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Suicide bomber wounds 45 Afghan soldiers in east
Wed, Oct 17, 2012
KHOST, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a joint Afghan-U.S. base in the country's east on Wednesday, wounding at least 45 Afghan soldiers, local officials said.
The Taliban took responsibility for the car bomb attack in the Zurmat district of Paktia province, saying they had also despatched a group of fighters in suicide vests who managed to enter the base.
A spokeswoman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said insurgents fired at the base after the explosion. There were no NATO casualties, she added.
Paktia, a small province about 100 km (62 miles) south of the capital Kabul, has been beset by increasing violence over the past two years.
"The bomber detonated explosives right in front of a joint base shared by the Afghan army and foreign forces, wounding 45 soldiers," the deputy governor for Paktia, Gul Rahman Mangal, told Reuters.
Seven civilians were among the wounded, hospital officials in Zurmat added.
Violence has been increasing across the country as the deadline of end-2014 looms for most foreign combat troops to leave Afghanistan, leaving the 350,000-strong Afghan security forces in control.
Heavy casualty rates amongst Afghan security forces - NATO says 243 Afghan soldiers and 292 policemen were killed or wounded in an average month this year - have raised concerns that their ability to tackle insurgents may be dwindling along with morale.
A senior government negotiator on Saturday denied that plans by Kabul to seek peace talks with the Taliban were in deadlock, saying progress was under way.
(Reporting by Elyas Wahdat in KHOST and Miriam Arghandiwal and Mirwais Harooni in KABUL, writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman)
Suicide Bomber Targets Afghan Base
VOA News October 17, 2012
A suicide bomber has blown up his vehicle near a NATO-Afghan army base in eastern Afghanistan, wounding at least 11 Afghan soldiers, as well as several international troops and civilians.
Paktiya provincial officials said the explosion in the Zurmat district was large, but did not kill anyone. The bomber detonated his explosives near the base's gate, shattering windows and damaging buildings. Insurgents fired on the base following the blast.
The Taliban claimed responsibility, saying its fighters had breached the outpost's perimeter. But NATO officials say there were no reports of insurgents on foot and that they secured the base shortly after the blast.
While the Taliban's most common fighting tactic remains planting homemade bombs, the group has recently launched several direct attacks on foreign and Afghan forces. The attacks come as Afghanistan takes on more responsibility for security as NATO countries pull out their troops and prepare for a full withdrawal of combat forces by 2014.
Afghanistan's safest province falling prey to Taliban
Reuters By Jessica Donati Tue Oct 16, 2012
BAMIYAN, Afghanistan - Violence is returning to what has long been the most tranquil region of Afghanistan, where fears of a resurgent Taliban are as stark as the ragged holes left by the bombing of two ancient Buddha statues in cliffs facing the Bamiyan valley.
Bamiyan had been seen as the country's safest province due to its remote location in the central mountains and the opposition of the dominant local tribe, the Hazara, to the Taliban, mostly ethnic Pashtuns who massacred thousands of Hazara during their austere rule.
But now, after 11 years of a NATO-led war against the Islamists, insurgents are edging back into the province, burying roadside bombs and striking at foreign and local security forces. Five New Zealand soldiers were killed in August.
The violence in a region that was a bellwether for NATO's Afghanistan strategy underscores how rapidly security could deteriorate across the country once foreign combat soldiers leave by the end of 2014.
Local people say the insurgent stranglehold is now so tight that the province is effectively cut off by road in all directions and safely reachable only by air.
"When there are no flights out of Bamiyan, I put myself in the hands of God and travel by car," says District Governor Azim Farid, now sheltering in the capital Kabul.
Adding to the despondency is a decision earlier this year by UNESCO, the United Nations cultural agency, to call off negotiations to rebuild the two ancient Buddha statues, destroyed by the Taliban over two weeks in 2001 because they offended religious fundamentalists. UNESCO cited funding constraints.
NATO-led coalition forces say the recent insurgent attacks in Bamiyan are a tiny fraction of overall attacks across Afghanistan, although it could represent an attempt by the Taliban to retake the initiative.
"There has been an increase, but to put it in perspective this accounts for 0.06 percent of the total enemy-initiated attacks in all of Afghanistan," a coalition spokeswoman said.
Until the attacks began to spiral in July, when nine Afghan police were killed in two bombings, Bamiyan was a NATO success story.
It was one of the first provinces where security was handed over to Afghan forces in 2011, raising hopes that even tourists could soon be revisiting Bamiyan's soaring mountains, plunging azure lakes and ruined forts that once held out against an attack by a son of the Mongol emperor Genghis Khan.
Last winter, the province hosted a small international ski competition.
Now, local residents are trying to arm themselves, as they did during the brutal civil war between rival ethnic warlords that left thousands dead in the 1990s.
"The people are thinking the best course of action is to re-arm in any way possible to prepare for the Taliban coming back and preventing another slaughter," says Farid, his face etched with worry as he looks into an untouched mug of saffron tea.
"People regret handing weapons to the government in the past and accepting that the government would bring the rule of law because the government so far has been unable to protect them."
JEWS OF AFGHANISTAN
While eyeing new guns, the Hazara, among the poorest people in the country, are arming themselves with whatever is at hand, from axes to farming scythes and any old weapons left behind.
Most Hazara are Shi'ite Muslims and they are sometimes called the 'Jews of Afghanistan' because of their slaughter and persecution by the Taliban, who are strict Sunni Muslims and consider the Hazara as infidels.
"We are surrounded by different ethnicities, on this side and this side," says local spice shop owner Aziz, who only has one name, gesturing at the Hindu Kush ranges ringing his village which become blanketed in heavy snow during the bleak Bamiyan winters.
To the south and east are the Pashtuns, where the Taliban draw most of their support. To the north are the Tajiks and the Uzbeks, who are no friends of the Hazara either.
When NATO transferred the province to Afghan security control, the government promised to send more police, intelligence officers and an army unit.
But with the 350,000 strong Afghan security forces stretched to combat the insurgency in the Taliban's southern and eastern strongholds, those reinforcements never arrived and police numbers have been cut by a fifth from around 1,000.
That has led to the Taliban spilling into Bamiyan from neighboring provinces. Government supporters have been dragged out of their cars at makeshift roadblocks, one was beheaded for simply for wearing a Western t-shirt.
Residents say that when tied to the threat of roadside bombs, they are effectively trapped in the safer central parts of the province.
"So many wars have passed through here and I have experienced them all. No one wants to protect us and look after security here," says Aziz, 44, sitting cross-legged in his shop.
Deteriorating security is also threatening to derail the biggest foreign investment in Afghanistan's resources sector, an $11 billion project to extract iron ore from the Hajigak mines in Bamiyan.
"The private company has expressed serious concern about security at Hajigak, so the government is coming up with a strategy," said senior engineer Abdul Hakim Hikmat at his office at Bamiyan's Ministry of Mines.
ETHNIC SLAUGHTER
When the Taliban last ruled Bamiyan, they took Aziz's shop and belongings, killing one relative. If they return again, the only option is to fight or flee, because foreign military protectors will have left the country, he says.
"We'll cross the Babbar Mountains to a district where there are other Hazara," he said. Up to half a million Hazara, easily identified because of their Asiatic features, have already fled to neighboring Pakistan and onward to seek asylum in Western countries from Europe to Canada and Australia.
The Taliban now effectively control the north and eastern Bamiyan districts of Kohmard and Shibar, according to the United Nations, because outgunned police stopped patrolling those areas about six weeks ago in the face of the Taliban threat.
Bamiyan's Governor Habiba Sarabi, the only woman to run one of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, says reinforcements are on their way from the central government, although she could not say when.
"This is their duty. They have to do something," she said.
The central government had pinned hopes for tourism on development in Bamiyan, which used to draw thousands of tourists each year to see the ancient Buddhas and the lakes of Band-e-Amir, grouped into Afghanistan's first national park in 2009.
While the lakes remain free from insurgent activity, the Taliban's grip on roads into the province has choked off tourist flows.
Colored swan paddle boats are unused even on the Friday holiday, with just a handful of locals strolling beneath the dramatic cliffs with their families.
"The real tourists are not here because of problems with the highways in Bamiyan," says Sayeed Ismaeel Balaghi, who owns the boats and who has lived by the lakes for half a century.
On the streets of the main provincial town, also called Bamiyan, many people are fatalistic.
"Of course the Taliban will come here and fight against the people," says 23-year-old Fato, selling fruit from a wagon. "Maybe the people can defend themselves, maybe not."
(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi and Mirwais Harooni; Editing by Rob Taylor and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Afghan Soldiers, Civilians Injured In Suicide Bombing
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan October 17, 2012
An Afghan regional official told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that 45 Afghan soldiers and eight civilians were wounded in a suicide bombing near an Afghan-NATO military compound in the east of the country.
Defense Ministry officials had earlier said that only 11 Afghan soldiers were injured in the attack.
Provincial spokesman Rohullah Samoon told RFE/RL that the attacker detonated an explosives-filled vehicle outside the compound in the district of Zormat in Paktia Province.
Samoon said no one was killed in the attack.
A spokeswoman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), Amy Hession, confirmed the attack, saying several Afghan troops were "killed or injured." She said that "no ISAF troops were killed or wounded."
A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahed, claimed responsibility for the attack.
With reporting by dpa and AP
Afghan malnourished hit by poverty and education
CNN By Anna Coren October 17, 2012
Rahman Mina Camp, Afghanistan - A 30-minute drive from the heart of the Afghan capital along dusty pot-holed roads lie the slums of the city.
In the distance are plains with some patches of greenery before they hit a mountain range that juts out of the earth.
We're in Rahman Mina Camp, also known as the slum of Kabul. Dirty brown canvas tents litter the landscape, as children walk barefoot next to open sewers.
A group of women, wearing blue burqas, carry their young children into one particular tent. On the outside is a UNICEF logo next to a sign for ACF International -- the two humanitarian organizations that fund this medical clinic, which is a last resort for some very desperate mothers.
We follow the Afghan women inside and are slammed by the heat and noise inside this low ceiling canvas tent.
Dozens of women sit on the floor nursing their children. They've lifted up their burqas to let in some air but when they see the camera they drop the blue veils over their faces.
Some children cry, others appear too weak and exhausted to even let out a whimper. Some of the babies have black eyeliner drawn around their eyes. I'm told it's to keep away the "evil eye" and bad spirits.
A nurse calls out a name and 30-year old Rahela stands, picking up her daughter Bibi -- the youngest of her five children.
Bibi is 15 months old but very small for her age. Doctors tell me she has a condition called stunting -- acute malnutrition that affects the growth of a child.
Read: David Beckham calls stunting a 'silent emergency'
They follow the nurse under one of the curtains off the main waiting area where Bibi's measurements are taken.
Staff members put a tape measure around her arm, place her on scales and make her lie down on the table to accurately measure her height. Bibi starts crying, calling out for her mother.
As Rahela tries to comfort her little girl, she tells me: "My child was born very weak. All my children were born weak and underweight. I went to a clinic close to my home but they told me to come here. I've been coming here twice a month for three months and Bibi is now getting much better. She's putting on weight and getting stronger."
Once Bibi's measurements are taken, Rahela takes her little hand and leads her to a man behind a desk at the end of the tent. He's handing out food supplements -- energy dense nutrients -- and putting them in plastic bags.
He tells Rahela how much to give Bibi and how often to feed her. A lot of these mothers don't know how to nourish their children properly. A lot of them have little choice because they are so poor. Rahela explains to me: "Our life situation is not good. We are suffering a bad time. My husband has a job, but his salary is not enough for our monthly expenses. I have five children, so his salary is not enough for us."
UNICEF estimates more than three million children in Afghanistan under the age of five suffer from stunting and one-third of those cases are acute.
These are some of the highest levels in the world. The technical definition for the condition is low height for age, and the causes are numerous. It's the result of poor nutrition, lack of access to health care, poverty, a mother's malnourishment, natural disasters and war.
Afghanistan has been torn by war of one kind or another for more than three decades, which only exacerbates this life-threatening problem.
Dr. Moazzem Hossain, Chief of Health and Nutrition for UNICEF, visits the clinics in Afghanistan several times a year from his base in Bangladesh.
He says these outreach programs can sometimes be the difference between life and death.
"These clinics are so important because when you have high levels of acute malnutrition that doesn't just have an immediate impact on a child's mobility and chance of sickness...the chances of mortality and dying are much higher."
He says inappropriate feeding practices are often at the core of the problem. Poor and uneducated Afghan women have received misinformation that breastfeeding is bad and not good for your child.
And those that do breastfeed will dilute it with water or tea. It's a huge problem facing health groups working in Afghanistan, as they desperately try to re-educate mothers on the importance of breastfeeding.
UNICEF nutritionist Elham Monsef weighs into the conversation explaining that somewhere in the last 20 years the message has been mixed up. "I spoke to a doctor in Afghanistan who said his grandmother used to feed all the poor babies in her village with her breast milk. Now these women are told to use instant formula or mix it with water and crushed biscuits. It's such a dangerous message. Breast milk is the golden drop for the child and the best chance of giving these kids the start they will need in what will be a tough life."
A nurse calls out a new name -- this time an 18-year-old woman called Karima picks up her two listless children off the floor. She's traveled more than two hours to get here.
In her arms are seven-month-old boy Aqhaigul and her three-year old daughter Gulmina. They look roughly the same size. Gulima has sores all over her face and patches of skin missing from her legs. She wears a dirty pink outfit and no shoes. She clings to her mother and whimpers.
"My child was very weak and under weight when she was born," says Karima, a mother of four. "We didn't have money, so someone told me about this clinic, and I brought her here to hopefully get some medicine."
Doctors examine Gulmina and tell her mother she has a very severe case of malnutrition and must go to hospital.
Confused by what doctors are saying, her husband Rahmad arrives and takes charge. He's 38 years old but looks at least 10 years older with his dry, weathered skin. He sells corn on the street to support his family and asks: "Who is going to pay for us to go to the doctors? Who is going to pay for her treatment?"
The nurse gives Gulmina a sachet of the energy dense food that comes in the form of peanut paste. She slowly opens her mouth and sucks it. Her father smiles and continues to feed her, forcing it into her mouth.
The nurse explains that she needs time to digest and break it up with mouthfuls of water.
As life returns to Gulmina's little brown eyes her young mother relaxes a little. She knows her child is out of danger for now but explains the reality of their lives and the hardship they face everyday.
"We don't have enough food, and sometimes our four children have nothing to eat. We live in a tent; we have few belongings. If my husband gets work, then we can find food. If not, then we all eat less. This can go on for days."
Backgrounder: Major Taliban attacks in Afghanistan since January
by Farid Behbud, Chen Xin
KABUL, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Taliban carried out a suicide truck bombing in an Afghan-coalition military base in eastern province of Paktia on Wednesday, wounding 45 Afghan army soldiers and eight civilians.
A child was also killed but most of the wounded were caused by shattered glasses and debris caused by the wave of the blast.
The following is the listing of major attacks in the country since beginning this year.
On Oct. 13 -- One American soldier, a coalition civilian employee and four Afghan intelligence agency personnel or NDS were killed and three NDS were wounded in a Taliban suicide bombing in Maruf district of southern Kandahar province.
On Oct. 10 -- Six Afghan Local Police Force (ALP) members killed in a Taliban Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in southern Helmand province.
On Oct. 1 -- Three U.S. soldiers, head of provincial rapid- reaction police force, Mubarak Shah, and 12 civilians were killed and 61 others wounded when a suicide bomber blew his explosive- packed motorcycle in Khost city, the capital of eastern Khost province.
On Oct. 8 -- Two members of NDS were killed and one NDS with 14 civilians were wounded when a Taliban fighter rammed an explosive- laden minibus to a NDS office in Laghkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province.
On Sept. 18 -- Eight South Africans, a Kyrgyz citizen, all working for a local aviation company, along with three Afghan civilians were killed and 11 other injured when a suicide car bomb targeted a minibus carrying the aviation stuffs near Kabul airport.
On Sept. 14 -- About 14 militants and two U.S. Marines were killed and eight coalition jets were destroyed or damaged when Taliban launched a massive attack against Camp Bastion, a main coalition base in Helmand.
On Sept. 10 -- A suicide bomber targeted a crowd in a protest, killing seven policemen and eight civilians and injuring 25 others in northern Kunduz city.
On Sept. 8 -- A teenage suicide bomber killed seven vendor children and injured four others near the NATO force headquarters in Kabul.
On Sept. 4 -- Up to 25 people were killed and 65 others injured in a suicide bombing in Dur Baba district of eastern Nangarhar province.
On Sept. 1 -- A total of 16 people were killed and 90 others, including two U.S. soldiers, wounded in a suicide truck bombing in Sayyedabad district in eastern Wardak province.
On Aug. 14 -- About 36 people were killed and 110 injured in a coordinated shooting and suicide bombing in Zaranj, capital of western Nimroz province.
On Aug. 8 -- Two U.S. soldiers, a U.S. civilian and an Afghan civilian were killed in two suicide bomb attacks in Asadabad, capital of eastern Kunar province.
On Aug. 7 -- Nine people were killed and five others wounded in a roadside bomb attack against a government employees bus in Paghman, an area in western outskirts of Kabul.
On July 14 -- Up to 17 people, including a lawmaker Ahmad Khan Samangani were killed and 43 others wounded as a suicide bomber targeted a wedding hall in northern Samangan province.
On July 9 -- A total of 14 Taliban militants, three policemen and two civilians were killed and 18 policemen and six civilians injured as Taliban launched a coordinated attack Kandahar.
On June 22 -- Taliban carried out a hostage taking attack against a restaurant, overlooking a lake in western Kabul, killing 17 civilians and a policeman, five other people wounded in the attack which also left five militants dead.
On June 20 -- Three U.S. soldiers and 17 Afghan were killed and 37 others injured in a suicide motorcycle bomb in Khost.
On June 1 -- Taliban launched a coordinated attack after detonating a truck bomb against Camp Salerno in Khost, killing 14 attackers and injuring 125 others including 100 U.S. service members.
On May 17 -- Six policemen and a civilian were killed and 12 others injured when four Taliban suicide bombers stormed governor office building in western Farah province.
On May 14 -- A bomb in a bazaar killed nine people, including a member of provincial council in northern Faryab province, injuring eight others.
On May 13 -- Arsala Rahmani, a senior member of High Peace Council and former Taliban official, was killed by militants who used silenced weapons in Kabul.
On May 2 -- Eight civilians and four suicide bombers were killed and 17 others injured when Taliban carried out an attack against a civilian-military camp of NATO-led coalition in eastern Kabul.
On April 10 -- A suicide car bombing killed 12 people and injured 57 others in western Herat province.
On April 4 -- Up to 13 people, including three U.S. soldiers, were killed and 23 others injured in a suicide attack in northern Faryab province.
On April 15 -- Taliban launched a coordinated attack in Kabul and three other provinces, killing 15 people and injuring 74 others in the attacks that also left 36 Taliban dead.
On Feb. 27 -- Nine people were killed and 12 others injured in a suicide car bombing against an airport in Jalalabad, capital of eastern Nangarhar province.
On Feb. 5 -- Seven people were killed and 19 others injured in a suicide bombing in Kandahar province.
On Feb. 25 -- Two U.S. advisors were killed by a member of Afghan Interior Ministry inside the ministry compound in the attack which Taliban claimed responsibility.
On Jan. 18 -- Up to 14 people including a NATO soldier were killed and 22 others injured in a suicide attack in Helmand.
On Jan. 3 -- Up to 15 people were killed and 31 others wounded in two separate suicide bombings in Kandahar.
8 insurgents killed in operations in Afghanistan: ISAF
KABUL, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Up to eight Taliban insurgents have been killed and a Taliban local leader detained during the latest increased counter-insurgency operations in Afghanistan, the NATO- led coalition forces confirmed Wednesday.
"Afghan and coalition forces killed five insurgents observed engaging in nefarious activity during an operation in Nangarhar province Tuesday," the coalition or International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a press release presenting daily operational updates.
In neighboring Logar province, some 60 km south of Afghan capital Kabul, the joint forces conducted a precision airstrike to kill two insurgents who were observed burying an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) on Tuesday, it added.
In addition, an Afghan-led security force, supported by coalition troops, arrested a Taliban senior leader in Kandahar province earlier Wednesday.
The detained Taliban senior leader controlled Taliban assassination attempts, IED operations, and suicide attacks throughout Kandahar district in the province 450 km south of Kabul, the press release said.
"The security force also detained a number of suspected insurgents and seized multiple IED-making materials as a result of the operation."
Separately, a Taliban leader named Qader was killed in an operation also in Kandahar on Saturday, the release confirmed, adding "Qader was responsible for the movement of weapons and ammunition throughout the province."
The Taliban insurgents, who have been waging an insurgency of more than one decade, have yet to make comments.
The Afghan forces and some 100,000 NATO-led coalition troops have intensified cleanup operations against Taliban and other militants recently but the insurgents in retaliation responded by carrying out suicide attacks and IED attacks.
A child was killed and 45 Afghan army soldiers and eight civilians were wounded in a Taliban suicide car bomb attack in a military outpost in eastern Paktia province earlier Wednesday.
Afghans Deny Intel Agent Killed 2 Americans
VOA News October 16, 2012
Afghan officials are rejecting that one of their country's intelligence agents carried out a suicide attack late last week, killing two American troops and four Afghans.
A spokesman for Afghanistan's National Security Directorate, Shafiqullah Tahiri, told a news conference Tuesday that reports suggesting otherwise are baseless. But he did say that the bomber was wearing an Afghan intelligence agency uniform.
The remarks contradict statements by NATO and local officials that Saturday's incident in Kandahar province was a so-called "insider attack" launched by an Afghan intelligence officer. Also, a senior member of the NSD told the French news agency on condition of anonymity that the attack was carried out by a member of the Afghan intelligence agency's staff.
Tensions between Washington and Kabul have escalated over insider attacks, in which Afghan security force members, or militants posing as security force members, have turned their guns on coalition troops. Such attacks have killed more than 50 coalition personnel this year.
Meanwhile, NATO officials expressed their "deep regret" for an operation Sunday in Helmand province that they said "may have accidentally killed three innocent Afghan civilians."
In a statement Tuesday, NATO said its officials will work closely with their Afghan partners to determine what happened and why, and they will also meet with the family members of those who died to personally express their condolences.
The operation reportedly was against suspected insurgents laying roadside bombs in Nawa district and did not involve close air support.
NDS Confirms Civilian Killed in Kabul Raid
TOLOnews.com By Abdul Wali Arian Tuesday, 16 October 2012
Afghan authorities confirmed Tuesday that a civilian in Kabul was killed during a night raid by the intelligence agency's forces on Sunday night.
Deputy spokesman for the National Directorate of Security (NDS) Shafiqullah Taheri said that a civilian was killed during an NDS special forces raid to capture a suspected terrorist.
"A civilian was killed in an exchange of fire between the insurgent and the security forces. The insurgent was hidden in the neighboring house," Taheri said at a press briefing in Kabul. The man being sought was captured by the security forces, and is charged with planning attacks against Kabul Airport, Parliament and the Ministry of Interior, Taheri said.
However, local residents of Kabul's Yakatoot area where the raid took place reject any existence of a suicide attacker or Taliban in the area, while the family of the civilian who was shot said he was killed in the family yard.
"At around 12:00 at night, they [security forces] came down from the roof and entered our yard. When my father came out, he asked 'What's going on?' They shot him. And my father died," one of the family members told TOLOnews on Monday.
"They didn't let us get close to the dead body of my uncle. They threatened to kill us if we came closer," another family member said.
A resident said the security forces warned them before the raid not to leave their homes.
"They said don't come out of your house otherwise we will shoot you. Then we just sat at home and they entered our houses [yards]. They were saying there were suicide bombers, Taliban, but they couldn't find anything," the resident said.
The residents said that many houses were searched by the security forces in the area.
"They came to my house as well and locked all of us in one room. Their target was Taliban and suicide attackers, but this is not true," a fourth resident said.
Taheri rejected residents' claims that US or foreign forces were involved in the raid, saying it only conducted by NDS special forces.
Director of Afghanistan Research and Economic Unit Mir Ahmad Joyenda called for a thorough investigation into the civilian's death.
"Such incidents should be seriously investigated," Joyenda told TOLOnews Tuesday.
Afghanistan Looks to Boost Electricity Production Six-Fold
TOLOnews.com By Anwar Hashimi Tuesday, 16 October 2012
The Afghan government is investigating how the country can generate 2,000 Megawatts of electricity per year, the Council of Ministers said on Monday.
The council ordered the Ministry of Energy and Water and the Ministry of Agriculture to investigate the cost of such projects using funds from foreign entities such as the World Bank and also internal sources, it said in a statement.
The Ministries are to look into fuel possibilities including water, dams, gas, coal, and present the findings at a meeting with the Council.
The aim of the investigation is for Afghanistan to increase its current production of electricity from 300 MW per year to least 2,000MW by 2017 to resolve energy-related problems, the statement said.
Afghanistan buys nearly 1,000 MW per year from countries in the region including Iran, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan for varying prices.
Afghan officials have previously said that the price of a kilowatt of electricity from Tajikistan will cost 3.5 cents per hour while Uzbekistan sells the same amount at 7 to 7.5 cents per hour.
Senators Criticise Transparency of Peace Council
TOLOnews.com By Shahla Murtazaie Tuesday, 16 October 2012
Afghan senators on Tuesday criticised the transparency of the Afghan High Peace Council saying the government should revise its decision over the council.
Several senators urged the government also to revisit its plans for negotiations with the Taliban and give more consideration to the sacrifices the Afghan people have made to the peace process.
"If the government and the leaders of Afghanistan care about the sacrifices of the Afghan people, then they should revise their decision about the peace process. If not, then they should stop sacrificing the people for their false and fake efforts to bring peace in the country," senator Belqis Roshan said Tuesday.
"I also request for the members of the peace council not to take decision one-sided decisions and to think about the people," she added.
Senator Hedayatullah Rehahi added, "The peace council has failed to have any achievements. The government of Afghanistan has had some peace talks with Pakistan but the results were in vain."
The activities of the Afghan Peace Council have been slammed more recently by human rights and civil society groups in the country over their decision-making process, particularly the apparent token inclusion of women.
Sediqullah Mansor Ansari, head of Afghanistan Civil Society Federation, said that the peace council is not transparent enough in its efforts to bring peace to the country.
"They don't have the required transparency in their activities – their plans and strategies are not clear to Afghan people," Ansari said Tuesday.
In Tuesday's sitting session, the senators also accused Pakistan of inciting more war in Afghanistan and preventing peace efforts in the country.
Five million Afghan children still not in school warns British head of charity
The Independent By Hajar Wright Tuesday 16 October 2012
The British head of a charity working on the front line in Afghanistan has warned that despite progress 5 million children are still not in school, amid fears that the withdrawal of troops will leave them stranded.
Dr Sarah Fane, whose charity Afghan Connection has helped 40,000 children into schools, has voiced concerns over Afghanistan’s future, saying that charities fear international interest will wane when troops are withdrawn in 2014.
Dr Fane, who has worked on global campaigns to raise awareness with Hollywood stars including Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, has dedicated the last decade to providing an education to children in Afghanistan. She believes progress in the war-torn country would have been much slower without the international presence.
Describing Afghanistan under the Taliban as “a place of despair”, she founded Afghan Connection in 2002 and has since built 36 schools with support from private donors and the international community.
The charity currently focuses on schools in the safer north-eastern district of Worsaj, where local communities are keen to provide their children with an education, but are in urgent need of resources.
The country has already seen vast improvements in its educational services. Before the fall of the Taliban in 2001 only 5000 of the one million children in school were girls, but since intervention that figure has risen to 8 million, including 3 million girls.
But with 5 million - around 42% of children - still out of school, the charity head warns that with international forces preparing to pull out, Afghanistan’s most promising legacy hangs in the balance.
Recalling the country left ravaged by civil war following the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, Dr Fane says a “familiar scenario”, where people are left with weapons and a power vacuum - rather than a solid infrastructure - is a substantive fear for many Afghans.
Last month the Taliban’s former finance minister, Mullah Agha Jan Mutasim, told the Express Tribune that civil war was inevitable if Afghans didn’t “learn a lesson from the bitter experiences of the past and reach an understanding.”
Yet, without recent precedent for peaceful post-war negotiations, mobilising future generations with education rather than weapons could be the difference between civil war and stability.
Central to progress is the country’s ministry of education, which is keen to address the dearth of female teachers who play a crucial role in girls’ education and training centres have already increased tenfold.
But with increasing numbers of girls and women in schools, safety is a concern. In April, a suspected water poisoning saw over 100 girls and teachers hospitalised in the Takhar province and in July gunmen set fire to a school in Herat.
Despite the risks, Dr Fane insists she’s providing a safe environment for her students, with local communities offering land and labour to help preserve schools. In 2010, they helped reopen 220 schools in nine months that had been closed or damaged because of insurgency.
By only delivering what communities are asking for, charities are able to build schools in relative safety because, she believes, their security is in their relationships.
A culturally sensitive approach, where fathers and husbands begin to see the economic benefits of having educated daughters and wives, enables charities like Afghan Connection to spread their work to other areas, and Dr Fane hopes that with Worsaj as the prototype she’ll be able to build schools in neighbouring towns and villages.
“Thousands come out to thank me, then someone will come from the across the valley, see our school, and say ‘help us, we want the same.’ If the funds are there, there’s no reason why we can’t carry on.” But with only a year to go before British forces start pulling troops out, she says pressure is mounting on NGOs to capitalise on international interest and raise funds “before the world forgets about Afghanistan”.
“The demand for education is here, but it really is a question of money - and that comes from continued awareness. There are no quick fixes, but I’m optimistic. When you think that £35 will pay for a child to go to school for a year, there’s no reason why long-term we can’t get that final five million into education.”
Britain Will Not Desert Afghanistan: UK Official
TOLOnews.com By Mujahid Kakar Tuesday, 16 October 2012
Britain will not desert Afghanistan and the Taliban will not regain a power base, a visiting British official said Tuesday amid reports that the UK will withdraw thousands of troops from the country next year.
British foreign service officer for Afghanistan Sayeeda Warsi told TOLOnews that Britain remained committed to the development of Afghanistan and the training of its armed forces after 2014.
"There is no way that things could go back to the way they were under the Taliban. Too much progress has been made," Warsi said in an exclusive interview on Tuesday.
"Women have made huge strides. You look at the streets of Kabul and you see more girls going to schools than boys. Forty percent of students are girls," she said, adding that those gains will not go in vain.
She also believes the Afghan security forces will be strong enough to defeat the Taliban and insurgents after the foreign combat troops leave.
"There will always an element of a security risk, but we believe that it is a security risk that can be managed by the Afghan security forces," she said.
"What I do want to make clear is that our relationship with Afghanistan is not just linked to combat troops and when our combat troops withdraw at the end of 2014, we will have a presence in Afghanistan," she added.
The British politician of Pakistan origins pointed out that the international community would not have pledged US$16 billion in aid if they were not sure about the stability of Afghanistan after 2014.
Warsi had earlier made similar comments at a press conference in Kabul saying that Britain was committed to its long-term agreement with Afghanistan and the withdrawal of troops will not harm the bilateral relations.
"Our combat troops will not be here [in Afghanistan] after the end of 2014. That does not mean that our relationship in terms of support, ongoing training, ongoing development work, the huge parameters that have been dealt with in the enhanced strategic partnership, that relationship will continue and will endure. That's why it's called an enduring strategic partnership," Warsi said Tuesday morning.
"We have strong relationships with both Afghanistan and Pakistan so we can play a major role in combating extremism. This can lead us to our common goal of bringing peace and stability to the country," she added.
There are around 9,500 British soldiers in Afghanistan, mostly stationed in southern Helmand province.
On Sunday, British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond said in a BBC interview that the country would withdraw 500 troops this year and thousands more next year.
"I would expect it will be significant, which means thousands, not hundreds, but I would not expect it to be the majority," Hammond said of the numbers expected to withdraw.
Mother, Newborn Rescued from Home Prison in Badakhshan
TOLOnews.com By Shakeela Ahbrimkhil Tuesday, 16 October 2012
A young mother is in Fayzabad hospital after being rescued with her malnourished newborn from severe abuse by her husband and his family in north-east Badakhashan province.
Gulsom, 20, was discovered by the provincial health team during a routine visit to her village in the Teshkan district last week with clear signs of physical abuse understood to be inflicted by her husband and his second wife.
Footage received by TOLOnews shows Gulsom with an inflamed face and a baby suffering from malnutrition. Although the exact age of her baby is unclear, the health team believe that the child is premature with early labour brought on by the beatings Gulsom received. She is understood to have been married for about four years.
Badakhshan provincial human rights director Wahidullah Arghon told TOLOnews on Monday that Gulsom claims she has been kept in a dark room for several days, possibly weeks, by her husband's family while her husband had another wife. She was only fed loaves of bread.
"We conveyed the situation to the intelligence department as well as the police and the prosecution department to send a team to investigate the case," Arghon said, adding that local officials have not taken any steps to follow up Gulsom's case.
Badakhshan civil society activists said that violence against women is increasing.
"She [Gulsom] was in an emergency situation and there was a possibility she would die if she was left in that same situation. She didn't have any companions. The team brought her here [to the hospital]," social activist Sebghatullah Khaksar said Monday.
According to Khaksar, Gulsom delivered the baby 15 days ago.
It is the second time in less than a year that a woman in Afghanistan was found imprisoned and tortured by the family she married into.
The case of 15-year-old Sahar Gul received worldwide attention after she was discovered in northern Baghlan province last December being tortured by her husband and in-laws for refusing to prostitute herself.
Forced marriage and child marriage are considered to greatly increase the risk of abuse against women.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
Wed, Oct 17, 2012
KHOST, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a joint Afghan-U.S. base in the country's east on Wednesday, wounding at least 45 Afghan soldiers, local officials said.
The Taliban took responsibility for the car bomb attack in the Zurmat district of Paktia province, saying they had also despatched a group of fighters in suicide vests who managed to enter the base.
A spokeswoman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said insurgents fired at the base after the explosion. There were no NATO casualties, she added.
Paktia, a small province about 100 km (62 miles) south of the capital Kabul, has been beset by increasing violence over the past two years.
"The bomber detonated explosives right in front of a joint base shared by the Afghan army and foreign forces, wounding 45 soldiers," the deputy governor for Paktia, Gul Rahman Mangal, told Reuters.
Seven civilians were among the wounded, hospital officials in Zurmat added.
Violence has been increasing across the country as the deadline of end-2014 looms for most foreign combat troops to leave Afghanistan, leaving the 350,000-strong Afghan security forces in control.
Heavy casualty rates amongst Afghan security forces - NATO says 243 Afghan soldiers and 292 policemen were killed or wounded in an average month this year - have raised concerns that their ability to tackle insurgents may be dwindling along with morale.
A senior government negotiator on Saturday denied that plans by Kabul to seek peace talks with the Taliban were in deadlock, saying progress was under way.
(Reporting by Elyas Wahdat in KHOST and Miriam Arghandiwal and Mirwais Harooni in KABUL, writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman)
Suicide Bomber Targets Afghan Base
VOA News October 17, 2012
A suicide bomber has blown up his vehicle near a NATO-Afghan army base in eastern Afghanistan, wounding at least 11 Afghan soldiers, as well as several international troops and civilians.
Paktiya provincial officials said the explosion in the Zurmat district was large, but did not kill anyone. The bomber detonated his explosives near the base's gate, shattering windows and damaging buildings. Insurgents fired on the base following the blast.
The Taliban claimed responsibility, saying its fighters had breached the outpost's perimeter. But NATO officials say there were no reports of insurgents on foot and that they secured the base shortly after the blast.
While the Taliban's most common fighting tactic remains planting homemade bombs, the group has recently launched several direct attacks on foreign and Afghan forces. The attacks come as Afghanistan takes on more responsibility for security as NATO countries pull out their troops and prepare for a full withdrawal of combat forces by 2014.
Afghanistan's safest province falling prey to Taliban
Reuters By Jessica Donati Tue Oct 16, 2012
BAMIYAN, Afghanistan - Violence is returning to what has long been the most tranquil region of Afghanistan, where fears of a resurgent Taliban are as stark as the ragged holes left by the bombing of two ancient Buddha statues in cliffs facing the Bamiyan valley.
Bamiyan had been seen as the country's safest province due to its remote location in the central mountains and the opposition of the dominant local tribe, the Hazara, to the Taliban, mostly ethnic Pashtuns who massacred thousands of Hazara during their austere rule.
But now, after 11 years of a NATO-led war against the Islamists, insurgents are edging back into the province, burying roadside bombs and striking at foreign and local security forces. Five New Zealand soldiers were killed in August.
The violence in a region that was a bellwether for NATO's Afghanistan strategy underscores how rapidly security could deteriorate across the country once foreign combat soldiers leave by the end of 2014.
Local people say the insurgent stranglehold is now so tight that the province is effectively cut off by road in all directions and safely reachable only by air.
"When there are no flights out of Bamiyan, I put myself in the hands of God and travel by car," says District Governor Azim Farid, now sheltering in the capital Kabul.
Adding to the despondency is a decision earlier this year by UNESCO, the United Nations cultural agency, to call off negotiations to rebuild the two ancient Buddha statues, destroyed by the Taliban over two weeks in 2001 because they offended religious fundamentalists. UNESCO cited funding constraints.
NATO-led coalition forces say the recent insurgent attacks in Bamiyan are a tiny fraction of overall attacks across Afghanistan, although it could represent an attempt by the Taliban to retake the initiative.
"There has been an increase, but to put it in perspective this accounts for 0.06 percent of the total enemy-initiated attacks in all of Afghanistan," a coalition spokeswoman said.
Until the attacks began to spiral in July, when nine Afghan police were killed in two bombings, Bamiyan was a NATO success story.
It was one of the first provinces where security was handed over to Afghan forces in 2011, raising hopes that even tourists could soon be revisiting Bamiyan's soaring mountains, plunging azure lakes and ruined forts that once held out against an attack by a son of the Mongol emperor Genghis Khan.
Last winter, the province hosted a small international ski competition.
Now, local residents are trying to arm themselves, as they did during the brutal civil war between rival ethnic warlords that left thousands dead in the 1990s.
"The people are thinking the best course of action is to re-arm in any way possible to prepare for the Taliban coming back and preventing another slaughter," says Farid, his face etched with worry as he looks into an untouched mug of saffron tea.
"People regret handing weapons to the government in the past and accepting that the government would bring the rule of law because the government so far has been unable to protect them."
JEWS OF AFGHANISTAN
While eyeing new guns, the Hazara, among the poorest people in the country, are arming themselves with whatever is at hand, from axes to farming scythes and any old weapons left behind.
Most Hazara are Shi'ite Muslims and they are sometimes called the 'Jews of Afghanistan' because of their slaughter and persecution by the Taliban, who are strict Sunni Muslims and consider the Hazara as infidels.
"We are surrounded by different ethnicities, on this side and this side," says local spice shop owner Aziz, who only has one name, gesturing at the Hindu Kush ranges ringing his village which become blanketed in heavy snow during the bleak Bamiyan winters.
To the south and east are the Pashtuns, where the Taliban draw most of their support. To the north are the Tajiks and the Uzbeks, who are no friends of the Hazara either.
When NATO transferred the province to Afghan security control, the government promised to send more police, intelligence officers and an army unit.
But with the 350,000 strong Afghan security forces stretched to combat the insurgency in the Taliban's southern and eastern strongholds, those reinforcements never arrived and police numbers have been cut by a fifth from around 1,000.
That has led to the Taliban spilling into Bamiyan from neighboring provinces. Government supporters have been dragged out of their cars at makeshift roadblocks, one was beheaded for simply for wearing a Western t-shirt.
Residents say that when tied to the threat of roadside bombs, they are effectively trapped in the safer central parts of the province.
"So many wars have passed through here and I have experienced them all. No one wants to protect us and look after security here," says Aziz, 44, sitting cross-legged in his shop.
Deteriorating security is also threatening to derail the biggest foreign investment in Afghanistan's resources sector, an $11 billion project to extract iron ore from the Hajigak mines in Bamiyan.
"The private company has expressed serious concern about security at Hajigak, so the government is coming up with a strategy," said senior engineer Abdul Hakim Hikmat at his office at Bamiyan's Ministry of Mines.
ETHNIC SLAUGHTER
When the Taliban last ruled Bamiyan, they took Aziz's shop and belongings, killing one relative. If they return again, the only option is to fight or flee, because foreign military protectors will have left the country, he says.
"We'll cross the Babbar Mountains to a district where there are other Hazara," he said. Up to half a million Hazara, easily identified because of their Asiatic features, have already fled to neighboring Pakistan and onward to seek asylum in Western countries from Europe to Canada and Australia.
The Taliban now effectively control the north and eastern Bamiyan districts of Kohmard and Shibar, according to the United Nations, because outgunned police stopped patrolling those areas about six weeks ago in the face of the Taliban threat.
Bamiyan's Governor Habiba Sarabi, the only woman to run one of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, says reinforcements are on their way from the central government, although she could not say when.
"This is their duty. They have to do something," she said.
The central government had pinned hopes for tourism on development in Bamiyan, which used to draw thousands of tourists each year to see the ancient Buddhas and the lakes of Band-e-Amir, grouped into Afghanistan's first national park in 2009.
While the lakes remain free from insurgent activity, the Taliban's grip on roads into the province has choked off tourist flows.
Colored swan paddle boats are unused even on the Friday holiday, with just a handful of locals strolling beneath the dramatic cliffs with their families.
"The real tourists are not here because of problems with the highways in Bamiyan," says Sayeed Ismaeel Balaghi, who owns the boats and who has lived by the lakes for half a century.
On the streets of the main provincial town, also called Bamiyan, many people are fatalistic.
"Of course the Taliban will come here and fight against the people," says 23-year-old Fato, selling fruit from a wagon. "Maybe the people can defend themselves, maybe not."
(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi and Mirwais Harooni; Editing by Rob Taylor and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Afghan Soldiers, Civilians Injured In Suicide Bombing
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan October 17, 2012
An Afghan regional official told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that 45 Afghan soldiers and eight civilians were wounded in a suicide bombing near an Afghan-NATO military compound in the east of the country.
Defense Ministry officials had earlier said that only 11 Afghan soldiers were injured in the attack.
Provincial spokesman Rohullah Samoon told RFE/RL that the attacker detonated an explosives-filled vehicle outside the compound in the district of Zormat in Paktia Province.
Samoon said no one was killed in the attack.
A spokeswoman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), Amy Hession, confirmed the attack, saying several Afghan troops were "killed or injured." She said that "no ISAF troops were killed or wounded."
A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahed, claimed responsibility for the attack.
With reporting by dpa and AP
Afghan malnourished hit by poverty and education
CNN By Anna Coren October 17, 2012
Rahman Mina Camp, Afghanistan - A 30-minute drive from the heart of the Afghan capital along dusty pot-holed roads lie the slums of the city.
In the distance are plains with some patches of greenery before they hit a mountain range that juts out of the earth.
We're in Rahman Mina Camp, also known as the slum of Kabul. Dirty brown canvas tents litter the landscape, as children walk barefoot next to open sewers.
A group of women, wearing blue burqas, carry their young children into one particular tent. On the outside is a UNICEF logo next to a sign for ACF International -- the two humanitarian organizations that fund this medical clinic, which is a last resort for some very desperate mothers.
We follow the Afghan women inside and are slammed by the heat and noise inside this low ceiling canvas tent.
Dozens of women sit on the floor nursing their children. They've lifted up their burqas to let in some air but when they see the camera they drop the blue veils over their faces.
Some children cry, others appear too weak and exhausted to even let out a whimper. Some of the babies have black eyeliner drawn around their eyes. I'm told it's to keep away the "evil eye" and bad spirits.
A nurse calls out a name and 30-year old Rahela stands, picking up her daughter Bibi -- the youngest of her five children.
Bibi is 15 months old but very small for her age. Doctors tell me she has a condition called stunting -- acute malnutrition that affects the growth of a child.
Read: David Beckham calls stunting a 'silent emergency'
They follow the nurse under one of the curtains off the main waiting area where Bibi's measurements are taken.
Staff members put a tape measure around her arm, place her on scales and make her lie down on the table to accurately measure her height. Bibi starts crying, calling out for her mother.
As Rahela tries to comfort her little girl, she tells me: "My child was born very weak. All my children were born weak and underweight. I went to a clinic close to my home but they told me to come here. I've been coming here twice a month for three months and Bibi is now getting much better. She's putting on weight and getting stronger."
Once Bibi's measurements are taken, Rahela takes her little hand and leads her to a man behind a desk at the end of the tent. He's handing out food supplements -- energy dense nutrients -- and putting them in plastic bags.
He tells Rahela how much to give Bibi and how often to feed her. A lot of these mothers don't know how to nourish their children properly. A lot of them have little choice because they are so poor. Rahela explains to me: "Our life situation is not good. We are suffering a bad time. My husband has a job, but his salary is not enough for our monthly expenses. I have five children, so his salary is not enough for us."
UNICEF estimates more than three million children in Afghanistan under the age of five suffer from stunting and one-third of those cases are acute.
These are some of the highest levels in the world. The technical definition for the condition is low height for age, and the causes are numerous. It's the result of poor nutrition, lack of access to health care, poverty, a mother's malnourishment, natural disasters and war.
Afghanistan has been torn by war of one kind or another for more than three decades, which only exacerbates this life-threatening problem.
Dr. Moazzem Hossain, Chief of Health and Nutrition for UNICEF, visits the clinics in Afghanistan several times a year from his base in Bangladesh.
He says these outreach programs can sometimes be the difference between life and death.
"These clinics are so important because when you have high levels of acute malnutrition that doesn't just have an immediate impact on a child's mobility and chance of sickness...the chances of mortality and dying are much higher."
He says inappropriate feeding practices are often at the core of the problem. Poor and uneducated Afghan women have received misinformation that breastfeeding is bad and not good for your child.
And those that do breastfeed will dilute it with water or tea. It's a huge problem facing health groups working in Afghanistan, as they desperately try to re-educate mothers on the importance of breastfeeding.
UNICEF nutritionist Elham Monsef weighs into the conversation explaining that somewhere in the last 20 years the message has been mixed up. "I spoke to a doctor in Afghanistan who said his grandmother used to feed all the poor babies in her village with her breast milk. Now these women are told to use instant formula or mix it with water and crushed biscuits. It's such a dangerous message. Breast milk is the golden drop for the child and the best chance of giving these kids the start they will need in what will be a tough life."
A nurse calls out a new name -- this time an 18-year-old woman called Karima picks up her two listless children off the floor. She's traveled more than two hours to get here.
In her arms are seven-month-old boy Aqhaigul and her three-year old daughter Gulmina. They look roughly the same size. Gulima has sores all over her face and patches of skin missing from her legs. She wears a dirty pink outfit and no shoes. She clings to her mother and whimpers.
"My child was very weak and under weight when she was born," says Karima, a mother of four. "We didn't have money, so someone told me about this clinic, and I brought her here to hopefully get some medicine."
Doctors examine Gulmina and tell her mother she has a very severe case of malnutrition and must go to hospital.
Confused by what doctors are saying, her husband Rahmad arrives and takes charge. He's 38 years old but looks at least 10 years older with his dry, weathered skin. He sells corn on the street to support his family and asks: "Who is going to pay for us to go to the doctors? Who is going to pay for her treatment?"
The nurse gives Gulmina a sachet of the energy dense food that comes in the form of peanut paste. She slowly opens her mouth and sucks it. Her father smiles and continues to feed her, forcing it into her mouth.
The nurse explains that she needs time to digest and break it up with mouthfuls of water.
As life returns to Gulmina's little brown eyes her young mother relaxes a little. She knows her child is out of danger for now but explains the reality of their lives and the hardship they face everyday.
"We don't have enough food, and sometimes our four children have nothing to eat. We live in a tent; we have few belongings. If my husband gets work, then we can find food. If not, then we all eat less. This can go on for days."
Backgrounder: Major Taliban attacks in Afghanistan since January
by Farid Behbud, Chen Xin
KABUL, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Taliban carried out a suicide truck bombing in an Afghan-coalition military base in eastern province of Paktia on Wednesday, wounding 45 Afghan army soldiers and eight civilians.
A child was also killed but most of the wounded were caused by shattered glasses and debris caused by the wave of the blast.
The following is the listing of major attacks in the country since beginning this year.
On Oct. 13 -- One American soldier, a coalition civilian employee and four Afghan intelligence agency personnel or NDS were killed and three NDS were wounded in a Taliban suicide bombing in Maruf district of southern Kandahar province.
On Oct. 10 -- Six Afghan Local Police Force (ALP) members killed in a Taliban Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in southern Helmand province.
On Oct. 1 -- Three U.S. soldiers, head of provincial rapid- reaction police force, Mubarak Shah, and 12 civilians were killed and 61 others wounded when a suicide bomber blew his explosive- packed motorcycle in Khost city, the capital of eastern Khost province.
On Oct. 8 -- Two members of NDS were killed and one NDS with 14 civilians were wounded when a Taliban fighter rammed an explosive- laden minibus to a NDS office in Laghkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province.
On Sept. 18 -- Eight South Africans, a Kyrgyz citizen, all working for a local aviation company, along with three Afghan civilians were killed and 11 other injured when a suicide car bomb targeted a minibus carrying the aviation stuffs near Kabul airport.
On Sept. 14 -- About 14 militants and two U.S. Marines were killed and eight coalition jets were destroyed or damaged when Taliban launched a massive attack against Camp Bastion, a main coalition base in Helmand.
On Sept. 10 -- A suicide bomber targeted a crowd in a protest, killing seven policemen and eight civilians and injuring 25 others in northern Kunduz city.
On Sept. 8 -- A teenage suicide bomber killed seven vendor children and injured four others near the NATO force headquarters in Kabul.
On Sept. 4 -- Up to 25 people were killed and 65 others injured in a suicide bombing in Dur Baba district of eastern Nangarhar province.
On Sept. 1 -- A total of 16 people were killed and 90 others, including two U.S. soldiers, wounded in a suicide truck bombing in Sayyedabad district in eastern Wardak province.
On Aug. 14 -- About 36 people were killed and 110 injured in a coordinated shooting and suicide bombing in Zaranj, capital of western Nimroz province.
On Aug. 8 -- Two U.S. soldiers, a U.S. civilian and an Afghan civilian were killed in two suicide bomb attacks in Asadabad, capital of eastern Kunar province.
On Aug. 7 -- Nine people were killed and five others wounded in a roadside bomb attack against a government employees bus in Paghman, an area in western outskirts of Kabul.
On July 14 -- Up to 17 people, including a lawmaker Ahmad Khan Samangani were killed and 43 others wounded as a suicide bomber targeted a wedding hall in northern Samangan province.
On July 9 -- A total of 14 Taliban militants, three policemen and two civilians were killed and 18 policemen and six civilians injured as Taliban launched a coordinated attack Kandahar.
On June 22 -- Taliban carried out a hostage taking attack against a restaurant, overlooking a lake in western Kabul, killing 17 civilians and a policeman, five other people wounded in the attack which also left five militants dead.
On June 20 -- Three U.S. soldiers and 17 Afghan were killed and 37 others injured in a suicide motorcycle bomb in Khost.
On June 1 -- Taliban launched a coordinated attack after detonating a truck bomb against Camp Salerno in Khost, killing 14 attackers and injuring 125 others including 100 U.S. service members.
On May 17 -- Six policemen and a civilian were killed and 12 others injured when four Taliban suicide bombers stormed governor office building in western Farah province.
On May 14 -- A bomb in a bazaar killed nine people, including a member of provincial council in northern Faryab province, injuring eight others.
On May 13 -- Arsala Rahmani, a senior member of High Peace Council and former Taliban official, was killed by militants who used silenced weapons in Kabul.
On May 2 -- Eight civilians and four suicide bombers were killed and 17 others injured when Taliban carried out an attack against a civilian-military camp of NATO-led coalition in eastern Kabul.
On April 10 -- A suicide car bombing killed 12 people and injured 57 others in western Herat province.
On April 4 -- Up to 13 people, including three U.S. soldiers, were killed and 23 others injured in a suicide attack in northern Faryab province.
On April 15 -- Taliban launched a coordinated attack in Kabul and three other provinces, killing 15 people and injuring 74 others in the attacks that also left 36 Taliban dead.
On Feb. 27 -- Nine people were killed and 12 others injured in a suicide car bombing against an airport in Jalalabad, capital of eastern Nangarhar province.
On Feb. 5 -- Seven people were killed and 19 others injured in a suicide bombing in Kandahar province.
On Feb. 25 -- Two U.S. advisors were killed by a member of Afghan Interior Ministry inside the ministry compound in the attack which Taliban claimed responsibility.
On Jan. 18 -- Up to 14 people including a NATO soldier were killed and 22 others injured in a suicide attack in Helmand.
On Jan. 3 -- Up to 15 people were killed and 31 others wounded in two separate suicide bombings in Kandahar.
8 insurgents killed in operations in Afghanistan: ISAF
KABUL, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Up to eight Taliban insurgents have been killed and a Taliban local leader detained during the latest increased counter-insurgency operations in Afghanistan, the NATO- led coalition forces confirmed Wednesday.
"Afghan and coalition forces killed five insurgents observed engaging in nefarious activity during an operation in Nangarhar province Tuesday," the coalition or International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a press release presenting daily operational updates.
In neighboring Logar province, some 60 km south of Afghan capital Kabul, the joint forces conducted a precision airstrike to kill two insurgents who were observed burying an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) on Tuesday, it added.
In addition, an Afghan-led security force, supported by coalition troops, arrested a Taliban senior leader in Kandahar province earlier Wednesday.
The detained Taliban senior leader controlled Taliban assassination attempts, IED operations, and suicide attacks throughout Kandahar district in the province 450 km south of Kabul, the press release said.
"The security force also detained a number of suspected insurgents and seized multiple IED-making materials as a result of the operation."
Separately, a Taliban leader named Qader was killed in an operation also in Kandahar on Saturday, the release confirmed, adding "Qader was responsible for the movement of weapons and ammunition throughout the province."
The Taliban insurgents, who have been waging an insurgency of more than one decade, have yet to make comments.
The Afghan forces and some 100,000 NATO-led coalition troops have intensified cleanup operations against Taliban and other militants recently but the insurgents in retaliation responded by carrying out suicide attacks and IED attacks.
A child was killed and 45 Afghan army soldiers and eight civilians were wounded in a Taliban suicide car bomb attack in a military outpost in eastern Paktia province earlier Wednesday.
Afghans Deny Intel Agent Killed 2 Americans
VOA News October 16, 2012
Afghan officials are rejecting that one of their country's intelligence agents carried out a suicide attack late last week, killing two American troops and four Afghans.
A spokesman for Afghanistan's National Security Directorate, Shafiqullah Tahiri, told a news conference Tuesday that reports suggesting otherwise are baseless. But he did say that the bomber was wearing an Afghan intelligence agency uniform.
The remarks contradict statements by NATO and local officials that Saturday's incident in Kandahar province was a so-called "insider attack" launched by an Afghan intelligence officer. Also, a senior member of the NSD told the French news agency on condition of anonymity that the attack was carried out by a member of the Afghan intelligence agency's staff.
Tensions between Washington and Kabul have escalated over insider attacks, in which Afghan security force members, or militants posing as security force members, have turned their guns on coalition troops. Such attacks have killed more than 50 coalition personnel this year.
Meanwhile, NATO officials expressed their "deep regret" for an operation Sunday in Helmand province that they said "may have accidentally killed three innocent Afghan civilians."
In a statement Tuesday, NATO said its officials will work closely with their Afghan partners to determine what happened and why, and they will also meet with the family members of those who died to personally express their condolences.
The operation reportedly was against suspected insurgents laying roadside bombs in Nawa district and did not involve close air support.
NDS Confirms Civilian Killed in Kabul Raid
TOLOnews.com By Abdul Wali Arian Tuesday, 16 October 2012
Afghan authorities confirmed Tuesday that a civilian in Kabul was killed during a night raid by the intelligence agency's forces on Sunday night.
Deputy spokesman for the National Directorate of Security (NDS) Shafiqullah Taheri said that a civilian was killed during an NDS special forces raid to capture a suspected terrorist.
"A civilian was killed in an exchange of fire between the insurgent and the security forces. The insurgent was hidden in the neighboring house," Taheri said at a press briefing in Kabul. The man being sought was captured by the security forces, and is charged with planning attacks against Kabul Airport, Parliament and the Ministry of Interior, Taheri said.
However, local residents of Kabul's Yakatoot area where the raid took place reject any existence of a suicide attacker or Taliban in the area, while the family of the civilian who was shot said he was killed in the family yard.
"At around 12:00 at night, they [security forces] came down from the roof and entered our yard. When my father came out, he asked 'What's going on?' They shot him. And my father died," one of the family members told TOLOnews on Monday.
"They didn't let us get close to the dead body of my uncle. They threatened to kill us if we came closer," another family member said.
A resident said the security forces warned them before the raid not to leave their homes.
"They said don't come out of your house otherwise we will shoot you. Then we just sat at home and they entered our houses [yards]. They were saying there were suicide bombers, Taliban, but they couldn't find anything," the resident said.
The residents said that many houses were searched by the security forces in the area.
"They came to my house as well and locked all of us in one room. Their target was Taliban and suicide attackers, but this is not true," a fourth resident said.
Taheri rejected residents' claims that US or foreign forces were involved in the raid, saying it only conducted by NDS special forces.
Director of Afghanistan Research and Economic Unit Mir Ahmad Joyenda called for a thorough investigation into the civilian's death.
"Such incidents should be seriously investigated," Joyenda told TOLOnews Tuesday.
Afghanistan Looks to Boost Electricity Production Six-Fold
TOLOnews.com By Anwar Hashimi Tuesday, 16 October 2012
The Afghan government is investigating how the country can generate 2,000 Megawatts of electricity per year, the Council of Ministers said on Monday.
The council ordered the Ministry of Energy and Water and the Ministry of Agriculture to investigate the cost of such projects using funds from foreign entities such as the World Bank and also internal sources, it said in a statement.
The Ministries are to look into fuel possibilities including water, dams, gas, coal, and present the findings at a meeting with the Council.
The aim of the investigation is for Afghanistan to increase its current production of electricity from 300 MW per year to least 2,000MW by 2017 to resolve energy-related problems, the statement said.
Afghanistan buys nearly 1,000 MW per year from countries in the region including Iran, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan for varying prices.
Afghan officials have previously said that the price of a kilowatt of electricity from Tajikistan will cost 3.5 cents per hour while Uzbekistan sells the same amount at 7 to 7.5 cents per hour.
Senators Criticise Transparency of Peace Council
TOLOnews.com By Shahla Murtazaie Tuesday, 16 October 2012
Afghan senators on Tuesday criticised the transparency of the Afghan High Peace Council saying the government should revise its decision over the council.
Several senators urged the government also to revisit its plans for negotiations with the Taliban and give more consideration to the sacrifices the Afghan people have made to the peace process.
"If the government and the leaders of Afghanistan care about the sacrifices of the Afghan people, then they should revise their decision about the peace process. If not, then they should stop sacrificing the people for their false and fake efforts to bring peace in the country," senator Belqis Roshan said Tuesday.
"I also request for the members of the peace council not to take decision one-sided decisions and to think about the people," she added.
Senator Hedayatullah Rehahi added, "The peace council has failed to have any achievements. The government of Afghanistan has had some peace talks with Pakistan but the results were in vain."
The activities of the Afghan Peace Council have been slammed more recently by human rights and civil society groups in the country over their decision-making process, particularly the apparent token inclusion of women.
Sediqullah Mansor Ansari, head of Afghanistan Civil Society Federation, said that the peace council is not transparent enough in its efforts to bring peace to the country.
"They don't have the required transparency in their activities – their plans and strategies are not clear to Afghan people," Ansari said Tuesday.
In Tuesday's sitting session, the senators also accused Pakistan of inciting more war in Afghanistan and preventing peace efforts in the country.
Five million Afghan children still not in school warns British head of charity
The Independent By Hajar Wright Tuesday 16 October 2012
The British head of a charity working on the front line in Afghanistan has warned that despite progress 5 million children are still not in school, amid fears that the withdrawal of troops will leave them stranded.
Dr Sarah Fane, whose charity Afghan Connection has helped 40,000 children into schools, has voiced concerns over Afghanistan’s future, saying that charities fear international interest will wane when troops are withdrawn in 2014.
Dr Fane, who has worked on global campaigns to raise awareness with Hollywood stars including Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, has dedicated the last decade to providing an education to children in Afghanistan. She believes progress in the war-torn country would have been much slower without the international presence.
Describing Afghanistan under the Taliban as “a place of despair”, she founded Afghan Connection in 2002 and has since built 36 schools with support from private donors and the international community.
The charity currently focuses on schools in the safer north-eastern district of Worsaj, where local communities are keen to provide their children with an education, but are in urgent need of resources.
The country has already seen vast improvements in its educational services. Before the fall of the Taliban in 2001 only 5000 of the one million children in school were girls, but since intervention that figure has risen to 8 million, including 3 million girls.
But with 5 million - around 42% of children - still out of school, the charity head warns that with international forces preparing to pull out, Afghanistan’s most promising legacy hangs in the balance.
Recalling the country left ravaged by civil war following the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, Dr Fane says a “familiar scenario”, where people are left with weapons and a power vacuum - rather than a solid infrastructure - is a substantive fear for many Afghans.
Last month the Taliban’s former finance minister, Mullah Agha Jan Mutasim, told the Express Tribune that civil war was inevitable if Afghans didn’t “learn a lesson from the bitter experiences of the past and reach an understanding.”
Yet, without recent precedent for peaceful post-war negotiations, mobilising future generations with education rather than weapons could be the difference between civil war and stability.
Central to progress is the country’s ministry of education, which is keen to address the dearth of female teachers who play a crucial role in girls’ education and training centres have already increased tenfold.
But with increasing numbers of girls and women in schools, safety is a concern. In April, a suspected water poisoning saw over 100 girls and teachers hospitalised in the Takhar province and in July gunmen set fire to a school in Herat.
Despite the risks, Dr Fane insists she’s providing a safe environment for her students, with local communities offering land and labour to help preserve schools. In 2010, they helped reopen 220 schools in nine months that had been closed or damaged because of insurgency.
By only delivering what communities are asking for, charities are able to build schools in relative safety because, she believes, their security is in their relationships.
A culturally sensitive approach, where fathers and husbands begin to see the economic benefits of having educated daughters and wives, enables charities like Afghan Connection to spread their work to other areas, and Dr Fane hopes that with Worsaj as the prototype she’ll be able to build schools in neighbouring towns and villages.
“Thousands come out to thank me, then someone will come from the across the valley, see our school, and say ‘help us, we want the same.’ If the funds are there, there’s no reason why we can’t carry on.” But with only a year to go before British forces start pulling troops out, she says pressure is mounting on NGOs to capitalise on international interest and raise funds “before the world forgets about Afghanistan”.
“The demand for education is here, but it really is a question of money - and that comes from continued awareness. There are no quick fixes, but I’m optimistic. When you think that £35 will pay for a child to go to school for a year, there’s no reason why long-term we can’t get that final five million into education.”
Britain Will Not Desert Afghanistan: UK Official
TOLOnews.com By Mujahid Kakar Tuesday, 16 October 2012
Britain will not desert Afghanistan and the Taliban will not regain a power base, a visiting British official said Tuesday amid reports that the UK will withdraw thousands of troops from the country next year.
British foreign service officer for Afghanistan Sayeeda Warsi told TOLOnews that Britain remained committed to the development of Afghanistan and the training of its armed forces after 2014.
"There is no way that things could go back to the way they were under the Taliban. Too much progress has been made," Warsi said in an exclusive interview on Tuesday.
"Women have made huge strides. You look at the streets of Kabul and you see more girls going to schools than boys. Forty percent of students are girls," she said, adding that those gains will not go in vain.
She also believes the Afghan security forces will be strong enough to defeat the Taliban and insurgents after the foreign combat troops leave.
"There will always an element of a security risk, but we believe that it is a security risk that can be managed by the Afghan security forces," she said.
"What I do want to make clear is that our relationship with Afghanistan is not just linked to combat troops and when our combat troops withdraw at the end of 2014, we will have a presence in Afghanistan," she added.
The British politician of Pakistan origins pointed out that the international community would not have pledged US$16 billion in aid if they were not sure about the stability of Afghanistan after 2014.
Warsi had earlier made similar comments at a press conference in Kabul saying that Britain was committed to its long-term agreement with Afghanistan and the withdrawal of troops will not harm the bilateral relations.
"Our combat troops will not be here [in Afghanistan] after the end of 2014. That does not mean that our relationship in terms of support, ongoing training, ongoing development work, the huge parameters that have been dealt with in the enhanced strategic partnership, that relationship will continue and will endure. That's why it's called an enduring strategic partnership," Warsi said Tuesday morning.
"We have strong relationships with both Afghanistan and Pakistan so we can play a major role in combating extremism. This can lead us to our common goal of bringing peace and stability to the country," she added.
There are around 9,500 British soldiers in Afghanistan, mostly stationed in southern Helmand province.
On Sunday, British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond said in a BBC interview that the country would withdraw 500 troops this year and thousands more next year.
"I would expect it will be significant, which means thousands, not hundreds, but I would not expect it to be the majority," Hammond said of the numbers expected to withdraw.
Mother, Newborn Rescued from Home Prison in Badakhshan
TOLOnews.com By Shakeela Ahbrimkhil Tuesday, 16 October 2012
A young mother is in Fayzabad hospital after being rescued with her malnourished newborn from severe abuse by her husband and his family in north-east Badakhashan province.
Gulsom, 20, was discovered by the provincial health team during a routine visit to her village in the Teshkan district last week with clear signs of physical abuse understood to be inflicted by her husband and his second wife.
Footage received by TOLOnews shows Gulsom with an inflamed face and a baby suffering from malnutrition. Although the exact age of her baby is unclear, the health team believe that the child is premature with early labour brought on by the beatings Gulsom received. She is understood to have been married for about four years.
Badakhshan provincial human rights director Wahidullah Arghon told TOLOnews on Monday that Gulsom claims she has been kept in a dark room for several days, possibly weeks, by her husband's family while her husband had another wife. She was only fed loaves of bread.
"We conveyed the situation to the intelligence department as well as the police and the prosecution department to send a team to investigate the case," Arghon said, adding that local officials have not taken any steps to follow up Gulsom's case.
Badakhshan civil society activists said that violence against women is increasing.
"She [Gulsom] was in an emergency situation and there was a possibility she would die if she was left in that same situation. She didn't have any companions. The team brought her here [to the hospital]," social activist Sebghatullah Khaksar said Monday.
According to Khaksar, Gulsom delivered the baby 15 days ago.
It is the second time in less than a year that a woman in Afghanistan was found imprisoned and tortured by the family she married into.
The case of 15-year-old Sahar Gul received worldwide attention after she was discovered in northern Baghlan province last December being tortured by her husband and in-laws for refusing to prostitute herself.
Forced marriage and child marriage are considered to greatly increase the risk of abuse against women.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com