for rugby make, in my opinion, the Afghan rugby players the toughest in the world. The pitches and grounds where the players practice or play matches against each other are full of gravel, stones, holesand are all grassless.
But still the players play, and now as they leave Kabul to compete in their first official competion at the Asian Sevens in Mumbai, they are fulfilling the dream of representing their nation on the world stage.
There are about 50 countries helping Afghanistan to fight terrorism, but there is not a single country to help our war-torn country develop the sport.
In the capital city of Kabul, where a population of an estimated eight million live, there is only one stadium - which is the only proper pitch in the whole country that meets the standards.
The rugby players have never been allowed to play any tournament or games at home except for a few exhibition matches.
The reason is very clear - that is the lack of other proper pitches and grounds and the huge number of players and sport in the country.
I think we should believe that sport is a strong tool for bringing peace, stability and brotherhood in Afghanistan, and not the weapons and war planes, since we have witnessed that with the bombings and fights nothing has been achieved.
The security situation in Afghanistan is worsening day by day, and it seems that if it continues the same way and strategy I am sure that not only in the next decade but in the next century peace will not be stable in Afghanistan.
The line has been drawn by Afghanistan cricket, and the Afghan Cricket Board has their own grounds and stadiums in all the zones of the country.
Going it alone
It is now clear that no one will come to help Afghan Rugby until they show their own momentum for the rapid development and progress of the game, and to participate in international competitions.
It is understood that there is no commercial organisation which will come to help Afghan Rugby, until it achieves a noticeable status in the world - not only in Afghanistan.
The Afghanistan Rugby Federation (ARF) was formed and registered less than two years ago and got the affiliation with the Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) in November last year.
It is a pleasure that the federation has played very effective role in the development of rugby with no resources and facilities in their hands. There is no budget allocated for the players or the management of the federation, their aim is not working for money but for the development of sport in Afghanistan and to expand the game of rugby to each and every part of the country.
It is a big achievement for Afghanistan Rugby Federation that in less than two years Afghanistan will mark its first-ever official Asian Rugby Football Union competition in Mumbai, having played in an unofficial three-match sevens competition against the United Arab Emirates development side, UAE Shaheen, earlier this year in Dubai.
Despite lacking experience, the Afghans have the physical attributes required at international level and managed to take one match out of the three in a promising start in Dubai.
A crowd favourite, Afghanistan will have an excellent opportunity to show its improvement over the past five months at Bombay Gymkhana, the home of rugby in India.
Adding to the excitement this weekend in Mumbai, the tournament has attracted a record 16 teams in 2012, making it the largest event on the HSBC A7s Series to date.
Joining the 10 core teams participating at all events on the 2012 Series are Chinese Taipei, the United Arab Emirates (both of whom will be marking their final Series appearance in 2012), as well as India, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, all making their 2012 Series debut.
Afghanistan will have its preliminary matches with Japan, Philippines and Singapore on Saturday October 13, 2012.
We understand that our competitors are the strong teams and they are very experienced ones, but Afghanistan will never be a very weak competitor and I am sure that we will give tough time to our contenders.
Asad Ziar is the Chief Executive Officer of the Afghanistan Rugby Federation. Twitter @AsadZiar
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — At least eight people were killed Saturday in attacks in southern Afghanistan, including one incident where a suicide bomber on a motorbike blew himself up at a local intelligence office, officials said.
Six people — four Afghan intelligence officers, a coalition service member and a civilian employee working for the coalition — died in the suicide attack in the Maruf district of Kandahar province.
Insurgents frequently target Afghan security forces and government officials in an effort to weaken the government.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing, with spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi saying in a text message to reporters that the group was targeting international forces operating in Afghanistan.
Kandahar provincial spokesman Ahmad Jawed Faisal said the blast occurred in the morning at an entry point to the intelligence office. He said three other Afghan intelligence officers were wounded, including two who were in critical condition.
Jamie Graybeal, a spokesman for the international coalition, confirmed that one coalition service member and a civilian working with the coalition died in the attack. The wounded were evacuated to coalition medical facilities for treatment, he added.
A second attack killed two Afghan policemen and left three others wounded in Qalat, the capital of neighboring Zabul province, provincial spokesman Shariullah Nasari said. After a police vehicle ran over a roadside mine, he said, a second blast struck police who had rushed to aid their colleagues.
11 militants killed in operations in Afghanistan
KABUL, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- Up to 11 militants have been killed and 40 others detained in the latest military operations in different Afghan provinces, authorities said Saturday.
"Afghan police supporting by army and the NATO-led coalition forces carried out eight cleanup operations in Kapisa, Kunduz, Sar- e-Pul, Ghazni, Paktia, Farah and Helmand provinces, killing five armed Taliban militants and detaining 23 other armed Taliban within the past 24 hours," the Afghan Interior Ministry said in a statement issued here.
Three militants were also wounded in the above raids, it said, adding the police also found and seized weapons besides defusing four anti-vehicle mines.
In addition, six Taliban militants were killed, three wounded and 17 others were captured during a special operation lunched by police in Mullah Khil village in Baghlan district, Baghlan province on Friday afternoon, an official with the interior ministry, Gen. Ghayor Andarabi, told Xinhua on Saturday morning.
"A police officer named Mohammad Mujib with the special operation police force was also killed in the gunfight in the operation in the province some 160 km north of Kabul," Andarabi said, adding the militants were responsible for several attacks against security forces throughout the province.
Taliban insurgents, who have been waging an insurgency of more than one decade, have yet to make comments.
Afghanistan accuses Pakistan of violating bilateral transit trade treaty
By ANI | ANI – Fri 12 Oct, 2012
Islamabad, Oct. 12 (ANI): Afghanistan has accused Pakistan of violating the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement 2010 (APTTA) as by denying its cargo access to Wagah border and seaports.
According to officials of the Afghanistan embassy, Pakistan was restricting its cargo to Peshawar, which was a violation of the treaty, reports The Express Tribune.
Under the APTTA, Afghanistan's cargo can go up to Wagah border and to Karachi seaports - Karachi Port and Bin Qasim Port.
The officials said that unlike Pakistan the Afghan authorities were allowing the Pakistani cargo to go to any point. The Afghan people were putting pressure on the government to review its decision of giving free access to Pakistan's cargo until Islamabad resolves the issue, said the officials.
Pakistani authorities defended themselves by saying that they are yet to prepare mechanism to regulate the cargo movement.
According to an official, the Deputy Economic Minister of Afghanistan had requested that Afghanistan's vehicles carrying fresh fruits to be allowed to go up to Wagah border to cross into India. Both sides agreed that loose cargo could be carried through road across the border for one year as it was a cheaper mode of transportation. However, the Pakistani authorities turned down Afghanistan's request to extend the facility for unlimited period, the official added.
Haji Fateh Khan, representative of the Federation of International Transport Companies of Pakistan, said that Pakistani transporters were also facing problems in Afghanistan. He said the biggest issue that dented the transport business was the volatile security situation in the neighbouring country. Khan added that Afghanistan was creating hurdles in giving entry permits which was affecting the cross border movement of cargoes. (ANI)
TEDx Tries To Bring Digital Age To Kabul
By Frud Bezhan October 12, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Looking to bring the modern age of ideas to Afghanistan, TED has come to Kabul.
TED, short for Technology, Entertainment, Design, is a nonprofit organization that has devoted itself to fostering "Ideas Worth Spreading." It does so through conventional conferences, and "conversations" live-streamed via the Internet.
On October 11, in the Afghan capital, TEDxKabul undertook the ambitious task of hosting one of the interactive, digitally supported events in Kabul.
The one-day event, meant to highlight unreported stories of successful Afghan entrepreneurs and innovators, was marred from the onset by technical failures and fears over security. As a result of a weak Internet connection, the live-stream of the event was abandoned. And the security concerns led to confusion as to who, exactly, would participate, with organizers naming the speakers only as the event began.
But in the end, the show went on. Some 15 speakers, many of them Afghans, gave talks, performances, launched products, and held exhibitions. The speakers included internationally famous and little-known human rights advocates, artists, musicians, entrepreneurs, educators, frontline medical workers, teachers, athletes, and journalists.
Una Moore, one of the organizers, said the technical glitches were an unavoidable distraction to an otherwise successful event. She said the show succeeded in highlighting to both Afghan and international audiences the positive contributions that Afghan entrepreneurs and innovators were making in rebuilding the country.
"There hasn't been enough celebration of the Afghans who are putting their creativity and ingenuity into things that are really benefiting and changing their country," Moore said.
"This [event] is going to be a celebration of people whose works fall outside the realm of the war. These are people who against all odds are really trying to make civilian life something better, richer, and more diverse."
Software Entrepreneur
The TEDx speakers were divided into three categories: rights and civil society, creative entrepreneurship, and culture and conflict.
Among the most anticipated talks was from Roya Mahboob, a 25-year-old woman who is the founder and CEO of the software company Afghan Citidel Services (ACS). Mahboob, who is from the western city of Herat, is one of the only female CEOs in Afghanistan, a country where many girls still do not go to school and where some women are still barred from working outside their homes.
Mahboob created ACS in 2010 along with two Herat University classmates with an investment of $20,000, most of it coming from their own savings. Since then, Mahboob's company has expanded enormously and they now provide computer, Internet, and software assistance to schools, hospitals, and businesses in western Afghanistan.
The big name in attendance was Ashraf Ghani, a former finance minister and presidential candidate, who has held executive positions in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). As Afghan finance minister Ghani, who specializes in state-building and social transformation, was instrumental in carrying out radical and effective economic reform and sparking the economic revival in post-Taliban Afghanistan.
During his presentation on entrepreneurship, Ghani said young Afghans should realize that there is no limit to their imaginations. "The world is your ocean," he said.
Speaking about the country's economic future, Ghani called for foreign investment, as opposed to foreign aid.
Among the lesser-known speakers was Sayeed Zabihullah Majidi, an Afghan architect specializing in sustainable environmental design. Majidi is the founder of Sustainability Energy Environment (SEE), an architecture firm in Afghanistan.
Majidi, who is director for Architecture and Design and heads a team of architects and engineers on design projects throughout Afghanistan, was responsible for the development and implementation of a plan to restore the old city of Kabul. His team was also responsible for restoring the French Cultural Center in Kabul in 2009.
Majidi, who has also worked on projects in Germany and China and speaks German and Mandarin, says his designs pay tribute to Afghanistan's "cultural heritage and traditional Afghan craftsmanship."
Two foreigners feared kidnapped from Afghanistan aid team: police
Reuters Oct 13, 2012
KABUL - Two foreigners, thought to be a Canadian and a U.S. citizen, were reported missing on Saturday by a provincial reconstruction team in volatile Wardak, west of Kabul, and were feared to have been kidnapped, Afghan police said.
Rumours of the abduction of a man and a woman by either insurgents or criminal gangs have circulated for several days, but U.S. and Canadian diplomats said they were unaware of anyone reported missing.
"According to the Provincial Reconstruction Team report they had planned to travel from Kabul to Wardak," Wardak police spokesman Wali Mohammad told Reuters.
"The missing foreigners were in contact until they reached the Kampany area on Kabul's outskirts. After that they lost contact," Mohammad said.
"We have information they may have been kidnapped."
The kidnapping of foreigners has become relatively common in parts of Afghanistan since U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled the former Taliban government in 2001.
NATO-led forces said they were aware of the kidnap reports, but the search for the missing pair was being handled by diplomats and Afghan police.
A U.S. embassy spokesman in Kabul late on Friday said there was no information on a missing American, but diplomatic officials are often reluctant to talk about kidnappings in hope it could smooth the way for negotiations on a release.
Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs said it was looking into the reports, but gave no confirmation of a missing citizen.
In May two Western female doctors working for a Swiss charity were kidnapped with two Afghan colleagues by insurgent gunmen in northeastern Afghanistan. They were later rescued by NATO special forces soldiers. (Reporting by Mustafa Andalib; Writing by Rob Taylor; Editing by Michael Perry)
In Afghan Zone, Poppies Fog Military Mission
Wall Street Journal By YAROSLAV TROFIMOV October 12, 2012
BOLDAK, Afghanistan - One after another, lumbering jets taking off from Camp Bastion, the giant coalition base in Afghanistan's most violent province of Helmand, flew over the heads of Marines patrolling this village of mud compounds and poppy fields.
This area was largely uninhabited desert when Camp Bastion was established in 2006, a location that allowed the troops to spot hostile intruders from miles away. Not anymore: when the Taliban breached the base's defenses last month, they blended in among the thousands of farmers who have flocked to this part of Helmand as an unintended consequence of Afghanistan's opium-eradication campaign.
The population influx facilitated the attack, and highlighted the old conflict between the war's aims of combating the Taliban and the narrower goal of fighting narcotics. The U.S. and allies have to weigh the necessity of eradicating opium—Afghanistan's main export and one of the Taliban's main sources of income—against the need to win the cooperation of villagers in Taliban-infested areas, many of them dependent on poppy farming for their livelihoods.
The Sept. 14 attack on Camp Bastion, home to thousands of U.S. Marines and British troops, was one of the most daring Taliban operations since the war began 11 years ago. Dressed in American uniforms, the 16 insurgents cut through three lines of barbed wires to sneak onto Camp Bastion, where they destroyed more than $200 million worth of U.S. combat aircraft, killed the Marine Harrier jet squadron's commander, and incinerated the camp's jet-fuel tanks.
"This was well-planned and well-executed," said Marine Maj. Gen. Charles M. Gurganus, the commander of coalition forces in Helmand. "They had pretty good knowledge of where they were going."
Before launching the attack, the Taliban—who Gen. Gurganus said may have benefited from insider help—carried out "a very detailed study of the terrain," which enabled them to move right under the view of observation towers on the perimeter of the camp. Military officials say the insurgents used a dry riverbed on the eastern side of the camp, after gathering in the area in the guise of farmers before the attack.
There were no such farmers to hide among in this part of Helmand until the last couple of years. Until recently, most of the province's main crop, opium, was grown in the more fertile "green zone" around the Helmand River farther south. It was the coalition military offensives there during President Barack Obama's troop surge in 2010 and 2011, coupled with the Afghan government's poppy-eradication drive, that pushed opium cultivation further into the desert.
With the poppy came thousands of migrant farmers who are now plowing the fields in Camp Bastion's vicinity under the baking sun, using tractors and electricity-powered irrigation wells alongside camels. Afghanistan accounts for some 90% of the world's illicit opiates, and most Afghan production comes from Helmand.
Many of the poppy farmers' new villages here in the desert don't yet have names. On military maps, they are named after New York City boroughs, with one collection of mud-hovels dubbed Manhattan and another labeled Queens.
"Around here, it's the Taliban trying to protect the crops—and it's money growing in the ground," said Capt. Chris Polidora, commander of Bravo company, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines that is tasked with securing the camp's vicinity. He and his men—who are regularly targeted by roadside bombs and potshots—recently walked by freshly plowed fields in Boldak, under Camp Bastion's flight path.
Dried poppy pods, bearing the scratch marks used to collect the narcotic gum and then emptied to plant the fresh crop, littered the roadside.
"Everything here, all that now looks just like fields of rocks, will be turned into poppy fields," said Lt. Mark Mencik, commander of the platoon that patrols the area. "These people came here to plant poppy, and that's all they do." Afghan security forces seldom venture into the area, and there is no Afghan government presence, he said. The area under opium cultivation has actually increased in recent years, according to United Nations surveys, despite the Afghan government's policy of destroying poppy fields.
In contrast, the U.S.-led coalition doesn't interfere with the opium cultivation. Trying not to antagonize the villagers whose livelihoods depend on the illicit crops, the U.S. and allies instead focus their efforts on drug labs and high-level narcotics dealers.
Here around Camp Bastion, Marines take pains not to damage the poppy fields as they drive through, even if this involves a higher chance of being hit by roadside bombs. "The Americans are not here to tell people they can't grow poppies. They have to hear it from the Afghans—who are not here," Lt. Mencik said, referring to the government.
As Marines and coalition troops from Jordan entered a neighborhood of Boldak on a recent day, the white-bearded village elder, Allah Nazar, ran toward the patrol. "The police would come here to destroy our poppy fields. Thanks for protecting our village, and our fields from the police," he told Sgt. Matt Brunnemann, nodding vigorously.
"That's what we're here for," the sergeant said, matter-of-factly. "Looking after their best interests."
The Taliban, the elder assured the Marines, never come to the village, and have no local support. A few minutes later, the Marines picked up a spent AK-47 round among dry poppy pods. "They play both sides," Lt. Mencik said as the troops moved on. "Every single one of them."
Write to Yaroslav Trofimov at yaroslav.trofimov@wsj.com
Taliban Leader Arrested in Kandahar Raid
TOLOnews.com Saturday, 13 October 2012
A Taliban leader was captured by a joint Afghan-led security force in southern Kandahar province on Saturday, Isaf said.
"The Taliban leader commanded a Taliban improvised explosive device cell directly responsible for attacks on Afghan and coalition forces," Isaf said in a statement.
The security force also detained one other suspected insurgent.
Isaf confirmed the death of a Taliban leader, Qari Nasratullah, during a security operation in Sar-e Pul province Friday.
Qari Nasratullah is believed to have commanded more than 20 Taliban fighters, according to Isaf.
It also confirmed the death of Taliban leader Sher Ali in a security operation conducted Tuesday in Kandahar province.
"Ali, also known as Haji Ustad, exercised command and control in an area of Kandahar province," Isaf said.
Also confirmed today was the arrest of insurgent leader Abdul Zahir in Nimroz province on an Afghan Special Police-led mission Monday.
Abdul Zahir coordinated the flow of IEDs and weapons into the Nimroz province area, Isaf said.
Afghan anti-Taliban leader prefers to go it alone
By by Joe Sinclair | Agence-France Presse
He took up arms after the Taliban killed his mother in a hail of bullets and inspired a local uprising that ousted the insurgents from his area.
But Sayed Farhad Akbari, a 32-year-old construction company director, says he has refused to be co-opted into a government-sponsored police programme, branding the authorities corrupt and ineffectual.
The interior ministry has arranged funding for 300 new Afghan Local Police (ALP) in Logar province, just south of Kabul and considered key to protecting the capital.
And according to both Akbari and a senior provincial police commander, he and his followers have been invited to join up as the government tries to capitalise on the uprising and fill a gaping hole in security.
The ALP is a branch of the Afghan National Police, with members intended to act as local security guards.
However, the programme has proved controversial with critics including Human Rights Watch likening the force to a militia amid accusations of serious rights abuses and fears over the proliferation of armed groups.
Speaking by telephone Akbari, who has two wives and 10 children, said he fought back after a series of Taliban atrocities.
They killed seven schoolgirls from his village and closed their school, as well as five members of the same family whose son worked for the government and a local mullah who had called on the insurgents to stop the violence.
"They also killed my mother who was travelling from Kabul to Logar with my brother and four other people. They opened fire at their car. All the others were wounded but my mother died," Akbari, from Kulangar district in central Logar, told AFP.
"After that incident I was fed up and angry. I wanted to leave the country but I changed my mind. I thought I should stay and help save my village from the Taliban."
What started as a gathering at a mosque grew until he had the support of 50 villages and 200 armed men, with 2,000 more waiting to join once weapons are available, he said.
He claims to have spent $160,000 of his own money to buy guns, cars and motorcycles, and local people have provided fuel, food and drink.
The uprising in Logar followed similar anti-Taliban movements in Ghazni and Laghman provinces, but those came amid fears local militia leaders were trying to reassert their authority ahead of the 2014 withdrawal of NATO troops.
Akbari said his group had killed 23 Taliban in three clashes since the uprising started in August, but were simply villagers fighting through necessity.
Colonel Mohammad Tahir, a senior police officer in provincial capital Puli Alam, said the same people who joined the uprising were now set to join the ALP programme.
"They want to continue their mission but they want help from the government," he said, adding that the Afghan army and police had already been providing them with ammunition.
But Akbari said his group had no desire to join, dismissing the ALP as "not very effective" and claiming they complained of not being paid for several months.
"Yes, the government has asked us to join the ALP but we will not. The government is corrupt, they keep freeing the Taliban they arrest. The government has lost its strength and effectiveness," he said.
With the departure of about 30,000 US surge troops in October, the NATO footprint in Afghanistan is shrinking.
Lieutenant Colonel James Wright, commander of 1st Squadron (Airborne) 91st Cavalry Regiment, the US force in Logar, said local police were a necessity.
"Frankly they're at the point now where they flat out have to do it. They've come to their senses that something is better than nothing," he said, adding that the Kolangar uprising and the ALP programme were at least seen as "mutually supportive".
"They would either be recruits or help augment what's going on with it," he said.
But interior ministry spokesman Sediq Seddiqi said: "We have no plans to incorporate the uprisings into the ALP. They are by the people and people are leading it."
NATO is trying to build trust in the government through adviser programmes that target policing and the court system, but when it comes to the release of suspected insurgents Akbari has a point.
Of about 70 people detained by NATO and handed over to Afghan investigators in the province over the past six months, only six cases have gone forward to trial, said Navy Lieutenant Anthony Sham, part of a two-man rule of law team based near Puli Alam.
There have been no convictions.
"There's a lot of things we see in the Afghan system that we deem as corrupt and sometimes they deem as cultural," said Sham.
"One of the big things we see in Logar is not necessarily payment to get somebody out of jail, but people vouching for each other, somebody in a position of leadership saying, 'No, this detainee is a good person.'"
Having lost faith in the government, Akbari prefers to tackle the Taliban himself, and he said he had heard of three other areas of Logar where people were preparing to rise up.
"We are not against Islam, we are against those who misuse Islam for their own benefit and terrorise people," he said.
"The area is now cleared. We are also helping young boys who study and get brainwashed in Taliban madrassas to come and study in our schools."
Afghan anti-Taliban commander, Sayed Farhad Akbari (left), speaks to his men in Kalangar district, Logar province on Saturday. Akbari refuses to join a government-sponsored police programme, branding the authorities corrupt and ineffectual.
Sayed Farhad Akbari (left) says he and his followers have been invited to join the police as the Afghan government tries to capitalise on the uprising and fill a gaping hole in security.
Afghan anti-Taliban armed men under the command of Sayed Farhad Akbari, who says his campaign grew until he had the support of 50 villages and 200 armed men, with 2,000 more waiting to join once weapons are available.
Afghan anti-Taliban commander, Sayed Farhad Akbari (centre) claims to have spent $160,000 of his own money to buy guns, cars and motorcycles, and local people have provided fuel, food and drink.
Wait, we're at war?
Foreign Policy By Paul Miller Friday, October 12, 2012
Last night Martha Raddatz broke the media's code of silence and revealed to the American people that there is a country called Afghanistan, that American troops are there, and that we are at war. This shocking betrayal of omerta temporarily ruffled the presidential race as it forced Vice President Joe Biden and Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan to acknowledge these heretofore unspoken realities. In the epic two-year race for president, the candidates -- no, their seconds -- were forced to spend an entire ten minutes talking about it. How did they fare?
Ryan gave one of the clearest and most thoughtful comments on Afghanistan that I've heard from any American politician from either party in years (admittedly, that is a low bar). He made clear that the Romney/Ryan ticket is committed to a successful transition to Afghan leadership. It is remarkable for its moderation; for the fact that Ryan thinks and speaks in whole, complete sentences; and for its acknowledgment of the importance of finishing the job. It is worth quoting at length (Politico has a transcript).
We don't want to lose the gains we've gotten. We want to make sure that the Taliban does not come back in and give Al Qaida a safe haven. We agree with the administration on their 2014 transition...What we don't want to do is lose the gains we've gotten. Now, we've disagreed from time to time on a few issues. We would have more likely taken into accounts the recommendations from our commanders, General Petraeus, Admiral Mullen, on troop levels throughout this year's fighting season. We've been skeptical about negotiations with the Taliban, especially while they're shooting at us. But we want to see the 2014 transition be successful, and that means we want to make sure our commanders have what they need to make sure that it is successful so that this does not once again become a launching pad for terrorists.
By contrast, Joe Biden said:
But we are leaving. We are leaving in 2014. Period. And in the process, we're going to be saving over the next 10 years another $800 billion. We've been in this war for over a decade. The primary objective is almost completed. Now, all we're doing is putting the Kabul government in a position to be able to maintain their own security. It's their responsibility, not America's.
Biden appeared to go rogue on foreign policy. The position he outlined last night -- a complete withdrawal of all troops by 2014 -- is not the Obama administration's position, at least not its public position. President Obama has committed to an enduring international military presence beyond 2014. At the very least, it will include continued training for the Afghan army and police and an American counterterrorism capability. At the NATO Summit in Chicago earlier this year, ISAF's Declaration on Afghanistan promised NATO support to Afghanistan "up to 2014 and beyond," and promised to establish "a new training, advising and assistance mission." In the new U.S.-Afghan Strategic Partnership Agreement, signed in May 2012, Afghanistan agreed to "provide U.S. forces continued access to and use of Afghan facilities through 2014, and beyond as may be agreed...for the purposes of combating al-Qaeda and its affiliates."
The post-2014 mission could easily require more than 20,000 - 25,000 troops to remain in Afghanistan. Because media outlets regularly report 2014 as a "withdrawal" deadline instead of a transition deadline, it will take Americans by surprise that this is already U.S. policy. In the absence of any decisions to the contrary, bureaucratic inertia will leave tens of thousands of U.S. troops in Afghanistan well beyond 2014. Biden is either unaware of this, or unwilling to acknowledge it. And (hat tip to The Cable), he also misstated the administration's view on the war's basic purpose and goals.
Biden's comments give credence to conservatives' fears that the Obama administration is being disingenuous about its true policy; that it has no real plans to leave a stay-behind force in Afghanistan after 2014 and is only lip-synching the responsible rhetoric to keep things calm while they hasten to withdraw. That's essentially what they did on Iraq. Ryan could have highlighted the botched efforts to get a Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq and the deteriorating security there as a result, and warned the same thing may happen in Afghanistan if Obama/Biden is left in charge for another four years. He didn't, but the Romney campaign could take up that critique in coming days. If you liked Afghanistan before 2001, or if you think Iraq today is a good model for post-2014 Afghanistan, then you'll love what a second Obama term will bring us.
Afghanistan at a crossroads, in no-man's land
With fewer U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Marines in a desolate patch of Helmand province find themselves vulnerable to Taliban attack. They seek help from locals, who distrust them and the militants.
By Ned Parker, Los Angeles Times October 12, 2012
HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan — The sun pounds down on the U.S. Marine sergeant and the tribal elder in this faceless, bone-colored plain.
"We haven't seen any Taliban," the silk-bearded Afghan says, with a grin too large. The sergeant, broiling in his bulletproof vest, anticipates crackling gunfire at any minute. He knows the man is lying and he expects him to lie.
This barren, anonymous-feeling landscape matters because it sits outside the biggest U.S. military and coalition base in Helmand province, known as Camp Leatherneck, a miniature city built in the middle of nowhere. The camp has served as the restive province's command center for American forces during their two-year troop buildup aimed at disrupting the Islamist militants.
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FOR THE RECORD:
An earlier version of this article referred to the U.S. military base Camp Leatherneck as Camp Bastion. The militant attack in September occurred at Camp Bastion, a conjoined allied base.
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Now, with those additional troops having departed, American forces cannot leave Camp Leatherneck without getting fired at or bombed on any given day. An unprecedented assault on an adjoining base in mid-September saw 15 Taliban fighters enter, blow up six Harrier jets and three refueling stations and kill two Marines before they were stopped.
The daily fight right beyond the wire is bitter and unwelcome evidence of the stalemate that exists in southern and eastern Afghanistan. U.S. officers commend their forces for fighting bravely and they praise the growing strength of their Afghan counterparts, who they say will be able to take on the Taliban when the last of the U.S.-led coalition forces leave Afghanistan in 2014.
"We are still a province at war, there is no doubt about that. We have been for a while and it will continue to be, but it is a province where things have improved a lot over the course of three, four years," said Marine Maj. Gen. Mark Gurganus, the commanding U.S. officer in Helmand. "I am watching these young [Afghan] guys step up and take the fight."
But today, the Americans confront an enemy still capable of absorbing punishing hits and then turning around to attack when it suits them, including the assassination of Afghan politicians and security officials. If the Americans hope another year of training will result in Afghan security forces strong enough to push the Taliban back, the militants appear to believe today belongs to them, and tomorrow, without the Americans, does so even more.
It is in this atmosphere that the Marines patrol Boldak, the current name of this no-man's land, home to as many as 20,000 people scattered across dry ravines and gulches about five miles from Camp Leatherneck. As the armored trucks chug down the road, children in white and brown robes spot the Americans and rush after them, trying to strike the convoy with stones, a daily ritual the Marines have become used to. In Iraq, even in the worst of days, children would see a U.S. convoy and chase it in hope of receiving a soccer ball or candy. Here, youngsters use the American vehicles for target practice.
The convoy stops in the middle of Boldak's brown igloo-like huts dotted across the ghostly hills that encircle Camp Leatherneck.
The Marines are relieved to be here and not stuck on the road for hours, lest a 60-pound bomb explode beneath one of their armored vehicles.
As the Marines walk into the narrow alleys between compounds, some of them stand poised with M-16s aimed toward the horizon. They expect sniper fire, or a rocket shot off by a fighter hidden from view, who will then speed away on a motorcycle. At the same time, battle casualties are rare on either side.
The sergeant and an Afghan interpreter wade through a sea of tiny boys, and the elder, with his white robe and cane, approaches. The dry terrain is home to Bedouin hamlets, where people settle during the cooler months to cultivate poppies, then move away in the withering summer heat. The U.S. military has opted to tolerate it rather than infuriate the local population by destroying lucrative crop so close to their base.
The elder shakes the sergeant's hand, seemingly happy to welcome him.
The sergeant breaks the ice by asking, through the interpreter, what the villagers are growing. The interpreter, unrecognizable in sunglasses and armor, afraid of allowing his identity becoming known to the Taliban, stands between them.
The elder says they are cultivating wheat, but the sergeant sees dried-out poppies that look like small garlic bulbs scattered on the ground. He chooses not to mention it.
"Ask him if he wants to help us out at all," the Marine tells the interpreter.
"Sure, why not? I'll help you as much as I can," the elder wheezes. "We know you guys. We can't be friends with the Taliban."
Like all villagers here, the sergeant thinks, the elder's primary concern is to remain safe while waiting to see who wins the war.
The sergeant says he is going to speak with other villagers.
The elder smiles again. "If you want to speak to someone, tell me," he says, addressing the interpreter. "I can bring him anywhere you want. If you go to the houses, people will be scared. The kids will be scared."
The sergeant walks up the narrow, dry brown pathway. He comes up to another old man and his middle-aged son. The elder trails behind with the help of his cane.
The son says they are just poor people in desperate need of work and have never seen the Taliban. The father, frail and exhausted, lets his son do all the talking.
In the dirt is a pile of rusty bullet shells. The sergeant asks where they came from. "These aren't American bullet casings," he says to his interpreter.
The elder has caught up with them and answers cheerfully that they can only be the U.S. military's. "Nobody else is here," he adds. "For seven years, I haven't seen anything happen in this village."
A friend in a black turban, who is chewing a brown tobacco product from a tin, distracts the elder, and the two disappear together.
The sergeant circles back to the father and middle-aged son. A fly buzzes. The sergeant informs the son that the Marines are watching Boldak from the sky with surveillance cameras. "If we see any Taliban in this village, we're coming back for you. I have your name."
The interpreter tells him, the son nods.
"At the same time, if he sees Taliban any time, feel free to come to the base and ask for Sgt. Matt. Do you have kids?"
"Yes," the son says.
"Feel free to come over to the base for medical attention."
The sergeant moves on. He takes a child to the side and whispers to him confidentially about letting the Americans know if he sees the Taliban and gives him a pen he has been eyeing.
The Marines decide they will come back again to this hamlet in a week. But for now, they say, they'd better leave before taking gunfire or allowing time for a bomb to be planted on the road. The next village will be no different.
"They'll tell you all kinds of ridiculous stuff," a Marine lieutenant says. "They'll lie to us, and then they'll lie to the Taliban. They are caught between two sides."
ned.parker@latimes.comW
Prince Harry Reportedly 'Risking His Life' in Afghanistan
By Katie Kindelan | ABC News Blogs – Fri, Oct 12, 2012
Britain's Prince Harry is "in the thick of" fighting in Afghanistan and has had "multiple engagements" with the Taliban during his time in the war zone, according to a new report in the UK's The Sun.
Harry, 28, is one month in to a four-month tour of duty as a chopper pilot in Afghanistan. He is stationed at Camp Bastion in Helmand province, on the front line. Citing an unnamed "military source," the Sun reports that Harry, known as Captain Wales in the British Army, is part of a four-man team on around-the-clock standby to both fire at the enemy and provide cover for aircraft rescuing wounded soldiers.
READ MORE: Prince Harry Heads to War in Afghanistan
"Think World War Two Spitfire pilot and The Battle of Britain," the source told the Sun. "He can be sat in a deckchair for hours then scrambled immediately. When in the air his role is diverse."
The palace has had no comment on Harry's time in Afghanistan.
The prince, and third-in-line to the British throne, also served a tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2008 that was cut short because of publicity and concerns for the safety of him and his fellow soldiers.
The news of Prince Harry's reported direct engagement with Taliban fighters comes less than one month after Camp Bastion was attacked by 15 Taliban fighters dressed in U.S. Army uniforms.
WATCH: Was Prince Harry the Target of Afghanistan Attack?
Two U.S. Marines were killed in the attack, and nine others were wounded, including one civilian contractor. NATO officials said at the time that Prince Harry was several miles away, and was never in danger during the attack.
Just as Prince Harry arrived in Afghanistan last month, a Taliban spokesperson said that the terror group would use "all our strength" to kidnap or kill the prince.
READ MORE: Taliban Threatens to Kill Prince Harry
"We are using all our strength to get rid of him, either by killing or kidnapping," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters by phone around Sept. 10. "We have informed our commanders in Helmand to do whatever they can to eliminate him."
Mujahid made the same threat in an earlier interview with Agence France Presse, saying the Taliban had a "high-value plan" to get the prince. "It is not important for us to kidnap him," he said. "We will target him and we will kill him."
Harry qualified as an Apache helicopter pilot in February after completing a rigorous 18-month training program in the United Kingdom and United States that left him and his fellow trainees, "up to the challenge of operating one the of the most sophisticated attack helicopters in the world," according to a statement from Britain's Defense Ministry.
The Sun broke news last January that the 18-month training program included Harry, who first entered the military in 2005, being hooded and threatened in intense hostage training to prepare him for a possible return to Afghanistan.
Harry, the third in line to the throne, is the first British royal to complete that level of intense training, according to the Sun. His current tour of duty in Afghanistan will make him one of the most decorated Royals in history.
After completing his U.K. and U.S.-based training, in February, Prince Harry was named as the best front-seat pilot, or co-pilot gunner, from his class of more than 20 fellow Apache helicopter pilots. Harry's award was one of only two given at the end of the training course and marked the student whose "overall performance during the course is assessed as the best amongst their peer group," the ministry noted.
ABC News' Randy Kreider and Lima Hasan contributed to this report.
Millions Of Afghans Continue Outpouring For Pakistani Schoolgirl
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan October 13, 2012
Millions of students in Afghanistan have participated in nationwide prayers for the recovery of Malala Yousafzai, the 14-year-old girl shot and gravely wounded this week by the Taliban in Pakistan's Swat Valley.
Officials from Afghanistan's Education Ministry said some 9.5 million students in 15,000 schools across Afghanistan prayed for the injured schoolgirl in a coordinated event on October 13.
"Our sister, Malala, is not alone," one student told Radio Free Afghanistan. "We will not let her be alone. We support her efforts and pray to God for her speedy recovery."
Education Minister Farooq Wardak, speaking at a school in Kabul, called the shooting of Yousafzai a crime "against Islam and humanity."
The Pakistani Taliban shot Yousafzai in the head and neck on her school bus on October to avenge her campaign for girls' right to an education in the militants' former stronghold of Swat.
She remains on a ventilator in a military hospital in Rawalpindi following surgery earlier this week.
Two other girls were less seriously injured in the October 9 attack.
With additional reporting by AFP
Afghanistan to play first rugby competition
Just two years after its formation, Afghanistan Rugby Federation celebrates national team's first official tournament.
Aljazeera By Asad Ziar 12 Oct 2012
Rugby in Afghanistan is the newest sport and it is now gaining the attention of the international community.
The limited resources and lack of the proper grounds for rugby make, in my opinion, the Afghan rugby players the toughest in the world. The pitches and grounds where the players practice or play matches against each other are full of gravel, stones, holesand are all grassless.
But still the players play, and now as they leave Kabul to compete in their first official competion at the Asian Sevens in Mumbai, they are fulfilling the dream of representing their nation on the world stage.
There are about 50 countries helping Afghanistan to fight terrorism, but there is not a single country to help our war-torn country develop the sport.
In the capital city of Kabul, where a population of an estimated eight million live, there is only one stadium - which is the only proper pitch in the whole country that meets the standards.
The rugby players have never been allowed to play any tournament or games at home except for a few exhibition matches.
The reason is very clear - that is the lack of other proper pitches and grounds and the huge number of players and sport in the country.
I think we should believe that sport is a strong tool for bringing peace, stability and brotherhood in Afghanistan, and not the weapons and war planes, since we have witnessed that with the bombings and fights nothing has been achieved.
The security situation in Afghanistan is worsening day by day, and it seems that if it continues the same way and strategy I am sure that not only in the next decade but in the next century peace will not be stable in Afghanistan.
The line has been drawn by Afghanistan cricket, and the Afghan Cricket Board has their own grounds and stadiums in all the zones of the country.
Going it alone
It is now clear that no one will come to help Afghan Rugby until they show their own momentum for the rapid development and progress of the game, and to participate in international competitions.
It is understood that there is no commercial organisation which will come to help Afghan Rugby, until it achieves a noticeable status in the world - not only in Afghanistan.
The Afghanistan Rugby Federation (ARF) was formed and registered less than two years ago and got the affiliation with the Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) in November last year.
It is a pleasure that the federation has played very effective role in the development of rugby with no resources and facilities in their hands. There is no budget allocated for the players or the management of the federation, their aim is not working for money but for the development of sport in Afghanistan and to expand the game of rugby to each and every part of the country.
It is a big achievement for Afghanistan Rugby Federation that in less than two years Afghanistan will mark its first-ever official Asian Rugby Football Union competition in Mumbai, having played in an unofficial three-match sevens competition against the United Arab Emirates development side, UAE Shaheen, earlier this year in Dubai.
Despite lacking experience, the Afghans have the physical attributes required at international level and managed to take one match out of the three in a promising start in Dubai.
A crowd favourite, Afghanistan will have an excellent opportunity to show its improvement over the past five months at Bombay Gymkhana, the home of rugby in India.
Adding to the excitement this weekend in Mumbai, the tournament has attracted a record 16 teams in 2012, making it the largest event on the HSBC A7s Series to date.
Joining the 10 core teams participating at all events on the 2012 Series are Chinese Taipei, the United Arab Emirates (both of whom will be marking their final Series appearance in 2012), as well as India, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, all making their 2012 Series debut.
Afghanistan will have its preliminary matches with Japan, Philippines and Singapore on Saturday October 13, 2012.
We understand that our competitors are the strong teams and they are very experienced ones, but Afghanistan will never be a very weak competitor and I am sure that we will give tough time to our contenders.
Asad Ziar is the Chief Executive Officer of the Afghanistan Rugby Federation. Twitter @AsadZiar
www.afghanistannewscenter.com